(Todd A. Smith)
Can you hear people now when they tell you that two different Americas exist within the United States of America?
An America exists in which a White teenager can kill people on a Wisconsin street.
But lawyers cannot call the dead, victims.
However, defense lawyers can call those victims looters, arsonists and rioters if they can prove that the dead participated in those activities.
As a result, onlookers should not get upset if Rittenhouse gets exonerated because the writing is already on the wall.
Rittenhouse’s lawyers will not argue that their client did not kill two people.
Those facts remain indisputable.
Why he killed two people is at the heart of the trial?
Did he kill two unarmed people because he feared for his life?
Or did Rittenhouse leave his home state of Illinois at 17-years-old to seek vigilante justice against people protesting the shooting of Jacob Blake, which left him paralyzed, by Kenosha, Wis. police officers.
Rittenhouse said he came to Kenosha, Wis. to protect a business called Car Source, which he does not own, and which is not even in his hometown or home state.
In my opinion, it is hard to believe that a teenage boy traveled to another state to protect a business he probably did not know existed before he got into town.
Regardless, the fact the Rittenhouse is claiming self-defense to exonerate himself for killing unarmed people is the epitome of White privilege.
All White people seemingly must do to get off from murder is say that they feared for their life, and all is forgiven.
It happened in the death of Trayvon Martin at the hands of George Zimmerman who claimed self-defense after getting into some sort of tussle with the teenage Martin.
And I will not find it surprising if Rittenhouse successfully uses self-defense to get away with the killing of two unarmed people because his attorneys will probably argue that since people tried to take his gun away from him, he had no choice but to shoot because they may have shot him if they had taken his gun away.
However, the real issue is why Rittenhouse traveled to a neighboring state to protect a business that he did not own.
Can Rittenhouse use the castle doctrine to justify traveling to another city and state to protect someone else’s property?
Probably not, because they cannot claim that the Car Source is his castle.
Although I cannot read Rittenhouse’s mind, I find it highly doubtful that he came to another state to protect someone else’s property.
I cannot even believe that he came to help the police.
Every time in my life that I tried to help the police with information or something else, I have been told to shut up and stand down.
So why all of a sudden police in Wisconsin need help from an armed teenage boy is beyond me.
Some cops in Kenosha, Wis. even thanked Rittenhouse for showing up with his weapon, giving him bottled water to quench his thirst.
In actuality, Rittenhouse came to Kenosha, Wis. to protect an ideology and a way of life.
He came to Kenosha, Wis. to protect his country from becoming too diverse and too equal.
The young teenager came to Kenosha, Wis. to shut up protestors who want to end police brutality and racial discrimination in policing.
He came to Kenosha, Wis. not because he wanted to save lives and protect lives, because if so, Rittenhouse would have shown up to march with Black Lives Matter protestors.
Rittenhouse, his mother and those that support him do not want to protect people and property.
They simply want to protect their White way of life.
They want to protect an America that does not discriminate against them but does discriminate against their brothers and sisters of a darker hue.
People like Rittenhouse fear that a truly level playing field will result in less opportunity and privilege for people that look like them.
People like Rittenhouse listen to people like former President Donald Trump who warn them that pretty soon they will not even have a country anymore.
They fear that soon America will live up to its creed that all men (and women) are created equal.
That’s why Rittenhouse killed those victims.
He did not fear losing his life.
Rittenhouse feared losing his way of life.
That fear, from some White people, is what has led to so much violence over the last couple of years.
Some of these people do not fear bodily harm or fear losing their life.
Some of these people do not truly believe that election fraud is a major issue.
Some of these people do not fear critical race theory, per se.
They fear that they are losing a race for control of a country that was never just theirs in the first place.
Elie Mystal of TheNation.com wrote, “I find the claim that Rittenhouse subsequently murdered two unarmed people in self-defense to be unconscionable. In a just world, Rittenhouse would go to jail for a double homicide and illegal gun possession.
“But we do not live in a just world; we live in a White one. Rittenhouse has become a cause celebre among White supremacists and their media sympathizers, who have proudly defended Rittenhouse’s decision to kill. Rittenhouse is the very definition of an ‘outside agitator’ who came into someone else’s community armed to do violence, but because he murdered-while-White, he will probably walk free.”
Mystal summed up perfectly why many, correctly, believe that two Americas exist: one for White people and one for people of color.
If Rittenhouse walks, will you believe us now?
