Jussie Smollett Should Do Time

Empire actor Jussie Smollett should face serious consequences for his actions. He faked a hate crime. That wasted the time of Chicago Police, tarnished the reputation of the city and made things more difficult for people who are genuine victims of hate crimes. None of that is to be taken lightly.

To illustrate the gravity of his actions one only needs to take a look at a real hate crime. In January, 2017 a white mentally disabled youth from suburban Chicago was physically and verbally abused by four black individuals. The victim was bound, gagged, beaten, taunted, had part of his scalp removed with a knife, and was forced to kiss the floor and drink from a toilet bowl. During the course of all this obscenities about Donald Trump and white people were yelled by the attackers. The incident was live streamed on Facebook. Three of the attackers went to prison. One received four years probation and 200 hours community service.

That is what a real hate crime looks like and few things are more despicable.

Jussie Smollett says that he was assaulted by two masked men he believed were white while making a trip to Subway at a very late hour. He says the men were wearing ski masks and red “Make America Great Again” hats. He says they put a noose around his neck, dumped bleach on him and shouted “This is MAGA country” while they beat him.

There is virtually no doubt that Jussie Smollett faked his attack. First and foremost how many Trump supporters are there in Chicago? In the 2016 presidential election Hillary Clinton outperformed Donald Trump in Cook County by more than fifty percentage points. If you walked down the street today wearing a red MAGA hat it is a pretty good bet you would take verbal abuse.

There are many more issues.

Security video shows the two black Nigerian brothers implicated in the incident buying items allegedly used in the attack the day before it took place. Those same brothers told police that Smollett wrote them a $3,500 check to stage the incident.

Smollett was not cooperative when police asked for his phone records. What he provided was heavily redacted. If you had just been brutally assaulted would you not provide any information requested by the police without hesitation?

Smollett was caught on video returning to his apartment with the noose still around his neck, and was still wearing it when police arrived to interview him. If someone had been traumatized by an attack it seems likely they would get that noose off their neck as fast as possible.

The attack took place during a historic cold front. That begs the questions: why would Jussie leave his apartment during such intense cold just for a Subway sandwich, and why would his attackers be roaming the streets in those same brutal conditions? Could they not abort and assault him on a warmer night?

Or if it was a random attack why were they walking around with a bottle of bleach and a noose?

Mr. Smollett also still had the Subway sandwich he bought when entering his apartment building after the alleged attack. Is it likely someone assaulted in a hate crime would think to pick up their sandwich after the attack ended? It seems more likely they would leave the scene at the first possible moment.

Many people do not believe Jussie, including prominent members of the black community. Charles Barkley made fun of him at length during his basketball commentary on TNT. The Daily Show’s Trevor Noah created a short movie mocking the event. Saturday Night Live aired a skit where he was portrayed as a liar. Chris Rock called out Smollett on stage at the NAACP Awards. Tracy Morgan called him a liar on the Tonight Show. Arsenio Hall said that Mr. Smollett owes America an apology. Dave Chappelle ripped into his veracity during a recent stand up routine without hesitation.

Jussie Smollett was indicted on sixteen felony charges stemming from this incident by a grand jury. But Mr. Smollett forfeited his $10,000 bond and completed sixteen hours of community service through Jessie Jackson’s Rainbow Push Coalition. Then Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx’s office dismissed all charges and the file was sealed. No admission of guilt was required by Smollett and no explanation was given to the public. She said the case was being disposed of the same way many other minor cases would be.

The problem with that is this is not just another minor case. When a high-profile celebrity is involved the whole thing gets thrust into the public eye. That is why the Chicago Police took the case so seriously. The events surrounding Mr. Smollett are not the same as getting caught dealing a little bit of marijuana. For Kim Foxx to make the case disappear, then involve the Rainbow Push Coalition, then seal the file shows that she clearly has no respect for what is happening.

Outrage over her actions was swift and intense. Mayor Rahm Emanuel sent a $130,000 bill to Jussie Smollett for wasting the Chicago Police Department’s time. When it was not paid the City initiated a civil law suit. Eddie Johnson, Chicago Police Superintendent, made it clear that he thought Smollett had committed a grievous act. The Fraternal Order of Police staged a protest and has demanded prosecutor Kim Foxx resign. A group of suburban Chicago police chiefs made the same demand. Both a retired judge and a former Cook County State’s Attorney have petitioned for a special prosecutor to investigate Foxx. President Trump called the case, “an absolute embarrassment to our country” and said the Justice Department and FBI would be looking at it. Mayor Elect Lorrie Lightfoot vowed to investigate why the Cook County state’s attorney’s office dropped all charges despite the “compelling” evidence that suggests Smollett staged a hate crime against himself to further his own career.

Any time Rahm Emanuel and Donald Trump agree on a matter it seems likely there must be some truth to it. Add in that Smollett did his community service at Jesse Jackson’s Rainbow Push Coalition and it looks an awful lot like a statement is being made. Something like: “he did it, ha ha, and we are going to help this black man get away with it.” When you hear that Michelle Obama was connected to the situation it accentuates that impression even more. Her former Chief of Staff Tina Tchen had conversations with the prosecutor’s office before charges were dismissed.

