Kenosha law enforcement enabled armed civilians to "wreak havoc and inflict injury" against protesters last summer, lawsuit claims

The father of a man killed last summer during racial justice protests in Kenosha, Wisconsin, filed a federal civil rights lawsuit against members of the Kenosha Police Department and the Kenosha County Sheriff's Department on Tuesday, alleging that officers enabled armed civilians to "wreak havoc and inflict injury" on protestors. His son, Anthony Huber, was killed while trying to pull an assault rifle from the hands of Kyle Rittenhouse, a then-17-year-old who killed two people during the protest, prosecutors say.

The protests began in the city in August 2020, after Jacob Blake — a Black man — was shot in the back seven times by a White police officer. The demonstrations came to a head on August 25, when Rittenhouse, who is alleged to have come to Kenosha from Illinois to defend the city against protesters, allegedly shot three men and killed two, including 26-year-old Huber.  "Defendants' open support of and coordination with the armed individuals in the minutes and hours before the shootings deprived Anthony Huber and the other protestors of the basic protections typically provided by police," the lawsuit said. "It was a license for the armed individuals to wreak havoc and inflict injury," according to the complaint.