Protesters retrace Kyle Rittenhouse’s path in march denouncing his acquittal
Dozens of protesters turned out in Kenosha, Wis. on Sunday for a march retracing the route taken by teenager Kyle Rittenhouse on the night he fatally shot two protesters and wounded another last year, the Associated Press reported.
A jury on Friday found Rittenhouse not guilty on all five counts related to the shooting, sparking protests against the verdict in cities across the country.
“This is a sad day and sad moment in American history,” Bishop Tavis Grant of the Rainbow PUSH Coalition said during the demonstration in Kenosha on Sunday. “We never had a situation of this egregious and this injurious to so many Americans around the country. This verdict, it gives way and validates vigilante justice.”
“It is wrong in a land of laws for any individual to shoot three people and kill two of them in a peaceful protest where people are exercising their First Amendment right of freedom of speech and the right to publicly protest in peace,” he added.
The fiancee of Joseph “Jojo” Rosenbaum, one of the two protesters fatally shot by Rittenhouse last year during protests agains the police shooting of Jacob Blake, said the verdict gave her and others no sense of closure.
“The biggest thing that I want to say is that it feels like just these men that died — that their lives do not matter and they do matter. There are loved ones that are left behind that are grieving them right now. And we have no closure to that, none whatsoever,” Kariann Swart said Sunday.
“So I’m just asking that everybody please remember their names. Please remember their names because Jojo and Anthony meant something to people, and they’re gone.”
Jacob Blake’s uncle, Justin Blake, also spoke during the demonstrations.
Rev. Jesse Jackson was expected to attend the rally but was ultimately unable to attend, organizers said.
Cities from Portland to New York City to Chicago saw protesting against the verdict.
While conservatives lauded the decision for upholding gun rights, it was criticized by civil rights advocates and Democrats who said it endorsed vigilante justice.