Amanda Paulson, Christian Science Monitor, September 29, 2009
The melee that ensnared Chicago junior Derrion Albert last week wasn’t an unusual occurrence in a neighborhood where tensions and gang violence often erupt, say residents.
But the fight left Derrion dead—apparently caught in the brawl between two rival student groups as he walked home from Fenger High School. This has brought renewed focus on a neighborhood and a city where youth violence is a longstanding problem.
“It gets attention when someone dies, but this is every day with us,” says Kase Miles, who graduated from Fenger a year ago, pointing to a scar on his cheek that he says he received at school when someone attacked him from behind with brass knuckles. “It’s getting worse. . . . But if he wouldn’t have died, [the media] wouldn’t be here.”
Keeping students safe—especially as they walk to and from school—has become a challenge for Chicago schools and police. Since the academic year began three weeks ago, five Chicago children have been killed, says Phillip Jackson, founder of the Black Star Project, which is working to strengthen violence-stricken communities in Chicago. In 2008, more than 30 students were killed, according to the Associated Press, citing district figures.
{snip}
[Editor’s Note: An earlier story on the beating death of Derrion Albert can be read here.
Original article
(Posted on September 29, 2009)
Comments
No, it made the news because it was raw violence caught on camera.
If there was no camera, school officials would have down-played it as an unfortunate fight resulting in an accidental death. THe media and black leaders would have also down-played it because they don’t want a reinforcing of negative stereotypes about blacks, violence, and gangs.
But because it was on camera and it hit the internet, the media and officials couldn’t play the game of distort and conceal.
I don’t see any white or Asian neighborhoods declared to be “violence-stricken communities” but most hispanic and every black town fits that description.
It must be due to “socioeconomic factors” since the races are all the same…
Does anyone recall the musical/movie West Side Story? At the end, the two gangs realize what their hate has wrought and they join together to carry the victims.
In the real world, it doesn’t workout that way:
http://www.suntimes.com/news/24-7/1794569,teen-mob-killed-charges-092809.article
Also, again we come back to the African phrase, ‘it takes a village’. No. It takes caring parents. The phrase ‘it takes a village’ is little more than an African justification for not being a good parent; ‘it’s everyone else’s responsibility to make my children good members of the community. If my children turn out to be bad, it’s the villages’ (societies) fault’.
On a side note, I know the reference to Garveys’ Black Star but really, what is a black star? The absence of light, warmth and life? A black hole?
Actually after reading several different pro-white websites it seems that Chicago has been having riots lately on a regular basis. The so called mainstream media has ignored it so as not to make his holiness Barack Obama look too bad. I mean he was a community organizer in Chicago. Therefore all should be well. If it was not for some kid with a cell phone camera no one would even hear about this story. Looks like the ordinary people are taking over the media. I mean look at what those two consrevative activist did to Acorn.
“If he hadn’t died the media wouldn’t be here” Oh, really?
If he were White and died for sure the media would be nowhere to be found. BTW, where was the media on the Christian/Newsome case and all the other black on White beatings, rapes and murders?
“The melee ensnared Derrion Albert… gang violence often erupts… the fight left Derrion dead… apparently caught in the brawl…”
Notice the passive writing style. People are never responsible for anything. Instead, events just happen, and individuals are either lucky, or not. And, if not, they’re simply in the wrong place at the wrong time. It’s all accidental, merely environmental, not unlike how a change in the weather might be described. This sort of nihilistic language typifies our liberal world.
This is the city that our Esteemed Komrade-oops, I mean President-is pushing to host the 2016 Olympics, presumably to showcase the success of a vibrant, diverse, multi-cultural American city.
http://tinyurl.com/ydc5k94
This tells me the police were hesitant to break up the fight until more cops came. Either they were wise, or they were scared of racism accusations. The CPD has been neutered so badly that black crime goes unchecked. That is why there is a lot of “youth” (i.e. black) crime in Chicago.
I heard some caller to talk radio today say that the victim was in the wrong place at the wrong time. Walking home from school isn’t the wrong place at the wrong time.
The most violent area in US is the area where Obama, the community organizer worked.
Is this a coincidence? I think it is, now we can see the fruits of his work.
And logically, after four or eight years, we will see the results of the chief community organizer’s work in the whole America.
