- Due to language and adult situations,
the following film is intended for mature audiences
and is not suitable for children.
Viewer discretion is advised.
? [upbeat music] ?
[crowd chanting]
[helicopter hovers]
[police speak on megaphone] - Do it now.
This is the police...
[gun fires six times]
Stay in your houses!
Refusal to disperse will be in violation
of Wisconsin state statute.
If you do not disperse immediately,
you will be arrested.
- I shot myself in the thigh once with a nail gun.
[repeated pops]
I picked it up and while I was on my lap and pow!
[repeated pops]
I had to go get a tetanus shot 'cause it swelled up like crazy.
I worked the rest of the day though,
but when I got off the roof I couldn't walk.
Everyone's story is different, everyone's path is different.
You don't know what's actually gonna hit you in life.
Like, I was pretty comfortable in my life
before all this happened.
Working with Dontre got me into this crap.
You know, I was a middle child and Dontre, he was the baby.
This is something that he was doing to just, you know,
make sure he kept money in his pocket.
It was like we had to look out for him.
We couldn't let nothing happen to the baby.
I just hope that people can understand that
Dontre was a person who didn't deserve to die,
who didn't deserve to be shot 14 times.
[instrumental piano music]
- On April 30th, Dontre went to Red Arrow Park.
- He called me and I was like, you know,
"What's up, Dontre? Where you at?"
You know, he was like, "I'm at the park."
He sounded real at ease, not really out of the ordinary.
- What he looked like to me that day
was just a student nearing the end of the semester
and was just hanging out in the park taking a break.
- I walked right across the street here, came up this way,
and Dontre was laying right here.
- He had like a little bedroll and a backpack.
His head was here and his feet were pointing west.
- I didn't know if he was sleeping or just resting or...
Kind of struck me that he was just laying there.
- I thought the place he decided rest outside was odd,
but I thought he was a college student really.
- The person I was working with that day called the police
because they were concerned about him
being so close to business.
The first officers approached him, they sat him up,
they talked to him, and then they left.
My co-worker was talking about how they were gonna call again
and I said, you know, "If he was doing something illegal,
they wouldn't have just walked away and left him there."
A second call was made anyhow
and the officers actually came back up to us.
And they said "Hey, there's nothing to enforce.
He's not breaking the law. Please stop calling."
And, honestly, I even forgotten about the whole thing
until later when a third officer showed up.
- Maria Hamilton: From what we were told,
when the call came through dispatch,
it went to the beat cop's sergeant.
And he left a message on the beat cop's cell phone.
[recording of sergeant] - Hey, Chris, we just got a call
from your people there at the Starbucks by Red Arrow Park.
They say there's a homeless guy that's sleeping alongside there.
If you wanna check on him,
he's a black male, 30 to 40 years old--
- Dameion Perkins: This officer called into dispatch.
- Officer Christopher Manney: Is there something on the board
for Red Arrow Park?
I just got a call from my desk sergeant.
- Dispatcher: 1246, that's a negative.
- Dameion Perkins: Dispatch told him
that it was clear over at Red Arrow Park.
- Officer Manney: Alright, if you could
create a trouble with subject at Starbucks...
- Nate Hamilton Jr.: This officer then went
and told him to get up off the ground.
The officer began to pat him down.
- Starbucks barista: I heard them before I saw them.
Sounds of fighting and two grown men wrestling essentially.
- The officer apparently backed up and withdrew his baton,
and the individual twisted away from the officer,
pulling the baton out of his grip.
- The officer did, kind of lunge for the weapon once, missed.
And then when that happened,
Dontre swung at the officer's hand, didn't hit him--
I never saw any contact between the two--
and then kind of went back to where they were
so the officer's back here.
They're probably, again, 15 feet apart at this point.
That's when the officer pulled out his gun
and aimed it at Dontre.
[14 shots fired in rapid succession]
I knew it was about to happen so I turned away.
And that's when I counted 12 or more shots.
- Officer Manney: 1246, 1246, shots fired, shots fired.
Officer involved.
Guy started beating me, started beating me,
grabbed my baton,
was going to hit me in the head with my own baton.
Shots fired, Starbucks, Starbucks, help right now.
Get me medical, too. He's gonna need medical.
Shot multiple times in the chest.
Black male. He's about 20.
I don't even know if I was hit.
It was close combat.
I need an officer to help me here, too.
[sirens]
- Maria Hamilton: That day, I didn't see the news.
- The subject began to beat the officer
with the wooden baton, striking him in the head.
The officer withdrew his sidearm...
- Maria Hamilton: The police detectives came to my house,
put me in a car, and interviewed me about all my sons.
- Dameion Perkins: You know and they questioned my mother
in this car for like 30 to 45 minutes.
I was just puzzled like, "What do they want at 12 o'clock?
What's the problem?"
- And I told 'em, "Nate has his own business."
He say, "What do Dontre do?"
I say, "Dontre actually works with a couple of temp agencies.
Because of his illness, he hasn't been able to keep a job."
The officer that was sitting next to me put his head down.
And I asked him what was going on.
He was like, "Well, there was an altercation
"at Red Arrow Park,
"and Dontre was in a scuffle with a police officer
and Dontre is deceased."
- Dameion Perkins: I'm like, "You're telling me my brother dead,
but why y'all just now telling us this?"
And his words were,
"We thought you would have seen it on TV."
- Chief Edward Flynn: Good afternoon.
The decedent is a 31-year old male by the name of Dontre Hamilton.
Now, in the course of our investigation into his background,
we have learned that this is not his first experience
with the Milwaukee Police Department.
As recently as last year...
- Dameion Perkins: Breaking news on Thursday afternoon.
Chief Flynn's first words were,
"I don't wanna demonize this man,
"but he's...
"homeless,
a robber,"
and all these type of things that he wasn't.
- Among other events,
he's been arrested for armed robbery
and for disorderly conduct.
He was diagnosed with schizophrenia.
And until recently, according to his grieving family,
had been acting strangely...
- Nate Hamilton: And they stick to this mental health issue
because when you hear 'mental health' you think 'crazy.'
So if they can put it in people's minds
that this was a crazy person who attacked an officer,
then they feel that they have leverage within the community.
- We have violently mentally ill people
whose violence is a direct result
of their untreated mental illness.
They are on the streets of our cities
'cause there's no place else for them to go
and their families cannot control them.
- We asked the detective that night,
"Why did they take so long to tell us
about what happened to Dontre?"
They said he didn't have an ID.
This was in his wallet.
- And this here rent receipt.
The cops saying he homeless.
And they had proof the whole time.
- These his keys to his house.
- Mm-hmm.
This is...
the blanket that was laying on the ground.
I guess right by the outside.
This is basically the last thing he laid on
at Red Arrow Park.
- You alright? - Mm-hmm.
And you look on the 29th, the day before.
I called him six times.
And I talked to Dontre April 30th.
And, you know, talking to him that day,
he sound fine, you know, he sound fine.
He didn't sound like anything was wrong.
He asked me how I was doing.
He asked me if everything was good.
I was like, "Yeah, man, everything was good."
I think they said the shooting happened, what, around 3:30.
Like at 3:23, my mom called Dontre on April 30th.
- Voicemail of Maria Hamilton: Dontre, this is mom.
I haven't heard from you in a couple of days--
well, yesterday morning.
Give me a call when you get my message.
- And so this is basically when he was being killed.
My mama called him 'cause she ain't heard from him.
And so, I think that's hard to hear, you know.
She calling her child in the midst of him being killed.
[speaking softly] So...
- Chief Flynn said that we need to do
a better job with mental illness.
That is something that is very true.
But Dontre having a mental illness did not kill him.
That officer murdered my brother.
'Cause they didn't know one way or another
if he had a mental illness
until my mom was questioned in that car for 45 minutes.
[groan]
- When Dontre got killed, I sat on the couch for two months.
435, how much is it?
I believe the whole two months, I was in shock.
I didn't wanna eat. I didn't wanna feel.
- Nate Hamilton Sr.: Me and Maria was married for 12 years.
They say eyes tell everything.
I seen something in her
that made me want to share life with her.
She became pregnant with Junior
and we became a family.
We got Junior, then we got Dameion,
and then we got Dontre over here on the end.
And me sitting in the middle, proud father.
- Maria Hamilton: This is the house where I raised my boys.
It's pretty much the same.
We're the first black couple within
50 blocks. [laughs]
Well, I don't wanna--
Swimming pool's gone.
Cherry tree gone.
I didn't want my kids in gangs,
and this was more of a family-oriented neighborhood.
That used to be Junior, Dameion, and Dontre.
[laughing]
- Nate Sr.: Maria, when I met her, I believe Dameion was two years old.
- That Dameion and Junior?
- Dameion grew up to be the overseer of his brothers.
And Junior, he always was the fun one,
or... you know.
Dontre was more quiet.
He had to get to know you.
He observed you.
That your birthday?
And you didn't see any of the sickness
coming in Dontre as he was growing up as a child.
- Maria: This is Nate's baseball picture.
Him and Nate grew up like twins.
- There's Dontre.
- This Dontre, no--
- Ain't it? - That's right
- That's Junior? - Mm-hmm.
- Nate and Dontre, they were two of a kind.
They believed in each other.
They looked out for each other.
And they very seldom did things apart.
When we broke up, Dontre was 10 years old.
It hurted Dontre when we broke up.
I think it hurted him more so than any of them.
And...
I would never...
Give me a minute.
[pained exhale]
That's an emotional thing.
I would have never divorced my kids.
- Nate Jr.: We meet with the District Attorney today
at six o'clock for his final decision on the outcome,
whether he's gonna charge the officer or not.
And I just been trying to get my mind
to accept it either way.
- They spoke today like-- - They're not gonna charge him.
- Oh, c'mon! -I mean whether or not, no, not charge him.
They're not going to release the information yet.
- Are you serious, another run around?
- Yeah. - Yeah.
- Jonathon Safran: It is hard to put into words the turmoil
that this family is going through right now.
They are just having a tremendous time
dealing with the fact that there hasn't been a resolution,
that a charging decision has not been made
We had belief that today
was going to be the day for that decision.
They're not going to make any statements at this point.
And they are again distraught.
- Maria Hamilton: It's just devastating at this point.
- Anytime that you're looking at a police use-of-force case
that results in a fatality, that's a homicide investigation.
You're determining whether they had a legitimate
objectively-reasonable basis to use force,
under those circumstances.
This particular case is complex
because it occurred in downtown Milwaukee
on a late-afternoon on a work day
and you literally had hundreds of witnesses,
and those have to be interviewed
You have to look at the forensic evidence.
We talked with the Hamilton family about this,
but there's clearly deep disappointment.
- Child: Dear Lord, thank you for this food
and thank you for blessing my family.
Amen. - All: Amen.
- Right to the point. [laughter]
[clapping] - That's perfect.
- Dontre was a big factor in our family.
You know, he would say the funniest things.
He would quote every movie he watched.
He just remembered it.
- This is my son.
Say I got my middle name from Dontre.
- Dontre Deon Hamilton.
He's like a smooth dude.
So he had, like, three gold rings on,
a little gold necklace.
And he was, like, a ladies man in high school.
He had a little perm.
You couldn't tell him he wasn't smooth.
He used to wear silk shirts when they were out of style.
So...
- Maria: Dontre never showed any signs
of any kind of paranoid or schizophrenic.
He was normal.
He had a driver's license.
He paid his own bills.
- That's my mommy.
- And no one in my family and no one in their dad's family
were ever diagnosed with any kind of mental illness,
so I wouldn't even have known the signs.
My nana bouncing.
Bounce, bounce, bounce, bounce, bounce, bounce, bounce.
[instrumental violin music]
- When we start seeing signs of something different
with Dontre,
it was after I ended up hurting myself at work.
And Dontre came home and cared for me.
- People living with schizophrenia, what do we call them?
We call them schizophrenic.
- He was staying at my house with me
and he would always be sitting in the dark.
Or he would say things like, "Did you hear that?
You don't hear that?"
- Mom, Dad, do you hear that?
Is this a conspiracy?
Is the whole world against me?
Schizophrenia, you're trying to steal my soul.
- God gave me a child
that was uniquely made.
And he's gone to rest now
with the same God that created him.
It's an illness.
It's nothing to be afraid of.
It's nothing to run from.
It's nothing...
that anybody should die for.
[people applauding]
- You know, waiting on decision is just hard.
It's nerve-wracking.
- I'm trying to get my life back on focus
and once I do that--
- Nate Hamilton: We're just playing this waiting game
where we can never heal as a family and it's sickening.
- The topic that we have selected is titled
"A Collaborative Response
to Crime and Violence in the Community."
Are there others in the audience who are on the committee?
Chief?
- Oh. [laughter]
Yes, Ed Flynn, Police Chief.
The Dontre Hamilton case,
for the better part of six months,
was agreed by everyone including the family, to have been
a tragedy arising
out of untreated mental illness in a public space
that resulted in violence.
Any movement in that direction yet, so...
Which is what this was.
We are dealing with the outcome
of the reforms of the 70s with the mentally ill.
In the year-to-date, we got nearly 8,000 calls
for service having to deal with the mentally ill.
Like many other big cities, we've got a problem
with untreated mentally ill people who have no options.
- Hey, James, how's it going?
You go back on your meds and everything good?
- It was a mental health issue in April.
Once Ferguson broke, suddenly it's a racial issue.
- Voiceover: CNN breaking news.
- Male reporter: A handful of witnesses to
the shooting of Michael Brown, they have come forward.
But we're hearing that there may be many more.
- And there were a lot of bold-faced opportunists
who latched onto this family and decided
it wasn't a mental health story anymore, it was a race story.
- When we started the Coalition for Justice,
it started because we were at a rally.
- I say that the only thing we need to reflect on
is the history that has culminated into now.
- You know, I was kind of like still getting new
to all this process,
but I saw a lot of courage and energy in Khalil.
- Let's make some noise for Ferguson.
- Hands up! - Crowd: Don't shoot!
- And Curtis Sails, you know,
me and him kind of clicked right away.
- Hands up! - Crowd: Don't shoot!
- Curtis brought so much information to the group.
- Take a look at this, I typed this up...
- Because he stayed researching
to create a plan, some goals.
- Maria Hamilton: I appreciate you girlfriends.
I'm gonna get me a history lesson.
- And fighting for Dante was our main objective.
- And you two are planning to eat in here?
- We're not going to continue to accept what's going on
in the black and brown communities.
We're not gonna accept what's going on around the nation.
- Our Fire and Police Commission
they have a responsibility to protect and serve
the citizens of the community of Milwaukee.
- Nate Hamilton: I'm just a citizen that knows my rights.
And I know that you don't have
the ability to put your hands on me
if you haven't seen me break the law,
no one has said I broke the law.
- No justice! No compromise!
No justice! No compromise!
- So the Fire-Police Commission
needs to discipline appropriately.
Any officers should be held accountable
when you fail to do your job properly.
- Who is the designated speaker for the family?
- We all are.
- We need one or two designated speakers.
- No, no, it's a public meeting.
- How can you keep the public out of a public meeting
when you have on the agenda it's a public meeting?
- Edward Flynn: In this particular case,
to try and fit it into the national narrative,
doesn't fit the template.
