{"id":10324,"date":"2018-06-02T17:11:13","date_gmt":"2018-06-02T17:11:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kevernacular.com\/?p=10324"},"modified":"2018-06-07T18:04:24","modified_gmt":"2018-06-07T18:04:24","slug":"a-poignant-but-pointed-memorial-for-a-deadly-memorial-day-in-riverwest","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kevernacular.com\/?p=10324","title":{"rendered":"A poignant but pointed memorial for a deadly Memorial Day in Riverwest"},"content":{"rendered":"
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This small memorial was attached to a tree in Riverwest Milwaukee’s Kern Park, after a fatal shooting on Memorial Day. Photo by Kevin Lynch<\/em><\/p>\n

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I’ll get to the city’s latest national exposure for its most recent police brutality and no, it doesn’t have to do with Sterling Brown. But first, this blog strives to take a larger perspective on things like brutality in the big city.\u00a0I would note a sad and tragic counterpoint to such nastiness, provided by a person who posted a trenchant memorial to a man fatally shot Monday during Memorial Day picnicking in Kern Park in Riverwest, the neighborhood where I live, and a few blocks away from where I type this post.<\/span><\/p>\n

I truly do love the hip, diverse and gracefully lived-in Riverwest neighborhood, and have celebrated it on this blog. I have resided here for the majority of my adult years in Milwaukee. But I do not want to idealize the neighborhood, rather underscore that Riverwest is part of the real world.
\nThis homicide, which remains an open case with no perpetrator yet caught, occurred in a park that I enjoy and partake of. I frequently go to Kern Park to take its walkways down to\u00a0 scenic, meandering Milwaukee River pathways. I also sometimes enjoy shooting buckets at the basketball courts faintly visible a ways beyond the “memorial tree” (depicted at top).<\/p>\n

Witnesses say they saw the victim, Juan Bernal, on the basketball courts \u2013- when they heard gunfire at around 2 p.m. Monday, Memorial Day.<\/p>\n

“Everybody disappeared from the basketball court. He came running across the park and that’s when he fell on the street,” said Janelle Bentson, a witness told Fox 6 news.<\/p>\n

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An officer and police dog investigate a fatal shooting near the basketball courts in Kern Park in Riverwest. Photo Courtesy Fox 6<\/em><\/p>\n

Along with flowers, the anonymous memorializer\u00a0attached \u2013 to a tree near where Bernal fell \u2013 a small piece of wood, dated “5\/28\/18” and bearing\u00a0the handwritten comment: “Don’t worry about the cops killing us, we’re doing a good job.”<\/p>\n

The sign appears to address the issue of so-called “black-on-black” violence, part of the larger urban social fabric in America that’s badly torn, and abused and exploited by the institutional racism of Wisconsin’s judicial and prison system. Statistics show that people of color are arrested, sentenced and imprisoned in this state at rates that far exceed the national norm.<\/p>\n

Here’s a story that includes comments from the family of 21-year-old Juan Bernal, described as “a poet, a rapper, a teacher and a mentor,”:\u00a0family speaks out<\/a><\/p>\n

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This haunting photo of the late Juan Bernal was posted on his Facebook page on May 30th, two days after his death. Courtesy Lance Allen<\/em><\/p>\n

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And this photo of Bernal is courtesy of Milwaukee musician Jay Anderson. Thanks Jay, for this beautiful image.<\/em><\/p>\n

As a Wisconsin and Riverwest resident, my heart aches that the Kern Park incident provided another sort of memorial that expands the sober implications of the holiday, like a steady trickle of blood, that never seems to end.<\/p>\n

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Is it too early to judge what prompted this police brutality in the video below? the Milwaukee Black Panther spokesman addresses the issue succinctly. The video does not show the black youth’s alleged attack on a police officer. You do see him punched twice by Wauwatosa police, and arrested.<\/p>\n

“Call my mama, bro! Call my mama, bro!” the youth repeatedly calls out while on the ground and handcuffed behind his back. It hardly seems like the behavior of a person feeling guilty of something.\u00a0The youth \u2013 who allegedly helped cause a disturbance at Mayfair Mall \u2013 was released a short time later. After internal investigation by the Wauwatosa police department, no<\/span>\u00a0officers involved in the mid-May incident were disciplined.<\/span><\/p>\n