FRSO strongly condemns the acquittal of Kyle Rittenhouse on all charges. This verdict is another example of how the police and courts work hand in hand with racist vigilantes to kill and injure African Americans, other oppressed nationalities, and all who try to fight to end police crimes.

In August of 2020, Jacob Blake, a young African American man, was shot in the back four times and three times in the side in by a white police officer Kenosha, Wisconsin. Coming less than two months after the killing of George Floyd, another uprising took place, with the African American community and supporters battling police.

Into this uprising stepped Kyle Rittenhouse, a 17-year-old from across the state line in Illinois, armed with an AR-15 rifle. He ended up killing two protesters and wounding another.

Despite the outrageousness of his crimes, Rittenhouse was acquitted on all counts of murder, reckless endangerment and illegal possession of a weapon.

The FRSO hails the slain protesters Joseph Rosenbaum and Anthony Huber, who were both local residents protesting the shooting of Jacob Blake. While African Americans and other oppressed nationalities (Native Americans, Chicanos and Latinos, and others) face the brunt of police violence, white Americans who protested racist discrimination have also been killed. We should never forget the beating and murder of white civil rights activists Andrew Goodman and Michael Schwerner, along with local Black activist James Cheney, during the 1964 Freedom Summer by the police and KKK.

No criminal charges were ever made against the white police officer, Rusten Shuskey, who shot Jacob Blake seven times – Shuskey is back on the job at the Kenosha police department without any disciplinary action. What we have is a system that lets the police who shoot African Americans, and the vigilantes who shoot and kill those protesting police violence, to go scot-free. The police and courts are not here to provide justice, they are here to maintain the racist oppression of African Americans and other oppressed nationalities.

The FRSO calls upon all progressive people to protest this injustice!

Jail killer cops and racist murderers!

#UnitedStates #OppressedNationalities #PeoplesStruggles #AfricanAmerican #RacismInTheCriminalJusticeSystem #FreedomRoadSocialistOrganization #JacobBlake #KyleRittenhouse

Students all over the country joined the national day of action called by Students for a Democratic Society. SDS Denver demands justice for Jacob Blake and demands community control of the police.

SDS Denver calls for a new system to put more power in the hands of the people. A Civilian Police Accountability Council (CPAC) allows the community to make decisions involving budget, positions of power, and investigations of police crimes.

#DenverCO #PeoplesStruggles #PoliceBrutality #JacobBlake

The event was held outside the Kenosha County Courthouse, where many of the protests took place last summer – those protests were met with extreme police violence. This year’s crowd of roughly 200 people was composed of Kenosha locals, as well as attendees from various other parts of Wisconsin and many people from BLM-Chicago and Lake County.

The Milwaukee Bucks, who protested Blakes’ shooting last year, provided the sound system and stage for the event. Speakers included Robin Williams, mayoral candidate in Houston, Texas, Dr. Umar Johnson, Jacob Blake Sr., Justin Blake, Jacob Blake’s sister, and the aunt of Breonna Taylor.

Both Robin Williams and Dr. Umar spoke on the need to hold politicians accountable to action in ending police violence. The family’s demands included the immediate firing and indictment of Officer Rusten Sheskey as a step towards getting rid of the system that allowed this in the first place.

“We do not need reform, we need to get rid of the whole system and start from scratch,” said Justin Blake, Jacob’s uncle.

Jacob Blake joined by phone later in the day to express his gratitude for everyone’s support in his recovery, and in the fight for justice on his behalf. The Blake family has continued to express their support for a Civilian Police Accountability Council (CPAC), and Blake’s cousin has been active in fighting for the Empowering Communities for Public Safety (ECPS) ordinance in Chicago. The family had an audience with Joe Biden last year and spoke with him specifically about their desire to see CPAC pushed nationally.

Justice for Jacob continues to fight to see their demands met through rallies, marches and calling elected officials. They have stated they will not stop until Shesky is fired and indicted and would like to see the fight for justice continue on.

