Is Meek Mill’s sentence too harsh?

On Monday, November 6, Meek Mill was sentenced to 2-4 years in state prison for violating his probation stemming from a 2008 gun and drug case.

Common Pleas Judge Genece Brinkley, cited a failed drug test and a failure to comply with a court order restricting his travel as her basis for sentencing.

“I’ve been trying to help you since 2009,” Brinkley said, citing a failed drug test, failure to comply with a court order restricting his travel and two other unrelated arrests. “You basically thumbed your nose at me.”

Family, friends, and the hip-hop community has rallied behind the rapper, calling the sentence simply too harsh and egregious. While T.I. and Kevin Hart left encouraging messages for Meek suggesting that he remains positive, rap luminary JAY-Z was critical of Brinkley’s decision, dubbing it “unjust and heavy handed” in a Facebook post.

Meek Mill’s attorney vows to appeal his client’s ruling and tackle Judge Brinkley’s decision, stating she has a personal vendetta against the Philly rapper.

“She’s enamored with him,” Tacopina told Billboard. “She showed up at his community service for the homeless people. She showed up and sat at the table. She’s a judge. You could pull any judge in America and ask them how many times they’ve showed up at a community service for a probation and the answer is zero.”

The handing down of the sentence came after a prosecutor recommended that Mill not be imprisoned for the violations, saying that he has been clean since January and that he has grown as a person since his original crime. Brinkley said the prosecutor was too new to the case to understand how Mill just “does what he wants.”

Meek Mill owned up to the violations in his only statement during the hearing and said that jailing him would likely end his musical career. He said that he has battled addiction to the prescription painkiller Percocet and that he has only tried to escape a life of crime.

“I may have made a mistake but I never had the intention of disrespecting you,” he said.

Mill has served brief stints in jail and home confinement following his conviction on gun and drug possession charges that could have resulted in a 5 to 10 year prison sentence.

He also was recently arrested two times — once in St. Louis for a fight in an airport where serious charges against him were later dropped and the other for reckless driving in New York City.

Is Meek Mill’s sentence too harsh? After admitting to battling addiction to prescription drugs, is imprisonment the proper recourse for his actions?

Share your thoughts!

Photo : James Dimmock