October 18, 2024 • 42 mins
The Department of Homeland Security released an investigative report on the Secret Service following two assassination attempts on former President Donald Trump. The report reveals troubling issues with the organization saying it has a “corrosive” culture and a “troubling lack of critical thinking,” with calls for systemic change. Former Boston Police Commissioner and former Chief of the LAPD, Bill Bratton joined us to discuss what the Secret Service can do to improve security protocols.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
It's night side with Dan Ray on Boston.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
Welcome back. It's a little bit after ten o'clock here
and on a Friday night. I'm delighted to be joined
by a friend of many years, someone who uh, I
think is familiar to everyone in New England. Uh. Former
Boston Police Commissioner Bill Bratton. But he's also former New
(00:27):
York Police commissioner twice, former chief of police in Los Angeles,
a career in the in law, in law enforcement. And
we could we could spend the entire hour going through
the resume and the awards and all of that. Like me,
he is a graduate of University of Massachusetts in Boston. Bill,
(00:47):
did did you go to Boston State and then by
virtue of the merger becoming U Mass Boston Graduate or
did you go to U mass Boston?
Speaker 3 (00:57):
Uh?
Speaker 2 (00:58):
And it's in its old area, in the Park Square area.
How are you tonight?
Speaker 3 (01:03):
I'm well tonight, Dan, good to be with you. I
actually started at Boston State in nineteen seventy one under
a federally funded program to provide college educations to police officers.
So as part of one hundred police officers from around
the Great Boston area. It started at Boston State, but
then in mid seventies it was merged into the U
(01:26):
mass system. So I ended up graduating out of Boston.
In your run up of my bio, you left out
I'm up here in Boston. We got the Vagatta, one
of the great events here in this city this weekend.
I got a gorgeous weekend for it. A lot of
listeners might remember the old MDC Police, the Metropolitan Police. Yes,
(01:49):
that used to used to police the Charles River among
its responsibilities, and so I was superintendent of that for
a few years old.
Speaker 2 (01:57):
Also are the head of the MBTA Police, if if.
Speaker 3 (02:00):
I recall that's correct. It was the first of my
two transit developments. I headed up the transit police in
New York.
Speaker 2 (02:06):
Also, yeah, so yeah, as I said, we could, we
could have read the entire and we'll be wrapping up
and saying thanks very much you having joined us.
Speaker 3 (02:15):
So I've had I had a hard time holding on
to a.
Speaker 2 (02:18):
Job, Don and you you were sought after by by
some of the great cities in America, New York, Los Angeles,
and Boston. My understanding is that you're in You're in
town not only for the regatta, but I also think
there's some sort of a law enforcement event going on
this weekend that you're involved in or or was I misled?
Speaker 3 (02:37):
Actually this series of them over the last two days.
The Major City Chiefs Association, which is made up of
the seventy five largest cities in America and Canada, we're
holding their conference here attended by four or five hundred
law enforcement officials, including the chiefs, to discuss a wide
range of current issues of concern. The elections were in
(03:01):
the middle of the crime situation, the various crime issues
we're dealing with, terrorism, what's going on in the mid
East now it's impacting here. Starting tomorrow, the fifteen thousand
member International Association of Chiefs of Police, which represent almost
all of the police organizations in this country, are here
(03:23):
in Boston for their annual conference. So you'll see a
lot of those chiefs in the city the next five
days and then on Sunday and organization I'm may be
proud to be part of the Police Executive Research Forum,
headed up by a Bostonian Chuck Wexler, who I work
with in the Boston Police Department. Well, well, you and
(03:46):
I have taught together at his program over BEU every
summer so he'll be doing his things. So it's a
very exciting weekend for the law enforcement community here in
the United States and Canada, which brings me.
Speaker 2 (04:00):
To the topic at hand. And this has been a
very interesting presidential election campaign, unfortunately made more interesting by
a mere assassination of one candidate, Donald Trump and a
second assassination attempt that there were more questions about both
(04:23):
of these that have been answered, so I'd like to
talk about those. I'd also like to talk about the
idea of that the Middle East does have a splash
over effect here at Bill and you know this better
than I do, and I know there is probably some
things that you can't say. And so, as I've said
earlier tonight, I always have the right to take the
(04:45):
Fifth Amendment here on nightside when we get to an
area that we should not be talking about. But I'm
hearing a lot of roomors. I'm looking at a Washington
Post piece as a matter of fact, from this past
August about the idea of Iranian hit squads looking to
take out American politicians of either party and maybe in
(05:10):
retaliation for our support of Israel and the fact that
we were able to get rid of solomony during the
Trump administration. So there's just so much to talk about here.
Maybe what we could do is just have one question
and then I got to go to break And did
you ever think in your lifetime after what we experienced,
(05:32):
and you and I are very close in age as
young teenagers in nineteen sixty three, the assassination of a president,
what we witnessed as young men the summer of sixty eight,
including the assassination of doctor King and Senator Robert F. Kennedy,
did you ever think, and you know there have been
(05:53):
other events along the way, but that there would be
two assassination attempts during a president a campaign in this
year twenty twenty four.
Speaker 3 (06:05):
Too, directed against the same candidate you left out, George Wallace.
Speaker 2 (06:10):
No, I did, yeah, yep, no, And I interviewed him
after that event. As a matter of fact, I remember
him rolling in in a wheelchair into the old WBC
studio at Soldier's Field Road. Now I remember that. And
we could also mention Gerald Ford who two crazy women.
One was Wiki Frome and the other was I think
it was Jane Jane Moore or Mary Jane Moore. They
(06:34):
both took a shot and both of the myssed they
had pistols, so and of course Ronald Reagan, who himself
nearly died. But but it just it just it boggles
my mind that there could be two of these. And
you know, from a security perspective, what did you think
of the first one in Butler, Pennsylvania. That had to
(06:54):
be a total and it appears to have been a
total miscommunication between the locals and the FEDS. And I'm
sure you've handled many of presidential visions in your life,
in your experience, how could that happen?
Speaker 3 (07:08):
Well, it's quite clear that it should not have happened.
That the report that was just issued this week was
pretty damning of the Secret Service and its protocols and
procedures and is calling for a widespread reforms of that organization.
It's recruiting, it's training, its leadership, and it's something that
(07:29):
the Secret Service itself has freely admitted that it recognizes
that they are major issues in the organization that need
to be corrected, including recognizing that it's ironic that the
agency started as an entity with the Treasury Department to
investigate financial crime, and the protection of the president was
(07:52):
actually a smaller part of it. Their workload. Now it's
become almost the major focus of the workload because it's
so much more public than the Financial Primees investigation. So
there's no denying that there were major, major omissions, deficiencies,
screw ups basically at almost every aspect of that event.
