'"The social implications of his acquittal are frightening. No one brings a rifle to a protest to further civil discourse. As the Rittenhouse case shows it is all too easy for the presence of guns to encourage the packing of more guns - with armed violence and death as a result. " - Erwin Chmerinsky, LA Times
"The only good thing that can be said about Friday's "not guilty" verdict in the case of Kyle Rittenhouse, the Kenosha shooter, is that the Trumpists are getting the icon they deserve. Forget that ever-present right-wing fantasy of a muscular Aryan übermensch in a MAGA hat punching skinny black-clad leftist protesters, Rittenhouse is a more accurate avatar for the dweebs and dirtbags that make up the Trumpian right. - Amanda Marcotte, Salon.com,
'Kyle Rittenhouse Is Not Guilty' read the header for the lead editorial in The Wall Street Journal (p. A14) today, with subtext: "The jury relied on the facts, not political distortion". But we now know it did rely on the unhinged judge's judicial distortion (via wackjob "rules") and the fact that only one African -American sat on the jury. This imbalance in concert with egregious "rules" likely responsible for the 11-1 holding out until that sole juror finally caved under pressure from the brainwashed whities.
The WSJ editorial barked that "the Democrats and progressive media continue to mislead about the shootings" but in fact they are the only ones getting it right. This was a brutal miscarriage of justice in which a lone 17 -yr. old punk appointed himself to be a law enforcing vigilante, driving to Kenosha from Antioch, Illinois then brandishing his AR-15 (bought while underage - but which charge the impudent judge dismissed) As he assumed the role of an active shooter, marauding across city streets, Rittenhouse struck mortal fear into the protesters (reacting to the earlier police shooting of Justin Blake) who logically reacted to a visible threat. Never mind. Having triggered the fear response the renegade imp fired shots, killing two men, thereby - with his 'not guilty' verdict - giving license for any active shooter to do the same. The deluded WSJ hacks can spin it any way they want - like they do with the bogus Durham witch hunt - but those are the facts.
Look, yesterday's Kenosha verdict- absolving punk vigilante Kyle Rittenhouse of all blame, tops it off as far as how this nation has slid into fascist thought - and how it now affects supposedly 'objective juries.' It is now clear, as Janice said soon after, that any active shooter with a good crying act, a biased activist judge and a middling defense attorney can lower the threshold for shooting deaths everywhere.
At the top of the blame goes a Trump Judge named Bruce Schroeder. We know he's a Trumpie judge because at several points while TV cameras were on his cell rang and a Trumpie campaign tune sounded, e.g.
Judge’s ‘God Bless the USA’ Ringtone Blares During Rittenhouse Trial (thedailybeast.com)
This derelict asshole with a Mussolini complex engaged in several sharp exchanges with Assistant District Attorney Thomas Binger as he questioned Rittenhouse, admonishing the prosecutor: “Don’t get brazen with me!” The scene was repeated on Chris Hayes' ALL In and we could not believe it. As I joked to Janice: "Ever heard of an uppity judge? Well you have one there!" She agreed. But this is the warp and woof of those in Trump world who fancy themselves high and mighty because they know they have Trump's blessings.
This prick also went all out Benito Mussolini at one point and forbade the prosecution from calling the three men Rittenhouse shot “victims,” which Schroeder has long called a “loaded term.” He prefers “decedents” or “complaining witnesses.” According to Kenosha defense lawyer Michael Cicchini,
“That’s been a rule in his courtroom since Day One. Whether the person is a victim is the very thing the prosecution has to prove.”
In other words the burden of proof is on victims to prove they are victims. If this had been a trial of the renegade who fired a round through an apartment wall and into the head of Sally Rose Strelecki e.g.
Then the criminal who did it would have doubtless got off Scot- free. Thus, Sally Rose - even with massive brain damage- would have been deemed a "complaining witness" instead of a victim under this idiot judge's template.
But most judicial analysts who've followed this farce of a trial were onto Schroeder long before the verdict was even read. Michael Cicchini for one, told the WaPo:
"For a jury trial, if you get him, you are happy as a defense attorney."
The nephew of Justin Blake - who was shot by a Kenosha cop, leading to the unrest- said: "It seemed like he's aiming to let this man out of his courthouse Scot free." Well yes, but give props to his defense team too!
Thanks to a source on Hallie Jackson's MSNBC show yesterday afternoon, we've since learned the punk's defense prepped him several times using a mock jury, i.e. actors. The defense noted the mock jury reactions each time then tweaked the punk's witness stand acting to hone it to the point the "jury" reactions were sympathetic to the max. Of course that would have included his blubbering like an overgrown baby. But as Chris Hayes observed: "That was bawling for himself, not any victims."
As another Kenosha legal observer has pointed out:
"In the home stretch of a nearly four-decade career on the bench, Schroeder's sometimes unorthodox rules are now receiving nationwide scrutiny."
Well, for sure this crackpot judge has ensured now there will be open season on many innocent citizens . This atrocity of a verdict means that armed vigilantes can now show up in any town then use the danger they create to justify shooting people in the street- and claim self defense.
An even worse aspect, as Norm Ornstein pointed out on ALL In last night, is that this miserable, groveling punk may now be hired as an "intern" by one of the Repuke Troll Caucus in the House. Evidently, Lauren Boebert, Matt Gaetz and Marjorie Taylor Greene have been debating who has more cause to take on the new "hero" of the bastardized, traitor Right.
It doesn't matter, or at least won't. If this Trump cult of cockroaches is somehow catapulted back into power next year, you can then kiss this country goodbye - and with it the remnants of our democracy.
See Also:
by Wim Laven | November 22, 2021 - 7:42am | permalink
And:
by Amanda Marcotte | November 25, 2021 - 8:28am | permalink
And:
by Amanda Marcotte | November 20, 2021 - 8:28am | permalink
And:
by Jaime O’Neill | November 14, 2021 - 7:23am | permalink
And:
by Amanda Marcotte | November 17, 2021 - 8:49am | permalink
And:
by Amanda Marcotte | November 19, 2021 - 8:51am | permalink
And:
by Jaime O’Neill | November 19, 2021 - 8:22am | permalink
Excerpt:
Ok, at the time of this writing, we're still waiting to find out if a jury in Kenosha, Wisconsin decides that Kyle Rittenhouse did anything particularly wrong when he traveled across a state line with a weapon illegal for him to own, posed as a medic, and hastened to find the trouble he had gone looking for in order to quell it with his AR-15, killing two people who had the audacity to take issue with him. It's apparently a hard decision for those jurors to make, a decision perhaps made even more difficult by the judge whose instructions to them made arguments about how many angels can dance on the head of a pin seem easily resolved.
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