Senator Lindsey Graham cross-examined the behavior of Jacob Blake, who was shot by a police officer in Kenosha, Wisconsin on Sunday. A recently surfaced footage of the incident confirmed that the 29-year-old Black man was shot seven times in the back.
His remarks came at a press conference hosted to announce the endorsement of the South Carolina Fraternal Order of Police, an organization that upholds the law enforcement officers. A reporter asked Graham about the latest shooting of a Black man by a police officer imply that despite months of nation-wide protests against police violence and systemic racism, their grievances are being ignored.
Graham responded saying he didn't know what exactly happened there, adding that he would find it out. "It's dangerous being a cop,” he explained.
He went on to say he had no idea why Blake refused to surrender when he was asked to surrender, insisting again that he didn't know what the facts are. A Kenosha police officer shot Blake claiming that he was responding to a domestic dispute.
Captured on a cell phone, the video doesn't confirm whether or not the police officers asked Blake to yield, but it is clear that his three children were in the car at the time. Blake's father opened up about the incident during an interview with the Chicago Sun Times, revealing that eight holes in his son's body paralyzed him from the waist down.
The attorney representing Blake's family, Benjamin Crump, is undergoing surgery for the spinal injuries he sustained from being shot at a very close range, noting that he is still in critical condition. America is entering its third stage of protests triggered by the death of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor, who were African Americans killed by white police officers.
Blake's shooting has sparked a new round of protests across the United States. The governor of Wisconsin announced a state of emergency on Tuesday after some protestors defaced buildings.
Insisting that he supports police reform measures, Graham touted Floyd's murders as an example of bad policing, and deemed the incident as heinous” and wrong. He went on to say that the police aren't above the law, and stated that America is not one of the places where police act with non-liability.
Graham is running for ate in South Carolina, a state with over 30 percent Black. A Quinnipiac poll showed him in a tie with Democratic challenger Jamie Harrison, whom he called out during the press conference to return the donations he received from MoveOn.org, which adopts the divest-invest model to avert funds from police departments to community programs and other municipal services.