2 trials, 1 theme: White men taking law into their own hands

"The trials of Kyle Rittenhouse and three men accused of killing Ahmaud Arbery had vastly different outcomes. But coming just days apart, they laid bare a dangerous and long-running current in the fight for racial equality: The move by some white Americans to grab guns and take their own stand against perceptions of lawlessness, particularly by Black people....

"Should peace of mind for white Americans come at the expense of the protection and safety of Black Americans?....

" 'This is a product of a gun culture. It’s also a product of laws ... that give white men with guns the ability to create chaos and sometimes get away with it,' said Waldman, author of 'The Second Amendment: A Biography.' "...

"White vigilantism signifies 'the need to keep the Black population, particularly the Black male population, under surveillance and under control,' said writer Darryl Pinckney. It has evolved over time, but there is a long history in the U.S. of people taking the law into their own hands — and of white Americans using that as a pretext to violently enforce racial boundaries."
https://apnews.com/article/ahmaud-a...al-injustice-5a9b847506d388b7358b7de8b9079bb2

I think the two cases show some of the problems caused by allowing people to carry guns in public. The US Supreme Court should take into careful consideration the full extent of such problems when ruling on the issue of whether or not there is a right to pack heat.

 

You do realize that Rittenhouse didn't shoot any Black people, right?

You do realize that the three mopes that killed Arbury weren't carrying their guns in public, but rather took them from their homes to the pickup truck to chase Arbery, right?

 

Guns keep a population sane and safe against murderers in red SUV's.

 

Then stop defunding the damn police.

 

Here in my Texas town we just voted for pay increases and MORE funding for the police. We laugh at the crazy blue cities that seem to like crime.

 

Nice to see you start a racist thread as people are becoming quite wise to the notion to divide Americans. Next thread you start should be "the move by black Americans to bust in windows and loot in mass!"

 

Lady Justice is blindfolded. Race isn't an issue.

 

Damn, given the voracious appetite of Whites for killing Blacks at every turn (sez the wacky wokies) it's a wonder there's any left in this country, much less the world!

 

It's a wonder they are clamoring to get across our Southern border to be killed by whites!

 

2 trials, 2 different circumstances, 2 different outcomes

What's this topic about?

 

Yeah, its all about that nasty FUD. FUD is the root cause of everything! (What the heck is FUD?)

 

Fear, Uncertainty, Doubt.

 

Wow.. that opens up all sorts of discussion.FUD has always been with us, but it only recently that it has led to burning and looting from Seattle to LA to Kenosha to Ferguson to Minneapolis to NYC and more. Sure, we've seen such hateful destruction before, but it was usually appended to war protests and such. When I was growing up, trashing a police car or looting a Macy's was unheard of. If we saw something we didn't like... we voted in new people.
I lived through the Viet Nam War, have been shot at from Grenada to Iraq and been angry about lots of things. But violence as a solution never occurred to me.
I'm officially an old fart and have never experienced FUD... until now. America's cowardice in leaving Afghanistan has given our foes more encouragement than ever in our history. America was always a force to be feared and our enemies did fear us. Now, with Biden's cut and run, we are an object of ridicule. Modern China has never had an opportunity to go on the warpath like they do now. Taiwan is toast. The same with some of our new Eastern European allies, although which of those nations will bear the brunt of the horror is difficult to determine right now.
Meanwhile, inflation will mean my kids and grandkids will never enjoy the quality of life that I did. A tyrannical government stretching its dictatorial wings will mean they will never travel as I did, eat as I did, develop a dream home as I did... or even enjoy a propaganda-free education as I did.
So you may have nailed it. While FUD may be different things to different people, most Americans today are suffering from their own generational FUD, and reacting to it in their own personal way. As I think about that I cannot help but conclude that this situation is a solid definition of CHAOS... now... here...for just about everyone.

 

Nothing original here, this is just a copy and paste from other sources.

But typical of the anti-gun crowd.

 

While I understand your point, I feel compelled to say that even the definition of "vigilantism" is chocked full of racism.

A white person defending their family, home, business and anything they feel is in imminent danger is absolutely acceptable.

That's not how it plays out for non-white people doing the exact same thing to protect themselves and their own.

The only reason that these hot topics are even part of the political landscape is that, We, the People, tolerate it. Until we demand better representation and follow-through on campaign promises, we are going to circle this mulberry bush for eternity.

