City of Peoria

Open Soapbox: Steamboat Riot

54 Comments

(To the tune of “Zoot Suit Riot,” obviously):

Who’s that mob running in the haze?
Just some thugs at Steamboat Days
Hurdle fences, walk on vans
Who’s your daddy? Yes I am

Runners come to race
And young boys come to brawl
You’d best stay away
When they shoot pepper balls

Steamboat Riot (Riot!)
Race you to the county jail
Steamboat Riot (Riot!)
Use the prize money for your bail

Okay, so I’m not a lyricist. Or even a good satirist. But you get the idea. What did you all think of the Steamboat Riot the other night? Here are a couple articles from the Journal Star on it:

Steamboat Festivalgoers Arrested AFter Fights Erupt
Police Review Carnival Crime

54 thoughts on “Open Soapbox: Steamboat Riot”

  1. You know… Why are they surprised? Shocked even?

    There is a growing problem of parents who dump their kids and a bunch of others who I guess they are babysitting, at the park and leave them there.
    These kids are increasingly out of control.

    So, I was talking to a neighbor yesterday. A while back there had been some gathering in Bradley Park, they had some Mariachi band thing goin. We heard it, wanted to check it out but was too busy with somethin or other. It all sounded cool from where we lived. Then it stopped and we didn’t think nothing of it.

    Well… my neighbor down the road, went to check out the band. Apparently, there was this pack of kids, grade school aged from fairly young to tweens. One of these dumped groups that are increasingly common. Well I guess these kids took to heckling the band… well heckling might be a nice way to put it. As it was described, from the mouths of these kids, came the most vile hateful stream of epithets there could be. They were jeering, cursing, in their faces I guess, and even took to throwing garbage and any other movable objects at this band. From what I was told they were forced to leave by this pack of kids. I was rather dumbfounded by this, wishing I had gone to check them out. To have caught this pack of riff raff on video would have been priceless.

    Sadly this pack level sort of intimidation seems to be on the rise. I see the makings of it when I drive through various areas. But hey… crime is down right… so says the chief.

    We need beat officers. Cause this crap isn’t goin away. If you drop your guard the deritus will resurface whether it is at steamboat days, Bradley Park… or somewhere else.

  2. More police is not the answer. It is the responsibility of all citizens not just the police to correct anti-social behavior. There can be just as much of a “pack” mentality to stop the behavior as there is to cause it. A firm look, a curt “Where is your mother, young man?” is often all that is needed to send the signal that they better not go much further.

    These days, some of my friends toddlers call me by my first name. That makes me cringe. As adults, we need to take a collective stand, put ourselves in a teaching role, and let all young people know society demands and expects a minimal level of good behavior.

    Sometimes our kids will be in a store or someone elses home, acting disrespectfully. Sometimes, no matter what, they just don’t seem to listen to me. That is when I will whisper something in the store owners ear to remind my kids of the rules. Of course, the store owner is always happy to oblige, tells the Kids “don’t do that”. My kids snap to attention, shocked and embarressed. Problem solved.

    Unfortunately, many feel a reluctance to correct other people’s children, so ignore the bad behavior hoping that eventually the parent will get around to it. But if the parent doesn’t, all of society pays a price.

  3. Diane: with due respect, these pack rats are not going to pay attention to some civilian who tells them to quiet down, or stop it, it takes a uniform to get some respect from them, and many times only after the uniform shoots pepper or paint balls at them. Whenever you see more than three of them together, call the police. Don Jackson and his organization could do a lot to help, but is only content to gripe at others.

  4. Wacko, you’ve never met my Dad 😉

    No seriously, of course, some situations are far more serious than others, but I am talking about the culture that we have become that when we see a Kid causing a ruckus on the street we have been trained to run inside, lock the doors and call the police. It wasn’t too many years ago that instead, people would come out of their houses and tell the punk to knock it off.

  5. So very Sonic Youth of you. Give me a teenage riot anyday.

    “Teenage Riot” was a classic grunge song before there was grudge. 1988.

  6. Diane: don’t be too sure-what is your dads last name? I think we are on the same page but real force is the solution to this kind of force. Same thing happened at the Holy Family Church Heritage Days Festival this year-they had to close early because of these idiots.

  7. These kids are old enough to attend a civic event without their parents. In all honesty, middle school aged children should be able to attend their school’s event without constant supervision. Isn’t the goal that your children know how to properly behave by then? In seventh and eight grade I was allowed to attend the Heart of Illinois Fair to watch fellow students play in a band. My parents trusted that I was going to behave and I did because if I didn’t I knew what the consequences were. Today, cell phones are readily available for kids to keep in constant contact with their parents if need be.

    It is a different world from when I grew up, but the main responsibility still belongs to the parent. The anger that these children hold against society is huge. These are the children that District 150 schools put up with on a daily basis and now they are putting them on the streets on Wacky Wednesdays. Let’s see how fast our crime rate goes up, thank you, Mr. Hinton!!

    These children need someone who cares about them since it is obvious their parents do not. Sadly, teachers and principals have to do the parenting also.

  8. I am 26 years old. I am the median age of those who were arrested by the Peoria Police. When I look at this incident, I don’t see something that can be solved by police or schools. Both of these institutions were present in these criminal’s lives before this began. More of the same will not help. This behavior should have been prevented by their parents and neighbors. This group of people have grown up without respect for their community, and what possibilities it has to offer. People need to know that they are citizens of a community, and have a role to play in it. These people must feel they do not have a role to play. I can not imagine being arrested for participating in a riot. The fact that I would have to explain it to my boss, my wife, my church, and god forbid my mother would be too much humiliation to bear. The problem is we are all in a society that devalues marriage, church, hard work, and most of all obedience. Is it any wonder that these people act this way? All of these institutions are what make our community great. I can guarantee you that most people would rather face pepper balls than be shamed by their parents, church, and boss. It is obvious these people felt no such shame would come.

  9. Hence the need for the city to work with churches and schools to begin instilling a sense of respect for — or at least the need to not disrespect — the police.

  11. Take a 14 year old girl in a very hostile environment at home. Her mother only has abusive boyfriends, who drink, take drugs and beat her up. The screaming and yelling goes on all day and all night. No one respects anyone. Then this girl gets pregnant by who knows. Now she has a baby in the womb that is hearing all of this abuse. The girl has no safe place to go and has never learned that there is safe places in this world. Her’s has been a world of terror since day one. Then she brings this baby into the world that she knows. It screams and cries for care and all it hears is more screams and cursing and occasionally one of the drunk or drugged boyfriends slaps the child before it is even a month old to shut it up. This is the world that the child is brought up in. Its a generation to generation thing. No one teaches them anything about a “normal” decent life. They don’t know the difference, their parents don’t know the difference, therefore they can’t teach it to their children. They only send the kids to school to get them out of the house, like sending them to a babysitter for the day. They don’t care if the kid learns or not. They didn’t so it means nothing to them. Its one generation after another raising children in this hostile environment and then when they get together, like at the Steam Boat Races, their anger boils over and the slightess little thing sets them off and they move enmass to stomp whatever it is they think has done something wrong to them. They are always constantly on the edge waiting to blame someone else for their unhealthly and unholy environment. They don’t know how to vent their frustrations and anger in a safe way because no one has ever taught them anything like this.
    Just my 2 cents worth on the problems facing our youth today, here in Peoria. All the schools and all the police and all the churches are not going to do a bit of good if we can’t get to the baby before it is born.

  12. I was just checking out the District 150 site and found that Woodruff is adding an early childhood center…. I couldn’t find a date when that post was added. I clicked on it but the page that was supposed to show up didn’t. How long has this been at Woodruff? To me, it sends a mixed message. Yet, on the other hand, what would happen to those babies if the center wasn’t there.

  13. ImaSwede, for several years in the last decade, there was a STAR early childhood classroom for preK students housed at WHS (I don’t know the dates, exactly, but it was there from around 2005-07?). It wasn’t day care, but programming for children (and their parents) who were identified as at-risk for some sort of developmental delay/disorder. My friend, who was the teacher for the class, is now working from Valeska Hinton. It could be that they’re just putting another class there to replace the previous class?? I’m not sure.

  14. A bunch of white kids (from the suburbs) get into a fight and it is hooligans, a bunch of black kids (from the city)and it is a gang riot.

    [scratching my chin] hmmmmmmmmmm

  15. kcdad, At what point in this conversation did you draw that conclusion? Does anyone here know anything about what race was involved in Steamboat Day’s? I don’t, and it doesn’t matter anyway. The same logic should apply no matter what their race.

  16. Not to bring up an old subject, but half of you were completely bashing the Pledge of Allegiance a few posts ago. Now, I know there are 1st amendment issues, ‘whose god is it anyway’ issues, intimidation issues, etc…..someone even claimed that refusing to say the Pledge was a form of dissent!

    Now we are all talking about parents, community, church, schools……. as if all of these ‘righteous forces’ would somehow provide the help we seek to quell these godless heathens!

    The Pledge of Allegiance?

    A few sentences spoken to reaffirm what is [supposed] to be good in this country, yet post after post of why the Pledge is essentially a tool of the conservative wicked.

    Why are all of those patriotic bumper-sticker, flag-on-the-door, Pledge yelling citizens nothing more than the ignorant masses who have caved to those [politicians] with a higher agenda?

