Jill Disis

jill.disis@indystar.com

The funeral procession route stretched for miles, carving a path that began in the heart of Indianapolis and weaved its way north to Crown Hill Cemetery.

Onlookers lined the streets, waving American flags or saluting patrol cars to honor Perry Renn, an Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department officer who was gunned down by an assailant with an AK-47-type assault rifle.

But not everyone was there to honor the fallen officer. Indianapolis Public Safety Director Troy Riggs, who was part of the procession, noted a few troubling exceptions to the atmosphere of solemnity.

At one point, Riggs said, a small group of people began yelling at the passing patrol cars, upset that a funeral procession was blocking traffic.

More disturbing, Riggs said, was a man he saw walking down the street and laughing about Renn's death.

"He was saying, 'AK-47, he didn't miss. He didn't miss,' " Riggs said.

After the July 5 fatal shooting of the 21-year IMPD veteran, shows of support emerged.

But not just for Renn.

Sympathy also arose for the suspect, 25-year-old Major Davis Jr., who was wounded in the gunbattle.

Friends began an online campaign in support of a "Major Movement," condemning police and claiming they harassed Davis and his family.

Others, like the man shouting at the funeral procession line, lashed out at officers.

"This is troublesome," Riggs said.

Whether because of disrespect, distrust or anti-authority zeal, a sentiment against police officers persists and occasionally flares with deadly consequences.

Some law enforcement officials say they have not seen such tensions since the 1970s. Recent violence against officers nationwide, they say, has been alarming.

That violence often stems from deep-rooted feelings bred from the struggles of the civil rights era, feelings that are compounded by a lack of economic and educational opportunities that persist today.

Although the backlash against police officers involves whites, as well, a single tragic incident — often involving a white police officer and a black man — can stir tensions that threaten to boil over and undermine efforts to build good will.

Attacks on officers

Although local law enforcement officials point to Renn's death and its aftermath as a cause for concern over police and community relations, it's not the only incident in recent weeks that resulted in a backlash.

Less than two weeks after Renn's death, a rookie police officer in New Jersey was ambushed and fatally shot. Media reports from The Associated Press noted that a neighborhood memorial for the killer was larger than a memorial for the officer.

On Aug. 9, similar tensions surfaced again, this time in Ferguson, Mo., a suburb of St. Louis. An unarmed black teenager was fatally shot by a police officer. Authorities and witnesses gave conflicting accounts of what transpired.

The killing prompted protests and riots throughout the area. St. Louis County authorities said shouts of "kill the police" erupted from a large crowd that confronted officers after the shooting.

In Indianapolis, officials also have drawn attention to a flurry of firearms-related attacks on officers. An Indianapolis Star analysis of IMPD data and media reports from April 2013 to April 2014 found that 20 officers had been shot at, six had been hit and one, Rod Bradway, had been killed. More recent IMPD data were not yet available.

In some cases, IMPD reports indicated, officers were shot at even if they had not confronted any suspects. In one June 2013 case, two officers were putting equipment in their vehicles when someone fired about a half dozen rounds at them.

Craig Floyd, chairman and CEO of the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund, said he, too, has noticed hostility.

Floyd's organization in July released a report of officer fatalities through the first six months of 2014. During that time, 67 officers were killed nationwide, a 31 percent increase from the same period last year, when 51 officers were killed.

Although traffic-related fatalities accounted for the majority of those deaths, firearms-related deaths jumped to 25 this year from 16 last year, more than a 50 percent increase.

"I think an uptick of this magnitude during the first half of 2014 is alarming," Floyd said. "We should all take note. It reminds us that despite so many efforts that are afoot right now … we need to make it safer for officers in this country."

Officer deaths have fallen dramatically since civil unrest and anti-authority attitudes helped push fatalities to an all-time high of 280 in 1974, according to Floyd and Memorial Fund statistics that date to 1791.

Since then, body armor and better training have helped reduce officer fatalities to an average of 150 annually. In 2012 and 2013, that number slid even further — last year's total of 100 officer deaths was the lowest since 1944, when 91 officers were killed.

