My reading was different. There are two brothers. The older was arrested for possessing a gun, pled out and got probation, and then years later was arrested for conspiracy charges based on appearing in pictures with "known gang members". He pled out again, got jail time, and got more jail time for being linked to a gun while in jail.

The younger brother was arrested on suspicion based on his Facebook activity, held for a couple of years at Rikers Island, and never charged.

IMO the outrages are (1) the older brother received a harsh sentence for appearing in pictures (his gun charge for owning an illegal, non-functional gun resulting in probation) and (2) the younger brother was held for two years with no trial.

Thanks. That's a very readable summary.

Yeah, that was his brother, not him.

Hey - writer of the story here. The goal was to show two brothers, very much two sides of the same coin - born one year apart, raised in the same environment. What choices did they make, how did that lead to different outcomes (or not).

It's a very long story and I don't honestly expect everyone on the internet to read it closely or all the way through. But to be clear, it was the older brother who owned a gun. Law enforcement never produced evidence that Jelani, the younger brother accused of double attempted murder, owned or used a firearm.