Watching the highlights of the Rittenhouse trial testimony Wednesday, I was struck by how much it reminded me of an episode of "All in the Family" from the 1970s. If you're Kyle Rittenhouse and you're feeling threatened carrying a weapon you shouldn't have been carrying in the first place and you happen to kill a suspected antifa or Black Lives Matter knucklehead or two, well, that's how frontier justice has always been done in America.ĭon't call Rittenhouse a vigilante just because he values his Second Amendment rights as a minor more than the right of other people to live if they scare him. Who says you can't shoot three excessively woke white men whom even the judge refuses to allow to be called "victims" in his courtroom? Who hasn't defied curfew laws in another state while brandishing guns you're not old enough to own? What's so odd about claiming to be an emergency medical technician when the extent of your EMT training begins and ends at handing out bottled water? There's no reason for a jury to think there's anything strange about a 17-year-old arranging the straw purchase of an AR-15 through a friend "because it looks cool" and taking it across state lines to heated protests in Kenosha. Even the heavily tattooed kid at the supermarket who prefers hanging out at gun shows to going to school gets a pass because they've known him since he was a baby.Īll of these misfits are on the spectrum of what constitutes a "well-adjusted American" when it comes to anti-sociability. They'll think of a mischievous nephew forbidden from befriending stray cats or a troubled neighbor boy who prowls social media and the darknet. I'm betting that Kyle Rittenhouse will remind just enough jurors that they all know someone just like him. That makes him a patriot-not a killer, right? Sure, he shot two people to death and gravely wounded a third with an AR-15 he wasn't old enough to legally own or wield-but standing one's ground and shooting your way out of a jam is as American as apple pie. In post-trial interviews, members of the jury will admit that they were offended by the prosecution's attempts to portray a poor, screwed-up kid as some kind of killer. Kyle Rittenhouse will not only be declared innocent, but he will then be carried out of that courtroom on the shoulders of the judge, the jury and his very relieved but exceptionally cynical lawyers. When the judge screams at the prosecutor twice and his ringtone playing goes off when the defense is asking for a mistrial, the fix is in! Rittenhouse is going to walk." This left me no choice but to amend my original answer to my friend: "Yesterday's courtroom shenanigans dashed any hope of a conviction.
The American criminal justice system was designed to operate like a room full of clowns juggling plates and bowling pins with the lights dimmed half the time.
That was before Wednesday, when Kyle Rittenhouse put on a masterclass of performative white innocence. The show featured tears, soulful hyperventilating and strategic scrunchy faces to endear himself to a judge and jury desperate to pinch his cheeks and reassure him that everything will be all right. My logic was based on the fact that all of Rittenhouse's victims were white and that you can't kill white men in America, even if you're white yourself, and not face severe consequences. He may not get as much time as he deserves, but he's going to jail." Though my response was glib, I thought it was realistic at the time: "He'll be convicted. Earlier this week, a friend texted me this prediction about the outcome of Kyle Rittenhouse's murder trial: "Kyle Rittenhouse walks or only of minor charges and gets probation."