Ailing Kenosha on edge as Trump visit looms amid tensions

KENOSHA, Wis. — Some res­i­dents in Kenosha fear a planned vis­it by Pres­i­dent Don­ald Trump after unrest over the police shoot­ing of Jacob Blake may stir more emo­tions and cause more vio­lence and destruc­tion in the divid­ed south­east­ern Wis­con­sin city after sev­er­al days of peace.

Trump was sched­uled to tour the dam­age Tues­day and meet with law enforce­ment as demon­stra­tors call for the offi­cer who shot Blake to be fired and face attempt­ed mur­der charges. Trump’s vis­it comes a week after author­i­ties say a 17-year-old from north­ern Illi­nois shot and killed two protesters.

The ten­sion began Aug. 23 after a video showed a Kenosha police offi­cer shoot­ing Blake, a Black man, in the back while respond­ing to a call about a domes­tic dis­pute. All last week, Black Lives Mat­ter pro­test­ers held events to call for changes to polic­ing, and Demo­c­ra­t­ic Gov. Tony Evers called a spe­cial ses­sion of the Leg­is­la­ture for Mon­day to take up a host of police reform mea­sures. But Repub­li­cans don’t plan to take imme­di­ate action.

Vol­un­teers and busi­ness­es on Sun­day worked to clean up from fires and van­dal­ism that destroyed build­ings and prompt­ed sur­viv­ing restau­rants, gro­cery stores, and bar­ber­shops to board up.

Kenosha police said Sun­day that they had arrest­ed 175 peo­ple since the protests began in the bed­room com­mu­ni­ty between Chica­go and Mil­wau­kee. Of those, 102 were from out­side Kenosha, includ­ing 44 dif­fer­ent cities. Many arrests were for cur­few vio­la­tions, and includ­ed pos­si­ble charges for bur­glary, pos­ses­sion of ille­gal drugs and car­ry­ing con­cealed weapons with­out a per­mit, offi­cials said. More than 20 firearms had been seized.

Fam­i­ly mem­bers say Blake, 29, is par­a­lyzed, and a lawyer said most of his colon and small intestines were removed. His fam­i­ly led a large peace­ful protest Sat­ur­day, just before Trump announced his plans to vis­it. On Sun­day, Evers sent Trump a let­ter urg­ing him not to come, say­ing the vis­it “will only delay our work to over­come divi­sion and move for­ward together.”

But Kenosha Coun­ty Board super­vi­sors also wrote to Trump, urg­ing him not to cancel.

“Kenoshans are hurt­ing and look­ing for lead­er­ship, and your lead­er­ship in this time of cri­sis is great­ly appre­ci­at­ed by those dev­as­tat­ed by the vio­lence in Kenosha,” the let­ter from sev­en super­vi­sors said.

Trump showed no signs of back­ing down, tweet­ing about the unrest in Kenosha and say­ing, ” I will see you on Tuesday!”

Diana Kreye, a 60-year-old res­i­dent of near­by Brighton, said Trump is exploit­ing the conflict.

“I don’t like that this has all become polit­i­cal,” said Kreye, an unde­cid­ed vot­er. “Let the city heal. Now is not the time for a pho­to op.”

Angel Tira­do, 42, how­ev­er, thinks Trump’s vis­it could help. “I hope he says some­thing that can calm us all down,” said Tira­do. “Maybe he’ll bring us together.”

Oth­ers doubt the pres­i­dent had any inten­tion of clos­ing divi­sions and point­ed to his recent tweets and his­to­ry of mak­ing racist comments.

“He’s not com­ing down here to heal,” said David Sanchez, 66, a retiree and Kenosha res­i­dent who expects thou­sands of peo­ple to show up to protest Trump. “He’s com­ing to Kenosha to start more trou­ble. I don’t care what he says.”

“He has done noth­ing over the last three years to bring peo­ple togeth­er,” said Ray­mond Roberts, 38, a data sci­en­tist and Afghanistan War vet­er­an. “This is a bell­wether coun­ty in a bell­wether state. It’s all about his reelection.”

Trump has through­out the sum­mer sought to cast U.S. cities as under siege by vio­lence and law­less­ness, despite the fact that most of the demon­stra­tions against racial injus­tice have been peaceful.

Still, Trump is like­ly to find some sup­port in a coun­ty he won in 2016 by few­er than 250 votes.

On Sun­day, a group of about 100 police sup­port­ers gath­ered down­town for a “back the blue” ral­ly. That was a frac­tion of the size of a Sat­ur­day protest against police vio­lence that attract­ed about 1,000 people.

Also Sun­day, some Trump sup­port­ers walked by burned build­ings and shout­ed that the Black Lives Mat­ter move­ment was a “ter­ror­ist organization.”

Oscar Esco­bar, 41, a Kenosha res­i­dent who owns a mov­ing com­pa­ny and co-owns a bar and grill, said he doesn’t align with either Democ­rats or Repub­li­cans. He said it’s good that Trump plans to visit.

“I think it’s a great thing for him to show that he cares about what’s hap­pen­ing here in Kenosha and not turn­ing his back on us and just leav­ing us alone,” Esco­bar said.

___

AP reporters Jen­nifer Peltz in Kenosha, Wis­con­sin, and Scott Bauer in Madi­son, Wis­con­sin, contributed.

___

Asso­ci­at­ed Press writer Rus­sell Con­tr­eras is a mem­ber of the AP’s Race and Eth­nic­i­ty Team. Fol­low Con­tr­eras on Twit­ter at http://twitter.com/russcontreras

(Vis­it­ed 1 times, 1 vis­its today)



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