Split USA
Kyle R. shot dead two people during anti-racism protests. Now the 17-year-old is a symbolic political figure
Defendant Kyle R. (M) looks sideways while waiting for the jury to leave the room during his trial at the Kenosha County Courthouse in Kenosha
© Sean Krajacic / POOL The Kenosha News / AP / DPA
Kyle R. is not even of legal age when he shoots two people. If you believe him, he has only good things in mind when he drives to the US city of Kenosha. There people protest against racism, there is unrest. The process surrounding the case shows the division of the country.
In the summer of 2020, a 17-year-old will use an assault rifle. He drives a good 30 kilometers to Kenosha in the US state of Wisconsin. A few days earlier, a black man was seriously injured in a police operation there, and there are protests and riots in the city. Kyle R. wants – this is his portrayal – to protect the place from rioters, to support the police. At the end of the evening, the 17-year-old shot two people and injured another. Nobody denies that, not even Kyle R. But he pleads innocent – and the right to self-defense.
The trial of the events of the fateful summer night has been going on in Kenosha since last Monday. But there is much more to it than the shots of a chubby teenager who looks significantly younger – the case is highly political and hits the country’s sore spots. It’s about racism, the question of self-defense and finally even about ex-President Donald Trump. Kyle R., now 18, is charged with murder and other crimes. He faces life imprisonment. Even if the shooter and the victim are all white, according to the Washington Post it is probably the “most political process of the Black Lives Matter era”.
Heated mood in Kenosha
Just a few months earlier, the African American George Floyd had been killed in a brutal police operation in Minneapolis. The United States was in turmoil, with protests and riots in numerous cities across the country. The violent protests in Kenosha also fall during this time. What happened there on August night is documented in places on video: The unarmed 36-year-old Joseph R. chases Kyle R. into a parking lot. The teenager shoots, Joseph R. dies. It is disputed to what extent Joseph R. was a threat. Kyle R. then leaves the scene, is followed, falls and shoots – the 26-year-old, unarmed Anthony H. is fatally wounded.
The media reported that the mood was heated – opponents of racism, anti-fascists and right-wing extremists were on the street. “It was often difficult to tell the difference between friend and foe,” writes The New Yorker. The astonishing fact that the white Kyle R. was allowed to leave the crime scene despite a gun in hand underscores the “racist double standards,” the magazine continued. Police argue that the situation was chaotic – and that the teenager was not identified as the perpetrator. He turned himself in to the police hours later – but soon he was released on bail.
Trump jumped Kyle R. aside
Because the youth is stylized as a hero by the right – as a martyr in the fight against a violent left-wing mob, as a courageous supporter of the underfunded police. Enough donations are quickly collected for his deposit. And Kyle R. gets backing from the top. “He tried to flee from them – (…) He would probably have been killed,” then President Trump jumps to his side.
“This case has become very political,” says Bruce Schroeder, the presiding judge. He allowed the defenders to call the killed men rioters rather than victims. That caused outrage in the United States. “Kyle R. protected himself and his firearm so it couldn’t be used against him or anyone else,” said defense attorney Mark Richards. His behavior was “appropriate”.
“We must not forget that there were hundreds of people on the street that night who experienced the same chaos,” emphasizes prosecutor Thomas Binger. “And yet, of those hundreds of people, only one person killed someone that night.”
Kyle R. a racist? “Absolutely no way”
But who is this young man? The answer to this question seems just as difficult as the question of how to evaluate the shots of the August night. Depending on their political stance, everyone seems to be able to see what they want in Kyle R. And so it has become a symbol in the USA: for racist vigilante justice or the fight against violent mobs.
The fact is that the then 17-year-old was too young to legally possess the weapon. But is he a member of a right-wing militia? Trump supporter? Someone who advocated public order? Wanted to prove yourself a bit? Or someone who only went to Kenosha to harm others? He only found Trump good because he supported the police, said his family, who have since moved from their hometown, to the magazine “The New Yorker”. Kyle R. is definitely not a racist – after all, there are also black relatives in the family.
More than a thousand miles from Kenosha, another case is under negotiation that has ravaged the country – an act that was also captured on video. A year and a half ago, the black jogger Ahmaud Arbery was shot. White men sit in the dock. According to investigators, they first followed Arbery with their vehicle and then threatened them. In the end, Arbery was shot.
Again, the defendants plead not guilty – they would have thought Arbery a burglar. And in this case, too, there is talk of self-defense. In the politically heated mood in the US, the judgments of the courts in both cases will be more than just legal considerations. They have the potential to further divide the country.