Almost three years after his most notorious acting role, Jussie Smollett was convicted for it.
On Thursday, a jury returned a guilty verdict in five of the six counts the former “Empire” actor faced for orchestrating a fake hate crime against himself in January of 2019. According to CNN, Smollett’s attorney said he “respectfully disagrees” with the verdict and that his client is “confident that this will be reversed on appeal.” He was also confident he could pull this ridiculous stunt off, so I wouldn’t put too much credence in that theory.
We’ve been covering Smollett’s case since the beginning here at The Western Journal, noting that the details didn’t add up while the mainstream media was credulously buying his story. We aim to keep establishment outlets honest — and you can help us by subscribing.
Speaking of credulous, enter Black Lives Matter. The national organization is either quite gullible or believes that its guilt-ridden, liberal audience is. Either way, they’ve made it clear, Jussie Smollett must be believed for no special reason except that a) he’s black and b) the Chicago Police Department played a role in his case. That’s it.
In a statement issued Tuesday via Black Lives Matter’s website, Melina Abdullah — co-founder of BLM Los Angeles and director of BLM Grassroots — said that since the organization is a group of “abolitionists,” they “approach situations of injustice with love and align ourselves with our community. Because we got us.”
“So let’s be clear: we love everybody in our community. It’s not about a trial or a verdict decided in a white supremacist charade, it’s about how we treat our community when corrupt systems are working to devalue their lives,” Abdullah wrote.
“In an abolitionist society, this trial would not be taking place, and our communities would not have to fight and suffer to prove our worth. Instead, we find ourselves, once again, being forced to put our lives and our value in the hands of judges and juries operating in a system that is designed to oppress us, while continuing to face a corrupt and violent police department, which has proven time and again to have no respect for our lives.”
Well, this is a unique take: The evidence against Jussie Smollett doesn’t matter because he’s black. To Abdullah, this should be as rigged as a lynching trial against white defendants in the Old South because “we got us.”
It’s not that Smollett didn’t do anything or that he was picked up on a minor charge by meddling police. He actively courted national attention with a hate-crime hoax designed to increase his pay — and at no time in her letter, published as an official statement by the Black Lives Matter organization, does Abdullah attempt to refute this. Instead, the statement claims Smollett is deserving of defense solely on the basis of his color.
Furthermore, the mere involvement of police is put forth as evidence Smollett must be believed.
“In our commitment to abolition, we can never believe police, especially the Chicago Police Department (CPD) over Jussie Smollett, a Black man who has been courageously present, visible, and vocal in the struggle for Black freedom,” the statement reads.
“While policing at-large is an irredeemable institution, CPD is notorious for its long and deep history of corruption, racism, and brutality. From the murders of Fred Hampton and Mark Clark, to the Burge tortures, to the murder of Laquan McDonald and subsequent cover-up, to the hundreds of others killed by Chicago police over the years and the thousands who survived abuse, Chicago police consistently demonstrate that they are among the worst of the worst. Police lie and Chicago police lie especially.”
It’s worth noting here, Chicago police expended significant resources trying to find chimerical hate-criminals who Smollett posited attacked him, declaring the Windy City was “MAGA country.” Moreover, they were being used as an organ to launder the actor’s publicity stunt through. But they can’t be believed. Neither can the prosecution.
So what about the black men Smollett hired to beat him up and almost hung out to dry. Do their lives matter? As the Associated Press noted, a Chicago police officer testified Smollett was willing to sign a complaint against the Osundairo brothers in February of 2019 but was talked out of it by his lawyer.
Presumably, though, that wouldn’t matter in Black Lives Matter’s ideal world because the statement notes they believe in “the abolition of police and every unjust system” — which presumably includes any kind of punishment for the Osundairo brothers, as well.
“We will continue to love and protect one another, and wrap our arms around those who do the work to usher in Black freedom and, by extension, freedom for everyone else,” the statement concluded.
It’s hard to tell what this “freedom” and “abolition” would even look like, apart from self-interest defined along racial terms. This won’t happen just because it’s supremely unworkable, and it’s indicative of how divorced from reality the national Black Lives Matter organization has become.
At least, however, Smollett’s finally found someone who’s willing to stand in his corner as he “respectfully disagrees” with the jury’s verdict. It’s telling, however, that they only believe him because of his race.
This article appeared originally on The Western Journal.
