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Protesters Take to Streets Against Police Shooting Black Man in Kenosha

VOA News

   A rally, led by members of Jacob Blake's family to demand an end to
   police violence, began Saturday afternoon in the Midwestern U.S. city
   of Kenosha, Wisconsin, after a night of peaceful protests over the
   shooting of Blake, an African American man, by a white policeman.

   Blake's family and activists organized the rally as National Guard
   units stood by with orders to prevent the kind of unrest that erupted
   earlier in the week in response to the shooting.

   "We are heartbroken and enraged, but we are steadfast in our demand for
   justice," Tanya Mclean, a Blake family friend who helped organize the
   event, said in a statement. She said Blake's shooting was not an
   isolated incident.

   Blake, 29, was shot in the back seven times August 23 in front of
   witnesses, including Blake's young children, leaving him partially
   paralyzed and turning the predominately white city of 100,000 into the
   latest hot spot in a summer of nationwide protests against charges of
   police brutality and systemic racism.

   Investigators have said little about the shooting. But the city's
   police union said Blake had a knife and fought with officers even as
   two efforts to stun him with a Taser were unsuccessful.

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