After Rittenhouse: What an era of armed protest means for America

After the acquittal on Friday of Kyle Rittenhouse for killing two protesters and injuring another during social upheaval in Kenosha, Wisconsin, last year, folks once again took to the streets here in Kenosha, but the numbers were far fewer.

One group of marchers peacefully followed Mr. Rittenhouse’s footsteps from the night of the killing, as laid out in a map shown to the jury. 

While the Rittenhouse verdict upheld a heavily armed teenager’s right to kill those his presence provoked to violence, it set no legal precedent.

But such verdicts “do help set a cultural norm,” says Keith Findley, a law professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

The Rev. Jonathan Barker, pastor at Grace Lutheran Church in Kenosha, has noticed more people