We’re all stunned by the news.
Police in Chicago say the actor who claimed he was the victim of a racist and homophobic attack near his home has not provided them with enough phone records to help their investigation….
According to multiple reports, Smollett had refused to turn over his phone to officers after telling officers he was speaking with his manager at the time of the ambush.
Smollett has now reportedly released a heavily redacted record of his calls to police however, police Superintendent Eddie Johnson said the records “are not sufficient and do not meet the burden of a criminal investigation,” according to the Chicago Tribune.
The growing lack of evidence in the case has reportedly pushed Chicago police to even consider charging Smollett with filing a false report. CBS Chicago and other local outlets report that Johnson still wants Smollett treated as a victim, but will pursue charges against the actor if the case is proven to be a hoax.
Earlier in the week, Smollett’s neighbors called bullshit on his story.
“I don’t believe it happened the way he said it did,” said Agin Muhammad, who lives in the same swank high-rise near the Navy Pier as Smollett.”I’ve been in this neighborhood five years. I don’t believe it, not around here… Half the people are gay and the other half are black.”
A patron at Lizzie McNeill’s Irish Pub, about a block from the scene of the alleged Jan. 29 incident, said Smollett’s story “doesn’t really make sense.”
“It’s a lie, because Chicago is the most liberal city around,” said the man, who wouldn’t give his name. “They have cameras everywhere… Why can’t they find the attack?”
Cops have said they found plenty of surveillance video, but none that captured the incident.
Mediaite’s NeverTrump idiot John Ziegler says that his sources in Chicago tell him that almost everyone believes this is a hoax but doesn’t want to be mobbed by SJWs for saying so.
I can’t recall a large crime story where there was a bigger gap between what the police and media are saying publicly, and what they expressing behind the scenes, than the saga involving the recent alleged hate crime against actor Jussie Smollett. Similarly, there may not be a story where you can tell more by what has not happened, in comparison to what actually has occurred.
The current public stance of the Chicago police is that earlier this month, at 2 a.m. on a very cold Chicago night, Smollett was the victim of what appears to be a heinous hate crime where he was physically attacked by two men, and humiliated due to his race, homosexuality, and possibly his opposition to President Donald Trump. The Chicago media, in official reports, has largely treated that narrative as legitimate, while chronicling the complete lack of suspects and corroborating evidence as more of a frustration than any indication that something else might be going on here.Behind the scenes, however, based on conversations I have had with multiple people covering the story, there is a radically different take on what really did happen to Smollett. In short, there is near unanimity among police sources that Smollett’s story is very likely not true. And that even the media outlets still regurgitating the current “party line” don’t really believe it.
…
[I]n this hyper-sensitive media environment, any sort of deviation from the accepted storyline by the police or the news media, much like if your seven-year-old kid is showing subtle signs they no longer believe in Santa Claus, must be given exponentially greater significance than it normally would. Here, both the police and news media in Chicago have provided plenty of those types of veiled indications, both publicly and privately.
Among other things, the police have made it very clear they have not yet found any proof of an attack, despite having almost all of Smollett’s movements on surveillance video. They have disclosed that Smollett would not give over his cell phone to verify his timeline of events. They even published photos of “persons of interest” that they had to know were going to be universally mocked for being obviously irrelevant.
In my view, none of those important revelations would have been made public in the way that they were, unless there was extreme suspicion within the police force that Smollett’s story was not fully accurate.
By extension, media figures would not be being told by their police sources, as I have been told is currently happening both routinely and with vigor, that the authorities are acting on the assumption that they will never find any evidence to fully substantiate Smollett’s story.
BTW, Don Lemon says he texts his support to Jussie Smollett just about every day. (No, really.)
What’s he hiding by redacting his phone records?
Underage hook-up attempts?
Well, whaddaya know? He was lying. I THOUGHT something was queer about this whole story…