Kyle Rittenhouse faces right-wing outrage after saying he supports Black Lives Matter

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Kyle Rittenhouse, a young man proven innocent after shooting two people and injuring a third, is facing a backlash of anger, anger and disbelief from members of the political right, after he said he was not a racist and pro-Black Lives Matter. .

In the weeks after the 17-year-old was arrested and charged after shooting the three people amid racial justice protests in August 2020 – he has always insisted he acted in self-defense – the young man has become a champion for gun rights activists and others who have supported Laws like “Stand on your land”.

While the teenager was not a member of groups like the Proud Boys, he was once photographed with some of their members – an image that a jury was forbidden to see after a ruling by a trial judge – the organization and others supported his case and raised money for his legal defense.

But after Mr. Rittenhouse spoke to Fox News’ Tucker Carlson and insisted he supported the BLM movement and was not a racist, many of those who had previously supported him were quick to denounce him or worse.

“F*** jee idiot. We shouldn’t support him anymore. This should be his blm friends’ business, he’s a traitor of the right,” wrote one poster, SofaBear, on Gettr, the conservative social media platform popular with conservatives founded by Jason Miller, aide Former Donald Trump.

A person posting on Twitter, using the “SkinMask Pure Blood” avatar, wrote: “Rittenhouse supports BLM. I don’t support him, we were cheated from the start.”

Andrew Anglin, editor of the neo-Nazi and white supremacist website The Daily Stormer, which allegedly took its title from the Nazi propaganda newspaper Der Stürmer, wrote: “If he seems too nice to blacks, we must remember that he is a teenager of a single mother who now faces nonstop death threats.” .

He added, “The media has focused on the fact that he said he ‘supports the BLM’. They are talking about this to try to demoralize the right-wingers. He didn’t really say he supported the BLM agenda, he just said he supported their right to protest.”

The range of reactions, as compiled by news sites such as the Daily Dot, ranged from anger to disbelief. The consistent theme was that if Mr. Rittenhouse had expressed support for the racial justice movement earlier, they would not have supported him.

Commentators said the responses highlighted the way he has drawn reaction to the case, and how Mr Rittenhouse has come to be viewed in very different ways depending on people’s political perspective. For some he was a hero, for others – as the prosecution claimed – a “wishful soldier” who went out in search of trouble.

Jared Holt, a former reporter for the Right Wing Watch and a fellow at the Atlantic Council’s Digital Forensic Research Laboratory, has been watching the view of Rittenhouse’s shootings, and his subsequent trial, by various groups.

He said the fatal shootings came at the end of a tense summer and as the nation was preparing for a presidential election.

“I think it became a very effective way for other things that people felt they were going through,” he told The Independent. “It has become kind of a bright spot in a broader narrative.”

This helped, he said, because there was plenty of live video footage of Mr. Rittenhouse’s shootings, and the events of that day, that enabled it to go viral.

In the interview, Mr. Rittenhouse said President Joe Biden had tarnished his reputation when last year he called him a “white supremacist.”

“Mr. President, if I can tell you one thing, I would urge you to go back and watch the trial and understand the facts before making a statement,” said Mr. Rittenhouse.

Mr Carlson suggested it was “no small thing to call that”.

‘No.’ answered Mr. Ritttenhouse: ‘It is an actual malice, to discredit my character, to say such a thing.’

The young man had traveled 20 miles from his home in Illinois to Kenosha, Wisconsin, last year, after protests erupted after police shootings and seriously wounding black suspect Jacob Blake.

Armed with an AR semi-automatic rifle, Mr. Rittenhouse joined others who said they were determined to protect private property from potential damage on August 25, 2020.

During that evening, he shot three people, all white, two of whom died of their wounds. He said he acted in self-defense and the jury unanimously agreed when it acquitted him of a series of five counts, the most serious of which was first-degree murder.

Central Florida’s reaction to Kyle Rittenhouse’s ruling

“This case has nothing to do with race. It had nothing to do with race,” he said in the interview broadcast on Monday night. “It is about the right to self-defense.”

“I thought they made the right verdict because Kyle Rittenhouse wasn’t on trial in Wisconsin — it was a right of self-defense at trial. And if I was convicted… no one would have the privilege to defend their lives against the attackers.”

He also criticized two conservative lawyers, John Pearce and Lynne Wood, who initially represented him and raised $2 million for bail. He said they used it to promote a “cause”.

“Lynn Wood was collecting money on my behalf, and he held me in prison for 87 days, disrespecting my wishes,” he said.

Mr. Wood denied this claim. “I wasn’t a lawyer pushing for a case,” Wood told reporters. “Fightback has a mission that includes the right to bear arms and self-defense.”

Mr. Rittenhouse’s appearance came after the jury found him not guilty on all counts

(AFP)

Additional reporting by The Associated Press

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