Yesterday, Kyle Rittenhouse was found not guilty on all charges. No one should be surprised. Shree Paradkar lists three other examples of American injustice:
Tamir Rice, 12. Just 12 years old in 2014, playing with a toy gun, on a quiet playground in Cleveland, Ohio, when he is gunned down by police for possibly being a threat. The cop who killed him, never charged. The boy’s apparent guilt: being Black.
Trayvon Martin was 17 in 2012, killed for the crime of wearing a hoodie and carrying a packet of Skittles in Florida. George Zimmerman, the man who killed him, claimed self defence and was acquitted.
Mark Hughes, a 34-year-old Black man in 2015, shows up wearing a legally purchased AR-15 rifle at a protest in Dallas in the open carry state of Texas. The protest turns deadly leaving five police officers dead. Hughes quickly hands over his weapon to police and helps them evacuate people from rally, but the Dallas police department still circulates his photo to the world naming him the chief suspect.
Americans claim that the second amendment gives them the right of self-defence with a deadly weapon. But think for a moment:
Are we supposed to care about which particular set of laws in which particular state allows fully armed people to claim self defence against unarmed people? Are we supposed to be mollified that an acquittal most unjust was simply the law proceeding as decreed? Are we supposed to be blind to the knowledge that such laws, including the basic presumption of innocence, are never applied equally?
Rittenhouse arrived in Kenosha to help protect an auto dealership at the invitation of the owner. He walked into a smouldering tinderbox of a situation with a dangerous weapon he had no business carrying and one that immediately made him threatening. And when people around him responded to him like the threat he was, he reacted to that fear with his own. And claimed he responded in self-defence.
As the parents of Anthony Huber, one of Rittenhouse’s victims, said, the not-guilty verdict “sends the unacceptable message that armed civilians can show up in any town, incite violence, and then use the danger they have created to justify shooting people in the street.”
I have reached the conclusion that the United States is a doomed nation.
Image: NBC News
18 comments:
I would have thought you reached that conclusion some time ago. Looking back at all of your recent posts it would be difficult not to come to that conclusion. Each on its own can be explained, excused, rationalized (somewhat), forgiven(maybe), labeled a one off. Taken in their totality it is clear that there is something wrong with the US. Something horribly wrong. Save for some war torn countries of the world where else can someone do these things and not be considered a criminal, not thrown in jail, not shunned? Not only that, the perpetrators of these crimes down there have supporters and well wishers. Rittenhouse has a whole crew of people paying for his lawyers, backers who among them include the usual nra types and gun rights activists, but also those who are just looking to stick a wrench in the works. Like Trump. I believe he supported this kid right from the beginning.
I’m sure we have all done some stupid things as a younger person. I know I had luck on my side many times. I don’t ever recall going out of our way, with intent, to hurt other people or endanger them. I do believe that Rittenhouse did not go intending to shoot people or kill them. However he brought the means to do so and as a young, stupid kid, he was bound to make a bad decision. One that, no matter what, will affect him for the rest of his life. That people are allowed to walk around with guns like that, open carry or concealed, is something no other country allows. For good reason.
There are a lot of good people in the US, more than the other, less intelligent variants. The country has been and is capable of so much good, in all manner of society, science, arts, charity, industry. They need, they must, get control of their country again. They need to sideline the few who seek to derail, for their own twisted purpose, a country that can still be a leader in many ways.
Canada too should be wary of falling into similar traps. We have our own agent provocateurs who seek to upset the balance, weaken norms and confidence, throw society into needless disarray. They look at the US as something we should emulate rather than something to be avoided.
If Rittenhouse and his community of like-minded US-Americans suffered for years from racist Black cops harrassing, beating and killing them with impunity, how long before THEY rioted?
The main thing is that this scum looks at riots caused by murderous, racist state violence and injustice and their biggest concern is property damage.
Every nation has its nihilists, Graham. But when they have the upper hand, everyone suffers.