- No justice! No compromise!
No justice! No compromise!
- I think it's a mistake to take unrelated cases
thousands of miles apart with unrelated fact patterns
and leap to a broad conclusion about what the police do.
- We not going nowhere 'til the chief come out.
We going to block this exit.
- Crowd: Hey, hey! Ho, ho!
Chief Flynn has got to go! Hey, hey!
- Woman shouting: Move back, let them through, let them go!
- Lock arms, lock arms!
Everybody lock arms!
[chaotic yelling]
- #### that!
- When it first happened,
police came to my house.
I was ready to go grab a revolver and pop, pop.
You know what I'm saying?
But it's like, that ain't gonna help.
You know what I'm saying?
But changing and this? This is going to help.
You know what I'm saying?
I'm gonna keep my life in the process.
My kids gonna see
that their daddy a strong black man that stands for something.
- Nate Jr.: I would say I'm a non-confrontational person
but they're not taking this serious.
- Nate Sr.: Even though Junior's hurting, he just wants the truth
so he can move on with his life.
And for the love that he have for Dontre,
what happened that day don't set well.
He was forced into a fight.
He just hopes the truth comes out of it,
or the law does the right thing--
not push it under the rug.
- Get the bullhorn, cops coming up the street.
- Everyone off the steps!
- You wanna take it off? - Yeah.
We got a meeting here.
Still no answers.
And we want answers.
This ain't justice to be waiting almost five months
after a man was shot 14 times!
When people have died from cancer,
you have people spreading it.
You either come out and support injustice...
- Female reporter: You're looking at live pictures
from Chopper 4 where a protest is causing some chaos
on Wisconsin Avenue.
Cars are not able to get by these demonstrators
They are upset over the shooting
at Red Arrow Park more than four months ago
of Dontre Hamilton.
They have...
- Does this make you more likely to support them, or no?
- No.
- Crowd: Civil unrest, civil unrest, civil unrest!
[strumming guitar]
[TV audio of a physical struggle and conversation]
- Nate Jr.: When I first heard initial reports,
I'm like, "Well, Dontre don't have a robbery on his record."
You know?
But I think they just had it tangled.
I think I just turned 18.
My buddy had a BB gun.
[speaking to kids] Y'all wanna finish up this tie game?
So we end up robbing some older guy and some younger guy.
And I don't think we even got much,
a couple lottery tickets and a watch or something like that.
But it was no more than $50.
But the next morning, two detectives came to the house
and they basically handcuffed me right in the living room.
I ended up doing 18 months in community correction center
with a 16-year stayed sentence.
Some of those life lessons right there
helped me to be a better person.
Yes, I made mistakes, but I don't think anyone
can hold me to the standard of what I was 17 years ago.
- Second Court City Hall, Mayor Tom Barrett.
- Mayor Tom Barrett: I had the opportunity to speak
to Dontre Hamilton's mother and his brother.
And one of the things
that they made it clear to me that they're interested in
is restoring the dignity of their son;
the name, their son's name.
And, in particular, several items.
One: Dontre was not homeless.
Second: He was not an armed robber
- Maria Hamilton: Thank you.
- And so, I want our community to know
that he was neither homeless nor was he an armed robber.
[birds chirping]
[horn honking]
[upbeat pop music]
- I don't know what this gonna look like when I'm done.
[laughing]
David, would you hand me my dress?
I can't reach it.
I keep my tablet with me.
Practically slept with the tablet
doing research about police violence.
Thank you.
I decided that I wanted to do something for those moms
because I knew how I felt.
These are cute, these little forks.
So I reached out to them.
For now, I'll just put it there.
- So, from my understanding, there's a tea party.
I'm foreign to tea parties.
- He was 15 then and it was rough for him, you know.
I'm a single parenting, working every day.
He was going mentally through some stuff
that I didn't know he was going through.
I still got my days, I still have my nights,
and it's been 15 years.
- Right.
- My son, Brandon, walked into the mental health.
His neck was broke.
His back was broke in three places.
He laid in a diaper for three days begging for his life
so I still don't know what happened.
- Her son was shot 14 times. Mine was shot seven.
Your husband was shot six.
See, somebody is worse than me.
- Right, right.
But I'm glad to be a part of this
because I want to see something happen.
- And that's why I wanna hold the City accountable
for us sitting in this room.
- You have such a strength.
You see, my life stood still.
I knew I wasn't the same,
but my father looked at me earlier this year,
he said "I want my daughter back."
He said,
"I haven't seen my daughter since Max's left."
And I haven't... [weeping]
- Oh... - And I just--
I appreciate your strength.
Because God blessed me to meet you.
I hate that this happened to you,
but it's a strength to me because I kept saying,
"Lord, somebody gotta hear me. Somebody has to care."
And 11 years
and it still hurt like it happened yesterday.
[sob escapes woman, tearful sniffles from the group]
- We need each other
'cause nobody knows what this feels like.
I love each and every one of y'all.
- I love you, too. I love all of you.
- United we stand together forever.
? Amazing grace ?
? How sweet the sound ?
- Michael Bell Sr.: I think I was like many of the white families out there.
I was kind of an ignorant professional.
- Nate Hamilton Jr.: We grew up a year apart.
- Oh, okay. - So we were close.
- Michael Bell Sr.: But when somebody gets killed by a police officer,
it's a foot race
and whoever gets the information out first is the winner.
- Maria Hamilton: Alright, thank you, thank you.
You be safe getting home. - Alright, take care.
- I had a son, his name was Michael Bell,
who was killed on November 9th, 2004.
He was coming home with a night out with friends.
Designated driver became intoxicated.
Michael's like, "You're too drunk to drive.
I'm gonna drive."
Michael was under the influence of alcohol,
but you can look on the dash cam video,
he was driving perfectly straight.
Pulled up in front of this house and just then,
a squad car pulls up behind him.
My son got out of the car, because he was at his own home.
But the officer pulled up and said,
"Get back in the car. Get back in the car."
[recording of officer]
According to officer testimony,
he had saw this other guy in the front seat.
He grabbed Michael and took him around the back of the car
and shoved him off camera.
- Michael Bell Jr.: Don't tase me.
- Hands behind your back.
Hands behind your back now!
[click] [Bell cries out in pain]
Get hands behind your back right now!
- Michael Bell Sr.: He got tased multiple times.
Ran to the back of the house.
Michael was accused of bull rushing an officer here.
This is actually the car that was here.
It hasn't moved in 10 years.
And, sadly, that's the area where Michael, ah, Michael died.
[inhales sharply]
You can see, Michael was shot the morning of November 9, 2004.
On Friday, they already ruled it was justified.
Before crime lab reports were complete,
before autopsy was complete,
before witness statements were even taken,
they held their own thing and they ruled it justified.
Here's a picture of Michael.
I'm a veteran
and I always felt I was really a brother with law enforcement.
I was a captain, and
this was my copilot, navigator, and boom operator at the time.
For 23 years,
I go out and believe in a democratic principle
just to come home and have a police officer kill my child.
Then think I'm going to get fair and due process
and the door is pretty much shut in my face.
Here's data.
These are news reports throughout the year.
I go to Governor Doyle at the time.
I go to the attorney general.
They don't even bother to give me a callback.
This is a contract for a billboard.
I don't even know where I ran it.
I had to resort to full-page ads in newspapers
and billboards to get heard.
- Male reporter: ...the shooting justifiable.
But the city settled out of court with Bell's family.
Michael Bell's father has used the settlement money
to put up billboards around the state calling for change
in the way these investigations are handled.
He's backing a bill that would require
officer-involved deaths to be reviewed
by independent authorities.
- Did you guess?
What?
- What profession is fine investigating themselves?
