Black Lives Matter stands in solidarity with Jussie Smollett: ‘We can never believe police’

A Black Lives Matter leader said Tuesday that the movement will continue to support Jussie Smollett regardless of the outcome of his trial, which she described as a "white supremacist charade."

Melina Abdullah, a former California State University professor and police abolitionist who co-founded BLM Los Angeles, said Smollett — who is accused of faking a racist, homophobic hate crime against himself — "has been courageously present, visible, and vocal in the struggle for Black freedom."

"As abolitionists, we approach situations of injustice with love and align ourselves with our community. Because we got us," Abdullah said in a statement on the website for the BLM movement’s national arm, the Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation.

"So let’s be clear: we love everybody in our community. It’s not about a trial or a verdict decided in a white supremacist charade, it’s about how we treat our community when corrupt systems are working to devalue their lives," said Abdullah, who is currently director of BLM Grassroots, a "Defund the Police" group.

"In an abolitionist society, this trial would not be taking place, and our communities would not have to fight and suffer to prove our worth," she continued. "Instead, we find ourselves once again being forced to put our lives and our value in the hands of judges and juries operating in a system that is designed to oppress us, whi... (Read more)

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