The debate over the Kyle Rittenhouse verdict continues as the left insists on spinning its usual yarns about white supremacy and how it resulted in his acquittal. From the beginning of this case, the left has demonstrated a remarkable – but typical – level of hypocrisy and inconsistency.
Instead of focusing on the facts of the case, they chose politics and false narratives. They smeared Rittenhouse as a white supremacist, despite a serious lack of evidence. They counted on the reality that people wouldn’t look for the details of the case for themselves and in this way, they managed to deceive a large segment of their audience.
But one of the most common refrains coming from leftist politicians and media activists is: “He shouldn’t have been there.”
Since the jury acquitted Rittenhouse of murder, this is the argument the left is falling back on. They contend that if he hadn’t traveled to Kenosha then this situation never would have happened. Even Jacob Blake, whose police shooting sparked the riots that the young man attended, told TMZ he believed Rittenhouse should not have gone to the riot. He said:
“[H]onestly the kid [Rittenhouse] might not be a bad person. I’m not saying he’s a bad person at all, but what he did – he shouldn’t have been there. He shouldn’t have been there.”
But, as usual, there are glaring problems with the left’s take on the matter.
What is most interesting about this situation is that the left believes that Rittenhouse should never have gone to Kenosha – especially while brandishing a scary-looking rifle. However, they have nothing but silence when it comes to those rioting in the first place.
Despite what they would have us believe, not all of the protesters were peaceful. The news reports, along with the police report, show that many of these individuals – including the ones who attacked Rittenhouse — were engaged in violent behavior. A group of these people set a dumpster on fire and attempted to use it to ignite a gas station, which could have caused a tremendous amount of damage had they succeeded.
The reality is that those engaged in violence are the ones who had no business being in the area. Without the riots, there would have been no Kyle Rittenhouse. There would have been no shooting or national debate.
But you will never hear this from anyone on the hard left. The way Democrats and the activist media conducted themselves during the George Floyd riots exposed the fact that these people aren’t exactly against rioting, especially when it happens in black neighborhoods. The left-wing chattering class did everything it could to obfuscate the issue and defend these rampaging mobs.
Instead, they focus on the folks who tried to defend the city from the chaos wrought by those pretending to care about police brutality against black Americans. Rittenhouse is not the only one whom the left has criticized for being armed at a protest. Indeed, on Sunday, The Washington Post published a piece arguing that people will now be discouraged from protesting because more Rittenhouses will kill people at these demonstrations.
From The Post:
The acquittal on Friday of Kyle Rittenhouse, the teenager on trial for homicide after shooting three men in August 2020 in Kenosha, Wis., has aroused fears that vigilantism may become the new normal for political protests.
The article also discussed the results of a study showing that a majority of respondents indicated they would be hesitant to attend a protest in which participants carried firearms.
The issue with this is that there is a stark difference between a peaceful protest and wanton rioting. Here in Austin, I attended several Black Lives Matter/Antifa protests, and people on both sides of the political divide were carrying rifles. The demonstrations in Austin did not get as violent as what occurred in other cities. On the one occasion where someone was shot, the weapon used was a handgun, not a rifle.
The majority of these events do not result in a Rittenhouse type of situation. People on the left are simply trying to deflect from what most people know: It was the rioters who caused and exacerbated the violence in Kenosha, not Rittenhouse.
What these people deliberately fail to acknowledge is that two things can be true at once: Rittenhouse shouldn’t have been there and the rioters should not have been rioting. Unfortunately, the left views this matter purely in political terms, which means they are only interested in pushing their agenda. To them, the only salient points are that Rittenhouse is a white supremacist because he killed rioters pretending to care about black Americans, and that guns are bad. Hopefully, this hypocrisy will not go unnoticed in 2022.
