You want to be an American.
He's got flown back on seven hundred doty wall. W could just jump right back into it. Man over the fence, over the wall, as they say. City council members are pretty tight lipped about taking sides regarding the city manager's decision AKA after Perevol's decision a place Chief teris a Thigi on leave. We heard from Ken Kober immediately following yesterday's press conference with Steve im at the Finny Law fram who is representing Chief Thiji in this whole situation. He came on my show.
Live on seven hundred WW and his immediate reaction to this thing was like, listen, there's many in the rank and file weren't necessarily Teresa Thigi fans, but guess what we all are now because what happened to her, that she's being railroaded out of her job and being called this is nothing but politics and she's a political scapegoat, and finding out on her thirty fifth anniversary of or hire as a new cop and now the chief of Cincinnati, the first woman to do that long history of service
for her family as an insult to the badge, insult to the whole process. And what's interesting about this after the followed very very few and that's, by the way, I may say, not serving all of them, but the only one to voice an opinion on counsel and this whole thing joins me now and that is Seth Wall Seth, good morning. I'm doing well, but I'm also probably doing better than you right now. I can't imagine what you woke up this morning and went in the seconds where
the cobwebs are there, they go away. The first thing you probably thought of is is this dumpster fire?
It's been It's been quite a week of chaos and hectic and yeah, it's been. It's been a week, Scott, and not the best week that we've had in Entity council.
Yeah, is Terry Thiji.
The problem, you know, I think the problem with that question, Scott is how do we know that they're not telling you anything, They're not telling me anything. None of us know why this decision is being made. So issues the I'm waiting for the evidence to be shown to us.
But in people say, wow, this is you know, it's share along because the way it works is the chiefs, the chiefs administrators, they all report to city manager, share along. So this is Cheryl's But again she's just the executioner, right, This is the mayor. This is af tad pirival. This isn't Sheryl Long. She is a subordinate and she's doing what she I don't know what she is commanded to do, I suppose.
Or I don't know. Is Cheryl Loong run the whole thing?
Either way, it's a horrible look for the mayor, especially with an election coming up in a couple of weeks.
Well, I think it's a bad look for the city as a whole. You know, from everything that I've been told, which is pretty much what you see in the media. I mean, this seems to be a decision made by Cheryl Long, and I think that leads to a lot of questions about the fact that the police chief, at the end of the day, is a very important decision, especially when we are trying to get crime under control in our downtown or over the Rhine and in these neighborhoods were seeing spice and crime in it is a
very very important decision. And to change the police chief, no matter when you're changing the police chief, but to change it in such a chaotic, hectic fashion with no clear plan, no clear evidence about why the decision is being made. That is a massive problem, and it is I think it's I think Ken was spot on. I imagine this is terrible from hero out for the police Department because you know, even if it's not a situation of escapegoat, it sure feels that way. And it's a situation that
we need to be providing stability right now. We need to be showing leadership and we need to put our plan for because the most important thing is public safety, not personality conflicts.
Seth Walshaw immediately following the press conference yesterday with Steve Vam, who did a great job. By the way, I spoke to Ken Cobra, President the FOLP, live on the show, and that was one of the questions I had to him. It's like, we just spent what kramerting four and a half million dollars with Kramerting, Jefferies, yourself and others voting to fund the police department. We got to get more bodies and we got to recruit. We're down one hundred
and thirty one hundred fifty officers. Can't have that. We got have lateral recruiting class. We're going to pull officers from other jurisdictions and make an appeal to them with money and the job at hand, to come to Cincinnati and work here and work for a district and make a difference in crime, make some money yourself and all that.
That's all well and good.
Four and a half million dollars does in this whole move undermine that, Because if I'm a officer, if I'm a beat cup, and let's say I don't know I work in a jurisdiction, I'm maybe considering making the move over to Cincinnati go a whole ont of second, Look how dirty they just did the chief and that's a chief. I'm nobody. What chance do I have? So did we just shoot ourselves in the foot? We opened the coffers
up to four and a half mil. But at the same time send the message out that we don't know what we're doing over here, and we'll make you escapegoat politically if.
