Well written account of this whole mess. I remember watching the initial video right when it came out and thinking (from a UK perspective): 'Fucking hell, a kid with a gun trying to be a vigilante gets chased down by people with a death wish because they think he's a threat and that they can stop him even though he has an assault rifle, America is fucking wacko'. Then I read the comments... Jesus christ people. Some lefties were frothing at the mouth that Kyle was scum and evil, and that the group attacking him were doing the right thing etc. etc. And people on the right were given more fuel to say 'those god damn BLM riots, screw the left and those damn marxist scum'.
Everyone wanted to go at each others throats from the get go and wanted to accept anything that fit their world view.
I'm no where near a centrist, or someone who loves to say 'hurr durr both sides', but my god, some of the left really do lose all sense of perspective when their emotions are running high (clearly stoked by 'left' US media like CNN and NBC, what I would say is more neoliberal and corporatist personally).
The entire case (or what I caught of it) was utterly bizzaro, and it was clear that some of the charges levied against the kid were clearly over the top and had almost no bearing on reality. He did a stupid thing, that I think is personally wrong and down right stupid (heading to the town over to 'protect property' with a gun his friend bought him, as a teenager to boot), and really shouldn't be allowed (but is apparently legal). The riots that broke out must have been frustrating but goddamn man, it's not worth going and killing people or getting yourself killed for when the police were already there doing whatever they were able to 'to protect property'.