Bad parenting makes bad children; Aimee Michael and Jonathan Redding
Sunday, May 24, 2009 at 08:48AM
This post was to be about how too many of us continue to see ourselves through eyes of enslaved Africans. We continue to say how the white man stole or bought Black people in Africa and carried them packed like sardines in the holes of slaving vessels. And, how we continue to put ourselves into a bent over posture, because we are not aware we are giving the pale face way too much power.
This post was to be about how we make the pale face a god by believing he could transport, and sustain millions of living human beings for a three month voyage across the Atlantic without running water, refrigeration, bathroom facilities or medical care.
This post was to explain how the idea of such an undertaking as to transport hundreds of millions of people across the sea in the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries is an expanded tale and we should stop giving so much power to the pale face, for he has never been that powerful.
But, this post was interrupted by the evening news as I was writing it caught my attention concerning a murderer that murdered for the sake of murder in the Grant Park area of Atlanta and a letter his mother wrote and sent to the District Attorney. Then, Aimee Michael, her mother, and Aimee’s Easter Day carnival of death on Camp Creek Parkway popped into my brain.
In January, a white* bartender was killed while closing up for the night. A robbing crew, that the Atlanta Police Department is calling a gang, broke out the glass door of the bar, entered with guns drawn, demanding money and killing Atlanta bartender, 27 year old John Henderson. This month, 17 year old Jonathan Redding was arrested and indicted for the murder of Mr.
Henderson. Redding was involved in a home invasion a couple days after the murder of John Henderson, carrying the same pistol used in the murder of Henderson. Redding kicked in the front door of a Southwest Atlanta home, and was immediately met with AK-47 7.62 rounds hitting him in the shoulder, he dropped the 9mm pistol along with his blood. The blood left behind at the scene of the home invasion was taken and used as DNA evidence that lead to the arrest of Redding for the murder of John Henderson.
Easter 2009, Aimee Michael was to run to the store to pick up some ice cream for her mother and grand mother. Somehow she ended up on Camp Creek Parkway. Camp Creek Parkway is a very long and wide road that runs directly into the Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport, so speeds can legally reach 55 miles per hour. Ms. Michael’s 740 BMW struck the Mercedes of Robert and Dalisia Carter. Carter lost control, crossed the divide and slammed head on into the VW Beatle of Tracy Johnson and her 6 year old daughter. The crash killed Robert Carter, Dalisia Carter, and their two children. Tracy Johnson survived but, her 6 year old daughter was killed in the Volkswagen.
Aimee Michael fled the scene, leaving all the victims to die. Now, here’s the rub. The parents of these beings are making excuses and covering up their children’s heinous acts.
In the case of Jonathan Redding his mother wrote a ridiculous letter to a local Atlanta news station, stating 17 year old Jonathan “is not the monster that he has been portrayed to be but was in the wrong place at the wrong time. Jonathan has strong family values and ties, and we feel he is currently a victim of the judicial system.”
What the hell??? I could not believe the family had the audacity to produce and release this statement
“…Jonathan is not a monster…in the wrong place at the wrong time…strong family values…currently a victim of the judicial system” are they kidding? This being has a tattoo on his face of the alleged gang he claims, and we are to believe he was in the wrong place at the wrong time?
He shot a man that contributed to the man’s death and that man has a family that now misses him and will never see him again. So, the Redding family really needs to explain what the definition of family values are for themselves and Jonathan. Jonathan is a monster Redding family, and you raised him. You created this situation Jonathan now lives in. Jonathan is a victim of your family injustice system.
There is no reason a 17 year old boy should be running around the city at all hours of the night with a gun, with the explicit intent to harm other citizens. The Redding family is a horrible example of the societal decay which is slowly becoming the norm. I don’t know whether or not Jonathan had a dad living or dead, but its apparent he has some sort of family. But, we know Aimee Michael has a full family unit including a dad in the house and in her life, so what will be the statistical data to validate her bloody act?
Aimee Michael, is a 22 year old graduate of the University of Pittsburg, was headed to Wake Forrest to begin a master’s program to further her education. Yet, an Easter Sunday run to the store, careless driving changed her fate and she became the confessed killer of five people including three children. Aimee knows she hit the Mercedes, saw the car cross the center divide and strike the Volkswagen and what does young Ms. Michael do? She puts the pedal to the metal and heads home to Ma and Grandma (dad was away working overseas when the accident occured.) She is said to have told them, upon her return, that she had a headache and immediately went to her room and shut the door. For two weeks the city of Atlanta and all the surrounding counties in Metro Atlanta were in a search for the missing BMW 740 that Aimee later confessed started the chain of events. While the search is on Aimee calls an auto body shop, takes the car in, pays a deposit. Later, Sheila Michael pays off the balance for repairs to the BMW to cover up her daughter's part in the crime. Sheila Michael, a 52 year old, second grade teacher in the public school system, the mother of Aimee did not turn here daughter in, did not pay a retainer to an attorney for legal advice about her daughter's crime, no she paid to cover up her daughter's crime. What kind of people are they? Why would supposedly right thinking people do such a thing? Ms. Michael would you tell us please?
