Daley appeals for safe return of missing girls

Daley appeals for safe return of missing girls

Mayor Daley Tuesday made an impassioned plea for the safe return of 10-year-old Tionda Bradley and her 3-year-old sister, Diamond, last seen Friday and who are feared to be kidnapped.

During a City Hall press conference, Daley said: "We're asking all citizens, CAPS volunteers and churches to do everything to make sure these two children are safe."

He said the police and the FBI are working hard on the case but that "the first thing we're worried about is the safety of the children."

Daley, who also spoke out on the drive-by shooting of 4-year-old Robert Anderson allegedly by 26-year-old Terrence Ligon, thought to be hiding out in Grenada, Miss., said: "This is an example of what gang and drug dealers do. . .[they have] a total disregard of human life.

"They don't care if it is a child [or] if you're walking by. It's all about drugs, money and guns. That's what it's all about," said Daley.

With the children being missing since Friday, a FBI spokesperson said that is troubling. "The FBI is still involved in this investigation. At this point, there is still no evidence to indicate if this is an abduction or a missing persons case.

"However, the FBI treats missing children cases a little different. Children this age don't usually leave home on their own accord for this length of time," an FBI spokesperson told the Chicago Defender.

In the meantime, activists like the Rev. Leon Finney's The Woodlawn Organization (TWO), and Bamani Obadele, who is the executive director of the The Taylor Organization Youth Services (T.O.Y.S.), are passing out flyers while making an appeal for the safe return of the girls.

"I'm glad that the mayor is speaking out against crises in the Black community. I hope he'll include money to help women who have to work to be able to afford daycare services, so they won't have to leave their children at home unattended," Obadele said.

"We need affordable child care. Instead of buying flower pots, the city can spend our surplus money on providing affordable child care."

He said many mothers told him the lack of affordable daycare is preventing them from either working or forcing them to leave their children at home unsupervised.

On the missing girls, Obadele said: "This was not a random abduction. These children were kidnapped and the person who did this knew who they were looking for based on information" he received from his "street" sources.

"The community cannot be held hostage. I think the community can rest, assured that there isn't a person riding around kidnapping children," said Obadele, who has known the Bradley family, which recently was relocated from the Robert Taylor Homes to the 3500 block on South Lake Park Avenue.

Obadele is holding a prayer vigil in the 900 block of East 35th at 8 p.m. every night "until those babies are returned. We cannot be silent. The community cannot be silent."

The Rev. Al Sampson, pastor of the Fernwood United Methodist Church, 10057 S. Wallace, said: "No human being especially from the African American community should ever hold a child or any person hostage.

"There are too many of our people who have the memories of slavery where we were held hostage for a ransom. We do not have to solve our problems by holding little children hostage for whatever reason," Sampson said.

"I call on the brothers and sisters to use my church as a sanctuary to bring the children back and if there is a conflict, let's mediate it. The children should never be used as a hostage in a deal or a proposition based on frustration," said Sampson.

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