Dear Indy:
Once again, you and your fellow Hoosiers are left to pick up the shattered pieces and shattered lives following another violent weekend in our capital city.
It doesn’t have to be like this. The latest mass shooting downtown near Monument Circle raises a mirror to the residents and business owners of Indianapolis.
After a triple shooting on the canal, followed by a triple shooting on Monument Circle, our policing professionals warned of a perfect storm gathering over the horizon — a powder keg.
We implored you to call upon your elected officials to demand the Marion County Prosecutor and Courts change course and close the revolving door of criminal justice.
Such a move would re-instill a sense of accountability and consequences for violent behavior.
Instead, those who stand upon the front lines in protection of this city were met by silence.
Silence from the community followed by more violence and then more silence from our politicians in charge; specifically our Mayor, Council President, and Prosecutor.
Now 2 kids are dead. In fact, at least 25 people within Indianapolis were shot with 6 losing their lives in just 72 hours over the weekend.
And the reputation of the Circle City is fully seated with the perception as the Crime Capital of Indiana (maybe the Midwest), leaving Chicago and other major cities in its shadow.
Chief of Police, Chris Bailey, took action before the attack and spoke out afterward. In preparation, he staffed 200 cops into a half-mile square area downtown, that’s more cops than many entire cities have in Indiana let alone a 5 city block by 5 city block area.
Yet violent criminals thought nothing of pulling illegally possessed guns and shooting multiple people directly in front of cops and cameras.
What does this tell you??
There is ZERO fear of consequences for using guns with deadly force upon children and adults alike in your community.
In the heart of our city, violent criminals with a spirit of evil made clear: they decide what societal norms will be, not you.
They laugh and scoff at your hollow outrage and sentiments heard only after such events. They know there is no serious move to stop them. Even the cops who risk their lives feel betrayed by the very system and community they are trying to serve and protect.
So what’s your answer…more of the same as Indianapolis continues to swirl around the drain?
IMPD Chief Bailey made a salient point after the mass shooting when he exclaimed, “we are not your children’s keeper…you are.”
If anyone alludes to Indiana’s gun laws as the problem they are either ignorant or deliberately indifferent to the facts.
Juveniles have never been able to legally possess firearms. Dangerous possession of guns by those underage, pointing guns, firing guns and shooting people in acts of wanton violence are crimes…and always have been.
Yet your Prosecutor will neither share with you how many arrests for crimes involving guns are made by the police nor how many of those arrests he dismisses versus prosecutes or what the outcomes are. Why is that?
It’s because you will become aware of what your police officers already know: for all the talk and bluster, the Prosecutor’s lack of action undercuts the proactive efforts of your police and shortchanges victims.
Instead, he is quick to file charges only after mass catastrophes when the news camera lights are on, but otherwise punches the air while decrying the need for more gun laws that he won’t uphold either.
Hey Indy, something has to change and it starts with you.
It starts in your home. Parent your children and set a good example with consequences for poor behavior.
You must also speak out about politicians in charge who are derelict in their duties — missing in action while victims pay for their reckless neglect.
You must demand a recall option for elected officials, if nothing else for the Prosecutor and Judges at a minimum.
You must vote as though your lives and the future of this great city are on the line…because they are.
In short, do better. As professional law enforcement officers, we are not the keepers of your dignity and destiny as a city…you are.
Rick Snyder serves as the President of the Indianapolis Fraternal Order of Police representing 3,000 law enforcement officers within Indianapolis — Marion County.
