After School Chicago: Student Beaten to Death
What's a community to do without its organizer?
This poor kid, Derrion Albert, was literally beaten to death with planks of wood in an after school melee.
What's a community to do without its organizer?
This poor kid, Derrion Albert, was literally beaten to death with planks of wood in an after school melee.
I have always been baffled by the fact that many Americans would whether send out prayer requests for the President Barack Obama but can’t take the time to send out a prayer request for all our nation’s leaders yet alone our youth who are need of prayer in these tough times. In fact the war on our youth is getting worse each and every day especially in the streets of Chicago where the violence on our youth has been on a raise for the last 4 years but many Americans have ignored it but not me. Our youth need prayer now more than ever. Our youth need us to pray for them because their burdens, their pains and their heartaches as well as worries as just as great as our beloved President. Our youth need us to pray for them because it seems as if no politician cares enough of our youth to do what’s right by them not when the camera is on but when it really counts which is when the camera is off. Our youth need us and it seems as if not many religious leaders, community leaders, parents and politicians care until it happens to a youth they know or are connected to.
Well I am here to tell Americans to pray for all Americans and to pray for all people not just the President of the United States of America but for all us but most particularly our youth who are facing conditions today that whenever I hear a youth doing something good, I break out in tears almost because that’s all passionate I am about our youth succeeding. One youth’s achievement is like an achievement to all of us because our youth is the future of this nation and this world. Therefore as I surfed the web yesterday, I was amazed at how many people on twitter, Facebook, and other blogs were more concerned with President Obama going to speak to the Olympic Committee to bring the 2016 Olympics to Chicago than the fact that a 16 year old honor student was beaten to death last week during a gang fight on the streets of Chicago while just walking home.
The video of the incident is seen above but luckily thanks to this video and others, three teenagers were charged Monday afternoon in the beating death of a 16-year-old Chicago honor roll student on his way home from school, a melee captured on a cell phone video that shows a group striking him with boards and kicking him as he lay on a sidewalk. The death of Derrion Albert, a sophomore at Christian Fenger Academy High School, on Thursday has reignited community outrage over chronic violence involving city students and is putting pressure on school and police officials to address gang problems that often are at the root of such violence. The Chicago public school system is the nation's third-largest and has about 407,000 students in 666 schools. More than 30 students were killed in 2008, according to district figures, and for the 2008-2009 school year 34 students were killed while 290 were wounded to gun violence.
Some community members said the solution lies with parents, not the schools. "It is our problem. We have to take control of our children," said Dawn Allen, who attended a vigil at the school Monday, where a group of residents tried to force their way into the school before being turned back by police. Still Albert was attacked around 3 p.m. Thursday in front of Agape Community Center in the south Chicago neighborhood of Roseland, where he was walking to a bus stop, authorities said. Prosecutors charged Silvonus Shannon, 19, Eugene Riley, 18, and Eric Carson, 16, with first-degree murder, and they were ordered held without bond on Monday, said Andy Conklin, a spokesman for the Cook County prosecutor's office. The suspects are scheduled for preliminary hearings Oct. 19.
The violence stemmed from a shooting early Thursday morning involving two groups of students, said Tandra Simonton, a spokeswoman for the Cook County prosecutor's office. When school ended, members of the two groups began fighting. The attack, captured in part on a bystander's cell phone video, shows Albert being struck on the head by one of several young men wielding wooden planks. After he falls to the ground he appears to try to get up, he is struck again and then kicked. Simonton said Albert was a bystander and not part of either group. She said Albert was knocked unconscious when Carson struck him in the head with a board and the second person punched him in the face. Albert regained consciousness and was trying to get up when he was attacked a second time by five people and was struck in the head with a board by Riley and stomped in the head by Shannon, Simonton said.
The Rev. Victor Grandberry told NBC Chicago that Albert "was just a nice young man that grew up in the community. Folks just bullied on him, they tried to rob him, and they tried to do everything they can." A camera attached to the Agape Community Center also captured at least part of the attack, the center's executive director, Milton Massie, told NBC Chicago. "It was mob action, basically a bunch of kids, some coming from the east and others from the west on the street, fighting," he said.
Desiyan Bacon, Riley's aunt, attended Monday's vigil at the school and said her nephew didn't have anything to do with the beating and was a friend of the victim. "They need to stop the crime, but when they do it, they need to get the right person," Bacon said. Earlier, Chicago police bolstered security around Fenger High School. Police patrolled the area in squad cars and staged a visible presence at the entrance, the Chicago Tribune reported. "We want to provide reassurance to the public that there's a police presence and they can feel safe in the neighborhood and kids can feel safe at school," Morgan Park District Cmdr. Michael Kuemmeth told the Tribune.
