23 November 2021 - Kyle Rittenhouse acquitted on all counts in Kenosha shootings
Kyle Rittenhouse found not guilty after fatally shooting two in Kenosha unrest
Maya Yang and Joanna Walters (The Guardian, 19/11/2021)
A jury on Friday found Kyle Rittenhouse not guilty on charges related to his shooting dead two people at an anti-racism protest and injuring a third in Kenosha, Wisconsin, last year, after a tumultuous trial that gripped America.
Rittenhouse killed Joseph Rosenbaum, 36, and Anthony Huber, 26, and wounded Gaige Grosskreutz, 27, when he shot them with an assault rifle as he roamed the streets of Kenosha with other armed men acting as a self-described militia during protests in August 2020, after a white police officer shot a Black man, Jacob Blake, in the back.
The Kyle Rittenhouse verdict is American madness incarnate
Eddie S. Glaude Jr. (The Washington Post, 22/11/2021)
Since he killed two men and wounded another in what he claimed was self-defense, Kyle Rittenhouse has become the poster child for a general feeling among some in this country that White America is under siege. Rittenhouse defended himself, this argument goes, and White America must do the same.
The trial carried the burden of this sense of panic and the potential violence that comes with it. No wonder politicians such as Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.), media personalities including Tucker Carlson and white nationalists celebrated the jury’s decision. The verdict affirmed what they believed to be true: that America is at war with itself and that “the innocents” must defend themselves at all costs.
The Acquittal of Kyle Rittenhouse
Michael Barbaro (The New York Times, 22/11/2021)
On Aug. 25, 2020, Kyle Rittenhouse, a teenager, shot three men, two of them fatally, during street protests in Kenosha, Wis., over the shooting of a Black man by a white police officer.
Mr. Rittenhouse’s trial, which began on Nov. 1, revolved around a central question: Did his actions constitute self-defense under Wisconsin law?
Fox News Host Won't Glorify Kyle Rittenhouse: 'He's Not A Hero Here'
Curtis M. Wong (The Huffington Post, 22/11/2021)
Fox News correspondent Gillian Turner is urging the conservative network’s viewers not to interpret Kyle Rittenhouse’s acquittal as a cause for celebration.
In Monday’s installment of “Outnumbered,” which touched on President Joe Biden’s varied responses to the verdict, Turner noted that it was “particularly hard for facts to break through all the emotion” in the media’s coverage of the trial.
“This case is particularly tragic because Kyle may have been acquitted, but he’s not a hero here,” she said. “There are no heroes, there are no winners. There is no victory lap for Kyle or anybody else to take.”