Both sides have issues in Rittenhouse trial but the Left is worse
By Ray Hanania
The Kyle Rittenhouse trial and case were turned into a political weapon to fuel the ugly polarization that has divided this country politically. The Political Far Right and the Political Far Left are to blame, but the Left, with the backing of a biased news media, is worse.
That polarization has a political benefit for both sides. What polarization does is freeze people politically and it prevents people from turning on their political leaders.
In polarization, Democrats and Republicans remain rigid in their views, brushing aside commonsense, closing their eyes to truth, and embracing whatever lies they need to justify their views.
Commonsense and reason went out the window in order to fuel a political war.
The lies and the hypocrisy were many. Democrat Congresswoman Karen Bass, a fanatic from California, led the charge of lies asserting falsely that Rittenhouse’s mother drove him from his Antioch, Illinois home to participate in the protests in Kenosha.
Those protests began in response to the police shooting of Jacob Blake, an African American who was carrying a knife and was wanted on an outstanding warrant for sexual assault, was shot by police responding to a 911 call when Blake tried to flee on August 23, 2020.
Two days later, during a series of violent protests, 17-year-old Kyle Rittenberg drove himself to Kenosha to participate. He was given an AR-15 semi-automatic rifle by a friend who bought it for him in an illegal purchase.
The Kenosha protests fed off of the summer protests that followed in the wake of the police shooting of George Floyd, a drugged up pretty criminal who resisted arrest. His death sparked a wave of violence, destruction and even killings across the United States that summer leading up the Kenosha shooting.
Kyle Rittenhouse is guilty of being a moron, but not of First Degree murder. Rittenhouse was attacked by several protesters, who in fairness, should be called “rioters.”
The prosecutor exaggerated everything and was more like a witness inserting false allegations as facts during the trial rather than a spirited prosecutor.
One of the victims was Joseph Rosenbaum. The mainstream news media, which leans hard to the political Left, played a big role in fueling the violence all summer including in Kenosha, and manipulating the Rittenhouse facts.
The media made much of Rittenhouse’s past including the fact that Rittenhouse was a rightwing extremist whom they associated with the racist “Proud Boys.”
But they were silent on the backgrounds of the victims, like Joseph Rosenbaum, who served 12 years in prison, and who faced pending charges for alleged domestic violence.
Rosenbaum was a troublemaker, not someone who was protesting for justice for Blake. He threatened Rittenhouse saying he would kill him and then later attacked him. Rittenhouse had the absolute right to shoot him in self-defense.
Rittenhouse was also attacked by Anthony Huber, who hit the defendant with his skateboard and tried to grab the gun. The media reported at length that Huber was a skateboarder with a comedic personality. Court records that the media downplayed, showed he was convicted of domestic violence and served prison time for choking his brother.
The biased news media is feeding the polarization of this country and it will be a long time before we get out of it. Last year, we watched as the protestors looted and destroyed businesses and attacked many innocent people as police were forced to watch helplessly because of reverse racist pressures from politicians like Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot. Everyone has a right to protest but unfortunately that’s not what they do.
THE POLITICAL GRAPEVINE
Former Congressman Bill Lipinski and I host a weekly podcast on politics at TwoGuysonPolitics.com that I hope you visit. We talk about the Rittenhouse trial, the Biden administration and most recently the important but unaddressed needs of Senior Citizens. Two weeks ago, I wrote about a plan I developed to help Seniors who are on Social Security with some outside income that is $100,000 or less. Government should waive all their taxes, income and property taxes, and health insurance costs. During the podcast, we fine-tuned it.
Orland Park’s controversial Mayor Keith Pekau, the epitome of polarization and who barely won re-election last April against former Mayor Dan McLaughlin, has thrown his skepticism of COVID into the race for the new 6th Congressional District running in the Republican Primary. If unchallenged, he would face-off against either Democrat incumbent Marie Newman or incumbent Sean Casten. My money is on Newman who will address the needs of the new district quite well. Although Pekau has no chance of winning, he’ll use the race to artificially boost his political image among his sycophants. Pekau has a bad habit of attacking news media that questions his policies or tries to hold him accountable … while praising any reporters who do what he directs them to do.
I wish everyone a healthy and safe Thanksgiving. If you know of someone in need, please reach out and help them.
( Ray Hanania is an award winning former Chicago City Hall reporter. A political analyst and CEO of Urban Strategies Group, Hanania’s opinion columns on mainstream issues are published in the Southwest News Newspaper Group in the Des Plaines Valley News, Southwest News-Herald, The Regional News, The Reporter Newspapers. His Middle East columns are published in the Arab News. For more information on Ray Hanania visit www.Hanania.com or email him at rghanania@gmail.com.)
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Hanania also writes about Middle East issues for the Arab News, and The Arab Daily News criticizing government policies in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Hanania was named "Best Ethnic American Columnist" by the New America Media in November 2007, and is the 2009 recipient of the SPJ National Sigma Delta Chi Award for column writing.
Email Ray Hanania at rghanania@gmail.com.
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