Latest / Brian Thomas / FOP Pres Ken Kober - Violence Around UC

Transcript

FOP Pres Ken Kober - Violence Around UC · Brian Thomas

• 0:15
  Speaker 1: It's 7.06 here at 55KRC Talk Station. Trying to make
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: it a happy Tuesday. Stick around for Tom Zawistowski. Bottom
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: of this hour.
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  Speaker 2: In the meantime, I am pleased to welcome back to
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  Speaker 2: the 55KRC Morning Show, FOP President Ken Kober. He represents
• 0:27
  Speaker 2: the Cincinnati Police Department union members. And I am happy
• 0:31
  Speaker 2: to have him back on. Ken, it's great to hear
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  Speaker 2: from you this morning, especially given the violence that's going
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  Speaker 2: on in and around my alma mater, University of Cincinnati campus.
• 0:39
  Speaker 2: Good to hear from you. Apparently had an incident just
• 0:42
  Speaker 2: yesterday involving five, well, four youths and one adult for
• 0:50
  Speaker 2: disorderly conduct or violence or whatever the hell they were
• 0:53
  Speaker 2: arrested for. This is kind of continuing a theme of
• 0:56
  Speaker 2: violence in downtown Kent because we recently had reports of
• 0:59
  Speaker 2: multiple shootings around the campus there. Things weren't that way
• 1:03
  Speaker 2: back when I was on campus, but it's that way,
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  Speaker 2: and a lot of parents are expressing real concern, which
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  Speaker 2: I certainly understand. Ken, what's going on with this, and
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  Speaker 2: what are we doing about it?
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  Speaker 3: Hey, good morning, Brian. Yeah, I echo some of your sentiments.
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  Speaker 3: I'm an alumni of UC as well, and it certainly
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  Speaker 3: wasn't like it when I was there 25 years ago,
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  Speaker 3: almost 30 years ago. And a lot of it is...
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  Speaker 3: school letting out, you know, the police are doing everything
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  Speaker 3: they can to have as many people up there to
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  Speaker 3: keep people orderly. Um, but it's just, it's difficult when
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  Speaker 3: you got an entire high school letting out at the
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  Speaker 3: same time. And then all of a sudden, you know,
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  Speaker 3: you mix that with college kids and it just, it
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  Speaker 3: becomes a disaster, unfortunately.
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  Speaker 2: Well, as has been reported this, uh, this incident from yesterday,
• 1:51
  Speaker 2: four juveniles and one adult got into a large fight.
• 1:54
  Speaker 2: near the stop-and-go on West McMillan. Now, Tim sent me
• 1:58
  Speaker 2: a Facebook message this morning saying that stop-and-go is a
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  Speaker 2: police substation.
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  Speaker 1: Is that accurate?
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, I assume it still is. I know when I
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  Speaker 3: worked in District 5, which is now District 1, yeah,
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  Speaker 3: I mean, they've got an area. It's kind of where
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  Speaker 3: the people that own that enjoy having the police there,
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  Speaker 3: of course, because it's, you know, be able to have
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  Speaker 3: a police presence. But it has been a place typically
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  Speaker 3: where Officers are able to go to get off their
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  Speaker 3: feet for a couple minutes, and they've got to complete
• 2:27
  Speaker 3: a report or whatever. But it's frustrating to see that
• 2:31
  Speaker 3: schools started and already we're having problems with large groups
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  Speaker 3: of kids that just can't behave in public.
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  Speaker 1: Well, which high school is the one that's the source
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  Speaker 1: of the trouble, Ken?
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  Speaker 3: Well, Hughes High School is right by University of Cincinnati's campus.
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  Speaker 2: I thought that's what you were going to say, but
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  Speaker 2: I just want to make sure it was on the
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  Speaker 2: record of which high school it is. Have the campus
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  Speaker 2: police or the Cincinnati Police Department sat down with officials
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  Speaker 2: over at Hughes High School to talk with them about
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  Speaker 2: the unruly nature of their children after being let out
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  Speaker 2: of school?
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  Speaker 3: I'm not sure that that's occurred. I know that the
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  Speaker 3: Cincinnati Police are working with UC Police to try to
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  Speaker 3: figure out exactly how to tackle this. It seems like
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  Speaker 3: it's a problem every year. And the reality is, I mean,
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  Speaker 3: you can try to throw as many officers up there
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  Speaker 3: as you can. But when these kids don't fear, they
• 3:18
  Speaker 3: don't fear consequences. I mean, you could you could put
• 3:21
  Speaker 3: an army of cops up there and they're still going
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  Speaker 3: to act up because we've seen it school year after
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  Speaker 3: school year. These kids continue to act this way with
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  Speaker 3: little to no consequence. And that's why this behavior continues.
