Parents Say Change Starts Inside
Posted on 19. Oct, 2009 by admin in Community Focus
by Shanita Bigelow and Lesley R. Chinn
More than 100 people gathered last Saturday for anti-violence protest entitled "The Funeral of Violence." Participants carried a coffin, rest-in-peace gravemarker signs, photos of loved ones they lost as they led a funeral processional from 83rd and King Drive to 73rd and St. Lawrence. The event, which was hosted by Park Manor Christian Church, was geared toward sending a message to the community that the violence needs to be laid to rest. Photo by: Lesley R. Chinn.
When the television cameras are no longer shining on the faces of family members interviewed by reporters about loved ones lost to tragedy and violence, the pain still lingers for those left behind. In many situations, the crimes have never been solved.
As the fatal beating of 16-year-old Derrion Albert, a Fenger High School honor student recently prompted the Obama administration to dispatch Atty. General Eric Holder and education Secretary Arne Duncan to meet with city officials in Chicago to deal with the growing problem of violence, some parents who have walked in the same shoes as Albert’s family – are still looking for closure.
“I’m existing,” said Pamela Montgomery-Bosley, mother of murder victim Terrell Bosley, shot April 4, 2006 on his way to choir practice. “I’ve been talking to detectives…they say the only way they can do anything is if someone steps forward.” In the weeks following Bosley’s death, a suspect was charged, but released due to a lack of evidence. There weren’t enough witnesses, according to Montgomery-Bosley. “We went to court for two years… [and] nobody has been arrested for my son.” She continues to pass out flyers in hopes that someone
will come forward. Speaking on the continued violence, she said, “I don’t think it’s going to change.”
Holder and Duncan’s visit continues the Obama Administration’s commitment to combating violence which included such efforts as the White House Gang Violence Prevention and Crime Control Conference held in August; $13 million from the Recovery Act to hire 50 officers to combat crime and $24 million to support anti-crime programs like Operation Ceasefire in Chicago.
Duncan announced that the Department of Education is working with Chicago Public Schools to award a $500,000 grant to help Fenger High School and the elementary schools that feed into Fenger.
“We need action now,” said Willie Williams Jr., father of murder victim Willie Williams III, shot April 1, 2006 after leaving Ford City Theaters. Of his son’s case, Williams could only say that “it’s good when [we] get them [murderers] off the streets.” “I want this to stop…Don’t come in and talk, come in and do…not tomorrow…[but] today,” said Williams in reference to the recent visit by Duncan and Holder.
And while justice has been served in some cases – it is not enough.
“The case has been solved. The suspect got 100 years,” Annette Holt, mother of Blair Holt, shot on a CTA bus in May 2007, said. “Some people would say that’s good, but it still doesn’t bring your child back.” The solution is prevention and as Montgomery-Bosley, Williams and Holt maintain, “It starts at home.”
“We have to change the inside, the school, the parents, and the neighborhoods,” Holt insists.
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