It goes without saying that the past several years of U.S. history has been filled with dozens of controversies, ranging from very good to exceptionally bad. One controversy that has caught my attention for the past couple days is the potential scandal involving "Empire" actor, Jussie Smollett.
On January 29 of this year, Smollett claimed that he was the victim to a heinous hate crime. He stated the two attackers were white males wearing "Make America Great Again" hats and called him many racist and homophobic slurs. This day was followed by waves of support for the actor from the LGBTQ community and the millions of fans of the show "Empire."
However, it has come to light that this whole incident may have been staged. Chicago police made a statement saying that they have found evidence to support the theory that Jussie Smollett paid off two people to say they attacked him. Although this revelation is very recent and nothing is for certain, the very possibility of this hate crime being staged has tremendous ramifications for American people.
Delegitimizes the Efforts of the LGBTQ community.
Although in the past few decades the LGBTQ community has made excellent strides in gaining equal rights, the conversation about equal rights in America is still a delicate one. These potentially false claims made by Jussie Smollett have not only severely damaged his career, but they have put the whole legitimacy of the LGBTQ community at risk.
For many individuals who are victims of hate crimes and assaults, it's hard enough finding the courage to come out and point out their attackers. But now that there is a likelihood that claims of a hate crime made by an actor were faked simply just to boost his own popularity, it consequentially creates a shadow of doubt over those who were actually victimized.
This puts victims of hate crimes in an even more unfair position.
Takes Resources Away from other Legitimate Crimes.
In many police departments across the country, Chicago especially, there are enough resources to adequately support the amount of crime in their precincts. This has led to overworked officers and very stretched out resources in many major cities across the country. Although these false claims have not yet been confirmed and are certainly not the only false claims to ever be found, they only build upon the growing mindset among law enforcement; Be more discriminant towards which cases to pursue.
In a fair world, officers would pursuit every case with the same amount of effort and work. But in a world with extremely limited resources and manpower, law enforcement is forced to ration out attention to certain cases. The accusations against Jussie Smollett further add on to the difficult task police carry out. This situation adds to the doubt that police have towards the legitimacy of certain crimes.
When Chicago Police announced the possible felony charges brought up against Jussie Smollett, it not only severely damaged his career, but essentially threw yet another wrench into the faith system of our justice system.
