(AllHipHop News) Alvin Cole was 17-year-old, a mere teenager, when a Wauwatosa cop fatally shot him in February 2020.
Officer Joseph Mensah, the man who says that he acted in self-defense, also killed two other Black men, Antonio Gonzalez in 2015, and Jay Anderson Jr. in 2016.
Officer Mensah, a Black man, is currently being investigated for Cole’s February shooting by the Milwaukee County DA’s office.
The police-involved killings have sparked the current hashtag movement, #Justice4TheeThree, to direct more attention toward the unique circumstances surrounding their death.
Another attempt to draw awareness to the murders was made by Jay-Z’s Roc Nation.
The social justice component of the radically successful Roc Nation empire, Team Roc, presented two proposals to the Wisconsin based firm, Lamar Advertising Co. to have call-out billboards calling for Mensah’s immediate arrest.
One of the billboards would have said, “Justice for Alvin Cole, Jay Anderson, Antonio Gonzales. They did not deserve to die. Officer Mensah must be held accountable.”
Both were rejected.
Team ROC’s legal team says that this is “outright censorship.”
The attorney on the case stated, “Frankly, for a company that purports to want to protect people’s First Amendment rights, this really struck us as censorship on what is a hot-button topic.”
The Lamar Advertising Co. spokesperson said via email, “The billboard copy from Team Roc was vetted through our usual copy acceptance process and rejected on the basis that we do not post copy concerning potential crimes unless there has been a judicial determination of guilt.”