To: Detroit/Seattle
Workers' Voice mailing list
September 9, 2020
Re: the lessons and martyrs of Kenosha
by Mark Williams, Detroit Workers' Voice
On August 23, Kenosha police officer Rusten Sheskey shot Jacob Blake seven times in the back, apparently paralyzing the lower half of his body for life. Was there any legitimate reason to shoot Blake? No. The police were called by somebody to deal with an alleged dispute at a birthday for Blake’s eight-year-old son. Who and what the dispute was remains a mystery, and no one states Blake was physically attacking someone. Blake’s family denies he was in any sort of confrontation and holds that he played the role of peacemaker in the dispute. What hard evidence is there that disputes this? The police never bothered to find out what was actually happening however. The issue for them was to serve a warrant on Blake for another alleged crime.
The police shot Blake seven times, paralyzing him below the waist. In this process, did Jacob threaten to shoot officer Sheskey, forcing him to fire back? No. What about Blake supposedly threatening the police with a knife. No such thing happened even if Blake was carrying a small knife, and the only knife found was in Blake’s car. He had no gun, and three officers were lined up one behind the other with guns drawn, following Blake to the drivers side of his car where his three children were. And as he started to get in, one opened fire.
The police also said Blake had tried to strangle one of them, and that their Taser had had no effect on Blake!! We have nothing but the word of the Kenosha police about this “strangulation”, and this is not worth much as police often taser someone and then make up wild stories about why it was necessary. Yet neither superior manpower nor powerful weapons seemed able to stop Jacob Blake. It is amazing how guns seem to always be necessary to subdue the black man!! More amazing yet is how the police gunfire is the only thing that is seen on the available video, but missing is the alleged strangulation or an open knife.
Blake will stand trial in November on an unrelated issue. The issue at hand, however, is that whatever crime Blake may have committed in the past, this in no way excuses the horrific treatment of Blake by the racist Kenosha police.
For those who doubt that police could behave in such a manner, I would refer you to the article last month by Pilar Melendez, "Kenosha PD Was Already Awash With Corruption, Brutality and Cover-Ups Before Blake Shooting" . (1) It mentions the conclusion of the Wisconsin State Supreme Court 2017 report that “Corruption, lies, multiple evidence plantings, and deceit existed throughout the entire Kenosha criminal justice system.”
The
Wisconsin Supreme Court had been investigating the Kenosha County
District Attorney. The DA had hid information about an officer who
planted evidence in a murder case, and had also failed to admit that he
knew that another officer, who said he had no personal knowledge of the
fake evidence, was lying.
`
The article also pointed to an incident in 2015 which involved two
Kenosha cops who approached two teenagers in a park to ask them about a
kicked-over garbage can. Supposedly one teen acted disorderly, and the
cop arrested him. The parents said they are teens, but Police Chief
John Morrissey said they’re adults, and that one “jumped” an officer.
In fact, a video shows that at least eight officers were there, and
they kept punching the teens when they were on the ground.
A modern example of deep racism can be seen in Kenosha County Sheriff David Beth's 2018’s statement at a news conference where he said that a group of black males fleeing in a car after shoplifting were “garbage people” who should be put in “warehouses” and “locked away for the rest of their lives” and “stop[ed] ... from ... going out and getting 10 other women pregnant and having small children.” Beth made the required apologies to the public. But his racism is what permeates the officers under his command. Is it any wonder that the Kenosha police have yet to go take up even the token measure of wearing body cameras! (2)
The response to the shooting of Blake was immediate and fierce. Crowds poured into the streets; a state of emergency was called, and quickly violated. Several garbage trucks were set on fire, an armored personnel carrier was damaged, and a row of buildings torched and vandalized. The police went all out to get rid of the protesters, firing rubber bullets and tear gas. It only made the protesters more determined.
