Kyle Rittenhouse and Chico - a Personal Note
I seldom write personal notes here, but this week it feels too important to ignore.
I read of the acquittal of Kyle Rittenhouse with genuine horror. A 17 year old boy with an illegally obtained firearm was dropped off by his mom to "protect" a building from protestors. He shot two people and was acquitted on the grounds of "self-defense."
Nationally, we have watched the far-right in America become emboldened, in their rhetoric, in spreading conspiracy theories, in attempting to discredit legitimate journalism, in their assault on the capitol.
Locally, we've watched many of the same things play out. A developer driven far-right PAC (Safe Chico) raised $250,000 for the last city council election and has already raised another $175,000 this year, most of which was spent promoting ugly rhetoric. This included paid ads harassing a councilmember and doxing his family until he was forced to resign. It also has focused on demonizing the homeless population, portraying them as lazy, as criminals, as "junkies." Councilmember Morgan has said the homeless are "holding the city hostage" and agreed that they are "terrorists." Vice Mayor Kasey Reynolds joined Safe Chico in attempting to discredit local journalist Natalie Hanson when she didn't like her reporting. Anti-mask, anti vax "freedom fighters" halted a Chico City Council Meeting and refused to leave.
The rhetoric and access to a gun that emboldened Rittenhouse to murder two people is very much the same rhetoric led to a 16 year old shooting two homeless men, apparently for sport, at Teichert Pond earlier this year.
Meanwhile, Butte County District Attorney Mike Ramsey has said he intends to prosecute him as an adult.
No child should be tried as an adult. We have plenty of studies that show that incarcerating minors with adults not only doesn’t rehabilitate, it causes irreparable harm. Even the American Bar Association has come out against this.
Every single thing about each of these stories is nightmarishly wrong. I have many of the same questions about the Chico murder that I did about Rittenhouse. Where did he get that gun? Why isn’t the person who provided it for him being prosecuted? If the gun was legally obtained, why wasn’t it stored safely? And why, in the face of decades of clear evidence against trying youth as adults is the Butte County DA doing attempting to try a juvenile as an adult again?
We cannot continue to tolerate this in our community. We can't accept the ugliness of the Safe Chico PAC, nor the despicable behavior of city leaders like Reynolds and Morgan. Ditto for Mayor Coolidge, who has a standing policy of ignoring the ugliness but hewing to their agenda; after all, they did pay for his seat.
This isn’t “freedom,” this is just freedom from consequences for the people that created this environment, and a failure of justice for those who committed crimes. It is time for systemic change. We will need all hands on deck for 2022, and the time to get ready is now.
Angela McLaughlin
