Sat 20 November 2021:
The widely watched case stirred bitter debate across the US over racism, gun violence, and vigilantism, with several civil rights and racial justice groups denouncing Friday’s verdict as a “travesty”.
US President Joe Biden acknowledged on Friday the feelings of outrage among many Americans in the wake of Kyle Rittenhouse’s acquittal, but urged calmer heads to prevail.
Biden said he is among the “many Americans” who feel “angry and concerned” by the verdict, but said “we must acknowledge that the jury has spoken.”
“I know that we’re not going to heal our country’s wounds overnight, but I remain steadfast in my commitment to do everything in my power to ensure that every American is treated equally, with fairness and dignity, under the law,” the president said in a statement.
“I urge everyone to express their views peacefully, consistent with the rule of law. Violence and destruction of property have no place in our democracy,” he added.
The White House and other federal officials has been in contact with Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers ahead of the verdict’s announcement, and Biden said he spoke with the governor Friday afternoon to offer “support and any assistance needed to ensure public safety.”
A 12-member jury on Friday found Rittenhouse not guilty on two counts of homicide, one count of attempted homicide and two counts of recklessly endangering safety.
Rittenhouse broke down sobbing after the verdict, which came shortly after the judge warned the courtroom to remain silent or be removed.
WARNING: GRAPHIC CONTENT – Collapsing to the floor upon hearing the final verdict, Kyle Rittenhouse was acquitted on all five charges relating to his fatal shooting of two men and wounding of a third with a semi-automatic rifle https://t.co/uzXFo0GFaN pic.twitter.com/ekBYuPO9SJ
— Reuters (@Reuters) November 20, 2021
“Rittenhouse’s trial highlights an urgent need for reform for both police and the criminal legal system. The system is broken, and it desperately needs to be fixed,” Shaadie Ali, interim executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Wisconsin, said in a statement.
“The verdict in the #KyleRittenhouse case is a travesty and fails to deliver justice on behalf of those who lost their lives as they peacefully assembled to protest against police brutality and violence,” the NAACP, a racial justice advocacy group, said in a tweet.
The Congressional Black Caucus, a group of Black federal lawmakers, added: “It is unconscionable our justice system would allow an armed vigilante … to go free.”
The verdict in the #KyleRittenhouse case is a travesty and fails to deliver justice on behalf of those who lost their lives as they peacefully assembled to protest against police brutality and violence.
— NAACP (@NAACP) November 19, 2021
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) blasted the American justice system on Friday, saying that it is “protecting those it was designed for” just moments after 18-year-old Kyle Rittenhouse, who fatally shot two protesters and injured a third last year in Kenosha, Wis., was acquitted on all charges.
Ocasio-Cortez made her comments in a Twitter post, where she also expressed her sympathies to communities and families impacted by the shooting and the verdict.
What we are witnessing is a system functioning as designed and protecting those it was designed for.
My heart still breaks for the communities and families whose grief now compounds, and the countless others who will be denied and deprived in similar scenes across the country.
— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) November 19, 2021
“What we are witnessing is a system functioning as designed and protecting those it was designed for,” Ocasio-Cortez wrote.
“My heart still breaks for the communities and families whose grief now compounds, and the countless others who will be denied and deprived in similar scenes across the country,” she added.
The demonstrations came amid widespread civil unrest in US cities following the death three months earlier of George Floyd, an unarmed Black man, who was killed in Minneapolis by a white police officer.
Rittenhouse claimed he was in Kenosha to protect property from rioters and to provide medical assistance to anyone who needed it.
But the prosecution said the teenager instigated the deadly violence. Prosecutor Thomas Binger repeatedly showed the jury a drone video that he said showed Rittenhouse pointing an AR-15-style weapon at demonstrators.
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