Indianapolis City Councilor Arrested In Scuffle With Police

City-County Councilor Joe Simpson

Freshman Indianapolis City-County Councilor Joe Simpson (D), who represents a near-northside council district, was arrested last night after interfering with a police investigation at the scene of a burglary of his neighbor's home. Simpson has been charged with resisting law enforcement, disorderly conduct and refusing to leave an emergency area. WRTV reports:

According to the police report, officers asked Simpson to leave the home several times, but he refused and became belligerent.

"You don't have to talk to me like that. I don't know who you think you are talking to," Simpson told an officer, according to the police report.

Once Simpson left the house, he continued to yell at officers, drawing a crowd outside the house, police said.

"This is a public sidewalk. This is a public street," Simpson told officers, according to the report. "I pay taxes on all of it, and I pay your salary, too!"

When officers approached Simpson, he forcefully pulled his arm away, police said.

Simpson was arrested on preliminary charges of refusal to leave an emergency area, resisting law enforcement and disorderly conduct.

He later apologized to officers, according to the police report.

Simpson's district includes the Mapleton-Fall Creek neighborhood, which has been plagued by burglaries. One of my neighbors related to me last night how a friend of his is trying to rehab a home near 30th and College and has been the victim of several break-ins, including a theft of all the new appliances and a new HVAC system he installed in the home.

UPDATE: Marion Co. GOP Chairman Kyle Walker released the following statement in response to Simpson's arrest.

"The arrest of Democrat City-County Councillor Joseph Simpson is the second time in less than four years that a Democrat Councillor has been arrested for violating the law and then resisting law enforcement.  Our police officers have a tough enough job without such disrespect and interference from Democrat members of the City-County Council.  This pattern of contempt for our public safety officers needs to stop immediately.  I call upon Council President Maggie Lewis to remove Councillor Simpson from the Public Safety Committee and Law Enforcement Study Commission and to condemn the actions of her fellow Democrats in hopes that this pattern does not continue."