Jacob Blake Urges Unity in Video from Hospital Bed: Protest Wrap
Louisville Stand-Off; Grand Jury for Prude Probe: Protest Wrap
(Bloomberg) -- Jacob Blake, the Black man whose shooting by police set off protests and prompted visits to Kenosha, Wisconsin, by both presidential candidates, released a video from his hospital bed Saturday night. Paralyzed from the waist down, he described his physical pain and urged people to “change y’all lives out there.”
“Your life, and not only just your life, your legs — something that you need to move around and move forward in life — can be taken from you like this,” Blake said. “We can stick together, make some money, make everything easier for our people out here because there’s so much time that’s been wasted.”
A police officer shot him multiple times in the back during an incident in Kenosha on Aug. 23. Protests escalated into looting and riots, and two days later, a 17-year-old from Illinois, Kyle Rittenhouse, shot two protesters to death, the police allege.
Kenosha quickly emerged as one other point of protest since the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis on May 25. Protests continued Saturday night in Portland, the site of often violent demonstrations and counter-demonstrations for three months. The police again declared a riot after protesters hurled Molotov cocktails, and officers disbursed them with what was described on social media as tear gas. More than 50 were arrested.
Earlier Saturday, just north of Portland, a memorial was held for the man fatally shot a week ago after a caravan of Trump supporters went through downtown, AP reported. Hundreds gathered in a park in Vancouver, Washington, in memory of Aaron “Jay” Danielson, a supporter of a right-wing group Patriot Prayer, AP said. The suspect was shot and killed by police Thursday.
New York Attorney General Letitia James said Saturday her office will empanel a grand jury as part of its investigation into the death of Daniel Prude, a Black man hooded by Rochester police and asphyxiated in custody earlier this year. A fourth night of protest was held in the city in upstate New York. A total of 37 people have been arrested and eight police officers have been hospitalized over the four days, ABC 13 said.
Rochester erupted last week in protest following the release of police body-cam footage leading to Prude’s death. The day after Mayor Lovely Warren suspended the officers involved in death of Prude, the head of the police union said the officers had followed training, according to the AP.
Multiple demonstrations also erupted in Louisville, where two groups of armed activists faced off in the city’s downtown on Saturday, sending protesters running for cover before the Kentucky Derby was set to start, the Associated Press reported.
The groups, one in support of police and the other for racial justice, met near a city square where demonstrations were taking place for Breonna Taylor, an unarmed 26-year-old Black woman who was fatally shot at home by police in March. One group shouted, “U-S-A!” and “Back the blue!” while the other yelled “Say her name!” with chants back calling out Taylor’s name, AP said. The crowds later thinned out as police in riot gear gathered, AP said.
Protests also continued in the nation’s capital Saturday for Deon Kay, a young Black man fatally shot by the city’s police earlier this week, Washington Post reported. A total of 32 Black federal prosecutors in the city also signed a 10-page memo to acting U.S. Attorney Michael Sherwin detailing changes which they say will help ensure that prosecutors make the fairest decisions in the face of biases.
In Florida, more than a dozen protesters were released from jail in Tallahassee after being held during a protest over the exoneration of police by a grand jury in the deaths of three Black suspects earlier this year, AP said. Protest organizers didn’t have permits for the march on Saturday afternoon that drew more than 100, AP said, citing police.
Key Developments:
- Kanye West Is Spending His Own Money on Bid: Campaign Update
- America in Crisis: A Closer Look at a Deeply Polarized Nation
- Trump Eyes Re-Election Path Running Through a Liberal Stronghold
- Florida Activists Released After Rally Over Police Shootings
- Tension Rises in Louisville, While Violence Breaks Out in Rochester, Portland
More from QuickTake:
In Portland:
On Confederate Statues:
Protests across the world:
Tribute to Chadwick Boseman:
The shooting of Jacob Blake:
And more on Daniel Prude:
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