Chicago police have release a strong statement on Jussie Smollett having his charges dropped.
Following the news that Smollett cut a deal with state prosecutors in exchange for having the 16 felony counts of lying to the police he faced dismissed, Chicago Police Supt. Eddie Johnson told reporters that he is proud of the work his team did, per THR.
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“So listen, I’m sure we all know what occurred this morning,” Johnson said. “My personal opinion is that you all know where I stand in this. Do I think justice was served? No. I think this city is still owed an apology.”
“If someone accused me of doing anything that would circumvent that, then I would want my day in court. Period. I’ve heard that they [Smollett legal team] wanted their day in court with TV cameras so America could know the truth. But no, they chose to hide behind secrecy and broker a deal to circumvent the judicial system. My job as a police officer is to investigate an incident, gather evidence, gather the facts and present them to the State’s Attorney. That’s what we did. I stand behind the detective’s investigation,” Johnson added.
Chicago mayor Rahm Emanuel added, “This is a whitewash of justice. I’d like to remind everybody a grand jury indicted this individual based on only a piece of the evidence that the police had collected in that period of time. So a grand jury actually brought the charges.”
Emanuel went on to say that he believes that Smollett’s case being dismissed is harmful to many groups, “gay men and women who will come forward and one day will say they were a victim of a hate crime and now will be doubted; people of faith, Muslim or any other faith, who will be a victim of hate crime; people of all walks of life, background, race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, now this casts a shadow of whether they’re telling the truth.”
“Where is the accountability from the system? 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. In another way, you’re seeing this play out in 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 treated in a way that nobody else would ever get close, to this type of treatment,” Emanuel added.
Per the terms of his plea deal, Smollett will have to surrender is $10,000 bond, and will also be required to complete community service.
