Man claims he was the victim of a hate crime after his property burned down. Then grand jury indicts him for felony arson.



A Texas man is facing serious criminal charges for allegedly having his property intentionally burned down after initially claiming to be the victim of a hate crime.

In June, a rental property that 50-year-old Mario Roberson owned in Huntsville, Texas, burned to the ground. Three people were inside the residence at the time; two of them died, while another managed to escape, albeit with serious injuries. Roberson, a black man, alleged that his property was targeted because of his race.

"Racism, power hungriness, money has gotten us to this place," he told KTRK-TV at the time. "You fear for your life when things like this happen."

2 bodies found in Huntsville home that burned down 1 month after being painted with racial slurs www.youtube.com

The fire happened about one month after another alleged incident of hate when Roberson claimed that someone sprayed racist graffiti on the property, a message that said, "We don't like your kind." Two weeks later, Roberson claimed that someone shot into a window at the home, telling police officers he believed it was a racially motivated act.

On the back of all three incidents, CAIR-Houston and the ADL Southwest urged the FBI to investigate the house burning as a hate crime.

But after an extensive investigation led by the Texas State Fire Marshal's Office, a grand jury returned on Monday an indictment against Roberson for first-degree arson.

Prosecutors do not believe that Roberson himself set the fire, but they believe he played a significant role. The alleged motive? Police believe the house was intentionally burned to the ground because Roberson was trying to collect insurance money by fraudulent means.

"He was indicted on allegations he hired someone to set it on fire for insurance fraud purposes," said Lt. Charles Dougherty of the San Jacinto County Sheriff's Office.

Important to this story is the fact that, about one month before the fire, "San Jacinto County rendered a decree of sale on the home for unpaid taxes," KTRK reported. Roberson reportedly owed tens of thousands of dollars in back taxes on the home.

Roberson has not yet been arrested, but he has declared his innocence, according to KTRK. He faces up to life in prison if convicted.

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20-year-old Ohio man arrested for allegedly faking anti-Palestine hate crime



An Ohio man – who claimed he was a victim of an anti-Palestinian hate crime – has been arrested after authorities suspect he faked the attack.

Hesham A. Ayyad claimed that he was attacked for being Palestinian. He alleged that he was walking at 4:10 p.m. on Oct. 22 on a street in North Ridgeville, Ohio. Ayyad told officials at the Cleveland chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations that someone driving a dark-colored SUV approached him on the road.

Ayyad, of North Olmsted, said that he was the victim of a hit and run by the SUV.

The day after the alleged attack, CAIR-Cleveland released details of the alleged attack.

"The victim of the reported hit and run said he was walking home from eating lunch when a car slowed down and rolled down the window," read a post on the website for CAIR-Ohio, Cleveland. "The driver of the car allegedly started yelling at him using anti-Palestinian statements like 'Kill all Palestinians,' 'Long live Israel,' as he swerved his car to intimidate the victim. The driver then allegedly turned around and hit the man while shouting 'DIE!'"

Ayyad, 20, was reportedly taken to St. John Westshore Hospital for his injuries.

The statement posted a day after the alleged hate crime attack included a photo of Ayyad wearing a neck brace in a hospital bed.

The organization demanded that state and federal law enforcement authorities investigate the supposed hate crime attack.

“We call on state, local, and federal law enforcement authorities to monitor and investigate crimes related to the rising Islamophobia and anti-Palestinian racism. We hope the North Ridgeville Police Department and the FBI will collect all the information they need to charge this individual with a hate crime. We should all feel safe to walk down the street to grab a bite to eat, go to the store and go to school," Faten Odeh – CAIR-Ohio, Cleveland Interim Executive Director – said on Oct. 23.

Unfortunately for Ayyad, police did conduct an investigation into the hate crime attack.

After reviewing multiple videos from the area of the alleged assault, the North Ridgeville Police Department determined that the allegations were a hate crime hoax. Investigators believe the Ohio man had lied about being struck by a vehicle and there were no racial slurs screamed at the time of the alleged attack.

Police detectives said Ayyad suffered the injuries from a fight with his brother and the hate crime was a hoax.

“It was further found that injuries sustained at the time of the incident were caused by a violent fight that the alleged victim had participated in with his brother, which was confirmed by area video surveillance,” police said.

On Tuesday, Ayyad was arrested and charged with making false alarms, falsification, obstructing official business, domestic violence and assault.

His brother, 19-year-old Khalil A. Ayyad, was arrested and charged with domestic violence and assault.

The brothers were held at the Lorain County Jail before being released from custody after they posted bond on Wednesday.

A spokesperson for the Islamic council said on Wednesday, "We are currently seeking more information about this development. Our understanding is that the brothers have secured their own legal counsel. We do not yet know anything more about the nature of the charges."

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Hate hoax: Racist death threat written on Sacramento high school wall was done by black students, sheriff's office says



An apparent hate hoax at a California high school was exposed by authorities after the suspects – who are black – were caught red-handed writing a racist death threat.

Shortly after 5 p.m. on March 22, officials at Rosemont High School in the Sacramento City Unified School District reported that they found a racist death threat on the wall of a second-floor hallway in the school building. The racist graffiti written in pencil read: "All n*****s should die."

The graffiti sparked a full investigation by the Sacramento City Unified School District, as well as a public response from the superintendent and board president.

"Sac City Unified does not take any incident of racism lightly, and that is why we are widely sharing that another act of disgraceful racist graffiti has taken place in our schools," Superintendent Jorge A. Aguilar said. "As a community we need to loudly condemn this hateful act. Racist incidents will not be tolerated in our schools. We will work to provide the support needed for our students and staff experiencing trauma from this incident as soon as possible."

"The Board of Education is unified and committed to providing a safe and anti-racist learning environment for our students," Board President Christina Pritchett said. "We fully denounce all racist behavior, and will continue to do whatever we can to support our African-American community members who need to feel welcomed and loved at our schools."

The Sacramento County Sheriff's Office said, "Two Rosemont High School students were observed writing a racial obscenity" by a surveillance camera.

However, the surveillance video shows that the alleged perpetrators of the racist death threat are actually black.

"Rosemont High School Administrators were able to obtain video surveillance footage showing two African-American female juveniles clearly writing the graffiti on the wall," the Sacramento County Sheriff's Office said.

Based on the video, school officials and detectives were able to identify both students accused of the hate hoax vandalism.

The Sacramento County Sheriff's Office stated it will "consult with the Juvenile Division of the District Attorney’s Office if criminal charges are warranted."

This is the second time in two months that there has been an alleged hate hoax in the Sacramento City Unified School District.

In February, a black female student confessed to writing the words "White" and "Colored" over water fountains at McClatchy High School.

Before the confession, the racist vandalism ignited protests with activists marching with signs that read, "END ANTI-BLACK HATE" and "NO ROOM FOR HATE."

Pair Accused Of Writing Racist Graffiti On Wall At Rosemont High School www.youtube.com

Jussie Smollett believes his skin color is why he got jail time for staging hate crime against himself, lying to cops, sources say



Jussie Smollett believes he got 150 days in jail for staging a racist, homophobic hate crime against himself — and then lying to cops and courts about it — because he's black, sources close to the former "Empire" star told TMZ.

The sources added that Smollett anticipated getting jail time and also told his defense team before sentencing he believed he'd be treated more harshly than others convicted of non-violent crimes due to his skin color — and that it's evidence of systemic racism in the judicial system, the outlet reported.

Image source: YouTube screenshot, composite

What's the background?

Smollett, 39 — who is black and gay — made national headlines for claiming a pair of supporters of then-President Donald Trump physically attacked him near his apartment in Chicago in the early morning hours of Jan. 29, 2019.

He claimed the two men wearing ski masks confronted him as he was leaving a Subway restaurant around 2 a.m. in below-freezing conditions and yelled, "Aren't you that f***ot 'Empire' n*****?" before beating him up, putting a rope around his neck, pouring bleach on him, and hollering, "This is MAGA country!" — a reference to Trump's "Make America Great Again" slogan.

But once a police investigation began, Smollett's story began to crumble. In December a jury found him guilty on five of six counts of felony disorderly conduct for his costly charade — crimes that could have resulted in three years behind bars. The Chicago Sun-Times reported that Smollett likely will serve only half of his 150-day sentence since his jail term is eligible for “day-for-day” credit for good behavior.

In addition to jail time, Cook County Judge James Linn last week sentenced Smollett to 30 months of probation and ordered him to pay $120,000 in restitution to the city of Chicago as well as a $25,000 fine.

Prior to issuing his sentence, Judge Linn eviscerated Smollett, calling him a "charlatan" and telling him "your hypocrisy is astounding" and "you wanted to make yourself more famous" through the elaborate, "premeditated" caper and then "you threw a national pity party for yourself." But the worst part, Linn said, was that Smollett lied to authorities about it all — and then committed perjury on the witness stand.

But after he was sentenced, Smollett continued his defiance, standing up and shaking his finger and telling Linn and the courtroom that "I am innocent, and I am not suicidal! If I did this, then it means that I stuck my fist in the fears of black Americans in this country for over 400 years and the fears of the LGBTQ community!”

Smollett added, “I did not do this, and I am not suicidal. And if anything happens to me when I go in [jail], I did not do it to myself. And you must all know that ... I am not suicidal.”

Then the singer offered a grand finale, raising his fist as he was led out of the courtroom and flat-out hollering in the process: "I am not suicidal! I am not suicidal! And I am innocent! I could've said I was guilty a long time ago!"

Jussie Smollett has courtroom outburst after judge sentences him to jail | ABC7youtu.be

TMZ, citing its sources, said Smollett declared he wasn't suicidal because he wanted the public to know that if something happens to him in jail, it's due to foul play — and that Jeffrey Epstein, who was found dead in jail, also was on his mind.

Anything else?

Jocqui Smollett said Saturday that his brother was placed in the psychiatric ward at the Cook County Jail in Chicago due to "being at risk of self-harm," Fox News reported.

But Jocqui Smollett insisted that "he is in no way, shape, or form at risk of self-harm. He wants to let folks know that he is very stable, he is very strong, he is very healthy and ready to take on the challenge that... has been put up against him," the cable network reported.

Still, Smollett was placed in protective custody in the jail, separated from other inmates and monitored by security cameras and an officer, authorities added to Fox News.

Meanwhile, Taraji P. Henson — a fellow "Empire" cast member — said Smollett's imprisonment is unfair and compared him to Emmett Till, a black teen who was brutally murdered in the 1950s and became an icon of the civil rights movement after his killers were acquitted.

"I am not here to debate you on his innocence, but we can agree that the punishment does not fit the crime," Henson wrote on Instagram with a "FreeJussie" hashtag. "Emmett Till was brutally beat and ultimately murdered because of a lie, and none of the people involved with his demise spent one day in jail, even after Carolyn Bryant admitted that her claims were false. No one was hurt or killed during Jussie’s ordeal. ... My prayer is that he is freed and put on house arrest and probation because in this case that would seem fair."

And about a dozen Smollett supporters rallied outside Cook County Jail on Sunday to protest him being placed behind bars, WFLD-TV reported, adding that protesters said the judicial system is racist and that Smollett should not serve any jail time.

Jussie Smollett sentenced for false police reports | Nightlineyoutu.be

'What a marvelous performance!': Observers react to Jussie Smollett's jaw-dropping courtroom outburst after he's sentenced to jail



After Cook County Judge James Linn told Jussie Smollett he'd be starting 150 days in jail right then and there Thursday night for staging a hate crime against himself in 2019 and lying to police about the hoax, Smollett turned more than a few heads with a bizarre soliloquy of sorts.

'I am not suicidal!'

"I am not suicidal," Smollett said quietly to the judge. Then he repeated the phrase in a raised voice. Then Smollett said, "I am not suicidal," once again, even more sharply.

"I am innocent, and I am not suicidal," he continued as he stood up, shaking his finger. "If I did this, then it means that I stuck my fist in the fears of black Americans in this country for over 400 years and the fears of the LGBTQ community!”

Image source: YouTube screenshot, composite

Smollett added, “I did not do this, and I am not suicidal. And if anything happens to me when I go in [jail], I did not do it to myself. And you must all know that ... I am not suicidal.”

Then the singer and ex-star of "Empire" offered a grand finale, raising his fist as he was led out of the courtroom and flat-out hollering in the process: "I am not suicidal! I am not suicidal! And I am innocent! I could've said I was guilty a long time ago!"

Jussie Smollett has courtroom outburst after judge sentences him to jail | ABC7youtu.be

How did observers react to Smollett's outburst?

As you might imagine, a number of notable individuals reacted strongly to Smollett's behavior after his sentencing.

Actor and comedian Terrance K. Williams posted a video of himself wide-eyed as he took in Smollett's outburst and then cracked up by the end of it.

"Oh Lord! ... What a marvelous performance!" Williams bellowed, trying to catch his breath. "Man! You do some really great acting, Jussie, Jessie, Juicy, whatever your name is. Listen, man. You're going to jail! [laughs more] Oh Lord ... Juicy, Jussie is goin' to jail! He's [gonna] be locked up, they won't let him out, they won't let him out! Listen, that's what you get. You're going to jail — na na na na, hey hey, goodbye!"

After a remark about soap we won't repeat here, Williams added that he was having a mediocre day — until the sentencing: "I feel so much better! I just feel great! ... Now this is what you call justice right here, OK? He shouldn't have been lying. He shouldn't have been making up fake stuff about Trump supporters."

Grab the Popcorn! Jussie Smollett was just sentenced to Jail and threw a Temper Tantrum in courtpic.twitter.com/3VXZHq92Fj
— Terrence K. Williams (@Terrence K. Williams) 1646968870

After Smollett's dramatic outburst, Gregg Jarrett — legal and political analyst for Fox News — tweeted that it demonstrated "his acting skills are no better than his lying skills."

Siraj Hashmi — tongue fully in cheek — noted that Smollett is "misunderstood. He’s not a liar, he’s just an incredibly talented method actor who cannot break character under any circumstances."

Lawyer and YouTuber Viva Frei observed that Smollett "appealed to the Ukraine war, the Holocaust, racism, homophobia… and in so doing, exploited all of those injustices for his own selfish & dishonest aspirations. He then raised his fist in defiance as he left the court room. Shameless narcissism to the bitter end."

Breitbart's Alana Mastrangelo wondered if Smollett was "auditioning for a new role?"

Social media pundit Gad Saad concluded after watching Smollett's outburst that "the level of malignant narcissism that this grotesque cretin exhibited is astounding. He has zero sense of shame. He is a Munchausen psychopath."

Anything else?

The Chicago Sun-Times reported that Smollett likely will serve only half the 150-day sentence since his jail term is eligible for “day-for-day” credit for good behavior. In addition to jail time, Smollett also will serve 30 months of probation and pay $120,000 in restitution to the city of Chicago as well as a $25,000 fine.

Smollett, 39 — who is black and gay — made national headlines for claiming a pair of supporters of then-President Donald Trump physically attacked him near his apartment in Chicago in the early morning hours of Jan. 29, 2019.

He claimed the two men wearing ski masks confronted him as he was leaving a Subway restaurant around 2 a.m. in below freezing conditions and yelled, "Aren't you that f***ot 'Empire' n*****?" before beating him up, putting a rope around his neck, pouring bleach on him, and hollering, "This is MAGA country!" — a reference to Trump's "Make America Great Again" slogan.

But once a police investigation began, Smollett's story began to crumble.

Prior to issuing his sentence, Judge Linn eviscerated Smollett, calling him a "charlatan" and telling him "your hypocrisy is astounding" and "you wanted to make yourself more famous" through the elaborate, "premeditated" caper and then "you threw a national pity party for yourself." But the worst part, the judge said, was that Smollett lied to authorities about it all — and then committed perjury on the witness stand.

Tulsi Gabbard says Jussie Smollett 'spit in the face of real victims of bigotry' and should receive maximum sentence as 'warning' for 'future hoaxers'



Former U.S. Rep. Tulsi Gabbard on Tuesday said convicted hate-crime hoaxer Jussie Smollett "spit in the face of real victims of bigotry" by "lying about being attacked because of his race" and "should be sentenced to the fullest extent of the law to serve as an example and to send a very strong message to anyone who thinks about pulling a hoax like this in the future."

What else did Gabbard say?

The Democrat from Hawaii offered her take in a TikTok video she posted to her Twitter account and added that Smollett has "rightly been found guilty by a jury of his peers" and "needs to apologize to the American people" for "what he did."

In the text of her Twitter post, Gabbard said Smollett's actions were a "slap in the face of actual victims of bigotry" and that a maximum sentence would serve as a "warning to potential future hoaxers."

Jussie Smollett was rightly found guilty by a jury of his peers. But he has not yet been sentenced. His lies are a slap in the face of actual victims of bigotry. He should be sentenced to the fullest extent of the law to serve as an example & warning to potential future hoaxers.pic.twitter.com/mHZVTUVBCj
— Tulsi Gabbard \ud83c\udf3a (@Tulsi Gabbard \ud83c\udf3a) 1639481762

Smollett was convicted last week of felony disorderly conduct for faking a hate crime against himself in Chicago in January 2019 and lying to law enforcement about it.

Predictably, Hollywood leftists remained silent about the embarrassment Smollett's guilty verdicts on five of six counts brought to their ranks.

But Gabbard isn't from Tinseltown, and she's not a leftist. In fact, Gabbard has been outspoken for quite a while with views that easily could be construed as more Republican and conservative than Democratic and liberal:

  • Last month she blasted prosecutors in the Kyle Rittenhouse murder trial, saying they were "motivated by politics" as they went after the young defendant — and that their actions "should be considered criminal." Rittenhouse testified he acted in self defense when he fatally shot two men and seriously wounded another amid rioting in Kenosha, Wisconsin, in August 2020. He was found not guilty on all counts.
  • Also in November Gabbard celebrated Republican Glenn Youngkin's win over Democratic candidate Terry McAuliffe in the Virginia gubernatorial election as "a victory for all Americans. Why? Because it was a resounding rejection of efforts to divide us by race, the stripping of parental rights, and arrogant, deaf leaders. This benefits us all."
  • In September, she compared President Joe Biden — a fellow Democrat whom she's called her friend — to an "autocrat" for attacking border patrol agents who were falsely accused of abusing Haitian migrants.
  • In May Gabbard said Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot — another fellow Democrat — should resign after granting interviews only to journalists and reporters of color.

Jussie Smollett made music video in 2017 imagining Trump's America as ultra-racist — with segregated water fountains and swinging noose above black man



Several years before disgraced singer and actor Jussie Smollett was convicted of faking a racist, homophobic hate crime against himself, he made a music video featuring elements and themes that appear to mirror his misbegotten caper on a freezing Chicago street in the middle of the night in January 2019.

What's the background?

You know the basics of Smollett's hate hoax: He claimed two white men wearing ski masks confronted him as he was leaving a Subway restaurant around 2 a.m. in subfreezing conditions and yelled "aren't you that f***ot 'Empire' n*****?" before beating him up, putting a rope around his neck, pouring bleach on him, and hollering, "This is MAGA country!" — a reference to former President Donald Trump's red "Make America Great Again" hats.

It didn't add up, and Smollett's flimsy house of cards was soon tumbling down as the investigation deepened.

A look at Smollett's 2017 music video, "F.U.W."

But before Smollett became a true household name in 2019, he was enjoying success as a cast member of "Empire" and as a singer. And like most of those in the entertainment industry, Smollett also was decidedly anti-Trump.

He called Trump "the mogul of hate" on SiriusXM in March 2016, adding, "That is what I will call him forever. What he has done is capitalized on the fear of this nation."

In that vein, one of Smollett's creations was a music video released just after Trump took office in 2017 titled "F.U.W." — which stands for "f***ed-up world."

Image source: YouTube screenshot

It includes images such as a noose swinging over a black man, separate water fountains for "white" people and "colored" people, and a man in a wheelchair rolling over and crushing a Trump mask.

Image source: YouTube screenshot

"That mask is a representation of this false idea of patriotism. And that mask is a representation of this idea of white male privilege," Smollett said at the time. "It’s so much bigger than him. It’s what he represents, and it’s because of that representation, that’s why he’s the president of the United States currently." He added that "it's our opportunity to take those masks off and shatter them, so that’s what I did."

The clip also shows other images of Smollett apparently encouraging violence, encouraging a child to punch in front of a mirror and someone about to throw a Molotov cocktail.

Image source: YouTube screenshot

Image source: YouTube screenshot

Striking similarities

The similarities between the swinging noose in the video and the rope Smollett claimed was placed around his neck in his staged attack are hard to ignore, as are the clip's imagined widespread racism and oppression under Trump when considered alongside fake exclamations like "This is MAGA country!" in the middle of one of the most left-wing cites in America.

Conservative journalist Andy Ngo seemed to be making that case Monday.

Content warning: language in video

Flashback: Convicted hate crime hoaxer Jussie Smollett had previously starred in a leftist political music video where there is a fake Donald Trump, white racists and a noose.pic.twitter.com/e5ImcffPPm
— Andy Ng\u00f4 \ud83c\udff3\ufe0f\u200d\ud83c\udf08 (@Andy Ng\u00f4 \ud83c\udff3\ufe0f\u200d\ud83c\udf08) 1639451495

Twitter commenters also were seeing parallels between Smollett's video and Smollett's hate hoax:

  • "You can see how it served as inspiration for his Hate Crime Hoax," one user noticed.
  • "Seems even his work is based on [a] false narrative too," another commenter wrote.
  • "Jussie has clearly got some serious mental health issues. How sick does someone need to be to make this video full of made up s**t & not one of his friends or family members get him psychological help?" another user asked.
  • "Wow, he really wanted attention. Poor dude, was indoctrinated all these years. SAD way to do it. Instead of making a difference, destroyed himself," another commenter said.
  • "They need a bad guy to gin up the hate. Part of the victim culture is there needs to be a cause to go to war," another user wrote. "Since Trump didn't provide any lynch mobs, Jussie had to invent them."

Here's the full clip. (Content warning: Language)

Jussie Smollett - F.U.W.youtu.be

Juror in Jussie Smollett trial admits jury agreed to do Smollett a 'favor' by finding him not guilty on one count



One of the jurors who sat on Jussie Smollett's jury recently spoke out about deliberations in the trial, admitting the 12-person panel did Smollett a "favor" by finding him not guilty on one of the criminal charges against him.

Smollett was found guilty last week on five of six counts of felony disorderly conduct over the hate crime hoax that he staged in January 2019.

What did the juror say?

Speaking with the Chicago Sun-Times, the juror admitted that "we all thought we were doing Jussie a favor" by finding him not guilty on one of the charges.

That felony charge of disorderly conduct was related to a Feb. 14, 2019, interview between police and Smollett in which Smollett was accused of lying about being a victim of an "aggravated battery." The other five charges stemmed from Smollett lying about being the victim of a mere "battery." Thus, the jurors did not understand the difference in charges.

The juror told the Sun-Times, "I think we probably would have found him guilty" on the last charge had prosecutors levied the same accusation against Smollett regarding the Feb. 14 incident, that he lied about being the victim of a battery.

Any dissenters?

The juror additionally explained why the jury required nine hours to convict Smollett of crimes that seemed so obvious to others.

