{"id":10576,"date":"2020-08-29T22:22:00","date_gmt":"2020-08-30T05:22:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/?p=10576"},"modified":"2020-08-30T04:25:38","modified_gmt":"2020-08-30T11:25:38","slug":"post1-115","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/?p=10576","title":{"rendered":"“Jacob Blake Was Shackled in Hospital Bed After Police Shot Him”, The New York Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

By John Eligon<\/span>, Sarah Mervosh<\/span> and Richard A. Oppel Jr., cover story, Aug, 29, 2020<\/span><\/p>\n

The authorities said an earlier sexual assault charge was the reason for the restraints, which were removed on Friday<\/em><\/p>\n

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KENOSHA, Wis. \u2014 Days after a Kenosha police officer shot Jacob Blake outside an apartment building, the authorities on Friday provided new details on what led up to the videotaped encounter that has prompted heated street protests and calls for reform.<\/p>\n

Law enforcement officials said that in recent days they had shackled Mr. Blake to his hospital bed, where he is paralyzed from the waist down from his wounds, because he faced an arrest warrant from July on charges of third-degree sexual assault, criminal trespass and disorderly conduct. The same woman who had filed that complaint had called 911 before the shooting on Sunday to report Mr. Blake\u2019s presence to the police, according to interviews and records.<\/p>\n

Some onlookers and Ben Crump, the civil rights lawyer who is representing Mr. Blake, have described Mr. Blake as a peacemaker who was seeking to break up a disturbance involving two women when the police arrived. On Friday afternoon in Wisconsin, near the spot where Officer Rusten Sheskey fired at Mr. Blake seven times, some of those who knew Mr. Blake said the authorities were attempting to justify a clear-cut instance of excessive force by tarnishing his reputation.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re trying to reverse it and make it seem like he was such a criminal,\u201d said Jesse Franklin, a community activist who described Mr. Blake as a laid-back father who spent considerable time with his children. \u201cThe whole point is, I don\u2019t care if he\u2019s a criminal or has a record. Your life matters, too. He\u2019s not less of a man. He\u2019s a human being with kids, with a family, with a heartbeat.\u201d<\/p>\n

At a news conference on Friday, Chief Daniel Miskinis of the Kenosha Police Department said he believed that the officers knew of the outstanding warrant when they responded to the call about a domestic dispute.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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The outstanding warrant, he said, would have brought a \u201cheightened awareness\u201d to the dynamic between the officers and Mr. Blake. \u201cThere was some resisting on the basis of that contact and the arrest, so that is what changed the dynamics,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The union representing Kenosha police officers issued a statement on the events that led up to the shooting, suggesting that Mr. Blake had strongly resisted arrest, fighting with officers, putting one in a headlock and ignoring orders to drop a knife that he held in his left hand.<\/p>\n

\u201cNone of the officers involved wished for things to transpire the way it did,\u201d Brendan P. Matthews, a lawyer representing the union, said. \u201cIt is my hope that truth and transparency will help begin and aid in the healing process.\u201d<\/p>\n

The shooting was troubling enough that Mayor John Antaramian of Kenosha said in an interview on Friday that it \u201cwas a situation that, I think, caught all of us a little off guard.\u201d The Police Department \u201chas had some very good rules in dealing with use of force,\u201d he added, though he stopped short of saying whether he believed that the officers violated the use-of-force rules.<\/p>\n

Protests have played out around the country in recent days, and more were planned over the weekend. On Friday, thousands of protesters gathered in Washington at the Lincoln Memorial for an event aimed at rekindling the spirit of the 1963 March on Washington in which the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his \u201cI Have a Dream\u201d speech.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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The family of Mr. Blake was among relatives of victims of police violence who spoke from a lectern at the base of the memorial.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are two systems of justice in the United States,\u201d Mr. Blake\u2019s father, Jacob Blake Sr., said. \u201cThere\u2019s a white system and there\u2019s a Black system. The Black system ain\u2019t doing so well.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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In an interview later on Friday, the elder Mr. Blake said he planned to take part in a rally in Kenosha in honor of his son on Saturday. He said he had not heard from officials of that city since the shooting.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy plan is to march peacefully,\u201d he said. \u201cI would like the chief of police or somebody up high to come outside and explain to me, face to face, why it was OK for that police officer to put seven shots in my son\u2019s back.\u201d<\/p>\n

Court documents filed in the July case against Jacob Blake show that the woman who filed the complaint said he had broken into her home while she was asleep and assaulted her. The woman told the police that Mr. Blake also took her car and debit card, the documents show.<\/p>\n

