The-Ave.US

Not a cop, not helpful, and had no business being there.

This article contains news with commentary

That should be left to police. Beginning with Charlottesville, we’ve seen protesters chase their attackers, sometimes beating them up. But it’s crazy to charge a gunman, and 2 people are dead and another injured because they did.

Ideally, police should protect peaceful protests, and disperse violent ones. Is it reasonable to expect the police to protect anti-police protests? If they’re peaceful, yes, it’s their job. They’ve certainly tried to stop violence.

But it doesn’t help for police to pal around with vigilantes, whom Kenosha’s police chief deserves credit for refusing to deputize, saying they “create confrontation” and “don’t help police.” When citizens go armed to a riot, they are rioters, and have no legitimate claim to self-defense.

When a police chief says vigilantes are part of the problem, not a solution, that should dispose of arguments that vigilantes help maintain law and order.

Let’s start here: Kyle Rittenhouse, 17, drove 30 miles, crossing a state line, to participate in a riot armed with an assault rifle he couldn’t legally carry in public. He also violated a curfew (see below). Things got out of hand, as they will in tense situations, and he “is facing charges that he allegedly killed Anthony M. Huber and Joseph Rosenbaum” and wounded Gaige Grosskreutz, who was shot in the arm (half his arm was blown off).

Journalists were present, there’s lots of video, and those don’t lie; but the account below is from the formal charging documents:

“About 11:45 p.m. Tuesday — hours after the 8 p.m. curfew — Rittenhouse was walking down the streets near the car dealership …. Rittenhouse clashed with people gathered near the car dealership for reasons not specified.

“Rosenbaum was unarmed and threw and object that appeared to be a plastic bag at him and missed …. Rosenbaum and the suspect moved across the parking lot and appeared to be in close proximity when loud bangs suddenly rang out and Rosenbaum fell to the ground …. A journalist who was following the suspect and the victim … told investigators the victim was trying to get the suspect’s gun ….

“[A] video shows the suspect running from the scene … [he] tripped and fell … and as he lay on the ground, a second person identified as Huber approaches him with a skateboard in his right hand …. ‘When Huber reaches the defendant … he is reaching for the defendant’s gun with his left hand as the skateboard makes contact with the defendant’s left shoulder … and as Huber appears to be trying to grab the gun … defendant then fires’ ….

“After shooting Huber, the suspect points his gun at … Gaige Grosskreutz, … [who] was shot in the right arm and takes off … screaming for a medic while the defendant walks away ….”

The girlfriend of Anthony Huber (photo right) is telling the world he died trying “to protect her and the people nearby,” and described him as a “hero.” An attorney for Gaige Grosskreutz, the surviving shooting victim, said “We are resolved to … ensure that ALL parties … involved in the Kenosha killings and the circumstances that led to them are held accountable … what occurred was by no means [because of] one teenaged individual.” Read that story here.