Hate Crime Hoaxes on the Rise in America

Triggered liberals are fabricating violence to “prove” their claims about oppression, anti-Semitism and racism. The latest: Television actor Jussie Smollett has been charged with multiple felonies for fabricating a bizarre racially motivated attack on him, then sticking with his story even as it publicly unraveled around him.

By John Friend

In late January, news broke alleging that Jussie Smollett, a black, gay, and at least partially Jewish actor who starred in the popular television program “Empire” was violently assaulted on the streets of Chicago at 2 a.m. by two white men purportedly wearing ski masks.

Smollett alleged that his attackers, apparently motivated by racial hatred and instigated by President Donald Trump, yelled racial and homophobic slurs at the actor before shouting, “This is MAGA country,” referring to the president’s signature campaign slogan, “Make America Great Again.” During the purported hate crime, the mysterious attackers also poured bleach on Smollett’s head and tied a rope around his neck in an attempt to lynch the actor, Smollett insisted in interviews with Chicago police and with the mass media.

Many questioned the dubious narrative put forth by Smollett, which was then blindly repeated and amplified by the mainstream mass media in the immediate aftermath. Smollett would later appear as a guest on the popular “Good Morning America” news program, where he was interviewed about the alleged attack. During the interview, Smollett expressed outrage at those questioning his narrative of the purported hate crime.

“It feels like if I had said it was a Muslim or a Mexican or someone black I feel like the doubters would have supported me a lot more,” Smollett stated to host Robin Roberts during the interview. “And that says a lot about the place where we are as a country right now.”

Turns out, the doubters were right: Smollett faked the entire incident and was caught red-handed by Chicago police. Two Nigerian brothers were initially arrested as having been involved in the attack but were eventually released by police after an extensive interrogation during which they revealed Smollett had paid them to stage the attack. One of the brothers had a role in ”Empire,” and both knew Smollett personally.

According to CBS Chicago, the brothers told police that Smollett paid them $3,500 to participate in the entirely staged fake “hate crime,” and even directed them to purchase the rope used in the fake attack.

Despite Smollett’s narrative collapsing, the actor and his attorneys have doubled down and have expressed anger at the Chicago police’s findings that the alleged “hate crime” was in reality a staged, manufactured attack carried out at the behest of Smollett.

“As a victim of a hate crime who has cooperated with the police investigation, Jussie Smollett is angered and devastated by recent reports that the perpetrators are individuals he is familiar with,” a statement released to CNN by Smollett’s lawyers recently declared. “He has now been further victimized by claims attributed to these alleged perpetrators that Jussie played a role in his own attack. Nothing is further from the truth and anyone claiming otherwise is lying.”

Although the case is still under investigation, it is becoming increasingly clear that Smollett was involved in yet another hate crime hoax, which have proliferated in recent years, particularly under President Donald Trump. While fake “hate crimes” have been popping up with the direct assistance of the mainstream mass media and various left leaning organizations who hype and amplify the alleged crimes, real crimes committed against Trump supporters and conservatives often go unreported and, even worse, unpunished.

Throughout the 2016 election season, Trump supporters were regularly violently and verbally assaulted at various rallies and events across the country. Left-wing terrorists, who are in many cases affiliated with radical-far-left antifa groups, have caused mayhem and chaos at a number of events, including Trump’s inauguration in the nation’s capital, where private property was vandalized and destroyed. Richard Spencer, the political commentator and figurehead of the alt-right movement, was sucker-punched on live television during the inauguration by a masked antifa supporter. Unsurprisingly, the attacker has yet to be brought to justice.

In a positive development, University of California, Berkeley police recently arrested a 28-year-old man suspected of violently assaulting a conservative activist involved with Turning Points USA, who had set up a table with promotional material for the group on the campus. Hayden Williams, the young activist who was on campus to reach out to other conservatives, was assaulted after being confronted by two men who did not approve of his signs and recruitment table. The two men knocked over Williams’s table and tore up his signs before one of the men punched Williams in the face. The incident was caught on film and has since gone viral on social media.

Conservatives praised the arrest of Williams’s suspected attacker.

“Hopefully, this dark chapter will act as a wake-up call to those concerned about actual politically motivated hate crimes in America,” Charlie Kirk, the founder and president of Turning Points USA, the conservative activist group that seeks to spread conservative ideals, stated following the arrest. “Berkeley and all college campuses across American should be safe havens for free thought and opinions—especially for a targeted conservative minority.”

HISTORY OF HATE HOAXES

In the wake of the “hate crime” hoax perpetrated by Smollett, it is important to recall other “hate crime” hoaxes that have been exposed since Trump assumed the office of the presidency.

“The Daily Caller,” a hard-hitting, politically incorrect conservative news outlet based in Washington, D.C. that was originally co-founded by Tucker Carlson, provided an excellent timeline of recent hate crime hoaxes, proving just how prevalent these manufactured outrages truly are.

The allegations and circumstances of alleged hate crimes are all too common: a minority verbally attacked by racist, insensitive, white Trump supporters, or racist and anti-Semitic graffiti sprayed on a minority’s home or on a synagogue. All too often, allegations of hate crimes are either exaggerated, committed by the individual making the allegations in the first place, or entirely manufactured.

What follows is a partial timeline of some of the more outlandish hate crime hoaxes we have witnessed over the course of the past three years:

• In November 2016, shortly after Trump’s victory in the presidential election, churchgoers at St. David’s Episcopal Church in Bean Blossom, Ind. reported their place of worship had been vandalized with messages reading “fag church” and “heil Trump.” A swastika was also allegedly spray-painted on the building along with the other messages. It was later revealed that George Nathaniel Stang, 26, the organist at the church, had actually committed the acts of vandalism in an effort to “give local people a reason to fight for good,” according to a local NBC report.
• A Muslim student at the University of Michigan made national headlines in the wake of Trump’s election victory by falsely claiming that an intoxicated young male student had threatened to light her on fire if she refused to remove her hijab. Upon further investigation, it turned out the female Muslim student had made the entire story up.

• A black woman in Delaware fabricated a narrative that she had been verbally assaulted and berated by four white Trump-supporting males shortly after the 2016 election at a gas station. The woman made a lengthy Facebook post describing the alleged encounter, only to later delete it. Police in Delaware where the alleged incident took place told local media outlets shortly after the woman’s allegations gained media attention that “no such reports have been filed” and that “they haven’t heard from the alleged victim or anyone with information about a confrontation that occurred,” it was reported.
• In December 2016, reports emerged that a white couple’s home in Texas was vandalized with racial slurs and their vehicles were set on fire in an apparent hate crime. The husband later admitted to his wife that he himself vandalized their home and set their vehicles on fire in an attempt to stage a hate crime. The couple had set up a crowdfunding page on the popular “GoFundMe” website to solicit donations in the wake of the alleged hate crime. “My heart is heavy, and I have more questions than answers,” the man’s wife said following the revelation her own husband committed the crimes. “My children and I are in a state of shock and sadness.”
• A young Jewish man with dual U.S.-Israeli citizenship was caught making over a thousand fake bomb and shooting threats against a number of institutions and groups, including a number of Jewish community centers, in early 2017, an incident this newspaper has covered extensively.
• A Michigan transgender and LGBTQ activist was recently arrested for burning down his own home, after police initially investigated the arson as a suspected hate crime. It has since been revealed the activist burned his own home down in an effort to generate more support and sympathy for his political activism.

John Friend is a freelance author based in California.