A former spokesperson for Kyle Rittenhouse says he became disillusioned with his ex-client after learning that he had sent text messages pledging to “fucking murder” shoplifters outside a pharmacy before later shooting two people to death during racial justice protests in Wisconsin in 2020.
Dave Hancock made that remark about Rittenhouse – for whom he also worked as a security guard – on a Law & Crime documentary that premiered on Friday. The show explored the unsuccessful criminal prosecution of Rittenhouse, who killed Joseph Rosenbaum and Anthony Huber in Kenosha, Wisconsin.
As Hancock told it on The Trials of Kyle Rittenhouse, the 90-minute film’s main subject had “a history of things he was doing prior to [the double slaying], specifically patrolling the street for months with guns and borrowing people’s security uniforms, doing whatever he could to try to get into some kind of a fight”.
Hancock nonetheless said he initially believed Rittenhouse’s claims of self-defense when he first relayed his story about fatally shooting Rosenbaum and Huber. Yet that changed when he later became aware of text messages that surfaced as part of a civil lawsuit filed by the family of one of the men slain in Kenosha demanding wrongful death damages from Rittenhouse.
Wait are you trying to tell me that the kid who took a gun he didn’t own to a state he didn’t live in to shoot protestors he didn’t know ostensibly to protect businesses he’s unaffiliated with wanted to kill people?? Wow I am shocked. Shocked!
Honestly of course he wanted to murder people, anyone who disputes that is and has always been deliberately lying.
Edit: not a single inaccurate statement in my comment, but narrative-clingers gotta downvote because inconvenient facts just make them that mad, lol. Shameful.
Fact checking time~
the kid who took a gun he didn’t own to
The gun was not in his possession until the day after he arrived.
to a state he didn’t live in
But that he previously worked in, and his father lived in. Not exactly a strange neighborhood.
to shoot protestors he didn’t know
It’s obvious he didn’t go there “to shoot protesters”, for several factual, verifiable reasons:
- He had hours of opportunities to open fire on protesters, and never did. He did not even anti-protest.
- He didn’t shoot anyone unprovoked, and every time he was provoked, he ran away instead of escalating.
- The only people who were shot by him that day were people who, when he ran away from their provocation, instead of letting him run away, chased him down and tried to kill him when they caught him. He prevented their murder attempts. This is crystal
- None of those who were shot were ever protesting; all three were destructive rioters with violent criminal records who were there not there to support any cause.
- Actions speak louder than words. Tons more people, tell their buddies they’d ‘kick that guy’s ass if I was there’ etc., but do not act that way at all when they’re actually in the situation. And that happens in the actual situation is what matters. Also, none of the rioters who attacked Rittenhouse were known to have shoplifted/looted, so they don’t even fall into the category he was speaking about.
ostensibly to protect businesses he’s unaffiliated with
There are text records of the business requesting his help, and one of the co-owners of that business, after denying it, was seen taking a posed ‘thank you’ picture with him after they had spent some time at the dealership that day. The evidence is clear they were there because they were directly requested to be there.
Honestly of course he wanted to murder people, anyone who disputes that is and has always been deliberately lying.
Nope, but I can understand how you’d reach that conclusion, considering you have basically every relevant fact of the case wrong. That’s what happens when you get narratives from social media, instead of drawing conclusions based on facts and evidence. There’s a ton of hard video evidence, you know.
It’s funny that on the day the verdict was delivered, the megathreads on Reddit announcing it were full of people admitting coming to terms with the fact that it was ironclad self-defense, and that social media and sensationalized news sources had created a narrative that directly contradicted the facts. And now years later, the only people still really talking about that case are the ideologues on both wings still clinging so desperately to those bullshit narratives, still repeating the same easily-debunked talking points they were fed by their echo chamber of choice, that were debunked before the trial even began. Hell, you can still find people claiming all the people he shot were black, lol.
This case has become such a perfect litmus test for identifying ideologues over people who both care about what’s actually true, and are actually willing to inform themselves instead of just swallowing whatever talking points they’re fed. Especially considering how EASY it is to debunk the bullshit, in this particular case.
It almost makes me not want to correct the lies, to make sure I can keep easier tabs on the liars, lol.
I’m only surprised you didn’t bring up that he killed a registered sex offender. His defenders usually think that’s relevant for some reason.
Yeah… he was an idiot for choosing to bring a firearm near known civil unrest, but it was pretty clearly self-defense. I mean they ran after him and attempted to seize his firearm…
Pretty good case for gun control as a concept, though. Ultimately both parties were endangered and forced into action by fear for their lives by the fact that the firearm was in the situation to begin with. As a protestor, I’d fear for my life if an armed counter protestor showed up, cause you know the cops aren’t gonna keep you alive if that guy chooses to start shooting. But any action I could take to prevent that puts the firearm owner in a position to reasonably fear for their lives. The mere appearance of the firearm puts the situation on a path to escalation. Maybe lethal weapons shouldn’t be allowed casually in public.
