Just had a long discussion with a friend about the trial and as expected it ended poorly. The friend in this case tends to be of a lefty persuasion more often than not while I tend to be centric. Now, this is a friend I care about a lot, he’s practically family to me and so I care a great deal about his opinions and input even if we can’t agree. His arguments unfortunately in regards to this case seem to be the very basic regurgitations of those heard on Twitter and Reddit. The exception being that even he can agree that Kyle has an unshakable claim to self defense.
Firstly, he believes that Kyle illegally purchased the gun through his friend Black with the sole intention of going to the riot and putting himself in a situation in which he would be “forced” to shoot people. This, he says, is based off of Kyle’s tweets wherein he talked about shooting shoplifters. I of course put it to him that such a claim was at worst coincidental as I know for a fact that such statements are made constantly through social media and often have no bearing on the reality of what a person would actually do in those scenarios.
Secondly, he claims as many have, that the case should be retried because the judge is biased towards Kyle and a racist. His reasoning for this believe is, according to him, that the Judge ruled that the defense could call the victims anything but. Additionally, he is of the belief that the ring tone used by the Judge is in fact a reason to believe that the Judge is necessarily pro Trump. Now to some extent I can agree that the Judge may be biased, however I believe this is due to the Prosecution’s actions throughout the trial thus far as opposed to a built in bias from the beginning. It’s my belief, and I have relayed as much to my friend, that the Judge began this trial as neutral as possible and then gradually became ever more annoyed by the actions of the prosecution thereby creating the bias.
Finally, and most annoyingly, he is of the opinion that Kyle is a racist supporter of the Proud Boys, claiming that they even flew a flag celebrating and depicting the number of people he shot. This, he insists, is further evidence that Kyle had every intention of shooting someone during the riot. He thereafter refused to take into account the circumstances that led up to that event or the suspicious individual whom had set it up and lured Kyle there to begin with. It is his belief that Kyle wouldn’t have done any of these things if he were really innocent.
How can I get through to him? I hate to see him so consumed by this leftist ideology that he feels the need to be so stubborn on what is quite clearly the story of a well meaning but perhaps dumb kid who just wanted to help out and be a hero, but ended up in a situation beyond his control in which he was forced to either defend himself or die. They all seem so hateful when they speak about their political views and leanings as though they were possessed by something unimaginable. He used to not be like this. In fact I would say there was a time that I knew him when even I considered him to farther right than I was left. I want to help him understand that the path he’s on is one that has historically embraced violence and hate. I don’t want to watch my friends, the people I love and care about suffer the way he is because of some petty politics. I know he’s better than this. I know they can all be better than this.
R: The verdict hinges the jury being both principled enough to ignore politics and have the courage to stand up to powerful interests. This is why I said trusting the jury is an extremely bad idea.
