After the Kyle Rittenhouse verdict was rendered, seemingly every leftist, liberal, and Democrat went on the attack to label him, inexplicably, as a white supremacist. Despite the victims being white and the trial having absolutely nothing at all to do with race, these radical, toxic agitators turned to their “old reliable” trope of racism and white supremacy.
They also claimed that a black man would have never been found innocent while claiming self-defense. Yet, that is exactly what happened in the case of Andrew Coffee IV — on the same day the Rittenhouse verdict was delivered.
Coffee’s case involved police raiding his residence on the suspicion of a drug trafficker living there — Coffee’s father, Andrew Coffee III. The house was raided at around 5 a.m. in March 2017 by deputies with the Indian River County Sheriff’s Office.
Coffee’s defense attorneys argued he was asleep when law enforcement smashed his bedroom window. In a state of confusion, Coffee claimed he feared for his safety because he was unaware of who was breaking into his residence. He fired his gun several times, causing law enforcement officials to return fire. Tragically, Coffee’s girlfriend was killed in the crossfire.
During his trial, Coffee testified that his actions were done in self-defense.
“He said, ‘I’m not saying that they didn’t announce [themselves], I’m saying I didn’t hear it,” Adam Chrzan, Coffee’s attorney, told a local television station. “He believed he was under assault, whatever assault that was.”
On Friday, Nov. 19, jurors found Andrew Coffee IV not guilty on charges of felony murder and attempted murder of a law enforcement officer (he was convicted of possession of a firearm by a convicted felon, however). The jury determined that Coffee acted in self-defense when firing at law enforcement during a SWAT raid in 2017.
Obviously, the Coffee IV case is not an exact replica of the incidents of the Rittenhouse saga, and in many ways, it is quite different. The fact that he was found innocent on the basis of self-defense, even while firing upon police officers, rebukes the notion of leftist Democrats that a black man would be held to different standards than Rittenhouse while claiming self-defense.
Such assertions are meant to stoke the flames of racial division instead of factual analysis. They are also meant to rile up the left-wing base so they can continue their indoctrination that minorities are marginalized and oppressed. That is why liberals and Democrats insert race into cases like Kyle Rittenhouse’s when race has nothing to do with it. It is also why liberals and Democrats ignore cases like Andrew Coffee IV’s.
