Lt. Gov. Beckwith Stands by Tweet on Indianapolis Violence
INDIANAPOLIS — Lt. Gov. Micah Beckwith is defending a social media post he edited after backlash over comments he made about former NFL quarterback Mark Sanchez, who was stabbed in downtown Indianapolis over the weekend.
Beckwith said Monday that his original post was meant to point to what he sees as a larger issue of violence in the city.
“While I can’t speak for the governor, I saw his tweet and I think he’s spot on when he says Indianapolis has a problem when it comes to violent crime,” Beckwith said. “Everybody agrees with that. We’ve already been having this conversation — this was just another violent incident that happened.”
In his first post, Beckwith appeared to criticize city leaders and called for tougher-on-crime politicians. He later edited the tweet after learning more about the case involving Sanchez, who faces charges in the incident, even though police say he’s the one who was stabbed.
“I put it out there because we’ve got to stop this violence,” Beckwith said. “We need people who will not be soft on crime — politicians who won’t shy away from addressing it.”
Beckwith said he chose to edit the tweet instead of deleting it because he believes the larger point still stands.
“I left up the part that I had because I wanted people to recognize what’s going on in Indianapolis and why the question needs to be asked: Why is there so much violence?” he said. “It’s just another day in Indianapolis — a stabbing, a shooting. And per capita, we’re right up there with Chicago. This is unacceptable for a capital city.”
He also backed Governor Mike Braun for speaking out about crime in the city.
“I was thankful for the governor,” Beckwith said. “He pushed back on local leadership and said, ‘Yeah, you’ve got a real problem.’ I agree with that wholeheartedly.”
