The Chicago police has just revealed why Jussie Smollett staged his alleged homophobic attack.
According to Police Superintendent Eddie Johnson, US actor Jussie Smollett staged a fake attack on himself because he was “dissatisfied with his salary”, taking advantage of the pain and anger of racism to promote his career.
As we earlier reported, Jussie Smollett is charged with filing a false police report after he said he was the victim of a homophobic attack.
Police say he also had sent a racist letter to himself at a Fox studio.
In a scathing news conference on Thursday, Police Superintendent Eddie Johnson accused the actor of committing a crime “to further his own profile”.
He said Jussie Smollett had betrayed the city of Chicago, and said
“this publicity stunt was a scar that Chicago didn’t earn and certainly didn’t deserve”.
The “hoax”, he said, “received national attention for weeks,” and may deter future hate crime victims from coming forward for fear that their allegations may be met with scepticism.
Superintendent Eddie Johnson called upon the actor “to apologise to this city that he smeared”.
Below is a mugshot of Empire actor Jussie Smollett who got arrested today after he turned himself in.
However, his lawyer believes he has the right to be seen as innocent until proven guilty.
“Like any other citizen, Mr. Smollett enjoys the presumption of innocence, particularly when there has been an investigation like this one where information, both true and false, has been repeatedly leaked.”
He went on to state that they intend on mounting an aggressive defence for Jussie Smollett.
“Given these circumstances, we intend to conduct a thorough investigation and to mount an aggressive defense.”
