Issac Bailey, professor of public policy at Davidson College and author of Why Didn't We Riot? A Black Man in Trumpland concludes …
“(Kyle) Rittenhouse’s story is a microcosm of what America is facing, a perilous journey toward becoming something the world has never known: a fully functioning multiracial, multiethnic democracy emerging from the blood of slaves, the genocide of Native Americans and the notion that all men are created equal. No matter what you’ve heard or what you’ve been told, we aren’t there yet. We weren’t there on July 4, 1776. We weren’t there in 1865 in the smoke, ashes and shadow of the Civil War, and not even in the wake of the Civil Rights Act and the Voting Rights Act a half-century ago.
“If he (Rittenhouse) is freed, the status quo of America’s flawed criminal justice system, in which white offenders are less likely to be convicted, can remain just a little bit longer, the inevitable merely delayed, if not denied. If he’s imprisoned, those sympathetic to his plight have even more reason to use him as an example of how their way of life could be threatened if they don’t fight, and hard. His supporters have basically guaranteed those outcomes …
“This is why, regardless of the verdict – in this case and others that are forcing the nation to grapple with what it means to be Black and white in America – it’s up to the rest of us to guarantee different outcomes. We need to make sure the disparity in who is afforded life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness is honestly and continually discussed (regardless of how uncomfortable it is for people to confront the truth) and see to it that those tenets of American democracy are extended to those who have historically been left out.”
(Issac Bailey. “A sobbing Kyle Rittenhouse already won – even before his trial is over.” Think. Opinion. NBC News. November 10, 2021.)
Please read Bailey's
entire opinion piece here. Click: https://www.nbcnews.com/think/politics-policy/sobbing-kyle-rittenhouse-won-before-ruling-rcna5114
Before the Rittenhouse Shooting
After Kenosha’s march for George Floyd, on May 31st, Kevin Mathewson, a former city alderman who had sometimes brought a handgun to city-council meetings, decided that the police needed civilian reinforcements. He started the Kenosha Guard, which was less a militia than an impulse with a Facebook page. But on August 25th, as the city braced for a third night of protests in the wake of Blake’s shooting, Mathewson, who is a private investigator, posted a call for “Armed Citizens to Protect our Lives and Property.” He invited “patriots” to meet him at the courthouse at 6 p.m., to defend Kenosha from “evil thugs.”
The New Yorker reported …
“Mathewson’s 'Armed Citizens' post elicited such comments as 'kill looters and rioters.' Facebook allowed the page to stand even after receiving well over four hundred complaints. A crowd was building when Mathewson, in a Chuck Norris T-shirt, showed up at the courthouse with a semi-automatic rifle. He soon went home, but throughout the evening others used his Facebook page, or similar ones, to spread rumors. One commenter predicted that if armed 'untrained civilians' got scared, 'someone’s getting shot.'
“Live-streamers had been chatting on camera with Balch and a member of his cohort: a talkative teen-ager in a backward baseball cap, with a semi-automatic rifle slung across his chest. A videographer said, 'o you guys are full-on ready to defend the property?'
“The teen-ager (wearing an Army-green T-shirt and the Sport Patriot style of Ariat boots: part camouflage, part American flag), whose name was Kyle Rittenhouse, replied, 'Yes, we are,' adding, officiously, 'Now, if I can ask – can you guys step back?'
“He wasn’t old enough to be a certified E.M.T., yet he shouted, 'I am an E.M.T.!,' and proclaimed, 'If you are injured, come to me!' Adopting the language of first responders, he told a streamer, 'If there’s somebody hurt, I’m running into harm’s way.'”
(Paige Williams. “Kyle Rittenhouse, American Vigilante.” The New Yorker. June 28, 2021.)
Kyle Rittenhouse And What Happened In Kenosha
On August 25, 2020, a huge crowd gathered in Kenosha, Wisconsin. The protest was aimed against the police brutality and fatal shooting of 29-year-old African-American man Jacob Blake by officer Rusten Sheskey.
On the night of the protest, the then 17-year-old Kyle Rittenhouse reportedly arrived outside the venue armed with a semi-automatic AR-15 rifle.
It was assumed that he reached the place with the intention of protecting a car dealership and providing medical support to protestors.
