George Chidi, Robert Mackey, and Nausicaa Renner break down the Kyle Rittenhouse verdict and the trial of the murder of Ahmaud Arbery

Rittenhouse, 17 at the time of the shootings, had traveled to Kenosha from Illinois to join a far-right “patriot” vigilante militia calling itself the “Kenosha Guard,” which had been mobilized to “defend property” and assist the police with crushing the protests that had erupted two days earlier following the police shooting of Jacob Blake. Blake was shot seven times in the back at point-blank range in front of his children, leaving him paralyzed. The Kenosha shootings occurred in the midst of the reverberations of the largest demonstrations in American history, during which an estimated 15 to 26 million people took to the streets following the murder of George Floyd to protest the epidemic of police killings and official cover-ups.

A Wisconsin jury acquitted teenage vigilante Kyle Rittenhouse on homicide charges on Friday, and one of the far-right MAGA Republicans who is celebrating the verdict is Rep. Madison Cawthorn. The North Carolina congressman is even offering the 18-year-old Rittenhouse an internship, inspiring plenty ...

Demonstrators in the US must fear not only police brutality but also rightwing vigilantes

It is one thing to argue that the jury reached a reasonable verdict based on the law, and another entirely to celebrate Rittenhouse’s actions.

[CORRECTION: This piece makes the claim that Jacob Blake was unarmed. However prosecutors and Blake himself have both claimed he had a knife at the time. AlterNet regrets the error.]Ronald Sullivan, Harvard Law SchoolIn a two-week trial that reignited debate over self-defense laws across the nation,...

In not-so-sleepy DC, there's a place for a street-fightin' man.

CHICAGO (AP) — For many Black Americans, Kyle Rittenhouse's acquittal on all charges by a Wisconsin jury on Friday confirmed their belief in two justice systems: one for white people and another for Black people.