Wisconsin town reeling
Protesters clash with officers as a Black man lies paralyzed from gunshot wounds.
As protests continue to roil Kenosha, a Black man shot in the back by police Sunday lies paralyzed in the hospital.
KENOSHA, Wis. — The National Guard was out, smoke tinged the air, and word came that a Black man with gunshot wounds lay paralyzed in the hospital.
Almost three months after the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis police custody, protests and violence reignited in cities across the U.S. this week after a video showed an officer appearing to shoot 29-yearold Jacob Blake in the back as he entered his SUV on a residential street in Kenosha.
Hundreds have defied an 8 p.m. curfew in this city of 100,000. Police have fired tear gas and rubber bullets as demonstrators chant, “No justice, no peace,” in front of the county courthouse.
Protesters have hurled bottles and fireworks at police, and set garbage trucks on fire. Ashes blow over a car dealership, a Mexican restaurant and a furniture store, and a church has been partially burned after a lot was set ablaze next door.
“We’ve long had problems with police in this area, and I’ve protested regularly since George Floyd died, but this is the most tense it’s been in a long time,” said Kejuan Goldsmith, a 19-yearold college student who lives just north in Racine and regularly visits his sister in Kenosha.
“I’ve been out every night, and gotten teargassed twice even though I’ve been peaceful. In the short term, we want this officer fired, in the long term, we need broad change in our country over policing,” said Goldsmith, who is Black.
Protests have grown in the U.S., with police facing off against residents as near as the Wisconsin state capital, Madison — where thousands rallied downtown — and as far as Seattle; New York; Richmond, Va.; Washington; and Portland, Ore.
Police have arrested at least six people in Madison, on suspicion of vandalism of the state Capitol and property destruction, and at least 11 in Minneapolis, where groups broke windows at the county jail. Many demonstrations, including one down 5th Avenue in New York, have been largely peaceful.
Meanwhile, Blake, who family members said has several bullet wounds, is in a Milwaukee hospital, alive but paralyzed from the waist down, according to his lawyer.
Anger over the shooting spurred Wisconsin Gov.
Tony Evers to summon 125 National Guard members to the city on Monday, before saying a day later that he was calling in more to protect state buildings and so “individuals can exercise their right safely.”
Kenosha is not accustomed to upheaval. Concrete barriers block downtown streets. Suburban businesses as far as six miles from protest sites boarded up and shut their doors by early afternoon.
In an emotional news conference, Blake’s mother, Julia Jackson, said the family and city “need healing.”
“We really just need prayers,” she said. “As I was riding through here, the city, I noticed a lot of damage. It doesn’t reflect my son or my family. If Jacob knew what was going on as far as that goes — the violence and the destruction — he would be very unpleased.”
Police have released few details about the shooting as family members, witnesses and Blake’s lawyer, Benjamin Crump, have given their accounts of the incident caught on bystander videos.
Crump, who also represents the Floyd family, said “it’s a miracle he’s still alive,” as he described Blake’s injuries.
Crump said that Blake’s sons, ages 3, 5 and 8, were in the SUV as police shot him. The lawyer, who said officers had used a Taser on Blake before the shooting, called the officers “irresponsible, reckless and inhumane.”
In an interview, Blake’s father, who is also named Jacob Blake, said that his son had “eight holes” in his body and that doctors were unsure whether his paralysis was permanent.
The shooting took place around 5 p.m. Sunday when police responded to a domestic dispute.
In an initial video that quickly spread across social media, two officers follow Blake as he walks around to the driver’s side of a gray SUV. As he is reaching to open the door, the closest officer grabs Blake’s tank top. Shots are heard in the video before the car horn beeps continuously as Blake slumps onto it.
Another video from a different angle, recorded from a nearby home’s window, shows police attempting to restrain Blake before they follow him to the car.
Kenosha police do not wear body cameras, though they do have microphones.
Two officers are now on administrative leave, a standard practice after police shootings. An investigation by state authorities is underway.
Blake reportedly was getting one of his children from a home near where his car was parked. Bystanders said they believed they heard police yell at Blake to drop a knife. Crump said Blake was “simply trying to do the right thing by intervening in a domestic incident.”
Police have not said whether Blake had a weapon or why police fired. They gave no details on whether Blake was involved in the domestic dispute.
The police union said it was too early to judge the shooting.
“As always, the video currently circulating does not capture all the intricacies of a highly dynamic incident,”
Pete Deates, president of the Kenosha Professional Police Assn., said in a statement. “We ask that you withhold from passing judgment until all the facts are known and released.”
Kenosha County Dist. Atty. Michael Graveley is investigating the shooting alongside the Wisconsin Justice Department’s Division of Criminal Investigation.
The department said it will release its report to the district attorney within 30 days.
The shooting and protests have shaken Kenosha, an otherwise quiet city halfway between Chicago and Milwaukee on Lake Michigan that was once an auto manufacturing center. The county is majority white, with 7.4% of residents who are Black and 13.5% who are Latino.
In June, protests erupted in Kenosha after Floyd’s death, but residents said this week’s demonstrations and violence have far eclipsed those marches.
Randy Bryce, a 55-yearold labor activist and former Democratic congressional candidate who was out Tuesday in Kenosha, said the shooting highlighted the need for more police oversight.
“Given the times we live in, it’s outrageous the police didn’t even have body cameras on,” Bryce said.
Some property owners guarded their businesses against damage. Others spray-painted signs such as “Black-owned” and “Black Lives Matter” on boardedup buildings. A few — despite fires and broken glass — saw a moment for reflection.
“While we are relieved that our church home mostly survived the inferno in the lot next door, we affirm that we would rather lose 100 buildings than one more life to police violence,” the Rev. Erik Carlson of Bradford Community Church said in a statement.
In response to Blake’s shooting, Evers has called lawmakers back to Madison for a special session to push through a police use-of-force bill initially introduced after Floyd’s death.
“We cannot forget the reason why these protests began, and what we have seen play out over the last two nights, and many nights this year is the pain, anguish and exhaustion of Black people in our state and country,” he said in a statement Tuesday, adding that people should be able to protest “peacefully and safely.”
“We cannot allow the cycle of systemic racism and injustice to continue. We also cannot continue going down this path of damage and destruction.”