Column: The Kyle Rittenhouse verdict shouldn’t surprise us

On Friday, after almost 27 hours of deliberation over four days, the jury came back with a verdict in the Kyle Rittenhouse case. They found the 18-year-old not guilty on all five counts: first degree willful homicide, first degree reckless homicide, attempted first degree willful homicide and two inconsiderate first degree harm.

While it is appalling that none of the charges came back as the prosecution intended, and that the jury refused to consider minor versions of some of the charges, this verdict should come as no surprise to us.

Rittenhouse has not been blamed for killing two people and injuring a third because the criminal justice system refuses to criminalize white men who act in the interests of white supremacy.

Rittenhouse was 17 years old when he crossed state lines from his hometown in Antioch, Illinois to Kenosha, Wisconsin, armed with an AR-15 rifle in August 2020. He traveled to Kenosha during a protest following the shooting of Jacob Blake and testified that his intentions were to protect private property.

During his time in the protests, Rittenhouse shot two people, Joseph Rosenbaum, 36, and Anthony Huber, 26, and wounded 27-year-old Gaige Großkreutz.

The case seems clear. Rittenhouse, a young civilian, walked up to a crowd with a high quality weapon – and his actions ended the lives of two people prematurely. His acquittal in this case, however, stems from the alleged innocence he has within the legal system, an escape hatch that the Rittenhouse defense team used for its self-defense argument.

Rittenhouse isn’t the first white person to cry out for self-defense and turn away from their destructive actions. It falls into a larger pattern of white vigilante justice, supported by the interests of white supremacy and condoned by the legal system of the United States.

The typical white violence victims who attract national attention are blacks.

Police officers and civilians were acquitted again and again.

George Zimmerman was a neighborhood guard volunteer who was acquitted of the fatal shooting of Trayvon Martin in 2013.

Darren Wilson was a police officer who was acquitted twice for his murder of Michael Brown.

After Dylann Roof killed nine people in a church, police officers bought him Burger King.

Officer Rusten Sheskey, who was responsible for Jacob Blake’s paralysis and sparking the protest in which Rittenhouse killed two people, was not charged.

Travis McMichael, Gregory McMichael and William “Roddie” Bryan, the men who killed Ahmaud Arbery during his run, are still on trial. You use the same argument in self-defense as Rittenhouse.

The outrage over these decisions is partly shaped by racial dynamics. But it is also clear that when white men break laws and cause harm to others, it has little to no effect. In addition, the structure of the law in some states allows lethal force to be used if a person believes they are in danger of harm. These suspects above can get rid of responsibility because they are white – and more easily considered innocent and act in self-defense.

Even if a self-defense argument is irrelevant, white people are more likely to get a jail release card from the legal system. The January 6th uprising in the US Capitol was an act of domestic terrorism. Although nearly 700 people were charged with criminal charges, at least ten participants were elected to office this year. The stigma of the uprising, which injured at least 140 law enforcement officials and killed five people, was insufficient to deter them from state lawmakers and local offices.

While not all cases have been settled and all arrests have not been made, it is easy to expect similar slaps to the wrist for these individuals, protected by their whiteness, despite the magnitude of their crimes.

The same protections are not guaranteed for black suspects inside or outside the system.

George Floyd was suspected of using a counterfeit $ 20 bill and was dead within 20 minutes of being in police custody.

Kalief Browder was imprisoned on Rikers Island for 3 years without ever going to court after being falsely accused of stealing a backpack.

Just over a year after killing two people, Kyle Rittenhouse will return to his normal life. No wonder, then, that there is a racial divide in trust in the criminal justice system. The same laws don’t seem to apply to everyone.

And it doesn’t help if white vigilante groups, which dance at the limits of the law, are supported by the police who are supposed to enforce them. Rittenhouse was greeted and “appreciated” by police officers on site in Kenosha, along with other armed white men. The self-proclaimed militia was not threatening to officers because it leaned on their agenda – the repression of social justice movements interested in racial equality and threatening the tyrannical authority of law enforcement.

In a statement, Anthony Huber’s family expressed their heartbreak that the person who killed their son would be set free. “It sends the unacceptable message that armed civilians can show up in any city, incite violence, and then use the danger they create to justify shooting people on the street,” they said.

Your assessment of the judgment is correct, although I would add that only a certain type of person can get away with these acts followed by no accountability.

There is no point in being surprised at this judgment. Rittenhouse didn’t do anything wrong in the eyes of the law – and his lack of punishment reflects that. It does not represent a bug in the system as it has been tampered with to protect it.

Rittenhouse will survive this moment unscathed. We know how this story ends. Perhaps he will become a judge, attorney, congressman, or senator, empowered to protect the next generation of young white men, who will remain free to whomever they want, with no consequence or legal form of accountability to stand in their way.

@_zarialyssa

meinung@dailytarheel.com

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