Jacob Blake, a Black Wisconsin resident, has been left paralyzed from the waist down after he was shot seven times in the back by a White police officer who tried to detain him this week in Kenosha. After the video of the shooting went viral, there was another round of violent protests in Kenosha, but also throughout the entire country.
Blake, on the other hand, miraculously survived getting shot seven times in the back from point blank range, but was left paralyzed from the waist down – and handcuffed to the hospital bed.
“Why do they have that cold steel on my son’s ankle?” his father, Jacob Blake Sr. asked Friday morning in an interview with CNN’s Alisyn Camerota on “New Day.” “He can’t get up, he couldn’t get up if he wanted to.”
Kenosha County Sheriff’s Department spokesman Sgt. David Wright explained earlier Friday that Blake was handcuffed to the bed because he “has felony warrants for his arrest from crimes he committed prior to the shooting incident.”
What Caused The Shooting Of Jacob Blake?
At the time of Sunday’s violent encounter with police, Blake had a warrant out for his arrest in connection to a domestic abuse call earlier this year.
A dispatcher appeared to warn responding officers about Blake’s warrant, referring to “family trouble” at the residence in Kenosha and an “alert at this address for a ninety-nine.” The police code 10-99 can refer to a wanted suspect. It is unclear if those officers were aware of why there was an outstanding warrant against Blake.
On May 3, Blake unlawfully entered the home and sexually assaulted a woman in her bedroom before leaving with her vehicle.
The criminal complaint filed on July 6 listed charges of felony third-degree sexual assault and misdemeanor trespassing and disorderly conduct. The arrest warrant against Blake was filed the following day.
The incident began when a woman called the police and said “her boyfriend was present and was not supposed to be on the premises,” the Wisconsin Department of Justice Division of Criminal Investigation said.
Officers had tried to apprehend Blake and used a Taser in a failed attempt to stop him, the DCI said. He walked around his vehicle, “opened the driver’s side door and leaned forward,” the agency said.
State investigators did not specify the reason why police attempted to arrest Blake, whether he brandished or threatened to use a knife, or why officer Rusten Sheskey shot so many times into Blake’s back. It does not mention his children in the vehicle or other family members standing just feet away.
Sheskey and another officer have been placed on administrative leave.
Videos of the incident show a struggle between Blake and the police. He then walks around the front of a car and attempts to enter the driver’s side door. An officer is seen pulling Blake’s shirt after which seven shots are heard and Blake’s body going limp.
His attorneys stated that Blake did not have a weapon in the car.
Nation-Wide Unrest
On the same day of the shooting various videos went viral and showed disturbing scene, some worse than those after the May murder of George Floyd. One particular video showed a large fire burning dozens of cars in a Kenosha parking lot.
In the wake of the aforementioned murder of George Floyd, as well as the slayings of Ahmaud Arbery and Breonna Taylor, several large-scale demonstrations broke out all across the country in June. Some, like those in Seattle and Portland, virtually never stopped and there have been reports of citizens clashing with the police even in the days before the shooting of Jacob Blake.
One of the more interesting happenings occurred in the NBA bubble in Orlando, Florida. Day after Jacob Blake was shot, players from Milwaukee Bucks, a city some 40 miles from Kenosha where the shooting occurred, refused to step on the court and play their scheduled game against the Orlando Magic.
They stated that they are boycotting the game and their opponents and officials followed suit. Soon, the rest of the NBA teams refused to play and were joined in protest by the players of NFL, MLB, and MLS.
Protests Turn Deadly
A 17-year-old alt-right terrorist Kyle Rittenhouse is the primary suspect and has already admitted guilt to a friend in a phone call in the middle of his shooting spree which left two dead and another person critically wounded.
Rittenhouse, who isn’t even from Kenosha, took a ride there to participate in the protest. He was heavily armed and has stated that he only wanted to protect shops and business from looters.
The first victim of this attack, Joseph D. Rosenbaum allegedly threw a plastic bag in the direction of Rittenhouse who retaliated by murdering him. As bystanders were trying to administer help to Rosenbaum, his killer was heard talking to someone on the phone and clearly stating, “I just killed somebody”.
Moments later, he was seen running away and would later on murder 26-year-old Anthony Huber who was protecting his girlfriend that Rittenhouse has already shot in the arm.
