Elie Wiesel said “For the dead and the living, we must bear witness. For not only are we responsible for the memories of the dead, we are also responsible for what we are doing with those memories.“
While the “Blue Lives Matter” people are working out how to spin this atrocity (here’s an awesome shutdown to that nonsense), here’s what we can do.
In Elijah’s name, in Breonna’s name, do something to make a difference for Jacob Blake.
Actions for Jacob.
- Update: Ask the Mayor to fire the police chief Daniel Miskinis. He and the sheriff obviously spent a lot of money on military-style amoured vehicles and none on training: for de-escalation, not-killing-people or on situational awareness that would have had their men arrest Rittenhouse when he approached them. Violating curfew is not a death-penalty offense, or the police would have been arresting and/or shooting at all the militia folks WHO WERE ALSO VIOLATING CURFEW!
- Kenosha Police Non Emergency Line 262-656-1234
- Call local officials to demand the police officers are held accountable:
- Kenosha District Attorney Michael D. Graveley (262) 653-2400
- Kenosha Mayor John Antaramian & City Administration 262-653-4000
- Wisconsin Attorney General Josh Kaul (608) 266-1221 (Update: See “Minimal script” below)
- WI Governor Tony Evers – (Madison) (608) 266-1212, (Milwaukee) (414) 227-4344 (Update: See “Minimal script” below)
- Minimal script: I’m calling on [___] to hold the Kenosha officers who participated in the shooting of Jacob Blake accountable for their actions. With their apparent complicity with White-Supremacist militia members at Tuesday night’s protest, leading to the killing of 2 protesters and the horribly maiming of another, I want [___] the resignations or firing of both Police Chief Daniel Miskinis and Sheriff David Beth and a state-level consent-decree investigation of the Kenosha Police Department, to lead to mandatory reforms to take place immediately, in concert with a study to reallocate police funding.
Background
It was a WTF Thursday in Kenosha, WI. (Warning – graphic video clips of injuries). Wisconsin, and Kenosha in particular, has a long history of police violence and tolerance for white supremacism. Last Sunday, America witnessed the brutal police shooting of an unarmed black man in the back, while the his three young sons watched in horror. Jacob Blake’s peaceful outing with his family ended with him in a hospital in critical condition. On Tuesday, we witnessed a cop on a loudspeaker saying “We appreciate you being here,” to a band of armed militia, leading to an 17-year-old white supremacist shooting and killing two protesters and grievously injuring another. He has now been charged with homicide.
Kenosha saw multiple days of protesting, and protests have been held other cities across the country. News has just broken that Mr. Blake is currently paralyzed from the waist down.
Now we have both an unjust police shooting, PLUS shootings by a member of a police-aligned militia. Jeff Sessions, our racist former Attorney General damaged the federal consent decree process, but we need to ask for a state-level one for Kenosha, along with a full investigation of the department, it’s treatment of minority citizens along with it ties to and possible infiltration by White-Supremacists. (CA is an example with Attorney General Xavier Becerra having taken over the review of San Francisco’s Police Dept in 2018.) Update: Tony Evers is calling a special session of the WI legislature on the use of force by law enforcement.
Meanwhile, 68 people peacefully protesting for Breonna were arrested in Louisville for sitting down in a street the police had already roped off and were diverting traffic from.
INDIVISIBLE VENTURA 