Fifty five r C the talk station. Dan Carroll in for Brian Thomas. Want to thank Daniel Turner for being here. Always loved talking to that guy. I always enjoy having this guy on too. The main man at the FOP of Cincinnati Fraternal Order Police as Ken Cober, and Ken Cober is our guest this morning, and Ken Kober, thanks for being here.
Always appreciate your time.
Sir, Hey, good morning, Dan, thanks for having me.
Let's talk about this case.
I don't know why this case just bothers me so much, but you know, last week, on last Saturday night on Short Vine, twenty five year old Kyle Merrick was standing there apparently minding his own business when he was confronted by some fifteen year old dude who accordingly, you know, when you look at the video, it looks like this guy, unprovoked, just pulled out a gun and stuck it in the midsection of twenty five year old Kyle Merrick, who attempted
to run away. Turned out he had a weapon of his own, turned in fire, and then he in turn was shot by this fifteen year old. Now he's dead, his family is in mourning. And Ken Kober, it certainly appears that this fifteen year old had no business being on the streets whatsoever.
Without a doubt.
I mean, it's a senseless murder that absolutely could have been prevented.
Talk about some of the criminal history over the last couple of days has started to come to light on this guy. Can you tell us a little bit about.
That well, I mean it started at the age of thirteen thirteen and obstructing official business, running from the police recently escalated in November two in aggravated assault that was involved with the shooting improper or improper transportation I believe of a firearm and then discharging a firearm into a habitation.
That's the case that he should have been help for.
And unfortunately, on April second was released from EMU. They had already let him out of detention, but they put him on EMU, and they even released him from that on April second, and then here's Saturday.
We have a tragedy. I mean, this is not really a surprise.
This is I mean the very the basis of things that we see all the time. You know, little crimes that turn into big crimes real quick.
Is it just me or does it seem like if you have someone who is thirteen years old and they have, between the ages of thirteen and fifteen, have sixteen separate contacts with the juvenile court system here in Hamilton County. Is it just me or does that seem like a lot or is that par for the course for a lot of these kids that get involved in the juvenile system.
That is certainly in excess.
But you know a lot of these things would have been prevented had there been actual consequences. I don't know on the first charge, the fifth charge, the tenth charge. It's something that there's absolutely no accountability whatsoever.
So it doesn't surprise me that these kind of things are happening.
Let me read to you a piece that I found on the WLWT website. This is from May of last year. Okay, last month, three teenagers were arrested after a woman was brutally attacked on a metro bus in Colerain Township. All three teenagers were released from the Hamilton County Juvenile Detention Center the same day. The same day, Juvenile Court Judge Kerry Bloom says there's only so much the law allows
her to do. Quote, in juvenile court, we focus on rehabilitation, which is to include consideration of how do we make sure the kid doesn't do this again, how do we make sure we protect the community. You know, Ken Kober, It's one thing to have a judge say something like that. It is another thing when to my way of thinking, it is well within her power and her ability to prevent these sorts of things from happening, but she doesn't
lift a finger to make any of that happen. Simply have these kids come in and then right back out the revolving door. And in this case, for teenagers who beat up a woman on a metro bus, they're out on the street the exact same day.
Yeah, I mean we've seen this time after time after time.
You know, kids with gun charges, kids with violent felony offenses that are letting right out. We're not talking about, you know, a kid that stole a bag of chips from Kroger.
Because he's hungry.
We're talking about kids that are that are committing heinous, violent crimes that are endangering the community, and they're let right back out.
And this, unfortunately, is the end result.
You know, I feel terrible for you know, the Myrak family that they have to go through this, but they're just the latest.
I mean, this happens time and time.
Again where we have kids that are victimizing people or they're becoming victims of gun by themselves because the choices they make because they're let out of the juvenile court system.
Unbelievable. Ken Kobra, we got to get a quick break in here. Can you hang around and I got a couple more questions for you on the other side. Sure, all right, Ken Kober, stay right there and we'll continue on with him on fifty five KRCV Talk stays. All right, fifty five KRCV Talk station, we continue our conversation with the FOP president, Ken Kober and Ken Kobra. You know it's not like this. This kid was on the fringes of the system. We are talking about this kid at
the age of thirteen. He let's see, he was placed on probation. He was let's see, he was found guilty of attempted grand theft. He was on the property of Procter and Gamble running from police. He was this stay at the Ohio Department of Youth Services was suspended as long as he fought. He was supposed to follow these orders until he turned twenty one, but a few months later, in November twenty four, arrested again accused of receiving stolen property.
He was on probation for the previous twenty twenty three offense. Was in the Hamilton County juvenile system. Also in November last year, in a case that is still pending, he was charged with aggravated assault while in possession of a gun and improperly discharging a firearm. So here's a kid that is obviously showing all sorts of signs of trouble, unable to follow the rules, obviously has no parental supervision, and they find this guy is eligible to be released
and placed on GPS monitoring. Is how many cases are like this in the juvenile system right now?
Do you have any idea?
