A sobbing Kyle Rittenhouse already won -- even before his trial is over
By Issac Bailey, professor of public policy at Davidson College and author of "Why Didn't We Riot? A Black Man in Trumpland"
Kyle Rittenhouse, in an unusual move for a defendant, took the witness stand Wednesday. He cried. His defense team then made a motion for a mistrial with prejudice, which means Rittenhouse couldnt be retried. But whatever the court rules, he has already won.
Hes charged with reckless homicide, intentional homicide and attempted intentional homicide for shooting three people (killing two of them) who were protesting the police shooting of yet another Black man, Jacob Blake, in Kenosha, Wisconsin, last summer. The protest followed many George Floyd-inspired ones that erupted across the world calling for police accountability and justice for Black lives. White allies, like the ones Rittenhouse shot, were among the protesters. Rittenhouse has pleaded not guilty.
f Rittenhouse is convicted, he will likely stop being a right-wing mascot and become a right-wing martyr. If he isnt convicted, he will set a precedent for others like him to pick up guns they shouldnt have and thrust themselves into the middle of unrest they should avoid confident in knowing that prison wont be in their future.
To his supporters, and even many of his detractors, Rittenhouse isnt a monster. Not really. He was a young, dumb kid hyped up on the Foxification or Fox News effect of American discourse on the Black Lives Matter movement in a country that fetishes guns for show, for sport and for killing not a white supremacist, like, say Dylann Roof. Not really. He wore no hoods and didnt wrap himself in the Confederate flag. Hes a patriot who tried to bring calm to chaos because, as Fox News prime-time host Tucker Carlson told us at the time of the shooting, the adults around him wouldnt maintain order. He was so nonviolent that police officers greeted him and those like him like fellow guardians of the community before he killed anyone.
https://www.nbcnews.com/think/politics-policy/sobbing-kyle-rittenhouse-won-before-ruling-rcna5114
COL Mustard
(5,897 posts)This little snot killed two people...if he walks, it's not justice.
Mr.Bill
(24,281 posts)He's a danger to society and needs to spend the rest of his life in a cage where he can't harm anyone else. He is the very reason we have prisons.
Glorfindel
(9,726 posts)can instantly sue him in civil court for wrongful death. There's no doubt at all that he did, indeed, kill those two men.
MichMan
(11,910 posts)What would they get from him ?
Wuddles440
(1,121 posts)against him and have it satisfied from current assets (proceeds from his "defense fund" and future earnings (he'll in demand on all the conservative media outlets, guest speaking engagements, prepper networks, etc.).
AZSkiffyGeek
(11,007 posts)Aristus
(66,316 posts)I can't see this kid ever earning anything but a piddling hourly wage. He doesn't strike me as someone possessed of the kind of high character that produces a strong work ethic.
or Project Veritas or some other outfit like that would be happy to overpay him.
Ray Bruns
(4,093 posts)underpants
(182,769 posts)My 2¢
AdamGG
(1,288 posts)there would be ample grounds to appeal any conviction. But, since his bias has been toward the defense and you can't be tried twice, it won't matter. I hate showboat judges who get off on the celebrity of being in a high publicity trial.
sop
(10,156 posts)The no longer-weepy Kyle will be a fixture on Carlson and Hannity, he'll be a featured speaker at Proud Boys, Oath Keepers and NRA conventions and AR15 manufacturers will market a Commemorative Rittenhouse Rifle. Then, after milking his newfound notoriety for everything it's worth, he'll fade away, never to heard from again. Just like Zimmerman.
Me.
(35,454 posts)he's an expert
BigmanPigman
(51,584 posts)I would be so pissed off and insulted that he thought he could pull off such BS and we'd believe it?!? My anger and disgust at this obviously fake-crying murderer would push me to vote guilty.