* From the Don’t Shoot Peoria website…
“Don’t Shoot” is an aggressive multi-strategy anti-gang and anti-gun violence program designed to save lives and reduce the number of people impacted by gun crimes. It is modeled after a concept found in the book, “Don’t Shoot. One Man, A Street Fellowship, and The End of Violence in Inner-City America,” by David M. Kennedy.
Led by Mayor Jim Ardis, the initiative creates partnerships among federal, state and local prosecutors; law enforcement; outreach specialists; community leaders; and media.
* Emphasis added because the mayor’s pet program apparently went awry…
A Peoria man sentenced in December to 15 years in prison for running an underage prostitution operation plied his illegal trade out of an apartment obtained with the help of the Peoria Police Department, according to documents procured under the Freedom of Information Act.
Peoria police arrested Matthew Petrakis, 44, on prostitution-related charges on May 21, 2015, and he has been incarcerated since then. He opted for a bench trial in the first week of November, and Judge Kevin Lyons found him guilty on one count of involuntary sexual servitude of a minor and aggravated criminal sexual abuse. […]
Petrakis had been in close contact with the Peoria Police Department for months before his May 2015 arrest. At one point the department helped him obtain the apartment where up to six men a day paid to have sex with a 16-year-old girl, according to documents released by the department following a public records request by the Journal Star.
The department, under the umbrella of the Don’t Shoot anti-gun violence initiative, also arranged for Matthew Petrakis to meet U.S. Sen. Mark Kirk and sought to have his unpaid fines for traffic tickets waived so he could obtain a valid driver’s license, according to a contact log with the department’s community services coordinator, Krista Coleman.
Go read the whole thing. And keep in mind while you do the influence the mayor has had over his police department. Also, Sen. Kirk appeared with Ardis at a 2014 press conference to announce millions of federal dollars to fight gangs.
Unreal.
*** UPDATE *** From Kevin Artl at the Kirk campaign…
The meeting referenced in the PJ Star story never occurred. Sen. Kirk never met with the person in question.
- GraduatedCollegeStudent - Monday, Feb 8, 16 @ 8:23 am:
I’d ask for Ardis to resign, but he doesn’t have the moral courage or self-awareness too, while Peoria’s city manager has never shown any real interest in calling him out, and neither does the city council.
Also Ardis isn’t up for re-election until 2017. Which stinks.
- Anon - Monday, Feb 8, 16 @ 8:26 am:
Perhaps Peoria’s mayor is confused. His previous Twittergate scandal revealed to all that he is one brick shy of a wall.
Everyone else thought the “Don’t Shoot” program in Peoria was an anti-crime program. But the mayor and his staff seems to have mistook “Don’t Shoot” for an anti-pregnancy program.
He’s running for a fourth term next year and no opposition has surfaced.
- Peoria Guy - Monday, Feb 8, 16 @ 8:45 am:
Mayor Ardis and the Don’t Shoot campaign are both a joke. He will run unopposed I would think. Really sad.
- Mr. D - Monday, Feb 8, 16 @ 8:54 am:
Be careful what you post. The Mayor will come after you!
- Peoria Guy - Monday, Feb 8, 16 @ 8:57 am:
Mr. D, good point!
- Interested observer - Monday, Feb 8, 16 @ 8:57 am:
Peoria’s program intentionally focuses assistance and enforcement on the most serious hardcore offenders because they are responsible for most crime. This is the right way to use law enforcement’s limited resources on people who pose the most risk to the community. That does not means that every hardcore offender in the program will turn their life around. Some, like this guy, will end up in prison for a very long time. The alternative approach to crime is to treat every offender the same, in which case this guy could still be out on the street along with other high risk offenders Peoria’s program has either helped or incarcerated.
- wordslinger - Monday, Feb 8, 16 @ 9:09 am:
This stinks to high heaven. The police basically facilitated putting this creep in business.
Either elements of the Peoria PD are clueless beyond belief or they were in on it.
Either way, the department has an obvious conflict in determining what went on here. An outside investigation is needed.
- Anonymous - Monday, Feb 8, 16 @ 9:11 am:
Just remember, if you’re being harassed by the mayor’s friends and you make a police report in Peoria, your police report will be FOIAed by your harassers, who will use it to get more personal information about you to better target their abuse, and the police will tell you their “hands are tied” and they’re “required” to give your harassers information about you.
If you complain to the mayor he will literally shrug and tell you harassment is no big deal, even if they’re targeted your children at school using information gleaned from the police report the city released to your harassers. (He will do this two days before sending SWAT after his twitter mocker.)
- Team Sleep - Monday, Feb 8, 16 @ 9:17 am:
Laugh all you want, but I could certainly see Aaron Schock running for Mayor of Peoria - if he is acquitted or cuts a deal with no time. Just a hunch. Also - this would be an ideal office for Senator Koehler or Rep. Gordon-Booth to seek. They are respected enough and would bring instant “credibility” to the office and city government.
- Peoria Guy - Monday, Feb 8, 16 @ 9:22 am:
Thanks Mr. Mayor!
^^^Peoria’s program intentionally focuses assistance and enforcement on the most serious hardcore offenders because they are responsible for most crime. This is the right way to use law enforcement’s limited resources on people who pose the most risk to the community. That does not means that every hardcore offender in the program will turn their life around. Some, like this guy, will end up in prison for a very long time. The alternative approach to crime is to treat every offender the same, in which case this guy could still be out on the street along with other high risk offenders Peoria’s program has either helped or incarcerated.^^^
- Anon - Monday, Feb 8, 16 @ 9:23 am:
This incident is not Ardis’ first scandal. Here is the link to Commedy Central’s Daily Show on his previous “Twittergate” scandal:
http://www.cc.com/video-clips/o6obqg/the-daily-show-with-trevor-noah-an-illinois-mayor-gets-parodied-on-twitter
- GraduatedCollegeStudent - Monday, Feb 8, 16 @ 9:41 am:
===Peoria’s program intentionally focuses assistance and enforcement on the most serious hardcore offenders because they are responsible for most crime. [b]This is the right way to use law enforcement’s limited resources on people who pose the most risk to the community.[/b] That does not means that every hardcore offender in the program will turn their life around. Some, like this guy, will end up in prison for a very long time. The alternative approach to crime is to treat every offender the same, in which case this guy could still be out on the street along with other high risk offenders Peoria’s program has either helped or incarcerated. ===
I suppose that’s better than the other tactic “Peoria’s finest” has adopted when it comes to crime, which is “just stop going to the most crime-ridden parts of the city.”