Off topic- Peoria Mayor Jim Ardis

[Da Coach]

Fans who live in the Peoria area have already heard about this story about Peoria Mayor Jim Ardis. And now it is being reported on many national news sites.
Here are the PJ Star articles-

http://www.pjstar.com/article/20140416/NEWS/140419123

http://www.pjstar.com/article/20140417/NEWS/140419023

Briefly- Peoria Mayor Jim Ardis took offense to an anonymous twitter page titled @PeoriaMayor. It was a simple and harmless parody account, and we have all seen them. There are hundreds of thousands of such "parody accounts" all over Twitter, and there are celebrities who have hundreds of parody accounts mocking them.
The @PeoriaMayor account had only a small handful of followers, and only a small number of tweets, so hardly anyone would have even known it existed if Ardis had just ignored it. But Mayor Ardis used his position of power to influence a couple judges to grant warrants against Twitter and Comcast to discover the user's identity. Then he got a 3rd judge to issue a search warrant and the Peoria police chief sent a squadron of 7 policemen to raid the house of the user, who was arrested. Oddly, despite claims by city officials that the raid was necessary because "impersonating a city official is a crime", the only thing they charged the guy with was marijuana possession! Thank God we have people like Mayor Ardis and Peoria Police Chief Steve Settingsgaard using massive amounts of city resources to protect the public from such dangerous criminals! You would think they must have completely solved the crime problem in Peoria to waste so much time, personnel, and resources on this.

It just seems like an abuse of power to me, but what do others think?

But if Mayor Ardis thought he could shut down people mocking him by his strong-arm measures, it appears to be backfiring.
The story has hit national news wires, and is headlined on many news websites-

http://www.latimes.com/nation/nationnow/la-na-nn-fake-twitter-account-peoria-illinois-mayor-20140417,0,1819537.story#axzz2zCnOkYFm

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2014/04/18/fake-peoria-mayor-twitter-account-prompts-house-raid/?intcmp=latestnews

http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2014/04/18/up-to-seven-officers-search-home-seize-phones-and-computers-over-parody-twitter-account/

One news report I heard said that with the wide reporting of this, there now hundreds of new Twitter parody accounts of Jim Ardis, including far worse, more insulting and in-your-face ones like this-

https://twitter.com/NotPeoriaMayor

Some pretty funny ones-

https://twitter.com/peoriamayor14

and ones like this that look like they are really the mayor's-

https://twitter.com/Mayor_Jim_Ardis

And another one-

https://twitter.com/ArdisJim

I am guessing by the time this embarrassment dies down, Mayor Ardis will be wishing he had just ignored the parody.

[bradleyfan124]

I have said Peoria is not run by the people or the city council. It is run by the Good Ole Boy network. Whatever they say goes...Vonachen,Maloof,Caterpillar,Becker.. the informal power structure in Peoria

[Canton BU fan]

I can't believe anyone would want to pretend to be him.

[Da Coach]

Followup article by PJ Star's Phil Luciano-

http://www.pjstar.com/article/20140418/NEWS/140418876

Now, one more opinion- in this long interview by Luciano, Mayor Ardis has a chance to set the record straight, make some sense, and explain the reason he persuaded 3 different judges to issue warrants against Twitter, Comcast, and then a search warrant to pillage and plunder the poor guy's apartment over a harmless parody Twitter account that had already been taken down before the raid ever took place.
For the last couple days, we've heard the excuse that "it's against the law to impersonate a public official". Yes, apparently that is true, it's a measly misdemeanor, hardly worth of a squadron of 7 plain clothed police barging into a private residence, confiscating personal property, and arresting some poor pot smoker. And IMO, and in the opinion of a legal expert Luciano quoted, it would never stand up in court, since the twitter account was labelled as a parody.
But now when Ardis has his time to respond, he never even mentions this supposed law that he had previously claimed was the basis of this massive police action. Instead he uses the lame and well worn excuse- he says it's just not right that people can use the First Amendment to have freedom of speech, but then not "put their name on it".
"They want to say what they want. But they don’t want their name on it. They want to say it’s their (constitutional) right. Maybe it is. But that doesn’t make it right.”

In other words, it hurt his feelings!
I guess that is justification to drop everything the mayor, police, and judicial system should be dealing with in Peoria, and focus on stopping some twitter geek, who had already pulled the plug on his own account. So Mr. Ardis somehow has the supreme power to decide what is "fair" or "right" and bust down doors and arrest people who are exercising their constitutional right if he just doesn't like what is said?
And how does that justify a virtual SWAT team storming some defenseless dopehead's apartment?
And talk about manning up, why was't the guy even charged with the supposed crime Mr. Ardis claims was the reason he needed to be taken down?
Well, at least Toronto's crack-smoking ldiot mayor Rob Ford must be happy that some other mayor has taken the ridicule spotlight off him for a while.