Still as a delegation of 10 Americans goes to the International Olympic Committee this week to pitch to them the idea of bringing the 2016 Olympics to Chicago, I ask those individuals especially Oprah and the Obamas to lobby to our youth especially those in Chicago to stop the senseless violence. Now while some individuals in Chicago are against the 2016 Olympics because the city can’t afford it, I was for the Olympics until the last year and a half when the youth violence in the streets of Chicago seems to be getting worse. Therefore I plea to Orpah Winfrey who shut down Michigan Avenue for nearly a week or so to do her show to talk to the youth on the Southside of Chicago to stop the senseless violence. I would like to make a request to President Obama and First Lady Obama whose Chicago home is just a few blocks from where much of the violence on the cities Southside is taking place to lobby to the youth of Chicago to stop the violence.
Even those in the City of Chicago have lobbied for the President to speak up way before he was President. In fact as candidate Obama, Chicagoans’ lobbied to Senator Obama to help deal with the youth violence that had had over 500 youth shot in a 16 month period from a period of late 2006 to early 2008. I wrote about this previously and have even debated others about this very issue taking place in Chicago. While youth violence occurs everywhere, nothing like it in previous times or current times seem to match the senseless violence that is plaguing the youth of Chicago. No other city in America can match the youth violence numbers of Chicago in terms of student deaths and those wounded by gun violence.
However on Monday, Chicago parents united in grief and they hope an end to the violence. Candlelight flickered in the dim room as several families lit wicks in memory of loved ones cut down by violence on Chicago's streets. Some women wailed, inconsolable by embraces. Others stood with somber expressions when homecoming and school photos of young people flashed across a large screen in St. Sabina Academy's auditorium Saturday afternoon on the South Side. Families of many slain children were grieving together at the fourth annual vigil organized by the Chicago Area and Westside Chicago chapters of Parents of Murdered Children following Friday's National Day of Remembrance for Murder Victims.
But organizers could not have predicted that the event would be held on the same day as 17-year-old Corey McClaurin's funeral. The Simeon Career Academy High School student was shot last week in his Auburn Gresham neighborhood while sitting in his Monte Carlo, waiting for a friend. Melvin Nichols, founding member of the Chicago chapter, told the crowd of more than 100 that he knew all too well what happens when the shock of a funeral wears off on friends and family.
"As time passed and as our comforters moved on with their lives, understandably, we were continuing to grieve with the murder of our loved ones," said Nichols, whose daughter was stabbed to death in 2003. "You see, grief does not have a timetable, as so many who have not walked in our shoes seem to think." The Rev. Michael Pfleger, pastor at St. Sabina Catholic Church, encouraged families in a passionate, sermon like speech to stay in touch, pray for one another and rally against gun violence that is plaguing communities.
And Janette Albert said she found comfort in knowing she was not alone and attended the ceremony immediately after identifying the body of her 16-year-old son, Derrion, who was beaten to death Thursday in a melee of dozens of teenage boys near the Agape Community Center in Roseland. She said she talked with her son, whom she described as quiet and an honor roll student at Fenger High School, every day from Mount Vernon. Albert moved to the southern Illinois town last year after her mother's death. "I told my son every day before I hung up with him, 'I love you and stay safe,' " she said.
Wentworth Area detectives said Saturday night that they were reviewing video taken during the melee in Roseland. The video, taken by a witness and given to WFLD-Ch. 32, appears to show the teen knocked to the ground by a male swinging a long board. That video resulted in the captured of 3 teens by Monday afternoon but a fourth teenager was charged late Monday evening with beating to death 16-year-old Derrion Albert, an "innocent bystander" who walked into the middle of a street fight between two groups of feuding teens last Thursday, according to prosecutors.
Charges of first-degree murder were announced against Eugene Bailey, 18, hours after three other teens were charged in the slaying. Bailey is to appear in bond court Tuesday. The others charged are Silvonus Shannon, 19, Eugene Riley, 18, and Eric Carson, 16, according to the Cook County state's attorney's office. All were charged as adults and all were ordered held without bond on Monday.
Prosecutors said the fight -- with teens punching and kicking and swinging two-by-fours -- was related to a shooting outside Fenger earlier Thursday. At the teens' bond hearing this afternoon, a Cook County prosecutor said Albert was beaten by teens from both sides of the simmering rivalry. One group of Fenger students lived near the school and the other is from the Altgeld Gardens housing development.
Carson, who was allegedly from the faction near Fenger, was the first to hit Albert with a railroad tie, according to Assistant State's Atty. Jodi Peterson. As Albert struggled to stand up and escape the melee, Riley also hit him with a railroad tie and Shannon repeatedly stomped on his head, the prosecutor said. Both Riley and Shannon allegedly belonged to a separate faction that lived in or near Altgeld Gardens. Records showed Carson is on probation for a robbery conviction. Shannon and Riley have no criminal records.
