The Indianapolis Recorder‘s recent article detailing the Indianapolis community’s struggle against racist police terror includes quotes from ANSWER Indiana Co-Coordinator Noah Leininger and Indy10 Black Lives Matter organizer Jessica Louise.
Excerpts from the report:
The majority of community advocates that addressed the committee said the money being allocated to IMPD should instead go directly to neighborhoods to meet the needs of residents. Advocate Noah Leininger called for IMPD to be “demilitarized” and defunded, and for that money to help address poverty, an often-ignored root of crime.
“Eighty percent of homicides and 3 in 4 violent crimes occur in the poorest half of Indianapolis,” Leininger said. “To fight crime, we must fight poverty, racism and exploitation.”
Jessica Louise of Indy10 Black Lives Matter said a good place to start in addressing poverty would be to establish a guaranteed basic income and fund mental health care. She said we should only add funding to IMPD’s budget when we have “exhausted all other options to help and heal” Indianapolis.
“Pour resources into our community,” Louise said, “not our cops.”
