But when they did aim and fatally shoot at people, the people have almost always been African-American males, at least in this decade.Ī more accurate accounting would require searching the bowels of the police department for more than a century’s worth of records, beginning when Black people first began migrating to the city in large numbers. The vast majority of time they were aiming at animals. In Peoria, officers have discharged guns just several dozen times since 2007, according to police department statistics. What amazes me is how rarely officers fire weapons in the line of duty. Like Thomas Keller in 1997 and Ivan Durflinger in 1990, like all of the problems officers were never meant to handle. Like Russell, he had a history of mental illness. Eugene “Kim” Pitchford, a homeless man who suffocated in 2000 as police tried to restrain him with pepper spray and blows to the head. The death of two-year-old Aniya Alexander, struck by a police van carrying inmates from jail to the police department for a lineup, in 2009. But I remember deaths that didn’t involve guns by either police or the suspects they were trying to arrest. Local protesters also want more answers in the death of Traushan Shields, who was found dead in May 2020 after a chase and shootout with police.īefore these recent shootings, Peoria police officers hadn’t fatally shot anyone since Demetric Mobley in 2008, who reportedly shot at a police car. Such a list would include the names of Peorians whose lives were lost only recently. Their deaths may have occurred as they committed a serious crime or turned a gun towards an officer. What if there was a remembrance engraved with the names of everyone killed by police in the history of Peoria? Everyone who died, in one way or another, in police custody? They are the names least likely to appear on plaques in police departments and memorials in front of city halls. What if there was another list, I wonder when I encounter police memorials. History is the record of what we evoke and what we avoid. “They portray the men and women who embodied the values we want our community to share, that we want our children to learn.” But, Neiman adds, we don’t memorialize every piece of our heritage. Memorials and monuments make values visible, according to the philosopher Susan Neiman. I am struck by the long reach of memory, who we remember, and why it is important they be remembered. Ray Espinoza in 1970 and Deputy Sheriff John Sack in 1987.įifteen in the city of Peoria, four more in Peoria County, a total of 19 over two centuries. Four since 1922 and the last two in particular: Sgt. Let us not forget Peoria County Deputy Sheriffs who died on the job. The officers’ names and photos are part of a larger display of antique weapons, posters and other law enforcement artifacts in the basement of the police department, known as the Gary W. All 15 are included in a more expansive memorial outside Peoria City Hall, along with the names of Peoria firefighters who died in the line of duty. Their lives matter.įourteen officers, minus Theophil Seyller, the first Peoria officer killed in the line of duty, whose shooting death in 1854 was discovered after the plaque was made and placed in the lobby.įifteen officers in the police department’s entire history, in nearly 200 years of policing. I am struck by the enduring power of naming names, reminded of the dangers officers face as they serve and protect. But my memory is correct about what’s on the plaque: the names of police officers who died in the line of duty.įrom William Murphy, shot while trying to make an arrest in 1903, to Donan James Faulkner, shot and killed in 2001, to Cristy Tindall, who died in a car accident in 2004, the plaque honors every officer who died in the line of duty in the history of the Peoria Police Department. I remember a long, impressive stone plaque. There is a framed plaque in the lobby of the Peoria Police Department next to the receptionist desk.
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