Latest / Brian Thomas / The "Smither-vent" - Episode 138 - Another week...another downtown murder

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The "Smither-vent" - Episode 138 - Another week...another downtown murder · Brian Thomas

0:04
Speaker 1: Seven fifteen on this Monday morning, Dan Carol for Brian Thomas,
0:07
Speaker 1: and he couldn't wait picked up the phone, called in early.
0:11
Speaker 1: And it's always great on a Monday to welcome in
0:13
Speaker 1: Chris Smithman too the Smith event on fifty five KRC.
0:16
Speaker 1: And uh, mister former vice mayor, how are you this morning?
0:21
Speaker 2: Oh? I'm doing good, Dan, Thanks for having me on.
0:23
Speaker 2: I appreciate it.
0:24
Speaker 1: As always. As always, I'll leave it up to you.
0:28
Speaker 1: Where do you because there's once again there is no
0:31
Speaker 1: shortage of topics to talk about, and here we are
0:34
Speaker 1: again on a Monday morning for the Smith event. So
0:36
Speaker 1: I'll leave it up to you. Where do you want
0:38
Speaker 1: to start this morning?
0:39
Speaker 2: I want to start with murder. I mean, we've got
0:42
Speaker 2: someone murdered in the core of Cincinnati, right on our square.
0:48
Speaker 2: This is the third shooting in one year in the core.
0:53
Speaker 2: We're talking about in any downtown, but in Cincinnati, our
0:56
Speaker 2: Fountain Square is ground zero.
0:59
Speaker 1: It is our core.
1:01
Speaker 2: And it remains to me shocking that the mayor, the
1:07
Speaker 2: nine members of council do not have a plan. Dan Carroll.
1:12
Speaker 2: As we go into a hot summer, you and I
1:15
Speaker 2: know that violence is going to continue to spike as
1:18
Speaker 2: we push through the summer, like this is just the beginning, right, So,
1:23
Speaker 2: whether it's cool, cold, hot, we now have people being
1:28
Speaker 2: murdered in our downtown. I was listening, I've been listening
1:32
Speaker 2: to your show, and think about, if you're the mayor
1:36
Speaker 2: and members of council, what this does to businesses that
1:39
Speaker 2: are in downtown. What does this do to conventions that
1:43
Speaker 2: want to come to Cincinnati. People are sitting, and what
1:47
Speaker 2: does it do to those who live in the suburbs
1:50
Speaker 2: who just want to come and freak with downtown, go
1:52
Speaker 2: to a reds or go to a football game, or
1:55
Speaker 2: go to a bar, whatever they want to do downtown.
1:58
Speaker 2: This doesn't help. And so I am just blown away
2:04
Speaker 2: that it seems to me that over the last five
2:07
Speaker 2: years that this council and this mayor have just allowed
2:11
Speaker 2: our city to continue to deteriorate. And I'm talking on
2:15
Speaker 2: every single level, whether we're talking about violent crime, whether
2:20
Speaker 2: we're talking about what we say petty crime, whether it's infrastructure,
2:24
Speaker 2: whether it's the budget, whether it's the police department, or
2:28
Speaker 2: legal battles that the city is having. It just seems
2:31
Speaker 2: like city Hall is wrapped into chaos, and every time
2:35
Speaker 2: the mayor gets on the radio or gets on TV.
2:38
Speaker 2: He says, it's just our perception.
2:40
Speaker 1: Dan Carroll, Well, and then I I was looking at
2:45
Speaker 1: the post that f Tab Purval put out following this
2:49
Speaker 1: latest murder in downtown Cincinnati on Fountain Square, and he
2:54
Speaker 1: writes that last night there was a homicide at an
2:58
Speaker 1: establishment on Fountain Square, the central hub of our city
3:01
Speaker 1: the thousands of innocent residents use every day. It's unacceptable,
3:06
Speaker 1: Chris smitheman, again, we hear the mayor saying this is
3:09
Speaker 1: unacceptable for tragedies like this to occur. And I took
3:13
Speaker 1: issue with the use of the word unacceptable number one,
3:17
Speaker 1: and then tragedies number two. You got when you've got
3:20
Speaker 1: a situation like this, and then you've got guys who,
3:24
Speaker 1: for whatever reason, feel it's perfectly acceptable to settle their
3:28
Speaker 1: differences with a gunplay and a place like Fountain Squhare
3:32
Speaker 1: that to me is not a tragedy. This is criminal activity.
3:35
Speaker 1: So I think we need to differentiate between the idea
3:39
Speaker 1: of a tragedy and a criminal activity. And then for
3:43
Speaker 1: the mayor to come out and say this is unacceptable, well,
3:46
Speaker 1: how many times? How many times can we go back
3:49
Speaker 1: and look at the public pronouncements from this mayor and
3:52
Speaker 1: see him use the phrase that this is unacceptable, and
3:55
Speaker 1: I would say, well, that's fine, mister mayor, but what
3:58
Speaker 1: have you done about it? And what have you done
4:00
Speaker 1: to change these circumstances? And I think the results speak
4:04
Speaker 1: for themselves. I think we're at that point.
4:07
Speaker 2: Look, people listening to our show might say, former vice mayor,
4:13
Speaker 2: what would you do? Well? I was the vice mayor.
4:17
Speaker 2: I served under Mayor John Cranley. What did we do?
4:20
Speaker 2: Number One? We had an immediate emergency meeting on something
4:25
Speaker 2: like this, and we're talking in less than twenty four hours, Dude,
4:29
Speaker 2: we would be on Fountain Square saying police proactive policing,
4:34
Speaker 2: We're going to double down our efforts. If you even
4:37
Speaker 2: blank in downtown, we're gonna have you arrested. And we
4:41
Speaker 2: understood at that moment that our judges would support us.
4:45
Speaker 2: Right now, we have judges that aren't supporting our police officers.
4:49
Speaker 2: When they're doing arrest. They go in, they do they
4:52
Speaker 2: have a gun, right, they do something really crazy, and
4:55
Speaker 2: our judges are letting them right out of the door, right,
4:59
Speaker 2: And that is meaning our judge races that are coming
5:03
Speaker 2: up in November. I am sharing with everybody listening. Safety
5:07
Speaker 2: is a non partisan issue. It doesn't matter whether you're
5:10
Speaker 2: a Democrat or Republican or an independent, whatever your political
5:13
Speaker 2: persuasion is. We have to agree that all of us
5:17
Speaker 2: deserve to be safe. We also have to agree that
5:21
Speaker 2: our businesses should be able to operate. And what's gonna
5:24
Speaker 2: happen is and I'm not picking on Jeff Ruby. I'm
5:27
Speaker 2: just saying this happened right outside his shop in that area.
5:30
Speaker 2: You're gonna see one of those businesses. His daughter is
5:33
Speaker 2: gonna one day say, Jeff Ruby's daughter who's running the
5:35
Speaker 2: shop now, is gonna say, you know what, I've got
5:38
Speaker 2: to move my business. It's coming, dude. They're gonna say,
5:41
Speaker 2: i gotta go over to Covington, or I've got to
5:44
Speaker 2: go out into the county. I cannot take this anymore.
5:48
Speaker 2: My patrons who are coming into Jeff Rubies should be
5:51
Speaker 2: able to go out to eat, walk out of my business,
5:54
Speaker 2: go to their car without being jumped. We're not even
5:57
Speaker 2: hearing about the what we call the assaults that are
6:00
Speaker 2: happening downtown. You and I this morning are just talking
6:03
Speaker 2: about murder, murder, murder in our downtown, and we hear
6:07
Speaker 2: nothing from the mayor. So my point is, if we
6:10
Speaker 2: had a mayor that had a good relationship with law enforcement,
6:14
Speaker 2: they would be doing everything they could. But they're scared,
6:17
Speaker 2: Dan Carroll. They know that if they go down on
6:19
Speaker 2: that square and they had an interaction with one of
6:22
Speaker 2: these young people, this is the truth. They know that
6:25
Speaker 2: this mayor and this council will throw them under the bus.
6:29
Speaker 2: They'll destroy their career, they'll destroy their families, they'll be
6:33
Speaker 2: on CNN because the officer couldn't tell the difference between
6:36
Speaker 2: a pella gun, a pipe or a real gun. It
6:39
Speaker 2: was pointed at our officer, the officer fire took the light,
6:43
Speaker 2: and now all of a sudden, city council is turning
6:45
Speaker 2: their back on our officers. One of the things that
6:48
Speaker 2: we're experiencing right now is officers know that this mayor
6:52
Speaker 2: and this council they do not support them. That's where
6:55
Speaker 2: we are.
6:55
Speaker 1: Well, Chris Smithman, I said here and I look at
6:57
Speaker 1: a situation like this, and I wonder what if we
7:00
Speaker 1: had police officers who were able to look at a
7:04
Speaker 1: couple of guys like this and then using their experience,
7:09
Speaker 1: using their training, using their ability to discern who may
7:14
Speaker 1: be involved or who's likely to be involved in criminal
7:18
Speaker 1: activity and who is not maybe have walked up to
7:21
Speaker 1: one of these individuals. Maybe us who have spoken to
7:24
Speaker 1: one of these individuals, maybe have found reason to have,
7:28
Speaker 1: you know, maybe dissuade them from the actions that they
7:31
Speaker 1: were about to take. Maybe have found something minor that
7:35
Speaker 1: would have led to them maybe finding the gun on
7:39
Speaker 1: this individual and removing that weapon from this situation. What
7:42
Speaker 1: if we had police officers in a police force across
7:46
Speaker 1: the board that was not afraid, as you mentioned too,
7:50
Speaker 1: to take these kind of steps. And I think there
7:52
Speaker 1: was a time in Cincinnati when we had policing like that.
7:55
Speaker 1: But of course, you know the crowd that wants to
7:59
Speaker 1: shout out about racial profiling and all these other politically
8:03
Speaker 1: correct ideas. They seem to have won the day on this,
8:07
Speaker 1: and again we see the results on a daily basis.
8:10
Speaker 1: And you mentioned something that I brought up earlier this morning,
8:14
Speaker 1: just the simple assaults that go on people who get
8:18
Speaker 1: shot and don't get killed. These things. If all we
8:21
Speaker 1: did was talk about on the news about who got
8:24
Speaker 1: beat up, who got mugged, who had their car jacked,
8:28
Speaker 1: who got money stolen from them at the atm all,
8:31
Speaker 1: that sort of thing. That's all the news would be
8:35
Speaker 1: if we every single one these things don't make the
8:37
Speaker 1: news because they they're so commonplace, they happen all the time,
8:41
Speaker 1: and even the shootings, some of them where people get killed,
8:46
Speaker 1: they're in the news cycle for twenty four hours and
8:48
Speaker 1: then we've moved on because there's just so many of them.
8:51
Speaker 1: You can't remember them all and you can't keep track
8:54
Speaker 1: of them all. And again, that's all we talked about
8:57
Speaker 1: in the news. That's all the news would be.
9:01
Speaker 2: Well, you talk to property owners in o tyards given
9:04
Speaker 2: an example, their properties are sitting on the market longer,
9:08
Speaker 2: their prices are being reduced because you can't find people
9:13
Speaker 2: like you used to who want to live in downtown
9:16
Speaker 2: because of the crime. This is going to continue to happen.
9:19
Speaker 2: Dan Carroll, Now I want to also say this, it's
9:22
Speaker 2: interesting to Chief Fiji, she was trying to pull together resources,
9:27
Speaker 2: including the governor, to come into our city and provide support.
9:31
Speaker 2: I am still waiting to hear this Mayor and hear
9:35
Speaker 2: this council accept unconditionally the support of Governor Mike DeWine's team.
9:43
Speaker 2: They want to come and help us in Cincinnati, but
9:46
Speaker 2: we have a council, a consultant, and a mayor that
9:52
Speaker 2: continue to refuse the help, and that is part of
9:55
Speaker 2: the bloodshed. It would be different for me, Dan Carroll,
9:58
Speaker 2: if I saw a mayor and a CA council doing
10:00
Speaker 2: everything they could possibly do. Coordination with the ATF, Coordination
10:06
Speaker 2: with the Attorney General's Office, for like taking them to
10:10
Speaker 2: federal court if they have a gun when they're committing
10:14
Speaker 2: a crime, having the Prosecutor's office there, coordinating with our
10:18
Speaker 2: Hamilton County judges. This is what John Cranley and Christopher
10:22
Speaker 2: Smitheman did when we were serving. We brought everybody together,
10:25
Speaker 2: thirty forty people and said, listen, we've got to get
10:28
Speaker 2: rid of crime. We cannot allow this to happen. There's
10:31
Speaker 2: no plan, Dan Carrol, this is what I'm trying to articulate.
10:35
Speaker 2: This mayor is traveling around trying to figure out where
10:38
Speaker 2: his next gig is. He's not worried about Cincinnati, and
10:42
Speaker 2: you have members of counselor who are running for new
10:44
Speaker 2: positions because they're turned out. They don't care about what's
10:47
Speaker 2: going on in Cincinnati. We're going to continue to see
10:50
Speaker 2: this level of crime, in those petty crimes they're not
10:52
Speaker 2: even petty. But like a young kid goes downtown, somebody
10:56
Speaker 2: busts their back window out. Hey, it's not even reported.
10:59
Speaker 2: The young person who drives back home and mom and
11:01
Speaker 2: dad take care of the car, and then they tell
11:03
Speaker 2: the young person please don't go back downtown. Stay out
11:06
Speaker 2: of the downtown is just too dangerous. If we do
11:09
Speaker 2: not turn this around, you're gonna see businesses start to leave.
11:12
Speaker 2: And I'm I'm talking places like Jeff Ruby. I believe
11:15
Speaker 2: you already see migration of Procter and Gamble moving people
11:19
Speaker 2: out to their Masons, their Mason campus because guess what
11:22
Speaker 2: their employees are saying, I don't feel safe. I live
11:25
Speaker 2: out in the suburbs. This place is closer. I'd rather
11:28
Speaker 2: go to the Mason campus. You're gonna continue to see
11:31
Speaker 2: that kind of migration, Dan Carroll, if we do not
11:34
Speaker 2: fundamentally turn things around as it relates to crime and safety.
11:38
Speaker 2: And it's one of the reasons I continue to support
11:41
Speaker 2: the zak Ramaswami for governor. There must be an adult
11:45
Speaker 2: at the state level. Independents who are listening to me,
11:48
Speaker 2: please consider our safety when you're voting for governor, and
11:52
Speaker 2: don't sit on the sidelines when we get in November
11:55
Speaker 2: and then moan and grown after the election to say,
11:58
Speaker 2: oh man for vac Ramaswami, what happened in the election.
12:01
Speaker 2: What happened was you didn't show up in vote. All right,
12:03
Speaker 2: we have got to show up and vote.
12:05
Speaker 1: Dan Carroll, Chris, stay right there. We're going to get
12:07
Speaker 1: to a quick break and then we'll continue on the
12:09
Speaker 1: other side on fifty five KRC, the Talk station, Your Money,
12:13
Speaker 1: Your Community SHAREFFACS, Credit Union, Fox Station fifty five KRC,
12:20
Speaker 1: the Talk Station. Dan Carroll for Brian Thomas. It's Monday morning.
12:24
Speaker 1: That means it is the Smither Vent and Chris, we
12:27
Speaker 1: this week we'll get to relive the downtown brawl that
12:31
Speaker 1: put Cincinnati in the national news last summer. Seven people
12:34
Speaker 1: charged with felonies from this brawl start a bench trial today.
12:39
Speaker 1: To your way of thinking, what's the best case scenario
12:43
Speaker 1: for the outcome of the trial of these individuals charged
12:47
Speaker 1: in this this melee, this mayhem that made Cincinnati national news.
12:52
Speaker 1: And if you remember every time you turned on Fox
12:56
Speaker 1: News or CNN for months and months and months, this
12:59
Speaker 1: video it seemed to be rolling constantly morning, noon, and night,
13:03
Speaker 1: and that again puts Cincinnati in a terrible spotlight.
13:07
Speaker 2: Well, all they will all be found guilty. There's video
13:12
Speaker 2: watching them, like, how can you say you did you
13:14
Speaker 2: didn't do that? Right, So they're gonna yeah, that can't
13:21
Speaker 2: say that's not me. We're gonna you know, the jury
13:24
Speaker 2: is going to see this on video, right.
13:27
Speaker 1: Well, it's a bench trial, so it's going to be
13:29
Speaker 1: in front of a judge. There's no jury. It says
13:31
Speaker 1: that judge. Judge gets okay, the.
13:33
Speaker 2: Judge, but here, but here's going to be the key.
13:36
Speaker 2: Will the judge really hold them accountable for the bad behavior? Right?
13:41
Speaker 2: I believe they'll be found guilty, But what will the
13:44
Speaker 2: time look like? Right? And the time and the time
13:48
Speaker 2: and the time should be very severe because anybody could
13:54
Speaker 2: have been killed in that situation, like like the way
13:57
Speaker 2: they were kicking people in the head, the way they
13:59
Speaker 2: were bought by these slamming people, the way they were
14:01
Speaker 2: knocking them out, anybody could have died. I think it
14:05
Speaker 2: was attempted murder. So at the end of the day,
14:08
Speaker 2: I believe they'll all be found guilty. I'm waiting to
14:11
Speaker 2: see what will the penalty be for beating people up
14:15
Speaker 2: in the middle of downtown here's the other thing I
14:17
Speaker 2: want to say to you. I want you to think
14:18
Speaker 2: about this, dude. I want you to think about Dan Carroll.
14:22
Speaker 2: Why in Butler County don't we have these things happening.
14:26
Speaker 2: Why aren't people getting shot out there? Petty crimes? You
14:29
Speaker 2: know why, because Sheriff Jones doesn't play He tells you,
14:34
Speaker 2: if you come here, I've got something for you. Right,
14:38
Speaker 2: we don't have that in the City of Cincinnati. Criminals
14:42
Speaker 2: are smart. They go where they know they can get
14:45
Speaker 2: away with crimes. They're never going to go out into
14:49
Speaker 2: Butler County and mess around with Sheriff Jones. I remember
14:52
Speaker 2: when we were talking about people who were od and
14:55
Speaker 2: everybody thought Sheriff Jones was crazy when he said, hey,
14:58
Speaker 2: you od over here, were not putting narcan out of here?
15:01
Speaker 2: You're on your own. Guess what O These dropped people
15:05
Speaker 2: were not going out there dying, but they're dying in
15:08
Speaker 2: the city of Cincinnati. I'm not sure. I'm not sharing
15:12
Speaker 2: what the right public policy is on the matter. I'm
15:15
Speaker 2: just telling you the truth. Criminals do not play around
15:18
Speaker 2: with Sheriff Jones in Butler County, and you and I
15:22
Speaker 2: know why. Because if they go out there those sheriffs
15:25
Speaker 2: are gonna arrest you, They're gonna put you in jail,
15:28
Speaker 2: they're gonna prosecute you, and you're gonna do some serious time. Dude.
15:32
Speaker 2: That's what's wrong with Hamilton County right now. That is
15:35
Speaker 2: what's wrong with the City of Cincinnati. They know they
15:38
Speaker 2: have a weak mayor, a weak collective council that allows
15:43
Speaker 2: criminals right to do what they want in the City
15:46
Speaker 2: of Cincinnati. And it's only a matter of time before
15:49
Speaker 2: a citizen with a concealed carry is walking downtown or
15:52
Speaker 2: walking somewhere and one of these youths, one of these
15:55
Speaker 2: people decide, five of them are gonna jump somebody, and
15:58
Speaker 2: somebody then in the up taking somebody's life because they
16:02
Speaker 2: know right now that the that the mayor and the
16:05
Speaker 2: members of Careful are not backing them up. Dan Carroll,
16:08
Speaker 2: we have a criminal issue in our city and it
16:11
Speaker 2: is festering and the how do it gets the worst
16:13
Speaker 2: is going to get well.
16:14
Speaker 1: Chief Fiji alluded to that when she made some statements
16:18
Speaker 1: during her tenure. But we'll see what happens with her.
16:21
Speaker 1: But you brought up Sheriff Jones, and I had him
16:23
Speaker 1: on my show one time and we were talking about
16:26
Speaker 1: crime in Cincinnati, and he said, you know what if
16:29
Speaker 1: they would bring me in there, I could I could
16:31
Speaker 1: go down there to Cincinnati for a couple of months
16:33
Speaker 1: and get things squared away. And so I was thinking,
16:37
Speaker 1: you know, maybe maybe we should look at the contract
16:40
Speaker 1: of Iris ROI and maybe apply that to Sheriff Jones
16:44
Speaker 1: and have him come in. How great would that be
16:47
Speaker 1: two CE a guy like Sheriff Jones walking around and
16:49
Speaker 1: down downtown Cincinnati. Great, here's what needs to be done.
16:54
Speaker 1: It'd be absolutely fantastic. Chris, we got to get to
16:57
Speaker 1: another quick break. Stay right there and we'll continue on
16:59
Speaker 1: on fifty five KRC the talk stations.
17:01
Speaker 2: You're one stop for advertising called eight four four eight
17:05
Speaker 2: four four be.
17:05
Speaker 1: The talk station fifty five KRC DE talk station Dan
17:15
Speaker 1: Carroll for Brian Thomas talking with Chris Smithment and it
17:18
Speaker 1: spend the smith event and Chris Smithman. Once again we
17:20
Speaker 1: have the specter of our friends from the West Side
17:23
Speaker 1: who we're going to have to deal with. More work
17:25
Speaker 1: going on with the Western Hills Viaduct. The city continues
17:29
Speaker 1: to take a piecemeal approach to a bridge that was
17:34
Speaker 1: in two thousand and seven declared functionally obsolete and reaching
17:39
Speaker 1: the end of its useful life. So here we are
17:41
Speaker 1: nearly twenty years later and we still have you know,
17:43
Speaker 1: we get the and then look, this is maintenance work
17:46
Speaker 1: that's got to be done by Duke Energy. I understand that,
17:49
Speaker 1: but the approach to the Western Hills Viaduct, especially in
17:52
Speaker 1: light of the sailing selling of the railroad, the six
17:58
Speaker 1: billion dollar what ever is going on with that, that
18:01
Speaker 1: we haven't really come up with a comprehensive plan. I'm
18:05
Speaker 1: looking at the timeline here and we're talking about, you know,
18:08
Speaker 1: maybe beginning some phase work in twenty twenty eight and
18:12
Speaker 1: completing demolition in twenty thirty two. That's six years hence,
18:17
Speaker 1: and we're just talking about demolition work of the Western
18:21
Speaker 1: Hills Viaduct. It just seems to me that this stands
18:24
Speaker 1: out as a glaring example of the inability for city Hall,
18:29
Speaker 1: even though they have the resources necessary to get this done,
18:34
Speaker 1: not getting things done.
18:36
Speaker 2: Yeah, I agree with you. You know, I remember when I
18:39
Speaker 2: was serving fighting for the Western Hills Viaduct and the bridge,
18:45
Speaker 2: as you know, crumble, sometimes pieces of concrete just fall.
18:48
Speaker 2: And I remember I was on the Floid councilor and
18:50
Speaker 2: I said, what Is it going to take Is it
18:52
Speaker 2: going to take one of these pieces of concrete going
18:54
Speaker 2: through a van and killing a family for you guys
18:57
Speaker 2: to decide you want to do something about it. And
19:00
Speaker 2: you can go back and look at the motions that
19:03
Speaker 2: I personally submitted, and and part of it was defensive
19:08
Speaker 2: and it was crazy, but I was I was demanding
19:10
Speaker 2: that they put netty under the Western Hills Vidact so
19:14
Speaker 2: that our citizens on the West Side weren't killed because
19:18
Speaker 2: of the inaction by by all of the leaders across
19:22
Speaker 2: the state of Ohio, the county and and the city
19:26
Speaker 2: and so yeah, it is a major problem and West
19:29
Speaker 2: Siders have always deserved better, and I would I would
19:32
Speaker 2: tell them, do you guys know how much regional GDP
19:35
Speaker 2: comes across that bridge? Not just the West Siders coming
19:38
Speaker 2: in there, but this is a major commerce commerce coming
19:41
Speaker 2: across that bridge. And I just think there's just a
19:45
Speaker 2: level of disrespect that comes from city Hall, you know,
19:50
Speaker 2: from the West side. I remember when we were hosting
19:54
Speaker 2: Vavek Ramaswami at Jim and Jacks and there were people
19:57
Speaker 2: posting up on my Twitter page each are now x
20:01
Speaker 2: page saying that Jim and Jackson wasn't in the city
20:04
Speaker 2: of Cincinnati. I'm like, dude, you don't even know where
20:07
Speaker 2: fifty is and where that Jim and Jackson is in
20:09
Speaker 2: the city city of Cincinnati. But it's just how disconnected
20:13
Speaker 2: I think sometimes city Hall is. But West Siders, you know,
20:17
Speaker 2: they bear some of the brunt of this because their
20:20
Speaker 2: voter turnout isn't what it needs to be. And so
20:23
Speaker 2: when you have elections due and twenty five percent of
20:27
Speaker 2: your voters are turning out, you get outcomes like this
20:31
Speaker 2: because it's like, Oh, they really don't care. Are they're
20:33
Speaker 2: really happy about what's going on. So my message to
20:36
Speaker 2: the West Side, where a third of our citizens live
20:39
Speaker 2: in the City of Cincinnati, it's time to show up
20:42
Speaker 2: and vote. You just can't have sailor Park right showing
20:45
Speaker 2: up and holding it down and have places like Westwood
20:48
Speaker 2: and price Ville kind of like kind of in the
20:50
Speaker 2: twenty percent twenty five percent voter turnout, seventy five percent
20:55
Speaker 2: of West Siders who are registered voters are sitting on
20:58
Speaker 2: the sidelines. Dan Carrol, and that is one of the
21:00
Speaker 2: reasons the Western Hills Vida days where it is they've
21:04
Speaker 2: got to show up. I went a ninety percent turnout
21:07
Speaker 2: on the West Side at the November election, and watch
21:10
Speaker 2: what happens to the Western Hills viaa if ninety percent
21:14
Speaker 2: of west Side or showed up. I guarantee you all
21:16
Speaker 2: those timelines that you just put forth, they would ramp
21:19
Speaker 2: up real fast.