Police said that an amateur video helped detectives identify the participants in the melee outside the Agape Community Center, 342 W. 111th St. That video was provided to Fox affiliate WFLD-Ch. 32, which turned it over to detectives Friday night. Fox said it paid its typical freelance fee of about $300 for exclusive rights to the video. The video shows dozens of people punching, kicking and swinging planks in a melee in a lot next to the community center and the adjacent street. At one point, four or five males -- including one wielding a two-by-four -- can be seen beating and stomping another person, believed to be Albert, who had fallen to the ground.
As the attackers flee, the person with the camera and several others approached Albert and carried him into a nearby building. "Derrion, get up!" a female voice pleaded. On Monday morning Chicago police lined up in a show of force outside Fenger as students trickled into the school at staggered intervals. Most arrived on foot wearing their standard uniform of khaki pants and black shirts. Police patrolled the area in squad cars and staged a visible presence at the school's entrance. "We want to provide reassurance to the public that there's a police presence and they can feel safe in the neighborhood and kids can feel safe at school," said Morgan Park District Commander Michael Kuemmeth.
Monday was the first day Fenger has been open since the fatal melee that swept up Albert, an honor roll student. All Chicago public schools were closed Friday for a staff day. A march and vigil for Albert outside Fenger, organized by his family, was held at 1 p.m. Later, at Agape, Chicago Public Schools joined with relatives and friends to pray and offer condolences. "This is such a difficult thing to deal with," said CPS head Ron Huberman. "There are no words that can ever make it right."
Originally, the vigil had been planned for Sunday, but Albert's family agreed to postpone it at the request of the Chicago Public Schools, said Albert's grandfather Joseph Walker. Before the announcement of charges, Chicago Police spokesman Roderick Drew said investigators had identified several people from the video and were questioning four of them. Albert's family was squeamish about watching the video and not all of them were able to watch it in its entirety. "It hurt to watch," said LaTonia Williams, the teen's aunt. "It's one thing to hear about it and come up with your own theory of what happened. To see it is another thing. It gave us a real clear picture of what happened. That video was crucial."
Nonetheless much of the violence that takes place against the youth of Chicago is not always videotaped and not all of the violence plaguing our youth across America is caught on tape. But thank God it was video that captured this incident that took an innocent bystander for what, for nothing but walking home from school. Therefore I plea to all Americans to work with our youth to end this violence against them and most importantly to end this war on their lives and their future. Our youth need us now more than ever. Our youth need for us to pray for them and to lobby to them to end the violence against each other but most of all they need us to work with them to save their fellow youth lives.
No more can we ignore the fact that our youth are under attack every day not just from violence but from the inadequate education system that many of them are receiving and the fact that many can’t find good paying jobs once they graduate from college in this tough economic recession. Therefore our youth need us to work with them and for them. No longer can we sit up and act as if our youth will be alright as long as parents do their job. Some of our youth don’t have parental guidance especially not positive parental violence and some of the attacks on our youth are not always done by youth themselves. Our youth need protection not just from youth but from adults who have abused and misused our youth time and time again. For example there is an incident in Detroit that took place last school year that resulted in the death of a special needs student who was pushed down by an adult official at the special education school who has a history of abuse towards students and even fellow employees.
Therefore when I say pray for our youth, I mean truly pray for their protection from not only each other but from adults who don’t give a damn about our youth yet alone give a care about the future of our youth. There are some people who work in our educational systems in American and work with youth everyday but don’t really care about our youth; all they care about is getting a paycheck. It breaks my heart to hear stories of abuse by our parents and guardians toward youth but it hurts me even more when I hear other adults abusing youth that aren’t their own children. It is truly sad people that our youth are under attack by not just themselves but those who are suppose to aid in the protection of them when they are not in the care of their parents.
Pray for our youth people, lobby to them people and work with them people. The next person who thinks about sending a prayer request asking for their friends and family to pray for President Obama, I am going to ask you to also include praying for our youth at least those in your own city and state if not for all the youth of this nation. I am asking the IOC to ask President Obama, First Lady Obama, Oprah and the other 7 officials, who are going to lobby for the City of Chicago to host the 2016 Olympics, to lobby to the youth of Chicago to end the senseless violence and to lobby to the rest of the youth of this nation to stop the violence against each other. I am begging all Americans to get up and work with our youth to improve their present and their future. Our youth need us and I refuse to give up hope on them. I refuse to abandon our youth when so many have given up hope on the future of America. Our youth need us now more than ever and I am going to continue to fight for our youth no matter what.
Pray for our youth, lobby to our youth and work with our youth to make their current lives better but most of all their future even greater.
Honor Student Beaten to Death in Chicago Eye-Witness Video
SAVE OUR YOUTH!
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