Jussie Smollet apparently has some splainin' to do....
It was only a few weeks ago that Jussie Smollett, an actor known for his role on the tv show Empire, made headlines around the world after he was allegedly attacked on the streets of Chicago.
The attack he described took place around 2am on January 29th, while he was returning from a late night trip to a local Subway shop. He reported the crime to local police after he had returned home.
He described being attacked by two white males wearing red MAGA (Make America Great Again) hats, made popular by supporters of President Trump. They allegedly beat him, then placed a noose around his neck, and proceeded to pour some type of chemical on him, while informing him that this was MAGA country. The chemical was later proven to be household bleach.
A frightening incident for anyone, especially late at night and walking alone.
There were several odd claims to the story that many bloggers had immediately pointed out.
Chicago was in a deep freeze that night with temperatures well below freezing. At that time, in the peak of winter, it would seem odd for two people wearing baseball caps and balaclava masks to be wandering the streets, carrying a bottle of bleach and a rope made into a noose, apparently searching for a gay black man to harass. Jussie just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time, and fit the victim ptofile they were looking for.
Further, there were no witnesses to the incident and he managed to make it home, with his sandwich and all his possessions, and the noose still dangling around his neck. He contacted his agent and the police. The police took his statement and then proceeded to investigate the incident. It blew up on social media and the police ensured the public they would search high and low to find the alleged attackers.
It didn't take long to determine there was more to this story that the victim and the media claimed was a blatantly racial hate crime, because he was black and gay and famous, and his attackers were white and obviously racist Trump supporters. Jussie made the rounds on numerous talk shows, was headline news for days, and the attack became the push needed to allow the passing of a national law against lynching that had been held up in Congress for years.
Who knew that lynchings were even an issue in this day and age?
Sadly for Jussie, and his supporters, it did not take long for the Chicago Police Department to determine things did not play out quite the same way as described by the victim.
Turns out the attackers were two landed immigrants from Nigeria, who work as fitness trainers and had worked with Jussie as extras on the Empire series. The are clearly, not white, and claim to have been paid $3500 USD by Jussie to fake the attack. There is video of the two brothers buying the masks at a local store just days before. The rope was apparently purchased by Jussie himself at a local hardware store.
Now, of course the brothers could be lying to the police, and the evidence is merely coincidental, and there still could be two white MAGA madmen roaming the frigid streets of Chicago looking for their next celebrity victim, but odds are against it. And the rule is innocent until proven guilty, although in this case, the victim could turn out to be guilty of a lot more than making up a fake news story. He could be facing years in jail and the end of his career as an actor.
While the world has sympathy for victims, it has no empathy for fake victims.
Jussie has since been officially charged and is out on bail awaiting trial. There are stories that his phone records will raise some eyebrows in the days to come.
