Some arrested in Kenosha by law enforcement in unmarked vehicles say federal agents were involved.
Activist groups say federal agents involved
Some people arrested in Kenosha in recent days were “snatched up” by what appeared to be federal agents in unmarked vehicles, according to reports from activist groups and family.
A Milwaukee-based group said three local activists were arrested while walking to their car Wednesday night and taken away in unmarked black SUVs by federal agents.
And a widely shared social media video from the same day shows law enforcement officials shattering the windows of a Toyota Sienna minivan with Oregon plates and forcibly removing those inside, who are then driven away in unmarked black SUVs. No license plates are visible.
Kenosha police said the group had been stopped by law enforcement because U.S. Marshals saw them filling multiple gas cans at a station near Washington Road and 30th Avenue.
“Suspecting that the occupants of these vehicles were preparing for criminal activity related to the civil unrest, officers attempted to make contact and investigate,” the police statement reads.
Force was used for one arrest because a van driver ignored orders to stop, police said.
Those arrested were with Riot Kitchen, a nonprofit based in Seattle that provides protesters and homeless people with meals, according to board member Jennifer Scheurle. They had been traveling to Washington, D.C., and detoured to Kenosha.
Scheurle said she lost contact with them Wednesday night and didn’t learn her crew was in jail until about 3 a.m.
Kenosha police said nine people were arrested on disorderly conduct charges, pending review by the district attorney.
The group doesn’t have a lawyer yet, Scheurle said.
“I’m terrified for them,” she said. She said the group was at the Speedway station to fill up its three vehicles and get fuel for a generator they use in preparing food.
“No matter your affiliation, how would you feel if your friends got snatched from the street by a group you can’t identify?” she asked.
Evan Hill of the New York Times in a tweet pointed out that the video shows what appears to be at least three different units represented on uniforms.
Police on Thursday said officers identified themselves and detained the people from the bus and truck. The minivan tried to drive away, resulting in the stop, forced entry and arrests.
Kenosha police said the three vehicles contained helmets, gas masks, protective vests, illegal fireworks, and suspected controlled substances.
According to a Facebook post from the Milwaukee Alliance Against Racism and Political Oppression, three of its “activists” were picked up Wednesday night as they were walking to their cars.
One was Adelana Akindes, which the alliance post identified as a lead organizer with the UW-Parkside chapter of Students for a Democratic Society.
Akindes, 24, was shown as being in the Kenosha County Jail late Thursday afternoon, on a curfew violation charge.
Fay Akindes said her daughter is involved with a number of groups to create long-lasting change.
“She didn’t do anything. What did she do?” Fay Akindes said. “She was exercising her civil rights as a citizen, seeking to exercise peaceful demonstration.”
She said she had called the Kenosha County Jail “several” times asking to speak to her daughter but that she was repeatedly told her daughter could not make a call until she was booked.
Also Thursday, the official FBI Twitter account tweeted that the agency was assisting the situation in Kenosha but was only interested in disrupting violence, not peaceful protesting.
“FBI Milwaukee is supporting our state and local law enforcement partners with maintaining public safety in our community,” the tweet read. “The FBI is providing both personnel and resources in this effort. Our focus is on identifying, investigating, and disrupting individuals that are inciting violence and engaging in criminal activity. We are not focused on peaceful protests.”
The tweet was signed by Special Agent in Charge Robert E. Hughes.
At a 1 p.m. news conference at which officials took no questions, Kenosha County Sheriff David Beth said federal agents had been in Kenosha “since the first day,” listing U.S. Marshals, the FBI and Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.
“The feds have been here from the first day helping with the exact same mission that everyone else is: to help protect the people of Kenosha and protect everyone who’s here,” Beth said.