Rep. Brostoff Statement on Police Shooting of Jacob Blake

MILWAUKEE – In response to yesterday’s police shooting of Kenosha resident Jacob Blake, State Representative Jonathan Brostoff released the following statement:

“Seven times. Jacob Blake was shot seven times yesterday, by someone whose sworn duty was to protect. That officer shot Jacob Blake in front of HIS CHILDREN in broad daylight. A man who tried to be a good Samaritan, who tried to break up a fight between two of his fellow community members, was shot in his back by a police officer seven times.”

Yesterday in Kenosha, police shot Jacob Blake, a Black man, seven times at point-blank range as he attempted to enter his vehicle. Police had been called just after 5pm to the site of a fight between two community members, where bystanders say Jacob Blake had stopped to help defuse the situation between the two women involved. According to witnesses, officers attempted to use a Taser on Blake before he walked away towards the vehicle where his children were waiting for him, where he was shot by the officer as he attempted to enter the vehicle.

“Situations like this one happen with tragic regularity in our country, and prove that the time for talk is over: now is time for meaningful, substantive action. I am calling for immediate action on the following: body cameras on each and every police officer in the line of duty; an end to qualified immunity, and changing laws in order to hold officers personally liable for unwarranted lethal and near-lethal actions that they take; we must demilitarize police departments, end the 1033 program and ban ‘warrior’ training; and most especially, we need to shrink police budgets and reallocate that money to proven community alternatives. These changes are important steps forward and there are more we will need, but now is the time for action. How on Earth is it appropriate to have armed police respond to a non-violent verbal altercation, rather than unarmed professionals who are actually trained in de-escalation techniques? Again and again we see that this status quo doesn’t work, and hasn’t worked. It’s time to imagine and invest in non-violent alternatives.

I thank G-d that Jacob Blake is still alive, and I hope and pray that he is able to go home to his family soon. Black Lives Matter. Jacob Blake’s life matters. And for his sake, for his children’s sake, and for the sake of every single person who has ever faced or feared violence at the hands of the people we pay to supposedly keep us safe, we must begin to build a better future, now.”