Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2019/01/29/jussie-smollett-update-cpd.html
UPDATE: Smollett lied, say cops: actor charged with filing false police report
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Today we live in a world where “Our Previous Headline Is True” is a considered a separate news event.
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That’s because a bunch of Trump apologists have been spending much of the day falsely claiming that the media made up the part where Smollett claimed his attackers said “this is MAGA country!”, Including a number of trollies on this very forum.
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Also from here:
Analyze the rope? I don’t think they need CSI to detect racism.
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The problem is that TMZ is an incredibly gord-awful “news source”. I wish that BoingBoing would avoid them completely. They invent stuff to spice up stories, they plant stories for hire, they make National Enquirer look respectable. I’m sad/glad/mad that reliable sources are confirming it now.
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Two possibilities spring to mind:
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To look for skin cells from the attackers for DNA testing.
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To determine where it was made and try to trace through the distribution network to the retail store where it was sold, as a way of tracking down the attackers. Tedious, but sometimes it’s the only way to find a suspect.
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They would very much like to figure out which stores it could have been bought at, and then find surveillance from those stores, and then finding the perpetrators buying it. That would be a big help in getting an attempted murder conviction because it could show premeditation and planning. And yeah, if there’s DNA on the rope that’s also very useful. Edit: and also, what if the person who bought it wasn’t one of the attackers? They could find additional conspirators, or at least get something to start getting search warrants on additional people. They need as much as they can to build the strongest and best case they can. For a crime like this they do invest the resources and the FBI is already assisting.
Just because in hate crime after hate crime, the attackers shouted pro-Trump messages, maybe this time it wasn’t true!
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And fingerprints, of course. Plus,if the attackers were wearing gloves there might be fibres on the rope. If the police arrest suspects (based on other evidence) they could take fibre samples from their.gloves and compare them to the fibres from the rope.
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There’s a little cognitive dissonance on the part of the MAGA crowd. Many of them want to commit violence against minorities, but refuse to believe it when one of them actually does.
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The nationalist not only does not disapprove of atrocities committed by his own side, but he has a remarkable capacity for not even hearing about them.
George Orwell, Notes on Nationalism
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In the 40s, “America First” and “Make America First Again” were the rallying cries of isolationist, anti-Semitic, nazi sympathizers. Today, “America First” and “Make America Great Again” have retained their original meanings and acquired a new gloss of anti-Hispanic sentiment. Trump’s ugly, red ball caps have become the insignia of Trumpists who identify with the most racist, most reactionary elements of his platform.
In my view it’s irrelevant whether or not Jussie Smollet’s attackers shouted about “MAGA country”; their actions tell us that’s where they live and Trump is their leader.
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Skepticism regarding whether someone who is charged with a crime is guilty is qualitatively different from pronounced skepticism of a credible victims statements when no perp has even been identified yet.
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The phenomenon that truly baffles me is that of Jewish proponents of ethnostates who willfully ignore that history. Anti-Semitism in some form always lies below the surface of right-wing populism, and yet here are smart and educated Jews in the 21st century playing footsie with and making excuses for members of these movements:
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Big String won’t let it happen. You’ll see…
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it’s somewhat funny how many people think the police 1. actual are doing stuff about this on an hour-to-hour basis 2. that they get all CSI
sadly people don’t learn police do NOT care and take their sweet time like anyone padding their job pay by going as slow as possible just to get through the day
newsmedia always makes it look/sound like “oh the authorities got this” - nope, it’s just hype, everyone just wants to believe and goes with it
Even though it’s clearly not a yarn?
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Today’s MAGA hat is yesterday’s armband.
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This is a very high profile case, so it will be investigated thoroughly even if racist homophobic assaults on non-famous victims get ignored.
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I guess I am late to the show. This is all kinds of fucked up.
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