During a 2016 peaceful protest and mourning at the memorial site of the fatal police shooting of Sylville Smith, Milwaukee police officers in riot gear wrongfully arrested Jarrett English, an organizer at the ACLU of Wisconsin, and State Representative Jonathan Brostoff.
A second person was also arrested: a woman walking alone on a public sidewalk, doing nothing improper or unlawful, when police officers abruptly told her to leave or she would be arrested. After asking why she had to leave and where to go, she was arrested a mere 22 seconds after she encountered the officers.
Milwaukee Police encountered the plaintiff blocks from the memorial site, ordered him to leave, then forced him to the ground, involuntarily searched him, and arrested him without explanation even though he was not engaged in any illegal activity.
In 2019, the ACLU of Wisconsin, with cooperating counsel Steve Porter, filed a lawsuit in the Federal District court. The suit alleges that English’s rights to freedom of assembly and expression, and to be free from unlawful arrest, were violated when Milwaukee Police arrested him for simply being in the area after a police operation forced people to leave the site of Smith’s memorial.
In August, 2022, a federal judge rejected a motion by the Milwaukee Police Department that sought to dismiss the case, ruling to proceed with a jury trial. In July 2023, the jury rejected our claims and MPD evaded accountability for these unlawful arrests.
