[Mpls] "Teenager pleads guilty to..." Trib, 9-22

[wmmarks]

This story in the Strib Metro Section, 9/22 was inevitable. Johntaye 
Hudson, age 17, with Jermaine Ferguson (age 20), and Kentrell Green (age 
24) went to an apartment in 25XX 12th Av.So. intending to kill a man who 
had beaten up a friend of theirs. They broke into an apartment and 
killed a Mr. Papasodora. Hudson pleaded guilty to second degree 
intentional murder and first degree attempted murder. At sentencing 
October 10, he will probably be awarded 39 yrs, 11 mo. in a state prison.

Johntaye Hudson is cousin to Jermaine Ferguson. Johntaye is also a boy I 
know. He hung out at the library for a few years during those months he 
lived with his grandmother. I've closely observed several of the 
Ferguson/Turnipseed clan over the years; this clan is the dominant 
element of the Rolling Thirties Bloods gang.

When Johntaye came to the library, we could tell within ten minutes 
whether he was living with his grandmother (in which case he was 
interested in what the library had to offer, contributed to helping the 
other kids have a good time at events, talked sweetly, and smiled 
beatifically) or living with his mother (in which case he was hungry, 
combative, and disruptive). He confided to me that his mother was "on 
the pipe" (crack addict). His brother, legally an adult, who was 
supposed to be helping Johntaye, was not a good influence, his father 
absent. His grandmother tried to keep him, but she has failing health 
and could not always manage to cope with a boy and his adult brother on 
her income.

Johntaye doesn't read well, but he likes Langston Hughes. At a poetry 
workshop he sat in the back of the room (he's a big kid, both tall and 
wide of shoulder) and interjected, "I want to say something." At the end 
of the workshop, when Roy Woodstrom asked what he wanted to say, he 
stood up and recited "I, too, Sing America" by Langston Hughes. The 
other kids were stunned. They went wild with approval, clapping and 
cheering.

It's the crushing inevitability of this predictable outcome from being 
born into a toxic clan that breaks the heart. From early in his life his 
environment built, inch by inch, this lethal boy. He is emotionally 
retarded. He's not the brightest boy ever brought into the world. He can 
barely read, hardly write, and other than basic arithmetic involved in 
using money, he has no skill there either. His social skills are 
minimal. I've caught him lifting food at the SA. He thinks the Harry 
Potter movies are "Great, just great." He can get in close to your face 
and try to intimidate you.

Maybe some of his teachers cared. Certainly we cared at the library. For 
awhile one of the men in the neighborhood cared, but that may not have 
been sustained care. Angelo at the gym cared. This falls far short of 
what was necessary to counter the magnetic pull of that toxic clan.

We have no adequate mechanisms here in Minneapolis to prevent a lot more 
cases like Johntaye Hudson, Jermaine Ferguson, and Kendall Green. They 
are part of a prolific clan. I watched one Ferguson die in the gutter. 
I've read the Strib about several other Ferguson clan members murdered 
or tried and imprisoned. I've endured them as neighbors. I've paid for 
their vandalism. I've pried their bullets out of garages. I've watched 
them produce children and subject them to the only life they know. Yet 
the spark of humanity was still there in Johntaye, somehow accessible 
for a moment, two-three years ago.

I, too, sing America.// I am the darker brother,/ They send me to eat in 
the kitchen/ When company comes,/ But I laugh,/ And eat well,/ And grow 
strong. // Tomorrow, I'll be at the table/ When company comes,/ 
Nobody'll dare/ Say to me./ "Eat in the kitchen,"/ Then. // Besides,/ 
They'll see how beautiful I am/ And be ashamed--/ I, too, am America.

WizardMarks, Central