PEORIA, Ill. – The Peoria City Council has officially rejected using $25,000 in American Rescue Plan funds to pay for an outside assessment of the city’s violence problem.
Council members, with little discussion aside from previous meetings, rejected the “Cure Violence” plan Tuesday on a 6-5 vote.
“I feel that we need an external review of our city, to give us a true, unbiased outlook of our city, that will put the proper players, stakeholders, and resources in position, that will give us the best offense to be successful at curbing violence in our city,” said Coucil Member Andre Allen, District 4. No other council members spoke Tuesday.
The move came not long after a late-afternoon shooting Tuesday, became the city’s 10th homicide.
“It treats violence as a communicable disease,” said Becky Rossman, CEO, Peoria Community Against Violence, on WMBD’s “The Greg and Dan Show.” “We can have community events and preach to the choir all we want. But, until we start really working with the victims and perpetrators of violence, there is not going to be any change.”
Rossman says the number one cause of death of young African-American men in Peoria, 16-24 years old, is murder.
