Latest / Brian Thomas / Signal 99 - Theetge Firing
Transcript
- 0:00Speaker 1: The talkstation eight o five at fifty five KRCD Talk Station.
- 0:06Speaker 1: Have a happy Friday. Try to make it a happy
- 0:08Speaker 1: Friday anyway. Hell, it's Friday. You got a weekend ahead
- 0:09Speaker 1: of you. Try to find something to do. Get out
- 0:11Speaker 1: the Horsepower Farm for the Foreign Exchange, Westchester, Carven tomorrow
- 0:15Speaker 1: between nine and four. But I'm glad you're listening right
- 0:17Speaker 1: now or you're listening to the podcast later today because
- 0:20Speaker 1: joining me in returning the fifty five KRSCY Morning Show,
- 0:21Speaker 1: where she always says a welcome spot on the scenes reporter.
- 0:25Speaker 1: I can call her that Signal ninety nine, which I
- 0:26Speaker 1: always recommend folks follow her on Facebook if you're interested
- 0:29Speaker 1: in anything going on in downtown Cincinnat that involves any
- 0:31Speaker 1: form of shenan against, most notably in the police and
- 0:33Speaker 1: fire departments. You want to read what Signal ninety nine
- 0:35Speaker 1: has to write about, like her comments on the letter
- 0:38Speaker 1: that Chery Along released firing police Chief Fiji yesterday and
- 0:42Speaker 1: outlining her reasons welcome back to Signal ninety nine. It's
- 0:45Speaker 1: always a distinct pleasure to have you on the morning show.
- 0:49Speaker 1: Good morning, good morning. Okay, I was gonna.
- 0:54Speaker 2: Sing to you, I was gonna singing Hello, it's me,
- 0:58Speaker 2: but I barely have a voice or not.
- 1:00Speaker 1: That's okay, save your voice for the comments you're going
- 1:02Speaker 1: to provide my listening audience on your analysis of this
- 1:04Speaker 1: termination letter. Let me ask you right out of the gate,
- 1:07Speaker 1: is there anything that Cheryl Long City Manager sites in
- 1:12Speaker 1: the letter that she justifies or hangs her hat on
- 1:15Speaker 1: the termination decision that was not known to her or
- 1:19Speaker 1: per Ball or anybody else in downtown that had any
- 1:21Speaker 1: knowledge of these events that led to the termination before
- 1:24Speaker 1: she was placed on administrator to leave, in other words,
- 1:26Speaker 1: before they retained a law firm to go over through
- 1:28Speaker 1: her entire history and ultimately end up releasing this letter.
- 1:31Speaker 1: Didn't they know literally everything in this letter the moment
- 1:34Speaker 1: they put her on administrative leave? And why hadn't they
- 1:36Speaker 1: brought that kind of stuff up before signal ninety.
- 1:38Speaker 2: Nine because there was nothing actionable there, Brian, So let
- 1:45Speaker 2: me ask your question. What's more cringy the email that
- 1:48Speaker 2: Cheryl Long sent out to the entire police department or
- 1:52Speaker 2: the seven page tantrum that she sent to Chief DG.
- 1:55Speaker 1: Well, let my listeners know about the email you're referring to.
- 2:00Speaker 2: Okay, so the email is do you want me to
- 2:03Speaker 2: read it.
- 2:04Speaker 1: Well, if it's good, yeah, I mean, if it's not
- 2:06Speaker 1: overly long. Just i'd like my listeners get likened on
- 2:09Speaker 1: what you're talking about.
- 2:11Speaker 2: Dear members of the Police Department. Blah blah blah. At morning,
- 2:14Speaker 2: I terminated Police Chief PG blah blah blah. And then
- 2:18Speaker 2: let's skip to the last paragraph. Thank you for your
- 2:22Speaker 2: brave and sets has service to the City of Cincinnati,
- 2:26Speaker 2: especially in this moment of transition. Leadership change can be difficult,
- 2:31Speaker 2: but I am humbled and impressed by the way CPD
- 2:35Speaker 2: continues to do brave, excellent work on behalf of our
- 2:39Speaker 2: residents and visitors. Your commitment to the department is what
- 2:42Speaker 2: makes our city great.
