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Anger and questions mounted on Wednesday night and into Thursday over the disparity in police treatment of Jacob Blake, a Black man shot numerous times by police in Kenosha, Wisconsin while intervening to stop a fight, and Kyle Rittenhouse, the heavily--and unlawfully--armed white teen who was given a pass by officers after he allegedly shot and killed two Kenosha protesters.
Veteran Kenosha officer Rusten Sheskey fired seven shots at Blake, a 29-year-old father of five, hitting him four times in the back at near point-blank range on Sunday, paralyzing him from the waist down as three of his children looked on. Police said they found a knife under the floorboard of Blake's car, although there are no claims he was threatening anyone with it.
Bishop Talbert Swan, president of the Springfield, Mass. chapter of the NAACP, tweeted video of a white man menacing police officers with a bladed weapon in response to critics playing up Blake's knife.
\u201cI\u2019m just gonna drop this video right here for @megynkelly and all the other white racists out here justifying @KenoshaPolice shooting #JacobBlake in the back 7 times because police allegedly found a knife under the floorboard in his car.\n\n#Kenosha\n#KenoshaShooting\u201d— Bishop Talbert Swan (@Bishop Talbert Swan) 1598542600
Blake's shooting stands in stark contrast with the police treatment of Rittenhouse, an aspiring cop and staunch supporter of President Donald Trump whose social media accounts are brimming with Blue Lives Matter posts, and who boasted online about being an armed vigilante. The teen, who posted numerous photos in which he poses with guns, apparently heeded calls on social media encouraging armed militia members to travel to Kenosha to protect property from "evil thugs," and urging "patriots" to "shoot to kill."
The 17-year-old teen--the age to legally carry firearms in public in Wisconsin is 18--is seen in a video with other armed civilians violating Kenosha's 8:00 pm curfew. However, police challenged neither of these violations. Instead, officers in armored vehicles gave them water and told them that, "we appreciate you guys, we really do," while simultaneously ordering protesters to disperse and accusing them of "trespassing."
\u201cCell phone video shows Kenosha Wisconsin police officers in an military vehicle telling armed White militia members they "appreciate them being there" and giving them bottled water; while in the background cops can be heard ordering protestors to disperse.\u201d— Rebecca Kavanagh (@Rebecca Kavanagh) 1598429304
Cellphone video shows Rittenhouse running away after shooting three people, two of them fatally. "I've just killed someone," he says. Only one of the victims, 26-year-old Anthony Huber of Silver Lake, Wisc., has been identified as of Thursday morning.
Anthony Huber was the one to run up on the shooter last night and was shot in the chest and left to bleed out by the cops. He leaves behind his daughter and his girlfriend. His initial reaction was to try to protect others and he lost his life for that. Rest in power, comrade. pic.twitter.com/DD71cyYODq
-- Red Bait (@red_baiting) August 26, 2020
After the shooting, Rittenhouse walked toward police with his hands in the air, his rifle slung across his chest, as protesters shouted to the officers that the teen had just shot two people. The officers allowed Rittenhouse to pass unmolested. He was able to travel back to his hometown of Antioch, Illinois, some 20 miles (32 km) away, before finally being arrested the following day and subsequently charged with first-degree intentional homicide.
\u201cA member of the white supremacist #BoogalooBoys shot multiple protesters in #Kenosha. Although he had an AR15 he was not confronted by police or SWAT but ignored & allowed to walk out of the area. \n\n@KenoshaPolice shoot unarmed Black men but see armed white men as allies.\u201d— Bishop Talbert Swan (@Bishop Talbert Swan) 1598443697
Outraged observers took to Twitter and other social media to note the racist double standards and white privilege highlighted by the two shootings.
"Jacob Blake was shot several times in the back while walking away from police officers," tweeted Nathalie Baptiste, a reporter for Mother Jones. "Kyle Rittenhouse made it all the way home before being arrested. Law and order is only for certain people."
