Actually, he went there to do exactly what he was observed doing: Cleaning up graffitti and garbage, offering medical assistance, etc. And no doubt also to ‘protect people’, which is why he stupidly brought that gun.
This is what happens when riots are allowed to run without the police asserting control. You get a rise in armed citizens doing the job the cops should be doing. When crime was rampant and police ineffective in New York pre-Guliani, it caused the rise of groups like the Guardian Angels and fantasy vigilante movies like ‘Death Wish’.
If you don’t want more citizens with guns showing up at riots, stop defunding the damned police, and stop preventing them from using their tools to contain riots.
In general I don’t disagree with what you said. It’s not like I’m happy he went there armed. He’s an idiot. He shouldn’t have gone. And Rosenbaum was apparently mentally ill. He shouldn’t have gone. The world would be a better place if those two never met. It is a point that he travelled there. But the fact that his trip crossed a border doesn’t have the importance some think it does. It certainly doesn’t need to be emphasized.
I mean I’m as tough on Sam as anyone (in fact I might point out the police have not been “defunded” almost anywhere, or anything close to it, particularly not in Kenosha), but he didn’t remotely say Rittenhouse was part of a vigilante group. This is a very bad faith post.
Citizens with guns who show up at riots to contain them because the police have had their “tools” taken away is exactly how I would define a vigilante, and it confuses me that you’d call someone pointing that out a “bad faith post”.
Except gyrate said “vigilante group”, when no one has suggested Rittenhouse was part of any group. And no, simply “showing up” doesn’t constitute vigilantism, nor does it fairly represent what Sam said. Rittenhouse never, to anyone’s knowledge attempted to perform “riot control” activity, which would be vigilantism. HIs activities that night were not police activities, and the definition of a vigilante is he steps in for the official law enforcement to take matters into his own hands. If he was trying to arrest rioters or etc you’d have some argument that he was behaving as a vigilante.
Either way, nothing Sam said could fairly indicate that he was saying “Rittenhouse was in a vigilante group.”
Nobody died because Rittenhouse “simply showed up.” As far as vigilantism goes, that only applies to people who are interested in justice. I don’t think that applied to Rittenhouse.
So Rittenhouse was an armed member of a self-appointed group there to “protect” people. He then justified this behavior by claiming the police were unable to maintain the peace.
Oh, it’s entirely recognizable. You indicated that this was an example of armed vigilantes - individual ones, at the very least - taking action against other private citizens on their own initiative. And you did not blame the vigilantes, but rather the police (or those who “defunded the police”).
If you don’t like the implication of your own words, that’s not my fault.
Wasn’t he part of a group, though? He wasn’t there on his own.
Why did he travel there - at that hour - then? Was it just to stand casually on the sidewalk, nonchalantly holding a gun he just happened to have?
I mean, Sam certainly seems to think that this was a clear example of “armed citizens doing the job police should be doing”. Sounds like I wasn’t misrepresenting him at all.
Engaging in rioting and looting does indeed make one a rioter and looter or euphemistically a mostly peaceful protester. One is a fact the other is spin.
Sure. Likewise, I could say that the fact that his trip crossed a border isn’t as irrelevant as some think it is, because it allowed him to skirt firearms laws. He probably wouldn’t have done the same thing in, say, Waukegan.
In my mind KR going to Kenosha is less important than him intentionally leaving the grounds of the property he was supposed to protect, even after being warned to stay put and not interfere with the protestors.
I apologize if I missed it in this giant thread, but:
In ADA Thomas Binger’s closing argument, he apparently decided it was would really exciting to play with guns in the courtroom. I mean, yes, it may or may not be good as an argument (no idea), but I think he broke 3-4 rules of firearms safety in the courtroom just based on what I can see in one image alone. This guy was one mistake away from sending a juror to the morgue, as the tragic mess on the filmset of Rust shows.
I express no opinion on the matter or the trial otherwise.
I’m pretty sure every time the lawyers have handled the guns they’ve had someone do a safety check. Even between handling by the prosecution and defense a couple hours apart in their closing statements. The weapons, especially the one used in the killings, have been brought out and handled multiple times by both sides.
I don’t really think a prosecutor should point even a checked-by-police gun at anyone in court. And while that seems to be an incredibly popular narrative on “certain websites” right now, having watched the actual video the angle he is facing versus the camera makes it impossible for me to tell if he has actually pointed the gun at anyone. It makes it seem like if he did point it at anyone, it was an audience member in the court room gallery, not the jury.
I don’t buy the right wing faux outrage over Biden “calling Rittenhouse a white supremacist”. He said no such thing. This was a 2020 campaign tweet criticizing Donnie T. for not denouncing white supremacists along with a photo of the killer Rittenhouse and his assault weapon. It was used as a stock photo- a teenage punk sporting a deadly weapon is exactly what a white supremacist looks like.
The bailiff or whoever checked the chamber, then handed it to the lawyer who proceeded to aim it at the jury with his finger on the trigger, without first checking the gun himself.
That’s exactly how Alec Baldwin managed to accidentally shoot and kill his cinematographer.
Always assume a gun is loaded.
When you handle a gun, don’t do anything until you have checked that it is clear, then assume it’s loaded anyway.
Never point a gun at anything you don’t intend to destroy.
Keep your finger out of the trigger guard until you are ready and willing to shoot something.