Sunday, June 26, 2011

Peoria Mob Shielded by MSM (More-date)

The mainstream media has pulled a story from Peoria recently, and it's taken a bit of time to find it. I can't speak to the veracity of the story, but I can post it as it is.

Here's what we get from the Internet direct via Drudge Report:

PANDEMONIUM IN PEORIA: MOB YELLS 'KILL ALL THE WHITE PEOPLE'...

And the story is:

Peorians living in fear

This eye-witness account is from Paul Wilkinson, president of the Altamont Park Neighborhood Association:

Tonight, around 11 p.m., a group of at least 60-70 African American youth marched down one of the side streets (W. Thrush) to the 4 lane main drag (Sheridan). They were yelling threats to white residents. Things such as we need to kill alll the white people around here. They were physically intimidating anyone calling for help from the police. They were surrounding cars. Cars on the main drag had to slam on their brakes to either avoid the youth blocking not only all four lanes, but a large section of the side street as well. fights were breaking out among them. They were rushing residents who looked out their doors, going on to porches, yelling threats to people calling the police for help.

Cars were doing U turns on the streets just to avoid the mob, mostly male. One youth stated his grandfather was white and several assaulted him on the spot. One police officer answered the call. The youth split into two large groups, one heading north, the other south. They were also yelling racial threats to the police officer but he was outnumbered. Another police car did not show up until after the youth finally dispersed and the patty wagon (van) also eventually showed up.

Residents are very shaken, both black and white alike. This is the fifth large mob action in about a month with smaller groups of 10-12 are out threatening children and adults a few evenings a week or later into the night. The times vary, even occuring during the day. In talking to the police officer, they are short staffed. Residents were advised to simply keep inside and to lock their doors. In other words buckle down, it’s not even safe to sit on your porch or go into your yards.

“The fifth large mob action in about a month.” Wow. This is really outrageous. Why is this neighborhood having to put up with this? “Residents were advised to simply keep inside and to lock their doors”? Seriously? That’s the best we can do for our fellow citizens’ safety?

This needs to be addressed, and quickly.

http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:lHzJ2PFQcMEJ:peoriachronicle.com/+http://peoriachronicle.com/&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us&source=www.google.com

I don't know if this account is true, but I do see that the media refuses to deal with it, true or not. That strikes me as censorship, which I think of as a bad thing. Hence, I post this story, true or false, and you decide what to make of it till we find out more. One way of finding out more would be to contact the person reporting the original story. Here's what one might do:

Paul Wilkinson - President
309-256-2065

altamont_park@yahoo.com

He might get sick of answering the phone, but one can hope to get the story directly from him. Let me know if that works.

There is now more, thanks to Above Top Secret for the link. I can say with good certainty that I do know one thing about this case: I wasn't there. I go with what I read, and I keep a more or less open mind. That's why I get mightily steamed when I encounter censors withholding information from me. In the interests of knowing what kind of nation we live in, here is more about the story, which I take with yet another pinch of salt, given that the main source is a local politician. If Peoria City Councilwoman Barbara Van Auken has ever in her life told the truth about anything, I can swear to you, dear reader, I have never heard it. I don't know the lady. Maybe she was until recently a man. I can't speak to that either. Your call.

Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain, says local politician.

PEORIA —

Allegations of racist threats and mob-style intimidation in a West Bluff neighborhood Friday captured national attention over the weekend, but some say the claims were exaggerated.

A group of 50 or so young people was walking down Thrush Avenue toward Sheridan Road about 10:50 p.m. Friday, concerning some residents.

Paul Wilkinson, who has lived on Sheridan for 11 years, says the group was blocking four lanes of traffic, fighting and yelling racist comments at neighbors.

"They were yelling 'We're gonna kill all the white people. This is our neighborhood,'" Wilkinson, 45, said.

He emailed his account of the incident to several City Council members and one local blogger. The report at The Peoria Chronicle website was quickly picked up by dozens of other sites, including the widely read online news site The Drudge Report with the headline "Pandemonium in Peoria: Mob yells 'Kill all white people.'"

Some residents, unaware of the media attention, confirmed Sunday there was a crowd in the street Friday, but said that race was not involved. A police report on the incident does not even mention the word race.

Police responded to Thrush on Friday night on a report of fireworks and fighting but found neither of those activities occurring, a police report stated. The group dispersed in multiple directions when an officer arrived. No one was arrested.

