1689

God that thumbnail. Geezus.

1690

Maybe. But mail fraud involves intent to deprive someone of value, e.g. money or property or honest services, so it’s hard to see how it rises to the level of that kind of fraud.

1691

I suppose in theory if they could prove he perpetuated the fraud to get more money in contract negotiations that would qualify but it’s an insane stretch. And, beyond the legalities, it shows completely ass-hatted priorities by the feds.

1692

According to CBS Chicago, local police have raided the wrong house at least a dozen times in the last 18 months.

Maybe the judges who are approving these warrants need to start exercising a bit more restraint. Like ask, “Are you sure these guys are actually there?”

Also, the description of how the cops handled themselves is crazy. These guys have watched too many movies. You’re supposed to be professionals. Conduct yourselves as such. You shouldn’t be screaming obscenities in the performance of your job.

1693

Or maybe the whole point is about terrorizing a community into compliance?

1694

Would you call this event a travesty though? Does it reach Smollett levels of injustice?

We all know the President and GOP are up in arms because the guy’s black and he’s getting away with shit. If it was a Republican like James Wood then they’d be rallying around the guy.

1695

Okay, so I made a poor choice of words. Have Jussie Smollett pick me out of a line up for it. :)

1696

Oh oops, I’m attributing that to poor Timex by accident. Sorry Timex!

And double shame towards Scuzz! Smollett shouldn’t get away with what he did but there are definite travesties happening that idiots like Trump and Fox News should actually be enraged about, not this b-list celebrity drama.

1697

Well, you are talking Fox News. The right seems to pick someone and then attribute some evil towards him or her. Look at what they are doing with AOC, what they did with Hillary. It is kind of an anti-cult of personality.

1698

Yeah?

Like, am I supposed to say, “No, this isn’t so bad”? Is that the expected response?
Cause… yeah. I think breaking down a random person’s door and holding them at gunpoint while you scream obscenities, and they’ve done nothing, is in fact a travesty of justice.

1699

Well don’t forget about the children, messing up their clothes, destroying their birthday cake, terrifying them just because.

And this, this sort of thing isn’t even that unusual. I doubt those cops even see those children as children.

1700

This involvement by Trump is institutional racism at a level not seen since Apartheid South Africa. It’s bad enough that some institutions were racist like the Police but an actual racist executive abusing entire government functions? Blimey. If it was anyone other than the US we’d be engaging sanctions and boycotts.

1701

Have Diamond and Silk weighed in on it yet?

1702



1703

“Fuck this black guy especially!” - Every GOP politician in 2019

1704

Everything about this case is nuts now. They are saying they want to have him pay $150k or something? But that’s not how it works. They didn’t work out some plea deal. They just dropped charges.

You can’t drop the charges and then try to hold someone responsible. That’s the point of actually having charges.

I’m pretty sure that this dude is a piece of trash, but the DA and everyone involved with this case is insanely incompetent.

1705

They are threatening to charge him with making false statements to the city now. Presumably that wasn’t a prior charge against him. And they specifically state they are trying to recover overtime hours spent on his case. I guess they have some statute that allows them to do that.

It seems like a really clever move actually. If he pays up, he basically admits his guilt. And if it ends up in court, the whole thing will be about whether he is guilty or not.

1706

So it’s a kind of municipal extortion?

As to the charges, I don’t think the original charges were dismissed with prejudice. Weren’t they simply dropped by the prosecutors? Which I think means they could simply refile some or all of them? Not that they would want to if in fact they can’t prove them.

1707

“James Woods would have certainly been attacked by immigrants anyway! In the Southwest you can’t walk around for 10 minutes without getting accosted by immigrants. He’s a hero for showing us Obama’s immigration policy is an injustice against every real American in this country! Obama’s quote-unquote policy of letting every criminal from Mexico into this country is a travesty. James Woods deserves a medal!”

1708

Man, i remember when James woods was just a good actor, and not some crazy dude.