This is the original Letter to Byron page from when it was published ‘Live.’
The live blog is no longer updated.
The entire content of Letters to Byron is a book, available in Paperback or Kindle.

Hi Byron,

If you read this in 2022, then the remarkable thing about the week I am writing from today will likely be the story of Jacob Blake.

A Black man in Wisconsin, who stopped to help some women arguing, called the Police, and was pleased when they arrived.
But then, one of those policemen, Rusten Sheskey, a seven-year veteran of the Kenosha Police Department, fired his weapon seven times into Blake’s back as Blake leaned into his car.
Blake’s three children were watching.
Amazingly, Blake didn’t die after seven 9mm bullets were fired into his back. They took him to Hospital. After surviving the surgery although he was obviously weak, they still handcuffed him to bed.

Boy, they sure hate Black people in this place. The guy was close to dying, seven bullets in him, and they handcuffed him to the bed, while the policeman who shot him, Rusten Shesky, who is White, is not even arrested.

That was last Sunday. The people in Wisconsin started protesting right away. Many went out on the street to say #BlackLivesMatter. They protested the next night, and the night after that too. They were angry because Police are able to shoot unarmed Black men and nothing ever changes that. No Police accountability. They call it ‘endemic systemic racism.’

And then on Tuesday, while Trump was doing the Republican Party Nomination talk, a chubby little trailer park racist religious republican, 17-year-old Kyle Rittenhouse, was driven to the protest from his little house 20 minutes away by his mom.
He took an assault rifle with him and after his mom dropped him off, he shot three protestors, killing two of them. One was Anthony Huber, 26. There to protest the shooting of Jacob Blake. I guess in two years time when you read this, the name Anthony Huber will mean very little. He looked like a very nice young man from the newspaper picture I am looking at.

After his killing spree young Kyle headed back home. Police didn’t arrest him because a white person with an AR-15 is less likely to be stopped by Police than a Black person who is unarmed.

That’s the awful state of America this week. Kyle is arrested pending murder charges, although the Trump news say he did nothing wrong. They defend him and say it was the protestors own fault for protesting. They set up a Christian go fund me page to raise money for his legal defense. Now a top American right wing lawyer – who defends right wing criminals – has been paid by someone to represent Kyle. To try and use a rotten legal system to keep Kyle from accountability.

Of course, when you read this, in two years time, you will know if Kyle Rittenhouse did in fact go to jail for murdering two men in cold blood. The Republicans call him a Patriot who was bringing law and order for the good white people. Meanwhile Blake is handcuffed to his hospital bed, lucky to be still alive. And Rusten is not even arrested. It is a challenging time for anti racists in America now.

How I wonder what you will see if you read this in two years time. Most likely these names and these stories will be long forgotten. That’s the way it is with historical crimes of racist origin in America.

Tonight the racist in chief Trump is doing another of his TV rallies trying to win the election coming up in 67 days. And I am almost done with my book The Three Rs. Hoping to have a draft ready to upload as a Kindle by the end of next week.

We had a heatwave this week. There have been big fires in California – as usual this time of year……

The live blog is no longer updated.
The entire content of Letters to Byron is a book, available in Paperback or Kindle.