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Yesterday it was reported that Empire star Jussie Smollett was attacked after a late night food run in Subway in Chicago at 2am. A group of white men are alleged to have committed the attack with ski masks on, placed a noose around his neck, threw bleach at him and shouting “This is MAGA country,” referrin to the president’s campaign slogan of Make America Great Again. Support has come in from all sides with his mom on the show, Taraji P. Henson posted a video on Instagram of Jussie singing his song ‘F.I.W.’ captioned with the following:
“I wish what happened to my baby was just one big bad joke but it wasn’t and we all feel his pain right now,” she wrote. “@jussiesmollett is pure love to the bone AND THAT IS WHY SO MANY ARE FEELING HIS PAIN BECAUSE IT IS OUR PAIN!!! I tell you one thing HATE WILL NOT WIN!!!! My baby is resilient and love still lives in him. The devil and his minions are very busy right now but one thing is for sure and two things are for certain #GODIS and that is all I know.”
“This song needs to be downloaded until it goes triple platinum because the message is NEEDED,” she continued of Smollett’s political track. “#weareresilientpeople AND #weaintgoingnowhereuntillwearefinished. The love so many have him just goes to show HE IS LOVE!!!! I LOVE YOU MY BABY MY BABY!!! #LOVEWINSALWAYS.”
His father on the show, Terrence Howard shared his thoughts on Good Morning America saying “I heard he’s getting better,” Howard said of Smollett. “He’s angry, but I know Jussie. Jussie’s anger will dissipate, and he will forgive these people for what they did. But he won’t, and we cannot, forget their actions. They have to be forgiven because it was done out of ignorance.”
Then there’s Al Sharpton who said President Trump needed to denounce the attacks and 2020 presidential candidate Kamala Harris who tweeted “@JussieSmollett is one of the kindest, most gentle human beings I know. I’m praying for his quick recovery,” she wrote on Twitter Tuesday. “This was an attempted modern day lynching. No one should have to fear for their life because of their sexuality or color of their skin. We must confront this hate.”
Then there are the detractors. For starters, on the surface, it happened in Chicago, where for people who don’t know much about the city assume the entire place is a violent liberal sh**hole, so who would be talking about MAGA anything? In his defense, it occured on the north side which is majority white with a higher income level than other parts of the city. There also have been a number of shifting stories involving the incident originally brought to light by Reason.com Editor Robby Soave who pointed out that the original Chicago Police Department report didn’t make any mention of MAGA country being mentioned, race or the liquid thrown at him identified as bleach until later in the day. Police even so much as told Robby so over the phone and by email. TMZ updated their story confirming in the evening that he told police that contrary to what Robby was told.
Fast forward nearly 48 hours later and police have gone over hundreds of hours of footage from local businesses nearby and so far they’re unable to see anything resembling his attack. It’s worth noting that Chicago has one of the most extensive surveillance camera systems in the country. In 2009, a school board president’s entire 20 minute car drive was tracked through a number of area surveillance cameras to prove he committed suicide.
“We haven’t seen anybody, at this point, matching the description he gave, nobody looks menacing and we didn’t find a container anywhere,” police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said, referring to a container for the liquid that the actor said was thrown at him. It’s hard to make of this story which has been quite polarizing so far just what happened, but all that can be done from here is to wait for the facts from the investigation to be revealed.
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