Jacob Blake, Kyle Rittenhouse, and the Murky Aftermath of Kenosha
It’s very difficult to follow the ongoing story in Kenosha in the aftermath of the shooting of Jacob Blake by KPD officer Rusten Sheskey on Sunday, 23 August. There are – at least for us – so many unanswered questions, including the following:
- What about that knife Blake was supposedly holding in the second video? Was he, or wasn’t he, holding a knife? The DA said that officers later found a knife on the floorboard of his car – but if that’s the knife, officers had no way of knowing that he had a weapon when he was shot seven times in the back (the implication being that he was leaning over to pick it up). Unless, of course, he tossed it onto the floorboard when he opened the car’s door …
- What if he was getting in his car to pull out his driver’s license and car registration forms, to prove to officers that he wasn’t the man involved in the street quarrel to which they’d been called initially?
- About that street brawl: it was initially reported that two women were involved. Was there also a man involved? What happened to him (assuming it wasn’t Blake)? Had Blake chased him off in an effort to break up the fight? Or was it Blake who was involved?
- Note: apparently, a woman called the KPD to report that her boyfriend was on the premises when he wasn’t supposed to be –presumably, violating a temporary restraining order (TRO)
- Note: another report says it was Blake that the woman called the police about. So was it or wasn’t it Blake who was in the altercation and was the subject of the woman’s call?
- Why weren’t the names of the officers involved released when they were verified? The shooter’s name (Rusten Sheskey) wasn’t released until Thursday, and the names of the other two who were on site have still to be released.
- About that taser: The KPD claims that Blake was tased – so what happened? Did the officer miss? Did the taser malfunction? What?
- The KPD doesn’t wear bodycams, but initial reports indicated that they do wear mics – so, was the incident recorded, or not? Did the officers have their mics turned on? Apparently, however, their cars do have dashboard cameras. Were they turned on? Is there any footage of the incident? And if they weren’t turned on, why not?
- Blake, who is in Froedtert Hospital in Milwaukee (it has the closest Level-One trauma center to Kenosha), is paralyzed from the waist down. In the meantime, however, he’s also chained to his hospital bed. And he hasn’t even been charged with anything.
- Was there an outstanding warrant out for Blake’s arrest? Had he been involved in a domestic violence incident earlier this year?
On to Tuesday night, and Kyle Rittenhouse, a 17-year-old from Antioch, Illinois (just over the border, about 10 miles from Kenosha).
- What was Rittenhouse doing with a long gun anyway? He’s seventeen. You can’t own a gun in Wisconsin before 18 (no license required in WI) – so, he was illegally carrying there. Was it his own gun?
- Note: You can carry a gun in Illinois as a minor if you have a parent/sponsor eligible for a FOID (Firearm Owner Identification) card and they’re willing to sign for you, so: Who (if anyone) sponsored Rittenhouse? Does he have a FOID card? A number of guns were apparently turned over to the Antioch Police when Rittenhouse, accompanied by his mother, turned himself in on Wednesday.
- Was Rittenhouse “allowed” to escape by the KPD? There were people calling out to the police that he’d “shot somebody” as he walked towards the police with his arms up – apparently, he was allowed to get into his car and drive home, since he wasn’t arrested until Wednesday, and he’s still in Lake County, where a hearing is scheduled for today (Friday). Wisconsin is charging him with first-degree intentional homicide and first-degree reckless homicide (presumably, two counts – not sure how he’ll be charged for the third, which wounded a man in the arm).
- Was he unaccompanied when he drove to Kenosha on Tuesday night? Did he have any connection with the Kenosha “militia group,” which on Facebook claimed to have assembled 2,600 armed citizens to defend Kenosha from protesters? The group, self-styled as the “Kenosha Guard,” was promoting an event called “Armed Citizens to Protect our Lives and Property.” Facebook didn’t remove it, despite (at least one) report against the page. After the shootings, it did remove it, as well as Rittenhouse’s FB and Instagram pages. Facebook’s delayed actions have to go into the annals of “too little, too late” here.
- What was up between the KPD and local militia-style groups? Did the KPD know “militia” were present in the city on Tuesday night? Did they make any effort to remove them? The Kenosha Police Chief Daniel Miskinis implied in a public statement that it was the protesters’ fault for getting killed because they were out after the 8 pm curfew. But if they were present, then it was also militia who were breaking curfew, right? What’s up with them? Were they present? Did Rittenhouse join up with or run into any of this purported 2,600-member group? (Presumably, that number came from the total of those “interested in attending an event” calculator on the FB page; not all would have actually attended, of course.)
- There’s a fair amount of video footage by onlookers who witnessed all sorts of things on Tuesday night – the KPD tossing water out from an armored vehicle to men saying guns, saying “We appreciate your being here.”
- Rittenhouse himself was interviewed by The Daily Caller before the shootings occurred. Here’s some of what he said: “So people are getting injured, and our job is to protect this business. And part of my job is to also help people. If there is somebody hurt, I’m running into harm’s way. That’s why I have my rifle — because I can protect myself, obviously. But I also have my med kit.”
On Wednesday, the ACLU issued a statement calling for the “immediate resignation” of Kenosha’s Police Chief (Daniel Miskinis), Sheriff (David Beth), and Mayor (John Antaramian).” Here’s the statement released by the ACLU / ACLU Wisconsin:
“Sheriff David Beth’s deputies not only fraternized with white supremacist counter-protesters on Tuesday, but allowed the shooter to leave as people yelled that he was the shooter. The sheriff excused this by saying his deputies may not have paid attention to the gunman because there were many distractions, including “screaming” and “hollering,” people running, police vehicles idling, “nonstop radio traffic,” and that “in situations that are high stress, you have such an incredible tunnel vision.” Sheriff Beth was also criticized last year after calling for five people of color who had been arrested for shoplifting to be put into warehouses “where we put these people who have been deemed to be no longer an asset.”
