PROCLAMATION BY THE MAYOR
Whereas, since May 29, 2020, multiple protests and demonstrations in the City of Milwaukee have occurred during the daylight hours regarding recent police officer involved deaths in Minneapolis, Milwaukee and other U.S. cities;
Whereas, the peaceful assembly of persons exercising their First Amendment right to protests have generally ended prior to 9:00 p.m. After the conclusion of the peaceful protests, other individuals begin to act in a violent, riotous and reckless manner that disrupts the safety and good order of the City of Milwaukee;
Whereas, in the evening hours after approximately 9:00 p.m. on May 29th, 30th and 31st, over a thousand individuals and more than 200 motor vehicles have conducted social media-coordinated roving caravans each night that routinely ignore traffic regulations by driving into oncoming traffic, driving on medians and pedestrian sidewalks and generally failing to comply with traffic signs and signals. Riotous individuals vandalize and deface private and public property as they march alongside the vehicles. Splinter groups of vehicles will routinely break off from the main group and coordinate the looting and destruction of retail establishments in other areas of the city;
Whereas, on May 30th, 2020 until approximately 3:00 a.m., riotous individuals began to throw items at law enforcement officers, causing injuries thereto, and continued traveling throughout the City of Milwaukee engaged in multiple instances of shots fired, mass theft of private property, defacement and vandalism of private property, vandalism of public property, multiple instances of arson, damage to a police squad and the shooting of an on duty Milwaukee Police Department officer;
Whereas, on May 30th, 2020, into the morning hours of May 31st, 2020, riotous individuals engaged in the destruction of private property and looting of stores, blocking of major arterial streets, multiple instances of reckless driving across the metropolitan area, attempted residential burglaries and vandalism of the Milwaukee Police Department District 7 station.
Whereas, on May 31st, 2020, into the morning hours of June 1st, 2020, several different groups of riotous individuals continued to engage in looting throughout the city and damaged a police squad. During curfew hours, approximately 80-100 motor vehicles circled the Milwaukee Police District 4 station and fired shots into the air while another group threw items at police and refused to disperse from the area adjacent to the Milwaukee Police District 5 station;
Whereas, it is expedient for the health, safety, welfare, and good order of the City of Milwaukee that a curfew be imposed limiting pedestrian and vehicular travel in order to stem the coordinated vehicle cruising, looting and property damage to private and public property in the City of Milwaukee; now, therefore,
I, Tom Barrett, Mayor of the City of Milwaukee, hereby declare that:
Pursuant to the authority granted me by Wisconsin Statute § 323.14(4)(b), and Milwaukee Code of Ordinance § 6-07-3 I hereby proclaim and declare a state of emergency in the City of Milwaukee and order an emergency curfew in the entire City of Milwaukee for all persons from 9:00 p.m. June 1st, 2020, until 05:30 a.m. on June 2nd, 2020. All persons shall cease vehicular and pedestrian travel on the public way, streets, sidewalks and highways and return to their homes, places of work or other convenient place. The following credentialed personnel, working in their official capacity, are exempt from this order: government, emergency services, utility services, medical providers, social services providers and press. Persons experiencing homelessness, fleeing dangerous domestic situations or seeking medical care are also
exempt from this order.
Dated at Milwaukee, Wisconsin, this 1st day of June, 2020.
Tom Barrett
Mayor