This one is an interesting case because it appeared that no one was debating the facts of what happened. It was more of the emotion behind it that divided people. Or so I thought. On August 23, 2020, in Kenosha, Wisconsin, police were called for a restraining order on Jacob Blake for a sexual assault charge. When they arrived, the girlfriend was yelling, “He’s got my keys; he’s got my child!” They tried to restrain Blake, who resisted arrest and even withstood being tasered. After circling the car to the driver’s side, he reached for a knife and was shot by the officer multiple times because the officer felt that his life was in danger.[i]
That night, riots broke out in Kenosha and continued for several days. On August 25, 17-year-old Kyle Rittenhouse entered Kenosha with a medical kit on his hips and an AR15 rifle in his hands. The rifle had been kept at a friend’s father’s house, used for hunting with them, so he did not need to go back to Illinois, only a few miles away, to get it. His intention was to protect businesses and help those that needed medical assistance. He started by joining a group scrubbing graffiti off the wall at a local school that had been vandalized.
After administering first aid to a woman and putting out a dumpster fire, Kyle was verbally assaulted by a man named Joseph D. Rosenbaum. He is on camera calling Kyle a N****r and telling him that he was going to kill everyone in the group and “cut your hearts out.” That sounds like a psychopath to me, but I am no psychologist. That he had just been released from a psychiatric ward in a Milwaukee hospital after a suicide attempt makes my point.
After Kyle was separated from his group later in the night, Rosenbaum found him and aggressively approached him. He lunged at Kyle, grabbing the barrel of the rifle and attempting to pull the gun from his hands. Kyle fired, killing Rosenbaum.
Freaking out, Kyle made a few calls trying to figure out what to do. He decided to find the nearest police station and turn himself in. Blockades by the rioters made this difficult, and Kyle found himself in a second lethal situation in which Gaige Grosskreutz questioned Kyle. “Where are you going? Did you shoot someone?” Kyle responded that he was going to the police. Gaige chased after Kyle and screamed, “Get him!” Kyle was then struck in the back of the head by a rock. As he stumbled disoriented to the ground, an unidentified man stomp kicked him in the face. Then Kyle was hit in the back of the head with a skateboard by Anthony Huber, who then tried to pry the rifle from Kyle’s hands. Kyle turned and fired at Anthony in defense. Gaige then walked up to Kyle, pulling out a pistol to execute Kyle point-blank. Kyle quickly turned. Gaige stopped and acted like he was going to back up. Kyle lowered his gun. Gaige then charged Kyle bringing up his pistol, giving Kyle but a moment to raise his rifle back up. Kyle fired into Gaige’s arm, making it unusable. Kyle escaped and turned himself in at his local police station.[ii]
The conservative crowd loves to call Kyle a hero for two reasons. The first is that anyone who uses their Second Amendment rights to defend themselves is considered a hero, and the 2nd amendment community supports that individual. The second reason is that it turned out Rosenbaum was a multi-convicted child sex offender. Obviously, Kyle did not know this, but the rest of us praise him for cleaning up this world by taking this pedophile off of it. Not something that can be used in a trial, but definitely seen as positive by the rest of us, especially among a large number of fathers who would have done the same thing unprovoked, had they actually known who Rosenbaum was in that scenario, unlike Kyle who was only defending himself. Of course, the media tried to paint a picture that Rosenbaum’s family must be mourning him and what right did Kyle have to kill him. Even if that were true, any family member of his with an understanding of a moral compass must have probably agreed that Rosenbaum had it coming. The irony that a minor killed a pedophile attacking him is not lost on us either.
One of the things that the media tried to claim is that Kyle had no business being there because he was from Antioch, across state lines in Illinois. Of course, to those unfamiliar with the area, this looks bad. But what the media is not telling you is where the events took place. Antioch is only 30 minutes away from Kenosha, closer depending on where in the city you are coming from and where you are going. More importantly, the other bit of misleading information is that Kyle’s father lived in Kenosha, as did his grandmother, aunt, cousins, and best friend. He also worked there as a lifeguard. Kenosha was a second home for him. So, he certainly had more right to be there than those against whom he defended himself. But of course, the media wants to paint the picture that he was from out of town, even from another state.
Our own President Joe Biden branded Rittenhouse a “white supremacist” during the election in conjunction with the media’s big push to paint this false picture of Kyle, putting aside the obvious fact that all the men Kyle shot were as white as he is.
All the cards were stacked against Kyle for defending himself. Why? The Left does not believe you have a right to self-defense. According to them, if you are assaulted by someone and they do not appear to be armed, you have no right to shoot. It does not matter if they can overpower you with their size. The Left hates firearms and will demonize anyone who uses them. Some even believe the police should not carry firearms.
One of the most astounding lies in Kyle’s case came from CNN’s Don Lemon as he discussed the case prior to the closing statements. He began by claiming that Kyle was praised as a hero for what he did. Perhaps he was by Conservatives that actually took the time to watch the videos from that night and knew what really happened, but Kyle was demonized by everyone else. The media, the President of the United States, and online platforms attacked this young man. Even GoFundMe shut down his campaign to raise money for his bail and trial. The cards were stacked against him. But that was just the beginning of Don Lemon’s rant.
