Jussie Smollett/Chicago police nice work

[pettie4sox]

3 hours ago, wrathofhahn said:

As a matter of law nothing has changed. Real hate crimes will get investigated and prosecuted by the police in the same manner as Johnson said in his press conference.

When it comes to the media if this causes them to put their journalism hat on rather then their advocate hat and start reporting these events with dispassion mixed in with a healthy does of skepticism then we would all be better off. This is the forth major hoax the American media has perpetrated on the American public from Covington, Russia, Jessie to Kavanaugh there has to some point be some sort of reflection of why they are getting so many of these big stories so wrong.

 

I am sometimes skeptical of MAGA hat wearing people committing crimes.  It's too easy to buy them and weaponize them in partisan attacks.  There was a sword wielding MAGA hat wearing guy who slashed someone in SF.  Who knows what is really happening but fake attacks are as low as one can get.  It does service to absolutely no one.  There were serious people being killed not even 50-60 years ago by a band of hate crime, white terrorists in America!

[raBBit]

On 4/1/2019 at 12:03 PM, Jenksismyhero said:

So, here's what confuses me about this whole situation: who the hell is this guy and why is he worth protecting?

He's got supporters. He's got some kind of connection to Foxx or someone in the SA's office. He's clearly got friends in high places who pulled some favors to get the charges dropped. Why? Why is he so important that he needs to be protected from these claims? I mean, the fact that Rainbow Push and Sharpton are having protests/rallies. Why? 

Any reasonable person could see that his claims are very troubling and it's at least possible he made the whole thing up. So why not at least be neutral about it? See where the trial goes. Why do this big favor and protect him?

 

 

He campaigned for Kamala Harris in the past. She launched her campaign off of his faux-tragedy. 

[Brian]

14 hours ago, raBBit said:

He campaigned for Kamala Harris in the past. She launched her campaign off of his faux-tragedy. 

Harris formally announced she was running on Jan 21, probably decided much earlier obviously. Smollett staged his attack on Jan 29th.

Edited April 3, 2019 by Brian

[wrathofhahn]

21 hours ago, pettie4sox said:

I am sometimes skeptical of MAGA hat wearing people committing crimes.  It's too easy to buy them and weaponize them in partisan attacks.  There was a sword wielding MAGA hat wearing guy who slashed someone in SF.  Who knows what is really happening but fake attacks are as low as one can get.  It does service to absolutely no one.  There were serious people being killed not even 50-60 years ago by a band of hate crime, white terrorists in America!

All it does is serve to further divide people. I try to take people as they come and just because I agree with someone politically does not make them a good person or even someone I would want to have a beer with.

When I first heard the Smollett story I was skeptical but not dismissive the more that came out the more skeptical I became. We are sort of in a new era and I agree that some of the things surrounding women needed to change women should be heard everyone has a story I used to have a conversation with my parents about stories when they grew up one thing that always startled me was what they told about a teacher and perverts back then everyone knew but noone acted. They would say don't go to Ms Smith and if you see Mr Smith walking down the hallway immediately go to the womans bathroom.

They would offer home tutoring there was this one girl who was new and my grandmother phoned and warned the parents they were told too late. They then moved to another city.

I've worked at Bank in the late 90's where I was responsible for the uptime of the production servers my boss was a misogynist. Would he been allowed to do that now? No. For me it's important that any claims of racism, sexism, sexual assault are heard and not just hidden under the carpet but they need to be vetted too. We cannot just assume guilt and profess outrage before knowing the facts and we can not confer victim status either because otherwise we are creating a space for people like Smollett to exist. I also think when people prejudge these things it makes it harder for people to have a honest conversation later because one side basically has to admit they were wrong.

[pettie4sox]

10 minutes ago, wrathofhahn said:

All it does is serve to further divide people. I try to take people as they come and just because I agree with someone politically does not make them a good person or even someone I would want to have a beer with.

When I first heard the Smollett story I was skeptical but not dismissive the more that came out the more skeptical I became. We are sort of in a new era and I agree that some of the things surrounding women needed to change women should be heard everyone has a story I used to have a conversation with my parents about stories when they grew up one thing that always startled me was what they told about a teacher and perverts back then everyone knew but noone acted. They would say don't go to Ms Smith and if you see Mr Smith walking down the hallway immediately go to the womans bathroom.

They would offer home tutoring there was this one girl who was new and my grandmother phoned and warned the parents they were told too late. They then moved to another city.

I've worked at Bank in the late 90's where I was responsible for the uptime of the production servers my boss was a misogynist. Would he been allowed to do that now? No. For me it's important that any claims of racism, sexism, sexual assault are heard and not just hidden under the carpet but they need to be vetted too. We cannot just assume guilt and profess outrage before knowing the facts and we can not confer victim status either because otherwise we are creating a space for people like Smollett to exist. I also think when people prejudge these things it makes it harder for people to have a honest conversation later because one side basically has to admit they were wrong.

A+ post, I could not agree more.

[greg775]

I think this story lost its 15 minutes of fame about a week ago. Lasted a while. The outrage has lessened a bit.

[Jenksismyhero]

1 hour ago, greg775 said:

I think this story lost its 15 minutes of fame about a week ago. Lasted a while. The outrage has lessened a bit.

This thing will go on for a while IMO. The City filed a civil suit against him. The two brothers he conspired with just sued his attorneys for defamation (for calling them MAGA-hat wearing, homophobic criminals). That case will be interesting because if the case can proceed, which is doubtful (tough to prove the attorneys knew the truth/falsity of Smollett's claims), it will be a case within a case....the brothers will have to show that it was all a hoax and that Smollett and/or his attorneys knew it. The attorneys will have to show it was true (i.e., they committed the crime). 

Also I think the DoJ is still looking into him for his mail fraud claims involving the threat letters. 

And I dunno how much, if anything, is going to happen to the investigation into Foxx and the States Attorneys Office. 

Still a lot of meat on this one, even if it's not a daily story.

[greg775]

4 hours ago, Jenksismyhero said:

This thing will go on for a while IMO. The City filed a civil suit against him. The two brothers he conspired with just sued his attorneys for defamation (for calling them MAGA-hat wearing, homophobic criminals). That case will be interesting because if the case can proceed, which is doubtful (tough to prove the attorneys knew the truth/falsity of Smollett's claims), it will be a case within a case....the brothers will have to show that it was all a hoax and that Smollett and/or his attorneys knew it. The attorneys will have to show it was true (i.e., they committed the crime). 

Also I think the DoJ is still looking into him for his mail fraud claims involving the threat letters. 

 And I dunno how much, if anything, is going to happen to the investigation into Foxx and the States Attorneys Office. 

Still a lot of meat on this one, even if it's not a daily story.

Thanks. Sounds like it has some life in the local press. I doubt national will continue covering all that. They should, though, but it all is gonna take time, time, time. ...