Jacob Blake protests: White diners called on to show solidarity

Days after another apparently unjustified police shooting, furious protesters have escalated their calls for action from white Americans.

Furious protesters who have spent days demonstrating across the US after an African American man was repeatedly shot by police have called on white people to show solidarity.

Demonstrators in Washington DC repeatedly confronted people sitting outside restaurants and bars and demanded they raise their fist in solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement.

The nationwide protests continue after it was revealed Jacob Blake, shot several times in the back by police on Sunday, may be permanently paralysed after the bullets severed his spinal cord and shattered vertebrae.

Mr Blake is the latest African American victim of what protesters say is yet another unjustified police shooting.

In one video, taken by a Washington Post reporter, a white protester asks a woman “are you a Christian?” after the seated diner refuses to raise her hand.

The woman, identified as Lauren Victor, later said she didn’t raise her fist because “I felt I was under attack”.

“In the moment, it didn’t feel right,” Ms Victor told the Washington Post.

“I wasn’t actually frightened. I didn’t think they’d do anything to me...I’m very much with them. I’ve been marching with them for weeks and weeks and weeks.”

1) In a scene that played out several times Monday, a Black Lives Matter protest that began in Columbia Heights confronted White diners outside D.C. restaurants,  chanting “White silence is violence!” and demanding White diners show their solidarity. #DCProtests pic.twitter.com/fJbPM76vb0

— Fredrick Kunkle WaPo (@KunkleFredrick) August 25, 2020

In another video taken in the US capital, protesters were filmed giving the rude finger to a group of white diners.

When one of the diners throws his hands up and walks away, a protester yells after him.

“This guy is bothered by cameras in his face...are you a racist that doesn’t want to be exposed? Because I can take care of that.”

One of the man’s friends tries to reason with the protester and says “he goes through anxiety”.

Protesters confront diners, demanding a show of support and accusing them of “White privilege.” The diners, who tried to say they had been marching in previous demonstrations and worked for causes on behalf of Black people, declined to comment afterward about the confrontation pic.twitter.com/u3ESBtHuc0

— Fredrick Kunkle WaPo (@KunkleFredrick) August 25, 2020

POLICE SHOOTING VICTIM MAY NEVER WALK AGAIN

Jacob Blake, 29, continues to fight for his life in hospital after he was repeatedly shot on Sunday while trying to check his children were OK.

Mr Blake was shot in Kenosha in the US state of Wisconsin as he walked away from police and tried to get in his car, where his three sons were sitting in the back seat.

He had been trying to break up a domestic dispute on the street when police officers arrived.

Mr Blake has been undergoing surgery to repair the nerve damage but at the moment is paralysed from the waist down.

His condition was confirmed by prominent civil rights lawyer Ben Crump, who is representing the family.

Confirmed: Jacob Blake currently paralyzed from the waist down. Praying it's not permanent. #JusticeForJacobBlake

— Ben Crump (@AttorneyCrump) August 25, 2020

“He hasn’t woken up yet but they’re saying it’s a 50/50 chance he’ll walk away,” Herman Poster, Mr Blake’s cousin, told the Daily Beast.

Mr Crump also said the shooting hadn’t been caught on police body cameras – because the officers weren’t due to receive them until 2022.

“Kenosha City Council passed an ordinance in 2017 requiring all officers wear body cams. But they never bought them. They‘re in the budget … in 2022,” Mr Crump said.

“If it weren’t for a neighbour’s video, the police shooting of Jacob Blake would’ve vanished and no officers would be held accountable.”

Jacob Blake with his children.

Mr Blake’s shooting triggered furious demonstrations across Kenosha and around the US as protesters ignored citywide curfews and stayed out all night chanting “no justice, no peace”.

Parts of Kenosha were set on fire and destroyed as protesters were again questioning why another African American man was involved in an allegedly unjustified police shooting.

Mr Blake’s father, also named Jacob, questioned why his son had been shot seven times.

“What justified all those shots? What justified doing that in front of my grandsons? What are we doing?” he told the Chicago Sun Times.

Police wearing military-type gear have been out in force this week, firing tear gas at hundreds of protesters who shot fireworks and lobbed water bottles at the police.

Sheriff officers guard the Kenosha County Courthouse. Picture: Brandon Bell/Getty Images/AFP

A police armoured vehicle patrols an intersection in Kenosha. Picture: Brandon Bell/Getty Images/AFP

Firefighters continue to douse fires late into the morning following another night of unrest on August 25. Picture: Scott Olson/Getty Images/AFP

The footage of Mr Blake’s shooting and the lack of immediate explanation provoked painful memories of the police killing of African-American George Floyd on May 25 in Minneapolis, which led to protests spreading in the US and abroad.

As the two officers involved were placed on administrative leave, Wisconsin authorities launched a probe into the shooting.

Mr Crump, who also represents the families of George Floyd and other black victims of police mistreatment, said Mr Blake’s family had been able to visit him in the hospital.

“They are relieved that he is in stable condition,” Mr Crump told ABC’s Good Morning America show.

“However he is still in intensive care and he is still facing more surgeries in the future,” he said.

Mr Crump said it was thought that Blake was hit by four of the seven shots fired by one of the two officers.

He said he had no indication or witness accounts that Blake was armed or had an altercation with the police.

“He was walking away. He wasn’t posing a threat to them,” Mr Crump said.

The shooting in Kenosha, Wisconsin. Picture: Twitter

– With AFP