Will these results be different?
There is a high probability that the results will be the same at best and civil war at worst.
The military should remove him from power before it is too late.
How do you get to be an honor student by merely attending classes 90% of the time? This is pathetic and no surprise.
If I had missed 20 out of 200 days at my high school back in the 80’s, I would have been expelled.
Wow black teens behaving badly. Who would believe such a thing in the city of Chicago? It must be due to slavery and white racism or because they did’nt get reparation funds. I guess they should be grateful they did’nt start necklacing the student who was murdered, he was just beat to death!
I caught this story on CNN where they described the victime as an honor student. They showed a certificate he earned for ‘90% attendence.’ I thought that was odd. The only certificates for attendance I have ever seen were given to kids who never missed a day from Kindergarten thru high school graduation.
What kind of abyssmal standards are in place where a certificate is earned by kids who skip one day of school in every two-week period throughout the school year?
The CNN reporter even noted there was laughing in the crowd as this kid was being beaten. Does anyone reading these words find that hard to believe? I would assume not, given the types involved.
This was tragic. I don’t care who or what color, that kid was brutally beaten and I really feel for the kid’s parents. He was a good kid according to other news sources. At least unlike the animals that beat was trying to better himself.
Yeah, Chicago can probably curb violence, but can blacks curb their own violent, destructive behaviour? probably not.
Of COURSE the media “wouldn’t have been there” if it were not for the killing, fool! If they were htere and notes all the daily vionence, the ruthless beatings, the foul language and abuse of women, do you think for a second that white folks would be staying in Chicago? Do you think they would let the “nice” colored kids go to their suburban schools? Of COURSE not!
It is because the media are NOT there to witness the day-to-day black-on-black violence and savagery that they can pretend only a few more ObamaBucks from the white taxpayers pockets will magically solve anything. It is only by ignorance that liberal bureaucrats can persuade us that things are “getting better”, that there is finally “light at the end of the tunnel”.
When people in Illinois realize that black ghetto kids get more per-head for their schools than all the rural white kids and yet black kids act like animals, day-in-day-out of COURSE they are going to be upset.
Son, you better be d@mn glad the media is not there every day and they are covering for you. White folks would pull the plug and tell you to police yourselves and educate yourselves, and then where would you be? Back at the stupidity and poverty level of Detroit, Zimbabwe, Newark, Johannesburg, or St. Louis.
As I watched the video of this attack, I wasn’t sure if it was happening in an American city or some place in Africa.
It’s like photos from Jared Taylor’s “African in our Midsts.” And of course the news media, including FOX, all talk about it wthout ever mentioning the ‘r’ word.
Why not be truthful, liberal media, and state: minority, especially ” black ” youth not youth in general ? To answer this question accurately about black or brown youth curbing violence anywhere; ” when pigs fly “; would about sums up a good accurate answer.
Well, just like the St. Louis school bus beating story, this has occured on previous occasions yet is not reported at all. I have witnessed this kind of violence first hand as anybody who lives in New York State can tell you. Whites are now not the only unprotected class in this country now.
Barack Obama once opposed tougher, more stringent standards and penalties upon local Chicago gang members due to the fact that they were primarily minorities. The problem with such a position is that the vast majority of victims of these folks are actually innocent blacks and other minorities. Favoring the criminal over the innocent is apparently a chosen avenue of self described “progressives” these days…unfortunately.
I propose the school be renamed Senator Edward Kennedy high school. It is the culmination of so much of his work as senator. He brought in a flood of cheap immigrant labor which makes it impossible for poor urban workers to make a living. His liberal values annihilated the black family structure. His blow-hard rhetoric about social justice helped create a grievance mentality and loss of sense of personal responsibility among poor blacks.
2 Madison Grant:
I suppose we are to think that “violence” is an external and ethereal force that just happens to heave itself on neighborhoods that just happen to be black. That said, the SPLC should sue “violence” for discrimination, though it might not be an easy case to win, for if “violence” can just swoop down on black teenagers out of the blue, then it can certainly afford F. Lee Bailey.
Instead of pouring more and more money into these nether voids of African barbarism a.k.a. American Public schools, every time an African yoof gets his skull caved in by a blunt object, or has his young body perforated with a spray of automatic weapon fire, I would propose that schools lose like 25 percent of their federal funding every time a student is killed.
