Latest / Brian Thomas / FOP Pres Ken Kober - Will the city pay off the Hinton Family?

Transcript

FOP Pres Ken Kober - Will the city pay off the Hinton Family? · Brian Thomas

• 0:03
  Speaker 1: At six oh five here Vitch about Kerr Seedy Talk Station.
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: Bryan Thomas wishing everyone a very happy Friday and if
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: I don't stick around tech Friday. At the bottom of
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: this hour, George Brenaman, Keith Tennenfield restore Wellness dot Org
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: and studio for an hour try to get us on
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: the right path as we start the new calendar year
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: signal ninety nine controversial. She is well connected. Definitely. She'll
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: be in studio all hour, the entire eight eight o'clock hour.
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: We're going to talk about this topic that we're bringing
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: up right now. And thanks to Ken Cober FOP president
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: for return to the morning show for the second time
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: in a week. Welcome back, Ken Cobra, and I appreciate
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: the announcement. Apparently you're bringing this to everybody's attention, including
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: members of Sincai City Council who didn't seem to really
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: realize that Cheryl Long, the city manager, was negotiating a
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: massive settlement behind the scenes with the Hinton family. Who
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: might that be Ryan Hinton, eighteen years old, shot and
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: killed by a Cincai police officer last year. His father
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: then a day later ran over Hamilton County sheriff's deputy
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: Larry Henderson, killing him. Eighteen year old Hinton no longer
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: with us, but Connie Pillage, Hamilton County prosecutor, announced last
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: summer that the officer who shot Ryan was justified in
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: doing so because he turned a gun on the police officer.
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: Joining the program today to talk about why in the
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: hell would the city of Cincinnati write a check to
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: the hitting family over that incident. FOP President Ken Kober,
• 1:16
  Speaker 1: thank you very much for bringing this to every day's
• 1:18
  Speaker 1: attention and joining the program this morning to talk about it.
• 1:21
  Speaker 2: Hey, good morning, Brian. Yeah, thanks for having me. It's
• 1:23
  Speaker 2: been an interesting day yesterday, that's for sure.
• 1:28
  Speaker 1: Well, I guess I don't want you to do any
• 1:30
  Speaker 1: sources because apparently someone from behind the scenes let you
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: know about this. But how is it that this settlement
• 1:35
  Speaker 1: agreement could be negotiated or even discussed now? City Manager
• 1:38
  Speaker 1: Long issued a statement after you brought out the point
• 1:43
  Speaker 1: that this was being negotiated. You didn't say it was done,
• 1:45
  Speaker 1: You didn't say it was settled. You say it was
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: being quietly negotiated behind the scenes. Cheryl Long comes out
• 1:52
  Speaker 1: in response to the news of that your news saying
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: the city has not reached a subtle agreement, okay, and
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: vehemently reject the notion that any discussions are being rushed,
• 2:07
  Speaker 1: not that they're not happening, I might interject, she said
• 2:11
  Speaker 1: are happening in secret or designed to keep information from
• 2:14
  Speaker 1: city council. Now the latter part of the statement, I
• 2:16
  Speaker 1: guess it really has happened in secret because Local News
• 2:19
  Speaker 1: reached out to Seth w Wash and some of the
• 2:21
  Speaker 1: council members, and it sounded to me like they didn't
• 2:23
  Speaker 1: realize it was going on. Either where are we on this,
• 2:26
  Speaker 1: sir No?
