Obama sending AG here to discuss fatal beating

Obama sending AG here to discuss fatal beating
by Katherine Skiba
Copyright by The Associated Press
October 1, 2009 4:47 PM
http://www.chicagobreakingnews.com/2009/10/obama-sending-ag-to-chicago-to-discuss-fatal-beating.html


WASHINGTON -- President Obama is taking up the case of Derrion Albert, the 16-year-old Fenger High School honor student whose fatal beating was captured on cell phone video, by dispatching two Cabinet secretaries to Chicago.

Education Secretary Arne Duncan, the former Chicago Public Schools CEO, and Attorney General Eric Holder, will visit Wednesday. Duncan already was to be in the city that day for a speech.

Albert was beaten to death with what prosecutors say was a railroad tie and the slaying was captured on a cell-phone video camera. Cook County prosecutors have charged four teenagers in the beating of the sophomore honor roll student.

White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said Thursday: "Obviously, it's of great concern to the President, as somebody who lives in Chicago, but would and should be a concern for every American." A day earlier, Gibbs called the crime "heinous" and the video "chilling."

He said the Cabinet officials would meet with students, school officials and residents. Gibbs, when asked if Obama was prepared to address violence before the International Olympic Committee Friday, said Obama "has full confidence" in Chicago's safety and prepared to talk about it.

Duncan addresses Grantmakers for Education at 8:30 a.m. Wednesday at the Westin Michigan Ave., 909 N. Michigan Ave.
Meanwhile, Chicago Police Supt. Jody Weis said today police are still searching for three other teens seen on the video punching or kicking Albert. Their images were not clear on the video, but enhancements by the U.S. Secret Service failed to sharpen them, he said.

Weis again appealed to the public to come forward, saying teens who witnessed the beating are not talking to police.

"There has not been any increase in calls coming in," Weis said. "That's what's so frustrating. When people are not coming forward and doing a simple act like calling 911 and saying that there's a kid being killed right in front of a community center.

"It's very tragic and very frustrating that everybody charged was either a student or a graduate of that high school. Everybody there knows everybody, and yet, all we hear is silence."

Weis also criticized the student who caught the beating on camera and sold the video to a television station, instead of turning it over to police.

"You've got someone videotaping a murder and yet not calling the police" Weis said. "You get the same person videotaping a murder, who doesn't want to turn the video over because he's afraid the police will confiscate it and use it to try and solve the crime, so he shops it out. And a life is worth $250."

"That's horrifying to me that someone could do that and not think of calling 911. The police can really only respond once they get word there's a problem."