
Facebook chose not to act on militia complaints before Kenosha shooting - alex_young
https://www.theverge.com/2020/8/26/21403004/facebook-kenosha-militia-groups-shooting-blm-protest
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holtkam2
I used to think the good created by social media outweighed the bad. Now I
firmly believe the opposite. I actually think I hate Facebook more than any
other commercial operation, ever.

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core-questions
There are an awful lot of people who believe that Rittenhouse shot in self-
defence, fearing for his life, as a part of a militia trying to defend their
community against burning and looting and rioting, which is not an
unreasonable thing to want to do after months of this activity across the USA.

Expecting Facebook to have a role in policing this is just silly, it's
armchair politics at its finest. Even if Facebook didn't exist, these people
would have gotten together to defend their city. The solution here isn't to
stop people from defending their city, it's to stop people from crossing state
lines to terrorize communities for the actions of police officers, especially
when there's a grey area as to the illegality of the policing action.

Media companies that pretend otherwise are throwing fuel on the fire by
covering for the mob. Do they hope they'll be spared? The number of burnt
businesses with BLM signs on the front in Kenosha should be a pretty good
indication that you can't prostrate yourself before the mob and assume that it
will result in your property being spared.

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alex_young
> There are an awful lot of people who believe that Rittenhouse shot in self-
> defence

Self defense after running into an unarmed crowd swinging around a rifle?

I'm not going to say he's guilty just yet, but the police charged him with
first-degree intentional homicide.

I think it's fair to say the people who believe it was self defense have a lot
of explaining to do given the facts as we know them.

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core-questions
> Self defense after running into an unarmed crowd swinging around a rifle?

I'm not a judge, I'm not a lawyer, I'm just telling you a lot of people are
mad about this. Apparently a Molotov was thrown at him (have not seen this),
and in the video I did see, he was on the ground about to have his face
stomped in when he shot. There's an argument for self-defense there; it'll be
up to a court to decide, but for now, it's not clear that these murder charges
are going to hold up.

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ideals
He isn't old enough to carry a firearm so by open carrying the weapon he
already committed a felony.

By crossing from Illinois into Wisconsin with a firearm he was not legally
allowed to carry he committed a felon.

Self defense is not likely a position which will apply here.

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aaron695
Looks like self defence to me, why would we think otherwise at this stage?

We have clear evidence he was fired at by protesters

[https://twitter.com/trbrtc/status/1298839097923063809](https://twitter.com/trbrtc/status/1298839097923063809)

So should have Facebook shut down the protesters page instead if this is the
case?

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alex_young
> We have clear evidence he was fired at by protesters

The link you provided doesn’t seem to support that conclusion.

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rasz
Other than videos of people with pistols running after the kid and shooting in
the air?

I have no clue WTF is happening in US, and what is the source of constant
escalation, but Im pretty sure Putin is laughing his ass off right now. This
is classic old KGB destabilize and weaken procedure in action.

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alex_young
What videos are you referring to?

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aaron695
The multiple linked videos above in the Twitter thread that the New York Times
analysed of the timeline.

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alex_young
That’s not what those videos show, nor is it what the NYTimes said they show.

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aaron695
Sorry, but at this stage I assume you are a troll. But one last time in case
you are not. From the thread, from the New York Times reporter -

"At 23:19, Rittenhouse is seen in this YouTube livestream. He's being chased
into a parking lot. While he is being pursued, an unknown gunman fires the
first shot into the air."

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alex_young
You: “ We have clear evidence he was fired at by protesters”

You’re calling me a troll? Please.

The comma is important here. The person chasing is not the same person
shooting. You and others keep conflating this and it appears to be
intentional.

Whatever happened at that moment, this individual decided not only not to
order assistance to the person he shot in the head, but to run into an unarmed
crowd waving around a rifle.

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aaron695
You could have stated this on my first comment if you were being in good
faith.

rasz then corrected what I said, early in this thread, which you and I are
replying on.

This is quite bad faith on your behalf.

~~~
alex_young
Please do not continue to personally attack me. It violates the principals of
this community.

I have not acted in bad faith, we simply appear have a disagreement about the
English language.

