An aquittal by an all white jury of cops who beat a multi-racial man, Frank Jude Jr., has outraged many in Milwaukee. In particular Milwaukee's black community is pissed and they took to the streets yesterday demanding justice.
From these eyes the march was remarkable in its consistency of message and dignified rage with a few exceptions from Milwaukee's wannabe Malcolm X who called his fellow members on the stage at the federal courthouse "leadershit" and asked for symbols of "piece" for those who disagreed with him. The speakers made demands for federal prosecution, future pressure on the the legal and political system and better jury selection processes. The organizers were shrewd in their choice of speakers keeping comments short and representing a fairly wide section of the community although whitey was not very visible.
Two speakers stood out at the Federal courthouse from this perspective, the Nation of Islam's speaker and an impassioned testimony from a sister of a young black man who was killed by a Milwaukee policeman. The Nation's speaker made two points, 1) we need to reach out to everyone in this community if we want things to change and he listed the usual suspects but made a point to welcome the Jewish and Gay representatives who were present (Gay/Black relations are somewhat strained in Milwaukee given widespread homophobia and exploitation of the issue by Michael Magee-a militant Alderman and big mouth) even though the gay representative got an icey reception and 2) that the Black community needs to build institutions within the community if any change is to be expected. Nothing that new from the Nation but the cross community appeal, particularly to Jews and Gays was particularly principled. The anguished plea from the sister of the victim of another police excess put a point on the entire march.
No Justice No Peace!
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