this post was submitted on 17 Aug 2024
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Rittenhouse is a murderer.
Threatening to kill again
Disagree, all three counts were legitimate self-defense. Two people tried to grab his gun, and a third pointed a gun at him, and each of those are clear-cut cases of self-defense.
The real issue here is that he shouldn't have been there with a rifle in the first place. But if you have a firearm and someone tries to grab it, it's your responsibility to maintain control of that firearm. I don't think he is a murderer, but he was (and probably still is) an irresponsible kid who shouldn't have unsupervised possession of a firearm.
He went there looking for an excuse to commit self defense. He's a fucking murderer.
Again, putting yourself into a dangerous situation isn't a crime.
I don't think he's a good person and he's certainly not a hero, but I also don't think he's a murderer. He's a minor who should not have been armed in that situation. But once he was in that situation, his actions were justified self-defense.
Going there with the intention of killing people is. Which Rittenhouse did.
You can't pre-meditate self-defense. You can go somewhere with the expectation that you'll need to defend yourself, which is dumb, but not a crime. Planning to hurt someone is very different from trying to put yourself into a situation where hurting someone would be justified. The first is a crime, the second is just being stupid.
For example, look at those people who do 1st amendment "audits" who basically go to places where they know the police would be called with the hope that the police will violate their rights (e.g. filming at a police station). That's not a crime, but it's usually a waste of time, but it sometimes provides a valuable service if it creates a situation where bad cops break the law on camera and get held accountable. But whether it provides a valuable service or not isn't particularly relevant here, what's relevant is that it's not a crime.
And that's what happens here. Kyle Rittenhouse is one of my least favorite types of people, but I firmly believe that he was justified in using his firearm in self-defense. That doesn't make him a hero or even a good person (I think he's a terrible person), but it does mean he's not a murderer. Murder is the unlawful killing of another person, and his actions were lawful self-defense.
Of course you can. You just go somewhere intending to get in a fight and kill your opponent.
Which is what Rittenhouse did.
Sure, but he didn't start the fight, he just placed himself into a position where a fight was likely to occur. If you start a fight (e.g. with fighting words), then you can be charged with a crime, potentially murder. That doesn't seem to be the case, so just placing yourself into a tense situation with the hope that someone else will initiate isn't a crime in itself.
He intended to kill people that night.