The Canonization/Martydom of Kenosha Kyle

     

     The jury is now completing its second day of deliberations in the murder trial of Kyle Rittenhouse. It will stretch on at least a third day.

     I'm just going to come right out and say I am a typical liberal and damned proud of it. Not the caricature drawn by right wing nut jobs but the one who backs up his assertions, beliefs and opinions with facts. I oppose animal testing, snip plastic six pack holders so they don't choke a bird and I'm a huge proponent of gun control.

     Gun control works. Don't believe me or the countless studies and surveys that have been conducted on the subject? Ask Australia. They banned automatic weapons after one was used in a horrific mass shooting in 1996. And they haven't had a mass shooting since then  You hear that? Australia hasn't had a mass shooting in a quarter of a century. That's a fact, end of discussion. You can't argue with or spin a zero.

     The Kyle Rittenhouse trial, one would think, would be a slam dunk, open and shut case. But the many vagaries in Wisconsin law and the hair-splitting it necessarily involves makes a guilty verdict far from a no-brainer. We've heard debates about barrel length, leading the horrifyingly right wing Judge Bruce Schroeder to toss one misdemeanor charge.

     The five remaining chargers are all felonies, including first degree murder, first degree reckless homicide, etc. Being convicted on any one of those charges would guarantee Rittenhouse would spend years in prison. The only smart thing Rittenhosue did on August 25 when he murdered two men and seriously injured a third was to commit his crimes in a state that hasn't had the death penalty since 1853.

     The indisputable facts are these: That Rittenhouse, a resident of Antioch, Illinois, had his mother drive him to Kenosha, Wisconsin. He was too young to own or wield the AR15 he'd used to kill two and injure a third. He was allowed to leave the state by the Kenosha cops, who were caught on video giving him a bottle of water and thanking him just for being there. After Rittenhouse had shot his victims, he held the AR15 above his head and tried to surrender and the police passed by him as if he didn't exist.

     Whatever happens with Rittenhouse in this trial, the Kenosha Police need to be tried on, at the very least, dereliction of duty charges. That would be the logical followup.

     But we're not a logical country.

     If we were, the Second Amendment wouldn't be the most misread, misinterpreted and cherry-picked amendment in the US Constitution. The painfully brief Second Amendment reads,

     "A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed."

     The Second Amendment does not give Kyle Rittenhouse enough cover for even a fig leaf. First off, Kenosha was filled that night with protesters angry over the Jacob Blake shooting that crippled an unarmed black man for life. But was the security of the free state endangered? Hardly.

     Secondly, was Kyle Rittenhosue a "well regulated militia"? Again, don't make me laugh. At his age in 2020, he wouldn't have been able to enlist in the official Illinois state militia.

      And lastly, his very age then, 17, certainly did infringe on his nonexistent right to either keep or bear arms. Rittenhosue had applied for the permit but was rejected.

     And yet, despite these facts that are excruciatingly painful to any 2nd amendment enthusiast, Rittenhouse has a very real chance of literally getting away with murder, especially as he has a belligerently right wing judge solidly in his corner.

     This should not be, nor should Rittenhouse be made a symbol of, the Second Amendment. If anything, Rittenhouse should, at most, be considered a synecdoche of his misused and poor interpretation of the Second Amendment. He should be made a symbol of what happens when you barter, water down, warp and deliberately misread the intent of the Second Amendment and what that mindset can produce:

     A soft, blubbery boy who had to be driven by his Mommy to a demonstration that was happening out of town and out of state. Rittenhouse should represent all the perpetually paranoid and frightened males in this country who think might makes right and thinks nothing about crossing state lines to fight a battle that doesn't nor shouldn't concern him in the slightest.

     Rittenhouse went into another city in another state, shot someone then shot two more people when they judged, perfectly rightly, that he was an active shooter. So, naturally, a mainstay of his defense is that he had a right to defend himself against proactive measures  utilized to contain a chaotic situation that he'd created. He is no different than James Fields, who rammed his car into a large crowd in Charlottesville in August 2017, killing Heather Heyer and injuring dozens of others. The difference is that Rittenhouse's body count is twice as high as Fields'.

     In any other decade, in any other century, surely, that would've been laughed out of a courtroom. But not in the reverse kangaroo court of Bruce Schroeder, whose very ringtone is a mini soundtrack for a Trump rally. Like so many right wingers, Rittenhouse went somewhere he didn't belong looking for trouble and seemed genuinely astounded when he found it, when he came across individuals who didn't have high-powered rifles and who'd confronted him when he began blasting.

      Lastly, the Rittenhouse trial is so polarized that, regardless of the verdict, we could see another August 25th. Actually, we could see armed lunatics taking to the streets while the utterly worthless Kenosha Police Department will rumble down the streets in their tanks looking for anyone darker than a paper bag. An acquittal of Rittenhouse could easily give the green light for any weekend warrior to grab Daddy's gun and start shooting at anyone who even vaguely looks as if they belong to the phantom Antifa. The barbarians, albeit in Maseratis, are already at the gate, slavering for the chance to Second Amendment a self-perceived antagonist into an early grave with impunity.

     And they could easily make their debut at the inevitable Rittenhouse demonstration.