Senseless Killing of Derrion Albert

WARNING: This video footage is graphic so you may not want to watch it if you get emotional very easily. It's really tragic.

Video courtesy of GlobalGrind.com.

I wasn't going to post the video but I think that ADULTS need to see this video. More light needs to be shed upon these type of incidents that get swept under the rug as far as national media coverage is concerned. There's no reason a young man should have to die for this to be brought about as an issue worthy of national attention. This happens EVERY DAY people! And instead of sitting around waiting for the powers that be to do something people need to realize that change starts with us. It's like I said yesterday, if you are not a part of the solution, you are a part of the problem! Where were the adults while all this was going on?

This is REAL LIFE! It's not about your kid or my kid, it's about kids in general. It's about human lives. It's about the future.

For me, the worst part about this is that this kid wasn't even participating in the brawl/melee. It appeared he was an innocent bystander. Even if he wasn't an innocent bystander once he was down on the ground and obviously unconscious there was no need to continue beating him more and more. Again, where were the adults/security/administrators?

What also hit home for me is that this is the type of situation that most of us that grew up in an urban area (or the surrounding suburbs) were exposed to as a teenager or participated in. I know me and my boys were involved in our fair share of fights and a few of them escalated to the level of a brawl. We were not scared to get involved in stupid when we were younger and some of us might have even wanted to be involved in something like this because we thought it was cool or that it made us look tough. But we blessed to survive with only cuts, scratches, and maybe a lump on our faces.

We're older now and we've lost a lot of friends along the way to violence and we've realize how dumb we were back then. But now as an adult I think about the kids nowadays and the level of recklessness and carelessness with which some of them live their lives and it really scares me. I think about all the stuff that me and my friends survived and how that could have easily have been one of us suffering the same fate as Derrion. Not everybody survives these situations though, and it resonates deeply with me because I've lost friends to violence more times than I care to have experienced. Whether it's a fight or a gunshot it's a loss of life. They say Derrion was an honor student. Maybe he would have been the next Obama, Ben Carson, Bill Gates, or the guy that saved your life somehow. Maybe he would have somehow made the world a better place for his family or for all of us. Maybe he would have just been a regular Joe Schmoe on the street that you didn't think twice about. But now his life will be remembered by a fatal beating that could have easily been avoided. It's maddening and saddening.

My prayers go out to Derrion's family and friends and also to those who beat him as well as everybody else out there acting niggorant. Also, sometimes people need to put the camera down and do something. I can't stand that the camera person was so enthralled by the fight that they didn't think to go and get help. There's so much wrong about this story that there's gotta be something right to come as a result of it.

Rest In Peace Derrion Albert.