Above is a comic I never heard of (but one with a regular platform), grandstanding over the Ritterhouse verdict as she reveals that she either has no idea what the facts are in the case, or is deliberately hate-mongering by sending lies into the public consciousness. She tells us that she takes her responsibility to “tell people what they need to know” seriously, and then tells them what isn’t true. “It’s not OK”, she says with great emotion. “For a man to garb a rifle, travel across state lines, and shoot three people and walk free.” In fact, it’s not “OK” for anyone to deliberately misstate the key facts of a controversial episode to the many ignoramuses who may be listening and are likely to be misled.
Rittenhouse did not “grab a rifle” and cross state lines. The law says that it is “OK” for someone—regardless of their race— to defend themselves with deadly force if they reasonably believe his life is at stake. Then she goes on to outright racism, claiming that whites have “always” escaped consequences when they engage in murder. She calls the judge and jury racist, for participating in a trial that acquitted a white man for shooting three other white men.
She seemed like an excellent introduction to this list of similarly dishonest, ignorant or hateful people showing their lack of fairness and critical thinking skills as they descended into hysteria and ugly rhetoric…because so many on the Left are receptive to it. This is not about a difference of legitimate opinion when Americans of note or in positions of influence and responsibility engage in inflammatory declarations based on a false description of what occurred.
Certainly the news media, even more than usual, played its “enemy of the people” role to the hilt, but its flagrant false reporting on the Jacob Blake shooting was four months ago. There is no excuse for anyone with integrity and responsibility still talking about the Kenosha police shooting “an unarmed black man” or representing Blake as anything other than a dangerous outlaw who was engaged in a crime, and justly shot. Because there was no racism or police brutality involved, the protests and riots supposedly prompted by the episode were contrived and based on incompetent (or intentionally incendiary) reporting. The subsequent narrative, that Rittenhouse was opposing “racial justice” and thus a “white supremacist” because he (foolishly, recklessly) sought to mitigate the destruction caused by an ongoing riot (triggered by an incident that only was “racist” in the overheated minds of the reporters and race-hucksters) cannot be defended.
The fools and dunces whose statements are noted below are shooting off their mouths (or social media accounts) in defiance of reality. As Bari Weiss points out in her substack essay (Pointer: John Paul),
To acknowledge the facts of what happened that night is not political. It is simply to acknowledge reality. It is to say that facts are still facts and that lies are lies. It is to insist that mob justice is not justice. It is to say that media consensus is not the equivalent of due process.
And, I would add, it is to say that just because politicians, celebrities, pundits and your Facebook pals are taking a position that literally makes no sense and is based on extreme bias and fantasy is not justification for following the parade.
Below is an incomplete list of the “Facts Don’t Matter” mob. Not surprisingly, I didn’t particularly respect any of these people even before they beclowned themselves in this ethics train wreck. Even so, there are serious problems in the culture (and the educational system) when so many default to gullibility, confusion, miserable logic and emotion. The unethical reaction to the Rittenhouse verdict is, perhaps, more significant than the verdict itself.
1. Keith Olberman tweeted, “Fuck this murderer.”
Of course he did. Imagine, MSNBC had this guy as its primary pundit for years. Self-defense is not “murder,” but a legal killing.
2. Becky Pringle, teachers union leader: “Regardless of race or place, we all want to live without fearing for our lives or those of our loved ones. Today, the jury in the Kyle Rittenhouse failed to hold him accountable for his deadly actions, threatening the safety of all of us.”
Many of these comments have the depressing characteristic of ignoring the need for laws to hold people “accountable.” If legal actions have bad results, that doesn’t mean that a citizen can be punished criminally by consensus.
3. Shaun King, fake black activist, wrote, “Ultimately, gun laws were imagined, written, and are enforced in America to protect white boys and men. Those same laws are primarily used punitively against Black people….If you keep asking yourself how/why Kyle Rittenhouse could cause so much harm & serve no jail time while Black people are in prison for voting or sending their kids to school out of district, remember: Laws are meant to protect white people & white power and punish Black people.”
