Wednesday, March 27, 2019

Who’s the liar now?!?

I haven’t bothered to write a word until now about the saga of Jussie Smollet, largely because I must confess to not having a clue as to who he is.
"Empire" gains unwanted notoriety
I know he’s an actor in the television program “Empire,” but that’s theoretical. I’ve never watched the show, and haven’t felt compelled to check it out in recent weeks on account of the stink over Smollet.

A STINK THAT gained touches of lasting stench on Tuesday when a Cook County judge went along with prosecutorial recommendations that the criminal charges against Smollet be dismissed.

Of course, Cook County will keep the $10,000 cash he had to post as bond in order to avoid being locked up in the Cook County Jail. But Smollet was able to walk out of the Criminal Courts building with claims of innocence and the ability to go about making grandiose statements to the effect HE was the crime victim.

It’s a wonder he didn’t accuse police of improper activity against him. Then again, maybe that statement will be forthcoming.

Smollet was the guy who claimed that back in January, he was walking along the streets of Chicago when two men grabbed him, threw a noose around his neck, and began shouting racial and homophobic slurs at him.

SUPPOSEDLY, ONE OF the men also shouted that “this is MAGA country,” implying that this was motivated by people who firmly believe in the Age of Trump and all the nonsense that President Donald spews on a regular basis.

A Trump-motivated hate crime.

Except that Chicago police fairly quickly found flaws in the account, and the two men then told police that Smollet paid them a few thousand dollars to stage the attack against him.
WATKINS: Dismissed the case

Which led to criminal charges being filed against Smollet, and all the ideologue nitwits of the world being eager to claim this was just another case of fraud. Smollet, who is both black and gay, is just a liar who shouldn’t be trusted, like everybody else who happens to not be white and Protestant.

A REAL AMERICAN, as these people would prefer to define it.

That version of the story, however, fell apart on Tuesday, when Judge Steven Watkins used what was expected to be a routine status hearing to dismiss the case – at the request of prosecutors.

Smollet’s attorneys say there was no advance warning or deal. It’s not anything resembling a plea agreement. The case was thrown out of court. Not that we’ll ever know details, for the judge also issued an order keeping the court file of the case under permanent seal.

With prosecutors saying in court that this agreement is, “a just disposition and appropriate resolution to this case,” it makes me suspect there was some sort of error in the handling of this case by the police during the investigation – something that would have ruined any chance of getting a criminal conviction that would have held up under appeal.

NOT THAT I know that for sure. This case is now under seal, which means we’re never going to be informed as to why prosecutors were willing to write off the case against Smollet, who many were more than willing to demonize as a liar who was worthy of whatever criminal punishment the courts felt like dishing out.
JOHNSON: He's furious

So are we supposed to go back to the account where Smollet was the victim of racially-motivated thugs? Smollet himself insisted Tuesday that he has been, “truthful and consistent from Day One” in talking about the incident.

For what it’s worth, police Superintendent Eddie Johnson was said to be “furious” that prosecutors would dismiss the investigation his officers put together. Of course, Johnson was the guy who went around saying Smollet was particularly contemptible for being a black man who’d stage a racially-motivated attack against himself.

Which means it’s likely that Johnson will be the one who winds up taking the fall for this incident. Even though I’m sure there’s enough “blame” to be passed around. Johnson said early on that this case “pissed everybody off,” and now that list of irritated individuals includes the ideologues who were taking joy from Smollet’s arrest.

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