T.I. Wants Federal Oversight of Local Police

T.I. believes federal oversight of local police could help bring an end to police brutality. The Atlanta rapper expressed this sentiment during an appearance on ESPN's First Take. T.I. was there promoting his Us or Else EP, a project inspired by the spree of police shootings of black men. T.I. was asked about his support of federal oversight, which he claimed was necessary because America is experiencing an epidemic.

"If you have local jurisdiction over local policing, it kind of makes it difficult for a fair and just process to be taken," T.I. said. "I think that the same way - back in the late '80s and early '90s - that the crack law had been instituted, due to the amount of atrocities that crack cocaine had plagued the community with, and they felt it was necessary to upstream crack cocaine into a mandatory minimum status on a federal level. The same way they instituted mandatory possession of a firearm by a convicted felon, a mandatory of five years, on a federal level because of how much gun violence had taken place to plague the nation. That is the same state of epidemic crisis that we are in right now with police brutality."

Max Kellerman followed up T.I.'s point by stating that Americans had not reached a consensus on police brutality like they did with drugs and gun violence. T.I. said this was because change only happened when the crisis affected white people.

"In those other cases, that happened when—forgive me for saying—the epidemic started affected white people," T.I. said. "When crack cocaine reached out into the suburbs, when gun violence started affecting white homes, that's when it was ok to step in."

The entire interview is definitely worth the 13 minutes it will take out of your day. T.I. offers up some keen insight during the conversation.

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