‘I Am Beyond Anger’: Brutal On-Camera Shooting of Black Man By Police in Kenosha Prompts Shock, Fury
Protests broke out in Kenosha, WI in response to a viral video showing an African American man getting shot in the back multiple times by police officers.
Graphic footage from the city shows a Black man, identified as Jacob Blake, getting shot at close range as he tried to get inside a car on Sunday. Reports say Blake was hospitalized and remains in serious condition at at Froedtert Hospital in Milwaukee.
Police were reportedly called to the scene to address a domestic incident. Kenosha News reported that the incident had multiple witnesses who say Blake was trying to break up a fight between two women, and police tried to tase him before he was eventually shot.
The shooting comes as the United States continues to witness civil unrest and calls for racial justice after the police killing of George Floyd. The incident sparked numerous protests and scenes of destructive unrest in Wisconsin overnight, and many took to Twitter to express horror over the Blake shooting video.
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. I’m sad. I’m furious. I’m tired of seeing this happen over and over and over and over and over again.
— Clint Smith (@ClintSmithIII) August 24, 2020
Confirmed: Jacob Blake’s 3 SONS were IN THE CAR he was getting into when @KenoshaPolice shot him tonight. They saw a cop shoot their father. They will be traumatized forever. We cannot let officers violate their duty to PROTECT us. Our kids deserve better!! #JusticeForJacobBlake
— Ben Crump (@AttorneyCrump) August 24, 2020
“As the man opens the door to get in, an officer grabs his shirt to hold him still, then appears to shoot him in the back at close range. Seven shots are heard, followed by a car horn, presumably from the man’s head falling forward.” Lord have mercy. https://t.co/m2hCqcq5MX
— Matt Pearce ? (@mattdpearce) August 24, 2020
What happened in Kenosha tonight should lead every TV broadcast in the Midwest and across the country tonight, tomorrow and everyday until something is done. That police officer shot to kill that man in his own car in front of his kids. Pitiful and enraging. Pay attention.
— Carlos Ballesteros (@ballesteros_312) August 24, 2020
I am thinking of Jacob Blake, 29, shot 7 times tonight by a police officer in Kenosha. I am thinking of his children who witnessed this shooting and his fiancée and family. I am beyond anger at this point. We all should be.
— roxane gay (@rgay) August 24, 2020
I am struggling to find the words to describe what we’ve all just witnessed and I keep coming back to one image: it feels like police here were playing a video game and the human being in front of them was just a set of pixels they needed to immobilize. https://t.co/GogCMbCxh1
— Julia Ioffe (@juliaioffe) August 24, 2020
Police in Kenosha had countless opportunities to apprehend & restrain Jacob Blake if they felt he was a threat.
If they were worried of what he might have in his vehicle, they could have stopped him from opening the door.
They didn’t. They shot to kill. https://t.co/9BLkx0I6Tb
— patrick (@muldowney) August 24, 2020
The video of police officers shooting a black man in the back is disturbing, but what’s really unnerving is in the moments before the officer fires, people screaming, knowing what is about to happen.https://t.co/Y8b0TfAeZw
— Nathan McDermott (@natemcdermott) August 24, 2020
Our lives have so little value that ofcrs are using fatal gunshots as a shortcut to talking, negotiation, disabling vehicles. It’s shorter; the ofcr doesn’t have to get physically involved; and the result is guaranteed. The killing of Jacob Blake in Kenosha, WI. Again.
— Sherrilyn Ifill (@Sifill_LDF) August 24, 2020
Of course I cant sleep. With the crippling waves of anger, despair, grief, rage, and numbness. May Jacob Blake survive… his poor children, fiance, family, and community. We owe him, all of them, so much better than this.
— Shamus Khan (@shamuskhan) August 24, 2020
Jacob Blake. I’m leaving Portland to now cover his story in Wisconsin, a story that feels all too familiar.
— Omar Jimenez (@OmarJimenez) August 24, 2020
Don’t let people try to spin that vile racial shooting of Jacob Blake into a Democrat vs Republican issue.
That’s a smoke screen to deflect from the REAL system of white supremacy.
It’s going to be up to Black people to produce justice
— Tariq Nasheed ?? (@tariqnasheed) August 24, 2020
We are the hunted.
We are always the suspects.
We are prey.A system of law enforcement that shoots Black people first and ask questions later cannot stand. It must be dismantled if we are ever to live free. #JacobBlake https://t.co/6PkmHm9wXx
— Janai Nelson (@JNelsonLDF) August 24, 2020
Watch above, via CBS.
