Kyle Rittenhouse, whose ostensible claim to fame is that he shot and killed multiple people amid protests in a city where he didn’t even live but has nonetheless become some kind of B-list celebrity on the Right, is facing a new lawsuit over his actions.
Rittenhouse was previously acquitted by a jury of criminal charges he faced, but the new case, which was filed by Gaige Grosskreutz, is seeking financial penalties. Rittenhouse fired on Grosskreutz, who also had a firearm that night, amid the violence. Grosskreutz later testified at Rittenhouse’s trial, arguing he was trying to push down the tensions, although he also acknowledged he pointed his own firearm at Rittenhouse. The new lawsuit from Grosskreutz doesn’t confine its outrage to Rittenhouse. Instead, the plaintiff also targets local police, who have also faced accusations of essentially herding demonstrators in the Wisconsin town that night knowingly towards armed extremists.
The deadly confrontation with Rittenhouse took place what sounds like just a few streets down from a location identified in past details from the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) as a focal point for these violent, far-right extremists gathering that night. “Astonishingly, the Kenosha Police Department, Kenosha County Sheriff’s Department, their supervising officials and police officers, and law enforcement officers from surrounding communities did not treat Defendant Rittenhouse or any of the other armed individuals patrolling the streets as a threat to the safety of themselves or the citizens they were sworn to protect,” the new case from Grosskreutz says. The lawsuit accuses these officers of having “conspired with” the armed goons roaming the streets that night.
Rittenhouse is trying to raise funds in support of his legal defense. “This lawsuit is an attempt to drown anyone who legally and justifiably defends [their] lives from attackers in a mountain of legal debt,” he tweeted Tuesday. “We can not let them win. If they can come after me they will come after you.” Well, that’s not true, because most people aren’t going to head somewhere they don’t even live and shoot people. Rittenhouse is also facing a second lawsuit from family of one of the people he killed, which a judge has allowed to proceed through additional stages.
Elsewhere, at least two events in which he was involved have been cancelled by the events’ venues, although these setbacks certainly didn’t stop Rittenhouse from continuing with his antics elsewhere. In the first case, the CEO of a brewery in Texas said he was receiving threats of violence after shutting down the plans for an event featuring Rittenhouse at his business, which the businessman said is welcoming to community members. “It’s been kind of a shitstorm,” Southern Star Brewery CEO Dave Fougeron told The Texas Tribune. “But now I’m more certain than ever that I made the right decision.” He also said that his business is “a place of inclusivity,” adding that it’s “crazy that we’re getting threats from people.”
