I like Eric. He usually gets it all just right.
That is to say, he regularly champions human decency, kindness and protection of those in difficult circumstances, and/or those of limited means. He is — and this is not a bad word — a classic liberal. Here’s the opinion column he wrote yesterday — which I’m going to discuss below. Go read it, since I’ve not yet tainted your thinking. I’ll wait…
Wait… you’re back — already?
Okay. Cool. The facts the DA says he can prove — and, in exactly the order in which they transpired — here… WILL matter quite a bit.
Mr. Zorn really did read up — on self defense law, but he’s not been to law school; and his readings on self defense… unfortunately weren’t tied to the DA’s charging document.
Mr. Zorn thinks Kyle Rittenhouse will walk. On self-defense.
I don’t. [More of my analysis, here, from last week.] The Kenosha DA swears he can prove the first fatality that night, was an unarmed man, who threw a plastic bag in the direction of young Rittenhouse (page 2), and was shot in the back first — then three other times elsewhere on his body, thus falling dead nearly immediately. Again. In. The. Back.
Rittenhouse used his semi automatic rifle to “drop shoot” the victim in the back, and fired four times in under two seconds — using a weapon that is unlawful in the hands of a minor, all while directly disobeying a police order to leave, since he was violating curfew.
The Kenosha Coroner has averred, in the Kenosha DA‘s charging document (at page 5) that this first shot through the back was the cause of death.
There can be no credible claim of self defense, in this first homicide. Rittenhouse had no right to be in the street; he was a pure trespasser, since he was personally ordered to leave. A police officer will testify that he personally, and forcefully ordered Rittenhouse to leave the scene, earlier in the evening. Kyle did not leave; and he shot an unarmed man in the back with a weapon he had zero right to be carrying.
Game over — on that one. All the rest then doesn’t matter. That first killing is mandatory natural life, without hope of parole — under Wisconsin law. [It will be a grave mistake for Mr. Pierce to argue that Kyle has a Second Amendment “well-regulated militia” defense — but that is exactly what he said they are going to do — in an interview with Forbes, last week. Pierce was hired by top dollar right-wing causes, for Kyle.]
He may get off (self defense) on the next killing, and the third non-fatal shooting — but the first one is clearly first degree murder, under Wisconsin law.
Facts matter. And the order in which they occur… matters.
Here endeth my sermon.
Namaste….
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