Rittenhouse
I want to try and give an unbiased and correct accounting of what happened in the Kyle Rittenhouse story. There has been so much hyperbole and political spin on what is essentially an apolitical story, that I want to try to sort it out… both in my own mind, and in yours. So let’s start with the facts.
The Landscape:
Why was Kenosha Wisconsin burning in late August of 2020? Well, Kenosha was on fire for the same reason a lot of other cities were on fire at that same time. Far left wing activists seized on the legitimate frustrations felt by millions of Americans after the murder of George Floyd, a black man in Minnesota who was callously killed by a white police officer. That police officer, Derek Chauvin, was arrested and has now been convicted of murder in court. He sits in prison.
However, as agents provocateur tend to do, a minority of people decided to combine that frustration with the fear and frustration people were feeling about the COVID lockdowns and the insanity surrounding Donald Trump to hijack protests, kill people, destroy property, and generally act like marauding Visigoths with sociology degrees.
Billions of dollars in damage were done across the country that summer. Dozens, if not hundreds of people were killed… we will never know because the powers that be refuse to count them. Cities and towns were shaken. Police departments were defunded and destroyed. Violent crime has surged in cities around the county in the aftermath… and as is always the case, it is poor communities who have suffered the most.
The Background:
That’s what was happening around the country last summer when a police officer shot a man in Kenosha Wisconsin named Jacob Blake. Jacob Blake is a criminal. He had warrants outstanding for his arrest and a long rap sheet that included a lot of violence.
On August 23, 2020, Jacob Blake’s girlfriend and the mother of some of his children called the police and asked for help. Blake was back, in defiance of a protection order, and had beaten and sexually assaulted her. The police responded, because that is their job.
When the police arrived, they found Jacob Blake combative and trying to drive away in the girlfriend’s car with the children in the back seat. Blake was armed with a knife. He refused all police commands. Obviously police couldn’t allow this criminal to kidnap children right in front of them and risk their lives in what would have surely become a high speed chase. So they attempted to extract Blake from the car.
Blake then attempted to attack one of the policemen with the knife and was shot for his trouble.
Jacob Blake was taken to the hospital where he was treated and eventually released. Jacob Blake is not dead. He was not innocent. He was not unarmed. He was not shot because he was black. He was a violent criminal in the midst of committing a violent crime when he attacked police with a knife and was shot by the same police who then saved his life.
Kamala Harris said she was “proud of Jacob Blake”. Joe Biden spoke to Blake’s family (presumably not the family he was trying to kidnap). Left wing wind bags in the media and on Twitter stirred up the mob and riots ensued in Kenosha.
Private businesses were burned. People were assaulted. The press continually lied about the situation on the ground. The leadership of both the City of Kenosha and the State of Wisconsin refused to send adequate National Guard or State Police in to stop the violence. They also turned down Federal assistance… because Donald Trump is orange and bad.
That was the situation in Kenosha last summer. That’s where this story takes place.
Who Is Rittenhouse And What Was He Doing There?
By August 25, 2020, things were deteriorating fast in Kenosha. The Governor had refused to stop the riots and refused to defend the citizens or their property from roving gangs of mostly outsiders who came to Kenosha in the wake of the Blake shooting to cause trouble.
Kyle Rittenhouse was a 17 year old young man. He has no known affiliations with any extremist groups. He is not a “Proud Boy” or “Boogaloo Boy” or a member of or affiliated with any militia. There is zero evidence that he is a racist. He had never been arrested and had no criminal record. He was a police explorer (kind of like a scout) and by all accounts, kind of a nerdy good kid.
Rittenhouse is from Antioch, Illinois. It’s a town about 15 miles from Kenosha. Like a lot of places, this is all sort of part of the same community. Rittenhouse’s father lives in Kenosha and Kyle spent a lot of time there. It’s not some far away place… it was his home.
As unrest broke out, Kyle was asked by Dominick Black, a friend who was 19 or 20 years old, to come to Kenosha and stay with him. Dominick had the rifle that Rittenhouse would eventually use to defend himself. Rittenhouse did not bring the rifle with him to Kenosha, not that it would have mattered if he did. It was there and Dominick Black gave it to him.
