Colin Kaepernick has called out the US justice system that allowed for the acquittal of Kyle Rittenhouse on all charges.
On Friday, November 19, a 12-person jury consisting of seven women and five men found the teen not guilty on all counts after three days of deliberation.
Rittenhouse, 18, of Antioch, Illinois, shot and killed Joseph Rosenbaum and Anthony Huber, and injured Gaige Grosskreutz on August 25, 2020, with an AR-15 rifle, during protests which took place in Kenosha, Wisconsin, after the police shooting of Jacob Blake.
Since the verdict, activist-athlete Kaepernick has reacted to the news on social media.
The verdict "further validates the need to abolish our current system. White supremacy cannot be reformed," Kaepernick tweeted Friday.
"We just witnessed a system built on white supremacy validate the terroristic acts of a white supremacist," wrote the former San Francisco 49s quarterback, who was forced out of the NFL after taking a knee before games to protest racism and police brutality.
Rittenhouse, who was 17 at the time of the shooting, had been charged with five felonies; first-degree intentional homicide, first-degree reckless homicide, attempted first-degree intentional homicide, and two counts of first-degree recklessly endangering safety.
Per BBC News, Rittenhouse had denied all the charges and maintained he acted in self-defense.
His homicide trial started on November 1 and had seen testimonies from dozens of witnesses and footage taken of the night the then-17-year-old opened fire. Jurors were even played a graphic video of Rosenbaum lying still, unable to breathe after he was shot four times.
Rittenhouse's defense argued that the then-17-year-old had feared for his life last August.
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez expressed a similar perspective to Kapernick's about who is protected in America, writing: "What we are witnessing is a system functioning as designed and protecting those it was designed for.
"My heart still breaks for the communities and families whose grief now compounds, and the countless others who will be denied and deprived in similar scenes across the country."
Outspoken former ESPN personality Jemele Hill also called out white supremacy’s role in the Rittenhouse verdict.
She wrote: "The Kyle Rittenhouse verdict, that several states have enacted laws that allow motorists immunity if they hit protestors with their cars, is about this country’s addiction to maintaining white supremacy at all costs. It’s on brand, and in line with who America always has been."
Meanwhile, former POTUS Donald Trump was quick to congratulate Rittenhouse on his homicide acquittal in a statement posted on Twitter by his spokesperson Liz Harrington.
"Congratulations to Kyle Rittenhouse for being found INNOCENT of all charges. It's called being found NOT GUILTY—And by the way, if that's not self-defense, nothing is!"
Trump visited the city in September 2020 to view the damage done during the civil unrest that was sparked by the police shooting of Jacob Blake.
Current US President Joe Biden called on Americans to "express their views peacefully", while acknowledging that the outcome of the high-profile case "will leave many Americans feeling angry and concerned, myself included, we must acknowledge that the jury has spoken."