Maybe some people remember this guy:
Dylann Storm Roof is an American white supremacist and mass murderer convicted for perpetrating the Charleston church shooting on June 17, 2015, in South Carolina. During a Bible study at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church, Roof killed nine people, all African Americans, including senior pastor and state senator Clementa C. Pinckney, and injured one other person. After several people identified Roof as the main suspect, he became the center of a manhunt that ended the morning after the shooting with his arrest in Shelby, North Carolina. He later confessed that he committed the shooting in hopes of igniting a race war.
He got nine consecutive sentences of life without parole instead, although the Shelby police had treated him nicely. When he was arrested he said he was hungry. They took him to Burger King – their treat. But he didn’t get his race war. None of those folks rose up in outrage, armed and dangerous, to be completely eliminated from American life by the far better armed white folks who already outnumbered them ten to one. They’d all die. But nothing went as planned. These people said they forgave him and prayed for his soul. Obama sang Amazing Grace at the mass funeral. That hardly seemed fair.
But there’s always Kenosha:
Authorities on Wednesday said a 17-year-old had been charged with homicide after two people were killed and another seriously wounded by gunfire amid a chaotic night of demonstrations and destruction in Kenosha unleashed by the weekend police shooting of Jacob Blake.
Police in Antioch, Ill., about 20 miles southwest of Kenosha, said they had arrested Kyle Rittenhouse in the killings. The Antioch resident was charged with first-degree intentional homicide in Wisconsin, authorities said, but they did not specify whether he was being charged in one fatal shooting or both.
The shooting came as self-declared militia members and armed counterprotesters have appeared in the city, which is reeling from days of unrest.
This was an Army of Roofs. They’d take care of these young Black thugs. This was war, but this guy may not have been in their army:
Authorities have not said whether Rittenhouse is a member of any of the groups. His social media feeds contained messages supporting the police and photos of himself with assault rifles. He had been a member of cadet programs for local police and fire departments, according to department newsletters and statements.
Maybe he was just a wannabe, but that may not matter now:
This lakeside Wisconsin city became the latest locus of anger over police brutality after Blake, a father of five, was shot by police on Sunday, a recorded incident that quickly went viral and prompted a nationwide outcry.
The Wisconsin Department of Justice said Kenosha police were attempting to arrest Blake when Rusten Sheskey, a seven-year veteran of the department, fired his weapon seven times into the Black man’s back, the first time officials had identified the officer who shot him.
The shooting left Blake paralyzed from the waist down, and it has become a flash point in the presidential campaign.
He was unarmed. Three of his kids – the oldest is eight – were in the back seat of the car and watched, close-up, as the officer fired seven or eight rounds into their father’s back, which seems to have upset them a bit. But the whole city was upset. The nation was upset. But at least he didn’t shoot the kids too.
That wasn’t enough:
The streets of Kenosha have been filled with peaceful mass demonstrations in recent days, but also damaging riots by night in which businesses have been looted and burned. Armed civilians – many wielding AR-15-style rifles – took position near stores and businesses saying they intended to fill a vacuum left by a law enforcement. Some had stood near the gas station where Tuesday night’s shooting began with a confrontation just before midnight.
Cellphone video from before Tuesday night’s shooting showed police officers thanking armed civilians for being on the streets after curfew and handing them bottles of water.
That might have been a mistake:
“In Kenosha, we’re not accustomed to riots,” said Sheriff David Beth, who took responsibility for a delay in requesting National Guard assistance that led to confusion over who was protecting which sites on Monday…
Self-declared militia members had arrived in town before the gunfire, though Beth said he did not know for sure whether Rittenhouse was part of such a group.
The sheriff said he had been approached by members of a militia to deputize citizens with guns to patrol Kenosha, and he pointed to what happened on Tuesday as “probably the perfect reason why I wouldn’t” do so.
Kyle Rittenhouse made that moot, so we might have a race war now:
The police shooting of Blake has drawn dramatically different responses from across the American political divide. Three days after the incident, President Trump still had not addressed the shooting directly, though his surrogates at this week’s Republican National Convention have repeatedly expressed their support for police officers while trying to link their Democratic rivals to destruction and mayhem.
Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden, meanwhile, has condemned the rioting while signaling solidarity with the demands of protesters for an end to systemic racism in law enforcement.
