Kyle Rittenhaus threatened the lifelong murders during the performances against racism in the United States - but the jury acquitted him

Now in the country they cannot agree: he is a hero - either a racist and a criminal

On November 19, in the city of Kenosha, Visconsin, the jury justified the 18-year-old Kyle Rittenhaus on all points of the prosecution. In August 2020, Rittenhaus killed and wounded several people during protests against a police violence that grew into riots. Conservatives celebrate the verdict as a symbol of the triumph of the right to self -defense, and the liberals believe that the court gave the country a clear signal, justifying the “white racist” and thereby urging people to take weapons and law into their own hands. At the request of Medusa, the editor of the telegram channel about the American politics One Big Union, Jan Veselov explains how the excuse for Rittenhaus once again shared the United States.

What Kyle Rittenhaus was accused of

After the murder of George Floyd in May 2020, the theme of the police violence was in the very center of public discussion in the United States. Therefore, when the first news about the use of the Police in the city of Kenosha in the state of Wisconsin appeared, all the conditions for the new surge of indignation were already ready.

On August 23, 2020, the Kenoshi police went to a call about a family conflict. Arriving at the place, they saw the 29-year-old African American Jacob Blake, who refused to fulfill their requirements. According to the police, he took out a knife, so they twice shot him from a stamper, and then seven times from a pistol. Blake survived, but for a long time was chained to a wheelchair. In January 2021, the official investigation recognized the use of force justified, and the firing police officer, the plant, returned to the performance of his duties. From Blake, all charges were removed in exchange for guilty of violation of public order.

Soon after this incident, mass protests began in Kenosha, which, with the onset of night, grew into riots and arson. Groups of volunteers appeared on social networks that planned to patrol the city to protect shops and institutions. The 17-year-old Kyle Rittenhaus decided to join one of these groups. On August 24, he came to Kenosh to his friend Dominica Black, who purchased the AR-15 rifle for him in his name.

On August 25, during the commandant’s office, they took to the streets with weapons in their hands and went to the Car Source store, whose owners allegedly asked for protection from pogroms. 15 minutes before the first shot, a police car drove past them, which offered them water. Next to the store at Rittenhaus , a conflict arose with 36-year-old Joseph Rosenbaum (according to one version, because of the burning garbage bacus that Rittenhaus tried to extinguish). Rittenhaus tried to hide, but when he heard the shot (according to the police, he shot a 35-year-old participant in the protests by Joshua Ziminski), turned around and opened fire from his rifle in Rosenbaum. Rittenhaus himself and the operator of the Daily Caller edition of the Daily Caller, Ricci Mcginnis, claim that Rosenbaum was trying to take his weapon. Soon he died of wounds.

Rittenhaus continued to run away until an unknown man who shoved him caught up with him. When he stumbled and fell, he was caught up by two: 26-year-old Anthony Hyubert and another unidentified participant in the protests. Huguber struck Rittenhaus with a skateboard, in response he opened fire and killed it on the spot with one shot in the chest. Then the 22-year-old Gage Groskraitz arrived at the scene, who took out the gun and sent it to Rittenhaus. The Groskracker was wounded in the hand with return fire.

After that, Rittenhaus ran to meet the police cordon at the end of the street. However, despite the fact that several people pointed to him as a shot, the police did not detain Rittenhaus. Later at the trial, the police PEP Moretti explained his actions as follows: when they saw Rittenhaus, weapons shots were still heard, and he himself did not give signs of the desire to surrender and simply went in the direction of the police, ignoring their demands to leave the road, for which they burst into it from the pierce spray can.

How Rittenhaus was justified

Kyle Rittenhaus surrendered to the police on August 27, and on November 20 was released, paying a bail in the amount of two million dollars , which he raised using crowdfunding on the Internet. The accusation several times tried to challenge his release after changing the address of residence without notifying the court and the appearance of the Proud Boys right -winging organization in the bar with activists.

In court, Rittenhaus was charged with five points: “Dangerous behavior”, which led to the murder of Joseph Rosenbaum, the deliberate murder of Anthony Huguber, an attempt to deliberate the Gage Groskrais and two cases of creating a threat to the operator of the conservative publication of Daily Caller, who removed what was happening, and another unaware. Rittenhaus was threatened with imprisonment up to a life sentence.

Initially, he was also charged with a non -fire article on illegal possession of dangerous weapons, for which he could receive up to 9 months of prison. But closer to the end of the process, Judge Bruce Schroeder rejected him, considering that in this case the law of Wisconsin was not applicable: after all, the text speaks only of short -barreled firearms. A friend of Rittenhaus Dominik Black, who acquired the AR-15 rifle, is now charged under a criminal article on the transfer of weapons to a minor who led to death (up to 6 years in prison).

Although Rittenhaus was 17 years old at the time of the events described, his case was considered in the usual court, since Wisconsin is one of the three states (along with Georgia and Texas), where full legal responsibility occurs from this age.

The defense sought to introduce Rittenhaus in court as dreaming of selfless to serve the society of a teenager who only wanted to protect the city and provide first aid to the victims. For the prosecution, he was an armed rifle stranger who arrived in a foreign city to provoke a conflict. The consideration of the case on the merits took less than two weeks, and the jury was required in a total of about 24 hours for three and a half weeks to pronounce an acquittal that was not subject to appeal.

