Carbondale Reporter

State Rep. Paul Jacobs (R-Carbondale) wants people who report false crimes to pay compensation to prevent a repeat of the staged hate crimes case involving former “Empire” star Jussie Smollett.

“I would support a measure requiring people who stage fake crimes to be forced to reimburse the police authorities for the cost incurred to investigate the fake crime,” Jacobs told the Carbondale Reporter. “This would be a big deterrent to crime hoaxes.”

Jacobs' push for change comes in the wake of Smollett recently being found guilty on five counts of felony disorderly conduct after claiming he was the victim of a racist and homophobic attack.

The jury returned its verdict on the nearly three-year-old case after deliberating for nine hours over two days.

“A lot of time and resources were spent on the investigation of this incident – time and resources that could have been spent on solving crimes that actually happened,” Jacobs said. 

"We can’t allow fake crimes to go unpunished. Jussie Smollett needs to face some tough consequences for what he did."

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.

Jacobs faults Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot, Vice President Kamala Harris and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi for coming out in support of Smollett’s claims before all the facts of the case had been brought to light.

“People have a right of free speech,” he said. “There really is not much that can be done to force accountability for their reckless comments. The only way to hold them accountable is to keep them as far away from political power as we possibly can.”

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.

Jacobs has a direct course of action in mind for turning things around.

“One of the first things we need to do is to vote out the career politicians who have created this mess in the first place,” he said.

Jacobs also calls for repealing recently passed police reform legislation he feels makes it more difficult for officers to operate, and directing state resources to the City of Chicago to hire more police officers contingent on the city repealing bad policies such as the ban on foot pursuits and anti-policing measures.

“Whatever we do, we need to take the rise in crime more seriously than our current so-called leaders,” he said.