We have to.
Well, that's where my concern comes in in terms of there's a lot of concern I have here. But yes, when we're talking about our law enforcement members, not only the morale of existing police rale of those we're trying to hire but is that plan even heading forward the five and a half five point four million dollars that we just allocated, Like, what is the plan for that now? Because it was moving forward under the last police chief who's currently on administrative Leaf's not That's what That's.
My frustration where I'm most.
Upset right now is we are trying to get crime under control in the city of Cincinnati. It is not clear the stability in the past for that, because nothing's been laid out to us other than this hectic process that we've all watched play out in the media. We've named an interim police chief who by all accounts is an amazing individual and going to be a great leader
for the department. But it's not clear what the transition is and what's carrying on and what the problem even was in the first place that led to this change. So how can you and I even confidently say we know what's happening next? You know, is all the plans that we've done for the last two months drown out the window and we're starting fresh or are we continuing it? And if we're continuing it, how are we going to
provide the confidence people that that's what's happening. I don't know, and that is not an acceptable answer for somebody who's city on city council ne' to give you, And it's not an acceptable answer for the city manager to give us that as the solution right now is that we don't have enough information to even answer that question. So yeah, I'm very worried about that.
Yeah, And as I understand, I don't know any but I understand from the rank and file many of they respect him.
They love the guy.
I mean, he's the guy that wrote that citation a month later or charged anyway, the white guy in the brawl, because that was at the behest of the rabid reverence out there who demanded a flash demanded of whitey be charged because he got black guys who were an assault and no officer on the scene would write it because they didn't think a crime was committed. But he took essentially the political bullet and said, okay, final, I'll be the one that puts my name to this, this thing
that got that ball rolling. And that was all the behest of the mayor's office. So that's greasy and dirty as well, because that is a potential civil rights violation, which you know again, when you're fighting to keep your nose above water, like after that perivalis and keep his political career going, that seems like a pretty big misstep to me. You open yourself up for a civil rights case. But I don't know, does they only care about this election coming up and damn the torpedoes.
We'll see what happens after that.
You know, again, I don't know. From everything I've heard, it doesn't sound like this was the mayor's decision, which I know is you know, we think the way the city government works, that this would be the marrior's decision. This is legally and technically the city manager's decision. And everything that I've heard behind the scenes, which again it's not much more than what you've heard, does not sound like the mayor's the one who made the decision on this.
It sounds like the mayor may have been aware of conversations transpiring behind the scenes which led to comments last week. But beyond that, I don't have anything to indicate that Aftab was the one who made the decision.
Ultimately, But there was a political component to this, There's no question about it. This wasn't a criminal charge. This was a political charge.
Yeah, I mean, I think that that's one of the big questions. Why does this decision made? Right now?
What was the urgency that required.
This decision to be made so quickly that the police chief had to fly back from college out of And I've asked that question. I don't have a satisfactory answer to it, right, And it seems like there was again, I mean, it's chaos, and it seems like chaos reigned for thirty six hours at city Hall and bad decisions were made and that's not okay and that's not acceptable, and that's the big problem here. Some people need to come out and say what actually happened and led to
this and why this decision was made. You know, this is a really big decision, and the absence of information leads to rampant speculation that is not good for anybody. And I don't understand why people are so gun try to come out and just say what happened and what led to this decision. It's not like we don't know what's happening.
You know.
Last Wednesday, I think they put out like three press releases saying that she was still employed, which is you know, you know that Scott, you're in the media is like, that's the kiss of death.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, I don't I don't understand you. We're good at reducing force around here, so we know this. Well, I don't heard when somebody get called back from a conference in Denver and going, hey, you got to get back here right away because you've got a we've got a violence emergence. Well, you know, the emergency would happen immediately found what happened to Fountain Square?
This was, this was after that.
There's nothing newsworthy going on, and just out of the blue, she's in Denver and now we got to pull the plug on or doesn't make any sense. And I brought up A. Henny's name earlier and he seems like a great guy, be a great chief. But I guess the question is, wasn't that Terry. We don't know why Terry Thigi got fired in the first place. There's no reason around this. And technically she's not fired, she's still on
administrative leave. So there's that level of confusion. What are you getting with Henny that you didn't have with Thigi? Nobody knows.
Right, And you know, again, a hard number one priority has to be public safety, So you know, I I think Henny is going to do a great job. But at the end of the day, you know, things I've heard from police officers are are we being held accountable for the fact that crime is happening? And I can't imagine what the morale is and I have it.
It's a very.
Difficult question for me to answer right now because I
don't know what we're holding her accountable for. There may verver will be a good reason, Scott that you and I would agree with and say, yeah, that's the right decision, and you know it had to happen urgently, but we absent of information, we don't know that, and so the perception is chaos, and uh, you know, we're reacting to crime, but we're reacting now to it as opposed to over the summer, where you and I've had multiple conversations about.
It, and this is just it doesn't make sense.
And I think the clarity is so badly needed because it is going to have a negative impact on our police, can have a negative impact on our citizen. We'rele it's going to have a negative impact on what we are trying to do as a city. And right now, I don't think that we need that forget the election, think about liscinating and what we are trying to achieve. And
know I talk about economic development all the time. You know, right now is when we need the inspiring confidence that we've got this under control, because we want people coming downtown, we want people coming to over the run. This is not a good time to indicate in any way that we you know, we're not. We don't have a plan for how we're handling public safety. And again there may very well be a plan. They come out and tell it to us, show us what the plan is.
I don't have a censor as a plan, Council Member sas Walsh, I really really don't. Here's the issue. Though you're out now, can't painting as all members of council are. When election coming up in just a few short days. You're almost down to the wire right now. When you talk to your constituents, When you talk to the good people of Cincinnati, not only the citizens, but also the people who operate and own businesses in in downtown, just to maybe travelers too as well, who the hell knows
you make contact with. What is the consensus among the constituents in this.
I mean, I'm hearing I imagine this is what you're hearing and what people are feeling who are listening to this. You know, opinions about the police chief varied, but opinions about how this has been handled are pretty nified, which is that she didn't deserve to be treated this way so publicly. It's not clear why it happened, and so the opinions on the entire process is that it is it's been atrocious, and that nobody deserves to go through this, least of all for not a clear reason about why.
And people are pretty offended by it, and I think rightfully so, and I think again, absence of information, it looks bad.
It looks really bad. O.
The FOP issued to voted no confidence on the mayor's conduct here in an indirect way that with Thigi and now they're standing behind Fiji going listen. There are numbers who had issues with Terry and how she ran the shop, as you will with any boss for that matter. But at the same time everyone is coalesced. I guess on the thin blue line to say this is outrageous and there's no plan going. The way I look at it politically,
Seth is what's the strategy here? I mean, you have turmoil with an interim chief which implies you have no control over crime and that it's all Terry Thigi's fault. You mean, Kenny the chief, it's a fresh start. Then you get to the election. Were the repercussions here? Because I'll be honest with you, even with this nonsense and this mess that's going on right now in this s show and the way this has been handled, I don't know how Aftab loses the election.
I really don't.
I mean he can, I suppose, but I don't see this huge ground swell for Corey Bowman, who's a political no name upcomer, and Jad Vans's brother dad has baggage.
You know what I'm saying.
Well, I mean I saw a great faith and a mayor of the Cincinnati and I do think that his election results will be very positive for him. But I think it's important to remind you, know, your listeners, that Cincinnati is three branches of government. You know, it's the mayor, it's a city council and the administration, and all three are are theoretically equal. So you know, the mayor, I think you're right, he's going to get re elected city Council.
Obviously that the vote there is important for people to show up and make their voices heard, but.
Also equally so you know, even if you know.
All AID incumbents are re elected and you know, we get the ninth member Bryan James elected on the Democratic slate there, people may feel frustrated, but the administration is still equal on here that you know, you should be expecting us to be asking these hard questions of you should be asking us and expecting us to be challenging them to come up with the answers and tell us what is going on in a public setting, not behind closed doors, not in a way that you know it's
not clear, because this is too big and too important of an issue not to have clear answers off for the public. And I think that's really important people understand, you know, the mayor and city council or your voice is near representatives. But the way our government is set up, as the administration's in charge, and if we are not getting clear answers, we need to be pushing them to get the clear answers. And we can't just rest on our laurels and say like, well that's their decision. We
need answers. We need to hold them agount and we do. This is one way to do it. Let's make it clear where we're frustrated.