    A little respect please……….

    Maybe these little ‘park-vikings’ are a bunch of dissenters trying to show us we are all a bunch of hypocrites?

  17. kodad: where did the white kids get into a fight and cause a riot? Without pointing a finger, the black kids caused the raucus at both the Holy Family Heritage Day festival and the Steamboat Days festival. Coincidence?

  20. Did anyone find out who exactly was responsible for these incidents. My sources tells me that one kids name came up in the Heritage days, Steamboat days and the Lakeview library incident. Not so much gang related as it is retalliation from the first event toward this individual.

  21. White kids never fight, wacko, you are right. What was I thinking? That’s why there are so many black faces in prison, that is why so many black faces are being released from 30 years sentences because of DNA evidence, that is why the Bradley kids got charged with one crime and the brick thrower another…
    Herb Spencer was right.. it is all about biology.

  22. There was a Lakeview Library incident? I missed that…. what happened there? The way that reads sakgen, is that someone retaliated toward this individual who caused trouble at Heritage Days… Is this what you are saying?

  23. KCDAD,

    I see where you are coming from, but I must admit…it is difficult for me to trust someone who used to be a lobbyist for big tobacco.

  24. The brick incident versus the Bradley incident?? A lot more different than just skin color!! And why does kcdad always bring up race in his posts? Mmmmm… (scratching chin)

  25. Lakeview library incident? I thought it was only carnivals, and all would be well once we do away with carnivals? Maybe we have to do away with libraries too?

  27. Ep Blondie: You are right in a way about the brick incident and the BU arson incident. There WERE differences in the crimes. One seemed motivated by wanton disregard for life and property. The other was a bunch of drunken college students. They were similar in that in both people dies because of bad choices. In both cases, the perpetrators were a menace to those around them. What makes them different is the reaction of the populace. In the BU incident the media and the community seemed to rally around the students and demand leniency. In the other, it was almost as if a lynch mod was starting to form. The differences between the two crimes was not so great as to justify the wildly varying reactions from the community. Thanks just my opinion. Your mileage may vary.

  28. Oh Puhleeze!! The kid that threw the brick off the bridge had a prior history of beating the crap out of people running down the street minding their own business and a few other incidences, if I remember correctly. There is a reason all the Special Education Teachers knew his name! His intent was to absolutely do harm to someone he was not even connected with.

    The Bradley kids were drunk and stupid, but in no way was their intent to harm their friend. They had played the prank before and no one was hurt.

    Intention is key in crimes. There was no lynch mob and their was no comparison. The lynch mob was made up by the media, as usual, the Journal Star. This is a newspaper that doesn’t report why Cahill’s contract wasn’t on the agenda, doesn’t report the attacks at Neumann Golf Course under “police, fire, courts” but hides the info away in a sport’s page blog.

    It wasn’t the reaction of the populace that made these incidents different. It was the reaction of the media trying to make waves. Seems to me the black community did rally around the kid that threw the brick off the bridge. I didn’t see them rally around the soccer players. The soccer players had family and friends rally around them, yes, but I didn’t see any strangers coming forward saying they should get off scot free….

  29. You may be on to something, ImaSwede, if we eliminate libraries and golf courses, we can save some serious money here. No need for that $35 million bond issue, all that expense of maintaining those big golf courses, gone, and no gang violence. We could probably reduce the police budget. What a deal!

  30. Eye wus theekn mor long da lyns dat we kepe da kds in skool frum 7 AM til 5 PM, letem go hom 4 dinr den bak 2 studie hals so dey kan git there homwrk done frm 7 PM til 9:30 PM, yeer roun!!! Mabe dey wuld b 2 tyrd 2 ryot on weak ens!

  31. Okay you guys, what happened at the library and Newman Golf Course? Sure didn’t see anything about those incidents in the paper.

  36. throw a brick off a 30 foot bridge at a moving car….

    light a roman candle which burns at around 1000 degrees into a closed and locked room where you know someone is sleeping…

    Which of these two incidents is GUARANTEED to cause damage and injury????

    And EP Blondie: the question is why can’t you see the racism??? Could it be your nom de plume???

    And lastly New Voice: We are NOT going to dig into each other’s backgrounds… are we? Hang on, I need a light.

  37. “light a roman candle which burns at around 1000 degrees into a closed and locked room where you know someone is sleeping…”

    No-one knew someone was sleeping… it was not in a “closed and locked door” it was under a door which the victim had placed a towel to block the fireworks which he knew were coming and subsequently caught on fire.

    Get your facts right.

  38. Yes there was an incident at Lakeview. I also found out that Cahill didn’t like the raise that was offered and wanted more. There was no contract to approve so it got pulled.

