Milwaukee, WI – After a five-day trial, a jury acquitted former Milwaukee police officer Michael Mattioli of first-degree reckless homicide on Friday, November 10. Mattioli was on trial for the murder of Joel Acevedo, which took place in April 2020 and was one of the central cases during the 2020 uprising in Milwaukee.

Mattioli’s defense team successfully shifted the focus of the trial away from the 11-minute chokehold. Instead, the bulk of the trial revolved around discussions about Acevedo’s health issues. Ultimately, this strategy proved successful in keeping yet another killer cop away from prison. At the end of the trial, Acevedo’s father, José Acevedo, spoke to reporters and said, “The facts were there. They made their decision, and I totally disagree.”

The outpouring of support for the Acevedo family quickly materialized as dozens of community members gathered in the cold Friday night to hold a vigil for Acevedo. They placed 25 candles underneath his mural to represent each year of Acevedo’s life. Speaking at the vigil, Cecil Lacy, brother of Ernest Lacy who was killed by Milwaukee police in 1981 and spiritual counselor of the Acevedos, stated, “It hurts so bad to see the fight and the struggle, to be around the Acevedo family and to see what they’ve been through for the last three and a half years and for it to come to this.”

“We’re told to trust the system,” said Alan Chavoya, outreach chair of the Milwaukee Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression, “but we then get results like this one. Another cop found ‘not guilty.’ So why are we continuously told to trust such a system?”

The frustrations with the verdict are informed by a long history of cops escaping conviction in Milwaukee and the U.S. in general. It took over three years and an entire movement to even get the killer cop to trial, but all those efforts were overturned in a five-day trial. The Milwaukee community will not accept the verdict, but it won’t succumb to pessimism either. As Chavoya stated, “This is but a hiccup on the long road to justice, and we know that we will get justice one day.”

#MilwaukeeWI #GeorgeFloydRebellion #MichaelMattioli #JoelAcevedo #MAARPR #PoliceCrimes

In the early afternoon, the newly-established Lawrence University Students for a Democratic Society chapter (LU-SDS) hosted an on-campus demonstration, which centered on the demand to convict Chauvin and Acevedo of murder. Despite the less-than-ideal timing for this action with finals right around the corner, it was attended by over 40 students and supported by representatives from two other student organizations, the Lawrence Liberation Front and Sunrise Appleton.

Although the convictions were the principal concerns of the demonstrators, LU-SDS also advocated for their broader objectives to defund the police and implement civilian-controlled police accountability councils (CPAC).

“This level of community control would finally allow law enforcement to become subject to the will of the people!” said Terrence Freeman, the chair and co-founder of LU-SDS. “We, the people, must control the police. And we’ve got to ensure that the days in which the police control and oppress us are long gone.”

Similarly, Earl Simons, the deputy chair and co-founder of LU-SDS, demanded policing reforms which “actually work for the people and are made by the people!” He argued for change that “isn’t something that is announced one day and proves to have failed the next because another brother or sister has died!”

Freeman declared that we must replace our inherently racist police departments with “a system that actually meets the needs of the masses.” “This is the kind of action LU SDS is for,” he said, “We don’t want ineffectual policing reforms. We’ve already seen where those get us. They get us nowhere. We need revolutionary change!”

“The police force is more of a gang than a public service,” said Gustavo Zuniga, a representative of the Lawrence Liberation Front (LLF) who attended the action. “They create collectible coins commemorating their brutal repression of the protests in June. They unite under their own flag and unite under their own interests, not the interests of the people they are meant to serve.”

Anders Hanhan, a member of Sunrise Appleton, discussed the role that the youth must play in the movement, “If we want to hold police officers accountable, we the young people of America must make it so. If we want to defund the police, we, the young people of America must make it so!”

LU-SDS, together with LLF and Sunrise Appleton, hopes to build off this successful rally by continuing to invigorate the progressive movement in both Lawrence University and the greater Appleton community.

#AppletonWI #StudentMovement #PeoplesStruggles #PoliceBrutality #JoelAcevedo #GeorgeFloyd

New Orleans, LA – On March 8, killer cops Derek Chauvin and Michael Mattioli’s original trial date, the New Orleans Freedom Road Socialist Organization hosted a socially distant march for George Floyd and Joel Acevedo. Twenty protesters and four community organizations gathered in solidarity at Duncan Plaza.

On May 25, 2020, Chauvin, former officer of the Minneapolis Police Department, took George Floyd’s life. A month earlier, the lesser-known but equally deadly police officer Michael Mattioli strangled Joel Acevedo to death in Milwaukee. The protest demanded convictions for both and an end to police crimes.

They marched in a two-by-two formation to show their unity and disciplined organization.

The march responded to a call for solidarity from the Minneapolis anti-police crimes groups. Outside the Hennepin County Government Center in Minneapolis, 20-plus local organizations held a large protest. They demanded the maximum penalty. Video evidence and the presence of multiple witnesses prove that charges should be severe.

The March 8 demands centered around an end to the white supremacy deeply sewn in the birth and history of the police. Only months of consistent pressure and organizing on the ground have caused the actions of Chauvin and his three accomplices to take some degree of heat.

Chauvin is only the tip of an iceberg that absolutely needs to be unearthed and shredded. Real oversight and accountability of police departments, including the New Orleans Police Department, is necessary. Reparations are due, and control should not be in the hands of racist and oppressive forces, dead set on incarcerating and oppressing Black and brown communities.

At the protest, Toni Jones of the New Orleans FRSO told participants: “Think about the Black men, all the Black women, all the other oppressed nationalities who are being killed by cops and getting no justice at all. So it’s not a done deal, we don’t know that we’re going to get a victory here today, but we’re still out here fighting because we know it’s making a difference.”

