By Don Frost
Kyle Rittenhouse was found innocent of murder in Kenosha, Wis., having killed two men and wounding another during riots in that town on Aug. 25, 2020. Because he and those he shot were white, you, in all innocence, would be justified in assuming no one could possibly declare the verdict racist.
Wrong. “Liberals” want his head on a platter for the most blatant of racist motives: Rittenhouse is white. The verdict inspired virtually every crackpot on the Left to protest over issues totally unrelated to the trial. Picket signs signed by the Party for Socialism and Liberation read “End Fascism.” Others, unsigned, read “Defund the Police.” What any of this had to do with the trial remains a mystery. Several homemade signs displayed a sentiment that said more about their authors’ mental capacity than the words on the sign: “Fuck Kyle.”
Of course, anti-gun rights groups are furious. They’d been hoping for a verdict that would reinforce their belief that guns are evil. Instead they got one that reinforced the right to defend yourself.
But the most vehement spewing of outrage comes from the racist assumption that he was found innocent simply because of his skin pigmentation.
It all began with the shooting of a black man, Jacob Blake, by a white policeman two days before, on Aug. 23, 2020. Naturally, the times being what they are, this called for “understandable” (read acceptable) smashing, burning, and looting; in short, a riot. This is what brought Rittenhouse from his home in Antioch, Ill., to Kenosha to volunteer to guard local businesses.
Make no mistake: He should not have gone. He had no business being there. That he went there with an illegally purchased semi-automatic rifle makes his presence in town even more reprehensible.
The people he shot had no business roaming the streets of Kenosha that night either. Oh, they were free to do so, of course. But why exercise that freedom? Good grief! There was a riot in progress. It was a dangerous place to be. All those shot by Rittenhouse were out-of-towners except Joseph Rosenbaum. They were drawn there because they wanted . . . Just what did they want? Rittenhouse at least had a messianic motive for traveling from Illinois to Wisconsin: To protect property from the rioters. Rosenbaum, Anthony Huber (both of whom were killed), and Gage Grosskreutz (who was wounded) had no such noble motives.
Colin Kaepernick, the ex-football player turned professional race-baiting critic of all things American, said the verdict proved the criminal justice system is broken. “We just witnessed a system built on white supremacy validate the terrorist act of a white supremacist,” he said, “. . . white supremacy cannot be reformed.”
One of the worst racist attacks on the verdict was written by Robin Givhan, a black woman, and published in the Washington Post. Of course, she characterized the riots as mere “civil unrest.” Videos presented during the trial showed “protesters” smashing cars with baseball bats or pipes while fires raged in the background. Apparently the new definition of the mild-sounding “unrest” includes destroying property.
In her column Givhan claimed to possess a most remarkable ability: She can read minds. Her words: “White men with guns do not see themselves as a danger. They cannot fathom that their actions are suspect. They cannot envision themselves as anything but patriotic and godly. Their moral certitude has been . . . deeply embedded into the collective mind-set.
“Rittenhouse, with his youth, is a reminder that this sense of favor and privilege is not just embedded in an older generation. This belief in one’s infallibility, this certainty, has been inherited.”
“White privilege” is a theme Givhan resorted to several times. It’s a fairly new buzz phrase that, remarkably, is becoming widely accepted as unchallenged wisdom, even by white people thoroughly enjoying their self-inflicted guilt, as in “I feel guilty about my privileged status so I can’t be a racist.”
Givhan displayed her mind-reading abilities again when she referred to Rittenhouse breaking down in tears during his testimony, as he described firing on and killing Rosenbaum.
“It’s important to remember that Rittenhouse wept as he described the risk he perceived to his own life,” she wrote. “He was crying over the danger that he saw in others. He wasn’t shedding tears over the danger that he posed.”
An amazing woman. With a clarity denied ordinary people she plumbed the depth of his soul and realized he didn’t give a damn about taking a human life; that he did not feel the very human remorse over having killed a man; that his sole concern was that Rosenbaum was a threat to him.
Rittenhouse was not found innocent of murder because he’s white and “no black man would have escaped the hang man.” He was not found innocent because he’s a “privileged white man” who assumed he could get away with murder.
A jury of 12 sat through a two-week trial; heard from 30 witnesses; and viewed numerous videos of the shootings from various angles, first in real time, then in slow motion and stop-action. During deliberations they asked to see these videos again.
Those deliberations dragged on for 3½ days, during which they reviewed witness statements that Rosenbaum threatened to kill Rittenhouse, then lunged at him and tried to take his rifle away. It was then that Rittenhouse fatally shot him. They heard witnesses, and saw videos, of Rittenhouse running, pursued by a crowd of about 12 people, a mob Grosskreutz testified he believed intended to harm him. They saw again the video of him tripping and falling to the ground, and Huber taking the opportunity to bash him with a skateboard. It was then that Rittenhouse fired, fatally wounding him. They again read testimony by Grosskreutz that he then approached Rittenhouse, pointing a pistol at him, clearly visible in a still view, so Rittenhouse fired again, hitting him in the arm.
After all this the jury unanimously agreed: Kyle Rittenhouse was justified in shooting and killing two men and wounding another, all of whom threatened him with death or serious bodily harm. In other words, self-defense, justifiable homicide.
After all this Givhan and other “liberals” decided they knew more about what happened that night than the jury.
President Biden at least wants to lay this issue to rest. “The jury system works,” he said, adding that he stands by their decision. But he was woefully late in trying to walk back his earlier, inflammatory words. When the shootings took place the nation’s moral leader gave the nation its marching orders. Kyle Rittenhouse is “a white supremacist,” he said. He hadn’t a shred of evidence – nor does anyone now – to support those slanderous words, even though race had absolutely nothing to do with the shootings then or the trial now.
Throughout the trial and even before Rittenhouse was portrayed as a racist who crossed state lines intending to kill black “protesters.” Legal experts believe he has rock-solid grounds for libel and slander suits against these people, individual reporters, pundits, news organizations, networks, and anyone else who publicly defamed him.
Too bad he can’t start with Biden.