Cardi B says the killing of Javits Frimpong, the 15 year old shot on his way to school in the Bronx, is the reason she will never raise a child in the borough where she grew up.
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“What happened to Javits is the reason why I will never raise a kid in the Bronx,” Cardi said on Instagram Live. “I will never raise a kid in Harlem. I will never raise a kid in Washington Heights.” She said she does not know much about Brooklyn or Queens, but she was clear on one thing: “I swear to God, I will never raise no kid in a New York public school.”
Cardi spoke from her own childhood. She said growing up in the hood in New York is about survival, and she called the advice every kid hears, that minding your business keeps trouble away, a lie. She said the cruelty starts early. “It don’t start when you in middle school. It don’t start when you in high school,” she said, explaining that kids in the city start picking on each other as early as first grade.
Then she tied bullying to what comes after it. “What does bullying makes you do?” she asked. “That makes you want to join a gang.” Cardi described how a kid who is constantly picked on by a group goes looking for a group of their own so people stop messing with them. “Because that’s practically what happened to me,” she said, calling it a full chain that keeps feeding itself.
Javits’ father believes bullying led to his son’s death. Javits Frimpong was shot once in the abdomen just before 9:30 a.m. Thursday, October 29, near East 171st Street and Crotona Place in the Claremont section of the Bronx. He was walking to DreamYard Preparatory School. Officers drove him to St. Barnabas Hospital in their patrol car, and he was pronounced dead there. He had moved from Ghana about a year earlier to live with his father, Thomas Frimpong.
Thomas Frimpong says the principal told him three days before the shooting that two students had been suspended for a week for bullying Javits. He says his son told him one boy picked on him every time he went to lunch, and that Javits had reported it several times. Police are searching for three teenage boys between 16 and 18 who were last seen in all black clothing and blue surgical masks. No arrests have been made. Police have not confirmed any connection between the bullying and the shooting.
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A Boogie Wit Da Hoodie, also from the Bronx, stopped his show Friday night at UBS Arena in Elmont, New York, to honor Javits Frimpong. With the teen’s photo on the big screen, he told the crowd, “He just came here from Africa to America about a year ago, and he passed away due to a gunshot wound. So let’s give a moment of silence to him.” The arena went quiet before he went back into his set. The show was part of his 10 Years of Artist Tour, which opened at UBS Arena the same day Javits was killed.
Michael Blackson, who is Ghanaian American, said he was bullied too. He plans to visit high schools to talk with students, especially kids who came from other countries, about speaking up and getting through it. Ghanaian rapper Sarkodie mourned Javits Frimpong and urged parents to do better in how they raise their children.
Bronx Congressman Ritchie Torres also spoke on the killing. “Javits came to the Bronx from Ghana just a year ago to join his father and begin a new life here,” he said. Ghana’s ambassador to the United States is calling for a full investigation and says justice must be served.
Javits’ mother is still in Ghana, and the family is working to bring her to New York so they can lay him to rest. His father describes him as a quiet, clever kid who went to school every day and spent his evenings at home. “The school can testify my son is always quiet. Always,” Thomas Frimpong said.
