http://www.iviewtube.com/videos/89320/16-year-old-derrion-albert-beaten-to-death-in-chicago

Derrion Albert’s murder was something like a blood sport event. As you watch in this clip, you can hear the man and woman, the camera crew, filming with their phone.  Starting at 36 seconds, the man says “Let me see that shawty,” to which the female responds presumably as

First Strike

First Strike

she hands over the phone, “Zoom-in… Zoom-in, Zoom-in.” As Derrion strikes out at another teen, we see one young man pick up the wooden railroad tie and strike Derrion across the back of his head.  As Derrion Albert tries to get up, he is clipped again by another guy, whose punch puts Derrion down for a while as folks kick, stomp and hit him while he is on the ground.  We then hear the male from the  camera crew yell, “Damn, they kickin’ that NIGGA’S ASS.”

UNFORTUNATELY, this was not a movie; this was a neighborhood melee caught on tape by a camera crew of spectators (read: people too enthralled by violence to call the police).

The perpetrators were BLACK MALES; moreover, they were teens and they were violent. These black males were unabashed in their intent to harm, and at the end they were acting in unison to end Derrion’s life.  Derrion Albert’s murder was not gang or drug related.

Murderers or Children?

Murderers,Youth or Both?

The murder was the self-expression of BLACK MALES towards a fellow black male, school mate, citizen, and human being. Yeah, I know that’s deep, right!?

We aren’t speaking about strangers engaged in a melee. We are talking about fellow classmates and community members.  We are talking about, according to Chicago Tribune’s Red-eye, “at least one of [the perpetrators] was Albert’s friend.” In this black male blood-letting, friendships were forgotten and a frenzied melee turned deadly.                                                                                  

What is striking is that everyone wants to assign blame to Fenger High School, the Chicago Police Department (“CPD”), and the City of Chicago(“the City”) itself?  I have seen countless demands on TV about how schools need to be safer; moreover, how CPD should’ve done more, and how the youth need to be protected. I have friends calling out for radical change to be made at Fenger and schools like it; preaching that it is the job of the school to protect the youth. I say to those people, “How does a school (CPD or “the City”) protect the youth from ourselves at all times?”