Minister Calls On Emanuel, Rauner To Do More About 'Wild West Of America'
CHICAGO (CBS) -- A prominent Chicago minister on Sunday called the city "The Wild West of America," due to its continuing problems with gun violence.
Bishop Larry Trotter's service at Sweet Holy Spirit Church in the South Chicago neighborhood included a plea to the mayor and governor to team up with community leaders to help stop the bloodshed.
Trotter said it's time for Mayor Rahm Emanuel and Gov. Bruce Rauner to step up and help end gun violence in Chicago by engaging groups like the Black Lives Matter movement.
"They need to embrace various civic and community organizations. They need to return calls. They need to be in the community, not just when there is a fight," he said.
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Trotter said all of the political focus in the city is on things like the budget and other political arguments, but it should be on Chicago's violent communities.
"We've still got these kids being killed," he said. "We need the governor and the mayor to be concerned about Chicago."
Early Walker, owner of All Area W&W Towing, said he has dedicated his fleet of trucks to the movement; each one bears the image of a young girl and the message "stop the violence."
"I feel like if one person can look at a truck and just think; it might be an act of crime or an act of violence, and just think and stop, the purpose was met," he said.
Roylette Luckey, who lost her 28-year-old daughter to a shooting last year, also spoke to the church, alongside her three grandchildren. She said the violence must stop, because each of the girls' lives matters. Luckey, a cancer survivor, told church members how difficult losing her daughter was, and how difficult caring for her daughter's three children has been.
"I went straight into mother mode, because all of a sudden I had these children to take care of because my daughter's not here, and I really haven't talked to a lot of people about it," she said.
Luckey said she hopes to convince others to put their guns down.
Through the end of June, Chicago had more than 300 homicides, a 50 percent spike over the first half of last year. According to the Chicago Tribune, there have been more than 2,100 shootings in the city through July 11, or 700 more than the same time period last year.