The next day, August 24, started off with peaceful protests during the day, but Wisconsin Governor Tony Evers chose to escalate matters by activating the Wisconsin National Guard. The curfew was set at 8 pm. But again no one cared. The anti-racist masses were not going to take it. Crowds still gathered to fight the police or set fire to stores or public buildings.
What is one to make of this type of revolt? In most cases, actions turn into clashes because the police seek to suppress them. There are also some cases of generalized burning and looting. Some of it reflects the views of people who say they have seen the same promises over and over, and think nothing will change unless something gets burned. They may get an immediate satisfaction from this, but it shows they aren't focused on building a powerful mass movement to achieve the change they seek. There seems to be some demonstrators who are influenced by the anarchist idea that the point of demonstrations is “to do material damage” to the enemy. Also, some trashing and looting is done by done by people who are not part of the protest, and sometimes people from far-right groups come in and do some of this. So setting fires in Kenosha was not the best policy, although it may have seemed better to some demonstrators than submitting to the police. One of the places burned was the particularly hated Wisconsin Department of Corrections community parole facility.
The anti-racist movement in Kenosha has been part of the ongoing anti-racist struggle that mushroomed across the country after the murder of George Floyd. It still exists despite a certain decrease in the overall amount of demonstrations. The events in Kenosha, Rochester, and elsewhere show that the movement is still quite alive, and in fact spreading to wherever atrocities take place and to more and more people. It has even led to the canceling of games by major league sports teams. And on August 26, tens of thousands gathered in Washington, D.C., where they listened to the relatives of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Jacob Blake, and other well-known victims speak out against the racist system, and send appreciation to the activists fighting with and for them.
But the murder of two anti-racist demonstrators in Kenosha on August 25 shows another aspect of the present situation. The forces of white supremacy and far-right racism haven't given up. There has been an increase in activity of right-wing militia forces, usually pro-Trump. They often function as allies of the police. Trump makes use of ICE and Department of Homeland Security forces to attack demonstrators, and he toys with direct intervention by the armed forces. But mainly we see a lot of Trumpists and neo-fascist "Proud Boy" types who seek to be as disruptive as they can. Now in Kenosha we have seen this escalate to the point that an outright pro-cop militia supporter emulates the cops by gunning down anti-racists.
Kyle Rittenhouse is a 17-year old murderer who shot to death two protesters and wounded one in the arm. He did not live in Kenosha but made his way there from Antioch, Illinois to carry out his evil deed. I wonder if the Trumpists would dare hang the label of “outside agitator” on Rittenhouse? But they only use this term in when they attempt to discredit progressive activists.
Rittenhouse was inspired by a local right-wing militia group known as the Kenosha Guard, although the head of the Guard denies he was a member. The Guard had a number of armed members roaming around during the demonstrations of August 25, ostensibly to protect property. It also had a Facebook page called “Armed Citizens to Protect our Lives and Property”, and it was was re-posted by Infowars, the website of the far-right zealot Alex Jones.
What is notable is the relation of Rittenhouse and the Kenosha Guard to the Kenosha Police Department (KPD). Rittenhouse was enchanted by the police. His web page is no longer available, but it had been stocked with Blue Lives Matter pictures and a photo of an AR-15 style rifle like the one he carried in Kenosha. Likewise, he was an ardent Trump fan. A Jan 30, 2020 TikTok video posted by Rittenhouse shows him seated in the front row of a Trump rally just a few feet away from Trump, while Trump has been inciting right-wing militias and others to take violent action against protesters. Rittenhouse meanwhile tried to become a real cop, entering a program for those interested in law enforcement careers.
The police, meanwhile, appeared to want to keep some distance from the Kenosha Guard. They rejected an appeal for cooperation, but it became apparent this separation was more fiction than fact. Everywhere the protesters went they faced violent attacks from the police with tear gas, rubber bullets, armored vehicles, etc. Meanwhile, the armed Kenosha Guard, who were supposed to be a dubious force rejected by police officials, was free to roam around with their weapons slung around them, free to do as they saw fit. The cooperation between law enforcement and the militias members became clear to everyone. A video showed law enforcement in an armored vehicle tossing water bottles to armed militia members. “Our deputies would toss a water to anybody” said Kenosha Sheriff Beth. Sure! He pretended that the protesters could simply stop getting tear gassed, shot at, pushed away, etc. and just walk right up and get free water from the friendly police! They play no favorites!!
