Threatened Texas Brewery Defends Decision To Turn Away Kyle Rittenhouse Rally

A Texas brewery hit with threats and harassment for refusing to host a rally that includes acquitted shooter Kyle Rittenhouse is staunchly defending its determination.

Southern Star Brewing Co. of Conroe introduced Friday it canceled an upcoming “Rally In opposition to Censorship” with Rittenhouse that had been booked on the brewery.

“It’s been sort of a shitstorm,” brewery CEO Dave Fougeron instructed The Texas Tribune in an interview Saturday. “However now I’m extra sure than ever that I made the suitable determination.”

The brewery, which had been listed because the occasion venue, mentioned in an announcement on Twitter that it’s an “apolitical group, however we really feel that this occasion doesn’t replicate our personal values, and we couldn’t in good religion proceed to lease out area for the occasion.” It added: “We don’t do rallies, we make beer for individuals who like beer.”

In a vastly controversial case, Rittenhouse was acquitted in 2021 within the deadly shootings of two unarmed protesters at a racial justice protest in Kenosha, Wisconsin. Rittenhouse, who was 17 on the time, was armed with an AR-15-style rifle. He additionally wounded a 3rd protester. He argued that he was defending himself.

Rittenhouse, who was reportedly added to the occasion lineup Wednesday, tweeted after the cancellation Friday that he was being censored and the brewery had caved to the “woke crowd.”

Fougeron reemphasized to the Tribune that the brewery is apolitical and goals to be a welcoming place for everybody.

“Our place is tremendous inclusive,” he instructed the outlet. “We’re tremendous pro-veteran, tremendous pro-law enforcement. We’re making an attempt to be good folks in the neighborhood. We’re buddies with our firefighters, with our police division. … We have now a variety of homosexual patrons who are available as a result of it’s a spot of inclusivity. It’s loopy that we’re getting threats from folks.”

The Rittenhouse rally was additionally slated to incorporate a pacesetter of TEXIT, a bunch that advocates for Texas to secede from the U.S., the Tribune reported.

Defiance Press, a right-wing native writer, was organizing the occasion, in accordance with the newspaper. The occasion will “positively” be rescheduled elsewhere, an organizer instructed the Tribune.