da BLITZ in the INDUSTRY
The video of
16-year-old Derrion Albert being beaten to death is hard enough to watch. The audio makes it almost unbearable.
When Albert is struck in the head with a board we hear the crackling of the wood colliding with his skull. As he falls to the ground we hear the slapping sound as another boy punches the honor student in the side of the head. There are more noises as various kids rush in and kick him while he's on the ground."Damn, put the n****a to sleep," somebody yells. "Damn, they knocked him out," someone else screams out.
And then we hear words that are heard too often in our communities.
"They killin' him," a female voice yells.
"Get up, Derrion, please get up," another girl yells as they drag his lifeless body in to a building.
"It
hurt to watch," said LaTonia Williams, the teen's aunt.
Friends and family say Albert was a good kid and honors student with no gang ties. Other say he was trying to help a friend who got caught up in the melee. Whatever the case, this is self-hate exemplified.
After a young black man is killed by gun violence in a tragedy that has become all too common, you'll usually hear somebody say, "Back in the day, we would just fight with our hands."But as this video makes painfully clear, it doesn't matter whether we use a gun, a knife (or in Albert's case), a board and hands and feet. We are killing one another over nonsense. Why do we hate one another so much that we are willing to use whatever method is available to bring harm to our neighbors.Where are the adults who are tired of going to funerals? From September 2007 to September 2008, 36 Chicago public school students were killed. Students at Fenger High School say the rival gangs have been going at it for weeks. No guns, just straight-up hand-to-hand combat. If the adults in the community know this is happening, why weren't there parents there after school to make sure that everyone dispersed before they had a chance to mix it up. We've already seen what can happen without intervention.What if the elders of the community stepped in to the middle of the senseless violence? What if we heard their voices on that video yelling for those kids to break it up? What if the men of that community were there to physically grab the rail ties out of those kids' hands? What if someone lay across Albert so that no one else could attack him? What if we loved one another enough to resolve not to do harm to our neighbors?Four teenagers, ages 16 to 19,
were arrested in Albert's death and will be charged as adults in his murder, according to prosecutors. They are:
Silvonus Shannon, 19;
Eugene Riley, 18;
Eugene Bailey, 17; and
Eric Carson, 16. That just means four families are now in mourning. What drastic actions are parents going to take to make sure there are no more Derrion Alberts?
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