Jussie Smollett's Family is Doing Him No Favors.

Just stop lecturing the people of Chicago, the police officers of Chicago, and the investigative reporters in Chicago.  His white paternal grandmother is denying, like his older brother, that Jussie faked his hate crime.   She is playing the Jewish card, and the race card.  ("I marched with Martin Luther King..."  and "The family has suffered so much...")

No admission of guilt.

This guy is a choir boy to them, and ... a victim.  

Sad.  I pray to God, for the sake of the people of Chicago, that Jussie Smollett sees jail time for reporting his false crimes and reporting he had been attacked by white men.

#JusticeForJussie

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ADDED:

Enough with the celebrity letters for Jussie?  I mean, sure, have your friends provide character references.  He's known a lot of older b/Black Hollywood stars, since he was a young man.  But don't preface their statement to the judge telling us how many prizes they've won previously in their given field...

It's irrelevant.  Celebrities should not get special justice in America.

First, #JusticeForJussieSmollett.  Next, #JusticeForAlecBaldwin

Americans of all stripes want ONE justice system, the same for B/blacks and W/whites and all O/others.  The same for regular folk, and elite celebrities.  We can't turn backward to the OJ Simpson days, not when police men like Derek Chauvin are being locked up for their crimes now...  Progress has been made. Don't pull us back.

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"I fear for his safety," says Alfre Woodard, in a statement.   

Pray for him in incarceration then.  Work to make prison safety a priority.  Monitor his condition daily, while he is incarcerated.  But don't give the gay man special treatment.

It's clear from these statements that the elite celebrities don't understand how Jussie's crimes -- a 4th degree felony -- have cost the people of Chicago when he tried to undercut their trust and play up racial and gay-straight tensions in a City of Broad Shoulders.  The jury found Mr. Smollett, the celebrity, guilty on 5 of the 6 counts.  After some questionable prosecutorial behavior, the public outcry ensured that Mr. Smollett was charged, and found guilty.

He's a likeable young actor, the character statements tell us.  He's a wonderful fundraiser.  He's a vulnerable -- b/Black, Jewish, gay...  

And everybody's out to get him.  Not.

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4:41 CST   Court is taking a recess.  

If the judge was inclined to show mercy, I hope Mr. Smollett's family's arrogance -- and refusal to even consider that the jury verdict was correct and Mr. Smollett falsely reported a hate crime -- and the hypocritical playing of the race card in a city that lives through racial troubles in reality working their way through day-to-day the way these clueless celebrities cannot imagine in their fictitious world, has made him reconsider.

If ever a case called for a heavy punishment, including the full fine of $130,000 requested by the City of Chicago and jail time in Cook County, this one is it.  No special treatment for unrepentant celebrity defendants.  Our imprisoned B/black men in Chicago need to see that.  Equal justice for all.

It's worth working toward, because all the money in Hollywood's large piggybank can't buy that...

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And... we're back.  4:47CST

I'd love to see Mr. Jussie Smollett take the stand himself now, and cry victim and claim he was wronged.

Whoop -- not gonna happen.  Time for the prosecutors to argue special aggravating circumstances...

Here's the link again.  Listen now to longtime Chicago attorney Dan Webb, once a young man working for justice, now aged but fiery nontheless..

"He took an oath to tell the truth and lied to them (jury) for several hours... They rejected it all."

He made a choice...

to fake a hate crime...

because he's black and gay!

"He marginalized the people who are the true victims of hate crimes."