Democrat Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel and Chicago Police Superintendent Eddie Johnson blasted Jussie Smollett and the legal system on Tuesday after the Cook County State’s Attorney’s office dropped all charges against Smollett in the hate crime hoax case.
“I’m sure we all know what occurred this morning,” Johnson said. “My personal opinion is that you all know where I stand on this. Do I think justice was served? No.”
“Where do I think justice is?” Johnson continued. “I think this city is still owed an apology. … When I came on this job, I came on with my honor, my integrity and my reputation. And if someone accused me of doing anything that would circumvent that, then I would want my day in court. Period. To clear my name.”
“I’ve heard that they wanted their day in court with TV cameras so America could know the truth,” Johnson added. “And now they chose to hide behind secrecy and broker a deal to circumvent the judicial system.”
Emanuel expressed even more anger than Johnson did, noting the damage that the decision to drop the charges will do to the city of Chicago.
“This is a whitewash of justice,” Emanuel said. “A grand jury could not have been clearer.”
“You cannot have, because of a person’s position, one set of rules apply to them and another set of rules apply to everybody else,” Emanuel continued. “In another way, you’re seeing this play out in the universities, where people pay extra to get their kids a special position in universities. Now you have a person, because of their position and background, who’s getting treated in a way that nobody else would ever — (interruption) — that would ever get close to this type of treatment.”
“The city saw its reputation dragged through the mud,” Emanuel added. “This is without of doubt a whitewash of justice and sends a clear message that if you’re in a position of influence and power, you’ll get treated one way, other people will be treated another way. There is no accountability in the system. It is wrong, full stop.”
Later on in the press conference, Emanuel blasted Smollett for still claiming that he was innocent.
“I wanted to say one other thing,” Emanuel said. “Mr. Smollett is still saying that he is innocent, still running down the Chicago Police Department.”
“How dare he! How dare him! After everybody saw — and I want to remind you — this is not the superintendent’s word against his,” Emanuel continued. “The grand jury, a sliver of the evidence and they came to a conclusion, as did the state’s attorney’s office. This is not the superintendent and the detectives, department, word against his!”
“And even after this whitewash, still, no sense of ownership of what he’s done. He says that in fact he is the wronged in this case,” Emanuel added. “This is an unbelievable, not just whitewash of justice, this a person now that’s been let off scot-free, with no sense of accountability of the moral and ethical wrong of his actions, from top to bottom, not only to tarnish the name of the city.”
“But then I cannot stress that in a time when you have people bringing a moral equivalency in Virginia between bigots and those fighting bigotry, and you have a person using hate crime laws that are on the books to protect people, who are minorities, from violence, to then turn around and use those laws to advance your career and your financial reward,” Emanuel concluded. “Is there no decency in this man?”
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