A child celebrates Independence Day | Getty Images Creative

Autocrats and authoritarians share certain traits.

They don’t recognize checks and balances nor the institutions tasked with imposing them. 

They do not recognize the rule of law. Laws that do not suit simply do not apply. 

So, a country’s governing documents such as a constitution are malleable. Truth is what they say it is, facts be damned.

Critics who challenge this – journalists and the organizations they work for, law firms, universities, disagreeable judges, artists, etc. – are in for punishment and derision. They are cast as unelected elites, liars and betrayers of the country’s ideals, the better to silence or mute their influence.

But perhaps most importantly, autocrats and authoritarians must identify enemies for the rest of us to hate. Anyone who’s not part of their tribe, ideologically, ethnically, racially, by gender or sexual orientation is a target. If they speak another language, all the better.

President Donald Trump has focused for years on targeting  immigrants.

Trump himself is a  descendant of white immigrants and is married to one, but that’s where he makes an exception. 

He has accepted white South Africans as refugees while dismantling protections for people from countries he once described as sh–holes. Which is to say, refugees who aren’t white. 

He claims white South African refugees are the victims of extreme violence. As descendants of apartheid adherents, they are members of a group that has retained its privilege in South Africa. They are certainly  not victims of genocide, as Trump claims. The data shows that they are less likely to be the victims of violence than Black South Africans.

Trump’s executive order to enshrine English as the country’s official language – America for English-speaking Americans only – is another example of whites-only tribalism. 

Long ago, the languages of European immigrants like Trump’s forebears  were thought to  delay assimilation and demonstrate traitorous loyalty to other countries. But these days, the fear is rooted around Spanish of the Latin American variety and the languages of immigrants from Asia and Africa.

Around the globe, people in  other countries think a populace fluent in many languages is an advantage, not a deficiency. 

But Trump’s American is one of proud provincialism.

In any case, immigrants already recognize English as the indispensable language of commerce and success in this country.

Ask any child of immigrants. My parents desired that I master written and spoken English, though the price was less literacy in their native language – Spanish.

My proficiency in English brought my parents the most pride.

Now, for many people, speaking perfect English is a matter of safety. Trump  is deporting immigrants of color under an assumption they are members of criminal gangs. But in many cases there is plenty of evidence that those charges are misplaced, and people are being deported  without due process. 

Trump is carelessly rounding people up and sending them to a hellhole prison in El Salvador and to other countries he would assuredly describe as sh—holes —  even to a dysfunctional non-country such as Libya, in the midst of a civil war, without giving them time to respond to the charges against them. 

He has long labeled immigrants as terrorists, although there is little discernible link between immigrants and terrorism.

Under his broad definition, importing drugs to satisfy Americans’ appetites for illicit substances is a terrorist threat,  not  a public health issue.

Even when the administration is forced to admit error in deporting people who have a legal right to be here, it is not returning them. See, Abrego Garcia, mistakenly deported to a notorious El Salvadoran prison.

Like many citizens of color, I’ve become hardened to Trump’s racist  animus. We’ve been cast as job stealers, criminals and a threat to American culture. This is the same animus that made the  civil rights movement necessary. 

Not so long ago, we thought  the pendulum had swung to a more equitable, inclusive country.

But then more than 77 million Americans voted for Trump for the purpose of making America great again.

A country led by an authoritarian leader who thumbs his nose at the rule of law is not the America I know. And it certainly isn’t great. 

The Progress Pride Flag flies over the Wisconsin Capitol. (Henry Redman | Wisconsin Examiner)

For the seventh time, Gov. Tony Evers ordered the Progress Pride Flag to fly over the Wisconsin State Capitol for LGBTQ Pride Month. 

This year, Pride Month begins on the 10th anniversary of the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Obergefell v. Hodges, which gave same-sex couples the right to get married in 2015. But Evers’ celebration of LGBTQ pride is occuring as the administration of President Donald Trump attacks the rights of transgender people and a recent Gallup poll found that Republican acceptance of same-sex marriage has fallen to its lowest level in nine years. 

“When the Pride Flag flies above the People’s House, it sends a clear and unequivocal message that Wisconsin recognizes and celebrates LGBTQ Wisconsinites and Americans,” Evers said in a statement. “Every day, but especially today and this month, we reaffirm our commitment to striving to be a place where every LGBTQ kid, person, and family can be bold in their truth and be safe, treated with dignity and respect, and welcomed without fear of persecution, judgment, or discrimination. I promised long ago that, as governor, I would always fight to protect LGBTQ Wisconsinites with every tool and every power that I have. I will never stop keeping that promise.”

In the executive order Evers signed Friday, he notes that the LGBTQ has been under attack in recent years, including in Wisconsin where Republicans have tried more than once to pass legislation attacking transgender children.