The tacit alliance between the police and the armed militia was exposed when it was reported that an officer expressed thanks for the work the militia was doing. The ACLU called on Kenosha Police Chief Daniel Miskinis to resign for shifting the blame for the shooting onto the victims with such statements as “Persons who were out after the curfew became engaged in some type of disturbance and persons were shot. ... Had persons not been in violation of that, perhaps the situation might not have happened.” (3) Yes, the blame for getting killed lies with the victim! The people who were shot must have been there to be shot!! Trump’s message on law and order is loud and clear!
After shooting three people Kyle was so assured that the police wouldn't mind that, shouldering the murder weapon, he simply raised his hands and calmly walked toward them. Sure enough, the cops totally ignored him as several of their vehicles moved like blind bats right past him, and he escaped. Rittenhouse wound up in his home town, Antioch, Illinois, where he was considered a “fugitive from justice”; he was arrested and charged with one count of “first degree intentional homicide”, another count of "first-degree reckless murder", and other crimes. The wannabe police officer who carried out murder could not always count on the support of the overall legal system.
Who did Rittenhouse shoot? Anthony Huber was 26 years old, from the Silver Lake community in Kenosha County. He performed a heroic action, taking a fatal bullet while trying to disarm Rittenhouse with nothing but his skateboard. Joseph Rosenbaum was a 36-year-old father with a two-year-old daughter from Kenosha. Gaige Grosskreutz was from West Allis, Wisconsin, a 26-year-old medic with a social justice group, People’s Revolution Movement, who went to various actions to supply medical care. He was shot in the arm. They are heroes who were shot for standing up against racism. As it happened in this case, these people, two of whom sacrificed their lives for the movement, were white. This reflects the fact that the the anti-racist movement is a multi-racial, multi-ethnic one. This is one of the many things about the Black Lives Matter movement that infuriate the white supremacists and far right militias.
Despite Rittenhouse and the police, Kenosha still has regular demonstrations, currently peaceful. Trump has come and gone, paying no attention to Blake or the victims of Rittenhouse, and screeching about law and order. The truth is no one really cared about him. Trump could not even find a burned-out storekeeper to take his side; he was reduced to finding the previous owner of a shop, while the real owner of the business said he did not want to let Trump turn his hard times into a circus. (4) Trump had a few photos with the repressive law enforcement cabal. Then he lied about solving everyone's problems and left. Of course he did not mean the underlying problems faced by the country's cities or the problems faced by the working masses. They will not be dealt with at all.
Kenosha is not an exceptional case. Like clockwork we hear the story of one black person killed by police after another. Since the shootings in Kenosha, the story has come out about the Rochester, New York police killing Daniel Prude by putting a spit hood over his head and pushing his face into the pavement for two minutes. Month after month, we see that demonstrations are denounced by Trump, and targeted by Trump-inspired white racists, often with the police standing by or cooperating in some fashion. In some cases, protesters have been murdered. It happened in Detroit; Austin, TX; and now in Kenosha. But these last-ditch bloody crimes of the racists have not been able to stop the spread of the movement. More and more people have defied the racist bullies, and both police shootings and the repression of demonstrations have inspired more mass demonstrations and other protests in city after city. The more ugly the racism and repression, the more that people will protest!
(1) The Daily Beast, August 25, 2020.
(2) From WFXT, Channel 25 News, Boston.
(3) Stephanie Guerilus, "Kenosha police chief blames protesters for their own deaths because they were ‘out after curfew’", August 26, 2020.
Back to main
page,
how to order CV,
write us!