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Holcomb Relies On Local Leaders To Request State Police, National Guard Support

Lauren Chapman
/
IPB News

Gov. Eric Holcomb says the Indiana State Police and National Guard are ready to deploy to any community around the state that requests assistance. 

Holcomb says the National Guard was used over the weekend to protect state properties amid violence from a few who sought to co-opt protests over racial injustice and police brutality, particularly against black Americans.

State Police troopers were sent to more than a dozen cities around the state to support local law enforcement.

Holcomb says he’s relying on local officials to request that support.

“They need to know that we are pouring in all of the resources available to meet those flashpoints,” Holcomb says.

Holcomb says the continued presence of the National Guard at state properties will be determined on a “day-by-day” basis.

Holcomb largely praised those who protested peacefully over the weekend in response to the “disgusting, gross, violent and fatal injustice” against George Floyd, a black man who died in Minneapolis last week when a white police officer pinned Floyd to the ground with his knee on Floyd’s neck.

"It saddens me that their hearts and minds have hardened and their anger demonstrates itself through destructive behavior designed to instill fear in the innocent," Holcomb says.

Brandon Smith is excited to be working for public radio in Indiana. He has previously worked in public radio as a reporter and anchor in mid-Missouri for KBIA Radio out of Columbia. Prior to that, he worked for WSPY Radio in Plano, Illinois as a show host, reporter, producer and anchor. His first job in radio was in another state capitol, in Jefferson City, Missouri, as a reporter for three radio stations around Missouri. Brandon graduated from the University of Missouri-Columbia with a Bachelor of Journalism in 2010, with minors in political science and history. He was born and raised in Chicago.