The owners of a car lot known as Car Source, called Black and asked for help that day as there were indications that the mob was planning on targeting the business that night. It had already taken serious damage the night before. Rittenhouse and Black, in the absence of police protection, agreed to come help defend the business and inventory by putting out fires. Rittenhouse’s role was to act as fireman and also to give anyone (including rioters) who needed medical attention the help they needed.
Rittenhouse was issued a bullet proof vest as part of his role as a police explorer (probably for ride alongs). He gave his vest to Dominick Black and retained his rifle. He carried medical supplies in a pouch on his shoulder and wore blue latex gloves. He was wearing a t-shirt, long pants, and a backward baseball cap, because it’s apparently still the 90’s in the Wisconsin.
That is how Kyle Rittenhouse, a 17 year old kid from a town down the road, found himself in Kenosha on the night of August 25, 2020.
The Night From Hell:
As dusk arrived in Kenosha on the evening of August 25th, it was very evident to the residents of that town that their worst fears were about to be realized. The protests over Jacob Blake dissipated and the crowd was replaced by people nobody knew. The crowd became violent. Sporadic looting started with some stores downtown being broken into. A car was set on fire in the street. A structure fire, then more cars. More looting and lawlessness took over.
There were no firemen. The police were not intervening at all. There was no National Guard to be found… just chaos and violence everywhere. Rittenhouse was stationed at the Car Source car lot and was videoed by several people. He was interviewed and explained that he was there to defend the property, put out fires, and offer medical aid to those who need it.
He explained he had his rifle because he needed to protect himself and he had his medical kit in order to help others. This is on video in the hour leading up to the shooting.
At some point, Rittenhouse moved from the Car Source lot he was stationed at to another Car Source lot further south, but still in the same general area. He was harassed and antagonized by rioters. He was threatened on multiple occasions. This is backed up by video. At no point did he raise his rifle or threaten anyone. This is also verifiable by witness testimony and on video.
When Rittenhouse arrived at the second Car Source lot, it had been overrun by rioters. It was at this point that Kyle’s confrontation with Joseph Rosenbaum happened.
The Rosenbaum Shooting:
Joseph Rosenbaum was a 36 year old convicted child rapist (he raped 5 boys between the ages of 9 and 11 years old) who had been released from a mental hospital in the days before the riots. How he ended up with the money or wherewithal to come to Kenosha is unclear.
Rosenbaum was videoed earlier in the night threatening people, setting fires, looting, rioting… and for some inexplicable reason… screaming the “n word” at the top of his lungs over and over. There are indications that he first ran into Rittenhouse earlier in the evening at the first Car Source lot where Rittenhouse was originally stationed.
As Rittenhouse approached the second Car Source lot, it was immediately apparent that it had been overrun. He found himself alone and to his horror, the insane child rapist Rosenbaum saw him. Rittenhouse immediately attempted to withdraw and go back to Car Source 1, but Rosenbaum chased him and eventually cornered him between some cars. That’s when child rapist Rosenbaum attacked.
As is evidenced by video, about the time the child rapist lunged at Rittenhouse, shots rang out from someone other than Rittenhouse. Its source and result is unknown.
The 36 year old child rapist lunged for the 17 year old kid and attempted to grab his rifle. In the only bit of good to come out of this entire hellish scenario, Rittenhouse shot the child rapist 4 times as the child rapist continued to advance. The fatal shot ripped through Rosenbaum’s aorta and somewhere 5 young boys could sleep easier at night as their rapist bled to death in a gutter in Wisconsin.
The attempts to turn Rosenbaum into some kind of mental health victim or peaceful BLM protester are disgusting. Rosenbaum should have been shot a long time ago. Screw him.
The Crowd Turn On Rittenhouse:
After Rittenhouse shot child rapist Rosenbaum, he initially attempted to render aid and dialed 911 on his cell phone. However in short order, the crowd began to turn on Rittenhouse. They began shouting epithets and becoming more bold and approached him. Rittenhouse created distance between himself and his aggressors and began to move back toward Car Source 1 and the area where the police were barricaded.
He shouted to the crowd that he was a “friendly” and was pursued. He began to run up the street toward help. An unknown assailant hit him in the head with a rock from behind knocking his hat off. At this point Rittenhouse tripped and fell.
