“The whole hood is lost, G” – Mikkey Halsted
Derrion Albert, a 16-year-old Fenger student, was murdered on Thursday in broad daylight. Three blocks from his school. This hits close to home for me – Fenger is about a 10-minute drive from the crib – but for more reasons than just proximity. Albert wasn’t involved in the brawl, at least according to witnesses. He stepped in to try and help out a student who’d gotten swept up in it, and minutes later he lay on the concrete dying.
Above is the raw footage that’s crept onto the web. Immediately, you can see the chaos breaking out in the middle of the street. There was no gunplay, thank god, but about a minute in you can see Derrion Albert take a blow to the head from a wooden board. With Albert unconscious from the hit, the “tough guys” proceed to stomp and kick the remaining life out of him.
The video is no doubt powerful stuff. Both emotionally and legally. I hope that the footage leads to arrests, but what I hope more is that it can open people’s eyes. While far from innocent, the media isn’t dramatizing and exaggerating the violence going on in our community. With trash like this continuing on the regular, we need to really take a look at what we can do to stop it. What WE can do. Not what we can demand the city do. How much did the city help Derrion Albert on Thursday?
16 years old.
Sorry to preach, but it is Sunday. How can you watch that and not be moved to action?
Words by Dallas Wright