NY Times Again Links Rittenhouse Self-Defense With Paranoia Over Paramilitaries

Following up on his 10,000-word expose last month during the trial of Kyle Rittenhouse over shootings in Kenosha, Wisconsin during a race riot, New York Times reporter Charles Homans on Monday delivered another 1,600 words of paranoia fretting over “mostly white armed paramilitaries” in the aftermath of Rittenhouse’s acquittal, “In Rittenhouse Verdict, Paramilitary Groups See Vindication.”

What is the subhead? The subhead? The right to armed response to unrest and racial justice protests is supported.” This is the problem: that somehow a white teen’s self-defense is horrendous, but you can combine the phrases “racial justice” and “unrest” without seeing any intellectual incoherence.

Homans was the one who gave life to this story:

Kyle Rittenhouse was waiting in Kenosha’s courtroom for his verdict. On Friday, a large, tall, and beardless man sat several rows behind Rittenhouse. As a court clerk announced Mr. Rittenhouse’s acquittal on all charges, a faint smile passed across the man’s lips.

That man would be Kevin Mathewson, “a prominent and divisive figure in Kenosha” who created the armed group Kenosha Guard “to deter rioting/looting” amid demonstrations in Kenosha after the police killing of Jacob Blake. Just as he did in October, Homans tried to discredit Rittenhouse by linking him to far-right “paramilitaries,” even though he found no connection between Rittenhouse and the Kenosha Guard founder with which he leads his story.

…No evidence has ever been presented to link Mr. Rittenhouse, whom Mr. Mathewson claimed he never met, with his post on Facebook.. But his proximity to the incident led to him being banned from Facebook, where his Aug. 25 post had been flagged repeatedly for violating the platform’s ban on militia activity and had left an aura of suspicion around him.

After Mr. Rittenhouse was acquitted Mr. Mathewson now feels the same. Cleared by the association….

This paper Liberal priorities are again evident with more concern for armed men protecting property than for the Black Lives Matter-affiliated protesters destroying it. Race is everything.

Some white vigilante groups were openly racist and violently responded to Black community unrest in several cities in the 1960s. Often, they had the support or acquiescence of the local police.The photographs showing Korean American owners of businesses in Los Angeles fighting for their homes during the 1992 riots are a landmark for Second Amendment advocates.

No mention is made that one of the Rittenhouse’s attackers, Gaige Grosskreutz, drew his own gun on Rittenhouse. Where’s the condemnation of armed Antifa vigilantism? ….Being armed is acceptable when you are on the “right” side of history.

Homans was ended by a black activist of racial origin bitterly alleging that racism prevented him from openly carrying a firearm like Rittenhouse. As if Rittenhouse somehow got away without being charged, or even worse.

To [Raymond] Roberts, the Rittenhouse verdict was a stark reminder of who was likely to be seen by the police and jury members as “helping” in a situation like the one Mr. Rittenhouse placed himself in, and who was not. “I have to be honest and say I’m angry because I’m jealous,” he said.

“That 17-year-old white boy, this country belongs to him more than it’ll ever belong to me. It doesn’t matter how many years I did in the Army, how much taxes I pay. I can’t do what he did. I can’t walk around in the middle of the night open carrying,” Mr. Roberts said.