Justin Blake is suing the Kenosha County Sheriff’s Department in Wisconsin for allegedly engaging in “torture” after arresting him during a demonstration over the police shooting of his nephew, Jacob Blake.
The complaint, filed Tuesday in federal court, says sheriff’s officers forced Justin Blake into a device known as an “emergency restraint chair” after arresting him for disorderly conduct and obstructing/resisting an officer in April 2021.
Blake did not speak to the officers as part of his protest, according to the lawsuit, and they strapped him into the chair as punishment for his silence. He remained there for almost seven hours, suffering “permanent damage and substantial injuries throughout his body including to his neck, back and shoulders,” the lawsuit says.
