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Wisconsin: Protests Held After Police Kill Unarmed Black Teen

HeadlineMar 09, 2015

Protests were held in Madison, Wisconsin, over the fatal police shooting of an unarmed African-American teenager. Tony Robinson was shot dead Friday night after Madison police say Officer Matt Kenny forced his way into an apartment following a “disturbance.” Police say they had responded to reports of a man running in and out of traffic. But after a Justice Department probe found deep racial bias among Ferguson, Missouri, police, Brandi Grayson with the Young, Gifted and Black Coalition said Madison also has a problem.

Brandi Grayson: “If the issue of racial disparities and racial injustices aren’t dealt with, that we will soon have a Ferguson on our hand, we said it. We said it. We have numbers that’s three times as worse as Ferguson. We are worse than the whole country, and everyone keeps denying that we have a problem. We have a 19-year-old black boy, dead, shot five times in the chest, unarmed, with no answers.”

A recent Race to Equity report found African Americans in Madison’s Dane County made up less than 9 percent of the youth population, but nearly 80 percent of local kids sentenced to the state juvenile prison.

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