Rittenhouse Verdict the Logical Result of Terrible Public Policy; Time to Change Tactics
Kyle Rittenhouse, who shot 3 people, killing two, was acquitted yesterday by a jury in Kenosha Wisconsin. Taking almost 30 hours for deliberation, the jury showed careful diligence in arriving at its verdicts, yet those verdicts were not only unjust; they exposed the raw and tragic truth that when it comes to gun violence, our justice system can no longer actually deliver justice.
The killings and the resulting verdicts defy logic. An underaged teenager illegally possessing a firearm that was illegally bought by a straw purchaser crossed state lines to join an illegal police action by an unauthorized self-styled “militia”. He then left the group that was “guarding” businesses and wandered into the crowd that was protesting police brutality. Rittenhouse, displaying the maturity of a 17-year-old, walked into an angry crowd protesting a police shooting and was then shocked at those people’s reaction. Had he walked into the crowd without an AR-15 strapped to his chest, probably nothing would have happened; with an AR-15 he almost guaranteed to provoke a response, and he got it, in spades. Rittenhouse fired a number of shots, hitting three people and killing two of them. But for him toting an AR-15 in plain sight, this tragedy would not have happened.
Let’s go through the crimes committed by Rittenhouse and his compatriots. First, the straw purchase. Rittenhouse’s friend, Dominick Black, aged 20, bought the gun for him because he was too young. That purchase violates federal and state laws, and Black has been charged, but not tried. Second, Rittenhouse was charged with minor in possession, but just as final arguments began in his trial, the judge, citing a ridiculous reading of the statute, ordered the charge dropped. The technicality he cited? An inconsistency in the law that said minors can’t carry a weapon unless it has a long barrel. The defense had argued this technicality, and the judge bought it, effectively rendering the entire law toothless and unenforceable. The remaining charges were first degree reckless homicide, two counts of first degree recklessly endangering safety, first degree intentional homicide, and attempted first degree intentional homicide. The defense argument was simple – self-defense. They painted Rittenhouse as a good intentioned teenager who was attacked by vicious rioters while trying to protect property and provide medical aid. The judge, acting more like defense co-counsel rather than the trial judge, went along with this argument, banning the term “victim” or “victims” for those who were shot, but allowed them to be called “rioters”, “looters”, and “arsonists”.
But worse than the judge putting his foot on the scales of justice is the idiocy of today’s gun laws in most US states. Many states, like Texas, have undone two centuries of common-sense gun laws by perverting the meaning of the Second Amendment through decades of junk law that now permeates federal and state case law. Intended as a protection for the newly founded US government by providing for a citizen army made up of militias under state and local authority, the Second Amendment has been turned on its head from providing for the common defense to enabling any idiot to own and carry a gun in public. This effort, driven by gun manufacturers and their lobbyists, with a big assist from Antonin Scalia and a conservative majority on the Supreme Court, is virtually complete. Just this year, Texas joined nineteen other states that eliminated all licensing requirements for the open carry of guns in public. It already allowed open carry of guns, but eliminated all licensing and training requirements, falsely calling such a radical practice as “constitutional carry,” which is nonsense. All but a handful of states now allow the open carry of firearms in some form or another. What could possibly go wrong?
Guns are now a fixture in political rallies and protests. This practice is almost exclusively on the right wing of the political spectrum where outrage is fueled by systemic disinformation which drives the outraged to show up in body armor, helmets, and toting loaded firearms. Guns and politics don’t mix, have never mixed, and will never mix, but now threats of physical violence and actual violence is commonplace during protests. Troublemakers often pose as legitimate protestors for the sole purpose of starting destruction and violence, like they did during the George Floyd protests of 2020. They then use the trouble they caused as an excuse to carry firearms to “protect” businesses and property, mostly owned by white people.
And now, after the Rittenhouse acquittals, we can’t put the genie back in the bottle. The lesson learned in this trial is that self-defense is a winning argument even when the person claiming self-defense actually started the incident. The fact is that, but for Rittenhouse wandering into a protest with a locked and loaded AR-15, no one would have died that night in Kenosha. HE provoked the protestors by openly carrying a weapon of war into a political protest that was already very tense. When people responded to his provocation, he then shot them, killing two, and then successfully defended that action in court by pretending that the incident began at the moment protestors responded to his provocation. We have a very similar argument going on right now in Georgia, where three white men chased, confronted, and threatened an unarmed black man, Ahmad Aubrey, who was simply jogging through a neighborhood. After pulling out a shotgun, one of the defendants then murdered Aubrey. Their legal justification? Self-defense. As ridiculous as that sounds, the trial is in Georgia, and the jury is made up of 11 white men. I have virtually no expectation that justice will be done in that case either, and I’ll bet you a dollar to a donut that the defense cites the Rittenhouse acquittals as precedent.
