Parents of Rittenhouse Victim Sue Kenosha for Inciting Violence

A federal lawsuit filed in Milwaukee by the parents of a man fatally shot during last summer’s violent demonstrations in Kenosha alleges that city authorities incited the bloodshed by allowing Kyle Rittenhouse and other armed civilians who clashed with protesters to “mete out punishment as they saw fit,” reports the Chicago Tribune. The lawsuit seeks unspecified damages against Kenosha County Sheriff David Beth; Daniel Miskinis, the former city of Kenosha police chief; and Eric Larsen, the city’s acting police chief; as well as unnamed officers and deputies.

The lawsuit alleges authorities were warned about the counterprotesters’ plans. In fact, a local militia group had put out a call on social media to armed followers to come to the city and help protect businesses. Kevin Mathewson, a former Kenosha alderman and the group’s commander, emailed Miskinis, the city’s police chief at the time, and posted the message as an open letter on Facebook, the suit said. Furthermore, the lawsuit said, law enforcement treated Rittenhouse’s pro-police group with “a different set of rules,” such as enforcing the city’s curfew order only on demonstrators who were assembled to protest police violence. The alleged conduct violated the U.S. Constitution’s guarantees of a right to free speech and peaceful assembly and to equal protection of the law, among other state law claims.