Do you want to be an American?
On the weekend in the books, and we're back at here Scott's fold thanks for jumping in the show on seven hundred ww. You know, even without the mass shooting, Cincinnati's crime numbers are up sixty two percent, I believe to the first ten weeks ten eleven weeks of twenty twenty six, and in one western neighborhood, of course, two
eleven year old's now killed at the same playground. Since twenty twenty three, we had a dangerous street takeover on Saturday night early Sunday morning, resulting in arrests and great work by CPD.
By the way, So here's the thing.
We're halfway through March and it's snowing. What happens this summer when the city actually is out in full force and what's the city actually doing to maybe prevent or tamp down a lot of this crime? Joined the show is council member Seth Walsh. Seth, how you been? How's life you good?
I'm doing great, Scott getting ready for the snow today?
Yeah, yeah, you thought it was over, It's just beginning.
I'm that's way.
What the damn plowd tracker doesn't work. It's a seventy yesterday, so you gotta.
Day.
Even the software says I'm out. Software tapped out.
But seriously, Saturday night, and this could have been much worse than it was. You have to give one hundred percent of the credit to CPD because they did a fantastic job. I think thirty nine people arrested, sixty five cars tow during a mass street takeover, and it happened in several different areas. They picked up a couple I
think stolen guns as well. One of the places where they congregated was Riverfront Live parking lot, and that's the same venue, of course, where nine people were shot just a couple of weeks ago.
The bigger picture, though, is we've.
Seen bar and dining in public transportation, a bunch of other numbers indicating that that is down in the city. Now. Some of that may be the weather, another part of that may be the economy, But how much is crime impacting all that?
I mean, the issue was crime conversation You and I have professional stingy be having right and unfortunately the city this conversation we're going to continue to have. I think it's important to take a step back and really appreciate, as you said, what CPD was able to do, able to get ahead of this, you know, you know, road take over and arrest all these bad actors. They were coming out participate in that, and that's really you know,
it's an interest point. It's just the ground that we're seeing around the city because you know, the people that were coming from that weren't Offinnatians. I don't. I've actually gets many work even the Stadius they're coming across. The problems in the city. It was kind of wild the reports I'm getting who they were even finding there, and people bringing their kids to this for example. I mean, it's a dangerous something was being pulled off. And so first off, I just think the polices are a big
accolades for that. The staffs, though, are the stacts. And so I think there's some good questions that you're going to be asking me about. You know, why are these crime up and anytime you have crime to problems and we got to do more to fix that. But you know, this is the priority that I've had since I got a city council. Continue to point to the fact that
we are dramatically understaffed in the police Department. While they're able to have these great moments like this weekend, we are still dropping the ball city leaders in terms of making sure they're fully funded to be able to do the action plans. And they say they need to be able to be successful on our streets.
Do they need more tools and more bullets in the belt, so to speak? Because if you go back to twenty twenty three, the state of Ohio moved to increase the penalties for street racing and you and Vice Mayor Jana Sheloman Kearney opposed it. Does this change your mind? Should it be more than a misdemeanor? What I mean that's a payout ticket.
Yeah. So Jeff Cramond and I actually were talking about this last night, talked fume to Jeff Cramandy and I were talking about this, and we're going to be customer mark. Jefferies already has the motion he's putting forward SASS for a report we'd like to take a little bit further, and actually kind of moved to just amend our ornments
is to go further than that misdemeanor. At the time we were voting on a resolution, I just had some personal issues at the resolution, but I do think that it's time that we step bother would make sure that we are actually, you know, clacking down on these and making sure that it's not happening in the city, because you know, it isn't a true point for where we're seeing crime happening, and we need to make sure that we are not allowing it and not going too easy
on it. Because thirty nine people being arrested as an indicator of some problems that are going on.
Yeah, well, what made you change your mind on there or say, hey, we do need to get harder?
Is it?
Is it the size of this one? I mean, thirty nine arrests, sixty five cars and it's March. As I said, you know this is going to happen more and then maybe bigger ones over the summer.
God knows.
Is it a couple of years ago, maybe it wasn't a bigger deal as it is now, or what was a catalyst?
No, I would say that you know, one thing I think you appreciate about me, Scott when complay learning and growing and at the time, I think this was my first year for several months on city council, and I've spent a lot of time since then you know, integrating myself from the police department to learn how they operate, what's going on, And it was really an opening experience when you go on a violent crime squad ride along and you're an non marched police vehicle and you're seeing
what's happening and the offices are telling you that tells you can't even tell are happy because you're not. You know, you're not used to this, I mean, really changes your perspective on when the police come in and they say these are the tools that they need, what does that mean and how does that actually matter? And so I think for me, it's a matter of continuing to learn
and grow. And you know, at the time, I wasn't yearly informed or educated on some of the policing issues and how they are trying to solve bigger issues in the city. So I think that's that's the good time for people to just take the time to continue to educate yourself and not get yourself locked in on a position, because that's how we get bigger problems here.