- 2:45Speaker 1: Thank you sounds supportable the police Department and their work
- 2:48Speaker 1: for the City of Cincinnati residents. That's not true, right, Well,
- 2:53Speaker 1: I'm gonna say she hasn't always held that attitude. But
- 2:57Speaker 1: pivoting over to the reasons for the termination, myriad things
- 3:01Speaker 1: in here. I guess the biggest one that I came
- 3:03Speaker 1: away with after talking to Ken Cober is this this
- 3:06Speaker 1: issue over whether or not the various areas of downtown
- 3:09Speaker 1: Cincinni were adequately controlled and this dispute apparently that existed
- 3:12Speaker 1: between Long and Police Chief Thiji about forcing officers to
- 3:16Speaker 1: do overtime, mandated overtime to increase the police presence. Now,
- 3:20Speaker 1: as I understand it, police Chief Thiji looked at the data,
- 3:24Speaker 1: the analysis of crime, where what the statistics showed, and
- 3:27Speaker 1: did not believe that it was worth the pain that
- 3:31Speaker 1: these officers would face in being forced to do overtime
- 3:34Speaker 1: in areas where she did not believe additional policing was needed. Now,
- 3:37Speaker 1: Ken seemed to suggest that there were other areas of town,
- 3:41Speaker 1: you know, north of these areas, north of Washington Park,
- 3:44Speaker 1: they probably could use more. But this is a this
- 3:48Speaker 1: is a day to day management decision by Police Chief Thigi.
- 3:51Speaker 1: She looks at the data and says, no, it wasn't justified.
- 3:53Speaker 1: I'm not going to force my guys to go out
- 3:55Speaker 1: there and do even more work because they're gonna quit.
- 3:57Speaker 1: I mean, that's one of the stresses we're facing. We
- 3:59Speaker 1: don't have enough, we don't have enough police officers and
- 4:01Speaker 1: they're being forced to work overtime so much that many
- 4:03Speaker 1: of them are quitting.
- 4:05Speaker 2: That's correct, and the sheriff is doing the same thing.
- 4:08Speaker 2: Right now, she's mandating eight hours of overtime every week
- 4:12Speaker 2: to these deputies to do these tours and over the rhine.
- 4:17Speaker 2: So she Fiji knew mandated overtime to fill details that
- 4:25Speaker 2: are basically voluntary details. It kills morale. People have to
- 4:31Speaker 2: cancel vacations, change their plan, you know, maybe it's a
- 4:35Speaker 2: good book to cruise whatever. Maybe they just want to
- 4:38Speaker 2: stay home and run naked through their house and throw
- 4:40Speaker 2: a potato salad at whatever. It's their time off, and
- 4:45Speaker 2: mandating overtime is always a temporary band aid to a
- 4:51Speaker 2: temporary problem that is not a solve all problem. Her
- 4:56Speaker 2: issue was, let's take the full package that the evanor
- 5:00Speaker 2: is offering for free, okay, and flood Cincinnati with help
- 5:07Speaker 2: for free. And you know Irish didn't was Haven none
- 5:12Speaker 2: of that. Yes, Iris, Iris runs Cheryl Long. Cheryl Long
- 5:20Speaker 2: does not run Irish Rolly. So Iris did not want
- 5:23Speaker 2: to stay patrol down here do an enforcement traffic only
- 5:28Speaker 2: air support only, so you know, it's like nothing she
- 5:33Speaker 2: Sigi did. It was a lose lose for her, but
- 5:37Speaker 2: she did try to get things done. She did try
- 5:42Speaker 2: to work the system, and she did try to protect
- 5:45Speaker 2: her officers. And now here she is. And you know what,
- 5:49Speaker 2: none of us are shocked that they fired her. We're
- 5:54Speaker 2: sad that they, you know, are too stupid to realize
- 5:58Speaker 2: that she probably didn't want on a stay forever anyway,
- 6:02Speaker 2: but she wanted her name back, she wanted to go
- 6:04Speaker 2: out clean, she wanted to go out on her own terms.
- 6:08Speaker 2: And Cheryl Long's ego just can't handle that. And that's
- 6:11Speaker 2: what just all comes down to. Bryant is ego.
- 6:16Speaker 1: Well, when ego is not a satisfactory reason to fire
- 6:19Speaker 1: a police chief a court of the city charter which
- 6:21Speaker 1: after six months they must have specific articulable reasons, and
- 6:25Speaker 1: it does not appear that those reasons were met. And
- 6:28Speaker 1: I guess that's where Steve m comes in.
- 6:29Speaker 2: Here.
- 6:30Speaker 1: Lawyer's having a press conference at two o'clock, And if
- 6:32Speaker 1: I was a betting man, and I'm not, this is
- 6:33Speaker 1: probably when he's going to announce that he has already
- 6:36Speaker 1: filed a wrongful termination complaint.
- 6:39Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm guessing when you check Pacer, probably by noon
- 6:43Speaker 2: it the federal lawsuit will likely be on there. I mean,
- 6:46Speaker 2: that's the speculation on my part, But I know Steve M.
- 6:50Speaker 2: He's a great guy. He's very passionate, about this case,
- 6:56Speaker 2: about the case for Michael Washington. He's altruistic and what
- 7:00Speaker 2: he's doing, he's trying to get their reputations cleared, their
- 7:06Speaker 2: names cleared, and he's trying to hold the city accountable.
- 7:11Speaker 2: And I'm all about it.
- 7:13Speaker 1: And I guess the other component of this is I
- 7:15Speaker 1: thought this was a rather weird thing for Chery Long
- 7:17Speaker 1: to bring up, although maybe you can put some flesh
- 7:19Speaker 1: on the bones of the statement here. Upset about Police
- 7:22Speaker 1: Chief Thiji showing up at the sinse A public school
- 7:25Speaker 1: board meeting. She said that she had asked the gi
- 7:28Speaker 1: not to attend any more school board meetings. Well, Ciji
- 7:31Speaker 1: has every right, as every citizen does, to go to
- 7:34Speaker 1: a school board meeting and show up even I guess
- 7:36Speaker 1: if she had her uniform on and brought information about
- 7:39Speaker 1: the problem with our disorderly students. Sorry sucks to you,
- 7:42Speaker 1: school board, she's entitled to do that. Is this something
- 7:45Speaker 1: that Cheryl Long would have had really a say over
- 7:47Speaker 1: Police Chief Thiji's actions and attending a school.
- 7:50Speaker 2: Board Well, see that steps right directly on the toes
- 7:55Speaker 2: of Irish Rowley, who gets paid all this money for
- 7:57Speaker 2: government square. Okay, so the problem was the behavior of
- 8:03Speaker 2: the school students taking metro buses to school starting fights.
- 8:10Speaker 2: They attacked a sixty five year old man last year
- 8:14Speaker 2: that managed to get through the door of a close
- 8:16Speaker 2: to potele trying to beat them off with the cane.
- 8:19Speaker 2: I mean, we're talking about pack at pats. These kids
- 8:24Speaker 2: at these school buses just lost you know, they just
- 8:26Speaker 2: lose their minds. And she went to the school board
- 8:31Speaker 2: and said, you know what, why am I spending all
- 8:34Speaker 2: this money to have officers do your job. These are
- 8:39Speaker 2: your students and transit to your schools. You need to
- 8:45Speaker 2: step up and hold these kids accountable when they when
- 8:48Speaker 2: they act out and do this behavior.
- 8:49Speaker 1: Yeah, it's a puzzle piece that they yea, they have
- 8:52Speaker 1: control over just to some degree. They can suggest and
- 8:55Speaker 1: tell children about this and maybe talk about the implications
- 8:58Speaker 1: and ramifications of ruining our city at least its reputation,
- 9:00Speaker 1: if not putting themselves in jeopardy of dealing with law enforcement.
- 9:03Speaker 1: That's part of the function of the Since public schools,
- 9:05Speaker 1: I suppose like parents should be raising better children, You're
- 9:08Speaker 1: going to reach out to all people who have influencing
- 9:11Speaker 1: control over the children because our children are unruly. This
- 9:13Speaker 1: is just one logical step for her to have done,
- 9:16Speaker 1: and yet it got city manager Long angry apparently because
- 9:20Speaker 1: Iris rolly is what you're saying.
