From downstairs:

re: #113 Citizen K

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The number of charges and the swiftness of the GJ to convene and approve those indictments really give me a feeling that something fucky is going on. Regardless of what Jussie Smolett actually did, this feels like it’s turning into a railroading.

Talking to a friend from Chicago who’s ex-Chicago PD with some buddies back home either still serving or recently retired left me with the impression that Smollett really brought this upon himself. Between potentially endangering postal workers with his “white powder letter” stunt and his bringing a lot of bad press upon the city and the CPD by staging a fake hate crime, he created a shitstorm of controversy that had to have serious consequences.

I think the pettiness of the motive is what is driving so much of the anger, that this was an actor who wanted to create that scandal just to leverage more money out of some TV execs. Real people with real crimes had time and resources taken away from their cases to investigate this one and it turned out to be a total hoax. A simple charge of filing a false police report would not have gone far enough.