Nurse the Hate: The One Direction Wallet

 
--> CLEVELAND, Ohio -- An 18-year-old Cleveland man is accused in the armed carjacking of two suburban teenage girls he met through Instagram.  Jontrell Crockett and two others used the popular social media platform to "lure" two girls, a 16 year old from Independence and a 15 year old, to a corner store at East 153rd Street and Kinsman Road Friday afternoon, according to court documents.

The girls drove there after school to meet a teen they only knew through Instagram as "Ray Ray," according to a Cleveland police report. Police did not specify if they believe Crockett posed as Ray Ray, or if it was one of the other two men.  Ray Ray then told them to park behind a gray sedan farther down East 153rd Street. As the girls pulled up, Ray Ray and two others walked up to their car. One pulled out a revolver, the report says.

When the 16-year-old girl tried to start the car, the assailant pressed the gun against the 15 year old's head and told them both to get out of the car, the report said. The men then jumped in the car and drove north on East 153rd Street back toward Kinsman.  The men also stole the girls' backpacks, which were filled with school books, and the girls' iPhones. One girl lost her reading glasses, and the other lost her One Direction wallet.
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Let that sink in for a moment...


 While I think we can all agree that these young ladies exhibited poor judgement driving to what could charitably called “a really shitty neighborhood” to meet someone from social media known as “Ray Ray”, I’m sure that they never would have envisioned losing their One Direction wallet.  What kind of depraved scum steals a young woman’s One Direction wallet?  Her Dad’s Buick?  That’s collateral damage in this risky game called love.  Even having a pistol put to one’s head over their Trapper Keeper in their trusty backpack is forgivable.  Yet to steal someone’s One Direction wallet is to lose all semblance of order.  That is something you just don’t do.


I remember just a few weeks ago when I was dining out with friends at Chez Francois.  We had enjoyed an outstanding Duck a’la orange with a transcendent Romanee Conti 1990 when the bill arrived.  It was going to be a hefty bill for the feast we had just enjoyed, and each of us were insisting on paying the check.  It can often be embarrassing in that type of situation.  Voices became raised and insistence became more urgent.  However, when I pulled out my One Direction wallet and announced “I’ve got this.”, the entire restaurant grew silent.  They knew I was somebody.  That One Direction wallet announced to all, this is a man of means.


I don’t know what these ladies had in mind with their rendezvous with “Ray Ray”.  I admire their adventurous spirit.  To drive into an area that features daily gang shootings to enjoy the company of “Ray Ray” and his cadre of amusing companions is indeed perilous.  Yet, who could have ever predicted that such a journey would have ended so badly?  What could have possibly led them to think anything could have stopped them from launching an exciting new relationship at East 153rd and Kinsman?  We can never know for certain the discussion that led to this disastrous loss of the One Direction wallet.  Perhaps it went like this:

Girls:  Ur hot
Ray Ray:  Y don’t ya meet me
Girls:  I dunno.  Where?
Ray Ray:  In the scariest neighborhood you can imagine
Girls:  OK we will come, but will my One Direction wallet be OK?


Jontrell “Ray Ray” Crocket is but a man.  A flawed young man with dreams that went crazy when he heard about that One Direction wallet.  Perhaps the jury will feel pity for Jontrell (aka “Ray Ray”) when they see with their own eyes the splendor of that One Direction wallet.  Perhaps they will look at the glowing image of that supergroup emblazoned on the synthetic material and wonder how a young man from poverty could have ever stopped himself from doing whatever he needed to do to make that One Direction wallet his own.  Not me though.  I know how precious that One Direction wallet is to its owner.  Ray Ray must learn to respect the One Direction wallet.  Only then can he say he is rehabilitated and re-enter society.


This is a violent city, but only now do I consider it a place without basic human decency.  Those crazy kids chasing love might have thrown caution to the wind.  Maybe they took a crazy risk.  Maybe a little bit of the human spirit died that day.  I don’t know.  But I do know this.  You can take a gal’s affection, but don’t take her One Direction wallet you goddamn monster.