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Last Friday, a three-member commission appointed by Indianapolis Mayor Joe Hogsett released their review of the incidents and police response surrounding the George Floyd riots downtown. That report insidiously gave the city’s impotent chief executive a ‘pass’ and laid the entirety of the blame for the violence and destruction suffered over the course of two nights on IMPD officers.

Like all persons with a functioning prefrontal cortex that hasn’t been compromised by mind-altering substances (clears throat), FOP President Rick Snyder says the committee’s report is an embarrassment for our city.

“It wasn’t the police that failed our city; it was our politicians,” Snyder told the Hammer and Nigel Show Tuesday. “It’s the political leadership that abdicated their responsibilities, they required our officers to take a compromised posture, and that resulted in the destruction of over 100 businesses and four people getting shot, two of whom lost their lives as a result.”

Synder continued: “Everybody knows that this was a huge catastrophic failure on all political levels, and we have a report that was generated by the very person who is ultimately the individual who should be taking responsibility for his failure: Mayor Joe Hogsett.”

Snyder noted that one of the contributing factors to the riots getting out of hand was that IMPD officers were told by the Mayor’s office on the first night of the riots to “stand down.”

“This is no longer a disputed fact. If you listen to the IMPD tapes from those nights as things unfolded, it is absolutely clear what was going on,” Snyder said. “It turned into a war zone. Further, there are multiple videos on social media that show our officers were being attacked with frozen bottles of water, bricks, and gunfire for multiple hours.”

Those tapes have yet to be released to the public, and investigators were only given access to transcripts.

“No one has heard the radio tapes yet,” said Snyder. “Why not? It’s been nine months. They have to make the tapes available to the public so that everyone can hear for themselves what was going on.”

Synder also expressed outrage at the suggestion in the review committee’s report that IMPD officers contributed to the unrest by wearing riot gear on the nights of riots.

“And here’s what complicates [that conclusion] even further and demonstrates how the facts don’t match the committee’s report: We have one of the nation’s leading, best-trained emergency response groups in the nation,” said Snyder.

He explained: “The Department of Homeland Security is one of the only departments authorized to train law enforcement on these types of riot control and crowd management issues. Very few other departments are authorized to do that type of training; however, one of the leading departments that is authorized to do that kind of training is IMPD. Why? Because we have some of the best qualified and trained people in the nation in that department.”

Snyder added that IMPD officers did not put on riot gear until after they had been attacked and buildings had been destroyed.

“Further, riot control agents, which is pepper spray balls, were not launched until 10 pm on that Friday night,” Snyder explained. “The protests began at 3 pm – a full seven hours earlier. So to blame the IMPD for instigating the violence is unacceptable and doesn’t jive with the facts.”

In his criticism of Joe Hogsett, Snyder noted that the mayor has yet to explain his whereabouts on the night of the riots.

“We asked the mayor a very simple question nine months ago that has yet to be answered: ‘Where were you?’ It’s a simple question and it deserves a simple answer,” said Snyder.

“What is unquestionable [about the riots] is that we had political leaders trying to tell the police how to most effectively do their job,” Snyder added. “That never works out.”

Click the link below to hear Hammer and Nigel’s full interview with FOP President Rick Snyder.

https://omny.fm/shows/hammer-and-nigel-show/fop-president-rick-snyder-responds-to-mayor-hogset