- 9:23Speaker 2: Well, yeah, because when she sees went to the school
- 9:26Speaker 2: board and said, you need to start holding your students
- 9:29Speaker 2: accountable act when they do this type of behavior. You
- 9:34Speaker 2: know what she's basically saying is to spend them, put
- 9:38Speaker 2: them in iss whatever you have to do, expel them whatever.
- 9:43Speaker 2: That's your job. That's not my job. It's not our
- 9:47Speaker 2: job as police officers and babysit your students on your buses.
- 9:55Speaker 2: So again Iris didn't like that. That made Iris look
- 9:59Speaker 2: like any idiot because she's not controlling government square, which
- 10:04Speaker 2: she's getting paid a fortune to do. True, so you
- 10:09Speaker 2: know it's common sense. Why that angered chare Al Long.
- 10:14Speaker 2: I have no idea, but you know what I will
- 10:16Speaker 2: tell you that many, many, many officers of the CPD,
- 10:21Speaker 2: like did a chimp flip backwards. They were so excited
- 10:25Speaker 2: that she went to the school board and did that.
- 10:27Speaker 2: That was actually a huge morale booster to CPD because
- 10:31Speaker 2: she heard them, right, She heard them and their frustration
- 10:37Speaker 2: over these kids who don't get held accountable by the schools,
- 10:41Speaker 2: by their parents or by the juvenile court. So they
- 10:46Speaker 2: you know, they felt heard and they were elated about it.
- 10:51Speaker 1: Oh well, anything to boost moraund the since a police
- 10:53Speaker 1: department's a good thing. And you know what, it sounds
- 10:55Speaker 1: me like Didi did the right thing by going there,
- 10:57Speaker 1: because if you want to get a candle crime and
- 11:00Speaker 1: one of the elements of crime problem in the city
- 11:02Speaker 1: is are these reckless crime committing juveniles. How many different
- 11:06Speaker 1: ways can we approach the subject? What do we need
- 11:08Speaker 1: to do to get these kids in control? Ah, maybe
- 11:11Speaker 1: talk to the school board and get them engaged, let
- 11:13Speaker 1: them know about the problem. Remind him it's their buses
- 11:15Speaker 1: that are bringing the government square where they're committing these crimes,
- 11:18Speaker 1: and get their help that. You know what, if she
- 11:21Speaker 1: hadn't done that, maybe it would have been the flip
- 11:23Speaker 1: on this. We're upset that you didn't go to the
- 11:25Speaker 1: Cincinni public school boards and seek their help in dealing
- 11:28Speaker 1: with these young people who are unruly after they get
- 11:30Speaker 1: off of public school buses. Right right, all right, let's pause,
- 11:34Speaker 1: We'll bring Signal ninety nine back. We got a problem
- 11:37Speaker 1: over the fire department. Fire department apparently doing its job.
- 11:39Speaker 1: We've got problems. It's say twenty here fifty five KSCIT
- 11:43Speaker 1: the talk station Brian Thomas was signal ninety nine, who
- 11:45Speaker 1: you definitely should follow on Facebook, Signal ninety nine. Moving over,
- 11:50Speaker 1: is there any remaining comment you want to chime in
- 11:52Speaker 1: on with regard to the firing a police chief Thiji
- 11:54Speaker 1: before we move over to the tragedy that happened on
- 11:58Speaker 1: North Edgewood Avenue involving the fire department.
- 12:02Speaker 2: Yeah, I just want to say we still stand with
- 12:05Speaker 2: Chief TG. We're going to be selling her T shirts
- 12:09Speaker 2: in our merch shop, and I know that her family
- 12:14Speaker 2: still has yard signs available. So if you stand with
- 12:18Speaker 2: Chief DG, reach out let them know.
- 12:21Speaker 1: Well, maybe less standing with Police GIG and standing with
- 12:24Speaker 1: her because you're against the city administration, city Manager Long
- 12:27Speaker 1: irish Rolli, and Mayor Ata Pervoll, But regardless of the
- 12:30Speaker 1: reason to get it, you can get merchandise at signal
- 12:32Speaker 1: ninety nine on Facebook pivoting over. The North Edgewood Avenue
- 12:35Speaker 1: fire happened in January. Three people lost their lives and
- 12:39Speaker 1: it looks to me like they shouldn't. Although the fire chief,
- 12:41Speaker 1: Frank McKinley, says there would have been no outcome change
- 12:44Speaker 1: had had the fire department personnel actually known there were
- 12:48Speaker 1: live people upstairs and exactly where those people are. That
- 12:51Speaker 1: sounds like really important information Signal ninety nine.