Khalid Davis, who lives on Thrush, said the group blocked a few cars but was very orderly. He witnessed no fights and called the racist allegations a "heck of an exaggeration."

"If I heard them screaming any such thing, I would have called police immediately," said Davis, 62.

Wilkinson, the president of the Altamont Park Neighborhood Association, said Sunday the neighborhood has seen its share of problems with drugs and guns in his 11 years there, but the problems have visibly increased as of late. He said police recommended residents stay inside and keep their doors locked.

The effects of the allegations were evident in the neighborhood Sunday. A police nuisance abatement truck called the Armadillo, outfitted with cameras, was parked on the side of Thrush.

Peoria City Councilwoman Barbara Van Auken said Sunday she is outraged by Wilkinson's allegations.

Van Auken, who has known Wilkinson for six years, said he's had a history of "wildly exaggerating" reports, many of them involving race. And police are well aware of it.

"We have some very gullible new council members who were dumb enough to believe him," she said, declining to name names.

Wilkinson said he met with Councilwoman Beth Akeson following his email and spoke to Councilman Chuck Weaver over the weekend. Weaver told the Journal Star he planned to meet with the mayor about the incident.

Van Auken said there are few, if any, racial tensions in the neighborhood where the incident occurred.

"It's a national embarrassment now," she said.

Mayor Jim Ardis was unaware Sunday evening of the national attention the issue had caused. He called it "concerning" but said he did not think Peoria was unique when it came to such incidents.

Ardis said he wasn't sure to what extent the reports were accurate.

"Not knowing all the details, it's surprising that it's caught national attention," he said.

In the meantime, police have increased patrols in the area, and Ardis, who is out of town, expects more reports on the incident to be available when he returns Wednesday.

Kenny Rogers, who has lived on Sheridan for 10 years, called police Friday after he saw the group "hollering" and stopping traffic on the street. He did not hear anyone yell that they wanted to kill white people.

Rogers says the crowd was running wildly around yards and porches. It was the largest Rogers, 38, had ever seen in the neighborhood.

"They were doing a show of force," he said, "to show everybody, 'Hey, this is their hood.'"

http://www.pjstar.com/news/x2069925100/Account-of-racist-Peoria-mob-spurs-national-attention

16 comments:

Anonymous said...

Why don't you contact him yourself?

Dag said...

I did. But thanks for the tip.

Dag said...

Let me clarify that. I contacted Wilkinson's address but have not yet received any reply. If and when I do, here it will be.

CGW said...

They need to call out the National Guard on this one . .

Dag said...

As I recall, the governor has to call the National Guard. I don't think that's going to happen in the state of Ill. Not saying he shouldn't, of course, but reality is looking pretty dismal for most folks living under the utopian Left.

Anonymous said...

I see your point. I forgot that it took place in "NObamaland".

CGW said...

That last comment was by me, CGW. I just forgot to input my name. Sorry.

I see your point. I forgot that it took place in "NObamaland".

SteveJ said...

Amazing how quick the media are to perform damage control and clear things up when it's black on white. Of course, they weren't so swift to exonerate the falsely accused Duke lacrosse players or the Tea Partiers who supposedly shouted epithets at U.S. Rep. John Lewis.

Anonymous said...

the new tactic of the far right: fabricate a news story about eeeeevil blacks. When the most reputable website covering it is FreeRepublic, claim that the news is being suppressed by the politically correct establishment. People will believe you.
I sense a pogrom coming.

Anonymous said...

It seems that the reason it was taken down was not in an attempt to censor any information but rather to retract the story due to exagerations and probebly alot of hear say which was in the story a reputable news source cannot aford to show its incompetence by leaving such a story up as fact.

thus it was brought down, I think you would do the same if you were in charge.

Dag said...

"[T]he new tactic of far right: fabricate a news story about eeeeevil blacks..."

There is nothing remotely new about lying, which is what "fabrication" is. What sense does it make to claim this is a "new tactic"? And to combine a latinate term fabricate with a cartoon version of "evil" jars us as well. And more, I have no idea, nor does any fair-minded person have any idea what the "far right" would mean in this context. It becomes as cartoonish to write "far" as it is to put extra ees in the word evil for emphasis.

There is a story here, one that we don't know as much about as we should, and to return with less information that we had is to harm our quest for truth.

Dag said...

