Indiana

For those of us of the "ACAB" persuasion, who do y'all think is better/the lesser evil in the Marion county sheriff race? I have my opinion but it's based on limited information.

HB 1343 has a section that slips in a possibly dangerous ability for the governor to use a military police entity within the national guard as he wishes, without much checks and balances. See below, it's now in section/chapter 23.

This seems like a bad idea.

Note, the governor can already call members of the National Guard to state active duty orders, and there's already a military police unit under 81st Troop Command, but it's more limited and they generally are still not police for a civilian population like most people think of. LLM explained it well for those who don't know:

2. The "Emergency" Loophole

Current Law: Generally, for the Guard to be used in a law enforcement capacity, the Governor declares a State of Emergency. This declaration is usually tied to a specific event (tornado, pandemic, civil unrest) and has time limits and legislative oversight.

Under HB 1343: The bill allows deployment "at any other time the governor considers necessary."

Implication - This effectively removes the requirement for a formal "Emergency" or "Disaster" declaration to use military police. The Governor could theoretically deploy this force to patrol a city for "crime suppression" without ever declaring an emergency or citing a specific disaster.

This is also a good way to think about it:

"Martial Law Lite": HB 1343 allows the Governor to use military personnel to police civilians without the political and legal fallout of declaring Martial Law. The courts remain open, and civil law remains in effect, but the enforcers are soldiers answering directly to the Governor, not local police chiefs or sheriffs answering to voters.

Here's the full text of the section, buried within the rest of the bill.

https://iga.in.gov/pdf-documents/124/2026/house/bills/HB1343/HB1343.04.ENGH.pdf

Chapter 23. Military Police Force of the Indiana National 29 Guard 30 Sec. 1. The adjutant general may establish a military police 31 force of the Indiana National Guard. 32 Sec. 2. (a) Before granting police powers to an individual 33 appointed as a member of the military police force of the Indiana 34 National Guard, the adjutant general shall validate that the 35 individual has a current security clearance and has not been 36 convicted of a felony. 37 (b) An individual appointed to serve in the military police force 38 of the Indiana National Guard may not exercise police powers until 39 the individual successfully completes either army or air military 40 police occupational training and receives qualifying instruction on 41 Indiana law enforcement prescribed by the adjutant general. 42 (c) An individual appointed to the military police force of the HB 1343—LS 6518/DI 116 33 1 Indiana National Guard shall take an appropriate oath of office in 2 the form and manner prescribed by the governor. 3 Sec. 3. The governor may authorize the military police force of 4 the Indiana National Guard to exercise police powers throughout 5 Indiana, or in any part of Indiana prescribed by the governor, if 6 the governor orders the military police force of the Indiana 7 National Guard to state active duty under IC 10-16-7-7. The 8 governor shall provide reasonable notice to local law enforcement 9 agencies affected by the deployment of the military police force of 10 the Indiana National Guard and coordinate with local law 11 enforcement agencies as circumstances permit. 12 Sec. 4. An individual serving in the military police force of the 13 Indiana National Guard who is authorized to exercise police 14 powers under section 3 of this chapter may: 15 (1) make an arrest; 16 (2) conduct a search or seizure of a person or property; 17 (3) carry a firearm; and 18 (4) exercise other police powers with respect to the 19 enforcement of Indiana laws.

In case you care:

Here's the voting results of the house:

https://legiscan.com/IN/rollcall/HB1343/id/1618347

Indiana lawmakers' rejection of President Donald Trump's push for mid-decade redistricting has caught the attention of the Washington Post editorial board, which named Indiana its inaugural "state of the year."

Archive link: https://archive.ph/bwRK1

cross-posted from: https://hexbear.net/post/7023544

cross-posted from: https://news.abolish.capital/post/13250

Republican Indiana Lt. Gov. Micah Beckwith posted and subsequently deleted a claim that President Donald Trump had threatened to cut off funding to his state unless its legislators approved a mid-decade gerrymander that would have changed the composition of its congressional map to further favor the GOP.

Just over four hours after the Republican-led Indiana state Senate on Thursday voted down the Trump-backed gerrymander—which would have changed the projected balance of Indiana’s current congressional makeup from seven Republicans and two Democrats to a 9-0 map in favor of the GOP—Beckwith took to X to warn that the Hoosier State would soon be feeling the president's wrath.

"The Trump admin was VERY clear about this," he wrote, referring to threats to take away federal funding for Indiana. "They told many lawmakers, cabinet members, and the [governor] and I that this would happen. The Indiana Senate made it clear to the Trump admin today that they do not want to be partners with the [White House]. The WH made it clear to them that they'd oblige."

Although Beckwith deleted his post, he also confirmed to Politico reporter Adam Wren that the White House said that Indiana could lose out on funding for projects if the state did not approve the map, although Beckwith insisted that this was not a "threat" but merely "an honest conversation about who the White House does want to partner with."

Earlier on Thursday, the X account for right-wing advocacy group Heritage Action, a sister organization of the Heritage Foundation think tank, claimed that Trump had threatened to decimate Indiana's state finances unless the state Senate approved his proposed gerrymander.

"President Trump has made it clear to Indiana leaders: if the Indiana Senate fails to pass the map, all federal funding will be stripped from the state," Heritage Action wrote. "Roads will not be paved. Guard bases will close. Major projects will stop. These are the stakes and every NO vote will be to blame."

Trump has not yet publicly threatened to cut off Indiana's federal funds, and it's not clear that the administration actually plans to punish the state for defying the president.

According to a Thursday report from CNN, the Trump White House pressure campaign against Republican Indiana state senators backfired because many legislators resented being subjected to angry threats from Trump supporters, including some incidents in which lawmakers were swatted at their homes.

Republican Indiana state Sen. Jean Leising told CNN that the all-out pressure campaign waged by the president ended up pushing more people into opposing his agenda.

"You wouldn’t change minds by being mean," Leising said. "And the efforts were mean-spirited from the get-go. If you were wanting to change votes, you would probably try to explain why we should be doing this, in a positive way. That never happened, so, you know, I think they get what they get."

Fellow Republican Indiana state Sen. Sue Glick echoed Leinsing's assessment, and said that blunt-force threats against legislators were doomed to failure.

"Hoosiers are a hardy lot, and they don’t like to be threatened," Glick said. "They don’t like to be intimidated. They don’t like to be bullied in any fashion. And I think a lot of them responded with, ‘That isn’t going to work.' And it didn’t."

Indiana’s rejection of the proposed gerrymander this week was a major blow to Trump’s unprecedented mid-decade redistricting crusade, which began in Texas and subsequently spread to Missouri and North Carolina.

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Braun is appointing new commission members

Article regarding a local sheriff and allegations of misconduct.

Whoa