I had pretty well made up my mind on the Kyle Rittenhouse trial, and at first I was truly appalled that he wasn’t convicted on any of the five counts.
But when I started thinking about it, I realized that other than gun charges, the only possibility for real punishment would be if it was a crime to be an arsehole.
Yes, he went looking for trouble.
Yes, he had a military-grade weapon.
Those things are both true, but there’s one question that doesn’t fit into all this. Why were the guys he shot pursuing him? They knew what sort of weapon he had, and they were definitely outgunned.
It’s also important to note that while what was happening in Wisconsin was a Black Lives Matter protest, neither Rittenhouse for his victims were black.
It is possible to judge people by the friends they keep, so when Matt Gaetz, Madison Cawthorn and Paul Gosar — aka the Three Stooges of the GOP — offer Rittenhouse an internship, it tells us something about him. And when Marjorie Taylor Greene calls him one of the good ones, there might even be hope for him to escape a future as an incel.
Race may not be a factor in the Rittenhouse case, but the other high-profile trial is all about black and white.
In Brunswick, Georgia, three white men are on trial for killing Ahmaud Arbery, a black man who was out jogging. They’re claiming self-defense, just like Rittenhouse in Wisconsin, but since they chased Arbery and shot him when he refused to surrender, that rings sort of hollow.
This case seems almost a throwback to Jim Crow times, when white people could give all sorts of reasons for killing black men and get away with it.
One complicating factor is that 11 of the 12 jurors in the trial are white.
The trial should go to the jury early next week, and while the Rittenhouse jury took four days to acquit him, this case seems a lot less complex.
Jeez, the guy was just out jogging.
The verdict here should say a lot about Georgia, one way or the other.
As a Georgian, I’m hoping for the good way.