When Kenosha Burned

Local business owners describe what it was like to watch rioters destroy their establishments by setting fires, breaking windows, and looting.

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Scenes of looting and fires have been inescapable this summer as peaceful protests have given way to violence in cities across America, most recently in Kenosha, Wisconsin, after police shot Jacob Blake in the back seven times and left him paralyzed. 

Those images hit home for some more than others. Pamela “Sue” Moniz watched her business, Sue and Keith’s Magical Mattress Store, burn to the ground in Kenosha on August 24. “We were watching on a live feed and could see the group—who I’m sure was not from this community—approaching our business in uptown and decided to get there as as quickly as we could to see what we could do to prevent any further loss, and they had already assaulted a dear friend who had also rushed to the scene,” Pamela Moniz The Dispatch.

Moniz found Robert Cobb, a friend who had helped out at the store for years, lying in a pool of his own blood. A very graphic video—that has now been viewed more than 2.9 million times on Twitter—showed that Cobb, who is 71, had tried to fend off rioters with a fire extinguisher. He fell to the ground quickly after he was assaulted from behind by a rioter who hit his head with a concrete-filled water bottle. The blow broke his jaw in two places and split open his nose, and he suffered severe bleeding from a laceration on his face. “I called 9-1-1 immediately and then I realized, just looking out, that they wouldn’t be able to get an ambulance there,” Moniz said. “I don’t know that they would even send an ambulance—just the mobs of people. So it took some very creative driving to even be able to get him to the hospital.”

“It’s so surreal, and it’s so indescribable, and it’s nothing that I hope anyone ever has to experience,” Moniz said.“But it’s something I’ll never forget.” Moniz said she wishes she could describe the feeling she got once she realized her business was burned down for good. “We were good to that community, and we helped that community, and we tried to take care of our neighbors,” she said. “And that’s why I know that this wasn’t done by anyone from our community.”

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  1. Raincheck

    It’s a tragedy. And we aren’t going to stop it by focusing on partisan politics and flawed presidential candidates.

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    David Atkinson

    I live west (as in "the other side of Puget Sound") of Seattle, and the local news always seems to have a story about Seattle's or Portland's woes with their non-stop "mostly peaceful" protests that somehow always seem to turn into riots. I had to chuckle yesterday reading the story about Oregon's governor Kate Brown putting out the call to neighboring police agencies that surround the city of Portland, asking for their help. What made me chuckle is that all three surrounding areas declined to help. How would you even go about making that gig sound appealing to surrounding cops? "At the end of your shift, you'll go home knowing that the bad actors (those who launch commercial-grade fireworks at you, shine lasers in your eyes and otherwise pelt you with feces, eggs, paint, rocks and anything else they can throw) you've arrested will be released, rested and ready to meet you the next night, or perhaps sooner, where you'll have the pleasure of arresting them all over again!" Shoot, I wonder why the entire police force of Seattle and Portland doesn't just quit en masse, leaving behind the phone numbers and addresses of their far-left wacko mayors, prosecutors, judges and city councilmembers for the citizens to call if they need help.

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    Chris L

    During my city's riots/unrest, the vast majority of arrests for violence of one sort or another were of those coming from outside of the city. This is a recurring theme among all such flashpoints - residents of those cities participate en masse in the peaceful protests, and then the instigators and opportunistic hooligans come in from elsewhere just to deliberately succumb to base savagery. Generally speaking, a given city's protesters know better than to undermine their own cause against violence by further perpetrating more violence, and this has always stopped when efforts are made on both sides of the barricade to root out such ne'er-do-wells (anarchists with the protesters and white supremacists with the police) through open lines of communication. At least that's what stopped the violence here.

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      Aylene Wright

      Which city are you a resident of?

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        Chris L

        Philly. We've done very well in learning from recent stressful public events, including Pope Francis' visit, then the DNC, then our Super Bowl win, and then the NFL draft, all of which went off without a hitch despite anticipating mayhem (all the bad headlines post-SB, interestingly, *also* only came from folks coming in from the suburbs, and it was one pack of college kids over the course of three blocks). Then of course the Floyd riots happened and it took three full days of FUBAR-style behavior from overaggressive police and opportunistic rioters alike for the decent police and genuine protesters to communicate better and marginalize those guys. Not a single incident happened from the Tuesday onward, and when the following weekend came around for the largest protest by a longshot, it was practically kumbaya.

