Jussie Smollett finds himself in a world of legal pain here as he’s indicted on 16 counts over that allegedly fake attack upon himself that he’s alleged to have instigated himself. The charges are things like making a false statement to police, disorderly conduct and such-like. But he’s not being charged with the Big One here, which is creating race hatred.
For what was the initial reaction to those reports of that attack? That America was a disgustingly racist country, that blacks would never get a fair shake of the stick and Orange Man Bad given those MAGA hats. All of which stirs up race hatred of course, to the disbenefit of the society at large and as a whole. Something we’d rather like to discourage and that is in part what the criminal justice system is for, to discourage those things which we believe are bad for the country as a whole.
[perfectpullquote align=”full” bordertop=”false” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=””] Jussie Smollett, an actor in US series “Empire” has been indicted on 16 felony counts by a grand jury in Chicago after being accused of staging a racist attack on himself. Smollett, 36, who is considered one of America’s leading black television actors, was accused by police late last month of “exploiting the pain and anger of racism” in a “shameful” attempt to boost his own profile. He was charged with making a false statement to police, which carries a sentence of up to three years in jail. The 36-year-old appeared to be facing even greater legal trouble on Friday when a grand jury returned 16 counts of disorderly conduct against him. “Jussie Smollett knew that at the time … there was no reasonable ground for believing that such offenses had been committed,” the indictment states. Prosecutors have accused the actor of staging the attack on himself in January as a “publicity stunt” to boost his $65,000-an-episode salary. [/perfectpullquote]A race crime in pursuit of personal gain would seem to be an accurate description of the allegations, no? The US does have a method of upping the seriousness of a crime and the punishment for it – a “hate crime”. Bit odd to see that he’s not being charged with such, isn’t it?
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To paraphrase Liz Warren - do you think that a similar defendant who was white would have been charged differently?
Yes, there are two versions of Justice in the US. Many are confused as to which is which applying to the races.