Matt Hills, my opponent in the GOP primary next Tuesday for City-County Council District 2, has said keeping our neighborhoods safe is his “number one priority.” Unfortunately suggestions he makes in pursuit of that goal are platitudes that originate in the Land of Failed Policies.” 1/5

Example: “Invest in technology to better fight crime and keep our officers safe.” This approach pits the police against ... citizens. Hills has experience as an officer in the Army. Strategies of an occupying force work no better in any part of Indy than they have in Afghanistan or Iraq. 2/5

Deployment of armed troops is a TV staple, but the last act of failure in real life. A Vera study of 15.6 million 911 calls across 9 cities, found an average of 62.6 % were “noncriminal” situations w/typically no clear safety concern & officers not required by law to make an arrest. 3/5

We can make everyone more safe w/good public schools, decent & affordable places to live, and dependable mass transit. A solution to drug overdoses has been tried in Portugal for the past 20 years: drugs are legal. The “war” on drugs, like the “war” on crime, failed. 4/5

I’m Mark Small: pro-civil rts, anti-gun, anti-TIF, pro-choice, pro-environment, pro-teacher, anti-censorship GOP candidate for City-County Council District 2. I approve of this message. Hell, I wrote it. 5/5