#KenoshaWI #PeoplesStruggles #AfricanAmerican #PoliceBrutality #JacobBlake

Minneapolis, MN – Several hundred community members gathered at the Hennepin County Government Center on January 9 in below freezing weather, to rally and march for justice for Jacob Blake, who was shot by police in Kenosha, Wisconsin, and Dolal Idd, shot and killed by Minneapolis police.

On January 5, prosecutors in Kenosha announced that they would not bring charges against the officer who shot Blake in the back seven times this past August. Black Lives Matter-Minnesota had planned an emergency rally for the day after that announcement. However, as Trump supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol in DC, organizers decided to delay that emergency rally and join forces with CAIR Minnesota’s rally for Dolal Idd.

Dolal Idd, a Somali American man who was 23 years old, is the latest homicide victim of the Minneapolis Police Department. Police killed him on December 30, within a mile of the place George Floyd was killed.

Several activists and community members spoke in front of the government center to start the rally. The crowd then marched through downtown and then to the Minneapolis Police Department’s 1st Precinct station, where several of Dolal’s family members and activists spoke, before everyone marched back to the government center.

Attendees chanted and held up signs, some of which had pictures of Idd on them, calling for “Justice for Dolal Idd.”

Dolal’s father, Bayle Gelle, spoke in front of the 1st Precinct building. He said that police lied about his son being a felon and said that he and others still have so many questions surrounding Dolal Idd’s murder. “I will never give up until we get justice,” he said of his son’s death at the hands of police.

Jaylani Hussein, executive director of the Center for American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-MN), shared that community members are learning more details about Idd’s case every day, such as law enforcement’s use of confidential informants. Hussein expressed his frustration over how law enforcement has handled Idd’s case and the cases of other individuals killed by police in Minnesota.

“It’s a closed system. It starts with the police officer, but then it goes quickly to the investigators, who continue to lie,” Hussein said. “Why can’t they show all the video that they have collected? Why do they only show us the one angle that they want us to see? So they can project the one narrative they want us to see.”

Hussein asked that anyone who has any information about what happened the night Dolal was killed to please share this information, and to not be intimidated by law enforcement. He said that he and others would have the backs of anyone who does so.

Nekima Levy Armstrong, civil rights activist and Minneapolis attorney, spoke for the Racial Justice Network about law enforcement’s actions leading up to and following Idd’s murder.

“Dolal Idd would still be alive if they actually followed protocol and procedures,” Levy Armstrong said of police. “They’re thinking they’re cowboys. Jumping out of cars, ambushing people, pulling out guns, putting the public in danger, and then continuing to blame victims of police violence for harm they initiate and harm that they cause.”

Levy Armstrong, Hussein, and other community members also spoke about the lack of justice for Jacob Blake, after he was shot in the back in front of his young children and was subsequently paralyzed.

Loretta VanPelt of the Twin Cities Coalition for Justice 4 Jamar (TCC4J) spoke about the need for community control of the police, to try to prevent incidents such as the shootings of Dolal Idd and Jacob Blake. “We’ve been demanding community control of the police,” VanPelt said. “We know that will hold these cops accountable for what they have done to this community.”

Speakers at the rally also compared the inaction of law enforcement at the U.S. Capitol earlier in the week, when a mob of white domestic terrorists broke into the Capitol, with the actions of police at rallies in support of Black lives, where police pepper-sprayed, beat and arrested peaceful protesters.

Several community members spoke about an unnamed white man who was killed by police in Robbinsdale the day before, just one week after Dolal Idd was killed by police. Toshira Garraway, founder of the organization Families Supporting Families Against Police Violence, said that her organization would host a gathering at the Pump N Munch gas station in Robbinsdale, where this man was killed. Garraway said the gathering was planned for January 13, at 4 p.m., and there was more information about this gathering on the Families Supporting Families Facebook page.