\u201cJacob Blake was shot several times in the back while walking away from police officers. Kyle Rittenhouse made it all the way home before being arrested. Law and order is only for certain people. https://t.co/uVqHSLX5lJ\u201d— Nathalie Baptiste (@Nathalie Baptiste) 1598478875
\u201cDon't you dare tell me there isn't racism in US law enforcement.\n\nUnarmed Jacob Blake, shot 7 times in the back for walking to his kids in his car\n\n17 year old, Kyle Rittenhouse holding AR-15 style gun after murdering protestors and the police look on\n\nhttps://t.co/JlwjRh1oOj\u201d— Dark Brandon (@Dark Brandon) 1598467737
Some compared the latest incidents to past police shootings of Black people and the treatment afforded to white shooters, including Dylann Roof, who massacred nine Black worshippers at a Charleston, South Carolina church in 2015.
\u201cThe Police gave Dylann Roof Burger King, and gave Kyle Rittenhouse water, and gave Jacob Blake seven shots in the back.\n\nOne of these guys is not like the others.\u201d— Alex Cole (@Alex Cole) 1598530747
\u201c12-year old Tamir Rice was playing with a toy gun and was killed by a cop. \n\nKyle Rittenhouse allegedly killed two people with an AR-15 and was allowed to walk right by the cops.\n\nRice was 12. Rittenhouse? He's 17.\u201d— Equally Divided (@Equally Divided) 1598455260
Others criticized media coverage of the incidents.
"A 17-year-old white supremacist domestic terrorist drove across state lines armed with an AR-15," tweeted Rep. Ayanna Presssley (D-Mass.). "He shot and killed 2 people who had assembled to affirm the value, dignity, and worth of Black lives. Fix your damn headlines."
\u201cA 17 year old white supremacist domestic terrorist drove across state lines, armed with an AR 15.\n\nHe shot and killed 2 people who had assembled to affirm the value, dignity, and worth of Black lives.\n\nFix your damn headlines.\u201d— Ayanna Pressley (@Ayanna Pressley) 1598488385
On Comedy Central's "The Daily Show," host Trevor Noah wondered "why some people get shot seven times in the back while other people are treated like human beings and reasoned with and taken into custody with no bullets in their bodies."
\u201c\u201cWhy was Jacob Blake seen as a deadly threat for a theoretical gun, while this gunman, who had already shot people, was arrested the next day and treated like a human being whose life matters?\u201d\n\nMore on the police shooting of Jacob Blake & protests in Kenosha:\u201d— The Daily Show (@The Daily Show) 1598495777
Meanwhile, Kenosha Police Chief Daniel Miskinis blamed Rittenhouse's victims for their own deaths because they were "out after curfew"--as was the shooter--while defending vigilantes' right to "exercise their constitutional rights."
\u201cKenosha Police Chief Miskinis responds to the murder of two protestors by saying it wouldn't have happened if people weren't out after curfew: "I'm not gonna make a great deal of it, BUT ..."\u201d— The Recount (@The Recount) 1598470243
As professional athletes and teams from numerous sports and leagues postponed games in protest of police killings of Blake, George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and others, right-wing media and sports personalities defended and even applauded Rittenhouse, while demonizing victims of police and white supremacist violence.Popular Fox News host Tucker Carlson said that Rittenhouse "had to maintain order," while disgraced former San Francisco Giants slugger Aubrey Huff, who has been disinvited from the team's 2010 World Series championship reunion over past racist and misogynistic comments, called the teen "a national treasure."
\u201c@aubrey_huff I\u2019m willing to bet that you have no moral superiority legs to stand on, dude.\u201d— Jeremy Danner (@Jeremy Danner) 1598547663
At the Republican National Convention, police brutality and the Kenosha killings went virtually unmentioned, while speakers heaped praise upon President Donald Trump for his tough "law and order" rhetoric. Trump, who has often been accused of courting and even inspiring white supremacists, has been conspicuously silent in the wake of the Kenosha shootings.
Some RNC speakers decried the looting and "mobs" in cities run by Democrats while ignoring police and racist violence.
"From Seattle to Portland to Washington and New York, Democrat-run cities across this country are being overrun by violent mobs," South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem said. "There's looting, chaos, destruction and murder."
Some commentators wondered what it would take for many white Americans to finally see the racism that so many others are protesting.
"The fundamental unfairness of [the Blake and Rittenhouse] tragedies in one Wisconsin city... should be enough for even the most stubborn of white Americans to understand why people are marching to assert and rightfully demand that Black lives matter," wroteChicago Tribune columnist Rex Huppke. "The clear-as-glass unfairness of it all should be enough."
But, he concludes, "it won't be."
