Stop Police Violence in Wauwatosa, Wisconsin
Mayor Dennis McBride, members of the Police & Fire Commission and Wauwatosa Common Council members
On Wednesday, October 7, Milwaukee County District Attorney John Chisholm declined to charge Officer Joseph Mensah with the shooting death of 17-year old Alvin Cole.
Since joining the Wauwatosa Police Department in 2015, Officer Joseph Mensah has recklessly shot and killed THREE young men – Alvin Cole, Antonio Gonzales and Jay Anderson – with an excessive total of 19 fired shots. Each time, he failed to administer CPR, demonstrating utter disregard for the lives of these young men. He is currently on paid leave from the Wauwatosa Police Department.
Tracy Cole has been outspoken about getting justice for her son Alvin Cole. On Thursday, October 8th, she was pulled from her car and assaulted by officers in Wauwatosa in a horrific encounter that her daughter Tahudah Cole live-streamed before police arrested her, her mother Tracy, and her sister Taleavia. Tracy Cole was nonviolent, unarmed, and identified herself as well as informed officers of her medical condition, but she was brutalized and demeaned before being sent to the hospital for her injuries. Due to the traumatizing and graphic nature of the recording, it is not shared here.
The Police & Fire Commission hired a former US Attorney hired by Wauwatosa who determined that Joseph Mensah should be terminated from the Wauwatosa Police Department. Allowing Mensah to continue as a fully empowered police officer, with the authorization to potentially use deadly force for a fourth time, "creates an extraordinary, unwarranted and unnecessary risk to the Wauwatosa Police Department and the City of Wauwatosa," Steven Biskupic wrote in his report. That report was filed on October 7, the same day as the decision not to charge Mensah, yet he remains on paid leave.
Sign on to send a letter to the officials below calling for an immediate response to the demands below and to address the problem of police violence.
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To:
Mayor Dennis McBride, members of the Police & Fire Commission and Wauwatosa Common Council members
From:
[Your Name]
Dear Mayor McBride, members of the Police & Fire Commission, and Wauwatosa Common Council members:
We call on you to take action in response to unfolding events in Wauwatosa, with meaningful steps to address the problem of police violence in Black and Brown communities.
Foremost, we call on you to fire Officer Joseph Mensah, in accordance with the Independent Inspector’s recommendation. Officer Mensah is responsible for all of the Wauwatosa Police Department’s fatalities in the past seven years. He has recklessly shot and killed three young men – Alvin Cole, Antonio Gonzales and Jay Anderson – with an excessive total of 19 fired shots. Each time, he failed to administer CPR, demonstrating utter disregard for the lives of these young men.
We also call upon you to ensure the Wauwatosa Police Department rapidly implements the mandatory use of body cams throughout 100% of the force, in accordance with state law.
Additionally, the culture of the Wauwatosa Police Department under the leadership of Chief Barry Weber has led to widespread harassment of people rallying for Alvin Cole. We call upon you to help stop the harassment of the Cole family and people protesting on their behalf. We demand that the Wauwatosa Police Department immediately return all seized phones and dismiss all tickets and fines given to people exercising their Constitutional right to protest, starting with the Cole family.
The Department has also refused to release records as required by law, even after charging exorbitant fees for producing those documents. For these reasons and more, we call for your support in recommending the firing of Wauwatosa Police Chief Barry Weber, who has lied to the public, retained violent officers on the force and contributed to an unacceptable and racist culture of policing in Wauwatosa over his 38 years as Chief of Police.
Finally, we recognize that law enforcement accounts for nearly 50% of Wauwatosa's total budget and that policing is often used to handle social problems that could be more effectively mitigated with community-based services. We call for the city to divest $6 million from the $17 million police budget in Wauwatosa, and reallocate those funds into education, mental health services, housing, youth employment, violence intervention and other community-based services.
Thank you for your attention to these priorities, which come from the people of Wauwatosa.
Signed,