Thus, when the surly, lazy, union protected school teachers face mass lay offs and benefits reductions because of a few too many honor roll students wind up in pine boxes maybe they might actually instate some kind of meaningful discipline system to these pits of hopelessness. In other words just expel these homicidal psychopaths and their first felony conviction rather than give them nine or ten second chances.
Instead now, even when the most violent unsympathetic young gang bangers die by the sword (or glock) the knee jerk reaction by the “community” is to demand, and invariably receive millions upon millions of dollars into the bottomless pit of black corruption that constitutes the typical cabal of self proclaimed “reverends”, community organizers and whiny black nationalists that rear their heads after these incidents.
The Black Star Line was a plan by the crooked Marcus Garvey to take blacks back to Africa a century ago.
Do you suppose Phillip Jackson has the same idea today?
Once you commit a crime, you have “rights”, unlike your victim who has a pine box with six feet of dirt on top.
“Derrion Albert was apparently caught in a brawl between two rival student groups as he walked home from Fenger High School.”
The two “rival student groups” were the glee club and the honor society?
The controlled “news” media moguls and their apologists and hangers on keep threatening us that, because the public is now rejecting the cultural distorting bilge they purvey, society will suffer because of a decline in quality of news reportage. Yet, a “Black” high school student with an ordinary phone camera has provided the public with more information about what is happening in the “Black” community than does a month of reporting by the controlled “news’ media.
Ronald
Can Chicago stop youth violence? Chicago can’t even find the guys who illegally tore up Miegs Field at midnight. How hard can it be to convict someone of tearing up an airport? Peter Fitzgerald get your rear end in gear and get to work.
This primitive behavior is not an isolated incident. It is another in an endless string of uncivilized and unAmerican barbarism coming from blacks who are unable to function within any set of norms. The media’s attempt to spin this (“honor student” / “gang activity” / “poor schools” and so on…) is sickening. I am constantly amazed at The Emperor’s New Clothes mentality of NBC and other “news” organizations. Unless white people wake upand take action we will truly become the new South Africa.
I note that one person in the article called for more money to be spent, more programs and more jobs to be created. Heck, two of the Bantu’s attackers HAD JOBS.
Ex- Fenger student Kase Miles should realize why the media was there:
“If it bleeds, it leads”.
Bantus are expressing shock and outrage only because a Bantu was killed by other Bantus and it was caught on videotape. The savagery of Bantu mobs was captured on film, for all the world to see. This is what upsets Bantus so.
If it had been a Korean grocer, a Hispanic truck driver, or a Caucasian office worker getting stomped and beaten, them Bantus would be cheering like they were at an Oprah Winfrey giveaway. But, because it was actually filmed on video, by some Spike Lee wannabe, the Bantu community is outraged because people from Albania to Japan have probably seen this video, and must be wondering, “What is with Africans, their country has put one of their own in office, and STILL they act like this”?
Many posters here have remarked, “Give blacks enough rope, and they’ll hang themselves”. How true!
In 1992, it was Reginald Denny. In 2009 it was Derrion Albert. Both times, Bantus had a chimpout.
The more things change the more they remain the same.
Obama’s message to the schoolchildren must have gone in one ear, and out the other, with the Fenger crowd.
Since Obama is in Copenhagen lobbying to bring the Olympics to Chicago, maybe we should make youth beating a new Olympic sport for the Chicago Olympics.
The misleading title asks us:
“…Honor Student Beaten to Death: Can Chicago Curb Youth Violence?…”
The title should read: “Honor Student Beaten to Death: Can Chicago Curb Black Violence?”
By writing the title such as it is, one might get the impression that youth of ALL colors are involved in violence—especially if one were not familiar with Chicago—say a member of the Olympics committee vested with choosing a venue for the international games.
Website ‘Stuff Black People Don’t Like’ reports:
“…In 2009, 88 percent of the murder victims were male and 78 percent of those victims were black. In 2008, when 511 murders were committed in Chicago, 74 percent of the victims were black and 76 percent of the perpetrators were also black…”
This is how obama left the town after he spent years there as a ‘community organizer.’ And he thinks it is an appropriate venue for the Olympic Games?