A large black man kicked the prone Rittenhouse in the head. Rittenhouse took two shots at the man, but missed. The man disappeared. He has since been identified, but not in time to testify at the trial. Prosecutors knew his identity all along but refused to make his name public so he could be called as a witness, even know he was named in the 3rd charge as “unknown”… violating Rittenhouse’s right to confront his accuser.
Next, another convicted violent felon named Anthony Huber approached Rittenhouse while he was on his back recovering from the blows to his head. Huber attacked Rittenhouse with a skateboard, wielding it as a club. After delivering blows from his skateboard, Huber… Mensa member that his is… grabbed the muzzle of Rittenhouse’s rifle and attempted to pull it away from him. Rittenhouse pulled the trigger one time shooting Huber in the heart. This was likely because a brain shot wouldn’t be effective in this situation. (There’s no evidence that Huber had one)
Immediately following this, another genius with a capital “J”, Gaige Grosskreutz, approached Rittenhouse with a Glock pistol. He pointed his pistol at Rittenhouse who then shot him in the arm. Seeing as the threat from Grosskreutz was over, he did not fire again. Grosskreutz lived to tell the tale in court… well to lie a lot about it to the police and in court until confronted with photographic and video evidence and then had to tell the truth.
Rittenhouse Lives:
At this point Rittenhouse regained his footing and ran to police where he turned himself in. He was arrested and with a huge amount of political pressure from those who either didn’t know the facts or didn't care about them. He was charged and tried for two murders, endangering the giant man who kicked him in the head, and assaulting the man who tired to shoot him. Plus a weapons charge, of which he was statutorily and obviously not guilty. That charge was eventually dropped.
Yesterday Rittenhouse, now 18 years old, was acquitted of all charges and is now free to begin a series of law suits that will hopefully bankrupt the entire media. I’m looking at you Joy Reid.
Reaction:
I’m not going to go into all of it, but you can guess. The same people who gin up anger and tacitly or directly supported the violence that plagued our country last summer are just appalled! appalled! I tells ya that Rittenhouse wasn’t convicted. They continue to claim he was a racist or went there looking to shoot someone. They continue to caterwaul and croon the same old tired buzzwords and talking points.
Honestly, when was the last time some of these people thought about anything other than their insane conspiracy theories about white supremacy, race, systemic racism… blah blah blah? It really has gotten boring, and if you’re still buying it, you might want to look at the world a little differently, because you all sound like Alex Jones on whiskey day.
The Counterpoint:
There is one honest counterpoint to all this that must be addressed. Many good people have pointed out one simple problem for Kyle Rittenhouse:
He shouldn’t have been there in the first place.
To that, I simply say you are right. He shouldn’t have been there. The insane rioting child rapist shouldn’t have been there either. Neither should the rest of the rioters.
But the police should have been there. The National Guard should have been there. The Mayor should have been there. There should have been government men with guns in those streets to keep bad actors from destroying that town.
But they were nowhere to be seen. The people who owned property and businesses in Kenosha were abandoned by their political representatives. They were considered expendable… collateral damage for the greater good of social justice and race rage.
Some of those businesses and citizens didn’t acquiesce to being collateral damage. They decided to try and defend their lives and their livelihoods. They asked for help from young men in the area. Those young men showed up and did in fact save a lot of property and protected lives.
So, I agree that Kyle Rittenhouse shouldn’t have been on that street in Kenosha that night… and it’s particularly galling that the same city, county, and state governments who allowed this situation to manifest, tried to crucify one of the few who tried to prevent it.
Kyle Rittenhouse should have stayed home that night. I am sure he would agree with you there… but he didn’t stay home. He wasn’t breaking the law by being there. He was trying to help. He found himself being attacked and would have likely been killed if he hadn’t done what he did.
Is he a hero? No. He is a victim of a state that capitulated to the mob and a victim of that mob itself.
If you want to draw a conclusion from this fiasco, the only truism an honest person can draw is that the blood spilled that night is on many hands, but not Kyle Rittenhouse’s.
No Non Sequitur on this one.
Happy Saturday all!
—V