Re: Kyle Rittenhouse

[Black Aeronaut]

Okay, I got a question for you folks.

What EXACTLY did you *want* Kyle Rittenhouse to do in a situation where he is being assaulted by a bunch of rioters?

No, do not dodge the question by saying he should not have been there in the first place.  There were a *lot* of people who should not have been there in the first place.

Also do not dodge the question by saying he should not have been armed.  There were a *lot* of people there who were armed.

And definitely do not split hairs about what *type* of weapon he was armed with.  That matters little in the grand scheme of things.  (Translation: if it had been anything other than a gun that Kyle Rittenhouse had used, then your issue is ultimately not about the actions of Kyle Rittenhouse.)

[robkelk]

Was he able to evacuate, or was he forced to stand his ground? I've only seen one photo, and he was already down at that point.

Because if he was able to evacuate, he had an option other than "open fire".

[hazard]

From what I saw of the video, he had plenty of opportunity to not stay standing around as the crowd approached.

[Black Aeronaut]

No.  He was pursued.  These people literally chased him down.

Something to keep in mind.  The first person he shot?  Joseph Rosenbaum?  This guy was recently discharged from a hospital for mental treatment.

In fact, he was seen (and videoed, too!) going up to militia men and daring them to shoot him.

So imagine being a 17 year old kid, and a LITERAL FUCKING MENTAL PATIENT is tearing after you.  Of course, he didn't know the man had just come out of the hospital - he didn't know the guy from Adam.  Just some rando being a bat-shit insane lunatic with a death wish.

It doesn't help matters that some idiot with a handgun behind Rosenbaum fired into the air.  But then, god only knows what would have happened if that didn't happen.

Conjecture that is neither here nor there

I'm gonna be blunt with you.  It's probably for the best Kyle did shoot Joseph Rosenbaum.  Because do you honestly believe for even one second that this literal lunatic was just gonna stop at taking Kyle's gun away from him?  This man did not have good intentions, and I can only imagine what would have happened if he had managed to take that AR-15 away from Kyle Rittenhouse.

In the second shooting, he was chased down as well, because mob mentality rules.

But hey, you don't gotta take *my* word for it.  The Times has done a fairly balanced mini-documentary on the whole thing.  You'll want to set aside at least 30 minutes for this one.

https://www.nytimes.com/video/us/1000000...lysis.html

And just so you guys are aware:

I do not think of Kyle Rittenhouse as a hero, or anything like unto it.

I think he and his family are a bunch of fucking idiots.

But stupidity isn't a crime in this country.  Which is fortunate in a ways, because all of us can be tried and found guilty if it were.

I do feel, however, that in that situation, where he is being chased down by first a mad man and then by an angry mob?  I cannot say that he was not justified for doing what he did.

The Liberal Redneck had some interesting points on the matter.  He is on the nose about the actions of the prosecutor.  It has every sense of someone trying to milk this case.  For what, I'm not sure, but that was definitely not the proper behavior for an assistant DA.