I am not a criminal defense attorney.
I'm not from Wisconsin and I don't know much about Wisconsin law.
I am an average American, with two eyes and brain - just like all of you.
Now based on that point of view and having followed the trial of Kyle Rittenhouse fairly closely - my opinion is that Kyle Rittenhouse should never have been charged for homicide or attempted homicide (again, this is MY opinion, you should review the evidence yourself and come to your own conclusions).
This has been my feeling since I saw video of the events (a breakdown of the various clips are available to watch here) but have been publicly available since basically the shootings took place.
After watching the trial, my opinion on this case hasn't changed - I still believe Kyle Rittenhouse acted in self-defense each time he fired his rifle.
Take away everything you think about the people involved, their criminal history, whether or not they should've been there, whether or not they crossed state lines and just focus on this one thing - to claim self-defense, Rittenhouse must show that the use of his rifle was ânecessary to prevent imminent death or great bodily harm.â
So let's put ourselves in Rittenhouse's shoes - we see Rosenbaum, an angry little dude who has been barking at people all night long, chasing us, we hear a gun shot behind us, we turn and see Rosenbaum still charging and then put his hand on our gun.
Now given those circumstances - do you have a reasonable fear for your life or great bodily harm?
If that's me, yes I do. To me, I assume that if Rosenbaum is successful, he will take my weapon and either a) bludgeon me with it; or b) use it to shoot me.
If you have a reasonable fear for your life then, I think using lethal force to protect your life is appropriate.
The same applies for the other two men that Rittenhouse shoots - one, Anthony Huber, uses his skateboard to clock Rittenhouse in the head and then reaches for his rifle. The other, Gaige Grosskreutz, admitted in court that Rittenhouse did not fire his weapon at him until Grosskreutz advance on Rittenhouse and stuck his gun in his face:
To convict Kyle Rittenhouse is to believe he went to Kenosha, with some level of premeditation, to kill people. That he tried to lure Rosenbaum into a trap to execute him for . . . rioting or something. Or that Rittenhouse was not fearful for his life after several men struck him in the head, tried to grab his weapon and then pointed a gun in his face. And so on . . .
For me, at least, I don't believe any of those things are true. Not even close.
So then, given that video of all these events has been available for months - why was Kyle Rittenhouse charged with homicide?
Well . . . because this trial is political - the prosecutor in this case appeared to suggest as much earlier today:
Or, to put this more succinctly, the media - through its coverage of the death of George Floyd (where the Biden DOJ could not find that race was a motivating factor), the shooting of Jacob Blake (where the officer was not charged) and the Rittenhouse shootings - made it impossible for Kenosha to NOT charge Rittenhouse.
The CNNs, the MSNBCs, the Washington Posts, the bluecheck Twitter retards, all built up this narrative that Rittenhouse was an armed, white supremacist, vigilante looking to execute people protesting in favor of BLM. Here, look for yourself:
So the die was cast and charges needed to be brought - even if all available evidence suggested that Rittenhouse only used force in defense of his life.
Oh well, it's a story we've seen all too much of these days as everything appears to be a proxy battle of the ongoing culture wars.
Let's hope that justice is served, Rittenhouse is acquitted of homicide and that Kenosha doesn't burn as a result of the latest edition of media malfeasance.
Onto the memes!
So yesterday, the prosecutor for this case, ADA Binger, held up his phone when trying to explain the admissibility of some video evidence. A screenshot was taken, an opportunity presented, memes were made:
A throw back to a classic internet debate.
I wonder if he knows renowned furry, Beto O'Rourke?
He actually might be onto something here.
No comment.
I think Tony lived, tbh.
Ok, one more that I didn't publish yesterday because I thought it was a bit too spicy:
You have to laugh, otherwise you'll cry.
Pray for peace, Happy Thursday and God Bless America.