March through downtown Milwaukee protests police killings of black men

Roughly 200 people took to the streets of Milwaukee Monday afternoon and evening to protest the recent killings of two black men by police.

The march, which began next to the Starbucks in Red Arrow Park where Dontre Hamilton was shot by a Milwaukee police officer in 2014, came two days after protesters marched into Mayfair mall in Wauwatosa to protest the shooting of Jay Anderson by a police officer on June 23. It also came after a week in which five Dallas police officers and two black men — Alton Sterling in Baton Rouge, La., and Philando Castile in a suburb outside St. Paul, Minn. — were killed.

'Unity and camaraderie and respect is what we want to preach,' said Nate Hamilton, one of the leaders of the protest and the brother of Dontre Hamilton.

As family members of people who had been shot by police congregated in the middle of the crowd before the march began, Hamilton led a chant: 'I am my brother's keeper. I am not my brother's reaper.'

Linda Anderson, the mother of Jay Anderson, who was in his car at Madison Park when he was shot, addressed the crowd.

'My baby Jay was asleep. That's why I can't get no sleep,' she said.

To Erika Wilson, the four-hour protest went beyond the issue of police brutality.

'I'm so tired of being isolated,' she said. 'I'm tired of being followed in the store, of being judged on my economic status.'

'Basically, the American dream for us is the American nightmare,' said Gregory Chambers.

He said that explaining to young black men 'how to react to the police has become an oral tradition for us.'

Thirteen-year-old Devan McAlister, who was brought to the rally with his 6-year-old half-brothers by his older cousin Natasha Malone, said 'it's really scary because I'm going to be a young black male. I could be shot one day.'

Protesters called on city officials to build two community youth centers.