Rittenhouse and clear self-defense: He should be found not guilty
Now 18-year-old Kyle Rittenhouse is on trial for fatally shooting two men and wounding a third. He and a friend traveled to Kenosha, Wisconsin to protect local business owners and provide medical aid after two nights of businesses being looted and set on fire there. Rittenhouse, who was trained in emergency care, brought a medical kit and an AR-15-style semiautomatic rifle.
Within 48 hours of the chaotic events, he was charged with two counts of homicide, one count of attempted homicide, recklessly endangering safety, and illegal possession of a dangerous weapon by a person under the age of 18. The gun charge was later dropped, but the politically ambitious, Democrat DA overstepped reason and acted in his own political self-interest to charge Rittenhouse so quickly.
In all that I have seen (a gun pointed at his head, etc.), Rittenhouse clearly acted in self-defense and had no ill-intent. One of his attackers, Joseph Rosenbaum, was a child rapist, serving 15 years, and one of the other guys had a felony charge. One had just been let out of a mental hospital after a suicide attempt.
According to a statement from Kenosha Police, of 175 people arrested in Kenosha during the looting and riots, 102 live outside the community. None is in jail now.
Black Lives Matter protestors, largely white, millennial, liberal college brats and most of whom were not from Kenosha, soon realized they were no longer in Seattle or Portland full of hipsters, grunge bands and spineless citizens. They were in Wisconsin, filled with open-gun-carry folks of German descent. Do not run from them unless they are goose-step marching and commence singing.
They do not like looting in Wisconsin. And to be fair, it is much easier to loot today than when I was young. It is not the security cameras (hoodies hide faces), and the cops won’t do anything anyway. It is that in my day a color TV weighed about 600 pounds and was the size of a Mini-Cooper.
The hyper-political Democrat prosecutor weaponized the immense powers at his discretion to make an example out of Rittenhouse and others like him. Yet an unarmed woman, Ashli Babbitt, was shot by a Capitol Policeman on January 6th and no charges were filed. No wonder we do not trust government prosecutors. We have a government that advertises on billboard for folks to report “hate crimes” and to turn in anyone associated with the January 6th “insurrection.” How about this? Prosecute all real crimes — do not advertise for certain ones.
Yes, one person pointed a gun at Rittenhouse and another dolt hipster hit him with a big skateboard. I guess there is a lesson here for hipster leftist millennials: Never bring a skateboard to a gunfight.
The rioters and looters in Kenosha burned and damaged over $20 million worth of other people’s property. Families put their lives’ work into their businesses serving the community, and in one night the angry mob ruined them.
Rioters even burned the Kenosha public library. Why burn a library? A public library is now a sacred place where winos and indigents sleep and watch porn.
On the bright side, if the verdict is justly not guilty, about 25% of Kenoshans will be able to have their Christmas shopping done later that day.
Government is so inept that, in an awkward moment, Kyle Rittenhouse was asked to step outside and defend the courthouse when the verdict is read.
When asked about Kenosha and things going up so quickly in flames, Joe Biden became angry and said, “Her name is pronounced Kamala!”
For her part, White House mouthpiece Jen Psaki, just back from getting COVID from a group of reporters required to wear masks, chimed in by saying she could not chime in. Right after she said she couldn’t comment on the murder trial of 18-year-old Kyle Rittenhouse, Press Secretary Jen Psaki declared on Monday that President Biden disavows “vigilantes patrolling our communities with assault weapons.” She said nothing about his stance on people who loot and burn businesses and marauders who intimidate Kenosha’s citizens; I can only assume he is being told what to say on those crimes by his handlers at MoveOn.org.
If convicted, Rittenhouse could be sentenced to a two-picture deal starring opposite Alec Baldwin.
To celebrate a not guilty verdict, local grocery stores in Kenosha are giving away now expensive turkeys to all citizens who can outrun their store security guys.
Ron Hart is a syndicated op-ed humorist, award-winning author, and TV/radio commentator; you can reach him at Ron@RonaldHart.com or Twitter @RonaldHart.
Meet the Editor
David Adlerstein, The Apalachicola Times’ digital editor, started with the news outlet in January 2002 as a reporter.
Prior to then, David Adlerstein began as a newspaperman with a small Boston weekly, after graduating magna cum laude from Brandeis University in Waltham, Massachusetts. He later edited the weekly Bellville Times, and as business reporter for the daily Marion Star, both not far from his hometown of Columbus, Ohio.
In 1995, he moved to South Florida, and worked as a business reporter and editor of Medical Business newspaper. In Jan. 2002, he began with the Apalachicola Times, first as reporter and later as editor, and in Oct. 2020, also began editing the Port St. Joe Star.