Kyle Rittenhouse

Serwer: White Fragility Determines Which Uses of Self-Defense are Legitimate

by

[W]hich acts of violence are considered legitimate self-defense has always been highly political. For most of American history, white men alone had a right of self-defense that included both their persons and property. Although the concept of armed self-defense is not inherently racist in the abstract—many 1960s civil-rights figures bore arms when not protesting—in practice the American legal system has tended to see certain claims of self-defense as more legitimate than others.

“Our embrace of lethal self-defense has always been selective and partial,” Light argues, “upholding a selective right to kill for some, while posing others as legitimate targets.”

[George] Zimmerman had a right to defend himself; his supporters could see [Trayvon] Martin only as the sort of person the right of self-defense was meant to be invoked against. In Georgia, Travis McMichael, on trial for murder after he, his father, and a friend chased Ahmaud Arbery through their neighborhood, before pulling guns on him, has similarly sought to justify his actions as self-defense.

“It was obvious that he was attacking me, that if he would’ve got the shotgun from me, then it was a life or death situation,” McMichael testified. “And I’m gonna have to stop him from doing this, so I shot.” Even the white nationalists facing a civil lawsuit over their 2017 riot in Charlottesville, Virginia, have sought to invoke their right to self-defense.

There is a paradox of fragility here, in which a moment of fear—perhaps one imbuing the deceased with supernatural strength—is invoked to justify homicide, and the dead who would be alive but for this moment of terror subsequently become a symbol of the frightened man’s valor.

At a certain point the logic of this sort of “self-defense” becomes indistinguishable from a custom that simply allows certain people to get away with murder. This is the legal regime that a powerful minority of gun-rights advocates have built—one in which Americans are encouraged to settle their differences with lethal force, preferably leaving as few witnesses capable of testimony as possible.

— Adam Serwer in Of Course Kyle Rittenhouse Was Acquitted

127 thoughts on “Serwer: White Fragility Determines Which Uses of Self-Defense are Legitimate”

  1. TTAG management –

    I heard an ammo background check bill was introduced in Tallahassee, Florida.

    Got any info if it has a chance of passing?

  2. Where do you find this tripe? The problems with this country all started when we started listening to and appeasing stupid people. This phenomenon can still be reversed, but we need to change course soon or it will be too late.

    • ‘It is one thing to argue that the jury reached a reasonable verdict based on the law, and another entirely to celebrate Rittenhouse’s actions.’

      Hell yes, Kyle Rittenhouse should be celebrated. If the cops had done their job they’d be celebrated but they didn’t. We need more Kyle Rittenhouses. Sooner or later these idiots would figure out it’s not safe to burn down cities anymore. That or they’d all be dead. Either way.

      • “We need more Kyle Rittenhouses. Sooner or later these idiots would figure out it’s not safe to burn down cities anymore. That or they’d all be dead. Either way.”

        Damn straight.

        Leftist Scum only understand violence…

        • “…an armed society is a polite society. Manners are good when one may have to back up his acts with his life…But gunfighting has a strong biological use. We do not have enough things that kill off the weak and stupid these days. But to stay alive as an armed citizen a man has to be either quick with his wits or with his hands, preferably both. It’s a good thing.” – Robert A. Heinlein, Beyond This Horizon.

          The State of Wisconsin should be busy calculating how much money they would have spent investigating, arresting, trying, convicting and then incarcerating these three career criminals had they lived and award that to Kyle for his services.

        • NFW! A civilized country would never have tried Kyle Rittenhouse in the first place. A civilized country would allow Kyle Rittenhouse to go along with his life as well as allow him to file suit on his many slanderers in the “press”.
          A lifetime pension (from the government), like winning the lottery should not apply here. He wasn’t permanently injured, maimed, or otherwise hurt in these actions. He is young and just ready to start his adult life. I would think the job offers will be forthcoming.

