OPINION: Kyle Rittenhouse: We the people are guilty

“Kyle Rittenhouse looks back at the gallery in the courtroom as the room is let go for an afternoon break at the Kenosha County Courthouse in Kenosha, Wis”., on Nov. 1, 2021. Photo by Sean Krajacic/AP.

Zach Donaldson is a freshman studying political science and an opinion writer for The New Political.

Please note that these views and opinions do not reflect those of The New Political.

After four long days of deliberation in the trial of Kyle Rittenhouse, the jury reached an unsurprising yet profound verdict that sent political shockwaves through the nation: not guilty.

There is a lot to unpack from the tragedy that unfolded in Kenosha last summer. How was a 17-year-old boy allowed to wander across state lines with a semi-automatic rifle to play cop? Why was the state government's response so poor and slow in managing such massive civic unrest? How did the police department allow flagrant and unwarranted vigilantism to dominate the situation? Why does our country still struggle to transcend our original sin and allow a criminal justice system to perpetrate unspeakable horrors as it did to Jacob Blake?

None of these questions would have been answered by a single verdict, and we as a society should not draw broad narratives and sweeping conclusions from an isolated homicide case. The politicization and perversion of this trial by pundits have been wholly unproductive and distracted us from present, tangible issues plaguing our national character.

It is most sensible for us to look in two directions discussing that horrible night: first, at the specifics of the trial; second, at the public's response.

The fact is this: the entire case-in-chief presented by the prosecution came nowhere near the burden of proof to convict Rittenhouse of homicide. If you were to isolate the trial in a bottle untouched by swarms of media analysis and commentary, I am richly confident that most viewers would render the same verdict the 12 jurors did.

Each instance in which Rittenhouse fired his gun was fairly unambiguous and stipulated self-defense. Joseph Rosenbaum continued to pursue and charge at Rittenhouse after he attempted to deter him with his rifle, Anthony Huber repeatedly struck him with his skateboard and Gaige Grosskeutz actively threatened him with a handgun, a fact he testified to on the witness stand.

Does this mean Rittenhouse's actions were acceptable that night? Most certainly not. He had no business being near the riots at Kenosha in the first place, much less brandishing a firearm and aggravating protestors in a militia-esque vigilante group. There is no doubt that his presence that night was indefensible and escalated the bloodshed and hysteria of an already volatile situation: but that in itself is not criminal. Kyle Rittenhouse is certainly guilty in the court of public opinion, but not that of the law.

Let me be clear: there is no victory to be drawn from those proceedings. Ann Coulter's call for a Rittenhouse presidency and the explosion of merchandising and commercialization around the trial is toxic and non-intellectual beyond belief. Right-wing activists' martyrdom and hero-worship of the young man is repulsive; it propagates and condones a dangerous world where 17-year-old kids can choose to take up arms and hand out citizens' arrests when they feel like the government is not securing their communities.

That being said, the demonization of Rittenhouse and catastrophization of the verdict by left-wing pundits have also borne bad fruit. Congresswoman Ayanna Presley's designation of the young man as a "white supremacist domestic terrorist" is not only overly accusatory and inaccurate but dilutes the pursual of stopping actual white supremacy. All those Rittenhouse shot that night were white, and while his distasteful interactions with the Proud Boys at a local bar are concerning, they are not surprising given his youth and the explosive global scrutiny placed on him at a developing time in his life. If left-wing pundits and politicians want to see a more potent case of racial animus to prosecute, they should look to the ongoing trial of Ahmaud Arbery's killers, a horrific crime fueled by bigotry.

The only party that walks away guilty from the Kyle Rittenhouse trial is we, the people. We allowed circumstances to foment where another Black man was brutalized by law enforcement, riots ensued and a teenager crusaded around the streets at night with an AR-15 in hand. We are the country that is so addicted to entertainment, politicization and monetary gain that we use a tragic, but fairly concrete trial as a vehicle for broader narratives and continuing culture wars. 

Kyle Rittenhouse was spared; I fear our nation won't be if we leave real problems unaddressed and tensions high.