Pubdate: Sun, 20 Aug 2006
Source: Peoria Journal Star (IL)
Copyright: 2006sPeoria Journal Star
Contact:  http://pjstar.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/338
Note: Does not publish letters from outside our circulation area.
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/youth.htm (Youth)

FIND ANSWERS TO RISE IN CRIME AT HOME

The mother of Peoria's seventh homicide victim this year - a tally 
now at 11 and counting - showed up at a City Council meeting 
recently, making an emotional and articulate plea for local leaders 
to do more about escalating crime.

It's hard not to respond with compassion to a grieving mother, as 
Mayor Jim Ardis did to Juanita Powell, whose adult son, Travis, was 
murdered on July 4. Ardis wants to host a community roundtable to 
"look at this whole thing and see where we're deficient and what we 
can do better."

"We don't have thousands of bad people in Peoria," the mayor said. 
"We've got maybe a hundred people out there that are really making 
life miserable."

We sincerely do not want to cause any more heartache for Powell than 
she has already endured. She politely declined our request for an 
interview. But here's the rub, and here's why Powell may be asking 
the impossible: Police and court records suggest her son was one of 
those bad people, a 29-year-old gang member with a long arrest record 
going back to age 13. Perhaps he'd begun walking a different path, 
but many would say he died in the environment he helped create.

It has become an all-too-common tale. We read about terrorists ruling 
the Arab street. Well, gangs rule too many of America's and Peoria's 
streets. If there is a more destructive influence on neighborhoods, 
schools and cities, we'd like to know what it is.

The mayor isn't the only one waking up to that reality. Bill Spears, 
a city councilman and candidate for the Legislature, is circulating 
petitions that request state funding for an anti-violence program in 
Peoria called CeaseFire. So far he's collected some 2,000 signatures 
toward getting an advisory measure on the November ballot.

And on Monday a group of local pastors, headed by former City 
Councilman James Polk, announced they would lead a faith-based effort 
called "Stop the Killing and Start the Healing," aimed at combating 
the hopelessness they say is fueling the killings and at getting more 
young people into church and jobs. It's encouraging to see local 
African-American leaders finally standing up publicly to the 
violence, which has been disproportionately committed and suffered by 
young black men.

While these initiatives are welcome, we're not sure they get to the 
root of the problem. Prayer is a wonderful thing, and no one should 
underestimate its value, but we're not sure anything can get Peoria 
to the Promised Land as well or as fast as some basic parenting. When 
children get in the face of adults in front of their homes on the 
East Bluff and accost them with profanity, vandalism and worse, 
that's a parenting failure.

Here's a case study for you: Peoria's sixth murder victim this year 
was Gary Irby Jr. His obituary listed him at 23 years old at the time 
of his death on May 22 and indicated that he was the father of eight 
children. That's remarkable, especially when you consider that he was 
out of circulation for a few years prior to that because he was in 
prison. Police identified Irby as a gang member.

Parenting is a hard, humbling job. Children can make poor choices 
coming from even the best of situations, and good kids can also arise 
from some of the worst. But we have to believe the odds of becoming a 
credit to your community, rather than a curse, are diminished 
considerably coming out of the environment described above. This is a 
multi-dimensional problem that too often has one common denominator: 
Nature abhors a vacuum; where families fall short, gangs are all too 
happy to fill the void. Peoria must find a way to interrupt that cycle.

We're not confident that all the brainstorming sessions and CeaseFire 
chapters and prayers in the world can accomplish that until this 
city's police and politicians and preachers get more help from the 
home. Again, it's no guarantee. But when enough mothers and fathers 
get so fed up with burying their boys that they're willing to move 
heaven and earth to improve their odds, perhaps then we will see real change.