PEORIA, Ill. – Murders are down in Peoria this year, but shootings, and rounds fired, are both up.
And, Peoria Police Chief Eric Echevarria says there’s one group of people that are being impacted the most.
“We’ve had, up to that point (September 11), 99 people hit by gunfire. Unfortunately, 100 percent of them are African-American,” Echevarria told WMBD’s Craig Collins Monday. “What’s that tell me? I’m not going to vilify this area, but they’re victims. We need to get the services and get the programming and the things that need to happen in those areas.
Echevarria tells WMBD’s Craig Collins many people tell him they have a solution to the crime.
But he says if it doesn’t involve those areas that crime impacts the most, he is not the person to talk to.
That includes parents holding some responsibility for the crime, which he otherwise agrees with. He’s said in the past he would like to see parents charged criminally in connection with the crime.
What can parents do otherwise to help solve crime? Echevarria says speak out.
“If your child is the target of this violence, that alone should be enough to say, ‘As a parent, I love my children. There’s nothing that they can do that’s going to stop me from loving them. I’m going to protect them. If that means I’ve got to go tell on somebody, I’ve got to talk to something, I’m a father. I’m a grandfather. I’m going to go protect my family,’” said Echevarria.
Echevarria says some parents now are still contributing to their kid’s delinquency, but are the first ones to be at the scene of a crime claiming their children didn’t do it, despite potential video evidence to the contrary.