You cannot have colleagues investigating colleagues
and think you're gonna get an objective report.
You're not.
And there's no profession on earth who can do it.
So why would we expect that of law enforcement
when the stakes are so high?
The law had just passed
and the Dontre Hamilton case happened a week later.
And I don't think the City was ready for it.
- The new law required that it would be an outside agency
other than the Milwaukee Police Department
to investigate the evidence, to interview witnesses,
collect the evidence that would then be provided
to the District Attorney's Office.
What we found early on in this case
is that it really was Milwaukee Police Department detectives
that did the investigation.
- What was the police department's role in the investigation?
- Well, the role in the investigation
is to get there fast,
freeze the scene, identify witnesses,
and get a preliminary idea of what happened.
You know, this is midday downtown, okay?
We couldn't just stand around
or the hundred and some possible witnesses
would've all gone home.
When DCI got there, it became their investigation.
- The outside investigation was done by DCI,
Department of Criminal Investigation,
who has a lot of different agents on it.
But the ones that investigated Dontre's case
was ex-Milwaukee police officers.
- Female reporter: Special agent David Klabunde
spent 25 years at MPD and is collecting a city pension
of $5,000 a month.
Special agent Gilbert Hernandez spent 35 years at MPD.
He collects a pension...
- The challenge here, of course, in Wisconsin
is we're the only big city.
The rest of the state
is overwhelmingly rural and suburban.
Alright, Milwaukee is where the homicides occur.
I can't get a copper from Deer Antler to come here
and know what to do about a homicide investigation.
I think the challenge quite honestly is
no matter how many levels of review you add,
for some folks, if that review doesn't result
in a police officer under arrest, it's not believed.
- I live with a mental health issue.
Do I look like a criminal to you?
I'm here because I want your support.
I want your help, but I can't do that if I'm afraid.
[people applauding]
- My brother was shot 14 times.
Sounds like something went wrong in that man's head,
which you call a police officer.
This officer, which name they won't release.
But they released it to the family
so I can say his name since I know his name.
Right, Chief Flynn?
Christopher Manney.
So after they shot my brother 14 times,
murdered my brother at Red Arrow Park,
killed him for no reason.
We have been lied to, misinformed, misled, and disrespected
and it's time for it to stop.
[people applauding]
We have to look in more detail
at where Christopher Manney came from.
Where was he born at? Where was he raised at?
Did he have black friends? Did he have Mexican friends?
And when you look into his record more in depth,
you know that he had a communication problem.
He had 17 other occurrences
where either used excessive force
or he used vulgar language.
He had a sexual assault on his record.
- That's right, and police say
the clown was darting in and out of traffic here,
going up to cars with squirt guns and trying to squirt them.
- He even beat up a white clown
- [News woman] Police were trying to arrest him
and that's when things got heated
and the incident is all caught on camera.
- Radio host: So, who is Christopher Manney?
- Christopher Manney: Well, I grew up in several small towns
throughout the Midwest
Came from a good Christian family,
and joined the National Guard,
and then eventually college, and into law enforcement.
I did 13-and-a-half years working the street here.
Everybody who was in my beat
knew that they could trust me,
including the street people.
You know, a lot of people don't realize,
but I was a single parent raising two kids.
- Protesters: No compromise! No compromise!
- Manney: Everybody says I'm this huge racist guy,
but my nanny's Puerto Rican and Mexican,
my kids are of a different race.
- Today, we are gonna go through
the autopsy report of Dontre Hamilton.
- Radio host: Why couldn't you just talk to him?
- Manney: The fact of the matter is that's all I did try to do
and the attack was so quick and so violent, you know.
I kept pushing him off and he just kept attacking.
- Radio host: What was going through your mind
at that point?
- Just that he's gonna kill me.
- With each of the 14 gunshots and 15 gunshot wounds,
there's no stippling
or unburned or burned gunpowder particles
on the skin surrounding any of the entrances.
So, Dontre was not within striking distance
of Christopher Manney when he shot.
It says at least 7 of the 14 bullets traveled downward.
And he had abrasions on the right side of his skin,
his scalp, his neck, contusions.
So that states that Christopher Manney had a field day
even with his baton before he pulled out his firearm.
- Person in background: They beat him like a dog.
- Meeting with the District Attorney,
we were provided with photographs
of Christopher Manney the day of the incident.
There were no visible injuries to his head,
his neck, his face, his shoulders, his back.
There was a very small abrasion or laceration to his thumb.
- There was a call from Dispatch where he said
he don't know if he was hit, he think he was hit.
- Manney: I don't even know if I was hit.
It was close combat.
I need an officer to help me here, too.
- Now if you got hit or beaten, so they say, with a baton,
you know if you've been struck.
- Instantly, I remember touching my head
and I really felt like my brains were coming out.
I remember an officer touched me on the shoulder,
and I said, "How bad is it?"
Am I gonna live? Are my brains pouring out?"
And he said, "No, you got some marks,
"you got some bruising, you got some issues,
but your brains are intact."
[ominous music]
- Chief Flynn: The Milwaukee Police Department
has conducted a comprehensive internal investigation
into the officer-involved shooting of Dontre Hamilton
at Red Arrow Park on April 30th, 2014.
Based on the comprehensive internal investigation,
I signed an order terminating Christopher Manney
from his employment with the Milwaukee Police Department
earlier today.
In this case, Officer Manney approached this individual
as if he were a criminal suspect even though the officer
self-reported that he thought he had mental problems
upon his approach.
The training to deal with mentally ill people
tells you, again,
absent them behaving in some menacing fashion, objectively,
that putting your hands on them
is almost the worst thing you can do.
- Chief Ed Flynn says Christopher Manney
made an error in judgment.
- Chief Ed Flynn says by not following
proper police training and protocol...
- Flynn: What's important to keep in mind,
I ruled that the officer violated our core value
of competence and I fired him.
The DA's job is to assess criminality.
- Going to join us today? - Sorry?
- Said, you going to join us today?
- Uh, no. I have to...
- Trail us. [nervous laughter]
- I was very surprised that his decision
to terminate Christopher Manney
didn't relate to the shooting.
It only related to the fact that he felt
that the pat-down search was improper.
- Good evening. - Group: Good evening!
- The chief made the decision based on this officer
not following procedures
and it ultimately ending Dontre's life
and I think that was a good decision.
Broken cops have got to go!
But we still want this officer to face criminal charges.
[chanting] - Dontre Hamilton!
Dontre Hamilton! Dontre Hamilton!
- Officer: Okay, thanks, stay in the car.
- Car occupant: Four cop cars for a suspended plate?
- You know, I was told yesterday
that we will start getting intimidated,
we will start being harassed.
A couple people got their cars towed.
They've been writing down license plates
and stuff of that sort so it's like they're watching us.
- Police Officer: Good evening, ladies and gentlemen
and Fire and Police Commission.
I'm here today on behalf of my police aids
to present the eligibility of the appointment
to police officer.
We stand here before you as a diverse group.
- Michael Crivello: I'm not proud of the chief's actions.
I think the chief was a coward.
And nowhere in this entire nation
and certainly not in this city
had any officers have been fired
for something called "approach considerations."
I had been pleading that our officers need to work in tandem.
Should Manney have been with another officer,
maybe it would have never happened.
Because the individual would have
saw that there's two of them, there's only one of me.
I'm not gonna fight the situation.
Probably any other officer
would have patted the individual down.
You know, bulky coat,
maybe the hands are in and out of the pockets.
And the actions of that individual
caused the situation to become what it became.
Chief Ed Flynn terminated our brother officer.
The firing was cowardice and unsupported by fact.
- Interviewer: What about anything Manney did?
Was there anything he could have done differently
to avoid the situation?
- Called in sick.
