FILE PHOTOS: Scenes from two nights of protesting and violent unrest in Kenosha, Wisconsin after the police killing of Jacob Blake. Reuters / Milwaukee Journal Sentinel / USA Today / Mike De Sisti; Reuters / Stephen Maturen
Protesters repeatedly set fire late Monday night to a police union headquarters building and were repelled by officers spraying tear gas, officials said. Twenty-five people were arrested amid clashes that stretched into Tuesday morning.
Portland has been gripped by nightly protests for nearly three months since the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis. Demonstrations, often violent, have targeted police buildings and federal buildings. Some protesters have called for reductions in police budgets while the city's mayor and some people in the Black community have decried the violence, saying it is counterproductive.
On Tuesday, President Donald Trump renewed calls to have Gov. Kate Brown and Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler call in the state's National Guard.
© Mark Graves/The Oregonian via APPortland protests continued as a group of several hundred gather outside the Portland Police Bureau: North Precinct on Sunday, Aug. 23, 2020.
"They must stop calling these anarchists and agitators 'peaceful protestors'. Come back into the real world!
The Federal Government is ready to end this problem immediately upon your request," Trump wrote on Twitter.Brown responded on Twitter to Trump's demand, calling it "political theater."People in a group of about 300 people late Monday hurled rocks and bottles at officers and set three fires to the sides of the building and one to an awning, police said. All the fires were put out. One demonstrator climbed atop the building's roof to unfurl a banner and the building's walls were spray-painted, The Oregonian/OregonLive reported.
Brown said the state's National Guard is currently focused on fighting wildfires, distributing personal protective equipment and unemployment.
Comment: RT
reports on the riots:
Neither the deployment of the National Guard, nor the curfew that took effect at 8 pm on Monday evening deterred protesters, some of them toting guns, from taking to the streets of Kenosha for the second night in a row.
The unrest was sparked by the shooting of 29-year-old Jacob Blake, a black man, by police on Sunday. Blake was shot seven times from behind and is now being treated in the hospital for his injuries. The showdown between Blake and the officers, said to be over a domestic violence incident, was caught on a cellphone camera, with the footage triggering mass protests in the city which have quickly spiraled into riots, looting and vandalism.
On Monday evening, protesters set out marching toward the courthouse, protected by lines of officers clad in full riot gear.
Just like the previous night, the unrest was accompanied by vandalism, with protesters filmed setting fire to garbage trucks parked near the courthouse.
A fire has also broken out at a Department of Corrections facility in the city.
After damaging public city property, protesters turned their anger to private businesses, with another video showing them trashing vehicles at a car dealership.
The vandals have torched several other businesses, including a furniture store, and have torn down street lights.
The first night of mayhem on Monday has left scores of cars scorched and businesses ransacked, prompting Wisconsin Governor Tony Evers to call in National Guard troops to quell the violence.
'We'll burn your store down too': Kenosha rioters show no remorse
Rioters have brandished guns in the open for the second night in a row, but it wasn't only the rioters and police that took to the streets heavily armed: several citizens decided to make a stand and defend local businesses from looters, footage shared on social purports to show.
Demonstrators ignored a citywide curfew and at one point faced down police armored personnel carriers and tear gas, while enacting an apparent scorched Earth policy of torching local businesses indiscriminately, much to the dismay of legitimate protesters and local residents.
One resident, having apparently had enough, patrolled the streets in his pick up truck, engaging with the rioters and pleading for them to take their issues out on the police but spare local businesses.
"Just because you people are too scared to go deal with the cops... take your issues up with them..." the man can be heard pleading.
His efforts were seemingly in vain, however, as one of the alleged "protesters" called out the name of the do-gooder's business, written on the side of his truck, and gleefully proclaimed, "We'll burn your store down too!"
Kenosha is the latest flashpoint of racially charged, anti-police violence to sweep the US, with tensions having already erupted in many cities, including Seattle and Portland, following the death of George Floyd at the hands of police in May.
CBS News whitewashes Kenosha destruction as mostly 'peaceful protests'
To some in the mainstream media, the wave of arson and destruction that swept over Kenosha, Wisconsin was nothing more than "peaceful protest" that "gave way to clashes." Don't believe your lying eyes, they may as well have said.
That's not quite how CBS News saw it though. According to anchor Gayle King on Tuesday, the riots began as "peaceful protests, which is what the Black Lives Matter is really about."
"It's not clear if those setting fires were involved in the initial demonstrations," King said. Yet as she described Black Lives Matter's supposedly peaceful methods, CBS played scenes of vehicles engulfed by fire, crowds jumping on cars, and businesses still smoldering from the night's anarchy.
According to King, the protests spontaneously "gave way to clashes" as night fell. Reporter Mola Lenghi further appeared to excuse the destruction, telling viewers that "setting this truck on fire right here behind me is how some protesters have responded to the authorities' use of stun grenades, [and] of tear gas."
By Tuesday morning, hours of video footage from Kenosha circulated online, showing that the protests were anything but peaceful.
CBS instead focused on the event that triggered the riots - the police shooting of 29-year-old Jacob Blake on Sunday. Blake was shot in the back seven times by officers as he attempted to get into his car, collapsing in front of his children. His father told the Chicago Sun-Times that Blake is now paralyzed from the waist down.
The network wasn't alone in whitewashing the riots. The New York Times also described Monday's events as "peaceful marches" that "gave way to fires and destruction." On CNN, a banner described the protests as "fiery but mostly peaceful."
