Survived the downtown Indy 4th of July madness

[canav844]

2 teens wounded in July 4 shootings Downtown | The Indianapolis Star | indystar.com

The boy said he was leaving the area of the Downtown canal after watching fireworks when he felt pain in his right foot, according to the report.
He took off his shoe and noticed a gunshot wound.
The boy said he didn't see who fired the shot and could not think of any reason someone would shoot at him.

People getting shot at just because someone wanted to pull the trigger; sure makes me glad I opted out of the Indy activities to stay here in the country and just do the local show, where honestly the biggest threat was a stray bottle rocket.

 

[Indy317]

I saw Indy Star posted a story online about 3 separate shootings last night downtown which is too bad.

Wonder why they aren't allowing any comments on that news article?

 

[thompal]

Wonder why they aren't allowing any comments on that news article?

The Ballard administration is seriously trying to portray downtown Indy as a safe and fun place to come on vacation, or to take your family for an evening out. The last thing they want is thousands of people writing on media websites about how dangerous it really is. Ballard certainly doesn't want anyone suggesting that people should be prepared to defend themselves!

The local media always plays nice with whatever administration is in power. I was reading an article on local crime, and the Indy Star was going along with the Ballard claim that crime is down. The Indy Star never even questioned it, although the stats they used to "prove" it showed that there were fewer "MURDERS" this year, compared to "VIOLENT CRIME" incidents last year. Don't they realize that a MURDER is not the same thing as a VIOLENT CRIME??

 

[Kutnupe14]

The Ballard administration is seriously trying to portray downtown Indy as a safe and fun place to come on vacation, or to take your family for an evening out. The last thing they want is thousands of people writing on media websites about how dangerous it really is. Ballard certainly doesn't want anyone suggesting that people should be prepared to defend themselves!

The local media always plays nice with whatever administration is in power. I was reading an article on local crime, and the Indy Star was going along with the Ballard claim that crime is down. The Indy Star never even questioned it, although the stats they used to "prove" it showed that there were fewer "MURDERS" this year, compared to "VIOLENT CRIME" incidents last year. Don't they realize that a MURDER is not the same thing as a VIOLENT CRIME??

Comparatively, Indy is MUCH safer than say 15 years ago...

 

[thompal]

Comparatively, Indy is MUCH safer than say 15 years ago...

I disagree. I think that 10 years ago, it was safer than it is today. There was a time about 30 years ago where it was unsafe - during the period when there was nothing downtown, and the only people downtown after dark were muggers and beggers. I don't know if it actually WAS less safe then, but it gave that impression because after dark, it was a ghost town, and the only people you saw on the streets were unsavory characters of ill repute.

Then enough businesses moved downtown that people started going downtown, and the criminals of the day were scared away by the swarms of people.

But then, the increased number of people acted like bait to the current crop of thugs, who don't care about crowds, and so they started swarming like moths to a lightbulb.

I work downtown, usually at night, and I have noticed what seems like a drastic increase in the amount of violent crime over just the past 2 or 3 years. Last night's violence doesn't bode well for Black Expo which starts Thursday and goes for 10 days. I'm taking a couple of weeks off from work, because I REFUSE to go down there at night while that is going on.

 

[Indy317]

The Ballard administration is seriously trying to portray downtown Indy as a safe and fun place to come on vacation, or to take your family for an evening out. The local media always plays nice with whatever administration is in power.

My question was to stir debate. You are correct about the controlled media when it comes to the mile square. This has been going on for years, especially after downtown actually became a destination place of sorts. On Sat. night there may be a homicide outside of some hip-hop/gangsta club. The early morning Sunday TV news would carry it. By the early evening news at 6PM, it might get a mention if nothing else happened that day. Come Monday morning, it was a coin toss to see if another downtown homicide would be reported. While not a total black out of downtown crime, a kid at a school outside of Indy gets shot and lived, and we get all kinds of follow-ups on that case every so often. I always said that it would take some very popular girl from Center Grove, Carmel, etc. to take a stray bullet after walking out of club in the wholesale district to really shine a light on downtown crime. So long as it was criminal vs. criminal, the media dropped the story fairly quickly. Can't wait to see if there are any videos that get posted somewhere on the internet.

 

[Denny347]

I was at the canal last night to watch the fireworks with the wife and kids and my sister and her kids. We go downtown all the time to eat. My wife works downtown and goes to the mall quite often on her lunch. I find it quite humorous to see people AFRAID of going downtown. I like it down there. We like Bucca Di Beppo, PF Changs, Ram, Claddah, etc. We used to love to go to the Boarders Books before it closed. Then again, I hate being in the country...same with the wife. She is from Jersey City with family in NYC so we go out there all the time and are quite comfortable walking around at night there so Indy is a piece of cake.

 

[thompal]

I was at the canal last night to watch the fireworks with the wife and kids and my sister and her kids. We go downtown all the time to eat. My wife works downtown and goes to the mall quite often on her lunch. I find it quite humorous to see people AFRAID of going downtown. I like it down there. We like Bucca Di Beppo, PF Changs, Ram, Claddah, etc. We used to love to go to the Boarders Books before it closed. Then again, I hate being in the country...same with the wife. She is from Jersey City with family in NYC so we go out there all the time and are quite comfortable walking around at night there so Indy is a piece of cake.

Chuckle all you want. I work at the corner of Maryland and Capital, which has been the location of at least three of the gang related shootings in the past year, and was actually on the dock smoking during two of them. I park at Madison and South, so have to walk Maryland to Madison and then south, and have been within 100' of a few other shootings, or have had to pass by within an hour of most of the other shootings. In other words, I could have easily been an innocent victim in any of them were it not for a matter of work scheduling. That doesn't count the dozens of fights, scuffles, and general intimidation that counts as "night life" along the strip on Madison in that area, that you are forced to walk through if you work in that area.

Let's just say that when you have to step over the blood stains on the sidewalk too many times, it just gets a little old. I figure that once you realize that an area is dangerous, you are pretty stupid to continue going to that area. I don't want to have to shoot anyone, and I certainly don't want some dumbass shooting me.

 

[LEaSH]

I'm not doubting that the seedy side has grown downtown. But it is still way better than most cities of its size.

I like to be able to ride anywhere at anytime of day or night - I won't do that in other cities I've lived.

I'd like to live out god's country, too. It's a little boring after awhile, but I could deal with that.

I crack-up a little when someone says they hate indianapolis because it is too scary. Whatever. Those folks are better off sitting in a rocking chair chewin' tobacky, whittling on a piece of hickory or playing the fiddle.

Indy is a pretty easy city to do anything in. It hardly counts a metro even though some agencies want to call themselves part of a metropolis.

 

[jsx1043]

Wonder why they aren't allowing any comments on that news article?

There were a ton of comments at about 9AM when I read it the first time. They've taken them down.