By Billy Cunningham, the Great American. Welcome this Monday afternoon the tri State. Lots of stuff going on. U see's playing no better, in fact, maybe worse. Xavior beat Providence the Friars. When you beat up the Friars, that's not necessarily a good thing. But Xavior's on the uptick. You see on the downtick. And now Tony Pike tells me the UC football team as a wide receiver from the College of Mines. Understand they deal with coal and mining
and spelunking activities in West Virginia. So the UC football team's in trouble. But until then, your friend and mine is Ken Cober, the president of the CEO and the head of the Union Lodge sixty nine. Since night, Police and Ken Cober, welcome again to the Bill Cunningham Show. And first of all, I want to reference this article you put out on the date of January the eighth, in which you claim to secretly pay the family of
cop killer Rodney Hinton potentially millions of dollars. Now Fanon Rucker, who purports to be the attorney for the family, denies it in a way but not really allegedly. In about an hour about one o'clock today, there will be a secret session on City Council indicating whether the council will pay the hint and family millions of dollars. So, before we get in more of the facts, people may have
forgotten what happened several months back. What degree do you think of a probability as city council in about an hour going to negotiate a million dollar settlement when it appears that two councilmen has come out against it. However, it appears Fanon Rutger, the lawyer, indicats he may don't know anything about it. Where are your sources, Ken Cobra, and where do we go from here?
Well, I got sources inside city Hall that are saying that this is absolutely going on. And if you read what City Manager Cheryl Long said, she didn't deny that there were negotiations going on. She's saying that there's no agreement that's been reached, which is nonsense because I know that there's a tentative agreement. She could play on words of saying, well, we don't have an agreement, Well, you
have a tentative agreement. But the reality is they're negotiating with this family and you know, I believe that not only the council members that have come out, but there are more council members that are completely against this as well.
This happened, Honor, about April to thirtieth. Let's go back in time a little bit. And as I recall, the young man that was killed to just turn eighteen years old, his name was Ryan Hinton. He and his he and his May used the word gang, were stealing cars and then either chopping them up or use them for robberies. His other partners who are a guy named Jarrell Austin and de Anthony Bullocks and Sincere Grigsby. And I'm not
sure the status of those other three individuals. But tell the American people what Ryan Hinton did, Honor about May April thirtieth, May first that caused this caused his own death.
Well, he had officers that located as stolen vehicle. You have the the rear of an apartment complex. And you know, unfortunately Ryan Hitton got out of the vehicle to run from the police with a gun in his hand, dropped the gun and then picked it up. As he's running towards officers, points a gun at an officer and you know, the officer did what he had to do to defend his life, and unfortunately the result of that was Ryan Hinton was killed.
And the basis of the lawsuit would be what because, as I recall, Connie Pillage, the new county prosecutor, said, this was a justified shooting. The only way to pay money if it's unjustified. We'll talk about the eight point two million dollars down the road for the protesters who were arrested. But the basis of this would be a wrongful shooting. And the county prosecutor, Connie Pillage, said this
was a justified shooting. And so as a police officer, how outrageous would it be for you and the men and women in blue one thousand strong, maybe nine to fifty strong if the city took tax dollars to pay off the estate Ryan Hinton, when that was the precipitating factor when his father, Rodney Hinton, killed Deputy Sheriff Larry Henderson honor about May second, what is the degree of outrage if they would pay millions of dollars to the family of Ryan Hinton.
Well, sure everybody's outraged.
You know, you had Connie Pillage that took weeks, you know, went over all the evidence, you know, to make a decision that she thought was right based off of what the law sense. And she made the right decision. The officer was cleared of any wrongdoing, so that he followed training, the officer followed the law, and then to turn around and then to offer a settlement to a family. It's just it's unfathomable. And understand it's it's weird because this
is a little bit more complex. And I think this is why officers are even more outraged, is the fact that the next day, you know, the father of this kid goes out and viciously murders a deputy. Uh. It just you know, as I said in the press release, crime does pay in Cincinnati, and it's being proven time and time again that that is the case.
