‘7 bullets, 7 days’: Protesters march for Blake in Kenosha

1,000-plus gather at county courthouse, seek equal justice.

KENOSHA, WIS. — More than 1,000 people gathered Saturday for a march and rally here against police violence, about a week after an officer shot Jacob Blake in the back seven times, leaving the 29-year-old Black man paralyzed.

Marchers chanted “No justice, no peace!” and “Seven bullets, seven days” — a reference to the number of times Blake was shot last Sunday. Those leading the march carried a banner reading “Justice for Jacob” as they made their way to the Kenosha County Courthouse, where speakers encouraged demonstrators to vote for change in November.

“Seven bullets later, we recognize that Dr. King’s dream is just a dream, a dream unfulfilled,” said Tim Mahone, a board member of the Kenosha-based nonprofit Mahone Foundation. “A reality unrealized.”

Kenosha Police Officer Rusten Sheskey and two other officers were responding to a domestic abuse call Aug. 16 when Sheskey shot Blake seven times in the back.

Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes said the city’s police department mission promises its officers will serve all people. “We’re not asking for much, we’re just asking them to live up to their word,” he said. “Justice is a bare minimum. Justice should be guaranteed to everybody in this country.”

One of Blake’s sisters, Letetra Widman, said she felt recharged “to stand up not just for Jacob but for all the people who have not gotten justice.”

Protesters have marched on Kenosha’s streets every night since the shooting, with some protests devolving into unrest with damage to buildings and vehicles. On Tuesday, two people were killed by an armed civilian.

Aniyah Ervin, a 16-year-old from Kenosha who is Black, is part of a group that held protests against racial injustice this summer, but she said there had been a feeling that police brutality was not a problem in their community, which teenagers call “Ke-Nowhere.” She said the shooting “shows it can happen anywhere.”