Critics, even before the end of the process, claimed that the presiding judge Bruce Schroeder was not objective and allegedly plays along with the side of defense. They pay attention to the fact that the judge allowed Rittenhaus himself to choose 12 jury , which should consider his case. And also often bought with the prosecutor, decided that the parties should not use the term “victims” in relation to the dead and wounded, and did not attach a video to the case in which Rittenhaus says that he would like to shoot participants in the riots.

Pretty dubious arguments were also given - like the fact that the judge has the same song that Donald Trump uses before the performances on the Rington.

Despite the excitement in the media, we were in many ways waiting . In cases related to self -defense, it is on the charges that the burden of the evidence lies that the client was the initiator of the conflict (the position of the prosecutor in the Rittenhaus case was built on the fact that others could perceive it as a threat). And although the viskonsin does not adopt the legal doctrine of Stand Your Ground , the existing standards there are far from the principle of Duty To Retreat and allow us to resort to self -defense in the event of a threat of life and health - even if possible to retreat. Also, unlike many states where a violation of the law or provocation of violence deprives a person of legal right to self -defense, in Wisconsin and such self -defense is possible if all alternatives are exhausted to it.

But this case demonstrates well how such an approach does not combine with the principles of the right to carry weapons. All the defendants in the case were on Kenoshi's streets in violation of the commandant’s office, declared by the sheriff of the district due to riots. Two of them (Rittenhaus, according to the prosecutor, and the Groskracker) illegally owned or carried firearms with them. After the shots were first heard, everyone found themselves in a situation of a peculiar “war of all against all”, and, as the party to the prosecution tried to prove, the Groskrais and Huguber also had every reason to fear for their lives and based on this to have the right to self -defense. The position of the prosecution as a whole was reduced to the traditional argument of supporters of the free weapon: the armed Groskrac -toe tried to stop the armed criminal in the person of Rittenhaus.

Unlike the criminal process, in the civilian standard, guilty evidence is slightly lower, therefore it is possible that Rittenhaus will again appear before the court. In August 2021, the family of the murdered Anthony Huguber filed a civil lawsuit against the leadership of the Kenoshi police, which they accuse of a criminal collusion with armed groups of right -wing activists.

And what's next?

The Rittenhaus case is a clear example of how the trial turns into a nationwide political show in which the defendant simultaneously played the role of a cruel villain and ready to sacrifice himself a hero. Being firmly inscribed in the narrative of the confrontation between American right and left, conservatives and liberals, Republicans and Democrats, this case in the United States is perceived as a kind of revenge after another no less scandalous and media case from Minneapolis Derek Shovin , who was convicted of the murder of George Floyd for 22.5 years of prison.

A significant role in this was played by the American press and television channels. This is most clearly seen in the example of opposing cable TV poles. On the Liberal MSNBC, commentators called for the divert of the judge, and the process itself was called "the superiority of the white race on steroids." The right -conservatory Fox News said that “the left -wing people declared war on white people,” and the most popular leading channel Tucker Carlson announced the shooting of a documentary about Rittenhaus during the process (the accused’s lawyer Mark Richard said he opposed these filming). Kyle Rittenhaus himself, after the announcement of the acquittal, came to the studio to Karlson, where he said that he was not a racist and even supports the BLM movement.

The conflict of several white Americans was so painted as a purely American racial problem that a number of foreign publications decided by the default that Rittenhaus was accused of killing several African Americans. This was written, for example, the British newspaper The Independent , the Dutch De Telegraaf , as well as the Brazilian Jornal O Globo and Folha de Sao Paolo .

Fuel and American politicians added to the flared conflict. On the right, the Republican Congressman Paul Gosar (whom Congress recently officially condemned for anime-Rolik, where he kills the democrat of Alexandria Okasio-Cortes) suggested that Rittenhaus medal for courage. And his colleagues Madison Coutorn and Matt Gaitz offered Rittenhaus the position of assistant in Congress.

On the left of the Congressman-Democrat Jerry Nadler demanded that the Federal Ministry of Justice intervene in the case, and his colleague Corey Bush called Rittenhaus "a supporter of the superiority of the White Race." Joe Biden, who similarly characterized Rittenhaus in 2020, when he was still presidential candidate, this time called on the country to accept the jury verdict and protest exclusively peacefully.

And if in Kenosha herself, where, on the orders of the Democrat of Tony Ivers, 500 military personnel of the National Guard were located , there were no clashes, then in Portland and New York the protesters applied force to the police. Peaceful protests took place in Chicago, Los Angeles and North Carolina

Although Kyle Rittenhaus managed to win the jury, from the point of view of public opinion, the picture is much less unambiguous. A few days before the sentencing, the sociological company YouGov conducted a survey dedicated to the process. According to him, only 22% of respondents believed that Rittenhaus would be convicted, and 41% was confident in the opposite. And among those who followed the process - 18 and 57%, respectively. But at the same time, 45% believed that it should be convicted, and 32% - justified (50 and 42% among the details of the details of the case).

The case of Kyle Rittenhaus once again split American society. Some see in its acquittal verdict the triumph of the law and a demonstration of the fundamental right to self -defense, others are a symbol of systemic racism of the American legal system. They will resort to him more than once as an argument in the next discussions on the issues of race, firearms, the work of the police and ships. In the near future, such discussions should be expected around the process of the murder of Ahmad Arberi , which is accused of three residents of Georgia. And the USConservative Supreme Court is preparing to consider the constitutionality of the New York state on permission to hide the wearing of pistols, which can lead to further liberalization of weapons legislation.

Yan Big Union ( One Big Union )