BEVERLY — A post on Facebook claiming a little black boy was harassed by a group of white teenagers has prompted outrage in Beverly, but police and community leaders say there's no evidence that the incident actually happened.
The alleged incident was said to have occurred at 3:20 p.m. on Monday at 103rd Street and Prospect Avenue. A brief narrative as well as a picture of a car carrying several teenagers said to be involved spread quickly on neighborhood Facebook pages.
The post said four white males between the ages of 16-20 yelled slurs at a roughly 9-year-old black boy who then "ran for his life." The author of the post promised to call the police and encouraged others to "Make this post go viral. We must protect our children from ANYONE who may intimidate them."
Officer Ana Pacheco of the Chicago Police Department said that police were called to the scene at 4:05 p.m. Monday but were unable to find a victim, a witness or the vehicle.
Police then attempted to return the initial call, but the nobody answered, said Pacheco on Tuesday.
Ald. Matt O'Shea (19th) said someone posted the picture of the vehicle as well as the description of the incident on his personal Facebook page late Monday afternoon. Soon thereafter, he began receiving messages from Facebook users demanding action — many of whom he had never met or befriended through the social media site.
O'Shea said he immediately reached out to officers in the Chicago Police Department's Morgan Park District. Police had no information and pointed to the fact that neither the victim nor any witnesses had come forward.
In response, O'Shea removed the photo and the account that been posted on his page. He replaced it with a plea for "anyone who may have any information about this matter to contact the Chicago Police Department immediately."
As the debate continued to rage on Facebook, the owner of the car was eventually identified — likely by someone running the license plate number for the vehicle pictured in the Facebook post, O'Shea said.
He said concern for the little boy who was said to be involved in the alleged incident was soon coupled with concern for the family identified online as being the owners of the vehicle in the photograph.
"We don't know what happened yesterday. But someone put this family's personal information out there, and we don't have a victim," he said.
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