Politics

Kenosha Updates: DOJ Says Jacob Blake was Tased Twice, Names Two More Kenosha Officers Involved

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Journal Sentinel reporters are in Kenosha in the aftermath of the shooting of Jacob Blake, who was shot in the back multiple times by police Sunday.

Shortly before midnight Tuesday, things turned violent again when two people were killed and 1 other injured during ongoing protests. Kyle Rittenhouse, 17, was arrested Wednesday and charged in connection to the killings. Check back for updates as the story continues to develop.

WEDNESDAY: Updates from Aug. 26

6:01 a.m.: DOJ says Blake was tased twice, identifies two more officers involved

Before he was shot seven times by Kenosha Police officer Rusten Shesky on Sunday, both Shesky and officer Vincent Arenas used tasers in an attempt to control Jacob Blake, according to a news release from the Wisconsin Department of Justice. Neither taser strike was effective.

A third officer on the scene was Brittany Meronek, the release says. All three officers can be seen with their guns drawn in videos of the incident.

Shesky, who shot Blake in the back seven times as he opened the driver's side door of an SUV with his children inside, has been a Kenosha Police officer for seven years, according to DOJ. Arenas has worked for the department since February 2019 after serving previously with the U.S. Capitol Police. Meronek joined the department in January.

Police were trying to arrest Blake after his girlfriend called them to say he was not supposed to be on the property, the release says.

“During the investigation following the initial incident, Mr. Blake admitted that he had a knife in his possession,” it says. Department of Justice agents “recovered a knife from the driver's side floorboard of Mr. Blake's vehicle.”

No other weapons were found. A search of the vehicle located no additional weapons.”

-Gina Barton

11:52 p.m.: Small group continues protest, while police arrest some past curfew

A small group continued to protest in downtown Kenosha after curfew during the fifth night of protests. Kenosha's curfew went into effect at 7 p.m. Thursday. After nights of destruction and violence, it was a relatively quiet scene.

Protesters made their way through the streets with stops at Library Park and the Civic Center Park. Livestreams from people on the scene showed some arrests of protesters. It also showed people waiting for friends who were arrested earlier to be released.

Close to midnight a group of less than 50 protesters remained.

-Sarah Hauer

President Trump Travels to WI | Kenosha Updates: DOJ Says Jacob Blake was Tased Twice, Names Two More Kenosha Officers Involved

10 p.m. Trump mentions Kenosha unrest in RNC acceptance speech

President Donald Trump emphasized the importance of law and order in places like Kenosha while accepting his party's nomination for re-election Thursday.

Addressing the nation from the White House on the fourth and final night of the Republican National Convention, the president mentioned Kenosha by name, but not Jacob Blake, the Black man who was shot in the back by a police officer.

Instead, he suggested that without his presidency, police would be powerless – arguing the election is a decision to “defend the American way of life or let a radical movement to completely dismantle or destroy it.”

“When there is police misconduct, the justice system must hold wrongdoers fully and completely accountable, and it will,” Trump said. “But what we can never have in America – and must never allow – is mob rule.”

“In the strongest possible terms, the Republican Party condemns the rioting, looting, arson and violence we have seen in Democrat-run cities like Kenosha, Minneapolis, Portland, Chicago and New York,” Trump said.

Trump and other Republicans have vilified Democratic Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers for not accepting initial federal help offered by Trump on Tuesday, just hours before a gunman shot three people on the streets of Kenosha, killing two.

Trump said Thursday voters were deciding whether to protect “law-abiding Americans or whether we give free rein to violent anarchists, agitators, and criminals who threaten our citizens.”

Read the full story.

– Molly Beck, Patrick Marley, Oren Oppenheim

8:55 p.m. Kyle Rittenhouse's defense to be aided by new #FightBack Foundation

A legal team says it will defend Kyle Rittenhouse, charged in the fatal shooting during protests in Kenosha this week, and has set up a fund for the 17-year-old's legal fees.

Rittenhouse of Antioch, Illinois, has been charged with multiple counts, including first-degree intentional homicide, in the shooting that killed two people and injured a third.

Videos from protests in Kenosha Tuesday night show Rittenhouse armed with an AR-15-style rifle and describing himself as part of a militia protecting businesses.