Many of the Rittenhouse liars pivoted to an anti-gun narrative. No blacks were involved in Rittenhouse’s confrontations. King, apparently, doesn’t comprehend basic analogies. He was also just babbling stream of consciousness hate.
4. MSNBC’s Joy Reid, whose continued presence on a news network is unforgivable, claimed, among other equally deranged assertions, that “the Kyle Rittenhouse trial was designed to protect white conservatives who kill.”
It was designed!
5. Jumaane Williams, New York City’s public advocate, asked “What’s the value of white tears (not even that many) in this country? Clearly more than black lives.”
What “black lives?” Presumably the “white tears” were Rittenhouse’s during his testimony, but what black lives were involved in his ordeal? How can American feel secure with idiots like this running their cities?
6. Speaking of New York City, its Communist Mayor Bill de Blasio proclaimed: “Anthony Huber and Joseph Rosenbaum are victims. They should be alive today. The only reason they’re not is because a violent, dangerous man chose to take a gun across state lines and start shooting people. To call this a miscarriage of justice is an understatement.”
Presumably Democrats are going to keep lying about Rittenhouse carrying “a gun across state lines” until the stars turn cold.
7. Race hustler Colin Kaepernick wrote: “We just witnessed a system built on white supremacy validate the terroristic acts of a white supremacist. This only further validates the need to abolish our current system. White supremacy cannot be reformed.”
Nothing in the case or Rittenhouse’s background suggested “white supremacy” or “terroristic acts.” And I’m sure you are as breathless as I am waiting to hear about the new legal system designed by an ex-NFL player. The fact that a shoe manufacturer uses this racist fool as a spokeman is signature significance.
8. Yahoo! wrote, reporting approvingly on Colin’s nonsense, “The day he shot three people, Rittenhouse, then 17, had traveled from Illinois with an AR-15-style rifle to a protest in Kenosha, Wisconsin.”
This outright lie is still being pushed as fact by sections of the mainstream media! Has Twitter taken action to ban this “misinformation”? Of course not.
9. Prof. Douglas M. Haynes, University of California (Irvine)’s Vice Chancellor for Equity, Diversity and Inclusion and “Chief Diversity Officer” felt it appropriate to make an official statement to the campus. Why a California university should have any official comment on a trial in Wisconsin is a mystery. Haynes said in part,
The conclusion of this trial does not end the reckoning about systemic racism in the United States. If anything, it has simply made it more legible. Kyle Rittenhouse did not live in Wisconsin, but in Antioch, Illinois. He traveled to Kenosha during protests against police violence in the wake of the shooting of Jacob Blake while in police custody. Blake was shot seven times in the back. The Kenosha event continued protests in response to the killings of George Floyd on May 25, 2020 in Minneapolis and Breonna Taylor in St. Louis on March 13, 2020 in Louisville. These multi-racial protests were grounded in a call for racial justice and the end of police brutality. Rittenhouse imposed himself on the protests in Kenosha. His assistance was not requested. It was as much about resisting the calls of protestors as it was to defend property and render first aid.
For this reason, the verdict conveys a chilling message: Neither Black lives nor those of their allies’ matter.
UCI will continue its whole university approach to recognizing and responding to anti-Blackness as an existential threat to our mission as a public research university. Learn more on the UCI Black Thriving Initiative website.
Imagine: a professor wrote this; indeed a professor of history. Yet neither the Blake shooting, nor the death of George Floyd, nor the accidental shooting of Breonna Taylor, had any demonstrable racial components at all, other than presumed racism based on anti-white and anti-police bigotry. Haynes is not a lawyer, but I would hope a properly educated high school student could explain that jury verdicts are not based on whose lives “matter,” but what the applicable laws are and how they apply to the facts of a particular case.
Law professor and Constitutional Law expert Eugene Volokh responded to Haynes’ irresponsible screed by writing,
I would think that the verdict conveys a message that
- There’s a right to self-defense, whether against the “allies” of blacks or against the enemies of blacks or against anyone else.
