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Kyle Rittenhouse Didn't Act Alone: Law Enforcement Must Be Held Accountable
The massive show of force from 40 law enforcement agencies in Kenosha didn’t make anyone safer.
Nov 21, 2021
For two weeks, we've heard trial testimony and seen evidence of the events that occurred on August 25, 2020 -- the night that Kyle Rittenhouse shot and killed two people and injured another during a Black Lives Matter protest in Kenosha, Wisconsin. While Rittenhouse was not held accountable, he was not the only one whose conduct on that deadly night should be scrutinized. The actions -- and inaction -- of the Kenosha Police Department and the Kenosha County Sheriff's Department in the preceding 72 hours played a critical part in the tragic events that took place.
As we reflect on that night, we must remember what ignited these protests. Two months after the murder of George Floyd, on August 23, 2020, Kenosha Police shot a Black man, Jacob Blake, in the back multiple times, paralyzing him. Faced with this latest manifestation of law enforcement's systemic mistreatment and disregard for the lives of Black and Brown people, people took to the streets of Kenosha. Kenosha County Sheriff David Beth oversaw law enforcement's response to these protests, including the coordination of over 40 local, state, and federal agencies.
The day after Kenosha Police shot Mr. Blake, former city alderman and self-proclaimed commander of the Kenosha Guard Kevin Mathewson wrote a racially charged "call to action" inviting armed civilians to protect Kenosha from "evil thugs" the following day. The comments on his Facebook invitation, corresponding Reddit threads, and Infowars degenerated into racist threats to kill and maim protestors.
On the night of August 25, law enforcement not only failed to protect protestors calling for police accountability and more humane treatment of Black people, but actively put them in harm's way. Officers enabled and encouraged predominantly white, right-wing armed civilians and militia groups that night, creating a situation in which tensions escalated and people were killed.
Following the violence in Kenosha, an investigative team at the ACLU filed approximately 40 public records requests to local, state, and federal law enforcement agencies; reviewed more than 800 records and 50 hours of video footage; and conducted over 40 in-depth interviews with community members to better understand what happened in Kenosha and how we can avoid these tragedies in the future. Here is what we found:
Kenosha law enforcement was aware of the threats that these armed civilians and militia groups posed to protestors exercising their First Amendment rights. Mathewson asked Sheriff Beth and Kenosha Police Chief David Miskinis to deputize these armed civilians and militia groups, noting that more than 3,000 people accepted the online invitation to "protect" the city. In addition to this correspondence, community members in Kenosha contacted law enforcement with concerns for their safety after reading this online vitriol. Meanwhile, the Department of Homeland Security told local law enforcement that the Boogaloo Bois, a right-wing group with a history of violence, were planning an event in Kenosha on August 24. The Federal Bureau of Investigation also warned that the conflicting ideologies of protestors and these armed civilians and militia groups could "potentially be a flashpoint for violence" the next day.
Despite the obvious safety threats, law enforcement embraced the incendiary presence of armed civilians and militia groups. In a widely seen video, law enforcement thanked and even offered water to the armed civilians and militia groups attending the protests, as they instructed those protesting police brutality to leave. In text messages retrieved through our public records requests, after someone circulated a video of the Rittenhouse shootings, a Waukesha County Sheriff's Department officer commented "nice video" in a message to colleagues and added that he was "[l]istening to gunfire. Such a nice night."
In fact, it appears Kenosha law enforcement coordinated an effort to push protestors south on Sheridan Road, towards armed civilians and militia groups. Ryan Thomas Balch, an armed civilian affiliated with the Boogaloo Bois, was recorded saying on the night of the shootings, "Do you know what the cops told us today? They were like, 'We're gonna push them down by you, because you can deal with them, and then we're gonna leave.'" In an August 26, 2020 written statement, Balch added, "K[enosha] P[olice] D[epartment] made a conscious decision to abandon the people of Kenosha to people they felt justified in using machines and weapons of war against. And were going to piss them off and drive them at us and let the chips fall where they may."
The Kenosha County Sheriff's Department, led by Sheriff Beth, commanded law enforcement agencies to clear Civic Center Park and push protestors south towards the danger that lay multiple blocks from the park at the intersection of 60th and Sheridan. Multiple law enforcement officers documented their knowledge that armed civilians and militia members were concentrated in that direction, near 60th and Sheridan. Officers from various law enforcement agencies described the use of armored vehicles, foam bullets, tear gas, and flash bangs to herd protestors from the park toward the intersection, and to prevent the return of protestors to the park. After pushing the protestors south for over an hour, Kenosha law enforcement took a strategically timed break, consistent with Balch's description. These efforts were well documented in the records our investigative team obtained:
- 9:43 pm: The Kenosha County Sheriff's Department documented "gas being deployed in front of the courthouse, goal to push crowd south."
