Wisconsin protest planned after Madison police shooting

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[March 11, 2015]  By Brendan O'Brien
 
 MADISON, Wis. (Reuters) - A mass demonstration is planned on Wednesday at the Wisconsin corrections department in Madison in response to the fatal police shooting last week of an unarmed biracial teenager.

The shooting of Tony Robinson, 19, by a white Madison veteran police officer on Friday is the latest in a string of officer-involved deaths around the nation that have intensified concerns about racial bias in U.S. law enforcement.

Organizers said they expect about 1,000 people to gather in a park on Wednesday afternoon and march to the state corrections department building nearby to protest Robinson's death.

The officer who shot Robinson, Matt Kenny, had responded to calls about a man who had battered someone and was dodging traffic in the street, police have said. Police said Kenny shot Robinson after the teenager attacked him.

Each day since the incident, mourners and protesters have gathered outside the house where Robinson died. On Monday, about 2,000 Madison teenagers walked out of their high school classes to demonstrate at the state Capitol building.

The shooting has cast a light on the divide between the liberal whites that dominate the university city and its black residents.

The demonstrations over Robinson's death, although peaceful, have brought back memories of the sometimes violent clashes that erupted in Ferguson, Missouri, in August after Michael Brown, 18, was fatally shot and in November after a grand jury declined to approve charges against the officer who shot him.

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Brown's shooting, and the choking death in New York of Eric Garner, both of whom were black and unarmed, triggered demonstrations against police use of force around the nation.

Kenny is on paid administrative leave and the Wisconsin Department of Justice is investigating the shooting under a state law enacted in early 2014 that requires independent investigators to take the lead in officer-involved deaths.

(Reporting by Brendan O'Brien; Editing by Sandra Maler)

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