The Caging of an Urban Legend

Well it happened… Your boy and mine, Mr. Clifford Harris, was sentenced to 366 days in the big house. And people are really upset and crying and mad and ready to send petitions to Barack Obama like he has time to even consider giving T.I. a pardon. On a side note: Black People… stop thinkin’ just because your president is black that you get a free pass on anything. Barack doesn’t have time to come to your trial to see if the cop really was racist or if you were just being an asshole. Just take responsibility for your actions and stop lookin’ for a hook up… Now, back to the subject at hand…

You have people mad. Then you have people that are happy to see him go in. People who think he got off light. To people who don’t really give a damn. Me personally… when I decided to write about this, I was thinking he deserved more time. My whole thing was that if it was one of us common folks, begging for clemency would have been like slapping the judge’s daughter. Most of us can’t afford to have a lawyer on retainer. Most of us can’t even afford a lawyer in a time of need. But after thinking about it, doing a little more research and seeing the enormity of the situation I think the sentence is more than fair. For those thinking that he shouldn’t get any time because “he can do so much to help kids if he is free”… Just let it go. The law is the law. We need to stop showing kids that people with money can circumvent the law. Maybe if he was Paris Hilton he could fake a mental illness and get out in three days. Yeah, not likely.

I don’t know if he greased some palms or not. I’m not going to make assumptions. But what I did find in my short bit of research is all of the stuff that he has done since his arrest to try and help the youngins. His potential to help the subjugated youth of today is massivem, but my question is this… for all of you who think he doesn’t deserve to get any time at all. What does him getting completely off of charges actually do to show these kids that they need to pay for their wrongs and strive for right? What deters them from thinking that their fate won’t be similar to his if they are caught with illegal weapons? Even though we all know it won’t. As a species, we are guided by our fears. If you take away that fear, people will do damn near anything. And allowing T.I. to go completely free teaches these kids nothing about abiding by the law. Really, it shows the complete opposite. In a society riddled with frivolous lawsuits, people dodging every chance to take responsibility for their own hand in their undoing… you know… the guy that bites into a pizza fresh out the oven and then sues Pizza Hut for cooking their food too hot… this actually shows kids that they have to accept that they made a mistake and pay for it. Be it through financial means or physical time/labor.

I respect Mr. Harris. I like a lot of his stuff. But, for the sake of argument, let\’s say that the judge gave him an option. Let\’s say the judge said he could do a year and a day with OR without talking to the kids and all the other stuff he was doing? Do you think he would have? Would you look at him as someone that had all this potential to do so much? Would you respect him if he hadn\’t? I would. But that\’s me.

But he has the ability to really show these kids something big after this. It will do more if he does this time. These same kids you tryin’ to save today, may benefit even more from his lesson learned tomorrow. And not just teenagers. When he gets out he can show other brothers and sisters that may have just been released themselves that the world is not over after incarceration. That they can still do stuff; the legal way. That they are more than just a prison number. That they CAN do right. Of course, his pre-arrest money will ease the transition of his post-corrections life but if he inspires just a few of them to keep their heads up and not give up the fight to do right… it will be well worth it.

But don’t shed tears for TIP. He’ll be fine. He can do a year at Club Fed. He’s not going to be at Rikers. I guarantee it will not be Gitmo. He will probably still live well above the level of comfort that most of us “common folk” have day to day. So while you are worried about Clifford Harris and fighting so hard for him to be free… how about you check out Ronald Harris. He just got out last week. And, he could benefit a lot more from this energy you need to burn fighting the judicial system. And that’s on the real… “No flash, No bang”.

Bless!