Hate Crimes
Matt Seinberg

At work yesterday, we were discussing how Jussie Smollett (above, centre) thought he could get away with faking a hate crime. Didn't he have any idea that in a city, as large as Chicago, there would be surveillance cameras everywhere? As well as cameras operated by the city of Chicago, there are many more cameras in stores and private residences; how many people these days have video doorbells that are always on?

• Smollett rolls the dice.

Smollett thought producers of the television show, Empire, on which he co-stars, were ready to drop his character. Casting him a sympathetic figure, he thought, would garner enough public attention as well as sympathy, which would be enough to keep him on the show. How did that plan work out for you Jussie?

After the Chicago police found out the truth, they arrested Smollett. He faces prison time for filing a false police report and other charges. His sentence could extend to ten years.

Flash back about thirty-five years. I was working at a new chain retailer on Long Island and a new manager, Rich, came to work in our store. He was young and thought being a hard ass would get the job done. No one liked him or his attitude; we tried to avoid contact with him.

One night, Rich and a friend suffered severe beatings, as they left a club in New York City. Apparently, the attackers thought they appeared gay, calling them fags, homos and other similar slurs. The next day, the friend died, a result of the beating.

Rich was in the hospital for roughly two months before could return to work. That attack changed Rich is so many ways; he tried and succeeded to become a better person. I guess he realised how his poor attitude towards us was affecting our attitudes and work.

• Hate is expensive.

After a couple of months, Rich moved back to Massachusetts to recover, fully, and life with his parents. While the physical scars were healing, the mental ones weren't. Being around his family was sure to help.

An interesting statistic released in February 2019 by New York City. It seems that hate crimes against Jews more than doubled from the previous year. How is that possible?

I truly believe that our idiot president is goading his Make American Great Again (MAGA) herd into doing things that just a few years ago would be inconceivable. No group should tolerate racial or anti-Semitic slurs and attacks. Arrest, a trial and, if convicted, a long jail sentence is what those responsible deserve.

There are actually people out there that don’t believe or outright deny the Holocaust of World War II happened. How did over six million or more people vanish? It certainly wasn't a magic trick. Death camps, such as Auschwitz, still stand to confirm what happened. Those deniers must be deaf, dumb and stupid to historical facts.

Similar "wars" happened in Syria, Serbia, Armenia and Russia over ethnic differences. Have these people learned nothing from history? There are never winners or losers in these battles. There are only losers. The losers are mostly civilians caught in the middle of a war that costs them their lives.

• Get along or avoid.

I'm not saying you have to love or even like everyone. Loving everybody might be boring; you would need to overlook so much. Just get along with those you can and avoid those you can't.