Far too many. It happens every day. They're releasing kids that are involved in gun violence. They're releasing kids that are just carrying weapons, just stealing cars, you name it, all the violent crime that's going on.
It's pretty much, unless.
You murder someone as a juvenile, you're going to be released. And that's the problem.
Don't we have people that can look at this in any you know, so many times, you know, we've talked about government square and the bus situation down there, And I saw peace today where the arrests are down fifty percent in that area. So it seems to me that when an effort is made, a good faith effort is made to turn our attention to a specific situation, we
can start seeing some results. But for some reason, whatever's going on in the juvenile system, and you've got these kids who are serious offenders at the age of fifteen. If you're you know, involved in stolen property and discharging a firearm and things like that, that to me seems like a serious thing. But yeah, we just sort of, you know, turn our heads at that and say, uh yeah, put them on a GPS monitor. Does a GPS monitoring
system really serve any purpose at all? Does it really do any good at all?
Only for those that are interested in actually following the law, because it's not something that's monitored twenty four hours a day, even.
Though it's on you you know, you don't.
They don't.
You don't have a probation officer sitting in a room, you know, monitoring every GPS unit.
They just it's impossible. They don't. They don't have the manpower to be able to do that.
It just doesn't happen to I understand that this same juvenile was actually accused of cutting off his monitor once before or as it was, so it's not surprising that that things have escalated the way they have it.
So, so what's the issue is it the people who make the decisions? Are is there not enough manpower to follow up on the If it seems to me, if someone cuts off a monitoring device, that should be uh you know that that that should be cause to have I don't know, a probation officer, someone from the court, may you know, make a visit to that individual you and find out what's going on. Are are we not able to do those sorts of things?
Well, ISSU is not not finding these kids and arresting them issues keeping them, And it's these judges and magistrates that are making the decision that we're not going to keep these people. And unfortunately, this is what the the citizens of Hamilton County voted for.
The Only way that we're going to have any kind of change is the next election.
You find out what judges, you know, specifically these juvenile court judges, which ones are going to support law and order, which ones are going to take the safety of the community seriously, and those are who you have to vote for. That's the only way that these these things.
Are ever going to change.
So this happened on short vine. Is this totally being handled by UC police or our campus police involved in this as well?
No, this is this is off campus.
This is the Sinciet Police department is investigating this homicide.
They're the ones that may be round Okay, yeah, because I mean literally, it's what one two blocks away from the campus that u se I didn't know if if if you had a role in this or not.
Yeah, there's a lot of college kids that live in that area.
But this was solely the jurisdiction of the City of Cincinnati's plice.
All right, Ken Kober, is there any way to uh to uh let people know about the amount of frustration that that you have over issues like this? And what's the what's the disposition of this kid right now that he get hit? Is he is he in the hospital recovering from an injury right now? What's the disposition of this kid?
Yeah, that's my understanding.
He is in custody, but I believe he's being treated for some injuries.
And then I'll end up at twenty and we'll see how long he's.
There, all right, And then I mean, if is there anything you want to say before we let you go that that they can make any sort of difference in this at all other than I mean you already talked about you know, you got to pay attention to who you're voting for sure.
I mean, that's the biggest question I get is, you know, from citizens, from officers, the community is what can we do? Well? The answer is what you can do is get out and vote for people that are going to support law in order. That's that's ultimately what this is going to take.
If you value safety in Hamilton County, you're going to have to vote for a judge that supports law in order and that that really really is the bottom line is you have to pay attention to who these people are, what they stand for, and make sure that you know they align with safety in Hamilton County. That's the only thing we're going to be able to get a safer county.
Yeah.
But if red flags like this sixteen contacts with the juvenile system, uh, you know you've got receiving stolen property, improper discharge of a firearm, possession of a firearm when you're already under disability. If those sorts of things don't raise red flags, what sorts of things do raise red flags? I mean, these are serious, These are serious offenses.
Yeah. Well, you have to understand the magistrate that actually signed off on releasing this juvenile from EMU was also the same magistrate that told a child that ran from Coleraine Townships Police Department that sometimes there is a need just to get away from the police. So with that kind of ideology, what do you expect. That's exactly what's coming out of the juvenile court system.
For God's sake.
All right, Ken Kober, as always, I appreciate the time, keep up the great work and stay safe out there.
Brother. We'll talk to you again, saying I really appreciate it.
Yeah, thanks for having me, Dan Pick.
All right, there you go, Ken Kober from the FOP sixteen contacts with the juvenile system, improper discharge of a firearm, receiving stolen property. These are very very serious things. And now this kid is again innocent until proven guilty. But you've seen the video, looks like he actually you know, is wound up being involved and is charged with murder now of a twenty five year old guy, father and
Kyle Merrick. It can only imagine the hell their family is going through, and all because of some judge or some magistrate who is just looking at this in the completely wrong way. We got to get to a break. Dan Carroll for Brian Thomas fifty five KRC, The Talk Station.
Fifty five KRC, The talk station you don't