Op/Ed: It's about more than guns in Broad Ripple. We need to tackle basic problems, too.
As Broad Ripple residents who are invested in the safety of our community, we appreciate recent efforts by the city and civic groups to make the entertainment district gun-free on weekends. And we applaud businesses for their willingness to close at 1 a.m. to reduce opportunities for violence that often occur in the wee hours. Both of these are positive steps that should be commended and celebrated.
City leaders and neighborhood advocates can build on this momentum by taking bolder steps to enforce ordinances and regulate businesses. This is essential if we want to create a safer community.
Broad Ripple’s challenges appear to be recent and episodic to outsiders looking in. Those of us who live here have seen them building for years. On Saturday and Sunday mornings, Broad Ripple Avenue is often littered with broken bottles, windshield glass, discarded food, pizza boxes and empty liquor bottles. Graffiti marks signposts, buildings and other spaces throughout the village. These issues pose both safety hazards and barriers to creating a cleaner community that won’t tolerate crime.
And it’s not just the small stuff. While high-profile incidents such as the shooting of four people on Broad Ripple Avenue last month remain rare, there have been several shootings over the last five years. And other crimes are on the rise. For example, aggravated assaults doubled from 10 in 2021 to 20 in 2022. Burglaries increased by 80% — from 10 to 18 — and vehicle-related thefts grew by 142% from 26 to 63, according to data from the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department.
These reported crimes mirror what we hear anecdotally from friends and neighbors who have had cars broken into and packages stolen. Such trends are unacceptable anywhere. And we won’t tolerate them in our community.
Gun-free zone in Broad Ripple: Broad Ripple Village seeks gun-free zone designation for weekends after deadly shooting
The Hogsett administration’s answer to rising gun violence — in Broad Ripple and across the city — has been to blame Indiana’s lax gun laws. At a recent meeting between public officials and Broad Ripple residents on safety, the city’s most called-upon action step was to ask residents to petition their lawmakers to strengthen Indiana’s gun laws.
While tighter gun enforcement should be part of the solution, it’s simply not enough. Placing the onus on state lawmakers to solve our city’s problems defers responsibility and neglects basic tools that could make a difference in addressing the proliferation of disorder in Broad Ripple. These include:
Better maintaining the physical infrastructure by removing graffiti and cleaning up litter.
Enforcing earlier curfews, using barricades, and ensuring there is security at vacant lots, where disruptive behavior tends to break out.
Maintaining a sense of order through creating a stronger noise ordinance and enforcing traffic laws; and
Making arrests more often for trespassing, public intoxication and disorderly conduct, and making sure the prosecutor actually prosecutes and doesn’t dismiss these minor cases.
More: Broad Ripple bars set earlier closing time after weekend shooting that left 3 dead
These efforts would not only make a difference in creating a better Broad Ripple. Evidence has shown that a greater sense of order creates a safer environment.
Addressing public safety across our community is complex, and there is not a singular solution. But there are proven strategies that can be put into practice to help address growing challenges.
Rather than passing the buck to the state, city leaders must put those practices to use in partnership with Broad Ripple residents. Doing so will make our communities safer, save lives and protect Broad Ripple as the welcoming destination we’ve all come to love and call home.
The Reserve at Broad Ripple: Diane Jarosz, Kacy Wendling, Kevin Bogenschutz, Zara Bogenschutz, Kelly Davis, Rishi Megha, Mary J. Hoeller, Sarah Grahn, Olivia Boston, William Boston, Bill Strange, Tim Taylor, Stephen C. Greb, Erin Proffitt Berg, Tom Berg, Leah Miller, Christi Garcia.
Monon Row at Broad Ripple: Kevin McCanna, Stephen Queisser, Claire Queisser, Paul St. Angelo, Scott Kincaid, Holly Kincaid, Robert Novak, Holly Booyse, Joseph Breach, Katie Hughes, Glen Goedde, Lauren Marshall.
This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Blaming lax gun laws not enough to fix growing crime in Broad Ripple
