Q4 - Chase Ingersoll - Peoria, Illinois
Letter to Editor of Peoria Journal Star
Police not biggest threat to young, black Peorians
Monday, August 29, 2005
While reading the Aug. 16 article about District 150's new truancy plan, I was caught off-guard by a question local NAACP President Don Jackson asked at the School Board meeting. Jackson inquired if the police might use "deadly force" to stop fleeing truants. He should have been laughed out of the meeting.
Surely a lawyer and civil rights leader like Jackson is familiar with the Supreme Court's ruling in Garner v. Tennessee (1985), which stated that police may not even shoot at fleeing felons unless they pose an imminent threat. The use of deadly force must be reasonable to be considered valid under the Fourth Amendment. Clearly, it would not be acceptable for a police officer to shoot a juvenile just because he or she skipped school.
Mr. Jackson knows this. But his selective ignorance serves a definite purpose - fear-mongering. How irresponsible for a local leader to exploit the already palpable tension between the black community and Peoria police.
If Mr. Jackson really wants to prevent catastrophic incidents between police and black kids, perhaps an educational program explaining a citizen's rights and responsibilities during encounters with the police is in order. Mr. Jackson might also explain that the thug life philosophy is all about greed, violence, misogyny, racism, ignorance and death. These solutions may not be as sexy as yelling "racism" or "police brutality," but they're certainly more constructive alternatives.
If Mr. Jackson thinks the most profound threat to young, black Peorians is their police department, then he has not been paying attention to the local news during this long, hot summer.
David R. Hummels
Peoria
Will suburban schools take Manual students?
www.pjstar.com
Duh.................depends on whether or not they play basketball.
Police Recruit Developments
Boone, the recruit who complained about the statement of Police recruit Layman, was a short, thin guy with an engineering degree from Purdue. Made no sense why he would want to be a cop, with that area of eduction, or how he could actually be able to wade into a physical confrontation and hold his own with some oversized thugs. But could you imagine what would have happened if the Peoria Police Department had not hired him. Maybe that was the deal, the guy was cleverly hoping to not be hired or to be mistreated, setting himself up for a discrimination lawsuit against the City of Peoria.
Just thowing this out here for discussion.
Chase
Peoria police recruit resigns
He was suspended earlier this year for making a racially charged comment in training
Saturday, August 27, 2005
By Leslie Williams
of the Journal Star
PEORIA - The Peoria police recruit who was suspended for a day earlier this year for making a racial slur resigned from the department Thursday. Reasons why Jamie L. Layman, 26, quit the force were not available late Friday, including whether his resignation had to do with the earlier racial incident. He chose not to be interviewed by the Journal Star.
"It's a tougher job than what a lot of people think it is," said Layman's older brother, Jeremy Layman, a Peoria police patrol officer for the last five years.
He declined to elaborate on his statement or discuss his brother's decision further.
The brothers' father, Larry Layman, a 30-year veteran with the Police Department, also turned down an interview request Friday night.
"He's far from a racist," Larry Layman has said in defense of his son. "A racist is someone who treats people differently. Jamie doesn't."
Peoria police Chief Steven Settingsgaard confirmed Layman submitted his resignation, but wouldn't discuss details.
"I can't talk about it," Settingsgaard said Friday. "I'd be violating his rights."
Peoria police benevolent President Mike Eddlemon did not return calls Friday night.
Jamie Layman was hired last November at a starting salary of $37,858. He was sent to the Police Training Institute in Champaign and graduated Feb. 4. Like all recruits, he then was placed on a year's probation, which took effect the day he graduated.
It costs law enforcement agencies about $4,000 for a recruit to take part in the 12-week class. Included in the price is the training, room and board. The recruit also is paid a training wage.
While attending PTI, Layman, who is Hispanic, made a statement that offended Demario Boone, an African-American recruit, also from the Peoria Police Department.
"We should not fear black people, nor do I have a problem with black people, but we should all own one," Layman reportedly said during the training.
