In wake of Wisconsin’s racial justice protests, curfew tickets raise equity and speech questions | Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service
Clara Neupert and Jim Malewitz (Wisconsin Watch)
April 28, 2021
Theenvelope looked like any other — slightly wrinkled, a handwritten addressscrawled across the front.
ButJared Cain said he felt violated after looking inside. He saw a ticket forbreaking the curfew Milwaukee adopted to regulate protests after MinneapolisPolice Officer Derek Chauvin murdered George Floyd, a 46-year-old Black man, bykneeling on his neck.
Caindidn’t interact with Milwaukee police during local protests early morning onJune 1, but police cited a video he streamed publicly as proof that he was outpast 9 p.m. The listed penalty: $691.
Drivinghome after saying goodbye to a cousin leaving for the U.S. Army, Cain recallsnoticing blocked-off streets, a car on fire and people everywhere. The media entrepreneur pressed record on his phone camera.
Do you have feedback on Milwaukee NNS's reporting? Take our survey to let us know how we're doing!
Officersinside Milwaukee’s Fusion
Center,part of a nationwide network where law enforcement agencies look for criminaland terrorist activity, later spotted Cain’s video on Facebook and issued thecitation. Within a week, Cain said FBI agents arrived at his door to ask aboutany involvement with antifa, a loosely organized movement thatmilitantly opposes right-wing ideology.
“Ididn’t even know what antifa was,” Cain said. “I was totally baffled, because Ithought that they came about the ticket — because the ticket wasunlawful.”
TheMilwaukee Police Department cited at least 170 people for curfew-relatedviolations between May 30 and June 2, 2020, a Wisconsin Watch analysis showed.Police later voided citations against 86 people, citing “procedural errors” inthe citations — in many cases after taking them into custody. At least sixreceived tickets by mail based on online footage.
Blackresidents make up about 39% of Milwaukee’s population, but they accounted for64% of the 162 cited where race was recorded, followed by white (26%), Hispanic(9%) and Asian American (1%) recipients.
FBIagents visited multiple people cited for curfew violations, according toattorneys representing some who challenged the infractions.
Laterin the summer and fall, two other Wisconsin cities — Kenosha and Wauwatosa—  enforced curfews during protests of separate police shootings of Blackmen.
Cityofficials call curfews a tool for maintaining order when vandalism and violencemix with otherwise peaceful protests. But critics say the curfews did more tochill speech.
Officialsin Kenosha and Wauwatosa are now defending their curfew enforcement in federalcourt, and the issue returned to the national spotlight this month as lawenforcement in the Minneapolis suburb of Brooklyn Center aggressively responded to protests following the fatalpolice shooting of Daunte Wright on April 11 — days before a jury convicted Chauvin of murdering Floyd.
NicoleMuller, an attorney who represented dozens who received citations, saidMilwaukee residents remain “traumatized” by last year’s curfew enforcement.
Askedwhether Milwaukee police would recalibrate curfew enforcement, Jeff Fleming, aspokesperson for Mayor Tom Barrett, said, “Previously, and in futuresituations, establishing a curfew is not taken lightly.”
Inan email, a Milwaukee Police Department spokesperson said the department is“constantly reviewing our past practices, as well as other jurisdictions’ bestpractices, to improve our services.”
Theemail confirmed one change following last year’s protests: Police will stopissuing curfew citations by mail.
Curfews trigger lawsuits
Policeare more likely to keep protest crowds peaceful by targeting people whoendanger the public, while protecting the speech rights of others, decades of research shows. But criminologists are lesscertain about curfews.
EdwardMaguire, an Arizona State University professor, suspects they help quell riots.But he remains unfamiliar with research on the issue, he said, echoing colleagues who say such questionsremain largely unexplored.
Curfewuse should be limited to riot control, focusing on people committing violenceor property damage, Maguire recommended.
“Ifthey are used to quell non-riotous protests, then they run the risk of makingpeople angrier,” he said. “They also run the risk of violating people’s civilrights, which could lead to costly lawsuits.”
Alawsuit in U.S. District Court in Milwaukee claims that Kenosha law enforcementexclusively arrested about 150 racial justice protesters for violating thecounty’s curfew — over nine nights last August and September — while ignoringarmed vigilantes and counterprotesters who also walked the streets after a police officer shot
Jacob Blake.
Lawenforcement made 252 total arrests
during that period, and Kenosha saw more than $50 million in
property damage. One vigilante, 17-year-old Kyle Rittenhouse, faceshomicide charges for shooting two people to death after claiming he arrived to
protect the city from protesters.
Meanwhile,50 people are suing Wauwatosa, alleging they were “ticketed, arrested, and/orharassed,” during October protests after the Milwaukee County district attorneyannounced that Wauwatosa Police Officer Joseph Mensah would avoid charges for
fatally shooting 17-year-old Alvin Cole. That lawsuit accuses Mayor DennisMcBride of illegally issuing a curfew without consent from the city’s CommonCouncil.
McBride— who pushed to reduce curfew penalties from $1,321 to $313 after morethan 60 people were cited — broadly denies the allegations.
“Wedo not know what might have happened if we had not prepared” for theannouncement about Mensah, McBride told Wisconsin Watch. “We do know thatunlike Kenosha, during the emergency period in Wauwatosa no one was killed, noone was seriously hurt, no serious property damage occurred.”
