It would have been easy to do an immediate “Me too!” post on the outcome of the Kyle Rittenhouse trial. However, I wanted to think about what we had seen, as well as to peruse the responses of the “usual suspects” on the Left.
I admit to having paid attention to the trial as it was taking place. I also have to admit my growing dismay (and later anger) as it became clear the case never should have seen the light of day. Between prosecutorial misconduct – suborning perjury, failure to disclose exculpatory evidence - and bringing up the defendant’s silence in reference to exercising his Fifth Amendment rights (something the judge had ruled the prosecution could not use as part of its case), it became quite evident that DA Binger was doing his best to ‘Nifong’ Kyle Rittenhouse. (To those not understanding the reference, Mike Nifong, the prosecuting DA in the Duke University Lacrosse Team rape trial, was found to have committed numerous acts of misconduct as he tried to railroad three members of the lacrosse team for the alleged rape of a stripper – Crystal Mangum - hired to entertain at a party. He interfered in the police investigation of the alleged crime. Witnesses were intimidated. Exculpatory evidence was withheld or hidden. Nifong was disbarred for his actions. He also served jail time for contempt of court.)
The prosecution’s case was weak to begin with and it tanked when its own witness, the one surviving miscreant, testified about both what he saw – the attack on Kyle Rittenhouse – and his own action, in this case pointing his own pistol at Rittenhouse as Rittenhouse was lying on the ground after having been attacked. He testified Rittenhouse didn’t fire at him until he pointed his pistol directly at Rittenhouse. Video withheld from the defense showed plainly what had happened, showed the attacks on Rittenhouse. That same video wasn’t presented at trial until the end by the prosecution as a ‘Hail Mary’ ploy, trying to show that Rittenhouse was the provocateur. The video did just the opposite.
It was clearly self-defense right from the get-go.
The jury saw it that way and acquitted Rittenhouse on all charges.
As interesting as the trial and its outcome was, it is the reactions to the verdict that I found even more interesting...but not unexpected.
To paraphrase the original Star Wars movie, “The Narrative is strong in this one.”
Seeing the over the top responses from the Left indicate to me that the facts, the evidence, the testimonies didn’t matter because they didn’t fit the narrative the Left was selling. They needed Kyle Rittenhouse to be guilty, to be a white supremacist, a cold-blooded killer who came to Kenosha for the sole purpose of killing people of color. That he was there to protect the property of small business owners, to protect members of his family (who lived in Kenosha), to prevent those who wanted to Burn, Loot, and Murder from doing so was immaterial. That the people he did shoot, people who assaulted him and were trying to kill him were white didn’t matter. The Narrative had to be served.
As a result the Left lost it and tried to preserve the Narrative even though every bit of evidence proved the Narrative as nothing more than wishful thinking. Much of the DNC-MSM also piled on, seeing the verdict as a miscarriage of justice because the verdict didn’t support the Narrative. It was also evident to me they were hoping for public unrest due to the verdict, but that unrest never materialized. Yes, there were protests, but they were sedate as compared to what happened in Kenosha that started this whole thing.
I have to ask whether the reason those incidents of public unrest were rather sedate was because the manufactured outrage wasn’t cranked up to ‘11’. Or perhaps those decrying the verdict aren’t really all that outraged, understanding the Rittenhouse case for what it truly was and putting forth the obligatory protest video and sound bites in order to show their ‘wokeness’.
To me, those protesting the verdict the loudest seem to like the idea of conviction by accusation, law by decree, legislation by courts, modern Inquisitions, and guilty until proven innocent and even then still guilty. Seeing their reactions (and some of their previous opinions), I have come to think that to them Rittenhouse was a symbol of everything they dislike and therefore he needed to be destroyed as an example “to the others”, meaning the rest of us. They wanted to send a message that they control those of us who are not “them”. (Of course they also control those who are. We’ve seen them turn on their own more than once.)
Are they bucking for a three-tiered justice system where outcomes are based upon which group someone belongs?
The top tier – them – can do little or no wrong.
The middle tier – the enlightened disadvantaged minorities, except Asians – can do wrong, but only because of white supremacy/privilege.
The bottom tier – anyone they see as white, including the aforementioned Asians and certain Hispanics like George Zimmerman – are always guilty. They are also always racists, sexists, and whatever other ‘-ists’ with which they can be labeled. The bottom tier can also be safely ignored since they are now the designated untermenschen. All they need to do now is disarm, disfranchise, and silence them. Kyle Rittenhouse was meant to be one of the bottom tier, condemned because he was white, armed, and dared to defend himself.
Of course, this is all BS. It is but one more insurgent attack on America, its laws, its traditions, its culture, and all of its citizens. The outcome of this trial may be yet another step in our efforts to take our nation back from those who seek to destroy it and replace it with a modern dystopian feudal state.
