Gibbs: Obama Will Address Chicago Violence
“The killing of an honor student by others who's beaten to death is chilling, chilling video"
By ANDREW GREINER
Updated 6:43 PM CST, Wed, Sep 30, 2009
The president’s hometown has been mired by school violence for the last three years.
That problem reached a fever pitch when an amateur videographer caught the beating death of Derrion Albert on camera.
Now the president plans to weigh in on the issue, according to White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs.
“I can tell you obviously the reports of and the video that we have seen on television is among the most shocking that you can ever see,” Gibbs said. “The killing of an honor student by others who's beaten to death is chilling, chilling video and I think this is something that the administration has been working on.
Without revealing too much, Gibbs hinted that the president would address the issue on a national scale.
“This is not just a Chicago specific problem, obviously youth crime and gang violence are something that this administration takes seriously and we'll have more on that soon,” Gibbs said at his daily press briefing.
The administration would do well to concentrate on Chicago though.
The city has seen a sharp rise in violent student deaths during the past three school years — most from shootings off school.
Chicago used to average of 10 to 15 students shooting fatalities each year, before 2006. That climbed to 24 fatal shootings in the 2006-07 school year, 23 deaths and 211 shootings in the 2007-08 school year and 34 deaths and 290 shootings last school year.
First Published: Sep 30, 2009 1:53 PM CST
You Might Like
You have 2000 characters left