If Chicago were chosen, how could black violence, robbery and mayhem be contained?
A much safer venue would be Iraq:
314 U.S. soldiers died in Iraq;
Bon
Evidently, the quiet young man who was killed was an innocent bystander to the conflict. According to his family, he had never been involved in a fight his entire life. When will blacks start denouncing the thug culture they have created for themselves? Why are the best and brightest frequently targeted by black hoodlums?
Evidently, the quiet young man who was killed was an innocent bystander to the conflict. According to his family, he had never been involved in a fight his entire life. When will blacks start denouncing the thug culture they have created for themselves? Why are the best and brightest frequently targeted by black hoodlums?
As near as I can tell,when speaking of blacks-and in particular,”urban” blacks-there really isn’t a “best and brightest”.
“Best and Brightest” when talking about a demographic that has an average IQ of 85,and which also demonstrates a horrifying lack of impulse control,really means,”about as smart as an average white guy,but a lot more prone to sudden episodes of violent behavior.”
“Best and Brightest”,when used in the traditional sense,and speaking of the white community can be taken to mean something like “Our future doctors,scientists,and engineers.” (NOT those morons that fought a war from behind a desk,and from 10k miles away without ever troubling themselves to pick up a rifle or be subjected to inconveniences like the UCMJ,or mosquito bites,or little barefoot people shooting back at them.)
“The Best and Brightest”,when talking about blacks,means someone who could pass a civil service exam and then show up at the Post Office on a regular schedule,without chimping out more often than is considered decent.
“The melee ensnared Derrion Albert… gang violence often erupts… the fight left Derrion dead… apparently caught in the brawl…”
Might as well have been talking about a rain storm. “The rain poured on Derrion Albert… rain often knocks down leaves and twigs from trees….a twig knocked down by the rain hit Derrion in the head……apparently caught in the rainstorm.”
A tragedy for all concerned. The alleged murderers were caught up in the violence. Like Derrion, they are also victims of evil Whitey and Whitey’s evil racism. The real cuprits are the White residents who moved away decades ago because of their inherent racism and unfounded fear of black neighborhoods. Had the Whites not moved away this never would have happened.
Therefore it is all Whitey’s fault.
Those arrested are good boys. Don’t send them to prison where these good boys turn bad. They went to Sunday school and their Mothers signed them up for the children’s choir in third grade. Here is their 6th grade school picture. Here is a picture of them on Santa Claus’ lap when they were 5. Neighbor Squishamoosha Jackson “I never would have thought they would have done something like this.” Bishop Poverty Pimp, “The police should have patrolled the area around the school better.”
Just fill in the template Chicago papers. We have read it all before and we’ll read it again.
“Thus, when the surly, lazy, union protected school teachers face mass lay offs and benefits reductions because of a few too many honor roll students wind up in pine boxes maybe they might actually instate some kind of meaningful discipline system to these pits of hopelessness.”
Never happen. It is not the school administrators who created and protect the violence of black students, even though the administrators are all disfunctional affirmative action blacks themselves.
It is the state and federal judiciary who created these violence and murder prone schools. Acting on the orders of their masters the ACLU, ADL, AJC,$PLC NAACP, LARAZA, MALDEF and NOW, those life long tenured absolute dictators known as Judges have ordered the schools to do absolutely nothing to thosewho have taken over the public schools.
The Civil rights divisions of the US Department of Justice and the Attorney General’s offices of the 50 states carry out the Judicial dictators orders as well.
So don’t blame the school administrators. Blame the Judges who issue the orders to leave the blacks alone to commit their murder, mayhem and destruction of the schools and neighborhoods.
The blacks can do this with total impunity because they are under Judicial protection.
Absolutely nothing can be done to reign in Judicial absolute power and dictatorship under the present constitution, laws and government regulations.
Anonymous wrote at 11:36 AM on September 30:
““Best and Brightest” when talking about a demographic that has an average IQ of 85,and which also demonstrates a horrifying lack of impulse control,really means,”about as smart as an average white guy,but a lot more prone to sudden episodes of violent behavior.”
