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How does the whole world now know about this? When will it stop?

16-year-old Derrion Albert Beaten to Death in a Mob of Children

Saturday, September 26, 2009

According to police, 16-year-old Derrion Albert was an innocent victim who was dragged into a mob of teens fighting on Chicago’s South Side.

The news comes from WLS-TV, ABC 7 in Chicago:

Authorities say 16-year-old Derrion Albert was walking from school in broad daylight when he was beaten to death.

It happened on Thursday in Chicago’s Roseland community on the far South Side in the 300-block of West 111th Street.

According to authorities, Derrion Albert was kicked, punched and beaten to death by several teens near the Agape Community Center.

Police say about a dozen teens were in a massive fight with sticks around 2:30 p.m. Albert got dragged into the mob.

Albert was taken to Advocate Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn and pronounced dead around 6:30 p.m. Thursday.

Witnesses say the fight that Albert appeared to have walked into was between mostly students from his school, Fenger High, identified by the uniforms they wore.

"These were kids beating kids," said Milton Massie, director, Agape Community Center.

Police are studying video from outside the Agape Community Center. One witness said she saw kids go in after Albert with two-by-fours:

"It looked like 100 kids. We’re talking about kids all over the place, in every direction…On the video, there were kids hopping over cars. The kids had huge sticks. They were going after each other. It seemed as if it was not so much a targeted, but it was random," said Massie.

"Everyone was just letting him get beat…it was basically like he was really by himself," said Tynesha Jackson, witness.

"He was down and they started kicking him. Then I saw they had, like two-by-fours, that’s when we realized that someone need to do something," said Linda Cotton, Agape Community Center.

The center employees pulled Albert’s beaten body to safety.

"He would gasp for a breath a few times but he was unconscious and lying there," said Cotton.

But it was too late.

According to his grandfather who raised him, Albert attended Bible class on Tuesday evenings and church on Sunday.

Our children did this.

We need to pray about this one, and for Derrion Albert and his family

The New Hood

So there's this church down the street (actually, there are about 10 that surround the park near our house) that has a stand that sells fruit every Sunday. Yum. There's also this place called Osaka Ya that sells handmade mochi. They also have a window that you can buy Hawaiian style snowcones out of (ice cream in the bottom!). Our favorite new coffee place is Naked Coffee Lounge. They have this drink called the Kerouac - four shots of espresso and cold (but no ice). Yum-OOO. There's also this event call Chalk It Up that was pretty cool. Here's some pictures from the new hood:





Next up: My recent trip to Seattle and more thrift store finds!

The Dirty, Fried South

I went to Vicksburg, MS for work. We had a meeting with staff from all 5 of our NCCC campuses across country. Although I didn't want to make the trip for an entire week, it ended up being worth the trek. It was cool to meet people face-to-face, learn about where NCCC is going (big changes with the Serve Act), and have an excuse to eat fried. I had a cold the entire time, but that didn't stop me from enjoying the fried pickles, fried catfish, fried cornbread balls (aka hush puppies)...you get the picture. These were taken on my last day there when I started to feel a little better and could partake more completely.

fried pickles - a little taste of heaven.

This lady is souuuutheeeern. I had to pretend to take a photo of my co-worker, Larry to get her!

Hush puppies are probably my favorite fried.


People in the South love dead stuff on boards.

Can you see that? The catfish comes with all SIX of those items. What? Who are these people?