President Donald Trump, who has embraced only limited changes to hold police more accountable for using excessive force, was set to be briefed on the shooting Monday. So far this year, he has focused his attention more on the protests sparked by police killings of Black Americans including George Floyd and Breonna Taylor than the violence committed by law enforcement.
Efforts to hold cops more responsible for excessive force and to reform policing will play a role in November’s presidential election between Trump and Biden.
The Wisconsin Department of Justice gave few details about the shooting. It said police responded to a “reported domestic incident” in Kenosha on Sunday evening before the shooting.
The office of Benjamin Crump, a civil rights attorney retained by Blake’s family, said Blake was “helping to deescalate a domestic incident when police drew their weapons and tasered him.” As he was “walking away to check on his children, police fired their weapons several times into his back at point blank range,” Crump’s office said.
In a statement, Crump said Blake’s “three sons witnessed their father collapse after being riddled with bullets.” He called it a “miracle” that Blake is still alive.
“We will seek justice for Jacob Blake and for his family as we demand answers from the Kenosha Police Department. How many more of these tragic ‘while Black’ tragedies will it take until the racial profiling and undervaluing of Black lives by the police finally stops?” Crump said.
Raysean White, a 22-year-old who filmed the video, told NBC that he heard women arguing across the street from his apartment. Then, the man later identified as Blake arrived in a truck. White later saw police “wrestling” with Blake, and then started to record after he saw an officer tase Blake.
White also heard police yelling “drop the knife,” according to NBC. But he added, “I didn’t see any weapons in his hands, he wasn’t being violent.”
Police then fired shots as Blake moved to open the driver’s side door of the vehicle.
Source Article from https://www.cnbc.com/2020/08/24/jacob-blake-joe-biden-calls-for-probe-of-kenosha-police-shooting.html
Comments