Despite the below-freezing temperature during the rally, attendees marched, chanted and listened to speakers for around three hours. Levy Armstrong spoke to the hardiness of Minnesotans seeking justice. “We in Minnesota, we don’t care how cold it gets. The fire for justice keeps us warm, keeps us burning for justice, standing up and speaking the truth,” she said. “We have to send a message that we’re not going nowhere.”

Saturday’s rally and march were endorsed by TCC4J, Native Lives Matter, MN Youth for Justice, CUAPB, Justice 4 Marcus Golden, Black St Paul, Justice for Cordale Handy, Racial Justice Network, Anti-War Committee, and MN Disability Justice Network.

#MinneapolisMN #PeoplesStruggles #PoliceBrutality #JacobBlake #JusticeForDolalIdd

On January 5, Kenosha County District Attorney Michael Graveley announced that there would be no charges against police officer Rusten Sheskey, who attempted to execute Jacob Blake, a 29-year-old Black man, by shooting him seven times in the back at point blank range on August 23, 2020. Blake was shot while his children watched in horror from the back seat of his vehicle. The other two officers who assisted Sheskey in his crime will also face no charges.

While this ruling is a gross miscarriage of justice, it was not unexpected. Since the beginning of the new year, stories have been circulating out of Kenosha about windows being shuttered, buildings being barricaded, and roads being closed. The mayor of Kenosha was given emergency powers and Democratic governor Tony Evers has again mobilized the Wisconsin National Guard, sending 500 troops to the city. The actions taken in the days before this non-decision were reminiscent of the Louisville response in the lead up to the Breonna Taylor ruling.

What the world witnessed at the end of this past summer was not an individual misjudgment on the part of Officer Sheskey, but yet another attempt at cold-blooded murder of a Black man by the hands of a bloodthirsty cop as a part of a system that fundamentally devalues the lives of Black and other oppressed peoples.

After the attempted murder of Jacob Blake, Kenosha exploded. Many marched and buildings were burned. The eyes of the world were focused on the city. People made it very clear: they wanted justice and were willing to do what it takes to get it.

This ruling must be reversed. Sheskey must be charged with and, later, found guilty of attempted murder. His accomplices should be handled similarly. Anything short of this course of action must be met with tremendous resistance by the masses of working and oppressed people in the city of Kenosha, across southeastern Wisconsin, and all over the country. When there is no justice, there can be no peace.

Justice for Jacob Blake! Charge and convict Officer Rusten Sheskey! Demand democratic community control of the police! No more killer cops! All power to the people!

#KenoshaWI #PeoplesStruggles #PoliceBrutality #JacobBlake #KenoshaUprising

Protesters stopped along the way to hand out handwarmers to fight the cold and hear from Jacob Blake’s family and other local activists. The event was full of love, but many expressed concerns about the deployment of hundreds of Wisconsin National Guard troops to Kenosha and the preemptive state of emergency declared by Sheriff David Beth.

The treatment of protesters by police over the summer surely is weighing heavily on everyone’s minds, especially as a moment of silence was held for Anthony Huber and JoJo Rosebaum, two protesters killed at the hands of white supremacist Kyle Rittenhouse.

#KenoshaWI #PeoplesStruggles #PoliceBrutality #JacobBlake

Milwaukee, WI – Protests in the Milwaukee suburb of Wauwatosa ramped up over the past two nights. On October 7, Milwaukee County District Attorney John Chisholm ruled that although the shooting death of Alvin Cole in February was not justified, Wauwatosa police officer Joseph Mensah would not face charges for the murder. Mensah is also responsible for the murders of Antonio Gonzales and Jay Anderson. Chisholm was the district attorney who filed no charges in each of those cases, as well as six other instances of killer cops in and around Milwaukee.

Immediately after the announcement, protesters took to the streets of downtown Milwaukee. They quickly made their way to Interstate 94 going west towards Wauwatosa, breaking through a police line to get onto the freeway. The protest eventually made its way to the suburb where they were met with riot police and National Guard troops.