Witnesses from the scene mentioned that Kyle was being pursued by a group that included Joseph Rosenbaum. The latter then attempted to take Kyle’s rifle after a third party fired a gunshot into the air. The teen testified that Rosenbaum threatened to kill him twice and threw a plastic bag while running after him.
Kyle Rittenhouse then shot Rosenbaum four times, hitting his head, hand, thigh and back, killing him on the spot. Meanwhile, the accused shot twice at another unidentified man while fleeing the scene.
He fell to the ground after Anthony Huber struck him with a skateboard and lunged at his rifle, prompting Kyle to kill him after shooting him in the chest.
Kyle Rittenhouse was then followed by Gaige Grosskreutz, who reportedly carried a handgun and pointed it towards the former when the teenager shot him in the arm.
Rittenhouse simply walked away from this bloody scene, walking right past police lines, and went home. At no point did the self-styled medic try to help any of the people he shot. Black later told a detective that he drove Rittenhouse home to Antioch, where he lived with his mother and sisters. After talking with her son, Kyle's mother Wendy Rittenhouse, gave her son two choices: turn yourself in, or leave town.
Wendy Rittenhouse convinced her son to turn himself in but claimed that his actions were only meant as “self-defense.”
Kyle turned himself in the next morning. The New Yorker reports, “When Rittenhouse learned that he was being arrested, he exclaimed that someone had hit him 'with a fucking bat!' (Widely circulating videos show no such attack.)” Also, Rittenhouse, who had been speaking with the detectives in a familiar manner, requested a favor: “Can you guys delete my social-media accounts?”
(Paige Williams. “Kyle Rittenhouse, American Vigilante.” The New Yorker. June 28, 2021.)
Afterwards, Donald Trump defended Rittenhouse's actions at the time, saying that Rittenhouse was "trying to get away from them, I guess, it looks like. I guess he was in very big trouble. He probably would have been killed." The Trump administration distributed talking points urging officials to say to characterize Rittenhouse as "taking his rifle to the scene of the rioting to help defend small business owners."
The Washington Post's Paul Waldman observed that Rittenhouse has been extolled as a hero from the very beginning, with Trump supporters raising most of the $2 million for his bail with online appeals.
(Heather Digby Parton. “Beneath the Rittenhouse trial: Grim truths about the state of America.” Salon. November 12, 2021.)
Shops began selling T-shirts that depicted Rittenhouse with his gun and bore slogans like “Fuck Around and Find Out.” People declared that Antifa types and other troublemakers deserved to get “Rittenhoused.” The sudden notoriety made a line in one of Rittenhouse’s TikTok bios stand out: “Bruh I’m just tryna be famous.” He’d written the motto as a joke, for an audience of twenty-five.
(Paige Williams. “Kyle Rittenhouse, American Vigilante.” The New Yorker. June 28, 2021.)
How Did Rittenhouse Acquire His AR-15?
Dominick Black got to know Kyle Rittenhouse last year while dating his sister. In just a few months, Black told a jury on Tuesday, he considered Rittenhouse a brother and saw him nearly every day.
Black testified that shortly after he got an AR-15-style rifle, Rittenhouse expressed interest in one. During a trip to Black's family's hunting property in May 2020, Black agreed to buy a rifle for Rittenhouse, who was 17 and couldn't lawfully buy or possess one.
Black, age 18 at the time, said he used Rittenhouse's money to make the purchase.
Black said they discussed knowing it was illegal, but agreed Rittenhouse wouldn't get the gun himself until he turned 18. They shot a couple hundred rounds that week, Black testified, and that was the only time Rittenhouse had used the weapon until Aug. 25, 2020.
Rittenhouse had told his mother that he intended to buy a gun, but she assumed he meant a hunting rifle or a shotgun, like her father and brothers had owned. According to Wendy, when Rittenhouse told her what he’d bought, she responded, “That’s an assault rifle!” But she didn’t make him get rid of it.
(Paige Williams. “Kyle Rittenhouse, American Vigilante.” The New Yorker. June 28, 2021.)
Black said he, his brother and Rittenhouse had gone downtown that morning to witness the aftermath of the first two nights of rioting that erupted after the police shooting of Jacob Blake Jr. Then they went home, but returned around 5 p.m. after Black's friend, Nick Smith, said they should help protect Car Source, an auto dealership where Smith formerly worked.
