In American way to midweek, here we go Scott's flown back on seven hundred w WELW. He called it intolerable. One of the latest, the longest list of adjectives I've ever heard about crime in Cincinnati. The new one is intolerable. That would be your adjective of the day, is what mayor have to Puerval called the violence downtown, the back to back shootings on Fountain Square and says significant changes are coming after all that. So we're going to see
swat on Fountain Square. We're going to see the Civil Disturbance Response Team whatever that is, on Fountain Square, and it's going to look like parts of Gaza. Chief Terry Thiji is commanding her officers to make contact with people for even the most minor offenses. That's called the broken windows theory of policing, which is just absolutely as sailed for years by progressives, is just punching down on people and stopping them and causing distrust in the community. And now,
guess what turns out that strategy might work a little bit. Huh. But before the Mayor's Presser Council had a public safety hearing yesterday, it was really hard to hear that, and you could hear the frustration from residents. Listen, I am not able to tell future tenants and they would be safe.
I've been down the district to a couple times myself.
I just don't feel like we're getting the results that we need to make our tenants feel safe.
It feels like something has shifted.
Two of our best friends who live in the neighborhood have decided to move.
The violence has just gotten out of control.
Honest and more is council member Anna, I'll be with law in public safety. She sits on the committee and sat through that difficult testimony yesterday, Anna, good morning, how you been by?
Good morning? Thanks got having me. I appreciate it.
Yeah. Well, your reaction when you're sitting there listening to all these people say, look, I have his investment of property, and I'm a landlord who I feel him is imagine going, hey, I have people who won't rent because they afraid they're going to get shot, or someone has said, hey, listen, my circle of friends, they're all moving out because they've
got small kids, or they just fear their safety. That was some of the most telling testimony I think I've heard in a long time, and it shows you how far gone things are. What was your immediate reaction.
Well, immediately in the moment, I made sure my staff got all those folks compact information, and I was taking diligent notes. You know, I take all of this very very seriously. You know, public safety, making sure people feel safe is my number one priority, and I know that shared. So I followed up afterwards with the city manager and the police chief listing out the issues that we heard. I took notes on the exact location, so you know
we're going to take action here. I also spoke with the assistant police chief yesterday about another issue that was brought to my attention. So we're really taking action here and using police based solutions to really dig into what's happening in this specific spot to make sure that we can everyone feels safe, feel safe in our safe right. It'stion plus reality.
I'm hereath the Grapevines about Well, we heard this small learning about Jeff Ruby's Lempica, which used to be the main location in the Art deco restaurant on Seventh Street, and they've now turned that into an event space. Actually, I was at a wedding there a few months ago. And this absolutely spectaculars way over the top. It's so nice.
They're closing that location and maybe a beef with the landlord with Town Properties, which I get because there's some safety issues like door if not being locked and things like that, and so we don't feel safe and our businesses compromise. So we're closing that up despite a huge investment in that. Don't know what it's going to become in the future, if anything, but that's a loss, and
they're moving their business operations to Wallut Street. But you know, behind these scenes, I guess they're hearing rumors that there's maybe some threats there saying, hey, we if we got gun you know, people shooting each other on Fountain Square across from our beautiful flagship restaurant on Fountain Square. And now we've had the shooting the other we had what two shootings in the last few days on Fountain Square, like right in front of Rubies. That's not a place
where people are gonna feel safe coming to. Our clientele's not gonna be safe. We're gonna have to we're gonna have to move. Losing that would send I think a tutle wave of problems for those who sit on council and those who seek to be re elected or elected might be a good thing for them. But I don't know if that's true or not, Anna, but that that's really really telling there. If we have flagship restaurants, if we have the culinary name in Cincinnati going, we can't be in Cincinnati. You lost.