- 10:32 pm: Kenosha Police Department dispatched patrol to 58th and 8th to "keep crowd moving south on Sheridan."
- 10:40 pm: Three bearcats moved south from 56th on Sheridan.
- 10:44 pm: Law enforcement continued to push protestors down the road.
- 10:57 pm: Law enforcement took a break.
- 11:12 pm: The Waukesha County Sheriff's Department reported that protestors "have been pushed south and we are holding our position at the park."
- 11:40 pm: Bearcats from Racine, Walworth, Waukesha, and Sauk Counties held protestors at 60th and Sheridan, and noted a loud crowd at the gas station.
- 11:44 pm: An Oneida County bearcat moved to 60th and Sheridan.
- 11:50 pm: Rittenhouse shootings begin at 63rd and Sheridan.
The West Allis Police Department also described its actions:
At the request of tactical command, the armored vehicles and crowd control [o]fficers would direct the protestors south and hold or move the protestors south and back away north. Tactical command requested several times for this process to occur which led to the protestors being directed as far south as 60th St. & Sheridan.
Three important lessons emerge from this tragedy.
First, entrenched racism contributed to the events that unfolded. Make no mistake, the shooting of Jacob Blake and the related protests and fatalities stem from the deep-seated white supremacy that pervades our criminal legal system. Police officers brutalizing people of color who are protesting that very brutality and leaving people of color and their supporters at the mercy of armed white vigilantes is a pattern that recalls the origin of American police in slave patrols. These patrols sought to capture and return formerly enslaved people to the violence of enslavement, and their later connections to white supremacist agitation during the Civil Rights movement are echoed in the violence seen in Kenosha. In today's world, Black and Brown people are not only targeted by police and frequently treated as presumptively guilty, but white people brandishing weapons of war are given the benefit of the doubt and even encouraged by officers of those same police agencies.
Second, law enforcement must not be permitted to weaponize the presence of armed civilians and militia. Jacob Blake's shooting and the subsequent tragic, fatal shootings by Rittenhouse should usher in a significant wave of change, not only in Wisconsin but across the nation. Kenosha is not even the latest example of this pattern of police ignoring (at best) or facilitating (at worst) white mob violence: Following the January 6 insurrection, it was revealed that over 30 off-duty police officers attended the rally, and several joined the mob that stormed the Capitol. We must reexamine the roles and powers of police in American society, and listen to the communities of color in Kenosha and elsewhere that are calling for new approaches to public safety that protect all people, regardless of the color of their skin.
Finally, more officers and weapons do not increase safety. Law enforcement should play no role in protests, unless it is to protect our First Amendment rights, and they should not use violence to control the crowd or silence those they disagree with. Beyond the context of protests, there is little evidence that police effectively prevent or reduce violence, while there are many alternatives to policing that do make communities safer.
As our investigation illustrates, approximately 40 local, state, and federal law enforcement agencies responded to the protests in Kenosha, utilizing various forms of force against protestors. This massive show of force failed to keep people safe -- and in fact facilitated grave harm by pushing protesters into close proximity with Kyle Rittenhouse and other armed white civilians. The violence that night is a further reminder that well-resourced law enforcement agencies are failing to protect and even harming the communities they are sworn to serve. It's time to acknowledge this failure and invest in measures that actually keep communities safe.
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'Saddening, Infuriating, and Utterly Unsurprising': Rittenhouse Acquitted
The verdict, said the Huber family, sends the "unacceptable message" that armed vigilantes can "use the danger they have created to justify shooting people in the street."
Nov 19, 2021
Racial justice advocates reacted with outrage and a complete lack of surprise Friday after a Kenosha, Wisconsin jury found Illinois teenager Kyle Rittenhouse not guilty on all charges for killing two men and wounding a third during a 2020 protest against the police shooting of Jacob Blake, with some observers asserting that the verdict encourages vigilante attacks on protestors.
"Judge Bruce Schroeder presented a case study in how the judiciary upholds systems of white supremacy. And he's no anomaly."
Rejecting the prosecution's assertion that "you cannot claim self-defense against a danger you create," the nearly all-white jury acquitted Rittenhouse, who was 17 years old when he shot and killed Anthony Huber and Joseph Rosenbaum and wounded Gaige Grosskreutz with an AR-15-style semiautomatic rifle on August 25, 2020.
"We are heartbroken and angry that Kyle Rittenhouse was acquitted in his criminal trial for the murder of our son Anthony Huber," the slain 26-year-old's family said in a statement. "There was no justice today for Anthony, or for Mr. Rittenhouse's other victims."
"Today's verdict means there is no accountability for the person who murdered our son," the statement continued. "It sends the unacceptable message that armed civilians can show up in any town, incite violence, and then use the danger they have created to justify shooting people in the street."
