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reputation before don t wait until it s too late to try again because brunch won t save downtown neither will silence posted on july 12th 2025 no comments midnight ain t what it used to be by abdul hakim shabazz by abdul hakim shabazz indiana barrister once upon a time being out after midnight was a teenage rite of passage you grabbed a late night bite with friends you hung out at the mall maybe you caught a midnight movie and if you were really pushing it you d cruise back into the driveway just before curfew fueled by adrenaline mountain dew and the knowledge that your parents might be waiting with porch light justice that was then this is now in 2012 indianapolis followed state law and set curfews at 1 a m for youth ages 15 to 17 and 11 p m for those 14 and under on fridays and saturdays back then that seemed reasonable times were different so was the city fast forward to 2025 and we re having a very different conversation one punctuated by police lights press conferences and yet another shooting involving teenagers downtown which brings us to the current proposal from city county councilor leroy robinson his ordinance would tighten the city s curfew laws significantly youth 15 17 fridays and saturdays home by 11 p m sundays through thursdays home by 9 p m youth 14 and under home by 9 p m every night in short it moves up curfew by two hours on weekends and four hours on school nights for older teens it s a bold move and it s overdue predictably some critics are already warning about overreach government nanny state overcorrection and criminalizing black and brown youth to be fair those concerns deserve a real conversation especially in a city with a documented history of uneven enforcement but let s cut through the static for a moment and talk about reality because the question we should be asking isn t is it fair to set an 11 p m curfew the question is why should any 15 year old be downtown at 12 45 a m in this environment let s be clear this is not about locking up kids for breathing past midnight exceptions still exist for work school activities emergencies and being with a parent or guardian this isn t zero tolerance it s zero avoidance the curfew is not a silver bullet but it is a start it s a boundary a bright line that says you matter and we d rather not read about you in the next homicide report because right now what was once innocent late night freedom has turned into an open air liability downtown isn t the same place it was 10 years ago and pretending otherwise is how we end up writing eulogies for kids who should be writing college essays let s also stop pretending that the current status quo is working if the curfew as is were truly enough we wouldn t have had to hold press conferences the morning after a teen was shot on monument circle we wouldn t be scrambling to reassure businesses and residents that downtown is safe and we wouldn t be having this conversation yet again i understand the instinct to be cautious about new enforcement mechanisms especially when the city has struggled with transparency and trust but this isn t about punishment it s about prevention and frankly if your biggest concern is whether a 15 year old can hit the club district at 1 a m your parenting priorities might need a reboot councilor robinson s proposal doesn t solve everything but it recognizes what the rest of us already see midnight ain t what it used to be and in a city where tragedy is becoming routine doing nothing is no longer an option let the critics clutch their pearls the rest of us will settle for getting these kids home alive posted on july 8th 2025 no comments abdul the attorney the untold story by abdul hakim shabazz most people go to law school i commuted to it three to four nights a week i drove from springfield to st louis to attend classes part time at saint louis university school of law by day i worked full time for the illinois attorney general s office nights and weekends i held down two part time radio dj jobs my law lectures listened to them on cassette tapes during those long highway drives i missed fewer classes than most full time students finished law school in 3 5 years instead of the usual 4 5 and even managed to win moot court in 2002 i wasn t just doing law school i was grinding through it but that was only the beginning when i sat for the illinois bar exam in february 2003 i failed by five points close but not close enough illinois had a policy if you missed passing by four points or less you qualified for an automatic regrade i missed it by one point i was disappointed but not defeated i was ready to regroup and take the exam again i even considered filing suit against the board of bar examiners after learning there had been a nationwide scoring error on one of the multiple choice questions over 7 000 test takers were affected i emailed the board requesting a regrade and then i got the call a kind woman from the illinois board of admissions to the bar told me we received your request but you don t need it you passed that one point scoring error it bumped me from five points out to four points out just enough to trigger the regrade and on regrade i cleared the mark no lawsuit necessary no appeal just resilience for me it wasn t just about passing the bar it was about proving yet again that hard work pays off even when the odds say otherwise oh and when i told my best friend from law school she said maybe this will finally teach you some humility my response i was right the first time why should i change and my mother when i told her the news in her most proud black mama voice i knew they couldn t keep my baby down i didn t just earn a law degree i earned every mile of it and the license like the journey was anything but ordinary the moral of the story resilience isn t glamorous it s not instagrammable it s showing up staying the course and letting your work speak when circumstances try to shout over you sometimes the system breaks sometimes it gets it wrong but if you re prepared persistent and principled even a one point margin can become a turning point you don t have to be lucky you just have to be ready when luck decides to show up and one more thing if you re going to have a huge ego and talk a lot of smack and i do you better be able to back it up posted on july 6th 2025 no comments holy smoke the first church of cannabis turns 10 by abdul hakim shabazz ten years ago today something wild happened in indiana and no i m not talking about the statehouse wi fi finally working i m talking about the birth of the first church of cannabis an idea so crazy so thoroughly hoosier that naturally it came from me the year was 2015 i was sitting at the bar at nicky blaine s scotch in one hand a cigar smoldering in the other reviewing indiana s freshly minted religious freedom restoration act rfra for those of you just joining the legislative chaos supposedly designed to protect religious liberty the bill was really a reaction to the courts legalizing same sex marriage which fun fact is also celebrating its 10th anniversary this year happy anniversary equality more on that in a second as i scrolled through the final version of rfra i noticed something odd the original language had included a provision saying rfra couldn t be used as a defense in criminal cases but in the final version poof gone lawmakers in their political haste had snipped it i blinked took another sip of scotch looked at the cigar like it might be whispering legal theory