Kyle Rittenhouse Just Killed our Right to Peacefully Protest

[babylonsister]

Kyle Rittenhouse Just Killed our Right to Peacefully Protest
ONLY IN AMERICA
With his acquittal, we’ve lost our First Amendment right to peacefully assemble to a half-cocked, cocaine-cowboy version of the Second Amendment.
Cliff Schecter
Published Nov. 20, 2021 8:11PM ET


Only in America.

There are certainly other countries where a young man known to hang out with a fascist gang but not a member of any “well-regulated militia” could drive 20 miles across state lines in the direction of unrest while toting a gun illegally to end up shooting and killing other humans and walk away a-ok.

Yet, much like those with whom we compare these days in world health-care system rankings or our use of the death penalty, they’re not countries the world’s oldest sorta-still-going democracy should be proud to join on those lists. (“Hey, what’s the problem? We’re handling these things just like Lithuania and Colombia!”).

The point is that what happened with Kyle Rittenhouse doesn’t happen in any other high-income liberal democracy—and one that has gotten quite drunk on referring to itself as the leader of the free world and a beacon of opportunity might really wanna, at this point, check itself before it wrecks itself.

snip//

The very idea of self defense here is full of more bullshit than the Dutton Yellowstone Ranch.

But over the past 20 years, even before the GOP became a wholly owned subsidiary of a racist real-estate debtor, the NRA was paving the way for white nationalism—encouraging vigilante violence, launching scurrilous attacks on law enforcement and propagandizing with blatantly racist material. They’ve put their every waking hour into creating an America where Kyle Rittenhouse could claim self defense even when being somewhere he shouldn’t be, with a weapon he should never possess.

more...

https://www.thedailybeast.com/kyle-rittenhouse-just-killed-our-right-to-peacefully-protest?ref=home

[Eliot Rosewater]

1. Yep, and the punks i.e. white supremacists will see to it.

[Blue Owl]

2. K&R

[elleng]

3. The judge and jury did, he 'just' killed as usual.

[Celerity]

8. good point

[LiberalFighter]

4. I would suggest calling 911 anytime appears or his ilk.

When they show up armed there is a reason to feel threatened.

[MustLoveBeagles]

5. Spot on except

Kyle didn't have the gun in his possession when he drove to Kenosha. The gun was in Wisconsin with a friend who'd done a straw purchase on Rittenhouse's behalf.

[doc03]

6. The cops get a lot of static when they shoot someone. They can just sit back

and let a civilian do the shooting now and get no headaches.

[Celerity]

9. like Texas is farming out the banning of abortion to civilian RWers

[Baitball Blogger]

7. I am certain that was their intention all along.

Among their ranks they kept saying that they would send in their own to stop the protests. And they did. But, they couldn't do it without the help of a conservative judge.

We can do something about this, if the federal courts step in. Because it's true, our First Amendment rights are being usurped by the Second Amendment.

[wnylib]

16. Usurped by a false interpretation

of the 2nd amendment.

[BidenRocks]

10. Here we go again

Just for a different reason. So many willing to die for tfg.

These over armed yahoos seem to forget that weight will slow your fat ass down.
Ambush and sniper attacks are what we did against the British.
Some folk should really read history.

BTW, now I have your stuff! Never think a Dem was not trained by our military.

Why should I even have these thoughts in America?

[Busterscruggs]

12. Political

Affiliation needs to be declared and certified when purchasing firearms. Murders like this one would drop off immediately if only democrats were permitted to purchase and possess the guns.

[wnylib]

17. Willing to die for TFG?

Or willing to kill for him?

[MustLoveBeagles]

20. Both

[FM123]

11. Yep. They think the second amendment trumps the first amendment.

[CrackityJones75]

15. Apparently it does now.

All they need is to have an agent provocateur on scene and they can "Protect their neighborhood".

[Progressive Jones]

21. I have actually heard them say this right to my face.

They have cutesy little bumper sticker sayings, like, "The 1st Amendment Exists Because Of The 2nd Amendment."

THAT'S how fucking stupid they are.

[Old Crank]

13. Some states

Have passed laws allowing you to run over protesters. So they wanted this verdict.

[wnylib]

18. That needs to be challenged in court as an

infringement on the right to protest and the right to live. No law should ever allow one person to injure or take another person's life over political differences. It's so insane that it's surreal.

[canuckledragger]

14. So what's going to happen because of it?

Desperately looking for alternatives here folks.

Movies are snubbed because they're movies folks. they're dismissed because they're commercial attempts at capitalizing of people's fears in general. Realistic or not depends on folk's experience...depending or not if the someone in question has actually lived the life in question.

Forget about the purge movies and think about what HAS actually happened.

[regnaD kciN]

19. Last year, at around the same time...

…during the George Floyd protests, there was a march in a local strip-mall suburb. Mainly high-school students, along with a few suburban moms. Completely peaceful.

I didn’t attend the march (didn’t even hear about it beforehand), but happened to be driving down the road just after it ended. What I’ll always remember were the paramilitary types gathered at the police “staging area” in a parking lot at the end of the march. With their camo, body armor, and assault weapons, they looked a lot more “professional” than the cops with whom they were mingling and gladhanding. My first thought were that they were actually troops that had been called up (which would have been an insane overreaction for such a small, innocuous protest), but a look at some of the “don’t tread on me” flags and other insignia on their fatigues made it clear they were the usual reich-wingers playing at being soldiers. (Apparently, shortly after I passed by, a bunch of them rode in an open pickup through the crowd of marchers returning to their cars, taunting the “snowflakes” and shooting in the air.)

The whole scene was deeply unsettling. I could just imagine a scenario where one of them found the protesters so offensive/threatening that they would open fire on an unarmed crowd. Now that these same gun-humpers know that they could cry “self-defense” and not only walk, but become heroes thereafter, leaves me with the realization that, from now on, if I ever attend a protest, however peaceful, I have to be mentally-prepared to go with the realization that I may not return – and that, if I fall, my death will likely go unpunished and I will have given my life in vain. How many people will that cause to decide “it’s not worth it” and choose to remain at home silent but safe?

[nwliberalkiwi]

22. What I Think Will Happen

Somebody is going to kill Rittenhouse. I will not shed a tear.

[jcmaine72]

23. White Supremacy will not triumph.

Our fundamental rights, including that of peaceful assembly, will not be curtailed or eliminated by force, no matter how many fat-faced, adolescent incels the reich wing programs to murder.