Parents of unarmed people who have been killed by Milwaukee police and others called for a civil rights investigation into the patterns and practices of the Milwaukee Police Department at a recent United States Department of Justice listening session held at the Milwaukee Public Library. “I have suffered for a long, long time,” said Victor Rodriguez, whose son Samuel was shot and killed in 2002. “These officers, this system doesn’t seem to realize the pain they bring on family members. And, it doesn’t die the next day — it stays with you forever.” The listening session was the first of many, according to Mary Brandenberger, press secretary with the Department of Justice Office of Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS). It signaled the beginning of a “collaborative reform” process that Police Chief Ed Flynn requested and was entered into voluntarily by the Milwaukee Police Department (MPD). The process calls for an initial report and recommendations for MPD, followed by reports six and 18 months later to verify compliance. Brandenberger made it clear that COPS does not have authority to legally enforce the recommendations. “We don’t have the court of law behind us. But we do have the court of public opinion,” she said in an interview. Do you have feedback on Milwaukee NNS's reporting? Take our survey to let us know how we're doing! Many of the attendees said it wasn’t enough. “We don’t need you to go around and do anything else — just look at the patterns and practices,” said Debra Jenkins, whose son was also killed in 2002. “Anything that goes on [in] the streets is within our police department. We need you to take a hard look.” Many attendees expressed a lack of confidence in the DOJ and suspicion of the collaborative reform process. William Muhammad, a student minister at Muhammad Mosque #3, 4202 N. Teutonia Ave., said historical context, especially in regard to the deaths of Dontre Hamilton, Corey Stingley and Derek Williams, is necessary. Hamilton was shot to death by a police officer; Williams died in police custody; and Stingley’s death at the hands of white civilians prompted calls for a federal civil rights investigation. Attendees packed the 700-seat Centennial Hall. (Photo by Jabril Faraj) Muhammad also criticized DOJ for failing to secure convictions or indictments for the deaths of Tamir Rice, and Trayvon Martin. He called the collaborative reform process a “dog and pony show.” Keith Bailey, a founder of Milwaukee Matters, an organization whose mission is to help victims of violence, said he and a group of 15 to 20 individuals met with former U.S. Attorney James Santelle and other DOJ officials more than 50 times over a three-year period with the hope of forming a local task force on police-community relations. Santelle has since resigned and is under federal investigation. The group brought in a number of people who have experienced police violence, including the Hamilton family, but Bailey said he ended the meetings because no progress was being made. “We would be meeting just to meet,” he said. “We could never solidify and come to [an] agreement.” Added Bailey, a candidate for alderman in the 2nd District, “We knew there was a problem; the Department of Justice knew there was a problem.” Harrison Kern, a retired Milwaukee police officer who served 24 years on the force, detailed a 1993 investigation by the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) Milwaukee-area office. The three-year probe, which resulted from a letter written by Kern and a few other black officers, “found patterns and practices involving the Milwaukee Police Department that were biased [and] racially motivated.” DOJ indicated it would look into the issues but, after seven years and a handful of meetings, decided not to prosecute the case. “The bottom line is, we’ve been here before. What is the difference now?” Lines to speak stretched to the back of both aisles of the packed, 700-seat Centennial Hall at the Central Library. Local public officials, activists and other community members, as well as representatives from the ACLU of Wisconsin, Milwaukee NAACP and the Coalition for Justice attended. Among the accounts were accusations of murder, rape, brutality, intimidation, racial discrimination, racial profiling and disproportionate enforcement of laws based on race. Dank Essbaum, a German emigrant, said that Milwaukee “is becoming like (the biblical cities) Sodom and Gomorrah” and that he “prays the police will be successful” when he hears sirens. “In the 20 years that I’ve lived in the inner city … I have, with one exception, which I won’t go into, been treated quickly and fairly (by the police).” Essbaum’s views were in the minority at the event.