Posted on 08/28/2020 4:42:25 AM PDT by marktwain
It has become all the rage. That is, to partially defend Kyle’s actions as probable self defense, but then to raise the following stipulations. First up, Leon Wolf writing at The Blaze.
Kyle Rittenhouse should not have been patrolling the streets of Kenosha, Wisconsin, Tuesday night. Whatever failures might have existed on the part of state and local government (and there appear to have been many), the idea of a 17-year-old with a loaded rifle being dropped into that powder keg can only happen when some horribly bad judgment has occurred.
We’ll get to that in a minute. Next up, Steven Hayward writing at Powerline.
Let’s stipulate starting out that Kyle Rittenhouse, the 17-year-old from Antioch, Illinois, who has been arrested and charged with murder for shooting two people during the Kenosha riots two nights ago, should not have been present at the scene with a semi-auto rifle. That’s no place for a 17-year-old, even if he is a regular at the gun range. And resorting to vigilantism is a sure path to a breakdown in the rule of law and perhaps even open civil war.
Steven is massively naive. He raises two points – his age, and the resort to “vigilantism.” Let’s hold in abatement the issue of age for a moment. As for vigilantism, surely he isn’t thinking clearly or perhaps hasn’t admitted the truth to himself.
We’ve discussed this many times before, but the police are committed to their salary and benefits. They are under absolutely no legal obligation to defend life or property, or provide protection or safety for anyone. We know this from Castle Rock v. Gonzales and Warren v. D.C. They could wait until a murder has been fully and completely committed, while watching and eating doughnuts, and as long as they effect the arrest after the fact, most of them will have fully followed their department protocol.
The police are under the full control of the politicians, and the politicians are mostly Marxists. Thus, holding the police back redounds to the destruction of property, unsafe environment for residents, and even the loss of family wealth when entire businesses have been burned to the ground. Many families are not in a position to take a loss like that, regardless of the money Steven makes.
When left with no alternative, it’s obscene for Hayward to advocate the unrighteousness of defense of life and property. Furthermore, to imply that the “breakdown in the rule of law” is the fault of hopeless and hapless residents lacks compassion, understanding, and good analysis. And to say that this is what may lead to civil war is more ludicrous still. Hayward must surely know that we are in an escalating civil war as we speak. If he doesn’t, I would never hire him as my attorney. He lacks even the basic skills to understand the current milieu or the signs of the times.
As for Leon Wolf, his appeal to the youthful age as a reason that Kyle shouldn’t have been there is equally ridiculous and even bigoted. We send 18 year old men to fight our wars for us, and with approval, 17 year old men can do the same.
Let’s go one step further. In the battle of King’s Mountain, the British forces were essentially all loyalist fighters with the exception of the commander. This was to be General Cornwallis’ going-forward strategy for winning the campaign in the South.
Upon learning of the coming destruction, the “over-mountain men” left their homes in the area and also neighboring states to travel overnight, many nights, on horseback, to gather and fight the loyalists.
At the time of the battle, crops were being harvested and families couldn’t send the fathers. Men had to be in the fields in order to prepare for the coming winter. They did the only thing they could do, and entire families gathered in streets and sang hymns to their young fighters as they sent their sons riding off to war.
They won a decisive victory, destroying Cornwallis’ strategic plan. What most people do not know about the “over-mountain men” is that the vast majority of them were under the age of 18. You too can learn this if you study history, or perhaps come to the King’s Mountain military park and tour it, read the placards, and study the area.
But rather than hold older men accountable for their actions, like politicians and police, pundits are satisfied with turning on Kyle for being young and deciding to make a stand.
Back to Mr. Wolf. The thing that has gone wrong in America for Kyle Rittenhouse to have to do this is that men are no longer men, that they have allowed a Marxist revolution to steal the country, and that no one has the stomach left for having and keeping liberty. What has happened to the effete, cloistered, foppish, dainty men in America? Good Lord.
“That young man did us all a great service”
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Nope. All the poor kid did was ruin his life; you can’t be much of a service to yourself or anyone else when you’re spending years forgotten in prison.
Rittenhouse had more right to be ther than the rioters.
In this case, cops were hanging out in their armored car on the outskirts of it all. They even talked with some militia guys and thanked them for helping(for doing their jobs really). Were the cops under order to not engage but appreciated that the militia would? Almost like a setup to kick off CW2. Sending armed citizens in to deal with armed commie revolutionaries.
This is all the fault of the governor, mayor & law enforcement, mostly the Governor.
What did they expect to happen when they let riots go on for days in a state that’s open carry?
Just admit it: Kyle Rittenhouse was the one millions have been waiting for.
At this point, to me he seems like a brave and bold young man. It’s hard to believe all the flack he’s catching here at FR. He took the sort of stand our patriots took nearly 250 years ago. We will need more men and women like this in the coming months and years.
Louie, you ball-less gutless amoeba, he did us ALL a favor even to those that leave a slime trail.
He will end up like Sandmann. Rich on a Caribbean island.
4 people attacked him. 3 got shot. 2 died. All on video. Why do you think he spend years in prison?
I agree too. This kid has more steel that almost everyone who is condemning him and certainly more that almost all of our politicians including the GOP.
Louie is a fear spreading douche nozzle. Look at his posting hisrtory ( If you can stomach it ).
Hey DUMBASS! Kyle would not have been there if people had actually done their jobs! Vigilantism occurs when the breakdown of the rule of law has already happened!
DUMBASS!
I agree wholeheartedly with the article. Kyle is a hero and more a man than any of his detractors.
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Well and truly said and every word of it. Kyle did a damn good job while he was there. Where were all of his detractors while the thugs were burning and destroying the city? Hiding in their hovels sucking their thumbs and whining about a man with some backbone. SICKENING!
Like I said that kid bravely stepped into the breech where men should have been.
You gotta be kidding.
Read the news.
Freedom is ringing. I can hear it.
Aren't the violent protesters being vigilantes? Doesn't seem to bother them.
He isn’t going to prison, it would surprise me if he did. We can have more riots when he is aquited.
Really? Did he go into Kenosha himself and just started protecting property?
If you're going to travel to what is effectively a combat zone, you better have a plan - which lays it all out on the line on objectives, terrain, execution, OPFOR capabilities, etc.
And if you know of any of his team/their attorney speaking to the media to explain what they were doing, please pass along that info.
1. His age isn’t relevant to the underlying questions related to self defense and the protection of property during a riot, but it certainly complicates the legal problems he’s facing.
2. If you’re going to argue that citizens have rights and responsibilities to act when law and order break down, then fine. But the kid’s own actions kind of undermine that approach when he calls 911 after shooting the first mutant.
3. In a “sh!t hits the fan scenario” the whole strategy of guarding these businesses wasn’t very effective. Nobody involved in that sort of engagement should even be identifiable on camera. Preferably, the most heavily armed people shouldn’t even be in public view at all.
4. Did any of the people guarding these businesses and properties even know the owners? It would seem bizarre to me if all this was going on and the business/property owners were nowhere to be seen.
Having said all this, I think the kid deserves the Presidential Medal of Freedom for this.
“he did us ALL a favor”
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No, he just killed a couple of people - no more, no less. We all get mixed up in things without thinking when we were kids - normal part of being a teenager - but hopefully we don’t destroy the rest of our lives in so doing.
It’s a tragedy this young boy will end up rotting in jail for a good part of his life - where he’ll just be a trivia question for the cheerleaders who had long ago moved on to the next shiny outrage-thing in the news.
Sad thing to happen to a person at such a young age.
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