Jussie Smollett attacked with bleach and noose

[Spaig]

Smollett can either be the staring down a corrupt justice system that will stop at nothing to throw an innocent man in jail, or he can be facing a prosecutor with a case so flimsy that he cannot dare bring it to trial without the entire house of cards collapsing...but he can't be both.

Dude, you can be aware that the state has a weak defense and still not want to declare fucking legal war on the state. It smacks a bit of moral cowardice, but let's be real, was this guy going to have a spine?

[CharlesPhipps]

According to the article they also had the charges stricken from his record.

Listen, I'm Pro-Smollett but even I note that there is a lot hinky with this case.

* He's arrested but the two guys who were his alleged co-conspirators aren't charged.
* His charges are stricken from the record but his bond is left.
* He's supposed to have faked a hate crime but the accusation is he used two black guys, which is amazingly dumb. Maybe not amazingly dumb to be unbelievable but it's supposed to be a hate crime they wanted filmed by a security camera.
* The documentation is completely sealed.
* The state attorney recuses themselves from the case
* They refuse to exonerate him even as all charges, even the easiest to "prove" are dropped

I'm inclined to think he's innocent from this evidence but it strikes me no matter what that this was a face saving gesture and no one was going to look good if things went forward.

So who did what?

[LittleRaven]

No way to know right now. Records are sealed. We'll have to wait for the tell-all books.

But for my money...this is Chicago we're talking about. It has a reputation as the dirtiest city in America for a reason.

[Fuzzy Necromancer]

Well now I don't know what to think. =S

[Makeshift Python]

I think it's all just one big clusterfuck. Officials rather put it behind them and move on. Smollett probably wants to find the nearest rock to crawl under. Quite a mess.

[CharlesPhipps]

Even if you believe he's guilty, there's a pretty high bar for reasonable doubt.

Smollet wrote them a check....which was marked for physical training.

Both of which the brothers do professionally and how he knows them.

Not exactly a smoking gun in terms of evidence.

[Madner Kami]

The smoking gun as far as I can tell is, that noone but these two were anywhere near the scene of the crime, according to the ever present cameras.

[CharlesPhipps]

The smoking gun as far as I can tell is, that noone but these two were anywhere near the scene of the crime, according to the ever present cameras.

The cameras which notably don't show an attack. Which also undermines the police's claim.

[Darth Wedgius]

There was a study where this was shown. Conservatives could predict the reactions of liberals far better than liberals could predict the reactions of conservatives.

Makes sense.

"Hey I bet if I act like a lunatic asshole to these guys they'll get upset! HEY GUYS I WAS RIGHT" vs

"Oh god, what will those lunatic assholes do next? "

Odd, I don't recall anything from the study about one side provoking the other. But I'll leave it to your superior wisdom.

[Madner Kami]

The smoking gun as far as I can tell is, that noone but these two were anywhere near the scene of the crime, according to the ever present cameras.

The cameras which notably don't show an attack. Which also undermines the police's claim.

The only camera that could have shown an attack or lack thereof, was non-functional. What the cameras were showing was the pair of brothers walking away in the vicinity of the scene of the alleged crime. Notably, the two brothers had no reason to be where they were other than randomly strolling around outside their neighbourhood for some undiscernable reason at 2 to 3 am. Furthermore, when their home was checked out, the police found bleach (something which I'd expect to find in many homes) and ski-masks which is kind of a rare thing to have, especially since those masks were purchased just a few days before (which was taped by surveillance cameras in a store). What a magical coincidence.

This is a smoking gun. It doesn't prove what happened, but it shows a likely scenario. If you want a smoking gun showing in the other direction, then I would suggest thinking about how the only camera which could show an attack is curiously non-functional. If I were to ambush a specific person, then I'd try to make sure that I don't get caught, be that by random bystanders or a camera. But hey, then again, why should two random MAGA-hatters sit around in that neighbourhood with ski-masks, a nooze or rope and bleach? I find it hard to believe that two random strangers carry that kind of stuff around and then attack a gay black man at random in the middle of the night, so he must have been targeted. But who had a motive? Curiously, police could only find two people...

Oh and thanks to Stephen Colbert, I was made aware of the icing on the cake. Apparently the Assistant Cook County prosecutor Joe Magats had this to say in the Chicago Tribune:

"The fact that (Smollett) feels that we have exonerated him, we have not," said First Assistant Cook County prosecutor Joe Magats. "I can’t make it any clearer than that."

Meanwhile, the police union calls for an investigation of the prosecutor's office in this affair. But hey, you read: Two minas, a shekel and two parts. A lot of other people read: You've been numbered, weighted and divided. The writing's on the wall, clear for everyone to see who wants to see. Whatever lead to Smollett being discharged, it certainly was not his innocence in this case.