PAUL BOIS Rep. Cori Bush (D-MO) believes that if 18-year-old Kyle Rittenhouse gets acquitted on the grounds of self-defense, white supremacists will be emboldened to shoot at Black Lives Matter protesters.
Repeating the lie that Michael Brown was “murdered” at the hands of a white police officer, Cori Bush falsely claimed on Monday that white supremacists in Ferguson, Missouri, would literally hide up in the hills and callously shoot at protesters.
“When we marched in Ferguson, white supremacists would hide behind a hill near where Michael Brown Jr. was murdered and shoot at us,” she said. “They never faced consequences. If Kyle Rittenhouse gets acquitted, it tells them that even 7 years later they still can get away with it.”
Black Lives Matter activist Ohun Ashe backed up the congresswoman’s claim.
“This is FACTS! I vividly remember hiding under porches in Canfield as shots were fired at us. No one came to help us. We would come from under porches using cars as shields in between gun shots to make it out,” tweeted Ashe.
When further pressed for comment, a spokesperson for the Bush campaign said that white supremacists opened fire on the congresswoman while providing no specifics.
“While on the frontlines of the Ferguson Uprising, Congresswoman Bush and other activists were shot at by white supremacist vigilantes. The question we need to ask is why white supremacists feel empowered to open-carry rifles, incite violence, and put Black lives at risk across our country,” the spokesperson said.
Just one minor problem with Bush’s assertion: it never happened. According to Ferguson Police Chief Frank McCall Jr., a black man, the department has no record of such an incident.
“Not that I’m aware of,” he told Webster County Citizen.
The only documented incident of the type described by Bush occurred in March 2015 when two police officers forming a security line outside the Ferguson police headquarters were shot, causing protesters to flee. Jeffrey Williams, a black man, was later arrested and convicted of the shooting.
“One officer was hit in the shoulder; the other, in the cheek,” noted the outlet. “Then St. Louis County Police Chief Jon Belmar said at the time he believed the officers were targeted, and the shooting brought swift condemnation from a wide range of public officials, as well as protest leaders, who insisted they repudiated violence.”
Williams claimed that he was not aiming at police and was returning fire at an unidentified person who shot at his vehicle.