Justice has been served — but is it enough to make amends??
On Wednesday, Milwaukee police released body cam footage of the January arrest and subsequent tasing of NBA star Sterling Brown. Thankfully, both the department’s chief and Mayor Tom Barrett have weighed in on the despicable incident.
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Per Chief Alfonso Morales, multiple members of the force were disciplined, but did not specify the exact number. At a news conference, Morales shared:
“The department conducted an investigation into the incident which revealed members acted inappropriately and those members were recently disciplined. I am sorry this incident escalated to this level.”
The police chief did NOT take additional questions regarding the scandal. In case you forgot, the cops previously claimed that the Milwaukee Bucks rookie caused an alleged confrontation over a supposed parking violation. At the time, the authorities defended that Sterling’s behavior caused his arrest and inappropriate tasing.
Still, when Brown was not charged with a crime as a result of the incident, internal affairs stepped in to investigate. We think Mayor Barrett said it best when he commented:
“This type of behavior has no place in our city. No citizen should be treated this way. The fact that it escalated to what happened is what disturbed me the most. I believe that this is a situation that could have been defused, and obviously it wasn’t.
We have to do better. As a community we have to do better. I want our residents to be respectful of our police and I want our police to be respectful of our residents. It has to be a two-way street.”
Well said. Sterling expressed something similar, as he added in a statement of his own:
“Black men shouldn’t have to have their guard up and instantly be on the defensive when seeing a police officer, but it’s our reality and a real problem. There must be mutual respect and both sides have to figure out how to accomplish this.
There are no easy solutions to this problem, but there are strides that can be made to create change. I will do my part in helping to prevent similar incidents from happening to the minority community in the future.”
Brown also expressed his plans to take legal action against the officers involved in the unlawful tasing.
During all of this, Sterling was met with support by the Milwaukee Bucks. Not only did the NBA team condemn the police’s shameful actions, but also warned that “racial biases and abuses of power must not be ignored.”
We couldn’t have said it better ourselves. Hopefully, this incident has been a wake up call for the Milwaukee police, because something like this should N-E-V-E-R happen again.
[Image via Milwaukee police/YouTube.]
