Dueling protests at City Hall turn tense over police contract negotiations

MILWAUKEE (CBS 58) -- On Friday, Sept. 5, a grassroots community group crashed a police union protest near City Hall.

The officers' union is protesting for higher wages but many people want that money spent elsewhere in the community.

As the Milwaukee Police Association (MPA) passed out t-shirts in Red Arrow Park Friday morning, a counter protestor shouted through a megaphone, "I want to make sure they can hear me and they can hear all of us."

The group Black Leaders Organizing for Communities (BLOC) gathered just a few yards away at the bench that memorializes Dontre Hamilton, a Black man shot and killed by a Milwaukee police officer in 2014.

After the union members silently marched past to City Hall to protest for higher wages, a lone protester confronted them as MPA President Alexander Ayala delivered his message.

Ayala spoke briefly, targeting Mayor Cavalier Johnson. "He verbally told us, 'If you help me get Act 12, I will take care of you guys.' And then he didn't. So he lied. He backstabbed the Milwaukee police officers that work for him."

But the rest of the protesters soon arrived at City Hall and drowned him out.

Inside, the union marched to the mayor's second floor office. The mayor was not in the building while he attended an event but the door was deadbolted shut.

Soon after, the protesters also went inside City Hall.

Angela Lang is the executive director of BLOC. She told us, "We wanted to make sure there wasn’t just one side to the story."

Protesters chanted on the first floor while the union marched on the second.

Fallen officer Peter Jerving's parents joined the union.

Patty Jerving said, "They risk their lives every day and they should be paid what they're worth."

And Doug Jerving said, "It's not just money, it's the respect they deserve."

The two sides are millions of dollars apart on their offers. Ayala told us, "If the city wins arbitration, officers have already told me, 'I'm leaving. I'm quitting and going somewhere else. Because of better wages."

But many are opposed to spending more money on policing.

Lang said, "We want to make sure that we are investing into our communities, and we don’t think the city budget needs to be nearly 50%."

At a separate event before the protests, Mayor Johnson defended the city's offer, saying, "I want police officers to get a raise, too. They deserve it. But we have to do it within reason. And that's exactly what we're seeking to do."

There were no physical confrontations between the protests and the two groups largely stayed apart.

An alderperson told us they could hear the protests while inside their committee meetings.

An arbitrator is scheduled to pick one of the two contract offers sometime later this month.