Black testified that he kept Rittenhouse’s gun stored at his family home in Kenosha. When the unrest broke out in Kenosha, Black said, his stepfather took guns out of a safe in the garage and moved them into the house in case of a break-in. On the day of the shooting, before Black and Rittenhouse went downtown, Black saw his friend come upstairs with the rifle, Mr. Black testified.
And they were together Aug. 25, 2020, when they took assault-style rifles to a protest against police brutality in downtown Kenosha. It was there that Rittenhouse, now 18, fatally shot two men and wounded a third amid chaotic unrest.
(Bruce Vielmetti. “Kyle Rittenhouse's friend, Dominick Black, testifies he bought the gun used in Kenosha shootings.” USA TODAY. November 02, 2021.)
"The owner asked us if we would go there," Black said. "We could go on the roof, we could stand below, just make sure they don't burn the whole place down or touch the cars."
"We don’t point, we don't shoot or anything. The guns were just in case they shoot at us," he said, referring to protesters.
The owner, he said, left out a ladder so they could get on the roof. Their efforts were volunteer, not paid, Black said.
(Ashley Luthern. “'I'm going to jail for the rest of my life': What Kyle Rittenhouse told the friend who supplied rifle used in the Kenosha protest shooting.” Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. November 20, 2020.)
Wisconsin Law On Gun Carry
In Wisconsin, lawful gun owners can generally open carry without a permit. But a person must be 18 or older to carry a “dangerous weapon.” Rittenhouse was 17 at the time of the shootings.
Rittenhouse’s attorneys previously argued he was protected under a vague state law that allows younger children to carry rifles for hunting, but he was charged with underaged unlawful firearms possession anyway. Criminal defense attorneys who specialize in Wisconsin firearm law say it will be hard for the defense to beat that back at trial.
In Wisconsin, determining if someone acted in self-defense involves the question of who initiated the aggression. But, as in many states, there is no clear definition of provocation.
Militia In Kenosha
Sheriff David Beth told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel that militia members or armed vigilantes had been patrolling Kenosha’s streets in recent nights, but he did not know if the gunman was among them. However, video taken before the shooting shows police tossing bottled water from an armored vehicle to what appear to be armed civilians walking the streets. And one of them appears to be the gunman.
“We appreciate you being here,” an officer is heard saying to the group over a loudspeaker.
Before the shooting, the conservative website The Daily Caller conducted a video interview with Rittenhouse in front of a boarded-up business.
“So people are getting injured, and our job is to protect this business,” the young man said. “And part of my job is to also help people. If there is somebody hurt, I’m running into harm’s way. That’s why I have my rifle – because I can protect myself, obviously. But I also have my med kit.”
(Stephen Groves and Scott Bauer. “17-year-old arrested after 2 killed during unrest in Kenosha.” Associated Press. August 27, 2020.)
The Charges and the Plea
Kyle Rittenhouse pled “not guilty” to the charges and attempted to justify his actions on grounds of “self-defense
"I didn't do anything wrong. I defended myself. I remember his hand on the barrel of my gun. I did what I had to do to stop the person who was attacking me. If I would have let Mr. Rosenbaum take my firearm from me, he would have used it and killed me with it and probably killed more people if I would have let him get my gun.”
Kyle Rittenhouse has been subjected to six criminal charges, including five counts of felony and one count of misdemeanor. The charges are for his actions in killing Joseph Rosenbaum and Anthony Huber, and harming Gaige Grosskreutz in the Kenosha shooting incident amid Jacob Blake’s protest last year.
In addition to the six charges, Kyle Rittenhouse is also facing an “aggravating factor” for “use of a dangerous weapon”. The provision reportedly extends the sentence associated with each felony count by up to five years for each case.
Issac Bailey says …
“The truth is that too many white Americans probably see themselves in Rittenhouse.”
“If Rittenhouse is convicted, he will likely stop being a right-wing mascot and become a right-wing martyr. If he isn’t convicted, he will set a precedent for others like him to pick up guns they shouldn’t have and thrust themselves into the middle of unrest they should avoid – confident in knowing that prison won’t be in their future.”
