As the official end of summer approached this week the Indianapolis community experienced a startling series of violent crimes that left one person killed and three people wounded in a single day.
At 4 p.m. Tuesday police were called to the 1300 block of Winton Ave. on the Westside after a man was found wounded in his vehicle after being shot several times by someone in a passing car.
On the Eastside a half hour later, 25-year-old Anthony Jenkins and 43-year-old Wayne Williams were found shot in the 900 Block of N. Dearborn St. Williams survived the shooting, but Jenkins did not. A short time later witnesses helped police find and arrest Santana Gray, 18, for the shooting.
Later in the evening DeAngelo Hawkins, 12, was shot in the back after being hit by a bullet intended for someone else involved in an altercation at Beachwood Gardens apartments in the 2900 Block of Priscilla Ave.
Hawkins was scheduled to participate in a marital arts tournament this weekend, but will instead be recovering at Riley Children’s Hospital.
“Where can our kids play?” asked a frustrated Charles Ingram, Hawkins’ karate instructor. “I mean, is anywhere safe anymore? It used to be just adults getting shot and killed, now it’s our kids.”
Many residents share Ingram’s concern, and wonder whether the community, specifically law enforcement, organizations and citizens have been more successful in fighting crime this summer than last summer.
“We still have too many people, including our kids, getting hurt,” said Byron Alston, director of Save the Youth, a community organization that presents positive activities to youth at risk for becoming involved with crime. “As long as even one murder has taken place, we can’t claim victory. Losing just two lives— one through death and another through life in prison—is still too much.”
Bishop T. Garrott Benjamin, pastor of Light of the World Christian Church, does not believe the city has witnessed an improvement in its crime rate, and in fact says Indianapolis is still one of America’s dangerous cities.
“We continue to fight crime with a 20th century solution of more police and more prisons,” said Benjamin, whose church has sponsored several crime prevention initiatives.
“I firmly believe our emphasis should be on education and not just incarceration,” Benjamin added. “We need to build more community centers and maybe we would not need to build so many juvenile detention centers. If we had more drug intervention programs and parenting programs maybe we wouldn’t need as many jails.”
This week the FBI released statistics indicating the rate of violent crimes such as murder and armed robbery finally began to fall last year.
Since then, according to the FBI, there has been a slight drop (1 percent) in violent crime and a 30 year low in overall crime.
Local statistics, however, tell a much different and more disturbing story. This summer the rate of homicides here did anything but fall.
According to the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department, 18 people were killed in July, a five year high for that month, and August, while less violent than July, still ended with six homicides during its final two weeks alone.
Last September the city experienced 12 homicides, a few less than September 2006. But it already looks as if rates for this September will be higher — Jenkins’ death marked the 85th homicide for 2008, the same number as this time last year.
Police say recent homicides have been difficult to solve because they show no pattern, although many shootings are attributed to disputes involving the drug trade.
Currently city government officials and police are exploring two methods that might reduce violent crime in the long term.
Last month the administration of Mayor Greg Ballard released data showing a high rate of violent crime in areas with many abandoned buildings and houses. They hope that increasing police patrols and identifying abandoned properties will help.
Sherron Franklin, director of the administration’s effort to address abandoned homes, said the city’s goal is to identify what banks and mortgage companies own the properties and send notices encouraging them to take better care of them.
“You may not be able to get a family in there, but you can keep the grass cut and the property from being boarded up,” said Franklin.
Taking those simple steps, Franklin said, can make all the difference in eliminating another place where criminals feel free to congregate for illegal activity.
Also, police are exploring a new “Trigger ID” kit that will help police obtain DNA samples from firearms and identify criminals who commit violent crimes, especially repeat offenders.
A lasting reduction in homicides, Benjamin said, won’t begin until more financial resources are available to fund community organizations and initiatives devoted to preventing crime by reaching out to at risk populations.
“Indianapolis will truly thrive when it makes sure that ‘even the least’ of its people get the best chance to succeed,” he said. “Reinstating organizations like the Front Porch Alliance has no merit if the city will not invest resources to fund them.”
In October, 2006, Benjamin and other ministers met with then Mayor Bart Peterson to persuade him to lead a public/private partnership drive to raise $25 million to fight crime. The result of the meeting was inconclusive.
“Surely if we can finance $750 million for Lucas Oil Stadium we can raise $25 million to fund prevention,” Benjamin maintains. “Hopefully Mayor Ballard will not pass up this opportunity. What does it profit a city to gain the whole world and lose its soul?”
