A planned student event at Western Kentucky University featuring Kyle Rittenhouse was shut down by a group of Black Lives Matter activists who booed Rittenhouse off the stage and chased him and his police escort to a nearby parking garage.
Rittenhouse became a hero to many conservatives and a villain to liberals after he was acquitted of criminal murder charges after riots erupted in Kenosha, Wisconsin in August 2020. His acquittal was hailed by his supporters as a win for self-defense laws but derided as a failure of the justice system by those who saw him as a racist vigilante.
According to the Louisville Courier-Journal, Rittenhouse was invited to campus by WKU’s chapter of Turning Point USA, a conservative nonprofit operating at colleges across the country. Branch President Cade Holcombe, who did not immediately respond to a request for comment after the event, previously said Rittenhouse was invited to share his story to “start a good conversation” and “find a solid middle ground.”
Rittenhouse has not mentioned the Kentucky incident on his X account, formerly Twitter, but he did post a statement praising Turning Point USA and linking to an interview he did with FOX Commentator Laura Ingraham after a similar event at the University of Memphis was also cut short by protestors.
https://x.com/ThisIsKyleR/status/1771298439994761622?s=20
The Courier-Journal report said WKU leadership didn’t endorse the event. Amid backlash earlier this week, school President Tim Caboni said universities in Kentucky are required by law to give student political organizations equal rights to reserve venues on campus, adding that colleges “have an obligation to establish an environment where a wide range of perspectives are exchanged, even if the ideas presented are different from our own, offensive or even contemptible.”
A notice on the Turning Point, USA website references an upcoming event with Rittenhouse on April 16 at Kent State University in Ohio.
David Hancock, a spokesman for Rittenhouse, told Newsweek in January 2022 that Rittenhouse had plans to write a book, describing it as “a young man’s very unorthodox journey into adulthood, what it took to make it, and the lessons he learned along the way.”
In February 2023, Anthony Huber’s father, John Huber, filed a civil suit against Rittenhouse for wrongful death, while Grosskreutz sued Rittenhouse for “emotional distress, humiliation, loss of enjoyment of life, and other pain and suffering.”
The estate of Joseph Rosenbaum also filed a wrongful death case against Rittenhouse in August of this year for “compensatory and punitive damages.”