Not only did the jury use the deliberation time to carefully consider all the evidence and whether prosecutors presented their case beyond a reasonable doubt, the juror revealed that some on the jury had doubts when deliberations began.

"It was not evenly split, but there were some doubters," the juror said. "I just hope that [Smollett and his attorneys] know that we went in there with an open mind. I listened to both sides. We wanted to make sure that those who had doubts didn’t feel pressured.”

"It wasn’t an easy decision. You’ve got the mother sitting there. You feel bad. We didn’t know what the penalty would be. Are we sending this guy to jail?" the juror, a female, told the newspaper.

Is the verdict inconsistent?

Nenye Uche, lead attorney for Smollett's defense, characterized the verdict as inconsistent because the jury decided Smollett was guilty and not guilty of lying to police about the same incident.

“Jussie was not accused of doing two different things and he was accused of doing one thing, and charged multiple times for the same incident, a jury cannot come out and say guilty of lying, but not guilty of lying,” Uche said. “It doesn’t make sense.”

However, law professor Richard Kling disagreed, telling the Sun-Times the verdict reflects a nuanced decision in which the jury was convinced beyond a reasonable doubt on most charges, but not all.

"I think that’s a wonderful reflection on the jury," King said of the outcome. "This was not inconsistent. On five counts they found he was responsible, and the other one they were unsure."

Smollett faces three years in prison for each felony count — meaning he could be sentenced to prison for a maximum of 15 years under Illinois law — but legal experts believe he will not face any jail time because he lacks a previous criminal record, WMAQ-TV reported.

BLM calls Jussie Smollett trial a 'white supremacist charade,' say they 'can never believe police' over someone who so 'courageously' stands for black freedom



A Black Lives Matter leader on Tuesday blasted the trial against Jussie Smollett as a "white supremacist charade" and suggested that law enforcement in Chicago were railroading the former actor because he is black.

Dr. Melina Abdullah — a former California State University professor who now serves as the director of BLM Grassroots — declared in a statement published on the organization's website that the movement will continue to stand with Smollett regardless of the outcome of the trial since they "can never believe police" over someone "who has been courageously present, visible, and vocal in the struggle for Black freedom."

Smollett — who is black and gay — drew national headlines in 2019 after claiming he was the victim of a racist and homophobic hate crime put on by supporters of former President Donald Trump. But shortly after the supposed hate crime occurred, the ex-"Empire" actor's story began to fall apart.

Now he stands accused of staging the incident to boost his acting career, and is being tried in court on six counts of felony disorderly conduct.

During the trial, prosecutors even claimed that Smollett arranged a "dry run" of the hoax with his co-conspirators days before the attack — and that the practice session was caught on surveillance video.

Nevertheless, Abdullah claimed that "in an abolitionist society, this trial would not be taking place, and our communities would not have to fight and suffer to prove our worth."

"Instead, we find ourselves, once again, being forced to put our lives and our value in the hands of judges and juries operating in a system that is designed to oppress us, while continuing to face a corrupt and violent police department, which has proven time and again to have no respect for our lives," the BLM leader added.

She would go on to call policing at-large "an irredeemable institution" and to target the Chicago Police Department, in particular, "for its long and deep history of corruption, racism, and brutality."

"From the murders of Fred Hampton and Mark Clark, to the Burge tortures, to the murder of Laquan McDonald and subsequent cover-up, to the hundreds of others killed by Chicago police over the years and the thousands who survived abuse, Chicago police consistently demonstrate that they are among the worst of the worst. Police lie and Chicago police lie especially," Abdullah said.

"Black Lives Matter will continue to work towards the abolition of police and every unjust system. We will continue to love and protect one another, and wrap our arms around those who do the work to usher in Black freedom and, by extension, freedom for everyone else," she concluded.

Smollett faces up to three years in prison if convicted of the charges. But experts suggest that he would ultimately only receive probation and be required to perform community service.

On Monday, the former actor testified on the witness stand in his own defense. Closing arguments in the case are scheduled to begin on Wednesday, after which jurors will enter deliberation.

(H/T: Fox News)