    • I don’t think this article is for us, or the fence sitters, I think it’s damage control on the left. Right now the left is tearing itself apart and eating it’s own as half of them say things like “Well I don’t agree with what he did, but the prosecutor blew it” or “look he shouldn’t have been there, but based on the evidence presented it was clearly self defense” while the other half screams “if you support Kyle your alt right”. There is an epidemic of unfriending and blocking on blue social media that I would never have expected to come from this. The article is an attempt to stop the hemorrhaging.

      Look at the Portland Friday night riot. 200 people, some previously broken and repaired windows rebroken. Some talk of burning a government building that never did get off the ground. Compared to the summer of Floyd it really was mostly peaceful. They have lost a lot of momentum as more and more people see bits of what is going on and start asking harder questions.

      • Eating their own is an inevitable result of leftists getting into power. Just ask Leon Trotsky.

        • SC, it wasn’t fatal enough to keep Leon from wrestling his assassin long enough for his security to nab him. Leon even had the presence of mind to implore his security to not kill him so that he could be questioned.

      • “I think it’s damage control on the left.”

        Yes, it’s exactly that for multiple reasons. The truth exposes that the “protests” were riots, it exposes BLM “protesters” as violent, aggressive criminals, and it shows that a gun can protect you. And not just any gun, but an AR-15! They’re trying to keep the facade up that it’s about race, when it’s anything but that. They have to change the subject from the truth because the truth exposes the Left (as usual).

      • The reason that this round of “protests” has been mostly peaceful is because the vermin are now in power and they do not need the open violence now. In fact, the vermin were very ready to deploy troops to stop it, which they refused to do when the violence was ordered.

  3. I love people who talk about how people like Rittenhouse are morally wrong for vigilante action yet make not a peep about how Kenosha was being burned in retaliation for the shooting of Jacob Blake which is vigilantism.

    • I made a similar argument at the time.

      Even if, as some argued, they were chasing Kyle because they thought he was a “mass shooter” who had just shot someone (that they did not witness) and then they attacked and attempted to disarm and kill him, THAT is the precise definition of “vigilantism”.

      • That’s the precise definition of ‘stupid’.

        I got to thinking in response to all the people saying he shouldn’t have been there or that the presence of his weapon somehow caused the circumstances in which he needed to use it in self defense – he probably never imagined that these rioters would be stupid enough to attack a guy holding an AR15 at the low ready. With a skateboard, no less. Never underestimate the stupidity of your enemy.

      • If they thought Kyle was a mass shooter who had just shot someone, then their pursuing him is about as stupid as stupid gets. If they really thought he was a mass shooter, then what made them think he would not shoot them? When a person is seen carrying a gun, any gun, how on earth does one know their intentions? I said it before, if a person is so feeble that the mere presence of a gun makes them uncomfortable, then they need to stay home in their safe space.

    • RE: “[W]hich acts of violence are considered legitimate self-defense has always been highly political.”

      Besides the race baiting heading it appears the author wants readers to see Self Defense as Fighting Fire With Fire when legally Self Defense is Fighting Fire with Water. Perhaps the writer is upset KR was not sentenced to prison? Perhaps the writer preferred the outcome to seen as mutual combat? Obviously to the deranged the idea of KR fighting back makes him guilty and the dead and wounded perp less guilty.

      As for the heading…The military wing of the democRat Party was called the KKK and one of its objectives was to disarm or prevent Black Americans from exercising their 2A Right. That’s the kind of justice history confirms the democRat Party has always approved and continues to approve.

      There was overwhelming support for KA and there is very little for the 3 buffoons chasing around and confronting a lone Black person as if he was hauling of a truckload of tools and building materials…Case f-n Closed.

      • If the “3 buffoons” of which Debbie W. speaks had minded their own business, the 2 killed would still be alive and the 3rd would not have an extra hole in his body.