The membership has voted.
Their voice shall be heard.
The vote:
99.3%.
99.3% voted no confidence.
If the chief cannot stand before the membership
and lead them properly and give them the confidence
so that they can protect the community,
then maybe it's time that he packs his bags.
- Woman: Hi, they are looking for Patrick.
- I certainly hope I did not create
an uncomfortable situation for you.
- No, not at all. - Michael...
- Chief of Staff, good morning, sir, how are you?
- Patrick Curley: I'm good. - Good to see you.
I'd like to give you this envelope
that would have been for the mayor.
As you know we invited him to join us, but I'm sure--
- Yeah, as you know,
the mayor has full confidence in the chief.
And I assume that that's gonna be a difference between us.
So I'll take the envelope and thanks for coming.
- Thank you, sir, for accepting it.
- You guys have a good weekend.
- Wish you well. - Good.
- Well, Manney not only wants his job back,
he also wants his money.
Fox 6's Derica Williams explains.
- The letter was hand-delivered Friday
to the Fire and Police Commission.
Christopher Manney writes:
"I hereby appeal from personnel order 2014-102
discharging me from service."
Two days before being fired,
Manney applied for Duty Disability Retirement.
Manney claims this incident has left him
with debilitating mental health issues.
The benefit process could take
from 90 days to a year for a decision to be made.
As for the appeal the FPC says...
[door opens]
[multiple conversations in background]
- Tonight we want to establish how we will behave tomorrow
at the Fire Police Commission meeting.
You have the Union coming in,
asking for the rehire of Christopher Manney.
- This will be the first Fire and Police Commission meeting
since Officer Christopher,
ex-Officer Christopher Manney was released from his position.
They canceled the last meeting because the news
of the firing it just happened the day before.
- They think we're going to come and we're going to be rowdy.
They think we're gonna be obnoxious.
But I want us to come on business.
I want us to be that group that they say,
"Hey, when an injustice is done
the Coalition for Justice is coming out."
- Commissioner Sarah Morgan: Alright, good evening.
This is the November 6th, 2014 meeting
of the Fire and Police Commission.
So we will have a period of public comment.
Everyone will be limited to two minutes.
- I want a motion that Dontre Hamilton was
unlawfully killed at the Red Arrow Park April 30th.
Can I get anyone to second that motion?
[crowd agreeing]
Motion has properly been seconded.
The community has spoke.
- I feel like the Police Union is in denial.
[yelling] - He himself says that he's unfit to do the job.
[cheers and applause]
- Man: Do the right thing and uphold the termination
of Officer Christopher Manney.
[people applauding]
- I, a duty officer,
have conducted the same exact investigation
[group members object] multiple times in a work shift.
- 99% of the people in this room
have not-- [gavel banging] been in that situation.
- Woman: We don't believe that every officer can do no wrong.
But when one of us is used as a sacrificial lamb
[crowd member boos] at the altar of mob rule and race-baiting,
[gavel banging]
can we stand united?
[cheering and applause]
[gavel bangs repeatedly]
- Commissioner: Order in the room.
- Michael Crivello: Any reasonable officer would
have had to conduct themselves as Officer Manney did.
[crowd rumbles] - Get the hell out of here!
- While we are united in our statement
of no confidence as the Chief-- [crowd members interrupting]
99.3% voted no confidence--
[crowd members yelling]
We are saddened by the loss of Mr. Hamilton.
We have compassion for the family.
I have prayed for peace for the Hamilton family.
[crowd booing] [gavel banging]
- Crowd chants: No justice? No compromise!
- Crowd member: Chief Flynn.
- He's not paying attention. He's playing on his phone.
- Chief Edward Flynn: I'm sorry if you find it offensive.
I'm keeping up with the developments
of the shooting of a five-year-old, alright?
Pardon me! [applause]
- Woman: Because this is where the injustice take place.
- Khalil. - The injustice takes place--
- Female reporter: What's your response to some of the people
that thought you were being disrespectful
by being on your phone and not being attentive?
[sighs] - Well, I was on my phone. Yes, that's true.
I was following developments with a five-year-old
little girl sitting on her dad's lap,
who just got shot in the head by a drive-by shooting.
Now they know all about the last three people
that have been killed by the Milwaukee Police Department
over the course of the last several years.
There's not one of them can name
one of the last three homicide victims we've had in this city.
Now there's room for everybody to participate
in fixing this police department,
and I'm not pretending we're without sin.
But this community's at risk alright, and it's not because
men and women in blue risk their lives protecting it.
It's at risk because we've got large numbers of
high-capacity, quality firearms
in the hands of remorseless criminals
who don't care who they shoot.
And I take it personally, okay?
We're going up there and there's a bunch of cops
processing a scene of a dead kid.
Now, no offense, but I'm going up there now.
? ?
[engine rumbling]
[motor running]
- Man on TV or radio: The situation in which an individual
whose family apparently either gave up on him
or had no success in coping with him.
So we put it all on the last cop,
the one that's getting whaled away on by the guy.
So, yeah, I think the whole Black Lives Matter
and the marching in the streets
and bitching about the cops,
I think it's all crap. That's what I...
- This guy that sent me a message and said.
"Shut the F up Nigger, same for all niggers,
"bunch of whining SOBs.
"Hope they put all you niggers
in a cage where you belong, aka prison."
You know, maybe he saw me on the news
talking about something, but wanting people to be better,
wanting fairness, like, what's better to do than that?
You know, you have these people that say,
"I stand with the blue." and, "I back the blue."
You know what?
You got your shoes on the wrong feet. [laughs]
They think that we just are out for police officers.
Like, no, we're not.
No, we want the police to be better.
You had a good game, man.
Played the defense a little better.
60% of people who get arrested have mental health issues.
But our police departments don't know how to deal
with people with mental health issues.
A lot of people think this training,
"Oh, it's a pacification."
and I don't want people to get it twisted.
As we fight, we just don't walk the streets.
We just don't yell.
We change things.
We want to make sure the police department
understood that their training was inadequate.
[people chanting] - Where's the mayor? Where's the mayor?
- This department here? - He's not here.
- This is his building where he works at
and we expect him to come and address the situation.
- You know, you've talked to him a couple times already.
- This time, we want something in stone
to make sure all officers get CIT training
before the year 2017.
- Flynn: We know in this case that even though
Christopher Manney walked a beat in downtown Milwaukee,
he didn't have CIT training.
- Woman: You know if one in five people have mental illness
we have mental illness amongst our own ranks, as well.
- Flynn: I think people are putting an awful lot
on the 40-hour course.
- Man: One gun per locker.
- Flynn: Everybody gets some version of the training,
even if they don't have the entire course.
- Woman: If you're a one-man squad, ladies and gentleman,
you get there and it don't feel right, don't look right...
- Flynn: My officers know how to size somebody up.
And if they need a specialist, they can get one.
- PTSD, so her big thing was noises that trigger...
- Flynn: But it's stunning to me
that there's not a social problem in America
that apparently can't be solved
by more training for the police.
- Mayor Tom Barrett: Good afternoon.
Today I am announcing that the Milwaukee Police Department
will commit to having all police officers
receive 40 hours of Crisis Intervention Team training
by 2017.
- TV: This is CNN breaking news.
- Reporter: Breaking news coming out of the St. Louis area.
Grand Jury has been released.
They have reached a decision on whether to indict
Officer Darren Wilson in the shooting death
of an unarmed teenager Michael Brown.
We should get an announcement very shortly.
- TV reporter: From a source close to Darren Wilson
what they were telling me, and I think it's important
for our legal minds who are listening to this,
if there was an indictment,
there would have been a suppressed indictment.
And they have not asked Darren Wilson to turn himself in.
