Kenosha, Wisconsin
In the city of Kenosha, Wisconsin, a 29-year-old Black man named Jacob Blake was shot seven times in his back by an officer on August 23, 2020. Jacob Blake survived the shooting and was left paralyzed from the waist down. Three of his children were sitting in the car that he was walking towards as the shooting occurred. The officer involved, officer Sheskey, said that he acted in self-defense because Jacob Blake carried a knife and he was afraid that Jacob would stab him with it. Sheskey’s lawyer claimed that Sheskey thought Blake was carrying a knife and was attempting to kidnap a child. According to The Washington Post, Jacob Blake said he had the knife in his possession, but he didn’t have it on his person at the time of the interaction. According to The New York Times, Jacob Blake said that he wouldn’t pull a knife on an officer, saying “‘Why would I pull a knife on a cop… that’s just stupid.’” Witnesses said they saw Jacob Blake trying to break up an argument between two women, and was shot when he was walking back to his car. The decision that was made about the officer-involved not being charged for shooting Jacob Blake made the people of Kenosha, Wisconsin extremely angry. Protestors marched in Kenosha, Wisconsin to express their anger for the decision of not charging a white police officer for shooting a black man. A group of approximately 50 people peacefully marched together, then assembled outside of the Kenosha county administration building. Many people were outraged at the decision, especially Jacob Blake’s family. According to The Guardian, “Blake’s family slammed the prosecution’s decision as ‘unjust’” and they “expressed dismay over the decision by prosecutors and vowed to take the protests to Washington DC.” Wisconsin’s governor Tony Evers said the lack of prosecution of officers involved in Jacob Blake’s shooting and attempted murder was, “‘further evidence that our work is not done.’” Washington’s attorney general Josh Kaul said, “there was a ‘pressing need’ for criminal justice reform and called for new police officer standards that emphasize de-escalation techniques to avoid using force.” The state of Wisconsin’s lieutenant governor released a tweet saying that he wishes he was shocked and that this is “another instance in a string of misapplications of justice.” He said that it keeps happening and every time it happens, there’s a new excuse as to why it happened. The support of the protesting for Jacob Blake even extended to the Marquette men’s basketball team. They took a knee and wore black uniforms before their game against the Connecticut Huskies, showing how disappointed they were with the decision of not convicting the officer that shot Jacob Blake.
A video of the shooting of Jacob Blake was filmed by a bystander and it caught the nation’s attention during a time filled with many protests over police brutality and racism in the United States. Jacob Blake’s shooting occurred in the summer of 2020, three months after the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis, Minnesota at the hands of four police officers. During the days and the protests that followed, over 250 people were arrested, including a 17-year-old white boy named Kyle Rittenhouse. He had traveled from Illinois to Kenosha, Wisconsin, and clashed with some protestors. He was carrying an AR-15 style assault rifle that he used to fire at Black Lives Matter protestors in Kenosha. Rittenhouse was at the protests with a group of people that claimed to be protecting local businesses from being looted and vandalized. However, many of the people in the group, including himself, weren’t Kenosha locals. According to The New York Times, the group of people the boy was with was welcomed into the street by officers. In a live-stream video that was published online, there is a clear clip of an officer telling the group that he really appreciates them being there. The people in the group were armed as well, and Rittenhouse was carrying a gun that he was too young to possess, yet the police officers did nothing about the boy with the gun. Rittenhouse was arrested the day after the shooting, and he was charged in the fatal shootings of two men and the wounding of another man. The US attorney for Wisconsin’s eastern district Matthew Kreuger said that the department of justice would be making their own decision on the charges for Kyle Rittenhouse.
In Kenosha, Wisconsin, the case of Jacob Blake is rare and is different compared to other cases of police misconduct and brutality. The reason Jacob Blake’s case is different is that he’s alive. In other big cases, victims such as Breonna Taylor and George Floyd to name a few, are dead. One outcome that all these cases have in common, however, is that these people aren’t getting the full serving of justice that they deserve.
Guarino, Mark Mark Berman. “No Charges to Be Filed against Kenosha Police Officer Who Shot Jacob Blake.” Washington Post, 6 Jan. 2021, www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2021/01/05/kenosha-police-charges-jacob-blake.
www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/jan/06/jacob-blake-protests-officer-not-charged
www.nytimes.com/2020/08/26/us/kenosha-shooting-protests-jacob-blake.html
www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/jan/06/jacob-blake-protests-officer-not-charged
