Saturday, November 20, 2021

Killer Resume

 Go ahead. Start the clock. It's only a matter of time before Kyle Rittenhouse finds himself on the wrong back end of trouble again. The jury acquitted the eighteen year old killer last Friday and if I was a betting man I would wager a large sum that this is not the last time this young man finds himself in front of a judge. 

Why?

He got away with murder. He shot and killed two people, wounding another. He managed to get away with that before he was twenty. What frontiers are ahead of him one can only imagine. I use as my frame of reference another acquitted murderer, George Zimmerman. After being found innocent of killing seventeen year old Trayvon Martin, Mister Zimmerman claimed he acted in self defense, in addition to citing Florida's "Stand Your Ground Law" as his justification. That was in July of 2013. A few months later, in November of that same year, George was arrested on a complaint made by his girlfriend who claimed that he had pointed a shotgun at her. That charge was dropped. Fast forward to January 2015, when it wasn't a shotgun but a bottle thrown at his girlfriend Those charges were dropped. George Zimmerman was twenty-eight years old when he took Trayvon Martin's life. 

Kyle Rittenhouse has ten more years to play with. 

And here is what I can say: I was not there on that night. I was not an eyewitness to the events that ended up taking the lives of Joseph Rosenbaum and Anthony Huber. But there was never any real argument about whether or not Kyle Rittenhouse killed these men. A weapons charge regarding semi-automatic rifle that says that someone under eighteen is legally prohibited from carrying in Wisconsin was tossed out by the judge. Along with any semblance of restorative justice. 

There are some things about which we can be certain: This was not a trial about killing innocents. It was yet another attempt to prop up the status quo. The fact that white lives were lost at a Black Lives Matter protest is no comfort for anyone outside of the terrified white folks who believe that their way of life is under siege. By contrast, those whose lives are truly under siege every day continue to be brushed aside and treated as expendable. If I were a betting man, I would double down on that same court finding a black defendant guilty on all counts. 

And we will be seeing Kyle Rittenhouse in a courtroom again. 

Congress's recently censured idiot Paul Gosar tweeted that he would "arm wrestle @mattgaetz to get dibs for Kyle as an intern."

Soon. 

1 comment: