**UPDATE HAPPENING TODAY 11/19 AT 6PM**
Kyle Rittenhouse has been found “not guilty” today on all 5 counts. This is an outrage! This adds yet another chapter to the violent, racist history of the US judicial system. Rittenhouse took a loaded AR-15 to a protest looking for a fight. He murdered two people, seriously wounded a third, and now the racist judicial system has absolved him of his crimes.
Since the beginning the state has worked hand-in-hand with Rittenhouse and those like him. On that night in Kenosha, cops offered him water, and thanked him and other armed reactionaries for what they were doing. Even after killing two people and walking with a rifle, they initially refused to arrest him. It is sadly no surprise that this complicity continues with the conduct of Judge Schroeder who showed his biases from day one by excluding key pieces of evidence and blatantly siding with the defense at every turn.
Since the murder, right wing and fascist forces have tried to paint Rittenhouse’s actions as self defense, even though he was clearly out for blood. This creates a dangerous precedent as right wing and fascist mobs will feel more emboldened than ever to attack peaceful protestors fighting for social and racial justice. This isn’t just charges being dropped on a fascist gunman, it’s an attack on the right to protest itself. It’s meant to intimidate people from demanding social, racial and economic justice. This case demonstrates the clear motivation of our political system to repress our rights to political speech by allowing gun-toting fascists free reign to murder protesters in cold blood. This comes at a time when state legislatures throughout the country are passing laws allowing the right wing to murder protesters with their vehicles in clear mirror of the murder of Heather Heyer in Charlottesville just 4 years ago.
The ruling class, the capitalist class, understands in the wake of the George Floyd uprisings that the people united against racism and fascism pose the strongest threat to their system and their profits. Today the people say GUILTY and are demanding an end to this racist, capitalist system that is allowing Rittenhouse to walk. This verdict is unacceptable. Showing up to protests looking to start fights and murder people is unacceptable. Everyone who believes in opposing racism, police terror, and fascism should join us in the streets, join an organization, and continue to build a mass movement to demand an end to this racist capitalist system! No justice, no peace!