Outgoing Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel and Chicago Police Department (CPD) Superintendent Eddie Johnson didn’t mince words on Tuesday during a joint press conference concerning the Cook County State’s Attorney’s office dropping all charges against alleged hate crime hoaxer Jussie Smollett.
The charges against Smollett were dropped without the knowledge of Johnson and the CPD, and both he and Emanuel took Smollett, his attorneys and the State’s Attorney’s office to task for their alleged circumvention of justice.
“Do I think justice was served?” Johnson rhetorically asked. “No. What do I think justice is? I think this city [Chicago] is still owed an apology.”
Johnson continued with a very profound observation about the Smollett’s supposed exoneration:
I’ve been a cop now for about 31 years. When I came on this job, I came on with my honor, my integrity and my reputation. If someone accused me of anything that would circumvent that, then I would want my day in court, period, to clear my name. I’ve heard they [Smollett’s 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.
For his part, Emanuel was less than complimentary towards Smollett and the dropping of all charges against him.
“People of all walks of life and backgrounds — race, ethnicity, sexual orientation — now this casts a shadow of whether they’re telling the truth,” Emanuel told reporters, “and he [Smollett] did this all in the name of self-promotion.”
Emanuel, along with Johnson, displayed their disgust towards the supposedly unfathomable miscarriage of justice that seemingly only benefits Smollett:
The city saw its reputation dragged through the mud, but I remind everybody it was not just the officers work. That work, a piece of that work, was shown to a grand jury and they made a decision based on only a sliver of the evidence. And, as I remember correctly, somebody wanted to have that evidence — and as the superintendent said — their day in court so all the evidence could be made public. Because of the judge’s decision, none of that evidence will ever be made public.
It’s very early in the fallout following the announcement of the charges being dropped against Smollett, so we’ll all have to wait for, hopefully, somebody to possibly make this situation right.