A legal team from the #FightBack Foundation said it will be part of Rittenhouse's defense team.

Lawyer L. Lin Wood said he helped form the foundation with “a mission to protect and defend our Constitution on many fronts.”

Wood is a nationally prominent defamation lawyer who helped a Covington Catholic High School student sue CNN, The Washington Post and other media companies in 2019. The companies settled this summer for undisclosed amounts.

Read the full story.

– Sarah Hauer, Natalie Brophy

8:10 p.m. Gov. Evers stops in Kenosha for first time since shooting of Jacob Blake

Gov. Tony Evers visited Kenosha for the first time since Jacob Blake was shot by Kenosha police officer Rusten Sheskey.

The shooting set off protests that included peaceful marching, but also looting vandalism that left businesses in ruins, and cars and city garbage trucks destroyed by fire.

On Tuesday night, the unrest reached a new level when a gunman, Kyle Rittenhouse, shot three people, killing two of them.

Evers called Rittenhouse an “outside agitator” and said that the people “running around with long guns for no apparent reason” should stay home.

Evers deployed the National Guard on Monday but declined an offer of federal help from the White House just hours before Tuesday's shooting. He accepted additional federal assistance the next day.

He also said state officials have met every request for National Guard troops made by Kenosha authorities.

“I feel confident that we have met our obligations,” Evers said at Thursday's press conference.

When Evers was asked why it took him four days to get to Kenosha, he said he came as soon as he could.

“I spend every waking moment communicating with staff members who are on the ground here and people in the governor's office. We're in constant communication with the people here in Kenosha,” he said.

Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes said the police shooting of Blake falls in “a long and painful pattern of violence, and this is a pattern of violence that happens against Black lives too often across this country.”

Read the full story.

– Alison Dirr, Molly Beck

7:45 p.m. NAACP Kenosha president: ‘We're in the process of mourning'

The video showing Jacob Blake's shooting by police “had a terrible effect on the whole community,” Anthony Davis, president of the Kenosha NAACP, said Thursday in a virtual event hosted by the Biden-Harris campaign.

“We're in the process of mourning. We just ask you for your support during this time,” he said.

He criticized the destruction of property in the city during the unrest, saying that he saw mom-and-pop stores destroyed and businesses boarded up.

“I've never seen that in Kenosha before. It just hurts,” he said. “We're going to get through this.”

He also criticized police brutality and called for police to use body cameras, which the Kenosha Police Department currently does not use.

Davis' remarks were part of a “Shop Talk” featuring Black businessmen, leaders, and organizational leaders that focused on issues in the Black community in Wisconsin and the rest of the country.

Lt. Gov Mandela Barnes joined the call toward the end, following a press conference with Gov. Tony Evers earlier in Kenosha.

“It's challenging,” he said. “This isn't something new. … Police brutality didn't start with Jacob Blake, George Floyd; it didn't even start with Dontre Hamilton,” who was shot by police in Milwaukee in 2014, Mandela said.

– Oren Oppenheim

7:30 p.m. Kenosha pastors want city known for its love of God, not violence

In a Kenosha park along Lake Michigan, Pastor Demetris Crum asked God for peace in a “dark and evil age.”

“We recognize Father that our city and our nation will only be restored by the love of God,” said Crum, pastor of Second Baptist Church.

More than 200 people met on a stretch of grass at Harbor Park in 90-degree heat for the event, organized by a coalition of Kenosha churches.

The people arrived with strollers, bicycles, picnic blankets and dogs and raised their arms toward the cloudless sky to pray and sing along to worship songs.

Many of the pastors said they wanted Kenosha to be known for its love of God, not the violence that has plagued its streets in the last week.

Monroe Mitchell, of Agape Love Church, issued a prayer for the quick healing of Jacob Blake.

“I pray that you move miraculously and triumphantly over this man,” he said.

The event didn't have a political agenda, an organizer said, but it was instead a time to “cry out” to God for healing.

– Sophie Carson

7 p.m.: Kyle Rittenhouse charged with intentional homicide and five other charges

Kyle Rittenhouse, 17, has been charged with first-degree intentional homicide and five other charges for the shootings of three people, two of whom died, in Kenosha on Tuesday night.

Rittenhouse was taken into custody Wednesday in Illinois, where he lives in Antioch southwest of Kenosha, and was awaiting extradition to Wisconsin on Thursday.