Well, according to the media accounts, Anon Rutgers says, it's news to him. So, but your sources deep in the battles of city Hall eight to one plum streets say that even though the attorney Fanon Rucker, a former judge who, by the way, whose father sat on the Supreme Court of Indiana. I've known Fanon Rutger for a long time. He is saying it's news to him as to the settlement. Were they playing with words to indicate negotiations were underway and that somehow Fanon Rucker was more or less giving
a non denial denial. I sound like a politician, you know what I'm saying.
No, exactly if you do listen what Fanon Rutger said, he goes, no, we've not filed a lawsuit. That's all he would say. He didn't say we're not negotiating. I'm not saying that there's some kind of settlement that's coming. He just said that we haven't fouled a lawsuit, which is true. They threatened a lawsuit.
That is a.
Result, you know, the city has been negotiating for you know this to come to a settlement agreement, which they said is absolutely unfathomable that they would do that. Just the lack of support that it shows for law enforcement officers is pretty telling.
And ken Kobert going back a little bit, Emily smart Warner is the city solicitor and she's the one that settled the lawsuit filed by alphons Go Hartstein. By the way, he's an acou liberal lawyer, but he's very competent, very good. We were co counsel in the case fifteen twenty years ago, and I was impressed with him. That guy knows the law.
And he convinced counsel to pay eight point two million dollars to dozens of individuals who were rightfully arrested for wrongfully protesting relative to the situations about the killing of George Floyd. And suddenly that eight point two million came flying out out of it.
Did you what did you do?
Because they were, of course the county was involved, deputy sheriffs, but this city was the main agency that arrested individuals who were trespassing and committing acts of violence. What degree of outrage did you have about the eight point two million dollars?
Well, it's the same way, you know, back then, and I was still a patrol officer. I was working third shift downtown dealing with this, and all we did was exactly what we were told to do. And in cases like this, where there's gonna be mass arrests, you have the law department that advises, you know, the police chief who goes down, you know, the chain of command as too. This is what we're going to charge people with, This is what we're gonna do, and these officers did nothing
but exactly what they were told to do. And as a direct result of that, because of the Law Department and the mistakes that were made from the Law department, you know, they dismissed all these charges and then settle with eight point two million dollars. That just you know, the hits just keep on coming for CPD and it's absolutely ridiculous that we're dealing with these things.
I'm I'm aware that Joe Deeters had conversations with the mayor at that point, John Cranley, about what to do and how to do it, and back and forth. Joe said, Look, they were told to get out of the streets. They were told it was an unlawful assembly. There was bullhorns telling individuals, Okay, enough is enough. You can't block Fine Street, you can't block Broadway. You got to get out of
the streets. Quit doing what you're doing. Since you were a third shift officer, how many warnings did these so called protesters slash criminals receive before they were arrested and cited. You just went pulling people out of streets. What did you do to warn them about what was going to happen?
They were getting dozens of warnings to tell them to leave, disperse, go home. That way we can avoid having to arrest these folks. That was the last That was like the last straw, as.
We don't want to arrest you all, but we're going to.
If you don't comply with what we're telling you to do, and they continue to, you'll run them up, breaking windows out of businesses, things like that. That forced our hands. So we arrested these people. And then now five years later they turn around and let's.
Just pay them for it.
If I would have known that they were going to give roughly twelve thirteen thousand dollars a person, I just sent my wife and kids down there.
And for what.
In other words, these individuals were not protesters. They were committing criminal acts in public, and they weren't protesting legally time manner in place. They were not doing that. These were criminal acts committed by individuals who, in their own minds were well intended, but they committed crimes. And the last thing you wanted to do as a cop at that point was to arrest anybody because it means you
left the street. If you had really arrested someone, and one or two or three cops had to be involved. You had a handcuff them with zip ties, take them over to the Justice center, process them. It took you off the street. So it incentivized other people to commit more criminal acts and to pay them money for that.
