The Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department has finally admitted it is losing the war on crime in Indianapolis!
Why else would Mayor Greg Ballard, Public Safety Director Frank Straub and IMPD Chief Paul Ciesielski announce a new crime fighting strategy dubbed “Surge II”?
At a press conference last Thursday, which was conveniently the mayor’s first public appearance since winning the Republican nomination for mayor, Ballard, Straub and Ciesielski announced a major summer “offensive” against crime. All three promised an aggressive response to fighting street crime, including youth crime, that would involve all 1,600 uniformed IMPD officers, even those stuck behind a desk.
In the same breath, all three men tried again to convince Indianapolis that in every “major” category crime is down from previous years.
But, folks aren’t fooled. In a war, when you increase efforts and call it a “surge,” history says you’re doing that because you’re losing the war, not winning.
Remember, when former President George W. Bush announced that surge four years ago in Iraq? It wasn’t because we were winning, but because the insurgents were winning.
When President Barack Obama launched his “surge” in Afghanistan last year, adding 100,000 more troops, it was because the Taliban and Al-Qaeda were making inroads; not because we were winning.
This so-called IMPD surge isn’t designed to inhibit crime, but to inhibit Melina Kennedy’s momentum towards beating Ballard Nov. 8. If Ballard was really serious about attacking crime, he’d increase the total number of sworn officers on the street; or increase the number of civilian IMPD employees so sworn personnel sitting behind desks could hit the streets.
But I’ve got deep concerns about IMPD and Straub’s new attitude towards police relations with Indy’s youth; especially Black youth.
Straub and IMPD are transferring officers experienced with working closely with Indy’s youth in the OK and PAL programs and moving them into a specialized “Youth Unit” whose job seems to be to gather intelligence (i.e. spy) on Indy’s teens and young adults.
Scores of officers with experience working with youth have contacted me in recent weeks expressing their concerns about Straub’s ill-conceived plans.
Several told me that the PAL and OK programs have helped police build rapport and trust with youth. Creating a unit to occasionally and randomly “interact” with youth makes no sense to these experienced cops.
One said, “We touch some 20,000 Black youth annually in athletic and other programs. How will they duplicate that if every IMPD district has just one football or one basketball team?”
When Straub and Ciesielski announced their surge and youth reform plans last week, they, as has been the practice of IMPD in the Ballard years, refused to provide written details of their plans to the media.
I’m still confused by what Straub told a press conference and what he said on our WTLC-AM (1310) “Afternoons with Amos” program. So much so I got whiplash from Straub’s changing explanations and rhetoric.
And that brings me to a systemic problem Indy’s police have had for years; going back to Hudnut’s days.
The police may have great dialogue and communications with organizations and churches serving particular neighborhoods. But IMPD, like IPD before, is feeble and inept in communicating with Indianapolis’ major institutions; especially African-American institutions.
From the NAACP, to the citywide faith alliances, to Black media, police are amateurish in how they approach and communicate with us.
When I asked Straub, and his deputy Rick Hite, who Straub imported here from Baltimore, how IMPD’s new Community Affairs unit would communicate with the city’s Black institutions, including Black media, both men were dumbstruck.
We’re into the summer months when communications between police and youth are critical. Moving IMPD trained officers from proven youth programs won’t improve the department’s relationships with Indy’s youth. Neither will IMPD’s continued hands-off attitude towards the city/county’s institutions that reach and touch youth.
What I’m hearing in the streets
Make no mistake. The Indianapolis Motor Speedway pushed Donald Trump out of their Pace Car.
Trump’s presence was distracting the Speedway’s Centennial and threatened to tarnish both the race and the 500 Festival Parade.
Race fans were angry that a 500 legend wasn’t chosen. Our African-American community was livid over Trump’s bigoted statements and maltreatment of President Obama.
Trump’s controversy threatened to curtail the Speedway’s positive efforts the past few years to reach out to our Black community and threatened to shatter the positive image the parade has in our community.
In the end, the Speedway figuratively threw Trump under the pace car. A true legend, A.J. Foyt, replaces him.
Have you noticed how quiet Trump’s been since the country realized that while he was belittling the president; the president was making one of the toughest decisions any president has had to make.
Being president is more than running a reality TV show or casinos. The Speedway and President Obama showed Trump who’s the real chief executive.
Regarding the May 3 primary, turnout was spotty. Overall turnout was 12.6 percent, or 74,829 voters, which is the highest for a municipal primary since 1991.
But, turnout was colored by the fact that 36.8 percent of those who voted did so in school referendums in Perry and Franklin townships.
If you take out the referendum voters, overall turnout was 47,255; 7.9 percent of city/county registered voters. Sounds dismal, but that’s actually larger than four years ago, when turnout was 6.5 percent.
No big surprises in the Democratic primary. Though one would have expected a larger turnout because of the contested mayoral race and some council races.
I’ll wait until precinct data is released, but the results don’t indicate that Ron Gibson and Sam Carson’s challenges to Melina Kennedy generated increased turnout in Black majority precincts.
An interesting stat from the primary. Remember, nearly 40 percent of those voting lived in two heavy Republican areas – Perry and Franklin townships. But, more Democrats voted in the primary than Republicans. And Mayor Ballard’s vote total was just 842 votes above Melina Kennedy’s.
See ‘ya next week.
You can e-mail comments to Amos Brown at acbrown@aol.com.
