MILWAUKEE COUNTY — According to the Milwaukee Police Department, 109 people were arrested between Saturday and Sunday nights for violating the city’s curfew. One of them was a newly-elected Milwaukee County Supervisor.
On Sunday night sirens were blaring as police converged by the border of Shorewood and Milwaukee at Oakland and Edgewood, blocking off protesters in their tracks.
The majority of the crowd moved on, heading towards Milwaukee Police District 5, while dozens of others stayed back.
Milwaukee County Supervisor for District 4 Ryan Clancy was filming the scene on his phone.
“Out of nowhere Milwaukee Police Department checked into me, they tackled me and brought me to the ground,” Clancy said.
Police arrested him and a number of others, and fined each of them nearly $700.
“What I witnessed was not officers giving orders, waiting for those orders to be complied with, it was officers escalating a situation by literally grabbing people out of the crowd, throwing them on the pavement and making arrests,” Clancy said.
Clancy said none of them were doing anything criminal, and in his video you can hear him complying with officers.
It all happened after Milwaukee's 9 p.m. curfew. Shorewood didn’t have one.
“Many of the people, myself included, were on the Shorewood side and were forced by law enforcement to break the law, and then move 10 feet away to the City of Milwaukee,” Clancy said.
As an elected official, Clancy was exempt from the order. He said that didn't seem to matter to the officers after showing them his identification.
“It was absolutely clear by all accounts that I was an elected official,” Clancy said.
He and the four others arrested in his group were eventually released around 3 a.m.
Now Clancy’s hoping to make change by sharing his story.
“What happened yesterday was cataclysmic and the response of law enforcement made a bad situation much worse,” Clancy said.
Clancy said he will be filing a complaint with the Milwaukee Police Department.
TMJ4 News reached out to police for comment on the arrest. They released the following statement:
At this time, MPD is not discussing individual arrests. The curfew promulgated by Mayor Barrett was announced by press conference, MPD social media posts, several media outlets, several Department of Transportation electronic signs on the expressway, and via emergency text message to cell phones. Each individual who received a citation may contest the citation on their scheduled court date. We are asking that individuals participate in peaceful protests instead of using their frustration to act in a violent manner. If the curfew is extended, we are asking that all individuals abide by it.
