I agree with the ACLU that law enforcement must be held accountable for their role in Kenosha shootings on 8/25/21:
As our investigation illustrates, approximately 40 local, state, and federal law enforcement agencies responded to the protests in Kenosha, utilizing various forms of force against protestors. This massive show of force failed to keep people safe — and in fact facilitated grave harm by pushing protesters into close proximity with Kyle Rittenhouse and other armed white civilians. The violence that night is a further reminder that well-resourced law enforcement agencies are failing to protect and even harming the communities they are sworn to serve. It’s time to acknowledge this failure and invest in measures that actually keep communities safe.
I know people who have lived or are living in Kenosha. The verdict is disappointing, but not surprising. There should be changes to Wisconsin’s self-defense laws, but due to Gerrymandering, it won’t happen. More likely, we’re going to see more political violence from Rittenhouse fanboys, and possible retaliation by armed progressives. If that happens, we’ll all lose from the resulting political destabelization of US.
I guess this decade will be known as the Raging 20s.
I honestly fear that this will start a Civil War in the USA. (if we can actuallysay the Civil War ever stopped looking at the flags carried through Congress on January 6th during the attempted coup.
Outrageous, appalling if predictable verdict that needs to be overturned as an illegitimate trial given the bias of the Judge in the murderers favour.. Woukld it be okay if things were reversed and a BLM person turned up with a machine gun ant a Trump rally then gunned people down there? Is that the precedent they’re setting now? You don’t get to pick a fight and then claim “self-defence” and teenage kids should not be wielding military grade guns.
Furious and disheartened here and I’m the world’s biggest ocean away so can only begin to imagine how others closer to the action and more directly affected feel. I fear where this is heading and things need to be stopped now before they get much worse.
Can the White Supremacist killler* here be re-arrested and charged with terrorism and conpsiracy to committ homicide or suchlike offences? If so, that should happen. Laws clearly need to be changed and Judges and maybe lawyers removed as well.
No justice. No peace. Well, we’ve had the no justice part of that equation.. (Expletives.)
* Yes, I’m deliberately not using his name to avoid rewarding him with attenition and a sick sort of glorification and fame. He doesn’t deserve it. What he deserves, well, a lifetime in jail for starters.
StevoR: He cannot be retried in the US for the same criminal offense, because of laws against double jeopardy. He can be sued in civil court for wrongful death. Gaige Grosskreutz is suing the city of Kenosha claiming that law enforcement is also responsible for the shooting. (For the same reasons outlined in the ACLU’s statement.)
At the very least, the US is heading towards a period of political violence. Right-Wing Militias will attack progressive protesters and government officials. Some progressive activists will start shooting back.
If the Republican party takes over Congress in 2022, and if it installs a candidate that didn’t win the popular vote, then we’ll see a full blown civil war in the US. If that happens, I don’t believe the US will recover from it.
What’s needed more than gun control is judicial reform. In Canada, if a judge or crown prosecutor engages in misconduct – as the one in Wisconsin clearly did – the “not guilty” verdict can be vacated, double jeopardy nullified, and the case retried. It doesn’t happen often, but will in clear cases of it.