In Butler, less so on the golf course incident, the
(08:15):
second incident. Second incident did reflect, However, one of the
struggles that the Secret Service does have with its limited
manpower is the idea of a spontaneous event that the
president may seek to engage in something they discourage the
golf course not having enough time to effectively inspect that site,
(08:40):
if you will, And so going forward they will change
their protocols on doubtteredly a lot more use of drones,
for example, securing larger areas. And these events, these near tragedies,
are always learning exercises in the sense of trying to
prevent them from occurring in the future. Nation attempts against
(09:01):
presidents are not new, unfortunately in this country of democracy.
We celebrate democracy, but unfortunately we have seen to have
even more assassination attempts than they do elsewhere in the world.
Speaker 2 (09:15):
Yeah, the one in Pennsylvania, it seemed to me that
that's a roof of a building that was I think
it was something like one hundred yards away or less
than one hundred yards away. And what I'm getting is
that somehow there was a line of communication. They run
(09:35):
different radio channels, and even though this guy was spotted
on the roof and there would have been plenty of
time to get the former president off the stage, that
was not communicated to the agent of age.
Speaker 3 (09:48):
That issue, Dan, I think is the one that is
the most frustrating. The New York Times Day had a
summary of the very large report that it was commenting
on and reference the idea that is, many of his
six Secret Service agents were aware of this character that
was roaming around the area of the event, and yet
(10:12):
none of them took the initiative to basically not let
the president get up on the stage, and once he
was on the stage, get.
Speaker 4 (10:19):
Him off the stage.
Speaker 3 (10:20):
And it's just highlighting something of the Secret Service itself
has admitted that it is having large turnover. A lot
of seasoned people leaving the paper today actually have not
a chance to be the full report, but some of
the excerpts in the New York Times states reporting that
the Agent in charge of security for mister Trump had
(10:41):
only joined the agency four years ago, and she was
already a team leader the most important assignment of the
Secret Service, protecting the President, and she only had four
years on the job and this was one of her
first assignments in that capacity. So no, a lot to
be learned from what's going forward. Secret Service is committed
(11:02):
to doing that. Congress is aren't going to have to
be committed to adequately funding them for the increased security
that's now going to be required going forward. And the
security issues are immens today because we now have these
concerns about drones outside events, with the issue of drones
flying over those events and god for offendion ever on,
(11:23):
and social media encouraging and basically almost enabling it sounds
kind of like what I see the idea of encouraging
through social media people to basically become terrorists. And we've
got a lot of that now with all the hates
viewing out of social media, that we're creating an enemy
(11:45):
from within. If you will, you.
Speaker 2 (11:46):
Know, I want to kit on all of those points
on Bill. I have a million questions. I got to
take a quick break. This is a fairly quick commercial break,
we get back will continue conversation with former bar New
York Police Commissioner Bill Bratton, chief of police in Los Angeles.
I don't think there's some more respected police authority with
(12:12):
a wide variety of experience than Bill Bratton. Delighted he's
with us tonight. As you said, tell he's going to
be a very busy guy this weekend with all the
police meetings and activity in Boston. And we will get
to some phone calls. But I have a couple of
other questions that I got to ask Bill Bratton, and
we'll be back to do that right after this break
on Nightside.
Speaker 1 (12:31):
Now back to Dan Ray live from the Window World
night Side Studios on w b Z News Radio.
Speaker 2 (12:39):
Our guest is Bill Bratton. There's so much to say
about his experience. Most of you know the different places
that he has served. Bill. I was on a trip
with listeners from Nightside to Italy in early August, and
one member of the trip was a guy who was
fifty two years old. He had retired early from the
(13:02):
Secret Service. This guy military background. He looked like a
linebacker for the Patriots. I mean, the sort of person
who you would want out there protecting the President. But
he basically said he had burned out that you know,
the demands on the time was such that he could
(13:22):
no longer handle it. And I thought to myself, to
lose an asset like this guy, fifty two years old, smartest,
a whip, military background, and again you know, look like
he was a professional football player, you know, just to
lose him that might be what the real problem is
(13:43):
with the Secret Service right now, is that the good
people are leaving at such a rate. I got to
assume that you can identify with that story without me
telling you much more about this guy. This guy should
not have been retiring at fifty two years of age.
He was at the prime of his career.
Speaker 3 (14:00):
Well, his story is not unusual in American law enforcement.
It's not just a Secret Service problem. It's a problem
in American policing now. Because of the incredible pressures on
law enforcement offices from a lot of different directions and anxieties,
a lot of them are leaving earlier than they did
(14:21):
during my time. My time, you come on the job
in your twenties, you stay till sixty five, you know,
and you've left before that. It was very unusual. But
today the burnout factor is it's happening much quicker for
people at the anxiety levels, the mental stress, let alone
the physical wear and here so the Secret Service experience
(14:42):
is not unique. But the issue that the Secret Service
is facing, as was reflected in the conversations the last
two days from the major city chiefs, almost every one
of those departments represented here in barcelon the last couple
of days is talking about the severe personnel shortage is
that they're facing. I think American police forces are fifty
(15:03):
two hundred thousand fewer offices than we had at the
time of the murder of George Floyd, and trying to
fill that deficiency is very difficult. In secret services, probably
even more pressured because the nature of what they do.
Think of it Dan the sense of in this presidential campaign,
(15:23):
the movements of the presidential candidates, two of them around
the country doing two or three events a day, and
a planning that has to go in before that, the
protection during the event, the movement of equipment, the armored cars,
the communications gear, and we've all seen the length of
these presidential convoys, twenty thirty vehicles. A lot of that
(15:47):
has to be moved every time. That candidate moves, and
now that they've requiring that, in the case of Trump
and the vice president, that they receive presidential level protection,
the stresses on those agents that they're constantly on the move,
and once they're in a location, then the anxiety ramps
(16:10):
up because then the challenge is to actually protect the
physical person a little on over planning before the event.
That then when the event is underway and they're bringing
agents from all over the country to basically secure these events,
Congress is going to have to face up to the
fact that they're going to have to spend a lot
(16:31):
more money on to high a lot more agents because effectively,
these threat situations are probably not going to lessen in
the future. That social media is here to stay. The
political hostility is ramping up rather than the client You
and I have been about a long time and we've
(16:53):
watched it steadily increase through these election cycles, which for
the last twenty years, there's so much anger and once
again in our country there's one hundred some villion guns.
You know, that becomes another problem in our country, that's
just the availability of fire aps.
Speaker 2 (17:10):
I want to jump back just for a second, Midus,
is this eight thousand secret Service agents. They're looking to
try to bump it up to ten thousand. I know
that in Boston there have been at least a dozen
Boston police officers who have left as young police officers
and have transferred over to become firefighters. I'm sure that
if that's going on here, it's going on elsewhere, and
(17:33):
it is. It is the fallout from this horrific incident,
the George Floyd incident, which I think became very politicized.
