Peoria Pundit

From the Peoria Police Department:

On February 23, 2009 at approximately 10:50 pm, a female driver was flagged down by what she believed to be a stranded motorist in the area of Willow Knolls and Allen Road.  Once the female stopped, the suspect produced a black handgun, ordered her to the ground and robbed her of an undisclosed amount of cash.  After the robbery, the suspect drove away in the vehicle he portrayed to be disabled.

The suspect vehicle is a white, boxy style, older car with an Illinois registration beginning with the numbers “816” or possibly “815”.

The suspect is described as a black male, approximately 6’1” to 6’2” tall and weighing between 180 and 190 pounds.  At the time of the robbery he was wearing a black hooded jacket, black pants and a Chicago White Sox hat.

Anyone with information regarding this or any armed robbery is urged to contact the Peoria Police Department at 309-673-4521 or Crime Stoppers at 309-673-9000.

The Peoria Police Department encourages safety first when assisting stranded motorists especially in the late evening or late night hours.  Please use extreme caution and only stop in well lit, public areas.  If you see a motorist or person in need of assistance, notify the Police of your location before stopping and give a brief description of the person or vehicle you’re stopping to help and request an officer stop by.

From the Journal Star:

Family members of the man shot to death by police early Saturday morning said he was not involved in gangs or drugs but made a poor choice in opening fire on police.

Demeteric Mobley, 27, of 112 W. Millman Court reportedly shot a patrol car with a semi-automatic assault rifle near the intersection of Idaho and Montana streets about 12:45 a.m., causing police to return fire and eventually shoot Mobley to death.

“That was way out of his character,” said a lifelong friend of Mobley who asked that his name not be used. “All the years we grew up together, he never started one fight. He had no problems with anybody.”

If one reads between the lines, it’s easy to assume that Demeteric Mobley was suffering from some sort of mental distress when he did what police officers say he did.

But the sad truth of this sad case is that no one really knows, and we may never know. Already, the knuckleheads who litter the Journal Star with their rancid views are already concluding that he was just another member of the criminal class who got what was coming to him. They are rooting for the police to killer more.

And there’s no doubt that there are those who will claim the police story is a lie, and that this is another example of systemic racism in the Peoria Police Department and the city as a whole.

And then there are those who will wonder why the officers didn’t just simply shot the gun out of his hand, or shoot to wound, like they do on television. I’ll leave it to commenters with more experience using firearms to explain why not.

I strongly doubt that the officers involved are glad they shot a man to death. No doubt they are glad they are alive, and that their families do not have to mourn.

There will be a press conference at noon tomorrow Peoria Police Headquarters. The topic is crime, including this shooting and a recent drug bust in town

No doubt there will be mention of an investigation to lay to rest any doubts about what happened. Those doing the investigation should be open to where the facts takes them. And the process should be transparent.

This sort of thing has always ticked me off.

I was getting gasoline at the neighborhood station the other day, and before I started pumping, I noticed this:

Thirty seconds later, I snapped this picture:

Look at the traffic lights in both photos. They are green. So why didn’t the driver proceed through the intersection? Because he wasn’t stopped at the intersection. He was parked. The UPS driver was making a delivery. He pulled up to a spot in front of a store, stopped, got out and walked inside. I have no idea how many times the lights changed.

This is at the corner of West Main and Sheridan, a busy intersection, and one that often sees traffic accidents. And this happened in the early- to mid-afternoon, just as rush hour traffic was starting to heat up.

And note that there are empty parking spaces along Sheridan, had the driver bothered to turn the corner.

Now, imagine you are an ordinary citizen, and you decide to park your car in a traffic lane at a busy intersection while you run inside a local business. Even if it’s for less than one minute, you are going to get a ticket if a traffic cop sees you.

But things like this happen all the time in Peoria. It’s no common, those of us don’t drive professionally don’t even take note of it anymore.

The following are places I have seen delivery trucks use traffic lanes as their personal parking spaces:

• In the turning lane that carries west-bound Forest Hill traffic onto north-bound University, ignoring a parking lot.
• In front of a private house on North University north of War Memorial Drive, ignoring an empty driveway.
• In front of a motel on North Knoxville near East Illinois, a few feet away from the entrance of the parking lot.
• In the middle of the driving lane on North East Randolph, right next to a parked lane, preventing traffic from getting through, either way.

There’s no way this goes on unless there’s an understanding between the City of Peoria and the delivery companies. Now, I can understand the need to be lenient when there’s no place to park the truck while making a delivery. But in each incident, there was a place to park other than the middle of the roadway. But these drivers have learned they can get away with it. So they do it.

And why not? It helps the drivers’ work stats when they don’t have to walk as far and don’t have to wait for traffic to pass to pull out of a parking lot. This way, they just get in their truck and drive off. Must be nice. The fact that it creates additional delays for ordinary commuters on Peoria’s congested streets is irrelevant to them.

So the next time you complain about a parking ticket, and they tell you that the law applies to everyone, point them to this post, and tell them there’s evidence to the contrary.

In fact, I challenge other Peoria bloggers, commenters and readers to start carrying digital cameras with them in their cars to snap pictures of these scofflaws.