Madison community leaders took a bus down to Milwaukee yesterday afternoon to help pastors, alders, and community group leaders already actively engaged in trying to keep the peace after a volatile weekend in Milwaukee that saw Sylville Smith, 23, fatally shot by Milwaukee police.
The Madison group included Minister Caliph Muab’El, executive director of Breaking Barriers Mentoring, Inc.; Mellowhood Foundation president Tutankhamun “Coach” Assad; Club TNT Senior Executive Producer Gaddi Ben Dan; Boys and Girls Club Youth Coordinator Vernon Brown; and Boys and Girls Club of Dane County CEO Michael Johnson.
“We walked door-to-door for quite a long time and our message was to target teenagers. Almost half of the group that was with us was under the age of 25,” Johnson tells Madison365. “We were really just trying to encourage teens to stay in their houses and to stay out of trouble and to find other strategies to voice their concerns. We walked around for about 10 hours.
“I’d say we had about 100 people,” Johnson adds. “Caliph [Muab’El] did a really good job organizing the brothers from Milwaukee.”
“We had about 25 members of the Black Panther Party. We had about 30 members of the Nation of Islam,” Muab’El says. “We had a lot of other great community leaders, as well.”
The group was joined by State Sen. Lena Taylor and former Milwaukee Alderperson Michael McGee along with many other Milwaukee community leaders. Later on, they participated in a candlelight vigil and memorial where they met with police officers and the father of Sylville Smith, who was fatally shot.
“The very first door we knocked on was a young mother, probably 30-35 years old, and she had her headphones on when we first started … and she just started crying,” Johnson recalls. “I think she was impressed that there were 100-plus positive African Americans, many of them teenagers, walking through the neighborhood and talking directly to their kids. She broke down in tears.
“Overall, people embraced us. People were thankful. They were coming out of their homes and they were curious,” he adds. “I think even some of the gangsters were like: ‘Who the hell are these folks?’ By the end of the day, we hit as many doors as we could.
“By the end of the day, we had over 500 people following us,” Muab’El adds. “I was really encouraged by what I saw.”
A second night of arrest continued Sunday night as police in riot gear faced off overnight with protesters throwing bottles and bricks and an officer and another person were injured during demonstrations. It would have been undoubtedly much worse without the work of the community leaders for more than 10 hours that day.
“The people of Madison were there to support the leadership in Milwaukee and that’s what we tried to do,” Johnson says. “They will be having a Town Hall meeting at their Boys and Girls Club with the leadership of their city. I think if they are going to solve some of the issues that they are having, they are going to have to employ more African-American men and boys. I saw way too many African-American boys walking around on the streets there.
“One of them that I walked past was looking so mean and so angry and so upset,” Muab’El says. “I walked past him but then I came back and said, ‘Young brother, are you angry at me?’ He was like, ‘No, I’m not angry at you.'”
Muab’El told the young man that he felt unsafe as he walked past him and asked him why that was. “He said,‘because I’m angry.’ And I said, ‘What does anger do to you?’ He told me that anger was taking control of him … it’s like a power and an energy,” Muab’El recalled. “I asked him, ‘Is anger who you are? Are you an angry person?’ He told me no. I told him that if he doesn’t allow himself to learn how to control who he is, then anything can come into your ranks and control you. In this case, it’s anger. So much so that you’re not angry at me, yet I felt your anger when I walked past you.
“He said, ‘Sir, I apologize,’” Muab’El added.
