Indiana

YOU GOTTA BE KIDDING ME

By Abdul Hakim-Shabazz

City-County Council Minority Leader Joanne Sanders has penned an editorial in today’s Indianapolis Star calling on fellow Councilors Ben Hunter and Lincoln Plowman to abstain from voting on tonight’s proposal to transfer IMPD from the Sheriff to the Mayor.  She says the vote will be a test of integrity because the Republicans pledged not to cast votes where there is a potential conflict of interest.

Excuse me while I bust a gut laughing. 

If Sanders is going to talk about members abstaining from votes with a potential conflict of interest, then she may want to think twice about the next time she offers up a proposal supporting unions when she works for one.  I also did not see her call for fellow Councilor Marty Adams to abstain from voting because her husband works for IMPD, nor Councilor Vernon Brown who is a firefighter and the Mayor, who would get the department,  is his boss.   There was no call for anyone to abstain two years ago when this first came for a vote.

And don’t even get me started on Monroe Gray.

I also find it ironic that Sanders says she respects Hunter and Plowman for the sacrifices they make for public safety, but just a couple weeks ago, Saunders told a gathering of fellow Democrats that there needs to be more oversight of the police to ”diffuse the arrogance that comes along with carrying a police badge.”

I am not a fan of  government employees serving on the boards they work for, but until the system is changed, this is the hand we are dealt.   And if the pot is going to call the kettle African-American, it should take a good look in the mirror first.

Full post as published by Indiana Barrister on February 11, 2008 (boomark / email).