        The only stress now is from dummies that refuse to wear masks correctly or at all, and anticipating post-Election Day violence, regardless of the outcome.

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    Victor Clairmont

    Terrible. Were the outsiders just not from Kenosha but still from the state? Or was it outside even the state? I am curious.

    But yes, the fact we have people wanting to destroy other people’s livelihood, over a video that we don’t have the full story, just shows how there are some people that want an excuse to watch the world burn.

    Same thing in Chicago when people lied about a person being shot by the police, so a crime spree happened and the mayor actually had to raise the bridges in Chicago to try and stop the looting. And the person the police shot was an armed person that was actually shooting at the police.

    And to people that intentionally upload half video’s to stir up trouble, you’re garbage. And Americans need to stop falling for any video that you don’t know how it started.

    Just wait for the facts to come in. And even if the Jacob Blake shooting that started the Kenosha riots was police brutality, it’s no excuse to be a demon and destroy people’s lives.

    To hell with rioters.

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  5. Joe1776

    They say that the looters are coming from out of town. And indeed this seems to be backed up by the evidence.

    It may be that they were coming from Minnesota after Joe Biden's running mate publicly asked people to donate for the bail of rioters and looters in that state.

    https://www.foxnews.com/politics/biden-vp-pick-harris-promoted-group-that-put-up-bail-for-alleged-violent-criminals

    Others in the Biden campaign also supported this.

    Admitting a mistake is always very hard. The Democrats have really supported this BLM organization in a big way. Even some republicans were marching with them. The BLM organization has raised enormous funds. But it is time to publicly distance from this organization.

    We are told democrats do not support the goals of this movement. But I think I would like to hear it from the politicians themselves. I would like to hear they are against the BLM organization.

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      Pat @ Tavi Hall

      The tweet in question was made on June 1st. It raised money for a local community bond group.

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      1. Joe1776

        Yes she was telling people to pay for the bail of those arrested in "protests"
        in Minnesota. Her tweet included the name of the place and said "your support will help post bail for those protesting on the ground in Minnesota."

        She is calling for people to directly aid those who have been arrested for rioting. How can she now claim she will not be soft on those who are rioting?

        Is Biden going to condemn her actions or those of his staff which also donated to get the rioters back on the streets?

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          Angie

          Joe, those weren't just rioters, they were peaceful protestors...sigh..that weren't arrested for violence at all

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          1. James West

            I've gotta say, back when I was young and stupid, I did my share of protesting. In my experience, two categories of people got arrested: (1) People who really were throwing bricks/smashing windows/etc. (2) People who volunteered for it to burnish their credentials as genuine activists.

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        2. Beth

          You can't separate protesters from rioters?

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          1. James West

            Being arrested for rioting is a good way of distinguishing between the two - and that's who they were sending bail money to....

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      DougAz

      Meanwhile Trump is encouraging White violence.

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      1. Joe1776

        Trump was very clear that those who support him should stay away from these protests and leave it to law enforcement.
        https://www.dailywire.com/news/trump-tells-supporters-to-stay-away-from-far-left-extremists-leave-it-to-law-enforcement

        Why do you say Trump is encouraging white violence.

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  6. Trichwages

    “I understand the peaceful protesters, I understand the people who are passionate to end the inequity between the races, and the people who desperately want change. We need to change. But the people who turn to violence are getting in the way of that message. They're not letting the necessary message be heard,” she said while holding back tears. “They’re not doing it to their own communities,” she said. “They're only robbing from the communities that they claim to be representing.”

    “We somehow have got to figure out a way to voice our concerns and our anger and frustration in a more instructive way instead of destructive,” Postuchow said, “Because honestly the messages get lost in the noise, and the message is so important. And now instead of listening to the message, all you see is destruction,” she said. “It's destruction just to destroy something.” Nothing to add, but this just needed to be re-highlighted.

