Michelle Obama says she is ‘just devastated’ by the Kenosha shootings – of Jacob Blake and of protesters by teenage gunman – as she urges people to ‘keep using your bullhorns and ballots’ to bring about change
- Michelle Obama tweeted on Friday that she was ‘exhausted and frustrated’ by the racial tensions in America
- She said she was devastated by Blake’s shooting by cops and by the deaths of two protesters shot by Kyle Rittenhouse, a 17 year old vigilante
- The former first lady urged her millions of followers to register to vote
- She said she saw ‘glimmers of something different’ in the protests
Michelle Obama said on Friday said she was ‘just devastated’ by the Kenosha shootings, both of unarmed black man Jacob Blake by cops and of protesters by a white teenage vigilante gunman, as she urged people to register to vote.
The former first lady tweeted a lengthy statement where she said there was still systemic racism across America and that sometimes it was seen ‘in the rose garden at the White House’.
She abhorred the violence in Kenosha and said she was ‘exhausted and frustrated’ by the state of the country.
‘I’m just devastated by the shootings in Kenosha. First, the seven shots from a police officer’s gun at Jacob Blake’s back as his children looked on. Then two two nights later, the bullets that killed two protesters, with a young man only 17 years old arrested and charged with homicide.
Michelle Obama, pictured speaking at the Democratic National Convention last week, tweeted about Kenohsa on Friday
‘These past few months, I’ve been thinking a lot about what our kids are seeing every day in this country – the lack of empathy, the division stoked in times of crisis, the age-old and systemic racism that’s been so prominent this summer. Sometimes they see it on the news. Sometimes they see it from the White House Rose Garden. And sometimes they see it from the back seat of a car,’ she said.
Michelle went onto say that while she was ‘exhausted and frustrated’, she saw ‘glimmers of something different’ in the protests that have erupted all over the country.
‘These protests and actions will not make Jacob Blake walk again. They will not erase the trauma from those children.
‘And they will not bring back anyone who’s been taken from us. But they will do something.
‘And they will not bring back anyone who’s been taken from us. But they will do something,’ she said.
She urged her millions of followers to use their votes to ensure change.
Blake was shot seven times in the back in front of his three children, three minutes after police first arrived at the scene.
They’d been called by his ex-girlfriend who complained that he shouldn’t have been there.
Jacob Blake was shot seven times in the back in front of his three kids despite being unarmed
Kyle Rittenhouse, 17, was patrolling the streets with an AR-15. He fell over, was hit with a skateboard by other protesters who tried to disarm him, and opened fire, wounding one person and killing two. He is now being held on murder charges
He survived but is now paralyzed from the waist down.
The shooting sparked riots in Kenosha which prompting self-styled militia men to take to the streets with their own weapons because they don’t trust the police to keep the city safe.
Among those vigilantes on Tuesday night was 17-year-old Kyle Rittenhouse, who’d come from his home in Antioch, Illinois, to patrol the streets with an illegal AR-15.
He tripped and fell while running in the street then was hit over the head by protester Anthony Huber, who had a skateboard and wanted to disarm him.
Rittenhouse, in response, opened fire and ended up killing Huber, one other person and injuring a third.
He was not arrested until the following day, despite approaching police with his hands in the air while other protesters yelled that he’d just shot multiple people.
Rittenhouse was arrested the following day. He is in custody in Illinois and faces extradition to Wisconsin later this month.
His lawyers say he was acting in self-defense