Prairie State Wire

Republican Congressional candidate James Marter still can’t believe how the Jussie Smollett legal episode ever happened.

“The whole thing should have never happened,” Marter told the Kendall County Times. “He got people riled up against one another for false purposes. I don’t know if community service is the right penalty here. I would like to see how the other side would be reacting if it was the other side having done something like this.”

A Chicago jury recently found the former “Empire” star guilty of five counts of felony disorderly conduct for lying to police about a fake hate crime attack reported to have taken place nearly three years ago.  

The jury deliberated for nine hours over two days before finding Smollett guilty of five of the six class 4 felony charges he faced. Smollett’s allegations attracted widespread attention and divided an already splintered city further along racial lines.

“It's amazing that we would ever have the need to talk about anything like a fake hate crime,” Marter said. “We all know there should be penalties in these types of situations, but frankly I think if we apply the laws as they are we probably already have some pretty good penalties in place. To me, the problem is less about tougher laws than it is us applying the ones we have.”

Throughout the trial, brothers Abimbol and Olabinjo Osundairo testified that Smollett recruited them to stage the attack near his downtown Chicago home as part of a plot to draw more public attention to himself.

Smollett, who is Black and gay, also told police his attackers placed a noose around his neck and yelled racist and homophobic slurs at him.

As details of the reported incident unfolded, Vice President Kamala Harris, Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot, Sen. Bernie Sanders, and Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi rallied to Smollett’s side on some level.

Marter said there needs to be accountability.

“What I would like to see is the mainstream media address this and help to hold them accountable for all the damage they've done,” he said.

The drama comes at a time when 2021 has entered the books as one of the most violent years in city history, raising questions if lawmakers like Lightfoot are doing enough to help keep communities as safe as they can be.

By early December, more than 1,000 homicides were documented by the Cook County Medical Examiner’s office. Of those homicides, 927 were committed during gun-related crimes.

And much of the violence hasn’t been restricted to the city’s inner-city neighborhoods. A 12-year-old girl was recently shot near North Michigan Avenue as large groups of teens gathered in the area.

At last count, 21 minors were arrested in the incident in which two Chicago police officers were injured and two replica firearms recovered.

Marter isn’t shy about putting much of the blame for all the violence at the feet of lawmakers like Lightfoot.

“They haven't ever been doing enough to stop or deter crime and that’s why so much of it is still on the rise in this state,” he said. “They’re sending a message to criminals that you can do this and we’re not going to prosecute you, at least not to the letter of the law. Public safety is being put at risk because these people are not upholding the law as they were elected to.”