DERRION ALBERT’S DEATH vs. “SNITCHING”

The White House dispatched Education Secretary Arne Duncan and Attorney General Eric Holder.  The anti-violence group CeaseFire Chicago has become proactive.  And now there is renewed hope that the brutal beating death of 16-year old Chicago honor student Derrion Albert will spark a much needed national effort to stop teen violence.

With more than 150 deaths aged 25 or younger in Chicago just this year, Dr. Gary Slutkin  of Chicago believes “Something’s going to change.  There’s something about this beating that has really gotten to everybody.”  Even Chicago Police Superintendent Jody Weis says, “maybe it [Derrion Albert’s death] was a call to action.”  But not everyone is so optimistic.

Among many ethnic teens nationwide, there is an unspoken yet understood code of silence in effect that most young people have been conditioned to follow early on: DO NOT SNITCH!  So, if you witness a crime or a brutal murder such as the one involving Derrion Albert, you pretend you didn’t see anything, mind your business and simply say nothing.  STOP SNITCHING!  It’s a universally known and long accepted survival technique that everybody just gets in line and follows. Reluctance to talk to police has often been a problem in poor, predominantly African-American communities.  But what was once a backroom code of silence among mob bosses and gangsters, is now being marketed to Americas youth like never before.  CNN contributor and Principal Steve Perry of the Capital Preparatory Magnet School in downtown Hartford, Connecticut calls this the greatest crime of all.  According to Perry, when there’s a black on black crime in the neighborhood, the “NO SNITCHING” rule is in full effect.  But if a white person were to come onto the block and commit the identical crime, the entire neighborhood would be up in arms, band together, and be first in line to eagerly identify the perpetrator in a police line up.  It’s an odd and dangerous double standard.

Attorney General Holder has promised a “sustained national effort” to address youth violence, saying “We simply cannot stand for an epidemic of violence that robs our youth of their childhood and perpetuates a cycle in which today’s victims become tomorrow’s criminals.”  Education Secretary Duncan has also announced that Christian Fenger Academy High School, where Albert was an honor student, will receive $500,000 in federal funds for counselors and other programs.  But some feel this is still not enough. “The toxic cocktail of drugs, gangs and guns” must be addressed, said U.S. Attorney Joe Russoniello, who believes parents, schools, law enforcement and community groups must work together to instill values in children before their teen years and create peer pressure that makes gang membership unpopular. “If a person really doesn’t view his life as worth anything, how can we expect him to care about anyone else’s?” he said. Principal Perry agreed, saying “The kids who kill in Chicago don’t kill because they have no regard for the life of others. They kill because they have no regards for their own life. They don’t value their life. They have no plans no goals no future. Part of the solution are teachers who really teach, parents who get involved and male role models who don’t go missing.”