      • Does anyone see a reasonable chance for McMichael acquittal ?
        I don’t. If he is, I will be surprised. “Hey let’s run up to people and shove weapons at them and if they resist we kill them” – doesn’t seem correct. Am I wrong?

        • I’m not fully up on the case, so I don’t know all the details. According to Nate Brody (a lawyer on YT who is watching the case) the judge has made or is planning a ruling that says something to the effect that they had no legal justification to pursue Aubrey. In a clip he played from a discussion between the judge and the defense lawyers, they were making it clear that this removes the sole foundation for the defense’s case. In other words, that ruling leaves “guilty” as the only possible outcome.

      • Quote: Debbie “As for the heading…The military wing of the democRat Party was called the KKK and one of its objectives was to disarm or prevent Black Americans from exercising their 2A Right. That’s the kind of justice history confirms the democRat Party has always approved and continues to approve.”

        The military wing of the democrat (communist party USA) is now BLM, Antifa and other such “peaceful protesters”.

        The dichotomy between suppressing a group of people and supporting their violence is lost on both the people and the CPUSA and no one else is talking about it

    • That correlation would require a small amount of intelligence which the left lack in spades….

  5. “In Georgia, Travis McMichael, on trial for murder after he, his father, and a friend chased Ahmaud Arbery through their neighborhood, before pulling guns on him, has similarly sought to justify his actions as self-defense.”

    The difference between Zimmerman and those Georgia hicks is that the hicks are going to be convicted. The video they stupidly shot of the encounter is what will convict them and put them away for a long time…

  6. I carry at all times, even at home. Recently I had someone ask my why I carried a gun. My response was that I’m 67 years old, I can’t go toe to toe with a 24 year old hopped up on meth that might be attacking me or my wife. I will just shoot the son of a bitch as apparently he doesn’t value his life as much as I do hers or mine.

    • Ditto. I always carry. When I can’t (sleeping or showering), I have a firearm within three feet of me.

        • “Waiting for a reliable “shower gun””

          A Ziplock freezer bag works wonders at sealing out shower moisture. Stash it in one of those plastic shower organizers you can hang on the shower head…

  7. These people have everything upside down and backwards.

    There is an element of truth in all this but there never seems to be any recognition to the fact that the racism comes from the Democrat left. NOT white people. It might seem that way to some bur that’s largely due to the lions share of the black population having so much staunch loyalty to the Democrats. They have all bought into the bs to such a degree they can’t see the nose infront of their own faces. It’s truly sad. It’s also hurting society.

      • videos like that are funny

        Basically its; the white people saying “yep, black people are obese ’cause racism” while the black people are saying “Yep, black people are obese ’cause ’cause of the way we eat.”

        • It’s even worse. Some of those white SJW’s were saying that black people didn’t know better because they weren’t educated. It’s no different from the Democrat position that black people are incapable of obtaining a government-issued photo ID. As the Puppet says, “they don’t know how to get online.”

    • the racism comes from the Democrat left

      You missed the part where parties switched and the Old Democrats became the Republican party and Republicans became Democrats.. Apparently, it’s something they do every NEVER hundred years or so…

  8. I read the article and the one linked to it. All devoid of a simple understanding, but perhaps both writers were out sick that day in kindergarten.

    Keep your hands to yourself.

  9. Let us be absolutely crystal clear about something: many people are irrational and/or hysterical and elevate other considerations above cold facts and objective standards of wrong–versus–right. Those people occupy every possible position in society, including attackers, defenders, investigators, law enforcement, prosecutors, judges, juries, journalists, and propagandists. In light of this simple FACT: of course there will be miscarriages of justice.

    Let us not, “throw the baby out with the bath water,” just because broken people exist and degrade society sometimes. Instead, let’s keep striving to encourage and apply righteous self-defense of all forms–and keep resisting hysterical efforts to the contrary.

    • Exactly. Chris Cuomo (of all people, and on CNN, of all places) said it pretty well when talking with some “equity” activist nincompoop or other.

