Unruly Expo, Classic Crowds Focus Of Debate

INDIANAPOLIS -- Dramatic video of an unruly crowd at Indiana Black Expo's Summer Celebration was the impetus for community action designed to stop the gathering of crowds of young people.

People attended a community forum on Wednesday night to address concerns about large crowds that gather on downtown streets during Summer Celebration, the Circle City Classic and at Circle Center Mall, 6News' Dan Spehler reported.

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Unruly Expo, Classic Crowds Focus Of Debate

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The meeting was brought on by Councilwoman Sherron Franklin's assertion that the crowds are a disaster waiting to happen.

Video of an incident during Summer Celebration surfaced on YouTube.com, illustrating the concern.

Some community leaders said the biggest problem is that teenagers are out past curfew.

"I watched these kids go up and down as much as they could move and they couldn't move. It was like shoulder to shoulder and I thought, 'We've sort of created this problem as a community,'" said Jeff West, who runs a restaurant downtown.

Councilman Isaac Randolph openly asked, "What type of downtown, what type of city will we have when we have, 'We're at war,' as a headline? What does that say about our community?"

Blocking off streets and holding outdoor events to get the crowd's attention away from other things was one of the possible solutions that was suggested.

"Cage people and arrest them is what we did," West said. "What if we blocked off Maryland Street and started some sort of a musical rally?"

The meeting had its critics, including Keni Washington, who noted that young people were sparsely represented.

"I thought when I saw on the agenda that you had a teenage panel, I really thought you invited some young people to be up here," Washington said. "Where are they?"

"I would have liked to have seen more people come out ... but overall, I think it was a positive and we did come out with some solutions," Franklin said.

Some of the solutions discussed include more events for young people, more youth centers, more security cameras and more adult supervision.

Community leaders agreed that whatever solutions are done will require more money to make happen.