SE Illinois News

State Sen. Darren Bailey (R-Louisville) thinks Jussie Smollett being found guilty of filing fake hate crime claims is a good start to putting the state’s criminal justice system back on track.

“If we’re going to start reducing crime, our judges are going to have to start making the punishment fit the crime,” Bailey told the SE Illinois News. “If he gets off without any time in jail, it would be a miscarriage of justice.”

A Chicago jury recently found the former “Empire” star guilty on five counts of lying to police about  a staged hate crime. The jury returned its verdict on the nearly three-year-old case after deliberating for nine hours over two days.

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

Bailey faulted Democratic leaders Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot, Vice President Kamala Harris and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi for speaking out on the case before all the facts were publicly known.

“It’s a really a bad look for them to have so boldly proclaimed things like they did without knowing all the facts,” he said. “It does nothing good for our criminal justice system. We need to let the system work for itself.”

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.

Now seeking the GOP nomination for governor, Bailey worries the worse may not be over without a serious change in direction coming from the top.

“Lightfoot doing nothing, except make it easier for people to commit crime by not standing up to it,” he said. “This is how you destroy a republic by not standing up to wrongdoing. The mayor seems to just be watching the city burn.”