On Sunday, police in Kenosha, Wisconsin shot an unarmed black man at least seven times IN THE BACK as his three children sat in the backseat of his car!
As we write, despite being shot at point blank range, 29-year-old Jacob Blake is still alive and in stable condition, though on the morning of August 25 Blake’s father announced that Blake was paralyzed from the waist down due to his wounds.
We don’t yet know if Jacob Blake will be able to recover from this condition or if his paralysis is permanent. But whatever happens, it doesn’t change the fact that the police are a violent and racist institution.
Furious crowds of protesters took to the streets of Kenosha. The governor sent in the National Guard.
Although more details will undoubtedly surface in the coming days, it is clear that once again, police officers escalated a situation to the point of gunfire, and could not exercise even minimal control over their itchy trigger fingers.
One would think that after the massive outrage at the death of George Floyd in May, police would at least think about ways to control themselves or to avoid getting involved in murderous situations. If not because they actually care, but because maybe they simply don’t want to get caught.
This demonstrates clearly that the police, as an institution, cannot do even that. As enforcers of the capitalist system, and as the protectors of private property, police officers will continue to engage in conflicts with an oppressed population (disproportionately Black and Latinx, but almost always working class), and will continue to be unable to hold themselves back from what can only be described as murder. In a capitalist economy, where less than one percent dominates the rest of us, police are what they are. We would be foolish to continue thinking otherwise. And the people who protested in Kenosha were right to show their outrage.
