Targeting Tony?

Cook County assassination theory

By STEVE RHODES

Updated 9:56 AM CST, Fri, May 8, 2009

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Wait a minute: Is someone really trying to assassinate Cook County Commissioner Tony Peraica?

That's what the Riverside police say.

But if the city's editors and news directors agreed, this would have been front-page, top-of-the-newscast news, wouldn't it?

Someone's trying to kill a Cook County Commissioner!

"We have interviewed many of the neighbors, and none of them have any known enemies or professions that would have provoked an attack," Riverside Police Chief Thomas Weitzel said. "The facts, as we have them today, lead us to believe that the intended target was Mr. Peraica's residence."

So not necessarily Mr. Peraica? Maybe someone just wanted to send a message. Like, don't repeal the sales tax increase?

Whoever it was, they didn't come close. Two rounds struck the front door and five others went through the front window. Of a neighbor's house.

"Police believe that in the dark, the offenders simply targeted the wrong home," the Riverside/Brookfield Landmark reports.

"This wasn't a random act of violence," Weitzel said. "That's not where the evidence is leading us now."

Maybe so, but the media is sending its own message: We're skeptical.

Which isn't to make light of the incident. Politics is tough in Cook County. These days, living next to a pol apparently is too.

Steve Rhodes is the proprietor of The Beachwood Reporter.