Jacob Blake’s sister demands justice for her brother

The sister of Jacob Blake declared that they will not ‘dress up this genocide’ as police brutality, as the family’s attorney said ‘it’s the last season of the police’s how to get away with murder’ during the 57th anniversary of the March on Washington.  

The Blake family and several other families who’ve lost loved ones to police brutality rallied with around 50,000 Americans for the March on Washington. 

The event, also known as Commitment March: Get Your Knee Off Our Neck, was held on the 57th anniversary of Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.’s famed ‘I Have a Dream’ address from 1963.

Letetra Widman, Blake’s sister, did not mince words as she declared her brother’s shooting is more than just a singular instance of police brutality.  

‘We will not pretend. We will not be your docile slave. We will not be a foot stool to oppression,’ she said.

‘Most of all, we will not dress up this genocide and call it police brutality. We will only pledge allegiance to the truth.

She then turned her focus on black Americans who listened to her speech under the sweltering Washington D.C. sun and those watching the event virtually online. 

‘Black America, I hold you accountable. You must stand, you must fight, but not was violence and chaos. Learn to love yourself black people. Unify,’ she said.

Jacob Blake, a 29-year-old father of six, was with his children on August 23 when he was shot seven times in the back by Officer Rusten Shesky in Kenosha, Wisconsin.

Police arrived to the 2800 block of 40th Street in Kenosha after Blake’s girlfriend ‘reported that her boyfriend was present and was not supposed to be on the premises.’

Officers tried to subdue him with a taser before opening fire, authorities said.

During an investigation Blake admitted to police that he had a knife and authorities recovered it from the driver’s side floorboard of car after opening fire. No other weapons were found at the scene.

Outrage over Blake’s case continued to grow this week after it was revealed he is now paralyzed from the waist down and was handcuffed to his hospital bed by law enforcement.

Jacob Blake Sr. took to the podium after his daughter and said ‘We’re going to hold court on systematic racism – guilty!’

‘Racism against Trayvon Martin – we find them guilty! Racism against George Floyd – we find them guilty! Racism against Jacob Blake…guilty! And we’re not taking it anymore.’

B’Ivory LaMarr, the attorney for the Blake family, doubled down on his clients stance and said ‘we’re tired of talking.’

‘We’re tried of playing games. 2020 is they year America will be put on timeout. Today, I just want to let you know is the last season of the police version of ‘How to Get Away With Murder,’ said LaMarr, referencing the popular television show.

‘We know your playbook. We know your plays,’ he continued. ‘Step one: claim that you were in fear and find an object so you can justify that you were in fear of a black or brown person.

‘Step Two: assassinate that black person and step three: assassinate his character.’  

Other people who spoke at Friday’s march were event organizers Rev. Al Sharpton and Martin Luther King III, who both called decried racism that has continued to permeate the country.

Yolanda Renee King, the 12-year-old granddaughter of Martin Luther King Jr., gave a riveting speech that called on young Americans to take their place on the front lines of fighting for equality.

Tamika Palmer, the mother of Breonna Taylor and the siblings of George Floyd were also in attendance.

Father of Jacob Blake claims his son was handcuffed to his hospital bed when he visited him – even though he is paralyzed after being shot seven times in the back by a cop

By Harriet Alexander  

Jacob Blake, the man shot seven times in the back by Wisconsin police on Sunday, is currently handcuffed in bed, his father has said – despite being paralyzed and charged with no crime. 

Outrage spread quickly at the news, and people demanded Kenosha police remove the handcuffs. 

‘How the f**k do you handcuff Jacob Blake that you paralyzed to a hospital bed after you shot him in the back seven times?’ tweeted Rashida Tlaib, congresswoman for the neighboring state of Michigan.

Tony Evers, governor of Wisconsin, was asked if he’s concerned about Blake being handcuffed.

‘Hell yes,’ he said. 

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‘I would have no personal understanding why that would be necessary. 

‘I can’t imagine why that’s happening and I would hope that we would be able to find a better way to have him get better and recover.’

