An ACLU Observer With A GunGaige Grosskreutz testified in the Rittenhouse case as a trained legal observer for the ACLU. So why was he carrying a firearm?
By David Hines
March 18, 2022
During the Kyle Rittenhouse case, some interesting items in the court proceedings escaped mainstream attention. One appeared in the testimony of Gaige Grosskreutz, the lone survivor of the three people Rittenhouse shot on August 25, 2020. On the stand, Grosskreutz conceded that Rittenhouse had not fired when Grosskreutz raised his empty hands and refrained from attacking. When Grosskreutz then drew a firearm and pointed it at Rittenhouse’s head, Rittenhouse shot him.
The mainstream press pretty much ignored this aspect of the testimony. Conservative observers highlighted Grosskreutz’s omission of any mention of his firearm in previous legal motions he had filed, as well as the fact that he was carrying illegally due to his carry permit having been invalidated.
For the purposes of this column, however, what is really interesting is that Grosskreutz testified under oath that he was on the streets that evening as a legal advisor for the Wisconsin ACLU.
Legal observers are so important to leftist movements that a friend involved in lefty organizing was shocked when I explained to him that right of center legal observers do not exist. It’s not that Team Righty doesn’t have lawyers. There are conservative-leaning groups like the Federalist Society. There are conservative-leaning legal advocacy organizations, such as the Alliance for Defending Freedom. There are individual conservative lawyers and law firms. There are some far right lawyers and occasional (failed) far right efforts to create some kind of actual far right legal defense apparatus. But the legal infrastructure on the mainstream and far left, which includes legal observers, is something else entirely.
Officially, legal observers exist to be impartial witnesses—on the scene to witness and record the actions of the police and protect the civil rights of the public. In the words of their ACLU training, they are there to “observe, educate, document, and deter.” In practical terms, legal observers are an arm of the demonstrators who launder their demonstrator-friendly recordings and testimony through a separate organization that provides a veneer of impartiality to media for complaints about police actions.
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The trainer’s solution to the appearance of conflicts of interest is to ask people to not be legal observers and protestors on the same day (Slide 76, 1:44:52). Unsurprisingly, while the presentation’s early slides stress that legal observers aren’t supposed to give advice to protestors, a later section of the presentation includes advice for protestors (Slide 74, 1:32:21), from strategic advice about deciding on and effectively conveying the message of the demonstration and using it to effectively build power, to more tactical information about documenting suspected agent provocateurs and using bail funds.
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Legal observers themselves are not just told to be law-abiding, but unarmed (Slide 11, 18:06): “Don’t bring drugs, alcohol, or weapons. I don’t care what you do in your free time. I don’t care what you have the right to do or what you feel you have the right to do while we’re legal observing. Many people have different comfort levels with other—with many different issues. And we just don’t bring drugs, alcohol, weapons.” The trainer notes that “people have a right to demonstrate with weapons in Wisconsin,” but it’s important to respect the lead of the organizers—and, of course, the law.
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Legal observers are only one small part of a much larger framework. At the other end, there are the movement lawyers of the National Lawyers Guild, a far left umbrella group that provides legal support for radical and revolutionary leftist movements—even at the expense of their individual clients, who are willing to go to prison for a principle.
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Source:
https://www.theamericanconservative.com/articles/an-aclu-observer-with-a-gun/