then i had a moment of clarity what you might call a scotch fueled epiphany no that can t be right i muttered to myself i think indiana just accidentally legalized marijuana for religious purposes naturally i did what any responsible citizen would do i emailed bill levin local mischief maker musician political candidate and agent of creative chaos subject line good news body indiana may have just legalized cannabis if you start a religion you see under rfra the government isn t allowed to substantially burden your sincerely held religious beliefs unless it has a compelling interest and uses the least restrictive means to do so without the criminal exemption someone could plausibly argue that smoking marijuana was part of their religious practice cue the theological reefer madness to his eternal credit or blame bill didn t just nod politely and go back to playing guitar he ran with it within weeks he launched the first church of cannabis complete with its own doctrine the deity dozen a congregation and the most obvious 4 20 monthly tithe in human history he held the first service on july 1 2015 the exact day rfra took effect there was music meditation and love but no actual marijuana even bill knew better than to light up with impd parked outside now here s your quick law lesson to challenge a law in court you need standing a real injury or a credible threat of one you can t just file a lawsuit because you think a law is dumb which to be fair this one kind of was originally bill and law enforcement had floated the idea of staging it he d light up get arrested and then sue but that s called manufactured standing and courts tend to treat it like a fake id interesting in theory but legally useless so instead bill took a smarter path he publicly announced his intent to light up during the inaugural service and impd and the marion county prosecutor s office swiftly made it known that doing so would earn him a trip to the lockup that threat of arrest that was enough the court found it credible and imminent and just like that bill had standing little risk high reward and if you know bill levin you know that sounds about right the man is just one lab accident away from gaining superpowers and using them exclusively to prank the general assembly bill sued the state arguing rfra protected his religious right to toke in peace the courts disagreed in 2018 a judge ruled that indiana s interest in enforcing drug laws outweighed his religious freedom claim the appeal went up in smoke but culturally the church won a decade later the first church of cannabis still meets weekly still preaches peace love and enlightenment by way of leafy greens still reminds lawmakers what happens when you write a law without understanding it and while indiana has kept cannabis illegal the landscape has changed we are now completely surrounded by states where marijuana is legal in some form illinois michigan ohio kentucky missouri you can get stoned on all sides like you re living in the world s most mellow siege and with high potency cbd and delta 8 sold openly across indiana let s face it prohibition is basically performative at this point the first church of cannabis wasn t really about getting high it was about getting real about exposing legislative hypocrisy and showing what happens when the law s unintended consequences get passed around like a joint at a phish concert rfra was pitched as a shield for conservative values it accidentally became a platform for progressive protest that s the thing about laws once they re out in the wild they don t always behave the way their authors intended so today on this sacred tenth anniversary let s light a candle or whatever s legal for the church that dared to ask why not us to bill levin for turning a loophole into a movement bless you my brother in burlap to the indiana general assembly thanks for giving us the legal equivalent of a cheech chong sketch and to myself next time i have a scotch fueled legal epiphany at nicky blaine s cigar in hand i ll just keep it to myself probably abdul hakim shabazz is the editor and publisher of indy politics he s also an attorney licensed in illinois where marijuana is legal and indiana where it still isn t posted on july 1st 2025 no comments don t mess with the zohran what nyc s new mayor means for indy 2027 by abdul hakim shabazz by abdul hakim shabazz a funny thing happened on the way to the next indianapolis mayoral election a socialist just won in new york city okay democratic socialist but still zohran mamdani the kampala born queens based assemblyman and card carrying member of the democratic socialists of america just pulled off a political heist that would ve seemed impossible five years ago running a shoestring grassroots campaign focused on affordability public housing and fare free transit mamdani toppled a complacent establishment and became the presumptive next mayor of america s biggest city cue the panic or celebration depending on your political persuasion now what does any of that have to do with the 2027 mayor s race in indianapolis a city better known for corn fed pragmatism potholes and politicians who think bold means using a new font on their campaign yard signs actually quite a bit and yes before you ask the title is a nod to that absurd 2008 adam sandler movie don t mess with the zohan in which sandler plays an israeli commando turned nyc hairstylist but this is real life and in mamdani s case the weapon isn t martial arts or mousse it s a clear political message delivered with surgical focus and a whole lot of shoe leather now let s be clear indianapolis ain t new york city we re 700 miles and a cultural universe apart what plays in brooklyn may not land in broad ripple we don t have bodegas on every corner the subway doesn t run all night and you re more likely to see a tractor on i 70 than a tesla with five union stickers on it but even with all that distance literal and figurative mamdani s campaign still matters here because while the scale is different the issues aren t forget the bernie bro clichés mamdani s campaign wasn t built on twitter dunking or revolution cosplay it was door knocking food pantry lines and transit stops his messaging was blunt you shouldn t have to work three jobs to afford rent turns out a lot of people agree in indy we re dealing with our own affordability crisis rent s up wages are flat and too many working families are one missed paycheck away from crisis so don t be surprised if a local candidate in 2027 especially in a crowded democratic primary takes a page out of mamdani s playbook call out the establishment promise rent caps push public transit and remind everyone that fixing sidewalks and investing in communities are not mutually exclusive if mamdani can win in a city as cutthroat as new york what s stopping someone in indy from doing the same mamdani s win isn t just a victory for the left it s a warning shot to moderates and machine democrats everywhere for years the playbook was simple consolidate donor support get endorsements from party elders and coast to victory on name id that strategy just got smoked in indy that means the so called next in line candidates you know the ones all résumé and no soul may be in for a rude awakening voters are looking for authenticity not pedigree energy not entitlement so if you re a well heeled business friendly cocktail party democrat eyeing 2027 you d better come up with something more compelling than i ...
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