“Despite historic victories, in the last several years, there has been a significant increase in anti-LGBTQ legislation introduced in state Legislatures across the country, including in Wisconsin, that have targeted LGBTQ kids and people and increased dangerous anti-LGBTQ rhetoric, as well as efforts on a state and national level to erase LGBTQ history and stories.” 

The Progress Pride Flag flying above the Capitol includes the recognizable LGBTQ rainbow colors and a chevron of additional stripes that represent LGBTQ people of color, the transgender community and people with HIV/AIDS.

Flanked by state Sen. Mark Spreitzer (D-Beloit) and state Rep. Lee Snodgrass (D-Appleton), Rep. Christian Phelps (D-Eau Claire) outlines a joint resolution for Pride Month, (Screenshot/WisEye)

Wisconsin Democratic lawmakers are circulating four draft bills and two joint resolutions to address issues of discrimination against members of the lesbian, gay, trans and queer community.

The package was announced just before  Pride Month begins on June 1.

“We celebrate the history of the LGBTQ+ movement and the future of our population, and I can’t think of a more important time to do that,” said Rep. Christian Phelps (D-Eau Claire), at a Capitol press conference Thursday. “Meanwhile in Washington the Trump administration and Republicans here in Wisconsin are engaging in rhetoric and political activity that seeks to erase LGBTQ+ people and target us …  the goal in that rhetoric and in that movement is to make us feel alone.”

Embracing diversity and joining with  allies give the community strength, Phelps said.

“Everybody who is not themselves a member of the LGBTQ+ community knows and loves at least one person in the community. And I think when they shut out all the noise and look inside, they know that they want the best for that person or those people,” Phelps said.

In addition to a joint resolution embracing Pride Month, the Equality Agenda legislation includes measures to:

• Update various Wisconsin laws pertaining to married couples, including laws on adoption and on in vitro fertilization, to ensure they apply to same-sex couples.
• Prohibit “conversion therapy” aimed at changing a minor’s sexual orientation or gender identity and subjecting licensed professionals who practice it to professional discipline.
• Bar the use of a “gay or trans panic” as a defense by persons accused of crimes.
• Provide grants for training school counselors and social workers on LGBTQ+ rights.

Also part of the package is a proposed amendment to the Wisconsin Constitution that would repeal the 2006 amendment declaring marriage to be only between one man and one woman.

The amendment preventing the state from legally recognizing same-sex marriages remains on the books although it was overridden by the 2015 U.S. Supreme Court ruling legalizing same-sex marriage across the country.

“With the 20th anniversary of Wisconsin’s constitutional amendment that banned marriage equality coming up next year,” said Sen. Mark Spreitzer (D-Beloit), chair of the Legislature’s LGBTQ+ Caucus. “It is long past time to give voters the chance to remove that discriminatory language from our constitution.”

Protesters gather in Kenosha the second night of protests on August 24th, 2020. This was before the clashes with police later that night. (Photo by Isiah Holmes/Wisconsin Examiner)

Imagine you hear about a protest in your community and,  curious, you join your neighbors who are marching in the street. Although the protest is loud and slows down  traffic, it appears peaceful and non-violent. Then suddenly, someone throws a rock or spray-paints a building, and now you find yourself among those apprehended for felony rioting, regardless of whether you committed an act of vandalism or  know who did.

Civil rights advocates fear such a scenario if under a Republican bill that defines a riot as a public disturbance, an act of violence or a “clear and present danger” of property destruction or personal injury involving at least three people. A similar bill was introduced in 2017 by Rep. John Spiros (R-Marshfield). A new version is  (AB-88), authored by Rep. Shae Sortwell (R-Two Rivers) and Sen. Dan Feyen (R- Fond du Lac). 

People who say their property was damaged or vandalized during what the bill defines as a “riot” would also be able to seek civil damages from people or organizations that “provided material support or resources with the intent that such support or resources would be used to perpetrate the offense,” under the bill. It also prohibits government officials with direct authority over law enforcement agencies from limiting or restricting those agencies’ ability to quell vandalism or rioting, as defined by the bill.

Jon McCray Jones, a policy analyst at the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Wisconsin is concerned that the bill’s definition of a “riot” is too vague. “Using that definition, a riot could be three teenagers driving around in a car knocking off mail boxes,” McCray Jones told Wisconsin Examiner. “Technically, with this definition, a riot could be a food fight.” The bill’s language concerning people who “urge, promote, organize, encourage, or instigate others to commit a riot” is also vague according to McCray Jones, who says this aspect of the bill would open protest leaders and organizers up to criminal and civil liability, regardless of their involvement in rioting.

