A shooting by a police officer in Kenosha, Wisconsin, on Sunday has triggered widespread condemnation of law enforcement and two nights of rioting in the city.
In a now-viral cellphone video, Kenosha Police Department officers appear to point their guns at Jacob Blake, 29, as he walks toward an SUV.
- While Blake opens the driver-side door and leans into the vehicle, one of the officers grabs the back of his shirt and shoots him seven times.
- Another video indicates Blake tussled with officers before he was shot; witnesses and Blake’s attorney have said he was unarmed and police first tried to tase him.
Although much remained unclear about the circumstances of the shooting, prominent Democrats, liberal activists and celebrities decried what they saw as the latest example of police persecution of black people.
- Joe Biden, the Democratic presidential nominee, in a statement on Monday lamented “yet another Black American is a victim of excessive force” and called for the officers to be “held accountable” and for America to “dismantle systemic racism.”
Amid nationwide unrest over racism and policing, protests in Kenosha, Madison, Wisconsin, and other U.S. cities turned violent.
- Arsonists on Sunday and Monday nights set much of the Kenosha’s mostly-black business district ablaze.
Another perspective: Footage shared to Twitter in June by actor James Woods shows how quickly circumstances seemingly similar to those surrounding Blake’s shooting can turn life-threatening for police.
In the dashcam video from a Nov. 7, 2017 highway traffic stop, Daniel K. Clary grapples with two Pennsylvania state police officers and, after they repeatedly tase him, grabs a gun from his car and opens fire.
- One of the state troopers, Seth Kelly was shot four times; he arrived at a local hospital clinically dead and spent 12 days in a medically induced coma.
- Clary was convicted of attempted murder and sentenced to up to 110 years in prison.
UPDATE at 8:30 on Tuesday: James Woods re-shared the video to Twitter; Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers, a Democrat, declared a state of emergency; President Donald Trump urged Evers to call in the National Guard, and the Biden campaign said the violence was not “right and necessary.”
Some conservative commentators, including the Daily Wire’s Matt Walsh, argued Sunday’s shooting of Blake could very well have been justified given what was currently known.
According to a statement by the department, the officers were responding to a “domestic incident” and Wisconsin Department of Justice’s Division of Criminal Investigation was investigating the shooting.
- Officers “provided immediate aide” to Blake, who was in stable condition at a nearby hospital on Monday, the police said without providing further comment.
- The officers were placed on administrative leave, which is standard practice in such cases.
Blake’s family said he had been paralyzed from the waist down and they did not know if the condition was permanent; they also said his three young sons had been in the car at the time of the shooting.
The Chicago Tribune reported there was an active arrest warrant in Blake’s name when he was shot.
- Court records indicate Blake was charged with third-degree sexual assault, trespassing, and disorderly conduct in connection with domestic abuse on July 6.
- Blake was previously charged with resisting arrest, carrying a gun while intoxicated, endangering safety-use of a dangerous weapon.