The charges were filed Thursday in Kenosha County Court in a complaint that details how Rittenhouse used an AR-15-style rifle to shoot and kill Joseph Rosenbaum, 36, and Anthony Huber, 26, and injure Gaige Grosskreutz, 26, shortly before midnight along Sheridan Road, where protesters went after being expelled from Civic Center Park during clashes with law enforcement.

In the first shooting, Rittenhouse was charged with first-degree reckless homicide after Rosenbaum suffered fatal gunshot wounds to the groin and back, according to the complaint. Law enforcement previously said he was shot in the head.

He faces a first-degree intentional homicide charge in Huber's shooting death. Huber was shot in the chest.

Read the full story.

– Sarah Volpenhein

5:05 p.m.: Madison soccer team won't play Sunday

A Madison-based soccer team announced Thursday it would not play its next scheduled home game Sunday, in an effort to put “the spotlight entirely on the fight against racial injustice and systemic oppression.”

Forward Madison FC, which is playing its home games at Hart Park in Wauwatosa this summer because of coronavirus restrictions, is the latest professional sports team to postpone a game following the police shooting of Jacob Blake Sunday in Kenosha.

The team said it is postponing its game “to shift attention away from sports and towards the fight against systemic discrimination towards Black Americans.”

Read the full story.

– Evan Casey

4:17 p.m.: Kenosha PD releases details of ‘Riot Kitchen' detainment

Kenosha police issued a statement on the detainment of Seattle-based protesters from ‘Riot Kitchen,' shown being forcibly removed from their vehicles by police Wednesday in a video captured and circulated online.

“Kenosha Police Department received a citizen tip alerting us to several suspicious vehicles with out of state plates meeting in a remote lot near State Highway 50 and Green Bay Road,” the statement read. “Acting on this information Kenosha Police Offices located the suspicious vehicles and took up surveillance. Kenosha Police were assisted by the United States Marshals. The vehicles were a black school bus, bread truck and tan minivan.

“Kenosha Police confirmed the out of state license plates. Police followed the vehicles to a gas station near Washington Road and 30th Avenue. Police observed the occupants of the black bus and bread truck exit and attempt to fill multiple fuel cans. Suspecting that the occupants of these vehicles were preparing for criminal activity related to the civil unrest, officers attempted to make contact and investigate.

“The officers exited their vehicles, identified themselves, were wearing appropriate identification, and then detained the occupants of the bus and bread truck. The minivan attempted to drive away; however, Kenosha Police stopped this vehicle and ultimately forced entry to the minivan and arrested the occupants. The vehicles contained various items that included helmets, gas masks, protective vests, illegal fireworks, and suspected controlled substances. The 9 individuals were arrested for disorderly conduct and are pending charging decisions by the Kenosha County District Attorney.”

Jennifer Scheurle, a board member for the nonprofit Riot Kitchen – which provides protesters and homeless people with meals – said a group of 10 people were on the way to Washington, D.C. when they detoured to Kenosha. She lost contact with them Wednesday and later saw them apprehended in the video.

Scheurle said two had been released, but the rest were still in custody.

“We just feed people,” she said. “Our mission is usually to help de-escalate.”

  • JR Radcliffe and Bruce Vielmetti

4:09 p.m.: Fox News host said Rittenhouse ‘had to maintain order when no one else would'

Fox News host Tucker Carlson is standing by the vigilante teen accused of fatally shooting two people and injuring another during a Kenosha, Wisconsin, protest Tuesday night.

Court records show Kyle Rittenhouse, 17, faces a first-degree intentional homicide charge in Kenosha County after shooting demonstrators protesting the police shooting of Jacob Blake. Based on Wisconsin law, Rittenhouse would be charged as an adult.

On “Tucker Carlson Tonight” Wednesday, the talk show host appeared to justify Rittenhouse's actions, saying it's understandable given violence and chaos in the city.

“We do know why it happened, though. Kenosha devolved into anarchy because the authorities abandoned the people,” Carlson said. “Those in charge, from the governor on down, refused to enforce the law. They've stood back and watched Kenosha burn. Are we really surprised that looting and arson accelerated to murder?

“How shocked are we that 17-year-olds with rifles decided they had to maintain order when no one else would?” Carlson said.

