Brewers join strike action against racist police violence

You better start swimmin’ or you’ll sink like a stone:

The Milwaukee Brewers postponed a game against the Cincinnati Reds on Wednesday, multiple sources reported. The decision is an apparent show of protest against the police shooting of Jacob Blake, a Black man, in Kenosha, Wisconsin.

The Major League Baseball game was postponed not long after the NBA’s Milwaukee Bucks boycotted a playoff game against the Orlando Magic, also on Wednesday.

Police officers in Kenosha shot Blake, 29, multiple times in the back after responding to a “reported domestic incident” on Sunday. Bystander video of the shooting shows officers with their guns drawn at Blake as he walks away with his back to them. As Blake approaches a parked SUV, opens the car door and leans in, police open fire on him.

Critically, the Reds decided to join the strike rather than undermine it by accepting a forfeit. This is a big deal.

Meanwhile, in related news that is entirely unsurprising:

The law enforcement–obsessed 17-year-old who was charged with shooting and killing two people and injuring another in Kenosha, Wisconsin, during protests for Jacob Blake appeared in the front row at a Donald Trump rally in January.

Kyle Howard Rittenhouse’s social media presence is filled with him posing with weapons, posting “Blue Lives Matter,” and supporting Trump for president. Footage from the Des Moines, Iowa, rally on Jan. 30 shows Rittenhouse feet away from the president, in the front row, to the left of the podium. He posted a TikTok video from the event.

I dunno, making a lifelong champion of arbitrary violence against Black people president of the United States seems like a bad idea in retrospect.

…strongly recommended reading: Sterling Brown on his own experience with police brutality.

…Mariners and Padres joining the strike as well.