Police fire on Jacob Blake: two dead in the demonstrations, the family calls for calm

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5 mins

Two people were shot dead and one injured on Tuesday evening, August 25, Kenosha police said. In this American city of Wisconsin, clashes took place during protests of anger after the police shootings on Jacob Blake, which seriously injured the 29-year-old African-American, probably paralyzed for life. Earlier, his mother had called for calm.

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“  My son is fighting for his life, ” said Julia Jackson, mother of the victim, at a press conference in Kenosha. If Jacob knew what was going on, the violence and destruction, he would be very upset. (...) We need to heal,  ”she added when her son was in the operating room again.

As with George Floyd , a black forty-something who died of suffocation under the knee of a white police officer three months ago, the attempted arrest of Jacob Blake was filmed by a witness on Sunday. The footage shows the young African-American being followed by two police officers with their guns drawn as he walks around a car. An officer grabs his white tank top as he opens the door and tries to get into the driver's seat. The policeman then fired - the recording suggests seven shots - hitting this father with several bullets in the back.

"  The medical diagnosis at the moment is that he is paralyzed,  " said Jacob Blake's family lawyer Ben Crump. He suffered "  serious bodily injuries, including a section of the spinal cord  ", his kidneys and liver were damaged and his injuries required "  the removal of part of the intestine,  " said the lawyer. Patrick Salvi, also on the file. Jacob Blake's family will file a civil complaint, he said.

"  Race war  "

Lawyers have also announced that they will travel to Washington on Friday to join a large march against police violence organized on the anniversary of Martin Luther King's famous speech ,  I have a dream.

Minneapolis, New York or Portland: several American cities have since Sunday become the scene of sometimes violent gatherings, thousands of people demanding that justice be done for Jacob Blake.

In Kenosha, a city of 170,000 inhabitants located on the shores of Lake Michigan, between Milwaukee and Chicago, clashes broke out in the night from Monday to Tuesday between demonstrators and the police after the entry into force of a cover-up. fire, the former firing fireworks at the latter who retaliated with rubber bullets. Iron gates were installed Tuesday near a court, where cars and a building had been set on fire the day before. In the clashes, two people were shot dead and one injured, according to media reports.

Videos online show people running through the streets of Kenosha as gunshots ring out. In others, we can see injured men on the ground. 

At least a small group of men, mostly white and heavily armed, patrolled the city overnight from Tuesday to Wednesday, saying they wanted to protect property, an AFP journalist noted. Police are investigating whether Tuesday night's shooting "  stems from a conflict between self-proclaimed militias guarding a gas station and protesters,  " according to the New York Times .

National Guard

"  What we have seen these last two nights and many evenings this year is the expression of the pain, the anguish and the exhaustion to be black in our State and our country  ", estimated this Tuesday the democratic governor of Wisconsin Tony Evers. He reiterated his calls for peaceful demonstrations and announced that additional National Guard soldiers would be sent to the scene as reinforcements.

We cannot allow the cycle of systemic racism and injustice to continue. We also cannot continue going down this path of damage and destruction.

President Donald Trump, who had not yet spoken on the subject, urged the governor on Twitter on Tuesday evening to call on the National Guard. “  She is ready, determined and more than capable. Fix the problem QUICKLY  ! "Wrote the Republican billionaire, who made"  law and order  "one of the themes of his re-election campaign for the November 3 presidential election.

Governor should call in the National Guard in Wisconsin. It is ready, willing, and more than able. End problem FAST!

His Democratic opponent Joe Biden has meanwhile considered that racism was "  a public health crisis  " in the United States and demanded a thorough and transparent investigation into this new apparent police blunder.

Ben Crump, the lawyer for Jacob Blake's family, claimed that the latter's three sons were in the car at the time of the tragedy, and that the young man had tried just before interfering in an argument between two women.

The two police officers involved were suspended from their duties and an investigation was opened.

► To read also: United States: curfew and national guard in Kenosha after a new police "blunder"

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