[Jacob Blake Wisconsin Police]
BSN: “The reason we have no peace is due to the unjust murderous behavior of “peace officers,” in American policing, who take pleasure in using their “license to kill” on Black people.”
Photo: YouTube
Jacob Blake, shown here with his sons, was repeatedly shot by racist American policing.
On Sunday, a blatant act of attempted murder occurred in Kenosha, Wisconsin.
The perpetrator was caught on video shooting the victim several times—in the back. But although the suspect is known to authorities, he remains free today.
Why?
Because the assailant is a white Wisconsin police officer—and the victim, Jacob Blake, is a man with Black skin. The officer of this heinous act of attempted murder is free. And, in a predictably untransparent manner, police are withholding this offender’s name.
Reportedly, police were sent to the location because of a domestic dispute. Reports say Blake was actually trying to deescalate a situation between two women. Yet, the police escalated the situation and ended up shooting this Black man.
At least seven shots were fired. Blake’s sons ages 3, 5, and 8 were in the car and have now been traumatized by seeing their Black father shot down by police.
Even after George Floyd’s murder, we see the sense of entitlement police have when it comes to using Black people as target practice.
Wisconsin Lt. Governor Mandela Barnes said this about Blake’s shooting “The irony is not lost on me that as Jacob Blake was actually trying to deescalate a situation in his community, but the responding officer didn’t feel the need to do the same.”
The two primary officers involved are said to be on “administrative duty.” These officers should have been fired immediately just for pulling their guns alone.
The racist double standard which allows police to devalue Black lives must finally be ended once and for all. If not now in this 21 Century when? Do these people really expect Black people to continue to tolerate this?
If a Black man had committed such an act he would have already been arrested and charged–and his name would have been splashed across all of the pages and screens of America’s news media.
The video shows these two officers, if necessary, could have tackled Blake long before he opened the car door. These two officers are seen walking directly behind Blake—who had his back turned to them. Yet, in the typical racist reaction of white cops to Black men, they decided to pull their guns instead. Then one officer decided to shoot Blake repeatedly, in the back–while holding him by his shirt.
The video evidence makes it clear this shooting was unprovoked and unjustified. How is this not attempted murder?
Wisconsin Governor Tony Evers, in a statement, said: “Jacob Blake was shot in the back multiple times, in broad daylight, in Kenosha…While we do not have all the details yet, what we know for certain is he is not the first Black man or person to have been shot or injured or mercilessly killed at the hands of individuals in law enforcement in our state or in our country.”
Indeed, this racist cowardly police back shooting of Blake is reminiscent of the high-profile police back shooting murders of Walter Scott and Laquan McDonald except for one thing: Blake is miraculously, and thankfully, alive.
Some reports say he is expected to recover.
This shooting has erupted the righteous anger of the Black community in Kenosha.
Reports say police were forced to retreat from their position at the scene of this police crime. At least one officer was attacked and hit by a brick. Demonstrators assembled at the police headquarters. Vehicles at a nearby auto dealership and numerous dump and garbage trucks were torched. A fire was lit at a local courthouse.
Police teargassed demonstrators. And a curfew is now said to be in place. All because of the violent unlawful actions of these officers.
Some, as was the case after George Floyd, are now calling for calm and peace. But the people who need the peace lecture aren’t listening.
The reason we have no peace is due to the unjust murderous behavior of “peace officers,” in American policing, who take pleasure in using their “license to kill” on Black people. Even after George Floyd, it is obvious these white racist murderers in policing still think they can go back to business as usual.
The politicians who give us lipservice on peacefully protesting need to save their speeches for these bigoted badged brutes and killer-cops. More importantly, they need to give us concrete action that holds police accountable when they harm innocent Black people.
DNC Chair Tom Perez released a statement, in which he said, in part, “A bullet in the back. A knee on the neck. When will it end?”
Mr. Perez surely knows part of the answer to that question rests with Democrats.
For years, the Democratic Party, especially the leadership, has been loudly silent as the body count of dead Black people has piled up–and as the Black funerals continue.
The time is now for the Democratic Party to show us meaningful action. Black America has heard enough empty talk from a party that courts us for votes but who won’t fight fervently for our right to live.
The public outrage and the protests in the aftermath of George Floyd’s death forced the hand of normally timid Democrats to speak up and present bills in the Congress. Of course, the Republican-controlled Senate continues to block the recent George Floyd legislation.
Politicians—particularly, Republicans—seem to think they can just wait out those who have been marching on the streets for real change in policing. Trumpian Republicans are now standing with racist police unions. We hear hypocritical talk about “law and order,” even while police brutalize and murder Black people. But more white Americans, because of the weight of video evidence, are now admitting that American policing is plagued by systemic racism, regardless of what police apologists say.
The multi-racial, multi-generational masses of protestors who rose up during the George Floyd protests are proof that these folks are severely delusional if they think demonstrations against racist American policing will just go away.
They won’t.
Especially, when Blacks, like Jacob Blake, are shot down in the back in front of their Black children.