Speaking outside the Kenosha County Courthouse after the verdict, Justin Blake, Jacob Blake's uncle, contended that "from day one, the judge had his hand on the scale."
"He didn't allow pictures. He didn't allow videotapes. He didn't allow. He didn't allow. He didn't allow," he said. "He was doing everything he could to allow this young man to leave the courtroom clear and free. It put blinds on the eyes of the jurors, and maybe because he did it, they didn't see the evidence how they could have seen it."
"He was doing everything he could to allow this young man to leave the courtroom clear and free," Blake added.
\u201cThinking about Tamir Rice, Tyre King, Ma\u2019khia Bryant, Trayvon Martin, Mike Brown, and so many others who didn\u2019t have the opportunity to \u2018defend\u2019 themselves.\n\nDon\u2019t tell me the system isn\u2019t racist.\u201d— Nina Turner (@Nina Turner) 1637350177
The Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence said it could "not forget the root of this issue."
"Kyle Rittenhouse murdered two people during protests against the police shooting of Jacob Blake," the group continued, referring to the Black man shot seven times in the back and paralyzed by Kenosha cop Rusten Sheskey. No charges were filed against Sheskey, who remains an officer today.
"Jacob Blake has yet to receive justice," Brady Center added. "We must continue to fight America's systemic racism, which fuels police violence and white vigilantism."
\u201cPolice shot Jacob Blake seven times in the back, leaving him paralyzed. The cop hasn't been held accountable\n\nKyle Rittenhouse illegally carried a rifle, killed protestors & wasn't arrested for shooting until he was in Illinois. He was found not guilty.\n\nThis is white supremacy.\u201d— RootsAction (@RootsAction) 1637346798
Stosh Cotler, CEO of Bend the Arc: Jewish Action, said in a statement that "Rittenhouse's acquittal shows how the criminal justice system is designed to protect racist vigilantism."
"When Rittenhouse went to Kenosha last year he was continuing a long and ugly history in this country of white supremacists responding to multiracial movements for justice and civil rights with violence, and then claiming to be the victim," Cotler asserted.
"We saw this truth from the moment police allowed him to leave the scene after killing two people," he added, as well as "his brutal actions championed by politicians and pundits who routinely manufacture fear and division in order to hold onto power."
The Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) said in a statement that the verdict "is saddening, infuriating, and utterly unsurprising."
"It came at the end of a trial in which Judge Bruce Schroeder went out of his way to favor Rittenhouse in ways that would have been inconceivable were the defendant a Black person who had taken a semi-automatic rifle to a protest and killed two people," the group argued.
\u201cTravyon Martin was an unarmed 17-year-old kid. He was killed carrying a bag of skittles. The right-wing called him a threat. \n\nKyle Rittenhouse was 17 years old and armed. He shot and killed 2 people with an AR-15. The right-wing calls him a hero.\u201d— Public Citizen (@Public Citizen) 1637346060
CCR continued:
After an aspiring militia leader invited "patriots" to combat "evil thugs," Rittenhouse, an Illinois, resident, was one of a group of heavily armed, pro-police paramilitaries who descended on the protests in Kenosha and to whom the local police provided their gratitude, support and encouragement.
Not surprisingly, Rittenhouse, with his link to the Proud Boys, has become a hero to white nationalists and many on the right. His racist vigilantism adds him to a long line of racist vigilantes, including George Zimmerman--Trayvon Martin's killer--and the three white men now on trial in Georgia for killing Ahmaud Arbery. Their actions are set against the backdrop of ongoing law-enforcement targeting and surveillance of Black-led organizing.
The People's City Council of Los Angeles said "white supremacy will do whatever it can to protect itself. Kyle Rittenhouse getting off should surprise no one."
"America is a racist, anti-Black country," the group added. "White supremacists around the country will now be emboldened to hunt down protestors."
\u201cRittenhouse being acquitted of all charges is a sickening travesty of justice & reminder that all of capitalism's institutions are complicit in this racist, murderous system that's exploitative of the vast majority. We'll need powerful mass movements uniting the working class.\u201d— Kshama Sawant (@Kshama Sawant) 1637348310
Rashad Robinson, president of the racial justice group Color of Change, said in a statement that "Kyle Rittenhouse's acquittal doesn't just add insult to injury in this horrific case, it sends a dangerous and twisted message about how the legal system coddles white defendants accused of unconscionable crimes."
"For too long, the system--judges, lawyers, police officers--has accepted this as the norm, but we cannot tolerate this kind of negligence anymore; it's literally killing us," he continued. "Throughout the trial, we've seen the structural inequities within the legal system on full display."
"From dismissing the underage weapons charge to politicizing the straightforward facts of Rittenhouse's case, Kenosha County Judge Bruce Schroeder presented a case study in how the judiciary upholds systems of white supremacy," Robinson added. "And he's no anomaly. His behavior underscores how the entire legal apparatus perpetuates the existence of two criminal justice systems: one for white people and another for Black people."