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  Speaker 2: And let us agree that that's the root of the problem.
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  Speaker 2: We talked about I talked about this with Christopher Smith yesterday,
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  Speaker 2: who was on a tear about. Well, Judge Bloom, for example,
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  Speaker 2: in juvenile court, and when you get a firearms offense
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  Speaker 2: for a juvenile, apparently that gets dropped right away for
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  Speaker 2: whatever reason. I mean, if gun violence is a problem,
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  Speaker 2: wouldn't you think that they would go after them as
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  Speaker 2: hard as possible to set an example for the rest
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  Speaker 2: of the world?
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  Speaker 3: You would certainly think so. You know, like I said,
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  Speaker 3: I've said it ad nauseum that these kids are not
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  Speaker 3: going and stealing guns. They're not possessing guns because they're
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  Speaker 3: collectors of guns. They're doing it because they're going to
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  Speaker 3: shoot each other. They're going to rob each other. They're
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  Speaker 3: going to rob some unsuspecting victim. And it's just a
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  Speaker 3: fundamental flaw thinking that somehow a kid with a gun
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  Speaker 3: is really not that big a deal. It's crazy to
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  Speaker 3: think that way.
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  Speaker 2: Well, especially when you have a child involved in the
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  Speaker 2: juvenile court system to whatever degree that has multiple involvements.
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  Speaker 2: I mean, they get caught with a gun committing a crime.
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  Speaker 2: And as you find out, they've been arrested three, four,
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  Speaker 2: ten times previously for And yet nothing happens to them
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  Speaker 2: by way of strong punishment. Clearly, the word has gotten out.
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  Speaker 2: I mean, this is a train wreck for our kids
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  Speaker 2: in this community.
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  Speaker 3: Sure. I mean, look at this morning. There's a hearing
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  Speaker 3: in juvenile court this morning for a 16-year-old that murdered
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  Speaker 3: a 14-year-old. And the prosecutor's office, the police are going
• 4:52
  Speaker 3: to try to get this juvenile bound over to an adult.
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  Speaker 3: That way maybe there will be some actual adult consequences
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  Speaker 3: when you take somebody's life. But how did you not
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  Speaker 3: see this coming? You have a 16-year-old that has been
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  Speaker 3: arrested multiple times. And every time it seems like their
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  Speaker 3: behavior continues to escalate until all of a sudden here
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  Speaker 3: we are and they're reporting about a 16-year-old that murdered
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  Speaker 3: a 14-year-old. And all of a sudden everybody wants to
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  Speaker 3: look and go, well, my gosh, how did this happen?
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  Speaker 1: Well, we all know how it happened.
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  Speaker 3: It's the lack of consequences that lead up to this.
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  Speaker 3: And now all of a sudden, a 14-year-old is dead.
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  Speaker 3: Two lives, two families are changed forever because of a
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  Speaker 3: lack of accountability with our juveniles.
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  Speaker 2: Well, and the criminal justice system is there, I suppose,
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  Speaker 2: often to stand in the place of maybe a poor
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  Speaker 2: home life situation where the children have not grown up
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  Speaker 2: in an environment where they are instructed not to engage in, well,
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  Speaker 2: criminal activity. I mean, we all know the root of
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  Speaker 2: the problem is a deterioration of the family structure or
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  Speaker 2: just children not having a concerned adult in their world.
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  Speaker 2: So welcome to the police department. It's a substitute. It's
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  Speaker 2: like teachers being a substitute for children and trying to
• 6:00
  Speaker 2: teach them morals and ethics and, well, appropriate societal behavior.
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  Speaker 2: It's just an impossible task for a government entity or
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  Speaker 2: a teacher to take on that role. I don't know
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  Speaker 2: how we change the situation, but in the absence of
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  Speaker 2: strong criminal justice response, we're just going to, it's just
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  Speaker 2: going to be a more growing problem, I presume.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, all of these societal issues seem to
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  Speaker 3: be just thrown at the feet of the police and say,
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  Speaker 3: fix us. Look at our youth services unit. They do
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  Speaker 3: a phenomenal job all summer long. They're holding different youth
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  Speaker 3: camps to try to teach these kids that there's another way.
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  Speaker 3: And the reason that they have to do that is
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  Speaker 3: because of the lack of parenting. So now all of
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  Speaker 3: a sudden you've got these cops that are trying to
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  Speaker 3: teach these kids that there's another way, but they can't
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  Speaker 3: possibly reach every child. They just can't, no matter how
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  Speaker 3: hard they try. There's not enough time in the day
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  Speaker 3: to take every kid in Cincinnati and say, listen, we
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  Speaker 3: know your parents may be failing you, but we're going
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  Speaker 3: to show you another way. Then what ends up happening,
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  Speaker 3: those kids aren't able to be touched, are the ones
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  Speaker 3: that eventually are out here. Now they're running with guns
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  Speaker 3: and are shooting each other. And it's just, it's a
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  Speaker 3: terrible thing that we somehow believe that the police should
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  Speaker 3: be responsible for this.
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  Speaker 2: Well, and at the same time, Going back to Judge
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  Speaker 2: Blum and also, I guess, maybe Cheryl Long and her
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  Speaker 2: attitude toward policing and how it should be engaged in.
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  Speaker 2: You have some people telling the police to kind of
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  Speaker 2: lay off, don't you? In other words, don't bring a
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  Speaker 2: hammer down on these juvenile criminals. And that's part of
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  Speaker 2: the problem here. So you have it in the judicial system,
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  Speaker 2: but you also have it, at least as a matter
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  Speaker 2: of policy, as I understand it, from the city manager
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  Speaker 2: relative to the instructions of the police chief.
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  Speaker 3: Well, there's no doubt. I mean, it's been a... a
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  Speaker 3: theme that has gone on, not only at city hall,
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  Speaker 3: but with the juvenile court is that, listen, these are
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  Speaker 3: just kids. You know, we, we can't, we can't just
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  Speaker 3: take these kids and lock them up. Well, if they're
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  Speaker 3: murdering people, that is the answer. Absolutely. Yes. Like I said,
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  Speaker 3: I've said this before. We're not talking about a kid
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  Speaker 3: that stole a candy bar from Kroger or stole a
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  Speaker 3: bag of chips because they're hungry. We're talking about kids
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  Speaker 3: that are driving crime. Police officers in Cincinnati are more
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  Speaker 3: afraid of, of encountering a juvenile with a gun because
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  Speaker 3: of their absolute recklessness than they are compared to an
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  Speaker 3: adult with a gun. That's just a fact.
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  Speaker 2: Well, and come out and play. You're under 18. You
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  Speaker 2: won't be doing any time. I guess that offspring song
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  Speaker 2: stands true.
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  Speaker 1: They know it.
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  Speaker 2: They're not going to be held accountable, which makes them
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  Speaker 2: more dangerous is what I'm hearing from you, Ken.
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  Speaker 1: Without a doubt.
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  Speaker 3: When you don't fear consequence, the sky's the limit for
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  Speaker 3: your terrible behavior. And that's what we're seeing. And Unfortunately,
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  Speaker 3: they said now we're going to see a 16-year-old and
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  Speaker 3: see if they get bound over into the adult system
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  Speaker 3: where maybe they'll actually face consequences.
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  Speaker 2: Well, face consequences for a murder, of course, but I
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  Speaker 2: think we're doing the youth a disservice with this woke
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  Speaker 2: mentality toward treating juveniles as if they haven't done anything wrong,
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  Speaker 2: patting them on the wrist and sending them on their way.
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  Speaker 2: You're setting them off on a lifetime of crime that way.
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  Speaker 2: There has to be accountability. They need to learn accountability.
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  Speaker 2: Maybe it'll turn their lives around earlier rather than, well,
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  Speaker 2: ending up in big boy court on a murder charge.
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  Speaker 3: No, without a doubt. You know, I attended one of
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  Speaker 3: these youth services programs over the summer. It's called City
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  Speaker 3: Camp Children in Trauma. And they take kids that have
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  Speaker 3: experienced some kind of violence in their life and they
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  Speaker 3: try to show them there is another way. And at
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  Speaker 3: their graduation, these kids were absolutely phenomenal to be able
• 9:31
  Speaker 3: to see the transition of kids that had zero discipline
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  Speaker 3: to now. You know, they were walking in, you know,
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  Speaker 3: carrying United States flags. You know, doing some honor guard things.