After hearing that comment, reportedly said in a joking manner, and allegedly hearing other derogatory remarks, Boone reported Layman's actions to the director of the police academy. The director contacted then interim Peoria police Chief Gary Poynter and an investigation followed.
When Layman returned from PTI, Poynter, after discussing the findings of the investigation, which have never been made public, with other city officials, suspended him for one day. Layman also was ordered to attend eight hours of diversity training.
Local African-American leaders balked at Layman's punishment, saying he wasn't disciplined enough and should be fired. The decision also upset city residents and Peoria police officers, causing a division in the department.
City Manager Randy Oliver said at the time Layman could not be terminated because certain procedures have to be followed after an officer has been hired.
When the probationary period ends, Oliver and the police chief make a recommendation to the Fire and Police Commission, which then decides if the officer will be hired.
Layman's resignation comes more than a month after Boone's, according to Peoria's Human Resource Department. Boone quit July 15 for reasons unavailable Friday.
Jacobs speaks and inserts foot.
Jacobs tonight mentions that the Civic Center debt represented 49% of the COP budget at that time. The water company purchase would represent 200% of the COP budget. So the water purchase is no good.
And this guy calls himself a business man?
Why do I ask that?
Because he looks at the proposed debt load to current income ratio, without noticing two things:
1. the actual physical value of the asset;
2. the increase revenue, less expenses that the asset will generate.
The logic of Turner, Morris and Jacob all mentioned forms of this that did not make any sense. Spears just blew it with the IRA analogy, because a monopoly distribution system of a natural resource for which demand will increase, will always go up. Your IRA stocks were obviously not based upon such an asset.
The most credible argument of the evening was Nitching, that time and time again municipalities have screwed it up. But that is loses to that arguement that a corporation with a monopoly has a corporate purpose of intentionally squeezing every dime from us that it can.
If they pass on this, I will drill a well. That will be a legacy to whomever ends up with this residence.
Ardis: complaining about having to cross his fingers on whether or not the figures would work out. How many projects has this council crossed it's fingers on.....Ballpark......Rec Plex. I think, maybe there is something in the water here, where if the project has some athletic sex appeal, it will get their vote. They can get excited about the ornamentation of the City. But they cannot get excited about the nuts and bolts which hold the City together.
An investment that is more likely than not to pay for itself, save the public money and provide better service to residences, businesses and to public entities.
Nail them Gary, they spent $65 million dollars (Civic Center) with no business plan, that is trying to sell ad space to pay for the project.
Gulley has cajones
Ardis slaps down Sandbergs question to IL-AWC as to why it took 7 months for them to put in some pipes so that the road construction on Forest Hill at Woodrow Wilson could go through. Now kids can't walk to school and are being bused in from Big Lots.
Gulley steps up to the plate and politely tells Ardis that it does matter to him and he wants to know why Illinois American took so long.
Grayeb follows with some pesky little question to Illinois American about Champagin, Illinois council complaints and EPA issues.
Now Grieves is up there. Probably best thing he has ever done for everyone in town.
Tactics for Water Buyout Supporters
John Morris has always held that on votes where it affects a particular Councilman's district, he will defer to the vote of the particular councilman and vote accordingly.
So if he is fence sitting on this issue, he really needs to defer to the vote of the majority of District Councilmen, #1, #2 & #3 who are in favor of the buyout.
Also: it is arguable that relative to the assessed values of their property, the voters in this Dsitrict have more to lose if IL-AWC institues an 8% increase in water rates. For a person in a $20k house and with a $15k income, that has a much greater effect on their budget than the person with a $200k house and a $75k budget.
Special Note for Clyde Gulley and Eric Turner: if you can't take this logic and pimp it for the point that to not vote in favor of this buyout, is to rob the poorest people in Peoria of money they don't have and give it to a German multination corporation, that has been around since the days of the Nazis, I am going to have to personally contact Mr. Jackson Sr, and ask him to revoke your Rainbow Coalition memberships !--)
c
Luciano misses the Tale of Two Cities
Re: Phil Luciano of the pjstar.com on the murder rate in Peoria being higher than NY City
The 900 lbs gorilla jumping up and down and screaming in the corner of Phil's article, is the racial makeup of the perpetrators and the victims.
