More to the story than you’ve been hearing
In the six days since Jacob Blake was shot by a Kenosha, Wisconsin police officer, details of how the entire incident came about have been painfully slow to emerge. I’ll point out upfront that much of the mainstream media has been far less than helpful in finding any clarity in this case, preferring to focus on the subsequent protests and unrest, depicting him as just “another victim” of racist police practices. But right from the beginning, there were indications that there was much more to the story than might initially meet the eye. Early this week, local sleuths in the Kenosha area had already begun digging into the history of the people involved in that police encounter, including Blake himself. When I first wrote about this case, urging caution before we began rushing to judgment, I noted some of Blake’s previous history with law enforcement that might be directly related to these events. Specifically, I asked why the cops were at that location to begin with: “And why were the cops interested in Blake to begin with? As it turns out, he has a rap sheet going back to at least 2015. Last month a warrant was put out on him for criminal trespassing, domestic abuse and sexual assault. On Sunday, the police were responding to a report of domestic violence, but it’s unclear whether or not that involved Blake in this instance.” Keep in mind that on Monday, the Washington Post cited a supposed witness who claimed that the cops were only there because of “a fight between two women over a scratch on one of their cars.” But when John did a followup on the story on Thursday, he noted that the police dispatcher said a woman had called police saying “her boyfriend was present and was not supposed to be on the premises.” That certainly made it sound more like what I alluded to initially. If there was a warrant out for Blake for domestic abuse, sexual assault, etc. then it would make sense if a restraining order was in place.
