Source: JEFF DEAN / Getty
Where was Joe Hogsett during the 2020 riots? That’s the question that many have been asking about the Indianapolis Mayor who seemed to be MIA at the time.
Last week, the mayor was asked that very question during a debate against Republican candidate Jefferson Shreve. To which he responded, “I was working from my home. I was in constant contact with my representatives and with IMPD. After things started to dissipate that evening, I got about two or three hours of rest. I got up at 4 o’clock the next day and worked the rest of the weekend and met with organizers of the protests. I ultimately decided to end the protests and that was effective. George Floyd changed the world. I’m glad to say that we’ve had 300 protests since then without incident.”
Adam Wren, a national politics correspondent at POLITICO who also covers Indiana politics on his publication Importantville, obtained an email from former U.S. Attorney and assistant attorney general Deborah Daniels that tells another story.
Deborah Daniels, who was appointed by Hogsett to conduct an independent review of the public safety response to protests in late May and early June 2020, wrote in an email Monday night to an advisor for Shreve’s campaign that “there is certainly no indication in the report that the mayor was engaged on Friday night and in contact with his people. The report is silent on that point, so it certainly doesn’t exonerate him.
In the private email sent to Mark Lubbers, a top Shreve consigliere, Daniels was also critical of Hogsett’s relationship with Marion County Prosecutor Ryan Mears, calling it “highly unusual” and saying that as a result, “we have a runaway crime problem.”
