Kenosha WI and when shootings are too close to home...

The mother should be charged with Accessory to Murder. Full stop.

Supposedly ( I have not seen it) there is a fb group, calling "Patriots" to come to Kenosha, armed ,to act as Militia. The news channel here said it had been removed, but that is why armed people from WI, IL, and Minn have shown up. I will see if there is an online link for the broadcast. Maybe a perimeter needs to be established. The national guard from our state and neighboring states hAve been called up, but I don't know when they will arrive, or if they are already there.

I’m so sorry OP. The whole thing just makes me ill.

PLurker, Kenosha is my hometown. This has been an exhausting week for me as ground zero is the neighborhood I grew up in and my sibling lives in the middle of it. I have lost sleep and struggled to concentrate. My friends owned the office furniture store on 60th Street that was destroyed. The uptown and downtown areas have suffered so much damage. People have suffered so much damage. Jacob Blake didn’t deserve to be shot in the back and my friends don’t deserve to loose their livelihoods at the hands of outsiders looking to destroy the city.

If I can figure out how to share beautiful pictures of the interdenominational church service yesterday in front of the courthouse, I will. I also have seen beautiful pictures of volunteers painting murals, cleaning debris, and supporting neighbors. There was finally peace in the streets last night.

I love my hometown. My hope and prayer is this causes much needed improvements in the system, people are able to heal, and relationships with neighbors will be built.

Copied from FB


What is the presumption of innocence?

If you can find it, it is really something powerful…

If I am 17 years old, cross state lines with a firearm, because I deputized myself to wage war with Americans I believe to be insurgents, I should remain innocent of a crime until proven guilty in a court of law.

If I roam around, out of state, in violation of a curfew, while brandishing that firearm, I should still be innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.

If am recorded shooting and killing somebody in a parking lot, while out of state, in violation of curfew, I should, nonetheless, remain innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.

If I stand over the dying victim, take out my phone, call somebody, and say “I just shot somebody”, and then flee, I am supposed to be innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.

If, while fleeing, I shoot and kill witnesses and bystanders who are trying to apprehend me, I am still innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.

If I walk by a literal small platoon of police officers in armored vehicles while brandishing the very firearm I used to kill a man, I should still be innocent until proven guilty.

If I am allowed to walk past those same officers, pointing them to the people I just shot, while those same people screams out “he just shot a bunch of people,” I should be innocent until proven guilty.

The presumption of innocence is elusive for a black man like me. Some of us find it under a uniform, wealth, or notoriety, but this is fleeting. I dream of finding it, harnessing it, and trapping it. Never allowing it escape.

If I enjoyed that presumption, I imagine what I could do, wear, and brandish comfortably in public… the comfort I could feel during a police encounter. I could even cloak my wife and children in it.

I found it though! That presumption was hiding right under Kyle Rittenhouse’s skin. I just want to know if I can have some too?

Until I can find it, I will have to keep working to constantly prove or convince the world that I, too, am not dangerous, not threatening, and innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.

Powerful writing.  So sad that it is true.