The City's largest scrap metal dealer hired dozens of your city police officers for off-duty police work, including cops whose job it was to investigate stolen scrap metal in this city. While its scrap metal yards purchased large quantities of stolen metal, the cops on its pay roll targeted other, smaller scrap metal dealers in town with sting operations to put them out of business. When a good cop finally started digging into the scheme, the shit hit the fan. The Ballard administration went into full spin mode and began reassigning police officers and making some rules changes to make it appear all was well within IMPD.
Here's what really happened. OmniSource, the giant scrap metal dealer, hired Barnes & Thornburg attorney Larry Mackey to defend it. He's the former campaign chairman for Carl Brizzi and former law partner of then-Public Safety Director Scott Newman. He's also an attorney for alleged Ponzi scheme operator Tim Durham, also a one-time major employer of off-duty cops at his Geist mansion. Mackey immediately fired off a letter to Brizzi and Newman demanding the firing or demotion of the lead investigator of his client's scheme because he spoke too candidly to the media about the stolen scrap metal purchases made by their yards in Indianapolis.
It comes as no surprise that I should read in the Indianapolis Star this morning that there will be no prosecutions in the OmniSource case. It's amazing that IMPD's own investigators could uncover incontrovertible evidence of stolen scrap metal purchases by OmniSource scrap yards but the prosecutor's office would find no crimes committed. In other words, your local criminal justice system is more about protecting the powerful than the little people who had all of that scrap metal stolen from their homes and businesses over the last several years. Welcome to Indianapolis.
Actually, I'm somewhat surprised that the corrupting influences were damped down for as long as tehy were (see 1970s attempts at "reform"). Indianapolis history is rife with political (and police) corruption dating back to nearly the beginnings of the City.
ReplyDeleteLikely been simmering under the radar until some extraneous factors (like the financial meltdown) brought its stench bubling back to the surface.
The thing is, it seems so pervasive, and the FBI and US Attorney so unwilling, that it's likely enough that it will just settle back down without troubling its worst purveyors too much.
And to think that some have the audacity to put the onus just on poor Lake County. Look in the mirror, guys. It's right in front of you.
That is why I ran for prosecutor, and wish that the great guy that defeated me in the Democrat primary then, Joe Champion, had gone on to win in November. (I forget the exact year but oculd look it up, sm.)
ReplyDelete