antifainternational:

In case you think the Rittenhouse verdict is an aberration, here are four other examples of the US justice system permitting fascists to use lethal violence against their opponents with total impunity:

1) The Greensboro Massacre, 1979:

In 1979, three dozen KKK members got the police in Greensboro, NC to turn a blind eye to the ambush they were planning for an anti-racist march. The KKK members fired on the anti-racists, killing five and wounding ten others. No one was ever convicted.

2) Dan Shersty and Lin “Spit” Newborn, 1998:

Dan and Spit were two young anti-racist organizers in Las Vegas. In 1998, a gang of nazis lured them out to the desert and shot them to death. Two of the nazis were acquitted of the murders in a trial 16 years later; a third was never even charged.

3) Sacramento 2016:

Nazis attending a white supremacist rally at the California state capitol arrived armed with knives and guns and stabbed nine counter-protestors while the police blithely looked on. Afterward, the police actively colluded with the nazis to frame the counter-protestors who had been stabbed.

4) Black Lives Matter Protests, 2020:

In addition to the three people killed or maimed by Rittenhouse, fascists attacked at least 53 other Black Lives Matter protests in the US, killing seven others and injuring an 61 additional people; To our knowledge, none have been convicted. Internationally, fascists & far-right bigots murdered at least 326 people and injured 1187 others last year.

It is folly to expect the US justice system - or any country’s legal system - to hold fascists accountable for the violence they visit upon their opponents & our communities. Community-based organizing and collective self-defence are all we have to protect ourselves from their terror.