It was one police officer who was a rotten apple
who obviously took advantage. And I remember watching the video
of that guy get up off the neck of George
Floyd and preened around like he was that he had
(17:54):
done something heroic. That was a guy that should not
have been a police office. You now have going back,
and I want to jump back to Butler. I haven't
seen any information that assassination is now nearly one hundred
days old, or that assassination attempt is one hundred days old.
We know nothing. I know nothing more about this kid,
(18:17):
and yet we were told that he was on encrypted
websites with people in foreign countries. And do you think
that we're ever going to get the true story on
who he was working with. I don't buy the fact
that this kid got up that morning and said to himself, well,
I'm going to go take a shot at Donald Trump.
I mean, and if he did, what are all the
(18:40):
encrypted messages about, you know of what I speak?
Speaker 3 (18:43):
Well, the issue of encryption interesting enough. The FBI director
yesterday made a presentation and one of his major points
of frustration was that with the Apple devices and the
Mata devices, that the ability to basically get into all
these smartphones, for example, into laptops, into computers is each
(19:08):
year is diminishing their ability to get into these devices
because the manufacturers are basically making them even more difficult
to penetrate. The encryption is becoming more significant. So I
think you're correct. I don't think we're ever going to
know what the hell this kid's motivation was because we're
probably never going to be able to access a lot
(19:28):
of what he was doing because it was encrypted.
Speaker 2 (19:31):
Could could not and this is this is part of
a legal question. Could not I don't know what type
of phone he had, but but could not the government,
the FBI go to the manufacturers of the phone and say, hey,
whatever security precautions you know, that you have in this phone.
This was the phone owned by the guy that took
a shot and almost killed a presidential candidate. We want
(19:55):
you to take that phone and break it down. We
want to know who he was talking to. And it
would seem to me maybe you'll up in court, But
I kind of imagine that that any company under those
extreme circumstances would fight back and say, no, we have
to we have to protect the privacy of our of
our dead customer.
Speaker 3 (20:14):
Well, the reality is they won't do it, and the
device is are purposely designed so they cannot be penetrated
even by the manufacturer. In other words, there's no bare's
there's no back door. They basically it's one of the cells.
The selling teachers that your information is protected from even
us the manufacturer, that we're not secretly applying into your life. Now,
(20:36):
this issue of encryption is international terrorism. When I was
commissioner in New York, in particular, that we were frustrated
at every turn by the inability to get into these homes.
That and as the FBI Director indicated yesterday, each year
the ability to get into them is lessened despite the
increasing capabilities of the FBI. For example, Wow.
Speaker 2 (21:01):
Boy, I'll tell you, I think it was Khrushev back
in the day, said that he would sell the rope
to the United States, which would hang themselves. There was
some comment that you have made like that, and that
almost sounds eerily familiar here, that we're producing products which
enabled twenty year old kids to be in contact with
(21:22):
who knows whom he could be. He could have been
in touch with the cuts forces in Iran for all
of them.
Speaker 3 (21:27):
Well, look look at this kids in terms of the
number of cases underway right now, with these mass murders
where the parents basically out buying the guns for them,
and that once again the insanity of our gun laws,
that even the idea of things that seem that eighty
(21:49):
five percent of America support, Congress just will not pass
appropriate legislation. Same thing around the issue of encryption. They
just will not under stand that we are in this
incredible crisis in this country of incidents of the creating fear,
creating the political dissatisfaction that we're experiencing. A lot of
(22:12):
the have has to do with the frustration that nobody
seems capable of resolving things of the creating fear, and
a lot of that you can only wait at the
footsteps of our Congress.
Speaker 2 (22:24):
Well, I agree with you on that. I also think
it's a good development that a couple of these parents
in Michigan are now spending time in jail because they
failed to adequately supervise their child. And this situation exactly,
and it's just down in Georgia, if I'm not mistaken.
I think it was Georgia where apparently this this kid
(22:45):
was in a totally dysfunctional house and the father was
in effect the uh he was in parenta and prentis
loco and in local parentees. I think the mother was
out of the picture totally. But maybe he's got to
go to jail as well as the kid who who
shot and killed his classmates. You know that's this There's
(23:10):
got to be some prices to pay. Bill. I got
a whole bunch of calls, and I I am so
appreciative of your time. I hope you can stick with
us for a little bit into the right afternoons, we'll
go to phone calls. Okay, this is This has been
an invaluable conversation to me. I learned a lot and
normally I don't learn is you know, you're so far
down the down the track for me on some of
(23:32):
these issues like encryption, I had not even thought about that.
I wish, I wish the the no no no, I
totally get it. And there are aspects of my world
probably enough, but but the aspects of your world it's
a lot higher stakes. But I think this is an
opportunity that when I talk to these members of Congress
(23:53):
now that something needs to be done. You put a
cell phone in some whack whacky eighteen year olds hands
who's able to know that he can contact the kud's
forces in Iran and maybe have money deposited somewhere because
he's going to do something these Oh my god, there
(24:14):
has to be Look, if people want to buy cell
phones that they can't get because they're going to fool
around with their secretaries or something like that, they got
to give that up. Okay, you know, I don't know
why anybody wants to if there are cell phones that
now have this benefit that Laura. Enforcement can't look at
the cell phone of a person who is deceased. It
(24:37):
seems to me that the right of privacy of that
person who is deceased, who's been involved in the potential
assassination of a president has to be waived. But we'll
leave the Okay, my acl you friends are going to
dislike me even more as because of that comment. My guess,
Bill Broughton going to go to phone calls. If you
like to join us, you have the numbers, just give
(24:57):
us a call back on Night Side.
Speaker 1 (24:58):
Right after this, you're on Night Side with Ray on
Boston's news radio.
Speaker 2 (25:08):
With me is Bill Bratton. Name really doesn't need an introduction,
but he is. It's a large forcement legend, I guess
would be the way to describe it. Former police commissioner
here not only in Boston, but in New York twice
in New York Chief of police in Los Angeles. We've
touched upon a wide variety of topics. I'll give you
(25:30):
an opportunity to ask a question or make a quick comment,
but again, he I want to hear his answers as
much as I want to hear your questions. Let me
go first to Joe and Belmont. Joe, you're on with
former police commissioner of a whole bunch of places, Bill Broughton.
Go ahead, Joe, God.
Speaker 5 (25:48):
Bless you, Dan and Dan. Nobody does it better than
you do.
Speaker 2 (25:53):
Favor. I appreciate that, but I want to have you
talk to Bill brought and go right ahead.
Speaker 5 (25:56):
Yes, I have two questions for Commissioner Bill. First, Commissioner Bill, Uh,
you talked about the enemy within if you were going
to write a special delivery letter to the next president,
what checks the balances and what solutions could you offer
(26:18):
to stop the enemy within and the fake news? And
my second question is, Uh, do you think there's too
much secrecy involved in the people who are doing the
fake news?