      The gist of it was that if you think a self-defense acquittal wouldn’t have been allowed to happen for a black person in the same circumstances, you shouldn’t be trying to take legal self-defense away from Kyle Rittenhouse; you should be trying to get the law of self-defense applied equally to YOUR people, too.

      Of course Cuomo failed to question the assumption that black people aren’t legally allowed self-defense and couched his observation between all sorts of left-speak like “problematic” and “gun violence” and yada yada…but it was there.

      Holes in the narrative appear in surprising places sometimes.

      • Haha yep.

        Ibram X. Kendi posted and then deleted a tweet promoting an article which stated that white college applicants pretend to be non-white in order to gain acceptance – which his critics claim contradicts his own theories about white supremacy and ‘privilege.’

  10. “Before a standing army can rule, the people must be disarmed; as they are in almost every kingdom of Europe. The supreme power in America cannot enforce unjust laws by the sword; because the whole body of the people are armed, and constitute a force superior to any band of regular troops that can be, on any pretence, raised in the United States.

    —- Noah Webster, An Examination of the Leading Principles of the Federal Constitution, 1787″

    “O sir, we should have fine times, indeed, if, to punish tyrants, it were only sufficient to assemble the people! Your arms, wherewith you could defend yourselves, are gone; and you have no longer an aristrocratical, no longer a democratical spirit. Did you ever read of any revolution in a nation, brought about by the punishment of those in power, inflicted by those who had no power at all?

    —- Patrick Henry, Speech in the Virginia Ratifying Convention, June 5, 1788″

    “The right of self-defense never ceases. It is among the most sacred, and alike necessary to nations and to individuals.

    —- James Monroe, Second annual message to Congress, November 16, 1818″

    “That the said Constitution shall never be construed to authorize Congress to infringe the just liberty of the press or the rights of conscience; or to prevent the people of the United states who are peaceable citizens from keeping their own arms.

    —- Samuel Adams, in Philadelphia Independent Gazetteer, August 20, 1789″

    • “Are we at last brought to such a humiliating and debasing degradation, that we cannot be trusted with arms for our own defense? Where is the difference between having our arms in our possession and under our own direction, and having them under the management of Congress? If our defense be the real object of having those arms, in whose hands can they be trusted with more propriety, or equal safety to us, as in our own hands?

      —- Patrick Henry”

  11. In summation: communists burning down cities and murdering people is completely acceptable, but self-defense using firearms to protect your life and property against said communists is inexcusable.

    Gotchya.

  12. There’s no point trying to debate these people; it’s like talking louder to someone that does not comprehend your language. The left considers looting and wanton destruction as legitimate components of a protest and any attempt to suppress it is an attempt to infringe on their free speech right to demonstrate.

    The post-acquittal displays we’re seeing now are collective punishment being inflicted on the public for not getting “their” way in court, and a warning to prospective jurors in future cases as to what will happen if other “enemies of the people” should be found not guilty.

  14. Proposed by Andrew Branca, his summary every night was something that I read closely as he pulls no punches.
    Kyle’s Law – https://losd.ubpages.com/kyleslaw/

    “…that in every self-defense case the jury instruction on self-defense includes a special question to the jury–if you the jury are acquitting this defendant on the grounds of self-defense, do you also find that the prosecution failed to disprove self-defense by a majority of the evidence?

    If the jury agrees the prosecution failed to meet even this very low threshold, the defendant is immediately entitled to compensation for any losses resulting from this unfounded prosecution…”

  15. That article and the one linked to it are full of communist lies. For example Trayvon got home safely and came back out looking for Zimmerman with intent to attack him. Zimmerman had obeyed the instructions from the police dispatcher and was returning to his car. Floyd was not murdered, he had a heart attack secondary to drug overdose. Michael Brown never had his hands up and never said “Don’t shoot” according to all of the black local eye witnesses who didn’t go public out of fear but did testify before the grand jury. In Charlottesville peaceful right wing protesters were setup by the city to be ambushed by communists. The list goes on and on. The media and the left always lie.

