Kyle Rittenhouse is no hero. The 17 year old from Illinois heard of the budding riots in Kenosha Wisconsin, packed up his firearm and headed on down in search of adventure. Perhaps his intentions truly were to head down to help protect citizens and property from rioters but he was terribly naive at best. The kid went searching for trouble and he found it in spades.
The folks who found themselves shot by Rittenhouse were no heroes either. They were violent rioters who idiotically felt that attacking and chasing an armed kid with a rifle was a good idea. That lack of judgement led to two dead rioters and one with the better part of his right bicep blown off. It does appear that those who Rittenhouse shot had violent criminal histories but lets not pretend that he knew that at the time. He was attacked by armed rioters, he feared for his life and he did what most of us would have done in that situation; he defended himself.
What is questionable is why Kyle Rittenhouse put himself into that situation in the first place.
Maybe Kyle truly felt that it was his civic duty to stand up and protect his neighbor’s property. In light of police forces standing down in the face of riots for months, he believed that this was the only way to keep homes and businesses from being burned and looted. That rationale makes perfect sense in a police free world does it not? Is this not what community policing is all about?
The problem is that Kyle Rittenhouse was not a trained law enforcement officer. Oh I don’t doubt that he has spent plenty of time on the range and played endless hours of Call of Duty, but at his age I think it is pretty safe to assume that he hasn’t been trained and prepared to keep a calm demeanor while in the middle of a dangerous riot.
While the North American trend has been to shit on police officers lately, it simply can’t be forgotten how important trained police officers are. Yes, there are some issues in policing that need to be resolved but when it comes to dealing with dangerous situations such as riots, they are the best tool that communities have in dealing with them. Officers are trained and equipped. They are less likely to lose composure and end up harming themselves and others. Can they screw up? Of course they can. They are far less likely to end up shooting a number of people in a tense situation than a 17 year old kid with a rifle is though.
Dangerous people are drawn to these lawless zones. Look at the crimes and killings committed in Seattle’s short-live CHAZ experiment. Look at the number of pedophiles who were found to be residing in the past “Occupy” camps, It is no coincidence that the folks that Rittenhouse shot all had criminal pasts. They were criminal losers drawn out to take part in a riot and looting. They couldn’t care less about black lives.
It is well past time to dismiss these moronic calls to massively de-fund or even abolish police forces as being the extreme and ridiculous demands that they are. If anything, we should be investing more into forces so that they may be better trained to deal with these terrible situations which we expect them to deal with.
Do we expect community guidance counselors to restrain the puke and feces covered drunk who is assailing people on the sidewalks and put him in their car? Will community based policing deal well with an armed robber high on meth? Do you really think he can be talked down? On top of all of that, these officers have to deal with being called bastards by BLM extremists and screamed at through a car window by furious Karen’s receiving speeding tickets.
Police have a tough, dangerous and lately, thankless job. They may be flawed, but they are the best we have. Instead of trying to get rid of them, we should be seeking to improve upon them.
We got a taste of a police free world as we saw an untrained 17 year old kid kill two and injure one violent rioter. As we see forces further de-funded, demoralized and even abolished, expect to see more of those kind of scenes.
This is what a world without police looks like.
Be careful what you wish for.