21:21
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's good. That's a good point. We talked all
21:25
Speaker 1: the time about voter turnout and how elections have consequences
21:29
Speaker 1: and all the rest of it. You brought up, vivike Ramaswami,
21:32
Speaker 1: and I want to ask you about that. I had
21:34
Speaker 1: a caller earlier this morning bring up the issue of
21:36
Speaker 1: property taxes, and you know this caller is not happy
21:40
Speaker 1: with the constant increase in property taxes. VI vike Ramaswami
21:44
Speaker 1: has talked about rolling back property taxes should he get
21:48
Speaker 1: into office, but hasn't offered a lot of details around that.
21:52
Speaker 1: There are a lot of funding issues and mainly schools
21:55
Speaker 1: and you know, fire and police in some communities that
21:58
Speaker 1: are connected directly the property taxes. Do you have any
22:02
Speaker 1: insight to the property tax rollback ideas that have been
22:06
Speaker 1: put forth by the vike Ramaswani.
22:09
Speaker 2: Well, one of those things is dealing with our older population, which,
22:13
Speaker 2: by the way, I'm creeping up into that age group, right,
22:18
Speaker 2: So I used to go, man, you know, sixty sixty five, seventy,
22:22
Speaker 2: like you know, I'm creeping towards that direction. But the
22:24
Speaker 2: reality of it is is that our citizens who have
22:28
Speaker 2: paid property taxes for their entire life should not be
22:32
Speaker 2: losing their homes because property taxes continue to rise. Guarantee
22:37
Speaker 2: you that is on his radar. Meaning to make sure
22:40
Speaker 2: that someone who has owned a home, they've raised their children,
22:44
Speaker 2: Dan Carroll, and now their property taxes used to be
22:47
Speaker 2: let's say, three thousand per year and they're now seven
22:51
Speaker 2: thousand a year. He's going to find a way to
22:53
Speaker 2: freeze those property taxes for those citizens and make sure
22:57
Speaker 2: that they are able to keep their homes and transfer
23:00
Speaker 2: those homes through a state planning to their children. Still,
23:03
Speaker 2: a majority of our homes, for example, are the major
23:06
Speaker 2: assets that our American families have, and so we've got
23:09
Speaker 2: to make sure that not only do we keep those
23:12
Speaker 2: property values lower. I believe that this is one of
23:14
Speaker 2: the things he's going to be doing, expanding the homestead
23:19
Speaker 2: laws in our state. The other thing that we have
23:21
Speaker 2: to realize is that just making sure that we hold
23:26
Speaker 2: our property taxes where they are, meaning we don't have
23:29
Speaker 2: to keep increasing them. So he might say, over the
23:32
Speaker 2: next seven to eight years, we're going to find a
23:34
Speaker 2: way to freeze property taxes. I would love that. I
23:37
Speaker 2: look at my own office building in the bond Hill
23:40
Speaker 2: area where you know, my property taxes used to be
23:43
Speaker 2: twelve hundred dollars a year. They're now six They're now
23:46
Speaker 2: six thousand a year. So the reality I don't want
23:50
Speaker 2: to go to twelve thousand a year. If I had
23:52
Speaker 2: a governor that found a way just to keep me
23:55
Speaker 2: where I am over the next eight years, that would
23:58
Speaker 2: be incredibly exciting me. So I don't know all of
24:01
Speaker 2: his specific things, but I can bet you as a
24:04
Speaker 2: business owner, he's going to focus in on property taxes.
24:08
Speaker 2: We're not going to be able to eliminate property taxes.
24:10
Speaker 2: I just don't think that's going to happen, right. I
24:13
Speaker 2: don't think that's the reality of where we are. But
24:15
Speaker 2: I do believe that we can freeze where we are
24:18
Speaker 2: right and making sure that our citizens who are older
24:22
Speaker 2: are protected so they're not losing their houses because they
24:25
Speaker 2: can't afford to pay their property taxes. I think that's insane.
24:28
Speaker 1: All right, Chris, you got time to hang around for
24:30
Speaker 1: one more segment. Yes, brother, all right, stay right there.
24:33
Speaker 1: We'll do that with Chris Smithvan on fifty five KRC.
24:36
Speaker 1: The talk station. Prestige Interiors has been proving the way
24:39
Speaker 1: families come together. The talk station fifty five KRC, the
24:48
Speaker 1: talk station Dan Carroll for Brian Thomas. We continue with
24:51
Speaker 1: the Smith event and Chris, I know you've been working
24:53
Speaker 1: on a petition that you've been trying to collect signatures
24:56
Speaker 1: for that deals with the hiring and firing of the
25:00
Speaker 1: police and fire chief in the city of Cincinnati. How
25:04
Speaker 1: do those efforts go to get the signatures you need?
25:08
Speaker 2: Well, brother, we will begin the collection this week. We
25:10
Speaker 2: thought it was going to start next week last week,
25:13
Speaker 2: excuse me, but it will start this week. And I
25:16
Speaker 2: can tell you that there's just tremendous energy around it.
25:20
Speaker 2: It's not going to be I have to tell you
25:21
Speaker 2: a Christopher Smitherman initiative. I mean, it's going to take
25:24
Speaker 2: a lot of citizens getting petitions, which is what we've
25:28
Speaker 2: typically done, and they go to their families and get
25:31
Speaker 2: them to sign. I will just say this, if someone
25:34
Speaker 2: is signing our petition, here's what you got to do.
25:36
Speaker 2: Your legal signature that matches the Board of Elections, your
25:41
Speaker 2: address that matches the Board of Elections, and the current date.
25:45
Speaker 2: We don't want to lose signature. So when people are
25:47
Speaker 2: signing the petition, they can't print, Dan Carroll. They've got
25:49
Speaker 2: to literally use their cursive or match whatever that signature
25:54
Speaker 2: is at the Board of Elections. Number two, you have
25:56
Speaker 2: to be a city resident in order to circulate the petition.
26:00
Speaker 2: So to circulate it or sign it, you have to
26:03
Speaker 2: be in those two positions. And we know that Jim
26:05
Speaker 2: and Jacks on fifty will be one of many locations
26:09
Speaker 2: where people can go and sign the petition. Dave Backer,
26:13
Speaker 2: who's a Westsider, is saying we can have a petition
26:17
Speaker 2: there and they will circulate. So there are businesses that
26:20
Speaker 2: are reaching out to us that are saying, hey, we'll
26:22
Speaker 2: have the petition available for city residents to sign. We
26:26
Speaker 2: need seven thousand good signatures. We're focusing Dan Carroll on
26:30
Speaker 2: the word good, So seven thousand good signatures. We don't
26:34
Speaker 2: want to have to get fourteen thousand signatures or a
26:37
Speaker 2: fifty percent of validity rate. I mean, we hope we
26:39
Speaker 2: can get there with nine thousand signatures because it makes
26:43
Speaker 2: our summer better. It makes it easier for everybody. So
26:46
Speaker 2: we feel like the petition will be ready and on
26:48
Speaker 2: the ground. Our printer is doing a great job RPI
26:53
Speaker 2: on the west side of town. The Reller family, they're
26:57
Speaker 2: going to do a great job with rolling out the petition.
27:00
Speaker 2: Let let me let me say this as we as
27:02
Speaker 2: we go out and close. Brother, these elections, as we
27:07
Speaker 2: talk about, have consequences, and we just came out of
27:10
Speaker 2: a mayor and city council race. I mean, November was
27:13
Speaker 2: the election. It feels like it was forever. It does
27:17
Speaker 2: it does? Man? I mean, there's the election was in November, right,
27:21
Speaker 2: and we're we're facing some of the same issues you
27:23
Speaker 2: and I on the radio talked about, and so elections
27:27
Speaker 2: really have consequences, and I just don't want to get
27:29
Speaker 2: to November of this year, Dan Carroll, and you and
27:32
Speaker 2: I are talking on November the fifth or the sixth,
27:35
Speaker 2: saying I wish the voters had done something different. The
27:39
Speaker 2: Democrat that is running for governor really concerns me. The
27:43
Speaker 2: entire ticket concerns me because it's kind of the last place,
27:48
Speaker 2: in my opinion where we have the adults in the room.
27:51
Speaker 2: And I just do not want to surrender the states
27:54
Speaker 2: right to what could be coming off of that ticket.
27:57
Speaker 2: And it's why I'm so fired up about that Ramaswami
28:01
Speaker 2: running because I know it is the last bastion, meaning Cleveland, Toledo, Columbus, Dayton, Cincinnati.
28:09
Speaker 2: We've got to have somebody in that chair that takes
28:12
Speaker 2: crime seriously right. So for example, you know, we can
28:17
Speaker 2: have a governor. Leveck says, listen, I see crime spiking.
