> There was no chance of that happening

Mens rea is the guilty mind required for something to be a crime. Intent matters as much as outcome or chance of outcome in the judgement of whether a crime has occurred, and explains the use of "sought" in the comment you replied to.

Well, it hadn’t even entered my mind that increasing racial tensions could be a crime, so that didn’t make it through my legal framework. Why did it occur to you?

His actions and motivations in committing a crime, alleged or proven, are relevant, that's why it entered my mind - he is under investigation for a crime, is he not? Igniting racial tensions doesn't need to be the crime, just as stealing money to pay off debts doesn't make paying off debts a crime, but it's still relevant in showing mens rea and the kind of mens rea e.g. knowing, negligent, reckless etc and in assessment of the effects of his actions.

I guess I’d call it an appeal to racial sympathy more than anything else. If Chicago wants to charge him with filing a false report, they can go right ahead, but I’m pretty sure they don’t need his personal records to establish that.

Smollett may have been a laughingstock amongst people who were actually able to think for a moment about how plausible his claims were, or (if we're being more cynical) amongst people outside the left wing who were inclined not to believe his claims from the start. Most world media and all his fellow celebrities not only went along with his claims, they went after anyone who questioned them right up until the point it became clear that the police had indisputable evidence.

That’s true, and the public anger at Smollett that I see as unreasonable might have to do with that suppression of questioning. But I think the anger has more to do with a) white people who feel defensive about being called racist and b) law-and-order types who are offended by the attempt to deceive the police. They are taking this opportunity to push back against a falsehood, even though it’s a stupid falsehood.

The story was just uncomfortable for me, so I felt relief when contradictory testimony was found. I live near Chicago in an area both white and black, and mainly left-wing. I didn’t dare bring the story up with my black neighbors, and never heard about it from them either, despite its high profile. It was a very self-conscious couple of weeks. In contrast, when Obama was running for office people couldn’t help talking about that, and the sense of pride was real.

There was really no benefit to expressing doubt either; actual tragedies and abuses (Laquan McDonald murdered by the CPD, for instance) are still fresh in everyone’s mind. If current events weren’t as horrific people might be more comfortable expressing doubt and maybe even laughter over a guy with basically a homemade lanyard around his neck.