The boy is no hero
Kyle Rittenhouse is a lot of things to a lot of Americans. One of those labels being hung on him, though, drives me a bit nuts as I watch the reaction to his acquittal this past week in the shooting deaths of two men in Kenosha, Wisc.
It’s the “hero” tag that some have attached to the 18-year-old who at the time of the incident was 17 years of age and who had gone to Kenosha looking to mix it up with protestors angry over the way police treat African-Americans.
He was photographed prancing down a street carrying an AR-15 semi-automatic rifle. He encountered some protestors and then, according to his testimony in the trial, shot two of them to death in “self-defense.” He wounded a third man, who took the stand during Rittenhouse’s trial.
Rittenhouse benefited from a stellar defense effort by his legal team. As I have noted before, I accept the jury’s verdict, as distasteful as it is to me. I am willing now to let this young shooter disappear and try to pursue a life free of the kind of confrontation he seemed to want that night in Kenosha.
He is not a hero. Not in any stretch of anyone’s imagination. If only the right-wing media would stop feeding that disgraceful narrative.