AdF, you're looking at this from the wrong direction. Politicians are NOT making this happen. We are. They are just saying what they think we want to hear to keep getting re-elected. The moment that everybody turns off the television, the Wi-Fi and all print newspapers and actually engage with those with whom they disagree politically, there would be no choice but to work toward real solutions that not only benefit both sides but sets the precedent that we, The People, are tired of their poisonous mind games of "us v. them".

At the end of the day, we are ALL Americans and we can figure out how to swim together or drown together. It's that simple and note that our enemies are keeping a close eye on us imploding over relatively non-consequential issues. Hate does nothing productive.

Back in college, I interned in a political office and had nothing to do with residents in that district. One day, a call got routed to me incorrectly and I ended up listening to somebody complain for about 20 minutes about her trash bins not being picked up on schedule. I called the head of Streets and Sanitation and informed him of the situation and asked if he could get it resolved. He assured me he could and a truck was re-routed to her address within the hour. As no good deed goes unpunished, I was officially assigned to talking to irate constituents. LOL

And, over the years, while none of my official titles included "advocacy", all of them were.

It's impossible to fix a problem that one won't even acknowledge exists. The only way to "tone this down" is for us to start talking to the people we really don't want to talk to. It's time for us to step up and say "this is not working, we have to figure out another game plan." It sounds easy but it's not. Distancing ourselves from our own perspective and making the effort to understand other people's perspective IS hard work.

In reality, however, we can choose to do that hard work together as Americans or we can be told what we are going to do when a more unified country and people determine that we are at our most vulnerable when we are at our weakest (fighting amongst ourselves).

No worries there. Racism and both sides of 2A (and both sides of Roe v. Wade) will be argued about for the next 4,987,536 years. Nothing is going to give there.

We need to find some inroads in "meeting in the middle" on many other issues. Like it or not, idiots wilk keep shooting one another and people are going to get pregnant even if they don't want to be. Let our descendants 2,000 years from now figure that out. How about we focus on the divisions between us on less volatile problems? Where can we start bridging those gaps, first?

 

With regards to gun control, what does "meet in the middle" mean to you?

 

There is a RIGHT to bear arms. There is a RIGHT to vote. Can you imagine anyone suggesting we had to "meet in the middle" on the right to vote?

 

But per the article he shot the "white allies of Black liberation".

At one point, the man with the shotgun exited his vehicle. The altercation with Arbery happened soon after. He was carrying his gun in public at that time.

 

Yup, an untrained good guy with a gun is not a good thing. We need more trained good guys with guns.

 

Whatever. Politics does make for strange bedfellows if those are the allies the Black liberation movement wants.

And a law that says "don't carry a gun in public" will matter to those intent on committing a crime?

 

Agree with a lot of that.

...but on what basis are you defining the Rittenhouse shootings as vigilantism?

Just to make sure we're all talking about the same thing...
https://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/vigilante - "someone who personally claims to enforce law and order, but lacks legal authority to do so"

 

AdF, I understand your position. I really do, BUT (smile), racists people usually aren't aware that they are racist. That's why they get offended when being called out on it. In their minds, as long as they are not lynching people, using racial slurs or actively hurting the object of their bigotry, they file themselves as "not racist". So, what you're proposing isn't possible because the "problem" doesn't register as a problem for them.

For example, if you do a search for "Ashli Babbitt" you will see many people elevating her to sainthood. Yet, these very same people dismiss and rationalize it when a non-white person is killed by police officers. The reason this happens is they are unaware that their whole way of thinking is prejudicial.

I had to do a project in school in which I had to research and write a proposal on how to address a social issue. I wrote about inventing machines in which a person's crime(s) were inputted and a verdict would display. The machine wouldn't look at race, sexuality, religious beliefs or anything else not directly related to the charges levied against the person. This idea will never work because our society, even in the courtroom, IS very, very biased and the people that receive the benefit of that bias, do NOT want to go near a truly equal solution.

Some people have complained that it's not okay for non-white people to be represented in tv commercials because they are a (whatever) percentage of our population. It's the same with the argument about CRT. Yet, the people that have those beliefs have not considered that the "exclusion" they feel over these matters is EXACTLY what everyone outside their privilege has experienced their whole lives. And, again, the people that believe these <whatever> about <whatever hated sub-group> can't address the issue because they (1) ignore any problem that doesn't impact them directly or work in a counterproductive way to marginalize any and everything to remain on top, and (2) because they believe the ARE *superior* to other <whatever group> they feel justified in holding onto those limiting beliefs.