On the night of August 25, 2020, three men were part of a mob that was laying waste to Kenosha, Wisconsin. Within a period of ten minutes, these three men would, in two separate confrontations, chase down a 17 year old boy and attempt to do serious violence to him. Doubtlessly, they would have, had the young man not been armed with an AR-15. At the end of those ten minutes, two of the men were dead, while the third had been seriously wounded. In a sane world, the young man with the rifle would have been considered wholly justified for defending himself and lauded as a hero for standing to protect his community. Instead, Kyle Rittenhouse became the focal point of a political firestorm, and the jury at his trial would decide, not only his guilt or innocence, but the legitimacy of self-defense itself and the keeping of social order.
Of course, it is impossible to discuss Kyle Rittenhouse without considering the context of the situation in which he found himself fighting for his life. The death of George Floyd saw a wave of protests, and eventually riots, sweep across the country. The riots would ultimately result in around $2 billion of property damage and at least 25 people dead. The same violence and anarchy would explode in Kenosha after the shooting of Jacob Blake. Blake, who had an outstanding warrant for third-degree sexual assault, attempted to flee police after being ineffectually tasered twice. When Blake took hold of a knife and turned toward one of the officers, he was repeatedly shot. Though Blake survived, the media quickly took hold of the story as another apparent example of police brutality, encouraging the mob which descended on Kenosha. Rioters burned several buildings, including a furniture store, the Danish Brotherhood Lodge, and several houses and apartments.
Along with the rioters and looters, Kyle Rittenhouse was also in Kenosha at the time. Rittenhouse, an Illinois resident, considered Kenosha his community; he lived only twenty minutes away and has many relatives who lived in town. Having worked as a lifeguard in Kenosha and participated in local police cadet and fire programs, Kyle felt called to assist his community in the midst of a relative lack of aid from both local and state authorities. After spending the day cleaning up graffiti, Kyle offered a local business owner assistance protecting his car lots, one of which had been damaged by rioters the night before. Armed with an AR-15 and his medical supplies, Kyle took up a position at one of the car lots, venturing out at intervals to administer aid to those who were injured and put out fires. It was during this time that Rittenhouse encountered Joseph Rosenbaum.
Joseph Rosenbaum already had an extensive criminal history before he took part in the mayhem in Kenosha. He was a level 3 sex offender, considered at high risk of re-offense, after having been convicted of the rape and molestation of five boys aged 9 to 11. Upon encountering Rittenhouse and another armed civilian, Rosenbaum threatened to kill them if he caught any of them alone. He further threatened another group defending the car lot that he would cut their hearts out. Rosenbaum actively participated in the destruction in Kenosha, starting fires and causing property damage at various points.
After being separated from his companion during one of his aid sorties, Rittenhouse was ordered to a different car lot to put out a fire. As he arrived at the lot, Rosenbaum charged at Rittenhouse from behind one of the cars and threw a plastic bag at him as another rioter fired a shot into the air. Cornered, with a man who had twice previously threatened to kill him bearing down, Rittenhouse opened fire, striking Rosenbaum four times, killing him. An autopsy showed burns on Rosenbaum’s hands, meaning that he had been gripping Rittenhouse’s rifle and attempting to take it from him. After calling his friend to inform him of the shooting, Rittenhouse fled toward police lines with a group of rioters howling for his death on his heels.
As he ran, Rittenhouse was struck in the head and fell to the ground. One of his pursuers jump-kicked him, and Rittenhouse fired at him twice, missing both times. Anthony Huber then struck Rittenhouse on the back of the head with a skateboard and attempted to take his rifle. Huber had been convicted of multiple counts of domestic abuse, once putting a knife to his brother’s stomach and threatening to burn his house down. Rittenhouse fired once, striking Huber in the heart and killing him. Rittenhouse was then approached by Gaige Grosskreutz, who had one expunged felony conviction and was carrying a Glock without a valid permit. After initially holding his hands up, Grosskreutz pointed his pistol at Rittenhouse, who shot Grosskreutz in the bicep upon seeing the pistol aimed at him. Rittenhouse then headed for police lines and, after being told to leave, went home and turned himself into Antioch Police in Illinois the next day.
What should have been classified as a cut and dry case of self-defense was quickly spun by the media into the latest episode of fearmongering over the spectre of white supremacy. Media outlets falsely alleged that Rittenhouse crossed state lines with the rifle (the rifle was actually purchased by a friend and never left the state of Wisconsin), that he was a vigilante who had shot a group of protesters in cold blood, and called him a “white supremacist terrorist.” Even then-presidential candidate Joe Biden parroted this phony narrative. In the meantime, Rittenhouse was held in jail for 87 days, a month of which he spent without running water, before he finally was bailed out by friendly donors. One such donor, a police officer from Virginia, was fired in retaliation for his donation.
After over a year of slanderous media coverage, Rittenhouse finally got his day in court, charged with seven crimes. Things quickly got off to a terrible start for the prosecution, led by Thomas Binger, when their star witness, Gaige Grosskreutz, admitted under oath to pointing his pistol at Rittenhouse before he was shot. Another witness testified that the prosecution had attempted to make him change his statement. Each witness the prosecution called only seemed to bolster Rittenhouse’s case. Rittenhouse himself took the stand, testifying that his only intention was to defend himself, while acknowledging that he had used deadly force.
The best that Binger could muster on cross-examination was an attempt to impugn Rittenhouse’s taking advantage of the Fifth Amendment prior to the trial, which earned him a severe scolding from Judge Bruce Schroeder, and a bizarre attempt by A.D.A. Binger to correlate Rittenhouse’s playing Call of Duty with the incident. In their closing arguments, the prosecution revealed the true nature of the trial: a trial against self-defense itself. Binger argued that since Rittenhouse had brought the rifle with him for defense, he was no longer entitled to defend himself. Binger’s co-counsel doubled down on this preposterous argument by calling Rittenhouse a coward for not engaging a charging pedophile with his fists. Two of the charges were dismissed, including underage possession of a deadly weapon, as Rittenhouse’s rifle fell within the limits of a Wisconsin law allowing minors to carry a rifle. After four days of deliberation, Rittenhouse was acquitted of all charges.
While justice was indeed done for Kyle Rittenhouse, it is frightening that the false narrative surrounding him carried as far as it did. A young man – by all counts an upstanding citizen – sought to protect his community from destruction inflicted by a collective of decidedly less than upstanding people. As a result, he was nearly locked away for the rest of his life after being forced to defend his life from imminent danger from multiple attackers. Had the jury decided differently, the verdict could have effectively given a license for destruction to the media-encouraged and politically supported left-wing mobs, barring citizens from defending their lives and property.
As a final aside, to those who say that Kyle Rittenhouse should never have been on the scene in Kenosha, I could not agree more. If not for the dereliction of duty on the part of civil authorities who allowed Kenosha to burn, if not for the out of town rioters who sought to bring destruction to the city, Kyle Rittenhouse would never have entered the spotlight. But, because those circumstances did arise, Rittenhouse and his compatriots were forced to make a stand. Until authorities develop a sufficient backbone to stand against this new brand of violent disorder, and until the left firmly rejects political violence, it is likely that more individuals like Kyle Rittenhouse will be placed in similar predicaments.