Paris Cherry: At The Forefront Of Fraudulence

Many of you in the Blackstonian Fam know that I, Jamarhl Crawford, have been personally attacked by Paris Cherry on numerous occasions via facebook. I have tried to manage his outbursts privately as I know it is symptomatic of what to me are clearly displayed mental issues.  After about his 4th tirade I blocked him from facebook and therefore cannot see his frequent rants. However, from time to time, people let me know either on facebook or in private conversations that Paris continues to bring my name up with a host of accusations which would be laughable if he wasn’t spreading this misinformation so far & wide.  I have attempted to have conversations with him to no avail, as he always promises to keep my name out of his mouth and then without fail, a few weeks later here comes another salvo.  I have not addressed him publicly as a shark rarely acknowledges a remora fish. In this case this is not about me or even Paris’ vivid imagination which makes him important enough to be my nemesis.

As I always strive to do, this is about principle. Paris Cherry is a problem in the community. Many who have had dealings with him can attest to his personality which swings from reasonably normal to paranoid delusions where the world is out to get him because no one wants to see him shine. He also often laments that people are just hating because he has all the answers and the reason we have been unable to stop the violence is because Paris is not in charge.  It becomes a larger problem when Cherry speaks in front of audiences or publicly through the media. The problem is simply that Paris Cherry is a fraud. Paris wants attention and wants to be recognized as a go to guy and major player. He wants to be in charge on the frontlines, unfortunately, Cherry is only at the forefront of fraudulence.

Anti-Violence & Peace Advocate???

There are many people who have had interactions with Paris which inevitably go sour. When that happens Paris adopts a very strange position of creating beef and engaging in “gangsta talk” and threats.  When I confronted Paris about his wild accusations about me, he threatened me by saying “I got young shooters out here” translation: I have young people who I can send to shoot you if you continue to disagree with me. This is a very interesting statement and one that seems to be part of his schtick as he has made the same threat to several people. “I got young shooters” is a sad threat from a person who proclaims to work with youth, promotes peace and anti-violence. You mean to tell me that you are threatening people with the very at-risk youth that you proclaim to be helping?  This is disturbing because here we have an adult male, threatening other adults and putting the youth in the middle of a death threat.  This is further disturbing because Paris has about as much street cred as Justin Beiber and in my experience threats like those said to the wrong person and taken seriously can lead to dangerous altercations, bodily injury or even death. The old saying says: “Don’t let your mouth write a check your behind can’t cash.”

Exploiting Tragedy???

Recently, Paris Cherry has been on Television and in the Newspaper following the tragic murder of Jonathan Dos Santos who was shot while riding his bike around Fuller St. in Dorchester. Cherry has spoken about a 2 year relationship with Jonathan in which he coached the young man and mentored him and had several deep and meaningful conversations about life. None of this is true. Cherry only met Dos Santos approx. 2 months before his tragic death. Paris Cherry hasn’t even been with the Boston Tigers program where Jonathan played Basketball for 2 years. This brings up a very disturbing element of Paris’ dysfunction. To insert himself in such a tragic event and completely fabricate a relationship with this young man is not only disrespectful to the young man (RIP) and his family but it is part of a larger deception that Cherry is attempting to perpetrate.  You’ve heard the saying “Fake it ’til you make it?” Cherry takes this literally. Paris wants to be seen as a major player in anti-violence work, so to that end, he has now made up a story which puts him in close proximity with a recent victim and therefore in his mind this can validate him in the eyes of the community.

More to come???

There is much more I could go into here, but I want to keep this to these two points:
1) Paris Cherry is threatening violence to many members of the community via his “young shooters” which is a betrayal to youth work, peace work, anti-violence work and can potentially put the young people he “works with” in jeopardy.
2) Paris has completely fabricated his relationship with Jonathan Dos Santos in a sad attempt to validate himself and bolster his own image.

Recommendations

I can only suggest to my community that you limit your contact with Paris Cherry as much as possible. If you have a program or event you are working on I would suggest that you do not include him or at least talk with some folks before you let him in your program or give him access to any of your youth. For the friends and family of Paris Cherry , this has gone on for far too long. If you really care about Paris, you need to get him some help whether counseling or medication. We always talk about mental health in our community but often are reluctant to reel in those who display mental dysfunction in our community despite the fact that several people have had these negative interactions.