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Milwaukee, WI — During one of the most volatile news cycles in recent memory, one story that has subsequently received a reduced amount of attention this week was a decision in Wisconsin by Kenosha County District Attorney Michael Graveley. It was announced late-Tuesday by Graveley that police officer Rusten Sheskey will not be charged with any wrongdoing in the shooting of Jacob Blake last August. So while we consider the future of Congress with the results of Georgia’s Senate election, and lament the turmoil we saw in our Capitol on Wednesday, and come to terms with the inevitability of a Joe Biden presidency beginning in two weeks, we can at least take some comfort in knowing that Graveley’s decision proves that — at least in this case — our justice system still works.
On the heels of the death of George Floyd last May and the mostly-peaceful protests (aka riots) that followed, came news of the shooting of Jacob Blake in the small city of Kenosha. Blake, a Black man, had been shot multiple times in the back by Sheskey, a white officer, resulting in Blake being hospitalized and ultimately rendered partially paralyzed. Additional riots ensued resulting in at least two deaths, and the National Guard had to be sent in to restore order. The Black Lives Matter movement was outraged by what they described as another example of racist police brutality, the Left and their media played along with BLM’s narrative, and prominent government and cultural figures throughout the country weighed-in on their disgust with the issue.
NBA star LeBron James, one of the wealthiest athletes in the world who doesn’t hesitate to cuddle up with the brutal communist government of China, explained “we are scared as Black people in America.” Then-Vice-Presidential candidate Kamala Harris went to the hospital to meet with Blake, and told Blake that she was “proud” of him. And New York Yankees Manager Aaron Boone actually began to cry when discussing the topic with reporters. The shooting of Jacob Blake was a travesty, they told us. It was another example of America’s deeply entrenched “systemic racism,” they insisted. The only problem with their storytelling was the actual facts of the case. For those who may be fuzzy about those facts from four months ago, such fogginess is understandable. Our mainstream media did everything they could to minimize the actual circumstances of Blake’s shooting and chose instead to focus on attributing it to their “America is bad” narrative in any way possible.
To refresh our memories, let’s revisit the circumstances of Blake’s shooting. A phone call had been made to Kenosha police by a frightened woman explaining “her boyfriend was present and was not supposed to be on the premises.” That boyfriend was Blake, and the woman who had called had attained a restraining order against Blake a few months earlier after Blake had “penetrated her digitally” without consent; Blake had allegedly sexually assaulted her. When police arrived at the scene, they tried to arrest him, but Blake resisted. Police then tased Blake twice in an effort to subdue him, but those attempts also failed.
As is plainly visible in the video that documented the arrest and has been widely-viewed, police then drew their guns and pointed them at Blake, and it’s clear they were shouting at him. Blake can be seen ignoring the police’s commands, and instead proceeded to walk to the driver’s-side door of his vehicle, opened the door, and then reached down toward the floor. It was at this point that Blake was shot by Sheskey. A few days after the incident, investigators revealed that they had recovered a knife on the floorboard of Blake’s vehicle, and Blake had indeed admitted to being in possession of the knife. Blake — an accused sex-offender who had violated a restraining order by going to the woman’s residence, had resisted arrested, and had somehow managed to shrug off the effects of twice being tased — was disobeying police and reaching for a knife. Yet the Left and their media told us the incident was the police’s fault and it was an unjust shooting. It wasn’t.
Part of Graveley’s announcement included the statement, “It is my decision now that no Kenosha law enforcement officer will be charged with any criminal offense based on the facts and laws,” and Graveley got it exactly right. What else can a police officer, or anyone else for that matter, be expected to do in that situation? The reaction of Officer Sheskey was not only appropriate, it was a textbook example of the how an officer should handle such a situation. There was no telling what Blake’s intentions were, and any other response from Sheskey would not only have been dangerous to him and his fellow officer, it could have been deadly. And for anyone arguing Sheskey should have shot Blake in the leg, or some other such nonsense, you know nothing about firearms or policing.
The responses regarding Blakeley’s announcement have been largely predictable. New York Daily News reporter Kristian Winfield reported that NBA Coach Steve Nash “says it’s ‘very upsetting’ that there are no formal charges brought forth against the officers that killed Jacob Blake.” Not only does Winfield incorrectly assume that we care about Steve Nash’s thoughts on the matter, he’s also apparently incapable of doing basic research to find out that Blake was not killed, only injured. There were other, unsurprising reactions from various celebrities, and there was of course a protest on Tuesday night in Kenosha that was genuinely peaceful, fortunately. Not the fantasy-type of peaceful protests that the media told us about during the riots last summer.
We should be thankful that there are still courageous public officials like D.A. Michael Graveley. The pressure from leftists on Graveley to prosecute Officer Sheskey had to be immense. There’s no telling the amount of threats he must have endured, but he ultimately arrived at the only just decision. If we are to have a justice system that functions properly, one that respects the rights of all individuals, then these are the type of brave actions we will need. Unfortunately, we should expect to see surges in crime in our large cities. The Left has been clamoring for their idiotic effort to “defund the police,” criminal penalties are being ignored, and bail for violent criminals is being waived in some cities. Such actions are a recipe for disaster, and we will need to support our police officers; and we should all applaud Tuesday’s decision in Kenosha.
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