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Jacob Blake

On September 2, 2020 I posted Jacob Blake: The Status Quo.  The status quo in that case was on August 23, 2020, Kenosha, WI police were called to deal with Blake, a black felon, who was trying to steal a car.  There was also an open warrant for felony sexual assault on Blake, who violently resisted arrest, was tasered without effect—thrice—and was shot when brandishing a knife.  So of course, it was just another case of white cops murdering an innocent Black man who wasn’t doin’ nothin’!  Various talking heads and “activists” were saying things like: ‘Other than the knife, he was unarmed!”  Of course, this incident only furthered calls for the officer’s blood, and for abolishing the police.  In that article—take the link and read the whole thing—I wrote, in part:

In this article, I’ll not spend a great deal of time rehashing every second of the encounter.  That’s been done, and it’s unnecessary for our purposes.  As always, please keep in mind I don’t have the police reports, blood test on Blake, or any of the other evidence.  I’m working from my experiences as a police officer, and with the material I’ve been able to find from a variety of previously reliable sources.  That said, it appears the officers were justified in everything they did, including shooting Blake. [skip]

One thing is clear: should the officers be cleared, as the available evidence strongly suggests they must be, there will be more rioting, lawsuits and general chaos, and the Governor and Lt. Governor of the state will bear much of the blame, which is the status quo in Democrat ruled cities/states circa 2020.

Blake was paralyzed, apparently from the waist down, but lived, prompting some to ask: “why didn’t they just shoot to wound him?”  This prompted me to address shooting to wound the next day in Shoot To Wound?  Anyone interested in the legal and practical realities of that particularly bad bit of bad advice should also take the link and read that article.

On January 5, 2021, Michael Gravely, the Kenosha County District Attorney, held a press conference, released an 87-page report, and summarized the evidence, announcing there would be no charges for the officers.  However, he did ask the federal DOJ to investigate the officers for civil rights violations.  More on this shortly.  Prof. Jacobson at Legal Insurrection reports:

Agitators, including Wisconsin’s leftist Governor, made much of the fact that Blake was shot ‘in the back,’ but the circumstances were murkier and fast moving. Blake was shot in the back as he reached into the vehicle for something, later revealed to be a knife.

The District Attorney just held a lengthy press conference in which the prosecutors and police laid out the facts. The National Guard was placed on alert ahead of the press conference. [skip]

He went through the evidence and step-by-step timeline. Blake resisted arrest, fought by police, and by his own admission, was carrying a knife, after multiple attempts to subdue him, including taser, failed. Blake was shot when he made a move with the knife, having switched it to his right hand, towards the police officer. Contrary to the popular narrative, Blake was not shot seven times in the back, three of the shots were to his side consistent with the twisting motion with the knife towards the officer. The officer’s seven shots were objectively reasonable because police are trained to keep firing until the threat is removed, which in this case was when Blake dropped the knife.

By all means, take the Legal Insurrection link and read the report, which establishes beyond any doubt Blake was armed with a knife, switched it from his left to right hand, ignored multiple commands to drop the knife, and was turning toward officers who were closer than arms length when he was shot.  Blake has also admitted he was holding the knife.  It will surprise no one, I suspect, to learn The Washington Post tried to lie about the presence of the knife, as reported by Brietbart.com:

The far-left Washington Post was caught spreading the lie that Jacob Blake was ‘unarmed’ when he was shot by police in Kenosha, Wisconsin, late last year.

‘Police officers won’t be charged in shooting of Jacob Blake, an unarmed Black man who was shot 7 times in the back in Kenosha, Wis,’ read a tweet from the disgraced outlet after Kenosha District Attorney Michael Gravely announced on Tuesday that no charges would be filed against the police officers who shot Blake.

A few hours later, the Post was forced to delete the tweet and issue this humiliating correction:

‘We’ve deleted a previous tweet that incorrectly described Jacob Blake as unarmed. While his family has said he was not armed when shot by police, prosecutors on Tuesday said video evidence depicts him holding a knife. The story has been corrected.’

It now appears the officer’s criminal liability—in Wisconsin only—is ended.  However, they are far from free from legal jeopardy.  DA Gravely’s invitation to the Harris DOJ to investigate the officers for civil rights violations is, to say the least, unusual.  However, in the racially charged atmosphere that is America, 2021, it’s likely he did it to try to keep BLM and Antifa from burning Kenosha to the ground—again.  Thus far, his ploy appears to have been mostly successful.

It’s a certainty the Harris DOJ will investigate—it was unnecessary for Gravely to make a referral—and likely they’ll prosecute the officers, regardless of the utter lack of evidence of wrongdoing.  After all, the Harris administration is all about combatting “systemic racism,” and establishing “equity.” There is, in this case, no evidence of racial animus.  The officers would have responded as they did to anyone of any race behaving as Blake did.  We can also be certain they, and Kenosha, will be sued civilly by race hustling attorney Benjamin Crump, who shows up anywhere in the country a Black criminal has met his deserved fate.  Crump has represented, among others, the families of Trayvon Martin and Michael Brown.  He realized substantial settlements in these and other cases.  Race hustling pays well these days.

It is cases like this that intensify the Ferguson Effect, causing competent, proactive police officers to withdraw.  Seeing what is happening to any officer that dares lawfully and fully within procedure use force again black criminals, rational officers do as little as possible, and absolutely avoid any confrontation with black criminals.  To whatever degree race is involved in contemporary policing, it is driven by the Ferguson Effect.  The police need not be defunded, this willingness, indeed, the anticipation of race hustling politicians and prosecutors to persecute police officers for properly and lawfully doing their jobs is having the same effect: skyrocketing crime rates.  Circa 2021, that’s no longer that matters.  What matters is criminal’s charges are dropped, they’re freed on no bond, they get very light sentences for violent crimes and they’re let out of jail as soon as possible.  Victims?  Who cares about them?

Is it any wonder more and more Americans, including black Americans, are becoming first time gun owners?

I’ll continue to report on this case as necessary.