Peoria Pundit

WHOI: Peoria Police Can Live Anywhere They Want

Peoria police officers win the latest round in a 3-year residency battle.

The city council did not get the necessary seven votes Tuesday night
to force the police department to go to court for the right to live
outside of Peoria.

That means an independent arbitrator’s ruling that officers don’t have to live within city limits stands.

Most of the council members who voted against the police department
are upset, saying this opens the door for all other city employees
to leave town.

Well, congratulations, fellas. Peoria Police officers have won the right to not have to live next door the the lowlifes they arrest and ticket.

They are now free to move to Dunlap, Germantown Hill, Creve Coeur and other communities that require their police officers to live amongst the people they police.

And what is missing from this article? The votes. I want to know exactly which members of the city council think Peorians should be police by people who think they are too good to live next door or the same block.

Why is this important. This is an extreme example, but I’ll use it anyway. During the Tiananmen Square Uprising, ordinary Chinese citizens were on the verge of throwing over their Communist government. The hard-liners would have none of it. They ordered troops from outside Beijing into the Square to suppress the demonstrations. About 7,000 people died, as did the quest for real democracy and freedom in China.

Now, Peorians will be policed by people who live outside Peoria. The cops who will decide who to arrest and what crimes to fight will be doing so only because it’s their job. They won’t be doing it because they want to make a better place in which their children can live.

Now, they will be simply punching a time clock.

This entry was posted 5 years, 7 months ago on Wednesday, June 30th, 2004 at 3:50 am and is filed under Local. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.