Statement of NAACP President Benjamin Todd Jealous On the Murder of Derrion Albert
April 19, 2010
The cold-blooded murder of Chicago high school student Derrion
Albert by a mob of youngsters has shocked the nation.
Like many Americans, I felt horror watching the video of this
16-year-old’s killing. Today, I feel angry. I am horrified at
the nature of this crime. I am infuriated that so many witnesses
watched this murder without interveningI am outraged that some
perpetrators remain at large, protected by individuals in the
community that will not fully cooperate with the policeI am
disgusted that today—less than a week after the killing—children
must continue to walk to the same fearful path home from school,
risking their lives to gain an education.
The NAACP was founded one hundred years ago to put an end to white
mobs that chased down and killed blacks, Catholics, Jews, Chinese,
Mexicans and others in the streets. Our level of outrage does not
change when the color of the mob does. We insist that the witnesses
to this heinous crime come forward, that the perpetrators be
brought to justice.
This brutal cycle will not end until we arrest and punish the
murderers who prey on the innocent among us. In too many of our
neighborhoods, killers run free, without fear, enabled both by
witnesses and police whose tolerance for growing level of unsolved
homicides is bone chilling.
Chicago has the highest youth homicide rate in the nation, and
Derrion Albert was the third teenager killed there in the month of
September alone.
There are small things we can do to create a bridge to safety for
others like Derrion. His life might have been saved had a proposal
been funded to bus young people to school through hostile gang
territory.
However, as someone who has lost a cousin to street violence, I
have pondered this dilemma deeply. I know that anyone who is
serious about stopping this cycle of violence and murder must
ultimately commit to ending the decades of hopelessness and broken
families that chronic unemployment, joblessness, sky-high HIV
rates, over-incarceration of nonviolent offenders, and growing
levels of unsolved homicides have created.
After 40 years of almost continuous recession in the black
community, and degrading conditions throughout many others, we need
solutions. Black teen unemployment in America is 36 percent and
climbing--and those are just the kids who are looking for jobs. In
many Chicago neighborhoods and urban areas across the country that
number is far higher, and the total percentage of jobless teens is
higher still. We must face up to the implications of the fact that
the gangs always have a job for our children, even when society
does not.
Tomorrow, I will attend the silent wake for Derrion Albert before
driving 90 miles to a rally in Rockford on behalf of the family of
Mark Barmore. Mr. Barmore, who was unarmed, was shot to death by
police in front of children in the daycare center of his church
while seeking counseling. The police were responding to a domestic
disturbance call at Mr. Barmore's house. His family has now been
intimidated and had a swastika carved into their car apparently
because they spoke out.
If Chicago and Rockford have something in common, it is the
soul-crushing lack of hope among so many of their working poor,
their unemployed, and their jobless.
Derrion’s death must be a call to action for our country. We cannot
remain silent while our young people fall victim to these senseless
acts of violence. We must take responsibility for our youth by
teaching our children to resist the corrosive diseases of nihilism
and violence. We must have the courage to step forward, as our
forefathers and foremothers did, to ensure all our children can
grow up in safe communities. We must promote policies that both
protect our children in the short-term and solve the permanent
recession in our communities soon. We must insist that our
politicians make job creation their highest priority, and our
police make solving homicides job one.
I am tired of burying our young. It's time to stop the funerals.