Speaker 2 (26:35):
Yeah, you take the answer off here, Joe. I think
the area of fake news or good news is really
not Phil Bratton's area. Bill, I'll let you off the
hook on that one.
Speaker 3 (26:49):
No, necessarily, Dan, because he was part of what what
creates so much of the fear, anxiety, hatred, and I
wish there was a resolution to it. But once again,
we have a First Amendment in this country, freedom and speech,
and a lot of language is even though it appears
(27:12):
to be threatening, appears to be hateful, is protected, and
it's in many respects allowed to multiply because of the
incredible social media world that we have created in the
last twenty five years. You figured the smartphones didn't come
along to two thousand and six. It's only eighteen years ago.
(27:33):
And look at there's eight bay of them in the
world today, almost as many as of our people. So
that the gentleman's comment about the fake news is it
is an element of so much of the concern that
we have today, and even in talking about the election,
the upcoming president's election, the concern about something we never
(27:53):
used to worry about this country, the validity of our
election process, and even in the the former presidents concerns
or allegations about a higed election. Nobody has been ever
to basically prove or find that, but it's still out
there as fake news. So it's again, it's an element
(28:17):
of our world today that we don't have an answer
for because in oposiety in particular, we allow freedom and
speech and as long as it does in rise to
the level of actually creating a crime, go go at it. Unfortunately.
Speaker 2 (28:33):
Yeah, I think also the part of the problem is
that a lot of Americans, they are in a news
cycle a silo, and that they only watch news programming
that they are comfortable with and reinforces whatever point of
view they have, and I think that has contributed to
this as well.
Speaker 3 (28:52):
Because if you're exactly in terms of Fox viewership, MSNBC
viewership that I try to basically watch the walls to
just get at that. I've always enjoyed the news, I'm
sorry to would buy four or five papers New York Times,
Terroll's Traveler, the Globe, and you know that's how I
stopped my day. But now you can sit there with
(29:14):
that smilephone in your hand and basically access twenty to
thirty of them. But people still tend to gravitate toward
basically the news source that that satisfies their need for information,
and they don't bound some on the channels as much
as we used to when we were younger.
Speaker 2 (29:32):
Yeah, I would call it the need for reinforcement too,
of their beliefs and ideas, you know, of ratification of
what they happen to believe in. So yeah, let's let's
keep rolling here. Joe, appreciate your question. Thank you very
much for the call. Let me go next to out
of country, up to Darryl in New Brunswick, Canada. Daryl
next on nice side with Commissioner Bill Bratton.
Speaker 4 (29:55):
Hey, how do you Commissioner and how do you Dan?
I hope things are well? What I'd like to ask,
is we're talking about conflict and all the different geopolitics
and what not going on, is North Korea if I
can ask the question. My understanding is North Korea is
still under truce with the US, and if they're participating
(30:17):
with Russia in North to participate in Ukraine, would that
not become an active war and that would would that
be a problem nowadays as well?
Speaker 2 (30:28):
Yeah, well again we're getting into the era of international
relations there again. I want to if Bill Braden wants
the way into that.
Speaker 3 (30:35):
Yeah, that that that one I'll stay away from because
this area of any expertise at all.
Speaker 2 (30:43):
You're correct, Daryl Darryl in that there was never a
peace treaty UH signed between the United States and North
Korea out of the Korean More UH, and so it
technically we are still at war with North Korea. But
from a practical point of view, North Korea does a
lot of weird stuff. I did read the articles that
(31:05):
you talked about, Daryl, that there are somehow some North
Korean troops that have are joined with Russian forces on
the ground in Ukraine, which to me is.
Speaker 1 (31:17):
Cool.
Speaker 4 (31:17):
I wasn't trying to cause a proble, No, no, no, No, you're.
Speaker 2 (31:20):
Not going to cause it. No, But it's a good question.
It's a good question. But I think unless you have
one that relates more to what's going on in this country,
I'm concerned about the potential of assassination squads. Do you
feel Bill that that is overblown or is there something
that actually exists?
Speaker 4 (31:40):
I know.
Speaker 2 (31:42):
In Europe, I do know that.
Speaker 3 (31:45):
It's something of concern to American law enforcement. Once again,
the ability to inspire, maybe not necessarily direct, but through
the social media. It's kind of how I SES grew
as rapidly as it did. Al Qaeda was never basically
active on social media, but ICs was, and look at
(32:05):
how quickly they grew had their own caliphate for a while. No,
so the idea of Iran maybe not necessarily directing an
actual assassination of violence effort, but certainly being in a
position to encourage it, to inspire it, to provide information
(32:27):
about how to do it. And we've seen much, much,
a lot of reporting in recent weeks about Iran trying
to interfere in our elections. That and you know, that's
widely known and understood to be an actual threat in
terms of their efforts to try and interfere with the
(32:49):
elections that are underway commonly.
Speaker 2 (32:51):
Yeah, but I'm I'm actually the stuff that I'm seeing
is that Iran has used their agents assassination attempts in Europe.
Speaker 3 (33:01):
And well, that's that is that is known in the
sense of whether that rises the level of basically going
after one of our presidential candidates, I'm not sure that
there's been any ability to actually prove that want of speculation.
Speaker 2 (33:17):
Yeah, and the suggestion is even former officials in both parties.
As I've often said to people, Uh, some of these
countries around the world hate us. And one of the
reasons that we should be more unified as Americans is
that there are countries around the world that hate us.
They don't care what gender we are, they don't care
(33:37):
what political party we are, they don't care if we
root for the Red Sox or the Yankees. They just
want to kill Americans. Those guys on the planes that
crashed into, uh, into the World Trade centers, uh, you know,
one of which flew out of Boston, they didn't take
any sort of account on board and say to the
people who were most of them, Oh, we're gonna we're
(33:58):
gonna land first and let you off. They killed Americans
of all backgrounds and faiths because they were Americans or
they were in American and and I think that we
have forgotten that lesson in my in my opinion, and
they feel the same way, Daryl, towards Canadians as well.
They see our systems as much more uh you know,
(34:18):
much much more secular, as opposed to the the theocracy
under which they function. Darryl, I appreciate the call.
Speaker 4 (34:26):
Well, I'd like to say thank you all for your service.
And uh, all right.
Speaker 2 (34:32):
Thanks Darryl, appreciate very much. We have a lot of
listeners up in Canada. Bill, I have a few more callers,
and I got a few more minutes with you, and
I promised to let you go by eleven o'clock. You generously.
Speaker 3 (34:44):
I'm enjoying working on my Boston accent. And again, hearing
that accent of north of the border was very interesting.