Ha! Ha! Ha! How true! So on that happy note: am I the only one to notice that whenever a black or a mestizo gets killed (or does the killing) in situations like this, the media automatically labels them “honor students”? Search the Net and you’ll see what I mean.
http://www.smmirror.com/volume3/issue23/samohi_honor_student.asp
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article/article?f=/c/a/2005/09/27/BAG4OEUD661.DTL
http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P1-79459073.html
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/2009/01/26/2009-01-26_progun_senatordesignate_gillibrand_shoul.html
The American media isn’t the only one that does this. Several years ago, British psychometric researcher Christopher Brand wrote an article on this phenomenon. He pulled a story from the BBC’s website about two “church-going” black girls killed in “mindless gang violence.” The story implied they were innocent bystanders.
Upon further investigation, Brand uncovered the same story written by a local periodical that stated the two “church-goers” were in fact prostitutes killed transporting drugs.
The bitter laugh being that had the thugs been Whites murdering a Black victim, the story would be front-page fodder for the media for the next eight weeks. With Blacks killing Blacks, the media probably sees it as normal behavior for those people.
I’m guessing that Chicago is much like Atlanta in that the only black fights that get reported are the ones out of the ordinary; that stand over and above the daily onslaught. Before Atlanta news every morning my husband and I ask each other, “Well, how many [blacks] did they kill last night?” And on Friday and Saturday nights, we say, “I wonder if they’ll break the record tonight?” It’s a given that the first 3-4 stories every day will be black shootings, stabbings, carjackings, robberies, stolen cars, drugs, or a combination thereof. I;m sure Chicago is no different, unless it’s a tad worse. Lovely place to hold Olympics, too, considering the crime and the fact that the city is broke.
The story about this killing brings up another timely topic… Obama’s efforts to bring the Summer Olympics to Chicago. Now given the reality NO CITY has ever really made money on the Olympics, I guess it’s fair to say Obama is simply trying to bring that Olympic “gold” to Chicago, so his political cronies can line THEIR pockets with it… or would suspecting that mean I’m an unrepentant racist or something?
For an honor student, Derrion Albert wasn’t very bright. From the video it’s obvious he walked right into the middle of a violent melee to see “whaadup.” I guess when the crowd couldn’t find a white guy to beat to death or an Asian or Mexican chick to gang rape, they figured they’d give Holmes some brain salad surgery with a 2x4.
The Black Star Line was a plan by the crooked Marcus Garvey to take blacks back to Africa a century ago.
Do you suppose Phillip Jackson has the same idea today?
Blacks pay Garvey lip service. They claim he’s a great ‘African’ visionary but they never seem to connect with his message to return to Africa.
Blacks know whites are their gravy train. They have no intention of living with their own.
Now, some of the very same “ministers” (i.e. cracker jack box theology degree) and “community activists” who complain about racial profiling are probably now calling for the CPD to hang around high schools at dismissal time. A month later, when the CPD patrols around HSes at dismissal time, they’ll start complaining about racial profiling again.
I’m guessing that Chicago is much like Atlanta in that the only black fights that get reported are the ones out of the ordinary; that stand over and above the daily onslaught. Before Atlanta news every morning my husband and I ask each other, “Well, how many [blacks] did they kill last night?” And on Friday and Saturday nights, we say, “I wonder if they’ll break the record tonight?” It’s a given that the first 3-4 stories every day will be black shootings, stabbings, carjackings, robberies, stolen cars, drugs, or a combination thereof. I;m sure Chicago is no different, unless it’s a tad worse. Lovely place to hold Olympics, too, considering the crime and the fact that the city is broke.
If you swap out “blacks” for “chicanos” or whatever they want to call themselves now,you could say much the same for the South and West sides of San Antonio.
Back when I was a kid(mid 1970’s),one of the local papers,and at least one of the local news stations filed up a lot of airtime and a lot of column inches detailing the happenings of the inhabitants of the less developed parts of SA on Friday and Saturday nights,when said inhabitants had a snootfull of Schlitz. The story would usually read something very much like:
“Ramirez and Rodriguez got into a knife fight in a bar on Goliad Road/Zarzamora Street/New Laredo Highway/etc….
Of the approximately 100 people in the establishment,no one heard anything,saw anything,or knew either one of the individuals in the fight. The individuals were taken by ambulance to the emergency room at Wilford Hall Hospital/Robert B. Green(these were the busiest ER’s in SA at the time.)
