How the US racial reckoning swelled after Blake’s shooting

Blake, 29, was shot at the height of the tumultuous summer of 2020, with the United States nearing 200,000 deaths from a pandemic that has disproportionately affected people of color and far-flung demonstrations over the killing of African Americans by police.

Jacob Blake with his four sons. Three of his sons were in the car at the time of the shooting.

“Sometimes you get a little angry,” the eldest Blake told CNN, noting that his paralyzed son had been shackled to a hospital bed until Friday.

“Sometimes more than a little angry because we have been going through this so long. So long. And it’s only the brown faces … the brown-toned people that get treated in this way.”

Two police officers have been placed on administrative leave. The shooting is being investigated by the Kenosha County district attorney’s office and the Wisconsin Justice Department’s division of criminal investigation.

The Kenosha Professional Police Association and state investigators said two officers fired Tasers that did not incapacitate Blake before the gunfire.

“What is left unaddressed is this presumption of dangerousness and criminality that society — it’s bigger than law enforcement — assigns to Black people,” Hoag said. “That is a direct descendant of the racial hierarchy that formed during slavery. As a country we have not reckoned with that.”

Jacob Blake was shot seven times August 23 after stepping away from officers with guns drawn.

Emotional declarations and dramatic boycotts

Athletes across the country alluded to that reckoning during a week of bold and unprecedented protests against the racial inequality and police violence.

Their activism had to extend beyond jerseys emblazoned with social justice messages and kneeling or sitting out the national anthem, some athletes said.

“It is imperative that all people — regardless of race, religion, creed or belief — come together to say, ‘Enough is enough!” the team said in a statement.

“This is bigger than sports. Racism is embedded in the fabric of our nation’s foundation and is a blemish on our country’s history. If we are to change course and make our world a better place, we must face this problem head-on and act now to enact positive change.”

Referees stand on an empty court before the start of a scheduled game between the Milwaukee Bucks and the Orlando Magic for Game Five of the Eastern Conference First Round during the 2020 NBA Playoffs August 26 in Lake Buena Vista, Florida.

“Guys are tired,” he said. “I mean tired. When I say tired, we are not physically tired. We are just tired of seeing the same thing over and over again… Everybody expects us to be OK just because we get paid great money. You know, we’re human.”

Los Angeles Clippers head coach Doc Rivers, whose father was a police officer, was emotional as he talked about law enforcement violence against Black people.

“All you hear is Donald Trump and all of them talking about fear,” said Rivers, referring to speeches at last week’s Republican National Convention in Washington.

“We’re the ones getting killed. We’re the ones getting shot. We’re the ones who were denied to live in certain communities. We’ve been hung. We’ve been shot. And all you do is keep hearing about fear.”

He added, “It’s amazing to me … why we keep loving this country, and this country does not love us back.”

Cop wannabe was Trump supporter

As police rushed to the scene Tuesday night, the armed suspect is seen on social media video walking past officers. Days after Kyle Rittenhouse was charged with multiple homicide counts, his lawyer said the teen acted in self-defense.

Social media accounts believed to belong to the young White man portrayed him as a supporter of “Blue Lives Matter” and President Donald Trump. He once was part of a youth police cadet program and had an affinity for weapons, according to police and online profiles. He posted a TikTok video from a Trump rally in Des Moines, Iowa. The President does not appear in the video.

Rittenhouse left the shooting scene still armed. He walked toward officers with his hands up and got away, according to Kenosha Police Chief Daniel Miskinis and video posted to social media.

There were many people with weapons at the protests, Miskinis said Friday. “And unfortunately, a lot of gunfights.”

Officers were arriving to the scene after “a shots fired complaint, not a shooting, not a person down complaint,” he said.

Demonstrators at times clashed with armed civilians.

“We are against the violence and burning and looting, but it was started by seven shots,” Blake Sr. told CNN Friday.

