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Refreshing comments from mother of THUG teen charged with murder... Login/Join 
Rule #1: Use enough gun
Picture of Bigboreshooter
posted
http://www.al.com/news/birming...ml#incart_river_home



There's nothing quite like the pain of a parent whose heart aches and worries for their child.

Birmingham mother Adrieene Johnson knows that all too well.

On Thursday, her 16-year-old son, Jordan Johnson, was charged with murder in the shooting death of his 14-year-old friend. Police say the teens were robbing a man outside of a convenience store just two days before Christmas when that man shot and killed Reynold "Ray Ray" Bonner III, a high school freshman.

Jordan was criminally charged under the felony murder statute which allows a person to be charged with murder if they are participating in a felony crime that results in death, whether or not that person actually pulled the trigger.

"It's hard. It's really hard,'' Johnson said in an interview with AL.com. "I'm just kind of almost numb."

But Johnson said she in no way condones the kind of behavior that landed her son in the Jefferson County Jail. "I'm not uneducated, a drug addict, or was I an absent parent. I will not make an excuse for my child. My son has not been in my home for almost the last two years because I have not ever, or will not ever, tolerate a child that does not follow direction from an adult,'' she wrote on Facebook just hours after police announced the murder charge. "My son was educated on the consequences of poor choices and associates, was given an opportunity for private school education and lived in a safe and secure environment."

"I have spoken with my son, and I have told him I am praying for him the way I always have and will continue to do so,'' she wrote. "My heart hurts for my son, but also the mother who had to bury her baby. I cried when I found he was killed, even before knowing my son was there because he could have been my own."

The shooting happened just before 2 p.m. on Saturday, Dec. 23, outside KM Food Mart, also known as "Lambs," on 12th Street West. Birmingham police say Reynold and Jordan were trying to rob a man when that man wielded a gun in self-defense. Multiple shots were fired, and Reynold was struck in the chest.

A bystander performed CPR on the young teen, while police demanded a rush on the medics, according to video shot at the scene. At least one gun was recovered from the parking lot. Reynold was taken to Children's of Alabama, where he died a short time later.

Reynold's family maintains that he wasn't trying to rob anyone, and that he simply was in the wrong place at the wrong time with the wrong people. "He was raised with both parents,'' his sister, Jackie Patton, said in an earlier interview with AL.com. "However, I do know sometimes when you trust people whom you call friends, you end up in situations that become life-changing."

Johnson said she was sick when she heard about the fatal shooting of Reynold, and didn't even know at that time there her son was with him. "I got so sick and sad because that was a baby,'' she said. "Now, I'm not justifying his actions. I'm just sad for his mother, his family and the kids he went to school with because he's no longer here."

And she knew, had known for a while now, that it easily could have been her son killed. "Every time I logged on Facebook or heard of a teen shot, I held my breath,'' she said. "And I waited, because you don't know if it's going to be your child."

Johnson is a social worker in Birmingham and a graduate of Vestavia Hills High School, as is her father, who is Jordan's maternal grandfather. "So many people say. 'It's the parents,' but that's not always the case,'' she said.

She raised Jordan until he was 14, but she had rules he didn't want to follow and the relationship was strained. "When you can buy $200 shoes and expensive clothes, you're not going to choose going to bed at 9 p.m.,'' she said. "As a young, black male in our society, you're going to go with what's flashy, what's appealing to other people."

Johnson also has two other, younger, sons. One attends private school, and the other attends Phillips Academy, Birmingham's International Baccalaureate school. Both are honor roll students and enrolled in programs for gifted students. "I couldn't have his negative decisions affecting their life,'' she said. At that point, Jordan left to go stay with his father and, sometimes, his paternal grandmother. He attended Minor High School, where he was junior up until his arrest.

"I'm so hurt. This is real,'' Johnson said. "I don't think he understood that when you hang out with certain people and make certain choices, the consequences are real."

But that's not for a lack of trying. "He'd been informed, he'd been mentored, he had people encouraging him,'' she said. "He had so many people rooting for him and it just wasn't enough."

"Society does not applaud going to work. It does not applaud wearing New Balance tennis shoes, getting an education'' Johnson said. "And the media perpetuates a lifestyle of violence, because that is what sells."

She said she last talked with her son a week ago, but didn't know then that it was possibility he would be charged in his friend's death. However, when she saw news reports of an 18-year-old charged with murder in the death of his twin brother, also under the felony murder statute, who was shot while police say the pair was trying to steal a car. "Then I knew it, and I was waiting on it,'' she said. "A lot of these men are going to be made examples of because the crime rate is so high, but I can't say, 'he's innocent and he's my baby so they need to let him go.''

That doesn't, however, ease the pain.

"It hurts because he's 16 and, depending on the outcome, he may never go to prom, he'll never walk across the stage at graduation all because he wanted to make adult decisions," she said through tears. "I do not, nor have I ever condoned this lifestyle all I can do now is pray and I've told my child to do the same. May God keep him, cover him and continue to go where I can't. I love my child and I go to God on his behalf."

