Trial witness says Kyle Rittenhouse not 'good or evil' and slams media 'caricatures'

A video director who noticed firsthand the occasions that unfolded when Kyle Rittenhouse fatally shot two males and injured one other throughout the riots in Kenosha, Wisconsin, precisely two years in the past declared that the now 19-year-old was neither "good nor evil."

Richie McGinnis, who was a witness within the trial throughout which Rittenhouse claimed he was performing in self-defense, tore into the media for crafting "caricatures" of Rittenhouse in a prolonged op-ed for Newsweek for the anniversary of that fateful evening. McGinnis additionally threw shade on the media for stoking violence.

KYLE RITTENHOUSE UNVEILS VIDEO GAME TO SHOOT 'FAKE NEWS TURKEYS' TO FUND MEDIA LAWSUITS

"It is also straightforward to overlook that the violence was a part of a nationwide tsunami that was inspired, if not outright stoked, by media chieftains in Washington and New York. Kyle Rittenhouse was broadly offered as both a pressure for good or evil. In my opinion, he was neither," McGinnis wrote.

The op-ed was titled, "I Was in Kenosha Two Years In the past, Kyle Rittenhouse Is Not a Hero."

McGinnis was dispatched to Kenosha in August 2020 on project for the Day by day Caller following an uproar within the metropolis that was sparked by a police taking pictures of Jacob Blake. The protests and riots that consumed Kenosha got here amid a nationwide wave of unrest over the demise of George Floyd weeks earlier.

Rittenhouse, who was 17 on the time, arrived in Kenosha armed with a semi-automatic rifle asserting that he was eager on safeguarding native companies within the space. McGinnis recalled crossing paths with Rittenhouse that evening and interviewed him briefly. About 13 minutes later, he noticed Rittenhouse open gunfire on three people in what Rittenhouse argued was self-defense.

One of many males had chased down Rittenhouse and grabbed his gun, and one other had smacked him along with his skateboard, Rittenhouse claimed. He was acquitted by a Wisconsin jury final November of all fees stemming from his actions that evening, together with intentional murder.

"To his detractors, Rittenhouse was a white-supremacist vigilante, and, to his lionizers, a hero standing up for regulation and order. The left ignored the truth that Rittenhouse had come out that day to wash graffiti," McGinnis wrote.

"Conservatives, champions of household values, did not trouble to ask why Rittenhouse's household had allowed him to enterprise out onto the streets of Kenosha, in the midst of violent demonstrations, within the first place," he continued. "Nor did they appear to thoughts that their hero, as a substitute of calling 911, as I might requested him to do after he shot [the first victim], had fled on foot."

McGinnis traveled again to Kenosha earlier this summer time to shoot a documentary about that tragic evening.

After being acquitted, Rittenhouse introduced plans to go after media retailers and others whom he claims defamed him as a part of the Media Accountability Mission. Earlier this summer time, he unveiled a brand new online game by which gamers can assume a carton iteration of him and hunt "pretend information turkeys." The sport is meant to fund his authorized challenges to media corporations and Large Tech.