Miriam,
Nothing is going to change until we make some basic changes. And just
firing police officers is not going to do the trick.
I'd start by introducing something new into our society...democracy.
Then I'd admit that a little socialism is the glue that holds
government together. Services such as the Post Office and fire
protection, public education and public works are all important in any
nation whose role is to protect and nurture its citizens.
Carl Jarvis
On 8/24/20, Miriam Vieni <miriamvieni@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
All of these news stories repeated over and over again, make no difference
at all, nor does our outrage. It just keeps happening.
Miriam
UPRISING: Protests Break Out in Wisconsin After Police Shoot Black Man in
the Back Multiple Times at Point-Blank Range
August 24, 2020
Civil rights attorney Ben Crump said 29-year-old Jacob Blake's children
were
in the car he was attempting to enter as police fired seven shots at his
back.
A cellphone video posted to social media shows Kenosha, Wisconsin police
officers firing seven shots at 29-year-old Jacob Blake as he tries to enter
his vehicle on Sunday, August 24, 2020. (Screengrab/Twitter)
By Jake Johnson
Common Dreams
Protests broke out in Kenosha, Wisconsin, and the state's Justice
Department
launched an investigation Sunday evening after police officers shot
29-year-old Jacob Blake in the back multiple times at point-blank range as
he tried to enter his vehicle.
Witnesses told local reporters that Blake was attempting to break up a
fight
prior to being shot by the officers, who closely followed Blake to his car
and fired seven shots after he opened the driver-side door. According to
civil rights attorney Ben Crump, Blake's children were in the car when the
officers shot their father.
Blake is reportedly in serious condition. "He is out of surgery and in the
ICU," tweeted Daniel Poneman, a friend of Blake's family. "He can make it
through this. He is fighting for his life."
Watch [warning: the following video is disturbing]:
In a statement posted to Twitter after cellphone footage of the police
shooting circulated on social media, Wisconsin's Democratic Gov. Tony Evers
said: "Tonight, Jacob Blake was shot in the back multiple times, in broad
daylight, in Kenosha, Wisconsin. Kathy and I join his family, friends, and
neighbors in hoping earnestly that he will not succumb to his injuries."
"While we do not have all of the details yet, what we know for certain is
that he is not the first Black man or person to have been shot or injured
or
mercilessly killed at the hands of individuals in law enforcement in our
state or our country," Evers said. "We stand with all those who have and
continue to demand justice, equity, and accountability for Black lives in
our country - lives like those of George Floyd, of Breonna Taylor, Tony
Robinson, Dontre Hamilton, Ernest Lacy, and Sylville Smith."
Following the police shooting, hundreds of Wisconsinites marched through
the
streets of Kenosha and gathered outside the Kenosha County Public Safety
Building chanting, "No justice, no peace!"
As the Washington Post reported, Kenosha police quickly arrived at the site
of the demonstration "with riot gear and armed with rubber bullets."
A video from the scene shows police deploying tear gas against protesters:
"Thinking of Jacob Blake's family. Thinking of the Kenosha community.
Thinking of Black folks across the country falling asleep to this news and
those who will be waking up to it," tweeted Clint Smith of The Atlantic.
"I'm sad. I'm furious. I'm tired of seeing this happen over and over and
over and over and over again."
Jeffery Robinson, the director of the ACLU's Trone Center for Justice and
Equality, said in a statement Monday that "with each of the seven shots
fired, police made their intent clear - they believed they had the right to
kill an unarmed Black man for the crime of walking away from them."
"The fact that incidents of police violence like this, the murder of
Breonna
Taylor as she slept in her home, the murder of George Floyd across the
street from a grocery store, the murder of Eric Garner outside of a
neighborhood bodega, and countless others have become commonplace shows
that
the very institution of American policing is rotten at its core," Robinson
added.
This article is from Common Dreams.
