Thursday, September 22, 2016

Derrion Albert

Seven years ago, on Sept. 24, 2009, Derrion Albert, a 16-year-old black student, was walking home from Fenger High School in Chicago and was beaten and stomped to death during a fight between 2 rival groups. The rest of the nation heard about it only because someone caught it on video. That put pressure on Obama, and later the President sent Holder and Duncun. Jesse Jackson also showed up. Then the money began to flow. Eventually, a $65 million dollar two year federal grant for "Safe Passage" was funneled to Chicago Public Schools to reduce youth violence. As I understand it grants went to local organizations and faith communities to hire and train people to ensure safety along the routes taken by school children. Kids in Chicago are still dying, but money was found to extend the program. The next year there were over 260 murders, but none on video. Eventually, Derrion's name was forgotten. Six young men over time were arrested, tried and sentenced in the Albert death, the last one in 2015. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/news/derrion-albert/

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I think the only objections were that the $65 million didn't go to the schools to be used by the unions.