In a development that should surprise absolutely nobody who read enough details about the supposed assault of Smollet to immediately realize that it made no sense, we’ve taken yet another step toward seeing this hoax firmly busted.
The two brothers who were interrogated by police investigating the alleged attack on Jussie Smollettin Chicago told authorities that the “Empire” actor allegedly paid them to help him orchestrate and stage the crime, sources told ABC News Sunday.
There have been an unfortunate string of fake hate crime hoaxes over the past two years and I think it’s time we had a serious national debate about what should be done with people who lie about hate crimes.
She’s right. Sure, Smollett can be charged for filing a false police report, but I’d argue that lying about something like this is a serious offense against society itself. Falsely reporting a hate crime is arguably a hate crime itself and should be punished as such. Smollett should do real hard time, perhaps even sentenced to the same sentence his attackers would have been if his claim had been real.
Am I being too harsh? I don’t think so. We’re already bitterly divided and smoldering. People who try to throw gasoline on the wood pile that is 2019 America have to be stopped.
Open thread! Enjoy. There’s plenty more to discuss. Let’s get moving again.
What’s with the cartoon picture of the tied up innocent black man surrounded by white mob with the vicious dog ready to attack?!!!
Zoinks! It’s a lynching!
Another reason why Smollett must be destroyed for this.

Bernie’s running again. Is America ready to feel the Bern 2.0?
Take them for everything they’ve got:
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-covington-suit/teen-in-lincoln-memorial-protest-sues-washington-post-for-250-million-idUSKCN1Q82SW
Speaking of Shaggy:
https://georgetownvoice.com/2019/02/15/the-meme-files-powerful-shaggy/
What happens in the dungeon, doesn’t stay in the dungeon:
https://www.thesun.co.uk/uncategorized/7967413/mp-cut-bondage-session-sex-dungeon/
I have a hard time imagining the Democrats running an old, straight white male in 2020 with how hellbent they seem on making such types extinct. I’d consider voting for Tulsi Gabbard but I think that Elizabeth Warren will be the one designated to be Trump’s Mondale.
Eh. Who among us hasn’t had a bloody mishap in the sex dungeon now and then. Am I right?
Guys? Uh…guys?
Roger Stone is a maniac with even worse impulse control than….me, I suppose…but I don’t see how that image is a threat against the judge.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6729819/Roger-Stone-beg-bail-posting-image-rifle-crosshairs.html
Still, he shouldn’t have been posting about it in the first place. He talked his way into this mess and needs to be quiet if he wants out.
False reports of hate crimes are exceedingly rare. Between 2016 and 2018, there were approximately two dozen false reports, either confirmed or suspected, according to figures compiled by the Center on Hate and Extremism at California State University, San Bernardino. That’s a fraction of the several thousand hate crimes documented by the federal government over the same period. The day before the president tweeted at Smollett, the Southern Poverty Law Center released its annual Year in Hate report, a snapshot of the long-term trends of hate crimes in America. The report found that, for the fourth year in a row,… Read more »
Just as well he didn’t take out a full page advert in four city newspapers calling for them to be executed, that might really have created divisiveness.
Difference being that an actual crime was committed and they did receive due process.
Roger Stone has been banned from shooting his big mouth off about his case:
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6729819/Roger-Stone-beg-bail-posting-image-rifle-crosshairs.html
North Carolina gets a do-over:
https://www.wsoctv.com/news/local/it-all-comes-down-to-relationships-harris-explains-why-he-chose-dowless-despite-warnings/923777033
Also it snowed in L.A. (not the kind of snow they’re used to). I guess this means the Climate Change Apocalypse is now upon us.
Oh man. Sometimes you’re a riot, CM. Trying to support a position with the SPLC. You might as well say, “Hey guys, ignore everything after this…”
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/the-southern-poverty-law-center-has-lost-all-credibility/2018/06/21/22ab7d60-756d-11e8-9780-b1dd6a09b549_story.html?utm_term=.eb10685afa0f
Well done.
Ah ok, NONE of those events actually happened then. All hoaxes. PHEW!
So according to the SPLC and their statistics, POC are much safer in white nationalist areas than say, Chicago.
Deaths spiked in Obama’s last year in Chicago – gangs increased etc. I guess that’s his fault?
Terrible deflection – you’re not putting your full heart into this CM. I’ve seen you do much better at derailing the topic at hand.
A different perspective: Hate Crime Hoaxes are More Common than You Think Real hate crimes happen, of course. We’re not arguing that all or even most alleged hate crimes are hoaxes. But the ones dominating the headlines in recent years have often been false or misleading, possibly because fake cases are better designed to push the buttons of drama and partisanship. Real hate crimes don’t necessarily have offenders who conveniently announce themselves to be members of your political outgroup, or display a stylized iconography of evil, like nooses and swastikas. The hoaxes, by contrast, often read like political-struggle fan fiction,… Read more »