To be fair, I think that most people just assumed the people he killed were black, which is less propaganda working and more a testament to people jumping to conclusions. That’s largely why trials and the justice system exist as they do, the day the story dropped you had people ready to hang the boy and people ready to call him a hero but none of them had all the details. Statistically in a murder case you can guess “guilty” or “innocent” and be right about half the time, so it isn’t surprising some people were vindicated by the verdict of the trial- regardless of the verdict some would feel vindicated and some would feel justice wasn’t served.
The trial had clear racial undertones and bias on all sides of media and the public- but largely the discussion I was seeing in media and the public focussed less on the race of those shot/killed and more on questions of guns in America or wether Rittenhouse was caught up in chance or unnecessarily or recklessly created a situation.
Regardless of any of that, he was found innocent of the accused charges and cannot be tried again on the same charges in criminal court. Any private citizen is free to judge his character as they see fit based upon his actions before the event, during, or after. In general I do not believe a person should be defined by any singular moment in their life, especially at such a young age, in perpetuity on their entirety- but I would say that also depends on wether that person wants to continue to bring that moment up and relive it or works to “move past it” to other things. The boy committed no crimes in the eyes of the law and is at this time not notable for anything than being involved in several shootings and a court case. He and his family and surely those shot and others have gone through or continue to go through struggles from what happened. At their discretions they may pursue any legal avenues available still, attempt to heal, and the rest of us would be best served working on…
.. and thinking on how to not let a situation like that happen again or how we might change things so that it could turn out without loss of life or serious harm. What happened then is what happened, we are now, and now and the future are of more practical concern. That said there certainly is perhaps a case of media bias in the sense that when victims or perpetrators are of certain groups the media is quick to call out their group affiliations or perceived affiliations, but knowing full well the public bias the topic of race was largely absent from the majority of stories and discussions on the topic. So I can’t say there was no bias or such in the reporting- but I also can’t say otherwise.
The trial had clear racial undertones and bias on all sides of media and the public- but largely the discussion I was seeing in media and the public focussed less on the race of those shot/killed and more on questions of guns in America or wether Rittenhouse was caught up in chance or unnecessarily or recklessly created a situation.