Walking Probable Cause
How did Kyle know that his life was in danger? Easy. He carried the danger he needed to be protected from in his own two hands.
An astounding thing took place in the very public trial of Kyle Rittenhouse. The antics of a judge who made absolutely no effort to appear impartial, refused to allow people gunned down in the street to be referred to as victims, and otherwise seemed to forget that he wasn’t the defence attorney are enough to merit a few articles all on their own, but that’s not where I’m going today. Rittenhouse’s testimony shows us that the evolution of the “good guy with a gun” fantasy inherent to US gun culture has finally evolved its concept of self-defence into a startling new paradigm.
What the defence rests on is the idea that if I introduce danger into a situation, I am then justified in killing unarmed strangers around me to protect myself from the danger that I brought with me.
We’re talking of course about the teenager’s gun, a gun that he wasn't legally entitled to carry in the place he was carrying it, and which caused two fatalities before the night was out. How did Kyle know that his life was in danger? Easy. He carried the danger he needed to be protected from in his own two hands, attached to his body with a strap.
