Jamar Pinkney, Sr.While everyone is abuzz about the movie "Precious" (which I admit I haven't seen yet but, intend to) and the fact that it touches on incest and abuse, a friend of mine brought a horrible crime to my attention that occurred in Detroit last week.
Lazette Cherry (so she says) only wanted to help her son, Jamar Pinkney Jr., when she called his father and shared some of the most disturbing news she ever had heard. Jamar, 15, had confessed to her that he had inappropriate sexual contact with his 3 year old half-sister in his father's home in Newport on Detroit's east side. Cherry said... "I called and told his father that this isn't something you can just sweep under the rug."
Jamar Pinkney, Sr. showed up at Cherry's house in Highland Park with a gun. "He started beating him right here", Cherry said from her living room. "I said... No, please stop!" But, the father marched Jamar, a sophomore at King High School, outside. “He got on his knees and begged, "No, Daddy! No!" and he pulled the trigger, Cherry said from her home on North Street in Highland Park. “There wasn’t nothing that my son wouldn’t do for his father. He loved his father so much.” Jamar was shot once in the head and Pinkney was charged in 30th District Court in Highland Park with one count of first-degree murder, three counts of felonious assault, and one count of felony firearm.
When I was told about this horrible family tragedy, I was then asked if I would have shot my son under the same type of circumstances. My answer... ABSOLUTELY NOT! I do find what the son did, horrible, yes... but, what the father did was ten times worse. What made him think that he was making the situation better by beating and then killing the son? This is the type of idiot that shouldn't have had a gun, period.
Yeah, I know what some of you are probably saying... "What if it was your daughter, Keith?" and you know what? My answer remains the same... I would not have killed MY SON! Okay? Got it? I would have called the cops and had him arrested. I would have tried to get him psychiatric help because clearly, that's what the boy was in need of for what he did to his half-sister. But, to kill him? And then, by doing so, throw my own life away so that now my daughter has no father is just reprehensible to me.
There are guys out there who feel as though what this guy did was right. They'll even say that this was some kind of "street justice." Death row and solitary confinement is filled with guys who think the same way and I'll bet you, if you go and talk to 99% of the lifers and guys waiting to get a needle now, they'll tell you that if they had it to do over again, they might have reacted differently.
All I can do is just shake my head at the unfathomable stupidity, cruelty, and unnecessary violence involved in this case. The mother is now left with the guilt of knowing that she indirectly caused all of this and the father (if that's what you want to call him) has killed one of his children and left a wife and a daughter scarred for life. He has also doomed himself to spending the rest of his life behind bars. Michigan doesn't have a death penalty and, actually, I'm glad. The torture of the coming years of having to sit and contemplate what he did and of never seeing sunlight or moonlight again will be more than sufficient punishment for him. A quick and painless death would be too easy for him.
I am just angry and flabbergasted by the senseless violence and stupidity inbred in our macho culture that justifies such acts and makes what this man did "understandable" to some people. Me, I don't understand it. I'm not going to pretend to understand this and, furthermore, I don't ever want to understand it.
7 comments:
I don't understand... I still can't really understand why a father could kill his own son? This is really shocking...
I agree with you. There was no way I would have killed my son. We would have had an intense discussion about what was going through his mind for him to do his helpless and innocent sister like that. Then I would have put him in therapy, but to kill him solves nothing.
Keith, this story is absolutely incredible. I had not heard anything about it. I want to google and read more.
It's so very sad, but I'm with you. I would not kill my son. There was obvious some mental issues here.....
Prayers to the victim & family, including the father.
PS I saw Precious w/my son. Great movie, but I didn't like the ending.
Let me know what you think after seeing it!
Love, peace and blessings!
I feel the same way Keith, i will never understand it...nothing in me can or will.
Keith, we don't understand these things because we know LOVE in its primary form, the love of God for creation and the created. We must pray that this father and other young women like Precious become exceptions to the rule, instead of common everyday people roaming the world. This level of violence should be our wakr up call.
**Keith, go see the movie. This is one of the few times that I would suggest seeing a movie before reading a book. Push, the book, is something unto itself. The movie did not include some of the background which would have explained some of the behaviors of the characters.
Now don't we all have plenty to be thankful for.
When I first heard about this senseless murder I got a little teary. I can't believe a man would be this enraged by that he would murder his own son.
Such a tragic story.
Wow, this is sad, The child wanted help if he confessed what he did to his mama.
It almost makes me wonder if there was something going on when he visited his father.
The father obviously had some deep problems--There is more to this story and think some lies on the father.
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