• 2:28
  Speaker 2: And that's that's exactly. It's It's funny that she put
• 2:30
  Speaker 2: this statement out because I had several council members that
• 2:34
  Speaker 2: reached out with me last night that said, look, we're
• 2:36
  Speaker 2: just learning about this. We were absolutely against it, against this. Yeah,
• 2:39
  Speaker 2: we saw the article, the article that the Inquire posted
• 2:42
  Speaker 2: where you know, Jeff Kramerton, who's the head of the
• 2:44
  Speaker 2: Budget and Finance, said this sends a terrible message to
• 2:47
  Speaker 2: the Cincinnati police. He's like, when these officers did absolutely
• 2:50
  Speaker 2: nothing wrong, he is I'm against this, they said. As
• 2:53
  Speaker 2: late as almost eleven o'clock last night, I had council
• 2:55
  Speaker 2: members texted me going, look, we support the police. We
• 2:58
  Speaker 2: were absolutely against this. We had no idea. So obviously
• 3:01
  Speaker 2: the information that I had was absolutely correct, because these
• 3:05
  Speaker 2: council members are supporting what I put out right. And
• 3:09
  Speaker 2: it's interesting because I did I had a source inside
• 3:12
  Speaker 2: city Hall that thought that this was so egregious in
• 3:16
  Speaker 2: how this was being done and the fact that they
• 3:18
  Speaker 2: were doing this, that asked me to make this public
• 3:23
  Speaker 2: before it was finalized. And unfortunately the city manager is
• 3:29
  Speaker 2: upset about the fact that this has become public before
• 3:32
  Speaker 2: it could be finalized. Yeah, and I think, you know,
• 3:36
  Speaker 2: not only do the officers that were involved, but certainly
• 3:38
  Speaker 2: to the Henderson family to fight this, to make sure
• 3:43
  Speaker 2: that taxpayer callers are not being given to a family
• 3:46
  Speaker 2: that created such chaos and tragedy of the course of
• 3:50
  Speaker 2: a twenty four hour period back in May.
• 3:52
  Speaker 1: Well, you know, well, I just I tell well, let
• 3:54
  Speaker 1: me just quote the Jeff Grammerting statement and also Sess
• 3:58
  Speaker 1: Wall statement because again going to what Cheryl Long had
• 4:02
  Speaker 1: said again to this idea, this is being negotiated behind
• 4:05
  Speaker 1: the scenes, it's being hidden from people, or it's being rushed.
• 4:07
  Speaker 1: Kramerton said, He's the city council is going to be
• 4:12
  Speaker 1: talking about this on Monday. I think the city's position
• 4:15
  Speaker 1: is that the officer has not done anything wrong, which
• 4:18
  Speaker 1: is exactly what the prosecutor said last year. I see
• 4:21
  Speaker 1: nothing in the video contrary to that. I do not
• 4:23
  Speaker 1: feel a settlement as warranted. I think that that would
• 4:25
  Speaker 1: send the wrong message to the since a police amen
• 4:28
  Speaker 1: to your point, Walsh, it is a tremendous disrespect to
• 4:33
  Speaker 1: the families involved to make a public spectacle out of
• 4:36
  Speaker 1: a tragedy. I think it's unconscionable for the City of
• 4:39
  Speaker 1: Cincinnati to be considering a settlement without the full deliberation
• 4:42
  Speaker 1: of council. The tragedy that unfolded and made devastated our community,
• 4:45
  Speaker 1: and it's our responsibility to heal the wreckage, not to
• 4:47
  Speaker 1: create more division. So apparently they're going to have an
• 4:50
  Speaker 1: executive session on Monday to talk about the details of this.
• 4:55
  Speaker 1: I guess what Long denies is a rushed, quiet, behind
• 4:59
  Speaker 1: the scenes settlement negotiation. So it's going to get a
• 5:01
  Speaker 1: little sunlight. I don't know if you know, but I'm
• 5:06
  Speaker 1: frustrated by the whole concept that City Manager chare Along
• 5:10
  Speaker 1: has any authority to enter into what seems to me
• 5:13
  Speaker 1: moving toward a binding agreement without the approval of council.
• 5:17
  Speaker 1: Does she have the ability to enter into agreement that
• 5:20
  Speaker 1: may involve millions of dollars? We have no idea what
• 5:22
  Speaker 1: the dollar figure that's being discussed is, but it's potentially millions.
• 5:25
  Speaker 1: Who knows. But does she have an off authority to
• 5:28
  Speaker 1: enter into any settlement for any amount without Council's approval?