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Anger and questions mounted on Wednesday night and into Thursday over the disparity in police treatment of Jacob Blake, a Black man shot numerous times by police in Kenosha, Wisconsin while intervening to stop a fight, and Kyle Rittenhouse, the heavily--and unlawfully--armed white teen who was given a pass by officers after he allegedly shot and killed two Kenosha protesters.
Veteran Kenosha officer Rusten Sheskey fired seven shots at Blake, a 29-year-old father of five, hitting him four times in the back at near point-blank range on Sunday, paralyzing him from the waist down as three of his children looked on. Police said they found a knife under the floorboard of Blake's car, although there are no claims he was threatening anyone with it.
Bishop Talbert Swan, president of the Springfield, Mass. chapter of the NAACP, tweeted video of a white man menacing police officers with a bladed weapon in response to critics playing up Blake's knife.
\u201cI\u2019m just gonna drop this video right here for @megynkelly and all the other white racists out here justifying @KenoshaPolice shooting #JacobBlake in the back 7 times because police allegedly found a knife under the floorboard in his car.\n\n#Kenosha\n#KenoshaShooting\u201d— Bishop Talbert Swan (@Bishop Talbert Swan) 1598542600
Blake's shooting stands in stark contrast with the police treatment of Rittenhouse, an aspiring cop and staunch supporter of President Donald Trump whose social media accounts are brimming with Blue Lives Matter posts, and who boasted online about being an armed vigilante. The teen, who posted numerous photos in which he poses with guns, apparently heeded calls on social media encouraging armed militia members to travel to Kenosha to protect property from "evil thugs," and urging "patriots" to "shoot to kill."
The 17-year-old teen--the age to legally carry firearms in public in Wisconsin is 18--is seen in a video with other armed civilians violating Kenosha's 8:00 pm curfew. However, police challenged neither of these violations. Instead, officers in armored vehicles gave them water and told them that, "we appreciate you guys, we really do," while simultaneously ordering protesters to disperse and accusing them of "trespassing."
\u201cCell phone video shows Kenosha Wisconsin police officers in an military vehicle telling armed White militia members they "appreciate them being there" and giving them bottled water; while in the background cops can be heard ordering protestors to disperse.\u201d— Rebecca Kavanagh (@Rebecca Kavanagh) 1598429304
Cellphone video shows Rittenhouse running away after shooting three people, two of them fatally. "I've just killed someone," he says. Only one of the victims, 26-year-old Anthony Huber of Silver Lake, Wisc., has been identified as of Thursday morning.
Anthony Huber was the one to run up on the shooter last night and was shot in the chest and left to bleed out by the cops. He leaves behind his daughter and his girlfriend. His initial reaction was to try to protect others and he lost his life for that. Rest in power, comrade. pic.twitter.com/DD71cyYODq
-- Red Bait (@red_baiting) August 26, 2020
After the shooting, Rittenhouse walked toward police with his hands in the air, his rifle slung across his chest, as protesters shouted to the officers that the teen had just shot two people. The officers allowed Rittenhouse to pass unmolested. He was able to travel back to his hometown of Antioch, Illinois, some 20 miles (32 km) away, before finally being arrested the following day and subsequently charged with first-degree intentional homicide.
\u201cA member of the white supremacist #BoogalooBoys shot multiple protesters in #Kenosha. Although he had an AR15 he was not confronted by police or SWAT but ignored & allowed to walk out of the area. \n\n@KenoshaPolice shoot unarmed Black men but see armed white men as allies.\u201d— Bishop Talbert Swan (@Bishop Talbert Swan) 1598443697
Outraged observers took to Twitter and other social media to note the racist double standards and white privilege highlighted by the two shootings.
"Jacob Blake was shot several times in the back while walking away from police officers," tweeted Nathalie Baptiste, a reporter for Mother Jones. "Kyle Rittenhouse made it all the way home before being arrested. Law and order is only for certain people."