Rubber bullets, teargas and pepper-ball shot were used to brutalize people in what is becoming common place for protesters in southeast Wisconsin. There were a few broken windows, and a handful of people shopped for free at a gas station before the night was done.

The situation escalated on the night of October 8. Wauwatosa has taken on the characteristics of a war zone, with armed National Guard troops patrolling the streets and enforcing a 7 p.m. curfew. Reports on the ground indicate that mass arrests are being made.

Among those arrested include many of Alvin Cole's family, including his mother Tracy, his sisters, and his brother. The Coles were literally ripped from their vehicles during the arrests. Tracy Cole was taken away in an ambulance after police broke her arm during the ordeal. Some family members of Jacob Blake, the man who Kenosha police attempted to murder at the end of August, had joined the protest in Wauwatosa. Jacob Blake, Sr. has been arrested.

These injustices perpetrated against the Cole and Blake families, as well as all other protesters who have been attacked and arrested by the police and National Guard while demanding justice, will not go unchecked. When DA Chisholm determined that there would be no justice, he ensured that there would be no peace.

Release the Cole family! Release Jacob Blake, Sr.! Release all others who have been arrested! Charge, arrest and indict serial-killing cop Joseph Mensah! Justice for Alvin Cole!

#MilwaukeeWI #PeoplesStruggles #PoliceBrutality #PoliticalRepression #AlvinCole #JacobBlake

Kenosha, WI – On the evening of August 28, more than 200 people gathered outside the Kenosha Municipal Court building to demand justice for Jacob Blake and the victims of killer Kyle Rittenhouse. The rally was called for by the Milwaukee Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression, with support from UW-Parkside Students for a Democratic Society, Kenosha EquiTeens, Wisconsin Freedom Road Socialist Organization, and the Chicago Alliance. Many in the crowd held signs that read “Stop police crimes! Demand a civilian police accountability council!”

“I am tired. I am tired of seeing my people dying at the hands of unfit cops,” said Alanna Carmichael, a leader with Kenosha EquiTeens. “I am tired of fearing for my brother’s lives whenever they leave the house. I am tired of fighting for the same justices that my family fought for 60 years ago.”

This protest came in the wake of several days of violence and repression at the hands of police, military and paramilitary. After the fatal shootings on the night of August 25, repression was used against the people in the city. Unmarked vehicles with people who claimed to be police but had no identification stopped people and took them into custody in the early evening and into the night on August 26.

Some of those who were swept up in this wave of mass detention were members of SDS. A mass call-in campaign was organized to get them, and others freed from jail. The call to action generated thousands of calls from all across the country demanding their immediate release. Two of the SDS members, Victor Garcia and Adelana Akindes, spoke at the rally.

“Lots of us were disturbed when we found out about the Gestapo-like police tactics being used by the federal government in Portland, Oregon,” said Garcia. “I had no idea what to expect when that unmarked car with several masked and armed men came out, rushing at me, with fear that it was white supremacists coming to end my life and the lives of my friends.”

Garcia and Akindes both spent more than 24 hours in detention. They were separated from each other after being snatched up, taken to undisclosed locations, stripped, and given orange jumpsuits and a number. They were put into cells with others who had been detained; Garcia with 15 other men and Akindes with eight other women. They were not provided masks despite the close quarters.

“I saw first hand the kind of culture that they cultivate there,” said Akindes. “They used every opportunity to dehumanize us, to make us feel like animals. The goal of them putting us there was to take us off the streets, to debilitate us so that we wouldn’t wanna keep fighting.”

After the rally, the protesters took the streets. They marched through working-class neighborhoods where many of the Black and Latino residents live. The marchers chanted things like “No justice, no peace, fuck these racist ass police” and “Jacob Blake” as passersby made their support known. Many people came out of their homes with their families and raised their fists. Cars driving by would throw their fist out the window and honk. Some even pulled over and chanted along with the marchers as they went by.

