Comments on Advance Indiana™: What Were These Men Doing On The Streets?

I am the fiance' of one of the "suspects" and I wo...

2008-01-30T23:58:00.000-05:00

I am the fiance' of one of the "suspects" and I would just like you to truly know all of the information before making a judgment against him. Isn't the basis of our legal system "innocent until proven guilty" anyhow? I also beleive that you should know the facts in those previous cases you mentioned if you are going to use them to make your bias judgment. My heart goes out to the families of those women and children and I do not mean to "blame the victim" in anyway, but when you live the street life and actively involve yourself in a life of crime the end result is often tragic for all involved, even me and fiance' and OUR two kids. Had he not have been written off after becoming an offender, been allowed an opportunity to flourish in society, have a job he wouldn't have felt pressured to provide for us "by any means neccessary". I blame the system for this. It is flawed and unsupportive to someone in desperate need of rehabilitation, actively seeking "a way out".

Bleeding heart liberals keep letting them out. We ...

2008-01-24T20:07:00.000-05:00

Bleeding heart liberals keep letting them out. We need a serious 3 strikes and your are out law that is enforced. No one wants to spend the money to keep them locked up ..... face it you pay some way some how it might as well be with them behind bars and John Q public free to live their life in safety.

An emotionally mature person holds him/herself acc...

2008-01-21T19:10:00.000-05:00

An emotionally mature person holds him/herself accountable in some fashion for almost everything that happens in life. If there is not a sense of responsibility, there is at least a moment of learning. Obviously, like many others in our city, the girls on Hovey did not learn enough from the violence they had experienced before to enlighten them to make more positive, safe choices for themselves and their children.

However, I challenge everyone to take a look at their own life and see the various ways in which it could have been drastically different. What if you did not have supportive parents? What if your childhood caregivers had been drug addicts and no one did anythign about it? What if you witnessed violence on a daily basis in your neighborhood and no showed you enough love to overpower anger and pain? Are these not the experiences of the people you now want to throw in jail? We did nothing to help them then, so now we're content with spending our tax payer money on more jails since they're adults and made choices based on the only infomration they had?

The best solution would be a combination of social worker pollyannaism that enstills hope, accountability to results and responsible public/private spending. These do not have to be mutually exclusive.

You can be safe in your comfortable lifestyle and take full accountability for all of your successes, overlooking middle and upperclass privileges. That would explain how people can fully blame others for their poor choices. Without a shared sense of community, we will continue to ask ourselves how this can happen and why more prisons aren't being built.

4:20 Carl Brizzi has been asleep on duty for a cou...

2008-01-20T11:57:00.000-05:00

4:20 Carl Brizzi has been asleep on duty for a couple years now. He routinely undercharges serious felonies, and declines many other cases.

Where is the indictment of Monroe Gray for racketeering, Ghost Employment and other charges, whose documented evidence of Ghost Employment was SO OBVIOUS that it was on page 1 of a leftist newspaper????

What about the corruption in the incompetent coroner's office? County property missing, dead people property missing, a giant pay-out after the corrupt elected official was sued for racial discrimination....a pattern??? You bet! Justice? Only for the citizen in the civil court, as Carl has been asleep.

Brizzi's office does not screen cases to ensure th...

2008-01-20T04:20:00.000-05:00

Brizzi's office does not screen cases to ensure they only prosecute those that are necessary and has probable cause.

I've defended a couple of men charged for crimes that on the face of the information clearly shows self-defense or that the other party was the agressor/batter. It's such as waste in resources. The prosectours office does nothing but rubberstamp the information the police officer write, a non-lawyer and charge. The prosecutors rarely dismiss prior to trial, just saying they can't pursuant to department regulation. They then dismiss on the date of the trial, clogging up the court calender with the case.

We need a REAL prosecutor, not a pretty boy looking for fame.

The WERE drug dealers though and should not have u...

2008-01-20T04:12:00.000-05:00

The WERE drug dealers though and should not have used public resources when their family has tens of thousands in safes.

A friend from England asked me a few months back i...

2008-01-20T02:31:00.000-05:00

A friend from England asked me a few months back if I believed in the electric chair.

After this week, I believe in electric bleachers.

Anonymous you are PREACHING the COLD HARD TRUTH......

2008-01-20T01:22:00.000-05:00

Anonymous you are PREACHING the COLD HARD TRUTH......Reddestofroses I can personally relate to your post@ 9:13pm. When things such as the Hovey St killings or the killing of that taxicab driver by a 16 year old boy, the first society thought is "there was or wasn't something done by the parents with that child's home training"...I will be the first to say the government has taken away parental rights of giving children growing up today that old fashion healthy fear of their parents because using " TIME OUT " will not teach/enforce that repeatly breaking rules/laws is unacceptable but I am a firm believer that spanking/whipping that behind will make all the difference when raising the child to be a repectable citizen. Amen

Whoever is in charge of Marion County Community Co...

