Kyle Rittenhouse: Who Is Really Responsible?

Whether or not justice prevailed in the Kyle Rittenhouse case will be in the eye of the beholder. I think most of us understood that no matter the outcome, one side or the other would scream injustice.

If you’re on the right, Rittenhouse clearly defended himself from an attack by several people. If you’re on the left, Rittenhouse is a conservative agitator who came to a peaceful protest, with a gun, and intentionally started trouble. For both liberals and conservatives, these beliefs are unmovable facts and the folks they’re defending did absolutely nothing wrong.

However, the reality is that both Rittenhouse and the protestors are to blame fully and equally for what happened that night.

To delineate this, we have to examine two key components. First is victim precipitation theory, then the growing problem of entitlement and lack of social responsibility that has permeated American culture.

First, let’s look at the well-known theory in criminology, specifically victimology: Victim precipitation theory.

Victim precipitation theory examines to what degree people contribute to their own victimization. It looks at three factors. One, attracting factors. These are factors based on choices, options and lifestyles one actively chooses to engage in, such as buying drugs, hanging out with criminal elements, engaging in risky behavior, carrying weapons, etc. Two, precipitating factors, which basically considers good and bad luck, like being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Three, predisposing factors, which are more often viewed as out of control of the victim, such as being female, being single, a minority or being stuck in a cycle of poverty, etc.

Victim precipitation theory doesn’t lay blame on anyone, just simply outlines factors that increase the likelihood that someone could become a victim, be it by choice, by bad luck or by circumstances out of their control. In the Kenosha case, we see a number of attracting factors on both sides, as well as some precipitating factors.

With this in mind, are we really surprised this ended badly? The only real shock that night is how shocked everyone was that this happened considering the behavior of the protestors and Rittenhouse.

Under victim precipitation theory, we have to consider to what degree both parties bear responsibility with what they understood could happen because of the actions they chose to engage in.

In essence, to what degree do you know that if you participate in vandalism or the destruction of property that someone may attempt to stop you? Likewise, to what degree do you understand that wielding a gun during a very active and heated protest may provoke others’ negatively and result in you having to use it?

This is where both sides are 100 percent responsible. Both sides chose to engage in behaviors that amplified the probability that one, or the other, or both, could become victims.

The second component is a bit more complicated. The idea of increased entitlement and a lack of social responsibility.

It seems like in modern society, folks want to create their own version of reality rather than deal with actual reality, because they feel they have some right. Generally, it’s benign behaviors or minor altercations.

For example, a woman who hit another woman at a Florida ice cream parlor in June of 2021 because that woman ordered the last of a specific flavor she wanted. The woman, who felt she was entitled to that ice cream, demanded the other woman hand over her order. The woman refused, and she got punched in the face and her ice cream stolen. When the cops arrested the woman, she argued to the police vehemently that she had been standing in line for 30 minutes and was owed that ice cream.

In her reality, the woman that bought the last serving was being unreasonable by not handing over the ice cream she believed was rightfully hers because of her wait time, so the attack was warranted in her mind. In actual reality, she assaulted a person while attempting to take property from them. She physically assaulted and mugged a woman for ice cream.

That’s what we have here in Kenosha. People living in their own realities, not actual reality. This is where both parties need to check their entitlement, learn some common sense and understand there is a larger social responsibility that everyone needs to consider before engaging in risky behavior. You have a responsibility to society and your own narcissism, perceived rights does not supersede this and will not eliminate society’s response. Just because you think you have a license doesn’t mean someone will not challenge it and the absence of this basic level of common sense is being eroded in America.

Rittenhouse had this attitude.

“I’m going to arm myself with an intimidating weapon and go to a very aggressive protest. No worries. It’s my right. I’m just gonna be hanging out anyway and providing aid. Why would this be an issue?”

This is moronic and a glaring example of someone operating in their own reality, not actual reality. Bringing a gun to this type of situation and thinking it won’t blow up in your face is idiotic, self-indulgent, and recklessly arrogant.

On the flip side, you have some protestors that made equally bad decisions.

“I can vandalize and destroy property, and no one is allowed to stop me. They can’t do anything to me because I’m not hurting anyone physically. It’s all insured.”

To actually believe no one is going to do anything about it because of your entitled attitude is blindingly stupid. Again, this is one’s own reality, not actual reality. In actual reality, someone is likely to come stop the destruction of property and that could lead to someone getting hurt.

It doesn’t matter if your wielding a gun at a very tense and frenzied protest or starting fires and damaging property, this nauseating sense of perceived rights seemingly leads to no understanding of what may happen when you engage in activities that put you in a greater likelihood of becoming a victim.

Somewhere along the way folks traded in common sense and critical thinking that would more often than not prevent these incidents for this new diluted belief in some immunity where their reality operates as a distorted version of actual reality.

Richie McGinniss, the man that filmed the incident in Kenosha, made a statement in court, saying he had a sense that something bad could happen that night because of all the guns in the area.

Really? You think?

For any of us, quick to pick sides based on tribal political instincts, we have to recognize that we’re part of the problem too with how we pick and choose what we want to focus on and what we want to ignore. We, as well as all involved in Kenosha, need to step out of our realities and get back to real reality. At the end of the day, regardless of which side you’re on, we all need to understand that one’s own reality doesn’t protect them from actual reality.

And after the smoke clears, for both sides, what their reality says about what they have a right to do may differ from how actual reality responds. In some cases, nothing really bad happens… in this case, something did.