A good friend of mine has been out of work for a while.  He’s been doing some things on the side to keep himself afloat, but he hit a wall a while back.    He was getting discouraged and then an opportunity to manage another friend’s business for a while came along.  It wasn’t something he was crazy about and he is overqualified to do it, but he went forward with taking the position anyway; both parties know it’s temporary, but it solves a need they both have.

When I look at the current unemployment rate of 9.6%, I wonder how much lower that would be if people would take jobs they weren’t crazy about.   There is new consternation that Congress did not move to extend unemployment benefits another three months.   Right now, you can get up to 99 weeks of unemployment.  That means you can be out of work for two years and still collect a check to sit around and pretend to look for work.

I have sympathy for people who are out of a job, but I don’t have 99 weeks worth of sympathy.  Indiana owes the federal government $2 billion in unemployment loans because it doesn’t collect enough in premiums and gives out too much in benefits.  The state is looking at raising premiums and cutting benefits as a way to solve that crisis.

Meanwhile, there are a lot of employers who will tell you they’re having trouble filling spots because a lot of these “unemployed” have found they can make more being unemployed rather than going to work.   Add to that, the longer an individual is out of work, the harder it is to get them back into the workforce.

I think the way to fix that is to decrease benefits over time.   An individual should be allowed a combined 52 weeks of unemployment over his or her lifetime.   And as each week passes, the amount of unemployment they collect should be reduced.   People need an incentive to go back to work and not get complacent.

And while I get it that the new job may not pay as much as the old job, but 70-80% of something is always better than 100% of nothing.   I’m not trying to be cruel.  I know what it’s like to be out of work.   I had my own stint of unemployment seven years ago.  It was for about three months, but I made sure “Abdul, Inc.” had enough resources coming in until I went back to work full-time.  Ironically enough it was playing radio talk show host.

Extending unemployment is not going to help someone out of work.   People will do whatever they can get away with for as long as they can.  And as long as people can take unemployment and not go back to work, they will.  It’s time to start cutting some purse strings and some benefits.   Unemployment benefits should be a safety net, not a hammock.

And here’s a thought, if you’ve been out of work for 99 weeks, maybe the problem is you.

I know this is going to sound a little odd, but I really am looking forward to Rev. Al Sharpton bringing his Negro, oops, National Action Network to Indianapolis next year.   Not because I’m going to love watching these guys walk right up to the legal line and be the attack dogs for the Democratic Party, but Al and his people will provide me with so much material and fodder I’m going to feel like Jon Stewart during the Bush Presidency.

And not not only will Sharpton provide me with material, but so will his supporters.  Here’s an example of one message I got on Facebook from Anthony Williams of Indianapolis…

you are the most ignorant person i have come across in a very long time sometimes stupidity is just to ignorant to reply to please take your tail back to chicago or what ever rock you crawled out from under please do the city of Indianapolis a big favor

I cut and paste his message exactly as he sent it.

I had another woman, “Shane”, call me on the air this week telling me how I hated black people, which is hard to fathom because my wife, parents, brothers and sisters are all black.   And she wished my mother had aborted me when I was in my mother’s womb.   If it makes Shane feel better I was a breach birth and nearly died during delivery when my mother’s umbilical cord wrapped around my neck.   Had I known Shane had such contempt for me I would have tried harder not to make it.

And even my old friend Amos Brown of Radio One called me a snake and the devil on his afternoon program.

Oh well.  If it weren’t for the fact that I have an ego the size of God and I’ve gotten tons of  positive responses from people of my complexion thanking me for calling out Reverend Ike, uh Al and Baptist Ministers Alliance, I might actually take some of the criticism to heart.

But like my old Journalism professor once told me,  a good columnist is measured by the people who hate what he has to say.  Looking at who some of my critics are, I have to start aiming higher.

Enjoy your weekend.

The nice part about Organization Day is all the gossip and other tidbits of information you get to pick up along the way.  So with that said, here we go…

Although all eyes were on House Speaker Brian Bosma Tuesday and his announcement to “get to work” and appointing two Democrats to committee chairmanship, a lot of people may not have noticed the seating arrangements.   Traditionally lawmakers are seated by seniority with the freshmen in the back.  Not this year.   New Republican lawmakers are scattered throughout the chamber and sitting next to more senior lawmakers.  The purpose of that, along with a new mentoring program, is help keep the new legislators focused and to minimize the chances they will go up to the podium and say something embarrassing.

Although legislation mandating government reform and consolidation make not make it out of the Statehouse this year, however incoming House Ways and means Chairman Jeff Espich says the locals will be forced to reform because they can expect no financial assistance from the Statehouse.

Espich also tells me that there’s no reason for a referendum on mass transit, saying local governments already have a number of tools (i.e. Local Option Income Tax) at their disposal to raise revenue for mass transit.

IPS is closer to state takeover of its more under-performing schools.  The District recently submitted a plan to the Indiana Department of Education however it was thoroughly rejected as not good enough for real reform.  If IPS does not get its act together a state takeover could begin next school year.

For anyone thinking State Treasurer Richard Mourdock  may be a contender for the U.S. Senate in 2012 by mounting a primary challenge against incumbent Dick Lugar may want to think again.  While Mourdock says he’s flattered and wants to focus on his current job as Treasurer his body language tended to show someone who really did not want to deal with the hassle of a campaign.    Another reason Mourdock may not run is that his wife doesn’t seem to be too thrilled with the idea either.

Here’s some audio from last night’s council meeting following the 15-14 vote to approve the parking deal.    I’d have written more but it was late and I needed to get to bed.

Mike Huber (City)

Paul Bateman (Yes Vote)

Ed Coleman (No Vote)

Ryan Vaughn (Yes Vote)

I’ll have some analysis a little later in the day.

Are you a good cop?  Are one of the 90-plus percent of the men and women of the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department who do their jobs everyday with no issues?  Are you the officer who used his body as a human shield when the gunfire started this past summer during Expo weekend?    Are you the officer who helped find someone’s parent who went missing because they had dementia or are you the one who dove into the lake to save the child with autism?  Are you the officer who provides aid and comfort to the violent crime victim?  Well it would be nice to hear from you!

No offense, but not only has the public has had enough of hearing and reading about officers behaving badly and the perception that a lot of bad behavior gets covered up by their co-workers.   You all know I am one of the most pro-law enforcement people you will ever find so when I say this, please take it to heart and don’t get offended.   The public continues to lose faith in you fast and furiously and you need to step up to the plate and stop the hemorrhaging.

I know there is move right now for a vote of “no confidence” in the Mayor, Chief and Public Safety Director, but here’s a newsflash guys and gals.  You should be more concerned right now about the falling confidence the public has in you.   Trust me, if a vote were taken of you right now, you would not fare much better than IMPD’s administration.

Now I don’t think things have gone so far the rabbit hole that they can’t be turned around.   But to coin a phrase, now is the time for all good officers to come to the aid of their city and do their part to restore confidence and regain the community’s trust.    You of all people know that you can’t do your job if the public doesn’t have faith in you.   You need faith to have trust and you need trust to have cooperation and you need cooperation to put away the bad guys.    And it should never be “us versus them”.  You need the public as much as the public needs you.    The bunker mentality has got to go.

So what can you do to turn things around?   Well for starters, why you all haven’t gathered on Monument Circle in uniform and signed a public pledge re-committing yourselves to citizens of Indianapolis is totally beyond me,  but you might want to start there.  And the the rest of of it is doing the day-to-day stuff.   Winning back the public trust one citizen at a time.  You don’t need me to tell you this, you know it already.  I speak to a number of officers regularly who tell me how tough it is for the ones who do their jobs.  Getting upset isn’t going to solve anything, but being proactive will.

I want you to be able to do your jobs and do it well.   But that can’t happen if it looks like all you guys do is complain about your bosses and never take step weed out your own bad actors.    Perception eventually becomes reality, and it’s time for the men and women of IMPD to step up and change that perception before it really is too late.

I have always found the mass transit discussion in Indianapolis to be a fascinating one.  I grew up up in Chicago and mass transit was just a part of  daily life.   My father would load my brothers and me on the bus and subway and take us to what was then called Comiskey Park to watch the White Sox occasionally win.   I went to a magnet high school which did not have bus transportation so we rode the city bus to school everyday.  And even as an adult, when I would visit my parents and had to take a downtown trip, I’d leave my car in the driveway and take mass transit.   In each one of those instances there was a need for mass transit.  The challenge for Indianapolis’ mass transit supporters is convincing the public they need it.

Let’s face it, most people like their cars and don’t want to give them up.   There is a certain psychological comfort in not having to wait on someone else to get you from point A to point B.  According to last census data I saw, 90-percent of Central Indiana residents drive to work.   And convincing those folks to get out of their cars and take a bus or train, or much less reach into their pockets and pay for something they’ve never used and probably won’t use, is going to be a big mountain to climb.  It also doesn’t help that unlike Chicago or New York City, Indianapolis grew outward as opposed to upward, which means the population density you would also need to make mass transit work isn’t there.  And it also doesn’t help that Indianapolis is very easy to negotiate unlike other larger cities; depending on the time of day I can be from one side of town to the other in 20-35 minutes.

It would be a lot easier to sell mass transit if more people used it at an early age.  For example, I am still somewhat surprised that for all its alleged money problems, Indianapolis Public Schools haven’t worked out a deal to provide IndyGo bus passes to their high school students so students could take a city bus not only to school, but also to work.   The district could save on its own transportation costs and IndyGo would not only get an increase in ridership but you also get people used to taking the bus when they are teenagers and don’t think of it as so much of an anomaly when they grow up.

Like I said, it’s a lot easier to sell something to people they have been using for a long time as opposed to trying to convince them late in the game.   I do think the public would be willing to take some tinkering around the edges of mass transit, express buses from suburbia to downtown and the airport, for example.    But if the mass transit proponents can convince someone who has never taken the bus to get out of their car and rely on someone else to take them somewhere they can usually get to in less than half an hour on their on accord, more power to them!

I took a little break Friday to attend a bi-monthly luncheon sponsored by the GEO Foundation For School Choice.  It was a very informal event, but while there I got the chance to reconnect with one of my former students.

As some of you know I teach part-time for Ivy Tech Community College.  As part of my teaching assignments I teach at a couple high schools who participate in an early dual credit program.  Students can take certain courses and get credit for both high school and college.   And if they do it right, many of them can finish their first two years of  college by the time they complete high school and doesn’t cost them a dime.

I bring this up because my former student, “Jerry”, is someone to really be proud of.   He’s a junior with 12 college credits under his belt, but he’s only 14-years old.  He doesn’t come from a wealthy background.  His parents are your classic middle/working class African-American family, who have instilled the importance of education in their son.

In addition, Jerry has great teachers (me included of course), he’s got a support system in place at the school because there is strong leadership in the building and at the central administrative audience.  All that leads to Jerry having great drive and ambition.  Although he did give me grief about how hard my tests were on occasion.

Jerry’s ultimate goal is to go to Purdue University and get his degree in engineering.  I told him I’d wish him luck, but he won’t need it if he stays on the path that’s he’s on.  And honestly, I don’t think that would have been possible had his parents not exercised their choice to pick a school that worked well for their son and not leave him in a place where he would have eventually become a statistic.

With a little bit of luck, a lot of families will have the same opportunities to exercise more choice after the upcoming legislative session.

Just when I thought we on the verge of having a serious discussion about police conduct and community-police relations, one of the world’s greatest race hustlers may be making a return engagement to Indianapolis to stir up the masses, collect a check, and then bolt like a thief in the night.

I have it on very good authority that the Reverend, and I use the term loosely,  Al Sharpton is returning to Indianapolis next week.  Although it’s still unclear what Sharpton’s mission will be, apart from collecting another check, I am told by reliable sources he will lead a protest march against the Indianapolis Metopolitan Police Department and launch a “voter registration” drive, which really means get enough people registered to throw Greg Ballard out of  office.

The last time Al was here,  the Baptist Ministers Alliance, led by “Black Pope” Stephen Clay reportedly paid his up to $25,000 for his appearance to lambast the Department over the Brandon Johnson excessive force case.   I’m still trying to figure out what good that visit did?   Brandon Johnson never got counseling for his trouble.  His mother was still out of a job.  And I can assure you neither Al Sharpton nor the Baptist Ministers Alliance paid to have Brandon’s dental work done.

So once again, apart from playing politics and collecting a check that won’t be spent on a decent haircut, why is Al Sharpton coming to town?   I can’t think of any substantive reason.  But at least it will be fun to watch, and I hope he and I can pick up where we left off last time.

A report by the Indianapolis Department of Public Safety on the David Bisard crash that killed a motorcyclist this summer and injured two others shows a breakdown in police rules and  procedure but no conspiracy or intentional cover-up.

The 47-page document is based on interviews with nearly 70 witnesses from all stages in the incident; Bisard was not one of them as he refused to be interviewed.   The primary investigation was conducted by the FBI, with IMPD’s  internal affairs conducting a parallel investigation.

Here is a breakdown of the findings…

• The accident reconstruction showed Officer Bisard’s vehicle had brake issues which may have played a roll in the crash.
• IMPD failed to properly impound Bisard’s vehicle, instead allowing him to remove some of his personal property from the car.
• Both the Ed Zych of the Marion Prosecutor’s Office and IMPD’s Lt. George Crooks failed to keep the Department up to speed on changes in Indiana’s law regarding blood alcohol draws in crash scenes involving fatalities and police officers.   However, the report notes the Department did follow the law as it was written prior to it being amended this Spring.
• Multiple tests were run on Bisard’s blood and each time it came back .19.  Each exam followed proper blood draw procedure.
• While former Assistant Chiefs Daryl Pierce and Ron Hicks did communicate with Chief Paul Ciesielski about the crash, neither one of them requested or suggested the Chief or Public Safety Director Frank Straub come to the scene.
• A review of  the CVS pharmacy surveillance tape  did not show a clerk selling Officer Bisard alcohol.

The report also makes recommendations for the following changes in IMPD policy.

• Require a critical response team and fatal alcohol team to all fatal accidents involving police officers.
• All officers to be taken to Methodist Hospital for treatment regardless of severity, in accidents involving serious bodily injury.
• All officers must submit to a portable breathalyzer test when involved in a crash involving a department vehicle.
• Officers should employ appropriate crime scene management.

A couple of things on how the report was put together.   The FBI does not do a report, per se.  The agency interviewed witnesses and send the transcripts to the Justice Department which returns a finding of whether there is a civil rights violation or criminal conspiracy.  That is still under review, so anyone who has been saying there is a “report” out there was in error.

Secondly, for the conspiracy theorists in the room,  for a “cover-up” to work in this case it would involve the complete cooperation of police, medical lab technicians, the prosecutor’s office, multiple witnesses and the FBI. The only thing missing would a book depository, second shooter and a one-armed man.   The Mayor’s Office should have done a better job at dispelling the rumor mill without compromising the investigation by explaining how the process would work.

Third, and most importantly,  I think the report unveils what a lot of responsible voices have been saying, while most officers do their job, but the policies and procedures of the Department really need to be tightened and training needs to be improved, and trust needs to be re-established.   Some people are going to believe what they want, but luckily there are grown ups in the room of all backgrounds and political persuasions who can work together to move the city and IMPD forward.