KENOSHA, Wisc. – A day after Kyle Rittenhouse’s trial Judge Bruce Schroeder excoriated the mainstream media for its coverage of the case and Kenosha law enforcement piled on, Sheriff David Beth dropped by the courthouse with an offering of good will.
“This is just to show we’re all on the same page,” the sheriff told reporters on a frigid Thursday afternoon across the street from the ongoing homicide trial, where he showed up around noon to give away cookies and coffee on his own dime.
Beth said that things appeared normal throughout the city, even around the courthouse where small groups of protesters and counter-protesters have been gathering daily as the country awaits the jurors’ verdict.
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“We’ve got about 20 people here, they’re holding up signs and putting out what they would like to see,” he said. “I support that.”
Judge Schroeder attacked media coverage of Wednesday’s trial. Critics have called it misleading and dishonest for Rittenhouse’s alleged fabrication of false information. He also allegedly created false information about Rittenhouse. His defense lawyers argued that he was acting in self-defense. Prosecutors claim that the teen caused the violence.
The case attracted national attention. There were heated debates about racism, gun rights, and other political hot-button issues. Some details of the incident seem to have been lost in early reporting.
Bari Weiss, former New York Times opinion editor, called the Rittenhouse narrative “disinformation” campaign. In a New York Post op-ed, Miranda Devine said the mainstream media’s coverage was about race, class and “punching down at the White working-class son of a single mother because they don’t see him as fully human, and it makes them feel good.”
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Rittenhouse is currently on trial for shooting three White men. But, Rep. Ayanna pressley, D.Massachusetts at one point called him a “White supremacist domestic terror” while incorrectly claiming he’d driven across state borders with his rifle. The rifle had been kept in a safe at the home of a friend in Wisconsin.
Rittenhouse was born in Illinois, right near the border to Wisconsin, and had a job as a lifeguard. Kenosha, just 21 miles from where Rittenhouse lived with his mother, is also within reach.
Even Judge Schroeder, who was a part of the jury selection process on Nov. 2, lamented about “irresponsible news reports”, including some he called “deliberately bias” during the jury selection process.
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He stated that the price for having a free media was a lot of irresponsible journalism.
He stated that journalists were not given access to the evidence prior the trial began and that his speech wasn’t an attack on the media.
He returned to Wednesday’s media issue.
“When I talked about problems with the media when this trial started, we’re there, in part…because of grossly irresponsible handling of what comes out of this trial,” the judge said in court Wednesday. “I will tell it this, I will be thinking long and hard about live TV in trial next time, I don’t know. It has always been something I believed in, but it is quite scary to see the results.
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Later that day, the sheriff’s office and city police issued a joint statement after arresting two unruly protesters at almost the same exact spot Sheriff Beth set up his free handouts of coffee and cookies.
Anthony Chacon, 20, appeared to attack a female counterprotester and then body-slammed a reporter who tried breaking up the fight. He then attacked several photographers around the area, and dozens more reporters witnessed it. Police took him into custody.
Sgt. David Wright, a spokesman for the Kenosha Sheriff’s Department confirmed to Fox News Digital. Shaquita Cornelious, 34, was also taken into custody. She is a self-described cochairman for Black Lives Matter of Lake County in Illinois.
In first announcing the arrests Wednesday, the Kenosha Sheriff’s Department released a statement on social media saying “law enforcement needed to deploy several officers to keep crowds of citizens and media from interfering.”
Deputies had no choice but to maneuver around protestors and reporters covering the incident. Authorities were forced to briefly chastise them later in the evening.
“The media and public have a responsibility for giving space to law enforcement and allowing them to do their duties,” the joint statement said. Please do.
Thursday was the third day of jury deliberations. Rittenhouse is facing a maximum sentence in prison of life imprisonment for his top charge of first-degree intentional murder.
“No matter what verdict comes down, some people aren’t gonna be happy,” Sheriff Beth said. “And we can’t change that – it’s how the court system works. And we’re ready to help protect Kenosha.”
Fox News’ Stephanie Pagones and Joseph A. Wulfsohn contributed to this report.
Source: Fox News