Jacob Blake Sr told the Chicago Sun Times that he had just been to see his son in hospital. 

‘I hate it that he was laying in that bed with the handcuff onto the bed,’ he said.

‘He can’t go anywhere. Why do you have him cuffed to the bed?’

Blake also asked what he had been arrested for, and received no answer.

The Blake family attorney, Benjamin Crump, said it would take a ‘miracle’ for Blake to recover use of his legs. 

‘The medical diagnosis right now is that he is paralyzed, because those bullets severed his spinal cord,’ he said at a press conference on Tuesday.

‘He will need a miracle to walk again. He is currently in surgery as we speak, to try and save his life. And return to some semblance of the man he once was.’

Crump’s legal partner, Patrick Salvi, confirmed that a bullet went through his spinal cord. He had bullets in his stomach, and had to have almost his entire colon removed. He had a bullet in the kidney, and in the arm.

‘He has a long road to recovery,’ said Mr Salvi.

When Blake, 29, saw his father in the hospital Wednesday, he thought he was hallucinating because he could not believe what he was seeing, according to his father.

‘I told him, ‘You thought Daddy wasn’t going to see my son?’ his father said. 

‘He grabbed my hand, held it real tight and started weeping, telling me how much he loved me.’

Though his son’s eyes were swollen, the elder Jacob Blake said he ‘looked and sounded like’ his son, and he’s alive. 

Seeing him in the hospital was like walking across a desert to find someone waiting with a glass of water, his father said.

‘It was way more than fulfilling,’ his father said. 

‘It was a feeling I can’t describe.’

Kenosha police did not respond to questions about why Blake was handcuffed.

Vanita Gupta, former head of the civil rights division of the department of justice, tweeted: ‘I have no words.’

Renatto Mariotti, a former federal prosecutor, said: ‘Jacob Blake was shot in the back multiple times and is paralyzed from the waist down. 

‘What possible justification could there be for handcuffing him to his hospital bed?’

Wesley Lowery, correspondent for 60 Minutes, said he had just spoken to Blake’s uncle, who was deeply distressed by the handcuffing of his nephew.

‘One thing the family is particularly upset about — the uncle just gave me a call to make sure I had noted this in our interview — is that Jacob Blake, shot seven times and paralyzed, has been handcuffed to his hospital bed,’ Lowery said.

Rusten Sheskey, the police officer who shot Blake in the back, is a seven-year veteran of the Kenosha Police Department.  

Sheskey, 31, has been put on administrative leave while Wisconsin officials investigate the confrontation caught on video.

Sheskey, a member of the department’s bicycle squad, long aspired to a law enforcement career and once described police work as ‘a customer service job, and the public is our customer.’ 

On Thursday officials announced that the National Guard will send troops from three additional states – Arizona, Alabama and Michigan – to Kenosha to assist with operations there. 

Evers had already authorized the deployment of the Wisconsin National Guard to Kenosha, and declared a state of emergency Tuesday and enforced an overnight curfew lasting until Sunday. 

On Tuesday night protests at Blake’s shooting descended into lethal violence in which two men, Joseph Rosenbaum, 36, of Kenosha, and Anthony Huber, 26, of Silver Lake, were shot dead. 

Kyle Rittenhouse, 17, was arrested on Wednesday at his home in Antioch, Illinois, accused of killing the protesters. 

In Washington, the Justice Department said it was sending in more than 200 federal agents from the FBI, U.S. Marshals Service and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. 

The White House said up to 2,000 National Guard troops would be made available.

The Justice Department also announced that the U.S. attorney’s office and FBI would conduct a civil rights investigation into the shooting of Blake, in cooperation with Wisconsin state law enforcement agencies.

Groups that had taken to Kenosha’s streets with long guns were nowhere to be seen early Thursday following somber protests and no widespread unrest for the first night since the weekend police shooting of Jacob Blake.

Marchers were solemn during Wednesday night’s protests in the southeastern Wisconsin city between Milwaukee and Chicago following the chaos of the previous night.