The latest conflagration in Kenosha isn't the first riot to be given the "peaceful protests" treatment by the media. As the first wave of Black Lives Matter protests hit Minneapolis in May after the police killing of George Floyd, MSNBC's Ali Veshi reassured viewers that the scene was "not generally speaking, unruly." As Veshi spoke, a building burned immediately behind him.
When anarchists occupied Seattle's Capitol Hill district two weeks later, the Seattle Times described the short-lived 'Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone' as a "loose, egalitarian" paradise of "free snacks," "free of uniformed police." In reality, the zone was a lawless place, where vigilante justice reigned, thieves profited, and by the end of June, four people were shot, two fatally.
The disconnect between narrative and reality was noticed on Twitter, where conservatives mocked CBS' friendly coverage of the Kenosha riots. "You could describe D Day as a peaceful boat trip across the English Channel that gave way to clashes on the beach," one commenter joked.
Wisconsin governor says National Guard will protect STATE property
Governor Tony Evers is sending more Wisconsin National Guard troops to Kenosha to protect state property, but residents seem to be largely left on their own as riots over the police shooting of Jacob Blake show no sign of ending.
"We are assessing the damage to state property and will be increasing the presence of the Wisconsin National Guard to ensure individuals can exercise their right safely, protect state buildings and critical infrastructure, and support first responders and fire fighters [sic]," Evers tweeted on Tuesday.
The governor also declared a state of emergency over the ongoing "protests" in Kenosha, near the border with Illinois.
The 125 National Guard troops deployed on Monday did little to deter rioters from attacking a courthouse and setting several businesses on fire for the second night in a row. The governor condemned "this path of damage and destruction" but immediately qualified it by denouncing "systemic racism and injustice."
Evers, who is white and a Democrat, also called the two days of rioting a reflection of "the pain, anguish, and exhaustion of being Black in our state and country."
The initial Black Lives Matter protest over the shooting quickly escalated, with a car dealership looted and set on fire, followed by a nearby church. The car lot was destroyed again on Monday, along with a furniture store and other nearby buildings and businesses.
Evers also sought to downplay the riots and arson, calling them "the actions of a few" that should not "distract us from the work we must do together to demand justice, equity, and accountability."
The rioters, some of whom were armed and pointed weapons at police and reporters, were entirely unrepentant about the destruction and told journalists they saw it as necessary in order to make change happen.
Meanwhile the Polk county sheriff in Florida is cautioning rioters that if they enter homes in their neighbourhood they will be confronted by armed civilians:
Just The News
reports:
In one video posted to Twitter, several armed men are seen standing outside a local business. When asked if they are protecting the building, one of them answers, "We're out here trying to protect residents, we're trying to protect the innocent people, and we're trying to protect the businesses of the citizens out here."
Later in the video, one of the men yells at passing protestors, "I'm on your side, as long as you're against the cops, but you can't burn down your local businesses."
During a Sunday night demonstration, a Wisconsin police officer was knocked out by a brick that was thrown at him by a member of a a nearby mob. People in the crowd around the collapsed officer shouted, "F--k the police."
Update 26/08/2020: More of Jacob Blake's background has
emerged:
Meanwhile, details have emerged about Blake's criminal past, including a recent arrest for sexual assault.
According to online records, Kenosha County prosecutors charged Blake with third-degree sexual assault, trespassing, and disorderly conduct in connection with domestic abuse. It was unclear whether that case had anything to do with the shooting.
In 2015, Blake was also charged with resisting arrest and carrying a concealed weapon after he pulled a gun at a local bar in Racine.
Police in the former auto manufacturing center of 100,000 people midway between Milwaukee and Chicago said they were responding to a call about a domestic dispute when they encountered Blake on Sunday.
They did not say whether Blake was armed or why police opened fire, they released no details on the dispute, and they did not immediately disclose the race of the three officers at the scene.
The man who said he made the cellphone video, 22-year-old Raysean White, said he saw Blake scuffling with three officers and heard them yell, 'Drop the knife! Drop the knife!' before the gunfire erupted. He said he didn't see a knife in Blake's hands.
Photos posted to Twitter appear to corroborate the story:
Jacob Blake's family has issued a
statement:
"I don't have confidence in anybody that is white that is doing an investigation about a black young man that was shot seven times in his back," Blake's father, Jacob Blake Senior, said on Tuesday afternoon.
His remarks came moments after Benjamin Crump - an attorney representing the family, who has been involved in other Black Lives Matter cases - argued that "we can't have two justice systems in America," one for white and another for black Americans.
At the same time, Blake's family
condemned the riots and apologized to President Trump for missing his call:
Progressive crazy Shaun King has
threatened to dox the officers involved in the shooting:
Twitter users expressed disgust and reported King for harassment after the prominent Black Lives Matter advocate said he would begin targeting members of the Kenosha police force, regardless of whether they were involved in Sunday's shooting.
Comment: RT reports on the riots: Meanwhile the Polk county sheriff in Florida is cautioning rioters that if they enter homes in their neighbourhood they will be confronted by armed civilians:
Just The News reports: Update 26/08/2020: More of Jacob Blake's background has emerged: Photos posted to Twitter appear to corroborate the story:
Jacob Blake's family has issued a statement: At the same time, Blake's family condemned the riots and apologized to President Trump for missing his call:
Progressive crazy Shaun King has threatened to dox the officers involved in the shooting: