Jussie "the hoax" Smollett

So I have been holding off on this one. Thought I would try to see both sides of the story before coming to an outright conclusion. The problem at this point is that the Smollett attorneys and the prosecutor who dropped the charges cannot even get their story straight.

The prosecutor suggested that because Smollett performed two days of community service and gave up his $10,000 bond, that this somehow provided them with a proper "outcome". Now had he plead guilty and the court gave him two days of community service and a $10,000 fine, I suppose there would have still been some angry people. But in this case, Smollett didn't have to plead guilty, and the charges were basically dropped (and the case "sealed").

That leaves Smollett and his attorneys free to suggest that he is still innocent of charges that everyone knows he is guilty of. Moreover, you have some Smollett supporters spreading rumors that the case was "falling apart". The only suggestion I have read regarding the case was that Smollett was suggesting that the $3500 was not payment for the attack, but rather payment for something else. But the "defense" offering a "defense" is not paramount to a case falling apart.

No surprise that both the prosecutor who made the deal, and the supervisor who approved the deal are known to be liberal political activist (and for the record, both are black). The Police Department and Mayor are besides themselves with anger. There have been many call for some sort of ethics probe or other oversight of this decision. Given the high profile nature of this and the public outrage, I am not sure how the Chicago DA office avoids one.

Time will tell how this turns out. But given the timing of all of this, it works to reinforce the 2019 idea of duel justice systems. One for the liberal Democratic elitists and their jolly band of "privileged" classes of people, and then one for the rest of us "deplorables".