Rodriguez was given 41 stitches,and Ramirez was given 56 stitches. Neither individual saw anything,heard anything,or knew anything. Both declined to press charges.
After due consideration,Rodriguez was declared the winner,based on his stitch count. Both individuals were given a bottle of pain pills and sent home. (OK,this last part is a joke,but not all that much of a joke.)
These articles were a lot of fun to read-and to be fair,there was,at least at that time,a LOT of difference between the black community and the hispanic community. While neither was known to embrace law enforcement,and both bunches had a distinct preference to settling their disputes without involving the White Man’s Law,the hispanics were-weekends aside-usually pretty hardworking and stable. Maybe it’s because I grew up around them to a large extent,and have worked with them all my life,but I’ve never really felt any kind of terminal hatred from hispanics. Dislike? You bet. But not the poisonous vibes I get from blacks.
“Upon further investigation, Brand uncovered the same story written by a local periodical that stated the two “church-goers” were in fact prostitutes killed transporting drugs.”
When it’s a white person killed or even a white prostitute killed, the breeding of the victim is downplayed, as is the killing itself. It will normally be thrown in the simply drug-related category.
From the Chicago Tribune. No mention of the assailants race. We all know what that means.
Another boy critically beaten: ‘Blood all over street’
“He was covered in blood. Blood was all over the street,” said the woman who called police to the scene. “It was all over his face, arms and coming down the back of his head.”
Unlike the beating of 16-year-old Derrion Albert near Fenger High School—whose death outraged the city—this beating took place on the North Side and at night. The unidentified victim also was hanging onto life, although his skull had been fractured. Police said they had not yet been able to talk to him to get any leads.
After the three assailants caught up with the victim, all three beat him, and one reportedly struck him over the head using some type of “shiny” object, Kusinski said.
An Edgewater woman who wished to remain anonymous said she was driving home from work and looking for a parking space when she saw the teen lying in the road.
“He was covered in blood. Blood was all over the street. It was all over his face, arms, and coming from the back of his head. Two little girls and another kid were with him, holding him down. I called 911, and the police arrived shortly.
“The kids told me someone threw something at his head. They were very scared. One of them told me they called the police but said they hung up when asked too many questions. I don’t know what really happened, just that the boy was chased. I just saw him when he was lying in the road. Usually this is a pretty quiet neighborhood. I don’t usually come home to seeing a little kid lying in the road covered in blood”
Ah, I knew it would come, the eternal ” He or she was in the wrong place at the wrong time.” It is not the fault of them, it is the fault of the time of day or the location. The intersection did it.
Like in a car, subway or bus going to and from work. Like driving one’s car. Like parking in a supermarket parking lot to buy groceries. Like waiting for the bus in front of one’s school. Like picking your kids up from school. Like going to a shopping mall. Like going to the bank. Like going about your lawful and necessary business.
Anywhere blacks are is the wrong place but it can be difficult to avoid them.
Then the pundits wonder why Chicago did’t get the Olympic Games This beating was shown all over the world. Strike out for Obama.
Wow Chicago got beaten out as a city to host the Olympic games Yes pun intended. How would they have protected all those visitors? Its dangerours just walk home school I guess Rio must be safer.
21: aj wrote at 10:16 PM:
“Thus, when the surly, lazy, union protected school teachers face mass lay offs and benefits reductions because of a few too many honor roll students wind up in pine boxes maybe they might actually instate some kind of meaningful discipline system to these pits of hopelessness.”
I taught in Chicago Public Schools for 10 years. The school I most recently taught at was an all black school and happened to be Michelle Obama’s alma mater.
Teachers are not allowed to discipline students and most principals don’t either. I had a 7 year old threaten to bring a gun or a knife to school and kill everyone. This child had been a problem before; he was always trying to hit and bully the other children; they were afraid to sit near him. Any threat of violence should be taken seriously even if from a small child. The assistant principal did not discipline the child because she did not want to report the incident thus making the school look bad. These children learn from a young age that there are no consequences for bad behavior. I expect to see this boy on the news in a few years.
I have wanted to write about my experiences there before but refrained because I did not want to loose my job. Now that I am in the middle of a career change, I am seriously thinking about writing more. I have witnessed things that would even surprise AR readers.
