Urging Peoria County Sheriff Brian Asbell to Stop Winter Evictions!
Urging Peoria County Sheriff Brian Asbell to Stop Winter Evictions!
Why this petition matters
With families of defenseless women, children and seniors in mind, we are pleading with our Peoria County Sheriff Brian Asbell to immediately reimpose a winter moratorium on all residential evictions during the current pandemic crisis.
Since the statewide eviction moratorium was lifted in early October 2021, nearly 200 evictions have been carried out in Peoria County, with at least 52 households alone emptied during the month of December.
Those numbers represent only the legal evictions occurring locally. Dozens of illegal evictions in & around Peoria happen daily due to the numbers of slumlords here who operate by intimidation, threats and violence against defenseless low-income families.
As the elected county sheriff, Brian Asbell you have the unilateral power to carry out or pause the judicial decisions regarding potential home evictions in your jurisdiction. Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart recently suspended evictions there during our recent pandemic hardships, as well as St. Louis Sheriff Vernon Betts.
The signers of this petition understand the strong pressures from housing owners on Sheriff Asbell's office to carry out evictions of entire families, even now in the out-of-control covid pandemic during the worst winter conditions.
However, we take Sheriff Asbell at his word. According to his stated office Values, Sheriff Asbell reminds constituents that "Our fundamental duties are to serve mankind; to safeguard lives and property; to protect the innocent against deception, the weak against oppression or intimidation, and the peaceful against violence or disorder; and respect the Constitutional rights of all men to liberty, equality and justice."
No reasonable person will place the "rights" of a monied well-housed landlord above those of fragile poor tenants who are struggling to survive on a daily basis. Evictions often destroy lives and permanently tear apart families. Also, empirical data clearly show that as evictions increase, so do covid infections.
We urgently request Sheriff Asbell institute an immediate eviction moratorium for Peoria County to last until at least the start of spring in late March 2022 to allow for better weather and hopefully a significant weakening of the current pandemic.