More and more Americans are becoming convinced of that and for good reason. Take the case of “Empire” actor Jussie Smollett.
As you likely know, the Chicago PD had Smollett dead to rights on 16 counts of “disorderly conduct” related to a fake hate crime he staged with two Nigerian brothers. In Illinois, when you lie to cops, it’s a felony; each count carries a sentence of one-to-three years, according to The Associated Press. So even if Smollett had been found guilty of only half of what he was charged with and received the minimum sentence for each count, he still would have had to serve nearly a decade behind bars.
And clearly, cops and Cook County prosecutors wanted that. The “prosecutorial overkill,” as his lawyer Mark Geragos called it, was due to the fact that “authorities are angry” at him, AP reported.
But as it turns out, the Cook County State’s Attorney’s office dropped all charges against Smollett on Tuesday. In the end, Smollett got away with the hoax.
Chicago PD had good reason to be angry. The implications of the actor’s accusations — that two white guys wearing “MAGA” hats, a direct reference to POTUS Trump supporters, beat him up and called him racial and homosexual epithets — were potentially disastrous for the city but also affected many far beyond Chicago.
Consider: If Smollett had managed to pull off his hoax, the outrage within the black community would have immediately spilled over into the streets.
In such a highly charged political atmosphere as we have today, Chicago could have resembled Los Angeles during the 1992 riots inspired by the unbelievable acquittal of four LAPD officers caught on videotape beating Rodney King. Over five days, looting and violence killed 60 people and led to the arrests of more than 12,000; the rioting caused $1 billion in damages and California put armed National Guard troops on the streets. (Related: Chicago PD claims they have ‘more evidence’ that Jussie Smollett staged his hate crime.)
The hoax that sparks societal breakdown is already being planned
Fast-forward to today’s Chicago, which is already near the top of U.S. cities in murders per year. The bloodshed and damage would have been far worse.
But there is something else that is different about the times we are currently living in compared to when the King riots occurred. Today we are a much more divided country, thanks to the Left’s refusal to accept POTUS Trump as our leader. We are on edge politically, culturally, and racially. Massive race-related riots in Chicago sparked by the beating (alleged) of a black, gay actor by a couple of white Trump thugs very likely would have sparked similar riots in other large American cities, and who knows where they would have spread from there.
Untold billions in damages. Lives lost. Communities permanently shattered. Businesses ruined. And our cultural divide would have grown too large to bridge overnight, leading us in a permanent state of conflict, where one outrage would beget another. And another. And another — until the country was shattered.
Yes, what Smollett attempted to do was this serious and could have led to these kinds of consequences.
And yet, letting him off the hook will prove to be just as destructive and divisive.
Because letting Smollett go not only constitutes a travesty of injustice, it lays the groundwork for future fake hate crime reports. After all, if he can get away with it, why can’t someone else? And someone after that?
Eventually, though, police won’t be able to prove the hoax, and the lie will stand. Then the rioting will begin in earnest.
Where it stops once it starts is anyone’s guess.
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