• 5:32
  Speaker 2: We lots of questions. I don't know, And you know,
• 5:34
  Speaker 2: we talk about shedding light on this. They're going to
• 5:36
  Speaker 2: be an executive session. If you know what executive session is.
• 5:39
  Speaker 2: That kicks everybody from the public out. This is done,
• 5:42
  Speaker 2: there are no notes that are taken, This is done quietly,
• 5:46
  Speaker 2: just almost like what I said in my press release.
• 5:48
  Speaker 2: And we won't know, We won't know what that discussion is.
• 5:52
  Speaker 2: Why shouldn't it be done in public? Why shouldn't public
• 5:55
  Speaker 2: have a right to know what's being discussed? Wait, why
• 5:59
  Speaker 2: it's being discussed, you know, in what council has to
• 6:02
  Speaker 2: say about it, what the city administration has to say
• 6:04
  Speaker 2: about it. Maybe, maybe, somehow I can't spamom a scenario
• 6:09
  Speaker 2: where this would seem like a good idea, But I
• 6:11
  Speaker 2: don't know. Maybe the city administration has this, Why would
• 6:14
  Speaker 2: you be doing this in executive session where if the
• 6:17
  Speaker 2: public doesn't have any ear to be able to hear
• 6:20
  Speaker 2: what's being said.
• 6:21
  Speaker 1: Yes, because right now that's the cop was cleared. It
• 6:24
  Speaker 1: was certainly a justifiable use of deadly force, considering he
• 6:27
  Speaker 1: was facing eminent apprehension of grievous bodily harm or deaf
• 6:30
  Speaker 1: because the kid turned a firearm on him. So that's
• 6:32
  Speaker 1: all behind no grand jury referral by the Hamilton County prosecutor,
• 6:36
  Speaker 1: who is quite liberal, I might point out, So the
• 6:39
  Speaker 1: council members all seem to be in agreement with you
• 6:42
  Speaker 1: and me and the general public that this would be
• 6:45
  Speaker 1: crazy to write a check to the family, because why
• 6:48
  Speaker 1: none of us have any information that would justify the
• 6:51
  Speaker 1: negotiations or the payment of any money. What fact, what
• 6:55
  Speaker 1: piece of information has been deprived of us thus far,
• 6:59
  Speaker 1: which would just even sitting down at the table with
• 7:02
  Speaker 1: the other side to talk about writing a check. It
• 7:04
  Speaker 1: was all above board. We've got video of it. I mean,
• 7:08
  Speaker 1: what are we missing, Ken Coober?
• 7:11
  Speaker 2: Yeah, that's that. That is the million dollar question. And
• 7:14
  Speaker 2: my guess is absolutely nothing. And I've said this sentiment
• 7:17
  Speaker 2: release crime apparently does pay. You know, we paid rioters
• 7:20
  Speaker 2: in twenty twenty eight point one million dollars, and now
• 7:22
  Speaker 2: we're potentially paying out a family you know who won
• 7:25
  Speaker 2: points a gun at the cop, you know, puts this
• 7:28
  Speaker 2: officer in a position where he has to act to
• 7:31
  Speaker 2: save his life. And the next day another family family
• 7:34
  Speaker 2: member viciously murders a deputy and somehow we're going to
• 7:38
  Speaker 2: even talk about a settlement. To me, it is absolutely
• 7:42
  Speaker 2: uncomtionable that they would do something like that. But you know,
• 7:45
  Speaker 2: he said, in the city of Cincinnati, where crime does pay,
• 7:47
  Speaker 2: it's not surprising.
• 7:48
  Speaker 1: Well, and the timing couldn't be better on this revelation.
