For
a second, ignore the fact that this is a Hip-Hop website.... during
this period, close your eyes and imagine that you are a judge in the
court of law. Now imagine that you had a suspect who was caught
purchasing several illegal weapons. Incorporate the fact that he is not
allowed to purchase or own any fire arms because of past offenses. But
before you jump to any conclusions, also remember that he is a
convicted felon who has had serious run ins with the law on numerous
occasions. To most people, the decision would be simple. You would give
him a heavy sentence. If only life worked this way! Instead of you
giving this man the jail time that many would expect him to receive, he
cops a plea deal where he could do as little as two years. Does anyone
find this a little strange?
The
stated scenario above is rapper T.I.'s reality. After being arrested on
federal gun charges in October of 2007, Rapper T.I. has struck a plea
deal in which he will do 1,500 hours of community service by talking to
youth groups around the country, followed by about 12 months in prison.
But the amount of prison time he has to do, can be extended or reduced
depending on his fulfillment of the terms of the deal and good
behavior. While fans everywhere are celebrating for such a slap on the
wrist for the self proclaimed "King Of The South", many others are
beginning to wonder how a man with such an extensive criminal record
could have gotten off with what sums up to be a 'slap on the wrist' for
a federal charge. So, the brain trusts at defsounds.com got together
and created a theory on how he got such a light sentence. Let's first
look at T.I's previous criminal record.
Exhibit A-
Before, the gun charges, T.I. already had a laundry list of criminal
offenses, as well as parole violations. Here's a look at his record,
dating back to 1997.
Nov.
1997 arrested in Georgia for distribution of cocaine, manufacturing and
distributing a controlled substance, and giving authorities a false
name. He was later sentenced for this crime serving seven months in
jail and released on seven years of probation.
Sept. 2003 - arrested in Florida for striking an officer, trespassing and disorderly conduct
Dec. 2003 - warrant issued in Geogia for violating parole
Apr. 2004 - sentenced in Georgia to three years in jail; served less than a yearJan. 2005 - sentenced in Florida to 18 months' probation and 75 hours of community service
May 2005 - released from Georgia jail on $25,000 bond
2005 - arrested for threatening man outside Atlanta strip club; charge dismissed.
Side Bar -
Even law experts are perplexed
by the deal that T.I. was given. Atlanta defense lawyer, Page Pate,
said, " Cases like T.I.'s usually leave defendants with at least a 5
year sentence. There are a lot of people who are sitting serving time
in federal prison right now who would love to talk to schools and
churches and other community groups to serve some of their time, but
they can't do that because they don't have his celebrity."
Exhibit B-
The
common penalty for a weapons charge of this caliber would be a minimum
of 5 years, with a 250,000 dollar fine for every weapon purchased. With
a credible criminal record, that sentence would usually move up to 10+
years very easily with little argument.
Dont jump the Gun Yet-
Now
before I continue it is important to remind you that T.I's sentencing
is still not official, which means that after the 1500 hours of
community service, that one year sentence can still be boosted up to
5-10 years depending on how the judge feels, and although this may seem
like a strange punishment, it is not the first time that a raper has
received a sentence. Case in point, Fabolous had something similar to
this a couple of years ago, although his crime was not as serious.
So
now that we are all caught up with the general information lets take a
look at a couple of things that might make you scratch your head if you
take a closer look.
On October 4th, 2007, T.I. is arrested in Georgia for buying and possessing automatic weapons.
For
a while, there's really nothing going on but updates of T.I. and his
status on house arrest then all of a sudden on March 12th Details surrounding the murder of T.I.'s personal assistant and friend, Philant Johnson, emerge.
In an article written on Sohh.com, sources
from Atlanta radio station "V103", claim that authorities know who the
triggerman is and have also learned the motive behind the crime through
another unrelated arrest. Up until this point the shooting had
been shelfed as a cold case [ a case with no leads], but out of nowhere
the cops get a lead and the case has life again. Then just a couple of
day's later T.I. Gets his plea deal.
To those who have not been
following, this seems like nothing more than a mere coincidence, but
lets take a step back to look at the guns that T.I. bought. According
to most of the reports, he was trying to purchase three Machine guns
and two silencers, along with his attempt to purchase these weapons, he
also had three pistols in his car, one which was loaded. From someone
looking in from the outside, it would seem that T.I. must have really
had it in for someone to take such a risk and attempt to buy weapons of
that caliber. But then the question would be.... Who could bring out
this vicious intent out of T.I.? What would motivate a man that has
everything to even consider reacting that way when he had everything to
lose?
The answer is quite simple.The only person from what we know that might have had that ability would have to be the man that killed TIPS close friend and assistant, Philant Johnson.
What else would drive him to purchase weapons meant for destruction
other than revenge? When he gets caught, his plans would clearly have
been thrown to the wayside seeing that he now had gun charges to beat.
So the easiest thing to do would be to throw the one you were after
under the bus. With jail time imminent, and revenge still burning
inside of him, dropping the dime on his friend's murderer might have
been the the key to his deal.
TIP would get some time, but
nothing compared to what he might have received, and the cops get to
nab a killer. And just to make things a little nicer, they throw in the
community service so that TIP can clean up his image so if at the end
of the year he gets a slap on the wrist, it can be justified with no
suspicion.
After looking over everything and putting the pieces
together it becomes clear that the possibility of T.I.P. breaking the
ultimate street code very possible. Maybe he did snitch to get a kinder
sentence. Maybe just maybe this theory is correct and he gave in the
name of the man that killed his friend. The possibility that he gave up
the names of some gun traffickers is still very likely as well, but we
may never know. So as he begins his rehabilitation process, and starts
his conquest to knock out those community service hours and clean up
his act, fans will still ponder over how such a deal went through. But
regardless of what we may think or feel, he is his own man and must
stand by his own decisions. One year from now we may say goodbye to the
"King Of The South" for a long time, or the one year sentence might
stick, and we will all sit and wonder out loud, "Just how did he pull
that off??".
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