"This was a tragic incident for the Hamilton family and for the community," [Milwaukee County District Attorney John] Chisholm wrote. "But, based on all the evidence and analysis presented in this report, I come to the conclusion that Officer Manney's use of force in this incident was justified self-defense and that defense cannot be reasonably overcome to establish a basis to charge Officer Manney with a crime."To recap the story:
Workers at a Starbucks called police when they observed Hamilton sleeping on a park bench. A pair of officers checked on Hamilton twice, determining he was doing nothing wrong, according to the investigation.
However, then-Officer Manney did not know about the previous visits when he received a voice mail regarding Hamilton's presence and responded to the call.
While patting Hamilton down, according to Milwaukee Police Internal Affairs, Hamilton fought him and a struggle ensued. Hamilton grabbed Manney's baton and hit the officer on the side of the neck.
Manney then fired fourteen shots into Hamilton, killing him.
The problem is not that Manney tried to subdue Hamilton, the problem here is the amount of shots fired. Hamilton's family and the Coalition for Justice, among others, wanted Manney charged for the excessive force used.
However, Manney was eventually fired, and some changes have come to the Milwaukee Police, such as mandatory Crisis Intervention Training for all officers. Training which Manney did not have, otherwise he could have perhaps dealt with Hamilton without firing fourteen shots into him.
But chalk this up to another in a long line of police officers who use excessive force, automatically assume the Black man is a criminal, and then walk away with no charges filed.