Despite the decline in recent years, Floyd said he thinks tensions between law enforcement officers and some segments of the population are escalating — tensions reflected in the body count.

"I think we have a real problem in that there's an anti-authority sentiment that's prevalent in this country today, the likes of which we haven't seen in a number of years," Floyd said, "maybe going back to the 1970s."

A combustible mix

Anti-police sentiment isn't limited to brazen disrespect. Some experts pointed to an inherent distrust that some people, especially among the black community, have for the police community as a significant contributor to that tension.

William Oliver, an associate professor in the Department of Criminal Justice at Indiana University-Bloomington, said a number of factors help drive that distrust. High levels of poverty, limited economic and educational opportunity and a lack of strong paternal role models among members of the black population provide motivation for young men to join gangs and a life of crime.

That said, there is another undeniable factor that goes back decades and persists: the racial insensitivity and overt bigotry displayed by some officers.

Racist actions by law enforcement officials dating to the 1960s and earlier, Oliver said, form the basis for a continued sense of distrust toward police officers today.

"There's a very long history of lack of respect, lack of satisfaction with law enforcement," Oliver said. "And some of that goes back to the civil rights era, when law enforcement was responsible for enforcing Jim Crow segregation laws."

Oliver cited research conducted during President Lyndon B. Johnson's administration that examined the causes of race riots, which found blacks were more likely than whites to express distrust of law enforcement and experience acts of excessive force.

"The same findings reported in the 1960s exist in 2014," Oliver said.

The Rev. Charles Ellis, who works with the Ten Point Coalition, a faith-based, anti-crime group in Indianapolis, said those seeds of distrust are not easily fixed. He pointed to the controversial death of 16-year-old Michael Taylor, an auto theft suspect who was fatally shot in the head while he sat handcuffed in an Indianapolis police car.

Police said Taylor shot himself with a gun he had somehow concealed in his athletic shoe. A civil jury later concluded that Taylor likely did not kill himself, awarding $3.5 million to Taylor's mother.

Although that jury did not directly accuse police of killing Taylor, it did conclude that they were responsible for the teen's death. The judgment amount was reduced to $2.6 million on appeal.

That incident happened in 1987, almost 30 years ago, but Ellis said it's still a popular topic when community conversations turn to race relations.

"I think that more and more people are not indicting the whole department because of the actions of one or a few," Ellis said. "But, I mean, it gets very hard to do when there's been a history of mistrust and mistreatment."

Although Ellis said he thinks relations between the black community and IMPD have improved in recent years, there have been some setbacks. In 2012, a biracial teenager named Brandon Johnson sued the city of Indianapolis after he was beaten by police two years earlier when he protested his brother's burglary arrest. The suit was settled a year later for $150,000.

The officer accused of using unnecessary force on Johnson was recommended for firing by then-Police Chief Paul Ciesielski. The Civilian Police Merit Board, however, absolved the officer of misconduct six months later.

This year, a video posted to the photo- and video-sharing website Instagram showed two IMPD officers kicking 29-year-old Marcus Jackson in May. The officers said in charging documents that Jackson was aggressive toward them and appeared to be high on hallucinogens.

IMPD investigated the incident, citing standard protocol after an incident in which an officer uses force. That investigation is ongoing.

"We have to kind of jump over those hurdles before people trust again," Ellis said. "But when that trust is breached in some kind of a way, like Brandon Johnson, then yeah, that kind of threatens to roll back the clock."

Kayin Adwoa, who grew up in Martindale-Brightwood, the neighborhood where Renn was shot, said many residents there, including herself, have a negative opinion of police officers. She said she has been a victim of racial profiling and discrimination by officers.

"I've been called a black bitch, whore, a criminal, just different kinds of names," Adwoa said. "I haven't met a friendly officer. I've met some who are doing their job, but not one who went above and beyond to assist the community."

Murmurs of distrust again arose after the death of Renn. Ivory Duerson, a 41-year-old black man who is president of the Brightwood Community Council, said he doesn't know Davis, but he knew his father, who died in police custody a day before Davis' 14th birthday.

