“From the moment Rittenhouse was charged with killing two men and injuring another with his AR-15 semi-automatic rifle during a protest over the police shooting of Jacob Blake, a Black man, the case has been about sending a message. This time, it was from the far rightwing to young White people who support the Black Lives Matter movement. Don’t get involved with social justice reform. Don’t protest senseless police killings. Just sit back and enjoy your White privilege. If you take to the streets with the Black Lives Matter crowd, you might end up dead. And we’re going to do everything possible to make sure your killer walks free. In other words, young White people, if you believe that Black lives matter, your life means nothing.” – Dahleen Glanton
Milwaukee Students for a Democratic Society and Milwaukee Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression organized a peaceful march on November 20, in protest to the controversial acquittal of Kyle Rittenhouse in Kenosha.
Beginning at Red Arrow Park on Water Street, participants marched to the steps of the Federal Courthouse on Wisconsin Avenue, chanting for an end to White Supremacy and calling for equal justice.
On November 19, the jury in the trial of the teen vigilante Kyle Rittenhouse acquitted him of all charges stemming from his killing rampage at Black Lives Matter protests in Kenosha, after the shooting of Jacob Blake by Kenosha police in August 2020.
“This acquittal gives a green light to racist vigilantism and the forces of white supremacy and reaction everywhere, that have sought to repress our voices and deny our democratic right to protest with our demands for justice. They have politically repressed our movement for justice through outright violence such as in the case of Rittenhouse. However, we will not be deterred in our fight to overthrow the chains of white supremacy, and fight for black liberation,” said Frank Chapman, Executive Director of the National Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression in a statement.
Social justice advocates in Milwaukee said that the trial’s outcome make it clear that the system of White Supremacy was acting as it was designed – to protect its own. With Rittenhouse the message was even louder, that he was protected by a racist criminal system that refuses to hold racist criminals accountable, while it routinely keeps survivors of police torture and wrongfully convicted people of color incarcerated for decades.
“We are demanding that U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland and the Department of Justice file federal charges against Kyle Rittenhouse for the racist vigilante killings in Kenosha,” added Chapman. “We demand Justice for Jacob Blake, Justice for Ahmaud Arvery, Justice for Anthony Huber, Anthony Huber, and all Kyle Rittenhouse’s victims as well as justice for all those who have been killed by White Supremacists.”
© Photo
Lee Matz
