[Please see ADDENDUM below for clarification.]
I’ve read several articles about Blake’s knife, and the reporting doesn’t make the situation at all clear. Earlier reports said that eyewitnesses had stated that police were yelling at Blake to drop the knife [see ADDENDUM below], and I even saw some screenshots of him allegedly with a knife in his hand. That sort of thing is absent from current stories and I have no idea whether the initial reports were correct or not.
In addition, many of the most recent articles articles reporting on the presence of the knife first state that the knife was found “on the scene” – which could mean a lot of different things – and later add that it was found under [correction: “on”] the floorboard of the driver’s side of the car. I’ve yet to see an article in the MSM that clearly states the possible significance of the floorboard finding – which is that, when shot, Blake had just opened the driver’s side door and was bending over and reaching down.
In other words, one can conclude it was highly possible that he was going for the knife. Knives can be very very deadly, and he had already shown his willingness to fight with police. In addition, it’s possible and even probable that by that point the police were well aware of Blake’s arrest record – which is alleged to have included “one felony count of resisting arrest causing a soft tissue injury to a police officer and one misdemeanor count each of carrying a concealed weapon, carrying a firearm while intoxicated, endangering safety-use of a dangerous weapon, and disorderly conduct.”
Another thing the articles don’t make clear is what was going on to cause the police to be called in the first place. The Blake family lawyer – the seemingly ubiquitous Ben Crump – has reported that Blake was shot “after he tried to break up an argument between two women.” But that part of the story seems to have evaporated as though it had never been uttered. Now what we see is this sort of thing:
DOJ officials said Kenosha police were dispatched to a residence near 28th Street and 40th Avenue after a female caller reported that her boyfriend was present and was not supposed to be on the premises.
During the incident, officers attempted to arrest Blake, 29.
Dots, unconnected. It seems reasonable to come to the preliminary conclusion that Jacob Blake may indeed have been the boyfriend in question. I will add that my guess is that the woman making the call was the same person who had been involved in reporting the incident or incidents for which there was a warrant out for Blake’s arrest, and that this is why police attempted to arrest him after the recent call – either that, or because he was acting aggressively, or at the very least violating a restraining order.
I could be wrong, of course. But such speculations are certainly not a stretch.
More from the article about the knife:
During the investigation following the initial incident, Blake “admitted that he had a knife in his possession,” officials said.
DCI agents recovered a knife from the driver’s side floorboard of Blake’s vehicle. A search of the vehicle located no additional weapons.
The part about Blake’s admission concerning the knife is a curious passage. When did he admit he had a knife? What does “in his possession” mean? Did he tell the police there was a knife in the car? Is that considered “possession”? Is that why they were trying to tase him and then to wrestle him down? Did he say he was going to get it anyway? Did he threaten to harm them with it?
Not only is that article murky, but I’ve read several others that are even more unclear. I believe that this is apparently because the Wisconsin DOJ statement itself was vague on these points. But what about some reporters doing some independent investigation? Surely there are ways to find out a few more things?
Not many people seem to understand the danger posed by a person who gets hold of a knife and acts quickly, especially when close:
Most inexperienced people do not have appropriate respect for knives and other edged weapons because they are surrounded by them,” said Grissom, who has been in law enforcement for 28 years and a police trainer for nearly 25. “A firearm is only deadly in one direction: wherever the muzzle is pointed. If I can keep the muzzle off of me, it can’t hurt me. Once in close quarters, a knife is a far more efficient weapon than a firearm.”
Beyond that, he said, most people are experienced in the use of a knife.
“Anyone who has ever cut a steak, chopped ice or opened a box with a sharp object is completely proficient in killing another human being with a knife,” Grissom said. “Age and training are almost irrelevant with a close-quarter edged weapon attack.”
Because of the threat posed by a knife, it is classified by law as a deadly weapon just like a firearm. And, Grissom said, there is no hard and fast rule for the distance at which a knife is dangerous.
“There is no ‘magic distance’ that a knife-wielding assailant becomes less of a threat,” he said. “A knife is obviously a contact weapon, so in order for it to be effective an assailant must close within the weapon’s effective range. Many officers were/are taught a very general ’21-foot rule’ based on some research attributed to Dennis Tueller from Salt Lake City.”
That rule says it takes between 1.5 and 2 seconds for an officer with a duty-style holster to draw and present a gun. Meanwhile, it takes an aggressive assailant armed with a contact weapon – knife or club – the same length of time to cover 21 feet and use it on the officer.
As such, officers are taught to keep distance, he said. A suspect charging with a knife, then, presents a real threat.
“Officers are generally trained to create distance and/or put obstacles between themselves and an assailant they know possesses a contact weapon,” Grissom said. “Many officers receive training in knife defense tactics, but these tactics are designed to be used to protect oneself from a spontaneous attack with a previously undetected weapon.”
I believe that in Blake’s case the officer already had his weapon unholstered. I’m not sure whether that matters at all. And yes, it’s legal to possess a knife in a car or even on one’s person. But it’s not okay to go for one when you’re resisting arrest.
The police had always used a taser, to no avail. They had also physically grappled with him, and failed to restrain him. Now he was defying their verbal orders and walking purposefully toward the car and reaching in and bending down. Not only that, but there were children in the car. A split-second decision had to be reached. It’s so very easy to be a Monday-morning quarterback, but most of the people opining have no idea what it’s like to be in the position of these police officers. I certainly don’t, and I’m glad of it.
ADDENDUM: Several commenters have pointed out something that adds another dimension to my speculation about what happened with the knife. I initially had read in some article or other that the knife was found under the floorboard (or maybe under the floormat?), which indicated to me that Blake had hidden it somewhere for emergencies and was reaching for it when he was shot. That made it confusing when I also read that initially people had reported that the cops were shouting for him to drop the knife. But then I realized that the DOJ had actually indicated that the knife was found on the floorboard (“recovered a knife from the driver’s side floorboard”), which suddenly made a great deal more sense. It also – as several commenters pointed out – made it possible to imagine that Blake had been carrying the knife all along and dropped it on the floorboard when shot. I believe the latter is the proper interpretation.
