Wed 26 August 2020:
A video of the shooting in broad daylight on Sunday in Kenosha, captured on mobile phone camera that quickly spread on social media, ignited new protests over racial injustice in several cities.
It comes three months after the death of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police set off demonstrations around the United States and touched off a wider reckoning on race.
Members of Blake’s family decried the shooting on Tuesday. “They shot my son seven times, seven times like he didn’t matter,” his father said at the press conference. “But my son matters. He’s a human being and he matters.”
“So many people have reached out to me, telling me they’re sorry that this happened to my family,” one of his sisters said. “Well don’t be sorry, because this has been happening to my family for a long time — longer than I can account for. It happened to Emmett Till. Emmett Till is my family. Philando (Castille), Mike Brown, Sandra (Bland) — this has been happening to my family, and I’ve shed tears for every single one of these people that it’s happened to.”
“I’m angry and I’m tired. I haven’t cried one time,” she added. “I stopped crying years ago. I am numb. I have been watching police murder people that look like me for years.”
Jacob Blake Sr. reads Surat Al Fatiha for his son, Jacob Blake, a black man shot multiple times by police in the town of Kenosha, Wisconsin, on August 23. The shooting sparked protests in number of states in the US. pic.twitter.com/K2qL9cnG9A
— Harun Maruf (@HarunMaruf) August 25, 2020
Blake’s father, also named Jacob Blake, told the Chicago Sun-Times in a story published on Tuesday that he did not know if his 29-year-old son’s paralysis would be permanent. The older man was travelling from North Carolina to be with his son, who is being treated in a Milwaukee hospital.
“I want to put my hand on my son’s cheek and kiss him on his forehead, and then I’ll be OK,” the father told the newspaper. “I’ll kiss him with my mask. The first thing I want to do is touch my son.”
Blake’s father said he learned on Sunday night that officers had shot his son eight times and shortly thereafter he watched the video, which appears to show his son being shot in the back.
Jacob Blake’s mother, Julia Jackson, made an emotional appeal for unity and called for an end to the violent protests that erupted in Kenosha, Wisconsin https://t.co/j4jPWJaPaB pic.twitter.com/u2uFt5Fnf8
— Reuters (@Reuters) August 26, 2020
The father has not returned multiple messages left by The Associated Press news agency.
Protest continue
Since the shooting, anger has spilled into the streets of Kenosha and other cities, including Los Angeles, Wisconsin’s capital of Madison and in Minneapolis, the epicentre of the Black Lives Matter movement this summer following Floyd’s death.
Hundreds of protesters defied an 8pm (00:00GMT) curfew on Monday night, massing in downtown Kenosha. Some set fire to buildings, cars and dumpsters, threw bottles and shot fireworks and then clashed with officers in riot gear, including 125 members of the Wisconsin National Guard, who deployed tear gas as they guarded the courthouse.
A city block was cordoned off on Tuesday, so officials could survey the aftermath. Several storefronts were badly damaged. Smoke filled the air and visibility was low as firefighters used water cannon on still smouldering buildings.
Earlier on Monday, when Kenosha Mayor John Antarmian moved a news conference from a park to inside the public safety building, a crowd rushed to the building and a door was snapped off its hinges before police in riot gear pepper-sprayed the crowd.
US Senator Ron Johnson and Representative Bryan Steil, both Republicans, called on Democratic Governor Tony Evers seeking more action to quell the unrest. Steil said he would request federal assistance if necessary.
Photo: Jacob Blake’s mother Julia Jackson speaks during the press conference in front of the Kenosha County Courthouse in Kenosha, Wisconsin, United States on August 25, 2020. Tayfun Coşkun | Anadolu agency
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