Yeah, So, as I respect, I think most people listening to it's like, yeah, you're learning. You're young man, you learn on the job and go Okay, well, we do need tougher laws. I think that's a I think that's a great answer. Council members Sess Walshawan with Sloani here seven hundred W WELLW crime numbers are up sixty two percent through the first ten weeks of twenty twenty six. And of course we just had this three takeover. No
injuries or accidents, so thank God for that. But you're talking thirty nine arrests, a couple of guns off the streets, and sixty five cars towed in all credits to CPD because they did a fantastic job and and and shutting this down. I don't think it's going to cause people to maybe think twice about it because the laws, it's only a misdemeter one that's as low as you can go. It's a ticket, that's about it. I know in northern Kentucky this this is an eye opener.
Uh.
There's a lawmaker there who I had on that said, listen, this is happening in Sinsey. It's happening all over the place in Louisville and UH and Lexington and other cities. The three takeovers. We want to make it a felony. What we want to do is after the second strike, second time you're caught, we're going to take your car and put in a crusher.
Is that too extreme? Is that going too far?
I think the bigger the bigger issue. I don't know that I have an opinion on, you know, first second sight to put your car and pressure you. There's a lot of people that can use out there, so I think there's probably more better ways that we can redistribute here. But I think the bigger issue is you're look at how many people had illegal guns that were arrested in that and then we talked by gun violence and as you point them out, it's happened right in front of
them place. We just had a mass shooting in the city. Scadding the issue with these takeovers. You know, it's started a seemingly it's a cute TikTok trend. I don't have to keep the right word for you know, but you know it started as a TikTok trend, and it is driving from reality, if you will, and it is driving people with shady so on margin and in some cases illegally and illegally owned guns that leads to these visitors.
And I feel like we're constantly hadn't to have conversations about which is then we're shooting people and that's the problem that's fundementally it. So what we have to do proactively is we talk about crime numbers, is to bring
them down. We have to stop the things that are bringing people with illegal guns that are going to create the environment for potential shootings, for potential violence, fo potential print and so yes, I think we have to step up our enforcemate, we have to step up how we can do this. We have to give us police department more tools to make this something that people stop doing and because we just can't tolerate what we know leads to worse action.
And then this summer you're going to have the you know, the people in the dirt bikes and the quads out there too. That's a whole another set of problems when it comes to traffic enforcement. Seth Walsh, the city's on crime report showed fifty two people shot in Cincy in the first ten weeks at twenty twenty six, and that does not include the mass shooting at Riverfront Live, so it's up sixty two percent of the same time period year over year. We've talked a lot about with you
and other members of Council here on the show. With all the anti violence measures Council approved last September, the five million dollars spent, what why are crime numbers going the wrong way?
Man? If some may have the answer to that was Scott, they would be a very rich person. Right now. It's it's troubling, it's frustrating, it's dispartening. It makes you feel like anything you do is succeeding. You know. I wish I had the answer for why our choice seems to be violent. As opposed to just solving these problems through conversations,
we're just walking away and dealing with it the next day. Yeah, I think we've just viety to come to them, to the you know, what violence actually is and what those long term impacting consequences become. And I think we, you know, continue to try to chase and put these measures and the effect that are going to take long time to
solve it. And then the next week or the next day there's another tragedy, and then we have to pivot again, and we try to ramp up again, and and some of this is just a long term societal adjustment we have to make. I think We dealt with a lot of youth problems last year. I suspect we have some more on the way this year, because you know, there is trauma that our uth are dealing with from COVID that I think is only just now starting to have the conversations about it. But I still think we're so
far behind on what that conversation means. But that's going to take time to fix and solve, and and so that means we have to figure out what short term solutions are and how we manage those long term solutions at the same time. That's complicated and unfortunately right now that's not working to the best that we could possibly make it happen. And I think we have to be honest about that.
How much of the problem, though, is outside of your control sets? And that would be judges who are on this this own recognizant kick zero bond. We've seen people, you know, the shooting it in between the guy had an ankle monitor on. He didn't even bother cutting it off. They cut it off. There's no repercussions for it whatsoever.
And so it just emboldens the this this extreme one percent or less than one percent of the population to commit more heinous and more violent and more deliberate crimes. There's not much you can do. You can pass all laws and roles. You're not going to tell judges what to do. But how much of the problem lies defeat of We've got too touchy feeling when it comes to dealing with criminals.
Look, I think we're talking about a really complicated topic. So I think it's really easy to pass the buck and blame somebody, whether you want to blame you know, if you're a city of council members, to blame a judge, if you're a judge, to blame the state legislature, the state legislature, blame the city counc's members, and you know, then work the system back and then blame everybody else to say, well, we all have to just do better. At the end of the day, we all have a
role in this. Every single one of us has a role in this. You know. I was at a first service yesterday and this journalman had a public puzzle piece on lapel and I asked him what it meant, and he told me, you know, it's a puzzle piece because we're all part of the bigger puzzle. And if we don't all click it in. It doesn't work. So can I blame the judges, Sure, you can blame me as well, you can blame everybody. At the end of the day, we have to all do our parts. We have to
lock in and say this is not acceptable. We've got to do better, and that means we have to hold ourselves to a higher standard. And frankly, you know, well, I think the since that police department is doing fantastic job, are we as the city leaders doing enough to help and support them? I would argue, no. You know, they've been clear since I got on City Council that they've been asking for more resources, that asking to more offices just to get to the minimum compliment, and we haven't
done that. And so before we until we solve those problems. I think it's difficult to start pointing to think at others, But I also think that others need to start looking at themselves and saying, are we solving all of our problems before we pass the baying back to city Hall, because we all are part of the ecosystem and it is a really really complicated topic and passing the blame and pushing the blame on others only makes it harder to solve it.
Okay, I'll play a little partisan Paul for a second here, and I think you know me, I'm not necessarily I just I want things to work. I don't care who gets the credit. It's been a pillar of a progressive platform to be more hands off when it comes to policing, that treating criminals more like victims themselves and the root cause. And we heard that a lot from Vice Mayor jan Olschelam and Kearney. I'm sure the mayor feels the same way. But you know, at some point we look at this
and go, it's not working for us. I mean, case in point is a judges aside. We have a gun shot This detection system called shot spot or logged nearly one hundred shootings in the city in West Side and West End since twenty twenty three. More than half the victims were children. We had two eleven year olds killed at the same playground in less than three years. Neither case has been solved. They're both cold cases at this point.
We have a camera system that doesn't work that had to be fixed after the second homicide.
What does that.
Say about how good a job that leadership of the city and this would be the Democrats that get elected there are doing because because clearly the idea that hey, we have to police differently because of a mandate from the public. At some point you have to go off to that fraction of one percent that are recidibus that are causing most of these bad crimes. I'm not talking
about jaywalking and things like that. I'm talking about violent, predatory crimes that from this end anyway, the rest of us who don't live in the city look inside and go, it's a mess down there. And we just keep bringing the same people, or at least the same parties back to try and solve a problem that they helped create.
Is that fair?
No? No, I would not say that's fair. I would say that that that gets the exact point that I was just trying to make. You can certainly put all that on the city sincenatic, and I think that they're a fair amount of that. You know, the city deserves to answer, and the city deserves to be held to the standard have to answer that. But if we start
playing partisan politics here, we start playing the fingers. The city has been trying to do legislation around gun control that would allow us to actually go after some of the ex bad date actors, and we've been stopped by the Republicans to control the state. Does that do any good? Point those fingers at each other right now. No, of course,
it doesn't do us any good to solve that. The reality is we have to say that we have a problem with violence in the city of Cincinnati to some degreek but also you know, you look at the statistics and it is bound in the last several decades. So anytime there's any violence, anytime there's any crime, that is an unacceptable period, full stop. Until we get to a perfect year where there's a zero zero zero across the board, we are failing and we have to continue to strive
toward that Democrat Republican. Whether you live in the suburbs or do you live in the city, all of us have a role in making this happen. And we can point to fingers and say, well, you haven't solved all the problems Scott, because you're a radio host and you have a responsibility to be a moral adult, and blah blah blah blah blah. That doesn't do us any good. It just it doesn't do us any good. And we
can get into the partisan vickery. But at the end of the day, when somebody gets shot, they don't care if you're a Democrat or Republican who comes and helps save them. And so we all have.
But the majority of city voters, assurers of the city voters, are realities, so we don't see it. Though I'm a check and balanced kind of guy. I love parties keeping each other in check, and it's it's completely lopsided now federally at the state level and even at the local level for that matter. We can talk about Republicans running Columbus and Washington, but of course Democrats have a stranglehold on the city of Cincinnati. So these issues are relevant
in that regard. You know, I'll bring it back, and I think you're right on a two degrees seth is that you know, you talk about the gun policies in Ohio. I'm a big Second Amendment guy, but I see what happened here when it comes to stand your ground. We've now had what three cases of people of criminals shooting each other. People with disabilities, meaning if you're under disability, you can't own a possessive even think about a gun.
