Lawyers know about precedent, defined as something that precedes or comes before: For example, a court decision that serves as authority for deciding subsequent cases involving similar facts or legal issues, or other precedents that serve as guides for administrative conduct and decisions. Precedents provide consistency; they are the rules of the rule of law.
That is why it is so frightening when we are witness to lawless conduct that goes unpunished or, worse, is rewarded. Sadly, this serves as precedent for more lawless conduct of the same sort.
Case in point: In August 2020, Kyle Rittenhouse, then 17, left his home in Illinois, and traveled to Kenosha, Wisconsin, where he armed himself with an assault rifle purportedly to “protect businesses” from those lawfully protesting the shooting of a black man by police. That night Rittenhouse shot and killed two protesters and injured another. He was charged with homicide and tried. But the jury apparently believed his claim that he was “defending himself” and acquitted him.
