It’s just the first step before the lawsuit, but good for the City Council. Justified means exactly that… justified. The police have nothing to apologize for and the city taxpayers do not owe Blake a thing.
Kenosha, WI – The Kenosha City Council voted 17-0 on Monday night to reject a $50,000 damages claim by 29-year-old Jacob Blake for his officer-involved shooting in August of 2020.
A claim filed by Blake’s Chicago-based legal team at Salvi, Schostok & Pritchard P.C. on March 11 sought to recover damages for medical expenses, lost wages, and “pain and suffering and disfigurement,” the Kenosha News reported.
Attorneys also submitted an itemization of “special damages” totaling $776,614.67, but Wisconsin state law caps the claim at $50,000.
On the second night, one videographer followed a young man as he yelled for the children to go home because it was going to get bad. Sure enough, as the sun set, protesters turned into rioters as they tore down street lamps, stood on cars to break their windows with bats, smashed store windows, and looted the contents. Then the fires started. Multiple fires were started simultaneously to overwhelm the fire department, who could not enter the area safely anyway to put them out before they spread. I watched as family businesses burned and nearby homes were evacuated.
On the third night, the chaos worsened; multiple law enforcement agencies took a more aggressive posture to quell the riot. I watched from the angle of the rioters as police formed a human wall and used armored vehicles and nonviolent means to clear the streets. The rioters kept up a steady counterassault with rocks, shields, rolling burning dumpsters, bottles, and fire.
It was on that third night that one journalist came upon several armed citizens who were defending a gas station. They had had enough of the riots and were determined to protect life and property from the marauding horde. I watched as rioters confronted
the armed defenders. Words were exchanged. Spittle spewed. Tempers flared. On my way to bed, I commented to my wife that someone was going to die that night. The next morning, we learned that they did.
Watching several hours of immersive coverage of the riots illuminated a few things. First, traditional media is failing us. When I read the stories in traditional outlets the next day or caught the television newscast, it did not reflect what I watched. This was not a “mostly peaceful” protest where a little scuffle broke out. This was a full riot that raged for several nights. There may have been a peaceful protest during the day, but as soon as the sun set, it was anything but peaceful.
Second, many of the same people who were just shouting and taunting during the day were the same people who were smashing and burning in the night. This was not a case where the peaceful protesters went home at sunset and a shift of criminals and malcontents took their place. These were many of the same people. And many of them are ardent anarchists and Marxists who are intent on destabilizing our republic. You can see it in their graffiti and hear it as they shout it. They are not hiding. The shooting incident that precipitated the uprising was merely an excuse to launch a violent uprising.
At least 175 people have been arrested during the recent civil unrest in Kenosha, Wis., with 102 having addresses listed outside of the city, according to numbers released by police on Sunday.
[…]
Kenosha Police said in a media release that the arrests were from people located in 44 cities, although authorities didn’t elaborate which states they came from. A total of 69 people were arrested for curfew violations.
Thirty-four were arrested for violating curfew. The charges ranged from carrying concealed weapons, burglary and possession of controlled substances, police said. More than 20 firearms were seized. At least three vehicles were towed and all were related to “active criminal investigations.”
Kenosha police had arrested nine people traveling in vehicles with out-of-state license plates last Wednesday on suspicion of criminal conduct, according to a report.
Inside the vehicles, officers found fireworks, helmets, gas masks, protective vests, and suspected controlled substances, police said.
Gov. Tony Evers on Sunday sent a letter to President Donald Trump asking the president to reconsider his plan to visit Kenosha on Tuesday.
A spokesman for Trump said the president plans to meet with local law enforcement and survey damage from recent demonstrations.
In Evers’ letter to Trump, the Democratic governor said Kenosha residents are “exhausted and heartbroken with the division that has ripped apart their community, but they are also already working to rebuild, together, and support each other in the face of adversity.”
“It is our job as elected officials to lead by example and to be a calming presence for the people we know are hurting, mourning, and trying to cope with trauma,” Evers said in the letter. “Now is not the time for divisiveness. Now is not the time for elected officials to ignore armed militants and out-of-state instigators who want to contribute to our anguish.”
Two people were killed and another was injured as a gun battle broke out on the third night of protests in Kenosha, Wisconsin last night.
Footage showed gunshots ringing out amid a scuffle in the street while bystanders screamed and fled in terror, with one person shot in the arm and another one hit in the chest.
Panic broke out as another man lay in agony ‘losing a lot of blood’ after he was shot in the head, with onlookers desperately trying to stem the wound and yelling that ‘we’ve got to keep him alive’.
[…]
As the crowd gave chase, one pursuer took a flying kick at the gunman and another tried to grab his weapon before he started firing to disperse the crowd, hitting another two people.
Three people were shot in total and two of them were killed, police confirmed in the early hours of this morning – but it is not clear which victims died and the identity of the shooter is not known.
Police are hunting for a man with a long gun and fear that the shooting stemmed from a conflict between ‘self-styled militias’ defending their properties from looting and demonstrators voicing anger at the shooting of Jacob Blake.
Government has failed to control the violence for days. People have a right and duty to protect their property and themselves from violent roving mobs.
