The behavior of the prosecution in Kyle Rittenhouse's case is nothing short of abominable. Ignoring the severe "eat my cake AND have it" fifth amendment issues in Kyle's cross examination that ended up with the judge yelling at binger, or repeated examples of Binger - the only major character on the court stage without a nickname - and his assistant being petty and malicious, there was also today's example of arguing to keep a charge in when they knew, flat out, according to the judge's instructions, that the charge was not viable. Apparently they were hoping the jury in their confusion would yield a guilty verdict on something.
Binger also showed the world he has no idea how to hold a rifle.
Of all the examples of slimy behavior though, I want to address the fundamentally corrupt philosophy behind a couple aspects of the prosecution's narrative. One, the defense team, in the person of "Hard R" Richards, did hit on, the other, not so much.
The first, the aspect of provocation. The prosecution is fundamentally arguing that Kyle, simply by appearing on the scene with a rifle, deserves to get beaten up, and likely killed. Recall, their attempt to claim "provocation" from a few magic pixels, even if true, would mean that Kiddie Diddler Rosenbaum charged Kyle for behavior that was no worse than other people had engaged in that evening. behavior for which, using the prosecution's own standards, no one else had launched into a full blown charge and attack.
As one of Nick Rekeita's panelists opined, that's the equivalent of "she wore that dress."
They also wanted him to get beaten up.
If you think I'm kidding - the prosecution, in their rebuttal, tried to point out that everyone gets beaten up. That until he was physically injured (and thus gambling that any injuries were not debilitating) he had no right to believe his life was at grave risk and shoot first - that he should've duked it out to Queensbury rules.
Kidde diddler may have only been 5'3", but he was not skinny. He was not backing down. As to the later event - even the prosecution's own witnesses, including "Byecep" Grosskreutz, were concerned about the life-threatening nature of the trauma to Kyle from skateboards and kicks.
Second, in a way related to the first, the prosecution made much of some video where Byecep and other "peaceful protestors" were telling the Car Source defenders that they should stay on their property, so that nothing would happen to them. Much like a borderline will accuse you of attacking them for simply saying "no," that you won't do whatever they demand.
Because I always meekly submit to and listen to some rioter telling me I better stay in my lane and not go into a public street.
Again, the prosecution explicitly, and with a straight face, laid out the moral expectation that Kyle and the others at Car Source did not have the right to walk about a public space freely, and that if people running around burning and breaking got upset at them for doing so, or for putting out fires, the defenders were at fault for provoking the violent crazes running around ruining people's homes, businesses, and livelihoods. As I pointed out in my last post - it's not just property - you are chipping away at a person's life and soul.
Unfortunately, this attitude is not new. Don't resist. It's just stuff. It's been going on for decades - in middle school I got sent to detention alongside the person who started hitting me because I was "just as wrong as him" for fighting back. It's OK if the crazies run around and break things, as long as you stay "nice" and don't "escalate" by standing your ground or fighting back.
Fuck that noise.
