Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden called for “an immediate, full and transparent investigation” into the police shooting of Jacob Blake and said officers “must be held accountable.” Republicans and the police union called it a rush to judgment.
Fires burned in Kenosha, Wisconsin city for a second night on Monday after anger boiled over because police here shot and wounded a Black man who some witnesses say was simply trying to break up a fight.
Hundreds of protesters stretching several blocks marched ahead of a caravan of honking cars through the streets of Kenosha on Monday evening to denounce police abuse following the shooting of 29-year-old Jacob Blake on Sunday.
“We want the officer who pulled the trigger fired, arrested and prosecuted,” said Clyde McLemore, a leader with the Black Lives Matter chapter of Lake County, Illinois, south of Kenosha across the state line.
But later Monday night, after an 8 p.m. curfew went into effect, a group of protesters leading the march — anticipating a clash with police — stopped a couple blocks from the Kenosha County Courthouse, where police had amassed, to tell any children in their ranks to go home.
Reporters — and protesters — headed for that building, where the mayor came outside and tried to explain the process for investigating the shooting. But protesters shouted him down, and after he went back inside, several rushed the building and damaged one of the doors, leaving it dangling.
The fires continue in the city while the national guard which was deployed today tries to take control of the city. There were more than 10 structure fires around the city while firefighters worked to keep the fires from spreading. Protestors gathered in Kenosha, Portland, Los Angeles and Dallas.