INDIANAPOLIS — The homicide rate among African-Americans in the Capitol City is out of hand, say leaders with the African-American Coalition of Indianapolis.
The organization said this week they are concerned that of the 127 people murdered so far in Indianapolis this year, a disproportionately high number of those victims are African-American. Only a little over half of those cases have been solved, according to the numbers from IMPD.
“We don’t talk about the black male homicide problem in this community,” said AACI policy director Marshawn Wally to WISH-TV. “You can see a disproportionate kind of homicide rate, where you can have, last year, 103 black males get killed, and at the same time, have 21 white males murdered.”
He hopes a solution will be what the AACI is calling a “black agenda”, an effort to deep dive into the root causes of why so many more black males are being killed year after year.
Walley said they are already figuring out some of those root causes.
“Homeownership rates, rent burdens, food deserts are all putting the African American community in a situation where there’s a sense that you have to operate in a scarcity mode or a survival mode,” he said. “That creates bad decisions that reduce the ability to handle conflict and shock”
Wolley said his coalition is always looking for groups to collaborate with, and they hope more community outreach will result in a city where it’s safe to raise a black child or a black family.
WISH-TV’s Jenny Draelser contributed to this article.
(PHOTO: aijohn784/Thinkstock)
