Indy’s rise in violent crimes is spreading into surrounding communities. Beech Grove experienced violence over the holiday weekend with two women shot outside a bowling alley along with a man who was stabbed in the face following gunshots in a parking lot outside of a family friendly entertainment venue.
Beech Grove Mayor Dennis Buckley says that oftentimes crime comes in waves, but lately the violence has been unprecedented. The democratic mayor told Fox 59 that local police need to be empowered to do their jobs.
”We gotta get back to how police used to be and the police need to be more aggressive and every once in a while police need to hit people in the head to get order around here.”
The Beech Grove police said that the majority of suspects in these cases aren’t even from the area, but residing areas like the east side of Indianapolis. Deputy Chief Bob Mercuri told Fox59 that it comes down to complete lack of respect for officers. “There’s an utter disregard for authority. There’s an utter disregard for law enforcement.”
Mayor Dennis Buckley elaborates on his earlier comments on the Hammer and Nigel show.
“When I talk about the police needing to be more aggressive, that’s the only way we can police anymore… I’m not saying go out and hit people in the head and beat them up, I’m just saying the police have to be the police. And with society today, there are so many people that are against the police that the police may be afraid to do anything. And as a mayor you get tired of that, the way the police get treated.”
Listen to the full interview with Hammer and Nigel here:
