Vigilante Culture and Law & Order
What we learned from Kyle Rittenhouse
by: Michelle Maldonado
In the midst of protests of racial injustice and law and order following the officer involved shooting of Africa-American Jacob Blake comes a not so new problem in the form of vigilantism. An all to familiar scene unfolded on the streets of Kenosha Wisconsin on August 25th,2020. What started out as a march in support of the Black Lives Matter movement turned deadly as riots broke out and armed militia appeared at the sight of the racially charged protest. Amongst the “militant defenders” Kyle Rittenhouse a 17 year old white teenager from Illinois armed with an assault riffle who would tragically shoot and kill two men and injure another. Research scholar Nicole Hemmer dissects the rise of vigilante justice and the difference in how law and order is dispersed between races.
Rittenhouse who plead not guilty drove from his home state of Illinois to Wisconsin to defend property armed with an assault riffle. While he was charged with the murder of two people and attempted murder of a third he garnered major support from militia members such as the Proud Boys and even words of support from the President Donald Trump. Former President Donald Trump helped fuel that rise: he personally suggested Rittenhouse was acting in self-defense, and his Department of Homeland Security reportedly sent around an internal memo directing federal officials how to respond to any questions about Rittenhouse.
After being released on bail Rittenhouse has received financial support to pay for his legal defense from the likes of celebrity Ricky Schroder and the Kenosha Guard. Funds have also been raised on his behalf through the sale of t-shirts emblazoned with the words “Kyle did nothing wrong”. Since his release video has surfaced of Kyle partying with members of the Proud Boys a well known militia group.
Law enforcement has even been accused of upholding vigilantism and welcoming support from these groups as seen during the Kenosha incident were police were speaking with and thanking militia members including Rittenhouse right before the shooting. As further evidence of support by the law and order oriented right wing and law makers alike, A recent report by Michael German at the Brennan Center for Justice outlined not only these incidents, but the ways militias have maintained active ties with law enforcement — including officers who are part of these groups. The line between police and vigilantes often blurs not only because some officers approve of vigilantism, but because some officers likewise engage in unlawful yet unpunished uses of force against Black people, as decades of police riots and brutality demonstrate.
In sharp contrast to these instances of apparent acceptance black vigilantes are not received with the same support from citizens or law enforcement. Of course, not everyone can engage in armed vigilantism and escape unscathed, left to skip bail or ransack the Capitol. As staff writer David A. Graham noted in The Atlantic in 2016, gun radicalism has extended almost exclusively to White Americans. When Black Americans take up arms, it quickly becomes clear that they are what he called “the Second Amendment’s second-class citizens”: arrested, charged, and even killed for the sort of gun ownership that White Americans consider a sacred right. Thus while Black vigilantism does exist, it is far riskier to engage in and far less likely to receive the sanction of law than its White counterpart.
Anthony Imperiale, a city councilor in Newark who formed the North Ward Citizens Committee, a White vigilante group in New Jersey in the late 1960s. “If the Black Panther comes, the White Hunter will be waiting,” Imperiale famously warned, referring to the Black power group that, notably, was not granted the same freedom to act as vigilantes. (Ronald Reagan, then governor of California, pushed for gun control laws in response to Black Panthers carrying firearms.)
In short it seems we are still walking a centuries old divide between how people or groups are treated based on race. As long as we continue to hold up a young white male as a hero and defender of the public and a young black man as thug or banger we will continue to play out these scenes over and over again. Vigilante violence has often been part of law enforcement in the United States, a complement to state power rather than a threat to it. Both have been required to uphold America’s racial order, and both will need to be radically re-imagined — or dismantled — if the country is to have a fair and equitable justice system.
The saying comes to mind, “Those who do not learn from the past are doomed to repeat it(philosopher, George Santayana).”
Works Cited
Hemmer, Opinion by Nicole. Opinion: What Kyle RITTENHOUSE’S FATE Reveals about ‘Law and Order’. 5 Feb. 2021, www.cnn.com/2021/02/05/opinions/kyle-rittenhouse-what-law-and-order-means-hemmer/index.html.
Allam, Hannah. “Vigilante? Militia? Confusion And Politics Shape How Shooting Suspect Is Labeled.” NPR, NPR, 28 Aug. 2020, www.npr.org/2020/08/28/907130558/vigilante-militia-confusion-and-politics-shape-how-shooting-suspect-is-labeled.
