Last night, the Seattle no-charge kitchen Riot Kitchen — which was started to feed protesters, activists, and anyone in need — posted footage from Kenosha, Wisconsin, showing what it says is its bus crew being “kidnapped by feds in unmarked vans.” In the video, police can be seen pointing guns at the car and handcuffing the individuals, before driving off with them. Newsweek shares that the detainment reportedly took place around 7:30 p.m., after the city’s 7 p.m. curfew, but no other individuals in the video were detained.
Riot Kitchen had traveled to the city to feed people during the ongoing protests there over the police shooting of Jacob Blake, who was shot at nearly point-blank range seven times in the back by Kenosha police officer Rusten Sheskey. The shooting, which occurred in front of three of Blake’s four children, has reportedly left the 29 year-old paralyzed from the waist down.
In an attempt to quash the Black Lives Matter protests that have erupted around the country this summer, Donald Trump has sent federal officers to various cities including Portland, Oregon. Reports of protesters allegedly being kidnapped into unmarked vans have been shared, most notably in Portland. In New York, NYPD officers were filmed dragging a protest leader into an unmarked van, Gothamist reported. During the height of the BLM protests earlier this summer, incidents of police attacking medics, destroying equipment, and other acts of aggression have been recorded around the country. The Portland collective Riot Ribs — which dissolved on July 27, succeeded by Revolution Ribs — was subject to teargassing and raids while serving food to protesters and those in need.