28:21
Speaker 2: We're coming, dude, We're coming to Cincinnati with the State
28:24
Speaker 2: Highway Patrol because we're gonna, we're gonna, we're gonna, we're
28:27
Speaker 2: gonna start policing fifty and forty two. We're coming whether
28:30
Speaker 2: you want us or not and putting pressure on this
28:33
Speaker 2: mayor to do the right thing. If not, man, the
28:36
Speaker 2: bloodshed is going to continue to roll. Dan, Carolyn, you
28:38
Speaker 2: and I next week are the week after or the
28:41
Speaker 2: week after, we'll still be talking about the same kind
28:44
Speaker 2: of craziness that's happening in the city of Cincinnati. I'm
28:46
Speaker 2: just disappointed that we don't have a a an electorate
28:51
Speaker 2: that will say these things are really important. We can't
28:54
Speaker 2: just have people down there saying we imagine the police
28:57
Speaker 2: or we've got to defund our police and this is
29:00
Speaker 2: the result of that. Dan Carroll is really really serious
29:03
Speaker 2: and I've never seen anything like this in Cincinnati. We're
29:06
Speaker 2: on the we're on a pathway of Detroit, We're on
29:09
Speaker 2: the pathway of Chicago. I'm feeling like we're looking like
29:12
Speaker 2: Gossam City, right, And it makes me want to say, Governor,
29:16
Speaker 2: we need you to bring the National Guard in here
29:19
Speaker 2: in order to make sure that places like events like
29:22
Speaker 2: case of Cincinnati, are the music festival, right, are they
29:26
Speaker 2: Gay Pride Parade, that those things are safe for our
29:29
Speaker 2: guests that are coming in Because we have a mayor
29:32
Speaker 2: and a council that don't know what they're doing.
29:34
Speaker 1: Well, they they've got to be safe. And when when
29:37
Speaker 1: you bring up these issues, it makes me, especially when
29:40
Speaker 1: you talk about the governor offering to help and supplement
29:43
Speaker 1: the Cincinnati Police with help from the Ohio National not
29:46
Speaker 1: the National Guard, but the Ohio State Control. And it
29:49
Speaker 1: reminds me of an issue that was brought up relative
29:53
Speaker 1: to Chief Fiji, that that City Hall would suggest that
29:57
Speaker 1: Chief Fiji somehow rejected this help that was offered by
30:02
Speaker 1: the governor. And if memory serves, that was the mayor
30:06
Speaker 1: who told the governor said, look, thanks for the offer,
30:09
Speaker 1: but maybe we'll do it one day a month or
30:11
Speaker 1: maybe one weekend a month. It see, and and the
30:15
Speaker 1: the notion that you're going to put that on Chief
30:17
Speaker 1: Fiji for turning that down to me just again seems
30:20
Speaker 1: like just another another you know, piece of this pie
30:26
Speaker 1: that when in the big, you know, big scheme of things,
30:28
Speaker 1: doesn't make any sense.
30:31
Speaker 2: Dan Carrol, you bring up such an excellent point, and
30:33
Speaker 2: we can't say it enough that the that that that
30:37
Speaker 2: the chief wanted this and the mayor did not right.
30:42
Speaker 2: And this is part of the conflict that ultimately, I
30:46
Speaker 2: believe had the city manager fire her because she was saying,
30:50
Speaker 2: I want these resources and he was saying, no, the coach,
30:53
Speaker 2: they won't. They don't know about the collaborative agreement. And
30:57
Speaker 2: he's the mayor, so whether he's listening to his consultants
31:00
Speaker 2: or not, it's not up to me. He was saying,
31:02
Speaker 2: I am rejecting the governor's assistance, and it's not governor
31:07
Speaker 2: might do mine or his criminal justice arm. It was
31:10
Speaker 2: us saying, no, Dan, you cannot bring that up enough
31:14
Speaker 2: because I think it's going to absolutely play into her
31:16
Speaker 2: administrative hearing she's requested an administrative hearing last week, and
31:21
Speaker 2: by the way, the city has not gotten back to
31:23
Speaker 2: Chief Fiji, so we're waiting for them to say yes,
31:26
Speaker 2: there will be an administrative hearing so you and I
31:29
Speaker 2: can vet some of this craziness out because the mayor
31:31
Speaker 2: kept telling us a law along the way. I don't
31:33
Speaker 2: know anything about this. I really wasn't involved in the decision,
31:36
Speaker 2: and we've heard Chiefdiji say he was in every single meeting.
31:41
Speaker 1: All right with that, Chris Smitheman, we will let you go.
31:44
Speaker 1: Have a great Monday, my friend, and we'll be talking
31:46
Speaker 1: to you soon. And keep up paying Dan.
31:49
Speaker 2: I'll be following you on Twitter myself on ex Daniel
31:52
Speaker 2: Carr five four nine six three. I love your post.
31:56
Speaker 2: Keep posting there and people can follow me on at
31:58
Speaker 2: vote Smitherman on a take care of brother, all.
32:01
Speaker 1: Right, Chris Smitherman the Smith event. Another great Monday morning,