The acquittal of Kyle Rittenhouse in Wisconsin was predictable, particularly on the two large counts. Kyle Rittenhouse had reason to believe his life was in danger and under Wisconsin law, it seemed an acquittal was likely particularly on the major charges. His likely acquittal on the rest of the charges became apparent as Wisconsin gun laws were poorly written with loopholes you could drive a mac truck through.
Does that mean Rittenhouse was right and is a hero for having journeyed to another town and taken up arms in the middle of a riot? No, it doesn’t and people upset about the result as well as those lionizing him for his actions are making the same mistake.
The law doesn’t really care if you made a wise decision or a good decision. You could be a former lifeguard who stops by the side of the road. You grab a lawn chair and sit down by the beach. You see a kid drowning fifty feet away and you just sit there and laugh as you watch him die. Under the law, in most states, you have no requirement to render aid and couldn’t be lawfully convicted of anything.
The law in the Rittenhouse case doesn’t care whether it was wise for Rittenhouse to go to Kenosha. It cares whether he had a legitimate defense on the grounds of self-defense. He did.
That doesn’t mean what he did was right. The idea of a seventeen-year-old going to another town with a weapon during a riot is insane. Tim Carney had a great article in the Washington Examiner playing off Johnny Cash’s song, “Don’t Take Your Guns to Town.”
Probably, nobody will mess with you if you’re armed. But given the anger, the darkness, the crowds, the masks, the fire, and plenty of other guns, the odds are way too high that somebody will mess with you. At that point, especially when there are other guns nearby and you don’t know who’s aligned with whom, you fear for what your violent attacker would do if he got your gun.
So being armed at a violent riot has put you in a situation where you may die if you don’t shoot.
Of course, in one way the presence of Rittenhouse as other armed vigilantes is something that conservatives would warn about. If there’s a breakdown in law and order and people lose confidence in the authorities to protect them, others will act outside the law to step in to bring order and safety.
In that sense, Rittenhouse and other vigilantes are a sign of a breakdown in the social order. One doesn’t celebrate the barbarians at the Gate as heroes.
That is unless you’re part of the right-wing cash and celebrity racket many call Conservatism Inc.
Congressman Matt Gatez (R-Fl.) offered him an internship, Tucker Carlson is doing a documentary. The Onion highlighted one possible fate for Rittenhouse:
Rittenhouse could make a lot of money on the right-wing speaking circuit for years to come, but I sincerely hope he chooses another path.
Rittenhouse will be fine. What I worry about are young people who will emulate his example thanks to irresponsible rhetoric from right-wing media figures who favor profit or wisdom. There are many ways things can go wrong for the next Kyle Rittenhouse: 1) being killed by the mob, 2) shooting without appropriate provocation and ending up sentenced for murder, or 3) pulling this stunt in a jurisdiction where they’ll get sent to prison for a gun charge.
The right-wing messaging on Rittenhouse as a hero will lead to the runation of many young lives. But as was the case with right-wing COVID vaccine skepticism, you won’t find the families of people like Tucker Carlson or Matt Schlapp being taken in, only the people they exploit for power and profit.
The Federalist Approach
You might ask what citizens are to do in the face of riot and police failing to protect the public.
If you’re not a citizen of a community suffering unrest, the answer is simple.
Nothing.
I’ll never begrudge a property owner a reasonable defense of his or her own property, but if you don’t live there and you have no official status, you should not go there.
Cities have a police department at their command. If a riot gets out of control, they can ask for assistance from the National Guard to restore order. That’s their job and if they fail to do it, there will be consequences.
If voters elect representatives who fail to protect them at either the state or local level, there are political consequences to be had in voters voting politicians out or voting with their feet and leaving the community. If uncorrected at the local level, it can have national consequences as voters see which party fails to take public safety seriously.
Even if an armed vigilante force could somehow mitigate the effects of a riot, it would be protecting local voters from the consequences of their own political choices.
If anything, Rittenhouse’s actions served as a nice distraction from the issue of the riots, which had been hurting Democrats. Instead, voters had to balance their concerns about their riots with their alarm about a radicalized movement that thinks turning teenagers into cannon fodder for the domestic culture wars is laudable. Most parents know that’s a horrible idea, unless they’ve been radicalized by a political movement.
A smart political movement would not do anything to distract from the riots and the breakdown of the civil disorder. It says something about that the modern right can’t follow the most basic strategic rule: Don’t interrupt your opponent while he’s making a mistake.
Presented Without Comment:
Thanksgiving
We’re keeping this newsletter short due to the Thanksgiving Holiday coming up this week.
I’ll close with a couple of videos. First, some background and a reading of Linconln’s Thanksgiving proclamation:
Then, for a little bit of music, we turn to Jimmy Durante on the show he did with the Lennox Sisters singing, “Count Your Blessings.” There’s always something so pure in Durante’s performances and it’s a very nice song to get you into the mood for Thanksgiving: