Latest / Brian Thomas / Brother Andre joins Dan Carroll this morning
Transcript
- 0:09Speaker 1: Fifty five KRC at each talk station seven o five
- 0:13Speaker 1: on this Tuesday morning. Day girl, I'll sitting for Brian
- 0:15Speaker 1: Thomas who is getting a little getting a little R
- 0:19Speaker 1: and R today, so uh good for him and we
- 0:23Speaker 1: uh we'll see what happens tomorrow. In the meantime, we
- 0:27Speaker 1: have my first time meeting brother Andre Ewing, who has
- 0:32Speaker 1: graced us with his presence in studio this morning. And
- 0:34Speaker 1: Andre Ewing, welcome to fifty five KRC. It's good to
- 0:37Speaker 1: meet you, sir.
- 0:38Speaker 2: Good to meet you as well.
- 0:39Speaker 1: Bardin everything going, everything is.
- 0:42Speaker 2: Beautiful this morning.
- 0:44Speaker 1: You are you are bundled up, my friend. Yes, sir,
- 0:46Speaker 1: you're free to take that jacket and that if you
- 0:49Speaker 1: if you feel.
- 0:50Speaker 2: I'm prepared this how this is how I work out
- 0:52Speaker 2: in the jail. I work out to be hot. I'm not.
- 0:55Speaker 2: I'm not here to just show off the muscularity. I
- 0:58Speaker 2: need to be hot when I'm in the jails.
- 1:01Speaker 1: All right, Well, it's great to media. Former Cincinnati police Yes, sir.
- 1:08Speaker 1: How long on the job?
- 1:10Speaker 2: Close to thirty years? Just shot thirty years? Yes, sir,
- 1:13Speaker 2: yes sir.
- 1:15Speaker 1: How hard is it to walk away?
- 1:17Speaker 2: Oh, it wasn't hard at all. It wasn't hard at
- 1:20Speaker 2: all for you, not at all. I checked all the boxes,
- 1:23Speaker 2: did exactly what I needed to do, serve to the
- 1:26Speaker 2: best of my ability, and just had an awesome time
- 1:29Speaker 2: serving the community and doing what was necessary. And it
- 1:33Speaker 2: was time to finally just move on to better things.
- 1:37Speaker 1: So thirty years on the job, what the things that
- 1:40Speaker 1: you do now? You do a lot on social media,
- 1:46Speaker 1: You comment a lot on what is happening in and
- 1:50Speaker 1: around Cincinnati as it relates to police issues, safety issues.
- 1:57Speaker 1: What kind of perspective has that given you? What was
- 2:00Speaker 1: giving me now now that you were on the inside
- 2:02Speaker 1: and that now you're outside looking.
- 2:05Speaker 2: At I would give me a lot of perspective. And
- 2:07Speaker 2: I've tried, even in my lengthy career to what I say,
- 2:13Speaker 2: exercise my gifts to the command staffs, give them the
- 2:17Speaker 2: knowledge of interacting with communities, and it's really giving me
- 2:22Speaker 2: a true focus on what is happening today. And when
- 2:25Speaker 2: I was on here last time talking to Brian, I'm
- 2:27Speaker 2: just disappointed in a lot of the community activities and
- 2:32Speaker 2: involvement that the police is not being able to do
- 2:35Speaker 2: and implement at this pretty time. And we always see
- 2:38Speaker 2: that they're always late. When I mean late is is
- 2:43Speaker 2: we should have done this, but we didn't do this.
- 2:45Speaker 2: The police is not in line with council. Council is
- 2:49Speaker 2: not in line with the mayor. The mayor is not
- 2:51Speaker 2: aligned with the chief. The chief is not aligned with
- 2:54Speaker 2: the city manager. And what I call it is one
- 2:57Speaker 2: big hot mess.
- 2:59Speaker 1: It is a hot mess. And uh, I don't know
- 3:02Speaker 1: if you heard Chris Chris Smithman yesterday, but I I
- 3:07Speaker 1: was trying to check myself after the most recent election,
- 3:11Speaker 1: and there was a there was a shooting that happened.
- 3:16Speaker 1: And this is not the one that was in the
- 3:19Speaker 1: West End where the eleven year old girl was killed.
