Jacob Blake, the Black man whose shooting at the hands of police in Kenosha, Wisconsin sparked widespread protests, sent a message from his hospital bed in one of his first statements to the public late Saturday. “There’s a lot more life to live. Your life, your legs, can be taken from you at any time,” he said. “It hurts to breathe. It hurts to sleep. It hurts to move from side to side. It hurts to eat. Please, I’m telling you. Change your lives out there. We can stick together, make some money, and make everything easier for our people.” Blake is paralyzed from the waist down as a result of the shooting, and protests against police brutality have erupted across the country in the wake of the episode. A 17-year-old right-wing vigilante allegedly killed two people last week with an automatic weapon at one demonstration, and he’s been charged with first-degree intentional homicide.
