A veteran Chicago police chief has slammed Kamala Harris’s judgement as it emerged that her glowing praise for notorious fraudster Jussie Smollett is still on her social media.
The Vice-President leapt to the defense of the former Empire actor and denounced a ‘modern day lynching’ after he claimed to have been victim of a racist and homophobic attack in Chicago city center.
He told Chicago Police he had been doused with bleach, had a rope tied around his neck and been told ‘This is MAGA country!’, before it emerged that he had hired two brothers to stage the 2019 ‘attack’.
Eugene Roy spent 29 years in a Chicago police department that came under immense pressure to solve a crime that never happened, and he slammed Harris for her unquestioning belief of Smollett’s story.
‘It’s one thing to express your support for a friend,’ he told Fox News. ‘It’s another thing to use your platform as a government official to prejudge a case before it’s played out.’
Kamala Harris leapt to the defense of Jussie Smollett when the actor went public with his scam
The now vice-president’s intervention calls her judgement into question according to former Chicago Police Department chief of detectives Eugene Roy
The Democrat now likely to face Donald Trump in November’s presidential election was a US Senator for California when the alleged attack took place in January 2019.
‘Jussie Smollett is one of the kindest, most gentle human beings I know,’ the former state attorney general tweeted. ‘I’m praying for his quick recovery.
‘This was an attempted modern day lynching,’ she added.
‘No one should have to fear for their life because of their sexuality or color of their skin. We must confront this hate.’
Smollett initially told Chicago police he had been accosted on a darkened street outside his apartment by two masked strangers.
When cops arrived at Smollett’s apartment 40 minutes later, he still had a white noose around his neck which he said he left on to show them.
Amid worldwide outrage police began to suspect the attack was bogus and arrested two Nigerian brothers Abel and Ola Osundairo.
They later testified in court that Smollett hired them to fake the attack because he wanted to boost his celebrity profile.
The VP’s ill-judged tweet remains on her X-feed more than five years after Smollett’s arrest
The actor has served just six days of his 150-day sentence for making false police reports
Brothers Abel and Ola Osunadairo, who were hired by the actor to attack him
As Smollett’s story unraveled, Harris released a statement saying she was ‘sad, frustrated and disappointed’.
‘When anyone makes false claims to police, it not only diverts resources away from serious investigations but it makes it more difficult for other victims of crime to come forward,’ she added.
But she took the opportunity to double down on her message that ‘hate crimes are on the rise in America’.
‘Part of the tragedy of this situation is that it distracts from that truth, and has been seized by some who would like to dismiss and downplay the very real problems that we must address,’ she added.
Smollett was convicted on five counts of disorderly conduct, sentenced to 150 days in jail, 30 months felony probation and $120,106 in restitution to the City of Chicago and a $25,000 fine.
However, he only served six days in jail before he was released on March 16, 2022 when his lawyer’s filed an appeal.
Illinois Supreme Court has agreed to hear his appeal against conviction after his lawyers argued that he had already he had already performed community service under a plea deal with Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office when he was put on trial.
‘What should have been a straightforward case has been complicated by the intersection of politics and public outrage,’ Smollett’s attorneys wrote told the court in February.
Roy said that Harris’s intervention suggested she was more interested in a ‘quick sound bite’ than ‘thorough, impartial investigation’, and that such comments can ‘cast a shadow’ over public trust in the police.
Smollett was still wearing the long white rope nose around his neck when police arrived at his Chicago apartment after the bogus attack in January 2019
But the current Vice-President is not the only one who has yet to delete their misplaced rush to judgement.
‘What happened today to Jussie Smollett must never be tolerated in this country,’ wrote the then former Vice-President Joe Biden in a tweet that is still online.
‘We must stand up and demand that we no longer give this hate safe harbor; that homophobia and racism have no place on our streets or in our hearts.
‘We are with you, Jussie.’
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