A big hat tip to Star political columnist Matt Tully for being the first member of the mainstream media to acknowledge the role of a blogger in bringing attention to Councilor Patrice Abduallah's residency issue. He writes in his column today, "And now, thanks to the work of hard-charging local blogger Gary Welsh, Democratic City-County Councilman Patrice Abduallah is resigning amid embarrassing questions about whether he lives in his district." The purpose of his column today is to point out the difficult year party chairmen of both parties are having in this election year what with Mike O'Connor's handful of problems with Marion Co. Democrats and a number of challenges State GOP Chairman Murray Clark is facing on the Republican side from controversial decisions made by the Daniels' administration to sex scandals involving local party chairmen.
I should add that WXNT's Abdul Hakim-Shabazz from the very beginning of his outstanding reporting on the issue credited the work of this blog on the issue. For some reason, I just don't consider Shabazz a member of the mainstream media because he operates so differently than the rest of the crowd and I mean that in a very flattering way.
6 comments:
Congrats Gary!
I'm sure Tully is getting his knuckles rapped by his Editor, Mr. Mary Milz.
Nice work. With success comes legitimacy.
Now, about those RICO houses. Sorry, meant to say pea-shake, but RICO just seemed to slip out.
I'm not one to cry "Wolf" when it's not necessary, but, from personal experience, take my word for it:
Reporting a Councilman's phony 4-year residency problem is one thing. Once it was exposed by AI, the Mayor's folks put the Kibash on it within 48 hours. Their fingerprints are allllllll over this. There was no money involved, in the largest sense, except pathetic Patrice's pity-party annual council salary.
However, hear me out on this one: if you start messing around the edges of the peashake nonsense, you'd best be prepared. Get facts correct, stay low, and try to ask questions without setting off any BS detectors.
Because these folks, my friend, play for keeps. Millions are involved. And some--but not all--of the perpetrators are not beyond intimidation.
This is not an hysterical rant...it's based on actual expecience. They don't board up all the windows, arm themselevs to the teeth, buzz you in, and have surveillance cams for nnothing.
Be careful out there. I doubt that many of their ardent supporters, like Glenn Howard, even know the extent to which these folks are serious about protecting their turf.
And don't think for a minute that there's a not a link between the slowdown, or shutdown, of these peashakes recently, and increased violent crime in some areas. Those thugs have to feed their habits somehow, and if the biggest source of income is scaled back, as well as the Haughville druglord arrests, hey....it's hard work pimpin the poor...someone's gotta get paid.
Thank god those drug raids recently were done by the feds. At least we have a chance of the charges sticking.
10:40, You provide excellent advice. Numbers racketeering in Indianapolis is serious business and yes, they rule thru intimidations.
There was once a time when organized crime in this town was off the radar unless the mainstream media reported it.
Now in the age of blogs there is virtually nowhere to hide.
Just to show an example of how much the "pea shake" operations can even control blogs one need only to look at Indyundercover. It's been a long time since the folks there where on crusade against the numbers racket before suddenly becoming silent on the issue.
This tells me that law enforcement is involved and Indyundercover will not make an issue of it again, even if it means a new Mayor could be elected.
Outing a CCC is one thing, hitting black organized crime and their take from illegal gambling, drugs and prostitution are another.
This election for Mayor may very well hinge on the Feds taking down the black mafia and the shake houses in this town, make no illusion about it.
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