MANITOWOC – A small crowd of protesters gathered at the Manitowoc County Courthouse Monday night in response to an incident in Kenosha, where police shot Jacob Blake, a 29-year-old Black man.

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported Blake, who was shot at close range at least seven times, was in stable condition Monday after surgery.

The Manitowoc demonstration, organized by Lakeshore’s United Visionaries and Crusaders of Justicia, called for an end to police brutality.

“In everyone’s efforts to make everything about partisan politics, so many people have forgotten how to be human and how to love one another,” said Kevin Sievert, LUV public relations and marketing chairman. “We are all the same species, we are all brothers and sisters of the same human race. … If the system allows a human being to gun down another human being seven times at point-blank range, then the system is broken.”

A short video of the Kenosha incident showing Blake going into the driver’s seat of a vehicle with two police officers following behind him and then shooting him in the back has been widely circulated on social media.

Blake is in a Milwaukee hospital, but protests have occurred statewide since Sunday.

Some of the Manitowoc protesters followed Ron Kossik and other members of Crusaders of Justicia to Kenosha to join the protests there. Lakeshore’s United Visionaries stayed at the courthouse for more than an hour leading protesters in chants like “No justice, no peace” and “Hands up, don’t shoot.”

Kerry Trask, a candidate for the Wisconsin Assembly running against Paul Tittl, attended the protest and said it was an act of good citizenship.

“Some things just have to stop,” Trask said. “… No more domestic terror against any citizens of this country.”

He called for dismantling “of a vicious, inhumane system and a worldview soaked and saturated with racism and contempt.”

Jennifer Both of Manitowoc said she wanted to attend the protest because she felt nothing will change until people living in smaller communities like Manitowoc come together along with people from larger cities.

Tim Argall of Chilton said he wants there to be an understanding of our basic rights and how we should be treating each other as individuals.

Olivia LeClair, a member of LUV, said she is really proud of the things people in Manitowoc have been doing since the beginning of June, when people turned out to protest the death of George Floyd, a Minneapolis man who died after police knelt on his neck.

“At the end of the day, we are all human, and we all should have empathy for one another,” she said. “… These people aren’t just numbers or statistics. This isn’t about politics, this is about being decent to each other, and recognizing that people have their own lives and their own stories.”

Contact Alisa Schafer at 920-686-2105 or aschafer@gannett.com. Follow her on Twitter at @AlisaMSchafer.