Don went on to talk about how this case had a double standard and said, “Imagine if you called for black men or just black folks to be armed and go out in the streets and do what they think justice. Take it back. Remember what they did to you and slavery, or whatever. Go and take things.” [iii]
Imagine? We do not have to imagine. That is precisely what happened in at least 16 major cities across the United States within the three months leading up to this event! Obviously, it made sense for Kyle Rittenhouse to carry a firearm for self-defense. He would have been a moron not to. Unless, of course, you happened to be one of the viewers who believed the media when they claimed these were “mostly peaceful protests’’ with a fire blazing behind the reporter as he said it. I do not think any Leftist media covered the man who was shot point-blank in Portland after being called a Trumper because he was wearing a MAGA hat.
As it turns out, Kyle would have been the one murdered had he not defended himself. But I guess whatever makes the Left happy, right? Don Lemon is a disgrace to the journalism community, and his colleagues at CNN are no better.
At the end of the trial, MSNBC cut away after the prosecution’s closing statement to the jury and completely skipped the defense’s closing statement. The prosecution’s closing statement was full of lies and omitted information that caused a delay in the verdict. We can expect this from lawyers, but for the press to condone this and push for the lie is just irresponsible for any journalist. It is almost like they were trying to incite another violent riot in the streets.
To make matters worse, an MSNBC journalist was caught trying to trial the jury bus and was pulled over for running a red light in the process. The network was banned from the courtroom for the remainder of the trial for attempted jury tampering or doxing. By this point, a cell phone had already been confiscated from someone for trying to film the jury as they stepped onto the jury bus and identify them for possible jury intimidation.[iv] The number of lies and intimidation attempts that went into defaming Kyle’s name is just disgraceful. They would rather support the child rapist in their war on firearms.
After Kyle was acquitted with a not guilty verdict on every count, the media kept to their story. Host of The Late Show, Stephen Colbert, responded by saying, “Cards on the table, I am not a legal expert so I cannot tell you whether or not Kyle Rittenhouse broke the law. But I can tell you this, if he did not break the law, we should change the law.”[v] He said, “change the law.” To what? No self-defense? Senator Ted Cruz responded on social media, “Rich Democrats believe you have no right to defend yourself from an angry mob. He was being violently attacked by three dangerous felons; a jury of his peers found that Kyle Rittenhouse acted in self-defense. What Colbert is arguing is to outlaw the ability to defend oneself.”[vi] I see no other meaning. That is exactly what the Left wants.
Sources [i] Scott Glover, “Lawyer says cop shot Jacob Blake after hearing a mother's desperate plea: 'He's got my kid. He's got my keys,'” CNN Investigates, Cable News Network, September 25, 2020, https://www.cnn.com/2020/09/25/us/rusten-sheskey-account-jacob-blake-shooting-invs/index.html. [ii] Miranda Devine, “Kyle Rittenhouse shooting a clear case of self-defense: Devine,” New York Post, Associated Newspaper, November 10, 2021, https://nypost.com/2021/11/10/kyle-rittenhouse-shooting-a-clear-case-of-self-defense-devine/. [iii] Don Lemon, CNN Live, Cable News Network, November 12, 2021, https://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2021/11/12/don_lemon_imagine_if_kyle_rittenhouse_was_a_17-year-old_black_kid.html See at 6:13. [iv] Theodore Bunker, “Judge in Rittenhouse Trial Says Officers Caught Someone Filming Jurors,” Newsmax, Cable News Network, November 9, 2021, https://www.newsmax.com/newsfront/rittenhouse-trial-jurors-video/2021/11/09/id/1043972/. [v] Amanda Prestigiacomo, “Steven Colbert Suggests Ending Right to Self-Defense after Rittenhouse Acquittal; Ted Cruz Responds,” The DailyWire, Online News Network, November 23, 2021. https://www.dailywire.com/news/ stephen- colbert-suggests-ending-right-to-self-defense-after-rittenhouse-acquittal-ted-cruz-responds?%3Futm_source=twitter&utm_medium =social&utm_campaign=dwtwitter. [vi] Ibid.
This has been an excerpt from History vs Leftist Myths: America’s War on Information. To read the full chapter on this subject as well as other controversial topics, please check out our book available on Amazon. Your Amazon review is also greatly appreciated.
SOURCES:
- Blake Ellis, Melanie Hicken, and Bob Ortega, “Handcuffs, assaults, and drugs called ‘vitamins’: Children allege grave abuse at migrant detention facilities,” CNN Investigates, Cable News Network, June 21, 2018, https://www.cnn.com/2018/06/21/us/undocumented-migrant-children-detention-facilities-abuse-invs/index.html.
- Daniel Bate and Karen Ruiz, “They're together and safe: Father of Honduran two-year-old who became the face of family separation crisis reveals daughter was never separated from her mother, but the image of her in tears at U.S. border control ‘broke his heart,” Daily Mail, Associated Newspaper, June 21, 2018, https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5869829/Father-two-year-old-face-child-separation-crisis-speaks-out.html. - Julie Hirschfeld David, “Trump Calls Some Unauthorized Immigrants ‘Animals’ in Rant,” New York Times, Associated Newspaper, May 16, 2018, https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/16/us/politics/trump-undocumented-immigrants-animals.html.
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