The following is a guest column by 18-year old Lauren Roscoe.  She is a student at the University of Indianapolis.  I met her at the Indiana Black Expo news conference this week on the creation of a task force to address public safety and youth violence. ****** Since when did our people become the beholders […]

I just took a look at the details of the Smoke Free Indy/Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids poll.   The poll is actually pretty telling, but not for the reasons that you might think.  The poll of 500 likely voters says nerly 70% of the public supports a total ban on smoking in most places, including […]

If you don’t think it’s time for new leadership to step up to the plate in Indianapolis’ Black community listen to these two interviews.  One is with State Rep. Bill Crawford and the other is with Rev. Charles Ellis of the 10-point Coalition. I spoke to both gentlemen Tuesday about Black Expo and the new […]

I’m taking brief respite from blogging about Indiana Black Expo and yesterday’s arrest of Shamus Patton.  I’m working on a longer, more analytical piece which I will throw up tomorrow because I need a couple more pieces to fall into place.  In the interim I would like to pontificate on the proposed transfer of the […]

Indianapolis Metroplitan Police have released the name and photo of the teen they beleive was responsbile for  Saturday night’s shooting during Indiana Black Expo that sent 9 people to the hospital.  The suspect has been identified as 17-year old Shamus Patton.   He has a mugshot though and a Facebook page. IBE Shooting Suspect View more […]

For the city of Indianapolis and Indiana Black Expo, the hard work is about to begin.  What to do about that second Saturday night of Expo.  While I don’t believe for a moment that Expo should be canceled or the event is more trouble than it’s worth, I do believe Expo’s Saturday night problem is […]

Here is the audio from today’s news conference regarding the Saturday night shootings.  I’ll have a more analytical piece for you tomorrow. Expo News Conference #1 Expo News Conference #2 Expo News Conference #3 Tanya Bell Charles Harrison Frank Straub Paul Bateman

As I write this blog post at 1:30 a.m. there is a 10-year old in the hospital who was shot Saturday night in downtown Indianapolis because a bunch of idiots don’t know how to behave in public. I was there in downtown Indianapolis when nine people were shot this weekend.   I was doing my annual […]

As the City gets ready to meet next week with a group of local pastors to talk about building better relations between police and certain segments of the community, they may want to look at addressing false allegations of excessive force. Already in the wake of the Brandon Johnson case word of false accusations have […]

There have been lots of little things that popped up this week that are worth mentioning that I didn’t get a chance to comment on, so here they are. Indiana school districts could be on the hook for millions of dollars based on a recent opinion by Attorney General Greg Zoeller.   Zoeller’s office put […]