Three police-involved deaths in Milwaukee in 1981 have been cited as causes for a general increase in racial tension in the city that year.
[1] In December, two Milwaukee Police officers – John Machjewski and Charles Mehlberg – were shot and killed by Robert Lee Collins, an African-American man, while investigating a reported robbery at Alfred's House of Bourbon, a tavern.
[2][3] Following the deaths, Alderman Roy Nabors publicly stated that the shooting might have been motivated by the suspect's fear of the police.
[3] Mayor Henry Maier declared a state of emergency and, in response to a demand from the president of the Milwaukee Professional Police Association that the Milwaukee Common Council hear a list of police grievances before officers would return to work, convened an extraordinary session of the council.
[3] Maier also issued a request to bars and taverns in the city to voluntarily agree to close early for the duration of the strike.