STATE OF EMERGENCY
Wisconsin governor responds to fires, looting in Kenosha
KENOSHA, Wis. — Wisconsin’s governor declared a state of emergency Tuesday after some protesters vandalized businesses and set dozens of buildings on fire in a city where police shot a Black man multiple times, apparently in the back in view of his children.
Gov. Tony Evers called for protesters to be peaceful, while also saying that the number of National Guard members he has sent to Kenosha would double from 125 to 250.
A strip of businesses in a central residential neighborhood was consumed in flames early Tuesday. A line of National Guard members prevented anyone from getting close as firefighters worked to douse the flames.
‘‘This is our town,’’ said Mike Mehlan, 33, a chef, as he stared at the buildings, stunned.
Mehlan said that just a half-hour before, he had seen at least 20 cars pull up to a nearby gas station, break in and then head to the stores one block away. They entered the mattress store and set it on fire, he said.
In several other cities around the country overnight, there were demonstrations and, in some cases, flashes of destruction in protests that cited the shooting of Blake as the nation’s latest example of police violence.
In Kenosha, the worst destruction was limited to a relatively small area of the city, which is home to about 100,000 people, and some neighborhoods of Kenosha were quiet. At least one deputy sheriff was injured in the neck by a firework that was set off. It was uncertain whether there were arrests.
Kenosha Fire Chief Charles Leipzig told the Kenosha News that 34 fires were associated with the unrest, and 30 businesses were destroyed or damaged along with an unknown number of residences.
One of the buildings destroyed, less than a mile away from the focus of the unrest, was the Wisconsin Department of
Corrections' probation and parole office.
One resident said he had little problem with burning businesses to spur social change and reform to policing.
‘‘It’s unfortunate, but it has to be done,’’ said Wayne Gardner, who lives around the corner.
Police offered little detail about what had happened in the shooting, saying only that an officer had shot Blake while responding to a domestic incident. Local and state officials have declined to provide information about the officers who responded.
Blake, 29, was in stable condition at a hospital. His father said the wounded man is paralyzed from the waist down and has “eight holes” in his body.
The father, also named Jacob Blake, told the Chicago Sun-times in a story published Tuesday that he didn’t know whether his son’s paralysis would be permanent. The older man was traveling from North Carolina to be with his son in a Milwaukee hospital.
“I want to put my hand on my son’s cheek and kiss him on his forehead, and then I’ll be OK,” the father told the newspaper. “I’ll kiss him with my mask. The first thing I want to do is touch my son.”
Benjamin Crump, an attorney for the family, said he had been told that the younger Blake was attempting to intervene in an argument between two women when police arrived on Sunday.
In a video taken from an apartment window across the street, several officers can be seen standing on a sidewalk next to a four-door SUV. The man identified as Blake, wearing a white tank top and black shorts, is seen walking along the passenger side of the vehicle, away from the officers, who are yelling. At least one of them points a gun at him.
Blake walks around the front of the vehicle and opens the driver’s side door. Several people can be heard yelling, and one officer is seen grabbing Blake’s shirt. As Blake opens the vehicle door, at least half a dozen shots are heard, while at least two officers can be seen with their guns pointed at him. The video, which is about 20 seconds long, ends shortly after the shooting.
Crump said that three of Blake’s sons — aged 3, 5 and 8 — were in the car at the time of the shooting.
The officers were placed on administrative leave, which is standard practice in such cases. Authorities released no details about the officers and did not immediately respond to requests for their service records.
Wisconsin is one of the most racially divided states in the country. About 7% of the state’s population is Black, and about 12% of Kenosha’s residents are Black, based on 2019 Census Bureau data. Both the mayor and police chief are white.
The video spread quickly on social media, and demonstrators beyond Kenosha spoke of Blake in marches overnight. In Madison, Wisconsin, about 4,000 people gathered near the state Capitol and marched downtown, some smashing glass storefronts and setting dumpsters ablaze. A liquor store was looted.
In Portland, Oregon, where nightly protests have continued for nearly three months, a few hundred demonstrators began a march by chanting about Blake. The crowd later gathered outside a building for the Portland Police Association, and some demonstrators lit fires on the exterior of the building before police moved in, using tear gas, shoving protesters to the ground and making arrests.
In Seattle, about 200 people marched in solidarity with Kenosha. The group was led by a line of protesters holding shields, and occasionally by a small group of musicians. Some protesters threw trash and then fireworks at the East Precinct police station, igniting a fire in front of the building. Some also broke windows at a Starbucks coffee shop.
In Minneapolis, at least 11 people were arrested downtown outside the Hennepin County Adult Detention Center. Sheriff Dave Hutchinson said protesters broke windows at the center and ‘‘threatened to breach the security of the jail.’’ One police officer suffered a broken hand during a confrontation with demonstrators, he said.
‘‘We fully support peaceful protests, but we cannot — and will not — allow demonstrators to destroy property or jeopardize the safety and security of our inmates, our deputies and our jail,’’ the sheriff said.
In Kenosha, Chauncey Body, 44, watched the flames from the sidewalk. ‘‘This hurts,’’ he said.
He said that if the fires were set in the name of protest, he believed in the conviction behind them.
‘‘But this is a neighborhood. They’re putting lives in danger,’’ he said.
Kenosha is under a curfew at night. Police officers attempted to disperse people who were standing outside Monday night, with little success. They used tear gas to try to clear people away.
Kenosha County Sheriff David Beth said police were outnumbered.
‘‘We’ve got 200 officers, I don’t know how many armored vehicles,’’ he said. ‘‘It’s not enough. It’s a battle we aren’t able to keep up with.’’
Information from the Associated Press was included in this story.