Police largely silent as outrage builds over Blake shooting
IT TOOK three days, an outpouring of anger in the streets and a NBA boycott before authorities investigating the police shooting of Jacob Blake in Kenosha, Wisconsin, started answering some of the most basic questions about what happened.
And still, many key pieces of information have yet to be released, fuelling speculation over why a white officer shot Blake in the back at close range Sunday as the black man leaned into his SUV.
Police maintain they are not hiding information but can’t reveal other details while the case is under investigation. But the near-silence from the Kenosha department and state authorities is at odds with what an increasing number of American police forces are doing in the wake of highprofile shootings with the potential to cause unrest.
“The times have changed. What you may have done even a year ago doesn’t work now. We need to recognise the public outcry that is taking place and the need for information,” said Chris Burbank, a former police chief in Salt Lake City.
Even as new questions surfaced about the delayed arrest of a white teenager suspected in the shooting deaths of two protesters, police took no questions Thursday at a news conference where they focused on the response to the unrest.
Investigators haven’t explained why police drew guns on Blake and why the officer opened fire. They say a knife was found in the SUV, but they have said nothing about what role it may have played.
As for why officers came to the scene in the first place, the Wisconsin Department of Justice, which is investigating, said in a news release Wednesday that a woman had called about a boyfriend who wasn’t supposed to be there. But investigators haven’t said whether Blake was that boyfriend.
Blake survived but is paralysed, and it would “take a miracle” for him to walk again, family attorney Ben Crump said Tuesday.