Empower Wisconsin | Sept 18, 2020
By M.D. Kittle
MADISON — Eric Oertle didn’t ask for this, but now he’s forced to live in the aftermath.
Oertle, 71, owner of Computer Adventure, a sales and service store in Kenosha’s Uptown district, will have to start all over. Last month, Black Lives Matter rioters destroyed the business Oertle and his wife, Pat, have spent more than 30 years building.
For now, the business is boarded up, but the Oertles are in no hurry to rebuild and reopen, as much as they would like to. They’re worried the rioters, the looters, the criminals will come back.
It’s an unsettling, but not uncommon, feeling in Kenosha these days. Nearly a month after protests over an officer-involved shooting of a black man turned into a violent free-for-all, there is a lingering sense of unease.
This week’s car caravan through Kenosha and courthouse protest didn’t do much to settle the city’s nerves. As the Kenosha News reported, police arrested Kamila Simmone Ahmed, 28, of Milwaukee, after pulling her over near Interstate 94. She was in possession of a 9mm pistol, marijuana, and she resisted arrest for good measure, according to police. She had no license, no insurance.
Police stopped the vehicle, according to the newspaper, because the license plate was taped over, as were some of the dozens of vehicles coming into Kenosha Monday reportedly at a “very high rate of speed.”
Yet, her arrest sparked another protest on racism and police brutality. Demonstrators blocked parts of Highway 158 during rush hour.
Gov. Tony Evers, who was slow to respond to the riots that ravaged Kenosha last month, doesn’t appear to have the National Guard on speed dial.
The Racine Journal Times says he should.
“Gov. Tony Evers should send the National Guard if that’s what it takes until tensions subside,” the newspaper asserts in an editorial. “There should be no misunderstanding. Local and regional law enforcement has been working around the clock and they need support.”
But with the governor, there’s been plenty of misunderstanding. He’s been loathe to call on the Guard to help law enforcers he has vilified because he has been quick to placate the screamers of “social justice” who are tearing down our cities.
Evers looked bad, really bad, the last time, Kenosha burned.
Eric and Pat Oertle can’t afford another public safety slow dance from Governor Tony.
