Joe Biden speaks to Jacob Blake, meets family on Wisconsin visit amid protests

Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden spoke to Jacob Blake, the Black man shot in the back by police in Kenosha, during his visit to the city in Wisconsin on September 3. Biden told a church meeting in Kenosha that he had the opportunity to speak with the 29-year-old over the phone for about 15-minutes, informing that he’s out of intensive care.

"He talked about how nothing was going to defeat him, how whether he walked again or not, he was not going to give up," he told the community meeting.

Blake was paralysed after a white police officer shot him seven times in the back point-blank in Kenosha. The incident sparked civil unrest as video footage of the incident surfaced online. Blake’s lawyer informed that bullets shattered some his vertebrates, leaving him paralysed from the waist down.

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The former vice-president met Blake's father, Jacob Blake Sr, his siblings, and one of his lawyers after landing in Milwaukee while Blake, his mother and another lawyer joined by phone. At the community meeting in Grace Lutheran Church, Biden said that though he can’t guarantee to solve everything in four years but assured that the situation will be a lot better than it is under the Trump administration.

"We're finally now getting to the point where we're going to be addressing the original sin of this country, 400 years old … slavery and all the vestiges of it," said Biden as protests against racial discrimination continue across the United States.

Trump's visit

The visit comes two days after US President Donald Trump toured the city marred with protests over police brutality and Kenosha shooting in which two people were killed at a protest site. Kyle Rittenhouse, 17, is accused of a shooting incident in the city of Wisconsin which left two people dead and a third person seriously injured. 

The suspect was arrested in Illinois and charged with one count of reckless homicide, one for attempted intentional homicide and two counts of recklessly endangering safety. Trump is yet to meet Blake or his family and has shied away from condemning Rittenhouse over the shooting incident.

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(Image: AP)