TERROR AT HOME
MADISON: President Donald Trump labelled Kenosha rioters “domestic terrorists” as he visited the razed BLM riot zone while warning the violence in other US cities would stop if their Democrat leaders allowed the National Guard to deploy there.
Mr Trump thanked police and emergency workers, saying they had done their best but been overwhelmed in the unrest that followed the police shooting of Jacob Blake.
Two people have been killed after Mr Blake, a 29-year-old black man, was paralysed after being shot seven times by a police officer last week.
Dozens of buildings in the Wisconsin town were burnt down and businesses trashed in a two-day melee; much of the downtown area remains boarded up.
On a tour of the riot-ravaged area, Mr Trump said the unrest ended “within an hour” of Wisconsin’s
Governor accepting federal help. “This ended immediately,” the President said. “And it should be that way all over. Chicago could use a hand. New York could use a hand. Although, I’ll tell you … New York’s finest and Chicago police department, they do a great job, but they’re not allowed to do their work.”
Among the crowd who gathered to cheer Mr Trump was single mother Melissa Sierra, who brought her young daughter and nephew to watch the motorcade.
“I came to support our President, who came when we needed help and support and our Governor failed to protect my family,” Ms Sierra said.
Ms Sierra, a 29-year-old hairdresser who described herself as politically “down the middle”, said she believed out-of-town troublemakers from the far right and far left had turned Kenosha into a “war zone” over two nights.
“It was frightening, I was up until 5 every morning listening to the police scanners as I am the one here to protect my child,” she said. “I feel like our city would be completely to shreds if the President didn’t send the troops here.
“I never thought something like this could happen in Kenosha. This is a very loving, safe community.”
Some of those cheering Mr Trump also carried posters in support of Kyle Rittenhouse, the 17year-old charged with double murder after firing an AR15 at two protesters on the second night of rioting. “Kyle was acting in selfdefence. He should never have been arrested,” said Ivana Mendoza.
“They are calling him the Kenosha Kid. He was just trying to help a business owner protect his business.”
Family and supporters of Mr Blake gathered at the scene of his arrest as Mr Trump arrived.
In downtown Kenosha dozens of Trump supporters and Black Lives Matter protesters traded insults and eventually fisticuffs.
The scuffles came as protests ramped up in Los Angeles over the latest police shooting of a black man, Dijon Kizzee, who was being detained when police allege he punched an officer and dropped a handgun on Monday night.
Civil rights lawyer Ben Crump, for the family, said Mr Kizzee was shot more than 20 times after being stopped while riding a bicycle.
In Kenosha, civil rights leader Reverend Jesse Jackson and Mr Blake’s family addressed a community meeting where they said they didn’t want the President to visit.