  41. The facts???

    “Cox finally admitted, when confronted with statements eventually made by others, that he (Cox) had, in fact, lit one of the roman candles with his own lighter. The roman candle, however, seemed to not be clearing the area beneath the door and would not fire. When this happened, Cox told Ryan Johnson, who was on the stairs with them, to get yet another roman candle downstairs. Cox stated that Johnson, indeed, retrieved a roman candle from downstairs and handed it to Cox. He said while Johnson was getting the second roman candle, that Mentgen went into his room and got a coat hanger which Mentgen then used to push under Danny Dahlquist’s door in order to move whatever seemed to be obstructing the path of the roman candle.

    Travis English would describe that he had taken bath towels and tightly stuffed them beneath his bedroom door to prevent fireworks from being ignited under his door. Evidence would show that this same technique seemed to be used by Danny Dahlquist for similar reasons. As already described, a single charred coat hanger was found on the floor of the burned bedroom near the door.”

    Intentionally lighting a second roman candle after using a metal hanger to clear a hole under the door… oh yeah…. uhhhhhhh, it was an accident. Just a prank. No harm intended. In fact, even though I am a privileged white kid with a superior education… I uh… am just stupid enough to think that this was all a bunch of fun…

  43. here are a couple of discussions from other “voices” about the cement block throwing incident…. note the reason and fairness in their expressions…
    http://www.vnnforum.com/showthread.php?t=53834
    http://www.jg-tc.com/articles/2007/10/16/news/doc47141c44cc2b7447640925.txt

    Did we complaints about pleading to lesser charges or the courts going easy on the white, college boys? NO, the voices of the public were “ahhh, poor kids… they were justing playing college pranks and it got out of hand.”

  44. Hmmm… let’s see, who is a danger to society? And who had the intent to kill?

    Rakiem Campbell was also charged with beating the crap out of a jogger and torching cars (punishable up to seven years.) Wow, he must have thought the jogger wouldn’t be hurt when he put him in a head lock and punched him in the face… someone he didn’t even know, just a random act of violence against a stranger. That alone would have gotten him 5 yrs for aggravated battery. The child was already in Special Ed classes for his behavior and it had escalated beyond the classroom out onto the streets. Oh, and don’t forget he was also charged with burglary. But these crimes weren’t enough, he decided to pick up two concrete patio blocks, walk 150 feet to the Broadway Street bridge over Interstate 74 and wait for a car to pass by so he could heave the block over the fence striking Katrina Kelly in the chest and kill her. Oh, but he didn’t mean to kill her. He then plea bargained to get a lighter sentence.

    Did the Bradley boys have prior records? Nope!

    Did the Bradley boys know the person that was killed. Yes, he was one of their very best friends.
    Were they privileged? You mean were their fathers married to their mothers and did they work? Well, I guess in your world that is a privilege! Did they mean to kill their best friend? No, they did not. Were they going around Peoria firing rockets into stranger’s homes? Nope. Were they a danger to society? No, only to themselves and their best friend.

    I don’t care what color any of these kids were, the crimes are not comparable. Campbell was a pot waiting to boil, and he did. The Bradley soccer players scorched themselves, losing their friend, their educations and having to live the rest of their lives in remorse. Does Campbell have remorse? I am sure he does now that he is in jail where he belongs!

  45. So you can read minds and know his intent? Of course: urban, poor, black… killer.

    No intent to kill when you set a drunk/passed out college kid’s room on fire and then run out of the house?????

    Oh… and black kids is also a bastard!!!!! AHHHHHHHHHHHA

    I tell you Ima, you go throw a brick at a moving car and see how accurate you can be with it, and then fire an incendiary device into a locked room and see how accurate that is….

    Why can’t you see the racist double standard you are applying? The truth is, it isn’t even about race, but that is how it plays out… it is about money… it is about social status. The college drunks have it and the ghetto kid doesn’t. (You sound just like Imus: “What color is he? oh that explains it!”)

  46. I wonder if the teenagers arrested today for shooting guns at Lexington HIlls were involved in the golf course robbery. Do you think we’ll ever know? Isn’t Lexington Hills right at the end of Nebraska? They were just shootin’ up a couple of cars and an apartment… no biggie…. (note sarcasm)

    It was after midnight and the kids were ages 17, 16, 14 and 15. By the time the police got there they kids had hidden the gun under the bed. Gosh, it doesn’t mention any parents.

  47. kc, you’re barkin’ up the wrong tree… I happen to be married to a black man!

  50. It never ends!

    Vandals stole flags and poles from the greens of Neumann Golf Course this weekend, damaging one of the greens in the process. The JS stated hundreds of dollars in damage was done to greens also.

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