Johnson hopes by speaking out, she can spare another child, another family the same anguish. "To the men out there who have sons, please be mindful that they are always watching,'' she said. "When you give a child material things but lack tough love, the streets will continue to consume our children."

She also has a message for the youth. "You may get angry at your parents when they tell you 'no' but sometimes 'no' is love,'' she said. "There are options out there and somebody loves you. If something happens to you, somebody's going to mourn. Somebody's going to hurt. Somebody loves, and they're going to miss you."



When a strong man, fully armed, guards his own house, his possessions are undisturbed. Luke 11:21


"Every nation in every region now has a decision to make.
Either you are with us, or you are with the terrorists." -- George W. Bush

 
Posts: 14826 | Location: Birmingham, Alabama | Registered: February 25, 2009Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Member
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Taking ownership of your actions is a lesson in life. The mom understands both young men chose the wrong path, lesson learned.

What did the barber say?,"NEXT!"
 
Posts: 5768 | Location: west 'by god' virginia | Registered: May 30, 2009Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Striker in waiting
Picture of BurtonRW
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God bless that woman. Sounds like she kicked her own son out of her house to protect her other children from being exposed to his mistakes. That's tough love. I hope he appreciates it one day if he hasn't had that "come to Jesus" moment already.

-Rob




I predict that there will be many suggestions and statements about the law made here, and some of them will be spectacularly wrong. - jhe888

A=A
 
Posts: 16263 | Location: Maryland, AA Co. | Registered: March 16, 2006Reply With QuoteReport This Post
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It's easy to forget that in every demographic there are truly good people out there trying very hard to do the right thing. I appreciate the reminder.
 
Posts: 988 | Location: Tampa | Registered: July 27, 2010Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Nullus Anxietas
Picture of ensigmatic
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quote:
Originally posted by Bigboreshooter:
[i]There's nothing quite like the pain of a parent whose heart aches and worries for their child.

Birmingham mother Adrieene Johnson knows that all too well.

...
"Society does not applaud going to work. It does not applaud wearing New Balance tennis shoes, getting an education'' Johnson said.

A certain segment of society does not applaud those things, Mrs. Johnson.

The society in which I was raised did.

quote:
Originally posted by Bigboreshooter:
(Johnson) "And the media perpetuates a lifestyle of violence, because that is what sells."

A certain segment of the media perpetuates that lifestyle, Mrs. Johnson.

I do not watch those movies. I do not listen to that music. I find them abhorrent.

quote:
Originally posted by Bigboreshooter:
(Johnson) "A lot of these men are going to be made examples of because the crime rate is so high, but I can't say, 'he's innocent and he's my baby so they need to let him go.''

Good on you, Mrs. Johnson!

It's a shame. It sounds like she, and others around her, tried with this young thug. Sounds like she's succeeding with her other two boys.

quote:
Originally posted by DaveL:
It's easy to forget that in every demographic there are truly good people out there trying very hard to do the right thing. I appreciate the reminder.

+1



"America is at that awkward stage. It's too late to work within the system,,,, but too early to shoot the bastards." -- Claire Wolfe
"If we let things terrify us, life will not be worth living." -- Seneca the Younger, Roman Stoic philosopher
 
Posts: 26009 | Location: S.E. Michigan | Registered: January 06, 2008Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Move Up or
Move Over
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Good for the mom and hopefully her other 2 sons will stay on the correct path.

The author of that article needs to go take a 7th grade English class so she can learn proper sentence structure.

Their editor should be fired for letting that incredibly bad article be published as is...
 
Posts: 4954 | Location: middle Tennessee | Registered: October 28, 2008Reply With QuoteReport This Post
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Picture of John Steed
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quote:
... "As a young, black male in our society, you're going to go with what's flashy, what's appealing to other people."..."Society does not applaud going to work. It does not applaud wearing New Balance tennis shoes, getting an education'' Johnson said. "And the media perpetuates a lifestyle of violence, because that is what sells." ...
Popular media for young people certainly does glorify the gangsta lifestyle. It's not just black kids that go around with the crotch of their pants hanging down to their knees.

Teenage gangsters would laugh in your face if you told them they need to stay in school, learn a trade or get an entry-level job. I'm sure many of them make more than I do. They don't have long-term plans since they don't expect to live to be thirty.



... stirred anti-clockwise.
 
Posts: 2057 | Location: Michigan | Registered: May 24, 2009Reply With QuoteReport This Post
delicately calloused
Picture of darthfuster
posted Hide Post
The thug culture is glamorized in music, theatre, online and in social media. That makes it seductive to the young and inexperienced. That culture is destructive to all it touches. It is a blight on society; a predatory parasite. We see here a parent who did all she could to raise her son only to have him drawn to destruction by the Siren's song of thuggery. If it can happen to her, it can happen to anyone. That culture is the enemy.



