Derrion Albert Beating Death Video

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This video shows the melee on the south side of Chicago in which groups of Black "youfs" from two different schools, all future NFL players, engaged in a fight in the streets which resulted in the death of Derrion Albert, a 16 year old boy said to be an honor student. The fight occurred on Thursday, September 24, 2009. The video is not that bad; it just shows a fight. After Albert goes down, his prone body is blurred out.

This sort of thing happens all the time in Chicago, but the fact that an honor student bought it this time has promoted a spate of articles.

Albert is said to be an innocent bystander who just accidentally strolled into the middle of the brawl or was accidentally caught up in it. That is certainly possible. The brawl took place as students were getting out of school and the streets were blanketed with students. When a brawl takes place in such a situation, obviously a bystander could happen to get caught up in it.

However, I have reviewed this tape extensively, and I conclude that Derrion Albert may not have been so innocent after all. Although the cellphone video is not the best and I don't have the necessary tech to slow down videos or review frame by frame, after repeated viewings, it seems that Albert deliberately ran into the middle of the fight and then participated in some sort of fighting. The fighters on the other side seem to have retaliated against him for this. One hit him in the head with a large plank of wood.

After that, he falls to the ground, but gets up quickly. As soon as he gets up, he is immediately punched in the face and hit again with the railroad tie and goes down hard. This time he stays down. At least one person comes up and kicks him in the head several ties when he was down. Somewhere in this rain of blows, he suffered enough injuries that he was killed. Bystanders quickly surround him, keep people away from him, and then cover his prone body with some sort of a white sheet.

I don't think this kid deserved to get killed, and he may well have been an honor student. But I'm not so sure, looking at the video, that he's so innocent. Right before he gets hit with the board, it looks like he tries to punch a member of the opposing faction.

The fight occurred in SW Chicago in the 300 block of West 111th Street. My mother grew up around 65th Street in the 30's and 40's. Back then, the area where the fight occurred was White and safe, but not anymore. It's now a heavily Black ghetto, but there seem to be a lot of Whites and Hispanics in the area too. The fight occurred around Fenger High School. This is a notorious ghetto school with tons of problems and lots of violence.

The fight was between two groups of youths from different areas, one from the Altglen Housing Project and one from an area known as the "ville." Altglen is a notorious project. This is where Obama did some of his earlier community organizing work. His claim to fame there was asbestos removal at the project. This area is not far from where Chicago wants to host the 2016 Olympics. At this rate, they may as well call it the Gladiator Games.