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Jacob Blake shot in the back 7 times by a Kenosha WI
police officer close enough to be holding the back of his
tank top
By mickielynn on 2020-08-28 08:20:39
[caption id="attachment_ 14465" align="alignright" width="600"]
f
E = Ss ie - 5 Jacob Blake with one of his
three young children.[/caption] [caption id="attachment 14458" align="alignnone" width="600"]
3
, aw | Kenosha police officer Rusten
Sheskey who shot Jacob Blake on Sunday, August 23, 2020 in Kenosha Wisconsin. Image credit Kenosha Police
Department.[/caption] [caption id="attachment_14463" align="alignleft" width="300"]
\ Jacob Blake | Rusten T. Sheskey
7 year officer, Rusten Sheskey is the person who shot Jacob Blake 7 times in
the back in Kenosha WI on Sunday, August 23, 2020[/caption] On Sunday, August 23, 2020 the Kenosha police were called
to Jacob Blake's neighborhood to respond to a domestic violence situation, having nothing to do with Jacob. It was his 8
year old son's birthday and his fiancee and three sons were in the car waiting to go on an outing. Jacob had stopped to do
some neighborhood peacekeeping to de-escalate an argument between two women and was returning to his car. Since the
Kenosha police do not have body cameras (although the city council approved and budgeted for them a few years ago) we
need to depend on eyewitness accounts and local videographers to decipher what happened. But the neighbors knew what
was coming when two officers tried to tase and arrest Jacob as he headed back to his car. Some of them, including small
children, came running and crying and shouting "don't do it!" But this Kenosha police officer held on to the 29 year old's
tank top and then shot him 7 times in the back in front of his family. He was mortally wounded but was then treated by
police and EMTs before being rushed to the hospital where he fought to survive and underwent multiple surgeries. As a
white, middle class woman I can't know the enduring agony of the Black communities who have lived with this racist police
brutality and willingness to kill and maim people of color. But in the light of the most recent killings and major protests to
call out this behavior and to affirm the value of Black Lives I thought that the responses to the cold blooded murder of
George Floyd and his affirmation as a valued and loved member of his community, and to the other recent murders of
Breonna Taylor and Ahmad Arbery would prevent such a thing from ever happening again. And I also thought that nothing
could be as gut wrenching as the video of George Floyd's murder in Minneapolis. But I was wrong on both counts. Why
did officer Sheskey do it? What did he see and feel? Certainly not a fit, vital, energetic 29 year old Black father, brother
and son, whose parents and family loved him. Not a human being who lived a loving, productive, connected life. Not the
grandson of a well known and respected civil rights leader, also named Jacob Blake. Not someone who worked as a
security guard. What would cause a 7 year veteran of the local police department to shoot an unarmed man in the back 7
times? I certainly don't know but I hope that we find out and can use this latest hate and fear motivated crime to continue
the changes that need to be made in law enforcement and police departments in our country. As you might expect, Jacob
Blake's body has been seriously damaged and he is currently paralyzed from the waist down, due to extensive damage to his
spinal cord. You can read more about his injuries and also the legacy of his civil rights pioneer grandfather here. After the
shooting the Milwaukee Bucks refused to play in the 5th game of the NBA playoffs in protest of the continuing and
escalating police violence against people of color.
Embedded iframe at
https://web.archive.org/web/20210000000000/https://www.democracynow.org/embed/story/2020/8/27/sports_strike_wave_dave_
[caption id="attachment_14466" align="alignnone" width="600"
]
BUCKS
= Officials stand beside an
empty court at the scheduled start of an NBA basketball first round playoff game between the Milwaukee Bucks and the
Orlando Magic, Wednesday, Aug. 26, 2020, in Lake Buena Vista, Fla. The Milwaukee Bucks didn't take the floor in protest
against racial injustice and the shooting of Jacob Blake, a Black man, by police in Kenosha, Wisconsin. (AP Photo/Ashley
Landis, Pool)[/caption] [caption id="attachment_14461" align="alignright" width="600"]
berser rr 2 PSF
The WNBA's Washington
Mystics on Wednesday took to the floor to protest the Jacob Blake shooting. WNBA photo credit.[/caption] [caption
id="attachment_14460" align="alignnone" width="600"]
WNBA Mystics wear t-shirts
that show the bullet holes in Jacob Blake's back. With his name spelled out on the fronts.[/caption] In a resolution of the
NBA strike the players met on Thursday evening and agreed to resume playing after 2 or three days of striking to support
Black lives. The decision was made in the spirit of continuing to have the spotlight that would support their anti-police
racism work. And other decisions were being made by the NFL and MLB teams. Not always unanimous. On Tuesday
evening a group of so called Kenosha Guards arrived in the city, armed with assault rifles and chemical irritants, supposedly
to protect property against the ongoing protests. One of them ended up becoming a killer of innocent bystanders when he
opened fire on the crowd with an AR-15 type rifle. This 17 year old was a Blue Lives Matter supporter, high school dropout
and law enforcement wannabe. He traveled over the border from Antioch IL to join the militia and fatally shot two
protestors and seriously wounded a third who may lose his arm. [caption id="attachment_ 14462" align="alignnone"
width="600"} ae Tie Lari Set 4 : SS A man on the
ground is one of the victims of the 17 year old shooter, Kyle Rittenhouse, on Tuesday, August 25, 2020 i in Kenosha
Wisconsin. Photo y Tayfun Coskun/Anadolu Agency/ via Getty images[/caption] Perhaps one of the clues to the violent
behavior of Kenosha Police officer Sheskey appears in the distinct difference in the treatment of the militia members (also
out after the 8 PM curfew) and the protestors who were tear gassed and chased with rubber bullets. The police in their
armored vehicles actually stopped to thank the militia members and give them bottles of water. Then after the shootings
they allowed Kyle Rittenhouse to walk by their vehicles still carrying his assault weapon and to escape the scene. Now he is
being held in his hometown and charged with six felony counts including several of intentional murder but he needs to be
extradited to Kenosha to stand trial. [caption id="attachment 14457" align="alignnone" width="600"]
Wisconsin Kenosha Militia
shooter Kyle Rittenhouse at a Blue Lives Matter protest allowed to leave the scene by Kenosha Police after killing 2 and
wounding | protestor.
Image Credit: Twitter@ BGOOnTheScene[/caption] Evidently the climate of racism and lack of accountability for police
violence is partially the responsibility of the long time police chief, Daniel Miskinis, who in addition to blaming the victims
of the vigilante shooting also had Jacob Blake handcuffed to his hospital bed as if he were the criminal in the police crime
against him. In fact the organization Color of Change is circulating an online petition calling on the mayor of Kenosha to
fire the police chief. There's so much more to say: including Facebook's posting the page of this militia group with an
algorithm that actually favored viewing it; the laws that might allow the local DA to ultimately decide if Officer Sheskey is
charged in spite of an FBI independent investigation; the question about how a 17 year old could possess an assault weapon
in the first place; the dismal delays in producing findings; the stubborn resistance to changes in policing even in the face of
massive public protests and demands for change; law enforcement attempts to smear and devalue the victims of police
violence (often amplified by the media)... But this will have to do for now. If you want to be an antiracist one thing that you
can do is find out more about this young man, and read or listen to the statements of his parents and his sister. We need to
continue to humanize people of color and tell their stories so that these violent, racist patterns can be disrupted and changed.
