Tensions flare in Kenosha as Rittenhouse jury starts deliberations

With the jury quietly tucked away deliberating Kyle Rittenhouse's fate, decorum outside the Wisconsin courthouse dissolved into angry protests on Tuesday with the arrival of BLM activists and Second Amendment enthusiasts.  

The jury of 11 has now begun deliberating whether or not to convict the teenage gunman, whose case has divided the nation. Rittenhouse, now 18, was 17 when he shot dead two white BLM protesters at a riot in Kenosha, Wisconsin, last August, and injured a third. 

His lawyers say he was a scared boy acting in self-defense, eager to protect the town as it fell under siege from an angry mob. Prosecutors tried to paint him as a bloodthirsty vigilante and an embodiment of the systemic racism his victims were protesting against. 

The jury began discussions this morning, after a dramatic two-week trial and as their hushed deliberations began away from public view, decorum outside the courthouse dissolved. 

One an armed security guard wearing riot gear and carrying the type of assault rifle Rittenhouse used to kill three protesters last summer was among those outside. The guard told DailyMail.com he had been hired by a TV station to provide security for journalists who had been threatened recently.   

On the steps of the courthouse, protesters chanted in each other's faces in front of Jacob Blake's uncle. It was Blake's death by cop that was the reason for the protest on August 20 that attracted Rittenhouse to Kenosha. 

Mark and Patricia McCloskey, the Missouri couple who thwarted BLM protesters away from their property last year by toting their own guns, were there again to show Rittenhouse their support.

The sheriff's department and police department issued a statement to try to quell the town's anxiety, saying there were no plans yet for road closures, curfews or any other kind of restriction, but that safety remained the priority.

500 National Guardsmen remain on stand-by near Kenosha, ready to step in if the situation escalates.

'The Kenosha County Sheriff's Department and Kenosha Police Department understand and recognize the anxiety surrounding the Kyle Rittenhouse trial.

'There are many questions being asked from our community as well as media outlets. 

Our departments have worked together and made coordinated efforts over the last year to improve response capabilities to large scale events.

'We have also strengthened our existing relationships with State and Federal resources. At this time, we have no reason to facilitate road closures, enact curfews or ask our communities to modify their daily routines.

'Lastly and most importantly, we have and will continue to be engaged with our community leaders.' 

The jury has been asked to consider five charges; two counts of murder, one of attempted murder and two counts of recklessly endangering public safety. 

On Monday, Judge Bruce Schroeder dismissed a charge of possession of a firearm under 18, citing a loophole that Rittenhouse's legal team successfully argued that says the law makes it legal for people under 18 to carry long-barreled guns. 

It was a technicality that stunned the prosecution, which thought the gun charge was their only slam dunk. 

Rittenhouse's legal team says he was acting in self-defense and that he was responding to a gunshot he heard behind him when he pulled the trigger. 

His mother Wendy has stated publicly that she believes he would be dead if he hadn't pulled his own trigger, and that he was being chased by 'a mob'. 

Rittenhouse sobbed on the witness stand and said he was traumatized by the day's events.

White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki weighed in on the case on Monday night, condemning Rittenhouse as a 'vigilante'. 

She also refused to explain on Monday why Joe Biden called Kyle Rittenhouse a 'white supremacist' immediately after the 17-year-old shot three white people during riots in Kenosha, Wisconsin last year. 

'What I'm not going to speak to right now is anything about an ongoing trial nor the president's past comments,' she said, even though the president commented on the situation before it was litigated. 

But Psaki then made her feelings clear, saying, 'What I can reiterate for you is the president's view that we shouldn't have, broadly speaking, vigilantes patrolling our communities with assault weapons.

'We shouldn't have opportunists corrupting peaceful protests by rioting and burning down the communities they claim to represent – anywhere in the country.  

Two months before Biden was elected president, he criticized then-President Trump for refusing to condemn people who are against the Black Lives Matter riots as 'white supremacists.'

The tweet from the then-candidate included an image of Rittenhouse, who was 17 at the time of the shooting.

'There's no other way to put it: the President of the United

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