Op-Ed: We Don't Need Due Process For People We Know Are Guilty
Due process. It seems like a great idea. Everyone gets their day in court, and the rules apply equally to all. But now with the Kyle Rittenhouse trial, we’ve seen what a terrible idea due process is when you know someone is guilty and just want him to be thrown straight into prison.
Kyle Rittenhouse is a murder-crazed shooty person who hates people of color so much that he shot white people (since white is the combination of all colors). No one in my bubble disputes this. Yet, there he is getting a day in court, where the same rules of fairness we want to be applied to oppressed people get applied to him. Each day, I vomit all over myself just thinking about it.
It is a mockery of justice to see due process used for someone who we all know is guilty. I mean, we saw pictures of Rittenhouse
holding an AR-15; that by itself should be enough to send anyone to prison forever. In addition, he crossed state lines. Let me repeat that: STATE LINES. Who would brazenly do such a thing, except to cause murder and chaos?
This has to change. It harms people to see a white male treated with the presumption of innocence. In the future, if blue checks on Twitter declare you guilty of murder, you can still have a trial, but no more due process. The judge has to hate you and yell at you the whole time, and restraints are no longer placed on the prosecution. And no defense for you, because it’s just offensive to ever see anyone assert that someone like Rittenhouse is innocent. And, if for some crazy reason you’re found not guilty, the prosecutor gets to appeal until he gets it right.
We need to stop worrying about plain old justice when there’s social justice at stake.