City and county officials and law enforcement targeted protesters for arrest while letting armed counterprotesters freely patrol the streets to threaten and assault protesters, according to a new lawsuit. Gaige Grosskreutz, top, tends to an injured protester during clashes with police outside the Kenosha County Courthouse in Kenosha, Wis., on Aug. 25, 2020. A man shot by a counterprotester at an anti-police brutality demonstration in Kenosha, Wisconsin, last year sued the city, county, law enforcement chiefs and unknown cops late Thursday, saying they coordinated with right-wing militia members to use violence and threats to unconstitutionally clamp down on protesters. The complaint from Gaige Grosskreutz – one of three people shot by Kyle Rittenhouse at a protest over the police shooting of Black man Jacob Blake on Aug. 25, 2020 – charges that Kenosha cops and law enforcement brass knew right-wing and white nationalist militias were plotting violence against protesters and aided their cause by condoning their vigilantism and targeting only the racially diverse group of protesters to deprive them of their constitutional rights. Grosskreutz survived being shot in the bicep by then-17-year-old Rittenhouse – who came from his mother’s house in Illinois and joined counterprotesters with an illegally acquired AR-15 – but Joseph Rosenbaum, 36, and Anthony Huber, 26, were killed. Huber’s father brought a lawsuit similar to Grosskreutz’s in the same Milwaukee federal court in August. Rittenhouse, now 18, is free on bail and facing murder charges, with a trial slated to begin with jury selection in Kenosha County Circuit Court on Nov. 1. His attorneys say Rittenhouse shot in self-defense while being chased by a crowd of protesters.
via corthousenews: Protester accuses Kenosha cops of conspiring with armed militia members