2008-01-20T00:10:00.000-05:00

Whoever is in charge of Marion County Community Corrections should be FIRED!

I grew up proud of my hometown, Indianapolis. -Th...

2008-01-20T00:07:00.000-05:00

I grew up proud of my hometown, Indianapolis. -Then something EVIL happened...the Democrat Machine took over.

Police weren't hired for over 2 years. The prosecutor had his budget cut. The public defender went on a hiring spree...and some of his new-hires were a bit less than honorable.

Today, we do NOT have enough police. Our prosecutor is deliberately undercharging criminals (if at all)....and our liberal judges don't send anyone to prison.

The ankle bracelet & "home detention" are jokes among criminals, who know that the prosector has a policy of not filing on them for doing anything they want.

I now live in South Detroit, Indiana.

When the Democrat Machine took over, it changed a great city that was tough on crime into a crime mecca!

-The results speak for themselves.

http://whoisakindele.info/2007/10/indianapolis-101-conservatives-must.html

AGAIN.......I 100% see your same vision. While we ...

2008-01-19T21:13:00.000-05:00

AGAIN.......I 100% see your same vision. While we can't always control the actions or the paths that our children take WE MUST as parents give our very best to guidance & teach our children towards making good decisions for living the "RIGHT LIFE". However when the government teach our children that using corporal punishment (I'm referring to your "9.5" comment)as discipline will get your parents in trouble with the law, how do you the young single parent rise boys to be MEN or girls to be WOMEN living the " RIGHT LIFE"? I believe this is where the problem start parents fear using the "9.5" when it is needed. You make some very vaild points and I would love to continue but my daughter turn 21 years old today and I(her single black mother) AM GOING OUT WITH HER & HER friends. See, I like you feel my duty as her mother is never done.

Some (perhaps many...?) young people aren't being ...

2008-01-19T20:24:00.000-05:00

Some (perhaps many...?) young people aren't being "reached" because they come from single-parent houses. Where the custodial parent has to hussle all week to earn a living. Oversight is often, in those cases, lax, to put it mildly.

The young who are poorly or not supervised, are prey for the gangs, starting at 10-12 years of age. At that age, a child will do almost anything for someone who pays attention and shows an interest. Particularly if the parental supervision has been lax.

There are economic, social and legal reasons too many of these kids are lost. I have 3 kids--24, 20-16--and there but for the grace of God go I.

Well, the Grace of God, my constant harping about rules, and my size 9.5 square up their rear ends about twice a week. I ask lots of questions. Too many, my youngest says.

And when one of my kids tells me they're going to a friend's house, almost every time, I pick up the phone and confirm. Among their friends, I'm known as the Hanging Judge. It is not my goal to be the friend of their friends. I do get respect, which I expect.

And yes, I have had to go retrieve them more than once (but not often), when the stories didn't match.

It's a lot of work. And I'm not finished, so I can't crow about my success--yet. Their mother really deserves most of the credit.

If only the parents of these two young girls had heeded any of the multiple signals, including an armed September robbery where two furs worth $5 large were stolen. Two furs, in a run-down neighborhood, where the girls have no jobs? And the babies' fathers are, in both cases, convicted drug felons? Whose records are not hard to find?

If your 24-year-old child wants to go astray, you've pretty much worn out your options. But when a baby is involved, I don't know about you, but I'm getting my grandkid out of their lickety-split.

Just a comment, Annonymous, you are off the HOOK!...

2008-01-19T18:56:00.000-05:00

Just a comment, Annonymous, you are off the HOOK! And PAINFULLY honest.
Unfortunately we are dealing with a wounded community, and people ages 21-24 aren't being reached on any level. That is scary and everyone plays a role in the way that they deal with people everyday. There's a sociopath on every corner. "Drug flunkies gone wild" What is the value of a lb of weed? Were these murders really about a robbery?

One of the biggest problems with our current crimi...

2008-01-19T18:27:00.000-05:00

One of the biggest problems with our current criminal justice system is the boondoggle that is community corrections. Sentencing statutes that require mandatory non-suspendible prison time used to mean that the defendant went to the Department of Correction since that was the only place you could serve an executed felony sentence. The do-gooders have sold the courts on the concept of “community corrections” and now a mandatory non-suspendible felony sentence can be served however the community corrections staff deems fit. This often means home detention or work release. Imagine you are a defendant, with one or more felony convictions already on your record, standing in front of a judge at a sentencing hearing on a Class B Felony armed robbery conviction and facing up to 20 years at Pendleton or Michigan City. There is a very real likelihood that you could end up serving your sentence IN YOUR LIVING ROOM. Now that’s a deterrent, isn’t it? Since you are a criminal and not one that is inclined to follow the rules anyway what do you think the chances are that you are actually going to abide by the guidelines of your home detention?