Near the end of the march, a few military trucks were spotted heading toward the protest. In a show of people power, the marchers stopped the trucks in the road. They put their signs in the windshield and shouted chants at them. Kenosha is currently occupied by a force of more than 2000 National Guard troops.

Kenosha police and other officials have doubled down in defense of their officers and their actions. The Kenosha police union released a screed blasting what is plainly obvious on the available video evidence as fake or misleading. Kenosha Police Chief Daniel Miskinis said that his officers did nothing wrong in allowing the murderer Rittenhouse to escape without being apprehended.

The situation in Kenosha remains tense, and with President Trump committing to a visit on September 1, it’s likely going to remain that way. As ever, the people will remain in the streets.

#KenoshaWI #PeoplesStruggles #PoliceBrutality #JacobBlake #KenoshaUprising #KyleRittenhouse

Since the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis on May 25, professional athletes have returned to the national spotlight for their activism. In Milwaukee, members of the Bucks, the city’s professional basketball team, have been engaging with the local protests. They marched in June in the initial wave of protests when crowds of thousands were regularly in the streets.

On August 26, the Bucks made another political statement, this time in the wake of the attempted police murder of Jacob Blake in Kenosha. Instead of coming out onto the court for game five of their play-off series, the players remained in the locker room and announced that they would not be taking the court for the game. Instead, they were sending a message to Wisconsin Attorney General Josh Kaul to arrest and charge the officers involved in the attempt on Blake’s life. Their opponents, the Orlando Magic, also did not take the court. They announced they would be leaving the stadium shortly and would not accept the forfeit.

Upon learning of their pro basketball colleagues taking a stand, Major League Baseball’s Milwaukee Brewers decided that they too would sit out their scheduled game tonight against the Cincinnati Reds. Like the Magic, the Reds have also announced they’ll not be playing, meaning the Brewers will not be forced to forfeit the game. There is speculation in the sports media world that more baseball games may be cancelled in solidarity with the demand for justice for Jacob Blake. The Seattle Mariners, which have the most Black players of any team in professional baseball, are a likely club to employ similar tactics.

An important political point that is being missed in most coverage of this action is that this is not a boycott of a game. Professional athletes, although they are very well paid, are at the end of the day workers like most people. By refusing to participate in the play-off game and instead use the time to demand Attorney General Kaul take action, the Bucks players are withholding their labor, effectively striking to demand justice for Jacob Blake.

This is not just an important cultural demonstration by professional athletes, but an example of worker power in solidarity with Black lives. As people across the United States refuse to accept the continued police occupation of their communities and the murders that often follow, workers – whether they’re professional athletes or rank-and-file union members – need to show out in solidarity to demand justice.

#MilwaukeeWI #WI #InJusticeSystem #Labor #PeoplesStruggles #Sports #PoliceBrutality #JacobBlake

Kenosha, WI – August 25 marked the third night of the uprising that has engulfed Kenosha since the attempted murder of Jacob Blake at the hands of Kenosha police. It was also the deadliest yet, with several people being shot as reactionaries descended on the city. Two of those shot tragically lost their lives.

While the authorities, including the Kenosha Police Department, have yet to release any specifics on the situation, the people who were on the ground recording every moment have been hard at work piecing the available evidence together. As things stand, all of that evidence points to the racist killer being Kyle Rittenhouse, also known as Kyle Lewis – a white 17-year-old young man from Antioch, Illinois, just south of the Wisconsin border.

Reports indicate that as of 11:47 a.m. on August 26, Rittenhouse was arrested in his hometown and is charged with first-degree intentional homicide. Kenosha police and others allowed him to flee the city without attempting to bring him into custody. Rittenhouse is deemed a “fugitive of justice” and it’s stated that he “fled the state of Wisconsin with the intent to avoid prosecution” according to public records from the Lake County, Illinois Clerk of Courts.

Rittenhouse’s social media is riddled with images of him brandishing guns and posing in tactical gear. His photos are overlaid with blue lives matter and thin blue line imagery. He is seen in more than a handful of livestreams from Kenosha last night, carrying what appears to be some type of rifle.

