Chicago murder victim's mom urges action on crime crisis, calls on Pritzker to declare emergency
CHICAGO - The mother of a young man murdered on Chicago's South Side urged action from city and Illinois state leaders, telling Fox News on Friday that the most hard-hit communities in this current crime wave can fix the problems themselves if only given the opportunity and the proper resources.
Pamela Bosley, whose son Terrell was shot dead outside his church in April 2006, told "America Reports" that a lot of facts and coverage about Chicago's violence epidemic is being misconstrued, and that there is a general feeling of hopelessness among residents of the neighborhood.
She also called on Illinois Democratic Gov. J. B. Pritzker to follow New York Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo's lead and declare a gun violence state-of-emergency.
"My son Terrell Bosley, at the age of 18, his life was taken on the grounds of a church in Chicago, a place should have been safe. He was outgoing, a college student, doing the right things. My husband and I were protecting him best we could," she said.
"Somebody came by shooting. That is a story we hear often in our city of Chicago, not all over Chicago, [just] in 15 communities people don’t seem to care about."
Bosley said that of the thousands of shootings in Chicago, it appears that the resources are always directed at the Downtown area and the North Side, which has a lesser minority population than the south and west sides.
She added that, including in the case of her son's murder, the press dubs too many of the shootings "gang-related" when that aspect is untrue.
"It seems like sometimes we feel hopelessness because we feel like people don’t care," she said.
"And these kids, our young people, they are striving to be somebody and do the right thing… Major problems are that when you listen to the news, they say gang-related."
"So in Chicago, how can you say gang-related and destroy somebody’s character when these cases are not solved. Terrell was not in a gang."
She said that when Terrell's death was attributed to gang violence, his father had to publicly defend his late son against the allegation.
Bosley added that 80% of cases on the south and west sides are unsolved, while police are instead deployed downtown and to the north.
"Other cases on the North Side and it's White individuals shot, 80% of cases are solved. We need our cases solved. We need people to pay attention and just so you know," she said.
"The third thing, we need J.B. Pritzker our governor, and our mayor to declare Chicago just like New York did, a state of emergency so we can get the proper federal funds to cease this violence."
Host Sandra Smith, who noted she is also from Chicago, asked if more police presence in affected neighborhoods is the answer.
Bosley replied she does not want a bigger police presence, partially because she predicts it will be ineffective.
"No, we don’t want more police presence. Police come after the fact. We need investments and we have so many people on the ground working. We don’t need more police, more police is not the answer," she said.
"I am asking for more detectives to solve our cases, not more police because my fear is, I have two other sons. I’m a mother who lost a child to gun violence… I don’t want a policeman to shoot my child and take their lives," she said, fearing of such an altercation if her surviving sons are stopped on the road by the highway patrol.
"I believe the community can do it if we have the resources, we ask for economic development, we ask for certain things in our community. I know the community can do it, come out and solve this block by block, solve this with the proper resources," she reiterated.
"We want Mayor Lightfoot to come talk to us: we need resources from her. We need her to act and act quickly and not — we need this action now."