Leaders of Kenosha Profiled on Community Matters

Nov. 6, 2022 5:15p

(WGTD)---A non-profit that helped to pick up the pieces following the 2020 riots in Kenosha resents that the city is being used as a political tool. Kenosha hasn’t burned to the ground—noted Ariel Crowder of the group “Leaders of Kenosha” on this past Saturday’s Community Matters program on WGTD.

"That's not what happened in the slightest," Crowder said. "Things happened, but we've rebuilt. We've healed and we're regrouping," she said. 

Crowder said she believes some of the political ads that have appeared in this election cycle have tarnished Kenosha's image.

The social justice group’s name, Leaders of Kenosha, or LOK  for short, is meant to show that anyone can be a leader if they get involved.

LOK was formed in the wake of the George Floyd shooting in Minneapolis, then filled a vacuum after Jacob Blake was shot in Kenosha.

Erica Ness, another group organizer who appeared on the program, said LOK worked hard to try to keep the Blake protests peaceful—they obviously weren’t always successful.

It’s LOK’s view that the strategies used by law enforcement in the days following the Blake shooting contributed to the violence—that’s an opinion shared by the American Civil Liberties Union in a report it issued on the unrest.

Still, Ness says LOK has a strong relationship with the Kenosha Police Department. "LOK has had from the beginning and still has a strong relationship with the Kenosha Police Department," Ness said. "They're aware that we think they should change some things. We're not on the same page but we have a strong, working and respectful relationship," she said. 

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