Really, Owen, your final sentence says all that can be said about the United States. It really is a failed nation to be avoided at all costs.
There is more to a nation than the property it possesses, thwap. But in the United States, ownership is everything.
"I pray that the voices who would tear apart our nation do not succeed in using this verdict as an impetus for yet more horrific violence," said Canadian-born Ted Cruz who supported the horrific violence at the Capitol on Jan. 6.
The US justice system has long been deeply flawed and gun violence is so commonplace it barely raises an eyebrow. The outcome of this trial was no surprise.
Frankly, I don't care what Americans do in the US. I worry about people like Vivian Richards, a Florida woman caught yesterday trying to smuggle into Canada 56 handguns, 13 over-capacity magazines, and 43 ten-round pistol magazines with 100 rounds of ammunition. It's the gang bangers in Canada, and their armourers, that I'd like to see put out of business.
Cap
"the United States is a doomed nation"
And joined to the doomed nation by the world's longest undefended border, and locked in a fatal embrace with this doomed country, is that rump legacy of the Hudson Bay Co.
And those of us who live right next door, Lorne, should proceed with caution.
That way leads to madness, Cap. We should do everything in our power to not go down that road.
Geography and history have made us neighbours, PoV. We would do well to remember that line from Robert Frost: "Good fences make good neighours."
We treat this American decline as something that occurred organically, a product of happenstance. There's something far more insidious at work. This is a cultivated result. Whether the goal is advertising revenues,votes, or a wholesale transfer of economic and political power, the magic of sowing division is well understood.
When FOX began falling in ratings to upstart OAN, the One America News network, how did Rupert respond? By unleashing Tucker Carlson on a full-throated, unapologetic white nationalist tirade. Having successfully groomed that audience over many years, FOX was more than willing to double down to fend off its rival.
Many old school Republicans regret it but the GOP also made division pay, no matter the damage caused to the nation or American society. Guns, God and Country, all wrapped up in the Stars and Stripes. It worked wonderfully and provided just enough cover to undermine, perhaps mortally, American democracy and pave the way for the rise of oligarchy. When you have something going for you that allows you to nurture inequality without losing the votes of your base it seems to be irresistible.
How this ends remains to be seen but in a nation measured in electoral cycles that doesn't much matter.
graham said @9:54
"There are a lot of good people in the US, more than the other, less intelligent variants."
and as in every other situation where the few "bad" apples
cannot be regulated by the "good" apples
there are in fact no good apples
just the self-centered who don't want to get involved
or you can go with trumps'
"there are good folks on both sides"
mike
Unfortunately, Mound, there's big money in division. And it's produced handsome profits for Republicans.
Trump has done well, peddling lies. So have his supporters. Why would they change, mike?
Well, well, well. Tucker Carlson has scheduled an interview with Kyle Rittenhouse. This murderous little shit is on his way to celebrity, a champion of the cause. Maybe next time he'll gun down some black guys. They're always threatening.
Apparently, Matt Gaetz wants to hire Rittenhouse to work in his office, Mound. "All the best people."
Owen, each of these events in the US is the build up and a major distraction of what's to come. The gun problem and vigilante justice is too far gone to fix. There will be thousands of Kyle Rittenhouse's heading to a protest near you. It's the inability to govern that's at stake. Although their very definition of democracy leaves a lot to be desired, the threads of it are going to get torn over the next couple of cycles 2022 midterms and the 2024 presidential election. While I don't believe for a minute that the chronic flying into a rage moron will be around to see 2024 there are many lining up to take his place. We need to keep in mind that while Joe and Kamala put on a friendly face, the Democrats are not our friends. Canada's biggest problem at the moment with the US is protectionism around the auto industry- their E-V tax credit scheme could kill what's left of the industry here and who knows what else made in America stuff will kill the North American manufacturing industries. BC Waterboy
It's never wise to get too close to the United States, waterboy. There is always a price to be paid.
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