Sortwell and Feyen did not respond to requests for comment for this story. In written testimony before the Assembly Committee on Judiciary on May 7, both lawmakers said that riots have become more common in recent years. “We saw the destructive riots a few years ago in several metropolitan areas, including right here in Madison and Kenosha,” said Sortwell, referring to George Floyd-inspired protests and unrest in 2020. “Taking a walk down State Street, one would see busted doors and windows of businesses, products stolen, and a smashed statue of a Civil War hero. Several business owners, employees, and citizens had their lives upended.”

Feyen said that “peaceful protests are a cornerstone of our public discourse and will always be protected under the First Amendment, but a line needs to be drawn when those protests go from being peaceful to being destructive and violent.” Although the bill does not  mention specific protests, Feyen wrote, “stricter penalties are needed to deter protesters from crossing that line from protest to property destruction, vandalism, arson, and physical violence.” 

Although scenes of burning buildings and looted stores received a lot of news coverage in 2020, studies suggest that at least 96% of Black Lives Matter protests during the movement’s peak in May and June of 2020 were peaceful. Reports by TMJ4 found that 74.3% of the nearly 200 people who’d been placed on an intelligence list by police in Milwaukee county that year had never been charged with a misdemeanor or felony. Some reports, however, using data derived from insurance claims, estimate that as much as $2 billion in damage nationally occurred due to protests in 2020. 

Some residents of Kenosha – a city referenced by the bill’s authors – recall how months of non-violent protest in Kenosha after Floyd’s death were overshadowed by the unrest that  occurred in August 2020. The shooting of Jacob Blake by Kenosha officer Rusten Sheskey, which paralyzed Blake, led to days of protest and unrest, millions of dollars worth of property destruction, and ended when  then-17-year-old Kyle Rittenhouse fatally shot two people and wounded another, in what a jury later ruled was an act of self-defense. 

During committee hearings on May 7, Sortwell said that the bill seeks to punish not only people who commit vandalism but also “those people who put together the riot.”

Several groups have either lobbied or spoken out against the bill. The Wisconsin Civil Justice Council submitted written testimony opposing the bill on the behalf of “16 business associations working together on civil liability matters.” The council said that the bill would allow for civil compensation for emotional distress stemming from property destruction, noting that emotional damages are generally limited. AB-88 would also allow for any civil compensation to include attorneys’ fees, which would be another departure from current law, the council wrote. Others spoke against the bill in person on May 7, pointing to the bill’s broad language and the chilling effect it could have on political movements. 

“This bill is just a blatant attempt to stop people from protesting,” said McCray Jones. “This is a way to silence organizers from fighting for political change and threatening the status quo in power.” Organizers could potentially be sued for anything that happens at a protest, or even just for transporting someone to a protest that later turns into a riot, as defined under the bill. 

What counts as urging or promoting a riot is broad enough to include common protest chants, like “no justice, no peace,” McCray Jones said. “And if you have ambitious or politically motivated district attorneys…politically motivated prosecutors, the vagueness of this bill could be weaponized … free speech now gets criminally turned into inciting a riot.” 

McCray Jones added that he wonders what a police figure like former Milwaukee PD Chief Harold Breier — notorious for targeting and surveilling Black, brown and LGBTQ communities — would have been able to accomplish had such a law been at his disposal. 

As police departments develop their social media surveillance capabilities, it’s possible under the bill that making posts encouraging people to attend a protest could be seen as an attempt to “urge, promote, organize, encourage, or instigate” a riot under the bill. After the protests of 2020, some agencies that monitored protesters enacted new intelligence-gathering policies to help prevent broad, ideology-based surveillance.  

“I think that right now this moment gives us a very opportune chance to highlight the importance of protecting the privacy of protesters here in Wisconsin,” McCray Jones told Wisconsin Examiner. McCray Jones said he hopes debate about the bill  will become “a jumping off point to talk about not just data privacy for protesters, not just privacy from law enforcement for marginalized communities, but what does it look like to re-think our position on surveillance in the midst of this regime in D.C. that is blatantly ignoring due process, the rule of law, and civil rights.” 

Protesters gather to support Judge Hannah Dugan. (Photo by Isiah Holmes/Wisconsin Examiner)

Judge Hannah Dugan appeared at her arraignment Thursday in Milwaukee’s federal court and pleaded not guilty to charges that she helped a man elude federal agents in the Milwaukee County courthouse earlier this year. 

Dugan was arrested in April and was indicted Tuesday by a grand jury on two counts, concealing a person from arrest and obstruction of proceedings. The charges could carry penalties of six years of prison, years of supervision, and at least $350,000 in fines. 

Dugan appeared with three attorneys, and did not comment to reporters after the hearing was over. Attorneys mentioned in court that a small number of video excerpts have been shared with the defense, but discovery is still ongoing. 

Judge Lynn Adelman has been assigned to preside over Dugan’s jury trial, which was set to start on July 21, with a pretrial hearing July 9. Jury selection is expected to be lengthy and complicated. A motions hearing was set in Judge Nancy Joseph’s court on May 30.

