They didn’t discuss it across jurisdictional lines.
Wally Paynter told The Indianapolis News in 1998, “‘The police put this on the back burner. However, president of LGBTQ civil rights organization Justice Inc. McAtee stated, “I believe as chief of police when a 14-year-old boy gets picked up downtown and murdered, and young teen agers are getting money for prostitution on the Circle, we have an obligation not to let this happen to our young people.” Delvoyd Baker, courtesy of The Indianapolis News, October 4, 1982, 13, accessed. With his death, police ramped up efforts to find the perpetrator. The body of Delvoyd Baker, an eighth-grader who was last seen in an area of Monument Circle known for teenage prostitution, was found in a ditch in Fishers. The following year, twenty-six-year-old Dennis Brotzge was murdered on the Northside of Indianapolis. Then it was twenty-five-year-old Gary Davis, murdered in 1981 on the Southside of Indianapolis. There was fifteen-year-old Michael Petree, murdered in 1980 and left in a ditch in Hamilton County. Mistrust of police following such encounters would stymie efforts to solve a string of murders, tracked back to 1980 but most likely earlier (either not reported by the news or not explicitly stating the victims were associated with an LGBTQ identity). Despite broken ribs and a hospital stay, “The victim has so far been afraid to report the crime, for fear of losing his job and coming out to his family.” Michael Petree, courtesy of The Works, February 1983, 8, Chris Gonzalez GLBT Archives, IUPUI Library.
The police also routinely copy down license plate numbers in an attempt to intimidate the bar’s patrons.” Stotler also described violent harassment, stating that one man en route to R-Place alleged that two police officers picked him up, drove him from the bar, and beat and verbally assaulted him. He reported “You can be in the bar for maybe just one hour, and be asked to present ID to a police officer four or five times.
Gay rights activist Mike Stotler recounted police harassment at Terre Haute’s gay bar, R-Place. But they were also the site of harassment, surveillance, and violence. Bars served as a popular safe space or third space environment where members of the queer community could socialize. Indianapolis’s LGBTQ community encountered and protested numerous challenges posed by law enforcement in the 1980s, including police surveillance of cruising sites, harassment at safe spaces, and possible prejudiced police work as homicide rates increased for gay men. The Works, December 12, 1985, 9, Chris Gonzalez GLBT Archives, IUPUI Library. He spent the night in Marion County’s jail and when he appeared before a judge the next morning he was told simply “that he could go-no hearing, no formal charges.” Reportedly, the officers initially charged Ott with public intoxication, although they never filed an affidavit with the court. According to Ott, when asked why he was being arrested he never received a reply.
Ott took down the license plate number of the offending officer only to be arrested. “Faggot,” stated one of the officers as Ott waited for his cab. Ott recounted the frightening experience to the officers, who offered to call him a cab, but refused to do anything about the assault. He fled to a nearby Taco Bell and ran towards three Indianapolis Police Department (IPD) cars parked in its lot. Heart racing, 31-year-old Steven Ott escaped the aggression of his companion, whom he met at Our Place (now Greg’s), by jumping out of the car near 34th and Georgetown Road. The Works, January 1985, 9, Chris Gonzalez GLBT Archives, IUPUI Library.