Columbus Faith Leaders Condemn Kyle Rittenhouse Verdict, Demand Accountability in Adrienne Hood vs. Columbus Police Trial
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Friday, November 19, 2021
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Austin Schuler, aschuler@faithinpubliclife.org, (540) 280-3393
Columbus Faith Leaders Condemn Kyle Rittenhouse Verdict, Demand Accountability in Adrienne Hood vs. Columbus Police Trial
Columbus, Ohio—The following are a collection of statements from Columbus faith leaders on the acquittal of Kyle Rittenhouse. The faith leaders are also demanding accountability surrounding the mistrial of Ms. Adrienne Hood vs. Columbus police officers Jason Bare and Zachary Rosen, who shot and killed her son Henry Green V in June 2016, as well as justice for Casey Goodson Jr. who was shot and killed by Franklin County Sheriff’s Deputy Jason Meade last December.
Rabbi Hillel Skolnik of Congregation Tifereth Israel
“In our “Prayer for our Country” which we recite in synagogue each week, we ask that God help our country’s leaders, judges, officers and officials to ‘understand the rules of Justice You have decreed.’ That prayer, we have discovered once again, still needs to be said and with even more urgency and intention and applied even more widely. May God help us all to understand the rules of Justice that You, God, decreed so that the justice we seek may yet be found.”
Paisha Thomas, Campaigns and Organizing, Faith in Public Life
“Two days ago, our friend Ms. Hood had to accept justice delayed and our city attorney and other city leadership sent no love her way at all. Today, just moments ago we learned that Rittenhouse was found not guilty on all charges. We have a serious disease in this country as deadly as any other virus. White supremacy does not care about justice. It will take every concerned person in our communities to continue to fight for justice. That is the only way we will see an end to state-sanctioned violence by white supremacists in our country.”
Rev. Dan Clark, Ohio Director, Faith in Public Life
”In the wake of Kyle Rittenhouse’s acquittal, faith leaders are grieving and angry over justice delayed and justice denied. This is why here in Columbus we need a pattern or practice investigation from the Civil Rights Division of the Department of Justice, so that the state violence that continues to take innocent lives can be held accountable and the system can be transformed.”
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