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Relatives of Jacob Blake, the black man shot and seriously wounded by a white police officer in Kenosha last Sunday, led a large rally in the small town of Wisconsin on Saturday afternoon, chants of “Seven bullets, seven days “echoing to mark the number of shots the young father allegedly received in the back.
A crowd of around 1,000 heard Wisconsin Democratic Congresswoman Gwen Moore address the rally and say “I’m crazy as hell” from the injury that left Blake fighting for her life at the local hospital.
Relatives, including Blake’s father, Jacob Blake Sr., and his sister, Letetra Widman, spoke, not long ago returning from speaking at Friday’s great civil rights march “take your knee off” in Washington, DC , on the anniversary of Martin Luther King “I have a dream speech” in 1963.
The rally and the Washington march were organized to protest the murder of George Floyd by a white police officer who knelt on his neck in Minneapolis in May during an arrest attempt. Some protesters had marched from Milwaukee, Wisconsin, 40 miles (64 kilometers) north of Kenosha, to the capital.
But it served as a protest against Blake’s injuries and a demand for an end to years of racist attacks and police killings of African Americans.
The rally in Kenosha on Saturday was peaceful but passionate, following several days of quiet demonstrations in the city since the violent clash Tuesday night, in which armed white rioters appeared in the city and fired at Black Lives Matter protesters, resulting in two deaths.
Jacob Blake Sr. denounced the local police to the crowds in Kenosha: “What gave them the right to think that my son was an animal?” he said.
He promised that the protests would continue.
“We are not going to stop. We continue to suffer because there are two systems of justice. There’s one for that white kid who walked down the street and killed two people and blew another’s arm off. Then there is one for my son, ”he said.
He was referring to Kyle Rittenhouse, the 17-year-old who appeared on the streets with an assault rifle Tuesday night and broke through police lines after shooting protesters, without consequences until he turned himself in in Illinois 12 hours later. He is now charged with numerous serious crimes, including intentional homicide.
Blake Sr. also addressed white allies, many of whom have been marching in Kenosha and elsewhere in support of the Black Lives Matter movement.
“My Caucasian counterparts love them, but they will never understand what we went through,” he said.
Letetra Widman led many of the chants that rang out, including “seven bullets, seven days” and “I’m proud to be black.” I love blacks ”.
She came to attention the day after her brother was shot, with a fierce denunciation of historic violence against African Americans. She said she hadn’t cried, but was angry, adding, “I don’t want your pity, I want a change.”
On Saturday, she recited lines of poetry to the growing crowd: “I am the guardian and I will not accept your abuse. I am the guardian and I will not die, for 400 years you have tried, ”referring to the four centuries since the first kidnapped Africans were forcibly taken to the United States and sold as slaves.
Jacob Blake’s uncle, Justin Blake, urged those gathered to campaign non-stop. “Don’t wait until a body hits the ground to put your boots on. Put your boots on every day and do that job, ”he said.
The rally was organized by the family and a local Kenosha Black Lives Activists (BLAK) campaign group.
Moore said an award for the protesters would be the passage of George Floyd’s Police Reform Act, legislation she helped introduce to Congress but is a long way from becoming law, with Republicans in control of the Senate and the White House. .
Wisconsin Lieutenant Governor Mandela Barnes told the boisterous crowd, “I want us to meet like this in happy times too.”
But he added: “Blacks made it through some of the most difficult times in human history and we are still here today. Justice is the bare minimum, so we won’t leave until we see justice. “
The riots of the past week, particularly the arrival of armed outsiders like Rittenhouse, have shaken Kenosha. People have painted messages of unity and hope on boarded up shop windows.
“It has reached the point where I don’t go out after a certain time, after dark. Who can say that in the crowd there is a guy who wants to kill black people, “said resident Macari Gosa, 27, who works at a discount convenience store.
More than 1,000 National Guard soldiers have been deployed to Kenosha from various states, but have been waiting outside for marches in recent days.
But there has been intense anger over the arrests of dozens of non-violent protesters by federal agents who did not identify themselves.
Rittenhouse is being held without bail in Illinois, awaiting transfer to Wisconsin, and intends to defend his defense, according to his attorney, Lin Wood.
Reuters contributed to the reports.
