Pictures| Protests across US cites against Kyle Rittenhouse verdict

Neo York (QNN)- Protests took to the streets of New York and other cities across the United States in response to jury decision to clear Kyle Rittenhouse of all charges in the killings of two people and injury of a third during an anti-racist protest in Kenosha, Wisconsin last year.

Hundreds of protesters gathered outside Brooklyn’s Barclays Center, decrying the not-guilty verdict as a shameful racial double standard in the US justice system.

In Kenosha, Wisconsin, protesters congregated outside of the courthouse where Rittenhouse had been acquitted, for hours after the decision was announced. A woman was detained for allegedly writing in chalk “Judge Schroeder must go” on the courthouse wall and steps.

Hundreds protested the verdict at several demonstrations across the US. While there were a few reports of property damage, authorities’ concerns of widespread violence or chaotic protests were not realized in the largely peaceful gatherings.

In Chicago, protesters took to the streets chanting demands for justice while carrying signs saying “Reject Racist Vigilante Terror.”

Two dozen people protested at a downtown San Diego park, CBS reported. Dozens protested in Sacramento, KCRA reported. And more than 100 people gathered in downtown Oakland, California, NBC Bay Area reported.

Rittenhouse, now 18, had faced a potential life sentence for fatally shooting two demonstrators, Joseph Rosenbaum and Anthony Huber, and wounding a third, Gaige Grosskreutz, during the mass protests on August 25, 2020.

Rittenhouse’s lawyers during the trial argued he had a right to carry the semi-automatic rifle he brought to the BLM demonstration and had acted in self-defence after being attacked, while prosecutors had said that Rittenhouse provoked the deadly violence.

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.

Kyle Rittenhouse’s verdict highlights the gun control laws

The Rittenhouse trial has once again highlighted laws restricting gun possession and use in America that varies widely by state and local jurisdiction. Often the regulations are less than precise, the product of intense legislative debate over the types of firearms covered and under what circumstances the laws apply.

A day before closing arguments in the Rittenhouse trial, Judge Bruce Schroeder ordered that one of the charges – that Rittenhouse violated a state law prohibiting a person under 18 from possessing a “dangerous weapon” – be dropped because the rifle Mr Rittenhouse was carrying wasn’t prohibited to him.

The decision turned on the length of the firearm’s barrel, which would have been prohibited if it were a few inches shorter.

Gun-control activists have cited this as yet another example of the kind of loophole that could be remedied by more uniform national gun laws.

A demonstrator calls for the removal of Judge Bruce Schroeder the Kenosha County Courthouse Monday, November 15, 2021 in Kenosha, Wis.
Mark Hoffman / Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
A demonstrator chants while marching on the street during a protest against the Kyle Rittenhouse not-guilty verdict near the Barclays Center in New York on November 19, 2021. YUKI IWAMURA/Getty Images
Kenosha resident Bill Gregory sets up his display advocating the conviction of Kyle Rittenhouse at the Kenosha County Courthouse Tuesday, November 16, 2021 in Kenosha, Wis.
Mark Hoffman, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Justin Blake, left, uncle of Jacob Blake, listens to the verdict being read outside the Kenosha County Courthouse, Friday, Nov. 19, 2021 in Kenosha, Wis. Kyle Rittenhouse was acquitted of all charges after pleading self-defense in the deadly Kenosha shootings that became a flashpoint in the nation’s debate over guns, vigilantism and racial injustice.
Paul Sancya, AP
Bishop Tavis Grant of Rainbow Push hugs Hannah Gittings, the girlfriend of Anthony Huber, after she spoke to the press after the verdict was announced in Kyle Rittenhouse’s trial on November 19, 2021 in Kenosha, Wisconsin.
Scott Olson, Getty Images
Protesters hold up a signs, Friday, Nov. 19, 2021, in Los Angeles, following the acquittal of Kyle Rittenhouse in Kenosha, Wis.
Ringo H.W. Chiu, AP
Demonstrators take a knee to have a moment of silence as the march across the Brooklyn Bridge, Friday, Nov. 19, 2021, in New York, following the acquittal of Kyle Rittenhouse in Kenosha, Wis.
Jeenah Moon, AP

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