Understand, I’m not going to talk much about the shooting, or the protests, or the events that led to the protests. Nor am I going to talk about either the trail or the verdict. Those are what they are and no one can change that.
I am going to talk about how this young man somehow became a symbol instead of a person. And how I think that’s a big injustice. I’ll have a few links but I’m pretty sure you can find your own examples if you try.
Table of Contents
Is he a hero?
As I said, I don’t care whether he “should” have been there or not. Would I have been? Nope. In Tucson there were protests about various things over the past couple years and my response was always the same: don’t go there. Armed or otherwise. It’s just trouble waiting to happen and I don’t need that.
Was he, either directly or indirectly, asked to come protect the business? That’s an excellent question. The answer is, I’m not sure. Two different people under oath gave conflicting testimony. I will say that I can see a motive for the owners of the car dealership lying about asking for protection, seeing how things turned out.
Personally, I don’t think I’d put him in the hero category. He was in the wrong place at the wrong time and he was there by choice. In other words, a 17-year old didn’t think things through and got himself in trouble. First time in the history of the world, right?
So, villain then. Vigilante.
The New York Times says he is. And yet in that entire article there’s not one single act that indicates Rittenhouse was a vigilante. Protecting a business is not taking the law into your own hands. It’s protecting property. You can not like that particular concept but it has nothing to do with acting outside the law
Without pretending to read minds, I don’t really believe he went there to harm anyone. And there’s no evidence he went there to take the law into his own hands, which is what a vigilante is.
Who cannot be a vigilante? The person trying to get away from people chasing him. That would be Kyle Rittenhouse. He just wanted to get away. It’s obvious in every single video I’ve seen of the event.
Would you like to know who fit the definition of vigilantes? Anthony Huber and Gaige Grosskreutz. They were trying to hunt down someone they thought had done something wrong.
Huber hit him with a skateboard. I wouldn’t call that my first choice for a weapon but people were killed for thousands of years with blunt objects so it was a deadly weapon.
Grosskreutz testified that he didn’t get shot until he pointed his gun at Rittenhouse. Again, Grosskreutz is the vigilante. He was, while armed, chasing a young man. Why isn’t he on trial? Well, I guess he’s already paid a price.
But he crossed state lines!
There a number of people that just can’t leave this alone. At least most have cleared up the lie that he took the gun across state lines. Not everyone got the memo, however.
Who cares that he crossed state lines? Kenosha was 20 miles from his house. I can do 20 miles and not leave Tucson. And, again, these are state lines. There’s a reason they’re called lines, not borders. They’re not a burden to travel and there were never meant to be
When I was a kid I lived in east central Illinois. Depending on which residence I was in, I was between five and 15 miles from the Indiana border. I went back and forth all the time. Hell, my aunt and uncle lived on State Line Road (not sure that was its technical name but that’s what we called it.) Technically, I was in Indiana every time I went to their house since we were going north, which means we were on the east side of the road. Which was IN.
I’m currently in Florida. I drove here from Arizona. When my visit is over I’ll be driving home. I’ll pass through AL, MS, LA, TX, and NM. The only way I’ll know the difference is the big sign saying, “Welcome to [state name].” And Google will say it.
This is a different experience than going to Mexico. There’s a checkpoint, I may be asked questions, and I and/or my vehicle may even be subject to a search. I may also be required to show a passport or other documentation.
States don’t have that and it’s deliberate. United States.
Bringing race into this. Again.
So, one white guy shoots three other white guys and it’s about race. Uh huh.
The first thing I want to mention is the headline: “…Privilege of self-defense.” So, that’s not a privilege. That’s a right. Now, in the tweet I linked to above there was a question about whether a black kid would have had the same experience that Rittenhouse did. That’s a valid question.
And I have doubts that I’d like the answer because I want the black kid to be treated the same. Everyone has the right to defend themselves. If that’s not what’s happening now — and it isn’t — that’s a problem to be solved.
Too bad so many people have the wrong solution. If a black kid and a white kid exercise the same rights, their solution is to throw the white kid in jail. How that’s somehow better escapes me. Maybe we don’t jail anyone for defending themselves? Can we try that?
What they got right.
Obviously, some outlets have been better than others. Still, even the ones trying the hardest to frame this against Rittenhouse haven’t been completely out to lunch.
As a rule, the general sequence of events has mostly been reported accurately. This CNN article, for example, lists the criminal history of two of the people shot. It also describes them as “victims.” I didn’t say it was perfect.
Final thoughts.
Kyle Rittenhouse is a person. He’s not a cause. Various people, on both sides, have latched onto him and just won’t let go. They’re trying to turn him, his experience, his trial, and his verdict into some sort of comment on society.
Naturally, they’re looking through their own lens while they do this. And any part of the story that doesn’t fit into that lens just gets ignored.
These are supposed to be news organizations. Their function is supposed to be to keep us, the public, informed. They’re failing. I wish I knew how to fix that but I don’t. All I can think of to do is point out the flaws and failures when I can.
