Another high-profile trial has taken place in America. A jury in Chicago found failed ex-actor Jussie Smollett guilty of staging an attack on himself
This fictional crime took place almost three years ago – but only now has it been brought to trial with great difficulty. The Smollett situation was an apotheosis of liberal “victim culture” and showed in all its glory the politicisation of American justice.
On 29 January 2019, Jussie Smollett reported the assault to the police. He claimed he had been confronted by white males unknown to him at night in downtown Chicago. They aggressively attacked him, struck him several times, put a rope around his neck and splashed bleach in his face. The attackers shouted, “This is MAGA country!”, which can roughly be translated as “This is the land of Trump supporters!”. A stream of racist and homophobic slurs were also hurled at Smollett. The only thing Smollett managed to remember was that the attackers wore the trademark red “Make America Great Again” caps popularised by the political spin doctors of then US president Donald Trump.
The attack caused a huge backlash across America. Smollett began to be invited for interviews by all national TV channels. Current Vice President Kamala Harris, then a rank-and-file senator from California, called the incident a “modern-day Lynch trial”. The progressive public threw a temper tantrum about how racism and homophobia are raising their heads in Trump’s America – that now black gay men can’t even walk through downtown Chicago without fear of being the victim of a hate attack based on their skin colour and orientation.
Chicago police have sent a dozen detectives to investigate the incident, who have rushed through hundreds of hours of surveillance footage around the park where Smollett was attacked. That said, Chicago is one of the “record holders” for violent crime in the US. There are dozens of shootings and numerous deaths here every weekend – but not every murder attracts as much effort from law enforcement.
A few days later, the cops hot on the trail find the suspects in the incident. At this point Smollett, trying to get ahead of the police, claims that his attackers may not have been white but merely looked “pale-faced”, perhaps because of the paint or moonlight. And indeed: the suspects turned out to be two Nigerian brothers Abel and Ola. One of them worked as Smollett’s fitness trainer. The assailants immediately confessed to everything and told the law enforcers that Smollett had promised them $3,500 for staging the attack.
At that time, Smollett was involved in filming a series for Fox (not to be confused with Fox News) and really wanted to advance in his career, as well as increase his salary. And he thought that the easiest way to do this would be by pulling off a modern “performance art” attack in downtown Chicago and becoming a sacrificial hero for all of liberal America.
During the investigation, it was also revealed that a week before the stunt, Smollett had made a fuss over receiving an anonymous letter addressed to a “black p……” with a certain white substance. A closer look, however, revealed that the contents were just crushed aspirin. And the story itself did not resonate – so annoyed Smollett had to invent something more substantial to attract attention, now having staged an attack on himself.
He got the idea for it from the Broadway play Get Me Out, where the main character is beaten up for his non-traditional orientation, using roughly the same expressions that Smollett then put into the mouths of the Nigerians he hired. Smollett played in this theatrical production – and when he returned from New York to Chicago after one of the performances, he staged an attack on himself.
Police instantly charged Smollett with 16 counts of lying under oath, perjury and tampering with a crime. He was required to reimburse all costs to law enforcers for the weeks-long investigation into the poorly staged incident. In total, law enforcers estimated that at least $130,000 was spent on the work of the detectives who hastily investigated his case.
But at that very moment, typical Chicago corruption intervened. Frightened not only by the “nullification” of his reputation, but also by the real prospect of going to jail, Smollett rushed to call all his friends in high places, asking for help in getting out of the situation. Tina Tchen, a lawyer for two of Chicago’s most powerful families, the Obamas and Rahm Emmanuel, lobbied the local DA’s office to drop all charges against Smollett and turn his case over to the FBI, where it would be shelved. Smollett was on friendly terms with Michelle Obama and Tchen was her long-time chief of staff.
The American public was outraged. It appeared that if you were a rich liberal star, you were allowed to break the law, play the victim and get away with it. The resonance caused by the case led Trump to order a special enquiry, which then forced local authorities to launch an independent investigation into Smollett’s crimes, bypassing the local prosecutor’s office.
A separate federal special prosecutor was hired for this, who, after three years of work, still managed, with great difficulty, to push through local corruption and bring the case to a jury trial. Here Smollett expectedly lost and was found guilty.
He now plans to appeal the jury’s decision to the court of appeal. If he loses, he could face up to three years in prison and heavy fines from the Chicago police.
Such a punishment seems very mild – especially when much longer sentences are handed out for protests near the Capitol. The same demonstrator dressed as a “shaman” was sentenced to 41 months in jail, on top of the 10 months already served in the federal penitentiary. However, in conditions of rapid politicization of justice in modern America, it is good that at least some liberal has chances to be punished for their pranks.
The Smollett incident is a colourful example of hate crimes being staged, of which there are many. The dominant “victim culture” in liberal discourse leads to this, where every member of this political sect tries to show themselves to be the greater victim of the “white patriarchy” and thus receive moral and material rewards.
Much to the dismay of liberals, society has long been insufficiently racist and xenophobic – so from the lack of real hate crimes they have to make them up.
Malek Dudakov