In America, we used to trust the police department to deal with enforcing the law. Today, thanks to more lax gun laws and even more lax criteria for self-defense pleas, we have created a nation of deputies-in-waiting. Armed people essentially looking for a fight. Take Kyle Rittenhouse (please), the 17-year-old cause celebre who was acquitted of killing two men and badly injuring another in Kenosha, Wisconsin--a city not best known for being the hometown of Orson Welles, Mark Ruffalo, and Al Molinaro (from TV's "Happy Days"). You may recall that Rittenhouse's dad lived in Kenosha and young Kyle moved by the left-winged rioting and right-winged social media to walk the streets and offer to render medical aid while toting an illegally acquired AR-15 style weapon.
Not surprisingly, young Kyle alarmed protestors by appearing to be a loner gunman and leading to three altercations that ended up in the deaths of Joseph Rosenbaum, Anthony Huber, and the shooting of Gaige Grosskreutz. Ironically, both Rittenhouse and Grosskreutz were there to provide medical assistance and both were armed, albeit in Grosskreutz's case with a concealed weapon drawn only to confront an armed attacker. A sympathetic jury dismissed all charges against Rittenhouse who testified for his defense team and whose almost semi-epileptic breakdowns on and off the witness stand (and upon the reading of the verdicts) were convincing enough for the jury to let him go and to get on with his plans for an appearance on Tucker Carlson's low-key Fox Network show.
Thanks to Republican-led statehouses, people like Rittenhouse are presumed innocent even when they cross state lines and shoot a rifle that their friend illegally bought for them. It turns out that the prosecution has to prove that you did not shoot to defend yourself. You can say a lot about this case, but the people who were shot by Rittenhouse definitely went after him because they perceived him to be a threat and he shot them because he could.
Imagine for a moment that Rittenhouse had arrived in Kenosha with nothing but his medical kit and just cleaned graffiti (as he had done earlier in the day). Would any of these three men see a reason to scrap with him? Chances are very unlikely that he would have been in a situation to defend himself. But, he was armed and in a chaotic situation. He had been told by a police officer that guys like him were appreciated for being there--and defending a used car lot from vandals and looters that he volunteered to do to an owner of the lot (who also claimed did not ask him to do it or even agreed to allow).
Kyle Rittenhouse may have seen himself as a good guy with a gun, but how was anyone else to know that? Tensions in the community were running high and it was just as reasonable for the men shot to think that Rittenhouse was more likely a danger as a protector. Rittenhouse was Paul Blart, Melee Cop--a self-appointed deputy in the service of keeping the peace by all means necessary.
How many more Charles Bronson vigilantes will be claiming self-defense when they show up in your town? It doesn't matter. What matters is it is the Wild West and frontier justice is being doled out by a leaderless posse that thinks it is making America great again by fanboying the police. Let's see if Rittenhouse joins the thin blue line or merely uses his newly found fame to get rich quick. Certainly, he will not be the first person to claim to be a hero, he was just doin' his job, ma'am. Heck, even the Gunowners of America is giving him an award--an AR-15.
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