Anger, disappointment, joy: US reacts to Rittenhouse acquittal |

Kyle Rittenhouse‘s acquittal for the fatal shootings of racial justice protesters last year has spurred powerful – and divergent – reactions from activists and lawmakers across the United States, highlighting the political symbolism of the trial and deep-seated divisions in the country.

Civil rights groups and Democratic activists decried the verdict on Friday as an example of white privilege and a miscarriage of justice, while Rittenhouse’s supporters, including associates of former President Donald Trump, celebrated it as a victory.

Rittenhouse fatally shot two protesters and injured a third during chaotic demonstrations against police brutality in Kenosha, Wisconsin, after a white officer shot a Black man, Jacob Blake, in the back, paralysing him.

But in a trial that captured the nation’s attention since early November, Rittenhouse and his lawyers argued that he acted in self-defence and only used his AR-style rifle to protect himself from demonstrators who were attacking him. Prosecutors had accused the teenager of provoking the deadly violence on August 25, 2020.

“You know damn well that if Kyle Rittenhouse were Black he would have been found guilty in a heartbeat – or shot dead by cops on the scene,” former Democratic presidential candidate Julian Castro wrote on Twitter.

This trial lays bare everything we’ve been talking about for years. Rittenhouse embodies the very danger posed by a toxic mix of a white supremacist culture that values property over human life, and wide proliferation of high-powered guns with fewer limits than a drivers license.

— March For Our Lives (@AMarch4OurLives) November 19, 2021

“If you need a stunning example of white privilege, please see Kyle Rittenhouse’s verdict,” wrote Andy Levin, a Democratic congressman.

President Joe Biden, who said earlier on Friday that he did not watch the trial, suggested that he accepted the verdict.

“While the verdict in Kenosha will leave many Americans feeling angry and concerned, myself included, we must acknowledge that the jury has spoken,” Biden said in a statement.

The family of Anthony Huber, one of the protesters fatally shot by Rittenhouse, said they were heartbroken by the jury’s decision.

“It sends the unacceptable message that armed civilians can show up in any town, incite violence, and then use the danger they have created to justify shooting people in the street,” the family said in a statement, as reported by several US media outlets.

“We hope that decent people will join us in forcefully rejecting that message and demanding more of our laws, our officials, and our justice system.”

This justice system has once again showcased that there is a system within the system that consistently slaps “other”communities on the wrist and sentences black communities to profiling and despair. Today that system has failed us, right on schedule.#RittenhouseVerdict

— Derrick Johnson (@DerrickNAACP) November 19, 2021

Kimberley Motley…