Read the full story.

– Cydney Henderson

3:45 p.m.: Trevor Noah, Stepehn Colbert weigh in on shootings

On Wednesday night, late-night hosts Trevor Noah and Stephen Colbert for the first time addressed Kenosha Police Officer Rusten Sheskey shooting Jacob Blake in the back Sunday, and the shooting of three people, two of them fatally, in Kenosha Tuesday.

No matter how many times I watch these videos, I'll never get used to how quickly police go from issuing commands to using deadly force,” Noah said on “The Daily Show.” “Like, whatever happened to warning shots or tackling a suspect? Like are we really meant to believe that the only two options a cop has are to do nothing or shoot somebody in the back seven times?”

Said Colbert, “This person thought they were a member of a militia, and he thought there was such a thing as a militia. There's cops who can legally carry guns and arrest you, and then there are the yahoos who can get strapped with an AR-15, buy some camo from an army surplus store, and role play the fear fantasy that has been fed to them every night of the last four years.”

Read the full story.

– Piet Levy

3:39 p.m.: Kamala Harris points to Kenosha, says there are ‘two systems of justice'


Saying there are still “two systems of justice” in America, U.S. Sen. Kamala Harris took part in her first solo event as the Democratic vice presidential nominee Wednesday.

At one point, Harris focused on the police shooting of Jacob Blake, which has set off protests in that state. Harris said she spoke with Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden spoke earlier Wednesday to Blake's family, adding that Blake's shooting represents “the two systems of justice in America.”

“We need to fight … for the ideal that says all people are supposed to be treated equally, which is still not happening,” said Harris, a former attorney general in California.”

Presidential candidate Joe Biden also spoke Wednesday, saying that Donald Trump is “rooting” for unrest.

“I think he views it as a political benefit,” Biden said.

Read the full story.

– Craig Mauger and Bill Glauber

2:56 p.m.: ACLU calls for resignation of Kenosha officials

The American Civil Liberties Union of Wisconsin and National ACLU released a statement falling for the immediate resignation of Kenosha police chief Daniel Miskinis and Kenosha County Sheriff David Beth.

The ACLU's demand follows the shooting of Jacob Blake and the murder of two protesters, who were shot by 17-year-old Kyle Rittenhouse on Tuesday.

“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 release stated. “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.”

The latter reference referred to 2018 remarks Beth made publicly after five people stole thousands of dollars of merchandise from an area outlet center, sped away and collided with another vehicle driven by a 16-year-old before attempting to escape on foot.

The ACLU also felt Miskinis blamed victims for their own death in Tuesday's shootings, “saying the violence was the result of the ‘persons' involved violating curfew.

“The ACLU strongly condemns Sheriff Beth and Police Chief Miskinis' response to both the attempted murder of Jacob Blake and the protests demanding justice for him. Their actions uphold and defend white supremacy, while demonizing people who were murdered for exercising their first amendment rights and speaking out against police violence.” said Chris Ott, ACLU of Wisconsin executive director “The only way to rectify these actions is for both Sheriff Beth and Police Chief Daniel Miskinis to immediately tender their resignations.”

  • JR Radcliffe

2:50 p.m.: Rep. Glenn Grothman condemns how ‘officers have been villified'

Glenn Grothman, who represents Wisconsin's 6th Congressional district, wrote in a statement on Thursday afternoon that he has “been saddened, but no longer shocked, by what has happened in Kenosha over the last few nights.

He said officers haven't been given a fair shake.

“While we have seen real examples of police violence and brutality, we have also seen examples of police confrontations in which officers have been vilified and judged guilty before all of the facts have come in. I am very disappointed in elected officials and celebrities who have been quick to convict law enforcement in the court of public opinion while knowing minimal information about the situation,” Grothman wrote.

On property damage in the city during protests, he said, “there is no reason that business owners should suffer damages for something they were not involved in and cannot control. I hope in the future, people who feel that destroying other people's property as a way to enact change will start with their own property, rather than innocent families and business owners.”

– Oren Oppenheim

2:07 p.m.: Blake attorneys criticize police response to Blake vs. Rittenhouse


Attorneys representing Jacob Blake and his family released a statement calling for a timely and full investigation into Blake's shooting, while also demanding authorities protect protesters from “outside vigilante forces” after two people were killed in Kenosha Tuesday night.

