MADISON — Eric Oertle, owner of Computer Adventure, a sales and service store in Kenosha, Wisconsin’s Uptown district, will have to start all over. Last month, Black Lives Matter rioters destroyed the business Oertle, 71, and his wife, Pat, 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.
Last week’s car caravan through Kenosha that ended in a courthouse protest didn’t do much to settle those nerves. As the Kenosha News reported, police stopped two vehicles in a “caravan” of 40-50 cars bearing protesters entering the city at a rapid rate on the highway.
They arrested Kamila Simmone Ahmed, 28, of Milwaukee, after pulling her over near Interstate 94. She was in possession of a 9mm pistol and marijuana, and she resisted arrest, according to police. She had no license or insurance, the report says.
Police say they stopped Ahmed’s vehicle because the license plate was taped over. The same was the case with “from six to nine” of the vehicles coming into Kenosha Monday reportedly at a “very high rate of speed.” Another motorist was cited for blacking out his vehicle’s license plate during the “caravan.” Several of those arrested in the earlier Kenosha riots had also covered their license plates.
Ahmed’s 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 asserted 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, but he has been quick to placate the screamers of “social justice” who are tearing down our cities.
The slowness of response from Evers and other public officials to provide public security is one of the factors making business owners like Eric and Pat Oertle delay their reopening.
