Innocent bystander Derrion Albert killed

knight_shadow · #1 09-29-2009, 03:59 PM

I'm surprised I haven't seen anything on GC about this yet.

After reading blogger Janet Shan's post on BlackPoliticalThought.Blogspot.com about the Thursday, Sept. 24, beating and murder of 16-year-old honors student Derrion Albert, I watched the video of three people beating Albert with a railroad tie, punching him and then a few people dragging Albert to an alternate location in hopes of helping him.

There's a person near the camera (or shooting the camera) who sounds like he's almost laughing at the fight still going on, and honestly, that disturbed me more than the video. One female's voice laughs and a guy says, "Look, they still going at it down there." Somebody was just beaten in front of them, but somehow this was entertainment. Somebody lost a life to a fight that I'm convinced, without knowing anybody in this traumatic event, was not worth it, and I'm hearing chuckling. Wow.

The Chicago Tribune reported that three people were arrested today in Albert's death: Silvonus Shannon, 19, Eugene Riley, 18, and Eric Carson, 16. Although Albert was an innocent bystander, the fight was really directed between two groups of Fenger High School Students, one group residing in Altgeld Gardens housing development.

Full Story

FYI - The video is somewhat disturbing. They blurred the fatal blow, though.

There are some other sources for the story, but I don't feel like searching for them right now. I think this is ridiculous. I've been in my share of altercations growing up, but nothing like this. I wish our kids could understand what some of their choices end up doing. There are now 4 families ruined because of some BS.

agzg · #2 09-29-2009, 04:06 PM

This whole thing is very heartbreaking.

http://www.cnn.com/2009/CRIME/09/28/...ing/index.html

ETA: A fourth person has been arrested, too. 17 year old Eugene Bailey.

There was a cousin of one of the suspects on the news last night, talking about how people should feel bad for him because his cousin is going to jail or something. It struck me as rather odd. His face was pretty bashed in, too.

ETAA: A RAILROAD TIE. SERIOUSLY.

cheerfulgreek · #3 09-29-2009, 04:06 PM

That's so sad. What's wrong people, today? Seriously. You know things are getting bad when you have to be 18 just to buy a can of spray paint.

knight_shadow · #4 09-29-2009, 04:15 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by agzg

ETAA: A RAILROAD TIE. SERIOUSLY.

Yea, that's crazy. I really want to know where they found it.

Quote:

Originally Posted by cheerfulgreek

That's so sad. What's wrong people, today? Seriously. You know things are getting bad when you have to be 18 just to buy a can of spray paint.

Or to buy allergy medicine. Do other areas have problems with the "cheese" epidemic?

cheerfulgreek · #5 09-29-2009, 04:17 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by knight_shadow

Or to buy allergy medicine. Do other areas have problems with the "cheese" epidemic?

Oh, yeah. I totally forgot about over the counter medication. No, what's up with the cheese?

knight_shadow · #6 09-29-2009, 04:22 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by cheerfulgreek

Oh, yeah. I totally forgot about over the counter medication. No, what's up with the cheese?

Allergy medicine laced with heroin. There have been several deaths in the DFW area (where I'm located), so they've been coming down hard on pharmacies. You have to fill out forms to buy meds and you can only buy a certain number of pills within a certain timeframe.

It's inconvenient (I've had bad allergies since I've moved to Texas), but I can understand why they're doing it. I wish our youth had more sense, though.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cheese_(recreational_drug)

cheerfulgreek · #7 09-29-2009, 04:33 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by knight_shadow

Allergy medicine laced with heroin. There have been several deaths in the DFW area (where I'm located), so they've been coming down hard on pharmacies. You have to fill out forms to buy meds and you can only buy a certain number of pills within a certain timeframe.

It's inconvenient (I've had bad allergies since I've moved to Texas), but I can understand why they're doing it. I wish our youth had more sense, though.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cheese_(recreational_drug)

Thanks for the link. Yep, it's easy to see around you. I live about 2 hours away from a really bad city here, and a lot of the schools here are scanning students for weapons at the door. It's so easy to see how bad things are getting, now.

Yeah, I know how you feel, I have allergies too.

agzg · #8 09-29-2009, 04:24 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by knight_shadow

Or to buy allergy medicine. Do other areas have problems with the "cheese" epidemic?

Aren't some of the ingredients in allergy medicines reuseable in crystal meth?

When I was at Target we not only had to check IDs, but we had to scan them as well, when we were selling pretty much anything over the counter but aspirin.

knight_shadow · #9 09-29-2009, 04:28 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by agzg

Aren't some of the ingredients in allergy medicines reuseable in crystal meth?

When I was at Target we not only had to check IDs, but we had to scan them as well, when we were selling pretty much anything over the counter but aspirin.

I'm not sure about the crystal meth thing, but it wouldn't surprise me.

I've had to resort to buying lower-strength meds (since it's so inconvenient to get the real thing), and it's done a number on my allergies.

DaemonSeid · #10 09-30-2009, 08:13 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by agzg

Aren't some of the ingredients in allergy medicines reuseable in crystal meth?

When I was at Target we not only had to check IDs, but we had to scan them as well, when we were selling pretty much anything over the counter but aspirin.

Yup...we had a bad epidemic as people were driving into MD to buy tons of meds to make meth.

But back to the video, my goodness...what is wrong with people today?

When I was a teen, if you got into a fight you got into a fight, you either kicked ass or got it kicked. Nobody ended up dead because of it.

DrPhil · #11 09-30-2009, 10:39 AM

"Gang" fights and unruly, rioting crowds have always ended up in people getting killed either intentionally or unintentionally. Always.

DrPhil · #12 09-29-2009, 04:38 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by knight_shadow

They blurred the fatal blow, though.

My heart stopped as soon as they blurred it out. He was dead (or close to death) on the ground before the final blow was dealt.

This kind of senseless and pointless stuff really makes my blood boil. It really does.

knight_shadow · #13 09-29-2009, 04:40 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by DrPhil

My heart stopped as soon as they blurred it out. He was dead (or close to death) on the ground before the final blow was dealt.

This kind of senseless and pointless stuff really makes my blood boil. It really does.

I know what you mean. I knew it was coming (from reading the story), but to actually watch someone die on film is more than I wanted to see.

DrPhil · #14 09-29-2009, 04:45 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by knight_shadow

I know what you mean. I knew it was coming (from reading the story), but to actually watch someone die on film is more than I wanted to see.

I wanted to kick the asses of all of those ignorant bastards. I imagined myself beating the crap out of the moron who hit Derrion Albert while he was on the ground motionless.

I can understand why innocent bystanders would rather hide (or video tape...assholes) than get involved with the fight. But, I wish someone driving by would've run some sons of bitches over that day.

agzg · #15 09-29-2009, 04:59 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by DrPhil

I wanted to kick the asses of all of those ignorant bastards. I imagined myself beating the crap out of the moron who hit Derrion Albert while he was on the ground motionless.

I can understand why innocent bystanders would rather hide (or video tape...assholes) than get involved with the fight. But, I wish someone driving by would've run some sons of bitches over that day.

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.