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Kyle Rittenhouse, the 21-year-old gun rights activist who was acquitted for fatally shooting two people and injuring another at racial justice protests in 2020, faced intense backlash when he gave a speech at the University of Memphis on Wednesday.

Rittenhouse’s appearance at a campus event organized by the university’s chapter of Turning Point USA, a conservative student organization, ignited widespread student protests. Despite the outcry, the university stated that it was legally obligated to allow Rittenhouse to speak due to the First Amendment and Tennessee’s Campus Free Speech Act.

At the event, Rittenhouse discussed the importance of the Second Amendment and criticized the Black Lives Matter movement. Students expressed their opposition to his presence and highlighted concerns about gun violence in the community and his promotion of what they perceived as racist views. Videos shared online captured students booing, walking out, challenging Rittenhouse’s statements and questioning information...

As news crews began to clear out of Kenosha, Wisconsin, over the weekend, so too did the demonstrators who had ardently shown support for Kyle Rittenhouse last week before jurors decided to acquit the 18-year-old of all charges. The few dozen protesters who remained — most of them from the local community — marched on Sunday with one clear message: There’s much work yet to be done before Kenosha can heal.

At the helm of the demonstration was Justin Blake, the uncle of 29-year-old Jacob Blake, who was shot seven times...

Today, Kyle Rittenhouse was acquitted on all charges after killing two people and wounding another while he was conducting his own armed vigilante patrol of Kenosha, Wisconsin, in response to Black Lives Matter protests. Earlier this month, the Supreme Court heard oral arguments in a case about whether people have a constitutional right to concealed-carry permits.

Why am I talking about these two things together? Because in combination, these two cases could mean that it is soon going to be open season on racial-justice protesters around the country.

The Rittenhouse...

On Friday, after more than three days of deliberation, a jury found Kyle Rittenhouse not guilty in the homicides of two people and wounding of a third who he shot with an Ar-15 during a night of protests against police brutality last year in Kenosha, Wisconsin.

Earlier in the trial, Kenosha County Circuit Court Judge Bruce Schroeder had dismissed a misdemeanor charge for possessing a dangerous weapon under the age of 18, because of a loophole in Wisconsin law. Rittenhouse had still faced five felony counts, including murder and attempted murder,...

Refresh for updates… The Hollywood and media industries were quick to react to the Not Guilty verdicts in the Kyle Rittenhouse case today, with many expressing both outrage and a lack of surprise.

“Watch this kid become not only a hero to segments of the right but watch him become emboldened, appear on Rogan, puff himself up, get in bar fights, murder again,” tweeted Billions co-creator Brian Koppelman.

Shameless actor Emmy Rossum tweeted, “This is a devastating blow,” while LeVar Burton said, “Tell me again there are not two kinds [of] justice in America.”

Deadline will update this post with additional reactions …

Even if Kyle Rittenhouse had been Black, I’m convinced today’s verdict would still be not guilty. The only difference is it’d be the verdict for the cops standing trial for killing the Black Kyle Rittenhouse.

— Larry Wilmore (@larrywilmore) November 19, 2021

We come together to mourn the lives...

In a country with sane politics, the most generous thing an elected official could say about Kyle Rittenhouse is that he made a string of terrible decisions and then tragically killed two people in self defense. The other option would be to accuse him of murder.

But the United States of 2021 is not a country with sane politics, and so for a significant chunk of the country that includes several prominent figures from one of its two major parties, Kyle Rittenhouse is a hero.

Consider: In August of 2020, a then-17-year-old Rittenhouse traveled to Kenosha,...

Jesse Kline, who identified himself as “Maserati Mike,” arrived outside the Kenosha County Courthouse Wednesday morning donning a purple bowtie, military-grade body armor, and an Ar-15 semi-automatic rifle. Inside the courthouse, Kyle Rittenhouse was on trial for using the same type of weapon to shoot three people, two fatally, during civil unrest the year prior.

Nearby sheriff’s deputies instructed Kline to ditch the firearm because he was within 1,000 feet of a school — one of few gun restrictions in Wisconsin — and he complied. But Kline showed up again Thursday, a...

Updated, with comment from Joe Biden: A jury found Kyle Rittenhouse not guilty on all charges in the killing two men and wounding another during the protests that followed a police shooting in Kenosha, Wi, in summer 2020.

The verdict in the case has galvanized the media and the televised trial drew ongoing coverage on cable news networks, igniting a renewed debate not just over racial injustice but the right to self defense and vigilantism.

Rittenhouse, now 18, faced five felony charges, including first-degree intentional homicide, first-degree reckless homicide and attempted first-degree intentional homicide, along with two counts of first-degree recklessly endangering safety.

During the trial, prosecutors portrayed Rittenhouse as provoking the shootings, as he brought a semiautomatic rifle to the protests and recklessly waved it that night. He was “looking for trouble,” as prosecutor Thomas Binger put it. He characterized Rittenhouse as a “wannabe” solider and part of the “chaos...

Kyle Rittenhouse has been acquitted of all charges. The jury in the high-profile trial found the teenager was acting in self-defense during a pair of deadly encounters last summer in Kenosha, Wisconsin.

Rittenhouse, 18, had been charged with five counts including reckless homicide, intentional homicide, and attempted intentional homicide. He was found not guilty of all five of them. The charges stemmed from when as a 17-year-old in August 2020, Rittenhouse brought an Ar-15-style semi-automatic rifle to a protest in Kenosha, where he shot and killed two men, Joseph Rosenbaum and Anthony Huber,...

Prosecutors and defense attorneys argued over whether Kyle Rittenhouse was acting in self-defense when he shot and killed two people, and wounded a third on an August night in Kenosha, Wisconsin last summer, during closing arguments in the 18-year-old’s homicide trial Monday, Nov. 15.

Both lawyers were given two-and-a-half hours to make their final case to the jury, capping off not only nearly two weeks of testimony, but a busy morning during which Judge Bruce Schroeder dismissed a misdemeanor weapons charge against Rittenhouse. Schroeder had also previously dismissed a curfew...

Kyle Rittenhouse, the teenager involved in the shooting deaths of two people during a protest in Kenosha, Wisconsin this summer, pleaded not guilty to all charges during an arraignment Tuesday, January 5th, The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports.

Rittenhouse, 18, is facing five felonies, including first-degree intentional homicide, first-degree reckless homicide, and attempted first-degree intentional homicide. He also faces two counts of recklessly endangering the safety of others, being a minor in possession of a firearm (he was 17 at the time of the shooting) and a misdemeanor of violating curfew.

Rittenhouse, who...

The attorney for Kyle Rittenhouse, a 17-year-old gunman accused of killing two protesters in August in Kenosha, Wis., said actor Ricky Schroder was among those who helped the teen post $2 million bail for his release on Friday.

Attorney Lin Wood took to Twitter on Friday to announce Rittenhouse’s release, giving a shoutout to Schroder for his donation.

“God bless all who donated to help #FightBack raise required $2M cash bail,” wrote Wood. “Special thanks to actor Ricky Schroder and [My Pillow CEO] Mike Lindell for putting us over the top. Kyle is safe. Thanks to all who helped this boy.”

Later on Friday evening, Wood shared a photo of Rittenhouse with fellow attorney John Pierce and Schroder. “Thank you, all donors. Thank you, all patriots. Thank God almighty,” the tweet read.

Schroder also retweeted Wood’s comments on Parler, a conservative social media platform, sharing a post that read, “Follow and thank...