Peoria County Board Chairman Andrew Rand couldn’t behave himself to let me finish my public comment at the March 3rd, 2021 County Board meeting. Instead, he rudely & repeatedly interrupted me. My public comment was addressing the misinformation (and, in some cases, flat-out falsehoods) told by Sheriff Brian Asbell regarding the new criminal justice law, HB 3653. About half way through the five minutes allotted me for public comment, Rand thought it necessary to tell me how much he fetishizes the Sheriff and how he wouldn’t let anyone point out falsehoods, facts be damned! He threatened to have me thrown out of the meeting if I didn’t desist from the insidious facts & logic I was dropping.
Rand is an establishment Democrat, and he is deeply entrenched within the neo-liberal power structures of Peoria. He was elected to the board in 2008 and was elected chairman by the board in 2014. He’s a “fiscal conservative,” a.k.a. an austerity-monger. He is the CEO of the non-profit Advanced Medical Transport (AMT), a private company that provides privatized ambulance services to Peoria-area municipalities. His partner is millionaire Sid Ruckriegal, At-Large City Council member for the City of Peoria, who recently lost his bid to be the Mayor, coming in third behind At-Large City Councilperson Rita Ali and District 4 Councilperson Jim Montelongo. These two will fight it out on the April 6th election day.
Rand reminds me of the type of power hungry, craven politician Illinois is known for. He’s made his wealth off of the privatization of a government service while being in the government. The mere thought he or the county might be questioned causes him tremors. His head kept twitching towards the clock incensed he had to listen to a whole five minutes of a mere peon talk. After his first interruption, a Sheriff’s deputy stood by me, ready and willing to use violence if I persisted in dropping truth-bombs. Rand seems like the type of person that truly enjoys the ability to silence any dissenting voice.
This isn’t the first time he’s tried to silence free speech. Back in 2017, he sued blogger Zack Teague for a social media post about AMT that triggered him. It was a Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation a.k.a. a SLAPP suit. SLAPP suits are used by powerful individuals to silence critics by burdening them with onerous legal fees. Like, Mayor Ardis & Twittergate, criticism of the status quo doesn’t play in Peoria.
This article was originally published on Strangecornersofthought.com.