USA Today says what Smollett allegedly did is not an isolated incident. A recent article cites cases such as Eastern Michigan, Air Force Academy, Yasmin Seweid, Wisconsin – Parkside, Kean College, Covington Catholic, and the “Hopewell Baptist burning.” All were racist scandals that turned out to be fake.

Why is this a trend? It could have to do with people wanting attention, as has been alleged with Smollett. But you also have to wonder if a left wing narrative lies underneath. Can it be that there are not many real high profile hate crimes these days? If that is so do they need to create fake ones to keep a narrative of hatred and division between blacks and whites alive for the purpose of retaining their voting block? One can only speculate. But it does not sound implausible.

Jussie Smollett and his lawyers all maintain that he is innocent. They say he has been victimized repeatedly: first by the attack and then by City officials. But anyone who has ever known actors personally knows the good ones can cry on cue. So Jussie’s statements are not worth much. The same goes for his lawyers: saying that something is true when it is not comes with the territory.

As might be expected the race card is being played in this situation. In a recent statement from Rainbow Push headquarters, Kim Foxx said that Fraternal Order of Police protests against her included white nationalists and that she was afraid. Tribune columnists Darcel Rockett and Dahleen Glanton went as far as to openly acknowledge and support Foxx’s weaponizing of a racist narrative in their columns.

Problem is everyone who owned slaves is long dead, and not too many years from now there will not even be anyone left who participated in segregation. When you see Foxx on television surrounded by Jesse Jackson and Bobby Rush it looks an awful lot like they are all stuck in a past that does not exist any more.

Black people in the United States should be happy to be here. They have exponentially more opportunity than they would if they were still in Africa. In Africa there are hundreds of thousands of slaves today. Those are black people enslaved by other black people, not whites. The top ten of USA Today’s 2018 list of the twenty-five poorest countries in the world were also on that continent.

Here in the U.S. we have had black CEOs, Mayors, Governors, Congressmen, Senators, sports stars, celebrities, and a recent two-term black President. Jessie Jackson’s family ran a large Anheuser-Bush distributorship for years.

The United States has a system of government that works better than any other on Earth because of the checks and balances we have. The founding fathers had enough insight to build a system that allowed for the tendency of human beings to go to extremes. Democrats take things too far and people get sick of it. They get voted out of office. Republicans take things too far and people get sick of it. They get voted out of office. And so it goes. Over time the best ideas of both parties are retained, like Social Security, because they benefit the greater public. Things that fail miserably, like Prohibition, are eventually thrown by the wayside. That flexibility has created more opportunity here than arguably any other place on Earth.

Like it or not our system of government was created by white people, and black people have benefited greatly from it.

Even though blacks may have originally been brought here as slaves long ago, modern day black people have a lot to be grateful for. Yet you do not sense that many are.

On a fairly regular basis demands for slave reparations surface. Slavery was certainly a travesty. But how fair is it to demand such payments when roughly 360,000 northern whites died in the Civil War so that black people could have freedom. Countless families were ravaged by the death of their sons so that modern day African-Americans can have the good life now open to them.

There does not seem to be a lot of white supremacy left in the U.S. Doubtless there are some ignorant white people here and there. But the last high profile hate crime in Chicago was committed by black people against a white person. That seriously makes you wonder if the African-American community should focus less on keeping victimization alive and more on taking advantage of the great opportunities they have for success in the United States.

Jussie Smollett should do time in jail. Years would not be appropriate, but maybe six months. The Chicago Tribune recently said that Kim Foxx should lose her job over her handling of the matter and Practical Chicago agrees with that as well. Anyone who might fake something as heinous as a hate crime needs to know that they will not be dealt with lightly. This is real life, not a Hollywood movie.

References:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2017_Chicago_torture_incident

https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/data/ct-illinois-president-results-20161108-htmlstory.html

https://chicago.cbslocal.com/2019/02/20/jussie-smollett-video-shows-brothers-red-hat-ski-mask/

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6695695/Chicago-police-say-Jussie-Smollett-gave-insufficient-redacted-phone-records.html

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/jussie-smollett-empire-actor-had-noose-around-his-neck-when-police-arrived/

https://ftw.usatoday.com/2019/02/jussie-smollett-charles-barkley-joke

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tEpZzvSzYfI

https://people.com/tv/saturday-night-live-jussie-smollett-sandra-oh-empire/

https://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2019/03/31/chris_rock_mocks_jussie_smollett_at_naacp_awards_what_the_hell_was_he_thinking.html

https://www.foxnews.com/entertainment/tracy-morgan-jabs-jussie-smollett-over-alleged-attack-racists-dont-watch-empire

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/empire-actor-jussie-smollett-indicted-16-felony-counts-grand-jury-n981236