By they I mean Chicago PD

That sounds like the right number

It would seem he sent himself hate mail the week before...with a white powder in it.

It scares me how many people instantly believed him

I think the official report is he gave it to his Nigerian friends and had them mail it.

They had to call in the hazmat team.

Gohan, I thought you believed him to be innocent

As far as I’m concerned, this is one of few occasions where I think he is guilty until proven innocent, due to the accusations being made after a police investigation and by the police. Chicago PD is also fairly liberal, so they have no reason to be biased *against him* the way they are.

My two cents.

@The Gwench I didn't believe him to be innocent, I just said that I wasn't going to make a claim either way until the police did

He compared himself to Tupac. Wtf? How rude!!!

At the very least, that was what I intended to say

Tupac Shakur wasn’t exactly a shining light of righteousness.

Then again I suppose he had the balls to also fess up about everything he did, immediately after he did it.

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

No but he was behaving like a parasite. Attaching himself to someone else’s fame

I don’t think anyone thinks he’s very much like Tupac.

Save perhaps his most devoted fans.

I don’t either, but Jussie was claiming to be

It’s a stupid call from him, but at the same time, I don’t particularly care. Calling yourself “gay Tupac” isn’t particularly illegal, even if it is BS.

He’s a fucking parasite

A fraud

That much is fairly clear from his crime.

Yup. A fraud in every sense.

I'm glad we can agree on something

Meh, Smollet is gay, and black, so he does have some legitimate claims going for him.

There were some very serious repercussions to his behaviour that could have caused catastrophic disaster to our modern culture.

I’m glad he was caught

Eh. . . I disagree, sort of. It would have been bad, but it wouldn’t have been catastrophic.

I think I know something me and Citizen can talk about without arguing. Maybe.

👌🏼

I think the people who were readily on Smollett’s side haven’t changed their view on the people he claimed attacked him.

I also think the people who he claimed attacked him never cared enough to do so in the first place.

I don't really see it being catastrophic either. I mean, it probably would have reinforced the current "believe the victim" mindset that so many people seem to have, but I don't see much beyond that.

^

It was to validate the division that already exists. This incident would have made it worse if successful

While I think that’s true, I don’t think the difference would have really been that much more significant than it is now.

I disagree

Fact of the matter is that if you’re at the point where you already think that the generic Trump supporter is a fundamentally racist individual, then thinking they would do something like this shouldn’t be a surprise.

This belief that blacks and gays are victims is out of proportion to reality

And if you’re already used to being accused of being a racist, being accused of being a racist by the same people who called you a racist earlier also probably won’t be too significant.