The one thing that is really hurting the chances of the youth in Chicago are the prevalence of crime on the streets of Chicago. In February of 2009 the death of Derrion Albert gained national attention when cell phone video footage of his murder being dealt out by other teenagers in a group brawl surfaced on the internet.
I can remember seeing the video of the incident when it was originally posted on a number of video blog’s. In the description of those video’s there wasn’t much information on the attack and it wasn’t even clear if anyone had died due to the beating.
In the video you can see a young man swinging a huge piece of wood and hitting another teen who turned out to be Derrion Albert. I can remember thinking to myself, did anyone die or was someone just hurt. It turns out that later that day or possibly a few days later the death of Derrion Albert was reported on and the video footage I had seen on the internet was shown in its entirety for quiet dome time.
Its stories like this that show exactly what is standing in the way of children succeeding in life if they live in Chicago. Derrion Albert didn’t get a chance to finish school go to college and pursue a career. Rather his life was cut short and the lives of those who were responsible for his death are also in jeopardy. This incident alone has seriously hurt the futures of a large number of young inner city residents.
What you may call good news about all of this is that recently crime has dropped in Chicago. With a mayoral election coming up this Tuesday on February 22, I hope whoever is elected manages to keep this decrease in crime going into 2012 so we can stop incidents like the passing of Derrion Albert from happening.
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