    • No its right wing nut cases like you who conjure up lie after lie. Medical experts testified that Floyd died of asphyxiation. Your bull story was concocted by the Far Right Media not the medical experts in the case.

      • Do you mean the medical experts hired by the family of George Floyd?

        “…The autopsy report from Hennepin County Medical Examiner’s Office concludes the cause of death was “cardiopulmonary arrest complicating law enforcement subdual, restraint, and neck compression.” That conclusion, death due to heart failure, differs from the one reached by an independent examiner hired by the Floyd family; that report listed the cause of death as “asphyxiation from sustained pressure….”
        https://www.npr.org/sections/live-updates-protests-for-racial-justice/2020/06/04/869278494/medical-examiners-autopsy-reveals-george-floyd-had-positive-test-for-coronavirus

        • And no one has ever explained how the Floyd situation was racist. It was all media and politician lies to whip up the emotional mob.

        • Nice try in trying to exonerate a mad dog killer cop. But the facts are Floyd would never have died if he had not had pressure put on his nick for so long a time. Now Manse try and lie your racist way out of this one.

        • “..Now Manse try and lie your racist way out of this one…”

          Well shoot, didn’t know you were a accredited medical examiner and had access to George F.
          Heck, all I did was ask a question and quote a NPR article.
          Your reply seems kinda triggered calling me names and all. lol

        • dacian the stupid (I can no longer, in good faith, simply refer to you as “dim”),

          You frequently berate (wrongly, of course) commenters on this site about “not following experts” (at least the supposed “experts” you cite (in those rare cases when you cite ANYTHING other than your addled opinions). So riddle me this, buttman: “But the facts are Floyd would never have died if he had not had pressure put on his nick for so long a time.” You cite, as “facts” that Floyd “never would have died” but for the police putting pressure on his neck. Please cite me where that conclusion is reached in the medical examiners report??? (Hint: It isn’t.)

          Like I’ve said before, you’re a special kind of stupid.

  16. There are several cases (I archived them) out there where a black person who shot a police were found not guilty. Or were never charged.

    For example from September 2021:

    “A [black] man charged with attempted murder after firing at Minneapolis police officers in the chaotic protests that followed George Floyd’s death has been acquitted of all charges against him.”

    https://apnews.com/article/death-of-george-floyd-george-floyd-9187595c0de7e58c1fbb479c9f3ee699

    No, the USA is not a racist country. But there are many white people who are, and they call themselves Liberal and or socialist Progressive.

  17. I keep hearing all these social “experts” whining about selective self defense. I’ve yet to hear one expound on the daily murdering of fellow thugs and innocents in all the sh*tholes in our country! Now THAT sounds selective to me.

    • They literally say it’s racist to point that out. It’s all they know. When in doubt, scream racism. What’s scary, is that it’s been working for them. When black school children were polled about racism, they said it’s a big problem. When they were asked if racism was a problem for them as individuals, they overwhelmingly said no. In other words, the racism scare has been planted in their heads by demented leftists.

      • Dud you are a college flunk out and extreme racist that is for sure. Multiple studies up to the present with the first back in 1964 show that little has changed in regards to white prejudice and actions against minorities and not just blacks.

        And lets remember one thing if Rittenhouse had been black and shot 3 white men right now he would be on his way to prison and execution.

        Black Like Me, first published in 1961, is a nonfiction book by white journalist John Howard Griffin recounting his journey in the Deep South of the United States, at a time when African-Americans lived under racial segregation. Griffin was a native of Mansfield, Texas, who had his skin temporarily darkened to pass as a black man. He traveled for six weeks throughout the racially segregated states of Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Arkansas, and Georgia to explore life from the other side of the color line. Sepia Magazine financed the project in exchange for the right to print the account first as a series of articles.