(Issac Bailey. “A sobbing Kyle Rittenhouse already won – even before his trial is over.” Think. Opinion. NBC News. November 10, 2021.)
In this August 22, 2020 file photo, a Proud Boy supporter points a gun during clashes between groups like Proud Boys and Patriot Prayer, and protesters against police brutality and racial injustice in Portland, Oregon. (REUTERS/Maranie Staab)
Where Things Go “South” – Why Rittenhouse Did What He Did
Kyle Rittenhouse's fetish for guns was quickened by political elements and his love for law enforcement. He evidently believed he was being a patriot, and even police officers in Kenosha greeted him with open arms. Was it fear, his beliefs, or something else that made him shoot the protesters and believe it was their fault?
Rittenhouse may truly have believed he was trying to do good in Kenosha. He may really think he was there to protect his dying nation by carrying his AR-15 to town. He may also believe he was acting in self-defense. Or, Rittenhouse may blame the protesters for his deadly actions.
And, as Bailey so aptly observes …
“And that’s the same nonsense claim people have been using throughout the U.S.”
(Issac Bailey. “A sobbing Kyle Rittenhouse already won – even before his trial is over.” Think. Opinion. NBC News. November 10, 2021.)
Why did Kyle Rittenhouse take an assault rifle into the middle of unrest that really didn't affect him? Was he just an easily influenced young men … a dumb kid? Or. were his ideas of rights and responsibilities directly affecting his actions? Was he somehow trying to make America “great again”? Will we ever really know Rittenhouse's true motivations?
You see, why he did what he did does matters.
It matters not just in this tragic case – to the family and friends of those who lost their lives.
It matters to all those in America who view guns and violence as appropriate means to settle arguments, issues, and beliefs.
It matters to those who continue to hate and pursue retribution for their discontent.
And, in a country with more guns than people, it matters most to preserving law and order and to extinguishing the idea that people have the self-appointed authority to take up arms – essentially, to establish vigilantism – one of the hallmarks of the authoritarian movement. Allowing right-wing extremism to fester has brought us to the point when we must ask ourselves if stop this madness.
Madness, yes. An example reported by The Washington Post …
For weeks in 2020, a mysterious figure on social media talked up plans for antifa protesters to converge on Gettysburg National Military Park on Independence Day to burn American flags, an event that seemed at times to border on the farcical.
“Let’s get together and burn flags in protest of thugs and animals in blue,” the anonymous person behind a Facebook page called Left Behind USA wrote in mid-June. There would be antifa face paint, the person wrote, and organizers would “be giving away free small flags to children to safely throw into the fire.”
As word spread, self-proclaimed militias, bikers, skinheads and far-right groups from outside the state issued a call to action, pledging in online videos and posts to come to Gettysburg to protect the Civil War monuments and the nation’s flag from desecration. Some said they would bring firearms and use force if necessary.
Macky Marker, a member of a Delaware militia called First State Pathfinders, posted a YouTube video calling on militiamen to go to Gettysburg. “If you plan on coming, I would plan on coming full battle-rattle … to be fully, 100 percent prepared to defend yourself and whoever you come with,” Marker said in the video.
On Saturday afternoon, in the hours before the flag burning was to start, they flooded in by the hundreds – heavily armed and unaware, it seemed, that the mysterious Internet poster was not who the person claimed to be.
Biographical details – some from the person’s Facebook page and others provided to The Washington Post in a series of messages – did not match official records. An image the person once posted on a profile page was a picture of a man taken by a German photographer for a stock photo service.
(Shawn Boburg and Dalton Bennett. “Militias flocked to Gettysburg to foil a supposed antifa flag burning, an apparent hoax created on social media.” The Washington Post. July 04, 2020.)
And here's another, more deadly example that same year …
June 15, 2020, a group called the New Mexico Civil Guard appeared at a protest in Albuquerque and “defended” a statue of a conquistador. According to the district attorney, the group’s members had trained in combat tactics and presented themselves at the protest as “indistinguishable from authorized military forces.” An armed man joined the militia in trying to drive protesters away, and then shot and injured one of them.
