Neighbors asking City of Indianapolis to make Kennedy King Park safer

INDIANAPOLIS — Something happened at a park on Indianapolis’ north side on the night of April 4, 1968.

An hour or so after Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., was gunned down in Memphis, Robert F. Kennedy mounted a flatbed trailer parked on a grassy incline near the 1700 block of Broadway Street and told a crowd of unsuspecting Hoosiers that an assassin’s bullet had slain King Jr. At the time, Kennedy was trying to become the Democratic nominee for President, and he was in town to talk about his candidacy.

Two months later, Kennedy himself would also be shot to death during a campaign stop in California.

In 2005, that greenspace was renamed Kennedy King Park, and a monument depicting the two men reaching out their hands to one another was unveiled.

Now, on the 20^th anniversary of the park’s dedication, neighbors say the area has become too dangerous to enjoy, and they want the City and Indy Parks to fund better security.

”There have been several murders,” said Steven Rench, President of the Broadway/Park Neighborhood Association. “There are drug deals that happen all around the perimeter of the park every day, multiple times a day. The dealers are armed, visibly armed. We fear for the safety of people coming to enjoy the park.”

One shooting incident in 2023 left the basketball court littered with 40 shell casings.

Last weekend, a woman was killed in an abandoned apartment at a public housing complex on the park’s border.

Indy Parks has approved $4.5 million in improved landscaping, paths and signage at the park, but Rench believes the enhancements mean nothing if residents are too afraid to enjoy them.

”We have asked for expanded lighting in the park around all of the interior paths, existing and proposed,” Rench said. “We would like improved street lighting all around the perimeter streets of the park that light not only the streets but the perimeter of the park itself. And then, most importantly, or equally importantly, we want multiple cameras installed that are connected to the city’s b-link security system.

“We feel that three are necessary. One at the basketball courts. One at the memorial. One at 21^st and Broadway. Those are the places where the drug deals happen.”

BPNA has joined forces with Herron-Morton Place Neighborhood Association, the Old North Side Neighborhood Associated and the Fall Creek Place Homeowners Association to lobby for better security at the park and on its surrounding streets.

Each area has enjoyed a renaissance over the past two decades as new neighbors and investment have breathed life into an old neighborhood seeking to shed its violent past and embrace its historic commitment to peace.

”Indianapolis benefitted from the speech,” Rench said. “It did not suffer from the mayhem and destruction of other large cities in the country at that time in 1968. The irony is not lost on us. The two men would have to be very frustrated about what’s going on here.”

The neighbors, who say they are not opposed to raising their own funds for matching grants to improve security, meet with parks officials Wednesday night.