I never thought it would go this far.
Hundreds of pages spanning multiple forums. A countless number of photoshop meme's. I think as of right now the total views across all the forums is nearing 200,000 views. James Paredes has become somewhat of a celebrity at this point because of all the attention he has been getting on the internet after the review I wrote on Jiu Jitsu forums (http://www.jiujitsuforums.com/viewtopic.php?t=35292).
I think at this point I need to weigh in on this. The amount of attention this guy is starting to get is beyond ridiculous. There are obviously some people out there with a little bit too much time on their hands. The point was to draw some attention to the fact that there are people out there that should not be teaching martial arts. James Paredes clearly fell into this category but I'm pretty shocked at how far it has gone.
I chose to leave out some details of what I witnessed the day I went to his dojo, so at some point in the near future I am going to do a video response to everyone on the net and give a verbal account of what happened.
A few of my friends actually went back to his dojo to try and get a picture with him and were told that there is no longer a Jiu Jitsu program where he formerly taught. James Paredes deleted his facebook account and is laying pretty low right now. I definitely cannot blame him since he has been constantly ridiculed for inventing his own style of Jiu Jitsu that is clearly useless. I think that he may as well disappear because at this point anyone in the grappling community knows who he is and would probably instantly recognize him if they saw him in public. But being the type of human being I am, I have been thinking a lot about how to make a positive outcome of this entire situation.
First I think the ridicule needs to stop. Second I truly believe that I would like to talk to James personally and have him confront the mistakes that he has made. Others in the Jiu Jitsu community also feel this way, and we as martial artists should reach out to this guy. He clearly needs to understand that there are people out there that want to help, my friend Jack has graciously offered to teach his students real Jiu Jitsu for free.
What I would like to do is this: Convince James to accept his mistakes, put on a fresh white belt and join a legit academy in the area. I think that we need to give this person who is clearly misguided a chance at redemption. I would much prefer to see a happy ending here than to witness a seemingly endless stream of ridicule over the internet forums. I think we should hold ourselves to a higher standard and help this person instead of wasting our time thinking about the next way to humiliate James Paredes.
I hope that some of the other Jiu Jitsu instructors in the area would be willing to work with me to make this happen. I think that this would be a much better representation of the Brazilian Jiu Jitsu community and would show that we are compassionate and willing to extend our arms in order to help people that really need it, not a bunch of embittered small minded assholes who love to prey on others weaknesses just to get a laugh.
James Paredes, I'm going to stick my neck out for you. I hope that you read this and are willing to accept someone that is reaching out to you.
Ah......if I could only be so naive. The guy isn't misguided,he is a conman. He was offered free seminars for him and his students more than a couple times by at least two black belts that I know of and he declined. If he is upset,it is only because he has been outed as a fraud and he knows his gig is up around here.
ReplyDeleteYou said it best " The amount of attention this guy is starting to get is beyond ridiculous." and it should be. Every practitioner across the country should know about this guy and do the same to any fraud they have in their area. The Jiu Jitsu community is and has been for as long as I remember,self policing. Things like this are done to assure he doesn't just open up somewhere else and to encourage others to out frauds in their areas. I'm sure he has no intentions of earning any actual rank.
I agree with anonymous. The only one to blame is parades. If anyone has personal boundaries about how far they will go to emarass parades, by all means don't participate. If someone pushes it a little farther than you that doesn't necessarily mean its now inappropriate. This guy has to be in the top 5 all time worst Internet instruction frauds of all time. He took the time to post that garbage even AFTER he was called out. He wanted attention and now he has it. Why are you so soft? He's a thief. He should be thankful cell phone cameras and the Internet exists and he lives in 2012. Imagine what would Have happened in brazil 50 yrs ago to sensei parades. He's getting off easy IMO having his lying face photoshopped.
ReplyDeleteI'm not debating at all that what he did was wrong, otherwise I would have never written my review and destroyed his teaching career. Still think I'm soft?
ReplyDeleteI was only trying to find a positive way to end all of this drama without obsessively humiliating the guy the way everyone else has.
Maybe soft wasnt the correct terminology. You seem to feel responsible for the outcome of your original review. I guess I understand youre feelings that in your opinion the ridicule has gone too far and needs to stop. Unfortunately that's not the nature of the Internet. I applaud your original review. It seemed to be fair and concise. Once that was done the memes and comments that resulted were out of your control and this attempt to reel it in seems, well, silly. I'm sure in some sort of fairy tale land sensei scumbag would slap on a white belt and redeem himself, but seriously??? Parades is a tool, liar, thief. I don't think extending this olive branch does anything but make you feel better about yourself. I personally wouldn't want that asshole anywhere near me unless he refunds all the money he stole and makes a public apology and admits he's a lying piece of crap. You describe him as "clearly misguided" and want to give him a "chance at redemption."
ReplyDeleteYea. That is soft considering he decided to post all that garbage, screw with his students, steal their money and irreplaceable time. And you're reaching out to someone who has shown no remorse and taken no accountability. He still refuses to acknowledge he's done anything wrong. I for one would have saved the discussion about forgiveness and redemption until AFTER the guy actually admits to his lies.
I was also made aware of other things concerning Mr. Parades today that now convince me that you are correct in assuming he is a liar and a thief. I now officially have no remorse for him.
DeleteYou can't leave me hanging like that. Please tell these other things you have been made aware of.
ReplyDeleteWe are still trying to confirm it, but there is a rumor that he may be attempting to teach at another school outside of town. I'll definitely keep everyone updated as far as that is concerned. I also found out from a very credible source that he never attained any sort of rank in BJJ and basically tried to convince someone in California that was not a black belt to promote him to purple belt before moving to NC.
DeleteI'll try to get some more information soon.