Hacker News Reader

Comment by drew-y | Hacker News Reader

> BLM Riots

This is a harmful characterization of an important movement. No protests on that scale are going to go without a hitch. That shouldn't minimize their importance.

> Researchers at the US Crisis Monitor analyzed over 10,600 nationwide protests between May 24 (the day before George Floyd was killed by police) and Aug. 22, and found that nearly 95 percent were peaceful [1]

Jacob Blake was shot seven times in the back children while his children watched. He was unarmed. Even if the alleged sexual assault charges are found to be true, this is not how justice should be carried out.

Also. He is charged with sexual assault and trespassing. I can't find any source that he's been charged with robbery. These are serious charges. But it should be up to the courts to determine his guilt. Not the police or the court of public opinion.

1. https://mashable.com/article/black-lives-matter-protests-pea...

View on HN

>He was unarmed

He was armed, and he admitted to it, and it is documented in the DOJ statement.

Please don't speak facts.

Can someone actually point to those "facts" y'all claim to have? Because I'm the only one actually citing sources right now.

Google search "blake knife screenshot"

Can you provide a source for this? The best I can find is that he had a knife on the floor of the truck. But was otherwise unarmed. This is consistent across all the main sources I've checked.

1. https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/factcheck/2020/08/28/fac... 2. https://en.as.com/en/2020/08/25/latest_news/1598382234_23093... 3. https://www.jsonline.com/story/news/local/2020/08/26/jacob-b...

https://www.doj.state.wi.us/news-releases/update-kenosha-off...

5th paragraph

>Mr. Blake admitted that he had a knife in his possession.

From the USA Today article in regards to the paragraph:

> The DOJ has not clarified whether the knife was on the floorboard throughout the confrontation, or if Blake may have held it at some point. Spokeswoman Gillian Drummond declined to answer that question when asked by USA TODAY on Aug. 27.

We can discuss what kind of armed he was, but the fact that he was armed is not controversial, and that it the one and only point I am making.

I'm also making it in good faith, because it's entirely possible that all of the bad reporting on it would lead someone to believe that he was unarmed. That's the only reason for any of these replies.

That’s just it. I don’t think it can be stated that he was armed at this point. We know a knife was in the car. That’s about it.

Personally, I wouldn’t consider him to be armed unless he was actively brandishing it. Which the USA Today article says he was not.

Regardless. They shot a man in the back seven times while his children watched. The standard for that kind of force should be much, much higher than “he may or may not have had a knife in his possession”.

He was armed. That is not in dispute. See [here](https://www.ctvnews.ca/world/kenosha-police-union-gives-its-...). You could also see the knife in his hands in the video and hear the officers tell him to drop the knife.

The fact that you thought otherwise illustrates the problem precisely. Social and traditional media companies had no issue allowing this misconception to spread unfettered because aligned with their political beliefs.

so >500 riots then?

No.

> When destructive protests by demonstrators did take place, the "victims" were often statues of slave owners, Confederate leaders, and colonial figures.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com