        Griffin kept a journal of his experiences; the 188-page diary was the genesis of the book. When he started his project in 1959, race relations in America were particularly strained. The title of the book is taken from the last line of the Langston Hughes poem “Dream Variations”.

        In 1964, a film version of Black Like Me, starring James Whitmore, was produced.[1] A generation later, Robert Bonazzi published a biographical book about Griffin, these events, and his life: Man in the Mirror: John Howard Griffin and the Story of Black Like Me (1997).

        • I wasn’t even alive when that guy was running around in black face, and I’m no spring chicken. As usual, you have no point. The poll I mentioned was much more recent, and therefore, actually relevant.

          You’re doing exactly what leftists do. You just scream racist because that’s all you have.

        • To Dud Head

          Read this racist
          I was not alive when I have quoted many other events that were racist but unlike you I did not flunk out of college. Your pathetic excuse of not being alive then is laughable.

          Kyle Rittenhouse, a white 17-year-old armed with a semiautomatic rifle, shoots three people, kills two of them, lives to tell of the incident, and is found not guilty.

          Tamir Rice, a Black 12-year-old playing with a toy gun, is essentially given the death penalty by being fatally shot by a police officer.

          What were Rice’s parents doing letting him play with a toy gun? Well, what were Rittenhouse’s parents doing letting him arm himself and venture out in search of trouble with a real one?

          And should either boy have paid with their lives or their deaths for it?

          After the shootings, Rittenhouse approached the police with his hands up as bystanders shouted of his deeds. But the police didn’t apprehend him.

          He literally couldn’t get arrested.

          And yet, when 911 was called on Rice by someone who said Rice was probably a minor and the gun was probably fake, the police literally shot him in two seconds upon arriving on the scene.

          Rice couldn’t get arrested either.

        • to Dud Brain

          So did Marissa Alexander. Alexander, an African American woman, didn’t cross state lines looking for trouble. It found her. Per her testimony, after fleeing her abusive, estranged husband after he broke through a locked door and shoved her to the floor, she fired a warning shot at him. No one was hurt.

          She was sentenced to 20 years.

          Now tell me Dud Brain why do you keep insisting that there is no racism against black people by the court systems and by the police or by white society. It will be interesting to see you try and lie your way out of this one Herr Hauptman.

        • “tell me Dud Brain why do you keep insisting that there is no racism against black people”

          Is that what I said? Why don’t you quote me on that? There you go putting words in my mouth again. Making up things I said, insulting me, and screaming racist is all you have. You’re incapable of treating people as individuals, just like you’re incapable of having a normal conversation with someone you may not agree with. Everyone is a stereotype to you. That’s also how the KKK viewed people.

          I’m not familiar with the above case. That isn’t the subject here. Maybe people were racist toward that lady, and maybe they weren’t. There’s also such a thing as a bad verdict and a bad cop. I never claimed racism doesn’t exist. It will always exist, so there will always be examples of it.

        • “Your pathetic excuse of not being alive then is laughable.”

          Your comment must have been moderated earlier. I didn’t see it.

          There was this thing called the Civil Rights Movement. We addressed those issues. We will never eradicate it. It says something that you have to go back sixty years to prove that racism is everywhere. What does it say?

        • “And should either boy have paid with their lives or their deaths for it?”

          It looks like you’re trying to prove that the police target black men by comparing two high profile cases. This is a media and politician-driven narrative made for people like you. It has been proven false on multiple occasions by examining the data instead of going with the emotional narrative. But don’t take my word for it…

          An Empirical Analysis of Racial Differences in Police Use of Force, July 2017

          Roland G. Fryer, Jr. is an American economist. In 2007, at age 30, he became the youngest African-American to be given tenure at Harvard University

          “on the most extreme use of force – officer-involved shootings – we are unable to detect any racial differences in either the raw data or when accounting for controls.”

          https://scholar.harvard.edu/fryer/publications/empirical-analysis-racial-differences-police-use-force

  18. This Adam Sewer guy is nothing but a tr0ll with a byline. And what I’ve learned about tr0lls is that debating them or arguing with them is a waste of time and energy. The only thing one can say to a tr0ll is: go fvck yourself.

