Because of righteous outrage in the state of Kentucky and the larger surrounding area, law enforcement agencies serving the state of Kentucky, Warren County, Bowling Green, and Western Kentucky University are being called on to divert their resources on March 27, 2024, to monitor protests on the campus of the university and the city which are being held to protest the outrageous decision of the university administration to allow Kyle Rittenhouse to speak at the university in an event which is sponsored by the Right Wing Radical campus organization Turning Point USA which is described as "part of a national organization that advocates for right-wing causes on high school, college, and university campuses." This is an organization which should never have been granted a charter on the campus of any university. This is an event which should never have been scheduled and granted the use of campus property in any building owned by a legitimate university. This is a speaker who should never be allowed to speak on any public property in any state in the union. This entire event is a travesty and a manifest failure of the university management.
Kyle Rittenhouse shot three men, two fatally, during public protests in Kenosha, Wisconsin in August 2020, when he was aged 17. Rittenhouse was acquitted at his trial in November 2021, after testifying that he had acted in self-defense. But the facts of the matter are that he was transported across state lines from the Chicago area by his mother while they were transporting the fully automatic rifle he used to commit the murders. He was acquitted of all charges and his mother was never charged for any crimes related to contributing to the delinquency of a minor or federal firearms laws regarding the transportation of the weapon across state lines. Since the trial, Rittenhouse has sought to make himself a public hero in the eyes of those who mistakenly believe the Second Amendment allows anyone to own any kind of weapon they choose in America and to use those weapons in such blatantly illegal and murderous ways.
The university administration insists that this is a matter of free speech despite the fact that the United States Supreme Court has ruled a few categories of speech are not protected from government restrictions. The main such categories are incitement, defamation, fraud, obscenity, child pornography, fighting words, and threats. As the Supreme Court held in Brandenburg v. Ohio (1969), the government may forbid “incitement”—speech “directed at inciting or producing lawless action” and “likely to incite or produce such action”. While I admit that it is unlikely that Rittenhouse or the organization sponsoring the event will directly call for lawless actions, the very fact that a person is speaking in a public forum who killed two men in cold blood with an automatic rifle and escaped any form of legal consequences is likely to incite illegal action. The university administration and a few at other universities have been too spineless to stand up to these groups and Rittenhouse. Their stated reason, protection of the right to free speech, does not hold water. Their refusal to stand up to a student organization which promotes such events is detrimental to the university community and the greater community surrounding that university. Several other student organizations, local groups, and even national groups have spoken out against this event to no avail. Western Kentucky Public Radio has published an editorial piece by writer Jacob Martin which speaks strongly about the issues involved in this event. But the administration holds strongly to the view that it is about free speech not the glorification of cold blooded murder. The entire administration at this university needs to be removed. Such irrational decision making on the part of a university administration can never be acceptable. I am asking everyone of my readers to make a call to Western Kentucky University at this number (270-745-0111) and register your opposition to this event and the decision making process which has allowed it to take place.
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