Thanks to our Anglo-Saxon system of trial by jury, Kyle Rittenhouse is not guilty, period.
There are no asterisks, no shades of grey, Kyle Rittenhouse is not guilty of:
First-Degree Reckless Homicide, Use Of A Dangerous Weapon
First-Degree Intentional Homicide, Use Of A Dangerous Weapon
First-Degree Recklessly Endangering Safety, Use Of A Dangerous Weapon
First-Degree Recklessly Endangering Safety, Use Of A Dangerous Weapon
Attempted First-Degree Intentional Homicide, Use Of A Dangerous Weapon
Possession Of A Dangerous Weapon By A Person Under 18
Failure To Comply With An Emergency Order From State Or Local Government
And he’s also not guilty of all the fake news, libelous and slanderous claims the establishment media and various public figures have published about him.
Indeed, as our friends at PJ Media observed, Rittenhouse was defamed by media for more than a year with false depictions as a “white supremacist” and a “vigilante” who carried a gun “illegally” across state lines. None of that was actually true, as testimony during the trial and reporting by Tucker Carlson, reporters for PJ Media, the New York Post’s Miranda Devine and others have proven.
And here are just a few examples of that year-long campaign of defamation:
From alleged conservative James Wigderson, writing for The Bulwark: ...Republicans in attendance gave the mother of Kyle Rittenhouse a standing ovation. The 17-year-old Rittenhouse is currently fighting extradition from Illinois after he allegedly killed two rioters in Kenosha, WI and wounded a third. His mother drove him to Kenosha from Antioch, IL, so he could join the local “militia” group.
Rittenhouse will likely be acquitted, but the celebration of the young shooter as a hero is disgraceful. Instead of a standing ovation, his mother should be condemned for putting her son in a position where his poor decisions allegedly led to the deaths of two people and the permanent maiming of a third.
“Kyle Rittenhouse carried a gun over state lines,” as reported by Politifact and many others.
The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel wrote, “Kyle Rittenhouse, 17, was not old enough to legally carry the assault-style rifle he had.”
All of those reports were lies, and there’s more:
It was widely reported, Kyle Rittenhouse’s mother, Wendy Rittenhouse, drove him across state lines and dropped him off at the protest in Kenosha, Wisconsin with a rifle.
Kyle Rittenhouse had no connection to Kenosha, Wisconsin.
Rittenhouse took an AR-15 across state lines. Esquire even accused him of “terrorist tourism.”
MSNBC's Joe Scarborough said Kyle "appointed himself a militia member, he goes around and he ends up unloading, what, sixty rounds."
He killed two black BLM protesters.
He wore surgical gloves “to cover his fingerprints,” said headed-for-the-D-list actor Matthew Modine.
All false, all easily proven to be lies, but there’s more, and from people who should know better:
Representative Ayanna Pressley (D., Mass.) said Kyle Rittenhouse is a “white supremacist domestic terrorist.”
Senator Chris Murphy (D., Conn.) called Kyle a “deranged white nationalist Trump supporter.”
And worst of all:
Rittenhouse is a “white supremacist,” as then-candidate Joe Biden labeled him in a tweet showing the teenager’s photograph. When White House press secretary Jen Psaki was asked to explain why recently, she slyly slimed Rittenhouse again, without naming him, as a “vigilante.”
The above list is just the tip of the disinformation campaign iceberg, a campaign that was clearly intended to taint the jury pool and help prosecutors railroad an innocent man.
So, the question is, will any of them apologize? Will they admit they were wrong? Will they own their mistakes, let alone their lies?
So far, the answer is NO.
Indeed, now that the verdict has been in for a few days, if you Google “I was wrong about Kyle Rittenhouse” you won’t get any hits that include an apology to Kyle or his mother, Wendy Rittenhouse.
But you will get this from The New York Daily News:
Kyle Rittenhouse was dead wrong to play vigilante when, last year, the then-17-year-old traveled to Kenosha, Wisc., wielding an AR-15-style assault rifle as often rowdy crowds protested police violence — and shot three men, killing two. He came looking for trouble, then wound up responsible for the deadliest kind.
The only true statements in that entire paragraph are Kyle Rittenhouse was 17, he shot three men, killing two and he traveled to Kenosha – everything else was proven false during the trial or was known to be false before the trial.
And you will get this from New York Congressman Jerrold Nadler, Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, who tweeted:
This heartbreaking verdict is a miscarriage of justice and sets a dangerous precedent which justifies federal review by DOJ. Justice cannot tolerate armed persons crossing state lines looking for trouble while people engage in First Amendment-protected protest.
Nothing in Nadler’s tweet was true, especially the part that Kyle “went looking for trouble” and the people burning down Kenosha were “engage[d] in First Amendment-protected protest.”
There’s a lot of talk on the Left from windbags like Biden and Nadler about “healing divisions” in our country. Admitting the claims about Kyle Rittenhouse were mostly lies or lazy repetition of erroneous reports would go a long way toward accomplishing that healing. But we’re not holding our breath.
If Kyle Rittenhouse can’t get an apology or even an acknowledgement of error from those who spent the last year telling lies and defaming him in a coordinated effort to unjustly send him to prison, then we hope he has Covington Catholic kid Nick Sandmann’s defamation attorney on speed dial.
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