“This system sees police wantonly murdering people as part of the normal order of things,” proclaimed Carl Dix (shown), co-founder of the Revolutionary Communist Party, in explaining why many of his fellow communists have traveled 90 miles north from Chicago to Milwaukee to join in what he called a “righteous rebellion.”
Dix deflected accusations that his group was stirring up trouble in Milwaukee by charging that the police are responsible for the death of a 23-year-old black man, Sylville Smith, and any resulting violent protests.
Police say that Smith was shot and killed after a Saturday afternoon traffic stop, but that the shooting was in self-defense. They say they have reviewed the body camera footage, which they claim shows Smith fleeing the officer, then turning and raising his arm with a loaded gun. Police say the gun was stolen.
Ed Flynn, the Milwaukee police chief, said that Smith was shot about 20 seconds after a traffic stop for a “suspicious vehicle.” According to the subsequent autopsy report, Smith was shot in the chest and arm. In the aftermath of the shooting, rumors spread that the officer, who is also an African-American, shot an unarmed fleeing black man in the back.
Smith has a “lengthy criminal record,” according to police, mostly misdemeanors.
The shooting touched off protests, both peaceful and violent. Flynn blamed members of the Revolutionary Communist Party, based in Chicago, for turning a peaceful Tuesday night into a tense one. According to Flynn, marchers streamed down several blocks at 11:30 p.m.
Flynn said that the communist group (which is not aligned with the Communist Party, USA) “showed up, and actually they’re the ones who started to cause problems.”
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The group denied they were wanting to cause violence, but did say they went to Milwaukee to “support a revolution.” Dix said, “If anybody wants to allege that our people were actually committing those acts, they should bring that to us. That wasn’t what we went up there to do.” The Revolutionary Communist Party was founded in 1975, with the intent to focus on issues more specific to blacks than the regular Communist Party. Nearly 40 percent of Milwaukee’s 600,000 residents are black.
Dix insisted that the real problem is with the police. “It’s happened with some regularity in Milwaukee, and the killer cops always get off. People are sick of that.”
According to Flynn, members of the communist group led some young protesters to march on the then-barricaded District 7 police station. Flynn said the group tried to take over Sherman and Burleigh. “That was about 11:30 at night. We made it to 11:30 in the evening, and we had these characters show up.”
Flynn also addressed the question of whether the police are making the situation worse by taking to the streets in riot gear. “We recognize in so doing we make ourselves targets. In some ways, we become the focal point. But better us the focal point than innocent community members or stores being set on fire. So, we accept the risk that engaging makes us the target.”
One female officer suffered a concussion after being struck in the head with concrete, according to Flynn. Seven squad cars were damaged, three other officers were injured, and fires were reported at an O’Reilly Auto Parts store, a BMO Harris Bank location, a supermarket, a liquor store, a beauty supply store, and a BP gas station.
Police officers have also been shot at during the past few days. “It certainly appears there are people who are willing to shoot at [the police] without concern of whether they injure or kill them.”
In contrast, Flynn complimented many community leaders for attempting to calm the situation. “I saw in many instances people preaching on street corners, counseling small groups of individuals. A number of individuals spoke at the vigil, which easily could have been an excuse to incite, but rather there were consistent calls for calm, discussion and peaceful change.”
Wisconsin’s Republican Governor Scott Walker put the National Guard on stand-by, but they have not actually been sent into Milwaukee — yet. “I think people understand in that neighborhood and in Sherman Park and in Milwaukee, they want law enforcement to step up and protect them. They didn’t want criminals who were doing those actions against those businesses to do that. And I think statements like that and the lack of leadership we have had from the president on this issue only inflame the situation,” Walker said.
Dix, however, would apparently disagree with the people wanting the police to protect them. He said that the goal of his communist organization is to “dismantle” the police and other government systems.
This could be a classic example of what some have called “pressure from below,” and “pressure from above,” to accomplish an ultimate radical agenda. In this case, Dix’s Chicago communists arriving in Milwaukee to throw gasoline on the fire is an example of “pressure from below.”
What about the “pressure from above?” That comes from high-ranking public officials such as President Barack Obama, Attorney General Loretta Lynch, and Democratic Party presidential nominee Hillary Clinton. While the street communists, represented by Dix and his Revolutionary Communist Party, call for the complete dismantlement of the police, the high-ranking public officials only call for shifting power away from the local departments and the state governments to federal control in D.C.
Governor Walker touched on the problem, in castigating Clinton and Obama for their interference in local law enforcement. But, the problem is even deeper than Walker’s justifiable irritation at those two.
State law in Wisconsin already requires an investigation in cases involving police shootings by the Wisconsin Department of Justice. But that is not good enough for Obama and Clinton. We have seen this in Ferguson, Missouri, and in Baltimore, Maryland. Despite a grand jury in Ferguson concluding that the police officer there was acting in self-defense when he shot and killed Michael Brown, Obama’s Justice Department, headed by then-Attorney General Eric Holder, launched a federal investigation into the police department. Similar efforts are underway in Baltimore in response to the death of Freddie Gray, even though the judicial system there has cleared the six officers — three of whom were black — of any wrong-doing.
Earlier in his tenure, Obama even opined that police in Cambridge, Massachusetts, had “acted stupidly” in a case of mistaken identity involving a black Harvard professor, Henry Louis Gates. He refused to back up when challenged for his interference in a local matter, insisting “that there is a long history in this country of African-Americans and Latinos being stopped by law enforcement disproportionally, and that’s just a fact.”
In 2014, an officer in Milwaukee shot and killed Dontre Hamilton, a mentally ill black man. In December, the U.S. Department of Justice and the Milwaukee police department announced they would work together on some reforms of the department. Now we have a black police officer shooting a black man, who had a loaded, stolen gun in his hand as he was shot, and Hillary Clinton’s remarks still push the narrative that this incident is just as much a problem as the actions of other, racist officers. While she did say, “Everyone should have respect for the law,” she added, “and be respected by the law.”
The best thing that Clinton could have said is nothing, leaving it for local and state officials to sort out. But that does not advance the goal of reducing confidence in local law enforcement so that more power can be transferred to the federal government. After all, progressives believe that living inside the Beltway automatically gives one more wisdom than living in Milwaukee.
The stated communist goal of dismantling the police force only contributes to the loss of confidence in local police. This pressure from below, if successful, would not lead to the total dismantlement of police, per se, but the end of local control over police. And with the agitation of pressure from above, we can expect to see the control of all police transferred to authorities in the nation’s capital.
Nationalized police forces in nations such as Nazi Germany (the Gestapo) certainly do not have a good historical reputation.
If you think local police can sometimes abuse their power, and you “can’t fight city hall,” then what do you think would be the case if all police were controlled at the national level?
Photo: AP Images
