Jacob Blake, One Year Later
A letter from a reader
A year ago, Kenosha, Wisconsin was on fire. The girlfriend of a black man named Jacob Blake had called 911 to report a domestic incident—Blake had apparently taken her keys and refused to give them back. Blake already had a warrant out for his arrest on charges of sexual assault, trespassing, and disorderly conduct. When police arrived on the scene, an altercation ensued, and Blake was shot seven times by Officer Rusten Sheskey. Blake was paralyzed.
What ensued was, sadly, predictable. The incident, coming on the heels of the George Floyd killing, became a flashpoint for racial justice activists, including Black Lives Matter. The protests quickly turned violent. Riots and looting broke out. Businesses were burned, people were attacked, and armed civilians, some of them in tactical gear, roamed the streets. 17-year-old Kyle Rittenhouse killed two people and severely injured another.
Yet the events in Kenosha are regarded in some circles as legitimate protests, and Blake—despite the nature of his crimes—is often treated as something akin to a civil rights hero. These dynamics will be familiar to TGS regulars, including our friend Clifton Roscoe, who wrote in to run down the evidence and the aftermath of Kenosha. I present his (edited) email here for your consideration. Let me know what you think!
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Dear Professor Loury,
What should we make of the Jacob Blake case? Some folks will instinctively buy the narrative that a racist cop gunned down Jacob Blake for no good reason. Some will try to judge the case based upon the facts that were uncovered during the investigations. Some will want to discount the reports from the Kenosha County DA, Noble Wray, and the Wisconsin Department of Corrections. They'll think that Jacob Blake wasn't a choir boy, but that the cops overreacted. These folks will think that the cops should have found another way to get the situation under control.
Decide for yourself how you feel about the case. It reminds me of the Michael Brown situation. The initial narrative turned out to be inaccurate, e.g., “Hands up, don't shoot!” and “Michael Brown was a gentle giant who was about to start college before he was unjustly killed.” Three subsequent investigations by the original St. Louis County DA, Eric Holder's DOJ, and the current St. Louis County DA (who is black) all concluded that the officer who killed Michael Brown shouldn't face criminal charges. Folks didn't wait for the investigations to play out. Ferguson got trashed and hasn't fully recovered.
The more I dig into the Jacob Blake case, the more my sympathies lie with the cops involved and the people of Kenosha. I can only imagine what it's like to get shot seven times and to be paralyzed from the waist down, but Jacob Blake's actions catalyzed a tragic sequence of events. He made a lot of bad decisions in a short period of time and the cops had to respond to a tough situation.
It's truly unfortunate that the full facts of this case will never get the public airing they deserve. We live in an age when narratives, not facts, drive public opinion, public policy, and sometimes social unrest. We are truly stuck on stupid as a people.
Here are some sources that I think contextualize things.
From an article in the Kenosha News:
In [Wisconsin state Senator Van] Wanggaard’s statement, he noted that Kenosha police officers were responding near the 2800 block of 40th Street in Kenosha to arrest Blake for prior allegations of sexual assault following a 911 call in which a woman claimed he was creating “a domestic disturbance” and was about to steal her car, which he had allegedly done before.
“At the time Jacob Blake was shot, he was at minimum trying to kidnap children. At worst, he was turning with a knife to attack a police officer. Prior to being shot, Blake ignored police demands to drop the open knife he held in his hand. While armed with the knife, he wrestled with officers — putting one in a headlock, while actively resisting his attempted arrest,” Wanggaard, a former police officer, stated. “To make the arrest, police attempted to subdue him using non-lethal force. Three times police deployed Tasers to gain control of the situation. Blake removed the Taser prongs ... Blake wasn’t shot in a vacuum. There was a series of events and escalations by Blake leading to the shooting. Ignoring the facts of the incident may serve someone’s political narrative, but that doesn’t change them.
“Facts matter.”
Wanggaard’s statement concluded: “While thinking and praying for those involved in the incident, please do not forget law enforcement officers and their families all across the state who were impacted as well.”
[Wisconsin Governor Tony] Evers, whom Republicans have blamed for fanning the flames of unrest for not condemning violent protesters more strongly or moving to subdue them with more force when peaceful protests gave way to riots in Kenosha last August, issued a statement in which he wrote of how “Jacob, his kids (several of whom witnessed their father being shot), and his family have and will face challenges they never imagined having to endure ... Kathy (Wisconsin’s first lady) and I are thinking of his loved ones ... today, and we ask Wisconsinites to join us in extending our prayers for peace and healing.”
