#daniel miskinis

[odinsblog]

Gov. Tony Evers: 608.266.1212

Police and Fire Commission: 262.653.4135

Citizen Complaint Form: https://www.kenosha.org/images/police_and_fire_commisson/COMPLAINT_FORM.pdf

[nowthisnews]

Kenosha Police Chief Daniel Miskinis seemed to suggest that the two people fatally shot during the third night of protests in Kenosha, WI, were responsible for their own deaths after staying out past the city's curfew

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Rusten Sheskey, the Kenosha cop who shot and paralyzed Jacob Blake, won't face discipline

"He acted with the law and consistent with training," Kenosha Police Chief Daniel Miskinis said.

David Mack at BuzzFeed News:

The Kenosha, Wisconsin, police officer who shot Jacob Blake in the back last year, leaving him paralyzed from the waist down, acted in accordance with police policy and won't face any further discipline, his department announced Tuesday.

Officer Rusten Sheskey, a seven-year veteran of the Kenosha Police Department, returned from administrative leave March 31 following both internal and external reviews of his actions in the Aug. 23, 2020, shooting, which prompted deadly clashes in the city.

"He acted with the law and consistent with training," Chief Daniel Miskinis said in a statement.

"Although this incident has been reviewed at multiple levels, I know that some will not be pleased with the outcome," Miskinis said. "However, given the facts, the only lawful and appropriate decision was made."

In January, Kenosha County District Attorney Michael Graveley announced that Sheskey would not be charged with any crime over the shooting after an independent use-of-force expert determined the officer had acted reasonably and appropriately when he shot Blake in the back.

Blake didn't drop a knife as he walked to his car that contained his children, who were the subject of a domestic dispute. Officers had struggled with Blake and unsuccessfully tried to use their Tasers on him before Sheskey opened fire.

Sheskey could most likely argue successfully in court that he was acting lawfully by shooting Blake in a bid to protect the children, prosecutors said.

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Kenosha Police Chief Daniel Miskinis Blames Protesters for Their Own Deaths, Defends Vigilante Groups

He said the teen who’s been arrested for the murder of two protesters “was involved in the use of firearms to resolve whatever conflict was in place.”

Jeremy Stahl at Slate: 

On Wednesday, 17-year-old Kyle Rittenhouse was arrested in Illinois on charges of first-degree murder after allegedly shooting and killing two protesters the night before during protests in Kenosha, Wisconsin, in response to the shooting of Jacob Blake earlier this week.

During the Kenosha Police Department’s first press conference in response to the Blake shooting and subsequent protests, Chief Daniel Miskinis blamed the unidentified victims in Tuesday night’s shooting for their own deaths, saying the violence was the result of the “persons” involved violating curfew:

[Persons who were out after the curfew became engaged in some type of disturbance, and persons were shot. Everybody involved was out after the curfew. I’m not going to make a great deal of that, but the point is the curfew is in place to protect. Had persons not been out involved in violation of that, perhaps the situation that unfolded would not have happened.]

“It is the persons who were involved after the legal time, involved in illegal activity, that brought violence to this community,” Miskinis added later, seeming to blame protesters who were on the streets because a member of Miskinis’ department, who was identified late on Wednesday as Officer Rusten Sheskey, shot Blake seven times in the back as his children watched. )*

Miskinis would not give the names of the “persons” who were the victims of Wednesday’s murders, but did say they were “a 26-year-old Silver Lake resident and a 36-year-old Kenosha resident.”

In describing the shooting of two protesters, Miskinis also declined to call it a homicide and instead referred to it by various euphemisms often used to describe killings by a police officer, which Rittenhouse is not. He said that the shooter “was involved in the use of firearms to resolve whatever conflict was in place” and that there was a “disturbance that led to the use of deadly force.”

Additionally, Miskinis refused to comment on the video of Blake’s shooting, but offered that there may have been a reasonable explanation for the man being shot seven times in the back, which has reportedly left him paralyzed and in critical condition. (The officer has been put on administrative leave and has not been fired or arrested.)

“I’m not going to address that [video] because it is one snippet of a very large situation and much as what’s happened across this nation for a long period of time, it’s focused on what you see in this much of an incident,” Miskinis said, apparently alluding to other police shootings of unarmed Black men. “It’s unfair to everybody involved, whether you’re the person using force or the person being arrested that the picture isn’t painted.”

[...]

Miskinis’ views of the gathering of vigilante groups that reportedly led to the killing of two local men appears to be very much in line with those of his department. Before the shooting, officers in armored vehicles could be seen giving water to armed men gathered with the alleged shooter and telling them, “We appreciate you guys, we really do.” After the killings, the alleged shooter walked slowly past a series of police vehicles with his arms raised and was allowed to simply walk away. (It’s not yet clear what the officers knew about the shooting at the time, but the shots were audible in nearby footage.)

Kenosha Police Chief Daniel Miskinis decided to needlessly further pour gasoline on the fire this afternoon by suggesting that the protesters shot by Kyle Rittenhouse was their own faults.