defense attorney in wisconsin, that choose to be in front of this judge, orders the transcript and make sure he is consistent with their defendants brought before him, particularly defendants of color. something that came out at me was a piece in the the new york times that basically said self-defense laws need to be modernized because there s so many people now carrying guns that, sadly, what we saw in the rittenhouse verdict, could be a playbook for others to actually follow. what do you say of this? i m sure that s true. i think the case was the disaster of the case was right in the beginning when it was illegal for him to carry an ar-15 to the rally. that s the beginning of the tragedy that started the whole ball rolling and that s a function of the law. well, what do you mean a 17-year-old took an ar-15 to a rally and there was not a
argument. in states with the broad self-defense laws, what do you think about the way that prosecution and defense handled the question of self-defense? yeah. good morning, boris. you re right. both cases involved claims by the defendant of self-defense. i think, though, in the arbery case we re going to see something very different than what we saw in the kyle rittenhouse case. keep in mind that defense in ahmaud arbery started with a two-pronged defense. one saying that the actions taken by travis mcmichael and gregory mcmichael were justified under the antiquated citizen arrest law that existed in the state of georgia and that s what gave them the right to begin the chase of ahmaud arbery and then their argument pivots to once they, you know, began the chase, ahmaud arbery confronted travis mcmichael and travis felt that his life was in dang e imminent harm of danger, he used the weapon, the shotgun to shoot ahmaud arbery. it s a two-pronged defense.
just the access folks have to guns. we had an incident in the atlanta airport earlier. talk about the fact that we have the self-defense laws. we have racism in the history of white supremacy but also easy access to guns and all kinds of places that create this type of chaos and the kyle rittenhouse situation we have been seeing. so the combination of the ways in which racism embedded into our criminal punishment system, coupled with very liberal self-defense laws, and very liberal access to guns, and not just guns, but assault weapons, creates a very combustible mix and we should expect more of these situations. i think it s important to understand this in the historical context. what we saw with rittenhouse is not different from what we ve seen for a long period of time.
that s a side issue but connected is guns. just the access folks have with guns. we had an incident at the atlanta airport earlier. talk about the fact that we have the self-defense laws. we have racism in the history of white supremacy but also easy access to guns and all kinds of places that create this type of chaos and the kyle rittenhouse situation which we have been seeing. not just guns but assault weapons create a combustible mix, we should expect more of this situation. it s important to understand it s a historical context, what we just saw with rittenhouse is not different at all. the fugitive slaf law empires white private citizens to go
not only that but this very toxic culture that is about racial injustice in our country right now on both sides. and then we have these self-defense laws and these circumstances where people are carrying guns. they are legally permitted to do so, and they re legally permitted to defend themselves when other people see the guns as threats and try to remove them. so it is a toxic, potent mix. this circumstance is not last situation we ll see like this one. i know you heard some argue that the rittenhouse is not about racism because the victims were white. do you agree with that analysis? again, i think that s delusional. it is true that these four white victims you saw the impact of race laced throughout this trial. certainly the circumstances that gave rise to this trial were infected with questions of racial justice and injustice, the protests in kenosha were