AIBU to think USA has gone crazy - Karmelo Anthony is a murderer not a victim

[Neutralnames]

From what I have read, Karmelo Anthony (who is black African American) took a concealed knife to a track event. When it started raining he ran to another team's tent to shelter. He was told to leave by a white athlete called Austin Metcalfe. KA refused saying ' 'Touch me and see what happens', According to one account I read he was repeatedly told to leave and replied the same way each time. Austin Metcalfe then pushed KA to get him to leave and KA pulled out the knife and stabbed AM in the chest, killing him.

Apparently sections of America are outraged that KA has now been convicted of murder. Possible sentence range in America is 5 to 99 years for this offence and he got 35 years.

I don't understand how this is not murder. In UK law if you can run away you must, and he didn't. In UK law if you kill someone when you could have run, you will be tried for murder.

KA took a knife. He could have left (even if he thought it was a dick move to ask him to leave when it was raining - you can't murder people for being dickish about their gazebo) but chose to not to, escalating the situation with threatening language and then stabbed a young man in the chest.

I just think something has gone terribly wrong in USA society where this man is treated as a victim, not the person who he killed, and this case is regarded as an injustice against him. I hope the UK does not go down this route.

He was acquitted of murder, so no, he did not murder anyone.

Yawn. It doesn’t matter how many times you say something, it doesn’t make it true. But lying about what your opponents say is a TM of the nutty side of the left 😁. Hope that helps 😂

It is my opinion that if the races had been reversed, Texas probably would have ruled it to be involuntary manslaughter rather than 1st degree premeditated and planned murder. This would have resulted in a much shorter sentence.

The protesters don’t believe KA is ‘the victim’ they are pointing out the negative racial bias against Black men that numerous sociological studies on the American justice system have uncovered.

Should the system let off a proportion of those guilty of murder to even things up a bit?

Involuntary manslaughter requires a finding that the killing was unintentional. That clearly wasn’t the case in this instance.

The protestors I have seen do think he was the victim. They may be extreme cases admittedly.

Ah Okay, so chased by an unarmed
person = shoot them at close range, pushed by an unarmed person = just walk off.

Oh, and Rittenhouse had an all white jury bar one (which caused a huge controversy) and he has gone on to say some awful stuff.

Honestly, quit pretending.

They’re serious you know. Lynchings still happen.
https://www.axios.com/2026/03/07/lynching-south-black-americans-suicide-report

It's out and out racism.

BLACK LIVES MATTER.

And I think that if you want to make a case of negative racial bias, forming that around a man who is clearly guilty of unprovoked murder is not a good tactic.

I think what you are missing is the environment and context of the time.... And now. If an unarmed man chased me and grabbed my gun, I'd shoot. I have no idea who this man is, no idea if he has a knife, no idea if he has a concealed weapon etc. etc. I know this is an alien concept to to British people but for people, like me, that come from countries where guns are "normal", we'd shoot.

And to be clear, the unreset was happening before Rittenhouse turned up. That's why he was there. Kenosha was burning after Jacob Blake pulled a knife on armed police. It's really simple: if you live in a country with armed police and they engage you, you comply with orders.

Yes you’ve got it. Just walk off.

Genuinely confused why you think this is pretending anything.

Your ideological capture is off the scale that you actually think ‘got it, just walk off’ is mocking my position. Genuinely bizarre.

Welcome to the trolls!

What is racism?

It was not all white - it was a mix of white, Asian, Middle Eastern and Hispanic.

there is no evidence he was a bully and since when did bullying equate to deserving death even if he was

But you could easily say the same about KA’s defence ‘some guy punched him, he didn’t know if he had a knife or gun, or if he was going to hit him, so he stabbed him’. Sorry, but you can’t use that defence for one and let him get off and then condemn the other. They BOTH should have been convicted. Instead the white man who cried gets hailed as a hero and the black man is jailed. You have to be able to admit there is a difference here? They both should have been done for murder.

No one punched him.

Great- no one can read the article. But what the first two lines that are visible says that black men commit suicide and are involved in accidents = lynching. I'd hazard a guess that in the UK, men make up the bulk of suicides, of all races, and many deaths are noted by the coroner as accidental. This is not evidence of lynchings of black men in the US in 2026 😂

When you have some serious evidence for lynchings of black men in the US in the last few years, please do come back to me. Bye, troll.

I think he should have been convicted for his crime and it is murder. However, if you look at the case of Kyle Rittenhouse or Lucy Harrison's father, both murdered people and are not in prison, they claimed self defense or 'accidental misfire' and were acquitted or not even charged. Instances like this are rife in America, where white men are not culpable but black boys and men are.

I'm not saying his supporters are right, I think they are totally wrong but neither were Kyle Rittenhouse' and he got acquitted.

That’s not true. His attorney is Mike Howard, who hasn’t worked as a public defender in over 15 years. He’s a private attorney.

You don’t know anything about my ideology at all, you’re simply making assumptions because I am calling you out on your points.
I have said, repeatedly, that they both should have been convicted of murder and jailed.

Your understanding of the Rittenshouse case is incorrect. HTH.

I meant pushed, typo. Point still stands

He did murder people and he was acquitted - not sure what I got wrong there?

I thought it was common knowledge as it has been widely written about and acknowledged within Sociological circles for decades. The case has been proven. The UK also has a negative racial bias against Black men, although to a lesser extreme degree.

University students at Harvard know it, so why don’t you? You just didn’t bother to read about the justice system before forming an opinion on a conviction being protested as unduly harsh due to a proven negative racial bias?
https://studentreview.hks.harvard.edu/justice-for-a-few-racial-disparity-in-the-criminal-justice-system-of-the-united-states/