Speaker 2 (34:51):
Also, Yes, we get a lot of accents. We have
people literally from all over the world. I mean, obviously
you know as a Bostonian that Z has a great
terrestrial radio signal, but we get him from all over
the world.
Speaker 3 (35:04):
Well, I'll tell you the Bostonian accent is love when
I give my speeches around the country. No, people are
people are fascinating, and I have a pretty pronounced one,
and it's uh. They're usually very complimentary about it. They
like it, which is which is endearing.
Speaker 2 (35:20):
No, I get that I tried a long time ago
to learn how to pronounce my rs so I could
stay in television and radio.
Speaker 3 (35:25):
And yeah, well it's as you know that it's not
the idea that it's the letter. It's a H. We
tend to stay a H rather than uh the letter
up and so all the jokes about the Boston it's
really a H that.
Speaker 2 (35:42):
It was the old park your car in Harvard Yard, exactly.
Speaker 3 (35:52):
Syllable.
Speaker 2 (35:55):
We should have taken declamation or something at uh and
I school had been better, but then we would lose
our charm as Bostonians. Moving back a Nice Side with
Bill Bratton for a few more calls right after this.
Speaker 1 (36:09):
Now back to Dan Ray live from the Window World
night Side Studios on WBZ News Radio.
Speaker 2 (36:16):
I guess this Bill Brett really needs no introduction at
this point. Eric in Attleborough. Eric, you're next on Nice.
I'd like to get you in at least one more
in Please Eric, go right.
Speaker 6 (36:25):
Ahead, Hey, Jan how you doing tonight?
Speaker 2 (36:28):
We do a great I'm running out of time, Go right,
go ahead.
Speaker 6 (36:31):
Yeah, yeah, I want to get straight into the point
number one. The number one point is that something I
found it interesting when someone mentioned fake news earlier on
I did a Google search.
Speaker 2 (36:43):
I'd rather ask your question and honest, Erica, I'm not
interested in debatings. Uh, you know fake news. Have a
question from my guests, please, it's it's a very important
guest to me.
Speaker 6 (36:56):
Well, I mean, I I mean, I'd like to know,
you know. I mean as far as Iran being an adversary,
I mean who, who, who appoints them as that?
Speaker 3 (37:08):
As such?
Speaker 6 (37:09):
I mean, who has that authority? And why I think
they were actions.
Speaker 2 (37:13):
In the Middle East? And again we're getting into into
international stuff to hear that. I don't know that this
is comfortable for Bill Bratt, and I'm sure he has
thoughts personal thoughts on it, but I'm going to let
him off the hook on this one. We certainly have
seen what Iron has done in terms of taking American
hostages some forty four years ago and holding them for
(37:34):
four hundred and forty four days right to the bombardment
of Israel.
Speaker 6 (37:40):
True but also we've seen I'm.
Speaker 2 (37:43):
Going I'm going to next call to get a question
with Bill Brown. Bill, if you want to jump in
here and make a comment. I just feel that that
that's an area.
Speaker 3 (37:51):
That no, once again they thought try and keep us
focused on that areas I concentrate on, which is primarily
law enforcement on security.
Speaker 2 (38:02):
I'm happy about that. Let me go to Christy in Manchester,
New Hampshire. Christy, you have a question for my guest,
Bill Broughton.
Speaker 7 (38:07):
Police, I do, so, what does he feel about bail
reform when it results and reoffended people reoffending, so in
other words, they're let out bail.
Speaker 2 (38:23):
Yeah, we know exactly some of the bail funds as
law enforcement, I assume that that has to disquiet you.
There was a trend in this country to let people
out for ansumption of instance is important, but sometimes there
are people who were turned back out in the street
and by time the police officer, they're out of court
and back in the street by time the police officer
(38:45):
files this report. Go ahead, Bill.
Speaker 3 (38:48):
Well, I can't speak to what's been going on here
in Boston, Massachusetts with any real awareness and knowledge, but
certainly in New York, New York City. It's been a disaster.
Well intended and well needed reforms of the bail practices
in New York, but they went too far to the
effect that you can't basically put people in jail. And
(39:11):
he worked for some very significant offenses. And the papers
in New York every day, the New York Post, for example,
almost every day has examples of the failure of the
bail reform and issues of the legislature of New York
in twenty nineteen, twenty eighteen to raise the age, raising
the idea that you go after somebody unless they eighteen
(39:32):
years of age for serious crime. Now, New York, a
lot of the crises and crime that was created devise
and crime and the struggle to reduce crime has been
impacted severely by well intended but unfortunately not unexpected negative
consequences in terms of I'm sorry, there's bad people in society,
(39:55):
and those bad people need to be kept away from
the rest of us in New York and its legislature,
and some of those political leadership just don't believe that
anybody should go to jail, and I'm sorry that some
people do need to be in jail.
Speaker 2 (40:09):
That's what well quick follow up question to what Chris
has asked, do you feel that the trend in this
country where our federal officers, particularly ICE officers, have been
almost locked out of cooperation with police departments in major
cities by a lot of the progressive politicians does.
Speaker 3 (40:29):
Need Sanctuary cities were once again a well intended idea,
but it's gotten out of control to the extent that
New York City, for example, really almost precludes in almost
every instance, allowing the police to deal with ICE. In
terms of dealing with particularly now at the migrant situation,
(40:50):
the Venezuelan gangs and now having impact in over twenty
American cities and an organized gang coming out of Venezuela.
You can't get rid of them because many of the
cities a sanctuary cities where the politicians don't allow the
police to co op collaborate, collaborate with the federal agencies
to get these people out of our seas, get them
in a jail, and get them out of the country.
(41:12):
So there's a well intended policies that basically have had terrible,
terrible consequences.
Speaker 2 (41:18):
Chris, thank you, Thank you for the question. Was an
excellent question, and I hope you enjoyed the answer. Thank
you so much, Bill Bratt, and I enjoyed our conversation
tonight as always. Thank you for the generosity of your time,
any response, any night you want, I.
Speaker 3 (41:34):
Thank you. Thanks for the opportunity to refresh my Boston accent.
Speaker 2 (41:39):
Please say hi to your beautiful wife, Ricky school classmate of.
Speaker 3 (41:45):
A few years ago.
Speaker 2 (41:46):
Okay, thanks Bill brad Well.
Speaker 3 (41:48):
The two of you have done very well after law school,
that's for sure.
Speaker 2 (41:52):
Well she's done exceptionally well, as did you. I think
she I think she may you married up, my friend.
Thanks so much.
Speaker 3 (42:00):
If we'll talk I will not argue with you on
that one.
Speaker 2 (42:04):
Bill Bradton, thanks very much. We'll talk to and look
forward to seeing you.
Speaker 1 (42:07):
Have a good night.
Speaker 3 (42:08):
See you and you're listening to all the best, my
best right back at you.
Speaker 2 (42:10):
When we come back. When a little bit long, they apologize, Rob.
