California Governor Gavin Newsom expressed his visceral outrage over the acquittal of Kyle Rittenhouse in a Wisconsin courtroom.
This is a disgraceful and shameful verdict. One which only embolden the most reactionary racist fascist elements in America.
Rittenhouse, 17 at the time, murdered two people and wounded a third in Kenosha, Wisconsin using an assault weapon during a protest following the murder of George Floyd by Minneapolis police in May 2020.
Rittenhouse has become the poster boy for the most rabid violent right wing militia groups; Q’Anon, Proud Boys et al. The same insurrectionists who stormed the capitol on January 6, 2021 at the urging of ex-President Trump.
San Francisco Chronicle 11.19.2021
In a tweet Friday, Gov. Gavin Newsom said the verdict sent a clear message to “armed vigilantes across the nation.”
“America today: you can break the law, carry around weapons built for a military, shoot and kill people, and get away with it.”
Quanah Brightman, executive director of United Native Americans, said the jury’s decision represented a pervasive and harmful double standard in the criminal justice system.
“We’re sick and tired of our community living in fear; we’re sick and tired of all of these atrocities going unpunished,” Brightman said.
Roughly 200 people gathered at Oakland’s Frank H. Ogawa Plaza and marched to the Dellums Federal Building on Friday night to denounce the acquittal earlier in the day of Kyle Rittenhouse, a man tried on charges that he intentionally killed two people during racial justice protests last year.
A Wisconsin jury found Rittenhouse, 18, not guilty of homicide and other felony charges on Friday. He had shot three men with a semiautomatic rifle, killing two of them, in August 2020 as chaotic protests played out in Kenosha, Wis. The demonstrations and riots followed the shooting of Jacob Blake, a Black man, by a white police officer, three months after a white police officer killed George Floyd in Minneapolis, setting off a fervent nationwide movement that called for racial justice and police reform.
During the trial, which ended Friday, Rittenhouse and his attorneys argued that he shot the men in self defense. Joseph Rosenbaum, 36, and Anthony Huber, 26, were killed. Gaige Grosskreutz, 26 at the time, was injured. Rittenhouse was acquitted of first-degree intentional homicide, first-degree reckless homicide, attempted first-degree intentional homicide and two counts of recklessly endangering the safety of others, according to Kenosha County court records.
https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/It-s-a-big-blow-Demonstrators-in-Oakland-16636744.php
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