Protests flare up over police shootings
Cases in Wis., La. bring hundreds to the streets in several US cities
Protests against police shootings of Black men and women continued in cities across the country Tuesday, days after Jacob Blake, 29, was shot in Wisconsin.
Blake, a Black man and father of three, was paralyzed from the waist down after Kenosha police officers responding to a domestic violence call Sunday shot him in the back multiple times, according to Ben Crump, the attorney representing Blake’s family.
“The medical diagnosis right now is that he is paralyzed,” Crump said at a news conference Tuesday. “It is going to take a miracle for Jacob Blake Jr. to ever walk again.”
The shooting ignited protests in Kenosha on Sunday, when dozens of people gathered at the county courthouse, and some set trucks on fire. Gov. Tony Evers deployed the Wisconsin National Guard on Monday, calling it a “limited mobilization” to support first responders, and county officials implemented a curfew.
That evening, a large crowd gathered at the courthouse again, and officers in riot gear used tear gas to disperse the group. The demonstrations escalated into the night, and several structures were set on fire, including a Department of Corrections building and a furniture store.
About a hundred miles away, about 500 people joined protests in Madison on Monday evening. As night fell, some people started dumpster and trash fires, broke windows and looted businesses, according to city police. Some threw projectiles at officers,
injuring at least three during the course of the night, and police used tear gas. Six people were arrested.
Evers declared a state of emergency in Wisconsin on Tuesday, and more protests were expected into the night.
“We really just need prayers. As I was riding through here, the city, I noticed a lot of damage. It doesn’t reflect my son or my family,” Blake’s mother, Julia Jackson, said. “We need healing.”
Protests cropped up in other cities Monday night.
Hundreds of people marched in New York City, Los Angeles and Des Moines, Iowa. In San Diego, three people were arrested after dozens gathered outside police headquarters and blocked the facility’s entrances and exits, according to police. In Portland, Oregon, a police precinct was set on fire, prompting authorities to declare a riot and deploy tear gas to disperse demonstrators.
In Minneapolis, where George Floyd was killed by a now-fired police officer on Memorial Day, about 100 people gathered outside a downtown detention center Monday evening, the Hennepin County Sheriff ’s Office said. Demonstrators broke windows at the detention center, and 11 were arrested, the office said.
Smaller groups protested in Chicago and Rockford, Illinois; Appleton and Oshkosh, Wisconsin; Providence, Rhode Island; and elsewhere.
Graphic video circulating on social media shows Blake walking toward a car, followed by an officer who has a weapon drawn. Blake opens the car door and reaches into the vehicle, and an officer tugs on his shirt. At least seven gunshots can be heard, followed by a car horn. Two officers can be seen in the video near the car; it is unclear what happened before the video was recorded. Blake’s sons were in the car when he was shot, Crump said.
Police have released little information about what led to the shooting and haven’t said why officers approached Blake. The Wisconsin Department of Justice was investigating the incident, which comes amid months of nationwide demonstrations calling for police changes.
“They shot my son seven times. Seven times. Like he didn’t matter,” Jacob Blake Sr. said Tuesday. “But my son matters. He’s a human being, and he matters.”
Many of the protests have invoked the names of Blake, Floyd and others.
In Lafayette, Louisiana, protesters spoke out against the police killing of Trayford Pellerin, 31, who died in a burst of gunfire as officers approached him at a gas station Friday night. Pellerin’s family called on the officers responsible for his death to be fired and encouraged protesters to honor him by demonstrating peacefully.
“I want the public to help keep his name going – but in a good way,” said his mother, Michelle Pellerin. “We are not for the violence and bloodshed. Enough blood has been shed.”
A national group, Until Freedom, was organizing what it called a “massive demonstration” in Louisville, Kentucky, to reinvigorate protests over the death of Breonna Taylor.
Taylor, a Black woman, was unarmed when she was fatally shot in her apartment during a narcotics raid that turned up no drugs.
At BreonnaCon, a four-day event meant to draw attention to her case, hundreds of protesters marched through the streets of Louisville. A group of protesters was arrested Tuesday afternoon after refusing to leave the middle of a street, which was blocked by police.
Protests in Louisville have continued for three months as marchers demand systemic change and the prosecution of the three police officers involved in Taylor’s death.
“There will be no peace until we find justice, but we will be nonviolent,” said Adrian Baker, an activist and the student body president of Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary.