A jury on Friday found Kyle Rittenhouse not guilty on charges related to his shooting dead two people at an anti-racism protest and injuring a third in Kenosha, Wisconsin, last year, after a tumultuous trial that gripped America.
That’s the good news. Anyone who watched the footage will have been aware that this was clearly a case of self defence. Throughout the trial, the prosecution behaved badly, deliberately flouting the rules in an attempt to poison the jury and the judge had to intervene to keep the trial on track – that is, the evidence and nothing but the evidence. I watched enough of the video footage of the proceedings to be appalled at the prosecution – the man was behaving in a manner that would have been more at home in Salem circa 1600. The judge’s perfectly correct interventions have been touted as him being racist (of course, what else?). Nothing short of a lynching will satisfy the bloodlust.
That said, two deeply unpleasant people are no longer walking the Earth, so not all bad.
Not so with the Guardian, though.
The trial was seen as a test case for the US, as it appeared to illustrate contrasting attitudes of law enforcement when confronted with white men or teens who claimed to be acting as vigilante-style informal security personnel, armed with assault rifles, and Black members of the public or those protesting in support of the Black Lives Matter movement.
See what I mean? The three men he shot were violent thugs who set about him, kicking him to the ground whereupon they tried to wrest his rifle away and tried to beat him with a skateboard. There were no black people present. This was not a protest, it was a riot. This is highly disingenuous journalism and I use the term journalism very, very loosely.
Claiming self-defence, Rittenhouse had pleaded not guilty to the homicide and attempted homicide charges and also to two charges of recklessly endangering safety, for firing his weapon near others. He was also charged with the illegal possession of a dangerous weapon by a minor, but the judge dropped that count against him during the trial.
Again, disingenuous wording. The charges were dropped because there was no case to answer – likewise the entirely fabricated claim about taking a weapon across county lines. It’s also worth bearing in mind that Rittenhouse did not discharge his weapon until he was on the ground being violently attacked by these people. He had tried to diffuse the situation by running away. He exercised restraint, only shooting when he was cornered and on his back.
During the trial we’ve had the usual white supremacy bollocks. This is a catch all, much like the term racist – it means nothing more than “I don’t like this person.” We are all white supremacists now.
Civil rights campaigners were outraged.
“The verdict in the #KyleRittenhouse case is a travesty and fails to deliver justice on behalf of those who lost their lives as they peacefully assembled to protest against police brutality and violence,” tweeted the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) civil rights group.
Peacefully looting and burning. Peacefully chasing and kicking a man to the ground. Peacefully trying to beat him with a skateboard. These were violent thugs who were caught on video footage engaging in violence. They were not by any stretch of the imagination peacefully assembling here. That is an outright lie.
This was a simple case of self-defence and the jury concluded as much. Expect the inevitable bleating about justice from the usual suspects. Oh, and some rioting and looting just in time for Christmas.
I’m actually gobsmacked that the correct verdict was returned; most unusual, especially in USA courts.
Sometimes you get a jury who looks at the situation and really does imagine themselves in the same situation as the defendant…
ACtually, the state made pretty sure the jury did exactly that.
The prosecutor actually said in his closing – and remember the state’s job is to DISPROVE beyond a reasonable doubt the self defence justification – and I quote the actual words “sometimes you just have to take your beating”.
The state lost this all on its own. ADAs Binger and Kraus really should be up on malpractice charges.
The Guardian, like the BBC, still not acknowledging (or more likely still hiding) the fact that those who were shot were (a) attacking Rittenhouse and (b) white.
Over at the guardian some US professor, author of “the right wing today”, says the verdict will launch a wave of vigilante killings as far right white supremacists cruise across state lines hunting peaceful black rioters.
More likely the burn loot and murder mob will use it as an excuse.
His decision, obviously, but I find myself hoping Rittenhouse chooses to sue a suitable selection of individual journalists and media companies, and wins such ruinous punitive damages that no others dare ignore facts for the sake of a narrative for a long time to come.
He should have lawyers queuing up to take his call!
I see a repeat of the Covington Catholic case where the MSM and others grossly libelled a group of Catholic school kids and painted them as ‘white supremacists’. They won millions in damages. This time the damages and the targets for legal action could be more than those in the Covington case as even the US President has weighed in about this case both prior and after his election and helped to smear Mr Rittenhouse. When these civil cases start up I might have to order in an industrial quantity of popcorn.
Suing he bastards into penury might be the only way of stopping this behaviour.
The prosecutors should be in jail for abuse of office.
And hopefully brandon will be sued for slander.
“Let’s sue Brandon”?
Slang for Biden.
Having watched some of the proceedings, I’m mildly surprised it wasn’t a mistrial. That said, this is a better result.
I suspect the judge was going to declare a mistrial if he was found guilty.
He had already admonished the prosecution a few times for their behaviour and said he would rule on the mistrial motion after the verdict.
This is a better way. He has been found innocent by a jury, so he can’t be tried again, and it avoids people being able to make the argument that “the judge just let him off”.
One small quibble: he was always innocent. The accused is innocent until found guilty. The jury did not find him innocent, they affirmed his innocence by finding him not guilty.
Agreed.
Was typing in haste.
A ‘mistrial with prejudice’ was mooted at one stage, meaning that Mr Rittenhouse could not be tried for the same offences again. A ‘Not guilty’ verdict was, given the available evidence, always the better option.
Not that the woke mob will respect the verdict seeing as it was two of their number, a wife beater and a paedophile, who got killed when they were trying to turn that boy’s lights out. Having said that, if the rioters are all similar people, petty criminals and sociopaths, then perhaps they are in no moral position to demand anything.
I’ve now watched a couple of videos that highlight the massive scale of the misreporting of this incident by the mainstream media. I’ve long been aware that these news outlets were incompetent and lied to further various agendas but the level of disinformation put out on this issue is pretty incredible. Just wave after wave of deliberate lies. Rittenhouse will be set up for life after he is finished suing them all for defamation.
As Fahrenheit says, see also Covington Catholic.
A further development, three black guys in an SUV have deliberately ploughed into a parade killing and maiming several people. This seems to have been a revenge attack against those who acquitted someone who was clearly guilty of chasing down and murdering three black people who were protesting peacefully. The media lies were surely an indirect cause of this incident.