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The possibility that Smollett comes to take the United States, and especially Blacks and / or homosexuals, in an imaginary context inspired by multiple events, hate crimes and murders committed during the time of Trump could discourage victims of hate crimes for fear of winning. Do not believe, say the experts. This could influence how officials react to information and fuel the long-standing white nationalist claims that all hate-motivated crimes are hoaxes designed to strike the white America. And that could intensify some of the ugliest aspects of the American obsession with scandal, celebrity and intrigue, just when one thinks deeper than a puddle.
"Listen, people make up stories," said Katheryn Russell-Brown, director of the Race and Race Relations Center at Florida Law School. She has also written a book on scandals and crimes involving racial hoaxes.
"They sometimes do all kinds of crimes," Russell-Brown continued, "but no one ever says that because some fires turn out to be arson, no one should answer it, write it, look closely at it. Just because some stories are not true, they should not hide every fact, every solid search, every tragic and real experience of hate crime. "
Long before Smollett told viewers of "Good Morning America" that he was targeted by what he believed to be racist and homophobic Trump supporters armed with rope and bleach, hate crimes have marked major moments in the history of the country. The bomb attack on 16th Street Church, attempted attacks on Ruby Bridges as he attempted to enter an integrated public school and the brutal murders of Emmett Till, James Byrd Jr. and Matthew Shepard are at the forefront of the country's knowledge outside the United States.
But the idea that hate crime hurts individuals and society, deserving a harsher punishment, is relatively new. He first settled in California in 1984. Today, the federal government, 45 states and the District of Columbia apply laws punishing criminal activity motivated in whole or in part by race, religion or the sex of the victim, with longer prison sentences than other offenses. Indiana, Arkansas, Georgia, South Carolina, and Wyoming do not. Even among states with hate crime laws, only 30 states and the federal government have specific prohibitions for crimes motivated by sexual orientation or gender identity.
After the Chicago police revealed the allegations against Smollett, the New York anti-violence project, which aims to provide free advice and eliminate violence and crime against LGBTQ and HIV-positive people, issued a statement. He described the possibility that Smollett fabricated a hate crime as a kind of collective betrayal in a country particularly dangerous for LGBTQ people, especially people of color.
"Too many survivors did not believe in it and did not get justice for the violence they suffered," the group said. That's why we're quick to tell and believe survivors when they tell their story. For many LGBTQ people across the country, hatred based on their sexual orientation, gender identity, race, and a combination of all these identities is a daily experience. More and more, these experiences of hateful violence end up being fatal. These truths should not be overshadowed in these unique circumstances. "
"Why would anyone – particularly an African-American – use the symbolism of a noose to make false accusations?" Said Johnson at a press conference after the ######################################################################################### 39, arrest of Smollett. "Dummy police reports are causing real harm," added Johnson. "They harm all legitimate victims who need the help of police and investigators, as well as citizens of this city."
In circles worried about the sustained rise in hate crime over the past three years, the Smollett affair has been deemed imminent at the moment when politics would win – but not inevitably, Levin said.
In the state of Indiana, KKK had become a bastion. In 2015, the republican governor of the republic pledged to implement a law that criticized discrimination against LGBTQ people. Many companies and civil rights groups applauded. But the same day that Smollett was in court in neighboring Illinois, the Republican-controlled Senate of Indiana passed a hate-motivated crime bill that removed a specific ban on LGBTQ-motivated crimes. racial and religious hatred, and instead targeted general crime.
TRUTH BECOMES A LIE
The policy of resistance to criminal hate is far from new. Since at least the 1980s, white supremacists have rallied to the idea that all hate crimes, or at least most of them, are elaborate hoaxes, congratulations for the guilt of white Americans and a decrease in their influence. In this crowd, hate crime data generated by the FBI are part of the hoax – unreliable, inaccurate and politically motivated by organizations monitoring hate groups.
White nationalists have worked hard to bring these concepts from insider conversations and websites such as VDare and the American Renaissance, said Heidi Beirich, director of the Southern Poverty Law Center's Intelligence Project, who tracks and monitors hate groups and crimes.
