Kyle Rittenhouse - Rush to Judgement

                                                        The View from the Middle 

After watching most of the Kyle Rittenhouse trial and all of the closing arguments, I have come to the conclusion that this entire situation has been a year-long perfect storm of incompetence, barbaric behavior, bias and delusion, ending in a tragedy for at least four people.  Let’s start with the absolute abdication by the state of Wisconsin and the city of Kenosha of their duty to govern and provide protection for their citizens.  

When you decline to govern and maintain order, that creates a void that is going to get filled by something, and in this case it was filled with lawless rioters on one side and untrained and unauthorized protectors of life and property on the other.  This is a recipe for chaos, destruction, injury and even death, and that is exactly what was delivered.  Even the prosecutor described the atmosphere on the night of August 25^th, 2020 as dangerous and hostile.  Do you know who I did not see in the chase and attack scenes?  The police or the national guard.  It appears that Wisconsin and Kenosha adopted the Baltimore Maryland strategy to give the rioters “space to destroy”.  That strategy didn’t work well in Maryland and it led to disaster in Kenosha.

And then, rather than let the dust settle from this chaotic situation, politicians and the lamestream media decided to jump in and make presumptions about the defendant.  Then candidate and now President of the United States, Joe Biden, described Kyle Rittenhouse as a white supremacist, militia member in one of his debates over a year before any evidence was delivered in the trial.  Squad member Ayanna Presley called Kyle a white supremacist and a domestic terrorist one day after the riots.  Those accusations have all since been disproved.  Then, during the trial Representative Hakeem Jeffries of New York said that the court should. “lock up Kyle Rittenhouse and throw away the key”.  These are all politicians who have sworn to uphold our Constitution which includes the presumption of innocence which is a fundamental element of “due process” which is specifically mentioned in that document.

And if the political rush to judgement wasn’t enough, the lamestream media were quick to jump on and supply their bias.  For over a year, Joy Reid of MSNBC has been maligning Rittenhouse, calling him a vigilante.  ABC news has repeatedly referred to Kyle as an “alleged white supremacist” even though that has been disproven.  And CNN’s Jim Acosta didn’t limit himself to smearing Rittenhouse.  He accused the judge of being prejudice against the prosecution despite the fact that I have heard a multitude of actual lawyers indicate that Judge Schroeder has been reasonable and balanced.  Finally, Jeffrey Toobin of CNN called Kyle Rittenhouse “an idiot”.  Demonstrating his expertise in firearms, Toobin said that Rittenhouse took a “giant” gun to the riots.  Giant Gun?  What does that mean?  He also suggested that Kyle was planning to “scrub off graffiti with his AR-15”, struggling to turn a very positive story about this young man into a negative.  Nice try!  Also, Jeffrey Toobin has surrendered his right to call anyone an idiot after his zoom call fiasco that got him temporarily suspended from CNN.  He should have been fired.  All of these comments, from politicians and professional journalists (I’m being generous there) has tainted the jury, a tragedy in and of itself.

Then we have the boy scout rioters, all of whom were chasing and assaulting Kyle Rittenhouse.  Joseph Rosenbaum, the first man who was shot, was an angry, out of control serial child rapist who actually asked another person to shoot him early that night.  Anthony Huber, the man who attacked Rittenhouse with his skate board and tried to take his gun, was a violent man who struggled with mental health issues his entire life.  At one point, Huber threatened to burn down his house and kill his mother and siblings.  Gaige Grosskreutz, the man who pulled a gun and pointed it at Kyle Rittenhouse, has a long list of misdemeanor and felony charges against him for domestic abuse, disorderly conduct and burglary.  He was carrying his gun illegally, because his conceal carry license had expired.  There is more disparaging data on these three men, but the point is made.  All three of these men were angry, disturbed and violent.  They were not saints or heroes.  They were members of a violent mob intent on destruction and mayhem.

And finally, we have Kyle Rittenhouse.  Should he have even been in Kenosha?  I don’t know.  Should he have been carrying an AR-15 or wearing body armor?  That should have probably been a clue that he should have stayed home in Antioch, Illinois (which is only 24 miles from Kenosha, not on the other side of the country) and watched the riots on TV.  He was 17 and had a relatively normal mix of teen angst, savior illusions and super hero delusions.  Is that a good ingredient to sprinkle into a chaotic, angry, violent mob?  Probably not!

But this is what you get when the government, be it local, state or federal, refuses to govern.  When any government refuses to support and utilize the police and declines other available resources, like the national guard, the vacuum will be filled with volatile and even explosive ingredients, as was the case in Kenosha.  I predict that Kyle Rittenhouse will be found not guilty because he was being pursued and attacked when he fired his gun during a chaotic situation.  Did he fear for his life?  I would have, so I have to give him the benefit of the doubt.  If he is found guilty, it will be because the jurors feared for their lives.  Another perversion of justice.  The losers here, however, are many, including Kyle Rittenhouse, whose life will never be the same.  Joseph Rosenbaum, Anthony Huber and Gaige Grosskreutz are also victims - of an impotent government.