The canal in downtown Indianapolis is no longer a safe place to visit and IMPD is doing little to protect people who visit it from roving gangs of teen-aged thugs who attack visitors when they aren't shooting at each other. A young Ohio couple in town for the Indianapolis 500 won't be returning to Indianapolis after they were attacked, beaten and robbed by a group of teen-agers. From
Fox 59 News:
Indianapolis Metro Police are on the lookout for a group of teens who
attacked a couple walking on the Canal Saturday night.
Britney Harford,
18, and her 23-year-old friend, Matt Nadolski, were in Indianapolis for race
weekend when they decided to take a walk along the Canal.
"I wanted to
show him the town a little bit. It was his first time in Indy," Harford
said.
As they were headed back, out of nowhere, a group of teens attacked
them.
"One came up behind me grabbed me by the throat and hit me in the
face probably three times.. threw me on the ground and by the time I got up and
turned around, I'd seen all of them on Matt kicking him in the face and punching
him in the face," said Harford.
Harford's face was badly
beaten.
"It really hurts. I can't really touch the area around my
eye."
But, she said, Nadolski took the brunt of the attack and was
spitting up blood. All the while, a handful of witnesses stood and watched.
"There were four bystanders there and they didn't really care they did
it anyway," said Harford.
Not only was Nadolski's watch taken, so was
their trust in the city.
"It scares me. I know I won't go anymore around
the city, unless I have my father or somebody I know who can protect
me."
Police are looking for five to seven African American males in their
late teens or early 20's.
The Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department issued the following
statement regarding patrols on the canal:
"The police department will continue our already implemented criminal
strategies on the canal for an indefinite amount of time. We have enhanced our
strategies by assigning Captain Phil Burton an experienced criminal strategist
to the downtown district". " We take these type of crime serious and will
continue to review data to better our fight on crime".
In a separate report, Rev. Charles Harrison of the Ten Point Coalition tells
WISH-TV that he was patrolling the canal Saturday night but left before the attack took place.
“We left the area about 11 or 11:15. The canal was clear from Ohio to Michigan Street, and there was a heavy presence of capitol police.” Said Harrison. “The canal is a large place, and it stretches for quite a few blocks…. We may have to look at the entire canal. If people who are coming down to rob and attack people know where we are, we may need to expand the area where we're patrolling,” he added.
“It’s frustrating for me, when I come down here on Saturdays, I still see kids coming down here underage, not supervised,” Harrison said.
8 comments:
What will Obama say? I feel so bad, so sorry for Matt and Britney
Is it true that the city has made the canal a no-carry zone ?
What does Obama have to do with policing known troublespots in Indy?
You can't blame this one on a national policy: it's a local problem. Very local.
If the police can't handle policing the canal then maybe they should put cameras up so when your getting your rear end robbed and beat up they can at least get the thugs on camera. Just don't forget to smile for the camera ;) Come to think of it don't they have cops watching cameras 24 - 7 from various parts of the city. Maybe we need to wire the whole downtown district, don't want to scare away the tourist! Hmmm maybe its time to ban any under aged kids from downtown so they can terrorize their own neighborhoods. A sad affair.
So, they are assigning their most incompetent race-based promotee to the downtown to screw things up!
Phil Burton, who has nothing but a tail of disgrace to his name....I remember!
Phil Burton as traffic commander screwed up our entire downtown traffic during a motivational speaker event....he was reassigned within 24 hours.
Phil Burton who was the captain that let someone play funny things with a time card, humiliated a well-respected commander and caused him to be relieved.
Phil Burton who was responsible when a supervisor went to the nudie bar and had favors performed on video....
Phil Burton a joke, who used to be the PR guy, but was relieved of that because he speaks so poorly!
-Seems like IMPD needs to realize that people check facts....and certain incompetent names stick out!
...and didn't they put Phil Burton downtown because they though he could do the least harm?
(After all, why does downtown need that much brass and so few patrolmen....perhaps a place to hide the incompetent????)
guy77:
I read that Frank Straub (D)-NY didn't pay the bill so the cameras dont' work!
The day after the attack, while I was leaving the state, I received a call from a news reporter and was told that the city would be installing cameras near the canal where this incident happened. Does anyone know if they followed through with this? I looked forward to going to Indianapolis each year for the Indy 500. Since this happened, I have not returned to the city.
-Britney Harford
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