| This face just disappointed a lot of people. |
Nelson Hopkins Sr. is the kind of story you want to believe in. After his son was murdered, this ex-con became an activist running Pardon & Parole Negotiations LLC from a small office on East 12th Street. He also started Operation Promised Land, dreaming that he could repopulate and rebuild the East Side with the reformed convicts who once tore it down. Former Pitch staff writer Nadia Pflaum wrote a definitive feature story on Hopkins last year. Working with his family, Hopkins fielded dozens of requests every week from people in trouble who hoped he could help.
Then this morning, Barb Shelley over at the Star broke the news that Hopkins was arrested last week in Blue Springs, and he now faces a charge of first-degree robbery.
This wouldn't be the first time that Hopkins Sr. robbed someone. When he was 20, he did two years for knocking over a QuikTrip. He missed most of his son's life because he spent 12 years in prison for robbing restaurants. By the time he was released and got to know Nelson Hopkins Jr., his son was already 15. The boy was shot and killed two years later while walking home from a bus stop, a college application in his pocket.
Operation Promise Land issued this statement on the arrest.
While the Board of Directors is saddened and disappointed by the recent arrest and allegations of robbery against Nelson Hopkins Sr., we are at the same time emboldened and recommitted to the organization and its goal of creating a safer and more productive community by building more cohesive and stronger neighborhoods, helping young people to understand and practice the practical aspects of participatory and active citizenship, and working closely with elected and appointed officials to assist in becoming collaborative partners with residents both east and west of Troost Ave.
Those are noble goals. It'll be a shame if Hopkins misses out on those, too.
Follow The Pitch on Facebook and on Twitter @pitchplog and Peter Rugg on Twitter @petermrugg
Showing 1-18 of 18
You can take a thug out of the hood. But you can't take the hood out of a thug.
Ms. Z... When things don't make sense to us we tend to not wrap our minds around the possibility of anything! Unfortunately, the world and country we all live in does not simply operate the way we "think" it should. Overall, I am not in the least bit going to try and disect the allegations, because there is no room for that. In America we look at people for the transformation, instead of looking at the situation and how we will make it better. I commend Mr. Nelson Hopkins Sr for his efforts and commitment to what he believes will help. Why are you "nae-sayers" looking for perfection out of this individual. That's not his message, becoming a perfect individual or being without sin. Rather or not Mr. Nelson committed the offense alleged or not, what is the message? It is possible that with all the opposition he may have snapped, it is also possible you people that have an objection to an ex-convicted black man actually making a damn difference in the city you sat back and watched the crimes continue. You have the audacity to sit in your cyber world and comment? Your comments are invaluable and rebuked, you are apart of the problem, not helping the solution. As for the [disciples] that believe in Nelson's words and are committed to helping and improving your community wherever you are, it is greatly appreciate by his friends, family and Spectators. Everybody needs to be pushed when they want to throw in the towel or if they back-slide, we aren't to use this opportunity as a roasting session, IMPOWERMENT is what is key, in every aspect of the situation. Pray for this brother without cease, he'll make it.
Edward, I remember Nelson and his younger brother from elementary school (Franklin). It is tragic what has happen to him and is family over the last 20 yrs.
I decline to indulge in any personal confrontation of words or deeds. My objective for responding in this article, which is a common point of interest to us all despite our views, is to use Nelson's situation as an opportunity for us to better understand how someone we believe in may regress or let us down, and use that information as indicators to both guard ourselves against depravement/disappointment and to take a closer look at what (possible) signs of personal problems some trustee is probably exhitibing for the purpose of getting that person help prior to them hurting someone! So many times we only visually watch and follow people (as if their on a tv screen-at a distance), as they pursue what we only daydream of being apart of. In reality we await their fall. Jesus Christ said, "He that is not with Me is agaist Me; and he who does not take part with Me in getting people together, is driving them away". I do not encourage anyone to support a fake, but support a worthy cause!
Just think if he hadn't got caught doing armed robbery he might have been able to continue the sham and charade long enough to graduate to extortion and blackmail .... like his heros Jesse "who's your daddy" Jackson and Al "Tawana Brawley's Pimp" Sharptongue.
There is a difference for having regrets for mistakes that aren't crimes and regrets that you got caught and went to jail for being a criminal. How anyone can "sympathize" with a criminal is beyond me but I guess it runs in your family gene pool Edward J Turner...tell us have you done prison time too?
"He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone..." The gospel according to John. While I certainly do not condone any act of violence I do sympathize with both those who make the mistake of victimizing others and those that such acts of violence has been protrayed upon. My position is not to justify the lawless, but to simply aver that every human being has done something for which they regret (even repeatedly). Though the crime Nelson may (or may not) have committed is indeed out of his character to so many of us, it is not out of the ordinary! And such being done, once unraveled, contains solutions to better prevent reoccurances.
"Why" and "How".....????????????????? Are you f'ing kidding me?????
"Why?"- Because he is a thug piece of s*** who doesn't give two s***s about working for his money and hides his thugness behind his "reformed" life.
"How" is he gets an air-soft, real looking, pistol, walks into a business AND ROBS IT!!!!!! Pretty straightforward.
Edward Turner: — Jun 20, 20117:56 p.m.A very unexplainable event. Nelson is my cousin and a dear friend. What’s needed now for any proponent against crime or for those who simply support Nelson and what he stand/stood for, is to quickly come to the fullest awareness of the “Why” and the “How” Nelson has found himself in such a state and place! The answer(s) will be in itself the most direct way to oust out crime and extend the necessary hand to those troubled and in danger of committing offenses!
If you claim to be an anti-crime activist, but commit crimes, I am not sure what other term would be more appropriate. I can appreciate him owning up to his mistakes and if he is guilty, I hope he owns up to this one.
We aren't victims of the crime, but we are victims of the hypocrisy because we wanted to believe in this story. I remember reading the piece in The Pitch and feeling good about someone trying to make a difference. I can respect the positive things he accomplished, but it is going to make it that much tougher for the next person who wants to do the same thing. That is the person I feel bad for.
I get that. I don't know if I'd go quiet so far as to call him a hypocrite - he did own a lot of his past mistakes, and I think that for a while he was genuinely trying to do something good. But who knows what was going through his head, or how he ended up thinking he needed to rob again. I'm very curious how this will shake out, and what the explanation is.
People being hypocritical can disappoint us without us necessarily feeling bad for them, right?
At the same time, it is similar to a politician that is openly anti-gay rights being caught in bed with a man. I am far more sympathetic towards someone who makes mistakes if they are not also a hypocrite.
Once a savage, always a savage. When are these people going to step out of the dark ages and join us in the 21st century?
I agree, if he's guilty he's clearly not reformed. That's why I think it's a shame, because in the last few years he'd started some organizations that were doing some good with other people - a lot of whom didn't have criminal backgrounds - and I hate to see good work or potential lost.
It'll be a shame if he misses out? What's a shame is that clearly this guy hasn't learned from his mistakes and is now repeating them. It's a sad story and it's a shame his kid got killed for nothing, nobody deserves that. But clearly this guy isn't the reformed character he and the Pitch wants you to believe he is. Kind of like the Markus Lee story.
like
dislike