Off of the top of my head, I think only two victims that were not black, and both were on the southside of town, and both related to drug activity, as one was liking with a drug user, and the other was visiting a crack house. The others I think were pretty much YBM on YBM.
So once again the Journal Star, blows it, playing around with statisitic in a politically correct surface analysis.
That is what makesme so sick about the NAACP and you know who. Everytime he speaks, people need to ask him, what the NAACP is doing about balck on black violence, when the largest reason that teenage boys are cutting school, is that they are too busy making more money that a GED is going to get you, dealing drugs for the older black males..........who okay, fair enough.....are doing it for the white males and white customers who have never gotten busted.
Oh, I forgot......the guy who got shot woring at the gasstation....another drug related, and by a YBM.
Another way of looking at Phil's story, would be to ask..... how many homides North of McClure. I think the answer would be 0. And what are the demographics North v South of McClure.
Yes, it is a Tale of Two Cities
Clyde Gulley Election
Many have commented on Gulleys election, but they fail to comment on the demographics of the district. Elections are won as much on what you have to work with in the form of voters, as what you have to work with in the form of a candidate.
In the First District, you have a lot of issues to work with, but only about 1000 voters in the primary and less than 2000 in the general election. Gulley won on 947 votes, which is probably a record turnout for a candidate the first district.
The number of actual voters being so small, along with the expectations of most people in the district, equates to a low turnout, and those who do turn out are demographically as a majority, support the perception of effort over success. Kind of like the critique that liberal education gets, they value effort more than achievement. The majority of the voters on the Southside know that the Southside is the dumping ground for the least educated, and least abled people in Peoria, and that to really change the Southside, you need to change the people who occupy it.
Analogy: it makes no sense to renovate and restore, one of Peoria's fine old mansions, while the crackheads are still smoking and dealing out of it. First you get rid of the problem occupants. Then you restore the house. Then you market to appropriate people and vigilantly screen out bad people. The Southside, has no screening mechanism, which in a capitalist society is, the value of the property. Crackhouses do not gain a foothold in a neighborhood in a city where rents are high and houses sell for more than the median price. Drugs and violence always go to the area that is the least valued and most tolerant of those activities.
Likewise the abilities and qualities of the candidates. You are going to get the most educated, highest performing candidates from the higher rent districts. Don't tell me that Peoria's City Council Candidates don't reflect the people in their districts. Gulley certainly reflects some of the better qualities of the people in his district.
What Gulley may lack in education or bookishness compared to some of his council counterparts, he compensates for with an extremely friendly and positive personality. He also has street smarts. Which you must have if you live in the middle of the crack house haven known as Starr Street. Gulley also has thick skin and is able to take a lot of criticism and keep on going. He is also not beneath begging for his District and what he does get he puts as much positive spin on as it will hold.
People on the Southside tend to be tough enough to survive the war around them, but few who survive, actually have the skills to thrive. Gulley is a noteable exception. He has stayed on the Southside and his family has thrived despite the noice, litter, crack houses and shooting. And that is why 947 people looked up to him and returned him to the City Council.
In a poke at Jennifer Davis and others who have commented on Gulley, I would say that they are commenting on a District that they have neither spent time in, nor have they spent much time talking to people from that district.
