By Karen Stokes
Jesse Jackson
On Saturday December 27, 2014 The Reverend Jesse Jackson partnering with relatives and few dozen supporters of Dontre Hamilton from Milwaukee, held a rally in Chicago at the Rainbow PUSH Coalition Headquarters in Chicago to continue to draw attention to the case and what Jackson says is a pattern of injustice according to Chicago Tribune.
“We cannot stand by and let this happen without saying something,” Jackson told the family of Dontre Hamilton and crowd of approximately 200 on Saturday.
Dontre Hamilton 31, who was mentally ill, was fatally shot 14 times by former Milwaukee Police officer Christopher Manney in Red Arrow Park in April.
Manney was fired by Police Chief Edward Flynn for not properly carrying out department policy.
Protestors from Milwaukee were bussed to Chicago to protest the decision by the Milwaukee County District Attorney John Chisholm to not charge Manney in the shooting death of Dontre Hamilton.
The rally was for awareness for better care for the mentally ill.
“Dontre was a loving man, a concerned individual that didn’t deserve to die on April 30, 2014” said Nate Hamilton, Dontre’s brother at the rally. “We can not sleep on injustice.”
An attorney spokesperson for the Hamilton family said, “We are not here to vilify the police, we are here to appeal to everyone’s better angels and say that man was killed.
This family is a good family who is grieving and wants some answers.”
Jackson pledged to escalate this battle by seeking federal intervention. Jackson is calling for peaceful demonstrations and does not support violence.
Jackson plans to travel to Milwaukee to hold a march and to continue pressing police and lawmakers for change.
No date has been set on Jackson’s Milwaukee visit but Jackson implied it would be soon.