On August 13, 2016, 23-year-old Sylville Smith was shot and killed by a Milwaukee police officer during a traffic stop that turned deadly, a narrative we’ve heard far too often. According to Police Chief Edward Flynn, the 20-25 second incident was recorded on a police body camera.
The police have failed to release the footage to the public and are biasedly reporting only Sylville’s role in the incident, which is a common tactic used to criminalize Black folks in order to justify killing them. Milwaukee residents see the injustice in the reporting of Sylville’s death and are demanding that the police release the video footage to allow the facts to speak for themselves.
Milwaukee residents have been protesting and demanding the city to release the videotape since the night Sylville was shot by police. Although the community uprising was sparked by the killing of Sylville, many local officials and Sylville’s brother acknowledge the community response as the byproduct of lack of transparency, police accountability a racial disparity. City Alderman Khalif Rainey stated in a CNN article, “I am not justifying [anything], but no one can deny the fact that there are problems, racial problems in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, that need to be rectified…This community of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, has become the worst place to live for African-Americans in the entire country.”
The narrative about what happened to Sylville and the community’s response is only coming from law enforcement and elected officials. The police have failed to release the name of the officer who shot and killed Sylville, but it has been announced that due to safety concerns, the officer has fled town. The family of Sylville and his community deserve to know the truth as seen on camera–not as told by the police. The Mayor of Milwaukee, Tom Barrett called for a quick public release of the body camera footage, but no action has been taken.4
Communities across the country fought for body cameras to hold police accountable, not further protect them. We can’t afford to continue to spend millions of dollars on police technology, like body cameras, only to be denied access to footage. Practices like this undermine the transparency and pathway to accountability we were promised.
