Milwaukee: Shutting Down I-43 to Demand Justice for Dontre Hamilton
December 22, 2014 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us
Photos: Twitter
December 19, 2014—Demonstrators shut down the I-43 highway in Milwaukee in both directions during rush hour traffic protesting the police murder of Dontre Hamilton.
On April 30 this year, Milwaukee cop Christopher Manney shot Dontre Hamilton 14 times and killed him. The police reportedly had received a complaint from workers at a Starbucks about a man sleeping in the Red Arrow Park. Hamilton, 31 years old, suffered from mental illness. Two other cops had already talked to Hamilton and not arrested him. But Manney profiled Hamilton to be “dangerous” based on observations of mental illness and patted him down. Manney claims Hamilton resisted before he shot Hamilton repeatedly.
Demonstrators gathered at the park where Dontre Hamilton was killed before splitting into several groups and heading to the highway. The disruption of the highway lasted about 75 minutes, with one group standing in the southbound lanes and another in the northbound lanes. After 74 people were arrested at the highway shutdown, 100 people picketed outside the Milwaukee Police administration building demanding that those arrested on the freeway be released. Among those protesting were Dontre Hamilton's brother Nathaniel Hamilton and his mother, Maria Hamilton.
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