Rittenhouse: The Tragic Underbelly
Sunday, November 28, 2021
By Kurt von Behrmann
Kyle Rittenhouse is at the center of a deep divide in American. His journey to protect property and life culminated in the death of two men and the seriously wounding of another. His choices and actions are intertwined with agendas and ideologies. He is now part of deeper discussions about race, privilege, power and social and economic inequality, politics, gun rights and the judicial system.
The implications of this trial are far reaching. The not guilty verdict is widely viewed as a means to legally stifle, deter or just out right eliminate all peaceful protests. With a razor focus on those leaning to left of center on the political spectrum.
As much as Rittenhouse states he does not want to be seen as a political figure, his actions indicate the opposite. He granted Tucker Carlson of Fox News exclusive rights to an interview. Carlson is also working on a documentary about the trial. He has had a photo op with former President Donald Trump, who gave him a glowing endorsement. He has been offered internships with several House Republicans. For a nonpolitical person, he has found sanctuary and support on the Right.
Rittenhouse is officially a “Cause Célèbre” for not only the Right, but those desiring slack gun control laws, and those who seem to have no issue with a 17 year old handling a riffle. The far armed right has found a hero. The left is left with martyrs. They are also left with fears about the ramifications of this verdict and trial.
As hard as some attempt to remove this trial from the political sphere, this entire episode from start to finish was always political. This case has always been about who is allowed to speak, who is given preferential treatment, whom police departments favor, ideology and the peculiar slant of the criminal justice system. Given deep pockets, astute lawyers and the correct complexion, one enters an entirely different kind of justice. It is one where it is literally possible to buy your innocence.
The protest that started this centered about frustrations with policing and a justice system that views White People differently than Black people. The protests were rooted in frustration with inequality and the pain and suffering it causes. It is against this context that this trial took place. It is incredibly naïve to view The Rittenhouse Trial without looking at our current American distressed racial environment. This country was rooted in racial bifurcation. That has continued in the form of laws designed to deny housing, loans and political representation. Redlining is a perfect example of how “separate but not equal” is allowed to continue.
To the conservative far right, their response to legitimate protests by those both White and Black against racism, has been to view such as conspiratorial Leftist Menace to society. Protestors are public enemy number one. Dissenting
Rather than accepting dissenting voices as something to be heard, they are to be ignored, silenced. Freedom of expression rendered a one-way street, not a two-way boulevard.
An integral part in fueling public opinion against dissenting voices has been the systematic manipulation of White frustration with our current socio-political economic system. Rage with stagnate wages, lack of available jobs and the high cost of education is aimed at the left, not those responsible. Americans are being weaponized against Americans. Rather than address the real causes of the issues that are literally crippling White economic status, the “Other” is blamed. Divided and conquered and misplaced anger are employed as a strategy to keep both sides of the political spectrum silenced, oppressed and distracted.
White separatists and the like have always been around. They are nothing new. The difference is that now they are being utilized as a legitimate political force to assist the Right openly. People that were unthinkable on the political stage are courted, dressed up and made palatable for mainstream consumption. Racial hate is being made publicly acceptable, if not desirable. But, there is a problem.
When you create a momentum fueled by negative emotions, it may not be readily tamed. German history has taught us that the most virulent and aggressive racism can be made acceptable and transformed into a potent political force. Containing such a force may not be possible when it reaches maturity.
Distancing Rittenhouse from “The Proud Boys, was the first step in his gentrification. The next was his anointing at Mar El Largo. His picture with former President Donald Trump was both a confirmation and elevation of his new found status as an “All American hero.” Celebrity draws admirers. It also draws users.
What made all of this possible was a combination of several factors. It was a perfect storm for something horrific to be born. Mix protestors with vigilantes and policing slanted to the latter and the ingredients to create total mayhem have been created. But, as always in complex situations, there are things still missing to complete any understanding of what happened and why.
There are important lingering questions begging for answers.
Why did the police march protestors into a street lined with vigilantes? Why was one group of civilians allowed to remain and the other told to depart? How did a 17 old with a AR rifle march by police and not be apprehended, or at the very least stopped and questioned? And why was law enforcement so incompetent? How did anyone not see this coming? Or then again, did they and this was what they hoped would transpire? The questions multiply.
Then there is the trial.
The trial of Rittenhouse was a farce. It was an ugly, undignified, corrupt, soiled travesty. It was a bizarre theater of the absurd ruled by incompetent judge Bruce Schroeder. His ringing cell phone made no secret of his political affiliations. It was one of several bad optics that gave a veneer of “peculiarity” to the proceedings.
Schroeder’s aggression toward the prosecution created a troublesome feeling of emotions that should have been repressed rather than displayed. Perhaps his most telling was dropping the charge against Rittenhouse regarding a minor carrying a weapon, like an assault rifle. For the judge, the law as written was so problematic, he dropped it.
Then, there is the what is scenario that everyone may agree.
Would a Black defendant who killed two men and injured another be given the same courtesy as Rittenhouse? The fact we are asking this question is an indication that race is still a deciding factor in who receives justice and who does not.
A glaring problematic matter is Tucker Carlson’s presence here. He inserted himself into proceedings by filming a documentary while the court was in session. This is ludicrous. Why this was even allowed to go on adds a surreal element to an already surreal trial.