Dugan is accused of escorting a man into a public hallway with access to elevators after federal agents arrived outside her courtroom, where the man, a Mexican immigrant, was having a routine hearing in a misdemeanor battery case.

The agents had an administrative warrant for his arrest, which was not signed by a judge and did not give agents the authority to enter the courtroom. While the agents waited in the hallway outside, Dugan directed the man and his attorney out a side door that exited into the same hallway. The agents saw him leave the room and one rode down the elevator with him before he was arrested later on the street. 

Outside the Milwaukee federal courthouse on Thursday, a crowd of about 200 people gathered, including elected officials, activists and local residents showed up early in the morning to support the circuit court judge. Speakers led chants through a microphone on the courthouse steps.

One person at the rally, Erik Fanning, said that the charges against Dugan feel “preposterous,” and argued that a judge would be knowledgeable about what the law would and would not allow her to do in courtroom situations. 

“As many people in this country have found out, the law can be manipulated in order to serve an interest that’s sometimes more powerful than the law, as we’re seeing right now in this country,” Fanning told Wisconsin Examiner. “And so that’s the fear here with me.”

After her arrest, Dugan was suspended by the Wisconsin Supreme Court, and protests erupted in Milwaukee County calling for the charges against her to be dropped.

If the case against Dugan succeeds, “That’s a powerful statement,” Fanning said. “That’s a powerful move in this game that they’re playing with our justice system.”

Shortly after Dugan’s arrest, FBI Director Kash Patel posted on social media praising her detention, then deleted the post. 

For Fanning, Dugan’s arrest felt like a “made-for-TV” moment created by the Trump administration. More press attention on Dugan’s arrest and trial validates his own instincts that “this is a watershed moment,” he said.  

“The media should be interested, because it’s a frightening, very important moment,” Fanning said. “Remember who this administration’s leader is. It’s a TV guy. It’s a manipulating the press, and propaganda guy…So everything they do is a TV show.”

The Milwaukee Police Administration Building downtown. (Photo by Isiah Holmes/Wisconsin Examiner)

A $6.96 million settlement — the second largest in Milwaukee’s history — stems from a federal civil lawsuit which accused Milwaukee Police Department (MPD) detectives of fabricating evidence against Danny Wilber, framing him for a 2004 homicide. Wilber spent 18 years in prison for a crime he always asserted he didn’t commit. 

Wilber’s homicide conviction was ultimately overturned after he was found to have had an unfair trial in a federal appeals court. On May 8, the city’s Judiciary and Legislation Committee recommended approving the settlement. Yet before it was approved, elected leaders expressed discontent that taxpayers in Milwaukee would be footing the bill. 

Further approvals will be needed from the Common Council and Mayor Cavalier Johnson. In a statement, Wilber said that the settlement “clearly establishes what I have truthfully maintained at all times — that I was completely innocent and that it was physically impossible that I committed this murder.” 

Ald. Mark Chambers Jr. called the judge in Wilber’s case “incompetent”, while Ald. Robert Bauman said the judge made “some pretty bad decisions,” the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported. Council President Jose Perez said the city was “paying the price for some bad judgement and it’s inexcusable.” Yet it was city of Milwaukee police detectives, not a judge, who manipulated evidence in the case, and laid the groundwork for the settlement nearly 20 years after they arrested Wilber. 

In January 2004, Wilber was at an after-hours party when, according to a federal complaint, he got into an argument with another party guest. As more people got involved the argument became a physical altercation which was being watched by another guest, David Diaz. At some point during the fight, someone standing behind Diaz shot him in the back of the head at close range. Diaz died instantly, and everyone who’d been in the kitchen panicked and left. 

The complaint states that physical evidence from the scene showed that Diaz had been shot from behind. One of the named defendants in the civil action, Milwaukee police detective Thomas Casper, collected measurements from the scene and recovered bullet fragments that showed that Diaz had been shot from behind. Diaz’s autopsy corroborated those findings. “It was and is undisputed that, at the time of the shooting, Plaintiff Wilber was inside the kitchen and in front of David Diaz,” the complaint reads. 

Despite the ballistic evidence, MPD detectives honed in on Wilber as the main murder suspect. Detectives didn’t look into multiple other plausible suspects, and went as far as to fabricate witness statements, the complaint states. Two other detectives, Randolph Olson and Louis Johnson, interrogated a witness to the shooting, Richard Torres, who was wanted for probation violations and turned himself in for questioning. Olson and Johnson used “threats and intimidation” to compel Torres to give a false statement by threatening to charge him with murder, and making clear that they were interested in Wilber as the shooter. Around the same time, another detective, Gregory Schuler, interrogated another witness, Jeranek Diaz. The complaint accuses Schuler of fabricating “substantial parts of a statement” from Diaz, including that at the time of the shooting, David Diaz had just turned around and was about to leave the kitchen when he was shot. Jeranek Diaz never said those statements, and was not allowed to review the typewritten version of his statement. Notes that Schuler allegedly took during the interview were never presented either to the prosecution or to Wilber’s attorneys. 