Criticssay the curfews only reinforced racial grievances that seeded unrest.
“They’renot listening to the decades of science behind the escalation,” said RyanClancy, a white Milwaukee County supervisor who was arrested for violatingcurfew on May 31. “They’re listening to a small, loud group of people who areresponding to this misplaced fear, rather than taking a step back and lookingat why people are taking to the streets.”
Marching in Milwaukee
Floyd’sdeath came as Milwaukee also grieved Joel Acevedo, who died in April 2020 afterMichael Mattioli, an off-duty Milwaukee police officer, allegedly put him in a
10-minute chokehold during a fight.
Thousandspeacefully marched in downtown Milwaukee on May 29, demanding justice forFloyd. Others caravanned past the home of Mattioli, who resigned in Septemberand faces charges of
reckless homicide. After 10 p.m., a smaller group vandalized businessescitywide, according to media
reports.Two police officers suffered minor injuries hours later — one from ashooting.
OnMay 30, Mayor Tom Barrett set a 9 p.m. curfew to “stem the coordinated lootingand property damage,” according to his
proclamation.Gov. Tony Evers activated 125 National Guard members to help.
Clancyfelt the effects the next night.
Heposted a video on Facebook of
the events leading up to his arrest near the border of Milwaukee andShorewood, where a small group of protesters milled about. The video showspolice officers in riot gear blocking movement into Shorewood, a predominantlywhite village that had no curfew. Officers zip tied Clancy’s hands behind his back and loaded him into avehicle with several others — ignoring that the curfew exempted governmentofficials.
Thatarrest during the COVID-19 pandemic forced Clancy to later quarantine awayfrom his family. The citation was later voided.
Milwaukee’scurfew stretched three nights before Barrett cited “notable reduction inillegal activity associated with public protests,” in lifting it on June 2.
Kenosha lawsuit: ‘two sets of laws’
InKenosha, protesters of Blake’s shooting last summer allege that law enforcementpractices “two sets of laws — one that applies to those who protest policebrutality and racism, and another for those who support the police,” according to an
amended complaint filed in October.
Itcites viral footage of Kenosha law enforcement appearing to use friendliertactics on counter-protesters. That includes an Aug. 25 video showing an officer thankingvigilantes and tossing a bottle of water to Rittenhouse — hours before theteenager killed Anthony Huber, 26, and Joseph Rosenbaum, 36.
Kenoshalaw enforcement allowed Rittenhouse to return home to Illinois, where he wasarrested. He awaits trial on seven charges, including two charges offirst-degree reckless homicide. Prosecutors didn’t add the last charge — breaking curfew — until four months later. Hehas pleaded not guilty to the killings, citing self-defense.
Inasking the court to dismiss the civil lawsuit, the city’s legal team said
thecurfew was tailored to curb “rioting, mayhem, and attacks on person andproperty” that drew national attention and left parts of Uptown in flames and a71-year-old man
assaulted.
Secret declaration in Wauwatosa
Wauwatosaofficials say they had already spent months preparing for potential unrestlinked to the announcement of whether Mensah would face charges for shootingCole in February 2020 outside of a mall. Then they watched Kenosha erupt.
McBridesaid he sought to avoid similar violence by enacting a 7 p.m. curfew beginningon Oct. 7. That’s when Milwaukee County District Attorney John Chisholmannounced that Mensah would avoid charges, ruled the shooting “objectivelyreasonable,” citing evidence that Cole fired a handgun while fleeing.
McBridecalled the curfew successful, yielding only minorinjuries and property damage.
Otherssaw it differently, including protesters suing the city. They described suffering various injuries andemotional distress.
Thelawsuit alleges Wauwatosa’s curfew was illegal for several reasons, includingthat McBride on Sept. 30 secretly signed an emergency declaration — beforeany unrest and without the Common Council’s consent.
Wisconsin law allows local governing bodies todeclare emergencies. Chief executive officers have such power only when thosebodies can’t meet promptly. McBride didn’t mention his declaration when theCommon Council met on Oct. 6, one day before the curfew took effect.
Helater told council members that local police and Gov. Tony Evers’ office askedhim to declare the emergency —  necessary for activating the NationalGuard. McBride said preparing for potential unrest required confidentiality.
Thatdefense drew mixed reviews from council members, with a majority expressingdisappointment.
“Wehad one man enact a law for a period of a few days, and that law became thebasis for most of the police action,” Ald. Craig Wilson said at an Oct. 13 meeting.
Othercouncil members said they backed McBride.
SaidAld. Mike Morgan: “This was a very, extremely difficult situation to watch fromany perspective.”
Clancysees a simpler solution.
“Thereis one way to stop people from taking to the streets,” he said. “And that’s tochange the conditions that they’re there for.”
Clara Neupert interned with
Wisconsin Watch as part of the Ann Devroy Memorial Fellowship at the University
of Wisconsin-Eau Claire. Wisconsin Watch (wisconsinwatch.org) collaborates with
WPR, PBS Wisconsin, other news media and the University of Wisconsin-Madison
School of Journalism and Mass Communication. All works created, published,
posted or disseminated by Wisconsin Watch do not necessarily reflect the views
or opinions of UW-Madison or any of its affiliates.