Brussels Reporter
  • Home
  • Brussels
  • Europe
    • Europe

      ‘Europe not the cause of UK’s problems’, says…

      August 16, 2022August 17, 2022

      Europe

      Putin hits out at the US over Ukraine…

      August 16, 2022August 16, 2022

      Europe

      Italy election: Far-right leader Georgia Meloni rides wave…

      August 16, 2022August 16, 2022

      Europe

      Donald Trump: Prosecutors oppose release of ‘highly sensitive’…

      August 16, 2022August 16, 2022

      Europe

      Italy needs me: Berlusconi stages his comeback

      August 16, 2022

  • Globe
  • Lifestyle
  • Business

Brussels Reporter

  • Home
  • Brussels
  • Europe
    • Europe

      ‘Europe not the cause of UK’s problems’, says…

      August 16, 2022August 17, 2022

      Europe

      Putin hits out at the US over Ukraine…

      August 16, 2022August 16, 2022

      Europe

      Italy election: Far-right leader Georgia Meloni rides wave…

      August 16, 2022August 16, 2022

      Europe

      Donald Trump: Prosecutors oppose release of ‘highly sensitive’…

      August 16, 2022August 16, 2022

      Europe

      Italy needs me: Berlusconi stages his comeback

      August 16, 2022

  • Globe
  • Lifestyle
  • Business
Home Europe Trump visits Kenosha, Wisconsin, calls violence ‘domestic terrorism’
Europe

Trump visits Kenosha, Wisconsin, calls violence ‘domestic terrorism’

by editor September 2, 2020September 2, 2020
September 2, 2020September 2, 2020

US President Donald Trump stood at the epicentre of the latest eruption over racial injustice Tuesday and came down squarely on the side of law enforcement, blaming “domestic terror” for the violence in Kenosha, Wisconsin, and making no nod to the underlying cause of anger and protests — the shooting of yet another Black man by police.

Trump declared the violence “anti-American.” He did not mention Jacob Blake, who was left paralysed after being shot in the back seven times by an officer last week in Kenosha.

Soon after arriving in the city, a visit made over the objections of state and local leaders, Trump toured the charred remains of a block besieged by violence and fire.

With the scent of smoke still in the air, he spoke to the owners of a century-old store that had been destroyed and continued to link the violence to the Democrats, blaming those in charge of Kenosha and Wisconsin while raising apocalyptic warnings if their party should capture the White House.

“These are not acts of peaceful protest but, really, domestic terror,” said Trump. And he condemned Democratic officials for not immediately accepting his offer of federal enforcement assistance, claiming, “They just don’t want us to come.”

The city has been the scene of protests since the Aug. 23 shooting of Blake, who was shot as he tried to get into a car while police were trying to arrest him. Protests have been concentrated in a small area of Kenosha. While there were more than 30 fires set in the first three nights, the situation has calmed since then.

Trump’s motorcade passed throngs of demonstrators, some holding American flags in support of the president, others jeering while carrying signs that read Black Lives Matter. A massive police presence, complete with several armoured vehicles, secured the area, and barricades were set up along several of the city’s major thoroughfares to keep onlookers at a distance from the passing presidential vehicles.

Offering federal resources to help rebuild the city, Trump toured a high school that had been transformed into a heavily fortified law enforcement command post. He said he tried to call Blake’s mother but opted against it after the family asked that a lawyer listen in.

Trump later added he felt “terribly” for anyone who suffered a loss, but otherwise only noted that the situation was “complicated” and “under investigation.” The only words acknowledging the concerns of African Americans came from a pastor who attended Trump’s law enforcement roundtable.

Pressed by reporters, Trump repeatedly pivoted away from assessing any sort of structural racism in the nation or its police departments, instead blasting what he saw as anti-police rhetoric. Painting a dark portrait of parts of the nation he leads, the president predicted that chaos would descend on cities across America if voters elect Democrat Joe Biden to replace him in November.

Biden hit back, speaking to donors on a fundraising call after Trump left Kenosha.

“Donald Trump has failed to protect America. So now he’s trying to scare the hell out of America,” Biden said. “Violence isn’t a problem in Donald Trump’s eyes. It’s a political strategy.”

The election is playing out in “anxious times,” with “multiple crises,” Biden said. He included police violence in the list, along with the coronavirus pandemic and its economic fallout, and said Trump refuses to address any of them honestly.

Trump aides believe that his tough-on-crime stance will help him with voters and that the more the national discourse is about anything other than the coronavirus, the better it is for the president.

Biden said after Trump’s Wisconsin visit: “The vast majority of cops are honorable, decent and real. But the idea that he wouldn’t even acknowledge the problem — and white nationalists are raising their heads all across the country.”

Trump condemned unrest in Portland, Oregon, too, where a supporter was shot and killed recently — and an increase in shootings in cities including Chicago and New York — and tried to take credit for stopping the violence in Kenosha with the National Guard. But it was Wisconsin’s Democratic governor, Tony Evers, who deployed the Guard to quell demonstrations in response to the Blake shooting, and he had pleaded with Trump to stay away for fear of straining tensions further.

