Some ‘don’t want to move on’ in Kenosha
Trauma remains year after police shooting
KENOSHA, Wis. – A year later, the wounds run deep, the problems remain unresolved and the way forward is as murky as fog rolling in off Lake Michigan.
The community is still coming to grips with all that happened over three tumultuous summer days and nights that began Aug. 23, 2020, when a police officer shot Jacob Blake.
Civil unrest, destruction and more bloodshed followed as the country came face-to-face with its stark divisions over race and policing.
“Kenosha, collectively, is trying to forget what happened. I would say that’s a huge problem,” said the Rev. Jonathan Barker, pastor at Grace Lutheran Church. “There’s a real citywide amnesia that’s happening. It’s very troubling in light of the fact that we needed changes before what happened to Jacob, we need changes now and we’re not seeing that.”
Barker and Blake’s uncle, Justin Blake, make sure no one forgets. Over the past year, they have convened more than 70 events – rallies, vigils, sit-ins and food giveaways – and have no plans to stop. They demanded the officer who shot Blake be fired and criminally charged and pushed for an outside investigation of the police department and district attorney’s office.
“We’re fighting to let you know we’ve gone nowhere and this isn’t over,” Justin Blake said.
Joseph Landry, 79, who has lived in the neighborhood for more than 40 years, said residents deal with their day-to-day lives, yet they don’t want to forget what happened.
“People don’t want to move on from this,” he said. “If they don’t do something about this, it could happen again.”
Kenosha police officer Rusten Sheskey shot Blake in the back after responding to a call about a domestic incident at a child’s birthday party.
Sheskey remains on the force, and Blake is in a wheelchair. Neither man was charged with any crime relating to the incident.
Massive protests led to clashes with law enforcement and major property damage in the city.
After the first night of violence, downtown looked as if it was prepared for a natural disaster with windows and businesses boarded up.
A Facebook group called the Kenosha Guard called for armed citizens to“protect property.” Kyle Rittenhouse, 17, from just over the Illinois state border, answered the call.
On Aug. 25, Rittenhouse was involved in an altercation. He shot and killed Joseph Rosenbaum, 36, and Anthony Huber, 26, and wounded Gaige Grosskreutz, 26. He awaits trial.
At a listening session at the Kenosha County Center, U.S. Rep. Bryan Steil, Rwisconsin, spoke about his support for law enforcement and increased funding for police. Roughly 50 area residents asked Steil questions about infrastructure, immigration, health care and whether he thought the state would be locked down again to cope with the COVID-19 pandemic.
No one mentioned the Blake shooting or racial inequity.
“So much is going on right now in our federal government that in a local town hall here in Bristol, Kenosha County, that people are focused in on the federal issues,” Steil said. “I think if we would’ve had this as a hearing on what played out 12 months ago and how to address it, I think it would have been a totally different animal because it’s front of mind.”
Scott Carpenter, owner of B&L Office Furniture, saw his business burn to the ground during the protests. He reopened in a new location in October. Carpenter wonders about the people who vandalized Kenosha – including the person who started the fire at his business.
“What got him to that point to where he felt that he needed to go into somebody’s business and get involved and start it on fire?” Carpenter said. “It’s not like they torched it. They set a chair on fire and walked away . ... But what transpired, what got him there to think this is OK to do?”
Before the protests, Carpenter had decided not to board up the windows of his business because he didn’t believe there would be such violence.
“I understand the anger and the whole thing that started with Jacob Blake and the shooting . ... But for whoever these people were to go after businesses and start destroying them ... you’re silencing the protest,” he said. “You really took the light off the real cause.”
For Porche Bennett-bey, an Army veteran and mother of three, the Blake shooting was a catalyst to join the protests. While other protesters threw bottles and fireworks in the face of tear gas, Bennett-bey stood her ground and held a sign that said, “Black Lives Matter,” her silence interrupted only by coughing.
She was recognized on the cover of Time Magazine as one of its “People of the Year.”
She said this year’s Fourth of July celebrations took her back to the protests. “Fourth of July was horrible for some of us,” Bennett-bey said. “We didn’t get a lot of sleep. There were flashbacks, the noises, the sounds. We’re not saying forget what happened, but allow us time to heal.”
Though progress in Kenosha has been slow, Bennett-bey said, the police department getting body cameras is a move in the right direction.
Eric Larsen was named interim chief of the Kenosha Police Department in the spring. He said one reason he signed up to stay in the chief ’s chair through 2022 was to be part of the change he sees unfolding. One of his priorities is building community relationships.
“We do get along quite well,” Carpenter said. “I don’t feel that tension there. I don’t feel it.”
He added, “I’m sure there’s some people that would say different.”