FOP Lodge 86 President Rick Snyder Joins

**Nigel Jason Hammer** (0:00)
Hammer and Nigel.

**SPEAKER_2** (0:01)
Do you believe these characters are weirdos?

**Nigel Jason Hammer** (0:04)
So let's rock it! My name is Nigel Jason Hammer, right over there with a very special guest on the hotline.

**SPEAKER_2** (0:12)
Rick Snyder is the president of the Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 86, here in Indy.
Rick, we were talking to our newsroom earlier. Ryan Hedrick came in studio and mentioned we had some fireworks last night at the City-County Council Public Safety Meeting. This was in regards to the Dallas Jet situation. We had protesters coming in. People were getting out of hand. And then at one point, the council leader, Leroy Robinson, almost shushed the chief of police. Walk me through what the heck happened last night.

**Rick Snyder** (0:53)
Yeah, guys, it was it was a bit of a train wreck. If anybody watched it, we had these paid professional protesters that had come in to the Indianapolis City Council Chambers and once again, interrupted the council proceedings while the chief of police was giving remarks related to the proposed budget for next year. The problem with this, guys, is that the chair of the Public Safety Committee, Leroy Robinson, lost control of the meeting. And rather than exercising the power of the chair and the power of the gavel, and quieting the antagonist, the disruptors down, he actually encouraged the chief to cease with her comments, terminate her statement, and just move on to a question and answer segment, cutting off her remarks. Fortunately, the chief is a pro.
She did not bow to that and said that she intended to finish her remarks and really force the issue. But by then, after the chair attempted to do that three separate times, he really lost control of the meeting and then had the goal to start ordering uniform deputies around trying to clear those folks out of the room. So it was another night of chaos in our council, and we put out a written statement that it was unacceptable. But we've also called on the president of the City County Council, Maggie Lewis, to get a handle on things and restore order and decorum to such proceedings.

**SPEAKER_2** (2:22)
It's not every day you see an official release come out from the FOP that includes the word piss poor in it.
But that's what I see right here, quote, In short, the chair of the Public Safety Committee did a piss poor job of running the public safety meeting last night. Our organization has never known Chairman Leroy Robinson to allow any other chiefs to be shouted down and then encourage any chief to cease their comments. That's pretty strong, Rick.

**Rick Snyder** (2:55)
Well, guys, I want to tell you, those were probably about the kindest words I could use to describe the performance.
You know, here's the problem with it. And that's what I was alluding to. This same chair would run would run out of his way to run blocker for chiefs of police like Rick Hyde or Randy Taylor and other folks.
And, you know, would never allow such a thing to happen. I don't know why it occurred last night. But as we said, we, we called on Councilor Robinson to apologize to the chief of police and really to the officers that she represents. Because here's the deal, guys.
This is a public assembly room. It's not a public protest room or a public riot room or a public intimidation room. The problem is a law-abiding citizen who's watching this on their television, there is no way when they watch something that looks like a thunderdome going on that they're then going to come down and exercise and participate in their own government. They're intimidated and scared away by such antics. And that's the problem with what is occurring. And what we have said and we have made clear directly to President Maggie Lewis, is you got to get a handle on this and restore the confidence in these proceedings. My point is this, guys, none of those actions would be acceptable in a court of law, would they? No. Do you know any judge that would accept any of those things? Well, why is it different in a separate branch of government? And why has the council devolved to this? You know, Bert Servos, who that council room is named after, would be rolling over in his grave when you've got such actions occurring and inaction by the elected officials. So I'm confident President Lewis will get a handle on the situation. We've received information that it's our understanding that Chairman Leroy Robinson has contacted the Chief of Police to apologize and hopefully set some things straight. And we're just hopeful that this will not be allowed to continue on. Guys, we've got a vote over the overall budget that will be coming up next month. And it's just imperative that we get order restored.