The arrest of a teenager on charges of killing two people in clashes in this city over the shooting of a Black man by the police has rekindled the nation’s culture wars and presented an incendiary challenge to the election campaign. of President Trump.
Kyle Rittenhouse, 17, a white teenager who has often praised the police, is accused of murder in what officials describe as a guard act that resulted in three Protestants being shot, two dead, late Tuesday night. After the incident, onlookers warned police that Rittenhouse – who was a minor and was not allowed to carry a weapon openly – was walking down the street with a semi-automatic rifle slung around his neck.
Since his arrest Wednesday across the border in Antioch, Ill., Details have surfaced that Rittenhouse posted on social media in support of the pro-police Blue Lives Matter movement. He spoke to journalists before the shooting about a self-styled civilian patrol that came to Kenosha to protect businesses from vandalism.
He appears in photos at a Trump rally this year in Des Moines. A TikTok video from the account @ kylerittenhouse33, first reported by BuzzFeed and later deleted, appeared to show Rittenhouse’s recording of the rally. The account had the bio of “BLUE LIVES MATTER” and “Trump 2020.”
Protesters pull back tear gas from Kenosha County Courthouse.
(Getty Images)
Rittenhouse’s alleged actions coincide with this week’s Republican National Convention, where the president’s campaign promise of ‘law and order’ is a dominant theme. Speakers warned this week about “crime, violence, bullying” and spiraling “chaos and violence in our communities.”
Those warnings were largely directed at nationwide protests that erupted after death at police hands of George Floyd nearly three months ago in Minneapolis. Trump has portrayed liberal cities as overrun with anti-police liberals close to violence. Rittenhouse complicates that story, even as it springs from demonstrations against another episode of alleged police brutality and racial injustice.
Jacob Blake, the 29-year-old Black man Kenosha police officer shot dead on Sunday – seven times in the back as he tried to enter an SUV where his three children were sitting – was lying paralyzed in the hospital when the city fourth night of unrest ensued, with authorities saying Wednesday he had a knife in his car but no gun. The incident happened when police responded to a domestic dispute.
Late Wednesday, the Trump campaign released a statement about the shooting in which Rittenhouse is accused.
“President Trump has repeatedly and consistently condemned all forms of violence and believes we must protect all Americans from chaos and lawlessness,” said campaign spokesman Tim Murtaugh. “This individual had nothing to do with our campaign and we fully support our fantastic legal action for their prompt action in this case.”
Officials in Kenosha, a majority white city of 100,000, said they were unprepared and unaware of successive nights of up to 1,000 people protesting, some of whom were violent and businesses burned and charred in the Uptown business district of Kenosha.
Democratic Gov. Tony Evers accepted the president’s offer to send members of the National Guard and federal law enforcement to the city, after initially refusing to do so. The governor said troops are strengthening the Wisconsin National Guard and patrolling local downtown streets. Roads are barricaded and the province’s courthouse, the main site of demonstration clashes, is surrounded by a fence.
Democrats have accused the president of inciting violence by sending federal forces to cities experiencing unrest, such as Portland, Ore., Where city officials said they did not want the presence of troops. Especially this summer, one of Trump’s tweets has been uttered. After riots in Minneapolis, he wrote “when the looting begins, the shooting begins.” The term dates back to the 1960s, when it was used to describe police allegations against Black civil rights activists.
A building is burning in Kenosha.
(Morry Gash / Associated Press)
“My heart breaks for the families and loved ones of the two people who lost their lives and the individual who was injured last night in Kenosha,” Evers said in a statement. “We as a state mourn this tragedy.” The governor called the protests in Kenosha a reflection of the “pain, anguish and exhaustion of Black people in our state and country.”
Kenosha Mayor John Antaramian said Wednesday that a 7-hour clock was extended by at least Sunday, setting off shock to the state of his city. “I’m not good at this,” said the Democrat, who was mayor from 1992 to 2008 and re-elected in 2016. “I have been mayor for a long time. This I’m not used to. ”
Police Chief Daniel Miskinis and Sheriff David Beth said they believed gunmen, possibly members of militia groups, were behind some of the violence. “I do not want violence, no matter which side of each case you are on,” Miskinis said.
In Uptown Kenosha, a rapidly developing business district on the shores of Lake Michigan over the years, store owners, some of their supporters and participants in the protests, stepped up on Wednesday afternoon or guarded their doors after they in the ash heap were driving from a Mexican restaurant, furniture store and used car dealership that had burned down.
‘I grew up here, and I know most of the people who protest. However, I recognize a lot of these people out there, and I wonder where they come from, ‘said Alvin Owens, a black community organizer who recently opened a barber shop and teen care center off Sheridan Road, a major north-south street in the heart of much of the unrest.
When tear gas fills the air, police try to push protesters back.
(Scott Olson / Getty Images)
“I’m in pain for Blake and his family, and there’s no way you can watch the video of cops shooting him and think it’s OK,” Owens, 55, said. “even was and protested – pepper sprayed one night, tear-gassed the other, I’m also worried about police tactics. But Black Kenosha loves her city, and we do not have to destroy our own inner city.”
Joseph Centeno, who two years ago moved his pet supply store, K-9 Kibble, to a now scorched stretch of Sheridan Road, said he was “praying” for peace. ‘I do not want to lose focus here, the incident with Mr Blake is tragic. I pray that he heals and the family gets better. But I think there is an opportunity for the principles of Black Lives Matter to move forward positively. ”
The U.S. Justice Department has opened a civil investigation into Blake’s shooting. Wisconsin law enforcement agencies on Wednesday released more details in the Blake case and about the shooting in which Rittenhouse is charged.
The people who died Tuesday, in an area near a gas station where protesters gathered after police dispersed in front of the county courthouse, were a 26-year-old from Silver Lake, Wis., And a 36-year-old -year-old from Kenosha.
Of the three officers now on leave as the Wisconsin Department of Justice investigates Blake’s shooting, the department identified the one who shot him as Rusten Sheskey, who has been in power for seven years. In a statement, the department said police were called to a home Sunday after a woman said her “friend was present and should not have been on the scene.”
Kenosha police do not have cameras on, but the statement is consistent with what is seen on videos of bystanders, in which police show Blake trying to arrest him before he runs to his car door, opens it and is shot in the back after Sheskey grabs him by his tank top. Blake falls on the horn of the car, which goes continuously. The State Justice Department said police arrested Taser Blake before the shooting, which “was unsuccessful in stopping Blake.”
Blake’s lawyer, Benjamin Crump, said Blake “simply tried to do the right thing by intervening in a domestic incident” and described the officers as “irresponsible, reckless and inhumane”. Crump, who represented the families of several other black men who were shot or arrested by police, including Floyd, said Blake’s sons, ages 3, 5 and 8, were in the car when police shot him. .
The State Justice Department said it will release its report on the shooting to the district attorney, who will decide when the prosecutors press, next month.
Kaleem reported from Kenosha and Megerian from Washington.
