You turn to us for voices you won't hear anywhere else.

Sign up for Democracy Now!'s Daily Digest to get our latest headlines and stories delivered to your inbox every day.

Officials Will Not Charge White Officer Who Shot Jacob Blake in Back, Leaving Him Paralyzed

HeadlineJan 06, 2021

In Wisconsin, Kenosha County District Attorney Michael Graveley has announced no charges will be filed against the white police officer who shot Jacob Blake seven times in August, leaving the 29-year-old Black man partially paralyzed. The officer, Rusten Sheskey, fired the shots at point-blank range into Blake’s back as he leaned into his car. Inside the car were Blake’s three boys, aged 3, 5 and 8. The shooting sparked major protests against racism and police brutality in Kenosha. B’Ivory LaMarr, an attorney for the Blake family, criticized the decision.

B’Ivory LaMarr: “It is very discouraging for all the protesters and all the individuals who gathered peacefully to urge change. And it just shows that we have a lot of work to do. We won’t stop, and it doesn’t stop here. … There’s three — three — justice systems in America. There’s one for Black and Brown people, one for police officers and one for the rest of America.”

We’ll have more on the case later in the show.

The original content of this program is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License. Please attribute legal copies of this work to democracynow.org. Some of the work(s) that this program incorporates, however, may be separately licensed. For further information or additional permissions, contact us.

Non-commercial news needs your support

We rely on contributions from our viewers and listeners to do our work.
Please do your part today.
Make a donation
Top