Giving Kennedy Credit
Although Melina Kennedy and I have had some differences, I have to give credit where it is due. She deserves a round of applause for calling for an end to the partisan bickering over jail overcrowding. Sources tell me her campaign is extremely annoyed with the Democrats on the City-County Council for their Wednesday night shenanigans with opponent Carl Brizzi. I still believe she will have a tough time in this race, but she deserves credit and I’ll be the first one to stand up and make sure she receives it.

Who Is Monroe Supporting?
I’m no big fan of current City-Council President Monroe Gray these days, but he made me chuckle. The Republican-oriented web blog Fix Indy Now has a photo of Gray munching on popcorn and drinking Pepsi. Seems like no big deal, but if you take a close look at the cup he has in his hand, it makes you wonder who he’s supporting for County Prosecutor. But the way he’s been acting lately, there doesn’t seem to be much of a question.

I knew crime was going to a hot-button political issue this year in the Marion County Prosecutor’s race. I’ve seen little items pop up on my advanced radar screen that showed me this year was going to be something to remember; announcements regarding crime where key individuals in the chain were left off the invitation list, meaningless proposals being offered as crucial to public safety, etc. But night last at the City-County building between 5:30 p.m. and 10:30 p.m., I finally got my proof.

As you know I am not a partisan. I do not believe in right and left, I believe in right and wrong. Am also not prone to hyperbole when it comes to issues of public safety. But last night the Democrats on the Public Safety committee politically gang-banged the Marion County Prosecutor all to enhance the stature of his opponent. Allow me to explain.

One of the reasons for the rising crime rate has been jail overcrowding. After a period of time that could be described as denial, Mayor Bart Peterson acknowledged crime was off the hook. To date there have been more homicides in Marion County than any other time in the past 8 years. The number of aggravated assaults are also up, which if you think about it had their aim been a little better, the murder rate would be even worse. Burglary is up, robbery is up, and larceny is up. To deal with that rise in crime local officials stepped up their efforts to fix the criminal justice system.

The plans, usually spearheaded by the Marion County Criminal Justice Planning Council, included more jail space, more prosecutors, more defense attorneys, more courtrooms and doing whatever it took to get more criminals through the system and off to prison. Sheriff Frank Anderson, with assist from former Deputy Mayor Melina Kennedy came with a plan to move female inmates from the jail to Liberty Hall to free up bed space at the County jail. A good idea, no doubt. The plan was met with open arms and got through the system with no issue and very little debate.

And then there were the Hamilton Avenue murders in June.

Continue reading »

Go To Jail and Stay There

Every time I think the issue involving jail overcrowding in Marion County can’t get any worse, it does. But unlike the wrangling over funding (which I’ll get to the Monroe Doctrine in just a bit) this time I have to point the finger at the court system. Prosecutors can file charges and Public defenders can raise objections, but fundamentally it’s the judges who make the decision as to how quickly things move, or don’t move.

I sat through the Criminal Justice Planning Council meeting Monday afternoon only to have my jaw drop to the floor when I found out that there were more than 130 people sitting in jail as a result of just one court. It’s Court 20, with Judge William Young residing. I would have been less offended had it also not been brought to my attention that Judge Young is on vacation; working at a youth camp I am told. I’m also told the prosecutors and defense attorneys have been instructed to mediate their cases and work out deals while the Judge is away. So I guess he won’t have much to do when he gets back because the damage has been done; criminals have gone free and the integrity of the system has been harmed.

The thought that there are 130 people sitting behind bars waiting processing, while the Judge is on vacation is offensive! And who knows who else is going free? By the way June 2006 was the second highest month of early releases from the jail on record, to the tune of 477 inmates. Something is fundamentally wrong here that more beds will not solve, but more organization must.

More of the Monroe Doctrine

I have no idea whose bright idea it was to establish Monroe Gray as the head of the Indianapolis City-County Council, but they have to be regretting that decision by now. Gray demonstrated his mastery of corrections and public policy Monday afternoon by declaring (during a meeting of the Criminal Justice Planning Council abut the record early releases from the County Jail) that “more jail beds is not the answer…but jobs and housing.”

Allow me to elaborate. As the Council worked its way through a discussion of the record jail overcrowding and early releases that I told you about in the above post, they eventually got to Prosecutor Carl Brizzi’s proposal to lease 220 jail beds at New Castle. Gray eventually joined in the conversation and asked (after Council Attorney Aaron Haith handed him a sheet of paper with notes on it) and asked Brizzi to define “early release” and if crime had dropped as beds have been added over the years? The point of the questions was not to reach a working solution for jail overcrowding, but to continue to play politics with public safety. Gray did make a valid point about tackling crime from a procedural standpoint. But I have a hard time taking him seriously when he played politics with the crime issue from the start.

Secondly, I could tell Mayor Bart Peterson was getting frustrated by Gray’s inane questions, specifically with crime at an all time high, and despite the Mayor’s genuine concerns about public safety, it’s also an issue that tends to not get people re-elected. He said in so many words, action was going to be taken and they were going to find the money to do it; despite the Council President’s best worst efforts.

What just thoroughly surprised me folks, was the fact that with crime at an all time high for this time of year, and the second highest number of early releases from prison for the President of the City-County Council to say jail beds is not the answer makes me wonder where his head is? I have an idea.

I’m writing this on Sunday night. My son is in town so I’m doing my most fun job, being a parent. However, I still wanted to jot down a few things for your FYI.

Indiana Black Exposition

I was downtown Saturday night and felt like I was on the set of a really bad Spike Lee film. Of the 10 days of Indiana Black Expo, the only time where there were real problems was Saturday night after 9 p.m. The streets were filled with juveniles and teenagers who had no business being out. They couldn’t go into the bars and they couldn’t afford to eat in the restaurants (Steak N’ Shake notwithstanding) so many of them just hung out. When you have that many people congested in one area with nothing else to do but hang out until 4 a.m., the situation is just begging for trouble. There were two reported shootings and one person was charged with attempted murder. Apart from that, I think I would like to see the men and women in blue and brown do something else than play babysitter. Indiana Black Expo seriously needs to think about canceling its Saturday night event. It leads to nothing but trouble and headache for a lot of people and tend to put a black mark, pardon the pun, on an otherwise valuable event to the Indianapolis community.

Council of Crime

An ordinance will be introduced at Monday night’s Indianapolis City-County Council meeting to help alleviate the jail overcrowding problem. The plan authored by Prosecutor Carl Brizzi and introduced by Republican leader Phil Borst would call for renting 250 jail beds from New Castle and the money would come from the County’s consolidated fund.

Already criticism is being levied at the plan, even though it took the media to yell loud enough for the proposal to get a fair hearing in the first place. I think it’s odd some folks on one side of isle bring up dollars and affordability of the plan and none of them stood up and spoke out on the Sheriff and his $50,000 raise that he later had to return. Stay tuned.

The American Bar Association (ABA) has taken upon itself the task of providing accreditation to law schools across the country. In most states a law school graduate cannot take the bar exam without having attended an ABA-approved school (aka having achieved accreditation). But the ABA has made things interesting by instilling “diversity” requirements in the accreditation process. Standard 211 requires law schools to take “concrete action to demonstrate a commitment to having a diverse student body.”

For anyone familiar with the diversity-crazed atmosphere at most institutions of higher education, this might not come as much of a surprise. But the requirements border on unlawful in light of the Supreme Court decision on racial preferences established in Grutter v. Bollinger. Prof. David Bernstein dissects these glaring inconsistencies here.

A U.S. Civil Rights Commission took a closer look at what was going on and the ABA, perhaps realizing its policies don’t exactly line up with the law, claimed no law schools had ever been denied accreditation for failing to meet the “diversity” requirements. But Prof. Bernstein reports today that the ABA can longer use this as a defense.

The ABA has denied Charleston Law School provisional accreditation, in part because the ABA is not yet satisfied with its commitment to “diversity.” The law school, its future on the line, will now do the only sensible thing under the circumstances, and admit wildly underqualified minority applicants who will go on to fail the bar exam in wildly disproportionate numbers. But there is a saving grace: thanks to the ABA, which condemned the law school for relying too heavily on electronic resources, while they are in law school they will be able to read cases in the official reports, rather than rely on identical PDF files from Westlaw. Makes me proud to be a member of the ABA.

Is the City-Council President partially to blame for a child molester going free from jail? It seems like an unpleasant question to ask, but I have to. You may have seen the story, but the authorities are looking for convicted child molester William Temple.

Temple is accused of molesting two young girls. But what makes matters worse is that he was released from the jail on July 1 because of overcrowding. Why is that date important? Easy, on June 19, City-County Council President Monroe Gray refused to allow the introduction of an ordinance that would have procured 250 jail beds at New Castle prison for the summer.

The proposal was authored by Marion County Prosecutor Carl Brizzi who is running against Democrat Melina Kennedy.

Gray first argued that the measure didn’t have a funding mechanism, until someone showed him the first couple pages of the ordinance. He later told Indy Star Columnist Matt Tully that there was no point having the “juice” if he didn’t use it.

Well one could argue that because of the Council President’s “juice” a child molester is on the loose and you have to ask whom else is running the streets right now?

I miss Steve Talley.

Marion County Sheriff Frank Anderson says he will not take the $50,000 raise. In a statement released today the Sheriff said he was never in the job for the money and he would assist the General Assembly in any changes that may be necessary to the law that created the situation in the first place. This should have never have happened in the first place. He should have never accepted the raise but given it to charity. Someone gave Frank Anderson bad advice and should be called on the carpet and smacked.

When I use to work for an elected official and we were making a decision about what to do about an issue, we always had to ask one question, “How will this look on the front page of the paper?” Someone should have asked that question to Marion County Sheriff Frank Anderson.

As you likely know by now, the Sheriff is one of the highest paid public officials in the Universe (just kidding) but he made $360,000 last year and will get an extra $50,000 this year due to an Indiana law that lets sheriffs add the money they collect from tax warrants onto their incomes. The decision to pay the Sheriff was finalized this week by the Marion County Administrative Board.

There was nothing illegal or unethical about what happened, but if this were Jeopardy, I would take “Opportunity Lost” for $1000 and behind it would be a Daily Double.

With crime at a record level in Marion County, perpetual jail overcrowding and the city and county facing serious budget shortfalls, the Sheriff missed a perfect opportunity to endear himself to the voters and cement his place for the next four years. Instead of taking the $50,000 pay increase and arguing that “he earned it,” the sheriff should have taken the salary, so it would count towards his final pension, and then donate the money to charitable organizations in the nine townships of Marion County, particularly ones that dealt with crime and youth violence. The Sheriff would have been a hero.

I have a lot of respect for the Sheriff, but someone in this case gave him bad advice. He would have been loved, as opposed to now where if you view the public commentary, he’s becoming loathed.

I’ve been picking up a few items from around the city lately. Here they are…

Police Consolidation
My sources tell me Mayor Bart Peterson is in for some mixed news. In the realm of police consolidation sources tell me IPD officers want to vote on the Mayor’s offer for a contract raise of 3.5 to 6.5 percent.

Fire Consolidation
In addition, Mayor Peterson has a new ally in fire consolidation, Republican Councilmember Ike Randolph. Randolph tells me that because there is no tax increase in proposal he can support it. He told me it was never about savings, but efficiency.

City Sholsh Fund Goes Dry?
On the flipside though, the city may not get the $13 million it wants from back alcohol excise taxes. The City-County owes millions in child welfare and juvenile justice debt to the state of Indiana. The Governor’s budget man Chuck Shalliol, while not speaking directly to the city’s situation, told me he’s not crazy about writing a check to someone who owes him money. So the city may have to take another course of action.

Jailhouse Rocks
Expect the Brizzi proposal for 250 jail beds to be reintroduced at the City-County Council next week. The plan has been modified since its inception. Originally the plan called for 250 beds this summer at New Castle prison, now the plan is for the beds to be used for criminals with six-month sentences. Since there won’t be any transportation costs it lowers the price per inmate from $46 per day to $39, the same as the costs for Liberty Hall. I’m told the measure will get a hearing and appointed to a Public Safety subcommittee. Council Democrats were not happy with their President Monroe Gray for his actions in torpedoing the proposal the first time so they decided this course of action would be much better.

I left town for the Fortress of Solitude this weekend, but I still had time to jot down a few thoughts on some major issues. Hope you like them.

Crime

“Hizzoner” Mayor Bart Peterson has an interview in this past Sunday’s Indianapolis Star. He is talking about crime, amongst other items. The Mayor did not say anything new, however he did say something. To date, most of the Marion County GOP has been silent on this issue. The only three people who have really been at the forefront of this have been Marion County Prosecutor Carl Brizzi and District One City-County Council Member Ike Randolph. (Which, by the way, if these two ever teamed up they’d be a force to be reckoned with.) Phil Borst, the Republican Leader has also commented on this as well. However, the party has yet to put out unified, cohesive message on crime and its impact on the community. One would think the GOP would do something soon and coordinate a response before this issue gets completely out of the party’s reach. Forget about consolidation folks, that fight is over. This is where you need to turn your attention.

Negro, Please
(I know this is probably not an appropriate title with Black Expo going on, but somebody’s gotta say it.)

As many of you have guessed, I am no big fan of Amos Brown, the afternoon host on AM 1310, The Light. He is the Lex Luthor to my Superman; actually more like Gus Gorman. I think much of his program’s potential is wasted on baseless accusations of racism and stirring fear in a predominately uninformed audience. In his most recent ludicrous submission to the Indianapolis Recorder he opines, and not so subtly implies, that Honda is racist, in part for setting up shop an hour southeast of Indianapolis, among other things. Instead of encouraging Blacks to take full advantage in Indiana’s economic turnaround, he bemoans the fact the Honda, as well as Toyota or Subaru have not done anything to help Blacks. I didn’t know that was their job. I thought they were in the business to make and sell cars. He also goes on ad nauseum that the companies need to spend more in the Black Community. (Translation: the media company he words for, let’s be honest.) Many whites are afraid to call Amos on the carpet for fear of being called racist. Thank God I’m not white.

Hate Crimes

I hear one Marion County candidate may call for hate crime legislation soon. I have never been a big fan of hate crimes laws. There are already laws on the books that account for aggravating circumstances when crimes are committed. By the way, which is worse? A white guy shooting me because I’m Black or a Black guy shooting me for my money. Either way, I’m still dead. Stay tuned.