A Chicago-based communist revolutionary group blamed by Milwaukee’s police chief for stoking a second day of violence said that some of its members did go there to “support a revolution” but didn’t set out to cause trouble.
Police chief Ed Flynn said members of a Chicago chapter of the Revolutionary Communist Party turned what had been a peaceful night into a tense one by leading marchers down several blocks at around 11:30 p.m. TV footage showed a small group of protesters walking or running through the streets, sometimes toppling orange construction barriers.
“The (communist group) showed up, and actually they’re the ones who started to cause problems,” Flynn said at a news conference Monday.
The fatal police shooting of a 23-year-old black man, Sylville Smith, touched off a weekend of tense and at times violent protests that left at least six businesses burned and several officers injured by flying objects Saturday night. The demonstrations on Milwaukee’s north side resumed Sunday evening but were milder and less destructive. Fourteen people were arrested overnight, and three police officers and four sheriff’s deputies were injured.
That group released a statement later Monday referring to the protests as a “righteous rebellion.” Reached by phone, party co-founder Carl Dix said he wasn’t in Milwaukee but confirmed several party supporters from Chicago traveled the 90 miles north to protest against police, who he blamed for both Smith’s death and the subsequent violent protests. It is not clear how many of the group went to Milwaukee.