Journal Star columnist Pam Adams won’t vote for Jim Ardis, and is considering voting for Dave Ransburg. She says she feels used because Ardis and Eric Turner staged an event in front of two 1st District crack houses.
Actually, it’s the crack dealers who are using residents of the 1st district, but she’s not as upset at that as much as she is about Ardis. And in realist, ever single district in Peoria has crack houses.
Adams has more animosity toward those who want to fight crime than those who commit crimes. It’s the same old story with her: It’s not really the criminals’ fault they commit crimes. It’s the poverty, she says, and the city isn’t doing enough to fight it.
She needs to borrow one of Mike Bailey’s dusty, unused Econ 101 text books. The best way for someone to get out of poverty is to get job, or work to get a better job that they have now. There isn’t a government program that the City of Peoria can create that’s going to alleviate proverty. It doesn’t happen in Cuba — a nation whose economic and health care systems Adams has praised — and it doesn’t happen here.
If Turner had endorsed Ardis in front of a crack house in the 5th District (and yes they have them up there) she’d be whining about how Ardis was ignoring crime in the 1st District and pandering to white people.
And make no mistake; When Adams complains about Ardis “using” the 1st District, what she is really saying is that Ardis is using black people. But she can’t say that because Eric Turner was standing right next to Ardis on that day.
The only person pandering is Adams.
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 
Aw yes – Peoria’s very own Mao Mao.
Although that column seems much less black racist than her usual.
What better place to comment on Vonster’s apparent view that crime is a black problem than here (since we can’t do this on his blog.) You’ve been quite fond lately of pointing out how black kids are always starting fights at school sporting events. You even went so far as to say: “However, you STILL do NOT see this kind of crap happening out in the sticks where the teams and fans are 99% white.” Well, I got news for you — fights at sporting events have happened, I imagine, since the dawn of sports itself. Doesn’t happen in the sticks? I popped these five words into Google: fight, high, school, student and game. The very second hit was this article: http://www.thenews-messenger.com/news/stories/20041206/localnews/1705322.html. That part of Ohio is the sticks, by the way.
Does that mean that black kids don’t start fights? Nope. I even imagine that gangs start more fights than others do, and that in Illinois, at least, those gangs are usually made up of black kids.
You may not be a racist, Vonster. I really have no idea. But you constantly point out only the bad things caused by black people, and imply that THEY alone are the problem. I noticed you made no mention of the shooting in MN on your blog — no black kids there. If it oinks like a pig …
More to the point: Bill, I think you misread Adam’s column. I think she agrees with you. Poverty breeds crime. Helping to alleviate poverty helps to alleviate crime. If you “fight crime” without attending to the the root cause of crime, you simply are fighting a losing battle. You need to cut off the source, and unless you can literally put a cop at each corner, you’ll never stop the problem.
FIrst: I believe that “helping” alleviate provery is the responsibility mostly of those who live in poverty. Certainly parents can make sure their kids get an education, which alleviates poverty in their family. Government help basically maintains poverty by addicting people to government handouts. Granted our poor have it damn good compared to people living in poverty in central America or Africa.
Second: Why is it when anyone complains about the lack of police officers — by the city’s own numbers, we have fewer than we need — apologists complain that ‘we can’t have a cop on ever corner?’ I would be happy with full staffing, with officers having use of adequate patrol cars, radios and vests. I would also like to see a change in philosphy away from big arrests and more toward zero tolerance for drug houses — whether arrests are always made or not — as well as noise, loitering, litter curfew violations, etc., that force people into the suburbs.
You miss my point (or I didn’t make myself clear enough). I too feel that it is largely the responsibility of those in poverty to alleviate their own poverty. But their is a role for government to play. That might be fostering a climate where businesses can flourish to employ people. That means having a school system that teaches kids how to get those jobs. That may mean having programs that help people find jobs (like the unemployment office or a job training program). That DOES NOT mean welfare, though I think that too may be necessary on some level (though not as a solution to poverty).
My point is simply that law enforcement is best at responding to crime rather than preventing it. Yes, the presence of police (and swift justice) can be and is a deterrent. I am not dismissing any of your points for full staffing, good cars, etc. I only point out, as I think Adams did, that someone who only talks about police as a solution to crime is only looking at half the picture.
Plus, weren’t you excited that a PJSer took a swipe at the Medical College?
Oh, and by the way: Vonster chooses to respond to me on his blog (where I can’t counter) rather than here. Let me just say that I don’t think he should keep his mouth shut about black crime. I just think that if he were an honest soul, he would present his case a little more balancedly. But what else is a blog if not a venue for every nut’s opinion?
All it takes to shut down a crack house is a letter from someone who can refer the owner to the attorneys of other crack house owners who paid thousands of dollars of attorneys fees to defend themselves from a drug nuisance suit.
“But what else is a blog if not a venue for every nut’s opinion?” All the more reason for Irish Guy to start his own blog we he can “counter” to his heart’s content.
[...] Bear in mind, however, that this is the same newspaper which, not two years ago, used its editorial page (with columnist Pam Adam’s help) to imply that those who opposed the paper’s slate of “progressive” candidates were racist. Fairness? This is the paper that told voters that Peoria City Council members Gary Sandberg and Barbara VanAuken would vote as a block … because she is his ex-wife. This is a newspaper whose editorials said that their choice for mayor of Peoria couldn’t be held responsible for rising crime, yet a year later makes noise about how the current mayor isn’t doing enough. [...]
[...] services first candidates were racists? What fears was columnist Pam Adams pandering to when she suggested Ardis and at-large councilman Eric Turner were also pandering to racists by making crime as issue? And even the news side got into the act by counting black faces and [...]