After the shooting of Jacob Blake in Kenosha, Wisconsin, yesterday, Black Lives Matter rioters set fire to a car dealership and a church with a pro-BLM sign and confronted police with semi-automatic rifles.
Yet cops called on to keep the city safe might have more to worry about than the rioters in front of them.
Behind them, they have the governor, leftist Tony Evers, who immediately condemned the cops and suggested the shooting is yet another example of police injustice to blacks.
Another Democrat who rushed to judgement is presidential candidate Joe Biden, who all but convicted the cops of a crime.
The Statements
Police shot Blake as he was getting into his car (see video below).
The witness who recorded the shooting said police yelled “drop the knife,” NBC reported, but he didn’t see one and added that Blake “wasn’t being violent.”
Why police shot Blake is unclear, but that didn’t stop Evers from suggesting the cops were wrong.
“Tonight, Jacob Blake was shot in the back multiple times, in broad daylight, in Kenosha, Wisconsin,” he said. “While we do not have all of the details yet, what we know for certain is that he is not the first Black man or person to have been shot or injured or mercilessly killed at the hands of individuals in law enforcement in our state or our country.”
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Having claimed the cops “mercilessly killed” Blake, the governor echoed BLM claims about the racism supposedly plaguing our country while not saying a word against BLM violence:
We stand with all those who have and continue to demand justice, equity, and accountability for Black lives in our country — lives like those of George Floyd, of Breonna Taylor, Tony Robinson, Dontre Hamilton, Ernest Lacy, and Sylville Smith. And we stand against excessive use of force and immediate escalation when engaging with Black Wisconsinites.
I have said all along that although we must offer our empathy, equally important is our action. In the coming days, we will demand just that of elected officials in our state who have failed to recognize the racism in our state and our country for far too long.
Biden went further. At his campaign website, under a black square that carried the word “Enough” in white letters, the candidate convicted the cops:
This morning, the nation wakes up yet again with grief and outrage that yet another Black American is a victim of excessive force. This calls for an immediate, full and transparent investigation and the officers must be held accountable.
These shots pierce the soul of our nation….
Equal justice has not been real for Black Americans and so many others. We are at an inflection point. We must dismantle systemic racism. It is the urgent task before us. We must fight to honor the ideals laid in the original American promise, which we are yet to attain: That all men and women are created equal, but more importantly that they must be treated equally.
Cops: Not So Fast
Understandably, the city’s police union denounced Evers.
The Wisconsin Department of Justice is investigating, the Kenosha Professional Police Association observed, and “until that investigation is completed, we ask that you withhold prejudgment about the incident and please let the process take place.”
Beyond that, though, is Evers’ attack on the police:
Evers’ statement on the incident was wholly irresponsible and not reflective of the hardworking members of the law enforcement community, not to mention the citizens of the City of Kenosha.
As always, the video currently circulating does not capture all the intricacies of a highly dynamic incident. We ask that you withhold from passing judgement until all the facts are known and released.
We, along with the citizens of the great City of Kenosha, ask for peace and to let the process play out fairly and impartially.
Given the statements from Evers and Biden, and the narrative the leftist media are already creating, how the officers can be treated fairly remains to be seen.
Evers and Biden have not condemned the rioters there or anywhere else, such as those in Portland, who thrice attacked police stations this weekend, with the same enthusiasm.
Image: screenshot from YouTube video
R. Cort Kirkwood is a long-time contributor to The New American and a former newspaper editor.