Crime does pay.
And secondly, you know, I've tried cases in federal court and unlike Hamilton County, the jurors of federal court cases come from southern Ohio, go all the way over to West Virginia to Hamilton County up south of Columbus. The jurors drawn from those counties do not have the same view of criminal justice is the City of Cincinnati has. It is very difficult to put a jury in the box in federal court to have them award criminals millions
of dollars. In fact, it's very difficult. But Emily smart and Warner, the city solicitor, said, look, we don't know what's going to happen in federal court. Sometimes you got to tee it up. You got to say, we're not going to agree to pay eight million dollars to these individuals. Let a jury in the box tell us what to do. You were aware of the fact, Ken Kober that the jurors and federal cases are drawn not from the city of Cincinnati, but from Warren County, Butler County, Adams County,
Claremont County, and Brown County. And those jurors do not look kindly upon individuals breaking out windows, you know what I'm saying, So why not try the case right?
Well, not only that, let's let's not forget that we had an officer, thank god, we were all wearing kevlar helmets, that was shot in the head, hands up, get shot with it. Thank god that they said the kevlar helmets stopped the round from penetrating him. But I mean that likely would have been a fatal shooting. So these weren't people that were just standing on sidewalks with signs. These
were people that were out violently committing crimes. And somehow, like I said, we just decide that we're going to pay them out. It doesn't make any good sense and it certainly shows, you know, to the officers will question whether or not they're actually being supported.
Ken Cobert, did you ever apprehend the guy who shot the police officer in the head.
No, as far as I know that, that person was never actually caught.
I mean you're talking about hundreds and hundreds of people in the street and you know around gets fired, and I mean, they're just nearly impossible to be able to locate these people.
So very possibly the person who tried to kill the police officer will get about twenty thousand dollars from the city of Cincinnati for his efforts.
It's entirely possible. I don't know that we'll ever know.
All right, let's so we'll see what happens after one o'clock to day now. Thirdly, I have this story out of the US Department of Justice that los that's you, law enforcement officers have about seven to eight years less life expectancy because of what you do. It estimated all calls. And they've studied this thing for many years, in fact decades, and the takeaway is at the standardized mortality rates that cops like you suffer, including organizational pressures, traumatic events, longer
regular work hours, hazards negatively affecting health. Little known about the specifics, whether it's heart disease or cancer or other difficulties. Goes on to say that most prior research limited by one or more factors. We have found that these factors indicate that deputy sheriffs and police officers, especially in major cities, live seven to eight years less than the average citizen. Your comments about your profession, It.
Doesn't surprise me when you see the things that officers have to see, things that they have to do, you know, year in and year out over a twenty five thirty year career. You know, the stress that's upon them, not only not only from the street, but administrative stress. It doesn't surprise me a bit. But you know, officers still
sign up to go do this job. They do it faithfully for twenty five thirty years, and the only thing that they ask in return is one to have a fair wage and two to be supported you know when when things happen that become public. Those are the only two things that they really ask for. And unfortunately, you know, sometimes the cities falls short in those those things.
And Ken Covert talking about PTSD for soldiers. This study indicates that suicide among police officers, deputy sheriffs, ice, et cetera. Is three times greater than the average citizen. Are you aware that not just cancer, heart disease, other activities, but that the suicide rate among police is three times the average citizen.
Yeah, I mean, I believe it.
We've unfortunately seen and it seems like it's increased as of late, where we've had a couple of officers that have committed suicide. We just had he was a state trooper on New Year's Morning in Ohio. It's something that is very difficult, and I do appreciate the fact that you know, at least departments now in Cincinnati's one of them that's getting a wellness unit that is providing resources. But the hard part is getting officers to take those
resources and to utilize them. And it's difficult, and it's a culture that's it's gonna have to be broken. The stigma has got to be broken for officers that just bury it deep down and they just think that, you know, I'll just deal with all of the violence and things that I've seen over my career. And unfortunately, sometimes it's too late for some of them and they end up taking their lives. And that's something that we're trying to prevent here.
