but what he did was, quote, just plain wrong to denigrate something as serious as a hate crime. this is according to the chicago tribune. web said it was egregious for smollett to make sure his plan had words and symbols elm policemen met particular of this country's racist past including a noose and the use of the "n" word. defense pushed back and saying, andy, that there were holes in this case and that it was more systemic and it was real, essentially. >> bret, the case was so air tight that they had to bring something in do try to give something to the jury to hang their hat on. so there is this idea of systemic racism that we hear about so often. in other words, there is nothing concrete that i can point to, but it's everywhere, it's all around us, it envelopes us. i don't think the jury in this case is likely to accept that.