As Meek Mill sits in jail on parole-violation charges related to a case he caught when he was just 19 years old, his mother is appealing to the newly elected district attorney in Philadelphia to help her son get the justice she feels he deserves.
The Philadelphia Inquirer reports that during a brief news conference before the start of a criminal-justice panel at the University of Pennsylvania, Kathy Williams tearfully appealed to Philly DA Larry Krasner and asked, “Can you please help me out?”
Her son, whose real name is Robert Rihmeek Williams, was sentenced to two to four years in state prison by Common Pleas Judge Genece Brinkley in November after he was arrested for a parole violation.
“I don’t even understand how he’s been on probation for that many years. It’s like he murdered somebody,” Kathy Williams said. “He has to beg to see his son. What kind of woman does that? Is she a mother? Do she have a mother?”
And that is the crux of it.
I am not in any way condoning parole violations or making excuses for Meek, but his case is a glaring example of how the criminal-justice system is harder on black men.
Consider another 19-year-old who was convicted of a crime: Brock Turner.
Turner is a rich white boy who was convicted of three felony counts of sexual assault against an intoxicated young woman who was unconscious at the time of the assault.
The judge in Turner’s case sentenced him to just six months in jail and three years’ probation because he felt that a prison sentence would ruin Turner’s future.
Sexual assault is a violent crime against another person. Turner ended up serving only three months in jail before being released for “good behavior.” He is currently appealing his conviction.
And lest we forget, legislators in California found the sentencing in the Turner case so egregious that they introduced legislation that created mandatory minimums in sexual assault cases and expanded the definition of just what qualifies as sexual assault.
Turner inspired new laws and new definitions of rape.
Meek’s case stems from drug and gun-possession charges. He was not charged with injuring another person. There was no violence. No one was assaulted.
And let’s be clear—one of the supposed parole violations was Meek popping wheelies on a motorbike during a video shoot.
There have also been questions raised about the judge in the case as well as the credibility of the officer who arrested Meek.
In short, there are so many flaws in the handling of Meek’s case that I, too, want Larry Krasner to look into helping him.
There’s no reason Meek Mill should be sitting behind bars.
Especially when the rapist Brock Turner is roaming the streets free as a bird.