- 3:21Speaker 1: This was one that happened and and it was it
- 3:23Speaker 1: was just a day or two after the election, and
- 3:27Speaker 1: there and and and I said, you know what, this
- 3:29Speaker 1: is what the people of Cincinnati voted for. The people
- 3:32Speaker 1: of Cincinnati voted for a city council that does not
- 3:38Speaker 1: feel the need to address crime in a serious way.
- 3:41Speaker 1: We have a mayor who talks about it and says
- 3:43Speaker 1: he's got a plan for this, that and the other thing,
- 3:45Speaker 1: and then comes out on his inauguration day and says, hey, uh,
- 3:51Speaker 1: we're going to have public we need public safety. We're
- 3:53Speaker 1: going to have to ask you to dig a little
- 3:54Speaker 1: bit deeper, caugh up a little bit more money. Well,
- 3:58Speaker 1: I think we have a city manage who is in
- 4:01Speaker 1: over her head when it comes with dealing comes to
- 4:05Speaker 1: dealing with serious issues like this. And so I asked
- 4:08Speaker 1: Chris Smith, and I said, am I off base here?
- 4:12Speaker 1: Suggesting that this is what the voters, the small amount
- 4:16Speaker 1: of voters who turned out in this last election cycle.
- 4:20Speaker 1: I said, is this what representative of what they voted
- 4:23Speaker 1: for to continue these kind of policies? And he said, yeah,
- 4:28Speaker 1: I'll ask you the same question. Is this what the
- 4:31Speaker 1: majority of voters said? We're fine with the way things
- 4:35Speaker 1: are going at city Hall because everything that's going on
- 4:38Speaker 1: right now was going on before. And I don't see
- 4:41Speaker 1: anything to indicate that there's going to be any sort
- 4:45Speaker 1: of meaningful change or this will be addressed in a
- 4:48Speaker 1: meaningful way.
- 4:49Speaker 2: Correct, to make it straight and simple, Yes, you get
- 4:54Speaker 2: what you want. It looked like a duck. Quite like
- 4:56Speaker 2: a duck. Walk like a duck. It's a duck. Aftad
- 4:59Speaker 2: was very clear. He said that he was gonna raise taxes,
- 5:02Speaker 2: whether it's through the public safety or whether it's through housing.
- 5:07Speaker 2: He told everybody he was gonna raise taxes. So at
- 5:10Speaker 2: this point, are you surprised, And my surprise, absolutely not,
- 5:14Speaker 2: because we've already seen the body of work. So to
- 5:18Speaker 2: be honest with you, at this point, no one should
- 5:21Speaker 2: be shocked. No one should be surprised because we've seen
- 5:24Speaker 2: how the administration operates and this is what you get
- 5:29Speaker 2: when you deal with this type of process in this
- 5:31Speaker 2: type of system. So I keep things straight to the point,
- 5:34Speaker 2: brother dan I'm not surprised, and it's gonna continue to
- 5:37Speaker 2: get worse. The taxpayers are gonna get slammed, and this
- 5:41Speaker 2: is going to be one of the worst summers that
- 5:44Speaker 2: is going to happen here in Cincinnati. I've predicted it
- 5:48Speaker 2: several times on my pages, and everything I've predicted has
- 5:52Speaker 2: come to pass. Dealing whether it's city issues, whether it's
- 5:55Speaker 2: being homicized, whether it's being crime constantly going up within
- 5:59Speaker 2: the community, it all has been predicted and come to pass.
- 6:04Speaker 2: Just like with the issues that went on with Captain
- 6:07Speaker 2: Danita Pettis, I predicted she was going to get everything back,
- 6:11Speaker 2: all back paying benefits, and when she was terminated, I
- 6:15Speaker 2: immediately came out with a post and told her to
- 6:18Speaker 2: hold your hell up how Why Because I knew the system,
- 6:22Speaker 2: I knew how vicious the system could be. I knew
- 6:25Speaker 2: she was a target. And here we are today she
- 6:28Speaker 2: is a one hundred percent winner and has been awarded
- 6:33Speaker 2: everything back, paying all benefits.
- 6:35Speaker 1: Yeah. I'll be honest. I did not follow the Denita
- 6:39Speaker 1: Pettest story all that closely when it was rolling out
- 6:42Speaker 1: in real time. But when I saw the statement that
- 6:47Speaker 1: Ken Kober put out on this a couple of days ago,
- 6:51Speaker 1: I read that and it just it just smacked to
- 6:56Speaker 1: me of that there was heavy handed political influence in
- 7:01Speaker 1: everything that surrounded her. Correct. Correct, And that, to my
- 7:07Speaker 1: way of thinking, that is not what the Cincinnati Police
- 7:11Speaker 1: Department should be about. I think we had a long
- 7:15Speaker 1: history with the Cincinnati Police Department where they were in
- 7:18Speaker 1: a position to resist that sort of thing. I mean,
- 7:22Speaker 1: there's stories about Tom Striker when he was the police chief.
- 7:26Speaker 1: You know, he would have you know, the mayor or
- 7:28Speaker 1: other political figures would walk into his office and say Chief,
- 7:31Speaker 1: I need you to do this, that and the other thing,
- 7:33Speaker 1: and he would say, there's the door, get the hell
- 7:34Speaker 1: out of my office. So I think the way that
- 7:41Speaker 1: we have things set up now that the chief doesn't
- 7:44Speaker 1: have that same ability. And I say resist because I'm
- 7:47Speaker 1: not naive enough to believe that there's never any political
- 7:49Speaker 1: influence in the police department. But I think it's gotten
- 7:52Speaker 1: to such a point now to where it's sort of
- 7:57Speaker 1: part and parcel of the everyday activity.
- 8:00Speaker 2: Right But I'm gonna ask you, brother Dan, what's the
- 8:02Speaker 2: truth right now? What is actually the truth? What everybody
- 8:06Speaker 2: is putting blame on everybody when I've been very consistent.
- 8:10Speaker 2: I've actually said from the mayor, from the city manager,
- 8:14Speaker 2: from the chief, get rid of all of them. See,
- 8:16Speaker 2: I'm not just gonna point the finger at one person,
- 8:18Speaker 2: because this is an entire body of work. And when
- 8:21Speaker 2: you have an entire body of work like this, no
- 8:24Speaker 2: one gets a pass from me, not one particular person.
- 8:27Speaker 2: And this is where we have to be honest and
- 8:30Speaker 2: real about the situations. And I have proof just looking
- 8:33Speaker 2: at the report, even from the decision from the arbitrators
- 8:38Speaker 2: and Attorney Kimberly Rotowski is clear and she said it
- 8:43Speaker 2: not in her twenty plus years has she ever seen
- 8:48Speaker 2: anything as egregious as this particular arbitration filing and what
- 8:53Speaker 2: the city did to captain Denita Pettis.
- 8:55Speaker 1: So and you know what. You asked me, what is
- 8:59Speaker 1: the true truth right now? And and we got we
- 9:02Speaker 1: got a break coming up here. So I will tell
- 9:03Speaker 1: you what I what my perception of the true and
- 9:06Speaker 1: look what my perception of the truth is may not
- 9:09Speaker 1: be actually true, but I I can, I can, I
- 9:13Speaker 1: can read, I can look, I can see what's going on,
- 9:16Speaker 1: and I know, I know the message that I think
- 9:20Speaker 1: that is being sent forth and it's it's it's not
- 9:24Speaker 1: one that that we should be proud of.
- 9:27Speaker 2: That's right. So that's right.
- 9:28Speaker 1: Yeah, So I'll expound that. We got to get to
- 9:30Speaker 1: a quick little break here and we will continue with
- 9:33Speaker 1: brother Andre Ewing on the other side of this, Dan
- 9:36Speaker 1: Carroll and for Brian Thomas on fifty five KRC. The
- 9:39Speaker 1: talk station Experience, Comfort and Reliability was zimmer HVAC for
- 9:43Speaker 1: over seventy five years. Immensure the talk station. It's all
- 9:49Speaker 1: about being an individual.
- 9:50Speaker 2: Come on, let's go.
- 9:51Speaker 1: You know what I'm saying, Yes, sir, you know did
- 9:54Speaker 1: you hear Chris Smithaman yesterday talking about his thoughts on
- 9:56Speaker 1: MLK now that he had an hour on with Brian
- 9:59Speaker 1: Thomas yesterday? Was that was just a great hour of radio.
- 10:02Speaker 2: He is so passionate. Shout out to Christopher Smitherman. He
- 10:06Speaker 2: is amazing. He's passionate, extremely intelligent, and the city passed
- 10:12Speaker 2: up on a very very educated and reasonable man. And
- 10:20Speaker 2: I just want to give him a shout out. All
- 10:22Speaker 2: some father and all SOMEO just mentor and I appreciate
- 10:26Speaker 2: him in every way.
- 10:27Speaker 1: Yeah, he loves the city, He loves Hamilton County. He
- 10:31Speaker 1: wants only the best for this city and it pains
- 10:35Speaker 1: him to see the path that we are taking as
- 10:40Speaker 1: a city right now. So you asked me before, you know,
- 10:43Speaker 1: what's the truth. Well, the truth as I see it,
- 10:46Speaker 1: is that the message that is going out right now
- 10:50Speaker 1: is that crime pays in the city of Cincinnati. When
- 10:54Speaker 1: I see a settlement of eight point one million dollars,
- 10:58Speaker 1: that is going to be a final answer windfall for
- 11:01Speaker 1: hundreds of individuals who came into our city, that that
- 11:05Speaker 1: broke curfew, that damaged property. There was a Cincinnati police
- 11:10Speaker 1: officer who, thank god, he had a kevlar helmet on
- 11:13Speaker 1: it was hit with a bullet. The notion that because
- 11:19Speaker 1: you had and I remember saying this at the time
- 11:24Speaker 1: back in twenty twenty, and I would go to my
- 11:28Speaker 1: TV every night and my wife would say, what do
- 11:30Speaker 1: you want to watch on TV? I say, well, I'm
- 11:32Speaker 1: gonna I'm gonna watch the riots tonight. See. You know,
- 11:35Speaker 1: is it Philadelphia? Is it Chicago? Is it some other
- 11:40Speaker 1: city that has cars overturned and things are burning and
- 11:44Speaker 1: all the rest of it. You know, we it was
- 11:46Speaker 1: going on in Minneapolis, and so you had all these
- 11:49Speaker 1: riots that were spreading all across the country, all these
- 11:51Speaker 1: different cities, right, and then it tried to come to Cincinnati,
- 11:54Speaker 1: and I said, Cincinnati police did the right They nipped
- 11:57Speaker 1: this in the butt. We had some stort, We had
- 12:00Speaker 1: what there was like forty different businesses had their windows
- 12:03Speaker 1: broken out, damage, all kinds of just terrible things that
- 12:08Speaker 1: was going on. And the Cincinnati police nipped it in
- 12:11Speaker 1: the butt and did what they could. Then John Cranley
- 12:14Speaker 1: comes out, the mayor, and says, purfew, We're not tolerating this.
- 12:17Speaker 1: We're going to shut it down. People go out. The
- 12:19Speaker 1: next night, they get arrested, hundreds of people. The only
- 12:25Speaker 1: place they can go is to the Hamilton County Justice Center.
- 12:27Speaker 1: Takes a while to get them all into the justice center.
- 12:33Speaker 1: And so based on that that they were you know,
- 12:36Speaker 1: they had to sit outside for a little while, or
- 12:38Speaker 1: maybe they didn't get a bottle of water, or they
- 12:41Speaker 1: you know, maybe they didn't have their medication with So
- 12:44Speaker 1: they sue, and then we turn around and say we're
- 12:47Speaker 1: going to pay these people eight point one million dollars.
- 12:50Speaker 1: Then Ken Kober comes out a couple of weeks ago
- 12:53Speaker 1: and says he's caught wind of that there could possibly
- 12:58Speaker 1: be a settlement in the works, or the Hinton family
- 13:02Speaker 1: a terrible tragedy with that young man who decided to
- 13:06Speaker 1: boost some cars with some buddies of his. They get
- 13:09Speaker 1: caught by police, they run, he's got a gun, turns
- 13:12Speaker 1: toward police, and all those sort of facts get blurred
- 13:16Speaker 1: that they're talking about a settlement with him. Then we
- 13:19Speaker 1: have the settlement that gets announced with the other young
- 13:23Speaker 1: man whose name escapes me at the moment, who also
- 13:26Speaker 1: pointed a gun at police. Was there some question there, possibly,
- 13:29Speaker 1: but the police were cleared. We don't stand behind them.
