‘I believed things he told me that I now understand to be … lies,’ Dave Hancock says in new Rittenhouse documentary

A former spokesperson for Kyle Rittenhouse says he became disillusioned with his ex-client after learning that he had sent text messages pledging to “fucking murder” shoplifters outside a Chicago pharmacy before later shooting two people to death during racial justice protests in Wisconsin in 2020.

Dave Hancock made that remark about Rittenhouse – for whom he also worked as a security guard – on a Law & Crime documentary that premiered on Friday. The show explored the unsuccessful criminal prosecution of Rittenhouse, who killed Joseph Rosenbaum and Anthony Huber in Kenosha, Wisconsin.

As Hancock told it on The Trials of Kyle Rittenhouse, the 90-minute film’s main subject had “a history of things he was doing prior to [the double slaying], specifically patrolling the street for months with guns and borrowing people’s security uniforms, doing whatever he could to try to get into some kind of a fight”.

  • Red_October@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    57
    ·
    3 hours ago

    Wait you mean when he grabbed a rifle and traveled an inordinate distance to the scene of a riot and shot two people to death, he wasn’t just an innocent bystander after all?

  • circuitfarmer@lemmy.sdf.org
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    76
    arrow-down
    1
    ·
    5 hours ago

    Imagine being such a bootlicker that you want to kill people for property crime, even when that property isn’t yours. What a loser.

    • Red_October@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      24
      ·
      3 hours ago

      He just wanted to kill people. That they were black made it more attractive, and the property crime was a convenient excuse.

  • norimee@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    152
    arrow-down
    4
    ·
    10 hours ago

    Why is this waste of space still in the news? And a documentary? Seriously? Can we please ignore him going forward and let him be forgotten, unimportant and inconsequential in a hole, like this litte rat deserves?

    • FartsWithAnAccent@fedia.io
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      55
      arrow-down
      4
      ·
      9 hours ago

      Hey, he just wants to kill some more people. No big deal right?

      checks rulebook

      My mistake, murdering shoplifters is actually still kind of a big no-no. Apologies.

      • norimee@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        36
        arrow-down
        2
        ·
        9 hours ago

        he had sent text messages pledging to “fucking murder” shoplifters outside a Chicago pharmacy before later shooting two people to death during racial justice protests in Wisconsin in 2020.

        That was before he went to Kenosha.

        And honestly, we all knew he did it on porpouse. This is nothing new. Blowing this up and giving it more attention just furthers the right’s hero worship of him.

        More attention makes it worse. It makes him an Icon and martyr for the white supremacists.

        • dezmd@lemmy.worldM
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          28
          ·
          8 hours ago

          Premeditation and intent. How is this weasely fuck not in prison for life.

          • Funderpants @lemmy.ca
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            22
            arrow-down
            1
            ·
            8 hours ago

            The insidious nature of systemic racism is why. White men are given the widest possible berth to acquire weapons and play vigilante. As we saw here, a white guy who talks about murdering people can, over and over, put himself into dangerous situations until he gets the opportunity to kill and get away with it. This isn’t even the only example in the last five years.

      • kryptonianCodeMonkey@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        10
        ·
        9 hours ago

        Really? They put a rule against murder in the book? Is that new? No? Well then they should tell people that! How are we supposed to know not to kill people if they don’t tell us that’s against the rules!?

    • frezik@midwest.social
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      33
      ·
      7 hours ago

      Unfortunately, he is very consequential. If you went to an NRA self-defense shooting instructor in 2019 and laid out everything Rittenhouse did, and then asked if that was valid self defense, the answer would be unequivocally no. What Rittenhouse found was an argument for shooting protestors and getting away with it.

      That’s scary, because if you spend much time around gun shows and gun clubs, you’ll meet plenty of people who are clearly looking for an excuse to shoot somebody with a legal loophole.

      • Ragnarok314159@sopuli.xyz
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        5
        ·
        4 hours ago

        The judge created the legal precedent for the loophole.

        The greater evil behind it all is a situation where a Blackwater type organization is paid for security and people protest, then they open fire and start killing. They can all use the Rittenhouse defense and get away with it.

    • almar_quigley@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      8
      ·
      8 hours ago

      I only take issue with you implying rats are bad. They wonderful smart little creatures, cleaner than your family dog, and would never cross state lines armed to kill protestors because they psychotic. Although they may bite your finger mistaking it for food. And damn can their little teeth hurt.

    • Soup@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      27
      ·
      8 hours ago

      People on the right still believe he was defending himself or just a kid or whatever whatever. This news shows that it was totally planned, that he willingly put himself in harms way to murder people like he was judge, jury, and executioner over some shoplifting.

