Biden says he spoke with Jacob Blake’s family in statement on shooting

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Joe Biden has condemned the police shooting of Jacob Blake in Wisconsin and assured his family that “justice must and will be done.”

“What I saw on that video makes me sick. Once again a Black man, Jacob Blake, has been shot by the police in broad daylight with the whole world watching,” Biden said in a video posted Wednesday to Twitter. “Protesting brutality is a right and absolutely necessary. But burning down communities is not protest, it’s needless violence. Violence that endangers lives,” the Democratic presidential nominee continued. “That’s wrong.”

Biden shared that he spoke to Jacob’s family and noted “our hearts are with his family, especially his children. It’s horrible what they saw, watching their father get shot.”

Biden urged his non-Black supporters to “put yourself in the shoes of every Black father and Black mother in this country, and ask: Is this what we want America to be? Is this the country we should be?” he said.

Once again, a Black man — Jacob Blake — was shot by the police. In front of his children. It makes me sick.

Is this the country we want to be?

Needless violence won’t heal us. We need to end the violence — and peacefully come together to demand justice. pic.twitter.com/WdNqrxA3PK

— Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) August 26, 2020

His VP nominee Kamala Harris said at an event on Wednesday that she also spoke to the family.

“What happened there is so tragic and still represents the two systems of justice in America,” Harris said. “There are still two systems of justice in America and … we need to fight again for that ideal that says all people are supposed to be treated equally, which is still not happening.”

Blake was shot multiple times in the back by police on Sunday in Kenosha, Wisconsin in front of his children. He is now paralyzed from the waist down.

Jacob Blake thegrio.com — Jacob Blake, 29, was shot several times by a Wisconsin police officer on Sunday. Aug. 23. (Photo: Twitter)

Blake’s father, whose name is also Jacob Blake, told the Chicago Sun-Times that his 29-year-old was shot eight times during the harrowing encounter with law enforcement that was caught on video by a bystander.

theGRIO previously reported, the elder Blake said that his son had “eight holes” in his body. Doctors do not know if the younger Blake’s paralysis will be permanent.

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