At this point, even saying it is just beating a dead white nationalist horse, but: There are two Americas.
Kyle Rittenhouse proves this to a flawless degree. In right-wing media, he’s been referred to as “a little boy out there trying to protect his community.” In politics, Trump administration officials were instructed to say complimentary things about Rittenhouse like he was an insecure child and not a gunman who shot and killed two people and injured a third. In a courtroom, a judge ruled that Rittenhouse could remain free on bond even after he gave the court a false address to a place he couldn’t be found or reached.
Now, a recent data breach shows that public officials and law enforcement officials are among people who have donated money to a teen who would have certainly been branded a worthless thug if he were Black.
The Guardian reports that the data breach happened at a Christian crowdfunding website and it revealed that, in many cases, the donations to Rittenhouse were attached to the official email addresses of public officials, which raised questions about officials using public resources to support someone who has been charged with multiple counts of murder.
From the Guardian:
The breach, shared with journalists by transparency group Distributed Denial of Secrets, revealed the details of some donors who had previously attempted to conceal their identities using GiveSendGo’s anonymity feature, but whose identifying details the website preserved.
Among the donors were several associated with email addresses traceable to police and other public officials.
One donation for $25, made on 3 September last year, was made anonymously, but associated with the official email address for Sgt William Kelly, who currently serves as the executive officer of internal affairs in the Norfolk police department in Virginia.
That donation also carried a comment, reading: “God bless. Thank you for your courage. Keep your head up. You’ve done nothing wrong.”
The comment continued: “Every rank and file police officer supports you. Don’t be discouraged by actions of the political class of law enforcement leadership.”
Let’s take a sec to examine that last quote: “Every rank and file police officer supports you.”
Imagine there was a right-wing protest that turned chaotic and violent—something like...oh, I don’t know...a riot at the U.S. Capitol—and a Black teenager who was illegally carrying an AK-47 shot and killed two protesters and injured a third.
Hell, I’ll even go one further and take protests out of the equation. Imagine an inner-city block party turned wild and violent and a young Black male with an illegal gun killed people during the chaos. How many police officers do you think would donate money to him and tell him he’s done nothing wrong? Do you think that if said Black teen with the gun he couldn’t legally carry said that he did it to protect his community, a sitting president of the United States would be instructing his people to say nice things? Would he still be a “boy?”
Obviously, these questions are rhetorical as that entire scenario sounds absurd in the America we live in.
But in Rittenhouse’s America, white people will enthusiastically make it rain for an alleged murderer if he has the completion for protection.
More from the Guardian:
Another Rittenhouse donor using an official email address was Craig Shepherd, who public records show is a paramedic in Utah. This donor gave $10 to Rittenhouse on 30 August.
Donations also came to Rittenhouse associated with official email addresses for Keith Silvers, and employee of the city of Huntsville, Alabama, and another $100 was associated with the official address of Michael Crosley, an engineer at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, a body which is charged with maintaining the US’s nuclear weapons stockpile.
Who knew that a thug could get so much love in America.
Well, I guess you just have to live in the right one.
DISCUSSION
Unarmed black kid with his hands up: Shot dead.
Heavily armed white guy who murdered some people: Given a pass by local PD and when finally arrested, allowed on bail despite lying to the judge and police donate to his defense fund.
Our “justice” system (gotta put it in quotes) is not just riddled with systemic racism, it’s an expression of American racism. In other words, racism isn’t a problem in our justice system, it’s a feature.