OPINION:
Why do so many Americans know more about the two people who were shot and killed as part of self-defense during the riots in Kenosha in 2020 than they do about the six innocent people who were mowed down with a red SUV by a career criminal in the Waukesha Christmas Parade? Well, it doesn’t fit the narrative of the left and so many in the media, but we will not forget.
Family and friends lined the streets of downtown Waukesha to watch bands, floats, groups and — of course — Santa and Mrs. Claus. My mother was one of the people along the parade route, and she sat about a block and a half away from where the unexpected SUV rammed into the parade participants.
So who were the innocent victims of the Waukesha Christmas Parade massacre?
Jackson Sparks was the youngest of the victims at 8 years old. He was a big baseball fan. His brother Tucker was also hit and suffered a fractured skull and road rash but survived the attack.
Virginia Sorenson was considered the beating heart of the Dancing Grannies. She was a registered nurse who worked part-time in medical records at 79 to have some spare cash to buy things for her grandchildren. She is survived by her husband, three children and six grandchildren.
Tamara Durand was a former elementary school teacher and cheerleading coach. She worked as a hospice and critical-care chaplain. At 52, she just joined the Dancing Grannies and is survived by her three children and a grandson.
Jane Kulich, 52, was an employee of Citizens Bank in Waukesha and represented them in the parade. She is survived by three children and three grandchildren.
Wilhelm Hospel, known as Bill, walked in the parade and handed out water to the Dancing Grannies troupe. He was 81 and is survived by his wife Lola, who was injured in the massacre, and three brothers.
LeAnna Owen was a member of the Milwaukee Dancing Grannies. She worked as a manager for Packard Glen Apartments for nearly 10 years and was 71.
In contrast to the innocence of a Christmas parade, full-scale riots in Kenosha were going on in August of 2020. The local police were losing ground. A weak and woke Democrat governor was reluctant to call in the National Guard. Buildings and vehicles were being burnt to the ground. The Kenosha County sheriff issued a curfew and called for people to clear the streets.
Unlike some of the others who were part of the earlier protests about the shooting of Jacob Blake, masses of people were engaged in outright riots during those hot summer nights. And they were each in violation of the curfew.
In the absence of authority and control, those seeking chaos and mayhem took over. One of the people who came to Kenosha was Kyle Rittenhouse. Similar to Jussie Smollett and Covington Catholic student Nick Sandmann, the media-hyped a fake narrative about him.
Despite the fake news, he worked in Kenosha, and much of his family lived there — including his father. On the day of the shooting, he went downtown with his sister and friends to see the damage and ended up cleaning graffiti off of walls. One of the people he shot, Gaige Grosskreutz, acknowledged that Mr. Rittenhouse shot him only after Mr. Grosskreutz had pointed his gun at Mr. Rittenhouse.
Joseph Rosenbaum was a registered sex offender. At the time of his death, he was on the Wisconsin sex offender registry for an Arizona child molestation case.
During the riots, Rosenbaum was captured on video using a racial slur and urging people to shoot him. He was seen with a chain, throwing rocks involved in an arson fire. He was described as hyper-aggressive and acting out violently during the riots. He told a group, including Mr. Rittenhouse, that he would kill them if he found them alone.
Anthony Huber tried to stop Mr. Rittenhouse by hitting him with a skateboard. Huber was a friend of Blake and was there to record the riots. He had been in prison twice — once for strangling his brother and another for kicking his sister.
The riots started after a video was released of a Kenosha police officer shooting Blake multiple times. A review by the District Attorney’s Office, Wisconsin Department of Justice and U.S. Department of Justice — all lead by Democrats — found additional evidence, including another video, that revealed Blake resisted arrest on multiple occasions. A taser was used twice, and he even had a police officer in a headlock. The mother of his child called 911, and he had an outstanding warrant. Blake was certainly not a saint.
That didn’t prevent then-Sen. Kamala Harris from visiting the Blake family and saying she was proud of him. Later, then-candidate and now-President Biden implied that Mr. Rittenhouse was a white supremacist. To this day, there is no evidence to prove that statement.
In contrast, first lady Jill Biden traveled to Waukesha to visit some victims this week — nearly a month after the Christmas parade massacre. The meetings were private. There was no mention of the low bail that let the career criminal who drove through the parade route out on the streets. That’s because it doesn’t fit the left’s narrative, but we will not forget.
• Scott Walker is the president of Young America’s Foundation and served as the 45th governor of Wisconsin from 2011 to 2019.
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