The Demand for Racism Exceeds the Supply

Black actor Jusse Smollett was found guilty today by a Chicago jury of lying to police when he reported being the victim of a hate crime in the early morning hours of a frigid night near his apartment almost three years ago.  As the WSJ reports, “Mr. Smollett was the star of the hit show ‘Empire’ when he told police that two men had used racist, antigay language and a pro-Trump slogan before hitting and kicking him and placing a noose around his neck around 2 a.m. on Jan. 29, 2019.”

According to the jury, the whole thing was made up, as (necessarily) was Smollett’s trial testimony, plus numerous of his public statements reiterating his “victimhood.”

The WSJ report also notes:

Two brothers, who were originally arrested as suspects in the case, became the prosecution’s star witnesses. They testified last week that they believed a $3,500 payment from Mr. Smollett covered diet and fitness training and the staging of a fake hate crime.

Mr. Smollett took the stand in his own defense, saying that…he didn’t want to call police about the alleged attack because it would ruin his chances to be taken seriously in future roles playing sports figures or a comic-book hero.

He was originally charged with 16 counts of disorderly conduct for allegedly lying to police, but the case was dropped when he agreed to surrender his bail money and do community service.

But a special prosecutor was later named and presented evidence before a grand jury that charged Mr. Smollett with six [felony] counts of disorderly conduct. He also faces a civil lawsuit brought by the city of Chicago over overtime it paid detectives working on the case.

This is far from the first fake “hate crime” we have seen.  Probably the most infamous was the Duke rape prosecution of several years ago, in which a corrupt and dishonest prosecutor charged white Duke lacrosse players with the rape of a black female “exotic dancer.”  Duke forthwith turned its back on the charged students and booted their fraternity from the campus, such was its regard for the presumption of innocence and all that stuff Duke legal academia so piously, and so loudly, intones in every other context.

The problem was that, not only were the students not guilty of the rape; there was no rape.  A state investigation proved that the whole thing was made up.  I believe Duke has now, as the result of a civil suit, been forced to pony up a substantial (but undisclosed) settlement.

Racism still exists in this country; no fair-minded person can doubt that.  But the ubiquitous and reflexive wail of racism, in the Duke case and now in the Jusse Smollett hoax, is so much poisonous baloney.  The major problem that besets our criminal justice system is not racism.  It’s the malign behavior of people, black, white and brown, who want what they want, feel nothing for their victims, and think rules are for suckers.  We do no one of any race any favors when we make excuses for them.

UPDATE:

Paul Mirengoff of PowerLine adds:

One of the Nigerian men Smollett hired to carry out the fake attack, which the actor falsely attributed to a Trump supporter, reacted to the verdict with a grin, a fist pump, and the statement “Nigerian-American lives matter.”

Special prosecutor Dan Webb made this statement:

For him to fake a hate crime, fake it and then cause the police department to spend enormous efforts … I thought it was serious criminal misconduct that needed to be approached and have a public trial about it.

Webb also said that Smollett “compounded his wrongdoing” by lying to jurors during his time on the stand, and indeed by insulting the jurors’ intelligence with his story and testimony.

Webb plans to bring up Smollett’s lying with the judge at the sentencing phase as an aggravating factor. But Smollett’s offense was already aggravated in my opinion. If hate crimes are specially egregious, then so is lying about them.

Ordinarily, one lies to the police to protect oneself or to protect a person one cares about. Smollett lied to the police to promote his “brand.”

In doing so, he added to racial tension and resentment in America. There’s more than enough of that resentment without Hollywood actors gratuitously generating more by telling tales of racism.

Smollett should receive the maximum sentence allowable for the crimes he committed. According to this report, a disorderly conduct charge for a false crime report is a Class 4 felony punishable by up to three years in prison and a $25,000 fine.

I’ll conclude this post with a reminder of what Joe Biden tweeted after Smollett made his false crime report:

What happened today to @JussieSmollett must never be tolerated in this country. We must stand up and demand that we no longer give this hate safe harbor; that homophobia and racism have no place on our streets or in our hearts. We are with you, Jussie.

Wrong again, Clueless Joe.