IMPD chief urges people to stay home a little longer in line with virus restrictions
INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — A hair-braiding salon on the northeast side opened Monday morning.
A News 8 crew went into the store and found three customers getting their hair braided. Throughout the morning a few more potential customers went in.
One woman approached our news crew and didn’t identify herself, but she told them she heard on the news that salons could open. According to Gov. Eric Holcomb’s five-stage plan and the Marion County Health Department, they can’t.
On Saturday night, at the corner of 38th Street and Arlington Avenue, there was a large gathering with dozens of cars. Police barricaded the lot and sent everyone packing.
IMPD Chief Randal Taylor said Monday the department has tried to stay away from enforcing the “stay at home” order.
“Right now, we basically, really tried to stay away from doing that at all possible. We really only have a couple more weekends before things should open up a little bit more,” Taylor said.
Another gathering had been planned at the old Double 8 parking lot over the weekend but was broken up before much of a crowd arrived.
Indianapolis City-County Councilor Keith Graves, a Democrat who represents District 13, is pleading with people to stay at home.
“We absolutely have to wait a little while longer for such events,” Graves said.
But patience is running thin, people are out, the noon-time traffic on Monday was much heavier than we have seen in weeks.
“We are doing what we can. It is a nice day, I guess people want to get out and get some sunshine,” said Anderson Niece. He was at the front of the line for doughnuts, where there wasn’t much social distancing and only a few people were wearing masks. The “stay at home” order seems to be more of a suggestion than an order to some.
Taylor is asking people to just hang on a little bit longer.
“And that is one of the reasons we have not taken an aggressive stance,” Taylor said.
Taylor went on to say police will continue to break up large gatherings and have the ability to issue tickets to organize but haven’t done so as of yet.