- Additionally, a bullet fired from Officer Wilson's weapon
was located inside the driver's door.
The shot was fired from inside the vehicle, striking...
- Your reaction to this "no indictment"?
- You know, you look at the history of things
and it's just like the same thing over and over and over.
These officers get off with murdering a person.
Message to D.A. Chisholm: Make the right decision.
- At this point you can see the crowd
is still a little bit unruly.
Some windows broken out.
I saw one of the demonstrators
putting lighter fluid on one of the police cars
[woman weeping] that was here, as well.
- Maria Hamilton: We're not out here to tear the city up.
- Jonathon Safran: And they know that, but their bigger concern
are other people just like in Ferguson.
- Maria: Well, we ain't got no control over
what other people, agitators are doing.
- Safran: But they think that
your family controls what everybody else does.
- Maria: I gotta go. - Safran: Be careful, be safe.
- I will.
They on social media talking about
they gonna bring gas cans
and this, that, and the others.
I ain't got no control over what somebody else do.
My purpose is to march.
They need to stop killing our kids.
Then we won't have to worry about people
feeling like they want to tear the city up.
- Crowd chants: Hands up, don't shoot!
- What do we want? - Justice!
- When do we want it? - Now!
- What do we want? - Justice!
- When do we want it? - Now!
- Man, they just rolled up on this guy with a gun.
He just came from the march. - Damn, niggas.
- Like it was set up or something!
Like, they just all swarmed in with their guns drawn.
- You record us. We record you, dirty mother#######.
- Khalil Coleman: Y'all wanna try to hear me for a minute?
In Ferguson right now, they're burning #### down.
- I feel like with Khalil, there wasn't nothing wrong
with his approach, you know, for myself.
- Khalil: I'm out here because I want to shut something down.
- It was just as a family member of Dontre,
we were trying to do things a little softer.
- Khalil: They got a Bucks game over there.
They think they're going to have some fun.
Let's make them uncomfortable right now.
[crowd cheering]
Let's make them uncomfortable.
- And it just transpired to an aggressive state.
[chaotic yelling]
- I'm just trying to go to a Bucks game.
- Crowd: Be strong, fight back! Be strong, fight back!
- Khalil: Where you gonna run in the face of injustice?
How you gonna turn your cheek,
your brother just got killed.
- Maria: Take the bullhorn from him before I go off.
- Khalil: And your sister just got killed.
And families ain't get justice.
Man, it's ridiculous.
Ya know what I mean?
- Nate: If y'all wanna go with Khalil, no problem with that.
But the Hamilton family, myself and my mom,
she wanna work her way back to Red Arrow Park.
- Khalil: Alright, this ain't no conquer/divide!
"If you with Khalil, go over there.
If you with me, come over here."
[yelling] I'm with you.
I've been stomping in the streets,
fighting for justice with you, to help Dontre Hamilton mom .
- Maria: I don't know what you came out here for,
but I came out here to stand with the Brown family.
Him and Dontre not coming back.
I have to live in this city,
so if y'all wanna go, tear up,
burn up, burn cars,
do whatever, have your way.
- Khalil: I'm not gonna let you assassinate the media like that,
like we out here trying to mess up and burn up--
Man, I am not compromising.
- Marsha Hamilton: I'm going back to Red Arrow.
And I'm going home.
[crowd cheers] - Crowd member: Amen.
- Nate Hamilton Jr.: I'm pretty sure around the world
they would expect that a group of this magnitude
to loot and steal and cause some type of damage,
but damage is not gonna get us justice.
But... we can't control people forever.
- Woman: We want justice for Christmas.
- Nate Hamilton, I'm part of the Coalition for Justice.
We're just bringing awareness to the community
about the Dontre Hamilton situation.
We're just going around the back...
We're canvassing the Bay View area
just making sure the community is aware of what's going on.
- How did he get killed?
- He was shot by a Milwaukee Police Officer 14 times.
- And a lot of people don't watch the news,
don't get home in time for the news,
go to bed before the news.
[knocking]
I guess he's not wanting no information.
- The man walked away from the door
and went to the window.
- Oh.
- Why the Bay View neighborhood?
- Um...
- Woman: All right, have a good night now.
- Join hands, everybody.
- Group singing: ? Silent night ?
? Holy night ?
? All is calm ?
? All is bright ?
? Round yon virgin ?
? Mother and child ?
? Holy infant ?
? So tender and mild ?
? Sleep in heavenly peace ?
- Nate Hamilton Jr.: The blood is at the doorstep.
The blood is at the doorstep.
- Female reporter: And after months of protests,
a crucial announcement is expected very soon now.
A decision on whether a white Milwaukee Police Officer
will be charged in the shooting death
of an African American man.
- Male reporter: From Milwaukee County Sheriff David Clarke
was to inform people about several what he describes as
"Anarchist groups," that they are connected
with blockades of the Interstate system.
- Khalil Coleman: Y'all go up one ramp, we go up together?
- Nate Hamilton Jr.: Yeah, we going that ramp.
- Woman: My cell phone's somewhere in here.
[horns blaring] - Black lives matter!
- How many shots? - Fourteen!
- The cops in the hood? - Ain't no good!
- Woman: Everybody, back in your car!
Hey, where's Dontre family?
Where's the Coalition for Justice?
[sirens] [yelling and screaming]
- Hands behind your back!
- Get off me!
The sheriff said we could go.
- The sheriff said we could leave.
- He said we could leave, we were leaving.
- We're in the process of leaving.
- Anyone that doesn't leave right now is going.
- Woman: We can leave.
- The sheriff said we could leave.
We're leaving.
- Now you just told them to go.
Why did you ####### do that?
- I'm sorry.
- What's going on? - We're telling them to go now.
- It was a show of disobedience, a direct action.
And a couple people, well about 50 people was arrested today.
- Officer, do you know
when they're going to let our friends out?
- I've just come to work.
- Let us in!
Let us in!
[sounds of physical struggle]
- Go, go, go, go, go!
- Back up.
- Officer: Everybody back up!
[dog barks]
- Male reporter: Protesters holding an emergency meeting
to discuss the arrest of 74 of their peers.
- Female reporter: And the sheriff asked the governor
to call in the National Guard.
- Female reporter: Said the National Guard
has been talking with Milwaukee Police
preparing for any reaction to a charging decision.
- Male reporter: You've been told when the final decision will come?
- Not at this time. - Woman: No other questions.
Alright, if there is anything else,
it'll be done in a written statement tomorrow.
- As far as the highway action was concerned,
it was executed as it was planned.
Alright, and no one on the highway got arrested.
So, I'll let Nate talk about the other parts.
- Khalil Coleman: Before you do...
Good brother, if I may.
The real miscommunication broke down
because by the time both groups from Red Arrow
got to the highway, you guys were already gone.
- That's not where we are--
- Maria Hamilton: I don't care about none of that right now.
- We're meeting to discuss the plan.
If you don't show up, you don't know.
- Khalil, stop disrespecting my mama, I'm serious.
Stop disrespecting my mama, Khalil!
Let my mama talk.
Let my mama talk, Khalil.
Let my mama talk.
She's talking!
- You're out of order!
- Coleman: You don't kick me out of nowhere!
Don't even know what going on!
You don't kick me out of nowhere!
[chaotic yelling]
- Reporter: Right now the street right outside this courthouse
is blocked off by Milwaukee Police
as they prepare for this group to gather.
- D.A. John Chisholm: Good morning and thank you for coming.
The death of Dontre Hamilton
is a tragedy for everyone involved.
But I cannot be swayed by passion
when making these decisions.
And after carefully analyzing the investigation,
the forensic evidence in the case, the law,
I have come to the conclusion that criminal charges
are not appropriate in this case.
