Won't Stop

In May 2020, video footage of a Minneapolis officer kneeling on George Floyd’s neck for 8 minutes and 46 seconds was seen worldwide, inspiring outrage and demands for police reform across the nation and the world. Milwaukeeans took to the streets in protest immediately; local citizens and activists saw parallels to local cases, tragedies all too common in one of the United States’ most segregated cities. As daily actions took root, the fight for civil rights in Milwaukee and the surrounding area was reinvigorated — a fight that was intensified by the August police shooting of Jacob Blake in nearby Kenosha and the October decision not to charge Wauwatosa officer Joseph Mensah in the February 2020 murder of 17-year-old Alvin Cole.

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Over the last 300 days, peaceful protestors have been choked by tear gas, bruised by rubber and pepper bullets, and stunned by tasers, and continue to be emotionally scarred by the brutal violence inflicted upon them by those who were sworn in to serve and protect. Sleepy towns transformed into warzones in a matter of hours as police departments became militarized, a startling microcosm of a political environment that pits justice-seekers against so-called law and order values. Despite the dangers, documenting civil unrest has been and continues to be a priority, providing a first-hand view of events that has not been filtered through big news reporting.