Sunday, February 17, 2019

TANGLED WEBS

Jussie Smollett is an actor on the television program Empire which concerns a fictional record company.  Or something like that; I never watch that show.  Mr. Smollett has hit the cultural trifecta, identifying as black, gay and a passionate hater of Donald Trump.

Anyway, Jussie was in Chicago, his home town, a while back and was out very late one night. According to him, he was attacked by two men who punched him once or twice, poured bleach over his head and put a noose around his neck, all the while verbally abusing him with racist and "homophobic" slurs, one of which may have been the F-word and his connection with Empire. "This is MAGA country," one of the attackers allegedly yelled.

Celebrities everywhere rallied to his cause, tweeting support and denouncing American racism and "homophobia" while Democratic political blowhards like Cory Booker, Kammi Harris and Nanner McBotox did the same.  Clutching its pearls, "American journalism" basically decided that this "attack" really happened, end of story, and isn't it awful?

Aware of all this, the Chicago Police Department performed an unusually thorough and professional investigation.  And as it did so, it slowly began to come to what must have been an extremely uncomfortable realization.  The longer the CPD peeled this onion, the faster it was dragged, kicking and screaming, to the conclusion that this "hate crime" shared a trait with a great many "hate crimes" reported in this country.

Fraudulency.

Two law enforcement sources with knowledge of the investigation tell CNN that Chicago Police believe actor Jussie Smollett paid two men to orchestrate an assault on him that he reported late last month.

Smollett denies playing a role in his attack, according to a statement from his attorneys.
 
The men, who are brothers, were arrested Wednesday but released without charges Friday after Chicago police cited the discovery of "new evidence."
 
The sources told CNN the two men are now cooperating fully with law enforcement.
 
Smollett's attorneys were outraged at the suggestion.
 
Smollett's attorneys, Todd S. Pugh and Victor P. Henderson, issued a statement to CNN Saturday night saying Smollett was angry about these latest developments.
 
"As a victim of a hate crime who has cooperated with the police investigation, Jussie Smollett is angered and devastated by recent reports that the perpetrators are individuals he is familiar with," the statement read. "He has now been further victimized by claims attributed to these alleged perpetrators that Jussie played a role in his own attack. Nothing is further from the truth and anyone claiming otherwise is lying."
 
For what it's worth, those two brothers are Nigerians, one of whom appeared on Empire.
 
From the start, there were holes in this story big enough to drive a semi through.  The evening of the attack, the temperature in Chicago was somewhere around 0 degrees. So we're asked to believe that two Chicagoans, who presumably know how Arctically cold Chicago can get this time of year, decided to take a noose and some bleach, wait outside and hope that some black and gay guy came around, preferably before they froze to death.
 
If the "Empire F-word" blast is accurate, that basically cuts the ground completely out from under this story.  Smollett only got into town that day which means that two guys who Smollett didn't know somehow knew he would be in town AND that he would be out very late that night.

Right.
 
Oh, and Chicago, a town more Democratic than the Vatican is Catholic or Mecca is Muslim, is "MAGA country?"  Please.  There's such a thing as adding too much detail.
 
This story's been all over Twitter more than any story I've seen since the last time "American journalism" wanted to take another rip into Donald Trump.  A month ago, say.  So was this actually all about Trump? 
 
Did Smollett arrange this charade to prove to America what a piece of crap Donald Trump is?  It's hard to conclude otherwise when alleged "conservative" and fanatical NeverTrumpster S. E. Cupp can tweet this.
 
The giddiness among Trumpsters over the Smollett news is gross. This story is awful. He allegedly abused police resources, exploited raw divisions in this country, and made it harder for every victim of a hate crime to report. This is sad no matter your politics.
 
 
Trumpsters just proving my point all night. I comment - for the first time- on Smollett, lamenting his awful, inexcusable exploitation of hate and division, and call out their giddiness over this awful, inexcusable exploitation. And they respond with... giddiness.
 
And this.
 
