The Rittenhouse trial is over, as is the McMichaels trial, and we are now looking at the trial for the Daunte Wright shooting. While he'll never live a normal life, or likely work a normal job again, I'm glad Kyle was acquitted. I'm disappointed, but understand to a degree why, that he's giving interviews instead of taking time to get himself together.

I also don't blame him in saying something along the lines that we can all agree on Black Lives Matter.  He's young, and as I've pointed out before, the lie is effective and pervasive.  

The thing is, and this is something that I don't believe he has internalized despite all the lies told about him, that we live in a world awash with lies, where nearly every mainstream outlet, if it's telling the truth, only tells it to the degree needed to help their cause.

George Zimmerman did not hunt down Trayvon Martin.

Michael Brown was not on his knees, screaming "hands up don't shoot" while shot in the back.

Arbery wasn't just a random jogger.

George Floyd was not killed for passing a bad $20 bill, and very likely, despite the verdict, not murdered at all.

Jacob Blake was not an innocent victim of some racist cop shooting him in the black.

BLM isn't about it's rhetorical cause that it presents to the media, but about seizing power and marxist ideology, as stated by their senior people to friendly audiences, by their own actions, and their own website.

Finally, Kyle Rittenhouse did not cross state lines to hunt protestors and black people.

In some of these cases, there is at least some argument for culpability on the part of the police or civilians. Floyd likely would have died anyway, but there's no way to tell if the knee on his upper back, keeping him face down as he's going through an overdose, shortened or extended his life. The jury instructions given, or more to the point, not given for the McMichaels, effectively guaranteed their conviction.

So?

These were all in some way political show trials. In some cases, while there was enough to avoid malicious prosecution, the case never should have gone to trial. Take Kyle, for example. In others there was almost no chance of a fair trial due to the media bias and message, comments by politicians, settlements by city governments de facto admitting fault, and prosecutorial malfeasance.

In all of them, the narrative barely overlaps the truth.

More importantly, these cases all serve to prevent the enforcement of western law and standards. To either break down the police departments so they wouldn't enforce crime, or to block private action? How much good is it to own a weapon to protect yourself and your family if you are never allowed to use it in that role?

How many of these were because the police were not doing their damned job? Keep in mind that Kyle and the McMichaels were doing what they were in large part because the police had not been doing their jobs. In the McMichael's case, for quite some time.

Yet they are punished, officially, insofar as the state and their prosecutors are concerned, left with no alternative but to smile and take it as they are robbed, beaten, and have their and their communities torn apart, property stolen, and livelihoods taken away. You are racist if you expect western standards of justice and behavior. God forbid you expect math or believe 2+2=4.

This brings me to the last point.

Having just reread Branca's excellent Law of Self Defense, as well as watching him and Nick on various livestreams, I'd seen it repeatedly stated that it is unwise to get yourself into these situations. they would not allow/recommend their child to this. They're hardly alone- Peter Grant and others have said similar things.

In the context of a few years ago, when the paramount safety issue was that of oneself and one's family, I'd have agreed.

That said, given how easy it is to effectively destroy a community through constant violence and crime, at what point is it unwise to not step up and put skin in the game?

It's an old saw, but:

He who gives his freedom for safety gets none of them.