[Note: the linked article includes embedded video of the “let’s put them into warehouses” statement by Beth – it’s worth watching in full.]
In addition to their actual actions, there’s also this: “… the Kenosha mayor, Kenosha County executive, Kenosha police chief, Kenosha County sheriff, and Wisconsin National Guard’s adjutant general all declined to take questions.”
There are so many issues involved in the Kenosha situation that it’s hard to sort them out – we just don’t know all the facts, and officialdom is withholding crucial information needed by the informed public in order to have an informed opinion on the incident and its aftermath.
Secrecy and concealment of basic facts only fuel the rumor mill – and in this piece, we haven’t even linked to right-wing sources.
Perhaps we should rectify that in our closing, although we’re already pretty confident we know what we’ll find: It was Blake’s fault for getting shot seven times over a domestic dispute; it was the protestors’ fault they were killed/wounded for being outside after curfew. It wasn’t Sheskey’s fault for escalating from 0 to 60 on the violence continuum within the space of four minutes, and it wasn’t Kyle Rittenhouse’s fault he and members of some ad hoc militia group were on the streets of Kenosha after curfew. (See here on the tried-and-true tactic of “blame the victim.”)
Let’s see what a few of our favorite conservative sites actually say.
- Rod Dreher (The American Conservative) in “Kyle Rittenhouse, Populist Hero,” writes about how Rittenhouse is being turned into a right-wing (aka, conservative) folk hero (although Dreher personally disclaims any belief in whether Rittenhouse is either villain or hero – so we guess he’s going with the “these things are inevitable” interpretation. Dreher’s piece names the three men who were killed/wounded on Tuesday night and helpfully (?) posts Twitter threads that detail their rap sheets. (Question for Dreher: Were these men, like, actual protesters? Only one was from Kenosha …)
- The Editors, National Review, in an article helpfully entitled “The Fools of Kenosha,” is pretty balanced – in all fairness, it’s one of the less inflammatory op-ed pieces we’ve read on the incident and its aftermath. Here’s the conclusion:
The best course of action remains the same today as it always has been: To wait for the facts before making demands; to insist upon a fair investigation, conducted without fear or favor; to ensure a sufficient police presence to control the streets; and, most important of all, to resist weaving every ugly incident into an all-encompassing worldview that, in the name of highlighting what is bad about America, serves to blot out all that is good.
[On the other hand, the piece does include not-yet-confirmed criminal complaints against Blake which paint him in the most negative light possible, and strongly supports the police and officials, who’ve been just about as unforthcoming as it’s possible to be in such cases.]
- “Yes, the Leftist Mob is Pushing People towards Trump in Wisconsin” (Townhall) From the conclusion – most of the article was quotes/commentary on what the author called a “semi-decent piece in the NYT”, so the conclusion is referencing the piece from which the author drew heavily:
“Hey, a Democrat staying home is a good thing. Chicago is a war zone, New York City is being shot up, Seattle had armed leftists seize an eight-block portion of the city, and Portland is just a total mess. Federal agents had to be deployed to protect federal buildings and then were smeared as the SS-Gestapo by Democrats. They pulled back because apparently the violence would die down if they left. It didn’t. And now, after weeks of total pandemonium and Democratic weakness in our cities, voters should be worried about how these clowns would govern, especially with a man who appears to be dementia-ridden.” [Note: the language is representative of the publication.]
Note: We too read that NYT piece, which we agree was “semi-decent,” emphasis on “semi-.” One observation: the writer didn’t – for reasons known only to her – interview/speak with any members of Kenosha’s Black community. Admittedly, Kenosha is 77% white and only 10% Black, but still.
Finally, a note on the AR-15 Kyle Rittenhouse was carrying. As a “civilian” version of the M-16, a purely military-grade weapon, the AR-15 and its various knock-offs is the most popular mass shooters’ gun in America – there are around 8 million of them in circulation right now, despite calls for banning them:
“The irony with the AR-15 menace is that while demand has soared to ban it, its sales has (sic) only got a boost and that has made it even harder to regulate its use, by any of the two major political parties.”
We conclude with two references, one to another piece in The National Review by historian-public intellectual Victor Davis Hanson (“What Is the Violence in American Cities All About?”), and a second – in this case, a video link – to sociologist-journalist Gary Younge’s “explainer” about the ultimate causes of violence, recorded in June for Double-Down News.
From Hanson’s conclusion:
“The point of the mob is to wipe out what it cannot create. It topples what it can neither match nor even comprehend. It would erode the very system that ensures it singular freedom, leisure, and historic affluence. The brand of the anarchist is not logic but envy-driven power: to take it, to keep it, and to use it against purported enemies — which would otherwise be impossible in times of calm or through the ballot box.”
From Younge’s observations:
“… this violence is a response to violence…” Riots … they are polarizing, they are often hyper masculine…” … “It’s precisely because we are living under violence that people may respond with violence…” “…whether Black people can live is a live question…” “… violence in its entirety … there is the violence of the rebellions … there is the violence of the police force …” “… Then there is the violence of the economy …” and “the violence of the state” (i.e. structural violence) … “the economic violence of America and its racial composition…” “…racism is a system of control…” “… the latest protests seem to be multi-racial, which in America is no mean thing …” “… but it’s not a passive hope, it has to be an active hope (viz. that things will change)…”
As our title indicates, on the question of Justice, YMMV.