the rapper TI had court today for the federal weapons chargers aganist him today and recieved a year and a day in prison. http://www.ajc.com/metro/content/metro/atlanta/stories/2009/03/26/ti_gun_sentence.html
Celebrity Justice at it’s best, Bought and Paid for! If that had been you or I, we had been doing longer time then a year and a day.
Sounds like at least he was doing something to change his image. But I agree with your point entirely. At least he’s not the worst of the worst if you get what I’m saying.
IIRC a year and a day makes you a felon under federal law.
I agree with the fact that he is at least admitting his mistake, and is willing to do “time” for it. It’s just unfair, that celebrities break the same laws you and I have to follow. And then get little to no, or greatly rediced punishment for it, due to thier popularity!:mad:
We all know, that if any of us, had been caught with illegal weapons, we had been thrown away, locked up and forgotten about by our government. Not given breaks.
I admire him for at least accepting the year and a day sentence, and carrying it out, instead of trying to completely buy his way out. But I still feel Justice has NOT been properly served.
I agree.
He did like 1k hours of cummunity service over the last year waiting on his sentance to come down he may have helped to change the life of a few kids headed down the same road he was on
He must have had a damn good legal defense team
He’s certainly done some good community service work in the past year.
If I remember correctly, he never actually possessed any unregistered NFA weapons. He attempted to buy them from an undercover agent, and was going to claim entrapment. The sentence is part of a plea agreement that probably saved the government a lot of litigation costs, and prevented a potential OJ type jury nullification from occurring.
That he has, MTV made it into a show. He had good intention to set troubled youths on the right path. If anything this has done wonders for his PR.
He’s a a piece of shit. I was personally involved in a fight/near riot that he instigated outside a Las Vegas nightclub in November of 2006 after the Billboard Music Awards. His reason for the instigation: that we didn’t have a VIP table available for him and his entourage.
I’m not saying he’s an icon of responsibility, but TI is one of the few (no idea who else, he may be the only one) rappers I relatively “admire.”
I could be wrong, but he seems genuine in that he wants to use his fame to point kids in the right direction. His music seems to be a little different than the rest of the genre as well (at least what little I’ve heard, some relatively positive themes).
He certainly deserves no more respect (probably less) than the average decent human being, but I’m interested to see what he does from here.
T.I. sentenced to 1 year, 1 day on gun violations
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution (fondly referred to by locals as “The Atlanta Urinal-Constitution”)
Thursday, March 26, 2009
Atlanta rap artist T.I. will go to federal prison sometime after Mother’s Day and serve a year and a day for crimes that might get anybody else (like you or me) about five years in the slammer.
In October 2007, Atlanta rapper T.I. was arrested by federal undercover agents in a Midtown parking lot trying to buy machine guns, ammo and silencers.
At a sentencing hearing Friday in Atlanta, the 27-year-old singer (real name: Clifford Harris Jr. — latest CD: “Paper Trail”) (exactly HOW is the title of his latest CD relevant to the charges against him?), told U.S. District Court Judge Charles Pannell Jr. he was sorry, humbled by his arrest, and a changed man. Uh huh, yeah, sure.
“I am a man of integrity, I’m a man of morals, of standards, of principle,” he told Pannell. Gimme a break! T.I. IS A COMMON URBAN THUG!!! “I know it’s difficult to believe that — looking at my criminal history.” Gee … ya think?
In exchange for shaving almost three years off his prison sentence, the singer has performed more than 1,000 hours of community service over the last year, telling kids and fans around the country not to emulate his old lifestyle of drugs, guns, gangs and violence. 3 years x 365 days/year x 24 hours/day = 26,280 hours in prison he shaved off his sentence by doing 1,000 hours of community service.
Meanwhile he found time to star in his own MTV reality show, “T.I.’s Road To Redemption,” while becoming one of the hottest acts in show biz, with three hit songs and a Grammy Award. How many millions of dollars did this common thug make doing this – when he should have been in prison?
…
When T.I.’s high-powered defense team that included Don Samuel, Ed Garland, Steve Sadow, and Dwight Thomas, cut the plea deal last year with U.S. Attorney David Nahmias, it came under sharp criticism from some as another example of celebrity justice, bought and paid for. I wonder why people have no faith in the criminal justice system?
