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Ex-Representative Mel Reynolds Jailed for 6 Months; "I'm going home to Africa"

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Ex-Representative Mel Reynolds Jailed for 6 Months; "I'm going home to Africa"

Mel Reynolds is done with America.

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A former Democratic congressman from Chicago, heading to prison for the third time, says he has ?given up on America? and plans to move to Africa after he serves his latest sentence.

At his sentencing Thursday, Mel Reynolds, 66, got six months in prison for failing to file tax returns on more than $400,000 he received for consulting work.

He also received a scolding from federal Judge Robert Gettleman, who told the Harvard graduate he could recall thinking to himself in the early 1990s that Reynolds had tremendous promise.

?It's a tragedy that you squandered the opportunities you had and the type of person you could have become," Gettleman said.

Reynolds represented Illinois? 2nd Congressional District, serving from January 1993 to October 1995. He was succeeded by Jesse Jackson Jr., who also served time in prison.

Acting as his own attorney, Reynolds argued it was unfair to give too much weight to his prior convictions, from the 1990s, in calculating a sentence for his conviction at a bench trial last year on four misdemeanor counts of not filing tax returns.

Prosecutors say the undeclared income was money made consulting for Chicago businessmen in Zimbabwe, the Chicago Sun-Times reported.

In 1995, Reynolds was convicted of statutory rape for having sex with a 16-year-old campaign worker. Later, he was convicted of concealing debts and diverting money meant for voter registration drives into his election campaign.

?The question is, How long does a person have to pay for mistakes?" Reynolds asked about the older crimes.

At other periods in his life, he had been in the military and raised three children, he said.

?I wasn't just living my life as a wheeler-dealer,? he added.

Reynolds rose from poverty in Mississippi to become a Rhodes Scholar and then a lawmaker in Washington, D.C.

After Thursday's sentencing, with credit for two months served in jail, the Chicago Democrat will end up serving closer to four months behind bars.

Reynolds had argued he shouldn't be imprisoned at all, saying a year of probation would have been the right sentence.

?To put me in jail serves what purpose?? he asked the judge. ?To teach me a lesson? ... I've been taught about this racist society ... every day of my life.?

Prosecutor Georgia Alexakis had asked for at least two years behind bars, citing what she described as Reynolds' decades-long pattern of flouting the law.

?There are aspects of the defendant's life that are ... laudatory,? she said. ?But the good doesn't outweigh the bad.?

The maximum penalty Reynolds faced was four years in prison.

The judge said he hoped Reynolds would use his time in prison to reassess his life, telling him: ?It will give you some time to think where you go from here.?

Reynolds, who will report to prison later, told reporters outside court that he already knew where he would go after prison.

?I'm going home to Africa," he said. "I've given up on America because how long do African-Americans put up with this nonsense??

Fuck income tax laws, I feel bad he's going away for so long. The cost of imprisonment probably exceeds the amount of taxes he's owed. Fucking waste of money.

I agree also with "how long does a person have to pay for mistakes?" a very apt question.

He should go through appeals, though I'm sure that would take much longer than 6 months.
 
Sounds like he so mishandles his own defense that spending more time in court is the last thing he should do. He'll probably appeal his 6 months all the way to death row. :)

Love the "going home to Africa" remark. I get while you're sympathetic to this guy, and I guess I am a little too, but he sounds like an idiot.
 
I'm also sympathetic to society; if he's going to leave the US, and this is a huge cost to society, and he wouldn't have paid such a sum on his 400k anyways, what's the point of all this?

Massive waste of taxpayer $.

People like Trump skate by not paying a dime, and the Dems laugh at me when I suggest the income tax is a scam.

We need to eliminate the income tax.
 
This made me a bit less sympathetic:

Reynolds represented Illinois 2nd Congressional District, serving from January 1993 to October 1995.

In 1995, Reynolds was convicted of statutory rape for having sex with a 16-year-old campaign worker.

So Representative Reynolds was 43-ish. Ewwww!

I'm not feeling the bygones being bygones. Ewwww again!
 
I dont know how much better off he would be here in Africa....
He's corrupt oh wait yes he would be a perfect match....
 
I dont know how much better off he would be here in Africa....
He's corrupt oh wait yes he would be a perfect match....

It's interesting to me how many people seem to just assume that other countries would happily let them live and work there forever. You see it all the time, Americans or British people or whatever talking about moving to some country and living there forever as if all they need to do is book the ticket. When in reality it's often quite difficult or impossible to get permanent residency in a country you have no ties too.
 
Assuming he was born in America, "Africa" isn't a country so where could he simply move to without citizenship or the usual application bureaucracy?

If "Africa" wants him, let him go.
 
It's interesting to me how many people seem to just assume that other countries would happily let them live and work there forever. You see it all the time, Americans or British people or whatever talking about moving to some country and living there forever as if all they need to do is book the ticket. When in reality it's often quite difficult or impossible to get permanent residency in a country you have no ties too.

Yeah there's lots of nations that actively try to keep you out.

Doesn't mean you still can't evade authorities and be a bad ass %)

Coming next fall: American Bad Hombres

Assuming he was born in America, "Africa" isn't a country so where could he simply move to without citizenship or the usual application bureaucracy?

If "Africa" wants him, let him go.

You can move to Africa and easily afford visas. Africa has some open borders too, so you can kind of freely explore.

Would be a lovely continent to explore if I had a shit ton of money.
 
^The point is that Africa is a continent with some large amount of different nations. Its not possible to move simply to Africa without also being in one of those nations.

Cdugz said:
This made me a bit less sympathetic:

Reynolds represented Illinois 2nd Congressional District, serving from January 1993 to October 1995.

In 1995, Reynolds was convicted of statutory rape for having sex with a 16-year-old campaign worker.

So Representative Reynolds was 43-ish. Ewwww!

I'm not feeling the bygones being bygones. Ewwww again

Totally with you there. That's not really the sort of dude I'm ever going to give a fuck for if he goes to jail. :\
 
Maybe he should go to Africa... they value corruption especially when it concerns money. He likely won't get in though because most of the more developed African nations run foreign background checks.

He should have stashed his money in offshore accounts like every other politician and business man is doing. It seems like he just shirked the law but didn't do it properly or intelligently.

And then he blames it all on systemic racism.

I dunno... whether you agree with tax law or not, he did some scummy things where he took advantage of people, like embezzling campaign money and having sex with a 16 year old. I wouldn't exactly call this guy clean, therefore his righteousness doesn't strike sympathy with me.
 
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