Milwaukee Ald. Nikiya Dodd calls her earlier statement on Morales protests 'damaging, dangerous and inaccurate'

Milwaukee Ald. Nikiya Dodd on Wednesday walked back a statement from earlier this week regarding "protest parties" outside Police Chief Alfonso Morales' home, calling her previous statement "damaging, dangerous and inaccurate."

She said in a statement Wednesday that she had the opportunity the day before to engage with local activists, who have protested for more than 60 days since George Floyd died in the custody of Minneapolis police. The protesters had shared with her their stories and their frustrations with the justice system and with policing, she said.

"Just as I stood before my constituents to hear their concerns about what troubled them when the activists visited their neighborhood, I made myself available to listen to the activists, some of whom are constituents, to hear their stories of how some of them lost their loved ones after encounters with police," she said in Wednesday's statement. 

On Monday, Dodd had called for the city to come up with an "enforcement strategy" after, she said, protests near Morales' home had "taken on a lawless and nuisance identity."

For days, protesters held "protest parties" outside his home in the 5th District, which Dodd represents. The protests included music, dancing, grilling, cornhole and the chant directed at the embattled police chief that "You about to lose your job."

Dodd had said earlier that the targeted protests at homes were in some cases "illegal nuisance events or activities" that the city needed to address and asked Mayor Tom Barrett and City Attorney Tearman Spencer to find a way to address the caravan protests.

On Wednesday, though, her statement was headlined, "Keep Marching!" 

"The movement was not meant to be convenient for anybody, nor was it meant to harm those standing up for change," she wrote Wednesday. "Protests are a first amendment right, and no one has any right to tell someone how to participate in civil disobedience."

She called the protests "peaceful and filled with love."

"We are all growing and learning through these experiences," she wrote. "I am no exception."

Contact Alison Dirr at 414-224-2383 or adirr@jrn.com. Follow her on Twitter @AlisonDirr.