Violence continues to ravage the city of Indianapolis in the new year.
In the first 17 days of January, Indy has suffered 42 shootings and 11 stabbings with 11 killed.
At least 10 people were shot and 3 stabbed with 2 killed last weekend alone.
Indy is now outpacing the city of Chicago per capita in overall homicides.
“Violence is destroying our city, yet no politician can be found to even speak to it,” FOP President Rick Snyder told the Hammer and Nigel Show Monday. “They’ll hold a press conference when it comes to anything else, but when it comes to this record-breaking violence, they have been missing in action.”
Snyder issued a tweet Monday that was highly critical of Marion County Prosecutor Rick Mears.
Mears has recently been doing a victory lap of sorts to tout his high conviction rate, but Snyder says that’s not the full story.
“Currently, the Marion County Court System is at a standstill,” said Snyder. “Trials are unable to proceed, which they relate to the pandemic. But what we see time and again is that officers are continuing to do their job while the rest of the system remains broken.”
Snyder continued: “The prosecutor has acknowledged that there are over 37,500 criminal cases that are on pause, awaiting trial. In all of 2020, his office took part in 135 trials, so do the math. You’d have to do the equivalent of what they did in the entirety of last year every single business day in 2022 to overcome that 37,500.”
Snyder says that’s more than justice delayed, it’s justice denied.
“Those are victims and their families that are behind every single one of those cases,” Snyder explained. “And in the interim, that gets compounded because the folks that should be in custody are being sent back out onto our streets, compounding the GPS monitoring debacle we’re dealing with already, and folks are being revictimized.”
Snyder says progress in tackling Indy’s violent crime rate requires more than throwing money at the problem.
“If you do not close the revolving door of justice and fix that broken system, none of this is going to improve.”
Click below to hear Hammer and Nigel’s full interview with Rick Synder.
https://omny.fm/shows/hammer-and-nigel-show/rick-snyder-talks-latest-on-indy-violence