“I am concerned your presence will only hinder our healing,” Evers wrote in a letter to Trump. “I am concerned your presence will only delay our work to overcome division and move forward together.”

Biden has assailed Trump as an instigator of the deadly protests that have sprung up on his watch. On the eve of his visit, Trump defended a teenager accused of fatally shooting two men at a demonstration in Kenosha last week, though he did not mention the young man Tuesday.

Claiming the mantle of the “law and order” Republican candidate, Trump insists that he, not Biden, is the leader best positioned to keep Americans safe. He said his appearance in Kenosha would “increase enthusiasm” in Wisconsin, perhaps the most hotly contested battleground state in the presidential race.

Blake’s family held a Tuesday “community celebration” at a distance from Trump’s visit.

“We don’t need more pain and division from a president set on advancing his campaign at the expense of our city,” Justin Blake, an uncle, said in a statement. “We need justice and relief for our vibrant community.”

The NAACP said Tuesday neither candidate should visit the Wisconsin city as tension simmers. Biden’s team has considered a visit to Kenosha and had previously indicated that a trip to Wisconsin was imminent but has not offered details.

Protests in Kenosha began the night of Blake’s shooting, Aug. 23, and were concentrated in the blocks around the county courthouse downtown. There was an estimated $2 million in damage to city property, and Kenosha’s mayor has said he is seeking $30 million from the state to help rebuild.

Trump announced Tuesday that his administration was making $5 million available to the city and sending than $42 million to the state, with most of the funding aimed at bolstering law enforcement, he said.

The violence reached its peak the night of Aug. 25, two days after Blake was shot, when police said the 17-year-old armed with an illegal semi-automatic rifle shot and killed two protesters in the streets. Since then marches organised both by backers of police and Blake’s family have all been peaceful with no vandalism or destruction to public property.

Biden, all the while, has tried to refocus the race on what has been its defining theme — Trump’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic, which has left more than 180,000 Americans dead — after a multi-day onslaught by the president’s team to make the campaign about the violence rattling American cities.

Biden’s wife, Jill, on Tuesday kicked off a multi-week, 10-city tour of schools disrupted by the pandemic in eight battleground states, drawing a direct line from the empty classrooms to the administration’s failures combating COVID-19.

During her tour of a Wilmington, Delaware, school, she spoke with teachers and administrators about doubts that in-person learning will actually resume anytime soon and the challenges — including obtaining new small desks and protective equipment to make sure classrooms can handle social distancing — if they do. She said feelings about heading back to school “have turned from excitement into anxiety, and the playgrounds are still.”

Source link

previous post
The Nigerian drummer who set the beat for US civil rights
next post
Jacob Blake: Trump visits Kenosha to back police after shooting

Related Posts

Online youth art projects are promoting creativity and...

May 20, 2020

EU moves away from promise of post-Brexit trade...

December 7, 2019

Beef farmers are the new coal miners

June 19, 2020

How ‘Ukraine-washing’ became the new gambit for embattled...

May 5, 2022

Georgia set for more protests amid claims of...

November 2, 2020

Surviving Hijab: An interview with Manal Rostom

September 9, 2020

EU should stop speaking ‘broken English’ after Brexit,...

January 12, 2021

Omicron causes less severe disease, studies from Scotland,...

December 22, 2021

Commission to propose EU budget of €1.1T for...

May 27, 2020

Ukraine war: Satellite photos appear to contradict Russian...

April 5, 2022
Promotion Image

Recent Posts

  • ‘Europe not the cause of UK’s problems’, says UK PM frontrunner Liz Truss in leaked audio
  • Lebanese man who held bank staff hostage to access savings released
  • Putin hits out at the US over Ukraine and Taiwan
  • New Zealand: Human remains found in suitcase bought at auction
  • Kenya election result: William Ruto victory hailed amid result dispute
Promotion Image

GO!

Lifestyle

  • Scientists are using satellites to count elephants from space for the first time

  • France: Hospital workers demand more resources to fight COVID-19

  • Alexei Navalny: Millions watch jailed critic's 'Putin palace' film

  • Covid vaccine: WHO warns of ‘catastrophic moral failure’

  • Belgium looks good in white

Popular Posts

  • 1

    Kenya: Wildlife trafficking suspect seized after $1m reward

    August 3, 2022
  • 2

    Britney Spears says she won’t perform while under father conservatorship

    July 18, 2021
  • 3

    Author Salman Rushdie attacked on stage in New York

    August 12, 2022

Editor’s Choices

  • Sociopath ING or a blockchain of corruption from a well-known financial group

    May 24, 2021
  • Pfizer, AstraZeneca COVID jabs ‘highly effective’ against India variant, study shows

    May 23, 2021
  • G20 leaders at Rome summit pledge more vaccines for poorer countries

    May 21, 2021

Opinions

  • Italy needs me: Berlusconi stages his comeback

    August 16, 2022
  • Amnesty got it terribly wrong

    August 15, 2022
  • Europe on course for new wildfire record this year: EU monitor

    August 14, 2022

@2018-2021 - Brussels Reporter (www.brusselsreporter.com). All Right Reserved.