AUBURN, Wash. — Nicole Blake Chafetz held a peaceful rally in Seattle on Thursday just four days after her nephew Jacob Blake was shot several times in the back by police in Wisconsin.
Chafetz said that when she got the call about the shooting of her nephew, her very first reaction wasn’t grief or anger. It was resignation.
“I’m not surprised at all. All Black families have a turn, and this is our turn,” she told KIRO 7 ahead of the rally in an interview at her Auburn home.
Jacob Blake is the son of Nicole Blake Chafetz’s younger brother.
Chafetz has watched the viral video of the shooting over and over.
“It’s like I can feel all seven gunshots when I watch the video. As (a) former criminal defense attorney, I’ve never seen anything like it before,” she said.
Chafetz says she quit the law in the middle of a trial 3 years ago.
“I felt like I didn’t want to be a member of the law anymore when the law couldn’t figure out how to stop shooting Black men for target practice.” Emotion evident in her voice, she said, “So it’s almost like the very thing that caused me to change my life in such a crazy way has come home to perch on me.”
She hadn’t heard until we told her of the deadly violence that erupted at last night’s demonstration in Kenosha that two people were killed by gunfire.
“We need to make sure that only peaceful protests occur. Because I don’t want our children dying.”
There have been peaceful rallies in Seattle. Nicole wanted Thursday’s rally at City hall to be peaceful, too.
“We got this far through peaceful protests. I am going to encourage everyone to continue peacefulness. The most important reason is because if we become violent, we’re like them.”
Watch Essex Porter’s full interview with Nicole Blake Chafetz, the aunt of Jacob Blake, below:
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