San Antonio Express-News (Sunday)
Rittenhouse still a killer; that’s nothing to celebrate
On Aug. 25, 2020, 17-year-old Kyle Rittenhouse, armed with an AR-15, was driven by his mother from Antioch, Ill., to Kenosha, Wis., the site of protests and civil unrest following the shooting, two days earlier, of a Black man by a white police officer.
That night, Rittenhouse would shoot three men, killing two of them.
On Nov. 19 a jury agreed with Rittenhouse and his defense team, acquitting the now 18-year-old on all five charges. It was a verdict that thrilled his supporters, who see him as a hero. But for those believing in consequences for a teenager who crossed state lines with a semi-automatic rifle he shouldn’t have had and inserted himself into a situation that led to his killing two people, it was deflating.
Deflating, but not surprising. Wisconsin law all but preordained Rittenhouse’s acquittal.
An armed Rittenhouse roaming the streets was a sight that may have provoked a crowd to chase and disarm him. But the statute on self-defense reads:
“A person who engages in unlawful conduct of a type likely to provoke others to attack him or her and thereby does provoke an attack is not entitled to claim the privilege of self-defense against such attack, except when the attack which ensues is of a type causing the person engaging in the unlawful conduct to reasonably believe that he or she is in imminent danger of death or great bodily harm.”
Symbolically, this was a trial about more than self-defense.
Even though Rittenhouse and his victims were white, race hovered over his trial. Not only because the unrest in Kenosha was sparked after a white policeman shot a Black man in the back during the summer of George Floyd, but because of how Rittenhouse was treated because he is white.
This is a nation where a Black man, Philando Castile, can tell an officer he’s reaching for the handgun he’s licensed to carry and still be shot to death; a nation where a Black man, John Crawford III, can be talking on the phone in Walmart while carrying a pellet gun he picked up in the store and be shot to death by a police officer; a nation where a 12-year-old Black boy, Tamir Rice, playing with a toy gun can be shot to death by a police officer; a nation where a Black 17-year-old, Trayvon Martin, walking to his father’s house carrying Skittles and iced tea can be shot to death by a vigilante suspicious of him.
In a nation with this recent history, people are right to assume that a Black male of any age approaching police with an AR-15 in a scene of unrest, as Rittenhouse did after the shootings, may not have survived the night, much less be allowed to return home without being questioned.
Still, Rittenhouse could only be tried for his actions, and not those of others. Given the law and that the judge dismissed a misdemeanor charge against Rittenhouse for illegally possessing the AR-15, the jury made the legally correct verdict.
But while Rittenhouse may have been legally right, he was morally wrong. As are his supporters who celebrated his acquittal with the giddiness of one’s favorite team winning a championship. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott tweeted, “Rittenhouse — NOT GUILTY!”
Rittenhouse’s unwanted and unasked for presence is all that makes the night of Aug. 25, 2020, in Kenosha stand out. Three people were shot and two were killed that night. It was Rittenhouse who did the shooting. Remove him and his AR-15 from the scene, and there are no casualties and it’s a forgettable night.
Since his acquittal, the teen has sat down with FOX News’ lead political arsonist, Tucker Carlson, for an interview and visited twice-impeached former President Donald Trump in Mar-a-Lago. This lionizing is dangerous, as conservative writer, David French, warned Nov. 16 in the Atlantic:
“A political movement that turns a deadly and ineffective vigilante into a role model is a movement that is courting more violence and encouraging more young men to recklessly brandish weapons in dangerous places, and that will spill more blood in America’s streets.”
Many of these victims will have no defense against these weapons, which will steal their lives. This is the layered tragedy of Kyle Rittenhouse, a person who killed two people.