It Ain't All Black And White

On the 23rd of August 2020 a police officer shot Jacob Blake, a black man, in Kenosha Wisconsin, seven times in the back.

BLM Protests Meant Kenosha Wisconsin Burnt

This was after a woman (the mother of his children), had called police to say that Mr Blake had turned up at her home, armed with a knife, and in violation of a restraining order. 

Blake already had a warrant out for his arrest, outstanding from July 2020, based on charges of third-degree sexual assault, trespassing, and disorderly conduct in connection with domestic abuse against the same woman. Initially when the police were called, the woman referred to Blake as her "boyfriend", said he was not permitted to be on the premises, and that he'd taken her car keys and was refusing to give them back.

When the police arrived, it was to a confused scene involving a number of women and Blake, but he apparently ignored orders by the police to comply, and after a physical scuffle with the officers including him getting an officer in a headlock, Blake was eventually tasered, but apparently broke the wires off, which resulted in him not being successfully restrained. 

When the police officer eventually shot him, Mr Blake, who was apparently armed with a knife, was getting into a car where at least one of his three children were seated. He survived the shooting, and was later sentenced to two years of probation for the prior charges of disorderly conduct.

However despite the fact that Blake was conducting a criminal activity, ignoring police instructions, was a wanted man, and was at the very least a potential threat to his ex-partner and children (as well as the police, as the shooting officer claimed), the Black Lives Matter group took this up as being another case of white police brutality against a black man .... the resulting 'peaceful protests,' included a couple of initially peaceful rallies, and marches. 

But also included the usual peaceful black protests of looting businesses, property damage, armed robberies with shots being fired, arson, violent clashes with police, and ended up with three white men being shot, two of them fatally, after clashes with an armed white civilian, 17-year-old Kyle Rittenhouse.

Mr Rittenhouse has been charged with murder and is on trial, for six counts, including reckless homicide, intentional homicide and recklessly endangering safety. However the case against Rittenhouse is muddied by the fact that one victim, Mr Grosskreutz, has admitted in court that he was advancing with gun drawn on Mr Rittenhouse, when Rittenhouse opened fire on him. 

While video shows that another victim, Joseph Rosenbaum, had chased Mr Rittenhouse into the car park of a used-car dealership, before Rittenhouse shot at him and killed him. Mr Rittenhouse tries to run away, but falls and multiple people converge upon him, including Anthony Huber, who struck him in the neck with a skateboard. Mr Rittenhouse shoots and kills him with a bullet to the stomach. Its then that Grosskreutz advances with his gun, and is wounded by Mr Rittenhouse.

Mr Rittenhouse claims that he only ever shot in self defence, after being directly assaulted or directly threatened by all three of the protestors, and that the video evidence showed this. The trial is on-going. Meanwhile the protests and fires continued throughout Kenosha for a second night, and white civilians armed with guns patrolled parts of the city. Some business owners lost everything, while others were able to salvage a handful of historical artefacts from the wreckage. 

For instance The Danish Brotherhood Lodge in uptown Kenosha, which had been there for over 100 years, was burnt to the ground. It had been described as a pillar of the community for that century, while the Kenosha Business Alliance said more than 100 businesses were damaged during the unrest, and at least 40 businesses were completely destroyed. Each will have to decide whether to rebuild, close for good, or move elsewhere.

However, what I note from all this is that:

• Once again the black victim Mr Blake, is not a saintly victim ... at the time of the incident he was wanted on some serious charges. He was armed. There were children and his ex-partner possibly at risk. He had refused to comply with all police instructions to stop resisting ... so what were the police supposed to do? What exactly do the BLM organisers want them to do in situations, where a black male commits a crime or poses a potential risk to others. Just walk away?
• The violence, vandalism common theft, arson and destruction of property that always seems to accompany black protests, only fuels the belief held by some in other communities, that black people as a community invariably resort to criminality and violent chaos, rather than to peaceful protests, and that other races are therefore right to fear them.
• The resulting two deaths were driven by the violent nature of the non-peaceful black led  protests (with left-wing white Antifa race activists joining in the fun), and the fear of this violence that this engenders in other races, results in them arming themselves as protection against the perceived likelihood of violence, looting, theft, robbery and arson that always seems to accompany these 'peaceful protests'.

A Florida Lawyers Tweet

When these events with the police occur, too many groups leap to immediate conclusions, they then pass this false news out as the 'truth' ... and then protest without the full facts. The video posted with the above tweet, shows nothing of preceding events, but does show Mr Blake totally ignoring armed police shouting orders to stop, and him continuing to walk round a parked car, before attempting to enter it, while police try to pull him away and then (presumably) shooting him.

So what are we to conclude:

1. Was Mr Blake worth all the damage, violence, deaths and campaigns for 'justice'?
2. If he had harmed his 'girlfriend', or harmed his children, would the BLM groups be happy with or prefer that outcome, rather than police officers risking their own lives trying to prevent those possible outcomes?
3. Why do black protests in the USA (and often elsewhere), always seem to be accompanied by looting, violence, gunfire, arson and mayhem?
4. Do the black communities really benefit by having local businesses burnt out, many never to return again, with the loss of local jobs and tax incomes? 

My answer to these questions would be an emphatic NO. Until black communities learn how to protest peacefully, and choose icons who are not criminals, my sympathies to their claims of injustice will be muted at best, and frankly non-existent in most instances.