So I can't comment on you know, the speaks of landlords or any of that details. I know probably as much as you reading in the press. But again, this council and mayor and administration, we're truly taking action. You heard yesterday from the slice chief and the mayor new plans around Sountain Square, both from looking at transportation patterns what we need to do to kind of spread out the people and make sure that we have bet Are coverage,
also bringing in additional support from law enforcement. So that is the work we're doing. I mean, I think what was most shocking to me was the most recent an incident and where it's the fact that we had four officers there. Yep, right, and that's that's just shocking behavior. I think we all just have to name it that that is insane. Right. However, many years ago, knowing that four officers were a matter of yards away from you
would have been at a turrent. So you know this, this is a new level, and we are stepping up to the plate to provide more resources, new resources, partnering with the governor, partnering with the sheriff's office, doing all of that work to really try to tackle what's happening.
But isn't that an indication Anna that it's too far gone? I mean that, you know, it's not like everyone's gonna pull up stakes. But you know, all this action now, okay, great, but if the bad guys aren't obeying law enforcement, there's a cop standing right there, I'm gonna shoot at you anyway. All the adjectives, all the superlatives, all the patrols, all the curfews. What you're saying is it hasn't done anything
to stop the violence. And that then tells me that we moved that, that our leaders moved way too late on us.
You know, here, here's what I would say. It would be really helpful if we had support from the state in terms of laws, because there are too many guns on our street. And you know, I'm going to talk about this all day. It is too easy to get firearms legally and too we can get them easily illegally as well. And so it'll be really great if Ohio had some stronger gun laws or we could actually go
after getting somebod climb off the street harder. And you know that's part of the work of the Crime Gun Intelligence Center, and we partner with the APS, with local law enslorcement, the Ohio State controls helping us with us like, there are too many guns, and I think we just all need to acknowledge are too many guns on our streets.
And that is why I'm really passionate about we need stronger laws at the state level, hopefully at the federal level that actually empower us to go get the firearms pop of the handle games with people.
Yeah, I let me push back on that. A couple of points. Number one would be we have federal laws. The law says if you are a felon and you you're carrying a gun, you've now escalated that you go to prison. And yet we have judges, largely progressive judges that see juveniles, that see people go, oh, you got a gun. You're not supposed to have a gun. You cut your ankle, bonder, Yeah, you're good, go ahead, It's fine,
we'll catch it a later date. I mean, weep. You keep calling for tougher laws, but you're not enforcing the laws in the books. Why aren't we getting tougher with people who are who end up getting jammed up with a gun and they right out of a felony. That's that's called having a gun to disability. And I'm sorry, but we have judges in Cincinnati that allow that.
Hey, our judges are making sure that laws are performed and executed.
And are they're not, otherwise they wouldn't have this.
Hey, agree to disagree on this one, right, That's that's fair. But you know, at the end of the day, I think we have too many guns. I support the work of our Crime Intelligence Center going after those because it is. It was shocking to me to watch the video in the Prep Sumping District with the police chief and how casually someone was able to just pull gun out, shoot shoot at people and walk away. Right, That's that's horrifict We can all right.
Because they know there's no consequences if I do that.
Well, I mean, officers are on the scene pretty pretty quickly, right, So like it now, it's a matter of putting together the case and going through with that and that again, that is where we have to do off into the job from the city perspective of putting together strong cases
so our judges have all the information. And frankly, we're doing work to working with the judicial system on improving our technology in the courtrooms making sure that information is more readily available that we had that we were able to provide all that case information. So here's the I'm the only only to my family who's not a lawyer. My brother is actually a prosecutor in the Federal Office
and VC. But you know, these lawyers, you know, haveing making sure the prosecutors have all the information that day in front of them with technology, that is a big challenge right now. So we are working the city puts dollars together and there's a whole kind of task force with our judges where we're making sure that we're empowering our judges and our prosecutors and our officers with all the technologies to make sure all that information is at
their fingertips. Decisions are being made off the.
Court, but the problem is they're not. And you know, I don't think gun laws may do something in the future, probably not because I think the other element of two analby is how are the people, especially juveniles, getting guns so well they're breaking into cars? Well, why are people live in guns and cars? Is because I think a couple of things. Number one would be there's a lot of places we are not allowed to carry by law, and so I say, hey, I don't feel safe in Cincinnati.
