Wednesday, February 7
10:00 am – 12:00 pm
Community “Justice” Center
675 Justice Way, Civil Court Room #12
Together with Citizens Concerned About Police Action Shootings, the Indianapolis Liberation Center is asking community members to join us in the next hearing of Mmoja Ajabu v. Marion County Prosecutor’s Office to ensure that Mears complies with the subpoena issued for his testimony in the aforementioned case on January 29.
Ajabu v. Marion Co. Prosecutor’s Office is one of two lawsuits filed by Ajabu on behalf of a broad coalition composed of the families and communities of police killings, religious, community, and political leaders, politically-engaged citizens, and other working and poor people fed up with the criminal “justice” system in Indianapolis.
The people’s presence is imperative to hold Mears accountable, as he has consistently hid from his constituents, beginning with the family of IMPD victim Gary Harrell, who was shot and killed by officer Douglas Correll, a police officer with a documented history of racist abuse and civil rights violations. The family and their supporters wanted to ask why charges hadn’t been filed against Correll and why he was—and is to this day—on paid vacation after killing a Black man by shooting him in the back.
Although Mears agreed to meet with the spontaneously-formed coalition when they asked for a meeting with him on September 5, he instead sent down three representatives to provide excuses for his absence. The group persisted in their peaceful request for a meeting with the elected official for months, during which time Mears starting hiding not behind his representatives, but behind his landlord, armed sheriffs, and armed police.
On November 21, Mears deployed his landlord’s security forces to threaten the grieving families and their supporters with arrest. Thus, the other lawsuit currently in progress is Ajabu v. Market East Portfolio, LLC., the private entity from which the Prosecutor’s Office rents. That lawsuit concerns the right to conduct business with elected representatives, to peacefully assemble to redress public grievances at public offices without impediments by private citizens or corporations.
Mears’ excuses for refusing to meet with his constituents are incorrect or, at best, misrepresentations. During his one public statement on the matter, he told the press the family, friends, and supporters of Harrell were ignorant of the “ground rules” by which he must abide. Adding insult to injury, Mears told reporters that “everybody for the most part in our community understands… I think there are some people that may have a different perspective but the ground rules are pretty clear.”
As ANSWER Indiana Co-Coordinator Noah Leininger stated at the time, however, “the ground rules clearly state Mears can indict Correll right now. We think that most of the people in Indianapolis, those who don’t work in high-rise offices protected by cops on the ground floor, share that perspective.”
The mainstream media’s coverage of the IMPD’s reckless shootings and killings has abated and there has been little coverage of the people’s lawsuits against Mears. The people, however, haven’t forgotten.
Tomorrow, we’ll remind Mears, his landlord, the cops, and the sheriffs they can’t hide from accountability!
