The Journal Star is reporting that their columnist and reporter Phil Luciano was officially charged with two counts of battery for allegedly hitting a man at a West Peoria bar. You can read the story here. “His first appearance is scheduled Wednesday in Peoria County Circuit Court.”
The question I have is this: Will the Journal Star print his booking photo? You can bet if Tom McIntyre or Bob Larson or Jamie Markley got picked up for getting in a bar fight, they’d run their pictures in a heartbeat — probably on the front page of the local section. Will the paper show a little favoritism to one of their own? The mug shot isn’t on the website… Stay tuned tomorrow to see if it shows up in the print edition.
UPDATE: Nope, they didn’t print it.
Throw the book at him. Send him to jail, since he purports to be a “leader” in the community, and a role model. By the way, who waxed his chest?
Oh yeah, my vote…probably not going to see the mug shot in the PJ Star…cronyism and all that.
“You can bet if Tom McIntyre or Bob Larson or Jamie Markley got picked up for getting in a bar fight, they’d run their pictures in a heartbeat ”
Bob Larson in a bar fight?!?! What universe could that happen in?
I can see Larson getting pretty ticked off if someone spilled his chocolate milk.
That’s right – chocolate. DARK chocolate.
…and whole milk.
I can’t believe it. Comments have been turned off on that story…
Just because the guy works for an ethicaly challenged company is not a reason he, if guilty, should be given a harsher sentence than anybody else. I’m not sure he claims to be a “role model” and he occupies no elective office. He is entitled to equal protection – even if the newspaper would treat others differently. I do hope Bob Larson doesn’t get caught jaywalking anytime soon.
Whatever happened to innocent until proven guilty?
Police just arrested a guy for murder, then had to release him when the SA decided he was fighting back to defend someone else. Meanwhile he spent time in jail.
Mistakes were made?
Innocent until proven guilty?
Apparently not in Peoria for some people.
The blowback from all that snideness over the years is simply vicious!
Bob Larson once killed a man for making direct eye contact with him.
Tom McIntyre killed a man in Reno, just to watch him die.
He also invented hot pants, but that is a different story.
Just kidding
Elaine, I believe you are correct. But didn’t Phil, Terry, Andy Kravetz (who couldn’t even accurately read a police report) and the JSEB as well as city desk run long articles degrading me and i have never been charged with anything other than traffic tickets in my life.
The JS and some reporters fair? I think not.
I read Phil and I listen to his show everday on the radio. I am getting a little sick of everyone that is out for his blood.
Phil never claimed to be a leader. He never claimed to be perfect. If he is convicted, then he should be fined, and maybe a little jail time. He is no different than anyone else. Who cares what picture the paper prints? We all know what he looks like.
There are more important things in this community then to worry about what happens to Phil Luciano.
Ben: I agree–I haven’t figured out why so many dislike him so much. He writes human interest stories–some flattering, some not so flattering, but I enjoy reading them. He is a bit like Rick Baker, and many disliked him until he died; then he was called Peoria’s Mike Royko (sp).
OK, Merle, I do remember, so you have good reason not to like Phil so much.
Merle – not to bring up what may be a sore subject for you, but what did they write about you?
Bob Larson is one bad man. I am told that he counted to infinity…twice. And that there is no theory of evolution. Just a list of creatures Bob Larson has allowed to live.
….or the booking photo of Chase Ingersoll…on the front page…but nary a word how the City paid Mr. Ingersoll’s wife the sum of $9999.99 in damages for the loss of one evening’s consortium. Don’t believe me…..FOIA it.
Jesus, it’s only a photo. Everyone would hope their employer would cut them some slack in a situation similar to this and that’s what they’re probably doing. Really the only one who cares is you. At least they wrote about the arrest. CNN never reported a thing on their guy Richard Quest’s arrrest in Central Park last year.
btw, how often does the JS print booking photos of assailants? Is there any precedent in the past concerning public figures particularly? I don’t know for sure. did the JS publish a former mayors arrest a decade or 2 back…was it mayor E. Michael O’Brien?
How many of you recall an article written by Rick Baker. How many of you recall anything that Phil has ever written except for the fact that it was mocked in the blogosphere.
Compare to how you feel about Kurt Warner, Jim McMahon or Brett Favre to how you feel about some of the quarterbacks that followed like……what’s his name.??…dumbass with a strong arm and nothing but a will to find a way to lose……
Further, if you read Bill Dennis, CJ Summers, Merle Widmer or even Diane Vespa you can’t be anything but stunned over the fact that in Peoria, witless little hacks (Luciano, Bibo and racist Pam Adams) actually get paid weekly to drop their tripe on the literate populace, and can’t be somewhat glad that the PJstar is doing so poorly.