If I come downtown, I'm gonna come with a gun, come heavy and okay. If I got to go somewhere to leave in my car, I think that's just a It's like a self fulfilling prophecy. The more unsafe people feel, the more they feel they need to arm themselves. They can't bring it in, so they're leaving the car, which encourages people to break into cars and steal guns.
You have talked about secure firearm storage in cars of force, So I know, no, this is a place where we can both agree in terms of making sure that you know, if a gun, if you're bringing it downtown, that's pure legal, right, let's have it locked up.
Right.
So we're doing a couple of things. One, we're increasing our requirements when it comes to parking garages and parking lots on what's needed in terms of better lighting, can landscaping, security, and then we're also going to have PtD go out and provide a feeding system for all those garages. So you as a responsible citizens driving downtown to say, oh, because of an ADC or D, whatever the scale is, this is a safe place that's meeting the security requirements.
This isn't right, So caret and a stick approach. But in addition to that, I've been working with CPD and we've started handing out gun space for cars. At the last few home bangals games, that's the home most opener. We had over seventy seven people come up and grab a gun law, and so that's the work I'm trying to do it.
As a gun owner myself, I like, okay, I think you know, I hate more burden on people like myself because the overwhelming majority, almost all the gunners are responsible people. You know, talk about the guns on the streets and it's getting out there because responsible people are tired of de policing and you know, the lax enforcement of our laws.
I got all these laws that I have to buy buy as a Second Amendment rights holder, but and it doesn't feel like the criminal element cares about that they're going to rob my stuff. It's that's the frustration. But I agree. I think that if you're responsible gun, there's gotta be something relative to making sure your gun when it's stored safely, not just in a you know, a console or a glove box or into the seat or see something along those lines. It has to be in
a physical safe that that should be by rule. She's council member and I'll be sits on law in public safety, hearing it from citizens yesterday in a meeting, people saying what am I going to tell prospective tenants if they ask if it are going to be safe downtown and people moving out, and it is unraveling when you see gunfire and consecutive and what three over the course of
a weekend. Basically we had two shootouts the other one of the other night where someone who was sitting at City Bird and someone pulls out a gun, fires a couple of shots in the window. Still haven't caught the guy yet, And I think we need to make examples of these people. I really really do on that. One of the problems is, as I understand it, as you understand it too, isn't it like people getting off at the metro station of Government Square, and then then that's where the beats start.
So I think it's lots of you know, people getting off there and more of just how do we spread out kind of the mass of people, if that makes sense. Right, We have a lot of people coming in at once. So that's part of the what the mayor is working with sorta on is, hey, how do we kind of distribute these bus routes a little bit more again, makes it easier for us to have you know, coverage when
it comes to officers and all of that. So you know, I'm not I just want to be really clear, there is no part of this so the saying that people use our wonderful public transportation or criminals, that's not what
we're saying. But we're trying to use some place based problem solving here, right, And if we're seeing, you know, kind of a cluster of issues happening around one space, how can we spread out the people the bodies right to maybe just use some of the conflict because what I'm under how I understand it is some of these are starting as personal talk with right, Like people are getting into fights and unfortunately they're armed and that's vacillating.
That's that's what the last two we're talking about worst, you know, just stupid street beefs between people who knew each other.
Yeah, I mean, and that's where some of the reflections I've been doing frankly, over the past day and a half, it's been it's just been around, how do we, you know, teach conflict resolution. I know that sounds maybe very but you know, how do we help people, even starting in our schools, And these are conversations I've had with our
school boards start kind of teaching conflict drives. We have a young age, so people can learn how that's turned down the temperature, sure, because it's just it's just you know, too easy.
