CASTING DOUBT ON A HATE CRIME

Whoa, Jussie.

I give a nod to innocent till proven guilty, but things aren’t looking good.

Did Jussie Smollett stage a homophobic, racist attack to raise his profile in a bid for more pay for his work on the TV show “Empire”? For this post, I’m going to assume the worst—because the repercussions go far beyond him. 

A reasonable person would wonder why someone would even dream of doing such a thing. But then reasonable people rarely possess scheming minds. At the very least, they don’t act on such thoughts.

This whole ludicrous scenario takes me back to adolescence and my early twenties when I’d watch daytime and nighttime soap operas. It became a plot cliché for a young woman to feign pregnancy to get her man. The idea was that he’d do the honorable thing and stick with her—even marry her—and, by the time he realized he’d been duped, by golly, he’d have fallen in love with her anyway. Happy ending. But any viewer could see it never would be. I always felt sorry for the actress playing the role. It meant, more likely than not, that her character’s days on the show were limited. After all, what do you do with this character once her Cry Wolf plan is exposed? She’d be written off, for sure, the actress back in the unemployment line.

But that’s a soap opera. Surely common sense stops people from such folly. But, no. From that same period in my life, while I was attending high school in East Texas, I recall a local politician who got shot—three bullets to the arm. He’d arranged the whole thing with a cousin in order to gain sympathetic press, raise his profile and better his chances at advancing in state government. But the ruse was exposed. The cousin confessed, the calculating politician’s infamy now preserved in a Wikipedia page. Only in Texas. At least, that’s how it seemed at the time.

What’s worse about the Jussie Smollett case should be obvious. His actions were also for personal gain but he set up an apparent hate crime and, with a letter he allegedly sent to the “Empire” set days prior to the incident, created the implication that Trump-loving MAGA goons were responsible.

The case had the unfortunate effect of politicizing hate crimes. On social media, incensed Smollett supporters cited the incident as an example of the damage that comes from intolerant MAGA mentality. The Make American Great Again legion got defensive. They lashed out and suddenly an alleged hate crime became a divisive issue, the credibility of a victim questioned. 

As the story began to show cracks, I hoped that it would hold up. It had nothing to do with my opinions regarding proud MAGA folks. I didn’t want an openly gay black man who’d served as an important role model to be exposed as self-serving, Machiavellian fraud.

You can bet that every person charged with a racist or homophobic hate crime in the near future will want to cast doubt on the victim’s story. After all, Smollett has shown how easy it is to make a false claim (assuming one knows how to make or round up a noose, of all things).

Victims already go through enough trauma. The burden of proof—beyond a reasonable doubt—in criminal cases is higher than in civil cases. While the Smollett facts would never be admissible in another case, a defendant will be more driven to attempt to cast doubt. Heck, he may be more emboldened to act in the first place.

It’s natural for people to feel angry for being duped. It makes sense that Chicago police should also be irate over wasted resources and negative international attention on a city with a reputation that has suffered greatly in recent years due to criminal activity. My mind is on the future victims of hate crimes. Let the politicizing of hate crimes be a one-off. Let no one cry wolf over racism or homophobia again.

With all the press this case has gotten, it won’t fade from memory anytime soon. For a couple of seasons, I regularly watched “Empire” and I genuinely admired Jussie Smollett’s acting and singing skills. (I may have even been a tad smitten.) Should he be found guilty, I will be saddened and disgusted.