"He has a right to defend himself!"
Yes. Everyone does.
But he wouldn't have had to in the first place if he hadn't gone out of his way to be somewhere he did not live, at places he did not work, for people he never spoke to, at a time of night when he shouldn't have even been outside, for the sole purpose of using lethal force against people committing THEFT.
He lived 30 minutes away from that area, frequented it and was seen cleaning up graffiti and administering first aid to people regardless of their affiliation before the altrecation.
Also, like
Being stupid is not a crime
This is the same argument as "she wouldn't be raped if she didn't go to THAT part of town"
Do I think he should rot in jail for life? No. The three felons aren't exactly innocent in this. The only thing I am saying is that he is not a hero by any stretch of the imagination.
When he inevitably walks free, I think his motivations desperately need to be addressed.
I wouldn't call him a hero either
He was a kid way in over his head stuck in the middle of a civil conflict, forced to defend his life with a firearm he shouldn't have legally had
It's a whole complicated mess
I think it needs to be addressed that he was not "stuck" in this conflict. He went far out of his way--and with no justifiable reason--to place himself in it with intent, and that intent was not just to clean or heal, or he wouldn't have brought a gun.
He previously admitted on camera to wanting to obtain a gun to shoot at looters. Not just thinking, but acting on that impulse is sociopathic. If he only had aid in mind, and hadn't been walking around with a School Shooter Special™, I doubt anyone would have bothered him.
Kyle and his family also have ties to a known hate group (which the judge demanded be omitted from the trial). Given the underlying protest, I think the nation needs to start taking a far harsher stance against these groups.
Can you provide links to those, because this is literally the first time I'm hearing of those?
Sure, lemme get the judge talking about the video:
And here's one article about his ties to the Proud Boys (last I heard, they were classified as a hate group):
Rittenhouse judge bars evidence connecting teen to Proud Boys during trial Kyle Rittenhouse's jury will not hear testimony tying him to Proud Boys at murder trial, judge rules. chicagotribune.comHe really needed better influence in his life.
Oh wow, that sure is a screenshot and a non-partisan source, do you have more than them?
Screenshot? Didn't it link to the video? Try this instead.
And I'm not sure who you want, because no news source is really trustworthy. I figured Chicago was more local. There's the Washington Post, LA Times, USA Today--all mention a "link" or "ties". I can look for more, but I don't know who's genuinely honest. At the very least, he definitely knows them, as there are photos of him out drinking with some of them (wait, why tf was he in a bar???).