Actor’s tale caused great damage to Chicago, U.S.

The following is from a Chicago Tribune editorial:

As TV actor Jussie Smollett told the tale, he was the victim of a politically motivated hate crime at 2 a.m. on a Chicago street on a January morning. That’s the story the Chicago Police Department investigated for more than three weeks.

But on Wednesday, authorities charged Smollett with felony disorderly conduct for filing a false report that described an attack with racist and homophobic elements. If that’s true, it would mean Smollett manufactured an elaborate, irresponsible hoax.

It would mean he created a sympathetic role for himself as the target of an ugly, bigoted attack. It would mean the two men he identified as his assailants didn’t perpetrate any such assault.

Smollett’s story about a hate crime riveted America. Smollett said he was attacked by two men who hit him and yelled slurs. They wrapped a rope around his neck, he said, splashed a chemical akin to bleach on him and shouted “This is MAGA country!” as if to connect their deed to President Donald Trump via his “Make America Great Again” campaign catchphrase.

If the police contention that Smollett lied is borne out, that would mean he is guilty of shameful injustices at great cost to other people: That he fabricated a vicious assault, thus wasting police resources in a city struggling to contain gun violence and solve crimes.

If Smollett’s story was bogus, the damage goes deeper: Smollett’s celebrity status generated intense national interest, exploiting the bleak narrative that America in 2019 is a place where intolerance flourishes. If police are correct, Smollett’s deceit put Chicago on that map when it wasn’t warranted.

If it turns out that he concocted his story, he should explain himself.

The point wouldn’t be to humiliate Smollett but to make clear that falsely reporting a vicious crime with racial and homophobic overtones aggravates divisions and stokes mistrust. The point would be to make this clear to this city and America: There was no “MAGA country” attack in Chicago on Jan. 29.