by David Balashinsky
Much has been made by Kyle Rittenhouse's champions of the right to self-defense and of this young man's justification, therefore, in killing Joseph Rosenbaum and Anthony Huber. Tomorrow, Rittenhouse is scheduled to be interviewed on Fox where he will have an opportunity to tell his side of the story. I hope he will do more than offer a self-serving account of why he did what he did. There is absolutely no need for him to provide any further rationalization or justification for his having shot Rosenbaum, Huber and Gaige Grosskreutz since, from a legal standpoint, he has already been exonerated.
Under oath, Rittenhouse has stated, "I didn't do anything wrong." What if we were to take Rittenhouse at his word, meaning that he did not go to Kenosha secretly hoping to try out his semi-automatic rifle on BLM protesters but because he sincerely wanted to do some good there. (I know, it's a stretch. After all, Rittenhouse was recorded on video several weeks earlier saying how much he wished he had his AR with him so he could "start shooting rounds" at several men he observed exiting a CVS.) If Rittenhouse's aim was only to do good, maybe he can do some good now. The nation is deeply divided and hurting. Rittenhouse could use the platform that comes with fame (or notoriety) to deliver a message that might help heal the nation's wounds - not unlike when Rodney King went above and beyond what anybody had a right to expect of him under the circumstances and asked, "Can't we all just get along?" Here are my suggestions to Mr. Rittenhouse on how he can rise to the occasion and help heal the nation.
First - acknowledge your own culpability. All of the tragic events involving you, Rosenbaum, Huber and Grosskreutz that unfolded the night you showed up at the protest in Kenosha, Wisconsin occurred because you were openly carrying an assault rifle. The mere fact that you were carrying that weapon made the protesters there view you as a threat to their safety, and rightly so. Carrying a weapon in public is not a neutral act and it isn't an innocent state of being prepared to defend oneself should the need arise. It is an act of intimidation. It is a form of bullying. It is a threat to others. And in conflicts where tempers are high, exactly like the one in Kenosha, carrying an assault rifle is a provocation. Simply by being there with a lethal weapon, you had a role in provoking the response that led, ultimately, to your shooting Joseph Rosenbaum. If your aim was not to provoke or to intimidate, this would be a great time to acknowledge that bringing an assault rifle to that protest was a colossal miscalculation on your part. You should take this opportunity to encourage wannabe vigilantes across the country to learn from your mistake.
Second - express remorse for the deaths of Rosenbaum and Huber and sympathy for their families and loved ones. Maybe it's just that I don't want to believe that you went to Kenosha because you were seeking an opportunity to shoot people. If you didn't, and if you pulled the trigger multiple times only in self-defense, surely you can take no joy or satisfaction in the deaths of the men you shot. So, instead of basking in the glow of adulation that gun-fanatics and right-wing extremists already are heaping on you, renounce that adulation and ask them and the nation to join you in remembering the men who died and to reflect on the systemic racism that was the cause of the unrest in Kenosha in the first place. Whatever they were doing in Kenosha that night, and whatever threat you perceived to your life or safety, Rosenbaum and Huber didn't deserve to die for it. Their lives also mattered, and they should be remembered as human victims, not as nameless, faceless, two-dimensional excuses for the taking of human life.
Third - don't be a tool of the right-wing media. You have already been lionized as a hero by those who want to use you as a poster boy in support of their political agendas. But these opportunists are not going to have to carry the burden through life that you are of having taken human lives. It's easy for them to put you on a pedestal; it's also expedient for them to do so. But you're the one who's going to have live with the consequences of your actions. This would be a good time to remind your fellow Americans that the taking of human life is never a good outcome. It's nothing to be celebrated. Even veterans who have killed for the noblest of causes do not, as a rule, take any joy in having ended another person's life. Why not take this opportunity to reject the increasingly violent rhetoric of the right wing - and of some within the Republican Party in particular - and remind Americans of all political stripes that we are Americans first (and people, even before that) and that violence and killing have no place in our political discourse, much less in our streets.
Finally - don't be a tool of the second-amendment extremists. It has long been recognized that guns don't make us safer. They actually have the opposite effect. (I'm sure Mr. Grosskreutz can attest to that.) There is no doubt in my mind that, had you done everything exactly as you did that night with the sole exception of bringing a gun to the protest, Joseph Rosenbaum would be alive today, Anthony Huber would be alive today and Gaige Grosskreutz would not have been seriously injured. Nor would you have had to endure the ordeal of standing trial for murder, let alone having to live with your role in the deaths of these men on your conscience for the rest of your life. Second-amendment extremists live in a fantasy world where guns are fetishes and real-life mass shootings have no more moral significance than the wanton killing that occurs in video games. Your experience belies that fantasy and demonstrates, in all its horrors, the grim reality of an irrationally and dangerously armed population. Use what I hope you have learned from this experience to reject the culture of guns and tell those who want to exploit your encounter with the men you shot that guns, especially when carried openly, do not lead to peace and tranquility but to conflict, death, and, ultimately, to a shredding of the social fabric that makes civil society possible.
Update: Subsequent to the publication of this piece, Rittenhouse did, in fact, express something that at least approaches regret. As Newsweek reports, Rittenhouse stated, "Hindsight being 20/20, [it was] probably not the best idea to go down there." Rittenhouse said this while appearing as a guest on the right-wing podcast, You Are Here. The Newsweek article further reports that,
Co-host Sydney Watson at one point celebrated Rittenhouse, stating "it was kind of impressive, when you think about it, that all the people that you shot at, you killed probably two of the worst on the planet. Congratulations. Good job you.
[Rittenhouse] responded, "It's nothing to be congratulated about. If I could go back, I wish I would have never had to take somebody's life."
Rittenhouse deserves at least some credit for resisting these efforts to glorify his actions that night, but, as of this writing, the fact remains that he could and should do much, much more. Particularly, if he is truly regretful for his actions in Kenosha that resulted in the needless deaths of two men and the injury of a third.
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