A University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee English professor made a bizarre comparison between the Waukesha massacre and the Kyle Rittenhouse case after tweeting a vague threat against the judge in Rittenhouse's trial and retweeting calls to post the judge's home address.
"So if the driver who plowed through the Waukesha, Wisconsin, Christmas parade felt threatened by the parade, shouldn't he be able to be acquitted on the grounds of self-defense?" tweeted Professor Richard Grusin the morning after the attack, which left six people dead and dozens more injured.
The tweet was a reference to the Rittenhouse, which ended two days before the Waukesha attack with Rittenhouse's acquittal on all charges against him. Jurors determined that he acted in lawful self-defense when he shot and killed two men and injured a third as they tried to attack him during rioting in Kenosha last summer.
Shortly after the Rittenhouse verdict was delivered, Grusin tweeted what could be considered a vague threat against Kenosha County Judge Bruce Schroeder, who presided over the case.
"When do we get our AR-15s so we can head to Kenosha and defend ourselves against the threat of Judge Schroeder," he tweeted on Friday afternoon, just minutes after the verdict was read. "I am terrified for my life."
He then retweeted several accounts demanding to know Schroeder's home address in what appeared to be an attempt to "doxx" him over what many political liberals felt was his preferential treatment of Rittenhouse throughout the trial.
Grusin, whose areas of focus are New Media Theory, American studies, and Digital culture, has taught at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee since 2010. According to online UW System records, he will make a total of $177,867.66 in salary this year.
"The Christmas parade tragedy in Waukesha is heartbreaking and has deeply affected many members of the UWM community," the university said in a statement. "Professor Grusin’s comments in response to the tragedy are deeply disheartening and do not reflect the sentiments of the university’s leadership or the values of the institution. While we respect our employees’ legal right to free speech, we also routinely reinforce with them the importance of listening and speaking with care and being sensitive to the fact that our words can help or hurt."
A spokesperson for UWM did not answer a question from "The Dan O'Donnell Show" about whether Grusin would face any sort of discipline for his tweets. After "The Dan O'Donnell Show" reported on them Tuesday, Grusin set his Twitter account to "protected" so that his tweets would no longer be publicly available.
He does not appear to have issued any sort of apology.