And, in some ways, it worked, she said. The notion of widespread hoaxes linked to hate crimes has, for years, been a "near obsession" with right-wing and far-right websites such as Breitbart, Gateway Pundit, The Daily Caller, and Big League Politics. who just unveiled the governor's story film with blackface, Beirich said.
This week, the authors claim that most or all hate crimes are fakes, that researchers and researchers are traffickers and opportunists who intentionally exaggerate its frequency and have become even more popular, airing on Fox News and published in Reason, a libertarian publication. Ann Coulter too approved the same point of view.
"Obviously, I hate the fact that Jussie Smollett has been lying," Beirich said on the basis of the Chicago police's story. "This will give people ammunition to pretend that all hate crimes are fake, that all hate crimes are lies. So, of course, we are angry at Smollett for doing this, for opening this door even further. "
THE CROSS MUST COME
Levin, a California researcher on hate crimes, is one of the few people in the country to have investigated alleged hate crimes that turn out to be hoaxes. It's something the FBI does not follow.
This is a problem that Levin describes as very small.
In 2016 and 2017, 40 reports (0.3%) of 13,296 hate crimes recorded by the FBI were false, according to reports subsequently revealed by Levin and his team.
"There is simply no factual basis for claiming that false reports of hate crimes are widespread," Levin said.
Russell-Brown, author of "The Color of Crime: Racial Hoaxes, White Fear, Black Protectionism, Police Harassment, and Other Macro-Aggression," searched for common denominators in these rare racial hoaxes.
Her research has shown that about two-thirds of the more than 100 racial hoaxes she's studied in the past three decades involve white Americans who claim to be Blacks victims. The rest has a shape closer to the story of Smollett, people of color claiming to be victims of whites. Hoaxes fall into two general categories: those who use racial hoaxes to cover a crime or escape responsibility and those who invent racial hoaxes to attract attention, money or influence. Levin also found progressive island communities where sympathy and concern over hate crimes tend to be exacerbated, such as college campuses, which produce a disproportionate amount of false hate crime reports.
Of the cases studied by Russell-Brown, none of the black crooks ever admitted to having lied. Some of the scammers analyzed by Russell-Brown have been fined or charged for wasting resources. No one was imprisoned for hoax or deception, only the crimes they were trying to conceal. (If he's convicted, Smollett risks up to three years in jail.)
"I do not want to say in any way that he does not deserve to be punished because I think he deserves it," Russell-Brown said. "The actions of Smollett are particularly harmful because of the number of attacks against blacks and gays. … But I say it will be curious whether Smollett will be the only person serving a prison sentence. "
EXTENDED DAMAGES
In the days following the first account of the presumed crime alleged to have been made public by Smollett, a number of public figures, including at least three presidential candidates and people working for some of the country's leading civil rights organizations, condemned the attack, calling for compassion and a serious investigation. . These comments have since encountered a wall of sorrow, anger and punishment.
President Donald Trump, who frequently speaks for false claims that immigrants and black Americans are a criminal threat, criticized Smollett for his "racism." Trump also called Smollettfor claiming that his attackers had shouted, "This is a MAGA country," referring to the slogan of the Trump Make America Great Again campaign.
But some of the powerful supporters of Smollett's early supporters have been silent since then, which may undermine their credibility for future hate crimes, Russell-Brown said.
And if this silence continues in the future – if public officials become too cautious to express concern about reported hate crimes, or if journalists are reluctant to cover the victims – the carnage may be hidden from view. Public awareness, research and training of investigators are essential. Black Americans were likely to be killed by police long before the death of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, provoked protests, but it was only after this activism that the Law enforcement problems were followed and examined more closely. Sexual harassment was rampant in the workplace well before #MeToo, but it was only after the massive break in silence that men were held accountable in large numbers.
It's hard to say how the impact of the Smollett hoax will be sustainable, Russell-Brown said.
The first test will be the speed with which the news cycle advances. The other, she said, will materialize "in what will happen the next time someone says something bad happened to them."
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