And I also have a prediction: Gulley's kids will not stay on the Southside. And once Gulley is no longer on the Council, he will at least leave the area of Starr Street. That is the problem for the Southside, just like East Germany and the Soviet block. Your thrivers are going to move on up. My apologies to LaVetta Ricca.
c
Greg BDISTRICT ONE
Greg Banks - 831
Clyde Gulley - 947DISTRICT ONE
Greg Banks - 831
Clyde Gulley - 947anks - 831
Clyde Gulley - 947
He has some points, but he also distracts from them
This is Don Jackson, head of NAACP in the Journal Star
Morris' selection typical of District 150 board
Monday, August 8, 2005
It's no surprise that the District 150 School Board selected Steve Morris to replace Aaron Schock. Anyone who attended the July 18 board meeting observed the way Morris and Sean Matheson were linked at the hip. The process that followed was nothing more than a dog-and-pony show. Morris is a very likeable guy. But he certainly does not bring the qualifications of a number of other candidates.
Morris did not have the resume, but on the other hand, he has more recently been in the classroom and in the halls to observe what was happening 15 years ago that predicated what is harming the district today. I think it was also in his favor that he is a licensed attorney, as so many of the issues that the district is dealing with, from contracts with personnel, union bargaining, and expulsion of students, involve technical legal consideration for which Morris would be qualified and be an incredible asset to the board, not unlike Barbara Van Auken on the City Coucil. He does not have the experience of working with troubled teens like Gloria Cassel-Fitzgerald or Merle Felder. Mrs. Fitzgerald is a graduate of Peoria schools and, notwithstanding the barriers placed in front of African-Americans coming out of District 150, she made it to the top at the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services. While I don't know Felder, I
am told she has an equal passion for working through the problems of the less fortunate.
Oh please. Please don't think we are that naive. Nowhere has affirmative action been more effectuated than in state government, particularly in social services as in IDOC and DCFS, where you find ample minority participation. But a lot of that has to do with the degrees that minorities are getting. Minorities who make it to the college level (African American minorities) are barely even attempting the degrees in the hard sciences (Math, Engineering, etc) and even fewer of them are looking to obtain graduate degrees. But the ones who get into social services are not only given the benefit of opportunity, but they are also being "groomed" by those bureaucracies with the accomodation of graduate study and other opportunities, so that they can be promoted, and deflect future cries of discrimination. And I give them the benefit of the doubt that they were qualified as to the others that did not get the same opportunity. But I would also give the benefit of the doubt to the white male who complained that he did not get the position, that he may have been more qualified. Because affirmative action exists, we are in the logical, yet illogical conundrum of politely assuming that both are correct. Alma Brown has an extensive history of working with policy setters to deal with budget deficits.
Alma Brown is another person, who you may be correct about, but it would also be correct to consider that she has had a lengthy relationship with a married member of the City Council and that her primary position which others have joked has consisted of putting faxes in the fax machine, has been preserved because of the former Mayor's finding her irresistably gropeable.
The Rev. Cleveland Thomas could have provided the spiritual "juice" to begin closing the racial gap caused by the vindictive ouster of Dr. Kay Royster while also making the debate about closing 11 schools located primarily in African-American and poor neighborhoods a more open and honest discussion.
I think a lot of people would like to hear from Rev. Thomas. But did you have to bring up Royster. A number of people out there are in hindsight looking at the Royster hiring as an ill thought out attempt to assuage a few angry minorities by hiring someone who was not thoroughly researched and was maybe not the best candidate for the job. Especially ironic, since Hinton was sitting right here in the community. Morris brings none of these attributes. So why was he selected? It's consistent with the pattern of this School Board to select individuals who look like them, talk like them, think like them and blend in with them at social gatherings. I'd encourage the others to continue serving this community. Remember, there is the elective process.
Don: how do I get around the perception of hipocrisy that I have about this last critique of the School Board, when you, Martha Ross and Gary Allen, want the baord to select individuals who look like you, think like you, talk like you and blend in with you at your social gatherings?
How are you not as prejudiced or discriminating as this board?
Frankly Don, I don't see a solution. The conflict with Dist 150 is no different from the conflicts within the neighborhoods. It is not about the color of skin, it is about the way in which the parents of the children in Dist 150 pay their mortgages. If I have a six (6) figure mortgage, I am not paying it every month to send my kids to a school with kids whose single mother is getting a housing subsidy. You can complain about that mother had no other choice, but the parents with a six (6) figure mortgage, have a choice and they understand what they have to lose, and that is why they show up at elections and vote for the people who are on the board.
