Apparently Rittenhouse's legal team has put out a statement. I couldn't locate it quickly with searches, but TGP has extensive excerpts. Of most interest is the following. Rittenhouse, who we learned previously, had been laid off a lifeguard job in IL during the pandemic, was working as a lifeguard in Kenosha:
In a statement by Rittenhouse’s legal team at Pierce Bainbridge, provided to the Gateway Pundit, “after Kyle finished his work that day as a community lifeguard in Kenosha, he wanted to help clean up some of the damage, so he and a friend went to the local public high school to remove graffiti by rioters.”
...
“Later in the day, they received information about a call for help from a local business owner, whose downtown Kenosha auto dealership was largely destroyed by mob violence,” the statement continues. “Business owner needed help to protect what he had left of his life’s work, including two nearby mechanic’s shops. Kyle and a friend armed themselves with rifles due to the deadly violence gripping Kenosha and many other American cities, and headed to the business premises. The weapons were in Wisconsin and never crossed state lines.”
What that means is that Rittenhouse is clear on IL charges--as are, presumably, his parents. If any federal charges might have applied, he's clear on those, too. On the other hand, the WI weapons charge--a misdemeanor for Rittenhouse, a minor--remains, and whoever supplied Rittenhouse with the rifle is in felony trouble.
Additionally, while Rittenhouse did a dumb thing, the fact that he didn't travel to Kenosha with a rifle he obtained in IL tends to make him look more dumb and less intent on hurting anyone.
The charging documents are a parody worthy of the Bsbylon Bee. Your gun is a "DANGEROUS WEAPON". lol
ReplyDeletehttps://www.theherald-news.com/lists/2020/08/28/0314ee2e081c4d00a3aced407b07d2ec/index.xml?page=1
>Kyle is charged with misdemeanor Possession of a Dangerous Weapon under age 18 for a Smith & Wesson AR-15 rifle under section (2)(a) of a law that later in section (3)(c), in unfortunately confusing terms, actually permits rifle possession at age 16+. CC<
ReplyDeletehttps://twitter.com/MarinaMedvin/status/1299427408181944320
Sigh ...
ReplyDeleteI grew up with everyone having rifles and shotguns with racks in trucks.
Yes, even in the 1980s in Texas it was common in a high school parking lot.
The movie Friday Night Lights was kind of correct in the beginning. My football team was in the book, but not the movie due to differences in timeframe.
The hardest I have ever been hit is by James “Booby” Miles from Odessa Permian.
I was 12-13 when I first shot a rifle and I was late in regards to my friends.
TexasDude
My God, TD, how did all those weapons not kill everybody in town? Were the weapons more civil back then?
DeleteThe smoke is clearing and facts are emerging. Kyle Rittenhouse was not a bad kid who did a bad thing. He was a good kid trying to do a good deed for the community. He may have been been naive and misguided, but that is the nature of adolescence. Virtually everyone here reading on this site has done something boneheaded in their youth. That's called human nature, not Crime Of The Century.
ReplyDeleteBut that's not the real story. The people that Kyle shot in self-defense have long criminal rap sheets, traveled to Kenosha to burn it down, and initiated the attack that led to their deaths. Why are we not discussing their role in these events?
But that's not the real, real story. The only truly culpable adult in this travesty is Wisconsin Governor Evers. He oversaw two nights of increasingly violent rioting and destruction while on his watch as the supreme political leader of his state and did effectively nothing. That didn't happen by accident. A fair interpretation of his malfeasant lack of action is that it was deliberate and intentional. He presumed that "letting it burn" would somehow enhance his party's political agenda. IOW, he was willing to trade lives and property for political advantage. How is that not criminal of the first order?
Well said.
ReplyDeleteI don't know if this will have legs, but it's a step in the right direction. Serious people are beginning to address the root problem rather than join the hysteria mob railroading a misguided adolescent as a serial killer.
ReplyDelete\\https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/prosecute-district-attorneys-who-charged-kyle-rittenhouse-murder-under-18-us-code-ss-242
I'd be very surprised if Barr is not looking closely at all these situations. Just like we found out he's examining the whole business of Blue state governors seeding Covid patients into nursing homes.
DeleteFrom John Pierce, one of Rittenhouse’s lawyers:
ReplyDeleteKyle Rittenhouse Lawyer: My Client Legally Possessed Rifle in Wisconsin
Kyle Rittenhouse legally possessed a firearm last Tuesday in Wisconsin, said John Pierce, an attorney representing Kyle Rittenhouse, offering his remarks in an interview on SiriusXM’s Breitbart News Sunday with host Joel Pollak.
More here:
https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2020/08/30/rittenhouse-lawyer-my-client-legally-possessed-a-rifle-in-wisconsin/
I suspect he's probably wrong about WI law. I don't believe WI allows 16 year olds to walk down the street with rifles just because. I believe that provision includes adult supervision. However, I understand that that will be his lawyer's argument.
DeleteIt appears increasingly likely that he'll have a very strong self defense argument, given that even the NYT says someone else fired a weapon first.