'They're not living like they should live,' Mother of homicide victim says violence has lasting impact on community
By Courtney Cole, WBZ-TV
BOSTON - On Monday, local community activist Reverend Kevin Peterson of the New Democracy Coalition, penned a letter to Boston Police Commissioner Michael Cox.
Inside the letter, he called for more action to combat the violence, referring to it as a State of Emergency and saying in part, "The level of violence we're witnessing feels unprecedented."
He is calling on the commissioner to, "reconsider how your department's resources are being deployed across the city."
He taped the detailed letter to the front door of BPD Headquarters.
Shondell Davis is one of the many who have been impacted by violence that community activists are working to stop.
"There's anxiety, there's fear," Davis said, adding that there's also a huge misconception around the attitude residents in Black and brown communities have about crime.
"It's just this expectation of, "Oh, they'll get it. They're used to it. Just go [on] with your life. It doesn't bother us. But it does, it does bother us!"
Davis isn't just speaking as a member of the Dorchester and Roxbury communities, but as a mother of six who lost her son, Johnny Davis, to gun violence in 2009.
"I buried my youngest son. It was a homicide," Davis said.
"For all the mothers, as we try to heal, and work on our process and strengthen our community--every single time there's another shooting, it's like we have it tucked away, we have it nice and neat. But every time there's a shooting, it's [like] somebody taking the blankets off," she explained to WBZ-TV.
Davis said the violence has a lasting effect on the community. One that comes in many different forms, impacting people as young as her six-year-old grandson who she said also deals with trauma.
"We have to have a different conversation with our kids every day - like you can't go there because I'm afraid of you getting hurt. They're not living like they should live. I want our kids to live like 5, 6 and 7-year-olds. I want them to be able to be their age and not feel like they have to constantly look over their shoulders or be hypervigilant about what's going to happen to them, or mommy, or their brothers and sisters," said Davis.
Even with the fear and anxiety she and her neighbors carry day-to-day, Davis said we have to continue trying, being patient and we have to keep holding on to hope.
"There's a good side to our community, it's just certain individuals that are going through something that cause that disruption," Davis said.
Cole asked Davis what someone can do to help, who doesn't live in the communities impacted by violence.
She said it is as simple as picking up the phone and getting involved with one of the many organizations sowing back into our communities.
Davis said she works with the Cory Johnson Program, which according to The Roxbury Presbyterian Church's website, is a Christ-inspired, community-based, non-profit that addresses post-traumatic stress in urban neighborhoods.