Milwaukee: Late yesterday afternoon Kenosha County District Attorney Michael Graveley announced his decision not to criminally charge the police officer who shot Jacob Blake seven times in the back this summer.

Citizen Action of Wisconsin stands in solidarity with Jacob Blake, his family and friends, hundreds of thousands of protesters across the country fighting for racial justice, and every person who loves humanity and is demanding real action to address America’s structurally racist criminal justice system.

As the Wisconsin Examiner reported: “Michael Graveley said his role was only to make a narrow legal decision over whether there was probable cause that the officers committed a crime.” Gravely and many legal analysts point out that it is extremely difficult to prove that a police officer in a shooting did not act in self defense, whether or not it's true.

This means that the laws and legal precedents that have created the current self-defense standard have racist impact, as Black people continue to be shot and killed by law enforcement officers without legal consequences. This is a threat to the entire justice system, which cannot operate effectively when large segments of society justifiably do not have faith in its decisions.

Michelle Alexander’s penetratingly eloquent The New Jim Crow and Ibram X. Kendi’s brilliant pair of books Stamped from the Beginning and How to Be an Antiracist, call for every moral person to use their power to disrupt and unwind structural racism.

While DA Gravely may well be right that the case is unwinnable under current standards, this does not absolve him of moral responsibility. In the era of slavery and Jim Crow, heroic attorneys filed cases and DAs pressed charges that they knew would be shot down by a racist legal system. We should expect no less today.

Graveley’s decision also passes on responsibility to lawmakers, who have the power to create a legal system where black lives matter and everyone is truly equal under the law. But so far Wisconsin’s state leaders  have not proposed or pursued effective action up to the scale of the problem.

For Professor Kendi, one can’t meet his definition of antiracist without both recognizing the deep racism in our society and in each of us, and taking effective action to replace racist structures. For him the defining mark of antracism is effective deeds, not words or personal reflection. All those with substantial power such as our political leaders, corporate leaders, and at a lesser level of power nonprofit leaders, and every person with love in their hearts for all humanity must do more

Citizen Action asks every elected leader, and every person within the sound of our voice with influence over these leaders, to take meaningful steps to unwind the structural racism that made the murder of George Floyd and the shooting of Jacob Blake possible. Meanwhile, our thoughts and prayers are with Jacob Blake and his family.

Jacob Blake was shot seven times in the back and paralyzed by Kenosha police. Our laws fall miles short of adding up to a system of justice.

MADISON - The following is a statement from Democratic Party of Wisconsin chair Ben Wikler on the Kenosha County District Attorney’s office decision to pursue no charges in the police shooting of Kenosha resident Jacob Blake this August:

“The safety of every Wisconsinite, regardless of race, must be at the center of our laws, and violation of that safety must lead to accountability. This is not justice. Not for Jacob Blake, who was shot seven times in the back and paralyzed by Kenosha police. Not for his children, who will be forever traumatized by the violence they witnessed that day. And not for the Black community in Wisconsin, which has seen their lives systemically devalued at the hands of police for years without accountability. Today’s decision is yet another gut punch to those who have been organizing and protesting in defense of Black lives.

“Our justice system falls excruciatingly short of its promise of equal protection under the law for all Americans, and our laws fall miles short of adding up to a system of justice. Wisconsin, with some of the worst racial disparities in the nation, has incurred a particular debt to the Black community that continues to grow. If our laws do not prevent or address injustice, it is time to change them. We must fight for a just, equitable, and anti-racist Wisconsin. Black lives matter.”