Chicago police had to deal with a wave of serious crime while they were investigating what they have now concluded was a fake attack on himself staged by actor Jussie Smollett.
At least 20 murders and 134 sexual assaults were reported in Chicago during the 23-day period, according to the Chicago Police Department’s weekly CompStat crime statistics.
“Bogus police reports cause real harm,” said a visibly angry Chicago police chief Eddie Johnson, announcing Smollett being charged with filing a false police report, a Class 4 felony with a possible prison sentence of one to three years.
“They do harm to every legitimate victim who is in need of support by police and investigators as well as the citizens of this city.”
Celebrities, politicians, including several Democratic presidential candidates, and the media placed an intense spotlight on the dramatic, alleged hate crime against Smollett involving bleach, a noose, homophobic and racist language, and shouts of pro-Trump slogans. Police now believe it was all a hoax.
During the first week of the Smollett investigation, from Jan. 29 to Feb. 3, there were reports of seven murders, 51 criminal sexual assaults, 115 robberies, 66 aggravated batteries, 135 burglaries, 178 thefts, and 200 motor vehicle thefts.
The second week of the Smollett investigation, from Feb. 4 to Feb. 10, brought reports of eight murders, 37 criminal sexual assaults, 101 robberies, 112 aggravated batteries, 188 burglaries, 278 thefts, and 171 motor vehicle thefts.
In the third week, from Feb. 11 to Feb. 17, there were reports of five murders, 46 criminal sexual assaults, 126 robberies, 110 aggravated batteries, 182 burglaries, 278 thefts, and 193 motor vehicle thefts. Statistics for this week aren’t yet available.
On Feb. 19, while the spotlight was still on Smollett, local Chicago community and faith leaders announced that more than two years after the murder of Demetrius Griffin Jr. they had increased the reward for information that could lead to his murderer from $10,000 to $15,000. Griffin, 15, was burned alive in garbage can in an alley in the South Austin neighborhood in September 2016.
There were 561 murders in Chicago in 2018 and 650 in 2017, following a 19-year high of 762 in 2016.
Johnson said, “I hope the truth about what happened receives the same amount of attention as the hoax did … I just wish that the families of gun violence in this city got this much attention because that’s who really deserves the amount of attention that we are giving to this particular incident.”
He added, “I’m also concerned about what this means moving forward for hate crimes. Now, of course, the Chicago police department will continue to investigate all reports of these types of incidents with the same amount of vigor that we did with this one. My concern is that hate crimes will now publicly be met with a level of skepticism that previously didn’t happen.”
[Read more: Chicago cops fume over Jussie Smollett dragging city ‘through the mud’]
