For Better or Worse, Kyle Rittenhouse Was Deemed Not Guilty

I'm not anti-main stream media, but there are times when I do think narratives that are pushed are sometimes quite wrong. And I do think that is the case with at least part of the information regarding the Kyle Rittenhouse story.

Over and over and over, media has gotten it completely wrong in how it has presented what was happening in Kenosha when the deadly encounter involving Kyle Rittenhouse happened. They have repeated that what was going on was a social justice or anti-racist protest. No. It wasn't. It was a full on riot. It was more than a riot, in fact. It was just utter destruction, with people lighting things on fire, violence, thuggery, mayhem and destruction.

In the summer of 2020, America was in turmoil. There were protests every weekend, some of them turning into full blown riots. I watched countless hours of live streams from independent journalists and wannabe journalists from places across the country. The live stream coming out of Kenosha during the riots where Rittenhouse ended up killing two people showed that a section of the city was turned into a war zone. And Rittenhouse was there, with his gun. Was that a wise decision? Probably not. Should he have been there? Probably not. But, really, NO one that was there should have been there. It was a riot. It shouldn't have happened at all. Absolute destruction occurred that night. Much of the damage was done by people who will never be brought to justice over it, who got away with violence, thuggery and destruction. Businesses were destroyed, some owned by immigrants and other black people. Those crimes will go unpunished because no one will know who did those in all of the chaos.

I tried to stay out of watching the trial. Like many people, I caught information here or there. But, from the information coming out, it was becoming clear that Rittenhouse was the one who was attacked. He even had a gun pulled on him. Going into that environment with the gun he did raised the possibility of something like this happening, for sure. But, in the end, he was shown not to be the aggressor. And the jury agreed.

What happened with the Rittenhouse affair is a tragedy. It's sad that two people lost their lives that night. And, it's sad that once again, this case, like pretty much everything in the US these days, has divided the country along party lines. Those who would have liked to see him behind bars forever seem to align with the Left, and those who wanted to see him freed are on the Right. The jury was given the evidence. They decided. The hope is that it was an impartial decision, or as close to one as can be found. But, in the end, those on the Left who wanted to see Kyle tossed into jail have been disappointed, and on social media, the anger that is felt is boiling over.

To further muddy the waters in this situation, the issue of race keeps popping up with the "If Kyle were a black kid..." narrative. Many insist that if he was black the trial would have been completely different. The thing is, he wasn't. He was a white kid who shot two other white kids. The information given to the jury was not based on race, it was based on the facts, as to what happened on the ground. They made a decision based on that, as was their job. From my own personal perspective, if Kyle had been a black kid, I would HOPE, very much, that the same facts would have presented the same result. But, we won't know. This was it's own unique case. It's clear that many don't have faith in the justice system and are certain that the results would have been different if Rittenhouse was black. That is something that does need to be addressed. But, in the end, it appears that the jury did the right thing and looked at the evidence that was presented to them.

The jury did it's job. Whether you or I agree or disagree with the end result really doesn't matter. The jury was presented with the evidence. They had to make a decision. They took three and a half days to make that decision. They obviously put time and thought into the evidence presented to them. This was a decision made by a jury. What will happen now remains to be seen. Some see what has happened as justice served...other see it as justice denied. And those on opposing sides will probably never give in and always see it their way. There might be more lawsuits to come. There will be more controversy. There will be more analysis and discussion. This trial is over, but the story will live on.