- That’s particularly so if a person is pointing a gun at you, or reached for your rifle.
- The prosecution has to disprove claims of self-defense beyond a reasonable doubt.
- Twelve jurors unanimously concluded that the prosecution hadn’t met its burden.
10. Rep. Illhan Omar—is she the worst of “The Squad”? It’s such a close competition—tweeted that Rittenhouse was a “domestic terrorist” and that he “executed” the fatally shot men.
Facts Don’t Matter.
11. Rep.Cori Bush (D-Mo.): “The judge. The jury. The defendant. It’s white supremacy in action. This system isn’t built to hold white supremacists accountable. It’s why Black and brown folks are brutalized and put in cages while white supremacist murderers walk free. I’m hurt. I’m angry. I’m heartbroken.”
And you’re an idiot and a demagogue.
12. Nikole Hannah-Jones, the debunked “1619 Project’s” creator, used the verdict to promote her previous fake history and spread some more: “In this country, you can even kill white people and get away with it if those white people are fighting for Black lives. This is the legacy of 1619.”
How likely is it that the three thugs shot by Rittenhouse were at the riot because of their deep, abiding concern for racial justice? All had rap sheets; all fit the profile of the kind of lawless opportunists who gravitate to riots and looting when protests go bad. Have you read any reporting on the backgrounds and beliefs of the men Rittenhouse shot? Why do you think this is?
11. More signature significance in a tweet from the ACLU’s Maryland Chapter: “Dangerous, disgusting, unacceptable white supremacy in #RittenhouseVerdict.”
What is it that this organization now stands for now? It sure isn’t the Bill of Rights, when a citizen’s Sixth Amendment rights are condemned because of his skin color.
12. Novelist Stephen King: “So…the white guy goes free. Is that the message?”
What an asshole. Good writer, though. To be fair, most of the best writers are assholes.
There are many more talking heads and media types in the list, but let’s move on to the always amusing celebrities, who never fail to blather on far beyond what their education, erudition, experience and IQs permit in situations like this. I’m going to limit this list to the celebrities that I could pick out of a line-up, and even then I’m leaving out a lot:
- LeVar Burton: “Tell me again there are not two kinds justice in America!” There might be two kinds, LeVar, but if you paid attention to this trial, it didn’t confirm your thesis.
- Actress Rosanna Arquette: “I have no faith in the justice system In America today I don’t want to live in a country that is ruled by violent ignorant racists.” I don’t have the energy to comment on that one.
- Actor Cary Elwes: “Another disappointing victory for White vigilantism.”
- Bette Midler: “Kyle Rittenhouse found not guilty tho we SAW HIM kill two. Fundamentally stupid, I predict he will go on to a big career on #Fox and in #RadicalRightWing circles, which counts as a plus with them. A tragic, tragic day for decent, THINKING, feeling, ethical people everywhere.” Shut up and sing, Bette.
- Actress Kerry Washington tweeted: “Elections matter. The lives of Joseph Rosenbaum & Anthony Huber mattered. They should be alive today. Our 1st amendment right to free speech should not cost any of us our lives. And regardless of anybody’s verdict anywhere and at anytime, Black Lives Do Matter. Today. & always.” This one was interesting, as Washington followed the Left’s contrivance that Rosenbaum and Huber were killed because of their support for Black Lives Matter (in a protest/demonstration/riot that was based on false assumptions, when in fact it was their conduct that got them killed, and Washington’s animus against Rittenhouse is entirely based on his presumed beliefs, which are also protected by the First Amendment. (The First Amendment had nothing to do with the trial.)
- Former “Star Trek” actor George Takei: “Justice denied is a body blow to our national psyche. On trial was not only a killer, but a system that continues to kill. Today that system defeated true justice, once again. But mark these words: We will never stop fighting for what is right and just.” What pompous, empty claptrap!
