A Texas brewery hit with threats and harassment for refusing to host a rally where acquitted shooter Kyle Rittenhouse is strongly defending his decision.
Southern Star Brewing Co. of Conroe announced Friday that it has canceled an upcoming “Rally Against Censorship” with Rittenhouse that was booked at the brewery.
“It’s been kind of a whirlwind,” brewery CEO Dave Fougeron told the Texas Tribune in an interview Saturday. “But now I’m more confident than ever that I made the right decision.”
The brewery, which had been listed as the venue for the event, said in a statement on Twitter that it was “a non-political organization, but we feel this event does not reflect our values and we cannot in good faith continue to rent. space for the event”. He added: “We don’t do rallies, we make beer for people who like beer.”
In a highly controversial case, Rittenhouse was acquitted in 2021 of the fatal shootings of two unarmed protesters at a racial justice protest in Kenosha, Wisconsin. Rittenhouse, who was 17 at the time, was armed with an AR-15-style rifle. He also injured a third protester. He claimed he was defending himself.
Rittenhouse, which was reportedly added to the event’s roster on Wednesday, tweeted after Friday’s cancellation that it had been censored and the brewery had succumbed to the “woke crowd.”
Fougeron reiterated to the Tribune that the brewery is apolitical and wants to be a welcoming place for everyone.
“Our place is super full,” he told the media. “We’re super pro-veterans, super pro-policy. We try to be good people in the community. We are friends with our firefighters, our police department. … We have a lot of gay customers who come in because it’s an inclusive place. It’s absurd that we get threats from people.”
Rittenhouse’s rally was also expected to include a leader of TEXIT, a group that supports Texas secession from the United States, the Tribune reported.
Defiance Press, a local right-wing publisher, was organizing the event, according to the newspaper. The event will “definitely” be rescheduled elsewhere, an organizer told the Tribune.
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