When we come back after the eleven o'clock news, we're
going to the twentieth hour and we're going to talk
about traffic etiquette. I think we're going to have some
fun
It's night side with Dan Ray on Boston.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
Welcome back. It's a little bit after ten o'clock here
and on a Friday night. I'm delighted to be joined
by a friend of many years, someone who uh, I
think is familiar to everyone in New England. Uh. Former
Boston Police Commissioner Bill Bratton. But he's also former New
(00:27):
York Police commissioner twice, former chief of police in Los Angeles,
a career in the in law, in law enforcement. And
we could we could spend the entire hour going through
the resume and the awards and all of that. Like me,
he is a graduate of University of Massachusetts in Boston. Bill,
(00:47):
did did you go to Boston State and then by
virtue of the merger becoming U Mass Boston Graduate or
did you go to U mass Boston?
Speaker 3 (00:57):
Uh?
Speaker 2 (00:58):
And it's in its old area, in the Park Square area.
How are you tonight?
Speaker 3 (01:03):
I'm well tonight, Dan, good to be with you. I
actually started at Boston State in nineteen seventy one under
a federally funded program to provide college educations to police officers.
So as part of one hundred police officers from around
the Great Boston area. It started at Boston State, but
then in mid seventies it was merged into the U
(01:26):
mass system. So I ended up graduating out of Boston.
In your run up of my bio, you left out
I'm up here in Boston. We got the Vagatta, one
of the great events here in this city this weekend.
I got a gorgeous weekend for it. A lot of
listeners might remember the old MDC Police, the Metropolitan Police. Yes,
(01:49):
that used to used to police the Charles River among
its responsibilities, and so I was superintendent of that for
a few years old.
Speaker 2 (01:57):
Also are the head of the MBTA Police, if if.
Speaker 3 (02:00):
I recall that's correct. It was the first of my
two transit developments. I headed up the transit police in
New York.
Speaker 2 (02:06):
Also, yeah, so yeah, as I said, we could, we
could have read the entire and we'll be wrapping up
and saying thanks very much you having joined us.
Speaker 3 (02:15):
So I've had I had a hard time holding on
to a.
Speaker 2 (02:18):
Job, Don and you you were sought after by by
some of the great cities in America, New York, Los Angeles,
and Boston. My understanding is that you're in You're in
town not only for the regatta, but I also think
there's some sort of a law enforcement event going on
this weekend that you're involved in or or was I misled?
Speaker 3 (02:37):
Actually this series of them over the last two days.
The Major City Chiefs Association, which is made up of
the seventy five largest cities in America and Canada, we're
holding their conference here attended by four or five hundred
law enforcement officials, including the chiefs, to discuss a wide
range of current issues of concern. The elections were in
(03:01):
the middle of the crime situation, the various crime issues
we're dealing with, terrorism, what's going on in the mid
East now it's impacting here. Starting tomorrow, the fifteen thousand
member International Association of Chiefs of Police, which represent almost
all of the police organizations in this country, are here
(03:23):
in Boston for their annual conference. So you'll see a
lot of those chiefs in the city the next five
days and then on Sunday and organization I'm may be
proud to be part of the Police Executive Research Forum,
headed up by a Bostonian Chuck Wexler, who I work
with in the Boston Police Department. Well, well, you and
(03:46):
I have taught together at his program over BEU every
summer so he'll be doing his things. So it's a
very exciting weekend for the law enforcement community here in
the United States and Canada, which brings me.
Speaker 2 (04:00):
To the topic at hand. And this has been a
very interesting presidential election campaign, unfortunately made more interesting by
a mere assassination of one candidate, Donald Trump and a
second assassination attempt that there were more questions about both
(04:23):
of these that have been answered, so I'd like to
talk about those. I'd also like to talk about the
idea of that the Middle East does have a splash
over effect here at Bill and you know this better
than I do, and I know there is probably some
things that you can't say. And so, as I've said
earlier tonight, I always have the right to take the
(04:45):
Fifth Amendment here on nightside when we get to an
area that we should not be talking about. But I'm
hearing a lot of roomors. I'm looking at a Washington
Post piece as a matter of fact, from this past
August about the idea of Iranian hit squads looking to
take out American politicians of either party and maybe in
(05:10):
retaliation for our support of Israel and the fact that
we were able to get rid of solomony during the
Trump administration. So there's just so much to talk about here.
Maybe what we could do is just have one question
and then I got to go to break And did
you ever think in your lifetime after what we experienced,
(05:32):
and you and I are very close in age as
young teenagers in nineteen sixty three, the assassination of a president,
what we witnessed as young men the summer of sixty eight,
including the assassination of doctor King and Senator Robert F. Kennedy,
did you ever think, and you know there have been
(05:53):
other events along the way, but that there would be
two assassination attempts during a president a campaign in this
year twenty twenty four.
Speaker 3 (06:05):
Too, directed against the same candidate you left out, George Wallace.
Speaker 2 (06:10):
No, I did, yeah, yep, no, And I interviewed him
after that event. As a matter of fact, I remember
him rolling in in a wheelchair into the old WBC
studio at Soldier's Field Road. Now I remember that. And
we could also mention Gerald Ford who two crazy women.
One was Wiki Frome and the other was I think
it was Jane Jane Moore or Mary Jane Moore. They
(06:34):
both took a shot and both of the myssed they
had pistols, so and of course Ronald Reagan, who himself
nearly died. But but it just it just it boggles
my mind that there could be two of these. And
you know, from a security perspective, what did you think
of the first one in Butler, Pennsylvania. That had to
(06:54):
be a total and it appears to have been a
total miscommunication between the locals and the FEDS. And I'm
sure you've handled many of presidential visions in your life,
in your experience, how could that happen?
Speaker 3 (07:08):
Well, it's quite clear that it should not have happened.
That the report that was just issued this week was
pretty damning of the Secret Service and its protocols and
procedures and is calling for a widespread reforms of that organization.
It's recruiting, it's training, its leadership, and it's something that
(07:29):
the Secret Service itself has freely admitted that it recognizes
that they are major issues in the organization that need
to be corrected, including recognizing that it's ironic that the
agency started as an entity with the Treasury Department to
investigate financial crime, and the protection of the president was
(07:52):
actually a smaller part of it. Their workload. Now it's
become almost the major focus of the workload because it's
so much more public than the Financial Primees investigation. So
there's no denying that there were major, major omissions, deficiencies,
screw ups basically at almost every aspect of that event.
In Butler, less so on the golf course incident, the
(08:15):
second incident. Second incident did reflect, However, one of the
struggles that the Secret Service does have with its limited
manpower is the idea of a spontaneous event that the
president may seek to engage in something they discourage the
golf course not having enough time to effectively inspect that site,
(08:40):
if you will, And so going forward they will change
their protocols on doubtteredly a lot more use of drones,
for example, securing larger areas. And these events, these near tragedies,
are always learning exercises in the sense of trying to
prevent them from occurring in the future. Nation attempts against
(09:01):
presidents are not new, unfortunately in this country of democracy.
