Jussie Smollett’s hoax an act of terror?
Before it unraveled as a hoax, Smollett’s own family called the attack ‘domestic terrorism’. Presidential candidate Kamala Harris called it a ‘modern day lynching’ and has also described lynching as an act of terror more than once.
The terror concept seems pretty well preserved in the shift from lynching to orchestrated-lynching-hoax. So is it terrorism or not?
The terror concept seems pretty well preserved in the shift from lynching to orchestrated-lynching-hoax. So is it terrorism or not?
Comments (22)
And it will undermine confidence in the testimonies of future victims. Sad but true.
Draw attention to what though?
No. It was as ill-advised as stupid bullshit usually is.
Maybe the prosecutor thought it was just too loony to convict. A few years in psychotherapy would probably be a good idea.
The police didn't want to let it go, so it must have come from one of the higher-ups. The trial would have been expensive and retarded, and likely gone on to inflame racial tensions further.
There's also a chilling effect that happens when you throw the book at people who make false police reports: actual victims then fear to report actual crimes.
Ultimately the cons of prosecution, for the city, (or whoever interceded) outweighed the pros.
To himself. He was looking for publicity. He got it.
I don’t disagree. But if we accept Harris’s assertion that this was terrorism before it turned out to be a hoax... I don’t see how the terror element is removed by virtue of it being deliberately orchestrated plot for public and political consumption.
Some stupid bullshit is orders of magnitude worse than other stupid bullshit.
That sounds like it's probably true. I'd still like to see an official statement though. Any idea if that's forthcoming?
You don’t think he was trying to also draw attention to (terrifying) violent bigotry in modern America?
I think he was trying to exploit the attention that violent bigotry does draw. In the process he made fools of the people who wanted to support him.
It's not a terrorist attack if the only victim was the person who started the hoax in the first place. The only setback was the time and wasted resources.
"The Cook County State's Attorney's Office dropped all charges against Smollett on Tuesday but released little about why it abandoned the 16 felony disorderly conduct charges.
The lead prosecutor in the case said they reviewed the case's facts and considered Smollett's volunteer service in the community as well as his willingness to forfeit his $10,000 bond. He also noted that Smollett had no prior felonies and wasn't a danger to the community.
"That to me sounds like a deferred prosecution," Coates, the former federal prosecutor, said.
"It is quite common," she said. "Prosecutors thinking about reviewing the evidence decide that maybe a criminal solution or criminal prosecution is no longer the most effective way to reach justice."
Source:https://www.cnn.com/2019/03/27/entertainment/experts-jussie-smollett-why-prosecutors-dropped-charges/index.html
The actual details are sealed so we may never know the intimate details as to why, but apparently this is a case of deferred prosecution which happens often apparently.
What was going through his mind? People are weird!
I think you might need to look up the definition of "victim".
Famous people's careers have survived worse, I'm afraid. Remember when Sean Penn beat up then-girlfriend Madonna with a baseball bat?
She denies that occurred. https://www.thedailybeast.com/madonna-comes-forward-about-sean-penns-alleged-abuse-sean-has-never-struck-me
She denied it in 2015. The alleged attack happened in the 80's. His career between those two dates seems not to have suffered, and it's pretty telling that the police officers on call that night say she was a bloody, bruised mess.
https://www.thedailybeast.com/sean-penns-horrifying-history-of-alleged-abuse?ref=scroll
Point is, even before anyone heard Madonna defend him, Hollywood didn't care that he was an alleged criminal.
Same with Weinstein.
It wasn't a terrorist attack. Jussie hurt nobody but himself and ultimately his career case closed not sure why you're trying to make a mountain out of a mole hill. Jussie for all intensive purpose was the victim concocted story or not.
If I come in swinging trying to punch everyone in a room, but I only end up punching myself over and over, I'm not a victim, I'm just ineffective and an asshole, possibly with cognitive limitations.
Ok, but its still not terrorism. At the end of the day nobody was physically hurt.