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  Speaker 3: But one of the things that was said by the
• 9:45
  Speaker 3: instructor that led this was parents understand this. Kids actually
• 9:51
  Speaker 3: crave discipline. Yep. Whether you believe it or not, they
• 9:54
  Speaker 3: crave discipline because when you discipline a kid and you
• 9:57
  Speaker 3: teach them that there's a different way. they react to
• 10:01
  Speaker 3: it and they understand it. And these kids that go
• 10:03
  Speaker 3: through this program every year are absolute proof of that.
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  Speaker 3: Your parents think, well, I just want to be my
• 10:09
  Speaker 3: kid's friend. Absolutely not. They need to have discipline. They
• 10:13
  Speaker 3: need to know right from wrong. They need to be
• 10:14
  Speaker 3: taught right from wrong. And only then will we actually
• 10:17
  Speaker 3: see a change in society.
• 10:19
  Speaker 2: Let's bring Ken Cobra back. We'll talk about some of
• 10:20
  Speaker 2: the changes that may have already been worked into the
• 10:23
  Speaker 2: equation up on YouTube.
• 10:24
  Speaker 1: King from 55KRC, the talk station. 721-55KRC, the talk station.
• 10:30
  Speaker 2: Brian Thomas with FOP President Ken Cobra representing the Cincinnati
• 10:32
  Speaker 2: Police Department Union. And talking about crime and violence, we
• 10:36
  Speaker 2: had a bunch of incidents happen around UC's campus recently,
• 10:39
  Speaker 2: notably yesterday with five people arrested. We had some gunshots
• 10:42
  Speaker 2: and people being shot around the area. the university released
• 10:46
  Speaker 2: a statement about all of this, and no, they're understanding.
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  Speaker 2: They realize it's a concern to the neighborhood, and they
• 10:51
  Speaker 2: say they're working closely with the Cincinnati Police Department and,
• 10:55
  Speaker 2: of course, the campus police department, increasing patrol presence, dealing
• 11:00
  Speaker 2: with traffic control, and also trying to manage crowd control.
• 11:05
  Speaker 2: First off, have the patrols already increased or is this
• 11:10
  Speaker 2: statement in response to the incident yesterday of the shooting
• 11:13
  Speaker 2: several days ago i mean i thought that the patrols
• 11:15
  Speaker 2: had already been increased ken.
• 11:17
  Speaker 3: Absolutely yeah it was increased as soon as school school
• 11:20
  Speaker 3: got that concession you know primarily dealing with use in
• 11:24
  Speaker 3: the uh the high school you know high school kids
• 11:25
  Speaker 3: that are up there so that was already in the
• 11:27
  Speaker 3: works to do this here's the problem that that we
• 11:30
  Speaker 3: continue to face is there's only so many officers to
• 11:33
  Speaker 3: go around yep I mean, we had a summer of–
• 11:37
  Speaker 3: I mean, we had a weekend where there were multiple
• 11:40
  Speaker 3: events going on all weekend where every officer working worked
• 11:43
  Speaker 3: 12-hour shifts, some working 16, 17, 18 hours just to
• 11:49
  Speaker 3: be able to try to maintain order. And that comes
• 11:52
  Speaker 3: at a price, and that price is unfortunately going to
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  Speaker 3: be cashing in here real soon is if they don't
• 11:59
  Speaker 3: get a handle on these things, these officers are getting
• 12:02
  Speaker 3: burnt out. And we're seeing it already, officers, as soon
• 12:05
  Speaker 3: as they get 25 years on a retiring. You can't
• 12:08
  Speaker 3: hire officers quick enough. I mean, we have a class
• 12:10
  Speaker 3: of 56 in right now, which is fantastic. They graduate
• 12:13
  Speaker 3: in November. Between now and November, we'll probably lose at
• 12:17
  Speaker 3: least another 10 officers. And it seems like every week
• 12:21
  Speaker 3: they're coming down to the FOP hall and going, I'm retiring.
• 12:23
  Speaker 3: I need to sign up for some retiree benefits. It's
• 12:25
  Speaker 3: just officers are frustrated, they're worn out, and they can't
• 12:29
  Speaker 3: continue to say, we're going to throw more on the police,
• 12:31
  Speaker 3: more on the police, more on the police. We come
• 12:34
  Speaker 3: and do our jobs. They show up, they do those things,
• 12:36
  Speaker 3: but it comes at a cost. And that cost is,
• 12:39
  Speaker 3: like I said, it's getting ready to be paid here
• 12:40
  Speaker 3: real soon.
