About 250 Chicagoans gathered, with many shouting at each other, during a vigil called in response to last week’s mob beating that took the life of 16-year-old honor student Derrion Albert, reports the Chicago Sun-Times. Some protesters called for more political leadership against local violence. “The mayor is out fighting for the Olympics, and our youth are here fighting for their lives!” said a neighborhood activist calling herself Queen Sister.
Yesterday, three youths were ordered held without bail in Derrion’s fatal beating. The assault was not gang-related but arose from a disagreement between students who live in Altgeld Gardens and another group who live in a nearby area known as the “Ville,” said prosecutor Jodi Peterson. “It was a brutal and violent attack in which the victim was merely a bystander,” Peterson said.