Protesters gather in downtown Indianapolis to call for defunding police

Dozens of protesters took to Monument Circle in downtown Indianapolis Saturday afternoon to call attention to police brutality and promote defunding police departments.

The Party for Socialism and Liberation - Indianapolis called for justice in the killings of Tyre Nichols, Herman Whitfield III and others across the country.

Nichols died after Memphis, Tennessee, police officers were seen on video punching, kicking and striking him Jan. 6, 2023, after a traffic stop.

Herman Whitfield III died after an encounter with the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department on April 25, 2022, when he was shocked with a taser at his parents’ home. Before the encounter, Whitfield's father reportedly told officers his son was "having a psychosis" and needed an ambulance.

“We want to see indictments. We want to see convictions,” said Noah Leininger with the organization. “We think nothing less than a conviction, in that case, is a modicum of justice.”

“If we're not out here and this falls out of public consciousness, then it’s going another year until the next person gets murdered by police,” Leininger said. “We need justice for all of these people now. It still keeps happening.”

“We’re not satisfied until there’s a conviction and these people are in jail,” Leininger said.  “Even with people in Indiana, cops caught brutalizing people during the downtown protests in 2020; they still haven’t faced trial. Their trial is still waiting until this summer.”

He, like most of the half-dozen speakers, called police culture is anti-Black and anti-working class.

“The culture has to be reformed by reforming who is in power,” Leininger said. “Right now, police departments across the country lack community oversight, lack community supervision and they can do whatever they want and get away with it because they protect the people who have the property.”

“Only when the police are controlled by the working class instead of the police oppressing the working class will we start to see a police culture that is actually protective of the people instead of the property of the wealthiest in our country.”

Stephen Lane, an organizer with the Indianapolis Liberation Center, said he preferred to have policing left to communities.

“We've been protesting this for decades...our families have been protesting this for decades since the '60s, since before the ‘60s. When will things ever get better? When will things ever change?” he said.  “They killed Herman Winfield III right here in Indianapolis. They killed Tyre Nichols in Memphis. They're killing other people in California. It seems like in every state there's an issue with the police. And we're told it can be reformed; it can be made better. Where are the results?”

Saturday’s event was part of a series of demonstrations across the state.

One of the youngest in attendance grabbed the microphone to call for the police to be less quick to pull on citizens.

“Everyone deserves a chance, even if they’ve done something wrong,” said 10 -year-old Rosetta Walker, with an impromptu follow-up to her mother’s presentation. “I have learned that even if they do something wrong, a single word like ‘I’m sorry,’ it will change everything. They're just so busy pow, pow, pow, bang, bang, bang; shooting everyone.”

Contact IndyStar reporter Cheryl V. Jackson at cheryl.jackson@indystar.com or 317-444-6264. Follow her on Twitter:@cherylvjackson.

This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Protesters in downtown Indianapolis call for defunding police