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Vol. 82/No.14 April 9, 2018
Philadelphia rally backs jailed rapper Meek Mill
PHILADELPHIA — Hundreds turned out at Irvine Auditorium here March 13
for a program in defense of imprisoned rapper Meek Mill. The program,
“REFORM: Bringing Justice to Light,” was sponsored by Gathering for
Justice and student groups at Drexel, Temple and the University of
Pennsylvania.
Mill was jailed in 2008 for drug and gun possession and released after
serving eight months. He was put on five years probation, and has
repeatedly been dragged into court on charges of violating his parole by
Common Pleas Court Judge Genece Brinkley. In 2017 the judge ordered Mill
back to prison for two to four years. Because of revelations about the
lack of credibility of Reginald Graham, Mill’s original arresting
officer, he has now won the right to a new trial.
Mill’s mother Kathy Williams, left; Rev. Al Sharpton, right; and Mill’s
attorney, Joe Tacopina, center, spoke. Mill was applauded when he talked
over the phone from prison. Tacopina said that fully one-third of the
50,000 prisoners in Pennsylvania are there for violations of parole.
Others at the event included Philadelphia Eagles player Malcolm Jenkins
and retired boxer Bernard Hopkins.
One of those in the audience was Fashionette White, an in-home nurse,
along with her daughter Davia. She said she knows “plenty of people who
are doing life for being wrongfully accused.”
— GEORGE CHALMERS
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