You can argue all you want that the Jussie story is vindication for Trump. That’s part of the story. But what he actually did is set a movement back. If you’re worried about race, gender, sex, trans threats...this imperils them all. That’s the important takeaway, not politics.
 
Actually, Scupp, the "important takeaway" from this story is people like you desperately trying to figure out some way to throw just a little blame on Trump supporters.  Maybe Juss lied, basically libeled millions of people and imperiled a lot of important goals but don't you dare be happy about the fact that a liar was exposed. 
 
Because it sure is a tragedy, isn't it, and shouldn't we be looking at the big picture here?  No.  Actually, considering all the man-hours the CPD put into investigating Smollett's ludicrous scam, it's nowhere near a tragedy at all.

It's a crime.
 
End of story, Scupp.
 
Should Smollett be prosecuted?  Chicago can do whatever it wants.  But I don't really care too much since Lisa Boothe gets it.
 
The Covington Kids and Jussie Smollett stories are the same. The media chose to believe the narrative that was most damaging to Trump supporters, even in the absence of facts or logic. This is why there is animus towards the media and why #fakenews resonates.
 
Personally, the only thing I'm "giddy" about, Scupp, is that you can no longer say that "American journalism," including the joke that currently pays your salary, has zero credibility.  "American journalism's" credibility is now measured in negative numbers.

UPDATE: Annnnnnnnnnd...we're off.

UPDATE: CNN's Bart Simpson is in.

UPDATE: Credit where it's due.  Unlike the rest of "American journalism" which covered its ears and yelled, "LA, LA, LA, LA, I CAN'T HEAR YOU," the Chicago news media has been all over this story from the beginning.  Here's a local account.

Jussie Smollett paid two brothers to stage an attack against him, directed them to buy items used in the alleged assault and actually rehearsed it with them, sources say.

Sources say at least one of the brothers bought the rope used in the incident at Smollett’s request. The sources also say the “Empire” actor paid for the rope, which was purchased at the Crafty Beaver Hardware Store in the Ravenswood neighborhood the weekend of Jan. 25.

The brothers, who were questioned by police this week before being released, were paid $3,500 before leaving for Nigeria and were promised an additional $500 upon their return.

They left for Nigeria later in the day on Jan. 29, after the attack.

Sources said one of the brothers held the rope and poured bleach while the other wore a plain red hat and yelled slurs at Smollett.

The sources say the red hat was bought at an Uptown beauty supply store and that the attack was supposed to happen before Jan. 29. The brothers told detectives the three men rehearsed the attack days prior to it happening.

Sleazier and sleazier.

UPDATE: Harmeet Dhillon knows from experience what actual hate crimes are.

UPDATE: This one's going to a grand jury.

UPDATE: When you've lost Alyssa Milano...

UPDATE: Kammi gets all flustered.

UPDATE: Schedule the teary, repentant presser, Juss, because you've lost Mikey Nats.

3 comments:

Katherine said...

Leftist media types gave this HUGE amounts of publicity. Lynching! Brave Jussie! Over and over and over. They wanted to believe it, so they did, in spite of how highly improbable this story was. As my daughter who lived in Chicago points out, when it's that cold, people aren't loitering on the streets. They're hurrying to get where they're going. And who shouts "This is MAGA country?" Especially in gold coast Chicago?

Every time I hear of one of these "bias" crimes, I wait to see what the evidence shows. Occasionally the story is true, but more often than not it's a hoax.

Katherine said...

This may be conspiracy theory territory, but the Smollett family had ties to Obama, and Kamala Harris and Cory Booker introduced a federal anti-lynching law just days before this "attack." Did they need a case to make a big splash?

https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2019/02/was_kamala_harris_part_of_the_jussie_stollett_hoax.html

Not sure I'm convinced, but on the other hand, the Empire producers say Smollett was NOT being written out of the show, so why did he do this?

Katherine said...

Good news on the grand jury, if it results in an indictment for Smollett. CPD spent a lot of hours on this false report, and it's not like they don't have any real crimes to investigate in Chicago.