Since then, local leaders and authorities have condemned the group’s actions. Albuquerque Police Department spokesman Gilbert Gallegos said APD is not investigating the group but the city asked the FBI to determine whether the Civil Guard meets the federal definition to be classified as a hate group. He said the group has repeated “blatant falsehoods” on social media to inject “anti-APD” sentiment into Albuquerque.
(Matt Zapotosky, Abigail Hauslohner, Hannah Knowles and Katie Shepherd. “Former city council candidate arrested after man is shot at New Mexico protest with militia group.” The Washington Post. June 16, 2020.)
Kyle Rittenhouse holds onto his gun as he tussles with protesters in Kenosha (Image: Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)
Was Rittenhouse a Vigilante?
Prosecutors have described Rittenhouse as a vigilante and a “chaos tourist” with a violent streak who came to Kenosha “looking for trouble.”
There are reasons for this evaluation of the young man – reasons that point in an incriminating direction.
For example, did you know in August, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported that prosecutors had a video of Rittenhouse, sitting in a car outside a CVS, saying he that he wished he had his assault rifle so he could shoot at some men leaving the store?
The county prosecutor said in court papers that the video “demonstrates that the defendant fervently sought to insert himself as an armed vigilante into situations that had nothing to do with him. Finally, and perhaps most importantly, the video proves that the defendant was ready and willing to use deadly force in a situation where it was completely unjustified.”
(LZ Granderson. “Column: In Kyle Rittenhouse’s case, vigilantism goes on trial too.” Los Angeles Times.” October 30, 2021.)
In addition, did you know the prosecution also unsuccessfully sought to introduce a video that showed Rittenhouse appearing to punch a girl who was fighting his sister a couple of months before the shootings?
The shocking footage, shot July 1, 2020, and posted to Twitter, shows a young man alleged to be Rittenhouse landing haymakers on an unidentified girl who was scrapping with another female teen,
(“Shootings, Arrest, Trial and More: The Kyle Rittenhouse Story Explained.” NBC Chicago/Associated Press. November 15, 2021.)
Also, did you know Kyle Rittenhouse posed for photos in a Wisconsin bar with members of the far right extremist group the Proud Boys after being released on $2 million bail, though his attorneys say there’s no evidence he was affiliated with the group before the shootings. Prosecutors then filed a motion to modify Rittenhouse's bond conditions.
(Caitlin O'Kane. “Kyle Rittenhouse posed for photos with Proud Boys supporters at a bar after being released on $2 million bail, prosecutors say.” CBS News. January 15, 2021.)
After the Kenosha shootings, the Proud Boys had made Rittenhouse an extension of their pro-violence message. At a far-right rally attended by many Proud Boys, the crowd had chanted “Good job, Kyle!” The group’s chairman, Enrique Tarrio, was photographed wearing a T-shirt that said “Kyle Rittenhouse Did Nothing Wrong!”
It was further reported by the Wisconsin Examiner, “in early January, Rittenhouse was seen in a Racine County bar drinking alcohol – which is allowed in Wisconsin because he was with his mother. Rittenhouse arrived at the bar wearing a shirt the read “Free as F*ck,” shortly after he pleaded not guilty.”
“Inside the bar he flashed the 'OK' sign, which has become a symbol for white supremacists and the far right. He was also serenaded with the anthem of the Proud Boys, a right-wing militia group that was heavily involved in the planning of the insurrection of the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6.” The insurrection occured the next day.
(Henry Redman. “Rittenhouse bond modified to prohibit association with white supremacists.” Wisconsin Examiner. January 25, 2021.)
Then, six days after the Capitol assault, Kyle Rittenhouse and his mother flew with John Pierce, civil litigator in Los Angeles, to Miami for three days. Last August, Pierce launched a charitable nonprofit, the #FightBack Foundation, whose mission involved raising money to fund lawsuits that would “take our country back.” Pierce defended Kyle Rittenhouse. The Rittenhouses accepted #FightBack funds without hesitation.
Although Wisconsin’s ethics laws restrict pretrial publicity, Pierce began making media appearances on Rittenhouse’s behalf. He called Kenosha a “war zone” and claimed that a “mob” had been “relentlessly hunting him as prey.” He explicitly associated Rittenhouse with the militia movement, tweeting, “The unorganized ‘militia of the United States consists of all able-bodied males at least seventeen years of age,’” and “Kyle was a Minuteman protecting his community when the government would not.”
