Broken windows, thrown objects and a threat to burn down court buildings.

There was unrest in Portland, Oregon on Friday night after the acquittal against teenager Kyle Rittenhouse, who in 2020 shot dead two activists and injured a third during an anti-racist Black lives matter demonstration in Kenosha, Wisconsin. 

Portland police on Twitter called Friday's events a riot and threatened to use pepper spray and other weapons to disperse the approximately 200 people who had gathered.  

Protest marches also took place in Chicago and New York.

In the city where everything happened, Kenosha, people took to the streets.

Some protesters supported the decision while others protested, a picture that reflects the rest of the United States - a divided country with completely different views on the event.

Defends self-defense and the right to weapons

Kyle Rittenhouse claims that he acted in self-defense when he shot the activists.

With the laws in place in Wisconsin, where citizens in some cases have the right to use lethal force in self-defense without first using proportionate counter-violence, he could be acquitted.

Conservative Americans believe that Rittenhouse rightly asserted his right to bear arms and defend himself.

Former President Donald Trump has previously defended Rittenhouse's actions and congratulated him on Friday on the acquittal.

Biden is angry - but respects the verdict

The other side thinks that the verdict sheds light on structural racism and says that Rittenhouse would not have been released if he had been black.

Many point out the difference between how armed white people and anti-racism protesters are treated by the police and the judiciary.

The verdict "is a reminder of the treacherous role that the white power movement and privileges play in our legal system," Derrick Johnson, president of the civil rights organization NAACP, wrote on Twitter.

Concerns have also been expressed that the verdict could lead to more deadly gun violence.  

President Joe Biden wrote in a statement that the verdict made him angry and worried but that it is important to accept the jury's decision.