In a nation beginning to separate due to the results of the Presidential election, racial tensions have reached new limits as of last week.  Four young adults in the Chicago area were arrested for kidnapping and beating a disabled eighteen year old white man.

Not only did the teens commit such a heinous crime, but they also streamed the assault of this man live on Facebook.  CNN has characterized this film as 30 minutes of horror, and appropriately so.  The victim is seen hiding against the corner of the wall, bloodied from being cut at the scalp.

Not only were the beatings of the mentally disabled teen heinous enough, but also the attackers clearly made this assault an issue of race.  The horrendous video depicts the teens shouting, “F**k Donald Trump… F**k white people!”

The teenagers who were involved face a multitude of chargers including aggravated kidnapping, aggravated battery with a deadly weapon, and hate crime.  Due to the atrocity of the crime, the judge denied bail for the suspects.

The judge chastised the suspects in the open court saying, “I’m wondering where was the sense of decency that each of you should have.”

Showing glimpses of remorse at the court date, the suspects family apologized to the parents of the victim.  However, During the court scene, the teenagers did not show any signs of regret.  Remaining emotionless and stolid during their hearing, the suspects appeared to support their actions of abuse.

Many that have seen the live stream and the reports of the crime and have attempted to connect the beating to the Black Lives Matter group.  On twitter, many shared their views of the incident as the hashtag “BlackLivesMatterKidnapping” began trending.  Despite being intertwined with the crime on twitter there has been no evidence that the Black Lives Matter activist group was involved with the attacks.

The Black Lives Matter group denies the attack because they, “Cannot respond to hate with hate. It’s just going to perpetuate the cycle”, According to a former Chicago policeman, Dimitri Roberts.

As if the nation had not already been suffering at the hands of a racial divide.  This past summer, five Dallas cops were killed because of the police brutality race issues scattered throughout the country.

It’s easy to say that nothing is wrong when nothing directly affects us. However, the moment we turn on the news we are instantly reminded exactly how torn the nation truly is.

Senior Ryan Jennings comments, “I just can’t watch the news anymore.  Every time I walk downstairs and I see the news I immediately go back to my room.  The headache of today’s world is too much… something needs to change and that’s why we have a businessman as president.  It’s something different.”

Jennings, however accurate in promoting change, may be seen as one of those who is part of the problem.  As seen in the video from the Chicago beatings, the suspects yell, “F**K Donald Trump.”  Possibly meaning that the reason for the beating of the disabled eighteen year old was because of Donald Trump’s election.  Though a terribly insufficient excuse for performing such a crime, we see exactly how soft our nation really is.

“Just because we don’t like the results of an election doesn’t give us a reason to go around abusing those who don’t agree with us,” added Jennings.

People tend to forget that everyone is entitled to his or her opinion, and under no circumstance should our own personal opinions be used as a reason for our assault.  The four suspects in Chicago are exactly what the country needs to demolish.  Maybe one day the world won’t be so hectic and maybe one day the news won’t make our heads and hearts ache, but for now, it seems that won’t be changing for quite some time.