Police brutality and immunity, a vicious cycle – the shooting of Jacob Blake
The shooting of 29-year-old Black man Jacob Blake has sparked fear that the Black Lives Matter movement is losing its momentum, and that police brutality and immunity remains rife despite months of anti-racism advocacy and protests.
Photo by Nicole Baster on Unsplash
The past few months have seen an enormous increase in protests, activism and outcry in support of the Black Lives Matter movement. After the deaths of several Black individuals including Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor and George Floyd, American people of all genders, races and ethnicities took to the streets, sick and tired of this continuing trend of police brutality. Social media was flooded with activism, tributes for and solidarity with the Black community. But as the shooting of Jacob Blake, another tragic act of police violence, has come to the attention of mainstream media, there seems to be a collective feeling that nothing has really changed.
Jacob Blake, a 29-year-old Black man, was reportedly involved in a “domestic incident” on Sunday, August 23, on a residential street in Kenosha, Wisconsin. Benjamin Crump, the Blake family attorney, stated that Blake was “breaking up a fight between two women.” Local resident Raysean White had seen Blake, unarmed, arrive at the scene where two women were arguing and tell his son to get into the car where Blake’s other two children were waiting.
White left the scene, but later returned to his window to see a very different situation; the police had been called. One officer was apprehending Blake in a headlock whilst punching him in the ribs and another was pulling his arm. It was at this point that White picked up his phone to record the commotion, and captured Blake walking calmly over to his car before one of the officer grabbed hold of his shirt collar and shot him seven times in the back, his children, aged 3, 5 and 8, watching from the back of the car.
White expressed his trauma and anger at what he witnessed, telling a CNN reporter that he “struggled to sleep” that night. He shares the same fear of many Americans over the increasing number of incidents of police brutality, addressing the U.S. police force directly: "we don't want you guys around because we are scared for our lives. You come to an incident to disarm an argument, and this Black man gets shot. It wasn't supposed to go down that."
Many critics of the Black Lives Matter movement have accused protests of attempting to martyr the victims of police brutality, commonly arguing that they all committed crimes and “got what they deserved.” But this argument simply lacks any substance; even if you commit a crime, the police are not supposed to kill you. It seems to be that with cases of racially motivated police violence, the force used is overly excessive in comparison to the alleged crime committed. Breonna Taylor was shot multiple times when police obtained permission to forcibly enter her flat, which they believed had been previously used by drug dealers they were trying to apprehend; Derek Chauvin held his knee over George Floyd’s neck for eight minutes and 46 seconds after he tried to use a forged cheque in a shop. Blake was an unarmed man with children in his car, accused of involvement in a domestic altercation, and was shot seven times.
Whatever the reason for apprehending Blake, a line was crossed when the officer fired shots. Seven shots are undoubtedly suggestive of a shift from defence and public protection to excessive violence; it does not take seven gunshots to destabilise someone. Blake’s father expressed the exact sentiments of this argument: “what justified all those shots?” There simply can be no justification for this level of force used by police, and the number of shots fired at Blake quickly escalates the incident from self-defence to possible racism. When police officers act with such unjustified force, it seems only natural to attach racist motivations to their actions.
As with the deaths of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor, the shooting of Jacob Blake has sparked an outcry for justice, and violent protests broke out on the streets in which buildings and businesses were set on fire. Governor Evans of Wisconsin declared a state of emergency on Tuesday, August 25, through Executive Order 86, which allowed him to mobilise 250 members of the Wisconsin National Guard to fight the protests. Evans argued that “there remains a line between peaceful assembly and what we saw on Monday night that put individuals, families and businesses in danger.” Whilst many people have suggested that fighting violence with violence is not the answer, we must recognise and try to understand the utter anger, fear and helplessness that Black people all over the world feel after these incidents of seemingly racially-motivated police brutality are happening far too regularly. The most recent wave of the Black Lives Matter movement has perhaps proven there is an advantage to violent protests. Whilst they may not be the most ethical or reasonable way to respond to tragedy, they certainly have gripped the attention of mainstream media, local, state and national government. Must we burn buildings and riot in the streets to get our voices heard?
The most tragic thing about Blake’s case is the way in which his family has been affected. A family with generations of civil rights activism; Blake’s grandfather fought to ban housing discrimination in his hometown Evanston, Illinois, which was a huge advance in the local fight against racism in the 1960s. Blake’s sister, Megan, spoke of Blake’s love of his children: “his kids are his world.” Both she and Raysean White expressed fear for the way in which his children would be affected by witnessing the shooting of their beloved father.
The officers involved in the shooting have taken “administrative leave” from the police force, taking no culpability for the trauma and pain they have caused to Blake and his family. Benjamin Crump shared details of Blake’s injuries to his arm, kidney, liver and spinal cord, fearing that “it’s going to take a miracle for Jacob Blake to ever walk again.”
There is currently a tragic pattern in American society of police exercising their power and force, and continually not being held to account for their violence against the Black community. There has been no advance in the punishment of George’s Floyd’s killers, and the officers who killed Breonna Taylor have not been investigated or charged. In whatever way possible, we must continue to fight racism in our daily lives. To call it out and challenge it when we see it, and to not stay quiet when people are dying on such a regular basis. If we lose momentum in the fight against racism, then events like the shooting of Jacob Blake will continue to occur without a hint of remorse from the police officers responsible. We must fight for equality, for as long as it takes.
Petition you can sign in support of Blake and BLM:
https://www.change.org/p/human-rights-campaign-justice-for-ahmuad-aubrey-2
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