The differences in the statements are yet another sign of how divided Wisconsin’s leaders remain on race-related issues, and how differently they look at the shooting that made Kenosha a hotspot for America’s racial reckoning for a week last summer.
Stark differences in tone
Evers pointed to progress that has been made in addressing residents’ concerns with law enforcement through legislative changes, a bipartisan effort of which Wanggaard, a retired Racine Police Department officer, has been a leader.
“Wisconsin has taken important steps,” Evers stated, “to increase transparency for use-of-force policies and incidents, limit the use of chokeholds, and require state-managed law enforcement agencies to update their use of force policies, but this is only the beginning. We must remain resolved in addressing the systemic racism and inequities Black Wisconsinites face every day and to continuing our work toward a just, equitable and fair state.”
Wanggaard has been part of the group crafting bills that brought about those reforms, but he’s been critical of Evers’ role in the process. Evers earlier this month vetoed a bill Wanggaard co-wrote that would have penalized Wisconsin communities that decrease funding for police.
Ohnstad mostly avoided talking about the events of Aug. 23, 2020, instead focused on how Kenosha has “come a long way” in the past 365 days.
“One year ago today, our hometown was deeply impacted by a law enforcement interaction that resulted in a man losing his ability to walk and unrest that led to the loss of lives and further injuries,” Ohnstad, a retired carmaker and former union leader, stated. “Innocent small business and property owners were also victimized as ill-intentioned individuals committed acts of violence and vandalism among otherwise peaceful planned demonstrations.
The power of narratives is on full display here. What's the point of having an official investigation if leaders act as if its conclusions are irrelevant? But don't take my word for it. Read the report from the DA where he outlines why he chose not to file criminal charges against the officer who shot Jacob Blake. Here’s an excerpt:
Factual and Legal Conclusions
Based on all of the material gathered in this investigation by DCI [Division of Criminal Investigation], the evidence establishes the following facts:
On Sunday, August 23, 2020, at approximately 5:10 pm, Laquisha Booker, the mother of Jacob Blake’s children, called the police reporting that Jacob Blake had taken the keys to her rental vehicle which he would not return to her. Laquisha Booker stated that she was afraid that Jacob Blake was going to take her vehicle and crash it as, she stated, he had done before.
As a result of this call, Officer Sheskey, Officer Meronek, and Officer Arenas were dispatched to Laquisha Booker’s residence located at 2805 40th St. in the City of Kenosha.
Responding officers were told that this was a “family trouble” call involving a dispute over car keys between Jacob Blake and the mother of his children.
Jacob Blake had a felony warrant for his arrest.
The involved officers knew Jacob Blake had a felony warrant for his arrest and knew that the warrant involved domestic violence charges and a sexual assault charge.
Officer Sheskey obtained a description of Jacob Blake and knew he would have to arrest Jacob Blake on the warrant if he encountered him.
When officers arrived, Laquisha Booker flagged them down and shouted statements identifying Jacob Blake as the other person involved and indicating that he was trying to take her car, stating, “My kids are in the car.”
Officer Sheskey saw Jacob Blake and saw him putting a child in the back of the vehicle in question, a gray Dodge SUV.
Officer Sheskey immediately attempted to arrest Jacob Blake based on his active warrant and was quickly assisted by Officer Arenas and Officer Meronek.
Jacob Blake knew there was a warrant out for his arrest.
Jacob Blake did not comply with the verbal commands of officers as they attempted to arrest him.
When the officers attempted to physically restrain Jacob Blake, he resisted, physically struggling with officers.
Officers brought Jacob Blake to the ground, but he was able to get off the ground and to get away from the officers trying to arrest him.
During this struggle, Officer Sheskey and Officer Arenas both attempted to subdue Jacob Blake by deploying their tasers.
Both times that Jacob Blake was struck with the tasers, he ripped out the taser wires/prongs making the tasers ineffective against him.
Officer Sheskey also attempted to drive stun Jacob Blake with his taser by applying the taser to Jacob Blake’s neck/back area, but that too was ineffective.
As he resisted arrest, Jacob Blake was armed with a knife.
By the time he was walking in front of the SUV, the knife was opened and the blade was exposed.
Jacob Blake did not comply with police commands to drop the knife.
Jacob Blake tried to enter the driver’s door of the SUV.
The SUV had been rented by Laquisha Booker in her name and Laquisha Booker had indicated to police that Jacob Blake did not have permission to drive the vehicle.
