ALSO SEE: Kenosha Delayed Body Cameras for Years
Before Blake Shooting

Police Fire Teargas During Second Night of Protest Over Shooting of Jacob Blake

By Adam Gabbatt, Guardian UK

25 August 20

Kenosha police fire teargas at demonstrators shouting ‘no justice, no peace’ over the shooting of Blake, who is black, on Sunday

acob Blake, the black man shot by police in Kenosha, has been paralyzed from the waist down, his father said, as protesters in the Wisconsin city were met with police using teargas and flash-bang grenades on Monday night.

Kenosha became the latest flashpoint in a summer of racial unrest in the US after footage of police shooting Blake apparently in the back, as he leaned into his SUV with his three children inside, circulated widely on social media on Sunday. The 29-year-old remains in hospital.

The shooting drew condemnation from the Democratic governor, Tony Evers, who called out 125 members of the national guard on Monday. As the protests stretched beyond the 8pm curfew police and protesters clashed, and some among the protesters lit fires, threw bottles and shot fireworks at law enforcement guarding the courthouse.

Blake’s father, also called Jacob Blake, told the Chicago Sun Times his son has “eight holes” in his body and is paralysed from the waist down. It is unclear if the paralysis is permanent.

“What justified all those shots?” Blake’s father said. “What justified doing that in front of my grandsons? What are we doing?”

Protesters poured into the streets of Kenosha for the second night running on Monday, some defying an 8pm curfew.

Police first fired teargas about 30 minutes after the curfew took effect, to disperse protesters who chanted, “no justice, no peace” as they confronted a line of officers who wore protective gear and stood shoulder-to-shoulder in front of the courthouse entrance.

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported that some people lit fireworks and threw them at law enforcement. Sheriff’s deputies responded with smoke bombs and flash-bang grenades, the newspaper said.

Several buildings in Kenosha were set on fire, including a Wisconsin department of corrections building.

According to the Wisconsin State Journal some businesses along Kenosha’s Main Street had windows broken. The Journal reported that a group of what appeared to be counter-protesters, some carrying guns and one wearing a red Make America Great Again hat, were present at the protest.

Tensions had flared earlier on Monday after a news conference with the Kenosha mayor, John Antarmian, originally to be held in a park, was moved inside the city’s public safety building. Hundreds of protesters rushed to the building and a door was snapped off its hinges before police in riot gear pepper-sprayed the crowd, which included a photographer from the Associated Press.

The man who said he recorded the cellphone video, 22-year-old Raysean White, said he saw Blake scuffling with three officers and heard them yell, “Drop the knife! Drop the knife!” before the gunfire started.

He said he did not see a knife in Blake’s hands.

The governor said he had seen no information to suggest Blake had a knife or other weapon, but that the case was still being investigated by the state justice department.

Police in Kenosha, a former auto manufacturing city of 100,000 people midway between Milwaukee and Chicago, said they were responding to a call about a domestic dispute when they encountered Blake on Sunday.

They did not say whether Blake was armed or why police opened fire, they released no details on the dispute, and they did not immediately disclose the race of the three officers at the scene.

The officers were placed on administrative leave, standard practice in a shooting by police. Authorities released no details about the officers and did not immediately respond to requests for their service records.

Evers was quick to condemn the bloodshed, saying that while not all details were known, what we knew for certain is that he was not the first black man or person to have been shot, injured or killed at the hands of individuals in law enforcement in the state or country.

The Democratic presidential nominee, Joe Biden, said the officers must be held accountable.

“This morning, the nation wakes up yet again with grief and outrage that yet another black American is a victim of excessive force,” he said, just over two months before election day in a country already roiled by the recent deaths of George Floyd in Minneapolis, Rayshard Brooks in Atlanta and Breonna Taylor in Louisville, Kentucky. “Those shots pierce the soul of our nation,” Biden said.

Republicans and the police union accused politicians of rushing to judgment, reflecting the deep partisan divide in Wisconsin, a key presidential battleground state.

Wisconsin Republican members also decried the violent protests, echoing the law-and-order theme that Donald Trump has been using in his re-election campaign.

“As always, the video currently circulating does not capture all the intricacies of a highly dynamic incident,” Pete Deates, the president of the Kenosha police union, said in a statement. He called the governor’s statement wholly irresponsible.

The shooting happened around 5pm on Sunday and was captured from across the street on the video posted online. Kenosha police do not have body cameras but do wear body microphones.

The footage shows Blake walking from the sidewalk around the front of his SUV to his driver-side door as officers followed him with their guns pointed and shouting at him. As Blake opened the door and leaned into the SUV, an officer grabbed his shirt from behind and opened fire while Blake has his back turned.

Seven shots can be heard, though it is not clear how many struck Blake or how many officers fired.