We celebrate democracy, but unfortunately we have seen to have
even more assassination attempts than they do elsewhere in the world.
Speaker 2 (09:15):
Yeah, the one in Pennsylvania, it seemed to me that
that's a roof of a building that was I think
it was something like one hundred yards away or less
than one hundred yards away. And what I'm getting is
that somehow there was a line of communication. They run
(09:35):
different radio channels, and even though this guy was spotted
on the roof and there would have been plenty of
time to get the former president off the stage, that
was not communicated to the agent of age.
Speaker 3 (09:48):
That issue, Dan, I think is the one that is
the most frustrating. The New York Times Day had a
summary of the very large report that it was commenting
on and reference the idea that is, many of his
six Secret Service agents were aware of this character that
was roaming around the area of the event, and yet
(10:12):
none of them took the initiative to basically not let
the president get up on the stage, and once he
was on the stage, get.
Speaker 4 (10:19):
Him off the stage.
Speaker 3 (10:20):
And it's just highlighting something of the Secret Service itself
has admitted that it is having large turnover. A lot
of seasoned people leaving the paper today actually have not
a chance to be the full report, but some of
the excerpts in the New York Times states reporting that
the Agent in charge of security for mister Trump had
(10:41):
only joined the agency four years ago, and she was
already a team leader the most important assignment of the
Secret Service, protecting the President, and she only had four
years on the job and this was one of her
first assignments in that capacity. So no, a lot to
be learned from what's going forward. Secret Service is committed
(11:02):
to doing that. Congress is aren't going to have to
be committed to adequately funding them for the increased security
that's now going to be required going forward. And the
security issues are immens today because we now have these
concerns about drones outside events, with the issue of drones
flying over those events and god for offendion ever on,
(11:23):
and social media encouraging and basically almost enabling it sounds
kind of like what I see the idea of encouraging
through social media people to basically become terrorists. And we've
got a lot of that now with all the hates
viewing out of social media, that we're creating an enemy
(11:45):
from within. If you will, you.
Speaker 2 (11:46):
Know, I want to kit on all of those points
on Bill. I have a million questions. I got to
take a quick break. This is a fairly quick commercial break,
we get back will continue conversation with former bar New
York Police Commissioner Bill Bratton, chief of police in Los Angeles.
I don't think there's some more respected police authority with
(12:12):
a wide variety of experience than Bill Bratton. Delighted he's
with us tonight. As you said, tell he's going to
be a very busy guy this weekend with all the
police meetings and activity in Boston. And we will get
to some phone calls. But I have a couple of
other questions that I got to ask Bill Bratton, and
we'll be back to do that right after this break
on Nightside.
Speaker 1 (12:31):
Now back to Dan Ray live from the Window World
night Side Studios on w b Z News Radio.
Speaker 2 (12:39):
Our guest is Bill Bratton. There's so much to say
about his experience. Most of you know the different places
that he has served. Bill. I was on a trip
with listeners from Nightside to Italy in early August, and
one member of the trip was a guy who was
fifty two years old. He had retired early from the
(13:02):
Secret Service. This guy military background. He looked like a
linebacker for the Patriots. I mean, the sort of person
who you would want out there protecting the President. But
he basically said he had burned out that you know,
the demands on the time was such that he could
(13:22):
no longer handle it. And I thought to myself, to
lose an asset like this guy, fifty two years old, smartest,
a whip, military background, and again you know, look like
he was a professional football player, you know, just to
lose him that might be what the real problem is
(13:43):
with the Secret Service right now, is that the good
people are leaving at such a rate. I got to
assume that you can identify with that story without me
telling you much more about this guy. This guy should
not have been retiring at fifty two years of age.
He was at the prime of his career.
Speaker 3 (14:00):
Well, his story is not unusual in American law enforcement.
It's not just a Secret Service problem. It's a problem
in American policing now. Because of the incredible pressures on
law enforcement offices from a lot of different directions and anxieties,
a lot of them are leaving earlier than they did
(14:21):
during my time. My time, you come on the job
in your twenties, you stay till sixty five, you know,
and you've left before that. It was very unusual. But
today the burnout factor is it's happening much quicker for
people at the anxiety levels, the mental stress, let alone
the physical wear and here so the Secret Service experience
(14:42):
is not unique. But the issue that the Secret Service
is facing, as was reflected in the conversations the last
two days from the major city chiefs, almost every one
of those departments represented here in barcelon the last couple
of days is talking about the severe personnel shortage is
that they're facing. I think American police forces are fifty
(15:03):
two hundred thousand fewer offices than we had at the
time of the murder of George Floyd, and trying to
fill that deficiency is very difficult. In secret services, probably
even more pressured because the nature of what they do.
Think of it Dan the sense of in this presidential campaign,
(15:23):
the movements of the presidential candidates, two of them around
the country doing two or three events a day, and
a planning that has to go in before that, the
protection during the event, the movement of equipment, the armored cars,
the communications gear, and we've all seen the length of
these presidential convoys, twenty thirty vehicles. A lot of that
(15:47):
has to be moved every time. That candidate moves, and
now that they've requiring that, in the case of Trump
and the vice president, that they receive presidential level protection,
the stresses on those agents that they're constantly on the move,
and once they're in a location, then the anxiety ramps
(16:10):
up because then the challenge is to actually protect the
physical person a little on over planning before the event.
That then when the event is underway and they're bringing
agents from all over the country to basically secure these events,
Congress is going to have to face up to the
fact that they're going to have to spend a lot
(16:31):
more money on to high a lot more agents because effectively,
these threat situations are probably not going to lessen in
the future. That social media is here to stay. The
political hostility is ramping up rather than the client You
and I have been about a long time and we've
(16:53):
watched it steadily increase through these election cycles, which for
the last twenty years, there's so much anger and once
again in our country there's one hundred some villion guns.
You know, that becomes another problem in our country, that's
just the availability of fire aps.
Speaker 2 (17:10):
I want to jump back just for a second, Midus,
is this eight thousand secret Service agents. They're looking to
try to bump it up to ten thousand. I know
that in Boston there have been at least a dozen
Boston police officers who have left as young police officers
and have transferred over to become firefighters. I'm sure that
if that's going on here, it's going on elsewhere, and
(17:33):
it is. It is the fallout from this horrific incident,
the George Floyd incident, which I think became very politicized.
It was one police officer who was a rotten apple
who obviously took advantage. And I remember watching the video
of that guy get up off the neck of George
Floyd and preened around like he was that he had
(17:54):
done something heroic. That was a guy that should not
have been a police office. You now have going back,
and I want to jump back to Butler. I haven't
seen any information that assassination is now nearly one hundred
days old, or that assassination attempt is one hundred days old.
