For the fourth year in a row, Indianapolis has broken a new homicide record, reports the Indianapolis Star. The deaths of two men shot and killed inside a vehicle Wednesday pushed the total dead in 2018 to 156. This year’s count eclipsed the 155 cases investigated by police last year and continued an annual climb in criminal homicides that began in 2011. It can create hopelessness at times. “Most people don’t think that you can do anything about it,” said Rev. Charles Harrison, co-founder of the Indianapolis Ten Point Coalition. “You cannot get the guns off the street. You’re not able to deal with the issues of poverty and broken families and the hopelessness these kids are feeling.” For Harrison, who has been involved in anti-crime efforts for two decades, it’s clear who pays the highest cost in Indianapolis: black males, particularly those under 25.
Young black males are four times more likely than everyone else to be victims of criminal homicides in Indianapolis. They’re overwhelmingly dying of gunshot wounds. Black males under 25 were victims in 34 cases this year. Young white males accounted for two victims. It matches a years-long trend. Since 2014, just 17 young white males were victims, compared to 175 who were young black males, making up about one-fourth of all victims. “I think they’re very vulnerable in our society today because many of them are growing up in neighborhoods where there’s a higher level of crime and violence taking place,” Harrison said. Veteran police officers are retiring faster than recruits can be hired, trained and put to work, said Rick Snyder of Fraternal Order of Police No. 86. “We’re on track to lose over 100 officers this year,” he said. Attrition and a small recruit class means the year will end with 1,681 officers, an increase of only seven from a year ago.