And yet we know that felons are out there handling weapons, and we've seen this where they just claim, oh, I was at the Riverfront live shooting. How can both of these people with a beef with each other shoot shoot at one another in a crowded nightclub and both claim self defense. That's part of the problem right there, one hundred percent. So I agree with you there, it's just
at the local level where it's controlled by the Progressive Party. Here, it's like the whole idea that we're going to be a kindler, gentler society to these victimized people, I'm not and I think most people aren't buying it at this point. We just we got to get tougher on those who are going to break the law. And the biggest victim and all that are the people that allegedly Democrats are trying to help, which would be the people of collar and the poor.
Well. And so this is where I want to push back on you because and I assure you I'm not disagreeing with you that you know, there are criticisms that are rightfully come our way. But I want to push back is that you know this is that police department has said repeatedly, and or I'm chief, and I said it, you know, we their hands are not hied in policing
to go out there and do it right. Where I would argue the problem is that we haven't given them enough officers to be able to go out there and do the job when when they're already dramatically understaff they can't They can't spend the time going after the bad actors that they know are out there to make sure that they're getting our streets safer, and what they are doing and what they're pointing off, given how understaffed they are, is a herculem feet which is why every year, you know,
we get into the budget season and I raised this point, which is we need to hire more officers than firefighters. It is clear as day those are the most cential services we provide as a city. We have to provide them because then if we're still having problems, then we have to figure out the next step to solve it. Until we solve that problem, we can talk about all these various policies, but those policies are noted in the way of our police officers ability to do their jobs.
Our police officers are overworked. They are working, you know, there there's understaffed, and that those their fundamental problems to our ability to be successful. So the fact that they are successful, the fact that we have you know, this year is a hopefully an anomaly, but they have. We have to be successful them well. Being understaffed, well, being overworked, is testiment to our police officers. The policies that you talked about, that you've cited, I mean a lot of
that I would argue is rhetoric. And you know, I would argue that you can't point to a specific policy pass the citizenincinnati that actually does those things. I think it's easy to point to the rhetoric, but our officers say consistently that their hands are not tied to do the policing their problems, but that they're overworked and understaffed.
Okay, So a final point, because we run a Lifees Walsh, I'll give you a give an example of what I was just talking about, reinforce it.
It's like, how is the police department?
How how has it gotten to the point where we're one hundred and fifty officers behind if it weren't because we've taken the money from that and spent it elsewhere as opposed to focusing with crime rates going up. Now, you know, overall nationally the crime rates are pretty good. Right now, we're starting to see those numbers turn Cincinnati for some reason the first ten weeks of the year
as an outlier. But if that's all true, then then how do we get to a point where one hundred and fifty cops and we're losing good officers all the time because they can't stand how the department's being managed by those people the top, including the mayor. And this would go back to the beatdown over the summer in July where you know, someone gets arrested later because a captain says, okay, we've got to cite someone. I know a lot of CPD officers in their prime who are
getting reassigned because of shortages and they're just retiring. That that's a climate that this partisan bickerings helped create.
The one hundred and fifty police officer short is. I mean, you should look at the data. It began during the Great Recession and where we just simply as a city didn't have money to hire more officers, and then we couldn't keep up with the retirements that were happening. Well, yes, college I can't I can't. I can't speak to the leadership those here, but I can tell you it was a nine Democrats. My counsel will not happen. I can tell you that they were negotiating with the Republicans and
the Charter and the Democrats. So to your to the point that you were trying to make earlier, you know a lot of the problems we have now we're not when is an I'm member Democrat, and so I think we have to acknowledge in the city we are dealing with historic problems that have come for whatever reasons. Now we have to solve them. And we can point fingers all we want, or we can get to work solving
the problems. And I would argue, let's get to work solve the problem because tomorrow, you know, we need to not have any violence. You know, the next day we don't have any violence. And whether you're a Democrat, republic and I think we all agree with that. So let's get to work. Let's how we do that.
Are you a little scared about what's coming? I mean, if this is March, what the hell is do you don't going to look like July August?
Yeah, this is one of the things that keeps me up to night, and it's one of the things that I spend a lot of time trying to advocate as much as I can, because we got to do better for our police to make sure they can go out there to do the best for us. Famous fire. You know we didn't touch on this. You know there is an anomaly happen here right now with single family homes catching on fire and fatality is coming with that. Doesn't that care you? Why is that happening? And I think
we gave the root of that as well. I'm going to These are real issues that that you keep me up at night and I keep trying to solve. But they're not going to be easy solutions. But we're not going to solve it by ignoring the fact that their real problems.
Well, I mean exceptionally cold winter too. I think that's the the main allar But Seth, I got to keep going, man. I appreciate the great debate. Felt like we were having a beer there for a minute.
I love it.
Hey all the best, keep keep doing what you appreciate you man, Take care all right. Conscomember Seth Walsh on the Scott's Lunch this morning, running really late here seven hundred w