Second Saturday Night Special
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 tradition of working the door at Nikki Blaines Cigar and Martini lounge. At about 8:50 p.m. I got a call from a friend that the silliness that marks the second Saturday night of Expo weekend had begun. After making my way around the corner through the crowd of hoochies and hoodlums I found him. While we were talking several shots rang out.
People were screaming and running and we were trying to figure out what was going on. The Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department had cordoned off large sections of Illinois Street, Maryland, Meridian and Georgia. I was at Illinois and Maryland as a 10-year old boy was on the phone, I assumed it was his parents, trying to telling them where he was so they could come get him. He didn’t know exactly where so I helped him out. I thought to myself that should not have been necessary because he should have never been out in the first place.
And that is symbolic of the problem with the second Saturday of Expo weekend. I’ve written about this before, thousands of teenagers and adolescents running around unsupervised is just asking for trouble. And despite heavy police presence, a bunch of knuckleheads still came to a crowded public area, armed and looking for trouble.
What’s even more pathetic in all this is that the preachers who have been so quick to criticize police regarding Brandon Johnson were nowhere to be found in helping to keep the order. As one person put it to me “Now where’s Al Sharpton?”
For 9 and 1/2 days Indiana Black Expo is a great event. I was fortunate enough to attend the Corporate Luncheon, moderate a workshop designed to help women and minority-owned businesses and I emceed the Governor’s Award ceremony. But the good work of those events, as well as all the other decent work that took a lot of man hours to put together all went up in smoke, because a bunch of youth not only don’t know how to behave, but I would argue have been emboldened because of the professional protesting class.
I already told you about a teen purposefully resisting arrest so his mother could sue the Department for excessive force. And anyone who would pull out a gun and shoot at someone in area filled with law enforcement is obviously someone who doesn’t care and needs to be put away.
I saw several teenage girls arrested for fighting and a number of young men carted away in handcuffs. And what gets under my skin to absolutely no end is the fact that I have been complaining about the behavior of some of these young people for weeks.
This is going to sound really bad, and maybe it’s just the anger talking, but as far as I’m concerned after Saturday night, if an officer has to use excessive force to keep young people like the ones who did the shooting under control then so be it. That is not my problem and I frankly don’t care. There is a 10-year old who was shot because somebody decided to demonstrate they have no home training.
And that sentiment is being shared by a lot of people I spoke to this evening. The good work of Black Expo is going to be tarnished because a bunch of people don’t know how to behave. This is behavior is totally uncalled for.
And for those of you think this is about race, it isn’t. It’s about people being taught how to act in public. And if their parents won’t do it, which was pretty obvious Saturday night, maybe it’s time society did. I’ve always said that they only thing some people understand is a good you-know-what kicking. I think I have a pair of boots in the back of the closet that are up to doing the job.
