3 ms·
The question in the Rittenhouse case isn’t what sentence people get for murder. It’s whether he committed murder at all, or killed in self-defense after having
by marvin 6y ago
The question in the Rittenhouse case isn’t what sentence people get for murder. It’s whether he committed murder at all, or killed in self-defense after having the horrible (and probably ethically unsound) judgement to travel armed to an obviously violent event. It’s not an example of what’s being discussed.
There’s more than enough cases that legitimately make the case for racial sentencing discrimination. Quoting this ridiculously politicized case will only harm the cause by providing ammunition to the other side.
I mean, I personally think that 68 years in prison for almost anything is a horribly abusive practice. Acceptable for some few instances of violent crime. But since I also believe that killing in self-defense can sometimes be justified with no punishment, it’s not a very good point to use for discussing.
- 40four 6y agoThis is way off topic, but I’m very curious to the outcome of the Rittenhouse trial. There is no doubt he killed those people. There are multiple videos of it. Whether or not the court finds it falls under ‘reasonable’ self defense according to Wisconsin law will be interesting. They will have to decide that he A) He used only the force necessary to prevent or terminate interference with his person. And B) He reasonably believed that such force was necessary to prevent imminent death or great bodily harm to himself.
- smcl 6y agoI don't think it is offtopic or if it is then my mention of Rittenhouse in the first place was. I am very curious too. I have a pretty bad feeling that he will get off extremely lightly and that as a result the US will see renewed unrest. Given the original topic that kicked off this thread, the unrest will be entirely justified.
- marvin 6y agoMy guess at this point would be that he gets convicted for having violated firearms laws, but not for murder. It's an interesting case, but the political climate surrounding it spans much more than just the shooting, and is (seen with international eyes and an attempt at staying impartial) completely bonkers. He shouldn't have been there in the first place, and there shouldn't have been any incentive for anyone else to be either. The fact that there was a remotely plausible rationale for a vigilante policing force in the first place is just insane. That the police didn't roll up and say "go home, this is our job" is ridiculous. Then, of course, pouring fuel on the fire, the whole situation attracts a lot of people who want to commit violence - maybe including Rittenhouse himself. None of this should happen in a first-world country, and it's not something that will be solved with a murder trial. Regardless of its outcome. There seem to be deep and persistent currents in American society that form the basis for events like these, and every honest assessment and candid dialouge attempting to fix them is a good thing. It might be off topic to a degree, but people getting life sentences willy-nilly is definitely part of the same web of causal relationships.
- sdenton4 6y agoDude kills two people while wearing a certain color hat matching other people he's spending a lot of time with... Most of the time under those circumstances, the question of self defense isn't going to enter into the following discussion.
- dionidium 6y agoWhy would you invent a detail about an event that was captured on video and so easily refuted? He was wearing a white hat.
- smcl 6y agoIt sounds like the "color of hat" is a metaphor here
- dionidium 6y agoIt very clearly was not, but I hope I can at least rest my case on what a pointless distraction this subthread was destined to be.
- smcl 6y agoYou seemed pretty keen to take part in the more pointless parts - like talking about the colour of someone’s hat - so I’m not sure you get to play that card.