Big Bird may be innocent but who can vouch for Elmo?

[lionheart]

thehill.com/homenews/senate/580426-ted-cruz-labels-big-birds-tweet-about-vaccination-propaganda

www.salon.com/2021/11/07/sesame-streets-big-bird-for-promoting-vaccine-brainwashing-children_partner/

Old thread:
www.mumsnet.com/Talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/4305074-To-filibuster-or-not-to-filibuster-Biden-needs-to-get-a-move-on-before-Doofus-Duck-waddles-back-into-the-swamp-Biden-Trump-Thread-128

@PerkingFaintly

Wow.

I know the judge tried to tip it, but that's still incredible.

BBC News currently just has "cleared of homicide after claiming self-defence". Waiting to see details; I can't remember if there were other charges.

All other charges were dismissed by the judge during the trial. They were all weapons related charges and in a lot of legal pundit's views were the only charges that had a (snowball in hell's) chance of a guilty verdict.

Now "cleared of homicide and all other counts".

Gawd.

That is not a good precedent.

Ah thanks, Across. I thought there had been firearms charges. Judge got those out of the way for his good ol' boy, then.

I just saw it on breaking news

The Daily Show's take on it
JUST IN: Judge Schroeder sentences Kyle Rittenhouse to come give him a big hug

Before the verdict.

www.chicagotribune.com/columns/rex-huppke/ct-rittenhouse-kyle-closing-arguments-trial-jury-verdict-shooting-kenosha-huppke-20211112-2oer6gx7cjfqxbxrm3wrghfykq-story.html

'We should — all of us — be disgusted with Kyle Rittenhouse. The fact that all of us aren’t is a problem. A profound one.'

Making heroes out of youthful killers isn't new, though. How old was Billy the Kid when he shot his first man?

I've only been following it off and on, so have missed a lot about the evolution of the charges. Including this:

eu.jsonline.com/story/news/crime/2021/11/12/jury-instruction-may-clear-kyle-rittenhouse-gun-possession-charge-kenosha/8588970002/
Rittenhouse is charged with first-degree reckless homicide in the death of Joseph Rosenbaum. To prove that charge, the state has to show Rittenhouse acted with utter disregard for human life.

Prosecutors want the jury to find Rittenhouse guilty of second-degree reckless homicide if they found all the other elements of the crime except utter disregard for human life.

Schroeder declined that request, and will give the standard instruction for first-degree reckless homicide and one about self-defense. Rittenhouse maintains all eight shots he fired that night of Aug. 25, 2020 were in self-defense.

I remember a similar cascade of charges from the trial of the cop who killed George Floyd. It gives the jury the choice of finding someone guilty of a lesser charge, if they don't feel the first-degree charge is merited.

Of course there may be very good legal reasons why the judge refused to allow a second-degree homicide to be considered, but it created an "all or nothing" choice for the jury.

I am so sad to see the Rittenhouse sentence. What has the world come to?
I cannot begin to imagine what the families with deceased are coping with this. I cannot get my head round this at all. AR15s and crossing into other states and gunning down people. Innocent.

As for Biden going through a colnoscopy... I have two people who have been through this recently. It's unpleasant but cope-able with depending on age. Good on him having anaethsthetic for this because it's not pleasant.

Great Kamala is stepping in

On a brighter note, KH was President for a while today.

edition.cnn.com/2021/11/19/politics/kamala-harris-presidential-power/index.html?utm_medium=social&utm_source=twCNN&utm_term=link&utm_content=2021-11-19T15%3A22%3A28

www.thedailybeast.com/judge-bruce-schroeders-six-most-shocking-moments-at-the-kyle-rittenhouse-trial?source=articles&via=rss

www.msnbc.com/the-reidout/reidout-blog/kyle-rittenhouse-acquitted-homicide-rcna5748

'The shooter’s homicide acquittal coddles conservatives and may lead to even more violence.'

twitter.com/SpectrumNews1WI/status/1461771217560559625?t=SVh09Byes_djj6Qaoo7QvA&s=19

Reading this just makes me feel so sad

Statement from one of the victims families.

And yes..they were victims

The victim's families still have the option to file wrongful death lawsuits. A criminal conviction isn't required and it's a different (lower) standard of proof since it's a civil matter.

A pretty cold comfort for them though, especially considering they'd be filing the lawsuits in the same jurisdiction.

Amber Ruffin.

twitter.com/i/status/1461870102060535813

"I am so sad to see the Rittenhouse sentence. What has the world come to?
I cannot begin to imagine what the families with deceased are coping with this. I cannot get my head round this at all. AR15s and crossing into other states and gunning down people. Innocent."

This may sound ridiculously dramatic, but I burst into tears this morning when I read he'd been acquitted. It is so, so, so, wrong.

@Jconnais1chansonquivavsenerver

I get that. He's a snivelling baby faced killer as far as I'm concerned.

I started reading the thread in chat last night, I had to stop as so many posters were posting self defence and quite a few thought the victims weren't a big loss.
He went there with an AR15

I don't think I will ever understand this 'right to bear arms' culture, it is so alien to me.

If he did not intend to fire the gun, why did he have it with him?

At whom did he intend to fire it?

This is a kid who went armed with intent to commit a felony, at the very least.

Oh, and his little friend who procured the thing for him should be up on a charge, I am sure there must be one, illegally supplying a lethal weapon to a minor perhaps.

CNN's explanation

edition.cnn.com/2021/11/19/us/legal-experts-what-helped-rittenhouse-acquittal/index.html

"no real provocation going on"

Killing someone is clearly not provoking at all. I mean, it's quite normal, ordinary behaviour, isn't it? Going to a town you never visited before, in a state where you don't live, armed with a lethal weapon which you use to kill someone, isn't provocative in any way. Boys will be boys, and that was just a bit of boyish fun.

Clearly I shall never understand a mindset which deems it ok to kill a random stranger just because you can. Very Johnny Cash: "shot a man in Reno just to watch him die."

And dear God, he plans to be a nurse.

(No, to be fair, his dad lived in Kenosha so he did know the place, but even so. Travelled there in order to involve himself in what he believed to be likely to be a situation in which guns might be used -- carrying a gun and then firing it.)

What happened to the charge of illegal type weapon at his age thing? Was that dismissed too?