MILWAUKEE — Members of the Milwaukee Common Council are asking for a formal investigation of a video that appears to show a police officer putting his knee on the neck of a protester to restrain him on June 2nd at the intersection of 6th and Vliet.
"...We find the officer’s conduct unacceptable," a joint statement from 14 members of the Common Council said.
The video shows an officer putting his knee on what appears to be the neck of a protester in order to restrain him, the statement says. This comes 10 days after George Floyd died in police custody in Minneapolis after being restrained for more than 9 minutes with a police officer's knee on his neck.
The alders also asked for the officer to be removed from crowd control duty for the rest of the protests.
"We urge any protesters who have experienced mistreatment, abuse or injury at the hands of Milwaukee Police to please contact the Fire and Police Commission and look into filing a complaint. Inquiries can be made by going to the FPC website at city.milwaukee.gov/fpc/complaints or via email at fpc@milwaukee.gov," the statement reads.
Tensions flared Tuesday evening when police blocked the path of protesters from marching any further at 6th and McKinley
In an emailed statement, police said the assembly was declared unlawful after protesters were "throwing rocks and glass at our officers." Gas was eventually used to disperse the crowd. They also said a man in the crowd with a gun was taken into custody, and that someone threw a Molotov cocktail at officers.
The interaction happened after hours of peaceful protest that saw the group march throughout the streets of Milwaukee, beginning in Bay View's Humboldt Park.
The only member of the Common Council not to sign the statement is the 13th District's Scott Spiker.
