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A28 u.s. news
Dialuna 11 OctOber 2021

Feds won’t seek charges against cop in Jacob Blake shooting

tigation days after the shoot- key could successfully argue porters flooded downtown
ing. The agency announced that he fired in self-defense. Kenosha for several nights,
Friday that a team of pros- with some demonstrators
ecutors from its Civil Rights Sheskey and other officers setting fire to buildings and
Division and the U.S. attor- encountered Blake after they cars. Gov. Tony Evers was
ney’s office in Milwaukee responded to a call from a forced to call in the National
reviewed police reports, wit- woman who reported that Guard.
ness statements, dispatch logs her boyfriend wasn’t sup-
and videos of the incident, posed to be at her home. Kyle Rittenhouse, of Antioch,
and determined there wasn’t When they arrived at the Illinois, answered a local mi-
enough evidence to prove scene the woman told them litia’s call to protect Keno-
Sheskey willfully used exces- that Blake was trying to her sha businesses from looters
sive force or violated Blake’s kids and her SUV. and vandals during the third
federal rights. night of protests. He ended
Blake fought the officers as up shooting Joseph Rosen-
“Accordingly, the review of they tried to take him into baum, Anthony Huber and
this incident has been closed custody. Sheskey and anoth- Gaige Grosskreutz, killing
without a federal prosecu- er officer tried to shock him Rosenbaum and Huber and
tion,” the Justice Department with their stun guns to no wounding Grosskreutz in the
said in a news release. avail. Blake tried to get into arm. All four men involved
the SUV with his young chil- were white.
Blake’s uncle, Justin Blake, dren in the backseat, prompt-
called the decision “uncon- ing Sheskey to grab his shirt. Prosecutors have charged
scionable” and said it “defi- Sheskey told investigators Rittenhouse with multiple
(AP) — Federal prosecu- and sparked several nights nitely steps on every civil that he was afraid Blake counts, including homicide.
tors announced Friday of protests, some of which right we can imagine this would drive off with the chil- He has argued that he fired
that they won’t file charg- turned violent. An Illinois country owes every African dren or use them as hostages. in self-defense after the three
es against a white police man shot three people, kill- American descendant.” men attacked him. He’s set to
officer who shot Jacob ing two of them, during one Graveley said video shows stand trial next month.
Blake in Wisconsin last of the demonstrations. “If we had a heart to be bro- Blake turning toward Shes-
year — a shooting that ken, it would be,” he said. key with a knife and made Conservatives frustrated with
sparked protests that led State prosecutors decided not “But because we’ve been a motion toward the officer Black Lives Matter protests
to the deaths of two men. to file charges against Shes- through all we’ve been, we’re with the knife, prompting have rallied around Ritten-
key earlier this year after vid- not.” Sheskey to fire. house. They raised $2 mil-
Officer Rusten Sheskey shot eo showed that Blake, who lion to cover his bail. Black
Blake, who is Black, dur- was wanted on a felony war- The Justice Department’s The shooting came three Lives Matter supporters have
ing a domestic disturbance rant, was armed with a knife. findings dovetail with Keno- months after George Floyd painted him as a trigger-hap-
in Kenosha in August 2020. sha County District Attorney died while white Minneapo- py vigilante who made things
The shooting left Blake para- The U.S. Department of Jus- Michael Graveley’s determi- lis police officers restrained worse in Kenosha by bring-
lyzed from the waist down tice launched its own inves- nation in January that Shes- him. Black Lives Matter sup- ing a gun to the protests.

New ethics board thrust into Kristi Noem inquiry

(AP) — The four retired judges Noem’s use of state airplanes broke ment, have the ability to say there’s
who make up South Dakota’s the law; the other is concerns about “This will be a real test of this new nothing here, or we should have a
Government Accountability whether the governor interfered in a board, one we did not expect, but cer- closer look,” said Mark Mickelson,
Board usually meet just a hand- state agency that was evaluating her tainly appropriate,” said Karen Soli, who as House Speaker in 2017 helped
ful of times a year, almost entirely daughter’s application for a real estate the former Democratic lawmaker push the board proposal through the
unnoticed by the public, and have appraiser license. who spearheaded the effort to create Republican-dominated Legislature.
never advanced a complaint to a the board.
public hearing. Noem, who is positioned for a If any board members recuse them-
White House bid in 2024, has denied WHY WAS THE BOARD CRE- selves, Noem would name a replace-
They’re now preparing for the high- wrongdoing and dismissed the cases ATED? ment. Governor’s spokesman Jordan
profile task of weighing whether Gov. as political attacks. Soli proposed the board in 2017 and Overturf said, “we can’t comment on
Kristi Noem twice abused the power got eager support from Republican hypotheticals,” when asked how the
of her office. Concern from both Republican and lawmakers, who were under pres- governor would handle that.
Democratic state lawmakers has sure from voters after repealing a
The board is barely 4 years old, cre- grown in the wake of an Associated voter-passed law that overhauled eth-
ated by the Legislature after public Press report that the governor held a ics laws. The push for ethics reform
pressure for ethics reforms in state meeting with both her daughter and came after a series of state govern-
government. It has met a total of 17 the director of a state agency that had ment scandals, Soli said, including
times, dismissing most complaints moved to deny her daughter’s appli- one that culminated in 2015 with a
without a public hearing on the cation for an appraiser certification. couple dying in a murder-suicide af-
grounds that they fell outside its spe- ter stealing hundreds of thousands of
cific purpose to “review and investi- WHAT CAN THE BOARD DO? dollars from government programs.
gate allegations of misconduct” by of- It has broad powers. It can dismiss an
ficials holding a statewide office or by ethics complaint in a private confer- The board is bipartisan. Noem ap-
executive branch employees. ence without even naming who the pointed one of its members — for-
complaint was against. If it decides mer Supreme Court Chief Justice
WHAT ARE THE ALLEGA- to proceed with an inquiry, it can David Gilbertson. For many years,
TIONS AGAINST NOEM? subpoena evidence and witnesses or Gilbertson was a registered Demo-
Attorney General Jason Ravnsborg even request the Division of Crimi- crat, but he told the AP last year that
— a Republican like Noem, but no nal Investigation to launch a probe. If he had switched his party affiliation
ally of the governor’s — referred two it finds violations, the board can take to independent.
matters to the board. The first is a re- a wide range of actions, from issu-
quest from a Democratic lawmaker ing private reprimands to requiring “It’s comprised of folks who would
for an investigation into whether coursework or community service. have the ability to have good judg-