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Michael Shermer's avatar

Interesting response. I'm usually accused of toeing the Republican Party line. I try not to toe any party line. I just want to know the truth, politics aside. Agreed, most of the legacy media sources mangled the story. I don't know I would go so far as to call Rittenhouse a dangerous vigilante, although the point of my essay was to note that vigilantism is the logical response to a lawless situation or one in which the vigilante doesn't feel justice is being or will be done. Rittenhouse should have never gone there with a gun, as that likely elevated the emotions and stress levels of his assailants, whom he shot. Legally, by Wisconsin law, it was self-defense, but I suspect if no one at that protest had a gun it would have just been some typical male fisticuffs with some bruised bodies and egos. When you add guns to an already volatile situation it can easily turn deadly. And, of course, I condemn the rioting and looting in Portland, Seattle, San Francisco, and other cities, such as the smash-and-grab incidents in SF recently. That's another unfortunate outcome of lawlessness. If the government signals that they will not do anything about escalating violence, as in these cities, we are going to see more and more such incidents.

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Michael Shermer's avatar

Interesting analysis Gary, but the hindsight bias is blinding us on what it must have been like for Rittenhouse when he was assaulted by Rosenbaum. We can analyze the incident by milliseconds and then reason that, say, the first discharged bullet was warranted but not the rest, as if he had multiple seconds between shots while the scene was unfolding in slo-mo and could reason through each one. That's not how emotions work. The rage circuit lights up and the gun is engaged and the finger just pulls the trigger over and over. In hindsight, of course, we can break it down and see what each bullet did, but that's literally unreasonable. The ultimate preventative measure would be to not have a gun at all, or better still avoid potentially violent situations altogether. And that leads back to my main point: the police should have provided a stronger shadow of enforcement over the entire protest, including threats against property damage in the neighborhood (which is why Rittenhouse said he had gone there in the first place). A more clear-cut case of vigilantism turned murderous is that of the three white men just convicted of murder today for chasing and shooting Ahmaud Arbery as he ran through their neighborhood, with a Georgia jury rejecting a self-defense claim. I also think this was the right verdict in this case.

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