What's significant to know is that--
- They stated that he was shot while he was on the ground
by more than six people, but he used rubber bands
to describe the downward trajectory.
- Those rounds, essentially, if this is Mr. Hamilton
it would be in a downward trajectory.
If, however, Mr. Hamilton was on the ground
when those shots were fired, you can see the trajectory
would generally be ascending at that point in time.
- Everything the D.A. did was very elementary.
And for him to use some rubber bands was,
like, "Is this it?"
You know, you spent eight months and this is all you have?
- Again, my obligation is to review the case
in light of Wisconsin law.
And I've done a detailed analysis
of the law of self-defense as it relates...
The unique evaluation you do
with police officers is whether they had a legitimate
objectively reasonable basis to use force.
Of obvious concern to everybody,
has been the number of shots fired.
And the way that the baton was being employed at that time,
whether he connected or didn't connect,
that's a deadly weapon.
And therefore, we wouldn't be able to prove
beyond a reasonable doubt
that he committed a crime when he used force.
[gun firing]
Understand, as well: you can discharge, you know,
15 rounds in under three seconds.
- Timer recorded 2.99 seconds for all 14 rounds fired.
- When police officers were equipped with revolvers
they had six shots, so they were trained differently.
You fire twice and then reassess.
- Is fourteen shots really necessary to stop an individual?
- The standard was that they are not allowed
to employ force to kill.
They are not allowed to use force to wound.
They're allowed to employ force to stop the threat.
- My family.
We cried too long.
On April 30th, he sized him up
and he killed him with intent.
And now, he has the mental problem.
The whole system has a mental problem.
- Crowd: Yes!
- So, when will we stand up?
[crowd chanting] - Whoose street? - Our streets!
- M. Hamilton: Alright, thank you, sweetheart.
It was good hearing from you.
I'm the a...
- The district attorney is the wrong person
to prosecute the people he worked with so closely.
And especially John Chisholm, knowing that he
has no history of really charging an officer
when it comes to use of force.
Hell, we'll just have to go to the federal level.
We are going to escalate this battle,
as we seek federal intervention
and public awareness.
- Dontre was shot 14 times.
Dontre had 21 bullet holes in his body.
- Kevin Lewis: It could have been mine.
I think that's the sentiment of the president.
That's the feeling of the Attorney General.
- Famale reporter: And we know of the tragic death
of Dontre Hamilton.
[chanting] - We go get it!
- Shut it down!
- Hillary Clinton: A young man who should still be with us.
[applause]
- Good afternoon.
The Department of Justice, [crowd yells]
the U.S. Attorney's Office, has indicated
that they are going to go ahead and do a federal investigation.
[crowd cheering]
We'll be looking forward to that happening.
- Female reporter: The officer who shot
and killed Dontre Hamilton
in Red Arrow Park will soon find out
if he's getting his job back.
- Male reporter: Former officer Christopher Manney
is appealing his firing to the Police and Fire Commission.
- Female reporter: Manney has filed for
a duty disability retirement
so even if he gets his job back
would he be back out on the street?
- Remain standing, sir. Raise your right hand.
Do you solemnly swear the testimony
you're about to give in this hearing will be the truth,
the whole truth and nothing but the truth so help you God?
- I do. - Be seated.
- Can you describe for us
what bulges you were talking about?
- Manney: My main focus was on the right pocket.
It stuck out about an inch and a half
and it seemed like the entire pocket was filled.
- Did you think there was a weapon in there?
- It's suggested that there could be a weapon
such as a knife, a blade of glass.
I've seen them take glass and shove in between their papers
with duct tape.
That is the area where
that suggested there could be a weapon.
- Thank you. That's all I have.
- Judge: Mr. Thomsen.
- Mark Thomsen: So you're ready and able to return to duty right?
- No, sir. I want to return to duty.
The doctors, they say I can't--
But that doesn't hide the fact
that I was wrongfully terminated
and that I want to be a cop.
It's who I am.
- You said that the bulge in his right pocket
led you to be concerned.
- Manney: It was a fear.
You're like, "He's probably got a weapon in that bulge.
It's probably a knife."
I don't have X-ray vision, but it sure looks like a knife.
And you got the behavior.
Those are all things that come into play very rapidly
into your assessment.
- So let's follow
what you told the detectives
and Mr. Chisholm on April 30th.
Is there a mention in this report
of any concern about a bulge in a right pocket?
- Manney: No.
[in incredulous voice] - Is there any mention in this report
of a knife or shards of glass?
- I don't know, sir.
- Thank you. That's all I've got to say.
- Commissioners. - At any time,
did Mr. Hamilton make a movement towards his right pocket?
- No.
- Thank you. You may step down.
- Nate Hamilton Jr.: If we have other officers that act like him
then they need to be removed from the force.
One thing's for certain that he does not need to be
a police officer for the City of Milwaukee ever again.
- I want to direct your attention to exhibit 136.
Did you draft it for officer Manney?
- I drafted it for a number of officers on the shift, yes.
- You wanted him to be recognized
for meritorious service, right?
- Yes, I did.
- During the time you supervised him,
did you come to any opinions
about officer Manney's work ethic?
- Yes. - What were those opinions?
- He was a hard worker.
- Would you say that officer Manney
was one of the best officers you ever supervised?
- He was one of the best.
- And if Officer Manney was reinstated today,
would you have any problem
with him working under your command?
- I don't believe so.
- Would you welcome him back? - I would.
- Thank you.
- Mr. Manney...
- If you feel I violated a rule, I understand that.
But I ask that you do not terminate me.
I wanna be a cop.
I've helped people my whole life.
It's who I am.
- You have your evaluations.
You have a resume to go to another job.
For the Hamilton family all they have
is the memories of Mr. Hamilton, right?
- That would be correct. - No more questions.
- I am advised that the Commissioner Panel
has reached a decision.
After proper consideration of all testimony
and evidence presented,
I do hereby find that Christopher Manney
shall be permanently discharged
[shouts of joy] from the Milwaukee Police Department.
[applause]
On behalf of everyone involved in this proceeding,
I wanna thank the commissioners for your time and your work.
Thank you.
- Maria Hamilton: Thank you, Lord. Thank you, Lord.
- I am sorry to...
I am sorry to report that I have just learned
from one of my many associates that Christopher Manney
was approved for duty disability benefits.
At the meeting of the City of Milwaukee
Tuesday last week, they had a doctor testify
that Christopher Manney was suffering from PTSD
and that they were going to honor the decision
to give him his total disability
and they will be going all the way back a year.
They're gonna give him $5,600 a ####### month.
- What they done was very secretive.
You know, these officer's going to receive
75% of his pay, additional $4,000 on top of that,
for the rest of his life.
And we should be outraged as a community
when these type of things happen.
Disability for Christopher Manney is ridiculous.
It's not just affecting me and my family.
But it's affecting our city that we have to pay a cop
that was fired and still can receive 75% of his pay.
- Is this going to be a disruption?
- Umm, you could call it that.
- Megaphone: Good job, you guys.
- ? We ain't gonna stop 'til people are free ?
- Officer: We're going to have to take the noisemakers out.
- ? We ain't gonna stop 'til people are free ?
? Calling out the violence of the racist police ?
? We ain't gonna stop 'til people are free ?
- Alright, get in their. Let's start locking them up.
- Mayor Tom Barrett: It's great to see so many people here tonight
to really kick off our holiday season.
This is a time that we recognize that we as a community...
- I got the right to be in that park.
[police whistle]
What am I under arrest for?
This is a public park.
You all weak as hell.
I could break out of this here-- no problem.
That's why y'all shoot people--
That's why y'all shoot people cause y'all so ####### weak.
That's what y'all shoot people for.
Y'all weak.