\u201cThis verdict demonstrates that our work to make our legal system equal, fair, and just is more urgent than ever.\n\nProsecutors have a critical role to play in criminal justice reform and securing equal justice under the law. \n\nWe will continue our fight for justice.\u201d— Chesa Boudin \u535a\u5fb9\u601d (@Chesa Boudin \u535a\u5fb9\u601d) 1637348598
U.S. Rep. Adriano Espaillat (D-N.Y.) tweeted: "Kyle Rittenhouse is living proof that white tears can still forestall justice. A murderer is once again walking free today--our system is terribly broken."
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Bond Modification Sought After Alleged Kenosha Killer Kyle Rittenhouse Drinks Beer, Flashes White Power Signs With So-Called 'Proud Boys'
"The defendant's continued association with members of a group that prides itself on violence, and the use of their symbols, raises the significant possibility of future harm."
Jan 13, 2021
Criminal justice reform advocates on Thursday reaffirmed calls for cash bail reform following reports that Kyle Rittenhouse, the alleged killer of two people in Kenosha, Wisconsin last August, was recently spotted drinking in a bar and flashing white power signs with men who local prosecutors said in a court filing were neo-fascist Proud Boys.
Kenosha County prosecutors on Wednesday asked a judge to modify Rittenhouse's bond agreement after he was seen visiting Pudgy's Pub in Mount Pleasant with his mother on January 5, the same day he pleaded not guilty to first-degree intentional homicide charges in connection with the shooting deaths of Joseph Rosenbaum and Anthony Huber at a Black Lives Matter protest on August 25, 2020.
\u201cProsecutors ask that judge ban Kyle Rittenhouse from associating with Proud Boys, going to bars https://t.co/bRbBhjpHzz\u201d— Journal Sentinel (@Journal Sentinel) 1610594524
The August demonstration was one of many that followed the police shooting and paralysis of Jacob Blake, a Black man. Rittenhouse quickly became a cause celebre among white nationalists and other far-right figures, who claimed he acted in self-defense and helped raise the funds to cover his $2 million bond.
Now prosecutors want the 18-year-old Rittenhouse banned from bars and from fraternization with white supremacists following surveillance footage showing him in the bar apparently drinking beers while wearing a "Free as Fuck" t-shirt, flashing white power signs, and posing for maskless photos with apparent Proud Boys supporters, who loudly serendaded the alleged killer with "Proud of Your Boy," a song from the 1992 Disney film Aladdin coopted as the hate group's unofficial anthem.
\u201cFrom Kenosha County DA\u2019s office. \n\nMORE HERE: #Rittenhouse allegedly flashed white power sign, serenaded with Proud Boys song at bar https://t.co/YoUU1QiSow\u201d— Tony Atkins (@Tony Atkins) 1610590748
People ages 18-20 can legally drink alcohol in Wisconsin if accompanied by a parent, guardian, or spouse. However, prosecutors argued that "the defendant's continued association with members of a group that prides itself on violence, and the use of their symbols, raises the significant possibility of future harm."
"Further, this association may serve to intimidate potential witnesses, who may be unwilling to testify in this case because they may fear that the defendant's associates with harm them or their families," they added.
Cash bail abolitionists and other progressive observers were quick to note the hypocrisy of so-called law-and-order conservatives who oppose criminal justice reform--unless the criminals in question espouse their beliefs.
Others noted the disparities in treatment between Black victims of police shootings and white supremacist shooters like Rittenhouse--an aspiring cop who was praised by officers before he allegedly killed Rosenbaum and Huber and was then allowed to go home after shooting them.
\u201cThe only question is: how long til Kyle Rittenhouse gets his badge?\u201d— AWKWORD (@AWKWORD) 1610636101
\u201cYou know the old saying, "Boys will be racist, cold blooded murders with absolutely no remorse & they will get away with it if they are white boys."\n\nThat's a saying, right? https://t.co/UfpvUBB28c\u201d— W. Kamau Bell (@W. Kamau Bell) 1610643235
Proud Boys have a history of violent attacks and were prominent participants in both the 2017 United the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia--where antiracism protester Heather Heyer was killed--and the January 6, 2021 U.S. Capitol insurrection incited by President Donald Trump, some Republican members of Congress, and others peddling lies that the 2020 presidential election was "stolen."
Although Proud Boys are a Southern Poverty Law Center-designated hate group, Trump has been reluctant to condemn them. At a 2020 presidential debate last September, Trump told Proud Boys to "stand back and stand by," remarks widely interpreted as a shout-out and marching orders.
Rittenhouse is due back in court on March 10 for his first pre-trial appearance.
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