Kenosha Police Chief Daniel Miskinis gave a press conference on Wednesday in the wake of demonstrations and a fatal shooting in the Wisconsin city. As Daily Kos has covered, two people—whose names have not been released—were shot and killed while people demonstrated in response to Jacob Blake, an unarmed Black man, being shot by police. The officer who shot Blake has since been identified as white Kenosha Police Officer Rusten Sheskey, and Wisconsin officials have released their version of the events that led an officer to shoot and paralyze Blake.
During his Wednesday press conference, Chief Daniel Miskinis used his privilege and authority to essentially blame the protesters for being shot. Why? Because if they hadn't have been out past curfew on Tuesday—which the city set from 7 PM to 7 AM—this might not have happened. Mind you, the shooter was also out after curfew. But in short, yes: The police chief really did appear to blame the victims. Let’s break down what he said, as well as the clip, below.
Here is what Miskinis said, as featured in the clip below: “Persons who were out after the curfew became engaged in some type of disturbance, and persons were shot. Everybody involved was out after the curfew. I’m not going to make a great deal of that, but the point is the curfew is in place to protect. Had persons not been out involved in violation of that, perhaps the situation that unfolded would not have happened.” That victim-blaming is clearly disturbing in itself, but that’s not all going on in the language here.
First, here is that clip.
What else? Miskinis described the shooter as being “involved in the use of firearms to resolve whatever conflict was in place.” He also described the incident as a “disturbance that led to the use of deadly force.” This sounds an awful lot like the coded language used when law enforcement officers shoot and kill people—phrases like ‘officer-involved shooting,’ for example, which obscure the actions and accountability of the police.
The suspected shooter, Kyle Rittenhouse, a white 17-year-old from Antioch, Illinois, has been arrested and faces first-degree intentional homicide charges, as reported by Rolling Stone. According to social media accounts believed to belong to Rittenhouse, he supports Donald Trump and Blue Lives Matter. Relatedly, BuzzFeed News identified Rittenhouse as being right in the front of a Trump rally in Des Moines, Iowa, on Jan. 30. According to CNN, he was also once a member of a youth police cadet program in Illinois.
The American Civil Liberties Union of Wisconsin, as well as the National ACLU, are now calling for Miskinis’ resignation.
The clip of Miskinis' address has also been copied onto YouTube, which you can view below.
Update: As reported by The Chicago Sun Times, Blake’s father, also named Jacob Blake, says his son has been handcuffed to his hospital bed. According to the Sun Times, the Kenosha Police Department, as well as the county’s District Attorney’s Office did not yet respond to information requests on the arrest or charges at the time of writing.
