A Manitowoc man with connections to the Lakeshore’s United Visionaries was arrested over the weekend in Kenosha.
Elijah Ashbeck was in Kenosha on Saturday to protest the shooting of Jacob Blake and told SeehaferNews.com that his intentions were to remain peaceful.
“We originally got there at around 2:00,” he explained. “There was a big march from the Boys and Girls Club down to the courthouse which included Jacob Blake’s family, Mandela Barnes, the Black Panthers, a bunch of people. Over 1,000 people. We stayed down there until roughly about 6:00, then people started to disperse and head home. I stayed down there with around maybe 80 people with the intent to prove a point that this is not a police state, and I will not be controlled by the government if we are doing nothing wrong.”
Ashbeck said he stayed on the courthouse steps until about an hour and a half after the curfew went into effect, which is when he decided to go back to his car.
“About a block or 2 away, an unmarked vehicle came flying around the corner, drove up on the curb, maybe about 20, 30 feet away from me,” Ashbeck recalled. “A couple people jumped out. I call them people because they were wearing plain clothing, nothing identifying them as police officers.”
Ashbeck then said that the individuals told him “You are going to regret F-ing being here,” which is when he took off running in the other direction. He claims that the individuals got into their car, chased him down, and struck him with their car.
He told us, “They tried to take me down to the ground. I was resisting because I was fearing for my life. They got me to the ground eventually with like three of them came up and body slammed me onto the ground, pretty much on my head, which almost knocked me out. However many of them jumped on me, I don’t know how many it was. At that point I pretty much knew I had lost, not that I went there to play a game or anything, or fight a battle or anything. But I gave in. I was being compliant. My body went limp, and they kept telling me ‘Quit resisting!’ even though they had how many people sitting on top of me.”
Elijah was taken into custody on charges of Failure to Comply with an Emergency Management order of State or Local Government and Obstructing/Resisting an Officer at around 10:00 PM and released the next morning at around 7:30 AM after his bail was posted by his girlfriend and members of the LUV organization.
Elijah did note that the bail was posted independently of the organization, and he was not representing the organization while he was in Kenosha.
We reached out to the Kenosha Police Department to get a police report on the incident, but due to the sheer number of arrests that have been made, Elijah’s case has not made it into the court records yet. A representative with the KPD said that his case will likely not be processed until around September 30th.
