ACLU: Kenosha County Sheriff, Police Chief Need to Resign

The calls for resignation come as the FBI joins the investigation and Kenosha Sheriff describes the two men shot and killed by a teenage militia member as “not too bad.” 

The American Civil Liberties Union is demanding the resignations of the Kenosha County sheriff and Kenosha police chief as activists continue to demand justice after a Kenosha cop shot Jacob Blake seven times in the back at point-blank range on Sunday and an armed militia member killed two protesters on Tuesday.

The national ACLU along with the organization’s Wisconsin chapter issued the statement on Thursday, just hours after a media briefing on the ongoing civil unrest in Kenosha in which officials offered no new information, refused to take questions, and altogether avoided mentioning the Blake shooting.

The press conference and demand for resignations also took place a day after the sheriff and police chief failed to take a hard stance against a self-described militia member accused of shooting and killing two protesters late Tuesday night and injuring another.

Kenosha County Sheriff David Beth, Police Chief Dan Miskinis, Mayor John Antaramian, and County Executive Jim Kreuser spent almost all of Thursday afternoon’s press conference praising locals who helped clean up after riots earlier this week and thanking law enforcement agencies that are sending officers to help local authorities. 

Beth glossed over the double murder Tuesday, saying the night “wasn’t too bad.”

“Last night was very peaceful. Tuesday night,” Beth said with a pause, “not quite so peaceful, but it wasn’t too bad. Monday night was our big night. Hopefully we’re over that hump of what we have to face.”

Kyle Rittenhouse, a 17-year-old self-described militia member from Antioch, Illinois, is accused of shooting three protesters, killing two, late Tuesday night on the third day of protests after the Blake shooting. Monday’s protests, the second day of demonstrations, were the most destructive, with looters and arsonists trashing the city’s uptown area.

Beth has not directly addressed the militia shooting. One of Beth’s deputies was caught on camera Tuesday night being chummy with the alleged vigilante killer shortly before the shooting.

In the video, the deputy gives Rittenhouse a bottle of water and tells Rittenhouse and another armed man, “We appreciate you guys, we really do.”

Other law enforcement officers were later filmed letting Rittenhouse—still carrying an AR-15 just seconds after allegedly shooting two people—walk right past them. It is unclear which agencies those officers were with. 

Beth defended the officers who let Rittenhouse walk past them. He said the officers likely had “tunnel vision.”

Rittenhouse wasn’t arrested until Wednesday in Illinois; prosecutors filed charges in Kenosha County late Thursday afternoon. 

Rittenhouse is charged with one count of first degree reckless homicide, one count of first degree intentional homicide, and one count of attempted first degree intentional homicide, along with two counts of recklessly endangering safety, and a count of possessing a dangerous weapon as a minor. He would face life in prison if convicted of intentional homicide.

Beth on Wednesday defended his deputy who gave Rittenhouse water but did not address the comments that law enforcement “appreciates” the militia.

“Our deputies would toss a water to anybody,” Beth said Wednesday. “If someone came walking past, I don’t care if they’re a protester or who they are.”

“Sheriff David Beth’s deputies not only fraternized with white supremacist counter-protesters on Tuesday, but allowed the shooter to leave as people yelled that he was the shooter,” the ACLU said in its statement.

For his part, Beth said Wednesday he does not want armed militias patrolling the streets because they “create confrontation,” sow fear and confusion, and create a liability for the Sheriff’s Department. He said a militia group wanted him to deputize them on Tuesday, but he declined.

“Oh, hell no,” Beth said. “Last night was probably the perfect reason why I wouldn’t.”

Miskinis briefly mentioned the vigilante killings Thursday but quickly moved on. He said, “We will build a strong case based upon the facts.”

On Wednesday, Miskinis appeared to put some blame for the militia shooting onto protesters, lumping them in with the shooter as people who violated the area’s 8 p.m. curfew, which has since been extended to 7 p.m.

“Persons who were out after the curfew became engaged in some type of disturbance, and persons were shot,” Miskinis said. “Everybody involved was out after the curfew.”

In the wake of the unrest, racist comments Beth made in 2018 have also resurfaced. Addressing five Black shoplifting suspects who allegedly led officers on a car chase, Beth embarked upon a two-minute rant in which he railed against political correctness and advocated for putting people who are “cancer to our society” in warehouses forever.

