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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsSmollett sentencing live now: 30 mos. felony probation and 150 days in jail.
Mixed feelings because its also a TFG-connected issue and the pressure to prosecute him came because he insulted right wingers.
a kennedy
(29,458 posts)Amishman
(5,538 posts)What is did was a slap in the face to the many victims of actual hate crimes. Real victims will struggle to get a fair reception because of him.
Edit: I originally was calling this disappointing because I didn't catch the jail time at first and only the probation. Add five months in jail and it seems about right
live love laugh
(12,995 posts)restitution as well.
cinematicdiversions
(1,969 posts)live love laugh
(12,995 posts)and could result in up to 6 months in jail and a fine up to $1,000.
FBaggins
(26,693 posts)The specifics matter
TheProle
(2,094 posts)Are you suggesting that no one be punished for murder?
live love laugh
(12,995 posts)Response to live love laugh (Original post)
tenderfoot This message was self-deleted by its author.
jimfields33
(15,450 posts)A shame he didnt negotiate a plea deal day one. Im sure hed at least not have gotten jail time.
madville
(7,397 posts)Hopefully it deters people from faking similar acts in the future.
live love laugh
(12,995 posts)time.
And that hasnt happened at least that Ive seen.
madville
(7,397 posts)Where the perpetrators got less punishment. I cant think of anything similar or as moronic as this in the last decade or so.
live love laugh
(12,995 posts)madville
(7,397 posts)I still cant think of anything comparable, successfully prosecuted or not.
live love laugh
(12,995 posts)(CNN)When Amy Cooper called police for a second time, she claimed that a Black man birdwatching tried to assault her. But it was a lie, prosecutors say.
A viral video captured the moments after Christian Cooper (no relation) asked her to leash her dog in Central Park. The incident in May was a flashpoint in ongoing national conversation about White people increasingly calling the police on Black people who are going about their everyday lives. It also took place on the same day Minneapolis police officers killed George Floyd.
Now, Cooper's subsequent call to police -- made public Wednesday during a virtual hearing in Manhattan Criminal Court -- echoes the pattern of lies that White women have told about Black men since the Jim Crow era. And the consequences have often been deadly or led to wrongful convictions.
Cooper, who faces a misdemeanor charge for falsely reporting an incident, told the responding officers that Christian Cooper had not tried to assault her, the district attorney said.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6558293/White-woman-26-claimed-attacked-black-man-arrested-making-up.html
A white mother of two in South Carolina has been accused of lying to police about being attacked by a black man in a Walmart parking lot, where authorities say she never was.
Kristen Michelle Rimes, 26, filed a police report on November 26 with the City of Columbia Police Department claiming she was attacked while sitting in her car outside of the superstore by an unidentified suspect.
'He was a black male, medium build, wearing a hoodie with a jacket over it,' Rimes elaborated on the alleged attacker to Cola Daily in an interview published on November 27.
https://www.bostonherald.com/2019/04/01/police-woman-admits-faking-attack-in-quincy-park/
***(THEY DIDNT EVEN DISCLOSE HER NAME HERE.... WOW)
QUINCY A 49-year-old white woman who initially told police a black man attacked and robbed her in Russell Park last week has now admitted she lied to detectives, according to police.
The woman, a Quincy resident, will be summonsed to Quincy District Court for allegedly filing a false police report, Quincy police announced Monday. Theyre not releasing her name at this time.
As part of the investigation, detectives reviewed surveillance video in the area of the crime scene. When a detective re-interviewed the woman, she confessed she had a made a false police report, according to Mondays press release.
Officers at about 11:12 a.m. on March 25 responded to the park for a report that a woman had been assaulted. She was bleeding when police arrived.
The woman told police that she had been walking the dirt path behind the tennis courts when someone approached her from behind, throwing her to the ground and stealing money from her purse.
The suspect then ran away, leaving her purse behind, she told police. A police K-9 located the womans sneakers and jacket in the wooded area where the suspect had allegedly ran.
The woman described the suspect as a black man in his early 20s, bald, clean-shaven, wearing a black hoodie, blue jeans and black shoes.
The womans court date has not been scheduled.
Whats different in these few of many hate crime cases: Nobody who lied was black and no political (or at least overtly political) connections were made. However by their acts alone these were all probably Republicans.
madville
(7,397 posts)And those examples are charged with misdemeanors from what I can tell versus Smollett being charged with felonies under Illinois state law, so there would be some disparity just from that alone. Each state/jurisdiction has different laws, a disparity in treatment cant really be demonstrated unless its under the same set of laws. Something that is a 1st degree misdemeanor in South Carolina could easily be a Class 4 felony in Illinois, theres typically going to be different sentencing standards just because of that.
live love laugh
(12,995 posts)the others were charged with misdemeanors and did not have the full weight of the law brought down on them.
