Smollett Redux: Ohio Man Arrested for Faking Anti-Palestinian Hate Crime
Well, folks, it looks like we have another Jussie Smollett on our hands. You probably recall when the Empire actor claimed he’d been beaten up in the middle of the night on the frigid streets of Chicago by two assailants wearing MAGA caps.
To many, the story sounded ludicrous, and that’s because it was—and it turned out he made the whole thing up. The story quickly fell apart, and while Jussie was looking for more fame so he’d get a better contract from the studio, he instead nuked his career.
Now an Ohio man has been arrested for making up his own hate crime:
Hesham A. Ayyad, 20, allegedly told the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) in Cleveland that a driver ran him over with his car after shouting anti-Palestinian slurs.
The organization subsequently released [a tweet] on October 23 in which it demanded an investigation into the incident along with a photo of him lying in hospital with a neck brace.
A terrible story, and according to the police, one that is complete nonsense. The injuries actually come from a fight he had with his brother, and now he's facing charges:
...Ayyad was arrested by North Ridgeville police on Tuesday who said his injuries resulted from a fight with his brother, according to Cleveland.com.
He was reportedly charged with making false alarms, falsification, obstructing official business, domestic violence and assault.
The attack was enough to upset the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), though, and as of this writing, this tweet is still up (I screen-captured it in case it gets taken down):
An individual in a dark SUV reportedly hit a man in Ohio before shouting "long live Israel" and anti-Palestinian slurs at him. We urge law enforcement authorities to fully investigate this disturbing attack and charge the perpetrator with a hate crime.
Cops figured out that it was all a hoax by checking security video:
Investigators looking in to the incident retrieved surveillance footage from the area and concluded he had lied about being hit by the car and being racially abused.
'Injuries sustained at the time of the incident were caused by a violent fight that the alleged victim had participated in with his brother, which was confirmed by area video surveillance,' police said.
Ayyad was arrested along with his 19-year-old brother Khalil A. Ayyad, who was charged with domestic violence and assault. The pair are currently in jail.
Staging crimes is obviously a bad thing, but it's made even worse when one fakes a hate crime. A key reason so many people were disgusted by Smollett is because his big lie undermines victims of actual race-based assaults. Made-up stories like this can lead people and cops to become suspicious of those who claim they were attacked, even if their story is true.
Meanwhile, with tensions already high due to the Israel-Hamas war, assailants attacking others because of their identity is a real problem—just look at the rise in antisemitism around the world since the conflict started. Lies like this just fan the flames.
Additionally, some readers will never see the update; instead, they'll see the breaking news about the "attack," but then the media will give much less attention to the fact that it was faked. Meanwhile, some people won't even care about the evidence—if you can believe it, there are still people who believe Jussie Smollett to this day and support him.
These two, however, are finding out the hard way that lying has consequences.
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