And for the poster that wants to see the habitual offender statute used more often: how many of you out there are aware that in 2001 the Indiana general assembly, in its infinite wisdom, decided to virtually eliminate the ability of prosecutors to file habitual offender enhancements on drug charges, or to use prior drug convictions to support habitual offender enhancements? Seem like a good idea to you?

In an era when we have room in our Department of Corrections for hundreds of prisoners from Arizona why are we not sentencing some of our own hard core recidivist felons to the DOC instead of the laughable community corrections? If judges don’t like the burden of putting people in prison then perhaps they are in the wrong line of work.

With a prosecutor like Carl "Lap Dance" Brizzi and...

2008-01-19T18:25:00.000-05:00

With a prosecutor like Carl "Lap Dance" Brizzi and all of the politically selected Judges, what do you expect? Any more naked lap dances lately Carl?

anon 6:08, I understand what you're saying but it ...

2008-01-19T18:23:00.000-05:00

anon 6:08, I understand what you're saying but it wouldn't be polite to be too hard on her now. I've often found people to have misplaced priorities when honoring the dead. A few years ago, one of my uncles who lived down in Bloomington died. He was a decorated WWII veteran, a silver and bronze star recipient, a long-time educator and high school track coach who led his team to a state championship on several occasions. He was a principal for many years at Bloomington South with an infamous reputation for his use of corporal punishment long after it had been discontinued in most schools. He had served on many community boards, etc. At his funeral, there were maybe two dozen folks there besides his immediate family. No mayor, no community leaders, no former students save one, etc. There were some of his old veteran buddies, some long-time close friends and a few people with whom he had worked at the school. As he was eulogized and I looked around the room, I wondered how someone who had given so much to others in life could be recognized by so few in death. I had no idea that he was a decorated war veteran until one of his fellow veterans shared stories of his heroics in the Pacific front. He never bragged about anything. And no, he was not a fan of Bobby Knight. If he had been his boss, Knight wouldn't have lasted long at IU.

6:08 You are spot one. Sorry to say, and it hurt...

2008-01-19T18:13:00.000-05:00

6:08 You are spot one. Sorry to say, and it hurts, but it is the truth. These issues can only be eventually solved by assigning accountability. Bleeding hearts only get more of the same.

I just watched Channel 13 news and saw all the pol...

2008-01-19T18:08:00.000-05:00

I just watched Channel 13 news and saw all the politicians showed up for the funeral, Brizzi and Ballard topping the list. I think this sends the wrong message. This women led a life of drugs and guns and knowingly placed her child in harm's way. She is as much responsible for the death of her 2-year-old as the man who pulled the trigger.

So 5:40, is it possible (just not done) to make ag...

2008-01-19T18:00:00.000-05:00

So 5:40, is it possible (just not done) to make agreements with other counties or state DOC to house Marion County jail inmates?

Part of this should be blamed on US Attorney. Once...

2008-01-19T17:46:00.000-05:00

Part of this should be blamed on US Attorney. Once there has been a
prior felony conviction, it is a federal crime to possess a handgun
or even ammunition. Maybe someone
ought to ask the current and prior
US Attys why the feds were so lazy
and didn't prosecute any federal handgun possessions after the first state level felony conviction had been served at their next arrest.

# 2 to ask is Brizzi. Why didn't he file Revocation of Probation
proceedings? I'm not sure if any
of these suspects had the 2 prior
felonies for the "bitch" (Habitual)
enhancement. Were their sentences as a result of trials or binding pleas?

# 3 to ask are the Marion County Judges. They probably won't answer
back, but that at least it puts
some light on them.

4:21, Brizzi may have a lot of faults, but his con...

2008-01-19T17:40:00.000-05:00

4:21, Brizzi may have a lot of faults, but his conviction rate is at or above average for a city this size. Kennedy really, really, tried to make an issue of it during the campaign, but couldn't.

Regardless, these men WERE convicted. Thus, the burden shifts to the judges to send them away. They didn't. Their asses need to be put to the fire. They make 120k a year, they can stand the heat.

How about this-I have listened to wire intercepts in narcotic dealing cases before, and at least four times have heard one of the perps say "make sure you are in Marion County when this goes down." Even they know they won't get shit here, and they also know they will get hammered out of county.

2:13, if you recall after the murder wave around a year and a half ago, one of the crime fighting solutions to alleviate jail overcrowding was to send overflow to other counties. Never happened. They just simply gave everyone such a low bond no one stayed in jail while waiting for trial. Judges who didn't want to go along with this kept getting pressured to drop the bonds. Judges who always looked for an excuse to release someone used this for all it was worth. The judges who stood firm eventually caved or stuck their guns for so long all the other courts' prisoners were released, so there was plenty of room.

