Rittenhouse Verdict

[Alan]

Yeah, there were people there burning dumpsters… The local police should have handled the situation on their own. Surprises me, that you, as a former cop would encourage vigilantes.

Oh they burnt more than just dumpsters. And you're right, the police should have handled it, but they didn't because the city didn't want them involved in simple property damage, regardless of the severity. They were apparently concerned about how the media would portray their efforts.

As a former cop, or even as just an old retired guy, I would never encourage vigilantes but I do stand with anyone defending their life or businesses from the "mostly peaceful protestors" who ran amuck in Kenosha, causing damages such as these, somebody has to.

[catherine]

I wonder why?

This from your own post, Alan. Can you read between the lines? People are angry. And most people of the dominant culture don't see the systemic racism. So this is what you get. I'm not condoning it. It's just an extension of "let them eat cake."

kenosha-church-burned.jpg

[bae]

I too live just a few miles from a state line and see no issue with helping out in Northern KY, it's part of my home area.

I have travelled across state lines to several of the nearby states to help out. Generally I bring a chainsaw, backpack fire pump, Pulaski, McLeod, shovel, axe, PPE, food, sleeping bag, and ideally a wildland firefighting truck.

Sometimes I cross international borders too, to help out. In those cases I bring a boat, water rescue/survival suits, thermal imaging cameras, and boring things like that.

I suppose I should just leave it all to the local authorities though.

[ApatheticNoMore]

Traveling with permission of local or fed government is an entirely different thing than being a vigilante. It the national guard helps out in an emergency, that is not the same thing that some individual deciding they should help out apropos of nothing. If firefighters are brought any from another state that's not the same thing, it's all known and approved of by the local/fed government itself. And it's not hard to tell the difference either, one is an organized government response (which is not to say it can't go wrong/be wrong - just because it falls within the governments sphere of responsibility, does not mean the government can do no wrong nor any screw ups) and the other is individuals taking it up on themselves. There is also of course a lot of difference between helping out by say sending food to feed people, and carrying a weapon. There is a reason the carrying a weapon stuff is the job of law enforcement.

[Alan]

This from your own post, Alan. Can you read between the lines? People are angry. And most people of the dominant culture don't see the systemic racism. So this is what you get. I'm not condoning it. It's just an extension of "let them eat cake."

kenosha-church-burned.jpg

The reactions we see will not solve the problem. We should start by refusing to classify people by race and proclaiming every unfortunate event as racist or a telling sign that our culture is corrupt. But that's just my opinion.

[ApatheticNoMore]

We should start by refusing to classify people by race

you are taking this race is a social construct thing way too far, to a degree, but come on just because we "refuse" (what does that even mean) to classify, doesn't mean race ceases to exist in society, that any history of racial classifications somehow disappears.

[catherine]

They burned $50,000,000 worth of dumpsters? That’s a lot of garbage.

Hmm, what were the lives of Rosenbaum and Huber worth? More or less than $50,000?

ETA: oops, this popped up as an auto-save. I canceled that post, but what the heck, I'll let it lie.

[catherine]

race ceases to exist in society, that any history of racial classifications somehow disappears.

Very convenient for some. But systemic racism does exist and has existed for a couple of hundred of years.

[bae]

Traveling with permission of local or fed government is an entirely different thing than being a vigilante.

1) It is generally frowned-upon by Those In Charge for folks to self-deploy to disaster/emergency zones. When they do, there's a good chance of them causing more trouble than they do good. Sometimes though, the local authorities simply aren't capable of responding quickly enough to resolve the situation. (For instance, we lost the only road to a big chunk of our island last week in the big storm, isolating the community there from supplies, medical care, and employment - the folks there, bless their hearts, fired up their sawmill and brought out some heavy equipment, and within a short period of time had a bridge and a road constructed. The Officials estimate the county road department may take a month to actually "do it right"....)

2) What precisely is a "vigilante"? Our community was being preyed upon by a criminal a few years back. It made the national news. Among other things, he was breaking into the businesses in our small village, stealing items, and trashing the store. These were all small family-owned business, and they simply couldn't bear the losses. We also tend to only have a single sheriff's deputy here on duty, and nobody on duty for 6 hours in the evening. So, the local merchants posted armed guards in the village, with night vision and cameras. Were they "vigilantes"? The predation stopped, that's for sure. When state and federal forces arrived here to try to catch the guy, they were unsuccessful, and seemingly increased his pace of destruction. He fled from the island shortly after armed citizens were waiting for him though.

[LDAHL]

Hmm, what were the lives of Rosenbaum and Huber worth? More or less than $50,000?

ETA: oops, this popped up as an auto-save. I canceled that post, but what the heck, I'll let it lie.

They weren’t killed over property. They were killed because they attacked an armed man.