The young American Kyle Rittenhouse, acquitted after killing two men during an anti-racist protest in 2020, justified his actions by saying that self-defense was “not illegal”, in an interview after this verdict which divided the states -United.
Visibly relieved, the young man was filmed Friday by Fox News in a car that brought him back from court, at the end of his trial which fascinated the country. “The jury reached the right verdict: self-defense is not illegal (…) It was a difficult journey but we did it. We did the hard part, ”he said.
Two murders in 2020
The Conservatives’ favorite Fox News channel broadcast this interview passage on Friday evening where 18-year-old Kyle Rittenhouse appears smiling in the car, a foretaste of a feature film due to pass Monday night, and which the others excerpts linger on the nightmares of which the young man says he is a victim today.
This chubby-faced boy killed two men aged 26 and 36 and injured a third on August 23, 2020 in the town of Kenosha (Wisconsin), with a semi-automatic rifle he had brought with him to go out with armed groups “Protect” businesses during demonstrations against racism and police violence. Throughout the trial, which exposed America’s fractures over guns and the Black Lives Matter movement, he pleaded self-defense.
A muse in certain circles
The young man thus became a muse in certain right-wing circles, for whom the anti-racist demonstrations were the work of “antifas” or “anarchists”. Conversely, for supporters of better regulation of firearms, it embodies the excesses of the right to self-defense.
The acquittal verdict was greeted by a few localized protest demonstrations on Friday night, in New York, Chicago, and Portland (Oregon, northwest) where they turned into a clash with the police. On the contrary, pro-arms activists applauded the decision.