Civil rights attorney Ben Crump and co-counsels Patrick Salvi and B'Ivory Lamarr also drew a sharp distinction in how authorities' interaction with Blake, who was shot multiple times in close range after police were called to a domestic incident, and their response to Kyle Rittenhouse, the 17-year-old from Illinois who is accused of fatally shooting two people and wounding a third.

“They shot him seven times in the back in front of his children,” the attorneys statement read, referring to Blake.

But when it came to Rittenhouse, “local law enforcement and National Guardsmen allowed him to walk down the street with his assault weapon,” they said.

Video of the scene showed the shooter with a gun running toward an intersection in Kenosha where two squad cars and three armored police vehicles are approaching. On the video, someone can be heard yelling, “Hey, he just shot them! Hey, dude right here just shot them!”

The shooter slowed to a walk and raised his hands as he got close to the police vehicles. He waved at one, but it drove by. A second police vehicle also passed him. The shooter approached the passenger side of a parked squad car and then backed away. The video ended there.

Rittenhouse was arrested hours later in Antioch, about 20 miles southwest of Kenosha in Illinois, where he lives.

“This is the grossly unfair picture that Black Americans and all Americans who seek racial justice, including the Milwaukee Bucks, see and passionately object to,” Blake's attorneys said.

  • Ashley Luthern

1:33 p.m.: Wisconsin GOP lawmaker Wanggaard unveils police reform bills

A Republican state senator formally unveiled a package of police-related proposals this week, including a long-discussed measure to analyze police-involved deaths the same way the National Transportation Safety Board investigates plane crashes.

The newly-created Independent Use of Force Review Board would examine those deaths and publish an annual report with recommendations on how to prevent those similar situations from happening again.

The legislative package from state Sen. Van Wanggaard of Racine contains a total of eight proposals.

One of them requires cities and other municipalities to maintain its police budget, despite months of protesters calling for money to be removed from those budgets and reinvested into social services and public safety alternatives. Under the proposal, if a city decreases its police budget, the state would cut its shared revenue payment to the city by the same amount.

Another measure would make significant changes to fire and police commissions across the state, including Milwaukee's, and require more public hearings with candidates for commissioners. The commissions are civilian oversight boards, often in charge of handling discipline and promotions, investigating citizen complaints and hiring and firing the chiefs.

Under the new measure, the commissioners would share the power in appointing the executive director, who serves as a key adviser to the board and makes sure the commission's daily tasks are fulfilled. The commissioners would send the mayor a list of three candidates for appointment. The mayor would then select a finalist from those three candidates to send to the Common Council for confirmation.

Right now, the executive director is appointed by the mayor, with council confirmation, and is considered a member of the mayor's cabinet.

The bill also would require Milwaukee's Fire and Police Commission to have nine commissioners. Under current state law, Milwaukee's board is allowed to have seven or nine members, and has seven now.

The package also includes proposals that would:

  • Provide $600,000 in grants for cities to create Community Oriented Police (COP) Houses modeled after a Racine program, which fixes up vacant houses in high-crime areas and places officers there to work in the hopes that they can build trusting relationships with nearby residents.

  • Require all law enforcement agencies to have a policy on when and how use-of-force incidents are reported and require any officers who use force or see others using force to report it, while providing whistleblower protections.

  • Ban training the use of chokeholds.

  • Require police departments to provide an online link for the public to request use-of-force policies. The policy must be turned over within three days, free of charge.

  • Require the Wisconsin Department of Justice to publish an annual report on use-of-force incidents across the state.

Wanggaard, who had a 30-year career as a Racine police officer, said he has been developing the bills for months, and in some cases years, with bipartisan input.

— Ashley Luthern

1:25 p.m.: Guard support incoming from other states

Gov. Tony Evers announced that he was requesting other states, under the Emergency Management Assistance Compact (EMAC), to bring additional National Guard troops, equipment, and resources to Kenosha to support civil authorities.

Troops from Arizona, Michigan and Alabama will arrive to assist Wisconsin's troops.

Any National Guard troops from other states mobilized to support Wisconsin would do so in a State Active Duty status – not in a federal status. Those troops would fall under the operational control of Wisconsin's adjutant general during their mobilization, but remain under their respective State's administrative control.