On Wednesday, Biden and his running mate, Sen. Kamala D. Harris of California, spoke by phone with members of Blake’s family, who have called for calm as Blake remains hospitalized with injuries to his spine and internal organs.
“All Biden did was offer his support,” said Jacob Blake Sr., the 29-year-old’s father, according to the Chicago Sun-Times. “He was 100 percent real.”
Now everyone is clear on the two sides here, and one side really did have an army:
In Portland and other cities in recent days and weeks, members of far-right, self-declared militias armed with paintball guns, bats and pepper spray, as well as lethal weapons, have battled leftist and Black Lives Matter activists in the name of backing police in their confrontations with protesters.
From the start of Tuesday’s protests, armed civilians were a prominent presence in Kenosha, with handguns, rifles, knives and military flak jackets.
“Ain’t nothing being done. We’re the only ones,” said Joe, 29, who described himself as a Marine Corps veteran and declined to give his last name. He noted that others like him were around Kenosha on Tuesday night, “armed and ready.”
But they’re not alone. All the videos of this Kyle Rittenhouse incident show him mowing down a few people with his rifle, and then, as the police approach, dropping his weapon and putting his hands high in the air. They ran right past him. They saw him as one of them. It took them a few hours to realize that he wasn’t. But at least they didn’t take him to Burger King. Still something was up:
Another man, brandishing a handgun, said he showed up after a call on Facebook to protect the city. On Wednesday Facebook confirmed that it had taken down an event page from a 3,000-member group calling itself the Kenosha Guard, which had encouraged citizens to take up arms to defend the city.
The “Call to Arms” event page was taken down for violating the platform’s “dangerous individuals and organizations” policy, Facebook said, which was expanded to include militia groups calling for violence last week. Civil rights groups called Facebook’s efforts “tragically late.”
So this is organized, and of course White folks will hate this:
The NBA’s restart inside a restricted bubble at Disney World, which has proceeded smoothly for more than a month without any positive novel coronavirus tests, came to a screeching halt Wednesday when the Milwaukee Bucks refused to take the court for a playoff game against the Orlando Magic to protest the police shooting of Jacob Blake in Kenosha, Wis. The league announced the cancellation of all three games scheduled for Wednesday as a result, and a meeting of NBA players later Wednesday night cast doubt on whether the postseason would continue at all.
The unprecedented decision to postpone the games was quickly followed by a similar decision by the Women’s National Basketball Association, which postponed three scheduled games across the state in Bradenton, and by teams and players in numerous other professional sports.
In Milwaukee, the Brewers announced they would not play their game Wednesday night against the Cincinnati Reds. The Seattle Mariners’ game against the San Diego Padres and the Los Angeles Dodgers’ game against the San Francisco Giants also were postponed.
What, there’s something more important than sports? It seems so:
NBA players have been outspoken on the issues of police brutality and racial injustice and have used their platform to express them from inside the bubble set up by the league at the Disney World resort in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic. “Black Lives Matter” is painted in bold letters on the courts, and players are wearing words and phrases calling for social justice on the backs of their jerseys.
But the sentiment has pivoted to anger and despair since the Blake shooting Sunday night. Lakers forward LeBron James issued a powerful postgame statement Monday, saying “Quite frankly, it’s just fucked up in our community.”
James’s remarks were followed Tuesday by Los Angeles Clippers Coach Doc Rivers, who said, “It’s amazing why we keep loving this country and this country does not love us back.”
“I commend the players on the Bucks for standing up for what they believe in, coaches like Doc Rivers, and the NBA and WNBA for setting an example,” President Barack Obama wrote on Twitter. “It’s going to take all our institutions to stand up for our values.”
Republicans will call them all spoiled brats, but this is a sort of war now:
As if to underscore the prominent role athletes have in raising societal awareness of police brutality and racial injustice, the players’ strike came on the four-year anniversary of the first time former National Football League quarterback Colin Kaepernick did not stand for the national anthem in protest.
On Tuesday, the Detroit Lions canceled practice and players addressed reporters huddled around a whiteboard reading, “The World Can Not Go On.” On Wednesday night, Washington Football Team Coach Ron Rivera announced Thursday’s practice was postponed, and several NFL players expressed support for the Bucks on social media.
