Sunday, February 17, 2019

Who Is This Idiot?

I don't watch a lot of current TV.  Belle and I generally watch History, DiscoveryID (All Crime, All The Time), and Travel channel.  When this story broke several weeks ago about some guy named Jessie Smollett, I admit that I had no frame of reference.  Evidently, he's an actor on some show, and he is not a Trump supporter.  Go figure.  Hollywood generally doesn't support President Trump.

The story I saw was that he hand been attacked by two MAGA hat wearing assailants  Another hate crime by Trump fascists.  It was all too set-piece, too scripted.  I've been a cop for over three decades and have a very finely tuned Bullshit Detector.   When I first heard this story, my BS detector beeped faintly, like a metal detector who is first homing in on an object.

The Chicago police department, doing their jobs, started running down leads.  They identified some "persons of interest".  Interviewed same persons.  Held them at some length doing what good investigators do.  As it turns out they are two brothers of Nigerian descent, who work on the same show as Smollett.

My BS Detector went into immediate overdrive.  H had to mute it.  About the same time, Smollett lawyered-up with a guy who is reputedly the best criminal defense attorney in Chicago.

Smollett still has a presumption of innocence, and I'll bet that the 5th amendment protections will factor in his defense strategy.  He doesn't have to talk to the police, and he should have invoked that strategy from the very first.  If he hadn't made the very first report, he wouldn't be lawyered-up now and most of the world would be blissfully ignorant of who he is.   But, NOOO!  He had to be relevant.  He had to stage some street theater.

I"m just saying.

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