- 13:33Speaker 1: So the message that is going out is that crime
- 13:36Speaker 1: pays in the city of Cincinnati. And I think those
- 13:40Speaker 1: who are of such a mind look at that, see
- 13:44Speaker 1: what's happening, and the results are what they are.
- 13:50Speaker 2: Well, the bottom line, Dan is that there's no trust
- 13:53Speaker 2: in this city. Zero trust and crime does pay excuse me,
- 14:00Speaker 2: from what we see on a daily basis, and there's
- 14:03Speaker 2: no real structure of what we see. And that's why
- 14:06Speaker 2: I said that the city is broken. The structure is broken,
- 14:10Speaker 2: and something needs to pull back this entire process. And
- 14:13Speaker 2: of course, since we have four more years of administration
- 14:16Speaker 2: and council, we're going to get the exact same results.
- 14:19Speaker 2: There's something that's going on with the city manager writing
- 14:24Speaker 2: all these checks, feeling very very passionate about giving individuals
- 14:33Speaker 2: large sums of money regardless of the facts or even
- 14:37Speaker 2: how the information comes out. And this is where we
- 14:40Speaker 2: have to really look at what is going on with
- 14:44Speaker 2: our city leaders. That none of them are on the
- 14:47Speaker 2: same page. And when you lose trust, you lose the community.
- 14:52Speaker 2: When you lose the community, you are in trouble. And
- 14:55Speaker 2: this is a clear fact of how these situations go.
- 14:58Speaker 2: But even taken from when we talk about, say the
- 15:01Speaker 2: collaborative agreement that everybody brings up. But what's interesting, within
- 15:05Speaker 2: like a twenty four to forty eight hour period, they
- 15:08Speaker 2: have to show the family the videotape of what the
- 15:12Speaker 2: shooting and what has occurred immediately. Now, really that is
- 15:16Speaker 2: backfired because emotionally, you bring in a father and that's
- 15:19Speaker 2: what they're claiming now that he witnessed his son being
- 15:26Speaker 2: a shot and killed writing on a video. But now
- 15:29Speaker 2: there was no structure in place, and they just allow
- 15:32Speaker 2: him to leave without proper council, proper care, proper prep
- 15:38Speaker 2: to show you what's going on. And he leaves this
- 15:41Speaker 2: situation and then goes kills Officer Henderson. So now they
- 15:47Speaker 2: need to re evaluate the entire collaborative agreement. And what
- 15:52Speaker 2: does it look like for someone to review your child
- 15:56Speaker 2: or your loved one being murdered. Yeah, that would shock anybody.
- 15:59Speaker 2: I don't care who you are. That will shock anybody.
- 16:02Speaker 2: But now what do we do when we just allow
- 16:05Speaker 2: a system to just tell you and demand I never
- 16:08Speaker 2: liked the situation of just releasing information immediately within like
- 16:12Speaker 2: twenty four hours, because there's so much deeptail that needs
- 16:16Speaker 2: to be expressed. And so what do you get? You
- 16:18Speaker 2: get emotion versus reason. And when you deal with that,
- 16:22Speaker 2: brother Dan, you get a hot mess once again is
- 16:25Speaker 2: what you have in this city. But you know, I
- 16:27Speaker 2: know that with all that being said, I wanted to
- 16:30Speaker 2: get on the situation, which you know, Captain Pettis and
- 16:33Speaker 2: how she scored super super high on all these exams.
- 16:37Speaker 1: Yeah, you brought the brought the receipts right here.
- 16:39Speaker 2: I brought the receipts second highest lieutenant score when she
- 16:43Speaker 2: was twenty twenty fourteen to twenty fifteen, second highest captain score.
