LETTER: Police failure to de-escalate to blame for city hall melee

To Ozaukee Press:

I’ve been to many official meetings, and I can put myself in the place of the citizen who was detained by police at last week’s Port Washington Common Council meeting. It was a simple, brief, reactive shoutout while walking away disgusted, which isn’t unusual.

The arrested citizen went over her allotted speaking time by about five seconds and shouted “recall” three times while returning to her seat. Then she sat quietly.

Meanwhile, there was some chanting in the crowd, but not by her. The crowd’s outburst was short lived. I’ve seen more explosively outbursts that requires the chair to simply use a gavel and reiterate composure rules, but the chair disregarded this protocol.

It was obvious that the right thing to do was to leave well enough alone. But while the next speaker was into speaking and all was quiet, the Port Washington police chief’s bad decision to instigate further response was unwisely chosen. Was the arrested citizen targeted because she is the person behind the recall of the mayor? Now I wonder.

Wisely, police are taught to de-escalate, not antagonize a situation. Police Chief Kevin Hingiss needs to revisit this technique, because when all becomes quiet action isn’t required. His decision affected everyone there, as well as creating fear for  the First Amendment rights of all citizens.

The response was absurd.

Angela Schneider

Germantown