Columnist James E. Causey
Opinion: The Kenosha police officer who shot Jacob Blake won’t be charged. But he should be fired.
The white police officer who shot Jacob Blake seven times in front of his children will not be charged.
That news on Tuesday was hardly a surprise to me, nor will it be a surprise to any person of color living in America.
Change the location and the circumstances, and the results are almost always the same. A Black person — armed or unarmed — is shot or killed by police and the officer is not charged because the officer “feared for his life.”
Neither Officer Rusten Sheskey nor Blake, 29, will face charges in the Aug. 23 shooting. In a sense, Blake has already been sentenced: He is paralyzed from the waist down and is lucky to be alive.
During Tuesday’s two-hour news conference, Kenosha County District Attorney Michael Graveley said it was a “narrow decision.”
That decision, he said, was based on the belief that Blake might have harmed the officer if the officer hadn’t acted. Officers have the discretion under state law to make life-and-death decisions. If prosecutors were to charge the officer, the argument goes, the burden would be on the state to prove that he hadn’t acted in self-defense.
Graveley acknowledged that as a white man, he can’t know how it feels when an African American is approached by a police officer.
That’s the one thing I can agree with
Graveley on. As a white man, he will
know what it feels like to be Black in America — especially when coming face to face with police.
Here’s what I know:
Even though Sheskey was not charged, this case must not end here. The public must demand that Sheskey be removed from the force.
Blake’s shooting sparked protests and violent unrest. Several Kenosha businesses were damaged during the demonstrations last summer, and tragically, on Aug. 25, two men were fatally shot by then-17-year-old Kyle Rittenhouse. A third man was seriously wounded. Rittenhouse’s attorney entered not guilty pleas to all counts for his client earlier Tuesday, arguing he had acted in self-defense.
Graveley’s decision certainly wasn’t a surprise to me. I figured it was more likely that the 2-14 New York Jets would somehow figure out a way to qualify for the playoffs and win the Super Bowl than an officer would be charged in the Blake shooting.
“It is my decision now that no Kenosha law enforcement officer will be charged with any criminal offense based on the facts and laws,” Graveley said early in the news conference.
Nothing else the DA said after that mattered for people of color because anyone who watched the bystander video that went viral in August knows his decision didn’t pass the eye test.
Here’s the eye test: Blake slowly walks away from the officers to the driver’s side of an SUV. Sheskey has his gun drawn and grabs the back of Blake’s shirt. Blake leans into his car. Sheskey unloads.
The incident takes only seconds. At the time of the shooting, Blake doesn’t appear to be a threat to officers, but Graveley said the video doesn’t show everything.
Blake was armed with a knife during the encounter and he refused to drop the knife, Graveley said. Noble Wray, a police consultant and former Madison police chief who reviewed the case, said officers acted reasonably under the circumstances.
Wray said Blake had the knife, dropped the knife and picked it up again. At the time of the shooting, he was armed, Wray said.
Blake disputed that account, saying he had no intention of stabbing the officer, Graveley said.
Graveley played excerpts from a 911 call placed by Blake’s girlfriend, who had complained that he was at the residence in violation of a restraining order. There was a dispute over the keys to a vehicle.