- 12:55Speaker 2: Well, the fire chiefs, the holograph chiefs wouldn't know because
- 13:01Speaker 2: he wasn't there. He was at a sentinel's dinner with
- 13:03Speaker 2: RL Long and ignored his call out to a critical
- 13:07Speaker 2: incident fire. So do I have any semblance of faith
- 13:16Speaker 2: at all? And his assessment no, none, zero zilt. What
- 13:21Speaker 2: I could tell you is this, the inquirer, did this
- 13:26Speaker 2: really stop mushy like blowing kisses at the city piece yesterday? Oh?
- 13:34Speaker 2: There was there was no policy violation according to the city,
- 13:39Speaker 2: and no need for disciplinary action according to the city.
- 13:42Speaker 2: And it was a really stressful busy day for the dispatchers.
- 13:47Speaker 2: And you know what, what about the woman that sat
- 13:51Speaker 2: on the phone talking for seven minutes begging them to
- 13:57Speaker 2: come and rescue them off of the second floor. What
- 13:59Speaker 2: about her? What about her busy day?
- 14:01Speaker 1: Yeah, and that's the information that the fire personnel that
- 14:04Speaker 1: were in the building didn't get because, as you point.
- 14:07Speaker 2: Out, what they did, they put it in the cad notes. Okay,
- 14:12Speaker 2: here's the problem. When the DC or the AC the
- 14:15Speaker 2: infinite commander is responding to the fire. They're driving, so
- 14:19Speaker 2: they can't flip through and read all the CAD notes. Okay,
- 14:23Speaker 2: the apparatus that's responding. They're looking at mapping of hydrants,
- 14:27Speaker 2: of where to stage, what's going to be most effective
- 14:32Speaker 2: to battle the fire, rescue people, et cetera, et cetera,
- 14:35Speaker 2: et cetera. They're not looking for pertinent critical information about
- 14:41Speaker 2: where people are trapped, because that's supposed to be relayed
- 14:45Speaker 2: over the radio.
- 14:46Speaker 1: Over the radio, right right, right, So these notes.
- 14:50Speaker 2: There's no policy. They said, no policy exists for that.
- 14:55Speaker 2: That's not true. The FD Radio Procedures, Section seven oh
- 14:59Speaker 2: three says that critical information must be transmitted over the
- 15:04Speaker 2: radio and repeated until it is acknowledged. It does not
- 15:09Speaker 2: say you can bury it in the cab note.
- 15:11Speaker 1: All right, And there's no question in my mind her
- 15:13Speaker 1: in the fire on fire building, you're begging for her
- 15:16Speaker 1: life or pleading for her life. That's critical information. I
- 15:19Speaker 1: don't think anybody can deny that she's still on the
- 15:21Speaker 1: phone after seven minutes. First call came in at nineteen
- 15:24Speaker 1: oh eight. Seven minutes later, she's still on the phone
- 15:26Speaker 1: inside the burning house, telling dispatch where they are, and
- 15:30Speaker 1: that she doesn't want to die.
- 15:31Speaker 2: Correct.
- 15:32Speaker 1: Ten minutes later, as you point out, command has command
- 15:35Speaker 1: actually asks is there anyone on the phone inside? That
- 15:40Speaker 1: information should have been known because it should have gone
- 15:42Speaker 1: over the live why.
- 15:43Speaker 2: Radio exactly, see at the ten minute mark, that dispatcher
- 15:49Speaker 2: has to let the incident commander know that they're at
- 15:53Speaker 2: the ten minute mark of the fire, so they'll dispatch
- 15:56Speaker 2: out over the air and tell them they're at the
- 15:58Speaker 2: ten minute mark. At that point, the district chief said,
- 16:02Speaker 2: did we ever get any calls from inside? Did we
- 16:05Speaker 2: have people inside? And she's like, whoah, yeah, trapped on
- 16:11Speaker 2: the second floor but unresponsive for the last three minutes.
