Three teenagers have been charged with first-degree murder in the death of a 16-year-old boy whose beating was captured on amateur video.Derrion Albert, an honor roll student at Fenger High, was beaten to death last week. His death was captured by a camera phone.Nineteen-year-old Silvanus Shannon, 16-year-old Eric Carson and 18-year-old Eugene Riley were charged as adults with first degree felony murder.
This video shows the ruthless teens beating Albert with punches, kicks, and rail road ties.
This brings up the question, is YouTube helping perpetuate the cycle of violence? When teenagers know that by filming violence and putting it online they will receive added attention from their peers, is this a good thing?
I personally know of this happening in my home town (which coincidently is Chicago). Everything from hallway fights that are quickly broken up to severe beating involving brass knuckles and hospital visits are posted on YouTube. The next day these attackers are well known and have almost a cult like following. Unfortunately, they are feared and in many ways respected.
Although YouTube reserves the right to take down a post at any time without notice due to a number of reasons (copyright, violence, etc), a quick search for ‘beatings’ shows a scary trend. The top two videos that come up are entitled ‘Rodney King’ and ‘Compilation of Gang Beatings.’
Today’s culture is so intertwined with the Internet and social media, and phones like the Blackberry with Internet connection, make it easy to upload videos shot straight from your phone and update Facebook and Twitter statuses. Word spreads like wildfire about the latest violence.
Is it possible to stop videos like this from being uploaded? Possibly. Tighter controls by YouTube could help this escalating problem; however, would it just transfer these videos to another outlet? Again, probably.
This leaves us with a bigger problem. The attitude of violence being cool among youths. The debate about this could and has gone on for years, and the answer lies in a combination of things: parental involvement being a large part of it. Would these teens be committing these acts of violence and putting them online for the world to see if they were held accountable by their parents?
I don’t claim to know the answers, only want to open up discussion. The Chicago Public School District needs much overhauling in many areas, but how can a child learn if they are afraid they could get killed walking home from school? How can we as a society use social media for a positive spin instead of a negative?
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