don't believe everything you read (or don't read), ya dig

so i haven't commented here about t.i.'s legal troubles and i'm sure y'all have been anxiously anticipating my response in light of my love for him...

or not...

but i'm not going to talk about how stupid he was or how he deserves 50 years for having a gun fetish, more than he'd get for pistol-whipping someone with those same guns. stop. think about it. (c) Martin. cause i don't believe the hype and cause many other folks have done it and exhausted the subject so thoroughly, including fellow bloggers panama jackson and leon.

but being defense-minded and fascinated by our fine adversarial legal system, i am really interested in what his lawyers will argue to get him out of this seemingly impossible situation.

note: to all you fools who think he shoulda took a plea the minute he was arrested i say boooooo! this is what gets folks hemmed up for 10 to 20 years on some bullshit charge cause they rush to take the scraps the state is throwing at them. or because they can't afford competent legal representation to fight the charges. i say if you got the paper, make them bitches work for your conviction. half the time the prosecution can't make their case against you. they must prove that you did what they say you did beyond a reasonable doubt....a very high standard as far as legal standards go.

so surprise surprise when i went over to sandrarose and read about the first of t.i.'s "get ya shit together's" to the feds.

According to the associated press, t.i. is seeking to suppress the evidence seized from his range rover on the day of his arrest and also to throw out the statements he made to the police at the time of his arrest. t.i.'s lawyers allege that the range was searched without a warrant, consent or probable cause; that the arresting officers violated his rights; and that his statement might not have been voluntary.

heavy stuff right? but very interesting *stroking her chin* very interesting indeed.

now we all know (or should know) that the police can't just bust in your house or your car whenever they feel like it (although they do all the damn time). and of course the search of a house is very different from the search of a car cause you have more of an expectation of privacy in your house. and there's greater urgency with cars because you can more easily move a car quickly and destroy evidence in the meantime. despite this, the police still couldn't search the range without probable cause that it contained evidence or weapons that would endanger the officer if he has pulling over the vehicle in a traffic stop but this wasn't a traffic stop, it was a bust and once they'd removed t.i. and co. from the car, they were assured that the vehicle was secure and no longer in danger of being moved. no rush at that point, which means the vehicle could have been impounded and searched later once a warrant was secured. yet they searched it on the spot

enter the suppression argument...the feds really GOT ta be more careful!

i won't speculate as to how successful this suppression motion will be but given the caliber of the legal minds working on this case, (remember ray lewis and that super bowl murder charge, this guy got him off; or jim williams of midnight in the garden of good and evil fame, tried 4 times for the murder of his alleged lover, this guy got him acquitted) the arguments have to be well-founded at the very least.

now here's my thanksgiving tie-in....

Hosea Feed the Hungry and Homeless...what is this you ask? well, it's an Atlanta organization founded by Hosea Williams, a contemporary of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. who also championed civil rights around the state of Georgia. like marching on Forsyth County, an all-white enclave near Atlanta to face the KKK. very gangsta indeed. HFH is now run by his daughter Elizabeth Omilami and basically feeds tens of thousands of people on Thanksgiving and countless more every other day of the year.

now who stepped up and raised $166,000 in three hours after Ms. Omilami lost the support of $150K worth of sponsorship....

my boy. T.I. pimpin!

and crazy-eye Ryan Cameron (ha ha)

i love it...there's really no reason i should but i do so don't judge me.

thus, that many more folks are enjoying thanksgiving (and everyday) dinner because of t.i., right? (despite the thinly-veiled pr scheme to curry favor with the judge, it's still a good thing)

this got me to thinking about a question that's been rolling around in my head for a couple of weeks now....does an individual's philanthropy outweigh all the "bad" he had to do to get the money to give away? what's more effective for the community? black folks on the ground, in the grassroots so to speak, helping out each day as public defenders, social workers, teachers but being piss poor themselves in the process. or black folks infiltrating the corporate world making boocoo money that they can then share with more folks and maintain the black middle class in the process? no easy answer but trying to pick a lane in my own life.

more on that next week...

The appeal of Clifford Harris, Jr. (or why girls like dope boys)

Over the weekend I spent some time with my auntie and she got me to thinking…why do girls like dope boys? Context: I’d been catching her up on my life and somehow I let slip that I knew women who had dated guys who had or presently did sell drugs for a living.

Of course, auntie was completely aghast at my revelations. As I sat across from her I became cognizant of my own non-aghastedness (note: I tend to make up words so get used to it). Sadly, the drug-selling boyfriend trope has become a permanent fixture in my mind such that having a relationship with someone who could put you up on some work (and I don’t mean a 9-5) no longer surprises me. Hell, even I had once dated someone who, from time to time, sold a dime bag or two, tho he surely smoked up twice as much as he sold.

But auntie got me to thinking, what is the appeal? Viewing it as an older, wiser 26 yo, I have to wonder, what was/is wrong with us such that we aren't the least bit fazed by bedding down with the neighborhood dope boy? Didn’t our parents raise us to be good lil' middle class BAPS? So then why do some of us gravitate toward the T.I.’s of this world? Note: I've been known to not-so-secretly lust after errr... appreciate the music of T.I. I don’t know what it is....Ok I do I do, I do, I doo-ew hence this post. Thuglove bay bay!

need I say more? mmmm…tasty!

It’s that sexy-as-hell ghetto snare, lookin at you like bring yo ass over here right now! Deep inside is a heart of gold that makes you melt and come with a quickness to anywhere he wants you to be. And ok, it's the money, too. You know the cliché: Every girl wants a bad boy. Yet there in lies the problem -- every girl wants that boy but ladies enough! Once you celebrate your 21st birthday, you gotta grow up and get a grown ass man up-in-through yo situation...let that dope boy go!

I know, I know, I myself used to be drawn to the bad boy but trying to make that thug yo huzband is not the business. He really can't do much more than give you money and dick you down every once in a while. You can't take him round your office collegues, he might show up in girbaud jeans and a long white tee. That might be sexy in private but how do you explain his profession to your White (and Black) work homies? Can you say he got his degree in dopeboyalogy with a straight face?

Seriously tho, it’s so not cute to be sitting up all times a night wondering if he's been shot or locked up. And you can forget about changing him cause he won't easily switch to more legal employment since it don't bring the fast money and he'll probably say it's "lame." So you’re stuck with a dude that can’t fully function in society outside of the crime world, who you can't take nowhere and whose "profession" seriuosly threatens your safety. Ok i'm being slightly dramatic but somewhere in the last 3-5 years, I realized there really is no appeal to to the dobeboy (except the sexiness that is T.I. but Tiny got that on lock & she'll cut a bitch for even looking at her man).

*mint julep wipes away a tear, as she looks around for her regular, grown ass man*