Families of Jacob Blake, George Floyd, Eric Garner share pain on ‘Dateline’
The families of Jacob Blake Jr., George Floyd and Eric Garner will take part in what is described as their first joint interview for a special edition of “Dateline NBC” Thursday night.
The hourlong special, airing at 9 p.m. Central Time Thursday on NBC, is titled “Journey for Justice.”
The three families of the three Black men share a tragic bond: Blake was shot seven times by a Kenosha police officer last summer; Floyd died in May after a Minneapolis police officer pinned him on the ground with his knee for nearly nine minutes; and Garner died in 2014 after being put in a chokehold by a New York City police officer.
“There’s two systems of justice,” Blake’s father, Jacob Blake Sr., tells NBC News’ Craig Melvin in a preview for the special released Tuesday.
The preview for Thursday’s special was released just hours before Kenosha
County District Attorney Michael Graveley announced at a press conference that Rusten Sheskey, the officer who shot Blake, would not be criminally charged in the case.
“History keeps on repeating itself over and over again,” Blake’s sister, Letetra Widman, says.
The special also explores the demand for police reform and the need to do something about police violence against Black Americans; interview subjects include civil rights attorney Ben Crump, who is representing Blake and George Floyd’s family; and Jim Palmer, executive director of Wisconsin Professional Police Association.