Sage Michael of the Orleans Parish Prison Reform Coalition added: “OPPRC is a group that started back in 2004 when we had the most dangerous jails in the country and we had over 6000 people in local jails, which made us the incarceration capitol of the world in our time at that time. We have under 1000 people in our jails now, down from 6000, and that happened because of people organizing like us.”

Other organizations present included New Orleans DSA and Abolish Tulane PD. The group closed out with a discussion on the importance of winning community control over the police.

#NewOrleansLA #LA #PeoplesStruggles #PoliceBrutality #JoelAcevedo #GeorgeFloyd #NewOrleansFRSO

Milwaukee, WI – Three weeks ago, on the morning of April 19, an off-duty Milwaukee Police Department (MPD) officer named Michael Mattioli was arrested for beating someone into an unresponsive state at a party hosted at his, the cop’s, house on Milwaukee’s South Side. Mattioli was booked at Milwaukee County Jail on tentative charges of first-degree reckless injury and strangulation. He was released on April 23 after posting the $50,000 cash bail. Mattioli was placed on administrative duties and formally suspended by MPD after his arrest. He has a court date set for June 10.

The victim, Joel Acevedo, died of the injuries he sustained eight days later, on April 25. It’s unclear how or if these charges will change since Acevedo has passed away. What is clear is that Acevedo’s family is demanding justice and that Mattioli be charged with homicide.

Very little information has come out regarding the murder since MPD and the Wisconsin Department of Justice picked up the investigation. Milwaukee residents familiar with the track record of both MPD and the state DOJ when it comes to investigating and convicting killer cops are concerned that Officer Mattioli will get off free of charges.

“Milwaukee has a long history of holding cops above the law; to the extent that it provoked federal investigation of their police department,” said Omar Flores, an activist in the city. “I have little faith that justice will be served in this case. Certainly not without a movement of people demanding it.”

This tragic situation has raised the memory of another off-duty officer’s beating of oppressed nationalities that took place in Milwaukee in 2004.

Frank Jude, Jr. and Lovell Harris were invited to a party at a Milwaukee Police Department officer’s home where they were subsequently brutalized by a mob of off-duty cops. There was an officer who arrived on the scene in response to a 911 call, but he promptly joined in the beating. What followed eventually resulted in the biggest case against MPD in the previous 25 years (as of 2007, when the legal proceedings concluded).

Nearly a dozen MPD officers were implicated in the criminal assault of Jude and Harris. However, at the state trial in April 2006, an all-white jury acquitted the officers on four out of the five counts they were facing. The acquittal drew prompt community outrage. There were immediate calls for federal charges. Later that month, a crowd of several thousand people marched from the Milwaukee County Courthouse to the Federal Courthouse demanding a federal investigation. A month later, in May 2006, a procession of more than 300 cars delivered a petition to U.S. Attorney Steven Biskupic, demanding the investigation. This demand was met and an investigation followed, resulting in a federal trial.

The outcome of the proceedings resulted in at least seven officers being sentenced to serve prison time. Additionally, seven years after the brutal racist assault, Frank Jude, Jr. won a $2 million settlement with the city of Milwaukee.

There are some differences between the two situations, the clearest being that one resulted in the death of the victim, but what is the same is that both situations involved racist attacks by MPD officers. Some justice was won for Jude and Harris. Justice needs to be won, not just for Acevedo, but for the family he left behind.

The Milwaukee Public Health and Safety Committee announced that MPD will be present at an upcoming meeting on May 14 to answer questions about the case. Community members looking to stay up to date and participate in the fight for justice should attend while adhering to proper health guidelines relating to the coronavirus.

#MilwaukeeWI #OppressedNationalities #PeoplesStruggles #PoliceBrutality #RacismInTheCriminalJusticeSystem #MilwaukeePoliceDepartment #JoelAcevedo #Antiracism #MichaelMattioli

Anaheim, CA – Manuel Diaz, a 25-year old Chicano, was shot in the back and in the head by Anaheim police in the afternoon of July 21. The police killing took place in a Chicano working-class community, where most people live in apartments and where families know, get along with and hear each other. Diaz was murdered while standing in his front lawn. The police have given no reason or probable cause for attempting to stop him.

The close-knit community immediately began to protest and denounce this brutal racist killing. During the protest, police fired rubber bullets, hitting many people. The cops let loose a police dog that attacked a child and mother and mauled a young man. Five people were arrested and half a dozen injured.

Then on July 22, police killed another man, Joel Acevedo.

Anaheim Police Chief John Welter claimed he’s “very concerned” about the killings. The Orange County district attorney's office, which investigates police shootings, is looking into these cases.

On July 23, there were several press conferences to denounce the Diaz killing. People united for a protest in the community on North Anna Drive. Their shouts and chants demanded justice for Manuel and jail for the killer cop.

Many in the community are visibly traumatized but they have united to demand justice and to stop future police brutality. This Chicano community is near the Disneyland and many feel the city, along with developers, want to suppress and keep the Chicano community down. The corporations want to promote the area as a major tourist attraction and resort.

The community called for another rally at the Anaheim City Hall on July 24, where they also plan to speak out during the weekly city council meeting.

Chicanos have faced blatant racism, discrimination, police brutality and police killing in the Southwest since the Mexican American war. At that time the U.S. militarily occupied the Southwest – the area that many Chicanos now refer to as Aztlan, the Chicano Nation.

Veteran Chicano activist Carlos Montes visited with the community of North Anna Street on July 23 to give them support, show solidarity and to link the struggle against police killing to the fight for Chicano self-determination.

#AnaheimCalifornia #AnaheimCA #PoliceBrutality #ManuelDiaz #JoelAcevedo