“NBA is showing us how it’s done,” wrote Houston Texans wide receiver Kenny Stills, who has frequently knelt during the national anthem.
The battle lines are being drawn, but this has to happen. Donald Trump made sure of that. Philip Bump looks at the evidence:
Something prompted 17-year-old Kyle Rittenhouse to grab his rifle and make the short trip from his home in Antioch, Ill., to Kenosha, Wis., on Tuesday. If photos shared on social media are accurate, something spurred him to walk around the town with that rifle in his hands as protests over a police shooting continued into the night. If police are correct that Rittenhouse fired that rifle, if he did shoot three protesters, killing two of them, there was something that caused him to be there to pull the trigger.
This alleged chain of events came from somewhere. Most 17-year-olds don’t see it as their duty to protect the streets of their hometowns, much less of nearby towns where they don’t even live…
But there was something in the air, and on air:
The night before those protesters were shot, five different speakers at the Republican National Convention, including the president’s son, decried uncontrolled violent mobs that they claim have taken over the nation’s streets.
“Trump was elected to protect our families from the vengeful mob that seeks to destroy our way of life, our neighborhoods, schools, churches and values,” said Charlie Kirk, the head of an organization that specifically targets young conservatives.
Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) argued that election was about preserving the country’s greatness.
“Don’t believe me? Look at what’s happening in American cities, cities all run by Democrats: Crime, violence and mob rule,” Jordan said. “Democrats refuse to denounce the mob, and their response to the chaos? Defund the police, defund Border Patrol and defund our military. And while they’re doing all this, they’re also trying to take away your guns.”
Donald Trump Jr. told viewers that “anarchists have been flooding our streets and Democrat mayors are ordering the police to stand down” – both untrue claims but ones which might understandably prompt a credulous person to believe that they themselves would have to stand in opposition to the horde.
Kyle got the message, which they will deny sending. He was the one who chose to kill those folks. They only said it was coming to that, or maybe the nation is there already. But this was his choice, unless he had no choice:
The two speakers who most directly spoke to that need, though, were Mark and Patricia McCloskey, the St. Louis couple who gained national fame – or, on the left, notoriety – when they emerged from their mansion with a handgun and a rifle to confront a Black Lives Matter protest earlier this summer. They were at the convention specifically to defend the idea that this reaction was necessary and justified – and they defended it in the starkest imaginable terms.
“What you saw happen to us could just as easily happen to any of you who are watching from quiet neighborhoods around our country,” Patricia McCloskey warned.
“It seems as if the Democrats no longer view the government’s job as protecting honest citizens from criminals,” Mark McCloskey added, “but rather protecting criminals from honest citizens.”
“Make no mistake,” Patricia McCloskey said at one point: “No matter where you live, your family will not be safe in the radical Democrats’ America.” A bit later, she continued that argument: “When we don’t have basic safety and security in our communities, we’ll never be free to build a brighter future for ourselves, for our children, for our country. That’s what’s at stake in this election.”
Bump translates that:
There are anarchists in the streets and Democrats would rather defund than dispatch the police. They want to take your guns, but look what happens if you aren’t armed!
But there’s nothing new there:
This assertion that America is on the brink of being overrun has been central to Trump’s rhetoric all summer, since protests emerged in late May. It’s been amplified in conservative media, particularly on Fox News. The network’s Tucker Carlson has spoken with increasing agitation each week about the crisis that looms over the country.
This sense of crisis and shock has prompted scores of people to take to the streets with firearms at protests this summer. Some do so as members of organized militias. Some show up in coordination with far-right revolutionary movements. Some, it seems, do so in the belief that they are the modern equivalent of colonial Minutemen, the guardians of the republic who many of them believe the Second Amendment was written to empower.
Is it unreasonable to think that this rhetoric reached Kyle Rittenhouse? Rittenhouse attended a Trump rally in Wisconsin in mid-January, managing to score a position near the stage.
“Democrats stand for crime, corruption, and chaos,” Trump said in that speech, months before this summer’s protests. “Republicans stand for law, order, and justice.”
The kid had a front row seat for that. He got it, but now there are other voices out there too:
Firebrand Ann Coulter, who turned on Trump for being too soft, declared that she wished Rittenhouse could be her president. A contributor to Turning Point USA, the organization run by Charlie Kirk, defended Rittenhouse’s alleged actions as a “justified shooting” in a video that’s been shared nearly 150,000 times.