• 7:51
  Speaker 1: Can Cobert considering a mayor have to have Pearlwall's proposal
• 7:54
  Speaker 1: of a big tax kite because a tax hike because
• 7:57
  Speaker 1: apparently he needs extra money? Again, maybe it's because we're
• 8:01
  Speaker 1: writing a bunch of checks to people who to whom
• 8:02
  Speaker 1: we do not need to write checks. And it also interesting,
• 8:05
  Speaker 1: Ken Cober that, in spite of the fact that some
• 8:07
  Speaker 1: of the council members seem shocked by this and are
• 8:09
  Speaker 1: on the record saying this is a bad idea, city
• 8:12
  Speaker 1: Manager er Lung did issue his statement as much of
• 8:14
  Speaker 1: filled with prevarication as it is no word from the
• 8:18
  Speaker 1: mayor on this very important issue. Don't you think it
• 8:21
  Speaker 1: would be important for the mayor of the City of
• 8:23
  Speaker 1: Cincinnati might maybe chime in on this himself.
• 8:26
  Speaker 2: Well, unless he's being left in the dark light councilor
• 8:29
  Speaker 2: who knows, don't now? Going back, I was not given
• 8:34
  Speaker 2: any indication whatsoever that the mayor's aware of this.
• 8:38
  Speaker 1: Wow. Sounds to me like we have a city manager.
• 8:41
  Speaker 1: Run them up free reign Ken Cober pause. I want
• 8:45
  Speaker 1: to bring you back if you don't mind, because I
• 8:47
  Speaker 1: want to ask you about the revelations. Six at fifty
• 8:54
  Speaker 1: five Karrose. They talk station. By the time I'm switching,
• 8:57
  Speaker 1: everyone are very happy Friday, trying to figure out what's
• 8:59
  Speaker 1: going on in the city. Coup David, that's a good thing.
• 9:03
  Speaker 1: And thankfully we have folks like FOP President Ken Cobra
• 9:06
  Speaker 1: to let us know and let maybe even some council
• 9:08
  Speaker 1: members know about this potential settlement with a Rodney Hinton family.
• 9:12
  Speaker 1: But pivoting away from that and we all of our
• 9:14
  Speaker 1: popcorn out even though we're not going to find out
• 9:16
  Speaker 1: because it's executive session, as you pointed out, that's in
• 9:19
  Speaker 1: closed doors. They don't even keep notes, so we're not
• 9:21
  Speaker 1: going to really get all the details maybe ever. And
• 9:24
  Speaker 1: that's kind of consistent with what happened the other day.
• 9:26
  Speaker 1: Going back to Signal ninety nine, Ken, she's pointed out
• 9:29
  Speaker 1: and made an announcement that the executive session just the
• 9:32
  Speaker 1: other earlier this week to discuss a former or at
• 9:35
  Speaker 1: least unadministrative le police chief, Teresa Thiji. They were given
• 9:38
  Speaker 1: an ORR report from Frost, Brown and Todd, who has
• 9:41
  Speaker 1: retained to investigate the whole situation because Ken and correct
• 9:45
  Speaker 1: me if I'm wrong. When she was placed on administrative leave,
• 9:47
  Speaker 1: they didn't cite any particular action that justified it. They
• 9:51
  Speaker 1: just put her on leave.
• 9:52
  Speaker 2: Right.
• 9:52
  Speaker 1: We never did find out what the impetus was behind that,
• 9:54
  Speaker 1: did we No?
• 9:56
  Speaker 2: Absolutely not. In fact, I was part of this whole
• 10:00
  Speaker 2: investigation is determine whether or not she should still be
• 10:04
  Speaker 2: the police chief. And it's like it's I kind of
• 10:07
  Speaker 2: it's kind of like making an arrest and then decide
• 10:09
  Speaker 2: what the charges are going to be. Yeah, And it's
• 10:12
  Speaker 2: just it's wrong the way that that Chief Figi has
• 10:14
  Speaker 2: been treated, and it's it's not surprising that we're doing
• 10:18
  Speaker 2: more things in executive session and I think it's important
• 10:21
  Speaker 2: to note that the law firm does an oral report.
