Anti-racism protesters rally in Kenosha as Trump plans visit

US President Donald Trump will visit Kenosha, Wisconsin, which has been the scene of mass protests over police brutality against African Americans.

Last Sunday, Jacob Blake Jr. was shot by an officer in Kenosha sparking fresh racial tensions across the country. The black man was shot in the back seven times in front of three of his children.

At least one of the bullets went through his spinal cord, leaving him paralyzed from the waist down - possibly permanently, the lawyers said Tuesday.

On Saturday, Trump announced plans to visit the violence-rocked city next week as about 1,000 people joined a mile-long march there, chanting “Black Lives Matter” and “No Justice, No Peace.”

“We are tired,” said Darius Johnson, 27, of Milwaukee. “There is no excuse for this kind of racism. It could have been any one of us, my brother, my sister. It needs to stop.”

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Trump, who has taken a hardline stance against the protests, is slated to visit Kenosha on Tuesday to meet law enforcement officials and assess damage caused during demonstrations, according to a White House official.

When asked if the president would meet with the family of Blake, White House spokesman Judd Deere said the schedule has not been fully ironed out yet.

“The thing I’d like to tell Mr. President is that Black Lives Matter members are not the thugs, not the looters,” said Clyde McLemore, founder of a BLM chapter just outside of Kenosha. “He’s blaming us, and that’s not the way it is.”

During protests on Tuesday, two demonstrators were killed by a white right-wing teenager.

The alleged gunman Kyle Rittenhouse, 17, has been charged with one count of first-degree intentional homicide, one count of first-degree reckless homicide, one count of attempted first-degree intentional homicide, and two counts of first-degree reckless endangerment.

Rittenhouse's lawyer, Lin Wood, has claimed the shooting was made in self-defense.

Meanwhile, the commander of the National Guard said Friday that more than 1,000 Guard members had been deployed to Kenosha to crack down on the protesters. He added that more troops were on the way.

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Trump, who has labelled anti-racism protesters opposed to police brutality as “anarchists and agitators,” has lauded the agents' harsh clampdown of protesters.

Just three months ago, George Floyd, another black man, was killed by a Minneapolis police who knelt for 9 minutes on the victim's neck while his hands had been handcuffed from behind.

Meanwhile, in Portland, Oregon, which has been the site of nightly protests since Floyd's death, one person was shot and killed late Saturday as a large caravan of Trump supporters and Black Lives Matter protesters clashed in the streets.

“Portland Police officers heard sounds of gunfire from the area of Southeast 3rd Avenue and Southwest Alder Street. They responded and located a victim with a gunshot wound to the chest. Medical responded and determined that the victim was deceased,” the Portland Police Bureau said in a statement.

There were sporadic fighting with Trump supporters firing paintball pellets at opponents, using bear spray as counter-protesters hurled things at the Trump caravan.

“There have been some instances of violence between demonstrators and counterdemonstrators,” Portland Police said via Twitter. “Officers have intervened and in some cases made arrests.”

Gareth Porter, an investigative historian and journalist on the national security state, said on Twitter that "we are on the cusp of a serious civil war very soon."

Given reactions from many right-wing extremists to the events in Kenosha calling for using arms against those whom they see as insurrectionaries, I'm now afraid we are on the cusp of a serious civil war very soon. Is that too pessimistic? If not, what are likely consequences?

— Gareth Porter (@GarethPorter) August 29, 2020

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