And the dirty little secret of those minorities who have pulled themselves up by their bootstraps and actually really support racial integration, is that they probably want people who think more like Morris and Matheson and who have 6 figure mortgages , than people who identify with Allen and Ross. Look at the money Don. I'll bet they took the person that has the highest mortgage.
Chase
Donald R. Jackson, Sr.
More interesting comments
I still think it is so funny that Lucianos wife got a dui and was screwing some other man. and phily was licking out sloppy secounds!! and then has the nerve to speak about peoria prostitutes in his article today. hhhmmm maybe phil licks them also. Well Phily boy tell us. do you like hookers also. or is your wife Ho Enough. SP | 07.15.05 - 1:50 am | #
I think I posted the info about Luciano's wife's DUI in Peoria where she was going to sue the department, but that ended when she was shown the tape of her calling the poor Asian cop, everything but, Officer??? Anyone verify that info? As Jamie might say, "That Luc.....he's got a wild one at home! Lucky man!"
From the late night peanut gallery
First of all, it is not only the 'young black male dressed in the gang colors, gold chain and cocked hat' anymore, gangs are not an issue of race or sex. They are everywhere and people are in them: black, white, red, yellow, whatever. As an outsider who does not live directly in Peoria, what I see is people pulling their kids out and it leaving only the bad ones. Well, if that's all one has to deal with, that's all they are going to get. The bitching about it needs to stop and do something about it. As for your rants, get off your ass and volunteer! Also, it might actually help if you had a kid who goes there or went there - shit isn't always as it seems from the outside and from what I've known, your no judge with any accuracy about almost anything. So either shit or get off the pot. After a while, doesn't only stirring it get boring?? -- Posted by Anonymous to Q4 - Chase Ingersoll - Peoria, Illinois at 7/31/2005 12:59:59 AM
1. Why don't you pause for a minute to guess how many hours I've spent in volunteering over the last decade............... I spent one school year alone, doing about 10 hours per week at District 150 schools. And that was just one volunteering opportunity.
2. What the anonymous author characterizes as "bitching" is persistent consistency in advocating what the polticially correct bureaucrats will not talk about publicly......the young black male, thug culture, that dominates the halls and classrooms.
3. I recall a Journal Star article from a decade ago mentioning that Peoria had 3000 gang members, even while Mayor Maloof's office was denying that Peoria had a gang problem. "Acurately" speaking, those 3000 quantified members were not white, hispanic, or female.....They were black males between the ages of 15 and 35.
4. You acurately describe yourself as an outsider. I on the other hand am in the thick of it.....1 block from Central High School.
So as for your "rants" why don't you get some first hand experience with the situation before you pontificate about the accuracy and attitude of others?
Chase
THE LATE GREAT RACIST - Daniel Patrick Moynihan
These paragraphs are excerpts from William Raspberry's column appearing in the July 30, 2005 Peoria Journal Star. I'm certain that Journal Star columnist Pam Adams can follow this up with a spin that while still "respecting" Mr. Raspberry, still manages to blame the white folks. The only blame "white folks" should accept, is that as a whole they didn't set the best example, and that was probably the reason that they tollerated this crap in the black community.....they were not much better.
The concern is not new. As Rivers noted at last week's National Press Club news conference, the late Daniel Patrick Moynihan sounded the alarm 40 years ago, only to be "condemned and pilloried as misinformed, malevolent, and even racist."
Interestingly, they blamed the black church for abetting the decline of the black family - by moderating virtually out of existence its once stern sanctions against extramarital sex and childbirth and by accepting the present trends as more or less inevitable.
They didn't say - but might have - that black America's almost reflexive search for outside explanations for our internal problems delayed the introspective examination that might have slowed the trend. What we have now is a changed culture - a culture whose worst aspects are reinforced by oversexualized popular entertainment and that places a reduced value on the things that produced nearly a century of socioeconomic improvement. For the first time since slavery, it is no longer possible to say with assurance that things are getting better.
