Milwaukee protests after acquittal of violent cops
JC
This story has been circulating for the past few days and I am finally getting a chance to post about it. Prosecutors in this case charged that the mixed-race Frank Jude Jr. was brutally beaten by three white police officers in 2004. They claimed that he had stolen a badge at a party (how they thought that this justified the punishment they inflicted on him, I will never know?!). Obviously, it was a somewhat racially motivated incident:
The three men were among nine officers fired as a result of the beating outside a house in a mostly white, working-class neighborhood on the city’s south side. Witnesses said they heard someone call Jude and a black friend racial slurs during the assault.
Jude, 27, of Appleton, said the group kicked and punched him, someone put a knife to his throat and someone stuck something in his ears. He couldn’t identify his assailants but said he heard Spengler threaten him.
You can find the full story here. The latest update is that the three police officers have been acquitted by an all-white jury. This verdict brought hundreds out into the streets of Milwaukee to protest. I am honestly speechless…….
Everett wrote:
This is what you can expect from an all white jury. We can still be beaten,shot, exploited,and harrassed by white cops as long as the Republican courts run this country.
Posted 19 Apr 2006 at 7:19 am ¶
Big Tookie wrote:
Why is anyone supprised?
I’m also not suprised Faux News isn’t giving us news we need to know, but continues to feed us with chit we wanna hear!!!!!!!!
Posted 19 Apr 2006 at 10:48 am ¶
merq wrote:
It’s absolutely hilarious just how many of these cases have come and gone in the last 5 years. I wonder why they even bother with a trial. They should just ditch all pretense and let the cops off next time.
Posted 19 Apr 2006 at 2:18 pm ¶
Ben wrote:
Putting aside for a moment how appalled I am…
…it’s interesting to note that Jude is identified, repeatedly and without exception, as biracial or mixed-race. I wonder if that’s how he self-identifies and whether or not the cops’ racial taunts targeted his mixedness or his blackness.
I know next to nothing about hate-crime legislation, but this makes me wonder how multiracial people are treated by the law - both as perpetrators and as victims. If one of the cops had been a white-identifying biracial, for instance, could he still have been charged with a hate crime?
Posted 19 Apr 2006 at 2:57 pm ¶
Lyonside wrote:
Ben,
I’m not up on the hate crime legislation either (and there are differences between state and federal laws on what qualifies).
But I read SPLC newsletters and it seems that what matters is that a victim is targeted BECAUSE of their perceived race, ethnicity, national origin, religion (and in some states, sexuality). Which is why a black cop can still be accused of racial profiling for excessive pull-overs of black motorists.
Posted 19 Apr 2006 at 3:28 pm ¶
site admin wrote:
Hey Ben and Lyonside,
I believe that right now the civil rights laws are still set up in a way where you can’t claim racial discrimination on the basis of being mixed. Basically, you have to “pick” the ethnicity you believe is the target of the discrimination. In this victim’s case, presumably if he’s black/white, he’d have to specify that he was being discriminated against because he’s part black.
Obviously this situation isn’t ideal, because we *have* heard of cases where people are being discriminated against *because* they’re mixed. For example, mixed students whose teachers declare in class that they’re against interracial relationships and the offspring of such, etc.
It’s definitely an area in which we’ll probably see more activism in years to come.
CVK
Posted 19 Apr 2006 at 4:01 pm ¶
brad wrote:
I’ve read of several cases where the victims were mixed-race couples. I think there was a Supreme Court case about crossburning that came from a crossburning on the lawn of a mixed-couple. Most hate crime laws are based on race, creed, color, religion, and now sexual orientation.
A Milwaukee police officer witnessed and testified about seeing the cops beat Jude. However, the jury ignored the testimony.
Posted 19 Apr 2006 at 8:27 pm ¶
Lyonside wrote:
Brad:
But mixed-race/ethnicity unfortunately doesn’t mean the same as a mixed race couple where (usually in the hate crime cases) one of the couple is white and the other is a visible ethnic minority (i.e. “racial” minority).
Posted 20 Apr 2006 at 7:23 am ¶