Kyle Rittenhouse is a victim. First, he was a victim of a vicious mob that nearly took his life in Kenosha, Wisconsin, last year. Now, he’s the victim of a justice system in thrall to woke ideologues who can’t imagine that someone wielding an AR-15 could possibly act in self-defense.

I carry a concealed firearm nearly everywhere I go. I’m not looking for a fight. In fact, I intentionally avoid conflict because I’m armed. But I know that bad guys have guns, and I want to be able to match force with force if I’m ever in a situation that requires it.

That’s exactly what happened to Kyle Rittenhouse, and the evidence has been publicly available for over a year. His trial has revealed a few additional details, but anyone who was paying attention at the time knew that Rittenhouse was acting in self-defense.

We didn’t have to trust Rittenhouse or his attorneys. We just had to trust our own eyes.

Multiple videos emerged in the days after the incident proving that Rittenhouse acted in self-defense when he killed two attackers and wounded a third during a Black Lives Matter riot in Kenosha.

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You don’t have to take my word for it. Even the New York Times acknowledged on August 23, 2020, that Rittenhouse acted in self-defense.

Here’s how they describe the first shooting:

While Mr. Rittenhouse is being pursued by the group, an unknown gunman fires into the air, though it’s unclear why. The weapon’s muzzle flash appears in footage filmed at the scene.

Mr. Rittenhouse turns toward the sound of gunfire as another pursuer lunges toward him from the same direction. Mr. Rittenhouse then fires four times, and appears to shoot the man in the head.

That information is from video footage reviewed by the New York Times.

The second two shootings are even more clear-cut. Video footage from multiple angles worked its way around social media, and it shows Rittenhouse being chased by a mob, falling on the ground, and then defending himself from two would-be attackers.

One of them (the one who survived) advanced on Rittenhouse with a loaded handgun. He admitted as much during this stunning bit of testimony.

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If this isn’t self-defense, I don’t know what is.

There’s only one real explanation for Rittenhouse’s arrest and prosecution: state attorneys caved to the demands of the woke mob baying for the blood of a kid who shot three of their own.

Never mind that laws in every state grant the right to use deadly force as a means of self-defense.

Never mind the massive trove of publicly available video evidence clearing Rittenhouse’s name.

Never mind that their case was bound to fail (at the expense of the taxpayer).

They needed to prosecute Rittenhouse to save face with their base, and that’s exactly what they did.

From where I’m standing, Rittenhouse is the only real victim of this sad, disgusting debacle.

About The Author

Mark was a co-founder of the Tea Party Patriots, and served as the national coordinator. He left the organization to work more broadly on expanding the self-governance movement beyond the partisan divide. Mark appears regularly on television in outlets as diverse as MSNBC, ABC, NBC, Fox News, CNN, Bloomberg, Fox Business and the BBC. He’s highly sought after for the tea party perspective from print and electronic media outlets, from the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, L.A. Times, Washington Examiner, Politico and the The Hill. Mark blogs at MarkMeckler.com, and his opinion editorials regularly run in many of the leading political newspapers both on and offline. Mark has a BA in English from San Diego State University and graduated with honors from University of the Pacific, McGeorge School of Law in 1988. He practiced real estate and business law for almost a decade. For the last eleven years of his legal career he specialized in Internet advertising law. When not fighting for the future of our nation, Mark is an avid horseman, and lives in rural northern California with his wife Patty and two children.