Jay-Z posts bail and pays fines for Wisconsin protesters

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Jay-Z has posted bail and paid fines for protestors in Wisconsin.

Rapper Jay-Z, along with his legal arm, Team ROC, have been paying the bail money and fines for those arrested and fined in Wauwatosa, Wisconsin, following protests surrounding the death of Alvin Cole. Cole, a 17-year-old Black teenager from Wisconsin, was shot and killed outside a Wauwatosa mall in February. Protests errupted following the news that Cole’s killer, police officer Joseph Mensah, would not face charges for the killing.

In a statement, Jay-Z and Team ROC said that their “hearts break for the family of Alvin Cole and the Wauwatosa community.”

“Not only did the District Attorney’s Office fail to hold Officer Joseph Mensah accountable for killing Alvin,” they continued, “but the local police also arrested and injured Alvin’s mother Tracy and his sisters as they peacefully protested alongside Jacob Blake’s father.”

According to a report from CNN, 20 people were arrested last Thursday (8th) during demonstrations, two of whom asked for medical attention, Wauwatosa police said in a news release Friday. 

In July, Jay-Z, Team ROC, and Memphis rapper Yo Gotti, filed legal action on behalf of 227 inmates at Parchman Prison in Mississippi. The lawsuit, which addresses conditions for prisoners at the prison, was brought against Mississippi Department of Corrections Commissioner Nathan Burl Cain, and prison healthcare provider Centurion.

The lawsuit followed Team Roc’s demand for charges against a Charleston protester to be dismissed, and an open letter calling for the arrest of a police officer in Milwaukee over three fatal shootings.