Chicago police doubt Jussie Smollett’s claim that he is the victim of a racist and homophobic hate crime perpetrated in their city. But if you’re waiting for police to charge the Empire star for filing a false report, don’t hold your breath.
According to Mediaite, investigators are nearly in unanimous agreement that Smollett’s story is not true. And that even news media outlets in Chicago don’t believe his story.
Investigators pored over hundreds of hours of video footage along the route Smollett took from a Subway restaurant to a luxury high-rise condo. They could not find a single frame that shows the alleged attack.
Mediaite suggests that police are hesitant to charge Smollett – and journalists are afraid to report the truth – because Smollett checks the boxes on the all-important diversity and inclusion list: he is half-Black, liberal and openly homosexual.
“The first thing you need to understand about this situation is that, because of Smollett’s persona and the nature of his allegation, no one in law enforcement or the news media wants any part of publicly questioning his story. Everyone knows that if they make any sort of negative implication against a black, gay, liberal, celebrity, victim of a horrible hate crime, that they will be roundly and severely attacked, regardless of whether they turn out to be correct.”
Mediate theorizes that Smollett, 36, is protected by a “PC Force Field” that includes top cops, politicians and news media outlets in heavily Democratic Chicago.
“It is very obvious that if one major news outlet in Chicago had the guts to be the first to openly discredit Smollett’s story, the others would soon follow the leader. But because the risk of being wrong in this situation…, there is just no incentive to take that dive until and unless the police finally make a definitive statement.”
One police source told a reporter that Smollett still refuses to turn over his phone records to confirm his story. The source said Smollett told investigators he couldn’t be without his phone for several hours.