- Mia Farrow wrote, “So anyone can come to a protest, just march down the middle of the street with a massive gun – and kill people?” Yeah, Mia, that’s exactly what happened.
- Ava DuVernay endorsed a statement from Anthony Huber’s parents that “the verdict ‘sends the unacceptable message that armed civilians can show up in any town, incite violence, and then use the danger they have created to justify shooting people in the street.'” A riot was well underway before Rittenhouse showed up. A dead man’s parents can be forgiven adopting a fictional version of what caused their son’s death. Nobody else should.
- Lady Gaga (Ann Althouse found this one):
The frightening thing is that so many people will think this is profound instead of what it is: meaningless posturing.
Ethics Alarms 
How many career Lefties discovered that:
*Kyle Rittenhouse’s (KR) father, grandmother, and friends all live in Kenosha, 20 minutes from where KR lived.
*KR did not cross state lines with a gun; the rightful gun owner did, legally.
*Wisconsin allows 17 year-olds to own guns, which is why the gun charge was dismissed.
*KR and others extinguished a dumpster fire being rolled, by “peaceful protesters” exercising their 1st Amendment rights, toward police cars.
*Police were told to stand down as businesses were destroyed.
*Joseph Rosenbaum (convicted child molester/registered sex offender recently released from a mental facility) knocked KR down twice and tried to kick him in the head with lethal force.
*Anthony Huber (twice convicted woman beater) hit KR in the head 2x with a skateboard.
*Gaige Grosskreutz, a felon (burglary, assault) in possession of firearm, admitted he aimed his gun at KR first
*All victims were Caucasian, yet KR is called a “White Supremacist”, by the media and twice by President Biden, with no evidence of this presented at trial.
Excellent compendium.
Whew! I rarey stop reading one of your posts before I finish but I’ve had enough of this shit (not your writing, the narrative); I just keep feeling angrier and angrier as I read about all this misinformation that the MSM is spewing forth. You know who is really making a lot of people feel unsafe? All these opinionated and lying morons who keep spreading this bullshit about white supremacy. Frankly, I’m tired of hearing it. It’s not people like Kyle that make me feel unsafe; he was just an immature teen who used bad judgement, not some crazy gunman running around.
The sewage coming out of the media and some of these other people right now is the main reason I stopped watching news quite some time ago.
That’s funny…I had the same feeling while I was writing it. Researching it all made me physically ill, which is why I didn’t get it up yesterday.
That last part may be susceptible to misinterpretation.
So, the verdict is in and Kyle Rittenhouse walks on all charges. I thought about it, and as an attorney who has occasionally worked civil rights cases I do not see any bases for federal civil rights charges against him. Most of the federal civil rights statute has to do with punishing those who act under color of law to deprive individuals of their constitutional rights. Those statues are generally designed to bring down law enforcement officers who abuse their authority for no good reason. There is also the question of a hate crime, however, there has been no allegation nor proof that anyone he killed was a member of a protected class killed because they were a member of protected class. The Federal statutes are simply not designed to give the federal government a second bite at every state murder prosecution that fails to make. I suppose the Feds could try to cobble together gun charges or terrorism charges (but that’s a very long stretch). However, they would still have to draw a jury pool from wisconsin, and all of Wisconsin has now seen this trial and knows this would be just an attempt to punish someone for a crime he was already acquitted of. Jerry Nadler should have known better then to suggest this, but he was simply pandering to his base and his party’s base.
This was another classic domino situation of one breach of the law leading to more as described by the Hon. Guido Calabresi, senior judge of the second circuit Court of appeals, in an address at my law school graduation. Things were already tense in this country because George Floyd decided he would break the law and pass fake money, then resist arrest while high as a kite, then Derek Chauvin decided he would break the law and press George Floyd against the ground with his knee until he was fatally injured, then a huge number of people decided they would break the law and riot, then a whole lot of public officials decided they would break the law and fail to do their sworn duty to protect the people. While the nation was still reeling from this, Jacob Blake decided he would break the law and resist a lawful arrest, officers got heavy handed, and still more people decided they would break the law and riot, set fires, and destroy and ransack property that was not theirs to destroy or ransack. Kyle Rittenhouse unwisely decided to get involved in this mess, while armed. Three individuals with lengthy criminal records decided they would break the law and violate common sense and attack Kyle and try to kill him while he was armed for the rifle. Finally Kyle found himself with no alternative but to open fire, killing two and wounding a third.
