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u.s. news Diabierna 25 September 2020

Kenosha shooter's defense portrays him as 'American patriot'

(AP)- The way lawyers for “This is the sacred ground in
Kyle Rittenhouse tell it, he Kenosha where a 17-year old
wasn't just a scared teenager child became a Minuteman
acting in self-defense when and said 'Not on My Watch,'”
he shot to death two Keno- Pierce tweeted above a pho-
sha, Wisconsin, protesters. to of the city where rioters
He was a courageous defend- burned and looted just days
er of liberty, a patriot exer- before. Eric Creizman, a for-
cising his right to bear arms mer partner at Pierce’s firm,
amid rioting in the streets. said the heated language in
the tweets is not surprising
“A 17-year-old citizen is be- because of his former boss'
ing sacrificed by politicians, tendency toward hyperbole,
but it’s not Kyle Rittenhouse though he wonders if it will
they are after. Their end backfire. “The question really
game is to strip away the con- should focus on whether this
stitutional right of all citizens guy is guilty of what they’re
to defend our communities,” charging him with,” he said,
says the voice-over at the “instead of making it into a
end of a video released this political issue.”
week by a group tied to Rit- One politically charged tac-
tenhouse’s legal team. “Kyle tic critics have attacked as a
Rittenhouse will go down in longshot is Pierce’s promise
American history alongside to fight a charge of underage
that brave unknown patriot firearm possession, a misde-
... who fired ‘The Shot Heard meanor, by arguing U.S. law
Round the World,’’’ lead at- allows for an “unorganized
torney John Pierce wrote this militia.” Rittenhouse wielded
month in a tweet he later de- a semi-automatic rifle.
leted. “A Second American
Revolution against Tyranny Some experts have even
has begun.” questioned whether the teen-
ager’s team of four attorneys
But such dramatic rhetoric will feel pressure to hold back
that has helped raise nearly from making a plea bargain
$2 million for Rittenhouse’s out of fear of disrupting the
defense may not work with patriotic narrative and disap- nity, the Fox News host with Foundation documentary, up!” one person in the crowd
a jury considering charges pointing donors. close ties to Trump. the real Rittenhouse is not says. Another yells, “Get him!
that could put the teen in There is a temptation to shape And Wood made headlines the wild-eyed vigilante crit- Get that dude!”
prison for life. Legal experts court arguments to “keep the recently representing Nicho- ics have painted him. He is
say there could be big risks money flowing while the bat- las Sandmann, the Kentucky instead portrayed as a model What happened next, as
in turning a fairly straightfor- tle is ongoing,” said Richard teen in the “Make America citizen who had just gotten Pierce put it in a statement,
ward self-defense case into a Cayo, a Milwaukee attorney Great Again” hat, in his law- off his shift as lifeguard and were a series of clear signs
fight for freedom that mirrors who helps other lawyers in suits against news organiza- was cleaning graffiti from a captured on cellphone video
the law-and-order reelec- ethics cases. “It puts lawyers tions over their coverage of vandalized high school be- that Rittenhouse was in pos-
tion theme President Don- at risk of trying to serve two his encounter with an Ameri- fore he received word from sible mortal danger.
ald Trump has struck amid masters.” can Indian protester in Wash- a business owner seeking A man strikes Rittenhouse
a wave of protests over racial Both Pierce and Wood have ington last year. help to protect what was left as he runs down the street,
injustice. “They’re playing to ties to Trump’s orbit and Both attorneys moved quick- of his property after rioters chased by several people
his most negative characteris- his brand of GOP politics, ly after Rittenhouse was ar- had burned two of his other trying to stop him. Ritten-
tics and stereotypes, what his though it’s not clear if that rested in his hometown of buildings. house falls to the ground
critics want to perceive him played any role in their in- Antioch, Illinois, a day after and another protester kicks
as — a crazy militia member volvement in Rittenhouse’s the Aug. 25 shootings that According to prosecutors, him. Back on his feet and a
out to cause harm and start case and how it is being han- came amid raucous protests Rittenhouse shot and killed bit farther down the street,
a revolution,” said Robert dled. For his part, Trump has in Kenosha over the police Joseph Rosenbaum, 36, after he is struck by a skateboard.
Barnes, a prominent Los An- made statements appearing to shooting that paralyzed a the protester threw a plastic He shoots, killing the man
geles defense attorney. Rit- support Rittenhouse's claim Black man, Jacob Blake. Rit- bag at the teenager, missing with the skateboard, Antho-
tenhouse’s high-profile de- of self-defense, saying the tenhouse, who is white, was him. ny Huber, 26, and wound-
fense and fund-raising teams, young man “probably would charged with first-degree But to Pierce, the situation ing a third person holding a
led by Los Angeles-based have been killed.” intentional homicide in the was far more dire. Rosen- handgun, Gaige Grosskreutz,
Pierce and Atlanta attorney Trump’s personal lawyer killing of two white protest- baum was the head of a “mob 26.George Washington Uni-
Lin Wood, respectively, re- Rudy Giuliani hired Pierce’s ers and attempted intentional that had become enraged” versity law professor Jona-
fused to speak to The Associ- firm late last year when he homicide in the wounding of at the sight of Rittenhouse than Turley said he wouldn’t
ated Press about their strategy was reportedly under inves- a third. trying to put out a fire set be surprised if the patriotic
ahead of the teen’s next court tigation for possibly breaking by arsonists and decided to language that has wooed
appearance Friday, a hearing lobbying laws for his work in Pierce flew to Illinois to meet chase after him, “relentlessly online donors were eventu-
in Illinois on whether to re- Ukraine for the president, as Rittenhouse and his family hunting him as prey.” Rit- ally abandoned for the most
turn him to Wisconsin. did Carter Page and George that next day, according to tenhouse, in Pierce's telling, obvious defense, that “Rit-
Papadopoulos, former his tweets, which included fired only after Rosenbaum tenhouse was a confused kid
But in a TV appearance and Trump advisers caught up in appeals for donations to the began to “assault him from who got in over his head.”
a blizzard of social media the Russia investigation. #FightBack Foundation that behind” and attempted to Still, Turley said, those who
posts, they doubled down was started with Wood a few take his rifle away. give the most tend to gravi-
on the hero theme, describ- Wood, a defamation lawyer weeks earlier to fund law- “I just killed somebody,” Rit- tate to the extremes of the
ing Kenosha as a “war zone” who represented falsely ac- suits aimed at the “lies” of the tenhouse says into his cell- political spectrum.
and the young shooter as cused security guard Richard “radical left.” phone, according to the com-
an “American patriot” and Jewell in the 1996 Olympic In Pierce’s telling on a Fox plaint filed by prosecutors, as “There is danger that social
a “shining symbol of the Park bombing in Atlanta, is News appearance and an he starts running and several media campaigns can alter
American fighting spirit.” also a lawyer for Sean Han- 11-minute #FightBack people give chase. “Beat him your narrative," he said.