It appears that black celebrity criminal Jacob Blake won’t get rich on the taxpayers of Kenosha, Wisconsin — at least not without a court fight.
Last week, the city council denied the violent thug’s ridiculous claim for “damages” related to the completely justified police shooting that left him paralyzed on August 23. Police were trying to arrest him an outstanding sex-assault warrant when he pulled a knife and tried to enter an SUV to escape. Officer Rusten Sheskey shot Blake seven times.
The vote to dismiss Blake’s attempted shakedown was 17-0.
“Special Damages”
The council dismissed Blake’s preposterous claim “without comments or deliberation” the Kenosha News reported:
Blake sought damages for medical expenses, lost wages and “pain and suffering and disfigurement” as filed by Chicago-based attorneys March 11 with the office of the city’s clerk-treasurer.
The claim is capped at $50,000, in accordance with state law, although Blake’s legal team at Salvi, Schostok & Pritchard P.C. also submitted an itemization of “special damages” in the amount of $776,614.67 resulting from his injuries.
Included in the get-rich-quick demand were Blake’s medical records, the newspaper reported. The demand claims Blake “suffered more than a dozen injuries.”
They include the following, the newspaper reported:
[G]unshot wounds to the abdomen, back, left flank, left chest and upper extremities, a kidney laceration, “traumatic burst” of the lumbar vertebra, pedicle fractures of the lumbar with retained bullet fragments and a lacerated spleen, among others. As a result of the injuries, Blake is paraplegic.
True perhaps, but that’s what happens when you pull a knife on the cops.
The city administrator, John Morrissey, told the newspaper the initial attempted cash grab was a formality: “This is just a claim. I don’t know whether they’ll file a state lawsuit. The maximum exposure for a municipality is $50,000.”
Justified Shooting
In January, the city district attorney, Michael Graveley, announced that he would not charge Sheskey or the other officers because the shooting was justified.
In an 87-page report, Graveley explained that cops were doing their duty:
When Officer Sheskey, Officer [Britanny] Meronek, and Officer [Vincent] Arenas responded to this call on August 23, 2020, they knew they were responding to a domestic disturbance and they knew the man who was the subject of the call, Jacob Blake, had a warrant for his arrest from a prior incident where he was charged with domestic violence offenses and a sexual assault. Every decision the officers made during this incident, in response to this call, must be interpreted in light of those facts.
Blake fought with the officers outside SUV, and even after they took him to the ground, “he was able to get off the ground and to get away from the officers trying to arrest him,” Graveley wrote. When Sheskey and Arenas tried to bring down the violent criminal with tasers, Blake ripped out the tongs and kept fighting. Blake pulled the knife and tried to get in the SUV.
Sheskey shot Blake and continued shooting until he dropped the knife. That is consistent with police training, a consultant who had worked for the Obama administration found.
I do not believe the State could prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Officer Sheskey was not acting lawfully in self-defense or defense of others which is the legal standard the State would have to meet to obtain a criminal conviction in this case.
I also do not believe that there are any viable criminal charges against Officer Meronek or Officer Arenas neither of whom fired a shot in this case.
Unhappily, Graveley nearly apologized for not bringing charges.
Despite this report, Blake has filed a federal lawsuit against Sheskey individually. The city’s liability protection insures Sheskey and will pay his legal bills, the newspaper reported.
The lawsuit alleges that Sheskey violated Blake’s Fourth Amendment rights that protect him “against the use of excessive and deadly force without cause or justification,” and that the cop acted with “malice, willfulness, and reckless indifference.”
Video of the shooting is clear: Blake, a fugitive, pulled a knife on cops and tried to escape during an arrest. A cop shot him.