Other detectives interviewed witnesses who had a learning disability and said after the shooting that she saw her brother pat himself down to check if he’d been shot. The detectives, Timothy Duffy and Joseph Erwin, wrote that the witness ducked her head and when she looked back up, everyone was running out the door and she hadn’t seen her brother. Duffy and Erwin did not read the witness’s statement back to her, and she signed the statement without knowing what it said. 

One witness who was detained overnight without food, water or access to showers was told after interviews by detectives that he was “not telling us what we need to hear”, before being returned to a cell. Eventually, the exhausted witnesses agreed to make false statements if he was allowed to go home. Detectives also manipulated scene diagrams, and Wilber was charged with first-degree intentional homicide with a dangerous weapon in February 2004. Prosecutors heavily relied on evidence compiled by detectives, as well as false witness statements. 

Wilber spent 18 years in prison, with the Milwaukee County District Attorney’s Office formally dismissing his case in May 2022. In order to carry out what the complaint describes as a “conspiracy,” the detectives would have needed to act alongside other MPD investigative, supervisory and command personnel, as well as “other unknown co-conspirators.” Casper would eventually go on to become one of the first commanders for the Milwaukee Area Investigative Team (MAIT), a network of detectives that focuses on civilian deaths by police, and which has been criticized for conducting problematic death reviews. MAIT selected a different commander in 2020, and Casper died by the time Wilber’s lawsuit reached its conclusion.

“The evidence that came out in this case showed that this was not a series of mistakes by a squad of incompetent detectives,” Wilber said in a statement. “No, it was a conscious plan to construct a false case against me with manufactured witness statements in order to put me behind bars. It was a plan that they have used again and again against Black, Indigenous and other poor people of color. In this case, like in many others, the prosecutors and the Court system were, from beginning to end, vindictively complicit in my wrongful conviction and incarceration. This settlement delivers a measure of justice against the police who framed me, but what about the prosecutor who presented the false evidence at trial? What about the Judge who allowed it and violated my constitutional rights? What about the Assistant Attorney General who fought for years to keep me in a cage after my conviction was overturned and took the case all the way up to the Supreme Court of the United States? They’re all complicit and because of the corrupt system, they get to walk away, free to repeat the egregious misconduct under the guise of due processes.”

Attorneys Ben Elson and Flint Taylor of the People’s Law Office in Chicago, who represented Wilber, said that the city would be paying him nearly $7 million because its detectives framed an innocent man. The attorneys addressed statements made by local elected officials, who were quick to blame the judge and other non-city government figures in the case. “Instead of passing the blame onto others, the City should publicly acknowledge its role in Danny Wilber’s wrongful conviction and make a sincere apology.”

Angélica Infante-Green, Rhode Island’s commissioner of elementary and secondary education, speaks at a forum on Tuesday, May 6, 2025, at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C. (Screenshot via YouTube)

WASHINGTON — U.S. Senate Democrats on Tuesday blasted the Trump administration’s efforts to dismantle the U.S. Department of Education, underscoring the impact of the dizzying array of cuts, overhauls and proposed changes to the agency on students, families and educators.

Sen. Patty Murray, who hosted the forum in a U.S. Senate hearing room alongside several Democratic colleagues, said Trump is “essentially bulldozing the Department of Education, regardless of who depends on it, regardless of who is still inside, and regardless of the very loud outcry from parents and educators and students about this.”

The Washington state Democrat brought in education advocates and leaders, who emphasized the importance of the department in delivering on federal resources for public education, investigating civil rights complaints and helping students cheated by predatory institutions.

Trump and his administration have sought to dramatically reshape the federal role in education, including an executive order calling on Education Secretary Linda McMahon to facilitate the closure of her own department, the gutting of more than 1,300 employees at the agency, threats to revoke funds for schools that use diversity, equity and inclusion practices and a crackdown on “woke” higher education.

‘Unnecessary confusion and chaos’

Angélica Infante-Green, Rhode Island’s commissioner of elementary and secondary education, said she and colleagues who lead state education across the country have spent a great deal of time trying to decipher the intent of Trump’s executive orders and the department’s directives and policy changes.

“They seem unclear and cause unnecessary confusion and chaos for all of us,” Infante-Green said. “While the impact of the confusion may be hard to quantify,  what is clear is that students and families and educators are the losers in this new paradigm.”

Denise Forte, CEO of the nonprofit policy and advocacy group EdTrust, said “most urgently, we are alarmed by the mass firing of over half of the department staff.”

“This isn’t reform — it is sabotage,” Forte said, pointing to the layoffs hitting wide swaths of the department, particularly in the Office for Civil Rights, Office of Federal Student Aid and Institute of Education Sciences.

“With the Office for Civil Rights now severely understaffed, civil rights complaints will skyrocket while response capacity plummets,” she said.

Students with disabilities 

The cuts at the agency and Trump’s proposal in March that the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services “will be handling special needs” have sparked worries among disability advocates over whether the department can carry out its responsibilities to serve students with disabilities.

Diane Willcutts, director of Education Advocacy, said she’s been getting “panicked phone calls from parents of children with disabilities who are wondering, ‘What does this all mean?’”

Willcutts has worked for over two decades in Connecticut and Massachusetts helping families of children with disabilities navigate the education process.

“I think everyone’s shell-shocked, and we’re looking for direction — how can we be helpful to you in order to protect the U.S. Department of Education?” she said. “I know there’s this assumption that ‘Oh, the states will take care of it.’ That is absolutely not the case, I can tell you in my state that is not what is happening right now, and so, as I said, there’s a level of panic but we’re looking for direction.”

Trump’s budget request

Meanwhile, Trump also released a budget request last week that calls for $12 billion in spending cuts at the department.

Wisconsin Democratic Sen. Tammy Baldwin said the budget includes “devastating cuts to many critical programs,” and that the proposal “comes at a time when too many students are chronically absent and achieving at levels that will not set them up for success.”

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said the Trump administration is “cutting so many things — don’t feel alone, Department of Education.”

“They don’t know what they’re doing about just about anything, and they want to cut everything, but to cut education, which has been sacrosanct in America, is just awful,” the New York Democrat said.

Schumer said Tuesday’s “spotlight hearing” is just one in a series Senate Democrats will be hosting in response to Trump’s cuts to the department.

Trump administration officials said the outrage was misplaced. 

“If Senate Democrats were truly interested in fighting for parents, students, and teachers as they claim, where was their outrage over this year’s dismal math and reading scores? Don’t get it twisted,” Savannah Newhouse, a spokesperson for the U.S. Department of Education, said in a statement shared with States Newsroom.

Senate Democrats “are fighting President Trump’s education agenda for one reason: to protect the bloated bureaucracy that has consistently failed our nation’s students,” Newhouse said.

“By returning education authority to the states, President Trump and Secretary McMahon will help every American child — including those in public schools — to have the best shot at a quality education.” 

The crime scene around King Park in Milwaukee, where Sam Sharpe was killed by out-of-state police from Ohio. (Photo by Isiah Holmes/Wisconsin Examiner)

The Milwaukee County District Attorney’s Office announced Monday that five officers from the Columbus, Ohio, police department will not be charged in the fatal shooting of Sam Sharpe, a man who was killed by the out-of-state officers during the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee on July 16. 

Sharpe, 43, returned to Milwaukee’s King Park, where he was living in a tent for the last time to gather his belongings and his dog Ices to avoid a man who’d allegedly begun harassing and threatening him, according to Sharpe’s family. Sharpe, who was remembered as positive and well-liked by other King Park residents, shared a fragile sense of shelter and community with numerous other unhoused locals. But when he encountered his alleged harasser that summer day, a confrontation ensued which ended in a volley of gunfire from police officers deployed to Milwaukee as part of the security force for the RNC. 

The day before the shooting, a group of housing rights activists, who had slept in King Park overnight, marched on the RNC. Law enforcement officials said after the shooting that the prior day’s protest had drawn the officers to King Park. Body camera footage showed the officers standing together just before the shooting, then noticing a fight occurring in the distance. The officers immediately unholstered their weapons and sprinted over, yelling commands before unleashing a torrent of gunfire. 

The district attorney’s May 5 letter detailing the decision not to issue charges states that five officers fired a total of 23 times. Each of the officers — identified as Sgt. Adam Groves and officers Nick Mason, Austin Enos, Karl Eiginger, and Canaan Dick — told investigators that they feared that Sharpe, who was armed with knives, was an imminent threat to the other person in the confrontation, identified only as “AB” in the district attorney’s letter. 

Within hours people gathered at the scene to mourn Sharpe, who was known and beloved by housing outreach advocates and his family. Body camera and surveillance footage leaked online, and people were already beginning to discuss the fact that Sharpe had been the Columbus PD’s eighth fatal shooting so far in 2024. Milwaukee police Chief Jeffrey Norman held a press conference, saying that the officers had acted to save a life. 

The investigation found that the officers’ use of deadly force was justified under Wisconsin law, to prevent imminent harm to a civilian, that Sharpe ignored commands to drop the knives he was carrying and that the officers had a reasonable fear for the civilian’s safety.

