Statement On The Kyle Rittenhouse Verdict
This trial and the verdict it produced are clear and devastating representations of the way our country and our legal system view innocence and guilt, vigilantes and villains, race and the fight against racial injustice.
A white seventeen-year-old killing protesters with a weapon of war is celebrated and acquitted. A black seventeen-year-old walking the community with a bag of Skittles is criminalized and murdered.
Across the country we see people committed not to changing systems of injustice but using those systems to harm those who would object or protest against them.
This verdict sets a new standard that will only encourage future Kyle Rittenhouses – some in the streets armed with weapons, some in government armed with oppression.
Today, I’m praying for the families of Kyle Rittenhouse’s victims, that they might someday find peace even in the face of this verdict and continuing the work to change the systems that led to Friday’s result. We can be demoralized, devastated by this verdict, but we cannot be deterred.
Jumaane Williams