Patrick Cafferty, who is representing Mr. Blake in that case, which includes a felony count and two misdemeanors, declined to discuss the charges, except to say that his client would be pleading not guilty.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Amid growing questions about Mr. Blake being shackled to his hospital bed, officials said on Friday that the shackles were being removed. Mr. Cafferty said he had discussions with the Kenosha district attorney, Michael D. Graveley, who agreed to vacate the arrest warrant. Law enforcement often uses restraints and police guards in hospital rooms when a patient is facing criminal charges.<\/p>\n

Mr. Crump issued a statement, which read, in part, \u201cFortunately, a man who is paralyzed and fighting for his life after being shot seven times in the back will no longer have to deal with the pain of having his ankles and wrist shackled and the traumatic stress of being under armed guard.\u201d<\/p>\n

That decision does not stop the criminal case against Mr. Blake from proceeding. \u201cThe merits of the case have not been addressed,\u201d Mr. Cafferty said.<\/p>\n

Family members of Mr. Blake declined to comment on the charges, which they said were irrelevant to the police shooting.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Blake family is exhausted,\u201d said an uncle, Rick Blake, who described a large and diverse extended family. \u201cWe are teachers, we are lawyers, we are government officials, we are everyday working people.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have a right to be angry,\u201d he said. \u201cWe also have a right to call out for justice.\u201d<\/p>\n

In interviews with local media after the shooting, the woman who had accused Mr. Blake of assault was also critical. \u201cYou shot him numerous times, for no reason,\u201d she said. \u201cIt didn\u2019t take all that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mr. Blake, 29, is the father of six children, ages 3 to 12, and was working at an automotive facility, training to become a mechanic, his family said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Before the shooting, his father said, he had enjoyed fishing and boating. Now, he has said from the hospital that he never wants to go outside again.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe is scared right now, and he has every right to be scared,\u201d the elder Mr. Blake said. \u201cWouldn\u2019t you be?\u201d<\/p>\n

Before the police shot Mr. Blake, officers had twice tried to use a Taser on him, state officials said. Two officers \u2014 Officer Sheskey and Vincent Arenas \u2014 had each discharged Tasers before Officer Sheskey fired his gun at Mr. Blake. Both officers, as well as a third officer at the scene, Brittany Meronek, have been put on administrative leave.<\/p>\n

Officials in Kenosha said they were bracing for the weekend, with hundreds of members of the Wisconsin National Guard deployed amid unrest that at times has grown violent, with two people killed in a chaotic confrontation this week between counterprotesters and protesters.<\/p>\n

John Eligon reported from Kenosha, and Richard A. Oppel Jr. and Sarah Mervosh from New York. Julie Bosman contributed reporting from Kenosha, Michael Wines from Washington, and Bryan Pietsch from Denver.<\/em><\/p>\n

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John Eligon is a Kansas City-based national correspondent covering race. He previously worked as a reporter in Sports and Metro, and his work has taken him to Nelson Mandela’s funeral in South Africa and the Winter Olympics in Turin. @<\/span>jeligon<\/a><\/span><\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Sarah Mervosh is a national reporter based in New York, covering a wide variety of news and feature stories across the country. @<\/span>smervosh<\/a><\/span><\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Rich Oppel is a national enterprise and investigative correspondent\u00a0based in New York. Since joining The Times in 1999, he has also\u00a0covered business, Washington, a national presidential campaign, and\u00a0for six years was a war correspondent in Iraq, Afghanistan and\u00a0Pakistan.<\/em><\/p>\n

The Jacob Blake Shooting<\/p>\n

Suspect in Kenosha Killings Lionized the Police<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

Aug. 27, 2020<\/p>\n

How Chaos in Kenosha Is Already Swaying Some Voters in Wisconsin<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

Aug. 26, 2020<\/p>\n

Tracking the Suspect in the Fatal Kenosha Shootings<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

Aug. 27, 2020<\/p>\n

The New York Times<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n

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By John Eligon, Sarah Mervosh and Richard A. Oppel Jr., cover story, Aug, 29, 2020 The authorities said an earlier sexual assault charge was the reason for the restraints, which were removed on Friday KENOSHA, Wis. \u2014 Days after a Kenosha police officer shot Jacob Blake outside an apartment building, the authorities on Friday provided […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1001004,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[53],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10576"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1001004"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10576"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10576\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10584,"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10576\/revisions\/10584"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10576"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10576"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10576"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}