Rittenhouse motivations for even being there speak more to thrill seeking than anything else. The very idea of him even going demonstrates an astonishing lack of good judge. What exactly was he expecting to achieve? How could a 17 year not professionally trained to handle a highly dangerous situation like this could possible do? And, being armed with a riffle just adds to the lack of common sense employed.
His presence in Kenosha was more about thrill seeking and parading around with a gun than the protection of anyone or anything. His inability to see how his presence would cause even more unrest showed a profound lack of good judgement. He was in a situation way beyond his abilities. The net result of placing yourself in harm’s way has consequences.
For someone who may feel unimportant and not empowered, a gun can be the antidote to powerlessness. Armed and ready, he can be the big man with a big gun. He was ready to “kill “the bad guys.” He was going after the looters. He was going to save America from Black people, liberals and anyone sympathetic to values and ethics he does not even comprehend. He was going to be the great White savior.
Dreams of grandeur and the lure of danger are an intoxicating mix. It was the desire to be important and seek excitement that attracted Rittenhouse into a situation he no doubt really understood. He clearly felt invincible.
The frustrations, pain, suffering and inequity of a Black community treated poorly by the police is a realty he could not fathom. All he saw was protests rather than seeing the rage of people pushed to the breaking point by economics, limited opportunities and the omnipresent force of suffocating racism. It is a world far removed from his own. What he saw was the dynamic of “the good guys” opposing “the bad guys.” It is view of America that is simplistic at best. It overlooks what it does not wish to see.
In the court room, Rittenhouse went from a boy brandishing a gun into a little boy gushing tears. He was facing the consequences of his own ignorance and stupidity. He knew he had to do something. It appeared he was well prepared to present an image that would make him a sympathetic figure. He was no longer the aggressor. He was now an victim fighting for his life. That is the new narrative.
One question that remains debatable is this one, is Rittenhouse a racist looking for an excuse to kill Black people? One hint was his socializing with members of the “Proud Boys.” He even gave the O.K. sign, a signature of this group. He looked relaxed and happy and defiantly not fearful with them. It is something that his p.r. team is in over drive to combat.
When Rittenhouse was found not guilty on all counts, the verdict was met with revulsion, anger, fear frustration, sorrow and disbelief. For others, it was vindication. For the militia groups and all assorted right wing armed groups, this was a permission slip. As long as you are scared, murder is legal. The caveat to this is that you must be of the proper complexion and the proper political ideological belief system in order to be protected from consequences. It is not hard to know how this is. It is even less difficult to see who this is not.
Rittenhouse’ verdict does reveal things that idealists may find disheartening, and with good reason. On the surface, this trial is about law, order and keeping the peace. But, that is not what this trial is really about.
The real purpose here is the silencing of protests. This is about creating laws in such a way that they favor the far right over the left. It is really about turning citizens against each other. It is about meeting dissent with violence and not suffering the consequences. This trial is about allowing people to form right wing militia groups and shoot to kill knowing that they can literally get away with it scott free. It is the ultimate censorship.
Aside from the bigger picture side, there is a very human element to all of this. While Rittenhouse is praised as Hero on Fox news, and right wing pundits fall all over themselves to praise him, the true victims of all of this watch their names and reputations slurred and sullied with half-truths and outright lies.
Anthony Huber, of Silver Lake, Wisconsin, and Joseph Rosenbaum of Kenosha were murdered. Gaig Grosskreutz, 27 was seriously wounded. Both Huber and Grosskreutz tried to stop Rittenhouse from possibly killing even more people. They will never be praised as heroic on Fox News.
The jury concluded that Kyle Rittenhouse was defending himself. Did anyone think about Rittenhouse being a threat to everyone near him? Did anyone consider that Huber and Grosskreutz were trying to stop what they believed to be a mad gun man?
No matter what side you take in this, there are some facts that cannot be overlooked. Rittenhouse, a 17-year-old boy went into a city 30 miles from his house in another State to “allegedly” protect property and life. No business owner invited him to do this. He knowingly walked into a dangerous situation after curfew. He put himself in a dangerous situation.
As this trial was taking place, another regarding an unarmed Black youth shot in the back was in session. In that case, the case of Ahmaud Arbery, three white men were found guilty. It took an overwhelming amount of work to simply bring this case to trial. While everyone praises it as an example of the system “working,” it was actually a case of the system working because people tirelessly pushed hard to make it work. The system did not work on its own. The system wanted to push this case aside and hope it went away. It didn’t.
The Rittenhouse case was not a trial about just one man. It was a trial to decide who has a right to defend themselves and how does not. This was a trial about who has the right to freedom of expression and who does not. It was a trial that may have serious ramifications for peaceful protestors and those that oppose them.
The attendant issues here are many. But one of the main one was providing right wing militia groups, or right-wing individuals, the ability to become judge and jury on the streets of America. This is about police departments with bias that translate into one group being protected and the other mistreated, silenced or shot.
The stakes in the Rittenhouse care are extremely high. In the polarized climate of American politics, political opponents are not seen as presenting different views, they are seen as public enemy number one. This is truly a tragic day for justice in America as much as it is for one of our most scared rights, the right to freely express yourself without fear of loss of life or limb. A Pandora’s jar has been officially opened.
Kurt von Behrmann is a Visual Artist and Writer.
You can see his work at Behrmann Art.
