Russian dolls-style Comments of the Day can be the best feature of Ethics Alarms, when erudite commenters do a tag-team job on complex issues. So it is in this case, with Humble Talent taking off from Steve-O’s astute chain reaction observation.

What is remarkable to me is that the conversations about Rittenhouse’s travails somehow never explored the fact that all three of those he shot were felons with significant criminal records. The first I realized this was when I was directed to Ann Coulter’s piece.

While it is irrefutable that this information should not have been brought to the jury’s attention because it was inherently prejudicial, it is also irrefutable that the fact that the three men were 1) violent lawbreakers and 2) white fatally undercuts much of the Left’s narrative, as mapped out by the news media. It is particularly weird that now, after the verdict and when the proclivities of the three men have finally been widely revealed, the Rittenhouse-Deranged are still talking about them like they were peaceful demonstrators who wanted nothing more than to ensure racial justice, social equity, rainbows and moonbeams for all humankind. Actor-activist (good actor, fatuous activist) Mark Ruffalo’s tweet was a classic of the genre: “We come together to mourn the lives lost to the same racist system that devalues Black lives and devalued the lives of Anthony and JoJo.”

Huh? “Jo-Jo” raped five boys. It’s awfully hard to “devalue” the life of someone like that, who has had negative value to society. If Ruffalo knows this, then his tweet is demented. If he doesn’t, then it’s irresponsible. Either way, shut up and act, Mark.

Here is Humble Talent’s Comment of the Day on the post (by Steve-O-in NJ), “Comment Of The Day: A Rittenhouse Verdict Inventory…Part III: Facts Don’t Matter”

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I don’t know if it makes any difference, but I was thinking about the left’s newly beloved “JoJo” and the narrative that Kyle didn’t have any business being on scene.

We knew, previous to this, that “JoJo” Rosenbaum had just been released from a mental health institution. We knew that he was off his meds. We knew that he had several prior convictions for molesting children. We knew that the bag that he threw at Kyle was filled with toiletries that he took home from the mental institution, and that he had that in part because he hadn’t even gone home to change. He was released the night of the riot and immediately went on about the business of rioting. We know that he appeared hyper-aggressive all night, we know that he called some of the people in Kyle’s group, quote, “niggers”.

Aside from that last sentence, Kyle knew none of this, so it really shouldn’t factor into the actions of Rittenhouse on that fateful August night. But if we’re going to armchair quarterback the plays that Kyle was making, maybe it makes sense to ask questions like “What was “JoJo” doing there?” Because there are a whole lot of reasons to believe that he wasn’t even aware the Blake shooting had occurred.

Was “JoJo” a BLM supporter? No clue. I don’t know how he could have been though. The Jacob Blake shooting was on August 23rd, the night of the shooting was the 25th. I’m not sure how long Rosenbaum was in treatment, but I have the impression that the News isn’t playing in mental institutions. This coupled with his choice expletives lead me to believe that he probably wasn’t even have been aware of why he was rioting. Rhetorically, even if he knew the name Jacob Blake, and even if he knew it was a BLM event, he could not possibly have access to anything other than word-of-mouth information. He never went home, he didn’t have a phone on him.

But more importantly, people are saying things like “Kyle crossed state lines” as if that’s actually meaningful. People cross state lines all the time, and the vagaries of Wisconsin law permitted him to enter with the rifle that he possessed, if you even want to assert that he, and not the owner of the rifle, who was in the car beside him, possessed the rifle as it lay in the trunk of the car. Kyle crossed the state line about a mile from where he lived in Antioch, and drove 20 minutes down the road over to where he commuted to for work, so do something either stupid or brave, depending on your point of view, and understanding that the latter is hardly ever mutually exclusive of the former.

“JoJo” however, had an interesting wrinkle. It struck me during the Rittenhouse trial: A Rittenhouse supporter was detained outside the courthouse because he was open carrying, which was generally legal, but the courthouse was within x feet of a school, so while the carry was legal, police wanted to ask him questions. This is obviously a cover, any authority could probably understand that the guy was carrying in relation to the court case, and not the school a block down the road, but…..

That meant there was a school just down the road. Gears Grinding… Wasn’t the courthouse really close to Car Source 1? Why Yes! The Car Source lot that Rosenbaum was shot at was kiddie corner from the school. And Joseph Rosenbaum was a convicted child molester. And because of his sex offender designation, it was illegal for him to be within X feet of a school.

Again… Rittenhouse couldn’t possibly know any of this. But like I said, if we’re going to armchair quarterback this…. If the mental institution hadn’t released Rosenbaum into a riot, if he had been on his meds, if he had actually gone home instead of rioting, if he hadn’t been at the Car Source parking lot, which was explicitly illegal for him to be, even absent a riot… then he most likely would still be alive.

“JoJo” is dead because a mentally unwell person decided to break multiple laws, riot and be where he had no legal ability to be, and then chased and attacked a young man who was carrying a Smith and Wesson M&P15 and was shot for his trouble.

We can discuss whether or not you think Kyle was heroic, “JoJo” sure as hell wasn’t, and giving a pet name to a convicted pedophile is… sure as hell something, lefties.