Rittenhouse’s search for some twisted form of heroism and vigilante justice should never be legal or permissible in a free or democratic society. The Portland events are a little more complex. Counterdemonstrations, are, and should be, protected by the First Amendment, but when those actions are linked to provocations, they contribute to violence. Had the pro-Trump demonstrators been on foot, waved banners and chanted slogans, rather than threaten protestors and fire paintball guns into crowds of demonstrators, it is much less likely that anybody would have been shot and killed.