Luciano ends with this-
“This looks like a classic case of small-town justice.”
Super. Peoria is Mayberry.

Give me a break. Mayberry Sheriff Andy Taylor had more common sense than every one of the judges, police officers, and public officials in Peoria combined. Does anyone think he would have done something this foolish?

[tornado]

Barney would have but not Andy .... but I do agree with the opinion that as difficult as it is to silence these guys -
there truly are a lot of weird, sad, warped people on the internet who become obsessed with someone else and spend
endless time hiding behind their anonymity trying to attack or masquerade as someone else.
I guess it doesn't surprise me that many of those types once exposed, don't seem so tough. But Ardis' proper response
should have been to ignore them totally since they are not worth anyone's attention anyway.

[Da Coach]

One more followup article from the PJ Star-

Fallout over fake Twitter account painfully real for the one man arrested

http://www.pjstar.com/article/20140419/NEWS/140418756

Funny, it turns out the guy the 7 police officers with guns and bulletproof vests arrested, was not even the guy who had anything to do with Mayor Ardis' parody account! So what else is there that they haven't screwed up?
I am just glad I don't live in Peoria.

[Canton BU fan]

I am just glad I don't live in Peoria.

However, we all do live in the USA and the IRS has been targeting people ever since this administration gained power.

[bradleyfan124]

It is a misuse of a persons position of power. I hope they sue the hell out of Ardis and the city of Peoria. I hope those judges catch hell also. The Judicial system is supposed to be the protector of individual freedom in this country

[Rick LeHew]

Briefly- Peoria Mayor Jim Ardis took offense to an anonymous twitter page titled @PeoriaMayor. It was a simple and harmless parody account, and we have all seen them....... Thank God we have people like Mayor Ardis and Peoria Police Chief Steve Settingsgaard using massive amounts of city resources to protect the public from such dangerous criminals! You would think they must have completely solved the crime problem in Peoria to waste so much time, personnel, and resources on this.

It just seems like an abuse of power to me, but what do others think?.......

This is to the ***** that created the Ardis account - If you type anything on the internet - then stop hiding behind a fake name. If you are going to be a jack@$$ - MAN UP BIG BOY !! I'm behind Jim Ardis 100% on this !!!

[Canton BU fan]

This is to the ***** that created the Ardis account - If you type anything on the internet - then stop hiding behind a fake name. If you are going to be a jack@$$ - MAN UP BIG BOY !! I'm behind Jim Ardis 100% on this !!!

If that's how it's done then why didn't Ardis handle it himself? "Like a man"

[Rick LeHew]

If that's how it's done then why didn't Ardis handle it himself? "Like a man"

I bet Ardis would have handled it "like a man" if the police gave him the information. I've had a few incidents (obscene phone calls and I.D theft) where I asked the police for the personal information and they would not give it to me. They were handling the case. I assume the same went for Jim Ardis. Bottom line..... put your name behind your words. Stop hiding behind a fake name. THAT is being a MAN - PERIOD.

[Da Coach]

More national coverage of this. It seems most constitutional experts agree this was an abuse of power-

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2014/04/22/mayor-ordering-raid-on-twitter-troublemaker-riles-free-speech-defenders/

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2014/apr/22/peoria-ill-police-raid-home-discern-who-mocked-may/

Even Al Jazeera weighing in-

http://america.aljazeera.com/articles/2014/4/18/twitter-parody-police.html

A lot of international news sites seem interested in this case.
Maybe Peoria really is the center of the universe? -

http://news.techeye.net/mobile/us-mayor-cracks-down-on-twitter-satire

[Rick LeHew]

I still believe using a fake name is a weasel move. MAN UP.

Article in Electronic Frontier Foundation states both sides:

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2011/07/case-pseudonyms

"Those in favor of the use of "real names" on social platforms have presented a number of arguments: that real names improve user behavior and create a more civil environment; that real names help prevent against stalking and harassment by making it easier to go after offenders; that a policy requiring real names prevents law enforcement agents from ???sneaking in??? to the service to spy on users; that real names make users accountable for their actions."

[tornado]

I still believe using a fake name is a weasel move. MAN UP.

agree - there's clearly two different parties who could have prevented and avoided this whole fiasco...the guy who cowardly tried to trash the mayor's name & reputation does bear some blame in causing this whole mess in the first place.
The guy's excuse that he had since altered his account is like trying to say I am not guilty of speeding because now I have slowed down...

[bradleyfan124]

The originator of the twitter account hid behind the internet. He thought he could slam someone and then just walk away. People need to be held accountable for their actions. Ardis,however, should have hired a lawyer to get satisfaction. But he made the mistake of using the power of his office to get back at them. That was wrong!! I also believe the 3 judges should be held accountable. They allowed a political official to use his office for that. Why did they not refuse the request? Makes me wonder about their decisions in the judicial system. Are their decisions being made independently and unbiased or by political influence?