Meeks is jailed on weapons charges and has been accused of other crimes. He has not been convicted. His criminal history notwithstanding, he deserves the due process any other person accused of a crime should get. Given his alleged status as a gunrunner, you’d think there would be profit enough for him to get a pricey lawyer, yet he has a public defender and his mother has started a GoFundMe account to help pay his bail.
I can’t possibly argue Meeks’ innocence or guilt and am not trying to. That will happen at his trial, long after most folks have forgotten about him. The sad part is, as many people have pointed out, he’s just a very good-looking example of a multitude of Black men who face incarceration, probation, overcharging, detention, false arrest, imprisonment and racial profiling all across America. That some posters took time away from Meeks’ admittedly mesmerizing baby blues to recognize his possible plight as part of the laughable pattern of criminal injustice perpetuated on Black men is the valuable part of this story.
Meeks may indeed be deserving of all this karma because he’s a violent felon who should be off the streets. Or he could be, like many young Black men, someone who faced limited choices and made all the wrong ones. Either way, he deserves his day in court and his life, regardless of how pretty he is, handed back to him, instead of becoming the latest fodder our social media entertainment.
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COMMENTARY: Thug Passion – Let’s Give Jeremy Meeks His Life Back was originally published on blackamericaweb.com
