Today’s law enforcement leaders in America’s largest cities (and in a bunch of smaller ones too) are data driven.
The crime statistics are used by officers on the beat in the streets and their commanders to spot and anticipate crime trends, to understand what’s happening in our streets and devise solutions to abate and fight crime. That same data are being used by more enlightened cities, ones with true leadership in the mayor’s office and at the top ranks of police, civic and minority organizations, to create programs and activities to steer young people, especially young adults, away from solving problems at a barrel of a gun.
The June 17 murders of the Harrod brothers, LaVonne and Andre, four blocks from a popular nightspot captured the attention of many in our Black community.
On our “Afternoons with Amos” program, when I interviewed their dad Ronnie Harrod and LaVonne’s mother Julia Taylor and Andre’s mother Sabrina Sennett-Harrod, their strength and resolve in the face of unspeakable grief and loss was a testimony to the human spirit and their faith in their God.
The murders sent our community again into a spasm of introspection, with many blaming “parents” and “youth.” Yet the problem of Black killings in Indianapolis and Indiana isn’t a “youth” problem.
Last week, I learned of a Washington, D.C., organization called the Violence Policy Center. For the past several years it has analyzed the level of Black-on-Black killings in America.
I was stunned to learn that Indiana has been in the Top Ten in Black killings. Since 2004, our state, which ranks 20th in overall Black population, has ranked either third, fourth or sixth in the homicide rate per 100,000 Black population.
Granted some of those killings were driven by murders in Gary. But an estimated four in 10 of Indiana’s Black murders occurred in Indianapolis.
But, there’s severe confusion as to how to deal with this epidemic of violence, which, while just a fraction of the Black killing fields of Chicago, nevertheless is a major problem.
There’s confusion because our community doesn’t have the data. The Violence Policy Center says statewide, just seven percent of Black homicide victims are under 18 and just two percent are over 65. The average age of Black victims is 31.
But what are the statistics for Black violence in Indianapolis? IMPD knows them. Public Safety Director Frank Straub knows. But I don’t think the Ten Point Coalition knows. Neighborhood groups and youth organizations don’t know. Certainly Mayor Greg Ballard doesn’t know. And Black media don’t know.
Yet!
This week, Just Tellin’ It and “Afternoons with Amos” asked the Department of Public Safety and the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department for basic demographic data on murders and aggravated assaults in Indianapolis. It’s time our community and taxpayers know the demographics of the victims of violent crime and the demographics of the perpetrators.
We’re asking to receive the data by mid-July. We’ll see how responsive our city and law enforcement is about real community policing, which includes sharing the facts about crime with the community.
What I’m hearing
in the streets
On a basic level, Mitch Daniels is qualified to run a Big Ten university.
Yes he doesn’t have the academic background; neither did Robert Gates, the former Secretary of Defense for President Barack Obama and George W. Bush.
Gates was a CIA agent who rose through the ranks to become director. He became a dean at Texas A&M, then became its president. He‘s now chancellor of the College of William & Mary in Virginia.
If Gates, not a lifelong academician, is qualified, so is Daniels.
My concerns about Purdue’s new president-elect isn’t whether he can do the job, but how will he expand on Purdue’s positive record of racial diversity in staff and students.
Purdue has long lived in the shadow of Indiana University. Even among Blacks. Former Purdue President Martin Jischke made strong moves to make Purdue more attractive to our Black community. Purdue’s large sponsorship of programs at Indiana Black Expo forced IU and other schools to follow Purdue’s lead. Purdue has been aggressive trying to get more Black kids interested in science and math. And Purdue has a slightly better record employing Black faculty and staff than IU.
Under the leadership of Jesse Moore, Purdue has had a more visible and aggressive effort in doing business with minority-owned businesses, than IU and other schools.
Jischke and his successor Dr. France Cordova’s commitment to diversity were strong. We need, though, to worry about Daniels.
Example: for the past two years, the governor has employed no African-American on his staff. Not since Jamal Smith left to run the Indiana Civil Rights Commission.
Other than civil rights, Daniels appointed no African-American to head any major state department or agency. And in the coming days, Daniels will replace the only African-American appellate Judge Carr Darden, with only a 33 percent chance Darden’s successor will be Black.
Daniels raises Purdue’s profile, but like many Purdue alumni, students, faculty and staff, I’ll wait and see; especially with concern about Daniels commitment to diversity as Purdue’s 12th president.
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An extremely small delegation of five is accompanying Mayor Greg Ballard and first lady Winnie Ballard on a trade mission to the United Kingdom and Germany. Oddly, no representatives of any Indianapolis based corporations are accompanying the delegation, which plans to meet with officials in both countries about investment and job development opportunities. Is it that, or a junket before the Olympics fills up London?
Meanwhile the mayor’s minions are concocting a plan to privatize the management of the City-County Building or sell it to a private entity who will lease it back to the city.
Allegedly this deal is supposed to save cash, but rent at the City-County Building is ridiculously low, which is great for taxpayers, and is appropriate for the 50-year-old skyscraper. This deal stinks to high heaven and the Democratic controlled City-County Council should declare it dead on arrival.
See ‘ya next week.
You can email comments to Amos Brown at acbrown@aol.com.
