A huge fresh batch of 911 tapes has been released by the West Allis Police Department, shedding new light on the racially-fraught crime wave that gripped the Wisconsin State Fair last Thursday. Call after call came in to the 911 dispatcher, each sounding similar but adding a new story:
"Hi I'm calling because my kids came from the state fair and they were attacked by a group of black people that opened the car door and started punching them," one woman tells the dispatcher.
Then, another caller:
"Hi, uhm, there was like 25 black kids that were trying to jump a State Fair park worker," a woman says.
Meanwhile, West Allis police say race did play a factor in 11 incidents they're investigating from that night, including nine assaults, and that it might still charge some of the incidents from that night as "hate crimes," according to Milwaukee radio station WTMJ.
Many of the tapes, which were obtained by WTMJ, sound like echoes of each other.
One caller just after 11:30 said he "just wanted to make sure somebody got to the kid who was getting, just, pummeled on the side of the road."
The African Americans that were beating the hell out of him pulled him up off the sidewalk into the bush," he says. And then: "And the security guard, the African American lady that was working that gate, her ass needs to be fired, because she didn't do a damn thing. She just stood there and watched."
In another tape, a man who sounds drunk or dizzy tells the dispatcher he was jumped and beaten, and eventually turns his rage on her.
"Yeah, there's a group of African Americans that are walking down 75th Street, going north, that thought it was okay to have a law abiding citizen walking by... and they just jump me, what?"
"Do you need an ambulance, sir?"
"No I don't need an ambulance. I'm bleeding but I don't give a shit."
"Do you want an ambulance?"
"No I don't want a fucking ambulance. Send some squads, arrest these people."
"We have squads all over the area you're going to have to walk up to an officer and find one."
"Walk up to an officer? I don't see an officer anywhere what are you talking about?"
"We have about 20 squads all around the general area."
"I mean this is what I gotta go through, I pay taxes and I'm walking down the fucking street -- really? -- and this is what the fuck happens, some stupid fucking black motherfuckers, they think they can just punch people, really?"
Wisconsin State Fair police arrested 23 people during the violence, all but one of them between the ages of 15 and 20, and West Allis Police arrested another seven. Police reports from the incident are expected to come out later today.
