T.I. knows that one of the many signs of a broken justice system is excessive and unbalanced sentencing.
On Monday, the Atlanta rapper addressed this issue while reiterating his support for Lil C Note, the 12-year-old rapper who was arrested last month after he was suspected of loitering inside a Cumberland, Georgia mall back in October. A now-viral video shows an officer grabbing the child's arm and threatening him with time behind bars.
"You're 12?" told Lil C Note. "You're about to go to jail."
The video then begins to shake as the woman behind the camera—Lil C Note's aunt—begins screaming at the officer for putting his hands on her nephew. Lil C Note was ultimately charged with felony obstruction, misdemeanor obstruction, and criminal trespassing, while his aunt was hit with felony obstruction, giving false ID, criminal trespassing, and misdemeanor obstruction charges.
Authorities said the child was approached because he was warned on two previous occasions not to sell his mixtapes within the shopping center. Lil C Note's lawyer, however, insists the child did nothing wrong. "When he was there, he was not selling any CDs or doing anything that would have been prohibited," attorney Mawuli Davis said during a court hearing last month. "He was there meeting other artists."
T.I. reiterated his support for Lil C Note by suggesting the child's sentencing was too severe. The 38-year-old rapper compared the child's case to that of Nataliia Karia, a Minneapolis daycare provider who only received 10 years probation for hanging a toddler.
T.I. spoke about Lil C Note's case during a press conference in early January. "Me, I tell it like it is," T.I. said "Basically, it's our black kids getting picked on. You know if that was a white kid, nothing would've ever happened."
The child's attorney said he is hoping the charges will be dismissed before the case goes to trial.