“Let’s put them in jail,” Beth said. “Let’s stop them, truly, at least some of these males going out and getting 10 other women pregnant and having small children.”

“These people have to be warehoused,” he later added. “No recreational time in the jails. We put them away.”

Beth issued a non-apology for those comments, saying he “should have kept my comments better directed toward the incident itself and not allowed my emotions to get the better of me at the time.”

ACLU of Wisconsin Executive Director Chris Ott said in a statement that the group “strongly condemns” Beth and Miskinis’ statements this week and Beth’s comments from 2018.

“Their actions uphold and defend white supremacy, while demonizing people who were murdered for exercising their first amendment rights and speaking out against police violence,” Ott said.

The ACLU says that if Miskinis refuses to resign, Antaramian should vocally support his firing by the city’s Police and Fire Commission, and that Gov. Tony Evers should remove Beth if he refuses to resign.

Wednesday’s press conference was the first since the Sunday police shooting and ensuing protests.

None of the local officials uttered Rittenhouse’s name in the past two days, nor have they identified the shooting victims. They have also not once said Blake’s name and have tiptoed around questions regarding the shooting.

Investigation goes federal

The US Department of Justice announced Wednesday evening that it opened a federal civil rights investigation into the Blake shooting. The state DOJ was already investigating the shooting, standard procedure when a police officer is involved in a shooting in Wisconsin. 

The Federal Bureau of Investigation, US Attorney’s Office, and the criminal section of the office’s Civil Rights Division, will “run parallel to, and share information with” the ongoing investigation by the Wisconsin DOJ. The departments asked for the public “to allow the investigation processes to develop all available evidence before rendering judgment.”

Wisconsin Attorney General Josh Kaul released preliminary details of the state’s investigation on Wednesday. 

Kaul said police first responded after a woman reported her boyfriend was at her residence and not supposed to be there. Officers tried arresting Blake and unsuccessfully tried tasing him. Blake then walked around his car, where three of his children were seated, and opened the front driver-side door. 

A white police officer, whom Kaul identified as Rusten Sheskey, followed Blake with his gun drawn. As Blake opened the door, Sheskey grabbed Blake’s shirt and shot him seven times in the back at point-blank range.

Blake survived but is paralyzed from the waist down.

“Shot in his back seven times in front of his children,” said civil rights icon the Rev. Jesse Jackson in a Thursday press conference in Kenosha. “No justification.” 

Kaul said Blake had a knife in his car but was unarmed when Sheskey shot him. There is no body-camera footage of the shooting because the Kenosha Police Department does not have body cams.

Sheskey has been an officer with the Kenosha Police Department for seven years. He and the two other officers on the scene have been placed on leave.

Police groups criticize Evers, Barnes

While the Kenosha officials are saying little about the shootings, statewide police and sheriffs organizations are asking the same of Evers and Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes. 

On Wednesday, four police and sheriffs organizations in Wisconsin sent Evers and Barnes a letter asking that “those in your administration discontinue and refrain from making statements and issuing press releases” related to the shooting in Kenosha that occurred Sunday. 

“Previous remarks and statements made by each of you are premature, judgmental, inflammatory, and only add to the anger and divisiveness of an already dangerous situation,” read the letter. 

The letter was sent by the presidents of the Wisconsin Badger State Sheriffs Association, Wisconsin Chiefs of Police Association, Wisconsin Sheriffs and Deputy Sheriffs Association, and the Wisconsin Police Executive Group. 

Within hours of Blake being shot, Evers voiced support for Blake and the Black Lives Matter movement in a press release. The statement took a unique position from comments made by previous governors when Black men have been shot in Wisconsin. It acknowledged that while all the facts are not yet known, there is a systemic problem. 

“We stand with all those who have and continue to demand justice, equity, and accountability for Black lives in our country,” Evers said in his statement. “And we stand against excessive use of force and immediate escalation when engaging with Black Wisconsinites.”

Asked about the police groups letter, Evers and Mandela again voiced support for Blake in a Thursday press conference.

“I see nothing wrong with stating the facts of this situation,” Evers said.

Jessica VanEgeren contributed to this report.