\u201cJacob Blake was shot several times in the back while walking away from police officers. Kyle Rittenhouse made it all the way home before being arrested. Law and order is only for certain people. https://t.co/uVqHSLX5lJ\u201d— Nathalie Baptiste (@Nathalie Baptiste) 1598478875
\u201cDon't you dare tell me there isn't racism in US law enforcement.\n\nUnarmed Jacob Blake, shot 7 times in the back for walking to his kids in his car\n\n17 year old, Kyle Rittenhouse holding AR-15 style gun after murdering protestors and the police look on\n\nhttps://t.co/JlwjRh1oOj\u201d— Dark Brandon (@Dark Brandon) 1598467737
Some compared the latest incidents to past police shootings of Black people and the treatment afforded to white shooters, including Dylann Roof, who massacred nine Black worshippers at a Charleston, South Carolina church in 2015.
\u201cThe Police gave Dylann Roof Burger King, and gave Kyle Rittenhouse water, and gave Jacob Blake seven shots in the back.\n\nOne of these guys is not like the others.\u201d— Alex Cole (@Alex Cole) 1598530747
\u201c12-year old Tamir Rice was playing with a toy gun and was killed by a cop. \n\nKyle Rittenhouse allegedly killed two people with an AR-15 and was allowed to walk right by the cops.\n\nRice was 12. Rittenhouse? He's 17.\u201d— Equally Divided (@Equally Divided) 1598455260
Others criticized media coverage of the incidents.
"A 17-year-old white supremacist domestic terrorist drove across state lines armed with an AR-15," tweeted Rep. Ayanna Presssley (D-Mass.). "He shot and killed 2 people who had assembled to affirm the value, dignity, and worth of Black lives. Fix your damn headlines."
\u201cA 17 year old white supremacist domestic terrorist drove across state lines, armed with an AR 15.\n\nHe shot and killed 2 people who had assembled to affirm the value, dignity, and worth of Black lives.\n\nFix your damn headlines.\u201d— Ayanna Pressley (@Ayanna Pressley) 1598488385
On Comedy Central's "The Daily Show," host Trevor Noah wondered "why some people get shot seven times in the back while other people are treated like human beings and reasoned with and taken into custody with no bullets in their bodies."
\u201c\u201cWhy was Jacob Blake seen as a deadly threat for a theoretical gun, while this gunman, who had already shot people, was arrested the next day and treated like a human being whose life matters?\u201d\n\nMore on the police shooting of Jacob Blake & protests in Kenosha:\u201d— The Daily Show (@The Daily Show) 1598495777
Meanwhile, Kenosha Police Chief Daniel Miskinis blamed Rittenhouse's victims for their own deaths because they were "out after curfew"--as was the shooter--while defending vigilantes' right to "exercise their constitutional rights."
\u201cKenosha Police Chief Miskinis responds to the murder of two protestors by saying it wouldn't have happened if people weren't out after curfew: "I'm not gonna make a great deal of it, BUT ..."\u201d— The Recount (@The Recount) 1598470243
As professional athletes and teams from numerous sports and leagues postponed games in protest of police killings of Blake, George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and others, right-wing media and sports personalities defended and even applauded Rittenhouse, while demonizing victims of police and white supremacist violence.Popular Fox News host Tucker Carlson said that Rittenhouse "had to maintain order," while disgraced former San Francisco Giants slugger Aubrey Huff, who has been disinvited from the team's 2010 World Series championship reunion over past racist and misogynistic comments, called the teen "a national treasure."
\u201c@aubrey_huff I\u2019m willing to bet that you have no moral superiority legs to stand on, dude.\u201d— Jeremy Danner (@Jeremy Danner) 1598547663
At the Republican National Convention, police brutality and the Kenosha killings went virtually unmentioned, while speakers heaped praise upon President Donald Trump for his tough "law and order" rhetoric. Trump, who has often been accused of courting and even inspiring white supremacists, has been conspicuously silent in the wake of the Kenosha shootings.
Some RNC speakers decried the looting and "mobs" in cities run by Democrats while ignoring police and racist violence.
"From Seattle to Portland to Washington and New York, Democrat-run cities across this country are being overrun by violent mobs," South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem said. "There's looting, chaos, destruction and murder."
Some commentators wondered what it would take for many white Americans to finally see the racism that so many others are protesting.
"The fundamental unfairness of [the Blake and Rittenhouse] tragedies in one Wisconsin city... should be enough for even the most stubborn of white Americans to understand why people are marching to assert and rightfully demand that Black lives matter," wroteChicago Tribune columnist Rex Huppke. "The clear-as-glass unfairness of it all should be enough."
But, he concludes, "it won't be."