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[Andrew Young] described their relationship as like a child and grandparent, saying the two of them worked together in community outreach, visiting victims of violent crimes in New York, and a movie was made out of that collaboration. How touching.
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“Although I am not thrilled about my next year and a day,” he said, “I am pleased that I am beginning to put this all behind me.” You are a common criminal. You are not supposed to be thrilled.
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“If you had failed, I would have simply sent you to prison,” said Pannell. “I would have probably hung Mr. Nahmias out the window of the 23rd floor.”
He laughed. So did Nahmias, the courtroom, and everybody at the defense table. It’s all just a big fucking JOKE, isn’t it?
I am friggin’ DISGUSTED with this.
This whole thing is bullshit and almost seems as if he is being portrayed as a victim. This is exactly why we have assholes like that Mixon POS in Oakland on the losse killing cops. Mixon should have been behind bars and this T.I guy shouldn’t have been able to plea down the charges. But, it’s not just him. It’s the whole celebrity world that continues to get a slap on the wrist. Whether it be Paris Hilton, Snoop Dogg, T.I, Charles Barkley or Lindsay Lohan. It’s sick…
Regardless of Barkley’s criminal issues, he is a pretty good guy. I’ve dealt with all of the above, and they’re all assholes, the exception being Barkley. If it makes anyone feel better, in my encounter with TI he did get tossed across the hall (he’s only 5’3"), and one of our guys choked out his bodyguard. Young Jeezy, another rapper, took a significant ass beating in the melée as well.
Gun control laws at work! This piece of crap should sit in jail for the max allowable. If it was any of use we could have gotten the max. Hopefully he will get shanked in jail.
Wow So much hatred for TI, for fucking what?
As far as I’m concerned, no human being deserves to have time from their lives taken away from them over trying to purchase something that we in the gun community would love to try and get in a store near you, with out the added NFA rules crap..
We already know that going to prison over trying to buy MG’s and silencers without all the red tape is WRONG, REGARDLESS IF IT’S THE LAW.
This shit is ridiculous. When that militia leader from god knows where was posing with an illegal full auto sten and was caught, people were yelling about the constitution and the second amendment and all that shit. Now rapper TI is practically in the same situation and he’s getting called a “common criminal”, or that “he should be shanked”.
Fuck that double standard bullshit.
He was attempting to purchase the items in question illegally. Does that not matter to you?
“We” do? Really? Who is “we”? Evidently your attitude is, you should be able to do whatever you want to do, without regard to whether it is legal. That, sir, is not MY attitude.
With an attitude like yours, I hope to God that the only gun you own is a water gun.
By your attitude, anything that is heavily regulated and/or completely prohibited is justified, no matter how ridiculous the propostition is?
That is an attitude I do not share. That mindset is for the sheep, not for logical, sound minded people.
He was attempting to purchase the items in question illegally. Does that not matter to you?
Given the scope of what was being done, no it doesn’t not matter.
But my main point is, when there are two people doing something “wrong” (“wrong” is highly subjective in this case), why should one of those persons deserve more punishment than the other?
Did I say that? Did I say that? No, I did not say that.
There are some laws I do not like. There are some gun laws I do not like. But I obey them. Like the man says, you don’t have to like it, you just have to do it.
If you don’t like the law (be it gun law, traffic law, tort law, whatever), then work to change it. Flagrantly disobeying it accomplishes nothing. Flagrantly disobeying gun laws does nothing but play into the hands of the gun-grabbers. It also makes you part of the problem.
Once again, you are advocating ignoring any law you don’t like. I would agree with you that there are many stupid, illogical laws (especially gun laws) on the books. If you think that makes it OK to ignore them, then you are sadly mistaken. “Logical, sound minded people” won’t ignore them, they will work to change the laws that they don’t like.
If you want to call me a sheeple because I am not [knowingly] going to violate any laws (especially gun laws), then be my guest.
Let me rephrase your question: when there are two people doing something illegal, in similar circumstances, why should one of those persons deserve less punishment than the other?
To me, the answer is: he shouldn’t.