Milwaukee PD officials said prior to the convention that their intent was to have out-of-state officers placed in positions “where they’re not necessarily forward facing”, and that outside officers were to be accompanied by Milwaukee officers, and were not to make arrests unless in urgent circumstances where local officers weren’t available.

The investigation of Sharpe’s killing was led by the Greenfield PD as part of the Milwaukee Area Investigative Team (MAIT), a local task force which investigates officer-involved deaths. Angelique Sharpe, Sam’s sister, recounted the day that detectives came to her mother’s home, escorted by Milwaukee officers. The department was already receiving criticism for not having accompanied the Columbus officers at King Park. 

“They didn’t really care,” Angelique Sharpe told Wisconsin Examiner. The detectives had few answers to the family’s questions, she said. After Sharpe’s death, his family said that he had been living in the park doing street preaching for the unhoused community, when he began getting harassed by a man who allegedly threatened to destroy his tent and harm his dog. Sharpe was generally in good spirits, his family said, but he suffered from illness including multiple sclerosis. Sharpe had returned to the park to gather his things and leave that day, his sister said, armed with knives because he was worried about his safety. 

Angelique Sharpe told Wisconsin Examiner that MAIT detectives seemed uninterested in what she feels is important context. “I feel like nobody has really investigated this case fully for what it was. The only thing that they cared about was the actual shooting itself. Not anything that led up to it. Not why any of them were in the street, what led up to that, or what happened, or verifying that he was robbed and beat up,” Angelique said. “Nobody checked any of that stuff or cared about any of that stuff. All they cared about was the police [were] justified in the few seconds … and I just don’t feel like they was justified, because they should’ve never been there.”

Angelique blames the Columbus officers, who she feels acted in haste, as well as Milwaukee officials who assured residents ahead of the RNC that out-of-state law enforcement would not patrol neighborhoods unsupervised. “The whole case was handled poorly,” she said. 

The fallout from the shooting continues to weigh on the Sharpe family. Sam’s dog Ices was taken by animal control, much to the dismay of Sharpe’s family. Ices was eventually returned, and later found a new owner. 

Shortly after Sam died, someone mailed what appeared to be online court records of people with the last name “Sharpe” to the family, with a mocking letter saying “another criminal off the street,” Angelique told Wisconsin Examiner. Months passed before the family was able to obtain a death certificate, and organize a proper funeral for Sam, because of the ongoing investigation. Angelique said their mother’s health declined as  the whole ordeal took a toll. 

In a press release put out by the Milwaukee Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression, Angelique Sharpe stated that her brother was found to have been shot 23 times, yet sustained 34 wounds. “The math ain’t matching,” she said. “It’s a miscarriage of justice and gross neglect of oversight on the part of MPD, who lied to the public to let killer cops run loose in one of the most vulnerable communities in our city. My brother’s blood is on your hands regardless of the law continuing to support murderers behind badges.”

After the district attorney received MAIT’s investigation for review, prosecutors met with Sharpe’s family members and their attorneys at the Greenfield Police Department. It became clear to the family that prosecutors were leaning toward not charging the officers, and that the shooting officers had retained lawyers. All of the involved officers refused to have their interviews recorded. 

Attorney Nate Cade, who represents the Sharpe family, said that a lack of recorded interviews is a common frustration, as police investigated by MAIT have the option to forego them. “They don’t record, they dictate what they think they hear,” Cade told Wisconsin Examiner. Cade agrees with the Sharpe family that the lack of a Milwaukee police escort for the Columbus officers led to an avoidable escalation.

The Sharpe family is considering bringing a civil case. Protest actions are planned in the coming days.

“From the moment it was announced that the RNC would be held in Milwaukee, the community was clear,” the Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression said in a press release, “we do not want outside law enforcement agencies unleashed on our community.” The Alliance blamed local officials, including Mayor Calvalier Johnson and Chief Norman, for welcoming  the RNC to  Milwaukee. 

Protesters gather to march in Milwaukee on May Day, voicing opposition to President Donald Trump's policies. (Photo by Isiah Holmes/Wisconsin Examiner)

A massive May Day protest stretched along multiple city blocks in Milwaukee, as marchers walked from the South Side to Zeidler Union Square Park in downtown. The annual protest brought union organizers, immigrant rights advocates, Indigenous community activists, students from across Wisconsin and other members of the public together to make a stand against the policies of President Donald Trump.

Despite rainy weather, hundreds of participants turned out for Milwaukee’s May Day march, with another protest planned in Madison on Friday. Prior to the march, the morning began with prayers and words from community leaders. Mark Denning, a member of the Oneida Nation, said to the crowd on Thursday that “all prayer goes to the same place” and that “all creation stories are true.” Denning said, “as we stand here together under this sheltering sky that’s giving us this beautiful rain…I want to share that your ancestors are forever. Your future is forever.” 