- 16:48Speaker 2: So there was no DEI for Captain Pettis. This woman
- 16:52Speaker 2: is brilliant. She has skills. I mean, her her resume
- 16:57Speaker 2: is incredible. She was she served in the Records commander.
- 17:01Speaker 2: She was a Special Service Section Commander, Guns Crime Tour
- 17:05Speaker 2: Task Force Commander, Planning Section Commander, Civil Disturbance Response Team Commander,
- 17:11Speaker 2: and a subject matter specialist when it comes to promotional exams.
- 17:17Speaker 1: This minute, that was something. Yeah, that was something you
- 17:19Speaker 1: mentioned to me when you walked in this morning, that
- 17:22Speaker 1: that she is not a DEI higher. And I have
- 17:26Speaker 1: not seen individuals who are criticizing her in that sort
- 17:31Speaker 1: of way, but you're telling me that there's a I
- 17:32Speaker 1: guess there's a faction out there that is suggesting that
- 17:36Speaker 1: Captain Pettis was a DEI higher.
- 17:38Speaker 2: Absolutely absolutely on social media pages that that we always
- 17:42Speaker 2: see that they're saying, because she's a black woman, she
- 17:44Speaker 2: must have just didn't earn it. But I'm here to
- 17:47Speaker 2: sit back and say it's clear that it's obvious that
- 17:51Speaker 2: she earned it. And obviously when the arbitrators, three of them, mind.
- 17:55Speaker 1: You, well, they are clearly mistaken and don't know what
- 17:57Speaker 1: the hell they're talking about.
- 17:59Speaker 2: Absolutely, yes, sir, And that's why I said that Chief
- 18:02Speaker 2: Fiji doesn't get a pass. We can't just put this
- 18:05Speaker 2: on the city manager. Because even in the Chief Thiji's
- 18:10Speaker 2: own writing, she said, I'm disapproving Chief McKinley's recommendation he's
- 18:15Speaker 2: a fire chief and recommending Captain Pettis be dismissed from
- 18:20Speaker 2: the CPD. So don't put it on Cheryl Long. Shrel
- 18:24Speaker 2: Long messed up by just taking a piece of paper
- 18:27Speaker 2: and just signing it. You don't sign anything or concur
- 18:31Speaker 2: with anything until you read the fine print. And this
- 18:36Speaker 2: is where a counsel and everyone else instead of making
- 18:39Speaker 2: all these payoffs, even with Michael Washington, I give him
- 18:42Speaker 2: a shout out. People better start sitting back and reevaluating
- 18:46Speaker 2: the whole charter on the power of the city manager
- 18:50Speaker 2: because she is making a wreck of this entire city.
- 18:55Speaker 2: And how much money do the taxpayers have?
- 18:58Speaker 1: Well, it seems that and we got to run. But
- 19:02Speaker 1: it seems to me that her way of doing business
- 19:05Speaker 1: is to reach into the treasury and write write a
- 19:08Speaker 1: check in order to address an issue.
- 19:11Speaker 2: And I will never ever solve anything.
- 19:14Speaker 1: Absolutely, Pastor, you're also a pastor. Leave us with before
- 19:19Speaker 1: we let you go, leave us with a good word
- 19:20Speaker 1: that we can we can think about during the course
- 19:22Speaker 1: of the day time.
- 19:23Speaker 2: What a good word is out of the abundance of
- 19:25Speaker 2: the heart. The mouth speaks, and you have to be
- 19:28Speaker 2: careful what is in your heart. And so when you
- 19:31Speaker 2: see somebody today, don't judge them. Go into them, look
- 19:36Speaker 2: them in an eye, tell them you love them, tell
- 19:38Speaker 2: them God bless them. And won't you actually pray with them,
- 19:42Speaker 2: talk with them just for a moment. You might be
- 19:45Speaker 2: surprised what you both have in common.
- 19:48Speaker 1: Andre Ewing, great to meet you, my friend. Likewise, I
- 19:51Speaker 1: hope you get a chance to do this again.
- 19:52Speaker 2: Yes, sir, thank you so much.
- 19:54Speaker 1: Dan Carrolyn for Brian Thomas on fifty five krc DE
- 19:57Speaker 1: Talk Stations the football postseason