Thread: Indianapolis Sees 13 Slayings in 1 Week

Indianapolis Sees 13 Slayings in 1 Week
Aug 08 9:29 AM US/Eastern

INDIANAPOLIS

A fatal stabbing early Tuesday boosted the city's homicides to 13 in just one week in the midst of an upsurge of violence that has police working longer shifts and saturating high-crime areas.

On Monday, Mayor Bart Peterson called for an 11 percent increase in public safety and criminal justice spending in 2007, comparing the crime wave to a crisis such as a tornado.

He asked the City-County Council for an extra $54 million that could come out of the budgets for other city programs.

"We're going to have to do what it takes to restore our reputation as a safe city," Peterson said. "We must fight this war now, even as we work together on the funding."

Early Tuesday, Eric Taylor, 39, was found dead in an apartment on the city's east side with multiple stab wounds, Marion County sheriff's deputies said. Police said they wanted to talk to a 23-year-old man about the case.

Monday evening, a young man died in a shooting on the city's north side. Police patrols in that area already were so heavy that officers were on the scene within just 30 to 45 seconds of the report of shots being fired, said police Chief Michael Spears.

"Our police department is just fed up with the violence. We're just tired of it," Spears said.

With 91 homicides so far this year, Marion County is on track for its bloodiest year since 1998, when 162 people died. The number so far this year compares with 121 for all of 2005.

On June 1, seven people were killed in a house on the east side of Indianapolis, the city's worst mass killing in 25 years.

The Indianapolis Police and Marion County Sheriff's departments have assigned more officers to the streets and put them on longer shifts.

Marion County Prosecutor Carl Brizzi said Monday he would be adding six deputy prosecutors to the Homicide Unit, bringing the total to 12. Two other deputy prosecutors will be assigned to the Handgun Prosecution Unit, bringing the staffing there to five, Brizzi said.

"We need to allocate our resources to the areas where they are needed most," Brizzi said Monday.

http://www.breitbart.com/news/2006/08/08/D8JC93J03.html

So what, you say. What does this have to do with illegal immigration?

Maybe this will help. I've shortened the article to cover only the most recent arrivals. You can read the whole thing at the link at the end.

HIDDEN ETHNIC HERITAGE

The city's changing face

Hispanic growth

Oscar Hernandez left San Salvador as a professor, an engineer and a father. He arrived in Indianapolis unemployed, alone.

He doesn't speak English. He doesn't have much money. But he doesn't often worry about himself; he worries about his wife and daughters in Central America.

"I miss my family," Hernandez, 40, said through a translator. "The big difference here is that I'm not close to them."

The pace of Hispanic immigration is so fast that some think the census count, only 2 years old, is already out of date. According to the data, 33,290 Hispanics, mostly Mexicans, live in Marion County, up 294 percent since 1990.

Hispanics aren't the only immigrants still arriving here, but they are one of the fastest growing population in the city, state and country.

Most have come to Indiana in search of work, and many have found it.

Most choose to live together in pockets within the city, leaving marks as distinct as the sight of pinatas hanging in a grocery store.

Along West Washington Street, in a neighborhood some now call Little Mexico, signs carry advertisements in Spanish.

Bakeries and sweet shops and restaurants line the streets with the inviting smell of tamales and hot bolillos.

One man sells prepaid international phone cards to Mexico, Nicaragua and Honduras so recent immigrants can call home.

Hernandez came to Indiana following a series of earthquakes in El Salvador that shattered the national university, his former employer, and then crushed the local economy. Because of his education, he found work at a local chemical company.

He is also teaching again -- a GED class for other Hispanics.

On nice days, male students miss class because they must continue their construction or landscaping work into the evening.

"I want to help people to prepare themselves so they can have a better life," Hernandez said.

Hispanic migration is just as fractured as European immigration was decades ago.

Most, but not all, of the immigrants come from Mexico. Some can afford to live in large suburban homes, but most cannot.

Some come here legally.

Others get "chuecos," or crooked papers. Some don't get papers at all.

"It is tough," said the Rev. David Penalva of the United Methodist Church on West Washington Street. But, he added: "They get used to it. They know their situation."

Penalva arrived 16 years ago, before the gas company, the bus company and the city employed Spanish speakers.

When he took over at the church last year, only a handful of people turned up on Sundays. Now, with services in Spanish, attendance nears 100.

"It's easier to move around," Penalva said, comparing the current Indianapolis with how it was when he arrived. "Before you had to go to Chicago to buy ethnic food."

But the idea that enduring the cultural differences isn't worth it, or that most Hispanics plan to move back to their native country as soon as possible, is a myth, said Marco Dominguez, a Venezuelan-American who is the executive producer at WTBU (Channel 69).

More and more, Indianapolis is becoming a part of their new identity. In turn, they are enriching a new homeland.

"We miss the food. We miss the family. We miss the beaches that are there," Dominguez said. "But this is home.

"This is home."

http://home.att.net/~spmckee/star_changingface.htm

Welcome to the border.

Welcome to the border.

Ya there isn't many places left that don't have the border right close by.

Nashville is having another banner year with homocides. Last year was a record breaker and this year may be the new record breaker....

I'm not talking about musical records either.

Friggin' media won't touch the situation with a ten foot poll.