Betty’s Column

Business News

LOCAL HISTORY Violence, unrest hits home with Kenosha relative

BY BETTY OBENDORF Curator, Polo Historical Society

Kenneth and I have watched on TV for a number of weeks now the unrest in our nation.

The looting, burning, and rioting have left us speechless as we have seen individuals say in front of the cameras how they were entitled to do these things.

I kept thinking of the people whose businesses were gone and the people who live in these areas must be very frightened. But all the cities seemed far away and our community was very calm.

Then last week all that changed when the news media suddenly started talking about Kenosha.

We came to life immediately and we were amazed how quickly things can change.

The next day we called our daughter Krista since this is her community. Not only was this her community but the neighborhood where she lived when she went to Kenosha for the first time.

She has been most upset.

It was a quiet neighborhood with a lovely park where we burned and there was lootturned near her apartment. ing in the downtown area. She lived in the home of an The furniture store that elderly lady. Krista liked so well was

The upstairs had been burned to the ground on made into two furnished Monday night and other apartments and was filled businesses were looted and with antiques. set a blaze in the uptown

Those were the days area. when I was doing furniSoon the National Guard ture refinishing and I could Betty Obendorf was called, but by the time imagine how lovely those they arrived at eight in the pieces of furniture could be evening and before they with the paint gone. had gotten organized, another bad

The people were a mix of a little night or two had taken place. bit of all ethnic groups and the shops The old high school in the center had been there for years. of town had all of its windows bro

Many had been passed on down ken out. Krista had always referred to their children. Krista loved those to it as Thelma Hedrick’s high little shops and later returned to buy school since Thelma had gone to furniture and I believe a computer. school there.

Late that afternoon when it all Krista would attend meetings at started, Krista had a friend returnBradford although Krista taught at ing from Milwaukee and she came Tremper High School. upon long lines of cars headed south Then during all the melee, the vigwith their license plates covered. ilante group arrived from all over

She instantly knew something and they presented other problems was wrong and she soon found out as they attempted to take the law where they were going. into their own hands to protect prop

The first night on Sunday was erty. deadly with 50 cars in a used car lot They even wanted to be deputized by the Chief of Police.

Of course he was not in favor of such a thing. How could you have the “old wild west” mixed into all of this?

Before law and order was restored, lives were lost that can never be replaced. Senseless killings in just a short time.

Out of town vehicles were confiscated loaded with gas cans that contained gas.

They also were packed with “helmets, gas masks, protective vests, illegal fireworks, and suspected controlled substances” according to a police report.

Eventually a news media had to acknowledge the civil unrest in Kenosha although they have kept silent for many weeks about what is going on in our country.

They called it a “mostly peaceful protest.”

As Krista has related to me what has gone on in her community, I wondered in my mind what part of it has been “mostly peaceful.”

In all those details, I find it hard to come up with something peaceful!