Milwaukee - On October 13 at Centennial Hall, the ACLU of Wisconsin will launch the Justice Tour, a discussion about ending race-based policing and mass incarceration in Wisconsin.
"The stop and frisk settlement agreement that the City of Milwaukee reached with the ACLU of Wisconsin in July is the most comprehensive reform the Milwaukee Police Department has committed to in 50 years,” said Jarrett English, senior organizer with the ACLU of Wisconsin. " Our plaintiffs, coalition partners, and the community demanded this reform and were instrumental in making it happen. Now, through a series of community events beginning on October 13, the ACLU’s Justice Tour will explain what the settlement means for the people of Milwaukee and the next steps the Milwaukee Police Department have pledged to take to respect the rights of Black and Brown people."
“The landmark agreement offers a new chance to break the pattern of baseless, unlawful police stops and frisks and racial and ethnic profiling in Milwaukee,” said Chris Ott, ACLU of Wisconsin executive director. “We want everyone to know what this means, and we also hope it sends a message to other cities about the need to advance fairness and equal treatment in policing.”
Additionally, the ACLU will introduce its Smart Justice Campaign, a statewide plan to cut incarceration by 50% in Wisconsin.
“Imprisonment is a brutal and costly response to crime that traumatizes incarcerated people and hurts families and communities. It should be the last option, not the first. Wisconsin locks up more African-American males than any other state in the country, and our state government invests more money into prisons than it does the whole University of Wisconsin System,” said Sean Wilson, the ACLU of Wisconsin’s Smart Justice organizer. “We need to turn this around, and during the Justice Tour we will show how we can invest in people and divest from prisons to make our community safer."
The Justice Tour will launch on Saturday, October 13, from 2 to 5 p.m. at Centennial Hall of the Milwaukee Public Library, 733 North Eighth Street, Milwaukee. This event will include a variety of experts, including ACLU plaintiffs, lawyers, community partners, and criminal justice specialists.
The ACLU of Wisconsin is a non-profit, non-partisan, private organization whose 13,000 members support its efforts to defend the civil rights and liberties of all Wisconsin residents. For more on the ACLU of Wisconsin, visit About Us page, like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter and Instagram.