horrifying attack on Jussie Smollett

[LTC8K6]

Do we know if the surveillance system used in Chicago includes audio?

 

[eeyore1954]

Snipped from a very good list you provided. All great points.

Just wanted to add something to this bit:

Exactly zero people exist in the world who are violent, criminal white racist homophobes living in Chicago walking around at 2am in the horrible cold with ski masks and MAGA hats on top of those ski masks equipped and ready with bleach and rope.

Zero.

Did not happen. Zero possibility it did.

But if by some miracle two such people did exist? They would not have the faintest clue who the actors in Empire are.

To give the slightest credence to the possibility that it did completely beclowns one.

Unless it wasn’t random and they were out to get him because they are racist homophobes and he is an outspoken activist.

 

[carlitos]

Do we know if the surveillance system used in Chicago includes audio?

Any video of this incident would not be coming from some city-wide surveillance system. The Chicago POD system is confined to high crime areas.


PODs don't have audio, except for the targeted ones in high crime areas with gunshot sensors.

 

[applecorped]

Smollett issued the most self-serving and a
information free press release saying Justice will be served



Let's hope Justice is served

 

[lionking]

MikeG said it earlier, but the exact thought came to mind. This looks like deliberate performance art from the usual suspects who just can’t believe that a black man can be telling the truth about being attacked by whites. But keep it up guys, particularly the stuff about bikes. I’m laughing out loud.

 

[theprestige]

MikeG said it earlier, but the exact thought came to mind. This looks like deliberate performance art from the usual suspects who just can’t believe that a black man can be telling the truth about being attacked by whites. But keep it up guys, particularly the stuff about bikes. I’m laughing out loud.

Just wait till you get to the stuff about unicorns.

Meanwhile, what evidence presented so far leads you to believe this story is true?

 

[Checkmite]

Smollett issued the most self-serving and a
information free press release saying Justice will be served

What more information do you expect him to release? The facts of the alleged attack are already public; there's nothing more to add.

 

[sir drinks-a-lot]

MikeG said it earlier, but the exact thought came to mind. This looks like deliberate performance art from the usual suspects who just can’t believe that a black man can be telling the truth about being attacked by whites.

That's silly. Get your race-baiting and identity politics in elsewhere.

Most of us are just looking at the evidence (or lack thereof) and trying to determine if there is still any chance that this could have happened as told.

 

[The Big Dog]

It was said earlier, but the exact thought came to mind. This looks like deliberate performance art from the usual suspects who just can’t believe that a fanatical anti-Trump fanatic can be lying about being attacked by MAGA COUNTRY RESIDENTS. But keep it up guys, particularly the stuff about Negro Pockets. I’m laughing out loud.

 

[LTC8K6]

Any video of this incident would not be coming from some city-wide surveillance system. The Chicago POD system is confined to high crime areas.


PODs don't have audio, except for the targeted ones in high crime areas with gunshot sensors.

Chicago's citywide camera system includes over 30,000 cameras, according to various news reports. It incorporates far more than just the POD cameras.

ACLU report from 2011 when the camera system was at about 10,000 cameras.

http://dig.abclocal.go.com/wls/documents/Surveillance_Camera_Report.pdf

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/26/us/chicago-police-surveillance.html

The department tested the use of technology in two of its most violent areas in early 2017. When crime began to fall, the department ultimately set aside space in 13 of its 22 police stations for the surveillance centers, which tap into the city’s approximately 30,000 government-operated closed-circuit cameras.

 

[baron]

Off the top of my head?

1) They were referring to the country in general, or broader areas of the state. It's more puzzling to me that people would assume that the statement could only be an assesment of the city's demographics when it does not mention "city" or "chicago". I live in upstate NY. Our state is pretty blue, so is the city. But there are certainly areas that consider themselves MAGA country.

2) They lived in a particular enclave where the majority of people they spoke to agreed with their political views and gave them a general sense that they were part of a "silent majority" in whatever relevant area they were attempting to address. That's a pretty common scenario and a not uncommon sentiment from Trump supporters over the last couple years.

3) It was more of a rally style mantra with no particular assessment of local politics intended.

4) They were intoxicated or hopped up on anger and it sounded cool to them at the time.

5) Those aren't actually the words they spoke. They may have said "MAGA (blank)" and Smollett and his agent misheard the second word, or press misreported the phrase.

Possible, but it's a strange phrase. "This is X country" would normally refer to the immediate region or area.

I don't think the testimony has been so clear that either the assailants were surprised or that the substance was bleach. Even if those two things were facts, a simple answer might be that they were on their way to or from doing laundry. Late night laundromats are common in cities.

Never put bleach in your laundry, that's what I advise. And if this was the case wouldn't they be carrying laundry?

Or, the substance wasn't bleach and the cord used as a noose was any of the many random pieces of something that many people carry.

But again, I don't think its clear that they hadn't gone looking for Smollett, in which case any kind of preparation would be possible.

The words they allegedly used were, "Aren't you that faggot Empire ******?" They wouldn't have said that if they had actively tracked him down, or followed him from somewhere. It seems a stretch that two white men doing their laundry would recognise an actor from the show 'Empire', beat him up, tie a noose around his neck and douse him in bleach. I've never heard of such behaviour.

This is really the only point that gives me major pause. It's a little on the nose. But as far as motivations go. Certainly people who hate black people, and gay people exist. And shouting epithets during attacks on these groups is something these people seem to do. These groups also tend to be Trump fans. Look at Charlottesville to see footage of people shouting "Jews will not replace us!" and "MAGA!" it's cartoonish, but it certainly exists. Hating on particular celebrities is also pretty darned popular in the white nationalist corners of the internet.

