Governor Tony Evers is sending more Wisconsin National Guard troops to Kenosha to protect state property, but residents seem to be largely left on their own as riots over the police shooting of Jacob Blake show no sign of ending.
“We are assessing the damage to state property and will be increasing the presence of the Wisconsin National Guard to ensure individuals can exercise their right safely, protect state buildings and critical infrastructure, and support first responders and fire fighters [sic],” Evers tweeted on Tuesday.
The governor also declared a state of emergency over the ongoing “protests” in Kenosha, near the border with Illinois.
The 125 National Guard troops deployed on Monday did little to deter rioters from attacking a courthouse and setting several businesses on fire for the second night in a row. The governor condemned“this path of damage and destruction” but immediately qualified it by denouncing “systemic racism and injustice.”
Evers, who is white and a Democrat, also called the two days of rioting a reflection of “the pain, anguish, and exhaustion of being Black in our state and country.”
We cannot forget the reason why these protests began, and what we have seen play out over the last two nights and many nights this year is the pain, anguish, and exhaustion of being Black in our state and country.
Kenosha, a city of some 100,000 residents and located between Milwaukee and Chicago, has endured two nights of violent riots after Blake, who is African-American, was shot by police during an altercation on Sunday. He survived, but has reportedly been paralyzed from the waist down.
The initial Black Lives Matter protest over the shooting quickly escalated, with a car dealership looted and set on fire, followed by a nearby church. The car lot was destroyed again on Monday, along with a furniture store and other nearby buildings and businesses.
Mainstream media have persistently depicted the events as peaceful protests, in some cases censoring themselves after correctly identifying them as violent.
CNN airs chyron reading “violent protests” for 15 seconds before changing to remove “violent” when reporting on Kenosha pic.twitter.com/GpDA0NmQVh
Evers also sought to downplay the riots and arson, calling them “the actions of a few” that should not “distract us from the work we must do together to demand justice, equity, and accountability.”
The rioters, some of whom were armed and pointed weapons at police and reporters, were entirely unrepentant about the destruction and told journalists they saw it as necessary in order to make change happen.
This is what’s left of another building that was also set on fire last night pic.twitter.com/9u5XjLsQG5
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