Trial of Kyle Rittenhouse

Overview

The Trial of Kyle Rittenhouse refers to the criminal court case as a result of the 2020 Kenosha, Wisconsin shootings. The court case was widely publicized due to the circumstances of the shooting and many memes were made out of specific and general instances from it. The trial began on November 1st, 2021, with Thomas Binger as the lead prosecutor, Mark Richards as lead defense attorney and Bruce Schroeder presiding as judge. After his trial ended in mid-November 2021, Rittenhouse was found not guilty on all charges.

Background

On August 26th, 2020, Kyle Rittenhouse was arrested in Illinois on charges of first-degree intentional homicide, according to Lake County, Illinois Clerk of Courts^[1] public records. In the complaint, Rittenhouse was also labeled as a “fugitive from justice” for fleeing Wisconsin with “intent to avoid prosecution.” Under state law, he was to be charged as an adult. The event also trended on Twitter^[4] that day.

On August 28th, Rittenhouse appeared at an extradition hearing with his assigned public defender, according to The Daily Beast.^[2] In the State of Wisconsin vs. Kyle H. Rittenhouse indictment, six charges were brought against Rittenhouse for first-degree intentional homicide, first-degree reckless homicide and attempted homicide. These felony charges also include the modifier “use of a dangerous weapon,” which adds “no more than five years of imprisonment for each of the charges if found guilty.” The misdemeanor charge also included possession of a dangerous weapon as a minor.

Developments

Proceedings and Memes

The trial of Kyle Rittenhouse began on November 1st, 2021, and lasted a total of 18 days. The trial proceeded normally with the prosecution showing evidence to the jury, explaining how the evidence condemned Rittenhouse, and then the defense cross-examined and tried to find holes in the theory and logic. Things took an unexpected turn on November 10th, 2021, when Rittenhouse himself took the stand. During his testimony of the events that happened that night in Kenosha, he began to tear up and cry. Various images of this moment then became the first meme of the trial, known as Kyle Rittenhouse Crying (example shown below).

Throughout the trial itself, the lead prosecutor Thomas Binger began popping up in memes regarding his questions that were often contentious on the internet. Memes were then made about Binger to make him into a stereotypical Soy Boy, saying that he was unable to answer any real questions (example seen below).

The trial went on as normal until it was time for the closing arguments, which happened on November 15th, 2021. During his closing argument, Binger picked up the AR-15 used by Rittenhouse, which he claimed was already checked and cleared, and aimed it at the jury and members of the public there to observe. This quickly became another meme moment known as Thomas Binger Pointing Gun (example shown below).

Another prominent figure in memes during the trial was the presiding judge, Bruce Schroeder. Schroeder became highly contentious online during the proceedings with some claiming he was playing obvious favorites towards Rittenhouse, often overruling or not allowing the prosecution to continue on certain courses of action (such as not allowing the two deceased men to be called "victims" before the trial began). As a result, he was also used in memes where he, over-exaggeratedly, would congratulate or otherwise collude with Rittenhouse in some manner (example seen below).

Verdict

On November 19th, 2021, after four days of deliberations, the jury announced that it had reached a verdict. Kyle Rittenhouse, who had previously had his weapon charge dismissed by the judge after clarifying the state statute did not apply to the situation, still had five more counts, which all came back not guilty (reaction to verdict shown below).

Politically, Twitter was quickly engulfed in a cultural flame war about the second amendment, white supremacy, calls for actions and the further corruption of the legal and justice system, among many other sentiments. Reactions occurred on most major platforms following the verdict's release, such as 4chan's /pol/ board,^[3] which autoplayed the songs "Keep Your Rifle By Your Side" from Far Cry 5, "God Bless The USA" and "Big Iron" from Fall Out: New Vegas upon viewing the page.

Kyle Rittenhouse Foundation To Hold Media Accountable

On February 21st, 2022, Kyle Rittenhouse appeared on Fox News' primetime show Tucker Carlson Tonight, wherein the segment, he announced he was starting a foundation to hold media outlets accountable for the alleged defamation of his character, effectively trying to sue media outlets, politicians and celebrities who called him a murderer, among other statements, during and after his trial. Among the celebrities namedropped were Whoopi Goldberg and Cenk Uyhur from The Young Turks.

The clip was posted to Twitter^[5] by user greg_price11 on the same day, whose tweet received roughly 14,900 likes in less than 24 hours (shown below). Memes and reactions ensued online, mostly from users being outraged as well as posting humorous content centering on Whoopi Goldberg's involvement in the controversy.

TUCKER: "Will you be suing any news organizations?"

KYLE RITTENHOUSE: "We're looking at quite a few, politicians, athletes, celebrities, Whoppi Goldberg is on the list, she called me a murderer after I was acquitted… So is Cenk [Uyhur] from the Young Turks." pic.twitter.com/MULZf38Vkf

— Greg Price (@greg_price11) February 22, 2022

Related Memes

Kyle Rittenhouse Crying

Kyle Rittenhouse Crying refers to screenshots and a video of Kyle Rittenhouse crying during his defense testimony in November 2021. After the video was shared to Twitter, people began using screenshots of him crying as reaction images and GIFs as an exploitable, typically to express sadness in a humorous context.

Thomas Binger Pointing Gun

Thomas Binger is most known online for certain questions he asked Rittenhouse on the stand that some online thought were speculative, as well as a moment during the trial where he pointed a gun at the courtroom with his finger on the trigger. Memes about both instances appeared across platforms like Twitter, Reddit and 4chan, among others.

Search Interest

Various Memes

External Resources