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    1. Joe1776

      “We somehow have got to figure out a way to voice our concerns and our anger and frustration in a more instructive way instead of destructive,”

      The obvious answer is not to support organizations that allow their leaders to call looting your stores justified reparations. The obvious answer is not to support organizations that want to defund the police and leave you "powerless" to watch the dreams you worked so hard to build go up in flames. Don't support organizations that promote the narrative that police in this country are just out to kill innocent black people thereby suggesting that our whole justice system needs to be torn down. Don't support organizations that chant "no peace until justice" (probably one of the less offensive slogans) as if you shouldn't have peace until whatever they perceive as injustice is adjusted. Don't support organizations that take every individual occurrence of violence between the races and sensationalizes it into an argument that our whole system is racist. And don't elect politicians that support these groups.

      If you continue to support these groups and the politicians that align with them it is not you that I feel sorry for. It is your neighbor's business that didn't support these organizations but yet had to suffer because of your civic irresponsibility. You were the one who placed your image and the importance of appearing woke above your obligation to see reality as plain as day.

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      1. Trichwages

        Well, I don’t and no one I know does, so not sure who you’re talking to. Feel better for getting that off chest?

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        1. Joe1776

          I did not mean to suggest you or anyone in this article did support BLM. I can see how you might have thought that, but that was not my intent, and I am sorry I wasn't more clear.


          Huge numbers of people, corporations and politicians are supporting BLM. BLM is being plastered everywhere and the donations are huge.

          I do know young people who were or are supporting BLM because so many in our press and culture are not speaking the truth about them. Do you agree? If so maybe we should all start getting the truth off of our chest instead of pretending we don't know the truth. It is time we condemn those who perpetuate the lies.

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          1. Trichwages

            What I think is that we are all blind men describing part of an elephant because we can’t see (or refuse to see) the whole. I think that the majority of people support the sentiment black lives matter and the demand that something be done about excessive force and over policing, not necessarily the organization BLM, even though they will chant or wear something with the slogan. Policy demands from a wide range of groups supporting the protests on the issues are not universal for the whole. BLM does not speak for everyone. It really is laziness by people and media (including the MSM and non-MSM outlets) to just lump everyone together under a one-size fits all label. I tend to read more of the articles at the local newspaper level to get more nuance about what is happing in the areas of the protests so see what residents in those areas are saying and advocating for rather than what the partisan/culture wars are saying that they do. I tend to give people the benefit of the doubt for knowing what they’re in support of and what they’re not in support of rather than what someone else says they support. Activists aren’t typically representative of any group or majority when it comes to policy — left or right. Activists’ job is to call attention. That’s true for any social organization be it cancer, criminal justice reform, tax policy, etc. I’m trying to live my life outside of the partisan bubble that flourishes on the internet, and unfortunately more and more in real life, even while reading a variety of publications and blogs, all trying to tell me what to think. And in case you are wondering, I also know this about the many conservatives I know and read about that do not support Conservatism, Inc. or even the Republican Party, and all of their stated policy goals. That’s the problem with focusing on the label or the most extreme subset of people within the labeled group rather than the issues or the policies in question. No one that I know in that wider majority of ALL people in the US support violence, looting, rioting, vigilantes, etc. etc. The fighting between ideological groups actually exacerbates problems and drowns out discussing or even solving the issues, as does the assumption that supporting some things a group is advocating means you support everything they’re advocating. That’s what I believe. 😊 You asked 😂

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            DougAz

            I support Black Lives Matter. Millions do. We also do not condone violence and arson.

            Like I don't condone the truck parade of violence by those military armed white men macing, pepper spraying, shooting at people as they drove by. Equally felonious

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        Vlad M.

        In other words, never submit to terror as no good will ever come from it.

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          DougAz

          oops - Let's roll back the work of that Sam Adams guy ---

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    Vlad M.

    These poor people and what they've had to endure... The looters have to change. The people who feel the need to beat up another have to change. The rioters have to change. There is no message behind all this. Just people doing evil things.

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