The prosecution team was 100% to blame for this little shit not getting what he deserved. I hope the litigants in the civil suit do a better job, but to be honest, they barely even need to try. Even I could put on a suit and walk in off the street and convince the jury of his liability in those killings. And that’s just using the evidence we had back in 2020. With these text messages, I could call it in over Zoom while driving around delivering pizzas for 40 minutes.
Even I could put on a suit and walk in off the street and convince the jury of his liability in those killings.
‘yes your honor, he’s liable because he dared to put out that fire, and then ran away when the guy who said it screamed “I’m going to kill you” and charged at him, and then tried to wrestle the rifle out of his hand.’
Buffoon.
🤔
All those people that defended this douche when I said there was proof of intention that was dismissed by a biased judge can fuck all the way off.
Let’s stop giving this idiot a voice in the media, please.
Had to check if this was theonion@
Sure wish this had come to light during the trial.
It would have made zero difference. Actions speak louder than words, and what he did that day directly contradicts this ‘message’.
He said he wanted to shoot a bunch of people for imagined slights, and he went on to do exactly that.
This fuck should be in jail.
Sounds like he will be soon enough considering the path he’s been on.
Jail or Presidential prospect.
Por qué no los dos?
Or assassin after his brain can no longer handle the cognitive dissonance.
I think the double jeopardy thing should be modified somehow to allow re-prosecution
While great in this application, overall this is an extremely shit idea. Do you really think the same court that let the dipshit go wouldn’t abuse the change by trying the poor and minorities over and over until charges stick?
Life is complicated, think through the consequences of your ideas.
Edit: spelling
And not just the poor and minorities. Trump apparently had the DOJ go after people he perceived as disloyal or political enemies, costing them millions of dollars in legal fees. Imagine if the government then just got a redo whenever it wanted. Even for a fairly wealthy person, that’s going to be a potent tool to silence them.
Sometimes a new trial is allowed if new evidence comes to light. But I’m guessing that this was known evidence that was suppressed by the judge.
It’s not evidence of anything. Actions speak louder than words. The actions he took that day directly contradict any stated intention to shoot anyone. He used his weapon as a literal last resort all 3 times, when not doing so would have meant forfeiting his own life.
Textbook self-defense.
He created the situation he needed to escape from. That’s textbook offense. You don’t get to create confrontation and call it defense.
It’s already a really bad standard. There’s people who have had the same trial 4 times and there was more than reasonable doubt as to their guilt. If the prosecutor wanted to try Rittenhouse again he could have. And loosening this standard will only make it easier to put innocent people in prison.
No more than are already in there. We could try people like OJ again.
Sure we would… We can’t even keep from executing innocent people in the current system and you want to make it easier to convict innocent people.
I suppose that’s one lens to look at it with.
Why don’t we just stop prosecuting crimes altogether? Seems like the best way to prevent innocent people from being convicted.
Don’t be disingenuous.
I’m not seeing any messages about murdering shoplifters thought. The only examples given were:
“I wish they would come into my house.”
“I will fucking murder them.”
What’s unclear about “I will fucking murder them.”?
He’s talking about shooting people coming to his house but the title talks about shooting shoplifters
Do you understand the difference between someone saying they would defend themselves and someone literally saying they would murder people?
Sounds like the article is a little confused, or this is brand new stuff, which is possible.
The comments about wanting to murder people that I knew about came him and a friend filming Black people leaving a cvs and them “knowing” they were all shoplifters and wanting to kill them for it. They’d just go sit outside drug stores because of propaganda and “filming subjects”.
There was also the video where he tried to jump a younger girl and when 3 black guys (his age) yelled at him not to hit a young girl. He immediately fell to the ground in a fetal position and started crying and begging, literally that was his reaction to being told not to beat a young girl.
Those two examples together showed he didn’t have the same basic reactions to a situation any normal human would have. And that he can’t properly identify risks.
he can’t properly identify risks.
Give me a fucking break.
Let’s be honest. Many, if not most, of us talked big when we were that age. The texts are just that. This is a kid with an inferiority complex trying to be seen as a tough guy. His actions that night were more like the coward he is inside. Which is not meant as an insult really. But he ran away. And to me he really did fire in the legal definition of self defense. The crime here is that he was there and armed at all. And further that society failed to help this kid find productive ways to prove his worth to himself. Kids aren’t born like this.
He did exactly what he said he was gonna do. He is a coward both ways.
Sure, to a point. But not about murdering people. And we didn’t then go and do just that. It shows some forethought. There have been other shooters who made posts before hand more or less admitting to wanting to provoke people, then claim self defense. They did not get to claim self defense.
And then we all grabbed a gun and actually killed people.
Oh wait.
And no. There is no self defense claim when you instigated it.
Many, if not most, of us talked big when we were that age.
Doubt. I never threatened to kill people when I was that age. I never wanted a gun.
Maybe I’m special.
Another of the special folk chiming in here. I have never threatened to kill anyone in my life (except maybe as a very obvious joke) and I’ve never so much as fired a gun.
