Two groups of Indianapolis activists are hoping to affect major change in central Indiana.
Indy10, the Circle City’s answer to the Black Lives Matter movement, and DON’T SLEEP, an organization dedicated to eradicating systems of oppression, gathered supporters earlier this week to shed more light on how they’ve been fighting for the community.
Many of the groups’ efforts have centered around their petition — “Equity or Else: Accountable IMPD Policing Reform.”
Dominic Dorsey, founder and president of DON’T SLEEP (which stands for Deconstructing Oppression Now Through Solidarity Liberation Empowerment Equity and Perseverance), said people might mistakenly believe Indianapolis has avoided some of the prevalent policing issues that have been seen across the country, but he says just because Indy hasn’t made national news, doesn’t mean there’s no problem to address.
“We want to … make sure we can have a relationship between the community and the police in such a way that we feel as though they’re doing everything they possibly can from our perspective and learning from the mistakes of other cities and other states,” he said, “and making sure going forward that we have not a state where individuals fear police, but a state where we can hold police accountable when they step out of line, and where the individuals who are becoming police officers are fit to wear the badge.”
To that end, the petition makes several demands that fall under four main categories: training, transparency, engagement and accountability.
Leah Humphrey, one of the original members of Indy10, said her group has been in contact with lawmakers to share concerns about House Bill 1019, which lays out rules for the viewing of videos from police body and dashboard cameras. The ambiguity of the law is one point highlighted in transparency portion of the petition.
Humphrey said she’s been told that without a specific example showing flaws in the law or an instance of the law not being enforced, change will be hard to come by.
“As much as we’re pushing, we’re getting a lot of pushback,” she said. “But we just want (the community) to know that we are working and meeting with people about the bill.”
She also said in some cases city officials have told her to contact the state, and then the state in response has told her to contact the city.
Members of Indy10 have also been attending City-County Council meetings to address issues such as the police department’s merit board.
The composition of the merit board is a focus of the accountability section of the petition, which calls for “A Citizens Police Complaint Board (CPCB) that is constructed by open election and not internal appointment by the City-County Council, Fraternal Order of Police (FOP) and the Mayor.”
Other points emphasized in the petition include revised training curriculum, more transparent reporting of officers’ use of force and resulting disciplinary outcomes and more.
“If we have police who we are paying with taxpayer dollars to protect us and serve us, we need to make sure they are readily equipped mentally and physically.”
To read the full petition, visit change.org and search “equity or else.”
Humphrey said Indy10 is also working on a documentary project featuring victims of police violence whose stories haven’t been told correctly or, in some cases, at all.
“Maybe (the media) mention the person was mentally ill, but they don’t really talk about the person as a person,” she said.
Indy10 also has a Back to School Bash in the works for Sept. 18, which will feature a talent show, prizes, vendors, food, outdoor games, free haircuts and more. The group is also planning canvassing throughout September to meet community members and hear their concerns.
DON’T SLEEP is also leading an economic boycott of companies that, in the organization’s words, “don’t respect Black lives … just green dollars.”
“We will not lend our collective buying power to corporations that reap the benefit of cheap prison labor, in overcrowded prisons filled with mostly Black and brown faces,” DON’T SLEEP’s website says. Companies included in the boycott are Walmart, McDonald’s, Starbucks and many others.
Though the petition and the boycott focus strongly on issues related to the Black community, Dorsey stressed that DON’T SLEEP is meant to address much more.
“We’re looking at ways to improve quality of life for all people. We’re consistently working on ways to make sure everyone has equitable, inclusive access to all things and that the promise for ‘life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness’ that everybody’s been given is a reality that’s tangible,” he said.
In fact, the debacle that was Indiana’s Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA) was one incident that prompted Dorsey to create his group.
“It just seemed like an opportunity to have conversations under that mindset that oppression is linked and we can do a lot more together,” he said. “You don’t have to separate the different causes; there’s a lot of intersectionality, and liberation and oppression are not easily exclusive. We can work together on those issues. …
“There’re a lot of issues going on, and I don’t feel like we need to focus on just one when there’s another that’s happening simultaneously. When we focus on one issue, the other is getting progressively worse. Our movement is steadily growing so we can attack all these things at once.”