The concern is not new. As Rivers noted at last week's National Press Club news conference, the late Daniel Patrick Moynihan sounded the alarm 40 years ago, only to be "condemned and pilloried as misinformed, malevolent, and even racist."
Dist 150...Notes
Add campaign: District 150 has an image problem. Nice to know that they are at least admiting that. But they are not admiting the real source of the problem.....the lack of discipline of the CRIMINALS that sit in District 150 classrooms.
District 150, is like the alcoholic who claims that what they have is an image problem, so he moves to a better house, gets a flashier car, or finds a new girlfriend. Then he goes out an promotes himself.
I don't have a problem with Dist 150 spending money to promote themselves, but why don't they first do something substantive, like formings citizen committees of parents, to observe classrooms and then have the parents prosecute for expulsion, any child who is disruptive and "...wasting the educational opportunity..." of the other children in the classroom.
And here is an add that District 150 could run and get people's attention: a big circle with a slash through it across the photo of a young black male dressed in the gang colors, gold chain and cocked hat.
But that is what the district will not publicly admit. That the thug culture in the classroom and hallways that has caused people to pull their kids from the school.
New Board Member: almost makes me feel sorry for Dave Ransberg. He is now working down the chain of political offices, and the little brother of on of the councilman that used to follwow Dave around, beats out Dave for the appointment to the school board. You have to ponder as to the need Dave has for public office. It is professed as a need to serve.....but it just seems to agressive and self promoting. Perhaps Mayor Ardis could appoint Dave to a position as Peoria's Ambassador to China. I think it would be a nice gesture and since Dave has been creating jobs in China, I'm certain they would welcome him in that province with all the pomp and circumstance of a May Day parade.
A juxtaposition missed by the poltically correct
The SUNDAY July 24, 2005 front page of the B section Peoria Journal Star carried a feel good article about inner city youths attending a camp in London Mills. There they will shoot arrow, go boating and have a relaxing time from the inner city.
Turning to the heartland, E Section, there is an equally feel good article about suburb kids detassling corn for three weeks and stating, "...Detasseling is more than a paycheck, it is a right of passage...."
Once again, the inner city kids got screwed. They learn to play, on a white charity dime, while the suburb kids learn the value of a dollar, getting up before the sun and sweating their asses off in the fields.
I quit going to camp, when I started detasseling, as did the other kids I worked with. Being expected to pay for camp ourselves, and knowing the value of a dollar, play camp was not worth our time or money.
A side note: I detassled more than 20 years ago, and because we got paid by the field, rather than by the hour, our crew had the highest pull rate (and most of the fields we were still doing by hand and walking, without the benefit of any machine pull) and we also finished the fields faster. The result was that us 12 high school kids made $8.50 to $9.00 per hour. And we got lots more hours than the kids on crews that were getting $3.35 per hour. Consider how that detasseling experince affected my view of union operations, the minimum wage and economics.
THE AUTHOR IS CORRECT
The author of this letter is correct in his facts. You have to wonder the message that this inapplication of the law to criminal vandals, has had on a generation of tenants.
Peoria Journal Star Opinion / Forum Make tenants, as well as landlords, legally accountableFriday, July 22, 2005 The lack of enforcement of Peoria City Ordinance 5-291 requiring the tenant to maintain the safe and habitable condition of the premises occupied is contributing to deteriorating housing conditions.
The last time this ordinance was enforced was 1996 when tenants were fined $100 by the city for the condition of the property they vacated. However, damages to the house amounted to over $4,500, and this particular property was inspected by the city two weeks prior to the eviction of the tenant.
It should be little wonder that housing has deteriorated to its present condition. Landlords are not respected by law enforcement, and our previous council representatives used their position to denigrate the landlord for the condition of housing rather than encourage the enforcement of ordinances requiring accountability for recalcitrant occupants.
City government needs to realize that the solution to housing problems requires mutual accountability by both the landlord and tenant.
