Candy Cane Ln March Leads To Outrage
TPR (The People’s Revolution) has been marching for over 200 days straight demanding justice, change and reform throughout Milwaukee County and surrounding areas. During their time marching they have accomplished great things when it comes to change for black and brown people. A few of those accomplishments include, Joseph Mensah who is responsible for shooting & killing three individuals in a 5 year period (Jay Anderson, Antonio Gonzales, & Alvin Cole) with the Wauwatosa Police Department, who has resigned due to the pressure that TPR has continued to put on the Wauwatosa Police Department. In Milwaukee, Chief Morales was demoted to Captain by the Police & Fire Commission. A Grant that has been on the voting panel that would generate millions of dollars to employ more officers was denied due to the neighborhood canvasing and outreach that TPR did for months. They have called out elected officials who are actively engaged in and support of racial differences throughout various communities and school systems in the surrounding areas bringing more awareness to community members who have also joined in the fight for Change. The behind the scenes work they have done, working with city and state officials as well as independent organizations has been monumental for the movement in the direction of Change throughout Milwaukee County and surrounding areas, but their work is not done yet. This is a fight that has gone on for 60 years and will continue as long as there is injustice to people of color in hopes that the next generation will not have to fight the same issues that plague our country.
Rhetoric and misrepresentation will have you believe the protest was organized to disrupt donations for the charity as uproar across social media spreads over a protest march in West Allis WI. On December 18th 2020, The People’s Revolution organized a march through Candy Cane Ln. Candy Cane Ln. started in 1984 to collect donations for the MAAC Fund (Midwest Athletes Against Childhood Cancer) in honor of a neighbor’s child diagnosed with cancer. The neighborhood has collectively raised close to $3 million towards research and treatment in hopes to finding a cure for childhood cancers and blood diseases.
The group planned the march through Candy Cane Ln with the intent to bring awareness to the neighborhood and stand up for POC who live in the area. Marchers were seen dressed in holiday spirit and of course Santa made a special appearance for the occasion. From a post found on The People’s Revolution Facebook Page they were addressing specific awareness that night. “Under the tree, under the tree, we want justice for thee three. Under the tree, under the tree, Mattioli and his friends should not be free. Mattioli is responsible for the strangulation death of Joel Acevedo during a party Acevedo attended at the officer’s house. Prior to the march starting, the group found out through a breaking story that Chief Morales of Milwaukee had his demotion overturned by a judge and could return to his former position. Demonstrators were given specific instruction to not disrupt the flow of traffic, do not engage with any negative response that may come and to sing, have fun, and spread the message of the evening.
Never Stop Media LLC attended the demonstration and pre-recorded video for the Never Stop Voices YouTube Channel. Views of the video have reached over 30k and continue to increase at a rapid pace and have sparked a number of negative comments and violent threats. A right wing news outlet called Breitbart released an article with a very different version of what happened during this protest that has sparked outrage across social media and has prompted hundreds of comments riddled with hate, racism, threats and falsehoods. “Where’s Kyle Rittenhouse when u need him” “lock and load when you go there” “Be neat to see them all lit up like the lights” “There’s never an out of control fully loaded dump truck when you need it” and hundreds more comments can be seen throughout social media. The headline states that “members of a BLM Organization Harassed people”. The article then posts a comment from Dan O’Donnell from the Dan O’Donnell Show that “Black Lives Matter Goons are currently at Candy Cane Ln. Terrorizing People”. A 20 second video clip posted to the article from Lori Nickel shows TPR standing next to a vehicle chanting “Black Children Matter” as if to confirm demonstrators terrorizing those driving through the neighborhood. What the video doesn’t show is the view from the other side of the vehicle that had a black family who was showing support for the movement with children in the back seat smiling and dancing. The true version of this can be seen in the Never Stop Media LLC video that was posted to YouTube and is also attached to the Breitbart news article. Full article can be seen here: https://www.breitbart.com/law-and-order/2020/12/19/watch-blm-harasses-wisconsin-childrens-christmas-charity-event-attendees/?fbclid=IwAR2AsABlYW-uVvJniaMmuAWtrCLL1GRQYO5ZvjG4s1geg0OT8fxJxcGgh3Q
Posts across social media claim that those who came to Candy Cane Ln that night were stranded in their vehicles. The point of attending Candy Cane Ln. is to “drive” through the neighborhood. So were onlookers “stranded in vehicles” or would it be more truthful to say they were freely in their vehicles? Posts that claimed that vehicles could not get by demonstrators because they were blocking the roads are simply not true. What amazes me is that we all know when we visit neighborhoods that put on full displays of holiday decorations is that it’s a nightmare to drive through. You move at a snail’s pace, while the kids jump around in the back seat because there are so many cars, which I guess is the point right? So we can look at lights and not be rushed. So why would that common knowledge be dismissed now? In our video it clearly shows demonstrators walking down the center of the streets to not impede any of the vehicles. None of these vehicles were surrounded, stranded or harassed. Posts claiming that TPR harassed people who did not approve of the protest are also not true. You can see in our video posted that when met with distain, protestors wished those people a Merry Christmas & Happy Holiday with of course the chant that “Black Lives Matter” as they continued to march. Posts also claim that TPR was terrorizing children who were looking at the holiday decorations. In the video posted by us it clearly shows families, both black and white with children showing full support for the group with parents and children yelling black lives matter. When demonstrators approached organizers (also standing in the streets) who were collecting donations they were asked to go around because they were trying to collect money. Members of TPR formed a wall as the rest of the group walked past so that organizers could collect their donations without interruption. This can also be seen in our video. At no time were donations interrupted for the MAAC Fund.
While these false claims of disruption for this wonderful cause to help children flood social media, it’s not being talked about that these very same people who found this march to be offensive believe it’s alright to attend demonstrators rallies to actually disrupt any kind of positive community outreach and aid. We see this type of behavior in all aspects of this public outrage towards demonstrators where a peaceful protest is met with police departments in full riot gear, National Guard and streets filled with tear gas, but when Proud Boys & Patriots hit the streets physically attacking demonstrators the response is very different. Black Community charities can be disrupted and shut down being viewed as ok and win for the other side, but if protestors shut down an event they are terrorists. When does the double standard stop? When do the laws apply to everyone equally? At what point do so called Patriots get tear gassed while engaged in criminal activity?
Could there be an argument made that the protest through Candy Cane Ln was done in poor taste, lacked tact, of course it could. The same accusations were seen on Halloween as TPR organized a Walking Dead March. But to put out blatant lies and misrepresentation of what actually occurred is what is assisting in the outrage and instead of researching to see if there is truth behind these accusations, the public feeds into it. The reality is that while yes there were people who were upset that protestors took to the streets, there was far greater positive that was demonstrated by those in vehicles, those who walked the sidewalks and those who came out of their houses to join the march. The majority of the outrage that has poured through social media is coming from tens of thousands who were not there and are not even from the Milwaukee area to see the reality of what actually goes on in these streets as demonstrators walk various communities. There will always be rhetoric and misrepresentations of the truth that fits a narrative that just simply isn’t accurate. This is the exact reason that Never Stop Media LLC films events to show the general public what really happened so that there can be no argument and the public has a more informed view of true events. When do the lies stop? When does the general public say enough is enough to the false information and not feed into these narratives that hold no Truth? Happy Holidays and may the Truth Prevail!!!!
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