The press conference below details the charging decision regarding the officer involved shooting of Jacob Blake by Kenosha Police Officer Sheskey.  It is worth the time to watch.  The decision not to file charges against the officer, Rusten Sheskey, was announced on Tuesday afternoon by Michael Graveley, the Kenosha County district attorney. He said that investigators had reviewed 40 hours of video and hundreds of pages of police reports before making the decision.

There are many important lessons that can be gleaned from what is said.  It is clear DA Graveley and former Madison Police Chief Noble Ray, their independent use of force expert, were making a great effort to explain the use of force and the justification to hopefully avoid the riots that erupted after the shooting initially.

One of the most important things to remember is that rarely in these situations involving law enforcement use of force does the general public have the backstory, and only witness part of the incident, usually the end and aftermath.  In this case, officers had a lot of information already when they arrived on scene and encountered Jacob Blake.

There’s a lot more that I will resist commenting on because the video does a good job of explaining the context of the use of force.  However, I will direct your attention to around the 17 minute mark and following of the presentation by DA Graveley.  He talks about the charging decision and the ethical obligations NOT to charge a case if the evidence would not support a conviction beyond a reasonable doubt.

During this presentation, I found myself asking the question…If you have an ethical obligation NOT to charge a case you do not think you can prove beyond a reasonable doubt, especially in a self defense case, then why did you charge Kyle Rittenhouse when he was defending himself out of necessity?