“Natives stand as a lesson to each and every one of you that the injustices of the past cannot be the injustices of the future,” said Denning, calling himself “a remnant of the wars that have been done on my people” and the May Day marchers “a remnant of the wars that must be corrected.” Denning went on to tell the crowd “you are now of this place! You are now of this land, and of these waters! And you will not be denied because this is where your children will be born and have a future!” The crowd cheered in response.

Although the May 1 march for immigrant workers’ rights is an annual tradition in Milwaukee, this year brought with it a new sense of fear buffered by local determination. Waves of arrests have swept communities nationwide, populating social media feeds with images of immigrants and  international students detained by masked, plain-clothes federal agents.

In Milwaukee, local advocates recently learned that agents from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) have been paying visits to the homes of sponsors of unaccompanied immigrant minors, causing fear of possible deportations. After ICE raids at the Milwaukee County Courthouse provoked outrage, Circuit Court Judge Hannah Dugan was arrested and accused of obstructing federal agents who arrived outside her courtroom to arrest a man appearing for a hearing. Protests erupted the weekend after Dugan was arrested, building momentum leading up to the May Day march.

Milwaukee marchers  joined a larger network of groups organizing May Day protests in at least 32 states. Rain showers came and went as the marchers traversed the city. People of all ages came out, including  high school students and their young siblings and grey-haired elders. Different sections of the march had different chants and atmospheres. Palestinian flags waved in the breeze alongside American flags (some of which were upside down), Mexican flags, LGBTQ+ flags, and numerous other banners. Milwaukee police officers escorted the demonstration on motorcycles and bicycles, while unmarked surveillance vans patrolled  the perimeter. 

Within an hour, the marchers arrived at Zeidler Union Square Park in the downtown area. Gathering around a central pavilion, the crowd listened to Christine Neumann-Ortiz, executive director of Voces de la Frontera, who said people had come from as far away as Arcadia in Trempealeau County to be part of the event. “We know that when we unite we are stronger, and we can achieve what seems impossible,” said Neumann-Ortiz.

Speakers called for the charges to be dropped against Dugan, for ICE to stay out of local courts, for constitutional rights to be defended and for people to take a stand against fear. Missy Zombor, president of the Milwaukee Public School Board, said that the school district is ready to honor and fight for the ideals and sense of hope that her own grandparents sought when they immigrated to America. 

Zombor said that the school district will honor its safe haven resolution. “Our schools are and will always be safe havens for children,” she said, “regardless of their background, their immigration status, their identity, or their circumstance.” The Milwaukee Public School District, Zombor said, is strengthened by the diverse languages, cultures and backgrounds of  the student body, which includes many student activists. “Our schools are going to continue to promote a curriculum that gives students the knowledge and power to question the world in a way that helps students uproot the causes of racism and inequality,” said Zombor. “Our schools are going to teach the next generation of change-makers.” 

Former Milwaukee judge Jim Gramling Jr. called Dugan’s arrest “a very unfortunate and very dangerous thing.” Gramling said that the unusual, public arrest of a judge at the courthouse “was clearly designed to intimidate other judges and those who seek justice in our courts.” He added  that federal authorities had a week to invite Dugan into the U.S. Attorney’s Office to discuss the case. Instead, Gramling said, “they wanted a public display to embarrass her, to humiliate her, and to intimidate others in the justice system from resolving immigration matters.” 

Gramling stressed that judges need to be free of pressure from outside influences, so that they can decide cases based on the facts before them. “And yet we have a president who’s threatening the firing of judges, because of decisions that he doesn’t like,” said Gramling. “And now we have a judge treated like a common criminal by that president’s agents.” Dugan is a long-time and respected member of the community, Gramling said, having served in  leadership roles at local non-profits  and that she doesn’t deserve what’s happened to her. 

Milwaukee student activists also spoke, saying that student voices should not be stifled, and that free speech means little when young people fear retaliation. The students called for Milwaukee police officers to be taken out of Milwaukee Public Schools. Removing school resources officers was a decision made by the school board after years of student organizing. But the state Legislature has demanded that Milwaukee return police to schools as a condition of state aid.  

Immigration operations add a new layer of fear for students who already dread the return of school resource officers. Milwaukee police have a standard operating procedure which limits the department’s  involvement in immigration matters, stating that “proactive immigration enforcement by local police can be detrimental to our mission and policing philosophy when doing so deters some individuals from participating in their civic obligation to assist the police.” 

Deferred Action for Childhood Arrival (DACA) students joined the May Day march, denouncing ICE and encouraging people to stand in solidarity with immigrants. “Don’t let fear imprison you in the shadows,” one student said from the stage. “Join us. We will keep each other safe.”