Another vendor has canceled Rittenhouse defense’s attempt to sell merchandise
A second online vendor has declined to help Kyle Rittenhouse make money off his notoriety from killing two people during August’s civil unrest in Kenosha.
Last week, a website devoted to seeking donations for Rittenhouse’s defense announced it would also be selling Tshirts, hats, mugs and other merchandise, branded “FREE KYLE Self defense is a right, not a privilege.”
His lawyers say Rittenhouse, 17, acted in self-defense when he fatally shot Joseph Rosenbaum, 36, and Anthony Huber, 26, and wounded Gaige Grosskreutz, 22.
But within days of promoting the merchandise, Rittenhouse’s civil attorney, John Pierce, tweeted that the initial orders were held up, new orders would not be accepted and that his account with Printful, a major custom printing drop-shipper, had been canceled.
An email from the company, which Pierce posted, said the Free Kyle account was in violation of Printful’s terms and conditions that prohibit “content that condones or promotes violence” against any based on race, religion, ethnicity, gender or other statuses.
On Wednesday, Pierce once again was explaining on Twitter that, “The FreeKyleUSA store is offline for now due to us being deplatformed by our second vendor.”
He did not identify the company and did not return an email seeking to discuss the vendor situation.
On its own Twitter feed, Printful said it halted the early orders from FreeKyle
USA to mitigate risks to its business.
“Ultimately, we don’t want to be affiliated with a store that’s involved with such a complex, controversial and ongoing case,” the statement read. “We’re following the example of other businesses taking a similar approach, like GoFundMe, Etsy, Facebook and YouTube.”
Pierce had accused Printful, like the other platforms, of falling victim to “cancel culture.” In interviews with conservative media outlets, Pierce has mentioned suing Facebook and other entities, including President-elect Joe Biden’s campaign, for various claims of defamation.
Outrage over the canceled merchandise among Rittenhouse supporters led to more online chatter and may have driven a bump in donations to Free
KyleUSA; according to the site’s tracker, donations have passed $64,000.
Rittenhouse turned himself into police in his hometown of Antioch, Ill., early on Aug. 26, hours after the shootings in Kenosha the night before, the third night of protests that followed the shooting of Jacob Blake, who is Black, by a white Kenosha police officer. The shooting left Black paralyzed.
Rittenhouse told police he’d gone there to help people and protect a business. He was armed with an AR-15 style rifle.
After a failed attempt to fight extradition, he was transported to Kenosha on Oct. 30 and released on $2 million bail Nov. 20.
He is expected to file a formal “not guilty” plea at his arraignment Jan. 6. No trial date has been set in the case.