I quit the NRA in the 1980s when it went nuts and Charlton Heston started screaming, “From my cold dead hands!” at every meeting. Being a gun owner, I have been actively opposing for well over a decade the radical gun culture that permeates Texas. Our politicians have totally failed us, even failing to protect other Texans from gun nuts in the goddam state capitol, creating the necessity of installing panic buttons in every politician’s office to summon state troopers in the event a gun nut gets upset. Death threats against anyone that gun nuts don’t like is commonplace. Outrage from disinformation has created an alternative reality where up is down, left is right, the earth is flat, and the sun rises in the west. Gun nuts even bring guns to protests against science based public health policy. Career health officials are being driven from office by these threats, and now school board members and their families must be protected by police.
This is insanity that cannot be altered by reason, so I’m changing tactics. Tomorrow I’m trotting my happy ass down to Guns ‘r Us and buying myself a nice AR-15 with all the trimmings – a couple dozen boxes of ammo, a pile of 30 round mags, and body armor and a tactical sling. I’ll guarantee that if a couple hundred of us protesting for social justice, fair elections, and racial equality start showing up armed to the teeth, especially those with non-white skin, the politicians will change their tune in a hurry, calling for protection from “radical leftists”. Nothing else has worked, maybe this will. After all, we can’t depend on elected officials or even the courts to protect the common good; it’s time to use some of the same tactics as the other side to level the playing field.
“This is insanity that cannot be altered by reason, so I’m changing tactics. Tomorrow I’m trotting my happy ass down to Guns ‘r Us and buying myself a nice AR-15 with all the trimmings …”
Hot F’ing Damn!! Somebody else finally –gets it!–
1Taking almost 30 hours for deliberation,
As the jury wrote “not guilty” in two minutes, the rest of the time they played games to *show* they were working .
2This tactic has worked before. In 1967 it was the appearance of heavily armed Black Panthers on the statehouse steps that frightened the pols in California into passing a law banning open carry of loaded firearms.
3I fear that the leveling the field will actually end with all visibly non-white gun toters on the field being leveled…and dead.
4I just about broke down and cried. I know that doesn’t make me very manly. It isn’t so much the verdict but the reactions after the fact. It’s the calls for HIM to sue. It’s the complete lack of shame.
5The right wing politicians (cruz, gosar, boobert, mtg, gaetz, etc.) with their national platform making a national hero out of rottenhouse is not surprising but certainly disgusting.
6Let us know how that works out at the next protest where you show up armed and armored. And if you protect yourself, don’t expect self defense to work for you in Texas.
Nick @5, Nick, don’t get sad, don’t even get mad, it’s far beyond those. Get even, that’s all that’s left, due to their actions.
7Read a comment, before Rottenhouse got to pick his jury, that jurors might vote to acquit for fear that nuts would reveal their identities. Having MAGAts post addresses, phone numbers online would be a deterrent to any guilty verdict. This is where we are. But I love el jefe’s solution. Not comfortable buying a gun myself but support any responsible gun owner that wants to do so. Doing so to scare the rethug crazies is just icing on that cake.
8Karen Hester @3 Governor Ronald Reagan was in the statehouse the day armed Black Panthers showed up and he led the charge to ban open carry, so El Jefe’s idea is a good one.
I passed on all my firearms except a single handgun to my sons when I gave up hunting long ago. I am currently rearming, with my pacifist wife’s consent, starting with a 12 gauge riot gun with plenty of buckshot and a larger caliber handgun. Then on to a semi-auto rifle with extra mags. There are hoops to jump through in California but it’s just paper and a waiting period. The Boy Scouts taught me to be prepared.
9RE: #3 – yes. Gun ownership defined as “by white people” by rewriting the Framers intent of the 2nd Amendment. .
“The NRA Supported Gun Control When the Black Panthers Had the Weapons”
https://www.history.com/news/black-panthers-gun-control-nra-support-mulford-act
As well as the Jim Crow South commonly convicted blacks of even minor infractions as felonies, thus negating the blacks the ability to ever legally obtain a firearm.
https://twitter.com/EnragedApostate/status/1462081420864544771
10Under the Rittenhouse “self defense” logic, dueling (as shown in Westerns) is now legal. After all, if all the events leading up to the actual confrontation are ignored, the only evidence permitted is two armed people are looking at each other – both in fear that the other will shoot them. Thus, self defense.
it makes no sense, of course, any more than someone attempting armed robbery can now claim “self defense” if their victim tries to resist.
