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by Causes | 9.1.20

President Trump visited Kenosha, WI, to meet with law enforcement amidst demonstrations calling for police reform after the shooting of Jacob Blake.

Kenosha has faced widespread protests and unrest since Jacob Blake, who is Black, was shot in the back seven times by Kenosha police in front of three of his children on Aug. 23.

Two nights later, Illinois teenager Kyle Rittenhouse shot and killed two protesters and injured a third.

Asked about systemic racism during his Kenosha visit, Trump said:

\"You just keep getting back to the opposite subject. We should talk about the kind of violence that we've seen in Portland [Oregon] and here [in Kenosha] and other places, it's tremendous violence.\"

Trump dismissed the notion that police brutality was systemic, blaming \"some bad apples.\" He added that police officers \"choke sometimes\" because they are under \"tremendous pressure.\"

On the eve of his visit to Kenosha, Trump defended Rittenhouse's actions, saying it appeared to him that the teen acted in self-defense:

\"He was trying to get away from them, I guess, it looks like,\" Trump said, noting the incident was under investigation.

\"I guess he was in very big trouble. He probably would have been killed.\"

The shooter's alleged actions have split onlookers on party lines: Republicans frame Rittenhouse as a martyred patriot whose vigilante actions were born of Democrat failures to quell unrest; Democrats point to Trump's incendiary rhetoric and prior endorsements of violence against protesters.

—Josh Herman

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Since the day you were born, that’s always been on the cards. Most of us find it easier to bury our heads in the sand. Avoidance is the #1 most popular coping strategy in the world. We live in denial of the self-evident fact that we all die eventually. The Stoics believed that when we’re confronted with our own mortality, and grasp its implications, that can change our perspective on life quite dramatically. Any of us could die at any moment. Life doesn’t go on forever. If you say that you won't vote in the general election if your candidate doesn't win the nomination, you're saying to millions of people you think their suffering is an appropriate price for your righteous indignation.\nThere is NO moral justification for sitting out this election. IRL I am an environmental hydrogeologist. I specialize in municipal stormwater management and karst groundwater systems. You can deny the effects of anthropogenic forced global climate change all day, but when your water well salts up, your streets and yards flood, or your house falls in a sinkhole or gets crushed by a landslide you will be calling me for help like I am the GD Batman.","twitter_id":null,"facebook_id":null,"youtube_id":null,"google_plus_id":null,"website":null,"slug":"burrkitty","issue_count":139,"is_following":null,"influence_score":15140,"influence_level":40,"follower_count":512,"following_count":40,"position_count":987,"id":"8mrvqvpm","partner_id":null},{"name":"Mary","vote_count":187,"photos":{"large":"https://graph.facebook.com/3403799189676107/picture?width=150&height=150","small":"https://graph.facebook.com/3403799189676107/picture?width=75&height=75","tiny":"https://graph.facebook.com/3403799189676107/picture?width=20&height=20","facebook":"https://graph.facebook.com/3403799189676107/picture"},"links":{"following":"/api/users/P9odBYoW/following","followers":"/api/users/P9odBYoW/followers"},"about_me":null,"twitter_id":null,"facebook_id":null,"youtube_id":null,"google_plus_id":null,"website":"","slug":null,"issue_count":0,"is_following":null,"influence_score":1280,"influence_level":30,"follower_count":53,"following_count":0,"position_count":70,"id":"P9odBYoW","partner_id":"efa417af-11b4-4a08-9b10-fff245626400"}],"article_comment":{"flagged":false,"id":1343502,"body":"The police need to be trained to be color blind. Just because a person has darker skin, or has an accent in no way makes them a criminal. It just makes them different from us. ","parent_type":"Article","parent_id":46058,"created_at":"2020-09-02T10:42:10.906Z","liked":false,"like_count":4,"links":{"self":"https://www.causes.com/comments/1343502","likers":"https://www.causes.com/api/v1/likers?likeable_id=1343502&likeable_type=Comment"},"article_id":46058,"shareable_image_url":"https://n.causes.com/share-images/comments/1343502.png","note":{"icon":"angry","color":"#624960","stance":"angry"},"note_text":"Angry","note_color":"#624960","user_id":"Z76d7EQl","liker_ids":["Bmyny8a9","jW2gXPEZ","8mrvqvpm","P9odBYoW"]}}

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