Presidential candidate Joe Biden spoke out on Wednesday on the shooting of Jacob Blake in Kenosha, Wisconsin. Blake was shot by police in Wisconsin on Sunday, causing unrest in Kenosha.
Two officers from the incident have been placed on administrative leave. But protesters are calling for the officers to be fired and criminally charged for the shooting.
Biden confirmed that he has talked to the Blake Family about the shooting.
“What I saw on that video makes me sick,” Biden said. “Once again, a black man, Jacob Blake, been shot by the police in the broad daylight, the whole world watching”
Biden said he told the Blake Family that “justice must and will be done.”
While Biden applauded the protests, he decried the violence surrounding the protests. The violence culminated on Tuesday in the fatal shooting of two people. Police in Illinois arrested a 17-year-old in connection to the shootings.
“As I said after George Floyd's murder, protesting brutality is a right and absolutely necessary, but burning down communities is not protest,” Biden said. “It's needless violence. Violence that endangers lives, violence that guts businesses and shutters businesses that serve the community. That's wrong. In the midst of this pain, the wisest words that I've heard spoken so far have come from Julia Jackson, Jacob's mother. She looked at the damage done in her community and she said this, quote ‘This doesn't reflect my son or my family. So let's unite, and heal, do justice, end the violence, and systemic racism in this country now.’"
Protests were expected to continue in Kenosha on Wednesday. President Donald Trump said that the state’s governor had accepted help from the National Guard, but the state’s governor, Democrat Tony Evers, said that he had not agreed to National Guard assistance, but would welcome federal assistance in a support role.
