Vigilantes are not patriots
On Nov. 19, a jury in Kenosha, Wis., acquitted Kyle Rittenhouse of intentional and reckless homicide. Acknowledging that the verdict "will leave many Americans feeling angry and concerned, including myself" President Biden maintained that "the jury system works and we have to abide by it."
The Rittenhouse case was complicated. Rittenhouse drove to Kenosha from his home in Antioch, Ill., and injected himself into civil unrest ignited by the police shooting of Jacob Blake. Dressed provocatively, in an Army green T-shirt, sporting patriot-style Ariat boots (part camouflage, part American flag), and armed with an AR-15, purchased for him by a friend because he thought it "looked cool," and, at age 17, could not legally buy himself, Rittenhouse killed Joseph Rosenbaum and Anthony Huber and wounded Gaige Grosskreutz.
A compelling witness, Rittenhouse testified that he went to Kenosha to use his skills as a fire department EMT cadet and student in an Arizona State University nursing program to provide first aid, after he saw online pleas for people to help protect the city from violent protesters. That he was chased, threatened, hit by a skateboard, had a gun pointed at him, and feared for his life, defense attorneys claimed, justified his plea of self-defense.
Definitions of self-defense, it's also worth noting, vary significantly from state to state. In some jurisdictions, individuals forfeit pleas of self-defense if they insert themselves "in a foreseeably dangerous situation." In Wisconsin, the law favors someone who "in good faith withdraws from a fight," but does not mandate "a duty to retreat." In his final instructions, Judge Schroeder told members of the jury to find the defendant not guilty if they concluded he "reasonably believed it was necessary to prevent his own death." That belief, Schroeder added, "may be reasonable even if mistaken."
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https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/vigilantes-are-not-patriots/ar-AARdGR1?li=BBnb7Kz
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