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Jacob Blake, protests, violence, national reaction
The WYP panel discusses the Jacob Blake shooting and subsequent protests, violence, and national reaction.
HOUSTON - This week's panel; Wayne Dolcefino, media consultant, Charles Blain, founder Urban Reform, Bill King, Houston businessman and columnist, Tomaro Bell, Super Neighborhood leader, Tony Diaz, host of Latino politics and News on KPFT join Greg Groogan to discuss the violence and the protests that occurred after the shooting of Jacob Blake in Wisconsin.
TEMPE, Ariz. (AP) -- A Republican student group at Arizona State University is receiving backlash for donating money to the 17-year-old gunman who fatally shot two protesters in Wisconsin. College Republicans United announced this week that half of any funds they raise during the semester will go toward paying for the legal defense of Kyle Rittenhouse.
"He does not deserve to have his entire life destroyed because of the actions of violent anarchists during a lawless riot," the group said in a tweet.
In a statement Saturday night, the ASU College Republicans denounced College Republicans United "radical, far-right extremist group."
ASU College Republicans called for an investigation of the group. Authorities in Kenosha, Wisconsin, say Rittenhouse shot and killed two people and severely wounded a third with an AR-15 rifle Tuesday. The victims were part of anti-racism demonstrations occurring in the wake of the shooting of Jacob Blake, who is Black, by a white police officer. Blake, who was shot seven times, remains hospitalized.
Rittenhouse told police he was trying to protect businesses and people and acted in self-defense. At a hearing Friday, a judge postponed a decision on whether Rittenhouse, who is in custody in Illinois, should be returned to Wisconsin to face charges, including first-degree intentional homicide. ASU officials said in a statement the school cannot prohibit a group from fundraising. But the school does not endorse the fundraiser. The group is not the only one raising money for Rittenhouse. A self-described Christian fundraising site, GiveSendGo, says it has raised more than $100,000 for his defense.
WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Donald Trump will travel to Kenosha, Wisconsin, on Tuesday, amid fury over the police shooting of Jacob Blake in the back, which left the 29-year-old Black man paralyzed.
White House spokesman Judd Deere told reporters aboard Air Force One on Saturday that Trump will be meeting with law enforcement officers and "surveying" some of the damage from recent protests that turned destructive.
The visit is certain to exacerbate tensions in the city, where a crowd of about 1,000 demonstrators gathered outside a courthouse Saturday to denounce police violence.
Trump has been running his reelection campaign on a law-and-order mantle, denouncing protesters as "thugs" while voicing his support for police.
In his acceptance speech during the virtual Republican National Convention, Trump painted the election in hyperbolic terms as a stark choice between peaceful streets and anarchy.
Trump's opponent for reelection, former Vice President Joe Biden, and his running mate, Kamala Harris, have accused Trump of rooting for violence amid unrest in Wisconsin.
"He views this as a political benefit," Biden said in an interview on MSNBC. "He's rooting for more violence, not less. And it's clear about that."
Kenosha Police Officer Rusten Sheskey and two other officers were responding to a domestic dispute call last Sunday when Sheskey shot Blake in the back seven times. Cellphone video captured the shooting, which has sparked new protests against racial injustice and police brutality months after George Floyd's death at the hands of a Minneapolis officer touched off a wider reckoning on race.