There are specific videos that show Rittenhouse shooting one person in the head at point blank range in a lot between some parked cars. As he runs away from the scene, he can clearly be heard telling someone on a cell phone “I just killed someone.”

While these events are tragic, the story goes deeper than that.

After the events in Kenosha on Sunday and Monday, an event for an armed counter-presence for August 25 went up on social media that garnered thousands of views. The event was titled “Armed Citizens to Protect Our Lives and Property” and was hosted by a group called Kenosha Guard. While it had hundreds of responses, reports from the ground indicate that fewer than 60 armed militia types turned up on the streets.

After the initial shootings took place, several of the livestreamers caught up with a couple members of the militia. These militia members disclosed that the plan of the police had been to push protesters to the location that they knew these armed agitators were amassing. One of them on the video said, “You know what the cops told us today? They were like, ‘We’re gonna push them down by you so that you can deal with them and then we’re gonna leave.’”

This is exactly what happened, as cops and National Guard troops and at least four MRAPs (military-grade light tactical vehicles) advanced on protesters who had gathered first outside of the Kenosha County Courthouse and then in Civic Center Park. The protesters held their ground against these shock troops for several minutes before the soldiers employed a kettling tactic and rained down on them with teargas, rubber bullets and concussion grenades.

As the protesters fell back, taking cover behind dumpsters and makeshift shields and umbrellas, they ran into a heavily armed group of militiamen amassing at a gas station that was boarded up. The armed militia members immediately began to agitate the protesters as they were retreating from the police barrage. Shortly thereafter is when the shootings started.

The police did nothing to stop the shootings, nor did they attempt to disarm Rittenhouse as he fled from the multiple scenes of his crimes. Earlier in the evening, they had interacted with him, offering him water and telling him and the other militia members he was with that they “really appreciate you guys. We really do.”

The names of Rittenhouse’s victims have not been publicly disclosed as of yet, but from one of the videos online, it is clear that one of them was shot and killed while attempting to wrestle the gun away from him after he’d already shot into the crowd. These people died attempting to prevent others from being hurt or killed, and their sacrifice won’t be in vain. The protests in Kenosha will not stop until justice is won, for Jacob Blake and now for these martyrs of the movement, too.

#KenoshaWI #OppressedNationalities #PeoplesStruggles #AfricanAmerican #PoliceBrutality #RacismInTheCriminalJusticeSystem #Antiracism #PoliticalRepression #Antifascism #JacobBlake #KenoshaUprising #KyleRittenhouse

A statement by the Kenosha branch of the Wisconsin Freedom Road Socialist Organization

On the evening of Sunday, August 23, the streets of Kenosha, Wisconsin ignited in protest. A 29-year-old Black father named Jacob Blake was shot in the back seven times in front of his children by a white Kenosha Police officer.

While Blake was fighting for his life in the hospital, a viral video of the attempted murder spurred hundreds of people to gather at the crime scene. The large crowd decided to march to the Kenosha Police Department, where they were attacked by militarized police with riot gear and tear gas.

Garbage trucks set up by police as roadblocks were torched, and a dozen fires blazed into the early morning, conjuring images of previous rebellions in Ferguson and Minneapolis.

Mass protests are scheduled to continue, and Wisconsin FRSO welcomes the righteous rebellion against racist police crimes.

As revolutionaries we understand that the United States is a jailhouse for the oppressed. Police enforce the oppression of African Americans and other oppressed nationalities in the United States. While we build toward socialist revolution against the white supremacist capitalist system, we also have to organize to win all that can be won under the current system.

We demand that the National Guard deployed by Governor Tony Evers to brutalize protesters be recalled.

We demand the Kenosha cop who shot Jacob Blake be immediately arrested, charged and convicted.

We demand real police accountability through community control of the police and shifting police funding to essential public services like education.