Well yeah, that's true of all of us. But that doesn't fix the now we have. You know, we have adults acting like toddlers and they have guns, and that's the unfortunate part. My point is, and maybe something that should be explored is I'll be honest with you, I and when I talk to cops and others saying, you know, Metro, it's like this funnel and not you're certainly not everyone who's ride the Metro that most people are just trying to get from point A to point being live their lives.
But you've got criminal elements on there kind of looking for trouble. We've heard horror stories about metrobus drivers getting shot and everything else. And it largely centers around Metro the Government Square station, and it's such a critical area to our infrastructure that's now spilling over to Fountain Square itself. You know, we have the Fort Washington away underground garage. It's not going used. And I know the cry was, well it's too far from Fountain Square. You know what
you need. I'm sorry, But if for me I've closed that Government Square metro station, I'd make it a stop. I'd move everything to Fort Washington a way. You have an entrance and egress points. You can monitor that with cameras, you could have gunspotder technology, face technology. You have a confined area that you can easily police and shut it down if you have to, and you can control who's coming in and coming out. More importantly, keep an eye on people and lock it down if you have to.
To get a bad guy with a gun and then run, I don't know, run a shuttle or a bus that looks like a trolley to Fountain Square to get people there. It just seems to me like you got to get that Metro station at Government Square is a problem. I think we got to shut that down and move it.
I think everything worth discussing for now. It's the kind of changing up the route to disperse that kind of cluster Government Square. So you know, that is a step
in the right direction. Again, I want to make sure that in this conversation we're not dehumanizing people run the ride the bus because you know, personally, I feel very passionately that we have a working public transit and infrastructure because it's important right how most people are just getting to their jobs, and it's also how in some of our kids are getting to schools, people getting to you know whatever fun.
Well, they don't deserve all this. That's the point. You're trying to protect them. We're trying to protect them by saying, hey, listen, we'll just run a We'll run a shuttle to Fountain Square for those people got another bus to Fountain Square. It doesn't seem that hard.
Yeah, again, I'm open to all these conversations with Metro. You know, they they are the experts on their bus routes. But for now that we are working collaboratively with them on this kind of first step to this. First those bus routes try to spread out the crowds to your point of like what we have too many people kind of concentrate on one spot and just one of those people has to be up to no goods to cause
safe issues for everyone. And I think that also comes with frankly, you know, for officers who are down there. You heard from the Chief yesterday talking through art Wet we got to be alert, right, We've got to have our eyes out open for what could be happening. And that's to where you know, we have community advocates who are down there and you know, learning simple kind of this is what a body language triggers of like oh that could be turning into a fight. Being much more
aware and picking up on that faster. And that's what I heard from the chief right yesterday and her remarks with the press conference is Okay, we a CPD are going to step up here. We're going to be watching out for that a lot more, and you know, again using our complex resition be escalation skills to make sure those personal fights are not turning into gunfire. That's ultimately where we got it.
I'll be honest with you. I mean, we can teach it in the schools and all that stuff, but I'm sorry, there's a there's a percentage of the population that are freaking animals. What we saw yes to what we we're
talking about. He is animalistic, predatory, sociopathic behavior. There's people out there that are worth saving, but there's some that aren't, and we've got to come to terms of that and segregate them for society because all this, we've got to change them and thick that might happen in another generation or two maybe, but probably not. But we've got to addressed to here and now. The people that are shooting
on Fountain Square. I'man a guest that the guy who fired the shots at City Bird probably shouldn't had that gun in the first place, and I would I question the need for more laws if we don't take those people off the streets the minute they use a gun and commission of a crime.
You and I have no disagreement on people who shouldn't have guns. It should and shouldn't have guns, right If someone's going to be using a firearm that lately for criminal activity, should not have a gun. And that's again why I go back to it would be really great if we actually had background check on every single gun sale beyond just the certified sellers, but you know Facebook, gun sales, things out of people's trunks all that, so we could actually be able to have, you know, a
way to enforce, hey, you are a bad guy. You should not have a gun. Right And then in terms of they hear now, that is why we are pulling out all the stops, in terms of our local CPD working on patrol, bringing reinforcements from Ohio State Patrol right to really be out there in the community, watching out for these instances and hopefully intervening before they accalate.
