Friday, March 28, 2008

The Scales of Justice.

Y'all heard about Mr. Harris? Well, it seems T.I. has gotten a very light slap on the wrist. Within a matter of weeks he went from looking at twenty-five/thirty years for those pesky gun charges, to getting a year of house arrest, three years of pissing in a cup, fifteen hundred hours of com service to "at-risk" youth, $100,000 fine and possibly one full year in prison and all that is based on his behaviour and ish- of course...


What woulda happened if he didn't change his plea? He waived his Miranda rights in the first place all those months ago, that fateful day of the BET Awards, when "'em people" got him in that Publix parking lot in Midtown. He knew then that he was fucked basically and started talking without a lawyer. I think that he definitely wanted to put himself in a better position than he would've been in had he just been like, "Man, I know y'all got the tapes and shit, but that ain't my voice. I don't even know what a machine gun look like in real life."



He was going 'not guilty' at first though and people were worried and what not, like, "Damn, that's it for that nigga." But now that he got off type easy to be a convicted felon (almost everyone I spoke with expected- years) people were calling the radio mad as hell. In a sense, I feel them. It's not fair that your cousin was a convicted felon, got caught with guns and got years. But how does anyone in good conscience curse a defendant (who didn't in actuality hurt anyone-not at the time anyway) for not getting enough time. Are you serious? And then scream favoritism, like T.I. is a 21 year old blue eyed frat boy whose parents paid for his college ed at Notre Dame. Since when did popular rappers who came from nothing, came from the hood with a criminal record to boot, since when were these cats favored in the courtroom? Usually they try and throw 'em under the jail. That shit is laughable.



Jarvis told me the realest ish though, what makes the most sense: Money. I mean, T.I. isn't in the top ten percent but he's caked up a bit. More than your ex-con cuz. But then we need to admit that the justice system obviously isn't fair and that's unfortunate. Jail is a business, everyone knows that (every Black person that lives in a city should know that), so should it surprise us that the institution (the courts) used to put people in jail/prison is about that paper as well? Different consequences for different people. It's like, the hardest lesson to learn: Just because she did it and didn't get caught doesn't mean you can do that crazy shit. What 's happens to her may not happen to you. Vice versa. Part Two tomorrow kids.

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