I wasn't on the jury. So I did not spend days listening to the trial and then additional days mulling over the evidence with a group of my peers who did likewise.
I can't argue all the particulars of the Rittenhouse case. I am not an attorney. I don't know all the ins and outs of Wisconsin law. However, I believe it's one of those states with over-the-top Stand Your Ground laws that give a wide berth to self-defense claims. Especially when it comes to white defendants.
What I can address is the pattern and what this verdict means for the future.
It's clear that the defendant was allowed an extra-special additional defense attorney, one that most defendants don't get. And that was the Judge.
The Judge's performance was one of the most heavy-handed I've ever seen, hearkening back to the worst of the Jim Crow era. Fine. So you don't want the prosecutors to call the victims what they were - VICTIMS. Whatever quirk floats your boat. But then to allow the defense to call the protestors LOOTERS? RIOTERS? Virtually every decision he made favored the defense. He didn't just have his thumb on the scale - he was smashing it down with both hands and both feet.
The Judge threw out the one sure-thing slam dunk charge, one that was utterly indisputable - Kyle Rittenhouse brought an illegal weapon across state lines. SLAM! DUNK! No analysis needed! And the Judge would not even let the jury rule on it.
It fits the pattern of our biased criminal justice system. If you're white, you're given a universe of reasonable doubt. If you're rich (although well-represented by the best available right-wing attorneys - this is in general - I'm not claiming Kyle Rittenhouse is rich), you can expert attorneys who can run circles around the out-manned prosecution. The cases where justice has fallen short are legion, and I'm afraid Ahmaud Arbery will be next.
But most importantly, it is the message that this trial has sent. It is a message that may just be the beginning of a nightmare. A nightmare where protestors are at constant threat of losing their lives.
The danger involved was best summed up in a written statement released by the parents of one of Rittenhouse's VICTIMS, Anthony Huber -
Today's verdict means there is no accountability for the person who murdered our son. It sends the unacceptable message that armed civilians can show up in any town, incite violence, and then use the danger they have created to justify shooting people in the street.
You doubt this? Go on to Facebook and look at what your right-wing friends are saying about this verdict. Look at how they're embracing Kyle Rittenhouse as a hero. Look at what extremist Republican Congressmen are saying about him, even wanting him to intern for them.
This verdict is the official call to open season.
And it's exclusively a call to the far right to invade, disrupt and commit violence in ANY PROTEST advocating anything they don't like. For example, protests of police violence, gatherings advocating climate change legislation, marches for voting rights. Anything they don't like can be intimidated and challenged. Do anything to them that they interpret as a threat? Why then they're free to SHOOT and KILL you.
This only extends to far-right violence. Others need not apply.
You doubt me?
Flip it.
Does anyone think that if a black male, armed with an illegal weapon, had gone into a crowd of right-wing protestors and fired upon anyone who he thought was threatening, or were so scared of him that they tried to take his weapon away, do you honestly believe that the trial of that individual would have the same outcome as the Rittenhouse trial?
We should all be afraid. The far-right has just been handed their permission slip.
The nightmare may have just begun.
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