This is not how it is supposed to be. An arrest is not supposed to result in a death. Individuals are not supposed to try to fight the police. Individuals are supposed to cooperate with law enforcement, then deal with the issue in court. People are not supposed to respond to an injustice by trying to ransack or destroy property that does not belong to them and that has nothing to do with the injustice. Ordinary people are supposed to be able to go about their lives without the fear that they will be swept up in a de facto insurrection against the civil authority. The civil authorities are supposed to keep protests peaceful and limited to the point that it does not disrupt the lives of ordinary people. It should not fall on ordinary citizens to feel like they have to protect property through the use of violence. Convicted criminals should not be using protests as a cover for stealing, assault, and generally mayhem. Individuals should not attack one another like a pack of wolves trying to bring down what they think is prey. If individuals do attack one another, it should not come as a surprise when those attacked defend themselves. Mess with a horse, get kicked, mess with a bull, get the horns, and mess with an armed man, get a bullet in you.
It’s not supposed to come to this. Government generally could have probably stopped it from coming to this if they’d acted appropriately 7 years ago in Ferguson and 6 years ago in Baltimore. I don’t remember any of this happening in ferguson, but I specifically remember in Baltimore that several armed citizens/tea partiers/whatever set themselves up to guard certain properties, since the police weren’t doing it. In fact the Baltimore Police Department wasn’t doing much because they were told not to do much. Things only ended there when officers came in from who knows how many other jurisdictions to put down this de facto insurrection. It should have been ended much quicker. Government should have sent the message that “it doesn’t matter what you are angry about, violence and destruction of property can not and will not be of and the rule of law will not be overturned,” instead, government sent the message that “if you are angry enough and we agree with you, you can do whatever you want and we will look the other way.”
The jury saw that, and sent the message that we won’t turn a blind eye on destruction and mayhem while we single those who do defend themselves out for prosecution. This nation is not grade school, where are the principal would constantly turn a blind eye to bullying, but would suspend any kid who fought back against the bullies.
It’s time for the ordinary people of this nation to take back control and take back their neighborhoods, and it just might have started here.
As to these discovered words of non-wisdom, why even bother? Keith Overbite is apparently channeling Dan Savage. Been there, done that, not impressed. Next! We all know Krappernick’s schtick, and it got old 3 years ago. Next! In fact, none of these idiots is bringing anything new to the table. We’ve seen it, heard it, read it, and a lot of the ordinary people of this nation just aren’t buying it anymore. Maybe some folks will look back on last year through emotionally addled eyes and call it the greatest year in our history since 1967, when the black community said no more, and, aided by a lot of liberal allies, changed everything for the better. Those of us who were there will say otherwise. I think our best year is probably going to be 2024, when Trump comes roaring back to finish unfinished business, and Biden goes down in history as 46th of 46.
What is the obsession with crossing state lines? And that if one does so, it must be for nefarious reasons? Those of us that live close to state lines (1 mile as the crow flies for me) cross into those states on the regular; often several times a day. And we don’t have to explain ourselves when we do. Is it that hard to understand?
“Those of us that live close to state lines”
NE of you (Iron County WI & Gogebic County MI-Intersection of U.S. Highways 2 & 51) we require regular state line crossings to avail Rigoni’s Bakery, Joe’s Pasty Shop, and personal favorite Bake Superior.
I agree with you. My dad had to drive 30 miles over state lines to go to work at the nearest Walmart and I know plenty of people who live 45 miles, across state lines between home and where they work every day due to tax and housing cost reasons. Heck, I drive 250 miles across state lines routinely to get my kid to her nearest specialist covered by my insurance. People need to get over this stuff. State line crossing is neither rare nor nefarious.
