Kenosha Police Chief Blames Protesters For Getting Shot Because They Broke Curfew

By Aliza Worthington — August 26, 2020

Protests continued in Kenosha last night, after the police shooting of Jacob Blake. A white officer shot Blake in his back at point blank range — he was close enough to be grabbing Blake's shirt — seven times. This happened right next to Mr. Blake's car, as three of his sons watched from the back seat.

Kenosha's Police Chief Daniel Miskinis would really like you to know where his sympathies lie when it comes to citizens protesting police brutality against Black lives. I hope you're sitting down for this shocker, because it is NOT with protesters, nor is it with Black lives.

Last night at the protests, a white teenaged male — using a semi-automatic rifle — shot at least three people at the protests, and killed two of them.

Naturally, today there was a press conference at which the sheriff, police chief, and the head of the state's National Guard spoke, supposedly to address the state of the investigation and give updates on last night's shooting. According to the AP, "Kyle Rittenhouse, of Antioch, Illinois, was taken into custody in Illinois on suspicion of first-degree intentional homicide. Antioch is about 15 miles from Kenosha."

Instead, what we got was a whole lot of Upper Midwest Nice White Fragility, exhortations about what good people live in Wisconsin, wide-eyed statements about "Gosh, I just don't DO Facebook, it's too dePRESSing, friends!" fake folksy humility, and virtually zero — ZERO — mention of Jacob Blake's shooting by police, or the shootings that occurred last night by the white teenaged male.

When they DID mention Jacob Blake, it was to highlight his mother, who called for calm, not his father, who called for recognizing Jacob Blake's humanity. Oh, and lest I forget, both the sheriff and the police chief referred to her as "Mrs. Blake," which is not her name. It's Julia Jackson.

When speaking of the protests in the wake of white police shooting Mr. Blake seven times in his back, right next to his car while three of his sons watched from the back seat, paralyzing him, and traumatizing three of his babies, don't be shocked that this tragedy is not what Police Chief Miskinis talked about. No, he and the others spoke of how good the people of Kenosha were, and how awful it was that they were experiencing destruction of property, and that the police had bottles thrown at them.

It took a full thirty minutes of this BS before anyone in the press conference mentioned the shootings from last night. Even better, listen to how Chief Miskinis framed it:

MISKINIS: Over the last few days, Kenosha has also experienced, unfortunately, looting, arson, molotov cocktails, violence, persons injured. In addition, last night in a situation that began peaceful, and turned somewhat unruly, and the sheriff spoke about things were thrown, hammers, bricks, violence toward law enforcement, and toward the National Guard assisting and controlling the scene here and protecting those who were rightfully speaking their minds, persons who were out after the curfew became engaged in some type of disturbance and persons were shot. Everybody involved was out after the curfew. I'm not going to make a great deal of it but the point is the curfew is in place to protect. Had persons not been out in violation of that perhaps the situation that unfolded would not have happened.

GOT THAT? So, the good city of Kenosha is being victimized by the protesters, and had the protesters not been out past curfew, no one would have gotten shot. Why doesn't he just come out and say they deserved it? Blame it on the protesters, not the police for shooting innocent Black men in the back, or government for implementing stupid, ineffective curfews intended to set up standoffs with law enforcement. Don't blame it on the likely white supremacist who crossed state lines with an illegal firearm to cause trouble at an emotionally raw Black Lives Matter protest.

Then, listen to how he described the actual incident:

MISKINIS: So the last night, a 17-year-old individual from Antioch, Illinois, was involved in the use of firearms to resolve whatever conflict was in place. The result of it was two people are dead. This is not a police action. This is not the action I believe of those who set out to do protests. It is the persons who were involved after the legal time involved in illegal activity that brought violence to this community. So last night, unfortunately, a 26-year-old Silver Lake resident and the 36-year-old Kenosha resident lost their lives to this senseless violence. A 26-year-old West Allis resident was also injured but is expected to survive.

"INVOLVED IN THE USE OF FIREARMS TO RESOLVE WHATEVER CONFLICT WAS IN PLACE"

The teen was "involved." INVOLVED. Like the heart is "involved" with keeping humans alive. Like the sun is "involved" with helping plants grow. Jesus Christ on a Cracker, could this police chief be trying any harder to protect this psycho killer teen/future Trump cabinet member?

And, oh, sure! It was just a case of conflict resolution, Chief! *wink wink* I can resolve LOTS of conflicts with my semi-automatic rifle, can't I? Eddie Izzard famously slapped back the NRA's stupid saying, "Guns don't kill people, PEOPLE kill people," by retorting, "Well, the gun HELPS..."

So remember, kids! Don't do anything illegal, like violating curfew, and nothing bad will ever happen to you! Just ask the good people of Sandy Hook! Mother Emanuel Church! Pulse night club! Oh. Wait...