(from DaveyD.com)
For those who have gotten a chance to see the Public Enemy show which features Blackalicious and Dilated Peoples, you will have noticed the absence of Hip Hop's most famous hype man Flava Flav. Unfortunately shortly before the tour started Flav was hauled off to jail and was facing the possibility of 4 years in jail for ... now everyone sit down for this one... He was looking at 4 years in jail for unpaid parking tickets. He also had a suspended license but who gets 4 years for that? Flav was not caught doing drugs, assaulting anyone, robbing a bank or selling any sort of illegal narcotics. he got busted in the Bronx driving with a suspended license and was looking at 4 years.

The judge would not release Flav on his own recognizance. He said Flav was in violation of his probation. He went to court this past Wednesday in the Bronx where he had to endure a hostile judge and callous guards. For example, when Flav was being lead into court, he was behind a glass partition. Apparently one of the guards escorting him did not realize he could be seen from court observers. While standing behind Flav he began to mimic him and do some sort of shuffle dance in an attempt to clown. That upset more then a few folks.

During the hearing, the judge wound up reducing Flav's 4 year sentence to one year and we would get credit for time already served. This meant that Flav would have to spend another 9 weeks in jail. His release was timed for him to get out just as PE gets off tour.

Flav had started working at Power 105 as a deejay and had been making moves to really put himself in a better financial situation. This tour was really important because it would've allowed him to finally get everything together. Many feel the judge knew all this and wanted to stiffle that momentum.

It's interesting to note that Slick Rick, Gil Scott Heron and Flava Flav all sit in jail with no possibility of bail. Slick is in an INS jail accused of not being a US citizen even though's he lived here all his life, Gil Scott is serving three years for smoking crack and Flav is looking at another two months for not unpaid tickets. Meanwhile we have corporate crooks who have stolen millions and put average ordinary folks in serious financial jeopardy walking around like nothing happened.
(Damn, when you hear "Flav" and "Jail", the LAST thing you think of is "for parking tickets")