(Trends Wide) — The judge presiding over Kyle Rittenhouse’s murder trial confused audience attendees later by pulling a bizarre and tacky joke inside the courtroom Thursday.
“I hope Asian food isn’t coming … it’s not on one of those Long Beach Harbor boats,” Kenosha County Circuit Court Judge Bruce Schroeder said as the court prepared to take a break to lunch.
Schroeder, the longest serving judge in Wisconsin courts, appeared to be referring to supply chain delays caused by congestion problems at California ports. But his comments were offensive and perceived as anti-Asian by some and as a way to blame Asians for a large-scale event.
“It hurts our community and targets us for micro-attacks as well as actual physical violence,” said John Yang, president and CEO of Asian Americans Advancing Justice-AAJC.
Yang said it is clear that the judge has no cultural sensitivity. His comments were intended to denigrate or downplay Asian-Americans and “any Asian-American who sees or hears your statement will understand that you are mocking or ridiculing our community.”
“This is an example of how Asian-Americans are not immune to racial prejudice and discrimination in our
criminal justice system, “Yang said.
And others simply called the comment racist.
“All I can say is: Ugh. Old racist stereotypes refuse to die,” said Mae Ngai, professor of Asian-American Studies and professor of history at Columbia University.
Schroeder’s comment comes a week after a juror was removed from office for a joke about the police shooting of Jacob Blake, which prosecutors say suggested “some sort of racial bias.”
“I’m going to summarize what I remember, what they told me,” Schroeder said last week. “He was telling a joke … he told the officer … he made a reference about telling a joke about ‘Why did it take seven shots for Jacob Blake to die,’ something like that.”
Both the defense and the prosecution agreed to dismiss the juror, and the judge admonished him in doing so.
“It is clear that the appearance of bias is present and would seriously undermine the outcome of the case,” Schroeder said.
Rittenhouse, the gunman from Illinois who killed two people and wounded another during riots in Kenosha, Wisconsin, the
Last summer, he’s on trial on murder charges.
Judge Schroeder, considered a tough jurist, had made headlines when he reiterated his old rule of not allowing prosecutors to refer to people as “victims” before juries in his courtroom.
