WAUWATOSA — Wauwatosa’s mayor Dennis McBride spoke with TMJ4 News after three consecutive nights of unrest in the city.
TMJ4 News spoke with McBride for about twenty minutes on camera. He said he hopes to avoid the need to extend the 7 p.m. curfews.
“I can give you a one-word answer to that,” McBride said, ‘It’s Kenosha. We are prepared so nobody gets hurt.”
The Mayor explained the rationale behind his police department’s efforts to quell nights of outdoor protesting in Wauwatosa.
For the three nights since Milwaukee County District Attorney John Chisholm’s decision not to prosecute now-suspended Wauwatosa Police Officer Joseph Mensah in the shooting death of Alvin Cole. There were subsequent clashes between protesters and law enforcement.
Tear gas and non-lethal shots fired to quell the crowds on each night of the Wauwatosa imposed curfew.
“Both times they did, it was after the protesters went from peaceful to unpeaceful and started throwing projectiles,” McBride explained.
Oscar Walton says he was hit with a rubber bullet Wednesday night, the first night of protests.
He said peaceful protests in Wauwatosa throughout the summer proves why the current curfew isn’t necessary.
“We don’t come out here to harm anybody, or anything. All we want is the justice and the answers,” Walton said.
The mayor cites safety and avoiding a deadly clash like we’ve seen in Kenosha, as his main priority in enacting the strict curfew.
“Our primary concern is that no one gets seriously hurt. So far no one’s gotten seriously. In Kenosha, people got killed, maimed, paralyzed, McBride said.
The mayor said if protesters come into Wauwatosa, police and the Wisconsin National Guard will be around to enforce the curfew by dispersing crowds.
