Why Judge Schroeder Is Secretly The Good Guy

Here’s why people are wrong about judge Schroeder.

Last week, Kyle Rittenhouse was found not-guilty on all charges in relation to the killing of two men and the injury of another in Kenosha.

The verdict wasn’t a surprise to anyone in the legal field.

You’re entitled to believe that the trial was a sham, but no juror could’ve been convinced that there was some murderous plot or sinister motive.

This is all not to say that Rittenhouse didn’t have any bad intentions that night; it’s just that it would be an unreasonable conclusion to come to based on all the available testimony, evidence, and facts presented in court. His character was on trial just as much his actions were. And the way he was presented in the media may have impacted how people viewed him, for better or worse (more on that later).

But it was Judge Bruce Schroeder who stole the show and became a controversial figure. The press and those who followed the case were getting a sense that he was showing preferential treatment to Rittenhouse.

However, was that really the case? Unless you’ve been through the system or worked in it — you might have a different perspective.

Judge Schroeder

Judge Schroeder is a bit animated and unorthodox. He’s an experienced judge and if you asked those that know him, they’d say he doesn’t care about the politics and media circus that occurs outside of his chambers.

A lot of what the media reported was misrepresented and social media only made it worse.

The only exception is Schroeder letting Rittenhouse watch video evidence besides him. That certainly wasn’t a good look, but here’s what people got wrong about the case.

Did Kyle Rittenhouse pick his jurors?

Jurors are stricken from panels on cases for various reasons and it’s not at all uncommon.

What is uncommon is for judge’s to have their defendants pick numbers from a box. But judge Schroeder’s unusual methodology for dwindling down the juror pool, from 18 to 12 in Rittenhouse’s case, wasn’t arbitrary.

Schroeder began letting defendants pick jurors to be stricken years ago. This was because a clerk in a previous case picked out a number, but the clerk ended up picking the only black juror to be stricken which resulted in the black defendant being judged by an all-white jury.

Schroeder explained that letting people choose makes them feel better and that they’re in control.

Judge Schroeder is out-of-touch with technology and thought zooming in to a picture would alter it

The “logarithms” and pinch-to-zoom debacle was actually an interesting point.

Rittenhouse’s attorney, Mark Richards, argued, “iPads, which are made by Apple, have artificial intelligence in them that allow things to be viewed through three dimensions and logarithms.”

It’s a stretch to anyone who’s ever zoomed in on a picture before, because the pixels in the picture are just becoming larger, but the burden of proof is always going to fall on the prosecution if there’s doubts about any evidence.

Judge Schroeder concluded that an expert would need to determine if zooming in on an image could alter it in any way.

It wasn’t about whether that it was obvious to us as outside observers — Schroeder wanted to be 100% sure that there were no alterations to the image before particulars were discussed.

The judge allowed 20 minutes for an expert to be called, but the prosecution couldn’t find one on such short-notice.

You can call it unfair, but if you were fighting for your life in a courtroom, you’d certainly want your attorney to make sure no stone went unturned.

What about Judge Schroeder admonishing the prosecution?

Judge Schroeder told prosecutors that they couldn’t ask Rittenhouse about why he didn’t talk about the events until he was on the stand which was well within his right thanks to the Fifth Amendment.

So when the prosecution later rephrased the question, the defense objected to it, and the admonishment of the prosecutor is what people watched.

The video was shared out of context and publications just referenced Schroeder yelling.

Judge Schroeder said the the defense could refer the victims as looters and rioters

Schroeder didn’t want the jury getting preconceived notions about the men who died and the other man who was injured.

Schroeder said the defense could only refer to them as looters and rioters if the defense could establish that with evidence.

The God Bless America ringtone

It’s a ringtone. An old White man having that as his ringtone is about as surprising as the sun rising every day.

What we should really angry about

Kyle Rittenhouse may or not be representative of the conservative symbol that QAnon and others had hoped for since claiming he supports Black Lives Matter.

The White America that raised him and how prosecutors conduct themselves is the more important conversation.

White American’s are, a lot of times, engulfed in a patriotic masquerade which comes with entitlement. Rittenhouse, like many White Americans, was strongly taught to: believe in the U.S.A and its Constitution and ideals, respect law enforcement, and enjoy his freedoms because he’s American. Thanks to people like his parents, Donald Trump, and other conservatives — there are still kids growing up with that sense of pride. What showed up in Kenosha was someone fulfilling his patriotic duty in their eyes; he was enamored with patriotism whether he knew it or not.

Black people and minorities have a very different experience and have to express a lot more diligence. You can try to fit in with White America all you want and you might never even face racism; but the legal system won’t likely put you in front of a judge like Schroeder.

Black American males in particular are more often found guilty of crimes based on circumstantial evidence even at young ages.

Prosecutors have been using lyrics against rapper’s even if said lyrics might be purely coincidental.

And White America has no problem with strangers following our children and shooting them even after being asvised not to pursue them, or cops killing our children before they even fully assess situations involving them.

The prosecutors on these cases all have the same tactic: Give the jury a preconceived notion about them and their actions and go for broke.

If you’ve had the displeasure of dealing with district attorneys and fighting frivolous cases — you’d know that they are often unwilling to drop the most spurious charges regardless if it’ll be an uphill battle, or if they’re banking on defendants to simply giving up.

If they can’t get someone to plea guilty right away — they’ll wear them out with unfair tactics which includes dragging their trial out for as long as possible. They do this in the hopes that either the person’s money runs out, if they can even afford a private lawyer. If they can’t hire a private attorney — prosecutors know a defendant will likely be assigned to a fresh out of law school public defender. They’ll fight the case while a defendant cycles through public defenders in the hopes that no solid defense can be built.

Judge’s like judge Schroeder are the last line of defense against prosecutors like that.