(A Trump supporter, Pierce was hostile toward liberals and often expressed his views crudely. One Saturday, during an argument with his ex-wife, he unleashed a stream of increasingly threatening texts, including “Go watch an AOC rally. Fucking libtard”; “I will fuck u and ur kind up”; and “People like u hate the USA. Guess what bitch, we ain’t goin anywhere.” Not for the first time, she obtained a restraining order against him.)
The person who picked them Kyle and his mother at the airport in January 2021 was none other than Enrique Tarrio – the Proud Boys leader. Tarrio was Pierce’s purported client, and not long after the shootings in Kenosha he had donated a hundred dollars or so to Rittenhouse’s legal-defense fund. They all went to a Cuban restaurant, for lunch.
The Rittenhouses would not say what was discussed at the meal. David Hancock, one of the family’s advisers who reportedly said that the Proud Boys are “fucking losers,” said that Rittenhouse initially “may have thought it was kind of cool to see people fighting for him, but when he learned what they were all about it didn’t sit well with him.” He added, “He’s just as horrified by the white-supremacist part of it as anybody.”
John Pierce is no longer involved. #FightBack came under fire as soon as Pierce’s involvement became public. The Harvard Law School educated attorney has severe issues, a former client recently called Pierce a “crook.” Pierce’s financial woes resulted in his early exit from the Rittenhouse defense team.
The prosecutors’ office challenged Pierce’s application to practice law in Wisconsin stating, “his involvement with an unregulated and opaque ‘slush fund’ provides ample opportunity for self-dealing and fraud.” Pierce quit hours later. By doing so, he avoided a judicial opinion on the matter.
(DonLewis. “Wendy Rittenhouse on John Pierce & Lin Wood: “They Used Kyle to Gain Money … They Didn’t Care About Kyle.” Sunlight Reports. March 31, 2021.)
But … follow the money. The Rittenhouses had no problem with Pierce's support. After all, Pierce helped raise around $2 million for Rittenhouse's legal defense in the first few weeks after he was charged. And after he was transferred to Kenosha County Jail, Pierce and Wendy Rittenhouse did a series of interviews on more mainstream media, soliciting more money for bail.
They posted it Nov. 20, and thanked actor Ricky Schroder and My Pillow CEO Mike Lindell for about $200,000 of that.
(Bruce Vielmetti. “After Rittenhouse posted $2 million bail, some high-profile donors have shifted attention and funds to other issues.” Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. December 01, 2020.)
Maybe Kyle Rittenhouse should declare right-wing influences like Pierce made him pull the trigger. After all, after the shooting they proclaimed Rittenhouse a victim of leftist mob rule. “Are we really surprised that looting and arson accelerated to murder?” asked Fox News’s Tucker Carlson. “How shocked are we that 17-year-olds with rifles decided they had to maintain order when no one else would?”
(Robert Klemko and Greg Jaffe. “A mentally ill man, a heavily armed teenager and the night Kenosha burned.” The Washington Post. October 03, 2020.)
What We Do Know
This much we do know …
The teen – Kyle Rittenhouse – willingly put himself in a situation likely to result in something undesirable. Indeed, there was danger all around. And, he did so illegally risking a horrific escalation of that danger by carrying a gun onto the scene.
Victims Rosenbaum, Huber, and Grosskreutz were not antifa foot soldiers, bankrolled by shadowy forces and determined to set fires and spread anarchy.
Rather, the confrontation between Rittenhouse and Rosenbaum, and the bloodshed that followed, was the product of anger, alienation, and a tragic, chance encounter between a mentally ill man and a heavily armed teenager.
Joseph Rosenbaum was a depressed, homeless man who had spent most of his adult life in prison for sexual conduct with children when he was 18 and struggled with bipolar disorder.
That day, Aug. 25, Rosenbaum was discharged from a Milwaukee hospital following his second suicide attempt in as many months and dumped on the streets of Kenosha.
Hours after he was released from the hospital, Rosenbaum stopped by a pharmacy in Kenosha to pick up medication for his bipolar disorder, only to discover that it had closed early because of the unrest.
