When application of the law is based upon reason instead of emotion, truth prevails.
Andrew Coffee IV, a black man, was acquitted of murder by way of self-defense, as reported by WPBF-TV. On the same day, Kyle Rittenhouse was cleared of murder charges by reason of self-defense.
I mention that Coffee was black only because many have been asking what might have happened in the Rittenhouse trial if the defendant was black. The question is usually asked by those who maintain that the U.S. justice system is systematically racist and therefore unjust.
“If Black Kyle Rittenhouse had shown up at an anti-vax rally with a weapon and the crowd chased him down and he shot two people dead, what would have happened? One, he probably would have been shot dead by police or bystanders, and two, he likely would have been portrayed as a thug and convicted in front of an all-white jury,” journalist David Greenwald claimed.
#BREAKING: Andrew Coffee IV found not guilty of murder, attempted murder in Indian River County SWAT raid https://t.co/O5iFtO36hH
— WPTV (@WPTV) November 19, 2021
In another reaction, Democratic Rep. Cori Bush goes so far as to claim the judge, jury and defendant are white supremacists.
The judge. The jury. The defendant.
It’s white supremacy in action.
This system isn’t built to hold white supremacists accountable. It’s why Black and brown folks are brutalized and put in cages while white supremacist murderers walk free.
I’m hurt. I’m angry. I’m heartbroken.
— Cori Bush (@CoriBush) November 19, 2021
Bush wasn’t alone in her irrational response to the verdict. A slew of other leftists lashed out at at the verdict as well, as reported by Townhall.
Some of the claims were blatantly false. New York City Mayor Bill di Blasio claimed Rittenhouse had transported a gun across state lines.
Anthony Huber and Joseph Rosenbaum are victims. They should be alive today.
The only reason they’re not is because a violent, dangerous man chose to take a gun across state lines and start shooting people.
To call this a miscarriage of justice is an understatement. https://t.co/TwaI2ghgM5
— Mayor Bill de Blasio (@NYCMayor) November 19, 2021
The Coffee case just isn’t getting the same fanfare. Leftists are pretty quiet on that front.
Coffee was found not guilty of the murder of his girlfriend Alteria Woods and the attempted murder of Florida Indian River County sheriff deputies during an early morning drug raid in 2017.
Rittenhouse Says What Conservatives Have Been Thinking: I Wasn’t on Trial, Self-Defense Was
Coffee’s defense claimed the defendant was asleep and thought a flash-bang set off by deputies was gunfire. Coffee claimed he fired his gun because he believed he was under attack.
“I was trying to protect me and Alteria,” Coffee said, according to WPBF. “I thought I was doing that, but I feel I didn’t protect her. I can’t sleep with that … They killed her.”
The prosecution maintained that the deputies announced they were there and Coffee shot at them before they returned fire.
Is reason the foundation of Western Civilization?
The jury, after deliberating over the evidence, including Coffee’s testimony, found the defendant not guilty on the murder charges. They did find him guilty of a felon in possession of a firearm for which Coffee faces up to 30 years in prison.
If Rittenhouse had been a felon carrying an illegal weapon, would he have been convicted of the charge? The question is moot. Rittenhouse was not carrying a firearm illegally, and he did not transport it across state lines, despite myths spread by a number of media outlets.
The equal outcomes in Coffee and Rittenhouse trials were not based on race. They were not based on propaganda. They were based on reason.
Western culture was founded upon the concept of Logos or Word. The Greek meaning of Logos, though nuanced, can be seen as the divine underlying Reason that supports reality. Socrates gave up his life in pursuit of this principle. Jesus, the Logos made flesh, was crucified because a mob — spurred-on by leaders who felt their earthly power was threatened — demanded it.
These days, there is little talk of God or philosophy in mainstream culture. Instead, political ideologues use propaganda to stir the emotions of hate and fear. These negative emotions eclipse reason. When reason is eclipsed, mobs spring up.
A culture that believes math, a rarefied form of logic, is racist is not Western because it has abandoned reason. Where there is no reason there can be no God. Hell is the impossibility of reason.
Throw out reason, and the door to chaos and/or dystopia is opened. Those who would rewrite the U.S. Constitution for their own ends must do it by way of emotion. Reason is against them. They will not prevail so long as jurors continue to rely on reason in reaching verdicts. That’s what they did in the Coffee case. That’s what they did in the Rittenhouse trial.
Thank goodness. And thanks to the jurors. These jurors are true American heroes.