“It’s not OK”, she says with great emotion. “For a man to grab a rifle, travel across state lines,”
Was there a talking point memo sent out that included this crossing state lines thing? The sacrosanct border between Ellenois and Wesconsin is now being defended by lefties? Should we build a wall? I thought immigration was a human right? And who cares about states anyway? They’re just those annoying places west of New Jersey filled with Republicans that get two senators while containing fewer people than Brooklyn.
And a seventeen year old is a man all of a sudden? Well I’ll be damned. Aren’t all black guys just some mother’s baby or child in perpetuity? Travon Martin was just a child. Christ, George Floyd was just a child. Wasn’t Michael Brown just a child? But seventeen year old Kyle Rittenhouse is … a man? Go figure.
“The sacrosanct border between Ellenois and Wesconsin”
AKA the difference between a $#!thead and a Cheesehead…
I’ve found Midwesterners generally don’t like people from other Midwestern states. To put it mildly.
“I’ve found Midwesterners generally don’t like people from other Midwestern states.”
There exists adjacency/proximity waivers to Midwestern Nice…..
Try living in a destination town that fills up with MN plates every weekend.
You’ll never have to prove your bravery, again…
I’m assuming a wall along the Minnie/Wesconsin line would be funded and built in a hearbeat. Don’t Minnesotans famously look down at anyone who’s not above average? Particularly Iowans even more than Wesconsinites?
You’d think!!
No joke. It was so bad during the MN lockdown that waitstaff here were wanting people to be ID’d at the door (or better yet, at Exit 1). In one night we had a knife fight in a bar, a pistol whipping in an alley, and a murder in the middle of the street. Every single one of the perpetrators were MN residents. This in a river town of 12K people where nothing ever happens.
Minnesota nice? Yikes. Earnest, God fearing folk?
Any ethics analysis of this InstaGram post?
Idiotic.
Wait. A white woman is raising black children? Is that even permitted? Isn’t she an irredeemable anti-black racist and white supremacist by virtue of the color of her skin? Isn’t she appropriating black culture? Should her children feel safe in the same house a white woman is living in?
She is a perfect example of what happens when the narrative from the left (typified by Lebron’s “they are literally hunting us”) is mistaken for reality. It’s unfortunate her children have to be subjected to this.
I do agree with her on a couple of things (absent the racial angle): all children should be instructed to stay “composed” and to respect the police and running around the neighborhood playing with airsoft guns is a bad idea.
As an aside, if your children are having regular encounters with the police, it’s not because they were “walking” or “skateboarding” — that’s one of the problems with pumping this nonsense into your kids: they can get into all sorts of bad stuff and then just shout “racism!”.
Then there’s this: A black guy is found innocent of all charges in a self defense case:
https://news.yahoo.com/jury-acquits-gifford-man-claimed-195415308.html
Why isn’t this national news? By they way, he was found guilty of possessing a fire arm while being a convicted felon. I wonder whether he’s considered a man or a child.
The vermin Kyle Rittenhouse slew were no more ‘allies’ of Black lives than the vermin who did the Tulsa riots in 1921 were allies of Black lives.
And of course the SPLC again proves they are nothing but biased hucksters:
https://www.splcenter.org/news/2021/11/19/kyle-rittenhouse-verdict-splc-denounces-lack-justice-acquittal-armed-teenager-who-killed
This entire media frenzy to convict Rittenhouse and the reaction of the “woke” social justice warriors, progressives, and many in the political left to the not-guilty verdict has throughly angered me. These brainwashed people have lost their collective minds and have fully succumbed to all the socially destructive, mind melting, immoral propaganda and they’ve completely flushed all critical thinking, it truly is a culltish hive mind. I fear these hive minded people are so disconnected from reality that they are lost forever.
ARRRGH!!! My attention to my own spelling errors has been atrocious lately.
Tell us how you really feel…; )