Wisconsin Governor Tony Evers on Tuesday declared a state of emergency in Kenosha after businesses were vandalized and dozens of buildings were set on fire in the city.
Evers boosted the number of US National Guard personnel providing support for Kenosha County law enforcement to 250.
“We cannot allow the cycle of systemic racism and injustice to continue,” he said. “We also cannot continue going down this path of damage and destruction.”
Photo: Reuters
The campaign of former US vice president Joe Biden, the Democratic presidential nominee, issued a similar statement on Tuesday.
“Protesting such brutality is right and necessary. It’s an utterly American response, but burning down communities and needless destruction is not,” senior campaign adviser Symone Sanders said. “Violence that endangers lives is not. Violence that guts and shutters businesses that serve the community is not.”
US first lady Melania Trump, in her keynote speech to the Republican National Convention from the Rose Garden at the White House, encouraged people “to stop the violence and looting being done in the name of justice, and never make assumptions based on the color of a person.”
Photo: Reuters
Doctors on Tuesday operated on Jacob Blake, who was shot by Kenosha police on Sunday, which sparked the unrest.
Blake sustained a severed spinal cord, a shattered vertebra and damage to his stomach, kidney and liver, Blake’s lawyer, Patrick Salvi, said at a news conference at the Kenosha County Courthouse.
“It is going to take a miracle for Jacob Blake Jr to ever walk again,” Ben Crumb, another Blake lawyer, said, adding that the injuries were the result of the “brutal use of excessive force, once again, on an African American.”
The lawyers said they planned to file a civil lawsuit seeking police accountability and the resources necessary for Blake’s medical recovery.
Salvi said that an immediate task of the shooting victim’s legal team is gathering additional evidence about the incident, including the identity of the uniformed officer who shot Blake seven times.
Civil and criminal cases resulting from the shooting are likely, Salvi said.
“I do think laws were violated. Whether you’re in uniform or not, the rule of law still applies,” he said.
Salvi said contact with law enforcement agencies has been limited.
“I think what’s very concerning for us is whatever evidence they have, we need,” Salvi said.
“They have not told us anything. We have made efforts to get in contact with Kenosha, but that has failed,” he said of the city’s law enforcement agency.
Night two of the Republican convention opened with a prayer for “peace to come over the hurting communities in Wisconsin tonight,” as well as for healing to Blake and his family and protection for law enforcement patrolling the streets.
“To the law enforcement officer who is being attacked, betrayed and whose job they are trying to make extinct — my father will fight for you,” Eric Trump said of US President Donald Trump.
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