Posted on 02/08/2019 7:18:33 AM PST by Red Badger
CHICAGO — Police said they narrowed down the type of rope “Empire” star Jussie Smollet said was placed around his neck during an alleged attack.
Police said the rope is similar to rope sold to be used as a clothes line. Detectives have identified local stores where it’s sold and are reviewing surveillance video from those stores.
At this point, police have not found anything that conclusively proves Smollett was indeed attacked.
The actor told police that two men seemed to know who he was before they beat him, shouted racial and homophobic slurs, and looped a rope around his neck during an early-morning attack in Chicago, according to a recently released police report.
Smollett told police that two men dressed in black got his attention by mentioning the name of the TV show as he walked downtown early on Jan. 29. Smollett said the more aggressive man wore a black mask to conceal his face.
Smollett, who is black and openly gay, said the men then shouted slurs, beat him in the face with their hands and poured an unknown substance on him that stained his clothes. He said the men tied a rope around his neck before running away, according to a brief police report released to the public following a Freedom of Information request by media outlets.
The report noted that the 36-year-old actor said he initially didn’t want to report the attack, but that another person convinced him to do so. The name of the person who encouraged Smollet to call police was redacted in the report, which notes that the person was with Smollet when officers arrived at his Chicago apartment.
When officers arrived at his apartment, Smollett still had a white rope draped around his neck. The report also noted that officers turned off their body cameras at Smollett’s request, something that crime victims sometimes ask officers to do, according to Chicago police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi.
No arrests have been made but police continue to collect and review surveillance video from the area and look for possible witnesses, Guglielmi said Tuesday. He said police are also going to stores to ask employees if they recall selling rope to anyone and to determine if security camera footage shows someone buying the kind of rope that was tied noose-like around Smollet’s neck.
“We are starting to search stores to see if any of this kind of rope was purchased in the area,” Guglielmi said.
Smollett went to Northwestern Memorial Hospital after being advised to do so by the officers, according to the police report. Police said he was treated for scrapes and bruises and released.
Smollett took officers to the spot where he was attacked and told investigators he’d received hate mail a week earlier. Police have said the FBI was investigating the letter, which was sent to the studio in Chicago where “Empire” is filmed.
Guglielmi said officers don’t yet have video showing the attack and are continuing to search for two men who were walking in the area at around the time of the attack to question them about what they may have seen.
Smollett and his family have defended themselves against allegations leveled on social media that he has been less than cooperative and changed his story. On Saturday, Smollett gave a concert at the Troubadour in West Hollywood, telling the audience that if he did not perform his attackers would win.
So it’s more like string.
The two men were just walking around with a short length of rope? And a bottle of bleach? At 2AM? In extremely cold weather? Because — you know — they might just bump into someone they could lynch.
Instead of this ridiculous ‘clue-finding’ to prove a crime that didn’t occur, why aren’t the police using their time efficiently to snuff out the claim itself?
If you or I walked into the local cop shop with as little evidence and corroboration as has been presented to date, we’d be sent out the door with little more than ‘have a nice day.’
I think they're trying to signal to Smollett that they know he's lying and they're giving him a chance to confess and claim that a mental breakdown caused by Trump forced him to make the story up and highlight a problem that is actually very real but made up in his specific circumstances. And he still lives in fear that the invented story could become all too real in the days ahead. Then MSNBC can put together a special where they show how the lie actually was good for the country because it brought attention to something that could happen, probably very soon, because Trump and MAGA hats.
Detectives have identified local stores where clothes line is sold and are reviewing surveillance video from those stores? That sounds like a tall order (appropriate for this tall tale).
I’ve been carrying this rope in this bleach around for you jussie Smollett just waiting to run into you.
Then again Ramhbo is the mayor so who knows...
Looks like a planned hoax to me.
One word:
RAHM..................................
The Chicago PD is stretching this out while they put the finishing touches on a sham story to get them and this clown off the hook!
The FIB is ‘investigating’ that part..........So far they have been traced to a Post Office in SW Chicago, a notorious Redneck stronghold.................
As their spokesman said last week:
“They are getting all their ducks in a row.”
THEY KNOW...........................
They’re not gonna do anything to him. It’s a RAT town and ol Rahm doesn’t want to get Blacks all riled up by arresting the liar!
Why do they have to ‘narrow down’ the type of rope used? Didn’t anyone save the original rope?
Are they also looking at store video from PHL and other places Jussie may have visited?
They are probably using all the tools of science, desperately hoping to find some white people to charge.
...but but but...he’s a star...and gay star...and black gay star...and a liar
At this point, police have not found anything that conclusively proves Smollett was indeed attacked.
The police are in a bind. They strongly suspect this is a hate crime hoax but to say so will result in blacks and gays attacking them for not believing Jussie, not taking his claims seriously, and not performing a legitimate investigation.
So their goal is to stretch out the investigation hoping the longer it goes on the more likely Jussie will either trip himself up or confess. Hence these ridiculous news drops. 'The rope is similar to clothesline'.
I doubt he'll confess even if the police produce video tracking every step back from Subways showing no one attacking him or even approaching him.
At 2AM
In Downtown Chicago
on the coldest night of the year.
About 10 years ago another fake hate crime (with 3 alleged perps) was busted when the ‘victim’ was caught on video buying the zip ties she was ‘restrained’ with.
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