‘They made the world look at me’: Jacob Blake on his gratitude to NBA stars

On 23 August 2020 in Kenosha, Wisconsin, police officer Rusten Shesky shot Jacob Blake seven times in front of three of his children. Blake’s name, along with those of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor, was invoked in protests across the United States as part of the Black Lives Matter movement, which surged in the wake of several high-profile shootings by police officers in 2020.

Sheskey said he had shot Blake after he became alarmed that he had a knife in his possession. That claim becomes even more striking when you consider that Kenosha police allowed a white teenager, Kyle Rittenhouse, to walk around with an AR-15 during a protest in the wake of Blake’s shooting and later used the weapon to shoot two anti-racism demonstrators dead. I’m not saying white privilege is the reason for the different responses from the police, but I’m not sure what other explanation is plausible.

“If they would’ve held that officer accountable for something, that riot wouldn’t have happened,” Blake said on my podcast, the Rematch. “Those two people who were killed [by Rittenhouse] would still be here. And the guy that killed them, y’all let him go? And a lot of people in the United States actually celebrated this kid beating a murder.”

Rittenhouse was found not guilty of charges relating to the fatal shootings, while Sheskey was never charged and returned to regular duty in April 2021. Miraculously, Blake survived and, although he is now in constant physical pain, he has a new appreciation for life. He turned 31 on Saturday and is thankful to God that he is still breathing. He is also grateful to the athletes who showed their support for him after the shooting.

“If that video [of the shooting] is not being taken by that person across the