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Trump to visit Kenosha in wake of racial unrest
WASHINGTON, Aug 30, 2020 (BSS/AFP) – US President Donald Trump will travel
next week to the Midwestern city where African American Jacob Blake was shot
multiple times in the back by a white policeman, sparking a nationwide wave of
protest.
Trump will meet police in Kenosha, Wisconsin on Tuesday and “survey damage
from recent riots” triggered by Blake’s shooting last weekend, White House
spokesman Judd Deere said Saturday.
Blake took at least half a dozen shots in front of his small children as he
tried to get into a car, in an incident that has prompted an outpouring of anger
over yet another shooting of a black man by police.
Deere did not say if Trump would meet the family of Blake, 29, who was left
paralyzed from the waist down.
Protesters have taken to the streets in major cities nationwide this summer
over the deaths of black people at the hands of police, including George Floyd
in Minneapolis in May.
It is the most widespread civil unrest in the United States for decades.
Trump has characterized the mostly-peaceful activists as rioters as he pushes
a law and order message while fighting an uphill battle for re-election in
November.
Kenosha, about an hour’s drive from Chicago, saw three nights of violence
after the Blake shooting as protesters set fire to buildings and cars.
Major US sports leagues including the NBA were forced to suspend play as
African American and other players outraged by the shooting joined the latest
national wave of anger over racial injustice and police misconduct.
On Friday tens of thousands of protesters thronged the US capital for a mass
march marking the anniversary of Reverend Martin Luther King Jr’s historic “I
have a dream” speech on August 28, 1963.
It was dubbed “Get Your Knee Off Our Necks,” in reference to Floyd, who
suffocated beneath the knee of a white officer.
Often fighting back tears, relatives of Floyd, Blake and Breonna Taylor — a
black 26-year-old shot dead by police in her apartment last March — took turns
addressing the sea of people, who repeatedly called out the victims’ names in
response.
“Black America, I hold you accountable,” said Blake’s sister Letetra Widman.
“You must stand, you must fight, but not with violence and chaos. With self
love.”
Like his father 57 years ago, Martin Luther King III stood on the Lincoln
Memorial steps and urged Americans to keep fighting inequality — and to vote in
November at all costs to defeat Trump.
“We are taking a step forward on America’s rocky but righteous journey towards
justice,” King said.
BSS/AFP/MRU/0909hrs