Riots Break out Nationwide After Rittenhouse, 18, Cleared on all Counts

By Yehudit Garmaise

As expected, the complete acquittal 18-year-old Kyle Rittenhouse, who killed two white men and injured white man on Aug. 2020 in Kenosha, Wisc., has sparked protests in cities across the country: from Los Angeles, Portland, Chicago, and New York City, and seems to have reignited the anti-police and socialist and communist movements and sentiments that were raging at the time of Rittenhouse’s arrest.

Like in many other cities, protestors in Chicago chanted and held signs that read, "A Communist Revolution is the only solution," as if Communism promotes less violent policing.

In fact, Rittenhouse was arrested after he claimed to be protected the small businesses that were being demolished in “protest” after Jacob Blake was shot seven times by a police officer in Kenosha. 

On Friday, before the jury issued a unanimous non-guilty verdict on all charges, the defense claimed everyone Rittenhouse killed or injured “was trying to attack Kyle,” the prosecution and many Americans wondered why a then-17-year-old was marching around his hometown with an AR-15, semi-automatic rifle: with a wild look in his eye.

He was protecting local businesses, Rittenhouse said.

Indeed, just as anti-police protested destroyed countless public and private property nationwide that summer, in Kenosha that night, rioters destroyed $2 million worth of city property, such as garbage trucks, streetlights, and traffic signals. 

The Kenosha Area Business Alliance estimated that the rioters wrought $50 million in damage to private property, when they destroyed 40 buildings, damaged 100 more, and burned down a 100-year-old lodge.

On Friday night, approximately 300 protesters, holding signs like “Communism is the only answer,” gathered outside Brooklyn’s Barclays Center to march across the Brooklyn Bridge and decry the not-guilty verdict as a shameful racial double standard in the justice system.

“Although Kyle Rittenhouse did not kill a black person, he was able to kill white [men] and walk free,” one protester said.

In Queens, after a night of protesting, in which police recovered a hatchet, an axe, black spray paint, and a graffiti marker, at least five men are facing multiple charges including Riot, Obstructing Governmental Administration, Unlawful Assembly, and Pedestrian Walks in Roadway.

Queens Councilman Robert Holden blamed Mayor Bill de Blasio’s refusal to accept the non-guilty verdict for the many people in his borough who were “jumping on cars and stealing American flags” on residential streets in his borough.