Wisconsin National Guard troops have been on duty in Kenosha since Monday.

1:12 p.m.: Police group writes to Gov. Evers asking for restraint in comments

Representatives from four Wisconsin police associations sent a letter to Gov. Tony Evers and Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes asking for restraint in comments that they feel handicaps efforts to seek a just resolution, citing Kenosha remarks specifically.

“The purpose of this letter is to respectfully ask that those in your administration discontinue and refrain from making statements and issuing press releases specific to the City of Kenosha Police involved shooting until the facts of the investigation are known,” the letter read.

“Previous remarks and statements made by each of you are premature, judgmental, inflammatory and only add to the anger and divisiveness of an already dangerous situation.

“A continued pattern of statements and press releases based on opinion and unsubstantiated claims puts people's lives at risk. These are not peaceful protests. There have already been two deaths and many injuries.

“Continued remarks like those already made by each of you have also put the lives of Law Enforcement Officers, National Guardsman and the public at risk.

“Law Enforcement Leaders also respectfully ask that you call for an end to these riots and a stop to the violence.”

The letter is signed by Mark Podoll of the Wisconsin Badger State Sheriff's Association, Kenneth Pileggi of the Wisconsin Chiefs of Police Association, Jeff Spencer of the Wisconsin Sheriff's and Deputy Sheriff's Association and William Lamb of the Wisconsin Police Executive Group.

Shortly after reports surfaced that Jacob Blake had been shot seven times by Kenosha police, Evers released pointed remarks, including, “While we do not have all of the details yet, what we know for certain is that he is not the first Black man or person to have been shot or injured or mercilessly killed at the hands of individuals in law enforcement in our state or our country.”

Barnes said the day after the shooting that it “wasn't an accident.”

“This wasn't bad police work,” Barnes said. “This felt like some sort of vendetta taken out on a member of our community.”

  • JR Radcliffe

12:34 p.m.: Video shows members of protest group forcibly removed from vehicle by police

UPDATE: Kenosha law enforcement has issued a statement on this (see update at 4:17 p.m.).

Jennifer Scheurle, a board member for Riot Kitchen, a nonprofit based in Seattle that provides protesters and homeless people with meals, said a group of 10 people – in a large black bus and a truck – were on the way to Washington, D.C. when they detoured to Kenosha.

She lost contact with them last night and then saw on Twitter that a group had been arrested. The confrontation outside a gas station in Kenosha was captured on video and circulated by Riot Kitchen on social media.

The confrontation shows law enforcement officials shattering the windows of a van and forcibly removing those inside.

Scheurle didn't learn they were in jail until about 3 a.m. She wouldn't name them, but said they are charged with “disturbance related” offenses and held on bails of up to $500.

She two were released. The group doesn't have a lawyer yet.

“I'm terrified for them,” she said.

She said the bus, the truck and the silver minivan – some volunteers drive their own vehicles, she said – were at the Speedway to fill up and get fuel for a generator they use in preparing food.

“No matter your affiliation, how would you feel if your friends got snatched from the street by a group you can't identify?”

Scheurle said she's spoken with the sheriff Dept and the U S marshal Service without getting a full understanding of the situation.

“We just feed people. Our mission is usually to help de-escalate.”

Evan Hill of the New York Times pointed out that the video shows what appears to be at least three different units represented on uniforms.

– Bruce Vielmetti

12:24 p.m.: FBI tweets that it will assist in Kenosha

The FBI official Twitter account released a statement indicating that it was assisting the situation in Kenosha but was only interested in disrupting violence, not peaceful protesting.

“FBI Milwaukee is supporting our state and local law enforcement partners with maintaining public safety in our community,” the tweet read. “The FBI is providing both personnel and resources in this effort. Our focus is on identifying, investigating, and disrupting individuals that are inciting violence and engaging in criminal activity. We are not focused on peaceful protests.”

The tweet was signed by Special Agent in Charge, Robert E. Hughes.

  • JR Radcliffe

12:21 p.m.: Marquette students shut down Wisconsin Avenue

Marquette University students, led by the Black Student Council, shut down Wisconsin Avenue near 16th street in protest Thursday morning, according to a video on the group's Facebook page.

