8. Democracy Now!: White Supremacy on Trial: From Rittenhouse in Kenosha to Killers of Ahmaud Arbery, Will They Go Free?
Kyle Rittenhouse is on trial for “homicide and weapons charges for fatally shooting two people and wounding a third during protests over the police shooting of Jacob Blake in 2020” in Kenosha, Wisconsin. On Wednesday, in his ongoing trial, Rittenhouse took to the stand to testify, breaking down in tears. Rittenhouse “admitted to using deadly force but claimed self-defense and denied intending to kill his victims during cross-examination from prosecutor Thomas Binger.”
All week, Judge Bruce Schroeder has made headlines as he has shown a clear bias in favor of Rittenhouse. “When the prosecution tried to show video evidence of Rittenhouse fatally shooting his first victim, the judge appeared to support the defense’s attempt to stop him using a pinch and zoom function, claiming it could insert additional pixels.” Further, the prosecution was not allowed to call Rittenhouse’s victims “victims,” and “the judge’s cellphone went off while the court was in session and played a ringtone for the song ‘God Bless the U.S.A.’ by Lee Greenwood, which is the opening song played at Donald Trump’s rallies,” amongst other transgressions.
As Elie Mystal explains of these transgressions, “each one perhaps may be individually defensible, but, in totality, lead to the impression of a biased, racist judge, with his Trump rally cellphone, that is trying to get Rittenhouse a walk.”