The memory of the 100 days of protest in 2020 was still fresh in many Portlanders’ minds when they heard the news Friday that Kyle Rittenhouse was acquitted of all criminal charges after he fatally shot two protesters and injured another in Wisconsin last year.
Rittenhouse’s trial hits at the same issues of inequity and a lack of accountability in the criminal justice system that drove hundreds of people into Portland’s streets in 2020 in response to the murder of George Floyd by a white police officer in Minneapolis. Many of the people who organized last summer’s demonstrations are now wondering, had Rittenhouse been Black — had he looked anything like Floyd, who was murdered during an arrest over a counterfeit $20 bill — would he have been acquitted after killing multiple people with a semi-automatic rifle?
Kyle Rittenhouse, center, enters the courtroom with his attorneys Mark Richards, left, and Corey Chirafisi for a meeting called by Judge Bruce Schroeder at the Kenosha County Courthouse in Kenosha, Wis., on Thursday, Nov. 18, 2021.
SEAN KRAJACIC / AP
“I wasn’t prepared for that outcome, and I wasn’t prepared for the emotional reaction that it drew out of me,” social justice organizer Lakayana Drury said of the moment he heard the verdict. “It was immediately exhausting.”
For Drury, the moment reminded him of the long list of names of Black children and men who were killed by police officers in recent years — in many cases because officers thought they were carrying a gun.
“Quanice [Derrick Hayes] was gunned down here in Portland with a fake gun,” Drury said. “Tamir Rice was shot and killed in a park with a fake gun. Trayvon Martin was killed with a bag of Skittles. Eric Garner was killed with a box of cigarettes. Take your pick. The fact that Kyle Rittenhouse is alive today is something most Black people can’t say for things that aren’t even remotely close to what he did.”
The trial has also incited debate over gun regulations and what’s considered self defense. Lara Smith with the Oregon chapter of the Liberal Gun Club — a nonprofit that lobbies for the interests of gun owners — says she’s glad Rittenhouse’s case made it to a jury trial, and that people should focus on addressing the root causes that led to this violence.
“There never should have been a 17-year-old thinking it was his job to defend property,” Smith said. “I think that there’s a real concern that there’s going to be a faction of people in the country who take this as, ‘It’s OK to shoot protesters,’ and I think that’s incredibly problematic.”
Demonstrators marched through the streets of Portland, Ore., Friday, May 29, 2020, joining nationwide protests against the killing of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police.
Jonathan Levinson / OPB
Community organizer Seemab Hussaini stood alongside protestors during many of the 2020 rallies. While the Rittenhouse verdict hit him hard, he said the outcome didn’t surprise him or other organizers.
“We expected it simply because of the way things are being run in the court,” Hussaini said. “The verdict [Friday] is a pure example of how the court will work when it doesn’t want to see justice through. It’s an age-old process.”
Still, Hussaini wasn’t sure if the news would draw protestors out to the streets.
During a press conference Friday afternoon, roughly a few hours after Rittenhouse’s acquittal, Portland Police Chief Chuck Lovell said it was “reasonable to expect there will be some type of reaction to the verdict.”
“Like we’ve said many times, we’re supportive of peaceful protest, people exercising their First Amendment rights,” Lovell said. “It’s when people engage in criminal activity, violence, vandalism and destruction that we have issues.”
Friday night, a crowd of up to 200 demonstrators gathered in downtown Portland. Just before 9 p.m., the Multnomah County Sheriff’s Office declared a riot outside the Justice Center, a site of many protests in 2020, after trespassing was witness and items were thrown at deputies.