The students were protesting racial injustice, specifically the shooting of Jacob Blake. They blocked traffic for more than 40 minutes, chanting Blake's name and “stop the violence.”

“They grabbed him by the shirt, like he was a (expletive) animal, shot him in the back,” one student told the crowd. “And they expect us to go to class and be cool about it?”

– Devi Shastri

11:19 a.m.: Watch live as Rev. Jesse Jackson speaks in Kenosha

The Rev. Jesse Jackson of the Rainbow Push Coalition will be among those speaking at an 11:30 a.m. CST press conference in Kenosha. The Kenosha chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, State Senator Lena Taylor (D-Milwaukee) an the League of United Latin American Citizens were all expected to take part and discuss the double standard in the way law enforcement handled the shooting of Jacob Blake and the arrest of Kyle Rittenhouse.

Watch the live stream here.

10:20 a.m.: Scenes from the ongoing cleanup effort in Kenosha

Staff from Harborside Academy, a charter 6-12 school across from the Kenosha County Courthouse, picked up trash in the area before their 8:30 am meeting. Meanwhile, Principal William Haithcock distributed coffee and kringle to government clean up workers, volunteers and even the news media,

English teacher Cindy Renaud gathered up litter from the surrounding blocks. “We're just trying to be part of the community,” she said.

Garbage trucks that had been blocking the courthouse, burned out by arsonists, were also towed away Thursday morning.

9:48 a.m.: Green Bay Packers cancel practice

One day after the Milwaukee Bucks and Milwaukee Brewers players elected not to play their games, the Green Bay Packers canceled Thursday practice.

The Detroit Lions canceled practice two days ago as players sought to protest social injustice like what befall Jacob Blake, a Black man shot seven times in the back by Kenosha police Sunday.

The Brewers were expected to resume play in a doubleheader Thursday to make up Wednesday's game against the Cincinnati Reds. It was unclear if or when the NBA season would resume after all three playoff games on the docket Wednesday were called off.

8:58 a.m.: Archbishop Listecki leads group of priests in public prayer in Kenosha

Archbishop Jerome Listecki led a group of priests in a public prayer Thursday morning in the Civic Center Park in Kenosha.

A priest said the group had come after Listecki conducted Mass at St Mark's in Kenosha, at the invitation of local parishes. The group then left to tour the area damaged during arsons and looting earlier in the week. The prayer was barely audible amid the noise of clean up efforts.

– Bruce Vielmetti

THURSDAY, AUG. 27

11:00 p.m.: One night after multiple shooting deaths, protests peaceful


After three nights of looting, firebombing and violence, protests in Kenosha remained peaceful on Wednesday, four hours past curfew.

The scene was a contrast to Wednesday night, when protesters clashed with law enforcement for hours and a gunman shot three people, two of whom died, shortly before midnight on Sheridan Road.

There were no clashes with law enforcement as of 11:15 p.m. A Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reporter did not see any civilians with assault-style weapons.

Not long after 7 p.m., an armored vehicle arrived at Civic Center Park where protesters were gathered, and police warned protesters they were in violation of the curfew. But protesters stayed, milling around the park, and later marched through the streets of Kenosha.

– Ricardo Torres

10:30 p.m.: Mike Pence decries violence in Kenosha at RNC

Vice President Mike Pence referenced Kenosha's unrest at the third night of the Republican National Convention, saying that “the violence must stop” in the city and that rioters and looters “will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.”

“My fellow Americans, we're passing through a time of testing,” Pence said during his speech. “In the midst of this global pandemic, just as our nation had begun to recover, we've seen violence and chaos in the streets of our major cities.”

While he and Trump would support peaceful protests, Pence said, “Rioting and looting is not peaceful protest. Tearing down statues is not free speech. Those who do so will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.”

He said Democratic nominee Joe Biden did not address “the violence and chaos engulfing cities across this country” during last week's Democratic National Convention.

“Let me be clear: the violence must stop, whether in Minneapolis, Portland or Kenosha,” Pence said. “Too many heroes have died defending our freedom to see Americans strike each other down.”

“We will have law and order on the streets of this country for every American… the American people know we don't have to choose between supporting law enforcement and standing with our African American neighbors,” Pence said as the crowd cheered.

Read the full story.

– Oren Oppenheim

© 2020 Journal Media Group

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