The Continued War on Black America

by Jess Devitt

Your author began writing this in a coffee shop near the lake, as what seemed like a whole squadron of Charlotte, North Carolina police officers swarmed to grab an iced beverage to stay cool in the Milwaukee summer heat, on the third day of the Republican National Convention being hosted here. Tuesday, the second day, “dialogue officers” from the Columbus, Ohio Police Department shot and killed Samuel Sharpe, a homeless man at a tent city near the old social services building on Vilet Street. Samuel had chosen to live in King Park with the homeless residents there in solidarity. His faith was a driving factor in his life, wanting to show the people in King Park that they weren’t alone. The other residents of the park, his family, and local organizations he worked with remember him fondly as a compassionate man who gave everything to his community.

A vigil was held Tuesday night for Sam Sharpe near the King Center on Vliet St. Beyond the cement barricades and 12-foot black metal fencing marking the border between Milwaukee and the Convention, the downtown area designated as a “protest zone” or “free speech zone” was abandoned; a dozen or so bored-looking, orange-shirted event staff chatted the shade or found busy-work. The only other visible residents of the entire downtown, besides a few scattered fanatics, were police, hundreds and hundreds of police, tense but polite, and obviously scared.

Parking was surprisingly easy to find downtown; perhaps this was because so many people assumed it would be difficult-to-impossible. In the same way, it seems plausible that, as many assumed that the climate was so ripe for confrontation and violence, most everyone stayed home, except the cops.

Within certain privileged parameters, one got the sense that we locals were afforded some leeway in our dealings with the police; they feared actual violence, and so were more likely to let slide, say, a Milwaukeean spitting on the ground at their feet, or telling them how unwelcome they are.

That’s within privileged parameters, as mentioned: outside of them, if you are poor and/or Black or Brown, you still had no rights, and could be killed even by out-of-town police with few repercussions. The mayor and police chief will even support the murderers.

Thursday, a March was held at Red Arrow Park, with the families of Samuel Sharpe (the man killed Tuesday) and D’Vontaye Mitchell (a man killed by Hyatt hotel security in mid-June). Attendees heard from his sister that Mr. Sharpe had multiple sclerosis, and, in conversations with his family, had told them that he and his dog were being threatened, which was why he appeared to be attacking another man when Columbus PD shot him (within about 10 seconds of having seen him).

Prior to the murder of Sharpe was that of D’Vontaye Mitchell, who was murdered by private security guards. Private security firms may not have the same prestige with boot-licking sectors of the general public as do sworn police officers, but they serve the exact same function: guarding businesses, enforcing white supremacy, and protecting capital. The difference in prestige is accounted for by the fact that private security guards/rent-a-cops , do not pretend to be serving some higher calling; they just in it for the money. Big establishments like the Hyatt have the money to pay and are enabled by the racist culture of American society.

The out-of-town cops are gone now, but the roughly 1,600 strong Milwaukee Police Department remains, to enforce white supremacy and to keep capital and its possessors safe from those they rule over and exploit. About 700 people have been killed around the country by police this year.

D’Vontaye Mitchell and Samuel Sharpe were working class Black men, whose lives who were not seen as valuable by the system. Their lives mattered, and we will fight for them and to bring down this racist system.