MUNCIE COPS SLAM DOOR IN AUTISTIC MAN’S FACE FOR DARING TO COMPLAIN ABOUT THE MAYOR’S COMMUNICATIONS DIRECTOR

Good Ole Boys Slam Door on Autistic Guy for Police Report

Another day, another protected city insider. Another citizen treated like garbage.

MUNCIE — An autistic man tried to file a police report last week. Muncie Police slammed the door in his face.

James Cason says he went to City Hall to report harassment by Amber Greene, Mayor Dan Ridenour’s Communications Director, and another Human Resources employee named Pam Godard. According to Cason, the police simply refused to let him file the complaint.

Then they shut the door on him — on camera.

Cason recorded the entire interaction and sent it straight to the Hoosier Enquirer’s Muncie Corruption Hotline on October 26. In the video, a uniformed Muncie officer stands at the entrance of the City of Muncie building while Cason can be heard saying he’s trying to file a complaint. The officer’s response? He closes the door on him.

Cason’s own words from the tip are brutal in their simplicity:

“I’ve been harassed by Amber Greene and Pam Godard from Human Resources at city hall! Went last Thursday to file a police report for harassment –! The Muncie police wouldn’t allow me to file a complaint –!”

This is not a misunderstanding. This is not a paperwork issue. This is a police department looking a disabled resident in the eye and telling him his complaint against a powerful city official is not welcome.

Let’s stop pretending this is normal.

An autistic citizen tried to exercise one of the most basic rights in America — the right to report a crime — and Muncie Police responded by denying him and physically shutting him out. That is not “policy.” That is not “discretion.” That is special treatment for the people who sit near the Mayor.

So we are asking the questions City Hall does not want asked:

• Why was an autistic resident denied the right to file a police report?

• What is the official protocol when someone tries to report the Mayor’s Communications Director?

• Does Amber Greene get a free pass that ordinary Muncie residents do not?

• And to the Indiana State Police: Is this even legal?

  
  

We have already sent the tip, the form submission, and the video to the Indiana State Police, Muncie Police Professional Standards under Capt. Ryan Trissel, and Delaware County Prosecutor Eric Hoffman. We are demanding answers in writing. We will not let this disappear into the usual black hole of “under review.”

This is exactly why the Muncie Corruption Hotline exists. When the local police become bodyguards for City Hall instead of servants of the public, residents need somewhere else to go. And when the video shows an officer slamming the door on a man trying to file a complaint, the public has a right to see it.

Muncie has a pattern. The closer you are to power, the more protection you get. The further you are from power — especially if you are disabled — the more likely you are to get the door slammed in your face.

We’re done pretending otherwise.

More to come. And we will keep publishing until someone in authority is forced to answer.

— Kelly Roberts

Journalist, Hoosier Enquirer