Columnist Phil Luciano of the Journal Star writes today about an East Peoria woman who received a ticket for littering after one of Peoria’s Finest noticed her tossing a cigarette bud from her car.
Phil’s column carries a tone of mild outrage. The fine is large, and police hardly ever give out tickets for it.
I, too, am outraged.
I am outraged that police don’t give out this ticket more often. Just eight times this year, and only 11 last year? Take a look at the amount of litter on the curb of any city street in Peoria. There are neighborhoods that look like bomb went off, there’s so much debris in the roadway. There’s a lot of garbage being tossed from car windows, and it’s one of the reasons that makes people want to leave Peoria.
And I’m also torqued off that the women in question got a ticket for $125, which the officer who gave it to her had an option to give her one that could have cost her a $500 fine or up to six months in jail. Even that is too low, even for a first offence. It should be a potential felony to toss anything from a moving vehicle, even on the first offense.
A recent city council candidate suggested a tax on fast food drive-thru windows might raise some money to help clean up some of the filth. How about we just start getting tougher on filthy litterbugs?
If and until the laws get tougher, local police need to get the most mileage out of the week laws we do have. Police Chief Steve Settingsgaard needs to have a talk with his patrol officers and let them know that they will give out more of these tickets and they will be the harshest ones possible.
This entry was posted
on Tuesday, July 19th, 2005 at 12:37 pm
and is filed under The Wire.
You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
Both comments and pings are currently closed.
July 19th, 2005 at 1:15 pm
$500 for a butt?? Get a grip, Bill.
July 19th, 2005 at 1:34 pm
Amen. I agree that the tickets aren’t handed out enough. $125 adds up quick.
July 19th, 2005 at 1:58 pm
For a cigarette butt? No Way. A cup or wrapper, maybe.
July 19th, 2005 at 3:13 pm
Tell you what, folks. me your addresses, and I’ll be more than happy to take the litter I find in front of MY home and bring it over and put it out in front of YOUR haomes.
And it isn’t just ONE butt. It’s hundred, thousands, MILLIONS of butts. Soemtimes, the pigs just open their car doors and poor out the contents of their cars’ ashtrays.
Here’s another option: Instead of fines, let’s have judges not issue them. Give violators the option of community service or jail time. Don’t let people buy their way out of trouble. Make ‘em write letters of apology to the peopel who live in their neighborhoods they are using to dispose of their waste.
I’m sick of filthy pigs — especially out of town pigs from places like East Peoria — using the city’s streets as their private garbage disposals.
Pardon me for being a little annoyed; I spent a good hour two weekends ago picking up trash in front of my rental apartment. Within a matter of days, it was covered with trash again. My landlord picked up a bunch when doing routine yard work this weekend, and now it’s covered in trash.
July 19th, 2005 at 4:31 pm
Oh my,someone’s a little cranky today. A 500 dollar fine for one cigarette butt? That would only be justifiable in a little place I like to call Crazytown.
July 19th, 2005 at 7:18 pm
The city can’t seem to manage to get people to clean up their own properties; or at least force landlords to do it, and the police can’t keep up with dope houses around town. And you want them to start busting butt tossers? Maybe people that get fired from their jobs could be rounded up to pick up trash, since they seem to have waaaaaaaaaay too much time on their hands.
July 19th, 2005 at 9:54 pm
Perhaps a Peoria Police Department webpage showing mugshots of convicted litterbugs might deter this type of behavior…
July 19th, 2005 at 11:58 pm
Rob: Were I not a 43-year=old diabetic with high bloof pressure and bad knees, I’d be happy to take that job. As it is, picking up the trash in front of my house knocks me out.
July 20th, 2005 at 8:21 pm
I’m with Bill. Get ‘em all. Instead of sneaking around and parking behind buildings and sitting for two hours waiting to catch somebody going 8 miles an hour over the speed limit on an empty road, the black and whites can do us more good for our bucks by helping us start to clean up around here.
Anybody who doesn’t think there’s a problem, give me your address, and I’ll stop by with one week’s worth of crap from in front of our house.