Supervisor Ryan Clancy apologized to the Peoples Revolution. The resolution concludes, “Long live the revolution.”
Fourteen Milwaukee County supervisors have passed a resolution “commending” the Peoples Revolution protest/riot group. They say the organization – whose member was accused of discharging a gun at a police officer when a “protest” erupted in violence – has made the community “safer.”
The supervisor who proposed the resolution, Ryan Clancy, also announced on Facebook that he had apologized to the Peoples Revolution.
In the resolution praising the Peoples Revolution, the supervisors appear to be advocating for revolution. Their resolution concludes with the words, “Long live the revolution.” Only four county supervisors opted out of the resolution. The resolution was put forth by Supervisor Ryan Clancy. It claims the Peoples Revolution has made a “significant positive impact” and notes that the group has crafted “10 universal demands,” including “refunding the community” and “demilitarizing law enforcement agencies.”
That’s despite the group’s many ties to people with criminal histories and incidents that resulted in arrests and even gunfire.
Dale Bormann, Jr., president of the Milwaukee Police Association, which represents rank-and-file police officers, told Wisconsin Right Now: “Crime is out of control right now in the city of Milwaukee. The Peoples Revolution is not the organization that advocates peace. They stand at the lines and argue and fight with police. For the County Board to praise them is a disgrace and just plain dumb.”
As a recent example of the behavior that Bormann is referring to, you can watch a live stream video posted by a Milwaukee teacher named Molly Nilssen, who hurled abusive comments at Wauwatosa police officers standing at crime scene tape after an officer shot a woman police say attacked an officer and citizen with a wooden post in December. Nilssen, who is affiliated with the Peoples Revolution, insisted in the live stream that “every person here has a right to scream at these officers” and called them “subhuman.” Another protester screamed at the officers, “Pieces of sht, you guys are fcking pieces of sh*t.”
The resolution says the supervisors “recognize and commend The People’s Revolution for their dedication, efforts, leadership and contributions in the fight for equality by helping create a safer Milwaukee by amplifying the peoples voice.” It says, spelling the word wrong, that The Peoples Revolution was “founded on the principals of providing safety and accountability for Black and Brown people.”
The resolution leaves out the following information about the Peoples Revolution and its members:
- Ronald Bell, a Peoples Revolution member, is accused of a felony for allegedly discharging a firearm at then Wauwatosa Police Officer Joseph Mensah. Numerous individuals engaged in a confrontation with (Mensah’s girlfriend and Mensah) outside of the residence,” the complaint says. “During the confrontation, both (Mensah’s girlfriend and Mensah) were assaulted by numerous individuals and sustained bodily harm.” A second man, William Lofton, was also charged.
- Khalil Coleman, a key organizer of the Peoples Revolution, has ties to members and leaders of the Gangster Disciples’ street gang and is an admirer of Larry Hoover, the Chicago gang’s imprisoned founder. He claims to follow Hoover’s principles of “Growth and Development.”
- Vaun Mayes, a BLM leader who has shown up at Peoples Revolution protests, is facing federal charges in an alleged molotov cocktail plot to burn down a police station; court records say prosecutors allege he abused his mentoring responsibilities to children by allegedly “encouraging them to attack police and teaching them how to make Molotov cocktails.”
- Brian Thomas Anderson, who acted as a communications organizer for the Peoples Revolution and sent the group’s key demand letter to the City of Wauwatosa, is a felon and serial burglar who had open felony criminal cases in two counties at the time. He received a one-year prison sentence in October.
- John Larry, the Wauwatosa police and inequities committee chair, was captured on body camera threatening to knock out and slap ‘the sh*t out of’ a police lieutenant this August, according to the video and a citation that Wisconsin Right Now obtained via open records laws. Two other videos obtained by Wisconsin Right Now show that Larry went to the Wauwatosa police station to check into Ronald Bell and William Lofton after they were arrested in the shooting incident against Police Officer Joseph Mensah. In that video, Larry refers to Bell as a “brother of mine and the Movement.” Larry said: “I got word that two of our protesters, two Black males that participate in our protests, the Peoples Revolution’s protests were stopped and arrested here in Wauwatosa, and so I just made my way over here to see what’s going on…”
Despite all of these incidents, Clancy posted a lengthy tribute to the group on his Facebook page, announcing the resolution. “We’ve managed to do only the bare minimum: qualified bans on chokeholds at the county and city levels which should have been addressed a decade ago, and a few accountability measures. These are necessary, and far overdue, but these are not enough,” he wrote.