Tucker Carlson also defended the alleged shooter.
“People in charge from the governor of Wisconsin on down refused to enforce the law,” Carlson said on Wednesday night. “They stood back and they watched Kenosha burn. So are we really surprised that looting and arson accelerated to murder? How shocked are we that seventeen-year-olds with rifles decided they had to maintain order when no one else would?”
“Everyone could see what was happening in Kenosha,” he added. After all, Carlson had been broadcasting scenes of from the city repeatedly, intoning about the horrors he wanted his viewers to see.
And then there was this:
Hours after Rittenhouse was arrested, President Trump’s daughter-in-law Lara Trump spoke at the Republican convention.
“In recent months, we’ve seen weak, spineless politicians seek control of our great American cities to violent mobs,” Trump said. “Defund the police is the rallying cry for the new radical Democrat Party. Joe Biden will not do what it takes to maintain order to keep our children safe in our neighborhoods and in their schools, to restore our American way of life.”
Lara Trump’s segment was pre-taped. So it’s possible that she spoke those words before the two protesters in Kenosha were even shot.
The GOP convention decided to run it anyway.
They want war. They’ll finish what Dylann Roof started, and meanwhile, at the convention, Aaron Blake had his eye on Mike Pence:
Picking up on a thread from First lady Melania Trump’s speech on Tuesday night, a focal point Wednesday was assuring that, whatever the public appearance, President Trump is a caring, empathetic and driven leader behind closed doors.
Pence noted that Trump has “certainly kept things interesting” and emphasized their difference in styles. But he said Trump’s motivation is clear.
“Over the past four years, I’ve worked closely with our president. I’ve seen him when the cameras are off,” Pence said. “Americans see President Trump in lots of different ways, but there’s no doubt how President Trump sees America. He sees America for what it is: a nation that has done more good in this world than any other, a nation that deserves far more gratitude than grievance. And if you want a president who falls silent when our heritage is demeaned or insulted, then he’s not your man.”
The “grievance” line was particularly notable, given how much time Trump spends on such things.
That may be the whole point of his presidency. Everyone has been using us. Everyone has been laughing at us. Everyone has been using him. Everyone has been laughing at him. This has to stop, and the rest of the evening was the usual array of outraged grievance and deep resentment and angry shouting:
Abortion came up relatively little in the first two nights, apart from a speech by a former Planned Parenthood employee on Tuesday night. On Wednesday night, though, it was front-and-center – including some extreme and unfounded claims about Biden.
Successive speakers – Sister Deirdre Byrne and former college football coach Lou Holtz – both characterized Trump as being without compare on opposing abortion rights, with Byrne calling him “the most pro-life president that this nation has ever had.” Both also cast the Biden-Harris ticket as being the most pro-abortion rights ticket in history.
Holtz even questioned the faith of Biden, who is a practicing Catholic and whose faith was a focal point in last week’s Democratic National Convention.
“The Biden-Harris ticket is a most radically pro-abortion campaign in history,” Holtz said. “They are Catholic in name only and abandon innocent lives.”
The claim echoed Trump’s own recent commentary on Biden and faith, in which Trump said Biden “hurt the Bible. Hurt God. He’s against God.”
Byrne also claimed, “President Trump will stand up against Biden-Harris, who are the most anti-life presidential ticket ever, even supporting the horrors of late term abortion and infanticide.”
Well, maybe not:
Biden has not, in fact, expressed support for late-term abortion, let alone killing babies. He has said he supports codifying Roe v. Wade into law and the standard set by Planned Parenthood v. Casey, which affirmed a legal right to abortion until a fetus is viable.
But that wasn’t the real issue now:
The president of the National Association of Police Organizations, Michael McHale, said the choice was also that stark on support for law enforcement.
“The differences between Trump-Pence and Biden-Harris are crystal clear,” McHale said. “Your choices are the most pro-law enforcement president we’ve ever had or the most radical anti-police ticket in history.”
Yeah, well, whatever. McHale didn’t get the memo. Grab your gun and be the police! Finish Dylann Roof’s heroic work!
Yes, war is coming. This won’t end well.
Just Above Sunset 