A Tale of Two Cities: Kyle Rittenhouse and Timothy Simpkins

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Seems that justice may be served in the Kyle Rittenhouse case, at least I hope it will unless the mob has its way. In reality, I did not want to go here but braincells will braincell and I will and I am. I am allergic to both hypocrisy and ineptitude paraded as reasonable thought and no more a clearer example of this can be seen when we compare the manner in which the Rittenhouse case has been covered compared to the Timothy Simpkins school shooting.

Kenosha, Wisconsin and Arlington, Texas are different places. In his book “A Tale of Two Cities,” Charles Dickens illustrates how the totalitarianism of the French upper classes via high taxes, unfair laws, and a total indifference for the well-being of the poor resulted in the common folk to revolt and ended in summary to be the events that comprised the French Revolution. Many consider this his greatest work albeit personally, I side with “A Christmas Carol.” However, if we take the metaphor inherent in his social commentary, it could be easily applied to the distinctions we see in the media coverage (or non-coverage) in how the situations of Kyle Rittenhouse and Timothy Simpkins are described.

Let’s examine the Rittenhouse situation first. On August 25, 2020, the 17-year-old Rittenhouse, of Antioch, Illinois, fatally shot two men and wounded another man while carrying an AR-15-style semiautomatic rifle at a riot incited by a police shooting of a 29-year-old black man named Jacob S. Blake in Kenosha, Wisconsin. Blake was shot multiple times and, in the past, had been charged with resisting an officer, disorderly conduct and multiple gun charges. At the time of his shooting, he had been charged July 6 with felony third-degree sexual assault and misdemeanor trespassing and disorderly conduct, associated with allegations of domestic abuse after a woman informed police that he came into her house early in the morning, sexually assaulted her, stole her debit card and car keys and took her vehicle. The day after the criminal complaint, a warrant for Blake’s arrest was filed.

At the time Blake was carrying a knife which police requested he drop which he did not. This the backdrop of the Rittenhouse story. This led to some protest and mostly riots encompassed by acts of looting, physical assaults, vandalism and arson. In fact it was reported that the Kenosha Fire Department responded to 37 fires on the second night of the riots. Additional reporting documents that Rittenhouse and others were in Kenosha to protect businesses and protesters. After the shooting, Rittenhouse was charged with multiple accounts including homicide, attempted homicide, and being a minor in possession of a firearm upon which he posted $2 million in bail and was released from custody. Rittenhouse had no prior criminal record.

In comparison, 18-year-old Timothy Simpkins of Arlington, Texas got into a fight with another student 15-years of age. After getting mollywhopped, Simpkins returned to Timberview High School with a .45 caliber gun and critically wounded 15-year-old Zacchaeus Selby and 25-year-old teacher Calvin Pettitt in the back, which police say barely missed his aorta – the main and largest artery in the human body. He also shot another teenage girl who was treated at a hospital for minor injuries. During the shooting, a pregnant teacher was injured when she fell.

Selby was shot four times. Simpkins claimed that he was being bullied by a child three years younger than him and immediately the mainstream media, upon finding that the shooter was Black, began to paint a narrative of him as a ‘bullied victim’. However, the Chief of police stated that "This was not a bullying incident. I just want to take that narrative out of the equation," and that Simpkins was “involved in high-risk activity, and that high-risk activity led to the disagreement within the community." He faces three counts of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and was released after paying a $75,000 bond. 

To surgically analysis these two incidents, one has to be consistent. In the case of Rittenhouse, he was charged with homicide and attempted homicide. Simpkins was charged with aggravated assault. Simpkins family even set up a $25,000 fundraiser to treat his apparent "trauma" while his said victims were hospitalized. It was eventually taken down as was the GoFundMe fundraiser made on its site in support of Kyle Rittenhouse. In the Rittenhouse case, Gage Grosskreutz, admitted under oath that Rittenhouse didn't shoot him until he pointed his gun at Rittenhouse. So, in summary, Simpkins shot 4 people at a Texas school, was released 24 hours later and was depicted by the mainstream media as a ‘bullied victim’ and proceeded to stop covering the story while 17-year-old Rittenhouse shot and killed someone who was about to cave his head in with a skateboard and a man who said he was going to kill him and was promptly sent to prison and painted to be a white supremacist militia member monster – all which have proven to be false.

Simpkins, an adult, premeditatedly goes and get a gun and takes it to school with the intent to shoot someone (a kid who was no immediate threat to him), got a more favorable view in law compared to Rittenhouse, a kid who shot three adults (with violent criminal histories) who were attacking him. Since then, it has been established that Simpkins was not the “innocent” or “bullied” teen that everyone claims he is. Rather he is – according to the person claiming to be a classmate – a drug dealer. It was also noted that he had been robbed and after being robbed he wanted revenge but instead got beat up.

Now the most problematic issue with the Rittenhouse case is how the media has intentionally created a disinformation campaign against him. I ask all, put me in his place, would you consider me a murderer? Their approach is to make this about race calling him a white supremacist when it is simply about self-defense. I ask sincerely, how can this be about racism when the four parties involved are all white? CNN’s Don Lemon asked “If a black kid did that, killed two people and injured another person, how would America if he was black would he still be a hero? I can answer that, yes - he killed a Pedophile. Not to mention black teens in Chicago and New York City are released all the time for gun crimes and shootings more frequently than kids watch cartoons. The View’s Sonny Hostin said that “If he is freed, it is a message to others like him that prison won’t be in their future.” It is as if both are telling me they are not actually watching the case, without telling me they are not actually watching the case.

Simpkins is now free and walking the streets. Best believe there will not be any protests for the black victims. Seeing that he is not old enough to have a gun in Texas he could not have obtained it legally compared to Rittenhouse who did. The dismissal of the gun charge is further evidence of the dishonest and political tribunal of Rittenhouse. The gun law in question quite noticeably didn't apply to Rittenhouse's circumstances and so there was no good faith basis to bring it. Fact is if what Simpkins did was done by a White kid it would be all over the news. But his case will be difficult for his lawyer(s) to defend when he has pictures posted on his Instagram account posing proudly with handguns. I do not get the three counts of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon: he shot three people one is in critical condition so it should be three counts of attempted murder. Unlike the Rittenhouse event, the fight had already been broken up, so any claim of self-defense is not applicable.

Rittenhouse was not an active shooter or everyone he passed would have taken some lead, but Simpkins actively shot in school with no regard for others and other people were injured.

Simpkins was not lawfully allowed to have that firearm nor was his life threatened. Assuming that one is bullied, it does not give you a right to shoot someone. A gun is there to protect you if your life is threatened not if you are bullied. I mean, if a kid shoots into a classroom and hits their target or an innocent person, who's the bully? He unlawfully carried the firearm, pulled the trigger and nearly killed those people when he was not under attack or had a threat to his person. Oppression excuses have reached maximum stupidity when a lawyer suggest that it is alright to shoot someone if they are bullied.

The mind of a modern liberal seems to reach peak lunacy when they cannot use racism as a reason for an outcome. The mainstream media suggest that we’re not supposed to be taking justice into our own hands. I respond by asserting that we are not supposed to be rioting in the streets or burning down businesses either. Have gat will travel.

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