- 16:16Speaker 2: That we have an open.
- 16:17Speaker 1: Line, so somewhere it's.
- 16:20Speaker 2: Still on the line, but no longer conscious.
- 16:22Speaker 1: Right seven minutes, she's pleading, and by the tenth minute,
- 16:26Speaker 1: the line was not hung up, it was open, and
- 16:28Speaker 1: she had obviously passed along or at least was incapacitated
- 16:32Speaker 1: to the point where she couldn't talk. And the chief
- 16:34Speaker 1: says the situation wouldn't have changed had that that specific
- 16:38Speaker 1: information been over the radio earlier. I struggle with that.
- 16:41Speaker 1: I can't say I know what it's like to be
- 16:43Speaker 1: in the middle of a fire. But if you know
- 16:44Speaker 1: exactly where the person is, that there's a live person
- 16:46Speaker 1: in any specific spot in the building, I consider that
- 16:49Speaker 1: pretty damn valuable.
- 16:52Speaker 2: Well, and that's exactly why they did not put all
- 16:56Speaker 2: of the information on share Point. Like the callers that
- 17:00Speaker 2: we're calling in, like all of the radio traffic, they
- 17:04Speaker 2: specifically have step off a shaer point, which is always
- 17:07Speaker 2: on there. It is, it's always there, and for this
- 17:10Speaker 2: fire it wasn't. It was missing. So when we did
- 17:13Speaker 2: that article in January, we said, hey, release all of it,
- 17:18Speaker 2: because you guys screwed up. The ECC screwed up big
- 17:23Speaker 2: time and it costs likely cost these people their lives.
- 17:27Speaker 2: So you know, now the information's out there. And it's
- 17:32Speaker 2: funny because I thought, just I don't know, earlier this
- 17:37Speaker 2: month that the ECC got an award for excellence, and
- 17:41Speaker 2: I was going to bash it, okay over these fires,
- 17:45Speaker 2: but I thought, maybe a dis betcher did something fantastic
- 17:49Speaker 2: and that's why they got this award, and I didn't
- 17:50Speaker 2: want to. I didn't want to step on that because
- 17:53Speaker 2: I didn't really know what it was about. But now
- 17:55Speaker 2: I do. They knew this was all coming out so
- 17:59Speaker 2: we're going to give them an award. You know, we
- 18:02Speaker 2: start ripping in terror on iris. Really they give her
- 18:05Speaker 2: an award. We you know, we start ripping in terror
- 18:08Speaker 2: on Shaal Long. She gets a perfect evaluation. It's like,
- 18:12Speaker 2: should this be any more? What's the word I'm looking for?
- 18:18Speaker 1: Help me out, Brian, I'm struggling to find an FCC
- 18:21Speaker 1: compliant word.
- 18:22Speaker 2: Signal Yeah, okay, and I don't want to dump the
- 18:27Speaker 2: last sixty seconds. I'm not gonna say it.
- 18:30Speaker 1: That's why I said that I misread what she had said.
- 18:33Speaker 1: At one point I hit the dumb button and she
- 18:35Speaker 1: didn't say the bad word I thought she said. Signal
- 18:37Speaker 1: ninety nine. Keep up the great work. I will strongly
- 18:39Speaker 1: encourage if you want more of the breakdown of the
- 18:41Speaker 1: fire incident and Signal ninety nine's analysis of yesterday's termination letter.
- 18:46Speaker 1: It's in glorious details Signal ninety nine on Facebook, multiple
- 18:49Speaker 1: pages of information there. It's worth going through. You too
- 18:52Speaker 1: will be left scratching your head why there has been
- 18:54Speaker 1: no disciplinary action over in the fireside, and of course
- 18:58Speaker 1: all the reasons why there was no justification for firing
- 19:00Speaker 1: police c THIJI Signal ninety nine. I hope you have
- 19:02Speaker 1: a wonderful weekend. Thanks for sharing your stories with us
- 19:04Speaker 1: here on the fifty five KRSE Morning Show. You know
- 19:06Speaker 1: you're always welcome here