12 thoughts on “On Kyle Rittenhouse”

  2. This is war.
    The police are at best neutral.
    The courts are generally on the side of the enemy.

  3. Hey Lawdog;

    Very well put together video;

    I linked a good source on my blog called "the Axehead" that has a lot of good sources also of the Kenosha shoot.

  6. So lawdog, follow my logic for a moment. In wisconsin, if the accused is over 16, they are tried as an adult. The only POSSIBLE law broken here is a minor in posession charge which is a class A misdemeanor. But to be charged as such he has to be a minor. How do you try someone as an adult for a crime that is not a crime as an adult?

  7. Rorschach,

    You are making one cardinal mistake; you are expecting the Law to make sense.

  8. IANAL, but Noir is, and I'd be listening to him. He's out of Houston, but he knows how to do research.

  9. Does anyone know what exactly happened in Portland? I've heard a lot of conflicting rumors, but I haven't seen a video and I really don't know what happened.

    Someone said he bear sprayed the guy who shot him.

    Someone else said he was shot in the back, twice, with no provocation.

    No idea what really happened.

  10. Here's the thing that strikes me:

    Almost everyone I've seen commenting about this incident puts out a disclaimer that they believe a 17 year old not to be mature enough to be carrying a firearm for defense.

    But this story belies that utterly for this specific incident. Kyle showed amazing and remarkable restraint in the way he reacted to being attacked by a mob. He didn't immediately start firing as soon as he became aware of the attack, he tried to escape the attack. He only fired after his attacker caught up to him and he had no further means of escape.

    After firing, he immediately got on the phone…I've only seen it in one place and I've gotten no confirmation, but the information I saw was that Kyle had called 911 to report the shooting. I'd be willing to bet that's exactly what he did and that there are recordings of that 911 call. He didn't flee the scene, he reported what had happened.

    Then, when more members of the mob indicated they were going to attack him, he again attempted to flee rather than just starting to shoot. He's running down a street surrounded by people yelling to "get him" and similar things, but he keeps running. He's obviously exhausted by this point, but he keeps going until he falls.

    Even after he falls and members of the mob are closing in to attack, he doesn't just start firing indiscriminately, he only fires at the people directly attacking him.

    Even more amazing…immediately after shooting skateboard boy, the armed mobster is approaching him with a gun in his hand. Kyle swings his rifle in that direction and the armed mobster hesitates. KYLE DOESN'T SHOOT. In that fraction of a second, Kyle realizes the armed guy is no longer advancing and keeps himself from shooting. That amount of restraint is amazing for ANYONE. A cop would have most likely unloaded on the dude at that point, but Kyle does not fire until the armed mobster again starts advancing, then Kyle fires one shot, disables the attacker and STOPS SHOOTING.

    Then he gets up and continues trotting down the street, with raging mobsters still on both sides of him, to turn himself in to the cops.

    I get that most people consider 17 year olds to be immature and incapable of responsible decisions, but Kyle proved himself in this instance to be the exception to that generality. He was violently attacked by four relatively fit adult males, did everything he could to escape the confrontation without violence, but when he was left with no other choice, he took out three of the four assailants, two of them permanently, and didn't hit any of the many bystanders in the mob surrounding him.

    Tell me how many grown adults or even cops could have met that standard?

    I admit to a bit of bias, I joined the military at age 17 (with the enthusiastic support of my parents). I believe that many 17 year olds are more than capable of acting responsibly and making good decisions. Perhaps we're the exception to the rule, but Kyle has demonstrated himself to be one of those exceptions and should be afforded a little latitude as a result.

Comments are closed.