Anger and questions mounted on Wednesday night and into Thursday over the disparity in police treatment of Jacob Blake, a Black man shot numerous times by police in Kenosha, Wisconsin while intervening to stop a fight, and Kyle Rittenhouse, the heavily--and unlawfully--armed white teen who was given a pass by officers after he allegedly shot and killed two Kenosha protesters.
Veteran Kenosha officer Rusten Sheskey fired seven shots at Blake, a 29-year-old father of five, hitting him four times in the back at near point-blank range on Sunday, paralyzing him from the waist down as three of his children looked on. Police said they found a knife under the floorboard of Blake's car, although there are no claims he was threatening anyone with it.
Bishop Talbert Swan, president of the Springfield, Mass. chapter of the NAACP, tweeted video of a white man menacing police officers with a bladed weapon in response to critics playing up Blake's knife.
\u201cI\u2019m just gonna drop this video right here for @megynkelly and all the other white racists out here justifying @KenoshaPolice shooting #JacobBlake in the back 7 times because police allegedly found a knife under the floorboard in his car.\n\n#Kenosha\n#KenoshaShooting\u201d— Bishop Talbert Swan (@Bishop Talbert Swan) 1598542600
Blake's shooting stands in stark contrast with the police treatment of Rittenhouse, an aspiring cop and staunch supporter of President Donald Trump whose social media accounts are brimming with Blue Lives Matter posts, and who boasted online about being an armed vigilante. The teen, who posted numerous photos in which he poses with guns, apparently heeded calls on social media encouraging armed militia members to travel to Kenosha to protect property from "evil thugs," and urging "patriots" to "shoot to kill."
The 17-year-old teen--the age to legally carry firearms in public in Wisconsin is 18--is seen in a video with other armed civilians violating Kenosha's 8:00 pm curfew. However, police challenged neither of these violations. Instead, officers in armored vehicles gave them water and told them that, "we appreciate you guys, we really do," while simultaneously ordering protesters to disperse and accusing them of "trespassing."
\u201cCell phone video shows Kenosha Wisconsin police officers in an military vehicle telling armed White militia members they "appreciate them being there" and giving them bottled water; while in the background cops can be heard ordering protestors to disperse.\u201d— Rebecca Kavanagh (@Rebecca Kavanagh) 1598429304
Cellphone video shows Rittenhouse running away after shooting three people, two of them fatally. "I've just killed someone," he says. Only one of the victims, 26-year-old Anthony Huber of Silver Lake, Wisc., has been identified as of Thursday morning.
Anthony Huber was the one to run up on the shooter last night and was shot in the chest and left to bleed out by the cops. He leaves behind his daughter and his girlfriend. His initial reaction was to try to protect others and he lost his life for that. Rest in power, comrade. pic.twitter.com/DD71cyYODq
-- Red Bait (@red_baiting) August 26, 2020
After the shooting, Rittenhouse walked toward police with his hands in the air, his rifle slung across his chest, as protesters shouted to the officers that the teen had just shot two people. The officers allowed Rittenhouse to pass unmolested. He was able to travel back to his hometown of Antioch, Illinois, some 20 miles (32 km) away, before finally being arrested the following day and subsequently charged with first-degree intentional homicide.
\u201cA member of the white supremacist #BoogalooBoys shot multiple protesters in #Kenosha. Although he had an AR15 he was not confronted by police or SWAT but ignored & allowed to walk out of the area. \n\n@KenoshaPolice shoot unarmed Black men but see armed white men as allies.\u201d— Bishop Talbert Swan (@Bishop Talbert Swan) 1598443697
Outraged observers took to Twitter and other social media to note the racist double standards and white privilege highlighted by the two shootings.
"Jacob Blake was shot several times in the back while walking away from police officers," tweeted Nathalie Baptiste, a reporter for Mother Jones. "Kyle Rittenhouse made it all the way home before being arrested. Law and order is only for certain people."
