Rittenhouse was guilty, but he was acquitted anyways. 

A few days ago, a notification on my phone informed me the end result of Kyle Rittenhouse’s trial. The verdict declared he is to be acquitted of all five charges he’d been accused of because supposedly he acted on self-defense. After the George Floyd protests, Jacob Blake being shot and injured by police deemed to have shown excessive force sparked a new round of protests in Kenosha, Wisconsin, against racism and police brutality. When riots and destruction of property followed, 17-year-old Rittenhouse from Illinois signed up to help a man protect his car business and to help people. He showed up with a rifle ready to fulfill his duty as vigilante. A series of altercations took place between him and protesters on site, ultimately leading to the teenager shooting two men dead and injuring a third. 

I will admit I did not follow the trial and had to update myself on the basics. I was looking at the news right as the “Kenosha unrest shooting” occurred, but information was so fresh that I had no idea what was going on.  

Had Rittenhouse been a black teenager who went to another state to play vigilante and ended taking two lives while injuring one, his sentence would have been more than harsh. There is no doubt about it. That he approved of Blue Lives Matter tells us where his loyalties lie. He received support and donations from right-wingers. The law declaring him innocent will have its effect on the conservative side of the United States. The most extreme side which has become the face of mainstream conservatism has already martyrized the woman who was shot dead for trying to break into the Capitol. Rittenhouse’s case will only embolden them, and will probably go down as a big victory in the right-wingers’ book. None of this is a good thing.