Defending the Indefensible. Praising the Reprehensible.

A jury has found Kyle Rittenhouse for shooting three people, killing two of them, in Kenosha, Wisconsin, on the night of August 25, 2020. They found him innocent of all six counts. Rittenhouse, then 17 and a minor, said he was in Kenosha to offer his services as a medic during riots and protests after the shooting of Jacob Blake by Kenosha police. He brought with him a Smith & Wesson M&P 15 rifle (an AR-15 semi-automatic). A friend bought his gun because Rittenhouse was a minor.

Others have rehashed the innocent verdicts on all six counts. However, only one seems to be beyond reasonable doubt, Count 6: Possession of a dangerous weapon by a person under 18. Kyle Rittenhouse was underage, carrying a semi-automatic rifle on the streets of Kenosha during the evening of August 25. While Wisconsin is an “open-carry” state where it is legal for adults to carry firearms openly, state law prohibits minors from doing so. He should have been found guilty on that count. A minor should never have been carrying that gun. So why wasn’t he found guilty of this charge? According to Wisconsin law, it’s only illegal for minors to carry short-barreled rifles and shotguns less than sixteen inches long. Judge Bruce Schroeder dismissed this misdemeanor because Rittenhouse’s Smith & Wesson was longer than sixteen inches, and the jury never had a chance to consider the charge.

No matter the verdict, his actions have a chilling effect on those of all colors who want our voices heard and will protest peaceably to do so. The verdicts do not end the contested debate about gun control or the shooting of Blacks by the police. Police officer Rusten Sheskey shot and seriously injured Blake, an African American. Sheskey shot Blake seven times when Blake opened the driver’s door to his girlfriend’s rented SUV. The officer said that he believed he was about to be stabbed by Blake, who was carrying a knife. After the deaths of so many Blacks by the police, the shooting of Blake is a continuation of our country’s systemic racial turmoil. Whether one believes Kyle Rittenhouse was innocent or guilty, one cannot divorce his actions from this huge social problem. It continues and will do so until we implement significant changes in policing.

On Sunday, November 21, 2021, 60 Minutes interviewed Yale social scientist Philip Atiba Goff, who has spent the last 14 years advising police forces on reimagining their work. Given the unfortunate title, “Defund the Police” has become a flash point between Whites and Blacks and between the police and the people they protect. “Defund the Police” was a marketing nightmare and doesn’t convey clearly what its founders meant. “Defunding” comes across as punitive and sets up the usual partisan triggers.

Several RAND Corporation research papers say we often overburdened police with tasks more suited for other professionals better trained to deal with social issues such as homelessness, mental health, and drug abuse. States and cities could reallocate police budgets to other service providers, allowing departments to focus on their primary jobs: major crime. Goff, who is CEO of the Center for Policing Equity, “analyzes police data, 911 calls, arrests, and traffic stops, to help cities reduce racial disparity and the use of force.” He calls this Reimagining the Police. This is a much more apt phrase to describe the process. And it’s one that many city police forces are starting to address seriously.

From the outset of the investigation and his arrest, Second Amendment advocates and the right have used Rittenhouse as their poster boy for a society gone awry. As Politico writer Meridith McGraw wrote, “Well before he was acquitted on the five counts he faced, Rittenhouse had found absolution elsewhere. A wide swath of conservatives had turned his case into an example of a social justice system run amok and Rittenhouse himself into an avatar of Second Amendment virtuosity. They treated the trial outcome as vindication, perhaps divine.”

Supporters set up legal defense funds, and they printed t-shirts with his image and the slogan, “Don’t Tread on Me.” Congressman Matt Gaetz has offered him a House internship. And Tucker Carlson and a Fox News film crew were on location within Rittenhouse’s defense team. But not all Republicans find this comforting. Strategist Gregg Keller sees the right turning Rittenhouse into a hero. But he cautions, “I think given the situation he found himself in, what he did appears to be justified—but I would stop short of lionizing him as a hero, a 17-year-old kid who found himself in that situation.”

The way the right is using Rittenhouse is disgraceful. Is he mature enough to understand the ramifications of his actions? Will society allow him to try? He killed two people. As a parent of young adults, I’m very aware their minds aren’t fully wired yet to grasp the maturity required to be an adult. (Of course, some adults are failing at it too—I’m looking at you, Matt and Donald Jr.) Placing him in the limelight won’t help him. And pushing him to the forefront of these social debates by others with their own agendas is self-serving.

The trial verdict is in. But the future of Kyle Rittenhouse isn’t yet. Give the man a chance to live with and process the events where he was a willing participant. Let him grow up. In Carlson’s documentary, Rittenhouse voices his support for Black Lives Matter. Let’s see how he shows that support. Ultimately, let him decide without the influences of the media and the Gaetz’s and Carlson’s of the world.

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Taken on: November 23, 2021

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