Authorities said Major Davis Sr. was belligerent and punched one of the officers who were trying to arrest him. Autopsy reports concluded that Davis suffered a heart attack and that his "physical exertion" as he resisted arrest contributed to his distress.

The Davis family, as well as many who know them, see things differently. For them, the officers were at fault for the older Davis' death.

"In his (Davis Jr.'s) mind, that's what he would think as a child," Duerson said.

Tattered trust

Despite such tensions, many people have commended IMPD for making strides in recent years toward better community relations.

Although some have offered support for the suspect in Renn's death, Ellis said, the majority of people he has spoken with have condemned Davis.

"I heard a lot of comments that just said, 'Hey, that guy's wrong. … That guy's just wrong,'" Ellis said.

Oliver said IMPD also has succeeded by appointing minority men to visible administrative positions. The current chief of police, Rick Hite, is black. This year, two black men were promoted to assistant chief in charge of administration and deputy chief of operations, two of the top command posts at IMPD.

Although some in the Martindale-Brightwood neighborhood where Davis lived are skeptical of police, others say they appreciate their presence.

Patt Ladd, former president of the Greater Citizens Coalition of Martindale-Brightwood, said she has a high level of respect for officers. She said she has interacted with police officers who attend the neighborhood association's monthly community meetings.

"Police are doing the best they can for the few (officers) they have," Ladd said. "I have nothing but respect for them."

Amy Harwell, who replaced Ladd as president of the neighborhood group, agreed. Although she thinks some officers tend to make assumptions about people who live in a crime-ridden area, she said there are a few who do what they can to help people.

"There are a few out there that really go above and beyond the call of duty," Harwell said. "You're not going to trust all of them. But you have to give them credit for something because some of them do their jobs and take their jobs seriously."

Enforcing the law, protecting the public and building good will can be precarious, however.

IMPD recently beefed up its SWAT team to include about a dozen full-time members who will proactively seek out violent offenders.

But an American Civil Liberties Union study of more than 800 SWAT deployments conducted in 2011 and 2012 warns that the "militarization of policing encourages officers to adopt a 'warrior' mentality and think of the people they are supposed to serve as enemies."

Additionally, comments by the family of the suspect in Renn's slaying have become a flashpoint.

In a July 6 TV news report by WISH-8, the Davis family indicated that Renn might still be alive if he had stayed in his car before the fateful altercation. (A written statement issued on behalf of the family this week said the comments were the misinterpreted words of a mother reeling from grief and were not intended to be an affront to the police officer.)

The July TV report prompted a backlash from several people in the community, including many at IMPD. The department launched a campaign pledging that its officers "will always get out of my car," a slogan that made its way onto T-shirts and also was used by police departments across the country and around the world. At least 7,000 T-shirts have been sold, according to the Indianapolis chapter of the Fraternal Order of Police.

"That's not how we operate or how we can imagine any other police department would operate," said Chris Wuensch, an IMPD bike patrol officer who has worked the North District neighborhoods for 11 years. "No matter what it is, we're going to go out and do our jobs."

Ruben Rumbaut, a professor of sociology at the University of California-Irvine who has studied community policing since the 1970s, said community trust in police is a never-ending process — and one that must be earned.

"It's fragile, should not be taken for granted, and can easily be sundered in conflict situations, especially when conflict has been long simmering," Rumbaut said in an email. "When trust is tattered, by neglect or routine disrespect or mistreatment or perceived systemic bias, community doubt can become pervasive, and the police won't get 'the benefit of the doubt.'"

Star reporter Kristine Guerra, USA Today and The Associated Press contributed to this story. Call Star reporter Jill Disis at (317) 444-6137. Follow her on Twitter: @jdisis.

Editor's note: As worries over violent crime rise, The Indianapolis Star is setting out to examine the roots of the problem and what can be done. "Building a Safer City," an ongoing series, will explore what works — and what doesn't — to fight crime, protect neighborhoods and sustain strong communities.