feds wanted to make an example out of a rapper named “young thug”

"That’s one reason Atlanta’s music industry is particularly influential, in exactly the same way that Hollywood and New York has been drawing young ingenues for a century. On the surface, rap music careers appear to be egalitarian. Show up, hustle and get noticed, and it doesn’t matter where you’re from. Even skill isn’t all that important. It’s open. Right?

Of course, it’s not actually open. There are barriers to entry – studio time, promotional fees, personal connections. I have a working theory that I’m looking for data to validate or disconfirm, that a lot of the violence – I mean like, 20 to 30 percent of the violence and half the increase in violence – we’ve seen in Atlanta over the last two years can be attributed to gang-connected rap beef. Gangs appear to be using music industry connections and the promise of fame to recruit new members. There’s a murder case in DeKalb County involving a rapper called Yung Mal that should be enlightening here as it unfolds, along with the murder trial of YFN Lucci. I am awaiting the indictment of some very, very high profile rappers on RICO charges related to the targeted assassinations of rival gang members.

Please ... don’t misconstrue my view of this as some kind of Tipper Gore-style attack on rap music. Rap is great. Shooting people is not.

Rather, I’m talking about the music as a function of Atlanta’s influence, which is often at odds with reality."

hm

Damn they using Thug's lyrics from 2014 against him. That it furthers the "conspiracy"

Nah it’s too many bodies behind this beef. Stuff like this don’t stop till everybody dead or in jail

Even without the bullshit charges with song lyrics and what not it looks bad for gunna and thug

theatlantaobjective.substack.com/p/ysl-faces-the-music?utm_source=%2Fprofile%2F9811286-george-chidi&utm_medium=reader2&s=r

"The indictment... alleges that two weeks after Thomas’ death, Williams had a conversation with Kyle Oree, alleged to be the leader of the criminal street gang S***Money Murda. Young Thug has name-checked SMM in songs. Oree, meanwhile, was serving a life sentence at the time, for a trailer park murder in 2003. “The conversation stated that ‘sacrifices must be made, soldiers must fall in order for battle to be won...’

The indictment suggests that Thomas was killed on orders from S***Money Murda gang leaders acting through Thug and his co-conspirators, for offering testimony in court. Implied: Thug and Oree were talking on a phone they either didn’t know was being monitored or didn’t care.

As I read through the indictment, that seems to be a theme.

Damekion Garlington and Quantavious Grier — Jeffrey Williams’ brother, the rapper Unfoonk — talked with an inmate at Fulton County jail who had a contraband cell phone last month. According to the indictment, Unfoonk talked about arranging the murder of someone threatening YSL gang members in the jail, and of flying a drone to a jail window to deliver more contraband cell phones.

In another allegation, Christian “Bad Bhris” Eppinger and Antonio Sumlin apparently asked Young Thug for permission to try to kill rival rapper Rayshawn “YFN Lucci” Bennett in prison. This may be the source of Bennett’s legal complaint after being stabbed in prison, in which he suggested there was a bounty on his head. The attempt on Lucci’s life is a count in the indictment.

The idea that the cops had planted cell phones with inmates to monitor calls like this apparently hadn’t occurred to them. The police suggested they had done something like that when they showed images from Christian Eppinger’s locked-down Instagram page in a press conference."

feel like they had eyes on carti since his traffic stop arrest where they found all em guns and d****.
probably got that niggas s*** tapped

s***money murda

I never knew the beef between Thug and Lucci was that real. I forgot bro was even locked up for murder tbh

This whole case is one huge statement that ATL/Georgia Feds been wanting to make for yrs,and the day has come. HOLY S***

They sent phones into prison with a drone

theatlantaobjective.substack.com/p/michael-carlson-gangs-on-trial?utm_source=%2Fprofile%2F9811286-george-chidi&utm_medium=reader2&s=r

interview with Fulton County gang prosecutor:

"George Chidi: How do you explain a gang case to juries — or better, to a criminal defendant you’re trying to roll into testifying?

Michael Scott Carlson: (drawing a triangle on a piece of paper) What the state has to do, obviously, is prove that the defendant committed the crime. If the defendant is a member or an associate of a criminal street gang, and if the crime is a predicate offense, that constitutes what we call criminal gang activity. In other words, is this the kind of crime that this gang commits.

So then up here (top of the triangle), we have a criminal street gang, which of course has a specific definition under the law. So if now we have the defendant (points at second point of the triangle) associated as a member or an associate of a criminal street gang. And the underlying offense (third point) that the defendant committed is part of participating. And if it's specific to defendants' participation in the gang, then we can bring the charge of criminal gang activity under 16-15.
So, how does our statute work? Well, remember, you've got two areas of the law always, you've got the substantive and the procedural aspects of the case, let's look at the substantive first. Let's say the crime is an aggravated assault.

Normally, somebody could be charged with aggravated assault. Well, if that aggravated assault is part of the defendant’s participation in a criminal street gang, a group of three or more people associated that commit criminal gang activity. Well, now we know there's a violation under 16-15-4(a) gang act violation to an aggravated assault. So now we have the penalty for the aggravated assault, plus we've got the penalty for the gang act violation: five to twenty.

Now, remember: do gang members commit these kinds of crimes in order to increase or maintain their status in the gang? Absolutely part of it. So now we've got another five to twenty years on gang charges … So now you've got these two.

Remember, this could have been, let's say, a simple battery …

GC: … which is a misdemeanor …

MC: … which is a misdemeanor, but because that simple battery fits into this triangle, now that simple battery becomes a gang act violation. Usually, we wouldn't charge just that misdemeanor there. Now, let's take it into a case where you've got, let's say, two defendants. So now you would probably have the (e) violation for encouraging each other's participation in the gang through the commission of those offenses, and then that's another 20.
The jury in a properly constructed indictment under best practices is going to hear the gang charge in connection, the (second) gang charge connection, the (third) gang charge in connection, and then of course, the underlying predicate offense.

GC: So, it's just that every time there's a charge, it's multiplied three times.

MC: That's what we call comprehensive charging. And when we go down through now … that's what we would call going down through the statute like that. We call that the drops. That's the term in the trade. Now, let's say that it’s armed robbery. So he stole something correct. Oh, there's a charge for acquiring property through criminal gang activity. So now, you see. And then if he had a co defendant, the (e). So now we're up to that many more. If somebody was a leader on an offense, there's a separate charge for that as well under (d). That adds a different penalty than the other stuff. …"

Didn’t even know Thug had a 14 year old son tbh. Praying for him because he just lost his mom and now may potentially lose his father for a while too

You’re probably right but i’m just trying to inject some non-horrible sentiments into the discussion

theatlantaobjective.substack.com/p/a-crack-in-the-courthouse-marble?s=r

this seems to suggest the Eppinger cop shooting was a huge boon in helping them to pull the whole gang/RICO case together in a way that would stand up in court from back in April

"But the DA’s office still had to explain to a judge why they hadn’t indicted Eppinger by now, and that runs into the other complexity around this case. Eppinger isn’t just charged with trying to kill a cop. He’s being charged under the state’s gang racketeering laws. And — as I discovered after talking at length with a ranking expert on those laws — building a gang case that will stand up in court is exceptionally difficult. Police are not particularly well trained in gathering evidence to prove gang affiliations or that a given crime is actually a gang crime.

A gang case against YSL could be tough. YSL is also the incorporated music label for the rappers Young Thug and Gunna, who presumably have millions of dollars ready to fight criminal charges — never mind a jury pool which might be skeptical in the face of celebrity.

But evidence from the attempted murder is copious: body-worn cameras, surveillance cameras, witness testimony, ballistics, and more. Eppinger’s rash decision to go down fighting rather than submit to arrest may have inadvertently given prosecutors a gift: the means to convict everyone in YSL on a gang charge.

Evidentiary hearings on gang cases are complicated. Because they’ve charged Eppinger under the gang statute, the state has to prove that Eppinger was a member of YSL, that YSL is a criminal street gang, and that the attempted murder was in furtherance of the goals of the gang. Georgia law allows all that evidence to be used in the trials of all the other alleged gang members charged under the same statute.

Eppinger rapped under the moniker “Bad Bhris” as a YSL rapper.

I note in passing that the district attorney’s office said in their emergency filing for a stay of the bond order that Eppinger continues to be in communication with other gang members. They’re plainly monitoring his Instagram account. Every day he’s in prison appears to make their job of proving he’s a gang member a little easier.

Nonetheless, that process takes time and labor to investigate. The Eppinger case had 90 days on the clock. Willis apparently wanted to give the police as many of those days as possible to build the case. Only, a night court judge didn’t get the memo … because if an assistant district attorney explained in court exactly what investigators had been doing, it would have potentially tipped off the rest of the gang about how screwed they were.

When I asked why Eppinger hadn’t been indicted yet, Willis answered, “We're making sure that we collect all the evidence that needs to be listened to, that needs to be looked at. We're looking into social media. When we bring down an indictment, that it will be an indictment that is complete and hold him and others responsible for all of their actions.”

And others.

I asked Willis if the Eppinger case is tied to the large gang case she mentioned a few weeks ago, that would emerge at the end of April. “I ask you to wait. Time will tell.” I then asked directly if she anticipated indicting Young Thug, Gunna, Unfoonk and other YSL members.

“I anticipate indicting anyone who commits an act of violence within my community,” she replied. “I anticipate doing it within 90 days. And I am not impressed with the fact that you are a rapper, that's not going to keep you from being indicted by this office. And if they've committed acts of violence, and if we have enough evidence to substantiate that, you're going to see indictments.”

The assembled prosecutors and police officers behind her meticulously avoided making eye contact with me as I asked that. I smirked."

ya and the way they tryna do gunna right now, the s*** carti was rapping on wlr is a bad look along with them trap lore ross mfs

Listening to just how it is feels different now

No way Gunna’s real last name is f***ing “Kitchens”

Nope but I’m afraid his gang is on the list as well

Bruh

They even came back around and got buddy that shot Wayne bus up? Sheesh

They getting the whole crew.

i know you f***ing lying

this dude george chidi is really a bit of a tragic figure, he's a good atlanta liberal Black man who makes sure to qualify that he doesn't dislike rap music per se and that he's on the side of Black people

but he just can't ignore the connection between YSL, YFN and people getting killed and this leads him to investigate things that inevitably introduce cognitive dissonance

RICO? Oh yea, it's a wrap.