He visited his fiancee, who was living in a cheap motel room, but she told him he couldn’t stay the night. She had pressed charges against him a month earlier after a fight in which he knocked her down and bloodied her mouth. If Rosenbaum violated his no-contact order, she warned, he could be sent back to jail.
Two hours before he was killed, Rosenbaum left his fiancee’s motel room and caught a bus for downtown, where a second night of protests had erupted.
“He wasn’t down there as a rioter or a looter,” his fiancee said. “Why was he there? I have no answer. I ask myself that question every day.”
Joseph Rosenbaum had never attended a protest, and seemed caught up in this one almost by accident. He carried a clear plastic bag containing a deodorant stick, underwear and socks that the hospital had given him upon discharge following his suicide attempt. In the seconds before he was shot, Rosenbaum threw the plastic bag at Rittenhouse and chased him behind some parked cars.
Now, the trial is in full swing. The judge and the prosecutor have been at each other's throats, the top prosecution witnesses turned out to be more helpful for the defense, and defense attorneys unexpectedly put the baby-faced Rittenhouse on the stand, where he breathlessly sobbed like a toddler.
Meanwhile, the judge got a phone call as he sat at the bench, revealing his ring tone to be Lee Greenwood's "God Bless the USA," an unofficial Republican theme song. So the trial has been both dramatic and bizarre in equal measure.
(Robert Klemko and Greg Jaffe. “A mentally ill man, a heavily armed teenager and the night Kenosha burned.” The Washington Post. October 03, 2020.)
If Professor of Public Policy Issac Bailey is right, all of this must be digested in light of Kenosha’s march for George Floyd. America's “multiracial, multiethnic democracy” is fully invested in the trial of Kyle Rittenhouse – a kid with a gun who willingly entered the potentially dangerous political battleground of Kenosha, Wisconsin.
Whatever the reasons for his actions, Rittenhouse put himself in a position to influence public opinion and potentially cause more violence and more destruction around the country. He said that he went there carrying an AR-15-style rifle with the intent of protecting businesses from property damage and to act as a medic.
Rittenhouse said, "I didn't want to have to kill anybody.”
But, as it turned out, Kyle killed two people and seriously injured another.
And now, Kenosha County Judge Bruce Schroeder has insisted on preventing politics from playing a role in Rittenhouse’s high-profile trial. The judge even suggested the deeply divided country might even calm down if Americans conclude a fair trial had been held.
Calm down? Let's hope so.
But, it's difficult to understand how such a divisive trial that
likely will end with a divisive ruling – any way it goes – will
soothe a nation already in discord, a nation steeped in armed
protests.
What does research conclude? Armed protests are
six times more likely to turn violent as protests where no guns are
present, concludes a new study (2021) that analyzed more than 30,000
public demonstrations in the U.S. over the past 18 months.
After peaking last summer, the number of armed protests on the nation's streets has started to rise again, according to the study from the advocacy group Everytown for Gun Safety and researchers with the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project.
The findings …
“While armed demonstrations declined amid an overall decrease in far-right mobilization and militia activity in the immediate aftermath of the attack on the US Capitol in January 2021, the proportion of demonstrations with an armed presence has been on the rise in recent months. In June, armed demonstrations were more than twice as common as in February (see graph below).
“The resurgence of armed anti-lockdown and anti-vaccine demonstrations ahead of a potential fourth wave of COVID-19, as well as the threat of increased armed activity leading into important dates in the QAnon conspiracy around former President Trump’s 'reinstatement,' raises the risk of further violence at demonstrations during the second half of the year.
“With the Department of Homeland Security warning in August of a possible spike in 'conspiracy theory-fueled violence' based on its 'assessment of the current threat environment in its similarity to situations to 2020 and 2021 that manifested in acts of violence and destructive behavior by individuals and groups, including the 6 January 2021 breach of the US Capitol,' this risk may only increase ahead of the first anniversary of the attack.
“In order to support efforts to mitigate these risk factors, ACLED and Everytown will continue to monitor and analyze these trends in real time, making all data available to the public.”
(“Armed Assembly: Guns, Demonstrations, and Political Violence in America.” Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project (ACLED). Everytown for Gun Safety Support Fund. August 23, 2021.)
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