Money Talks, Rittenhouse Walks

by Pa Rock
Citizen Journalist

Last August police in Kenosha, Wisconsin, shot a twenty-nine-year-old black man, Jacob Blake, in the back seven times while his three horrified children watched.  Blake, who was unarmed, did not die from the incident, but it is doubtful that he will ever walk again.  National outrage developed over the shooting, and a few nights later a large public demonstration took place in Kenosha.  Three demonstrators at that protest were shot - all by one shooter - a seventeen-year-old youth from Illinois who was running the streets with a Smith and Wesson AR-15 style rifle and a 30-round magazine - a weapon that the youth was not legally allowed to own.

That young shooter, who felt that he was there to defend property rights and the local police, was named Kyle Rittenhouse.   He was the only person at the protest to actually fire shots at anyone.  Rittenhouse had used his government stimulus check to buy the weapon, and a friend had made the purchase for him.

As Rittenhouse rampaged with his fully-automatic weapon, two protesters, both white, tried to take him down.   One man, Anthony M. Huber, aged 26, tried to disarm the boy using his skateboard, and the other, Joseph "Jojo" Rosenbaum, may have been armed with a chain.   Kyle Rittenhouse killed them both.  The young shooter also wounded 26-year-old Gaige Grosskreutz.

After gunning down his three victims, Rittenhouse fled to the police line and held his automatic weapon in the air as he passed through the blue line to safety.  After that he got his his truck and drove home to Illinois - along with his gun.  Rittenhouse was arrested the following day in his hometown of Antioch, Illinois, and kept in juvenile detention until finally being extradited back to Wisconsin last week where he was booked on a pair of homicide charges.  Bail was set at $2 million because he was considered to be a flight risk.

Yesterday a group of conservative activists presented the court with the $2 million bail money, and accused murderer Kyle Rittenhouse was set free - at least for the time-being.  A major portion of the bail seems to have been provided by Mike Lindell, the showman CEO of "My Pillow," and former child star Ricky Schroder also appears to have been a contributor.

Some had opposed offering any bail to Rittenhouse for fear that some of the nation's extreme militias might take him into hiding rather than risk seeing him get a lengthy prison sentence as a result of the two murders.

The decision whether to grant bail or not, as well as how much, both appear to be arbitrary and capricious.  Rittenhouse walks free because of the availability of bail and moneyed supporters - after allegedly committing two murders - and others whose crimes are more political in nature - and not deadly - like whistleblower Reality Winner, remain under lock-and-key because bail is denied.  

To some it might even appear that the whole notion of bail is class-based.    Those with money or connections can stay in the comfort of their own home (or go on vacation) while they wait to go to trail, and everyone else can cool their heels in a cell - even though they have yet to be convicted of anything.

If Kyle Rittenhouse had been black, would any bail have been set -and would it have been attainable?

Is it any wonder that the people sometimes rise up in protest?