BREAKING NEWS – Chicago, Illinois – The below is a statement from Dr. Melina Abdullah, Director of BLM Grassroots and Co-Founder of BLM Los Angeles, regarding the trial of Jussie Smollett:

As abolitionists, we approach situations of injustice with love and align ourselves with our community. Because we got us. 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.

In our commitment to abolition, we can never believe police, especially the Chicago Police Department (CPD) over Jussie Smollett, a Black man who is an impressive actor, that during the trial easily acted out what happened to him with a commercial free performance, even though a jury didn’t believe him.

Black Lives Matter will continue to work towards the abolition of police and every unjust system, while fattening up the bank accounts of the upper echelon in the organization, through the generosity from misguided donors.