Posted on 08/26/2020 11:49:15 AM PDT by EyesOfTX
One 17 year old, alone? Very desperate.
There is no indication one way or another that there was only one.
Lack of information is not the same as confirmation of worst suspicions.
The rioters the young man accosted were smashing car windows and were ready to commit arson on the cars. The fact the young man was alone in the altercation is troubling, but neither confirms nor denies whether he was the sole property defender. Certainly, the police down the street in their armored vehicles were doing nothing to assist.
My point is that if a business owner feels the need for protection for his business against a mob, then he has to call a professional organization.
Why? Are citizens not allowed to defend their property?
Under current COVID business circumstance, calling a professional organization may have been the same as losing all his inventory - a business killer.
If the government will not or cannot provide adequate security on the policing front, citizens MUST be allowed to defend themselves, including their livelihoods.
If you simply cannot get a professional organization, then you may be forced to defend it yourself; I don't deny this. But you have to hand-pick people with the understanding that you may lose the business anyway if someone is killed or maimed.
Having a 17 year-old as part of the militia would be preposterous.
Over all that commotion you can hear him clear as a bell.
That’s the way I see it. Not going to argue about if he should or shouldn’t have been there. We have to know more about why he showed up. Regardless, his life was definitely on the line and skateboard dude was trying to be a hero by hitting him over the head with his skateboard. He’s dead and his life is over for being stupid. Just mentioned to my wife the other day that eventually people would be getting shot and it’s happened.
Then explain Audie Murphy.
I don’t see the comparison between a 17 year-old in military service and a 17 year-old in downtown Kenosha with an AR-15; the enlisted soldier is far better trained and is under far tighter supervision than that the civilian walking down the street alone.
Yes, people have already been getting killed -- but only by Antifa/BLM commies. More than 38 killed by the commies in a couple of months.
When the humans started shooting back ... this may be the Shot Heard Around the World.
I have to ask about your screen name. Are you a military captain?
Aside from that idle question, the training in small unit tactics for a soldier after basic is important to achieving the small unit’s objectives. But, taking an objective position is much more difficult than defending a fixed and open position from equally untrained individuals. This young man did well, except for his diving in without some backup in close attendance.
BTW, I was an Army Captain with a squad of infantry in my platoon.
You can criticize, but 17 year olds have defended this country since its founding. Untrained 17 year olds - and many much younger - enlisted for the revolutionary and civil wars. Audie Murphy illegally enlisted under age and became a real-life hero, which spurred his film career (To Hell and Back). My neighbors here in rural northeast Kansas have raised 15-17 year olds that I would absolutely trust to help defend my property and my life.
I get it. You don’t like this situation. But, you are seeking to blame the young man who defended himself and his friend’s property. That is something I cannot agree with.
I like most of your posts, but you missed the bus characterizing this young man as an idiot.
I think you're being unfair. I think the kid had every right to defend himself. There is another video floating around where the kid is seen running from someone who is throwing something at him; that person is the first person the kid shot. My understanding is that the guy died, although there's a video shot where you can see a head wound and the guy is still alive.
My only point is that this was preventable. A guy with an AR-15 at the ready during a riot is a target. (Just ask the cops in any of the big cities like Portland or Seattle during the last few months.) While neither of us know what led to the first incident, I don't think the word, "discretion" is in the vocabulary of too many 17 year-olds, and it HAS to be for anyone who is carrying a firearm, whether he is at the scene of a riot or not. (Even a cop wouldn't be walking down the street alone with that kind of a weapon; they are always in groups.)
There may be a logical reason as to how the guy ended up alone in the street with this weapon; the story is still developing. But it's a safe bet that he wishes he never left his home in Illinois last night.
I don’t believe I’m being unfair. The object thrown by the first shootee is reportedly a Molotov cocktail. A deadly assault. The third shootee was a “medic” with a handgun firmly grasped in his now wounded arm’s right hand.
The young man also refrained from shooting a black young man who kicked him in the head while the shooter was on the ground. The black man fell down and did not continue to pursue the shooter. The shooter dismissed the kicker as a threat and neither aimed at or shot at him.
When a small unit fails to support itself, it is not a private’s failure. It is the sergeant, or the lieutenant that screwed up.
Hopefully we will learn more about both sides in this conflict. But, absent evidence this young man recklessly and malevolently provoked the confrontation that appears to have been caused by the rioters’ intent to destroy someone else’s property, I refuse to blame this young man for doing what he can to protect a friend’s business and his own life.
Free republic is not what it used to be. To wit your post.
Recall Evers! That’s what he’s really worried about.
For the sake of this discussion, I will concede that he was in the moral and legal right in every instance where he pulled the trigger. I'm simply saying that it could have been avoided.
From being in front of a building with a group of guys with long arms, he somehow ended up running away from a guy who threw what you say is a Molotav cocktail. How he got from A to B is the mystery. (If you are going to guard a building, then you stay in front of the building and you don't leave for anything (the way Audie Murphy would have been trained). The moment a 17 year-old with a long arm leaves that building, he is on very shaky ground because a) he's 17 years old and b) he has an AR-15. It's a recipe for a disaster.)
Well said-you win post of the night so far.
From one of the videos, it looked like Rittenhouse did shoot at the black guy, and it looked like he was hit. I’m going to try to find that video.
I watched a bunch of video and I saw what looked like a Molotove Cocktail thrown at him. What I never saw was him shoot the guy in the head. He may have, but the wound was did not seem to match up where they were relative to one another the last frame I saw.
I am assuming he did it. But if the bullet winds up being different from what he had, then that would be a good thing for him I think.
IIRC, he was on the phone right after that, maybe even called 911. The interview with him before the shootings-he seemed to be a good-hearted person.
From the St Louis couple to this kid to the comical Give No F**** black militia to the patriots standing around like roosters in the yard, there are enough weapon and tactical mistakes to fill an encyclopedia.
If we are going to see militias popping up, there’s a reason they need to be well regulated. Overweight, undisciplined, standing out in the open, no cover or unit cohesion or movement discipline. Shoot your own toe off there Harland.
These gum chewers need some field officers and sergeants.
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