Makes me wonder if maybe it is because of such low quality professional journalists that the people in Peoria don’t really see as much of a point for Dist 150 kids to learn to read.
I began reading Rick Baker when I first moved to Bureau County Illinois in 1982. Maybe Phil can become as big a drunk as Rick. But drunk or sober, Phil will never be one half the writer Rick was. Phil didn’t go into writing because he had the talent or the work ethic, and if you asked him why he went into journalism his answer would make that perfectly clear.
This post wasn’t about whether Phil is innocent or guilty. My point was, the Journal Star regularly prints booking photos of arrestees in noteworthy news stories. I wondered if they would treat Phil the same way. They didn’t. Perhaps “orti” is right and it’s perfectly legit that they not print it. I think it’s a bit of a double-standard. But hey, in the grand scheme of things, it’s really not that big of a deal.
I compared Luciano to Baker, but, in truth, as Chase stated Rick was by far the better writer. The PJS has never found anyone to take his place.
Elaine, you are stretching there. A man was killed. It was justified, but he was killed. The suspect spent some time in jail until the cops and sa figured out the facts. If he would have killed the guy in cold blood and the cops didn’t arrest him until the facts were sorted out, and in the meantime he killed someone else, you would be complaining that the cops didn’t arrest him after the first killing.
CJ wrote:
“I think it’s a bit of a double-standard. But hey, in the grand scheme of things, it’s really not that big of a deal.”
Hahahahahhahhahahhhahahhahhahahahahahah….
….oh…sniff…oh…you slay me.
he said…oh, never mind…GAWD, I love blogs…
ed — Yeah, yeah, I know. When I first put the post up, I was perturbed, but now that I got it out of my system, I stopped caring.
I still think the picture is funny, though.
“Further, if you read Bill Dennis … ” Oh, please don’t drag me into this.
Luciano is innocent until proven guilty. He’ll get his day in court. I’m often critical of Luciano’s column, but that’s not the point here.
I’m disappointed at the lack of commentary on the PJS Website, but I know that the commentary would likely be highly and often unfairly abusive. I certainly hope that no one heaping abuse on the man has ever made a mistake or had a weak moment.
And remember that so far, we have not heard his side of it. No doubt his attorney is having him be quiet, as is his right.
Stop parroting, Billy. No one is “innocent until proven guilty”. That is such a false representation of our legal system.
They are “presumed” innocent for the purposes of testimony and evidence. It applies to legal procedures, not facts.
I guarantee you that Luciano is not innocent, and I doubt he would imply that he was.
Also, no one is found innocent in our courts, They are only found not to be guilty by what ever standard of proof the law requires in that particular case.
C.J., Should be Luciano be found not guilty, be sure to pass along kcdad’s IP address and email addy to Luciano’s attorney, OK?
Billy: There is no point arguing with you because you don’t know what words mean and the alternative to words in an argument is fists…
I thought that what happens at the Tartan Inn stays at the Tartan Inn ? ? ? He should have hit the guy in a public school . . . Fewer consequences.
Jeff is out of touch 🙂 –he forgot that the Tartan closed and that Luciano’s event took place at the Owl’s Nest. By the way, “I can see the Owl’s Nest from my front porch.” However Jeff’s point is still the same. These “bar-like/street” fights happen too often in 150 schools–but the fighters often are not even arrested. Certainly they aren’t charged with battery and do not face the threat of time in prison, etc. Getting away with these actions that would be considered crime on the streets (or in bars) gives many young people the wrong impression of the “real” world. I am of the opinion that District 150 contributes to the downfall of these young people by not holding them accountable for their actions–those lessons should also be taught in school.
My last word to kcdad: I’m fairly well informed about what does and does not constitute libel, and offering up a personal guarantee that a person is “not innocent” of criminal charges might constitute libel if he is found not guilty.
Jeff and Sharon. Great points. I had a conversation with a young family last week who said they were switching to private schools. I asked them why, and they told me because a kid that had been bullying theirs brought a bee-bee gun to school (VonSteuban) and was shooting kids in the hallway. They also found a knife in the same kids locker. When they called the district to find out why they had to hear of this incident from their child they were told they didn’t want people to “panic”. In other words, it was swept under the rug as usual. Shortly thereafter, the kid was back in school. Until we have competent administration that is capable, willing and ready to deal with discipline issues in a big way, the district will continue to hemorrhage.
NO ONE is innocent of criminal charges, you &#$#@! They are either guilty or not guilty. There is no innocence involved.
Sue me… sue me … sue me…. it’s the American thing to do.
Diane-
The bb gun incident should not be a surpise. The principal at Trewyn does not report that there allegedly was a gun in a staff person’s purse. What happened to the principal?