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Reuters
Jacob Blake’s father said his son was “holding out his whole life” after a police officer shot him
The father of a black man shot by police refused to “play politics” with his son’s life when Donald Trump visits the city of Kenosha on Tuesday.
The Jacob Blake shooting sparked a new wave of anti-racism protests in the United States, prompting calls for President Trump to recognize him and his family.
The president will meet with police officers during the visit, but not with the Blake family.
The visit arrives with highly politicized “law and order” ahead of the November 3 presidential elections.
In an interview with CNN, Blake’s father, Jacob Blake Sr., said that his son’s life was more important than a meeting with President Trump.
“I’m not getting into politics. It’s about my son, man. It has nothing to do with a photoshoot,” he said.
Local officials have urged Trump not to visit Kenosha, Wisconsin, fearing that his presence in the city will reignite protests that have died down in recent days.
But Trump has rejected their pleas, accusing Democratic mayors and governors of failing to control the violence. He is pushing a strong law and order message in his bid to win a second term in the White House, though critics accuse him of stoking tensions.
Before the trip to Kenosha, the president said that he would not meet with Blake’s family because they wanted lawyers to be present.
Trump has also defended a teenage supporter accused of fatally shooting two men amid protests over the Blake shooting.
- Who is the American teenager charged with protest killings in Wisconsin?
He suggested 17-year-old Kyle Rittenhouse was acting in self-defense, telling reporters, “I guess he was in big trouble, they probably would have killed him.”
What did Blake’s father say?
“This is not politics. This is about my son’s life,” Mr. Blake Sr. said, adding that his son was still paralyzed from the waist down, “enduring life.”
Jacob Blake, 29, was shot multiple times in the back by a police officer during an arrest, while Mr. Blake tried to get into a car where his three children were sitting.
“We’re dealing with an individual who a couple of weeks ago was running around with the kids and talking to me on the phone and laughing, with an individual who can’t move his leg,” said Blake Sr.
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The officer involved in the Aug. 23 shooting, named Rusten Sheskey, has been placed on administrative leave pending an investigation.
Mr. Blake Sr. said that since his son’s shooting he had “received some threats.”
When asked how his family was coping, Blake Sr. said he had to take his 20-year-old son to the hospital because he was depressed.
The father did not elaborate, but added: “It saddens me that people do not understand the kind of pressure this family is under.”
Why is Trump’s visit to Kenosha controversial?
The state’s governor, Democrat Tony Evers, urged Trump to reconsider his trip, warning that his presence will “hinder our healing” and argued that citizens of the city are already traumatized.
The White House said the president was expected to meet with police and tour “properties affected by the recent riots.”
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What’s going on in Portland?
Portland, Oregon, has also become a major flash point for protests since a wave of Black Lives Matter protests was sparked with the murder of another African American, George Floyd, in May.
Floyd died in Minneapolis after a police officer knelt on his neck for an extended period during an arrest.
In July, the Trump administration deployed federal forces in Portland, ostensibly to protect a federal court and other federal property. But they were later removed amid accusations that their heavy-handed tactics only increased the unrest.
On Saturday night, right-wing activist Aaron “Jay” Danielson, 39, was shot and killed in the city after he was seen going to protect a caravan of Trump supporters from counter-protesters.
- Explanation of Trump’s crackdown on Portland protests
- Can Trump send federal forces to quell the violence?
When asked to condemn supporters who had shot paint pellets during a clash with anti-racist protesters that night, Trump described the protest as “peaceful” and called the paint “a defensive mechanism, paint is not bullets.” .
He told a journalist: “His followers, and they are his followers in fact, shot a young gentleman … and killed him, not with paint but with a bullet. And I think that is a shame.
Media reports say a man calling himself an anti-fascist is being investigated for Danielson’s death.
Meanwhile, protests broke out in Los Angeles, California, on Monday night after an incident in which police shot and killed a black man in a southern neighborhood of the city.
Police say the man, named in local media as Dijon Kizzee, 29, fled after officers saw him riding a bicycle in violation of vehicle codes. According to police, the man was shot at the end of a chase, after he allegedly struck an officer and dropped a package of clothing he was carrying.
“Officers noticed that inside the clothes he dropped was a semi-automatic black pistol, at which point a shooting occurred in which he was implicated,” Lieutenant Brandon Dean told reporters.