• 10:26
  Speaker 2: They don't They don't want to put anything in writing
• 10:29
  Speaker 2: because because clearly what they're signaling is there's nothing here.
• 10:33
  Speaker 2: Because otherwise, why would you not put a report in
• 10:35
  Speaker 2: writing saying here, here's what we discovered. Here you go, Well,
• 10:39
  Speaker 2: they're not going to do that because they're not going
• 10:41
  Speaker 2: to put their name on the line and say that, yes,
• 10:46
  Speaker 2: you have just cause to fire her because it's just.
• 10:49
  Speaker 1: Not there, well not there, or you know, if there
• 10:54
  Speaker 1: was a reason, certainly they would let the public know
• 10:57
  Speaker 1: because it would at least provide some measure of justification
• 11:00
  Speaker 1: for putting her on administrative leave in the first place.
• 11:02
  Speaker 1: The silence, I think proves that there was nothing there.
• 11:07
  Speaker 2: Yeah, without a doubt. I mean, we're talking now that
• 11:09
  Speaker 2: they's spent almost fifty thousand dollars and coax payer dollars,
• 11:12
  Speaker 2: fifty thousand dollars, it cocks pair dollars, and it's nothing
• 11:16
  Speaker 2: but silence.
• 11:18
  Speaker 1: Well, and according to the Well, again, we're apparently relying
• 11:22
  Speaker 1: on an inside source that provided signal ninety nine with
• 11:25
  Speaker 1: what the Frostbound Todd oral statement said. And the point
• 11:30
  Speaker 1: is apparently they spoke about some nepotism, favoritism, that she
• 11:34
  Speaker 1: lacked leadership. Some of the police officers believe that. Now.
• 11:36
  Speaker 1: I guarantee any police chief that's running this inside police department,
• 11:39
  Speaker 1: there are gonna be some officers that'll suggest there's lack
• 11:42
  Speaker 1: of leadership or favoritism. So that seems to be run
• 11:44
  Speaker 1: of the mill. Maybe some handling of the issues regarding
• 11:47
  Speaker 1: Somemmer violence, but nothing else, no cause for termination, and
• 11:54
  Speaker 1: we hear nothing from the city on this. The silence
• 11:56
  Speaker 1: is definitely again going back to executive session. We're not
• 11:58
  Speaker 1: entitled to be there, so we got to rely on
• 12:00
  Speaker 1: inside sources. So is this true? Is it not? Maybe
• 12:03
  Speaker 1: we'll find out, But as of right now, I think
• 12:05
  Speaker 1: we're setting ourselves up for yet writing yet another settlement check.
• 12:08
  Speaker 1: If they don't do right by Fiji and put her
• 12:10
  Speaker 1: back in her position, I think she's going to have
• 12:12
  Speaker 1: a lawsuit on our hands.
• 12:14
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean it's likely, and don't know. Maybe that's
• 12:16
  Speaker 2: why we're going to raise the eat able to pay
• 12:20
  Speaker 2: for some of these lawsuits. But it's interesting if what's
• 12:24
  Speaker 2: being said is true, that these are the reasons. You know,
• 12:27
  Speaker 2: I've been here almost twenty six years now, worked under
• 12:33
  Speaker 2: several different police chiefs. You know, I regularly talk to
• 12:36
  Speaker 2: retired guys that were cops in the sixties, seventies, eighties, nineties,
• 12:42
  Speaker 2: well before me that have complained about these same things.
• 12:45
  Speaker 1: Yeah, that was like, So that was my I was like, under,
• 12:49
  Speaker 1: is there any police chief that is completely one percent
• 12:52
  Speaker 1: supported and endorsed by every single police officer? And I
• 12:55
  Speaker 1: think we all know, like he just said, no, never,
• 12:58
  Speaker 1: That's never happened.