Having all this information shouted in such a succinct package seems a little convenient though, I'll give you that.

Indeed.

Its not uncommon for victims of all sorts of attack to not act as a "perfect victim".
1)He may have been shocked or in disbelief.

2)He may, as many people in marginalized groups do, have a severe distrust of police involvement.

3)He may have had an unrelated reason not to want to involve authorities, for instance if he were high or carrying drugs.

If he were high and carrying drugs that would explain a lot.

4)He may have thought it would be impossible to actually find his attackers, and going to authorities would only give people on social media a reason to attack him which would inevitably lead to death threats and a smear on his name.

5) He may, due to adrenaline, not have felt his injuries or thought he needed medical care.

Possible, but it's all adding up.

For many of the same reasons listed above for starters.


See my other posts on the phone records. As well as others on both sides of the issue who have given many reasons he may not want to share his phone or records.

I can understand if Smollett initially didn't want to report the attack, but his friend, who heard it over the phone? For all he knew he might be getting stabbed or beaten to death, I hardly think distrust of the police would prevent him calling for help. Of course you could speculate that the phone line remained open, or he rang him back, but none of this to my knowledge has been claimed.

This one is just strange, but it's just as strange if the story is real or fake, so it isn't particularly relevant.

Not really. It's certainly strange if there was an attack, but maybe someone pretending to be the victim of a racist 'lynching' would want think of it as having added impact value.

This seems to be a repeat. Are you referring to the phone again? That clearly would not help find the assailants.

We don't have access to his full medical charts, so you're sort of minimizing and extrapolating from our limited information. We don't actually know what injuries he may have sustained.

That's true. We know they weren't serious, he was discharged within hours, but we don't know what they were. The only evidence we have of injury is a tiny scratch below his right eye.

That said, the attack as you noted would have occurred in a brief window. We don't know anything about the comparative fitness of the assailants and Smollett, any sounds or events that may have cut an attack short, their possible intoxication.

It is not rare for a fight to end without broken bones.

It's rare to be beat down by two guys and suffer only a scratch and, possibly, a broken rib. They can't have been trying that hard and if they were interrupted, who interrupted them, and why did Smollett not mention that fact?

Already answered by another poster who experienced a broken rib.

I haven't seen that post.

I'll admit I haven't been following the minutia of the timing, so I'm not sure if we have so definitively narrowed down the time frame. But if we have, that's as much a problem for any alternate theory. When did he aquire the rope the bleach/fluid and the injury? Or the scooter or whatever. If those events are not on tape with a narrow window that would be as much a weird coincidence as the attack not being on tape.

I don't suggest a scooter was involved, but in my speculative scenario he met up with someone, went back to their place and got into an argument. Bleach and clothesline are much more likely to be found in someone's kitchen than carried around by Trump-supporting, Empire-watching, white supremacist ninja racists. Perhaps there was a scuffle in someone's apartment; he looked at himself in the mirror and thought, "I'm going to have to invent something to explain this ****," and grabbed the tools he naively believed would form the staple components of a racist attack.

Or maybe we're all just overestimating how much street activity is actually taped.

Again something we're not sure of. Police don't make every possible witness public immediately. That said, it was very late on a bitterly cold night. Not hard to believe that a particular block would be deserted.

Maybe, but it's still adding up...

 

[lionking]

Most of us are just looking at the evidence (or lack thereof) and trying to determine if there is still any chance that this could have happened as told.

Sure. And it just so happens that “most of us” are those who simply can’t accept racist attacks against blacks in the US.

 

[carlitos]

Chicago's citywide camera system includes over 30,000 cameras, according to various news reports. It incorporates far more than just the POD cameras.

I must have blocked this out of my mind as it's scary to think about that many surveillance cameras. Thank you for the correction.

 

[LTC8K6]

Please describe the details you are at liberty to regarding Chicago’s video surveillance system.

Ruben Madrigal: We own and maintain approximately 3,700 cameras, but have access to over 32,000 through our federations. The majority of the cameras we own are HD pan/tilt/zoom, and they communicate in one of three methods: direct fiber optic connection, our own wireless or cellular. All of them feed into our Genetec video management system. In addition to the p/t/z cameras, we also have thermal and license plate recognition [LPR] cameras. We also have cameras on police and fire boats and helicopters, SUVs, trailers and command vans, among others.

The total number of camera feeds available to Chicago PD is around 32,000.

 

[Checkmite]

It's rare to be beat down by two guys and suffer only a scratch and, possibly, a broken rib.

It's much rarer for someone who invented an attack out of whole cloth to end up with a broken rib.

 

[theprestige]

Sure. And it just so happens that “most of us” are those who simply can’t accept racist attacks against blacks in the US. : rolleyes :

I can't speak for anyone else, but I personally don't accept racist attacks against anyone anywhere.

 

[LTC8K6]

It's much rarer for someone who invented an attack out of whole cloth to end up with a broken rib.

The broken rib seems to have disappeared, though.

 

[Checkmite]

The broken rib seems to have disappeared, though.

According to whom?

 

[LTC8K6]

According to whom?

It was mentioned in early reports and then not in later reports.

I would now feel very secure betting that he did not have a broken rib.

 

[Checkmite]

It was mentioned in early reports and then not in later reports.

Were his other specific injuries still being mentioned in the later reports?