On Tuesday, August 25, a white teenager killed two people and wounded a third at a protest against police brutality. The protest was being held to demand justice for Jacob Blake, a Black man who was shot seven times by Kenosha police officers.
Protesters are refusing to be silenced by a government that has chosen to criminalize this public outcry rather than address the deeply rooted racism of our country.
Authorities have since charged Kyle Rittenhouse, a seventeen-year-old from Antioch, Illinois, with homicide in relation to the killings of Anthony Huber and Joseph Rosenbaum.
The violence comes as a reaction to a video of Blake’s murder that began to circulate on social media Sunday evening. Blake, a twenty-nine-year-old Black man, is now in intensive care in a Milwaukee hospital.
“Blake suffered multiple injuries, including a gunshot wound to one arm, damage to his kidney, liver and spinal cord,” said family attorney Patrick Salvi Jr. It’s possible he may never walk again, reported CNN.
According to another family attorney, Benjamin Crump, police arrived as Blake was “breaking up a fight between two women.” However, as Blake walked away from the scene toward his vehicle, which had his three children inside, Kenosha Police officer Rusten Shesky drew his weapon and shot Blake from behind as he opened the door to the vehicle.
Vehicles that were set on fire in a parking lot in Kenosha, Wisconsin.
Protesters have since torched cars, set buildings on fire, and called for an end to police brutality. Uprisings have also continued in numerous cities throughout the country.
On August 26, the Milwaukee Bucks, Wisconsin’s NBA team, announced it would boycott a playoff game in solidarity with protesters as they continue to demand accountability for the police who shot Blake. The WNBA and MLB announced shortly after that they are also participating in the strike.
Unfortunately, Blake is not an anomaly. He is one of a long list of Black people who have been brutalized by police this year alone.
As months of protests have raged nationwide in response to the deaths of Breonna Taylor in Kentucky, Ahmaud Arbery in Georgia, and George Floyd in Minnesota, the country has seen growing civil unrest.
Many cities have seen consistent waves of looting, arson, protest, and demonstrations.
Peaceful protesters have been detained, and curfews have been set by local governments with hopes to limit property damage and violence. But protesters are refusing to be silenced by a government that has chosen to criminalize this public outcry rather than address the deeply rooted racism of our country.
Protesters are challenging the systems of policing and continue to call for actionable steps toward holding officers accountable who use unwarranted deadly force.