Protesters Share Pizza In Kenosha
The pizza is mightier than the sword. And we should break bread together.
As I said on Twitter, this is one of the most beautiful things I’ve seen in a long time. Protesters and counter-protesters, BLM supporters and Rittenhouse supporters, share pizza together outside the Kenosha court house after the Kyle Rittenhouse acquittal sparked demonstrations. (Rittenhouse claims he, too, is a support of Black Lives Matter).
Here’s the video:
The Rittenhouse case is a tragic one that has been tragically politicized and exploited by activists and talking heads across party and ideological lines. My take is fairly straightforward: Kyle Rittenhouse should not have brought a gun to the protest, but I don’t think he intended to use it as anything more than a deterrent. Misguided though he was, and young and foolish, I don’t think he set out to kill anyone.
The two men he ended up killing both had long records of violent crime (pedophilia and domestic violence) and I have little doubt in my mind that Kyle felt truly threatened for his life when he fired that gun. The third man had a gun pointed at him.
It doesn’t mean that this was a good or desirable outcome or one we should celebrate, and I’m not suggesting he knew they had rap sheets, but it does mean that this isn’t a black and white case. I don’t believe it gives gun-wielding conservatives cart blanche in the murder department, that’s for sure.
I think it’s a story about a boy in over his head who found himself in a terrible situation and defended himself with a lethal weapon. I doubt he would have been killed if he hadn’t shot, but he may have been badly beaten. Not that hypotheticals do us much good. We should try to discern motives as best we can, and from what I’ve seen and read, Rittenhouse did not go to Kenosha with murder in his heart. He had many connections to the town and showed up, naively, to “defend” it. Things went horribly, tragically wrong.
Here’s a video from LegalEagle that breaks the self-defense case down in a really smart and accessible (and reasonable) way. I wish more of our media would cover stories like this with such a level-head and with so much nuance.
The pizza truce is a silver-lining to this whole mess.
Alas, this is not where the story ends. The moment of peace and camaraderie was short-lived. Very soon after the breaking of bread, sparks of anger and violence ignited this unsavory scene (be warned, strong and, uh, colorful language follows):
Sigh.
Perhaps Matt Taibbi was right all along, and this really was just Twitter IRL and all the worst people in one place. But I want to believe that there is a better way.
Remember: Pizza is mightier than the sword. But maybe next time order something better than Domino’s. Surely better pizza would have calmed tensions even more.
Be excellent to each other, my droogies. And party on.
P.S. Thanks to readers for sharing these videos with me on Twitter. The pizza video is via @TheGwilliam and the LegalEagle video is via @Wrennardx. Give these guys a follow.