Readers Write: Rittenhouse trial

Both news media and social media are filled with news of Kyle Rittenhouse's acquittal. His supporters cheer, others protest ("Kenosha verdict prompts Mpls. march," Nov. 21). I'm left to wonder who it is they are cheering and to whom their protests are directed. The jury? The "system"? Surely not the attorneys, on either side.

Yet another tragedy has been politicized, with the public's decisions on guilt or innocence made long before the first juror was selected. We've lost sight of the fact that a boy went to the site of civil disorder, equipped with a rifle by his friend and allowed to roam the streets freely as he lived out some vigilante fantasy. In the end, two people died, one was badly injured, and Rittenhouse himself was traumatized for life.

As tempting as it is to judge a defendant on the basis of news reports and video clips, the fact is that no one who was not privy to every word spoken, every grimace from the witness stand, every piece of evidence offered and every word of the jury instructions given is in a position to second-guess the jurors in this or any other case. They are the ones charged with weighing the evidence against the very high bar of guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. Whether we agree with them or not is irrelevant.

Our energies are better directed at preventing similar occurrences in the future. No child should be permitted much less encouraged to enter a war zone, untrained and bearing a lethal weapon.

James M. Hamilton, St. Paul

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I am writing to express my belief in the power of nonviolent protest. This in no way is meant to justify the Rittenhouse killings and others. It is simply a recognition that nonviolence is the best strategy for protesters for social injustice, etc., to get the support of the greater community. If some of the people of Kenosha had not engaged in violent protest, there would have been no "justification" for Rittenhouse to bring his rifle to allegedly protect property from being burned and looted.

R. Swerdlick, Burnsville

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A reasonable person would expect that there should be a great deal of overlap between what is legal and what is moral or ethical. In Kenosha, we have just seen a stark example of how little overlap there can be. It's no secret that in Wisconsin and other states, the creation, application and interpretation of the law is more overtly a product of paid political influence. In parts of 21st-century America, a reasonable person should expect no more than that.

Bob Worrall, Roseville

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Are we regressing to pre-Civil War America where violence even invaded the U.S. Congress, or America when duels and gunfights in the street were acceptable? We should look back to Germany of the 1930s when a minority party bullied itself to power using the Brownshirts to attack opponents.

I remember a few years ago when it was said that President Donald Trump complained no one from northern Europe wanted to immigrate to the U.S. Maybe if we can halt our slide into violence and barbarism, they might want to again immigrate to America.

Jim Weygand, Carver

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I was hoping for a different verdict in the Rittenhouse case. I didn't think a 17-year-old had any business taking a semi-automatic rifle to a demonstration. To me, Rittenhouse was opening himself up to situations he might not have been mentally or psychologically equipped to handle at his age. However, the trial was not about that; it was about self-defense.

That said, the case is not a "win" for gun owners; they already had the rights to own and carry their firearms. I hope, however, the case doesn't lead vigilantes to think they can serve as instantaneous judges, juries and executioners while toting firearms anywhere they go. No one has that right.

After this verdict, I hope all parents will consider where their children go, with whom they associate, and what they intend to do when they're not at home. I hope parents will ask themselves whether they are allowing unacceptable behaviors.

I believe Rittenhouse shouldn't even have been there that night in Kenosha, but that wasn't what the trial was about. Perhaps instead, all of us should consider how we treat others so we can avoid the tragedies that have become all too common.

Loren W. Brabec, Braham, Minn.

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In the interim there were extensive inaccurate news media reports and commentary by politically motivated pundits and partisan politicians.

In September 2020 then-candidate Joe Biden suggested, without evidence, that Rittenhouse was a white supremacist.

The afternoon of the verdict, Biden said he did not watch the trial but was "angry and concerned" by the verdict. Think about that for a moment.

The people have spoken through the jury. Individual natural rights and the rule of law won. Rioters, the social media mob, certain agenda-driven media organizations and hyperpartisan politicians lost.

Bob Jentges, North Mankato, Minn.

What did we expect? In our society, children grow up on violence as entertainment. They are nurtured on guns, soaked in violence on television, in movies, in computer games. How would they understand the difference between virtual life and real life? A constant diet of guns and violence would grow a child like Kyle Rittenhouse. He is a perfect example of what we are nurturing as a society: young people playing with guns, not able to understand when it's no longer a game.

Marianna Priest, Minneapolis