Al Mayadeen English

  • Ar
  • Es
  • x
Al Mayadeen English

Slogan

  • News
    • Politics
    • Economy
    • Sports
    • Arts&Culture
    • Health
    • Miscellaneous
    • Technology
    • Environment
  • Articles
    • Opinion
    • Analysis
    • Blog
    • Features
  • Videos
    • NewsFeed
    • Video Features
    • Explainers
    • TV
    • Digital Series
  • Infographs
  • In Pictures
  • • LIVE
News
  • Politics
  • Economy
  • Sports
  • Arts&Culture
  • Health
  • Miscellaneous
  • Technology
  • Environment
Articles
  • Opinion
  • Analysis
  • Blog
  • Features
Videos
  • NewsFeed
  • Video Features
  • Explainers
  • TV
  • Digital Series
Infographs
In Pictures
  • Africa
  • Asia
  • Asia-Pacific
  • Europe
  • Latin America
  • MENA
  • Palestine
  • US & Canada
BREAKING
President al-Mashat: Our armed forces, represented by our air defenses, will soon turn the Zionist enemy’s aircraft into a subject of ridicule.
President al-Mashat: Good news about the Zionist enemy’s aircraft used in aggression against our country will reach you soon, God willing.
President al-Mashat: Our armed forces will be able to deal with hostile Zionist aircraft without causing any harm to air or maritime navigation.
President al-Mashat: To ensure the safety of airliners, they must avoid navigating along the routes used by the Zionist entity to carry out aggression against our country.
Yemeni President Mahdi al-Mashat: For the safety of air and maritime navigation in areas where our armed forces operate, we have directed that the routes used by the Zionist enemy to attack our country be designated as dangerous.
Hamas official says despite this, Hamas leadership is currently undertaking a thorough review of the new proposal
Hamas official says the response fails to meet any of the just and legitimate demands of our people
Hamas official says it is clear that the Israeli response fundamentally seeks to entrench the occupation
Reuters citing Hamas official: Group received Israeli response to Witkoff proposal
Sources to Al Mayadeen: The news regarding a press conference tonight by the head of the Hamas movement in the Gaza Strip, Khalil Al-Hayya, is false.

Kyle Rittenhouse: The White-Only American Dream (Part I)

  • By Mohammad Al-Jaber
  • Source: Al Mayadeen
  • 23 Nov 2021
  • 10 Shares
7 Min Read

When you are able to walk scot-free after killing civilians protesting against inequality and racial discrimination, you know you're in the white man's country, America.

  • x
  • Kyle Rittenhouse was absolved from spilling the blood of civilians protesting for racial equality, which reflects an issue in the US justice system
    Kyle Rittenhouse was absolved from spilling the blood of civilians protesting for racial equality, which reflects an issue in the US justice system

The United States justice system proved not only to be absolutely incompetent but also incredibly biased toward white people after the Kyle Rittenhouse trial. This trial saw a criminal walking scot-free after murdering two men and wounding another.

The crime unfolded during protests in Kenosha, Wisconsin, against systemic racism in the police.

Joseph Rosenbaum and Anthony Huber, two white males, lost their lives, and the US justice system did not bat an eye. Perhaps that had to do with the two defending a black cause: racially-fueled police brutality.

From an "innocent" teenager to a murderer

We must go back to the origin of the incident to accurately understand the situation, so here is how it unfolded:

Jacob Blake

On August 23, 2020, a police officer shot a black man, Jacob Blake, in Kenosha, the same city that became a place for Rittenhouse to live out his violent fantasies under US auspices.

Blake was brutally shot seven times before his children by white police officer Rusten Sheskey, leaving him paralyzed from the waist down and damaging his stomach, kidney, and liver. Blake also had to undergo surgery to remove his colon and most of his small intestines after Sheskey showed no hesitation to shoot him in the back and side.

Blake had been trying to break up a fight between two women when the police were called on him, and he had been trying to get into his vehicle when Sheskey shot him, adversely altering the course of his life without accountability.

This act of police brutality sparked national and international outrage; another white cop committed an act of violence against another black civilian following unrest over the summer of 2020 in light of the BLM protests that took place after the murder of George Floyd.

The aftermath

People all over the US took to the streets after Blake's shooting to protest against police brutality in acts that were described as "riots," but is it so wrong to "riot" against a system in which racism is deeply rooted?

Related News

US-Israeli Gaza aid plan is catastrophic, inhumane: MSF

US, E3 to push IAEA to declare Iran in breach of nuclear commitments

One protest, in particular, was in the limelight over 17-year-old teenager-turned-criminal targeting civilians who had been protesting for a pivotal cause: Racial justice. 

The protest in question here is the one that took place in Kenosha, which saw brutal suppression of protests that resulted in clashes between civilians, the police, and militias who, under the pretext of "protecting lives and property," used violence against civilians. Some reports even suggest that the police deputized militia vigilantes during the aforementioned protests.

"Self-defense"

The situation took a devastating turn (that the judiciary apparently did not perceive as so more than a year later) when a bunch of armed men showed up at the protest alleging "protection."

The men who came to the protest - some of whom were from different states and cities, such as Kyle Rittenhouse - did so with malicious intent. What else would prompt you to bring an AR to another city, or even state, other than murderous intent?