    So, Sewer, go fvck yourself. And I really mean it.

  19. When you are REALLY scared for your life, (as in combat of any type) there are NO rules, PERIOD…
    Only a moron would not do any thing possible to avoid the reaper. Unless they wanted to cross over to the other side, which some people do.

  20. Judge: “Why’d you shoot that man, Bubba?”
    Bubba: “Yer Honor, some people jest need killin’.”
    Judge: ” Case dismissed.”

    • Protester Tammy: As she’s standing in the middle of the road in front of an approaching car, she is shocked that she was struck by the car. Wow

      • To Dud Brain

        The female occupant of the car was screaming at the male driver to stop trying to kill her. Now Racist Dud Brain try and lie your way out of this one. As usual Dud Brain you are way out of your league.

        • Was this a racist incident? Do you have any proof that the driver targeted poor Tammy because of her skin color? What sort of moron stands in the middle of the road while a car is approaching, then acts shocked when they get hit? It’s a rhetorical question. Everyone knows the answer is a Democrat.

  22. And lets remember one thing if Rittenhouse had been black and shot 3 white men right now he would be on his way to prison and execution.

    • But he wasn’t. Hypohthecials, dacian, are nice thought exercises but do not comport with the reality of this incident. Perhaps you’d care to comment on the “protesters”, AKA rioters, and their lack of arrest and prosecution.

        • The truth is that Rittenhouse is white, and those trying to inflict great bodily harm or death upon him were white. There was zero racial bias involved in the actual acts of self defense.

          Had the same defense and situation and same evidence and testimony happened but the defendant was black, the same verdict would have been rendered as Kyle got because there was simply no other way based upon evidence and testimony that any other verdict could have come about.

          stop it with you made up hypotheticals and your racists attitude.

  23. Lost in the hoopla:

    Jaleel Stallings, a black man charged with attempted murder after firing at Minneapolis police officers in the protests that followed George Floyd’s death, was acquitted of all charges against him.

    Andrew coffee, a black ex-con, was acquitted on charges of second-degree murder and three counts of attempted murder of law enforcement after shooting at cops during a SWAT drug raid. He was convicted only on the charge of being a felon in possession of a gun.

    Self defense is valid for black people as well as white people. Anyone who says that black people are somehow ineligible can go fvck himself.

    • to Ralph

      Marissa Alexander. Alexander, an African American woman, didn’t cross state lines looking for trouble. It found her. Per her testimony, after fleeing her abusive, estranged husband after he broke through a locked door and shoved her to the floor, she fired a warning shot at him. No one was hurt.

      She was sentenced to 20 years.

      • that’s not accurate. she got convicted because basically she lied about the circumstances. She claimed she tried to get away because her husband attacked her and threatened to kill her, and tried to get away through the garage where the car was with the gun. She claimed the door would not open and she could not get away. But it was discovered there was nothing wrong with the door.

        Then she got the gun from the car and went back inside and fired a “warning shot” (she claimed). She was claiming self defense under Florida stand-your-ground law, a law that allows self-defense, such as lethal force, in life-threatening situations, but did not allow warning shots and she also endangered the lives of two children with her warning shot. All the evidence pointed to her being angry, and not in fear, and intentionally going to get the gun and not get away, that is not stand-your-ground and that’s why she was convicted. Her claims were so obviously false that it only took the jury 12 minutes to decide.

        Under stand-your-ground you can’t claim to have run away, then lie about not being able to escape, then in anger get a gun and come back firing warnings shots endangering children or another adult.