There were children in the SUV who Laquisha Booker had yelled were her children.
Jacob Blake had the opened knife in his right hand and was attempting to escape from Officer Sheskey’s grasp and enter the driver’s side of the SUV.
Both Officer Sheskey and Officer Arenas stated that in the moment before Officer Sheskey opened fire, Jacob Blake twisted his body, moving his right hand with the knife towards Officer Sheskey.
Two citizen witnesses saw Jacob Blake’s body turn in a manner that appears consistent with what the officers described.
Officer Sheskey shot Jacob Blake seven times in total. There were four entrance wounds to Jacob Blake’s back and three entrance wounds to his left side (flank).
Officer Sheskey stated that he fired shots until Jacob Blake dropped the knife. Noble Wray explained this is consistent with law enforcement training where officers are instructed to continue shooting until they stop the threat.
With these facts established, I do not believe the State could prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Officer Sheskey was not acting lawfully in self-defense or defense of others which is the legal standard the State would have to meet to obtain a criminal conviction in this case. I also do not believe that there are any viable criminal charges against Officer Meronek or Officer Arenas neither of whom fired a shot in this case.
Noble Wray, referenced above, is the black former police chief of Madison, WI. He is considered to be a policing expert and is often hired to help investigate these kinds of cases around the country. Here’s his written assessment of the Jacob Blake case.
This report from WGN exemplifies the dominant narrative. There’s hardly any mention of the officer’s side of the story. As much as I'm sympathetic to a guy who ended up paralyzed, I can't ignore the facts of the case and what happened afterward. That context is mostly ignored by WGN.
Here's a related piece from The Federalist. Suffice it to say, they see things differently.
All the above gives you a sense of how thoroughly this case was investigated. All that analysis goes out the window, however, since we live in a world of sound bites and narratives. Kenosha got trashed before the investigations into Jacob Blake's shooting were complete. Who knows if it will fully recover?
Best regards,
Clifton Roscoe
Before I forget, let me say I have truly enjoyed Mr. Roscoe's two letters. Maybe "enjoy" is the wrong word, but you know what I mean. They were a breath of fresh air, and I'll keep reading them as long as they keep coming.
We discussed Blake because the media told us to. It was an Important National Story because the media told us it was.
Earlier this year, a 19-year-old black male with intent to harm slammed into a small 84-year-old Asian man in San Francisco. Who knows why? Thought it would be fun, I guess. The old Asian man died.
A week ago the New York Times wrote a piece on the incident: "Why Was Vicha Ratanapakdee Killed?" Finally, an open discussion of Black on Asian violence, right? Uh, no.
Second sentence, "An uneasiness had hung over her ever since a mob descended on the Capitol early that month..." (Insurrection? Check!) Then there was mention of Trump's "racist language." And "violence across the country that grew in number amid Mr. Trump's comments." (Trump? Check!)
In this New York Times examination of a young black man killing an old Asian man, here are some phrases:
"beaten to death by two white men in Detroit in 1982"
"a white gunman"
"a white gunman" (no, that's not a typo -- they used the same phrase twice
"white-supremacist websites"
"punched by a white man"
And this: "(The data, though incomplete, show that hate crimes against Asian Americans were more likely to be committed by nonwhite offenders than those against Hispanics or African Americans. But the overwhelming majority of hate-crime perpetrators are white.)" [In other words, 70 percent of the population was amazingly able to out-hate 13 percent of the population. Although not when it comes to Asians, the purported topic of this piece.]
In the New York Times piece, there's also discussion of Asian violence against blacks. One incident from 1991, the next in 2014. Twice in 30 years? Why, those dastardly Asians!
It was a typical narrative-driven piece that was more of an apologia than it was an examination of the death of Ratanapakdee. Very disappointing, but certainly representative of today's media.
The tie-in is that the media chooses what will be covered (Blake) and what won't (Ratanapakdee). We talk about spin and narrative a lot, but very seldom about the "move along, nothing to see here" decisions of the media.
I hate to be so hard-hearted, but I have no sympathy for Jacob Blake at all. If you assault the cops with a knife, of course you're going to get shot!
An important detail was elided here. Immediately prior to the policeman opening fire, Blake went to his car, opened the door, and reached inside. In America, the police HAVE TO assume that he's reaching for a gun. It's the equivalent of reaching for one's glove compartment. The police had no choice but to open fire, and Jacob Blake bears full responsibility for what happened to him.