If this was “Mayor Trump,” I suspect that the newspaper would be more interested in digging into the story instead of parroting denials.

Ald. Bob Donovan made the brazen claim Tuesday, a day after Milwaukee police announced Bucks rookie Sterling Brown would not be charged after officers arrested and used a Taser on him during an encounter that began with a parking violation.

Donovan, who represents the area where Brown was arrested, cited unnamed sources for his claims about Barrett and said the allegations, if true, are “disturbing.”

[…]

Police Chief Edward Flynn also had sharp words for Donovan.

“Although the mayor was briefed in general terms about this incident, I never had a conversation with him or took direction from him about this case,” Flynn said in a statement.

“Although I appreciate Alderman Donovan’s knee-jerk loyalty to the union’s position on everything, I would remind him that getting his information from the Milwaukee Police Association does not equate with actually knowing the facts,” he said.

In an interview, Donovan said: “I’m confident that what I was told is accurate.”

Milwaukee police command staff reviewed reports and body camera footage of the arrest and decided not to refer Brown to prosecutors for criminal charges, a police spokesman said Monday.

Barrett’s own actions belay the notion that he was a passive bystander. He was out in the media within a day saying that Brown wouldn’t be charged. And it is highly suspicious how a guy who was tased at 2 in the morning in a Walgreen’s parking lot after double parking over two handicapped spaces is released within 2 hours. And it is highly suspicious how the announcement came so quickly that he would not be charged. I suspect that if he were a regular black man in Milwaukee and not a Bucks player, the treatment would have been different. Somebody’s finger was on the scale.

Given that this was a Walgreen’s parking lot, which was surely being recorded, and there were several police officers with vehicle and body cams, we should be able to see what really happened fairly quickly.