- What if it was your child?
- Dontre Hamilton!
[chanting] - Dontre Hamilton!
- Dontre Hamilton
- Crowd: 4, 3, 2, 1!
[people cheering]
- Female reporter: Today, we expect to learn whether
a former Milwaukee Police Officer,
Christopher Manney, will face federal charges.
- Good morning, and this is where we expect
the family of Dontre Hamilton
to meet with the U.S. Attorney's Office,
as well as with the Department of Justice's
Civil Rights Division out of Washington, D.C..
They are expecting that a decision will come down
as to whether federal criminal civil rights charges
will be issued against former Milwaukee Police officer
Christopher Manney.
- Yeah, Erik, they didn't charge his ass.
Said there wasn't enough evidence.
- Maria: To say willfully-- - That he willfully shot him.
- Maria: Like first-degree murder willfully.
- Yeah, they had to prove that it was first-degree murder,
not intentional or any other thing.
That he willfully shot him...
And all the other circumstances
that led up to him shooting him.
Still can't prove intent-- that he willfully shot him.
- Male reporter: The U.S. Department of Justice will spend
the next two years reviewing every aspect of MPD.
- Female reporter: This DOJ review was a request by Chief Flynn.
The U.S. Justice Department says the idea
is to improve two things:
Trust and relationships between the police and the community.
The DOJ says it...
- And it certainly seems clear to me
that the collaborative reform was the best thing
to ask for in terms of trying to restore confidence
where confidence may have waned,
to create confidence where it may not currently exist.
We're gonna get this done.
We're gonna take our time and we're gonna do it right.
- Just again, tonight's listening session
is a critical element of our assessment
in the collaborative reform effort.
Rather than field a lot of questions right now,
I would rather for people to start coming to the mic and...
we can begin.
Please do it in an orderly fashion.
[clapping, cheering]
I appreciate it.
- Good evening. My name is Deborah Jenkins.
I am the mother of Larry Jerome Jenkins
that was murdered in September of 2002.
We have gangs within the police department
that jump our boys, The Punishers,
The Night Train, The Midnight Riders,
and you name it.
The list goes on and on and on.
- There's just always... that black men have to know:
Don't go out without your driver's license.
Don't wear a hat inside of a car.
- We gotta look at the police officers,
where they came from, how they got here,
and why are they in our communities?
- My name is Nate Hamilton.
I'm co-founder of the Coalition for Justice.
[cheers and applause]
I gave you a copy of the demands
that me and the community discussed just yesterday.
And the one I want you to particularly look at
is number 12.
Number 12 says, "There will be consequences."
We demand justice, or else.
There's gonna be consequences.
The Mayor, we coming to you.
There's gonna be consequences.
The Fire and Police Commission, we coming to you.
There's gonna be consequences.
District Attorney, we're coming to you.
There's gonna be consequences.
Because we can't wait 18 months for the Department of Justice,
you understand that?
We've been waiting too long.
- Do not move! Do not move!
They cannot take us all to jail.
They cannot take us all down.
They do not have the manpower out here.
They cannot take us all.
[chaotic crowd sounds]
- Stay in your houses!
[sirens]
[car stereo blasting N.W.A.'s "#### Tha Police"]
- I say America was founded on violence.
- It ain't but look at this gas station right here.
For what!?! What are we gonna do?
- Megaphone: Refusal to disperse will be in violation of
Wisconsin state statute 947.06. [helicopter overhead]
- Female reporter: Milwaukee Police say a 23-year-old man,
was shot and killed by a police officer.
This was during a traffic stop.
Two suspects fled on foot.
Officers chased after them.
The officer fired at the suspect.
He was hit in the chest and arm and died at the scene.
- It's a cry out.
It's a cry out.
You know, that I say been building up
for some years here in Milwaukee.
- I'm gonna bring in a man who is here from the start.
This is Sedan Smith.
And Sedan tells me he's actually the brother of the victim.
Take me through what is going on right now.
- Right now, you got a city riot going on.
Because, once again, the police have failed to protect us
like they say they was gonna do.
And this is what you get.
You got people out here going crazy.
We losing loved ones every day
to the people that sworn in to protect us.
You get a lot of people that's hurt.
This is what you get.
Either you've taken some loved one from someone.
This is what you get.
- Reporter: There have been at least six fires that were set,
including one that was set at a BP gas station.
That building was destroyed
[chaotic yelling and sirens]
- I found out about this today
because of the rioting in the city last night.
When I turn on the news...
It is what it is.
And this is why we have to support the police
and not support nefarious groups like Black Lives Matter.
[whistling and applause]
- Bob Donovan: Last night,
chaos descended upon a neighborhood in Milwaukee.
And this morning, the rest of the city
is left to pick up the pieces
and scratch our heads and wonder why.
- Governor Scott Walker: What happened last night is completely unacceptable
and today I have activated the Wisconsin National Guard.
[cheers and applause]
- How you doing?
Good, good.
To burn down something, to them it meant,
"Do you hear us now?"
- Nice to meet you, Nate. I'm Sonia.
- Nice to meet you.
And no one was willing to come out
and give them no respect, not no love,
not no better education.
You know, not nothing. Let's all go up.
I want everybody over there on that porch.
We need everybody to be a part of this.
We're gonna let our hearts come out here
and heal the people.
We gotta make sure that they have what they need,
whether it's mentoring for their children,
whether it's schoolbooks for their kids, backpacks,
contact.
We need to make sure that they don't go without.
We're trying to get everybody we can to come out
and help clean up the streets.
But we also want them to understand that
what they do, someone sees.
Your neighbor sees you and they might not be
as courageous as you, but when they see you,
maybe they'll grab their courage and then they come out
and they start supporting the effort
in cleaning up this city.
["One Love Dontre" by Nate Hamilton Jr., Dameion Perkins, DaShawn Carter, and "Dutch"]
? One love ?
? My little brother's an angel now ?
? And he never gotta worry now ?
? Livin' life in the heavens looking down ?
? Makin' sure we safe ?
? Give anything to see him smiling face ?
? He lived life on the verge of everything ?
? All he really wanted was his family to have everything ?
? Stone macho One of a kind ?
? He stood for the family and loved all inside ?
? Before he died he was thinking about his family ?
? Just a shame we have to face this reality ?
? Your death won't stand in the dark ?
? We bring it clarity ?
? And use your name to start a charity ?
? I still dream about you daily ?
? Just keep screaming going crazy ?
? I need you here ?
? I want you here ?
? I'm screaming one love ?
? I still dream about you daily ?
? Just keep screaming going crazy ?
? I need you here ?
? I want you here ?
? I'm screaming one love ?
? One love ?
? One love is a lifestyle ?
? We love hard 'cause we Christ's child ?
? 13 representatives for breakfast, lunch, and dinner ?
? My passion is shown through my actions ?
? Label me, disable me but still can't detach me ?
? I know my worth ?
? I spread love 'til there's no more hurt ?
? I clean the world 'til there's no more dirt ?
? I put value on no man's worth ?
? I put the clock in reverse ?
? And go back to April 30th ?
? Could it be my worst thing ?
? My brother's gone Shot 14 times ?
? You know he didn't do no wrong ?
? Laying in the park ?
? Really I don't see no wrong ?
? The investigation still goin' on ?
? The cops ain't told us Shhhh! ?
? They hope that we forget they lying ?
? If they think that's it ?
? Dontre never forget ?
? We never will quit ?
? One love family 'til we leave this ?
? I still dream about you daily ?
? Just keep screaming going crazy ?
? I need you here ?
? I want you here ?
? I'm screaming one love ?
? One love ?
- For more information on
The Blood is at the Doorstep
go to www.thebloodisatthedoorstep.tv/