\u201cJacob Blake was shot several times in the back while walking away from police officers. Kyle Rittenhouse made it all the way home before being arrested. Law and order is only for certain people. https://t.co/uVqHSLX5lJ\u201d— Nathalie Baptiste (@Nathalie Baptiste) 1598478875
\u201cDon't you dare tell me there isn't racism in US law enforcement.\n\nUnarmed Jacob Blake, shot 7 times in the back for walking to his kids in his car\n\n17 year old, Kyle Rittenhouse holding AR-15 style gun after murdering protestors and the police look on\n\nhttps://t.co/JlwjRh1oOj\u201d— Dark Brandon (@Dark Brandon) 1598467737
Some compared the latest incidents to past police shootings of Black people and the treatment afforded to white shooters, including Dylann Roof, who massacred nine Black worshippers at a Charleston, South Carolina church in 2015.
\u201cThe Police gave Dylann Roof Burger King, and gave Kyle Rittenhouse water, and gave Jacob Blake seven shots in the back.\n\nOne of these guys is not like the others.\u201d— Alex Cole (@Alex Cole) 1598530747
\u201c12-year old Tamir Rice was playing with a toy gun and was killed by a cop. \n\nKyle Rittenhouse allegedly killed two people with an AR-15 and was allowed to walk right by the cops.\n\nRice was 12. Rittenhouse? He's 17.\u201d— Equally Divided (@Equally Divided) 1598455260
Others criticized media coverage of the incidents.
"A 17-year-old white supremacist domestic terrorist drove across state lines armed with an AR-15," tweeted Rep. Ayanna Presssley (D-Mass.). "He shot and killed 2 people who had assembled to affirm the value, dignity, and worth of Black lives. Fix your damn headlines."
\u201cA 17 year old white supremacist domestic terrorist drove across state lines, armed with an AR 15.\n\nHe shot and killed 2 people who had assembled to affirm the value, dignity, and worth of Black lives.\n\nFix your damn headlines.\u201d— Ayanna Pressley (@Ayanna Pressley) 1598488385
On Comedy Central's "The Daily Show," host Trevor Noah wondered "why some people get shot seven times in the back while other people are treated like human beings and reasoned with and taken into custody with no bullets in their bodies."
\u201c\u201cWhy was Jacob Blake seen as a deadly threat for a theoretical gun, while this gunman, who had already shot people, was arrested the next day and treated like a human being whose life matters?\u201d\n\nMore on the police shooting of Jacob Blake & protests in Kenosha:\u201d— The Daily Show (@The Daily Show) 1598495777
Meanwhile, Kenosha Police Chief Daniel Miskinis blamed Rittenhouse's victims for their own deaths because they were "out after curfew"--as was the shooter--while defending vigilantes' right to "exercise their constitutional rights."
\u201cKenosha Police Chief Miskinis responds to the murder of two protestors by saying it wouldn't have happened if people weren't out after curfew: "I'm not gonna make a great deal of it, BUT ..."\u201d— The Recount (@The Recount) 1598470243
As professional athletes and teams from numerous sports and leagues postponed games in protest of police killings of Blake, George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and others, right-wing media and sports personalities defended and even applauded Rittenhouse, while demonizing victims of police and white supremacist violence.Popular Fox News host Tucker Carlson said that Rittenhouse "had to maintain order," while disgraced former San Francisco Giants slugger Aubrey Huff, who has been disinvited from the team's 2010 World Series championship reunion over past racist and misogynistic comments, called the teen "a national treasure."
\u201c@aubrey_huff I\u2019m willing to bet that you have no moral superiority legs to stand on, dude.\u201d— Jeremy Danner (@Jeremy Danner) 1598547663
At the Republican National Convention, police brutality and the Kenosha killings went virtually unmentioned, while speakers heaped praise upon President Donald Trump for his tough "law and order" rhetoric. Trump, who has often been accused of courting and even inspiring white supremacists, has been conspicuously silent in the wake of the Kenosha shootings.
Some RNC speakers decried the looting and "mobs" in cities run by Democrats while ignoring police and racist violence.
"From Seattle to Portland to Washington and New York, Democrat-run cities across this country are being overrun by violent mobs," South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem said. "There's looting, chaos, destruction and murder."
Some commentators wondered what it would take for many white Americans to finally see the racism that so many others are protesting.
"The fundamental unfairness of [the Blake and Rittenhouse] tragedies in one Wisconsin city... should be enough for even the most stubborn of white Americans to understand why people are marching to assert and rightfully demand that Black lives matter," wroteChicago Tribune columnist Rex Huppke. "The clear-as-glass unfairness of it all should be enough."
But, he concludes, "it won't be."