Disclaimer: The opinions expressed herein are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of clay Magazine or TPS.
“It’s been a difficult two years” would be an understatement. Amidst COVID, lockdowns, mandates, riots and social unrest, national crisis after national crisis, many may be left pessimistic about the current status quo in America. In recent months, however, the culmination of multiple highly controversial and publicized criminal cases reached their verdicts.
In February 2020, three white men shot and killed the young Ahmad Arberry, an unarmed black man, after they attempted a citizen’s arrest, allegedly suspecting him to be the culprit of recent robberies in the area. This event, filmed by one of the three men, swiftly became “one of the most high-profile hate crime trials in years,” sparking more riots and protests across America, adding further fuel to the fire of those engaged with the justice system following the death of George Floyd in the hands of a Minneapolis police officer. Anecdotally, many activists, including “Reverend” Al Sharpton, claimed that there would not be justice for Ahmaud or his family. On November 24, 2021, those three men were indicted and found guilty on nearly all charges, each facing a minimum of life in prison. On February 22, those men were convicted of federal hate crimes, which also carried indictments of life in prison.
August 25, 2020, after two nights of violence, fires, and city-wide vandalism, angry mobs gathered on night three in Kenosha, Wisconson, to protest the shooting of Jacob Blake. To add to the volatility of the situation, many of the protesters were armed with firearms. In an attempt to prevent further destruction of their community, citizens united to guard local businesses. Among them was a 17-year-old boy, Kyle Rittenhouse. “People are getting injured, and our job is to protect this business and part of my job is to help people. If there’s somebody hurt, I’m running into harm’s way with my medkit. That’s also why I have my rifle, because I obviously need to protect myself,” said Kyle in an interview that night. Earlier that day, Rittenhouse volunteered to remove graffiti from Ruther Central Highschool in Kenosha.
36-year-old Joseph Rosenbaum, a registered criminal, lit a large dumpster on fire and began pushing it towards a gas station. Rittenhouse extinguished the fire. In retaliation, Rosenbaum chased Kyle with a chain, cornering him between two cars and an angry weaponized mob who began firing shots in the direction of Kyle. As Rosenbaum leaped forward to grab Kyle’s gun, Kyle fired three shots, killing him. Kyle tried to call 911 for assistance, yet the mob chased after Rittenhouse calling for his death. Rittenhouse trips and falls to the ground as one man punches the back of his head and another jumps on top of him. A third convicted criminal slammed the end of a skateboard into Kyles’s head and reached for Kyle’s gun. He was shot in the chest. Finally, another man, a convicted felon, pretends to surrender before drawing his handgun and trying to shoot Kyle. He was shot in the arm. U.S. Media quickly labeled Rittenhouse as a far-right, white supremacist vigilante. To date, no evidence has proven such claims. Kyle was subsequently charged on one account of homicide, two accounts of reckless endangerment, one of intentional homicide, and attempted homicide. In one of the most intense, most viewed court cases in recent years, the prosecution’s arguments collapsed, and the evidence, without a doubt, proved Kyle’s complete innocence. The case put on trial the right to defend one’s self. That right was protected.
In 2020 a man named Jussie Smollett, a prominent gay black actor on the hit series TV show Empire, set up a hoax attempting to condemn Trump supporters for racism. He claimed that one night walking through Chicago at three in the morning, two white Trump supporters wearing red MAGA hats assaulted him, pouring bleach on him, throwing a noose around his neck, and declaring, “This is MAGA country.” As soon as the story broke, the legacy news media condemned former President Trump and all his supporters. The hoax had it has intended effect. Suspicions, however, were soon raised immediately. When Jussie Smollett filed a police report, he was still holding on to his Subway sandwich that he had bought before the supposed hate crime occurred. It has come to light that Jussie Smollett paid two Nigerian men to dress up and attack him, staging the hate crime to make a point. While the media made millions off repeating this false story, the Chicago Police Department lost millions of dollars investigating and attempting to find the perpetrators of the alleged hate crime. Jussie Smollet has been found guilty on 5 out of 6 accounts of orchestrating a fake hate crime against himself. Once again, regardless of the court of popular opinion, the real courts have continued to do their job.
We Christians ought to take heart in such outcomes upholding justice; however, we must also be on high alert, keenly looking to the past aware of what nations become when the court systems collapse. These institutions wield power to free the innocent and condemn the wicked. We Christians must fight tooth and nail to preserve the court’s understanding of true, blind justice, for if we lose them, we lose everything.
Sources:
“Three Men Are Found Guilty of Hate Crimes in Arbery Killing.” The New York Times, 2022, www.nytimes.com/2022/02/22/us/gregory-mcmichael-travis-mcmichael-william-bryan.html. Accessed 28 Feb. 2022.