Milwaukee Police Chief Explodes on Protesters for Willfully Ignoring Crime’s ‘Greatest Racial Disparity’

Earlier this month, Milwaukee Police Chief Edward Flynn was verbally attacked by protesters in his community for being on his cellphone during a Fire and Police Commission meeting related to the officer-involved shooting death of Dontre Hamilton, 31. When reporters confronted Flynn about the cellphone incident after the meeting, he not only revealed that he had a good reason to be on it, but he also went on a tirade about the “greatest racial disparity in the city of Milwaukee.”

“Well I was on my phone, yes. That is true. I was following developments about a 5-year-old girl sitting on her dad’s lap who just got shot in the head by a drive-by shooting,” Flynn said angrily. “If some of the people gave a good goddamn about the victimization of people in this community by crime, I’d take some of their invective more seriously.”

“The greatest racial disparity in the city of Milwaukee is getting shot and killed–hello!” he added.

Flynn noted that each year in Milwaukee, 80 percent of homicide victims, 85 percent of aggravated assault victims, 80 percent of shooting victims who survive shootings are African-American.

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Flynn then told reporters that he was going directly from the meeting to the crime scene where there was a dead 5-year-old child and that he takes these types of crimes “personally.”

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Watch the now-viral video via the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel:

Flynn announced in October that he fired the officer who shot and killed Hamilton. WISN-TV has more details on what led to the fatal shooting:

Flynn said Manney approached Hamilton, identified himself and asked Hamilton to stand up. When Hamilton stood up, Manney approached Hamilton from behind, reached under Hamilton’s arms, placed his hands on his chest to conduct a pat-down search and asked if Hamilton had any weapons.

As Manney began the search, Hamilton began fighting with Manney.

Flynn said Manney tried to use his baton to subdue Hamilton, but Hamilton was able to take the baton from Manney. Hamilton swung the baton at Manney multiple times and struck Manney on the side of the neck with the baton.

Fearing that Hamilton would seriously injure or kill him, Manney used his service weapon and shot Hamilton.

Flynn said the officer was fired because he treated the “emotionally disturbed” suspect as a “dangerous criminal instead of following his training and treating Mr. Hamilton as an EDP.” Family members claimed Hamilton suffered from schizophrenia but was not a violent person.

But family members and others in the community maintain the firing isn’t enough and want to see criminal charges against the officer.

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[Editor’s Note: See here for a breakdown Milwaukee crime perpetrators by race.]