• 12:41
  Speaker 2: Well, and I understand that, but this has been an
• 12:43
  Speaker 2: outstanding concern for years now, Ken, and they keep promising
• 12:46
  Speaker 2: more recruit classes. They keep saying they're going to try
• 12:49
  Speaker 2: to do lateral hires, but Apparently, that's not making any
• 12:52
  Speaker 2: inroads into the shortage of officers we have. Is it
• 12:54
  Speaker 2: just that people do not want to be a Cincinnati
• 12:57
  Speaker 2: police officer or maybe a corollary, a campus police officer? Well, yeah.
• 13:02
  Speaker 3: I mean, you see what goes on in the news,
• 13:03
  Speaker 3: and it's like, why would I want to subject myself
• 13:05
  Speaker 3: to this? So we're fortunate that we have a class
• 13:08
  Speaker 3: of 56 in now, and they're still doing recruiting. But
• 13:13
  Speaker 3: we had eight laterals that came here, and I think
• 13:16
  Speaker 3: we have five left, three within– within weeks of getting
• 13:20
  Speaker 3: on the streets like, nah, this isn't for me.
• 13:22
  Speaker 1: Really?
• 13:23
  Speaker 3: And quite honestly, I could understand why. If you're working
• 13:27
  Speaker 3: out in a township, we'll say Westchester or one of
• 13:31
  Speaker 3: these townships that enjoy relatively low crime, high support from
• 13:37
  Speaker 3: their administration, it would be very difficult to leave a
• 13:41
  Speaker 3: place like that, come here where every day you are
• 13:44
  Speaker 3: dealing with just absolute nonsense And like I said, that
• 13:48
  Speaker 3: all comes at a cost, especially if you've already experienced
• 13:51
  Speaker 3: what it's like outside of the city.
• 13:54
  Speaker 2: Well, one more, and since you mentioned, real quick here,
• 13:58
  Speaker 2: as we part company, before we part company, your response
• 14:00
  Speaker 2: or your perception of Mayor Aftab Parval, he seems to
• 14:03
  Speaker 2: be nowhere to be found after one of these incidents.
• 14:05
  Speaker 2: And I viewed it when I was talking to Christopher
• 14:07
  Speaker 2: Smithman yesterday as an ideal opportunity. Look, we had a
• 14:10
  Speaker 2: four-year-old that got shot in a crossfire of some gang
• 14:13
  Speaker 2: violence or whatever. Shouldn't the mayor use that opportunity to
• 14:15
  Speaker 2: rally the citizens to help out the police and support
• 14:18
  Speaker 2: the police and help deal with the problems in their neighborhood?
• 14:21
  Speaker 2: He never goes down that road.
• 14:24
  Speaker 3: I mean, you would think so. But unfortunately, this has
• 14:28
  Speaker 3: been a common theme that we just won't even talk
• 14:32
  Speaker 3: about it. We'll just pretend like it didn't happen and
• 14:34
  Speaker 3: maybe it'll go away. And that's frustrating. I think all
• 14:37
  Speaker 3: the public really wants to know is that we have
• 14:40
  Speaker 3: a leader of this city that's willing to go acknowledge,
• 14:43
  Speaker 3: first of all, just acknowledge what's going on. And don't
• 14:47
  Speaker 3: expect them to have every answer, but acknowledge what's going
• 14:50
  Speaker 3: on and go, listen, we're going to work to figure
• 14:52
  Speaker 3: out how we're going to solve this. Nobody expects everybody
• 14:54
  Speaker 3: to have all of the answers, but I think burying
• 14:57
  Speaker 3: your head in the sand and pretending like it's not
• 14:58
  Speaker 3: going is even more of a detriment than standing up
• 15:01
  Speaker 3: and saying, look, we recognize that this is terrible. Let's
• 15:04
  Speaker 3: find a solution.
• 15:06
  Speaker 2: Ken Kober, I wish you all the best in your
• 15:08
  Speaker 2: role as FOP president. We all here on the 55
• 15:11
  Speaker 2: KRC Morning Show, my listening audience, support everything the Cincinnati
• 15:13
  Speaker 2: Police Department is doing and does for the community, and
• 15:16
  Speaker 2: we wish you all the best and safety and health
• 15:20
  Speaker 2: to each and every one of you. God bless you,
• 15:22
  Speaker 2: and thanks for sticking it out, man.