Every accused criminal has the right to a speedy trial, but when a case is pushed through the court system less than a day after the arrest, it seems that the process is more suspect than the suspect.
The LA Times is reporting that Revok has already been sentenced by a judge to 180 days in jail. This entire case seems fishy, and the real crime seems to be the abusive, authoritative, and heavy handed method that the LAPD has employed with Revok.
Revok was arrested by a special LAPD vandal squad at LAX. Revok was taken into custody and had the insane bail amount set at $320,000. To put that in perspective, OJ's bail was set at $250,000 and a child molester gets $100,000. Furthermore, Revok wasn't even charged with a new crime. All he was charged with, and found guilty of, was violating the terms of his parole. But as soon as he was arrested, the LAPD issued a press release touting a 'high profile' graffiti arrest.
The biggest crime in this saga has been the way that the LAPD has handled this case. At best, the LAPD shows an overaggressive appetite to pursue art 'criminals'. And at worst, it is an Orwellian example of an abusive government, reminiscent of the KGB or Nazi Germany.
No doubt that this most recent arrest is going to make Revok's name ring out bigger and louder than ever. And he is going to reap the rewards of this arrest once he gets out of jail. But it sucks that it had to happen--and the way it happened, and our thoughts and wishes are with Revok during his 180 day stint in jail.
"Strike me down and I will become more powerful than you can ever imagine!" =Obi Wan Kenobi
ReplyDeletewell written...
ReplyDeleteobviously, all of us who read this blog agree with your sentiments. Sure there is a legal system that we all must be responsible to, but, at some point, common sense needs to prevail.
i just think it's a pity he didn't have the foresight to first do a few shitty hollywood films, develop a bit of an alcohol and drug dependency, crash a car or two and then steal something from a jewelery store before he got arrested. apparently if you do that sort of thing, you seem to get out of jail terms and sentences really easy.....
a "true" king of this mad society
ReplyDeleteThat'll teach you wannabe artists...lol
ReplyDelete6 months! That really sucks.
ReplyDeleteThere's a kid who's doing 2 years for $7K worth of damage. And he was originally sentenced to 8 years. Our legal system is flawed, to put it mildly.
I think the big unanswered question here is the nature of his parole and his previous violation. I would assume it was another vandalism charge, but it might have been for something more serious. If last time he was given parole rather than jail time on a condition of "I've learned my lesson, I won't do it again" that would make sense that he would get a harsher sentence the second time around for the same offense. Parole violation is pretty steep charge, unlike vandalism where we never personally agreed to not alter private property, a parole violation is breaking a rule that he directly agreed to.
ReplyDeleteAs we know people rarely serve their full sentence as long as they don't make things difficult for themselves in prison. My guess is 45 days.
Please disregard my previous comment, I hadn't read the article. In your write up you say parole, but instead it's probation. Which are quite different things. Either way the nature of his plea in his previous charge, may have been along the lines of "I've learned my lesson and won't do it again" which may be the reason for the harsher sentence this time. Although it does look it was an intentional crack down by LAPD, which a good lawyer can use to reduce the sentence. Since the police are not supposed to use high profile cases to make example of.
ReplyDeleteGood luck to him.