Kyle Rittenhouse’s Offense
20th November 2021
Paul Mirengoff at Power Line.
To leftists and the prosecutors who did their bidding, Kyle Rittenhouse’s offense wasn’t any of the things he was charged with. He clearly had an unassailable defense to all of the charges against him. But that didn’t matter because Rittenhouse was guilty of something else — showing up armed at a leftist riot or, as the left called it, “vigilantism.”
As the left and the prosecution see it, Rittenhouse never should have gone to Kenosha. Once there, he shouldn’t have defended property from the rioters. And having done that, he certainly shouldn’t have left the property and entered the street. Indeed, the prosecution saw fit to show the jury that the group defending the property was warned by the mob not to enter the street.
When those charged with ensuring public order and defending people’s lives and property, the essential first duty of a government, refuse to act, the citizenry have the right (and some would say the obligation) to act for themselves. Unless people can go about their daily business in confidence that they won’t be assaulted or robbed, society disintegrates, and we wind up with government by criminal gangs — as Mexico and other Latin American countries make clear.