All right, voters most likely will choose aftab over Corey Bowman. But at the same time, does this have an effect down ticket? Should you be concerned as well? Should the odd members of council because so many people that are running because of the way this was mishandled. We've got so many hats in the ring right now. Anything can happen. You say you support AFT to add pereval, but what if he costs you your seat?
Like anybody running for any office should be scared when they have to go out there. They have to earn votes every single day. It's one of the reasons that I'm trying to be vocal about this. I think that people's for people need to feel their frustration is being
vocalized at a relucts of leadership capacity. I think anybody running right now should be worried and should be willing to take a stance on this issue, and they have their opinions known on this issue because this is an important issue that determines kind of how the next administration operates in terms of you know, whoever gets elected this cycle, and if you're not willing to speak out, if you're not willing to challenge and the hold people accountable. You know,
that's the role of a city council member. Is the whole the administration accountable to ask the hard questions. It's how you're not to become I would say we're friends now, Scott, but you know, we started having these conversations about a bridge fire where they thought that three years was acceptable to take to get it fixed, and I've said, no way, and we got done one hundred days.
That's why we start talking about.
Snowplouds because we didn't plow six hundred streets and we had to hold people accountable and ultimately the DPS director retired because of that, and we got somebody in there that is going to get our streets cloud this year. And that is the job of the city council member. And if you're not willing to speak out the whole the administration accountable, I don't know why you should be elected to it. And I think that you guys should be holding people accountable and challenging us to speak out
and say these things. We can all be the same party, we can all be friends, but our job is accountability.
I can't say all Seth Walsh.
I can't say all members of council besides yourself, but most members of council and maybe y'all. No one wants to come out publicly and chastise the mayor and call them out as you just did on the show.
Why is that? Why do you think that is that you're the only one willing to do it.
I don't know, Scott, and I will prefer to you to figure that one out. For me.
I don't have enough money to go to therapy to get that answer.
Well, I mean it's not I don't understand is It seems to me maybe we're just trying to protect the brand. Like if I'm a Democrat, I'm not allowed to criticize another Democrat. You just did that, and I think you're going to be fine. It's okay. We need to get back to it. Whether it's same with the Republicans. Republicans, Hey, you can't criticize Trump.
Yeah you can. You're supposed to. That's how the system works up.
I mean, I got I get in fights when I was younger, all the time, with my two brothers. I still love them. I take a bullet for either one or both of them. But you're allowed to disagree with people.
Yeah, I agree, and I try to lead my example, and I hope you know it is scary sometimes to step on the ledge and take the phone call with you, Scott and say I don't know what his opening question is going to be today.
But we'll find out.
That's two of us.
Yeah, right, so we're always surprised. It's always a fun time.
But yeah, I hope others get the confidence and the courage to be speak out too, because I think on issues like this it's too important to stay silent.
Yeah, yeah, all right, I know you got to get going, Seth. I appreciate it. Hopefully you can brave through this. Council Member Seth Walsh would appreciate your vote. I'm sure, very thoughtful as always, and we'll see where this goes. But I even think the people who know I don't know where it's going at this point, and that's a scary part.
All the best, my friend do will.
Thanks Scott, take care.
You know, we just had the No King's protest down people. Donald Trump is as it's chaos he's making rash decisions, no accountability, no context. And if you're a Democrat and you're down there, I imagine many Republicans are the No Kings rally. But if you're down there at so your point and this is your belief, I'd have to ask you, isn't this exactly what you were protesting this weekend?
Chaos?
No accountability, investigations by law enforcement that are politically compromised, unelected appointees like Iris Rawley having too much power, cronyism. We protesting Trump when you should have also been protesting. After Ted Pierval Scott's loan show seven hundred ww