Peoria Pundit

Here’s the story: A 17-year-old kids gets caught with a gun in his locker. He’s arrested and tossed in the clink. The community, including a pastor or two, raise the $5,000 needed to pay his $50,000 bail. They hold a forum on the issue of incarcerated black youth.

This is the quote that’s really ticking people off:

Community members heartily handed over cash and wrote checks Monday night, collecting nearly $1,700 for Victor Simmons during a forum at the Church of Living God. The remaining $1,300 needed to post the $5,000 bail to get the 17-year-old out of jail was personally donated by the Rev. Joseph Johnson of the Star of Hope Full Gospel Baptist Church and former director of the Peoria County Juvenile Court Services, who said he was working “to keep the worst thing from happening” to Simmons and other African-American youths caught in the court system, meaning a felony conviction and jail time. The other $2,000 needed had already been raised.

It seems to me that the word thing that could happen (to everyone, including Simmons) would be if this gun had been discharged inside the school and a student was hurt or killed.

Another pastor, the Rev. Tim Criss, said:

Although he said the situation has been difficult on the Simmons family, Criss reminded them it could have been worse.

“I’d much rather be talking about Victor this way than be talking about him over his casket,” Criss said. “But we’ve got a chance to save him, and we’ve got a chance to save others like him.”

A dean at Woodruff also accused Peoria County State’s Attorney Kevin Lyons of trying to intimidate her twice, once after she testified in court on behalf of the teen and once during a phone call. She said he accused her of being on the take from the kid’s attorney.

This prompted Donald Jackson, president of the local NAACP, to suggest that Lyons was trying to intimidate a witness. Or perhaps, it was just Lyons’ character flaws showing again. He has a tendency toward arrogance and a fondness for belittling anyone who doesn’t marvel in the sunshine of his legal brilliance.

UPDATE: Former Peorian Chase Ingersoll (in his one and only — so far — post on his new Blog Peoria Blog) wants to give Joe Johnson the benefit of the doubt, and recounts a story about another Peoria County state’s attorney

This entry was posted on May 20, 2008 at 12:26 pm 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.