Upon seeing Kyle armed with an AR-15 - which he claimed, in an interview ahead of committing the crime, was for "his job": "protecting this business" and "defending the property" - protestors went after him intending to disarm the dangerously armed teen.

A video of the encounter showed a group of protestors running after an armed Rittenhouse. The protestors caught up when Rittenhouse stumbled and fell to the ground. The assailant shot those who were attempting to disarm him.

Kyle had just fatally shot one of those pursuing him, Joseph Rosenbaum - an unarmed man - four times. Rosenbaum fell to the ground almost instantly, and that was victim number one. With that, the number of protestors pursuing him increased due to them seeing what he was capable of.

Yet one person was not enough for Rittenhouse, for he shot Anthony Huber, who had a skateboard in hand, once in the chest, taking his life shortly thereafter. For those who argue it was self-defense, it's like apples to oranges. A skateboard, logically, is no match to a firearm.

The trial

Kyle Rittenhouse's trial, such as many things affiliated with the United States, was said to be nothing short of disgraceful. A criminal facing charges of reckless endangerment of safety, intentional homicide, attempted homicide, and use of a dangerous weapon, walked from a trial that would have had anyone, had they not been white, sentenced to life in prison with multiple life sentences.

One cannot make such a bold statement without providing evidence for their claims, so let's go on a tangent about how discriminatory the justice system and its accomplice, the police force, are.

Racial injustice in the US

Altogether, the United States is notorious for having the highest prisoner rate, with 639 prisoners per 100,000 people, and having the largest prisoner population, which is incredibly lucrative for the US prison-industrial complex.

Not only that, but Uncle Sam's land has vast disparities in terms of imprisoned population by ethnicity. As of 2019, the US had an earth-shattering 1,096 black prisoners per 100,000 black people and 525 Hispanic prisoners per 100,000 Hispanic people while having 214 of its fair whites imprisoned per 100,000 white people. Black minors are not exempted from discrimination. Only compromising 15% of minors in the US, black children made up 35% of all juvenile arrests in the leader country of the Free World. These numbers reflect the deep-rooted racism in the US justice system, which is infamous for its sentencing disparities when it comes to ethnicity and race - not to mention class. 

Judiciary

The crème de la crème of racism in the United States isn't about the fact that there are more people of color incarcerated than whites, but the fact that black people are prone to face a harsher sentence for the same crime as a white person. On average, black offenders received sentences 19.1% longer than similarly situated white male offenders. 

Non-government sponsored departures and variances largely contribute to the schism in sentencing, for they allow judges to make sentences at their own discretion. That, in turn, brings color to a system that is not supposed to see color and therefore lays waste to judicial neutrality. 

To add insult to injury, black males are 21.2% less likely to receive non-government sponsored departures and variances than white males, and if they do did receive one, their sentences are 16.8% longer than that of white males. 

An aspect that proves the absence of equity in the judiciary system is that 28 states do not have a single black justice, 40 states do not have a single Latino justice, 44 states do not have a single Asian justice, and 47 states do not have a single Native American justice.

The US justice system seems to be running into many walls trying to distance itself from seeming racist, but figures suggest otherwise. The same goes with the police, which will be reflected upon, alongside key aspects of Kyle Rittenhouse's trial, in an upcoming article.

  • United States
  • Wisconsin
  • Jacob Blake
  • Black Lives Matter
  • Kyle Rittenhouse

Most Read

US judges quietly consider private security amid Trump tensions

US judges quietly consider private security amid Trump pressures

  • US & Canada
  • 25 May 2025
President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu arrive to a news conference in the East Room of the White House, Tuesday, Feb. 4, 2025, in Washington (AP)

Rift widens: Trump, Netanyahu clash in heated phone call over Iran

  • Politics
  • 26 May 2025
An Israeli army vehicle moves in the Gaza Strip as seen from southern occupied Palestine, Thursday, May 29, 2025 (AP)

Hamas rejects Witkoff ceasefire plan, says alters terms

  • Politics
  • 29 May 2025
Iran advisor reveals details of US-Iran nuclear talks to Al Mayadeen

Iran advisor reveals details of US-Iran nuclear talks: Al Mayadeen

  • MENA
  • 24 May 2025

Coverage

All
War on Gaza

Read Next

All
Doctors weigh a Palestinian baby at the Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) clinic in Muwasi, near Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip, Tuesday, April 8, 2025 (AP)
Health

US-Israeli Gaza aid plan is catastrophic, inhumane: MSF

Smoke rises following an Israeli airstrike on Latakia governorate on May 30, 2025 (Social media)
Politics

Israeli airstrikes hit military targets across western Syria

An Iranian security official in protective clothing walks through part of the Uranium Conversion Facility just outside the Iranian city of Isfahan, March 30, 2005. (AP)
Politics

US, E3 to push IAEA to declare Iran in breach of nuclear commitments

A Syrian soldier closes the gate of a military base on the outskirts of Harasta, near Damascus, Syria, Saturday, May 3, 2025 (AP)
Politics

Syrians expel Israeli patrol in Quneitra amid rising tensions

Al Mayadeen English

Al Mayadeen is an Arab Independent Media Satellite Channel.

All Rights Reserved

  • x
  • Privacy Policy
  • About Us
  • Contact Us
  • Authors
Android
iOS