11Shooter: “Hey,I was afraid he was going to grab my gun!”
Prosecutor: “Was that the gun you were pointing at him while saying ‘Your money or your life?'”
Defense: “Objection! Per Rittenhouse, actions prior to the confrontation are irrelevant!”
Judge: “Sustained. Prosecutor, how dare you bring up such irrelevant issues!”
El Jefe and Sandridge, keep your eyes sharp and your weapons loaded. We’re prepared to defend ourselves. We’ve been preparing (more so) since the Bundy Dildo Brigade. 3 generations of family and friends honing our shooting skills. Being the special kind of A-hole that I be, am particularly pleased my wife, Granny, Mom, and sisters can outshoot any of those idjits.
12An under-aged teenager illegally possessing a firearm that was illegally bought by a straw purchaser crossed state lines to join an illegal police action by an unauthorised self-styled “militia”. He then left the group that was “guarding” businesses and wandered into the crowd that was protesting police brutality.
Beautifully succinct summary of the situation. Thank you.
13I’m a little surprised that commenters here are happy with turning the US into Afghanistan. Remember that one really good use for all those firearms in case there isn’t a local civil war between you and your next door neighbors or those on the other side of town is to celebrate anything by shooting up in the air. I’m sure instructions for making IED’s are available on the internet. Of course, suicide vests can be very effective in killing large numbers of people who you couldn’t get to with your semi-automatics strapped on.
14I am betting Kyle will be in court again. The survivors of the men he shot running away from him – the only thing worse than a back stabber is a back shooter – can bring civil claims. The stink of this entire mess will follow him around the rest of his life. He is going to gag on all the “fame” and infamy this brings him and he has only himself and his aiding and abetting mother to blame. As for his mother, what kind of mother does not protect her son from violence but puts him right int he middle of it and drives off into the night? Was he that bad of a teenager? Inquiring minds want to know if she aided and abetted in the purchase of the firearm when he was underage and used someone else to get it for him? As for the state law defining self defense, that needs a helluva lot of work!
15Don’t blame “public policy” when all it has done, down the many years, is reflect the wishes of the people. Indeed, on many topics, those wishes have changed over time with the infantilization of the body politic; but this topic isn’t even one of them.
Everything that you think is top-down is actually bottom-up.
16@Frank – actually no. The gerrymandered in politicians respond only to their base and their donors, which is probably less than 30% of the electorate. For example, after Sandy Hook, over 90% of Americans favored reforming gun laws including universal background checks. That didn’t even get a hearing in the Senate. Not even a hearing. This year, 60% of Americans opposed the Texas abortion law. That includes 59% of REPUBLICANS. When politicians and now the courts go against the majority of Americans, that is NOT bottom up.
17Locked and loaded.
18We have the same ‘guns everywhere, all the time’ in Tennessee. Gov Lee is Abbott without the hot wheels.
Every morning when the local news starts at 4:00 am, they begin with overnight shootings in Nashville.
Most of the shootings are teenagers shooting teenagers or drunks down on Broadway, being drunk and stupid.
We have guns – the fireman next door has an AR-15 because he shoots it into the woods (we live in a very rural area) where there are a lot of hunters and ‘deer barns/siting barns’ where you can practice.
19Now this. From guns to cars:
‘Vigilante’ driver plows into group protesting Kyle Rittenhouse acquittal – Raw Story
https://www.rawstory.com/driver-hits-protesters/
20What Star#4 said…my thoughts exactly. Frankly, I’m considering making our pandemic lockdown lifestyle permanent. More time for books and garden that way, and I’ll just see clients via teletherapy. I have plenty of ammo to keep us in venison for years without ever leaving the yard.
21Imagine the response from conservatives if a black teenager observed the rioters that were attacking Congress and armed himself with an AK-47 and proceeded to kill two of the insurrectionists.
22@Yellowstone that black young man is at the very minimum in jail for the rest of his natural life or sadly dead from all of the concealed firearms that were being carried on that day. BTW, the capitol has a no concealed weapon carry law but don’t search Boebert, who brazenly said she has her little friend in her purse for “protection” or at least three other elected officials that Need protection.
23It occurs to me that if you don’t say and do dumb things you probably wouldn’t Need so much protection. But that’s not Yellowstones point and I veered out of my lane for a moment.
I often had that same thought watching the video of Rittenhouse walking down the street with his hands up and his weapon around his neck carrying it straight towards at least 2 assault type police vehicles and a couple of SUV cruisers and they just rolled on by him. Any young man of color did that………well I know you know what that result would have been.
And there would be no self defense defense either.