Aug. 25 (UPI) -- A second night of protests was marred by violence and fires, in Kenosha, Wis., in the wake of the police shooting of a Black man in front of his children.
Cellphone video shows Jacob Blake, 29, was shot in the back several times Sunday. His father told the Chicago Sun Times his son is paralyzed from the waist down; doctors don't yet know if the condition is permanent.Late Monday and early Tuesday, a group of rioters set fire to several Kenosha businesses and some looters made off with merchandise. They set one fire at the Community Corrections Building and vandals targeted vehicles and street lights.
Kenosha is about 30 miles south of downtown Milwaukee.
Authorities arrested at least two people while investigating a fire at a library, officials said, and National Guard troops helped patrol the city Monday night.
Hundreds of protesters filled the streets of Kenosha some two hours past curfew. Some tossed fireworks into a line of police officers at a courthouse, which drew smoke bombs and flash-bang grenades in response. A garbage truck burst into flames after a rioter tossed an incendiary device.
A protest in Madison, Wis., on Monday night was mostly peaceful, although some demonstrators set fire to at least three trash bins.
Hundreds of activists who'd gathered at the Wisconsin Capitol on Monday afternoon marched down State Street and remained in the area until nightfall.
New York City, Minneapolis and Portland, Ore., were also sites of large gatherings on Monday to oppose the Blake shooting. The police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis in May touched off global demonstrations opposing police brutality and racism.
"It hurts to see another Black person get shot in the way Jacob was shot," Jaylani Hussein, executive director of the Minnesota chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, said at the Minneapolis protest. "I kept looking at the gun. I kept looking at this police officer. He knew exactly what he was doing.
"[The officer] had been trained to pull that gun out and he saw Jacob as a threat, a man who was walking away, a man who was going inside his car with his children inside."