      It’s important that we go “oh look, he really is, undeniably, a rotten piece of filth” and can throw out all these notions of “well-intentioned” people who end up killing people like this.

    • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      17
      arrow-down
      4
      ·
      9 hours ago

      For one thing, whether or not you or I like it, he’s a right-wing darling and he needs to stop being one.

      • norimee@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        12
        arrow-down
        3
        ·
        9 hours ago

        And that’s exactly why we shouldn’t give him attention and media space.

        He is a “right-wing darling” because of articles and documentaries like that. He is triggering a negative reaction from the other side and that’s why he’s hailed a hero by the right.

        More attention makes it worse.

        • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          13
          arrow-down
          4
          ·
          9 hours ago

          If we do not give him attention, they still will. All you are doing is not letting people know who they think is praiseworthy. I don’t see that as helpful.

          You do not get to control who the right idolizes. All you can hope to do is shave some of them off by explaining why those people should not be idolized.

          Why people who have gone through all of childhood haven’t found out that ignoring bullies doesn’t actually make them go away is beyond me.

          • MagicShel@programming.dev
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            12
            arrow-down
            2
            ·
            edit-2
            8 hours ago

            One of the differences between the right and the left, you just made me realize, is how we treat heroes.

            Kyle murders two protestors and he’s a hero. He can fuck it up, but that’s all it takes to get there.

            If a left leaning person became a hero for rescuing cats out of a house fire, you’d have a hundred reporters digging up dirt about how he cuts in line at Starbucks, or an ex coworker thought his obsession with cute animal butts was a little creepy.

            I’m minimizing. People who do good things sometimes have done real shit but I don’t want to sidetrack. Point is, the right elevates their heroes while the left humanizes them. It’s not just a different playing field, it’s a whole other sport.

      • TallonMetroid@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        6
        ·
        9 hours ago

        Well, he already got himself cancelled once over President Convict’s 2nd Amendment bonafides. Maybe he’ll do it again and it’ll stick this time.

  • DJDarren@thelemmy.club
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    10
    ·
    2 hours ago

    Jesus, how was Rittenhouse murdering those guys only four years ago? It feels like it was at least ten.

  • WhyFlip@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    1
    arrow-down
    13
    ·
    edit-2
    3 hours ago

    Are “racial justice protests” synonymous with looting and destruction of property?

  • Soup@lemmy.cafe
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    37
    arrow-down
    1
    ·
    4 hours ago

    Let’s not forget how the judge in that case dismissed video evidence of him saying he wanted to shoot people. If that didn’t change this assholes mind-

  • MushuChupacabra@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    6
    ·
    7 hours ago

    One of the ways that I enjoyed shitting on Kyle Rittenhouse, was to say that I would never want to be around anyone who now has a taste for human blood.

    That was supposed to be hyperbolic.

  • Ragdoll X@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    28
    ·
    edit-2
    7 hours ago

    Zero surprises there. So many gun nuts are just itching to kill someone, and to those who were paying any attention it was abundantly obvious that’s exactly the kind of person who Rittenhouse is considering his fake crying, taking pictures with the judge, as well as buddying up to nazis and literally making a game to celebrate his shooting.

    • Crikeste@lemm.ee
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      5
      arrow-down
      2
      ·
      edit-2
      2 hours ago

      “Good guys with guns” as a slogan was always going to turn out this way.

      That’s one of the many reasons Americans are such stupid people, they see the world in a “good guy / bad guy” dichotomy, where they are the good guys. And “good guys” and their actions are all based on beliefs and opinions. It’s justification for YOUR atrocities while acting disgusted at others.

  • Asafum@feddit.nl
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    49
    arrow-down
    4
    ·
    7 hours ago

    I wish I was still on reddit for this shit. I remember when it happened and every fucking bootlicking Magoo was defending this shit stain and using the law as if they understood self defense in that context. They worshipped that guy for being “a good guy with a gun” and had every excuse in the world for why he was a victim…

    Man I hope they’re seeing this.

    • Facebones@reddthat.com
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      6
      ·
      3 hours ago

      They’d come up with new and exciting logical loopdeloops to explain how he’s still the victim in this situation.

    • LibertyLizard@slrpnk.net
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      27
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      6 hours ago

      Yeah I was pretty shocked at how widespread his defenders were. Regardless of whether what he did was technically self defense or not, it’s clear he’s a bloodthirsty right-wing fanatic. There’s no need to defend his public image, even if you agree with the verdict.