A white 17-year-old who says he went to protests in Wisconsin to protect businesses and people has become a flashpoint in a debate over anti-racism demonstrations that have gripped many American cities and the vigilantism that has sometimes met them. On Tuesday, Kyle Rittenhouse grabbed an AR-15 style rifle and joined several other armed people in the streets of Kenosha, where businesses had been vandalized and buildings burned following a police shooting that left Jacob Blake, a Black man, paralyzed. By the end of the night, prosecutors say, Rittenhouse had killed two people and severely wounded a third. At a hearing Friday, a judge postponed a decision on whether Rittenhouse, who is in custody in Illinois, should be returned to Wisconsin to face charges, including first-degree intentional homicide that could land him in prison for the rest of his life. To some, Rittenhouse is a domestic terrorist whose very presence with a rifle incited the protesters. But to others — who have become frustrated with demonstrations and unrest across the country — he’s seen as a hero who took up arms to protect people who were left unprotected. “Kyle is an innocent boy who justifiably exercised his fundamental right of self-defense. In doing so, he likely saved his own life and possibly the lives of others,” said Lin Wood, a prominent Atlanta attorney who is now part of a team representing Rittenhouse. The protests in Kenosha are just the latest to erupt during a reckoning over policing and racial injustice following the death of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police. As they have in other cities, rallies devolved into violence and vandalism at some points, and the National Guard was called in. The commander of the force said Friday over 1,000 guard members had been deployed, and more were on the way. Rittenhouse, once part of a youth cadet program for aspiring police officers, can be seen on his Facebook page posing in a blue police uniform with a silver badge and broad-brimmed hat. In other online photos and videos, he takes target practice and brandishes a rifle above the caption, “Blue Lives Matter.” On Tuesday night, as Rittenhouse stood in front of a boarded-up building, he spoke to a reporter from the Daily Caller news site. “People are getting injured and our job is to protect this business,” Rittenhouse said. “And part of my job is to also help people. If there is somebody hurt, I’m running into harm’s way. That’s why I have my rifle.” Rittenhouse and a friend armed themselves on Tuesday and made their way to a mechanic shop whose owner had put out a call for protection, according to a statement from John Pierce, an attorney representing Rittenhouse. In the attorney’s description of events, Rittenhouse had tried to offer medical help to injured people before he was “accosted by multiple rioters,” leading him to open fire. The hashtag #FreeKyleRittenhouse has trended on Twitter, a self-described Christian fundraising site, GiveSendGo, says it has raised more than $100,000 for Rittenhouse’s defense, and a post including photos of Rittenhouse cleaning up graffiti in Kenosha before the shooting was shared and liked thousands of times. The night of the shootings, Rittenhouse is seen on video as a green-shirted figure running across a parking lot with a rifle […]

The post Teen Accused Of Killing 2 Thrust Into Debate Over Protests appeared first on The Yeshiva World.