Death and Politics
Friends and constituents,
When does a human life matter? When do politicians take deaths seriously, and when do they shrug and act as though nothing could be done?
Let's discuss. Click Here to watch the fifth of my new weekly video series, Indianapolis This Week.
This week, as part of the deal wherein traitorous and spineless Democrats voted to reopen the government, all THC products were banned nationwide. Mitch McConnell, the Republican Senator from Texas who had authored the 2018 bill that legalized hemp products, had asked for this new “closing of the loophole” to help protect kids.
Yet it’s alcohol, not cannabis, that causes about 178,000 deaths a year in the United States. Cannabis does not seem to be related to any deaths to users, other than by moderately impairing their driving motor vehicles and thus making crashes more likely. Just about every argument against weed or delta-8 could be deployed even more effectively against alcohol. Yet cannabis remains a Schedule 1 drug, the Delta-8 “loophole” is closed, while alcohol is not banned.
Deaths by alcohol are seen as natural and therefore acceptable.
Similarly, Indianapolis homicides receive a huge amount of attention. The local news covers shootings extremely frequently. Local politicians frequently issue statements about gun violence, and this year Indianapolis Councilors hurriedly passed a new curfew regulation to try to police the behavior of young people and avoid shooting incidents.
A single shooting would be an unacceptable amount of gun violence. I’d gladly support spending energy and money on preventing the poverty that leads to gun violence. But still, gun violence is going down in Indianapolis.
On the other hand, look at deaths on our streets from crashes. So far in 2025, 76 people have lost their lives on the streets of Marion County as a result of crashes. This includes 19 pedestrians, 10 bicyclists, 10 motorcyclists, and 36 motorists. (One death was not coded correctly to identify the victim).
14 of these deaths were the result of hit-and-run collisions.
7 of the dead were at least 60 years old.
Beyond that, travelers in Indianapolis have suffered 134 serious injuries in 2025 - 32 from hit-and-runs.
I was a proud sponsor of the Vision Zero policy that the Indianapolis Council passed last year. This policy committed the City to take bold and meaningful steps that would eliminate serious injuries and traffic fatalities in our city by 2035.
But since then, I’ve grown increasingly concerned.
The resolution I sponsored called for a Vision Zero Task Force to meet in public by October 1, 2024. As advocates had to find out by filing public records requests, a “pre-meeting” was held on September 23, 2024 with no public notice. No public meeting was held until October 23rd - where the concept of Vision Zero was defined and task force members were introduced, but no deliberation occurred.
The resolution I sponsored called for a Vision Zero Action Plan to be adopted by July 1, 2025. Today, November 16th, the Action Plan has still not been adopted. As advocates have pointed out, these delays have very real consequences - most importantly, the lack of any city budget dedicated funds for Vision Zero in 2026.
Vision Zero is often misunderstood as focusing on cyclist and pedestrian safety, which isn’t true - half the people dying on our streets are drivers or passengers in cars, and the policy works to save their lives as well. But it is important to focus on “vulnerable road users” (cyclists, pedestrians, those using mobility aids, and so on) because we are so frequently injured and killed. So it’s been worrying to see multiple examples in the last few years of cyclist infrastructure being removed from plans in order to avoid complaints about parking.
The Department of Public Works proposed a new snow plowing policy this week. Thanks to some of my colleagues on the Council and me, the Hogsett administration was forced to agree to plow more residential streets to avoid a repeat of last year’s unacceptable snow response. Many of the changes in this policy are significant improvements for the better, and I am glad about this.
But under the proposed new policy, no protected bike lanes in the city will ever be plowed. That means that in District 13, traffic that has just gotten used to the protected bike lanes on Michigan Street, New York Street, College Avenue, 22nd Street, will now suddenly see cyclists sharing lanes with cars once again on the days when snow and ice makes this the most dangerous.
The City has already purchased perfectly-sized Kubota vehicles that could easily plow the protected bike lanes, but is claiming that additional vehicles would be required in order to actually get the job done.
I’ve heard from people who love the new protected bike lanes and people who hate them - but everyone would be more frustrated to see that the new infrastructure that removed parking is left unusable by anyone after any significant snow. This would result in frustrated drivers who are slowed down by cyclists. It would result in more arguments against protected bike lanes (since the City doesn’t treat them seriously by actually maintaining them) - and more importantly, it would likely result in people being hurt or killed.
We can save lives and create streets that are joyful, not terrifying, to travel via bike, car, or feet. But none of us like sitting around waiting for The Authorities to Do Something.
So here’s some action items YOU could take this week:
Today: Attend a vigil and pass out safety gear. Today is the World Day of Remembrance for Road Traffic Victims, and advocates are gathering for a vigil. While there, community members will pass out free bike lights, helmets, and reflective gear that could save lives.
Tuesday: Attend the Board of Public Works meeting. Tuesday at 1:00 pm at the City-County Building, the appointed Board of Public Works will vote on whether to accept the proposed plowing policy. Show up to lend Council appointees your voice and show that the community needs the City to do better!
Next Sunday: Join a Protest for Safe Streets. At the site where a pedestrian was killed by a hit-and-run drunk driver well over a year ago - a site where so far only ugly orange temporary barricades have been added for safety - District 13 advocates are leading a protest to call attention to the lack of action and demand more urgency at keeping us safe.
Together we can build a safer city. I’ll keep pushing from the inside, and I’ll keep cheering on the activists pushing from the outside.
In love and solidarity,
Jesse