Ride the Lightning

Teen Arrested for Murder After Posting Video of Attack on Facebook

July 24, 2012

Has the world gone mad? Many of us remain shell-shocked by the slaughter in an Aurora, Colorado movie theater. Sadly, the madness happens on a smaller scale every day. Hat tip to friend Jennifer Ellis for sending me this appalling story.

CNN reported last week that Malik Jones, 16, was allegedly playing a game called "pick 'em out and knock 'em out" when he punched Delfino Mora, 62, in his jaw, knocking him to the ground, where the back of his head was cracked by concrete. In what sort of world do we live where this is a teenage game? Sigh.

Nicholas Ayala, 17, and Anthony Malcolm, 18, used Jones' cell phone camera to record the Chicago attack, picking up the loud crack of Mora's head hitting the cement. "I think I'm going to knock this guy out," Jones is heard saying on the video.

Mora, the father of 12, was collecting aluminum cans and scrap metal to sell in an alley near his north Chicago home when Jones attacked him. Mora, who was collecting the cans and metal to supplement his social security income, died in St. Francis Hospital the next day from cranial-cerebral injury, blunt head trauma and asthma, according to the Cook County medical examiner.

Jones, who is apparently as stupid as he is heinous, posted the video on his Facebook page, where it was seen by someone else who had been victimized by Jones, ultimately leading the police to the teenagers.

All three teens were ordered held without bail until their next court date on August 3rd. They are being charged as adults with first-degree murder.

While there has always been cruelty among teenagers and young adults, it nonetheless seems as though societal forces of some kind have dehumanized many young people. I know there are a lot of smart people trying to figure how this has happened and how to correct it. I hope they work harder and faster. I take little consolation in the fact that their stupidity gives us the electronic evidence with which to convict them. There are too many lives wasted and too many lives cut short.

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