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This really is a surprise

Empire actor Jussie Smollett has been convicted of staging a racist and homophobic attack on himself.

The 39-year-old had been accused of lying to police about the alleged assault which he claimed took place in his home city of Chicago in January 2019.

Smollett was convicted on five counts of making false reports of a hate crime and battery. He was cleared on the sixth count of making a false report of an aggravated assault.

The Empire actor had claimed he had been subjected to a racist anti-gay attack in his home city of Chicago by brothers Bola and Ola Osundairo.

However, the two brothers who allegedly carried out the assault said the incident had been orchestrated by Smollett himself to generate publicity.

Actually, my surprise has been why he fought so hard against conviction. Yes, I know, innocent man etc. But he wasn’t, clearly enough. And his sentence will be probation. Why not just plea bargain it down – he could have done – and avoid this circus?

I have to assume he thought he could get away with it. Actors often aren’t all that bright…..

22 thoughts on “This really is a surprise”

  1. Titania McGrath sums up the absurdity of it all quite nicely:

    “Jussie Smollett offered jobs to two unemployed black actors, and now they want to send him to jail.

    And you’re telling me Hollywood doesn’t have a diversity problem? “

  2. The public has short memories. Today it’s an open and shut case; but a year from now he’ll be going round the TV talk shows decrying the racist Chicago police, and most people will believe him.

  3. Jussie’s gall
    I wish that I had Jussi’s gall.

    (Rick Springfield, ‘Jessie’s Girl’, adapted. Stolen from a commenter on another site)

  4. The best explanation for the defence I heard was (via Scott Adams) that Smollett was hoping for jury nullification as he was obviously forced into staging the attack because of “the system”.

    Looks like the jury weren’t artists!

  5. He will probably get a slap on the wrist with a wet bus ticket, because he has three critical privilege markers; he’s black, gay, and a Democrat.

    Of course what he concocted was an actual hate crime intended to stoke violence and division, and should get 5-8 years, which he would if he was white, look at how they charged Rittenhouse.

  6. There seems to be a trend for actors to get lost in their fiction and thinking it’s reality. Look like he thinks he’s Scorpio against Dirty Harry.

  7. “Empire actor”? Well, he’s a Yank, and I sometimes describe America as a rebel colony, but they have been claiming independence for quite a while now. “Former Empire” perhaps?

  8. @ Ed Snack:

    Of course what he concocted was an actual hate crime intended to stoke violence and division,

    +100

  9. If he had pleaded guilty, he was admitting it.

    Now he’s just a victim of the evil white patriarchy which has convicted an innocent man.

    This outcome still allows the anti-white, anti-police campaigners to maintain their stance.

  10. In Hollywood, “bankable” actors have name recognition. He’s sure got a lot of that now. He’s no Fatty Arbuckle.

  11. The demand for white on black hate crimes has exceeded demand for quite some time. Probably most cases these days are fabricated. If the complaintant is woke, it’s fabricated. Universities have become a hotbed of these cases.

    Black on other race hate crimes tend to get swept under the rug.

  12. This was so absurd when it happened I’m surprised it has taken nearly three years to nail him for it. The hoaxes over there are just ridiculous, I think they don’t believe they’ll ever be questioned so don’t think anything through.

    Generally most of the hoaxes aren’t questioned, at least not initially but later on Twitter. That company’s new CEO will make sure that doesn’t happen in the future.

  13. He was on $100k an episode but was fucked off by this so staged it to raise his profile. He must be fucked in the head, deranged, not a millimetre of his person in touch with reality

  14. All I can think of is he was hoping for jury nullification; that the jury wouldn’t convict even though obviously guilty in order to show support for a righteous minority in these troubled times.

  15. I think it’s more a case of arrogance. He thought the jury and the public would be too dumb to doubt his “ironclad” story. He also thought he was too powerful with his Twitter following to ever be punished appropriately. Of course, most Americans didn’t even know he existed until this incident.

    Anyway, I hope Jussie doesn’t beat himself up over this. Heheheh

  16. ‘a year from now he’ll be going round the TV talk shows decrying the racist Chicago police, and most people will believe him.’

    What Andrew M? He’ll say that Bola and Ola Osundairo were actually Bill and Al Anderson and were white-skinned blue-eyed blonds? And the cash that paid for their attack came from Dreadful Donald via the Ku Klux Klan?

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