You’re a lying dog-faced pony soldier
 
Posts: 29608 | Location: Highland, Ut. | Registered: May 07, 2008Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Just because you can,
doesn't mean you should
posted Hide Post
With a mother and two younger siblings like that, he must have had other issues to stray that far.
Too bad that mother doesn't get to raise a promising child that didn't have such good parenting.
On the other hand, it's easy to see why the dead kid ended up where he did.


___________________________
Avoid buying ChiCom/CCP products whenever possible.
 
Posts: 9456 | Location: NE GA | Registered: August 22, 2002Reply With QuoteReport This Post
quarter MOA visionary
Picture of smschulz
posted Hide Post
A bad kid can come e from good parents too, but the odds are better with good parenting. She has nothing to be ashamed of.
 
Posts: 22858 | Location: Houston, TX | Registered: June 11, 2006Reply With QuoteReport This Post
His Royal Hiney
Picture of Rey HRH
posted Hide Post
quote:
Originally posted by BurtonRW:
God bless that woman. Sounds like she kicked her own son out of her house to protect her other children from being exposed to his mistakes. That's tough love. I hope he appreciates it one day if he hasn't had that "come to Jesus" moment already.

-Rob


Yup. I actually started crying towards the end of reading what she said. It sounds like she did everything right that she could do. But in the end, you can only lead a horse to water. So I can feel her pain and I support her for her stand.

Quite a stark contrast to "But my baby boy was innocent. Innocent, I tell ya!"



"It did not really matter what we expected from life, but rather what life expected from us. We needed to stop asking about the meaning of life, and instead to think of ourselves as those who were being questioned by life – daily and hourly. Our answer must consist not in talk and meditation, but in right action and in right conduct. Life ultimately means taking the responsibility to find the right answer to its problems and to fulfill the tasks which it constantly sets for each individual." Viktor Frankl, Man's Search for Meaning, 1946.
 
Posts: 19583 | Location: The Free State of Arizona - Ditat Deus | Registered: March 24, 2011Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Age Quod Agis
Picture of ArtieS
posted Hide Post



"I vowed to myself to fight against evil more completely and more wholeheartedly than I ever did before. . . . That’s the only way to pay back part of that vast debt, to live up to and try to fulfill that tremendous obligation."

Alfred Hornik, Sunday, December 2, 1945 to his family, on his continuing duty to others for surviving WW II.
 
Posts: 12748 | Location: Central Florida | Registered: November 02, 2008Reply With QuoteReport This Post
half-genius,
half-wit
posted Hide Post
'RayRay Bonner III'

There isn't going to be a RayRay Bonner IV, that's for sure.

That mom did everything right, including kicking her POS son out of a great homelife that seems to have offered him everything he could ever have wanted, except maybe $200 Nikes and droop-assed pants.

Made his choices, and now he has to live with them.

!00% no sympathy there for either him or his now-dead pal.

Good shoot, Mr Citizen.

tac
 
Posts: 11305 | Location: UK, OR, ONT | Registered: July 10, 2003Reply With QuoteReport This Post
The Velvet Voicebox
posted Hide Post
Seen this personally a few times. What Tac said. Next.



"All great things are simple, and many can be expressed in single words: freedom, justice, honor, duty, mercy, hope."

--Sir Winston Churchill

"The world is filled with violence. Because criminals carry guns, we decent law-abiding citizens should also have guns. Otherwise they will win and the decent people will lose."

--James Earl Jones



 
Posts: 7652 | Location: KCMO | Registered: August 31, 2002Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Bunch of savages
in this town
Picture of ASKSmith
posted Hide Post
I feel for this woman.

On the other hand, I honestly think a huge issue in our country is kids raised without a father figure. They don't respect authority, because they never had it.

I'm married, with 2 teenage kids. We have a great relationship, and my kids know if they don't respect our rules, it will get ugly.

Too many kids being brought into this world without a plan for their lives, and that effects the rest of society.


-----------------
I apologize now...
 
Posts: 10552 | Registered: December 30, 2007Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Frangas non Flectes
Picture of P220 Smudge
posted Hide Post
Where was the father? From what I'm reading, one can infer that daddy was a bit of a thug and bailed after making just enough of that impression and nothing more.


______________________________________________
Carthago delenda est
 
Posts: 17059 | Location: Sonoran Desert | Registered: February 10, 2011Reply With QuoteReport This Post
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Picture of SIG 229R
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My Grandmother always told us that you were classed the same as the type of people you associated with and, one of her favorite sayings was "Go to bed with dogs and you wake up with fleas".


SigP229R
Harry Callahan "A man has got to know his limitations".
Teddy Roosevelt "Talk soft carry a big stick"
I Cor10: 13 "1611KJV"
 
Posts: 6066 | Registered: March 04, 2007Reply With QuoteReport This Post
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