• 12:58
  Speaker 2: Every So the interesting thing is, if that's the case,
• 13:02
  Speaker 2: and this is what they're going to try to hang
• 13:04
  Speaker 2: their hat on, they're expecting Chief Fiji to fix a
• 13:09
  Speaker 2: culture of policing that has gone on in Cincinnati or
• 13:12
  Speaker 2: the administration that's gone on in Cincinnati for I don't know,
• 13:15
  Speaker 2: let's just say sixty years. You want her to fix
• 13:18
  Speaker 2: that in two years? That's just come on. If that's
• 13:21
  Speaker 2: what they're hanging their hat on, then yeah, I would
• 13:24
  Speaker 2: suspect if they do Terminator, that they can expect to
• 13:26
  Speaker 2: face a rather hefty lawsuit. And I think she's probably
• 13:30
  Speaker 2: going to have a pretty good chance of prevailing in that.
• 13:32
  Speaker 1: Yes, Now, the question is, and I'm not quite sure
• 13:36
  Speaker 1: how this all ultimately works given how weird the whole
• 13:38
  Speaker 1: scenario is, we have an interim police chief. Since she's
• 13:40
  Speaker 1: on administrative leave, is there still a possibility that she
• 13:43
  Speaker 1: could be brought back and placed back in the position
• 13:46
  Speaker 1: of the police chief.
• 13:48
  Speaker 2: I think it's possible, but I think it's also highly unlikely.
• 13:51
  Speaker 2: The damage has been done. I mean, it's how could
• 13:55
  Speaker 2: she go back and work for the same administration that
• 13:57
  Speaker 2: has done this to her? What does that look like?
• 14:01
  Speaker 2: I just I don't think that makes any good sense.
• 14:04
  Speaker 2: And I think if you asked her, she would probably
• 14:07
  Speaker 2: agree that at this point the damage has done. If
• 14:11
  Speaker 2: I I certainly wouldn't want to know, if I wouldn't
• 14:13
  Speaker 2: want to come back, and because then you're going to
• 14:14
  Speaker 2: be looking over your shoulder, you're going to be walking
• 14:16
  Speaker 2: the eggshells. Yes, that's not any way to live. It's
• 14:20
  Speaker 2: not any way, certainly to try to run a police
• 14:23
  Speaker 2: department of nearly a thousand people. I think at this point,
• 14:27
  Speaker 2: the best thing that the city could do is come
• 14:29
  Speaker 2: up with an agreement that both sides can live with,
• 14:32
  Speaker 2: and you know, let her retire and move on with life,
• 14:36
  Speaker 2: because you know, as bad as this has been, Like
• 14:39
  Speaker 2: I said, I just I don't see a scenario where
• 14:42
  Speaker 2: she could come back and be able to work in
• 14:44
  Speaker 2: these conditions.
• 14:45
  Speaker 1: Yeah, this is all created what will be a toxic
• 14:47
  Speaker 1: work environment for police Chief DGI. So I hear and
• 14:51
  Speaker 1: I agree completely with what you're saying. FOP President Ken Cover,
• 14:54
  Speaker 1: thank you for coming on the program today talk about this,
• 14:55
  Speaker 1: and I want to thank you on behalf of all
• 14:57
  Speaker 1: the CINCINNTI taxpayers for bringing this to everyone's and I'm
• 15:00
  Speaker 1: sure since a council members are pretty appreciative of you
• 15:03
  Speaker 1: for doing it as well, because at least the ones
• 15:05
  Speaker 1: that have talked on record are against the concept of
• 15:07
  Speaker 1: writing a check in this particular case. Ken, have a
• 15:10
  Speaker 1: wonderful weekend. I hope to talk to you again real
• 15:12
  Speaker 1: soon and keep your popcorn out and see if we
• 15:14
  Speaker 1: find out anything from our inside sources and council about
• 15:17
  Speaker 1: what happens in that closed door no note executive session Monday.
• 15:22
  Speaker 1: Take care of my friend.
• 15:24
  Speaker 2: Yep, thanks for having me, Brian. I appreciate it.
• 15:25
  Speaker 1: Anytime man, anytime, six twenty six check front of me.