Derrion Albert cannot be allowed to die in vain.

The 16-year-old Chicago honor student became entangled in a street war with which he had nothing to do.

They beat him with wooden boards. When he collapsed, they kicked and punched him until the last breath of life was sucked from his lungs. If not for a rolling video camera, his story likely would have ended up in a crime section of a newspaper — another teenage victim of crime rampant in cities as large as Chicago and as small as Vicksburg.

But the camera did roll. The grainy footage of him falling to the concrete as two rival gangs battled in some sort of turf war is haunting. Because that video rolled, Derrion Albert will become a rallying cry for solving what has becoming a national crisis.

Albert’s beating death on Sept. 24 has opened a national dialogue dealing with youth violence. In Vicksburg, we are not immune. One trip through the crime section of this newspaper reveals a horrifying reality. A recent report in The Vicksburg Post showed teen arrests have already surpassed those of 2008 — and we still have nearly three months until the new year. As of Sept. 18, 424 arrests were made involving those younger than 18. In all of 2008, those arrests numbered 395. In 2007, 304 teens were arrested.

Sean P. Murphy is Web editor. He can be reached at smurphy@vicksburgpost.com.

Decreasing youth violence in the hopes of one day eliminating it will be an arduous task. It will take years and tears to convince our young people that the answers to life’s struggles — everyone has them — is not to reach for a gun, knife or wooden board.

Like any major problem, solutions are not easy to come by. Knee-jerk reaction says “more police,” but the police cannot be everywhere. We have to get to these children when they are young, to accentuate how important life can be, and how quickly it can be taken away. Somehow family has to make a comeback. Neighborhoods need to band together to fight against the growing stain of youth violence.

The road will not be an easy one, but solving huge problems rarely is easy. We’ve taken the first step, which is opening our eyes to the problem. Sadly, it took the death of an honor student. Statistics on a black-and-white newspaper page may give readers pause, but those numbers are just that – numbers.

Derrion Albert cannot be allowed to be a number.