Their crimes were harmful to specific humans -- unlike Smolletts. One was even protected and unnamed.
The disparities are glaring.
madville
(7,397 posts)Misdemeanors in the jurisdictions that charged them. While Smollett committed a felony in his jurisdiction. If a gay black man has over 20 grams of weed in FL its a felony, if a white woman has the same amount in Colorado its legal. Thats disparity in the laws of those jurisdictions, same as these scenarios.
live love laugh
(12,995 posts)Option vs not doing so.
Regardless of the jurisdictional statutes.
FBaggins
(26,693 posts)Those cases aren't comparable to Smollett's - and it's far more than just the race of the defendant.
Hint - if you want to make claims regarding the appropriate sentencing in his scenario... at least find people who were convicted of the same offense and then compare the sentencing factors.
live love laugh
(12,995 posts)The judge harped on that aspect of the case and how it would affect LGBTQ in the future as well as the lying.
FBaggins
(26,693 posts)I think a reasonable argument could be made that it was a hate crime (not just similar) but hate crimes don't all get the same sentence. I think the judge's "harping" is also correct. His actions will affect actual future victims in just the same way that a false allegation of rape makes it harder for actual rape victims to receive justice.
But even the very same crime can reasonably receive different sentences without either one being unjust - because sentencing involves considering lots of mitigating and aggravating factors. Two people committing exactly the same crime often get different sentences if one of them admits their guilt and apologizes and the other one forces extended court proceedings and refuses to take responsibility.
In the cases of filing a false police report... there are not only the previously-mentioned differences from state to state re: whether it's a misdemeanor or a felony. There's also the question of how serious the claimed incident is... how much cost and effort was placed on law enforcement trying to track down the imagined assailants... and how much impact it had on the community.
The fact that you find the "Central Park Karen" to be at all comparable to Smollett's crime shows pretty extreme bias on your own part. The differences were far more than just the race of those involved.
pinkstarburst
(1,320 posts)The Amy Cooper birdwatching-dogwalking case was not remotely similar. I still feel Christian Cooper was partially at fault for that incident. She used her white privilege in that incident for sure. But he used his male privilege, too. Do you want to know how many times I, as a female, have seen men breaking the rules in a public park? Pit bulls off the leash? Smoking pot when it's illegal? Do you want to know how many times I as a female alone in a wooded area of the park have rushed up to confront them and act like the hall monitor and tell them to get that pit bull on a leash, put out that pot or I'm going to whip out my cell phone and start recording?
That would be never.
As a woman, I understand that would place me in danger.
But Christian Cooper was a large male and was unafraid to use his male privilege to confront a small female alone in the woods and bully her about her dog. His statements that he admits to "I'm gonna do what I'm gonna do and you're not gonna like it" are very creepy when it's a large strange man saying it to a smaller woman alone in the woods, and he's trying to lure your dog away from you (which he also admits.)
In that case I think two people behaved stupidly.
Jussie Smollett planned this whole thing out. It was premeditated. He hired people to stage the attack. He wasted police resources. He made a big display to the public to get attention and try to help his career. This is entirely different and more similar to the woman in California, who is now in trouble for faking a kidnapping and saying it was two Hispanic women who took her and wasting hundreds of thousands of dollars of police resources.
I think the sentence is fair.
live love laugh
(12,995 posts)8:10 AM
pinkstarburst
The Amy Cooper birdwatching-dogwalking case was not remotely similar. I still feel Christian Cooper was partially at fault for that incident. She used her white privilege in that incident for sure. But he used his male privilege, too. Do you want to know how many times I, as a female, have seen men breaking the rules in a public park? Pit bulls off the leash? Smoking pot when it's illegal? Do you want to know how many times I as a female alone in a wooded area of the park have rushed up to confront them and act like the hall monitor and tell them to get that pit bull on a leash, put out that pot or I'm going to whip out my cell phone and start recording?
That would be never.
As a woman, I understand that would place me in danger.
But Christian Cooper was a large male and was unafraid to use his male privilege to confront a small female alone in the woods and bully her about her dog. His statements that he admits to "I'm gonna do what I'm gonna do and you're not gonna like it" are very creepy when it's a large strange man saying it to a smaller woman alone in the woods, and he's trying to lure your dog away from you (which he also admits.)
In that case I think two people behaved stupidly.
Jussie Smollett planned this whole thing out. It was premeditated. He hired people to stage the attack. He wasted police resources. He made a big display to the public to get attention and try to help his career. This is entirely different and more similar to the woman in California, who is now in trouble for faking a kidnapping and saying it was two Hispanic women who took her and wasting hundreds of thousands of dollars of police resources.
I think the sentence is fair.
Dr. Strange
(25,898 posts)I'll admit, I will tend to be more forgiving if someone owns up (at least somewhat) to their actions. Smollett still insists that he hasn't been lying; so I have no problem throwing the book at him.
FBaggins
(26,693 posts)Sentencing guidelines regularly take into account the acceptance of responsibility on the one hand, and the impeding the administration of justice on the other.
underpants
(182,271 posts)Well I know what some people will be talking about for the next few days.
Submariner
(12,482 posts)and like Lillo revive his career in straight to video garbage "C" Movies.
The unemployment rate in SAG is 99%. He was one of the few employed actors, also a millionaire, and he pulls this stupid stunt? Dumb.
XanaDUer2
(10,327 posts)WHY?! Someone said he was about to be fired. Still.
exboyfil
(17,857 posts)If he had taken his lumps from the start, his road back would be less difficult.
His continued denials will not help him.
former9thward
(31,798 posts)He insulted every person who lives in Chicago.
live love laugh
(12,995 posts)former9thward
(31,798 posts)As a Chicagoan I was insulted. You don't know Chicago if you think "right wing pressure" had anything to do with this case. There is no right wing pressure for anything in Chicago.
live love laugh
(12,995 posts)was a phrase used in the made up assault which was a very red flag.
That phrase was the bombshell that drew the ire of Trump and right wingers including the supposed independent investigator Dan Webb a Republican.
MichMan
(11,778 posts)...around his neck and holding his unmolested Subway sandwich, saying he was attacked and beaten.
If a couple magats were beating, assaulting me, and putting a noose around my neck. I would make certain to protect my sandwich in the struggle.
FBaggins
(26,693 posts)"if anything happens to me when I go in there, I did not do it to myself"
Oh... ok.
BlackSkimmer
(51,308 posts)Tomconroy
(7,611 posts)ForgedCrank
(1,723 posts)not a friend to the social justice movement. He has done very serious damage to the integrity of all hate crime claimants. And to this day, he is still claiming he is innocent and will not take responsibility when he was so obviously proven guilty of lying and making this all up. I feel embarrassed for initially standing behind him. I didn't even want to believe the rumors when it hit the news, I refused to believe it until it came out of trial.
I understand this is difficult for all of us to accept, but he inflicted a serious injury to the entire movement with this crap. I think the requested 15 years in prison was ridiculous, but he got off easy in my opinion. He may hate MAGA, but he hurt everyone else even worse with this BS. I'm still pretty angry about it, this just gives more ammo to the right wing racist nuts.
Takket
(21,421 posts)He flat out lied and when caught became furious and indignant and only continued lying. He and drumpf are ironically cut from the exact same cloth. Narcissistic idiots who will always find someone other than themselves to blame for their fuckups.
If he has just admitted from that start it was a scam he would have gotten a slap on the wrist. Instead he wanted to bask in a victim spotlight that he stole from actual victims. It is sickening.
Sympthsical
(8,925 posts)"If I did do it, it was to punch back at 400 years of oppression." I'm paraphrasing a bit. I mean, game over there. He thinks he's justified in everything.
Interesting bit of narcissistic personality disorder.
What I don't get is why his family goes along with it. Are they inside the delusion with him? They're all trying to make his conviction into a social justice issue. Poor Jussie, victimized by the system.
Just the delusion involved, and the constant invocation of racial justice on behalf of someone who viscerally violated it for attention and advancement. They seem offended in that entitled way you see in people with a little bit of money who don't think rules and consequences apply.
Baffling.
Maybe it's the only option. "Welp, your career is dead. Might as well make a living as a professional victim and martyr. There will always be some small amount of people who buy your bullshit." Seems to be the play now.
Still, as a gay man, I'm good with the sentence. He made it harder for others in the community. He made doubting of victims easier when it is already too easy. He wanted attention. He got it.
BlackSkimmer
(51,308 posts)Hes an entitled fool, as the judge said.
Completely scuppered his own career.
I dont understand his family at all. Family should be the ones to talk some sense into him.
XanaDUer2
(10,327 posts)Because I just don't get it. It read he was dissatisfied with his pay on Empire. I'm trying to connect the dots; do you get a raise if you're attacked? SMH here.
BlackSkimmer
(51,308 posts)Telling the story of fighting off the attackers he then said he was the gay Tupac.