Over the weekend, celebrities blasted the acquittal of Kyle Rittenhouse, who was found not guilty of all charges after killing two rioters and injuring a third in self-defense after they attacked him during a riot in Kenosha, Wisconsin last year.
Actress Reese Witherspoon tweeted that the Rittenhouse verdict “is a disgrace.”
“Woke up this morning thinking about every mother/father/sister/brother/friend who has lost someone to senseless gun violence in America. And then ..there was no justice for their pain. This is a disgrace,” she tweeted.
“No one should be able to purchase a semi-automatic weapon, cross state lines and kill 2 people, wound another and go free,” she continued. “In what world is this safe … for any of us?”
Witherspoon’s comments did not accurately reflect the facts of the case – most notably, Rittenhouse did not “cross state lines” with a semi-automatic weapon. Furthermore, Rittenhouse’s father and extended family live in Kenosha, and the teen also worked in the city.
Witherspoon also thanked anti-Second Amendment groups Moms Demand Action and Everytown, tweeting that the work they do “is vital.”
Actor Mark Ruffalo chimed in on the Rittenhouse acquittal shortly after the jury reached a verdict, writing that the system that found him not guilty is “racist.”
“We come together to mourn the lives lost to the same racist system that devalues Black lives and devalued the lives of Anthony and JoJo. #ReimagineKenosha,” Ruffalo tweeted.
“After all we have seen and heard about these weapons of war, these killing machines, there is no doubt that people who faced this young man were more afraid of him than he was of them,” the actor continued. “He was the one with a weapon of war, loaded and ready to be used on people.”
“Justice weeps bitterly today. We are coming together to heal the scars left by the wounds of this grief,” Ruffalo added. “We will care for each other and remember why we continue to march.”
In his tweet, Ruffalo was apparently referring to convicted child molester Joseph Rosenbaum — one of the rioters who killed while attacking Rittenhouse in Kenosha — as “JoJo.”
According to Snopes, Rosenbaum was sentenced to prison at age 19 for sexually abusing five young boys between the ages of 9 and 11.
“Do you normally use cutesy pet names for child rapists?” the Daily Wire’s Matt Walsh responded to Ruffalo’s tweet.
Star Trek actor LeVar Burton tweeted, “Tell me again there are not two kinds justice in America!”
Star Trek actor George Takei also tweeted, “Justice denied is a body blow to our national psyche. On trial was not only a killer, but a system that continues to kill.”
Mia Farrow tweeted, “So anyone can come to a protest, just march down the middle of the street with a massive gun – and kill people?”
Actor Pedro Pascal wrote that both Rosenbaum and Huber — the second rioter killed by Rittenhouse after attacking the teen — were murdered, despite the court determining that they were killed in acts of self-defense.
“Joseph Rosenbaum, 36, and Anthony Huber, 27, murdered August 25th, 2020. Rest In Peace,” the Mandalorian actor tweeted.
Frozen actor Josh Gad tweeted, “It has now been put it out there that vigilantes can just go and kill people protesting issues like racial equality whenever they want and get away with it. Think about that for a second.”