If I had put up a story that was essentially false, I would not, nor would any reputable writer, take it down and pretend it was never there. Rather, like any honest person in the business of ideas and in pursuit of honest enquiry, I would allow a discussion to get to the heart of the matter, using the original material as a base for discussion an discovery. This story being deep-sixed looks like panic. It looks like lies on the part of the news publisher. It makes the whole story a matter of corruption. That's what we would care to get into.

truepeers said...

Whatever the possible exagerration of the Peoria story, "flash mobs" of Black youths attacking whites and Asians have become sufficiently common in America that Drudge was able to link this story along with several others similar, all in row, as he similarly did after the Memorial Day holiday and for which he was criticized by Liberals. It is deemed a thought crime, an attempt to slander a race by talking about something - as if it were numerically significant - in a manner other than the anecdotal, disconnected, race-sublimating manner of the official reportage.

However, there is the start of some discussion about this in the media (certain bloggers have been talking about these flash mob assaults for some time now). Not surprisingly, one of the first to open discussion was a Black conservative columnist, Walter Williams See also, for example.

Dag said...

It's not my place to feel sorry for Blacks in America. They have to deal with the nature of Black culture and the effects f it on individuals as a whole community and ethnic group in the nation. I can't make any claims about much of anything regarding Blacks as they live their own lives as Blacks. But when I see them on the streets and feel nervous and vaguely disgusted, then it crosses over to those who, like Williams, Sowell, and Thomas, men I truly respect as individuals but might shun if I didn't know them, then I feel, as they might feel, cheated of friendship and value in others. I just stay away. Blacks have to deal with it among themselves.

Today there is a video of a riot in which numerous Black thugs attacked a Black college campus. Some of the comments are heart-breaking. Many are ashamed of what others have done, and the majority, not being Black, can't distinguish one group from another. Fair enough. Why should one have to distinguish? If too many are violent criminals, and to the point they attack Blacks in a mob, then one must have some prudent fear of the whole. It doesn't pay to be fearless. That invites trouble and thus causes trouble that one might otherwise not cause. Everybody wins.

It is a problem for Blacks that many Blacks are out of control. I read recently that half of American Black males have felony convictions. I don't look at every second Chinese guy as a felon. If I don't do that with Blacks, I'd be crazy. Are Blacks to blame? I guess so, since they're the ones going to prison rather than graduating out of high school. But the root cause? I figure that if ones father is a street gang of children, then one will grow up to be an adult in trouble, maybe maturing at the age of 40 or so. I blame fathers who skip out on fatherhood. Kids aren't born as adults, and it takes parents to mature them gradually through parenting. That's what it is to be human. Miss that, get feral kids who end up as feral adults.

This is not my concern, generally, given that I don't see many Black guys and I'm not in line to be attacked by a Black mob. Those who are in such danger, even if they aren't really, are pretty likely to be hostile to Williams if they see him at night in the neighbourhood, or if they see Clarence Thomas and his wife at the parking lot at Walmart. I happen to go to Walmart as often as I can in the faint hope of meeting the Thomas family. These are people I admire; but if I don't know them, I think I'd stay away. It shames Blacks generally to be seen this way, and it disappoints me; but as Sowell notes, there was a time, before liberals decided to "save" Blacks, that Blacks had their own parallel communities of genuine worth that functioned well. Now, little more than feral gangs and those who hang their heads in shame. Not my problem.

My problem is the sanctimonious liberal who cannot, or will not, but most likely cannot reason effectively, who responds with stock responses to all cliched occasions. This is humiliating to me. I hate being seen by Blacks as one of those cringe-inducing liberal buffoons who fop around and make a big deal about "Black oppression." I couldn't make a friend with a guy I liked instantly, all due to liberal goofs. He was sitting next to me having coffee at an up-scale place when two White guys came by, one of whom stopped and said loudly to his friend about the Black guy, "This is my friend X." The Black guy had a righteous fit, saying "You ain't my friend. I met you once. I don't know you. You ain't my friend. I don't need no friends." Hey, I like that guy. But can I make friends with him? No way. That's blown because he now and for a long time, no doubt, has seen every White guy as a fawning phony, and he is sick of it. So, I sit and let it all go. Too bad. Don't know that he'd like me, but there's no hope of finding out. Two cultures. We're more segregated now than ever.

Anonymous said...

Poor Dag.... unable to make Black friends, not because he is digusted upon glancing at them because of them being Black, but because the Black will surely reject his friendship, mistaking him for a liberal. Has their ever been a victim as great as Dag?

CGW said...

Dag:

Don't allow the trolls to post OT about truther cospiracy theories. Please. It demeans the site.