(San Francisco) Young American Kyle Rittenhouse, who was acquitted after killing two people on the sidelines of anti-racism protests in 2020, launched a video game to fund libel suits he wants to bring against left-leaning media.
Posted at 7:34 p.m.
The game with basic graphics consists of playing as Kyle Rittenhouse and slaughtering turkeys labeled “fake news”.
In August 2020, then aged 17, the teenager had equipped himself with an AR-15 semi-automatic rifle and had joined armed groups who had come to “protect” businesses during a demonstration against police violence and the racism in Kenosha, Wisconsin. In confused circumstances, he had opened fire, killing two men and wounding a third.
In November, he pleaded self-defense and was acquitted, becoming a hero in some right-wing circles. Conversely, for the American left, it embodies the excesses of the right to self-defense.
“From the start I had done nothing wrong, but that didn’t stop the media from tarnishing my name. It’s time to fight the ‘fake news’ machine,” he said in a video on his Twitter account.
In the comments, he also welcomes the decision taken on Thursday by the American Supreme Court, which enshrines the right to bear arms outside the home.
“The second amendment (of the American constitution, which guarantees the right to carry a weapon, Editor’s note) saved my life. Everyone has the right to protect themselves,” he said.
“Thank you” to Donald Trump for the judges he has appointed, also welcomes Donald Trump Jr., the son of the former Republican president, in the comments.
The Supreme Court, whose majority justices are conservative, has struck down ‘restrictions’ on carrying guns under a New York state law, even as America faces a spike in crime in major cities and a horrifying series of killings.
“That a teenager can […] shooting three people, killing two, without any criminal consequences is a denial of justice,” said Shannon Watts, founder of the group Moms Demand Action, in November. “It is also the America that the NRA created,” she added, referring to the powerful arms lobby, the National Rifle Association, which campaigns for an unlimited right to carry a weapon.
In May, three Stockholm-based young men launched a video game called “Acquitted” on the Steam platform, where the central character – Kyle Rittenhouse – shoots zombies supposedly representing “the crowd of idiots excited by the media”.