This is what happens when the city cares more about shopping malls that fighting crime
From all accounts, Brian Alexander was a great example of humanity in action. He was a nurse who helped the Crusaders for Kids organization. He did for others both on and off the clock.
Yet, his body laid in his driveway for hours before it was discovered. Neighbors believe police aren’t investigating the most obvious angle — that he was the innocent victim of a drive-by shooting spree that many witnessed. It was a whole seven blocks away, the PPD says, which is hours and hours away by speeding car, apparently.
What is certain is that this neighborhood has a serious gang and drug problem. It has been that way for years. Police and the neighborhood have been fighting this problem for years.
But it doesn’t seem to be doing much good, does it? I wonder how city’s like New York make serious inroads into their street crime problem, while in some neighborhoods in Peoria just festers and spreads like an open, infected wound.
Too bad the city has surrendered the power to make make neighborhoods safer by requiring new police department hires to actually live in the city in which they serve.
Residents of the East Bluff could do worse than take a cue from those who raised hell when they got the idea that the police weren’t giving adequate attention to the deaths of four black women and the disappearance of others.
They got organized, got vocal and started applying pressure. Perhaps it will actually work. Perhaps it has. Anyone notice any more missing women? Any stories about more dead bodies along rural roadways?
This sounds cynical and opportunistic, so I ask Brian Alexander’s friends and family to forgive me in advance: This is the perfect opportunity for people who live and try to raise families on Peoria’s East Bluff to raise a little hell and demand a lot more police protection and more law enforcement successes. Residents certainly have the right to demand the police take seriously their reports of “Grand Theft Auto“-style gunplay.
Brian Alexander is the perfect poster child to make the case that the city’s policy of malignant neglect on the East Bluff has got to stop.
Billy Dennis is a former reporter and editor at small daily and weekly newspapers in Illinois and Missouri. He comments on media, news and politics. He also owns and operates 
Where have all the visitors gone?
Where have all the visitors to your blog gone?
“Too bad the city has surrendered the power to make make neighborhoods safer by requiring new police department hires to actually live in the city in which they serve.”
The reason New York was able to make progress was because of fundamental changes in how law enforcement was approached, not by requiring police offices to reside within the city. I’m not aware of any empirical evidence supporting the notion that telling police officers where they are allowed to live has any significant impact on overall crime — and I’m rather surprised to find a self-professed libertarian making that argument.
Rob: I moved to Typepad, then back to Peoria Pundit, albeit to a slightluy different URL. That might habe my bisitor count down a little. Also, Blog traffic in general is down since the end of the election.
Bruce: I used to live in a corner house. A cop lived across from me on one street. A different cop lived across from me on another. I could care less that there no empirical evidence. One: Knuckheads slow their cars down when they pass a cop car. Two: Cops know who to call at city hall when there’s work that needs to be done. Three; Cops do favors for friends and neighbors. Four: I don’t want to be policed by someone who views me and my neighborhood as outsiders. I wont cops with a stake in making the community better.