Chicago Teen's Beating Death Prompts Renewed Calls To Stop Gang Violence In Urban Streets

The brutal beating death of a Chicago honor roll student has prompted renewed calls to stop gang violence in urban streets. Derrion Albert, a 16 year old honor roll student at a Chicago area high school was caught in the crossfire of the clash between two factions of students and was beaten to death as he walked to his school bus stop. Albert was punched, stomped and beaten with wooden boards. The severe beating which was captured on cell phone camera is reported to have been gang initiated. Four teenagers have been charged with  murder. The senselessness of Derrion Albert's beating has gained nationwide attention striking such a raw nerve that it has prompted President Obama to dispatch U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder and Education Secretary Arne Duncan, the former CEO of Chicago Public Schools, to Chicago this week to investigate Derrion Albert's murder. Nation Of Islam leader Minister Louis Farrakhan and the Rev. Jesse Jackson were among mourners who attended funeral services for the young man. Both Minister Farrakhan and Rev. Jackson have joined the clarion call for gang violence to end. "I believe all of us can be saved," Farrakhan said during Derrion’s funeral service, responding to comments by the slain youth’s father that young people are not salvageable. "[Derrion's] righteous life served as a redemptive force to make us get up and save our children." Rev. Jackson noted that the gang violence is not an incident, it's a pattern. Mayor Richard Daley, upon returning to the U.S. from his trip to Copenhagen for Chicago's failed Olympic bid, made his first comments regarding Derrion Albert's murder saying he will meet with local officials as well as Attorney General Holder and Secretary Duncan along with Superintendent Jody Weis, head of the Chicago Police Department and Albert's family to get to the bottom of what he calls the "code of silence" that allows for pernicious, brutal acts of violence such as the murder of Derrion Albert to occur. Mayor Daley firmly stated that such "codes of silence" are unacceptable and inexcuseable and has vowed to turn Chicago's violent reputation around.