1:54, the state Constitutional quote you cite, nee...

2008-01-19T17:19:00.000-05:00

1:54, the state Constitutional quote you cite, needs ampllification, mostly because it confers power to individuals not specifically gauranteed in the federal Constitution. Here, courtesy of a handy-dandy pocket-sized version of the U.S. Constitution which I always carry (because folks continually refer to this cherrished document, and so few actually know what it says):

"A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed."

I quoted it verbatim--any Constitutional scholar will tell you, in the context of the 1770s, anything capitalized was to have predominance over other words, should disputes about meaning later arise. And in 1770, capitalized "State" meant the federal government. Yeah, I know it's confusing. Read some of Madison's or Jefferson's treatises to determine why. When they meant individual states, their language was "the states" (lower case andplural, preceded by "the").

Anything in the Indiana Constitution, specifically the Art.1 Sec. 32 reference you cite, is subordinate to the federal Constitution IF a conflict arises.

There are approx. 14-15 states which specifically mention the right to personal defense as a cornerstone of the right to bear arms.

Although Indiana's 1-32 has not been specifically tested in the federal court system, every single one of the states which has fought this battle has lost. For good reason.

You can have your own opinion, but you can't have your own facts.

Tip of IcebergTake it from someone that knows. The...

2008-01-19T16:21:00.000-05:00

Tip of Iceberg

Take it from someone that knows. These men are just the tip of the iceberg in terms of violent felons running amok in our community. The judges need to take some of the heat but a poor conviction rate by Carl Brizzi office allows many to walk too or have their sentences reduced.

Citizens really need to start looking into the punishment that is being handed out.

The problem is lack of jail space and punishment. ...

2008-01-19T16:02:00.000-05:00

The problem is lack of jail space and punishment. This country suffers from such a weak jail/punishment phase, that crimes such as burglary, theft, etc. are basically thought of as "kids being kids" even when it is adults committing such crime. Even if your lucky enough to go to prison, it is a cake walk compared to other systems around the world. I am not one for prisons that are cesspools, but cable TV, gaming systems, etc.? Give me a break. I personally say let them live in their clean cell for most the day and give them two or three hours tops to do other things: Work out, some TV (no cable), cards, board games. Making prison into a social club of thugs is dumb. No rehabilitation is going to take place in that sort of environment. The only punishment ends up being you can't get laid by someone of the opposite sex and you can't leave.

The scary thing in all this, we ain't seen nothing yet. Just give the country another 10 years, maybe 15. If you don't have a gun now, get one. Learn how to use it. Learn how to be a person who is aware and in the know, not someone with their head stuck in some progressive/liberal blissninnie wonderland.

In the 1970's, as a back lash against government "...

2008-01-19T15:15:00.000-05:00

In the 1970's, as a back lash against government "abuses", Indiana along with about a half dozen or so other states passed what is called determinate sentencing. In other words, you do crime "A" and get sent to the joint for 10 years. As part of that sentencing structure, if you behave (joke) and do something while incarcerated (take a GED class, learn a "trade" or some other way of getting time cuts) the sentence becomes reduced even more.

Example: Bad guy gets ten years, presumption is that if he behaves, he will serve 5. Take a GED class, drug class, parenting class, and a trade training and you are out in two and a half years on a ten year sentence.

Do you go before the Parole board prior to your release - not likely. These guidelines force the system to boot you out when you have jumped through all the hoops.

Now you are on the street, where you are to report to a parole agent that historically may have anywhere from 75 to 150 other parolees to supervise at any one time. The parole agents are to see (face to face) every parolee at least once a month, and do home and work visits once a quarter. With this volume of parolees to supervise, that means that the parole agent has about 10-15 minutes per month to actually see and talk to a parolee. If something goes south and an agent's parolee(s) do something stupid and get in trouble that agent now has to spend literally hours writing up paperwork to submit to a parole board (who most likely never even saw the parolee to begin with) asking permission to arrest the parolee and take him back to prison. That process in and of itself can take days.

Once the warrant is issued by the parole board the parole agent then must find the parolee, or hope they show at the office to be arrested.

The system is set up to continue to cycle criminals back to the streets. This was done originally as part of an idea that all people needed was some basic help, and that people are basically good. (Hate to tell you but people are NOT good. Left to their own devises people will turn into animals, just look at how self-serving two year olds are).

The solution: throw out determinate sentencing and return to indeterminate sentencing guidelines. (You do crime "A" and are sentenced to to 10-15 years, with a minimum of 10 years) Have EVERY prisoner seeking release go before the parole board, and demonstrate that they are indeed "rehabilitated" to where they are no longer a threat to the community. Eliminate sentence modifications by the trial judge, save those situations where exculpatory evidence exonerates the prisoner.

Then maybe the revolving door that is INDOC might swing in favor of the citizens and slam shut on the criminals.