We never had metal detectors either (my HS city was around 100K near Austin, TX), but it was still a shock. I lived in Harford County, Maryland (very affluent) before moving here, and it was like night and day.

The "gun and drugs" culture was nothing new in my day (thanks to Pac, Snoop, Nirvana, etc songs being out), but our parents made sure we knew the difference between art and reality. I was familiar with the culture, but knew that it shouldn't appear in my daily life. I'm truly interested in learning what made the lines blur recently.

Kids aren't "so bad now."

We just hear more about the negative because of the Internet and other media outlets.

The good news about the video is that it helped the Chicago PD identify the suspects more clearly, and I do believe it will count toward evidence in court.

The person who took the video was a girl. I'm not sure if she thought the fight was cool or if she thought she could get the kids in trouble with it, but jumping in there could have been fatal to her, too.

I need to get the full story on who shot the video, but she's asked that she remain anonymous because she's afraid of retaliation. Her brother was actually the one that offered the video to Fox (the local affiliate) so who knows if he did that on his own or what. I do know the victim's family saw it first, after the Chicago PD.

The internet was up-and-coming when I was coming up, but I still don't recall hearing things being as bad as they are nowadays.

Like I said, I understand why bystanders didn't jump in.

She didn't tape that for evidence. She and the guy with her were enjoying what they saw until Derrion got killed. Then it turned into shock and awe and "Derrion...get up!!!"

Oh... my bad. Apparently seeing "I can" reads as "I can't."

As in "I can't read today."

I can't speak to what she said on the video because I know I wouldn't be able to handle watching it.

I wish I knew where to find the article I read about it yesterday morning - it was in the Chicago RedEye (which I read on the L) and I haven't been able to find it since. Usually they're snippets of Tribune articles.

Yep.

I recall hearing it when you were coming up. I'm 7 years older than you.**

You wouldn't have heard it unless you were a news watching kid or scoured the up and coming Internet for news stories (or you saw it firsthand, as many people did). Since your childhood, crime and violence are much more popular to report for mainstream media outlets. Here we are discussing this on a "fun" social networking site. This fuels the fear of crime and fear of "omg, times are changing!!!" that you hear from people--even young people who don't know what the hell things were like 10-20 years ago, anyway.

** I also recall hearing about it when I was a kid and there was no Internet or mainstream/super cool/hip and popular media outlets to report it. We'd hear via word of mouth; and the local and evening news and news papers always got a kick out of reporting things that they knew would shock people's sensibilities. Yes, I was a news watching/newspaper reading kid because my parents made us do that. :p

That article was truly disturbing. So is the thought of 4th graders doing cheese. I seem to remember the internet exploding in around 8th grade or so, but I don't think anyone of my class mates did heroin. At least not at the time. Kids today are violent and drug-crazed. They need to keep off my damn lawn.

I refuse to watch the video because I can't take seeing something like that, but may he rest in peace.

Same here :)

I'm not naive enough to think that violence was non-existent during my upbringing. "Community policing" was widespread when I was growing up, though. There were several instances where fights were going to jump off, but parents and residents stepped in before things got out of control. Those kids were properly dealt with after the fact, too.

I agree that the internet and "NOW NOW NOW" media has contributed to our knowing about these incidents sooner, but (outside of LA/Chi gang issues) I don't remember hearing of this many truly disturbing events.

Young whippersnappers.

Right...this is all about the community efforts for your particular community and the fact that you don't "recall" hearing "this many" truly disturbing events in the news.

Not the same thing as kids today being off the wall and things being hugely different than they were when you were young.

That video is completely disturbing. I know that that fatal blow is blurred out, but the blows before that were blurred out too right? Cause one second he's sitting up with his hands in the air (like if he's trying to either block someone or asking for help to get up) and then he's blurred out.

I can't imagine being the person who videotaped this, thinking she was just gonna film idiots fighting....and then it lead to this. :(

All of the final blows were blurred out. They probably began blurring when his head/face were busted open.