There is no statistical data to confirm the reason for the acts of these children and the response of their families. The data doesn’t back the actions for the Michael’s actions. We could easily deduce that Jonathan Redding is a victim of the statistics that we often hear of, but actually there's not much information about who comprises Redding’s family to pin the “no father in the home” statistic label as the reason for his action. But, we know this doesn’t fit Aimee Michael’s family profile. Quite simply these are bad parents that have always excused and covered their bad children's bad actions, even until the deaths of innocent children at the hands of their bad children. Shameful.
*I mentiion that John Henderson is white, because immediatly after his demise the caucasians in the Grant Park neighborhood organized a candlelight vigil with the city counselman of their district in response to his brutal murder. I believe this only occured because Henderson's death was by the hands of a Black boy. Not often do whites protest the death of one of their own when its by the hands of another white man.
Reader Comments (7)
{shudder, groan} I don't understand ANY of the creatures involved in these atrocities. Neither the breeders (I can't quite call them "parents") nor their spawn.
How does any "parent" have a spawn living in their home with a tatoo on its face? Particularly, an underage spawn with a tatoo on its face? And then, how does such a creature form its lips to complain about the media coverage of its spawn's atrocities?
How does any "parent" aid and abet a spawn whose actions caused the death of not just one person (which is one too many), but of MULTIPLE people? In the case of the multiple slayings inflicted by way of luxury auto, I hope the spawn's mother is arrested.
All of this highlights the fact that there are MANY sociopaths walking among us. Many of whom don't fit the previously-identified profile (fatherless, poor, uneducated, blah, blah, blah).
Peace, blessings and solidarity.
As for the young man who killed the man in the restaurant I guess I'm just astonished by the family's reaction. I know I shouldn't be, but every time one of these family members come out in defense of this depravity I'm left shaking my head. My parents always told us that if we got in trouble for defending ourselves or someone else, they'd be there for us, otherwise, we were on our own. I saw a similar video of a father defending his son after he threw a 3 mo infant out of the car. The crazy thing is, I can understand the actions of the perpetrators better than I can that of the family members standing up for them. Much as I love my son, if he ever does anything like this, I can't imagine doing anything other than apologizing profusely for having produced such a monster.
@Rosyln, thank you for stopping by and leaving a comment. I am really attempting to sort out this type of mentality. I remember an occasion (I was much much younger) when my brother had gotten into trouble, and I even called the police station and lied to the detective working my brother's case. My father had always told us to tell him the truth no matter how bad it was. Now I must admit this trouble had to do with my brother breaking into cars and not murder. However when the detective calls your parents it feels just as awful. Anyhow, we confessed to my father every detail of what happened. My father then called the detective and told him of every detail we supplied and that he would bring us down. At that point the detective reversed course and told my father that, he wouldn't have to do that. All he wanted was truth. Now, if my father had done what Mrs. Michael had done my brother and I would have been looking at felonies on our record for what white folk term "boyhood indiscretions", but my father did the honorable thing. He didn't once try to cover for us. What has changed in the past 20 plus years or so?
in the case ot aimee michael, looks to me that her parents spoiled her rotten and gave her everything she wanted...Why else would a "mother" cover up the fct thatr her child killed 5 people?
in the case of johnathan redding, it seems to be a clissic case of the "hood" mentality...no matterwhat, never turn on your family...even if they killed 50 people, never turn your back....lie for them if you have to, just dont "snitch"
i dot want ot spend too much time on these people...they are not worth it....but i do feel a little sorry for the young boy...only 17 and trying to be grown....now his ass gotta pay a grown man consequences...i'm wondering if he had ANY kind of positive male influence in his life
Probably not
EB, You said it all. Look at the actions of her mother and grandmother, though the grandmother was not charged with a crime.
A septuagenarian black man related his relationship with John to me, and their bond was a link to Baltimore. If anything, his conclusion that John was simply a "fine young man" doesn't need the addition of the phrase "for a white boy" to make it more profound and in any way unbelievable. Indeed, a homeless man gave similar testiony about John when he said that John was one of the very few who looked past his condition and simply treated him like a human being.
I suggest to you and to your readers that the vigils in Atlanta immediately following John's death, the twenty or so Atlantans who joined the over six hundred mourners at John's funeral, the two facebook pages, the two dozen pages of his obituary guestbook, the additional hundreds who came to Six Feet Under two weeks after his death to wake him, and all the cards and letters that his family has received -- and continue to receive -- since these events point to the fact that John was more than a white man. He was someone special, and it was John who attracted these people to memorialize him, not the fact that he was killed by a black teenager who should have been home doing his homework.