I swear, this has been the weirdest article I've ever written. So many people are mad because they don't know what happened. But they're so unbelievably certain that they do, that simply trying to correct facts is met with hostility. Literally everything I wrote in my response is right, and based not on my feelings, but almost entirely on video evidence. I've lost track of the number of times I've shared this video to correct basic factual errors, but why not once more?

https://youtu.be/VpTW2AJE9MQ?t=1065

I've even gone to the trouble of finding the timestamp for you. If you're interested in the facts, all you need to do is click. Yes, Rosenbaum is chasing Rittenhouse, but there are a number of other people running behind him. One of whom fires a gun in the air shortly before Rosenbaum tackles him to the ground.

You think I'm defending Rittenhouse, but seriously, why the hell would I do this? What could possibly be my motivation to defend this idiot to a complete stranger on the internet in a conversation that nobody else will see? All I'm trying to do is get you to understand what actually happened. Something I took the time to do whilst writing this article.

In fact, I started writing a completely different article to the one I ended up writing once I did a little basic fact checking. Because the surface level reporting of the story was so bad, I also thought there had been a huge miscarriage of justice.

As for the "I didn't do anything to deserve this" standard, the subjectivity I'm referring to is what constitutes "deserving". If I say something mean about you, have I done something, however small, to "deserve" retaliation that might result in my death? Yes. But obviously this couldn't be considered self-defence. It might be considered justifiable homicide or even temporary insanity, but not self-defence.

Believing that your life is in danger is subjective too. Sure. Everything is subjective. But if you're running from a bunch of guys, you hear a gunshot right behind you, and somebody tackles you to the ground moments later, it's very difficult to argue that you don't have grounds to fear for your life and your safety. This is self defence.

Anyway man, yes, if it makes you feel better, if it's preferable to thinking, you can leap to the preposterous conclusion that I, a black man, want to defend a kid who was seen throwing up white power symbols with the Proud Boys. Or you can consider the possibility that maybe the truth is important. Especially if you want to think about ways that things like this can be avoided in future.