Aug. 29, 2020 5:40p
(WGTD)---Jacob Blake, Sr. was among those who addressed a large rally in the park across the street from the Kenosha Courthouse Saturday to demand justice and end racism and police brutality.
Hundreds of people marched east on 52nd St. from 13th Ave., to Sheridan and then south to Civic Center Park, moslty filling it.
"What gave them the right to attempted murder my child? What gave them the right to think that my son was an animal," Blake said.
The younger Blake remains in the hospital, paralyzed from the waist down, after being shot seven times by Kenosha police who were responded to a domestic violence call Sunday night.
"I know there are a lot of parents in this crowd. You can't imagine what it feels like to look at your baby paralyzed from the waist down, and shackled!," he said. The 29-year-old Blake had been handcuffed to his bed up until yesterday when bond was posted and a warrant dropped on charges associated with a domestic violence incident from a couple of months ago.
Blake called for an end to double standards in the criminal justice system. "I'm tired of this," he said, urging protesters to keep protesting. "We're not going to stop."
Speakers also included U.S. Rep. Gwen Moore, Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes and Tim Mahone, Chairman of Kenosha's Mahone Fund.
"We are a community of immigrants--Blacks, Italians, Polish and Germans--are working together to make this a better community. We all worked together," Mahone said before pausing for a few seconds. "But seven bullets later we recognized just how little progress we've made in this community. Seven bullets later we recognized that Dr. King's dream is just a dream--a dream unfulfilled, a reality unrealized," Mahone said.
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