Jury rules for Milwaukee police in suit over arrests

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A federal jury in Milwaukee ruled Friday that Milwaukee police did not violate the constitutional rights of Jarrett English and Benetria McGowan when they arrested them on the night of Aug. 30, 2016, in the wake of the fatal police shooting of 23-year-old Sylville Smith and the resulting unrest in the Sherman Park neighborhood, reports The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. 

English and McGowan were both arrested when they arrived in the area of a makeshift memorial to Smith in Sherman Park at the same time as police chose to clear the area around the memorial, according to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. 

With the help of the American Civil Liberties Union of Wisconsin, English and McGowan in 2019 sued the City of Milwaukee, as well as four police officers involved in the arrests. The plaintiffs had alleged that police violated their First Amendment right to assembly, as well as their Fourth Amendment rights by using excessive force to conduct unlawful arrests, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported.