One more reason to give up your Indy Envy, if you are still suffering from it:
Thirteen people have been killed in Indianapolis in less than a week — a wave of bloodshed that has alarmed residents and civic leaders and led to stepped-up police patrols in the city's trouble spots.
"It happened right outside my house — a boy died. When I heard about it, my heart just dropped to the ground," said Brooks, 39. "I've never had anything like that happen so close to me. My kids don't even want to go outside. What's going to happen next?"
Even before the rash of killings stunned the city of about 863,000, Indiana's capital was already on track for its bloodiest year since 1998, when 162 people died. So far this year, 91 people have been killed in Indianapolis.
Those are the kinds of numbers that make newspapers feel compelled to write pointless editorials (I know, I've written a few). You feel compelled to say something, though there is nothing really to say. The murders are all different, which means there isn't one solution.
RiShawn Biddle has a clearer idea, and has the courage to talk about vagrants and how toleration of them decreases the quality of life, even inviting the kind of mayhem deplored in the editorial, instead of getting all weepy over the "homeless."
Comments
Mr. Biddle deserves praise and thanks for being REAL about the situation in Indy.
Unfortunately, as he has said, unless Chris Rock or Aaron Macgruder say it, it will never receive the attention (or the appropriate action) his comments warrant. The black community MUST look inward at itself.
And the reader that notes that Indy is following the example(?) of Detroit speaks volumes. Downtown Detroit = ghost town.
Could what is occurring in Indy happen here in Fort Wayne? I would have to say most definitely. We're only one "situation" from such a similar fate, thanks largely to our geographical location. We're at the "hub" of all these ancillary urban "spokes", such as Indy, Detroit, Chicago, Cincy, and Cleveland.
Plato once noted that DEMOCRACY is but ONE STEP above ANARCHY. Not the best observation, but the most true.
Mr Biddle does quote the "Broken Window" theory, which I believe is alive and well HERE...NOW. I can only hope our city's leaders take note. I've only been saying it for the past 9 years.
As to all the bleeding hearts that want to "take care and provide for" the homeless (read vagrants)...I just say:
"Save the drama for your mama".
B.G.