Jussie Smollett

[SPHASH]

Is a fucking asshole.

[Briefly]

If the allegations are true, and I suspect they are based on what I've read/heard, he is really disgusting.  The spokesperson for the Equality Center in Tulsa was interviewed and he was talking about how much harder this will make it for people that really have been harassed or assaulted to come forward.  That is exactly what it will be.

[Glasgowghirl]

If this is true then he is an asshole and huge idiot, he has wasted police time and caused fear of attacks for other black and LGBT people. 

He has also ruined his own career in the process, his empire co stars don't want to work with him and chances of getting other roles are slim now too. I don't watch empire and hadn't heard of him before this and at first I felt sorry for him but within a few days I doubted his story, his refusal to turn his phone over, witnesses didn't back him up and the location where he claimed it happened. He is now saying he has a drug addiction and is seeking help but that is no excuse for his actions.

[Peas n carrots]

Ugh this whole case. From the beginning I thought it was weird - the night this happened the temps dipped to -50 with windchill. I had a hard time believing rando racists would be wandering around with bleach and a rope trying to find obscure actors to harass.

It’s just such massive slap in the face to folks who have truly been targets of hate crimes, and will affect people coming forward for years to come.

[NotQuiteMotY]

The fact that he did this is just... ARGH! Does he have any idea how much this will affect people who are actually harassed and attacked?! 

I thought it was hinky at first, something about the way it was reported on, but to find out that he set it up- and for his own financial gain, apparently- is ridiculous. You'd think he'd have gone through enough harassment or been exposed indirectly through others, as a gay black man, that he wouldn't think of falsifying something.

And if course, there's conservative reactions... There's a columnist in the local city paper who routinely mocks movements like #Me Too or Black Lives Matter (apparently women overreact and POC need to police themselves better- ugh!). It took a day for her to spit out a piece about how so many stories of harassment are made up, like this one! And the accusations about Brett Kavanaugh! (The most disgusting part is that she's an immigration lawyer...)

[mango_fandango]

I just had to google this guy. What a whole load of WTF. I suppose the main question is why? Why the hell would you make up something like that and make a mockery out of real racial abuse cases??? Totally agree with the rest of you about others will now find it hard to report abuse. It was hard enough as it is without this idiot.

[Penny]

I just wonder if we later find out he was on drugs, or has some medical condition that might explain his behavior. 

[Briefly]

It sounds like he just wanted attention, maybe a career boost was his aim.  Whatever it was, it's going to be so much harder for people who really are attacked.

[TheOneAndOnly]

Someone analyzed the body language in his interview. www.youtube.com/watch?v=G249yncH5Hw

[AmazonGrace]

He had charges dropped.

https://t.co/jrqpKXSMkJ

[EyesOpen]

7 minutes ago, AmazonGrace said:

He had charges dropped.

https://t.co/jrqpKXSMkJ

Saw that. What a co fusing mess. Someone has botched the management of this investigation so badly. 

[tabitha2]

Somebody has some well lined pockets now...

[Glasgowghirl]

I can't believe the charges are dropped, seems to me like he paid the prosecutor's off.

[Terrie]

Given the history of the police, and in particular the Chicago police, to extract false confessions from people, especially POCs, and distort evidence, I have to wonder about the decision to drop the case without requiring an admission of wrongdoing. The whole thing is fishy on all sides.

[Mama Mia]

Just when you think it couldn’t get weirder. 

It would seem, to me, if it was just your basic rich, connected, celebrity  committing a crime- they would of dismissed most charges, dragged it out for a bit, then quietly done a no-contest plea deal with a big fine, probation, probably a small token amount of jail time because it was so high profile and caused such outrage. 

This total dismissal, BUT taking into account his service to the community and forfeiting Bail? And Rahm Emmanuel ranting about how he should still be charged? Super weird.

Whats really strange is it wasn’t someone known to be unbalanced or shady - it’s not Lindsey Lohan or Charlie Sheen or R.Kelly., where you’d say wow, what an awful thing, but not be 100% shocked. 

The ultra tin-hat Q annon types went from saying it was a ploy by Kamala Harris and/or Cory Booker to stir a race war, to now saying Kamala is his secret mom. Crazy everywhere you look. 

My PERSONAL crazy, 100% speculative theory is it was the Nigerian trainer guys who attacked him, but they did it for some boring reason like a drug debt.  Jussie didn’t want that known, went hate crime instead. That spun out of control. The Chicago PD released too much info/ obtained info illegally/ somehow else botched the case. That combined with $ made them want the thing just gone. 

 

[Aine]

I heard a former prosecutor today on one of my daily news podcasts say she suspects the charges were dropped and everything sealed due to the police doing that press conference because it was very against protocol by the amount of detail given and that the prosecutor wasn't present. She said back when it happened that she would have been very unhappy if the police she has worked with in the past did that because you're poisoning jurors if it goes to trial and you're giving defense attorneys a 'head start' on thinking of a defense for the evidence. 

[SilverBeach]

The vast majority of black men cannot get an arrest record expunged without going through a long drawn out process, let alone at the same time all charges are dropped. Easy-peasy, like it never happened. Why the expungement, especially since they are saying he was not being exonerated. Just an arrest record can prevent someone from getting a badly needed job. Jussie Smollett is a smug prick and was shown favortism by a starstruck prosecutor's office. The expungement fries me more than dropping the charges.