You know, many average citizens don't report to work and then find themselves in an accident scene in which two or three bodies are bleeding out horribly. And this is a regular event. You and the firefighters. I think about Tim Dickey, friends of mine in the city of Cincinnati that go through a living hell almost every day with overdoses a fentanyl, etc. And what you men and women
go through. I see this report and it's frightening. Maybe that's why it's harder and harder and harder to get more and more men and women to take the test to become a cop. And lastly, I want to talk briefly about Minneapolis and Renee Good. When the officer used his weapon, he was hit by the vehicle driven by Renee Good, as indicated by the videotape, but also by the trousers being damaged and also damaged to his leg,
and then he shot Renee Good. Do you have empathy for an officer put in that situation because of the behavior of the so called protester who was a criminal. It is against the law to impede the activities of federal law enforcement officials. If you impede, harassed, or obstruct, that's called a crime. It's called eight years in prison. Do you have sympathy for what that police officer had to go through? When stay of last week?
Sure you know there's more videos coming out it's showing that that this officer was in fact struck by a vehicle. You know, you hear some of the audio of people encouraging this woman to drive away, and as he gets struck by the car, he does what he thinks he has to do to save his life. You know, it's tragic. That whole thing never should have happened. It wouldn't have happened if this woman wouldn't have been blocking traffic, if she wouldn't have driven away when ice agents tell her
to stop. You know, somehow in society, we've we've created, you know, this atmosphere that they think if if I don't agree with this law, if I don't agree with what law enforcement's doing, is that I I can just I can.
Resist them and it'll be fine.
Instead, in the civilized society, if they don't agree with the laws that these law enforcement officers are are enforcing, then go to your go to your US senators, go to your US representatives, and tell them I want this law changed. That's how things should be done. Not going I'm just going to reuse this law enforcement because I don't like what they're doing. That's not going to end well for these citizens that it never does.
I can't imagine the life expectancy of an ICE agent putting up what they put up with in major cities. I can't imagine what that would look like. I can't imagine. And they're working eighty to ninety hours a week, they can't sleep at night because of what they went through during the day. And then the so called protesters, the criminals, show up at two o'clock in the morning to shine lights and windows where they think an l EO Is sleeping to make their life more miserable. I can't imagine
those officers having an average life expectancy. And there's simply men and women in blue trying to do their damn jobs. Well, Ken Kober, we've got to run. Good luck. We'll see what happens later today. But if you get information that the city of Cincinnati is going to pay the family of Ryan hitting millions and millions of dollars, could that cause police action of one type or another could have caused a work stoppage or a strike? Is that how outrage you would be?
Well, you know, we've sworn to protect a city, and just because they make terrible decisions doesn't mean that we're just going to take our ball and go home. We're going to continue to protect the city, but you never know what the outcome could be. It could be effect recruiting people decide not to come here. It could affect people just leaving going to other departments. Those are things that they need to consider before they make a terrible decision like this.
Thanks.
Shooting a police officer in the head during the George Floyd riots in Cincinnati and then paying that person fifteen to twenty thousand dollars in that eight point two million dollar settlement is outrageous. Ken Kober, You're a great American. Thanks for what you do. Stay safe, and thanks for coming on the Bill Cunningham Show.
Thank you again. Sure, thanks for having me.
Bill, God bless you. Let's continue with more. We'll follow this after one o'clock today to see what's coming out of city Council. Bill Cunningham, the great American, live with you every day. You're home of the Reds, Bengals, Bearcats, and the Musketeers. Can they all fail together? I hope not. On News Radio seven hundred WLW