Let me and I've got just a second here, and I appreciate it. Back on that in the Highway patrol, that's a really good point is from what we heard is is you know, the governor reached out some time ago and we're still waiting for Okay, I guess the Highway Patrol is going to come in and now we have all right, we had another shooting and so now we have SWAT officers. It looks like parts of Gaza
now on Fountain Square and this. I don't know. It seems like, okay, now we're doing that and the optics that are tough, But why why don't we if we just brought troopers into enforced the highways, we could have regular cops, more of them on the street. Why are we fighting against the set? Why are we leaning into the state and having more officers more troopers come in so we.
Do have the troopers coming in helping. I'm going to go back to the crime done.
There's like two days a month or something stupid like that. That's what's that going to do?
Helps of our capacity right when we have big busts. I don't know a better technical term than that of you know, these big investigations to take a lot of man so having support, but that does free up our CPD local officers to be out patrolling our neighborhoods. And frankly, I'm gonna be honest when it comes to kind of patrolling in our neighborhoods, I still stand by. You know, sometimes Believe has amazing training when it comes to collaborative agreement,
comes to the escalation. They have relationships with our residence too, and that is very very important because having that quest of law enforcement makes a difference when you're interacting in the neighborhoods. So I stand by all of that, But when it comes to these bigger operations, yeah, let's bring in, bring in support and having you know, swat out take control supporting that these like hot spots right now.
Sure, but again it took too long. I mean, that was something was offered a couple of months ago after you know, after the brawl and went July, and here it is, we're almost in the November at this point, and now we're like, okay, now they're fre We're gonna get them a couple days. It just it just seems like we're I don't know, fighting against law enforcement. Then we just turn around, puts a lot of on the street. How any different is that than having National Guardsmen out there?
They look the same.
Well, National guardsmen are not trained in our collaborative agreement. They're not they don't know our people. And frankly, that the scenes I've seen coming out of Chicago with Ice.
So I'm not I'm not saying I have the National Guarden saying it. That's what it looks like. It's the same. What's the difference between local squat offers and that as far in the court of public opinion. And yeah, I get the training element, but I think people see that you see paramilitary troopers that are either squat or now it doesn't matter. You've got guys in tactical gears standing on that Fountain Square to intimidate the bad guys. It's the same look.
I you know, for me, I will say, I don't think living in a police state and this is why I think I'm hearing from me, living in a police state is in our perfect version of safety. And I agree, right, but to your point, like there's a crisis right now and we're doing everything we can, and if you know, four cops standing on Fountain Square wasn't enough, and you know what's the next step. So it's really a balance here, right, I mean, I agree, I don't think having a police
date is is where we want to be. But if we are, you know, have so many guns in the street, and we got to bring in help to de escalate and keep those guns, you know, out of the wrong hands.
We're going to do it right now because again, like we're digging this all very seriously, and I want to follow up, go back to where you started the conversation in terms of what we heard from public facety public commenters yesterday, following up immediately, in fact, I'd already been my opposite, had already been in contact with one of the gentlemen and got you know, an email after immediately, and we're working quickly here, and I go back to
problem solving and how do we address these issues at the spot right.
We heard some fo we needed to and I had to touch off, but I got to get going way or away over like she's conc member and I'll be law in public safety. I know we just addressed a lot there, but I appreciate your thoughtful consideration and conversation and the back and forth. It was really good. Hopefully people listen to this and and and the right people listen to this so we get some answered soon because this date, I agree with the mayor. It's intolerable for sure. Hey,
all the best. Good luck on the campaign. I know you're doing that as well, seeking re election and council Anna, thanks for coming on the show.
Be well, good luck, appreciate it. Thanks tak care, take care.
We got to get the news run the lake. We'll get your reaction to this, so more gun laws will solve this. Well, then let's talk about that. Coming up next on seven underd WM