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Kyle Rittenhouse Case

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Kyle Rittenhouse Case

There are very few United states trials that have caused as much spite as the Kyle

Rittenhouse case in recent years. In the courtroom is an 18-year-old who is discernibly shaking

as the jury cleared him of all the five charges put against him, amongst them being a charge of

deliberate homicide. He had killed two people in a racial discontent in Wisconsin, but his

prosecutors effectively convinced the jury council that he only used his semi-automatic gun for

fear of his life. At the same time, outside the court, cars drove past, beeping their horns and

people cheering. Some shouted out of their windows, “we love the Second Amendment,” and

others, “Free Kyle!” Some people were distressed by the verdict, with a man collapsing in the

courtroom stairs claiming that if Rittenhouse were African-American and carrying a weapon like

that, he would have been shot dead on sight (AKINDES v. City of Kenosha, 2021).

To give some background on the issue, Kyle Rittenhouse first stood trial in August 2020

after fatally shooting two men and wounding a third one after a confrontation in Kenosha,

Wisconsin. Mr. Rittenhouse was accused with six criminal counts, among them being “attempted

first-degree intentional homicide”, “first-degree intentional homicide”, and “first-degree reckless

homicide”. This case involved the judicial with judge Bruce Schroeder presiding over the

homicide trial throughout its entirety. Judge Bruce Schroeder, 75, is the longest-serving state trial

judge in Wisconsin, and the case has drawn a lot of attention to the judge’s courtroom style-

chatty, stern, and in some situations prone to shouting-has played out on a national stage. Judge

Bruce Schroeder enters the court each day with a Milwaukee Brewers jacket or bulky Chicago

Blackhawks coat.

Throughout the trial, he abruptly scuffled with the prosecutors in the case and got into

quoting Franklin Roosevelt and his explanation of the Fall of Rome. In the past, he has been
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known to be harsh towards defendants. In past news headlines, it has been noted that defendants

would ask for any judge but Schroeder. Many defense lawyers request their cases out of Judge

Bruce Schroeder’s courtroom, with some judges from other countries being brought in to hear

their cases. Reportedly, Judge Bruce Schroeder ordered a defense lawyer to spend a day in jail

after failing to sit down on judges’ orders.

The judge noted that he had overseen more homicide prosecutions than any judge in the

state, but none of them have acquired as much publicity as the trial of Mr. Rittenhouse. Before

the closing arguments, Mr. Rittenhouse claimed that he feared his life, and when he shot the

three men, he acted in self-defense. Prosecutors argued that Mr. Rittenhouse lived in Illinois at

the time, unnecessarily put himself into the demonstrations that were recitation, and came armed

with a semi-automatic weapon that he at 17 was not legally allowed to carry. In situations where

judges might say just a word such as “sustained” or “overruled,” Judge Bruce Schroeder would

discuss the law and explain why he said what he said. This was a strategy that favored people not

familiar with the law (“In Scrutinized Kyle Rittenhouse Trial, It’s the Judge Commanding

Attention”, 2021).

To give a timeline of the events leading up to the shooting and who was affected by the

case, in May 2020, George Floyd, an African-American man, pass away after being handcuffed

and restrained by a police officer. This case caused protests to erupt in many cities around the

world. Later, Mayor Jacob Frey of Minneapolis condemned his city’s continuous destruction,

saying the demonstrations had become domestic terrorism (“A Timeline of the Kyle Rittenhouse

Shootings and His Trial”, 2021).

The second situation happened in August 2020 when Jacob Blake, a Black occupant in

Kenosha, was shot and wounded seriously by a police officer. Mr. Blake had ignored orders by
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the police to drop a knife and was shot seven times by an officer leaving him partly paralyzed.

This occurrence caused protests in Kenosha cunty, with protestors and police clashing violently.

On the night of the shootings, many protestors had left the area, and only a few dozen armed

protestors remained shoving and threatening each other, among them being Kyle Rittenhouse,

who was walking holding a military-style semi-automatic rifle. He clashed with his first victim

Joseph Rosenbaum, 36, who he fatally shot four times and later shot his two other victims.

In the article “Kyle Rittenhouse’s Acquittal and America’s Gun Laws” by “the New York

Times”, people from all over the country have expressed their opinions regarding the acquittal,

with most of them showing their disappointment in the trial of the US judicial system as a whole

(“Opinion | Kyle Rittenhouse’s Acquittal and America’s Gun Laws”, 2021). Many people have

quoted the Second Amendment as the Founders framed that dangerous weapons are supposed to

be in the hands of “well-regulated militia” and not self-appointed vigilantes or teenagers. From

the media source that I chose, there has been very little bias. Some opinions are offered, but it is

noted that the views stated are not their views but the sole opinions of people from different parts

of the country.

From my perspective of this issue, if Mr. Rittenhouse had not carried a gun to the protests

in the first place, none of the tragedies would have occurred: no need for “self-defense,” no

murders, no gunshots, and no deaths. But he did set himself up, and he was supposed to suffer

some consequences of his actions. His repercussions and behaviors ought to be an example to

everyone else that guns cause death, and fewer guns cause fewer deaths.
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References

A Timeline of the Kyle Rittenhouse Shootings and His Trial. (2021). Retrieved 25 November

2021, from https://www.nytimes.com/article/kyle-rittenhouse-shooting-timeline.html

AKINDES v. City of Kenosha, No. 20-CV-1353-JPS-JPS (E.D. Wis. Sept. 30, 2021).

In Scrutinized Kyle Rittenhouse Trial, It’s the Judge Commanding Attention. (2021). Retrieved

25 November 2021, from https://www.nytimes.com/2021/11/11/us/kyle-rittenhouse-

judge-bruce-schroeder.html

Opinion | Kyle Rittenhouse’s Acquittal and America’s Gun Laws. (2021). Retrieved 25

November 2021, from https://www.nytimes.com/2021/11/19/opinion/letters/kyle-

rittenhouse-acquittal-guns.html