Kyle Rittenhouse shot three men who were part of a violent mob. Two died. The violence of the Kenosha mob, like the violence of hundreds of other mobs, is being recorded on private phones and placed on the public web. The Rittenhouse murder trial will be a highly public event. Worldwide attention will be drawn to these critical issues:
· The duty of civic authorities to enforce the rule of law.
· The duty of citizens to actively preserve law and order.
· The criminal nature of revolutionary ideas and mobs.
· The necessity of an armed citizenry.
· Presumption of innocence in criminal justice.
· The importance of self-defense in civic justice.
· The meaning of justifiable homicide.
· The lawless and lethal nature of mob culture.
Mob culture is volatile, unpredictable, and can be genocidal. Unrestrained mob activity tends to escalate, organizing around career criminals and opportunistic revolutionaries.
Local authorities cannot surrender the control of their streets to organized, emotional, criminally destructive mobs. Appeasement results in more audacious criminality.
If the local police are outnumbered, they will need the help of an armed citizenry to defend their cities. According to 10 U.S. Code § 246, all male citizens age 17 to 45 should be ready to form-up for this purpose in a lawful collective known legally as the unorganized militia.
But if men like the mayor of Kenosha listen to the media and don’t believe in the existence of 10 U.S. Code § 246, or the value of an armed citizenry, people like Kyle Rittenhouse will have to defend their cities at great risk to themselves. There will be risks from the mob, from local authorities, and from a hostile media, which can incite a lawless mob. If the mob wants to destroy private property and armed citizens are standing in their way, and if the media says those armed citizens are the real villains in today’s news, what is going to happen to people like Kyle?
The world is carefully watching.
Geoffrey Botkin will be making periodic comments and analysis on the case. Send questions to [email protected]. He is not an attorney and does not give legal or financial advice.