“We didn’t breathe life into the violence. We didn’t cause the violence. So for it to seem like it’s our community and all we do is violence, well, you have to go back to the cause — the seven shots.”

People gather Tuesday, August 25 to protest in Kenosha, Wisconsin. Anger over the Sunday shooting of Jacob Blake, a Black man, by police spilled into the streets for a third night.

Rittenhouse faces two felony counts of homicide for the deaths of Anthony M. Huber and Joseph Rosenbaum, and a felony attempted homicide charge for wounding Gaige Grosskreutz, according to a criminal complaint. He also faces a misdemeanor charge of possession of a dangerous weapon while under the age of 18.

He is represented by John Pierce, a noted conservative lawyer whose clients include Rudy Giuliani, President Trump’s personal attorney.

“The racial hierarchy that was created during slavery — that you have this subordinate group of people based on race — that’s what survives, that’s what persists,” Hoag said. “That’s what we see playing out on these videos with Blake being shot and Rittenhouse strolling away after murdering two people. And in the non-responsiveness of the institutions that are there to offer protection and redress.”

President for days refused to answer questions on shooting

In the speech on the South Lawn of the White House Thursday night, Trump mentioned Kenosha in passing. He argued that the city is among others where protests have devolved into violence that endangers American families.

“When there is police misconduct, the justice system must hold wrongdoers fully and completely accountable, and it will,” he said. “But what we can never have in America — and must never allow — is mob rule. In the strongest possible terms, the Republican Party condemns the rioting, looting, arson and violence we have seen in Democrat-run cities like Kenosha, Minneapolis, Portland, Chicago and New York.”

President Donald Trump speaks from the South Lawn of the White House on the fourth day of the Republican National Convention, Thursday, August 27 in Washington.

At the convention earlier that night, Ben Carson, secretary of housing and urban development, offered condolences to Blake’s relatives. “Our hearts go out to the Blake family” and others affected by the violence in Kenosha, he said.

“What feels different is that there is far greater awareness of police racism and yet the presidential election is distorting the meaning of the movement,” said Khalil Muhammad, a professor of history, race, and public policy at Harvard Kennedy School and author of the book “The Condemnation of Blackness: Race, Crime, and the Making of Modern Urban America.”

“Some people don’t know how to respond to the law-and-order reactionary calls for state and vigilante violence emanating from the White House.”

‘We cannot continue on this way’

“We will not be your docile slave,” Blake’s sister, Letetra Widman, told the crowd nearly a week after her brother was killed. “We will not be your footstool to oppression… Black America, I hold you accountable. You must stand. You must fight, but not with violence and chaos. With self love.”

A procession of speakers, including King’s son, Martin Luther King III, delivered impassioned calls for police and justice reform, and voter action in an event that evoked the historic 1963 march for civil rights and economic opportunity.

The Rev. Al Sharpton announced the “Commitment March: Get Your Knee Off Our Necks” when he delivered Floyd’s eulogy in June.

“My brother cannot be a voice today. We have to be the voice. We have to be the change,” Floyd’s sister, Bridget Floyd, told the crowds.

At a campaign rally in Londonderry, New Hampshire, Trump late Friday condemned “thugs” who he said harassed guests leaving the White House after his renomination speech. The President called the protesters “bad people” and “trouble makers” who surrounded Sen. Rand Paul, a Republican from Kentucky, and his wife the previous night. They would have killed the couple if police had not intervened, Trump said.

For the first time, Trump spoke of Blake’s shooting, saying he was examining the matter “very strongly.” He was silent about the actions of Rittenhouse.

Asked if Trump planned to meet the Blake family, White House spokesman Judd Deere said the itinerary was still being worked out.

Hoag, the Columbia Law School lecturer, said she hoped the past week portends significant change.

“I see the demands are louder, the calls for transformational change are more urgent,” she said. “We cannot continue on this way as a nation without some sort of reckoning and reconciliation about racial hierarchy.”