Kyle Rittenhouse abruptly departed the stage during an appearance at the University of Memphis on Wednesday, after he was confronted about comments made by Turning Point USA founder and president Charlie Kirk.

Rittenhouse was invited by the college’s Turning Point USA chapter to speak at the campus. However, the event was met with backlash from a number of students who objected to Rittenhouse’s presence.

The 21-year-old gained notoriety in August 2020 when, at the age of 17, he shot and killed two men—Joseph Rosenbaum, 36, and Anthony Huber, 26, as well as injuring 26-year-old Gaige Grosskreutz—at a protest in Kenosha, Wisconsin.

He said the three shootings, carried out with a semi-automatic AR-15-style firearm, were in self-defense. The Black Lives Matter (BLM) protest where the shootings took place was held after Jacob Blake, a Black man, was left paralyzed from the waist down after he was shot by a white police officer.

  • EatATaco@lemm.ee
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    8 months ago

    Irrelevant.

    Murder is literally the illegal killing of someone. So yes it absolutely matters whether he was convicted. To claim it’s irrelevant that he was found not guilty of murder just exposes how detached from reality your position is. We can argue that he should have been found guilty, but you have to realize that the people who disagree with you don’t think he’s a murderer.

    They’re stupid, simple as.

    And I’ve heard plenty of them make the claim anyone who thinks he is a murderer is stupid. In this regard, you’re just like them.

    • gamermanh@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      8 months ago

      Murder is literally the illegal killing of someone

      Irrelevant. People know him as a murderer, thus that is what he is famous for. Plenty of people are famous for shit thats not technically accurate.

      but you have to realize that the people who disagree with you don’t think he’s a murderer.

      I do, I just don’t care what wrong people think about shit that’s basic and obvious.

      And I’ve heard plenty of them make the claim anyone who thinks he is a murderer is stupid. In this regard, you’re just like them.

      Yeah but those people are fucking stupid, so I wouldn’t listen to them.

      • Samueru@lemmy.world
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        8 months ago

        People know him as a murderer

        I don’t, because I actually watch the damn trial

        shit that’s basic and obvious.

        Is it basic and obvious that you should just let be yourself attacked by a crowd even after trying to flee from said crowd instead of defending yourself?

      • EatATaco@lemm.ee
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        8 months ago

        People know him as a murderer

        The people inviting him to speak seen him as a victim who acted in self defense. Which is the whole point of the question: he’s not a murder to them.

        Yeah but those people are fucking stupid, so I wouldn’t listen to them.

        It’s funny how exactly like them you are, and how stupid you think they are for it.

      • Jax@sh.itjust.works
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        8 months ago

        Ehh, except you’re wrong. Using terms colloquially is one thing, no one has accepted that the legal definition of murder has changed. Certainly not regarding Rittenhouse.

        Yes he is known for being a killer or a shooter but he is not a murderer until charged in a court of law. Make whatever argument for how the decision not to charge him was wrong, I won’t disagree. He is a killer. The distinction is important because the “law” deemed it rightful.

        Again, make whatever argument you want for that being wrong.

          • Jax@sh.itjust.works
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            7 months ago

            18 U.S.C. § 1111 defines murder as the unlawful killing of a human being with malice

            the unlawful premeditated killing of one human being by another.

            This is both the legal definition of murder and the dictionary definition.

            Next you’ll say “But lAnGuAgEs ChAnGe OvEr TiMe”

            Edit: I’d like to point out the failure to recognize that my meaning is the law failed. Should he be a murderer? Yes. Is he? No. Why is that? The justice system failed.

            You can apply whatever meaning to whatever words you want, none of that matters in the face of the far reaching power that is the U.S. justice system. You declaring he’s a murderer is the most meaningless form of activism I can think of. You’re an ant screaming at a bulldozer.

        • Hacksaw@lemmy.ca
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          8 months ago

          “killing black people isn’t murder like killing rats with pesticide isn’t murder” -the least racist conservative