        An appellate court ordered a new trial, finding the only issue being that the jury instructions in Alexander’s trial impermissibly shifted the burden of proof from the prosecution to the defense.

        In her second trial she had legal assistance. The new trial had basically the same findings as the original trial but the result was on January 27, 2015, Alexander was released from a jail under a plea deal that capped her sentence to the three years she had already served. She pleaded guilty to three counts of aggravated assault for firing a shot in the direction of her husband. She also agreed to serve two years of house arrest, wearing an ankle monitor. She will be allowed to work, attend classes and take her children to school and medical appointments.

        Warning shots at the time were not permitted. After her case, and as a result of it due to pressure from civil rights and women’s groups the law was changed to allow warning shots under stand-your-ground. Since that time 17 innocent people, including children, all residents in the homes invaded, have been injured by “warning shots” from black female “home defenders” claiming someone was trying to break in or had “threatened” them.

        This happened because she was guilty, not because she was black and essentially in her second trial she pleaded guilty.

        • I have a feeling that lil’ d never closely examined the facts of the case and came to his own conclusion. The media tells him to jump and he obediently jumps.

        • Dude,

          dacian the stupid has never examined ANYTHING other than his navel or his willie (he needs a magnifying glass for that). dacian is an EXTREMELY ‘special’ kind of stupid.

        • possum,

          What’s your evidence that (1) dacian the stupid ever had a brain to start with, or (2) that he has ever known a loving touch (other than Rosie Palm)??

          I propose, as an alternate hypothesis, that dacian the stupid was BORN stupid, had no ability to progress beyond that, and loudly trumpets his SUPPOSED educational achievements in compensation for his very low IQ (and his very, very small manhood).

  24. Although I am so far to the right that I consider Atillah the Gun and Ghengis Kahn to be effete liberals, the author alludes to a legitimate point. The FBI-UCR data reveals an extreme paucity of justifiable homicides by Black people. It is absurd to suggest that there are not any innocent Black people living in our crime ravaged cities where the himicide rate is a hundred times greater than in rural counties seldom employ deadly force to protect themselves from criminals. I know of a number of examples in my area where Black crime victims were maliciously prosecuted for defending themselves. One of the most egregious examples is a mother who shot her estranged husband who was a professional heavyweight boxer after he announced in front of multiple witnesses his intention to knock her out.

    I suspect that many of the nation’s vast number of unsolved homicides of Blacks as well as Whites are legitimate self defense by innocent victims who had the good sense to just shoot, not shovel, and shut up.

    • … and a skate board and plane ticket to Portland.

      Ok, just kidding about the skateboard and plane ticket and Portland.

      but really, “Gun Owners of America” are giving Rittenhouse a new AR-15.

  27. A leftist in a mainstream, “respectable” magazine is bashing an ancient basic universal legal custom as white supremacy, all because a trial didn’t go the way he wanted it to.

    There are no limits at all to the left’s rapid descent into complete madness. God help us

  28. That’s a lot of stupid in one article…” White Fragility’??? I dunno,sounds like it falls into the continuum that ranges from Wishful Thinking to Full On Racism.
    Writer probably fetishizes the groups of people that he/ she/ Them/ They/ Dafuq Over,? purports to care so much about.

  29. There is a paradox of fragility here, in which a moment of fear—perhaps one imbuing the deceased with supernatural strength

    Evidently never heard of adrenalin.

  30. Does this guy understand what a paradox is?

    A paradox is a seemingly absurd or self-contradictory statement or proposition that when investigated or explained may prove to be well founded or true

    And I can only assume he is aware that “White Fragility” is a nonsensical book of “assumptions” written by a WHITE woman…

  31. Serwer must be the brother of Gersh Kuntzman, the Left-wing journo who claimed PTSD after firing an AR-15 on a range.

  32. That commie POS Serwer can take a sugar-frosted F**k off the end of my d**k.
    [Urge to start Physical Removal intensifies]

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