When will we get justice for Jacob Blake?

Solomon Jones | solomonjones.com

What must we do to get justice?

That’s what I’m asking after the Kenosha Wisconsin D.A. failed to charge a white cop for shooting a Black man in the back.

The victim, Jacob Blake, had been trying to break up an argument between two women, and as he walked back to his vehicle, Kenosha police officer Rusten Sheskey repeatedly shot Blake in the back, paralyzing him as his children watched from the car.

Cops and the D.A. claim Blake had a knife. His family says he didn’t, and when the world watched the video, we didn’t see a knife, either. Protests erupted across the country, and yesterday, after a months-long investigation, Kenosha County D.A. Michael Graveley announced that Sheskey would not be charged.

Claiming that his office reviewed 40 hours of squad video for an incident that took only minutes, Gravely acted as if Blake’s life didn’t matter.

The question now is simple: What must we do to get justice? When D.A.’s act like defense attorneys for the police, when the justice system is a tool of oppression, when citizen protest is met with government violence, what must we do to get justice?

The victim’s father, Jacob Blake Sr., had an answer. “This has to be federally heard,” he said. “Not just for my son, but for everyone who suffered police brutality. Everyone. We can’t sit around anymore. We can’t wait.”

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