We call on protests to continue until all the demands of the movement are met.

Nothing short of this will be accepted. No justice, no peace!

#KenoshaWI #PoliceBrutality #WisconsinFRSO #CommunityControlOfPolice #JacobBlake

Fight Back News Service is circulating the following August 25 statement from the National Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression.

Once again, the hour of tragedy strikes for another Black family, in another Black community caught in the grip of the pandemic crises of COVID-19 and racism.

First of all, we want to express our solidarity with the traumatized family of Jacob Blake, and the protesters in Kenosha, Wisconsin. Sometime after 5 p.m. on August 23, 2020 Jacob was returning to his car, unarmed, after attempting to break up a fight between two women. The police arriving, guns drawn, were pleaded with by bystanders not to shoot, yet they shot Blake 7 times as he was opening his car door. They shot him while his 3, 5- and 8-years old children were screaming. Blake was taken to the hospital where he is still struggling for his life. This morning, his father announced that Jacob is paralyzed from the waist down.

Protesters gathered at the site of the shooting, agitated by the militarized aggressive actions of the Kenosha Police Department, began to express their anger. They chased cops away and some police cars were burned. This uprising was greeted by SWAT team trucks and rioting cops resisted by people with arms locked, standing firm and chanting “No justice, no peace!”

It’s the same old tired pattern of state-sanctioned racist violence where the police wantonly murder us in the streets and when our people in justified anger rebel they call out the militarized police, the National Guard and set the stage for mass arrests with curfew.

What should be our response? To put more people in the streets in organized protests. We don’t reject rebellion, we call on all the various strands of the peoples movement, every friend and ally we have in the struggle for justice to join with the protesters in Kenosha and throughout this country to take it to the streets. Here are our demands:

We demand that the National Guard deployed by Governor Tony Evers to brutalize protesters be recalled.

We demand the Kenosha cop who shot Jacob Blake be immediately arrested, charged and convicted.

We demand real police accountability through an all elected Civilian Police Accountability Council (CPAC) establishing community control of the police, shifting police funding to essential public services like education and regulating police to address the real demands for safety of the people.

We must protest until all the demands of the movement are met, until we have our unalienable democratic demand to determine who polices our communities and how our communities are policed.

#KenoshaWisconsin #KenoshaWI #PoliceBrutality #civilianPoliceAccountabilityCouncilCPAC #NationalAllianceAgainstRacistAndPoliticalRepressionNAARPR #KenoshaPoliceDepartment #JacobBlake

Riot police assembled at the scene of the shooting as the crowd began to gather, including members of the Milwaukee Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression. Those assembled quickly grew restless in their anger. Squad cars were smashed and Molotovs thrown. The people chased the cops away and then set off on a march to the Kenosha Police Department (KPD) downtown.

When protesters arrived at the KPD building, they rallied in the front parking lot. As the crowd swelled, SWAT trucks and riot cops rolled onto the scene. Tear gas was deployed, but not enough to disperse the crowd. The riot police formed a line and attempted to push the crowd away from the building and out of the parking lot. The people met them with linked arms and prevented their advance. Holding strong, the people chanted “No justice, no peace!” and “Jacob Blake!”

Eventually, the riot police began to retreat into the police station. People from the crowd threw fireworks behind the row of cops. Then the second wave of tear gas was fired into the line of protesters, this time in a more substantial quantity, forcing them to break up. In spite of these efforts, the people would not quit. More cop cars were smashed and other vehicles used by KPD to block roads were set on fire.

Protests demanding justice for Jacob Blake are being planned across Wisconsin, including in Kenosha, Milwaukee, Appleton, and other places. Cops continue to kill or try to kill Black men and other people even in the midst of the largest civil rights uprising in the history of the U.S. The people demonstrated tonight in Kenosha that they are not standing down.

#KenoshaWI #PoliceBrutality #MilwaukeeAllianceAgainstRacistAndPoliticalRepression #KenoshaPoliceDepartment #JacobBlake