David A. Schwab
Peoria
Teplitz Mortgage
Information received that Jack Teplitz has taken out a second high interest rate mortgage on his home, in the amount of $40k. The hope was that they might be fiing up the house so that they could sell it, but doubt was expressed about that considering Marcella's vigorous return to participation in Neighborhood activities, following her re-election defeat.
But that could possibly just to keep busy, until the next at-large election which it is believed that she will enter. Of course that would mean that she and Jack could live anywhere in the City. My suggestion for them would be to admit their penchant for social climbing and move out to Weaver Ridge or Highpoint.
Dear John
Dear John:
Your name recently appeared in the newspaper as someone who had been arrested for solicitation of a sex act. We've known each other for a decade and have a number of mutual friends. I know that you have a wife and kids. I also know that your health has not been good.
When I saw your name, I first checked the address, to make certain that it was not another person with the same name. Then I called a couple of our mutual friends. One was aware that you were not in good health. Another had been approached by your spouse a couple of weeks before this. A third had no idea. My concern to all of them, who are not as familiar with the "street scene" as I, is that solicitation and use of crack cocaine go hand in hand and that it would not be at all unreasonable to seriously question someone arrested for solicitation as to whether or not they have begun using crack cocaine.
But despite the fact that you are a peer, I believe it is a good thing that you were picked up and that the "cat is out of the bag", because now everyone in your circle will be insisting that you get help. And I think that is the case with the people that have the most to lose or who suffer the most embarrassment from a situation like this. They are also the people that will have the most people around them, who will now intervene and insist that they get the best professional help.
About an hour after I spoke to one mutual friend, he called me and said that he had not been able to stop thinking about how wrong this was. He has grandchildren and he could not stop thinking about how if he were in that situation, his grandchildren would the next day, at Morton Junior High, and face the playground publication of Pappy's pecadilos. And his wife? How would she face the women at church?
But what I found particularly interesting about my friends sentiments is that while he was accutely sympathetic of the family, he was still willing to state that the perpetrator in this sense should be locked up and have the key thrown away. I personally do not have a problem with any shame or stigma that the family might feel. Part of me believes that many of them have been enablers of destructive behavior and it is not at all unlikely that they themselves engage in some sort of destructive behavior toward themselves. I also believe that people who have experienced vicarious shame and how cruel the world can be, become people that have a heightened appreciation for others' forgiveness and acceptance.
My other belief is that a an arrest for solicitation is just the tip of the iceberg. There is so much else going on and so much that has gone on for a long time, when one is finally picked up on a solicitation charge, that in some ways the arrest is an humanitarian act.
Our mutual friend however had a suggestion that I considered to be quite humane. He thought that perhaps someone who is arrested on solicitation could be given a choice at the point of arrest.....they can be arrested and booked on the solicitation, or they can go to a 28 day addiction treatment program. If they complete the treatment, the police department will not file the charges. And since there has been no arrest or booking, the only way for the public to find out about the incident would be for someone to go out of their way and file a request for a report with that person's name.
If there is no arrest, the person can have the report expunged.
Suggestion: the police department should work this out with State's Attorney's Office, so that the two law enforcement agencies keep each other honest and don't let someone slip through by virtue of their connections. But the police department would always have the option of issuing an arrest warrant based upon their own police report, until such time as the person petitioned the court for an expungement.
Chase Ingersoll reported on this in detail...to the City Council in the 1997 election
Private fund draws Peoria's scrutinyQuestions surround the documentation of city money meant to rehab Randolph-Roanoke homes
Advertisement
http://pjstar.com/stories/071705/TRI_B70D6DRN.057.shtmlSunday, July 17, 2005
BY JENNIFER DAVIS
OF THE JOURNAL STAR PEORIA - The city is looking into how $185,000 in city money was spent by a private revolving loan fund started by former city attorney Jack Teplitz and his wife, former City Councilwoman Marcella Teplitz, and some of their neighbors.