We know nothing. I know nothing more about this kid,
(18:17):
and yet we were told that he was on encrypted
websites with people in foreign countries. And do you think
that we're ever going to get the true story on
who he was working with. I don't buy the fact
that this kid got up that morning and said to himself, well,
I'm going to go take a shot at Donald Trump.
I mean, and if he did, what are all the
(18:40):
encrypted messages about, you know of what I speak?
Speaker 3 (18:43):
Well, the issue of encryption interesting enough. The FBI director
yesterday made a presentation and one of his major points
of frustration was that with the Apple devices and the
Mata devices, that the ability to basically get into all
these smartphones, for example, into laptops, into computers is each
(19:08):
year is diminishing their ability to get into these devices
because the manufacturers are basically making them even more difficult
to penetrate. The encryption is becoming more significant. So I
think you're correct. I don't think we're ever going to
know what the hell this kid's motivation was because we're
probably never going to be able to access a lot
(19:28):
of what he was doing because it was encrypted.
Speaker 2 (19:31):
Could could not and this is this is part of
a legal question. Could not I don't know what type
of phone he had, but but could not the government,
the FBI go to the manufacturers of the phone and say, hey,
whatever security precautions you know, that you have in this phone.
This was the phone owned by the guy that took
a shot and almost killed a presidential candidate. We want
(19:55):
you to take that phone and break it down. We
want to know who he was talking to. And it
would seem to me maybe you'll up in court, But
I kind of imagine that that any company under those
extreme circumstances would fight back and say, no, we have
to we have to protect the privacy of our of
our dead customer.
Speaker 3 (20:14):
Well, the reality is they won't do it, and the
device is are purposely designed so they cannot be penetrated
even by the manufacturer. In other words, there's no bare's
there's no back door. They basically it's one of the cells.
The selling teachers that your information is protected from even
us the manufacturer, that we're not secretly applying into your life. Now,
(20:36):
this issue of encryption is international terrorism. When I was
commissioner in New York, in particular, that we were frustrated
at every turn by the inability to get into these homes.
That and as the FBI Director indicated yesterday, each year
the ability to get into them is lessened despite the
increasing capabilities of the FBI. For example, Wow.
Speaker 2 (21:01):
Boy, I'll tell you, I think it was Khrushev back
in the day, said that he would sell the rope
to the United States, which would hang themselves. There was
some comment that you have made like that, and that
almost sounds eerily familiar here, that we're producing products which
enabled twenty year old kids to be in contact with
(21:22):
who knows whom he could be. He could have been
in touch with the cuts forces in Iran for all
of them.
Speaker 3 (21:27):
Well, look look at this kids in terms of the
number of cases underway right now, with these mass murders
where the parents basically out buying the guns for them,
and that once again the insanity of our gun laws,
that even the idea of things that seem that eighty
(21:49):
five percent of America support, Congress just will not pass
appropriate legislation. Same thing around the issue of encryption. They
just will not under stand that we are in this
incredible crisis in this country of incidents of the creating fear,
creating the political dissatisfaction that we're experiencing. A lot of
(22:12):
the have has to do with the frustration that nobody
seems capable of resolving things of the creating fear, and
a lot of that you can only wait at the
footsteps of our Congress.
Speaker 2 (22:24):
Well, I agree with you on that. I also think
it's a good development that a couple of these parents
in Michigan are now spending time in jail because they
failed to adequately supervise their child. And this situation exactly,
and it's just down in Georgia, if I'm not mistaken.
I think it was Georgia where apparently this this kid
(22:45):
was in a totally dysfunctional house and the father was
in effect the uh he was in parenta and prentis
loco and in local parentees. I think the mother was
out of the picture totally. But maybe he's got to
go to jail as well as the kid who who
shot and killed his classmates. You know that's this There's
(23:10):
got to be some prices to pay. Bill. I got
a whole bunch of calls, and I I am so
appreciative of your time. I hope you can stick with
us for a little bit into the right afternoons, we'll
go to phone calls. Okay, this is This has been
an invaluable conversation to me. I learned a lot and
normally I don't learn is you know, you're so far
down the down the track for me on some of
(23:32):
these issues like encryption, I had not even thought about that.
I wish, I wish the the no no no, I
totally get it. And there are aspects of my world
probably enough, but but the aspects of your world it's
a lot higher stakes. But I think this is an
opportunity that when I talk to these members of Congress
(23:53):
now that something needs to be done. You put a
cell phone in some whack whacky eighteen year olds hands
who's able to know that he can contact the kud's
forces in Iran and maybe have money deposited somewhere because
he's going to do something these Oh my god, there
(24:14):
has to be Look, if people want to buy cell
phones that they can't get because they're going to fool
around with their secretaries or something like that, they got
to give that up. Okay, you know, I don't know
why anybody wants to if there are cell phones that
now have this benefit that Laura. Enforcement can't look at
the cell phone of a person who is deceased. It
(24:37):
seems to me that the right of privacy of that
person who is deceased, who's been involved in the potential
assassination of a president has to be waived. But we'll
leave the Okay, my acl you friends are going to
dislike me even more as because of that comment. My guess,
Bill Broughton going to go to phone calls. If you
like to join us, you have the numbers, just give
(24:57):
us a call back on Night Side.
Speaker 1 (24:58):
Right after this, you're on Night Side with Ray on
Boston's news radio.
Speaker 2 (25:08):
With me is Bill Bratton. Name really doesn't need an introduction,
but he is. It's a large forcement legend, I guess
would be the way to describe it. Former police commissioner
here not only in Boston, but in New York twice
in New York Chief of police in Los Angeles. We've
touched upon a wide variety of topics. I'll give you
(25:30):
an opportunity to ask a question or make a quick comment,
but again, he I want to hear his answers as
much as I want to hear your questions. Let me
go first to Joe and Belmont. Joe, you're on with
former police commissioner of a whole bunch of places, Bill Broughton.
Go ahead, Joe, God.
Speaker 5 (25:48):
Bless you, Dan and Dan. Nobody does it better than
you do.
Speaker 2 (25:53):
Favor. I appreciate that, but I want to have you
talk to Bill brought and go right ahead.
Speaker 5 (25:56):
Yes, I have two questions for Commissioner Bill. First, Commissioner Bill, Uh,
you talked about the enemy within if you were going
to write a special delivery letter to the next president,
what checks the balances and what solutions could you offer
(26:18):
to stop the enemy within and the fake news? And
my second question is, Uh, do you think there's too
much secrecy involved in the people who are doing the
fake news?
Speaker 2 (26:35):
Yeah, you take the answer off here, Joe. I think
the area of fake news or good news is really
not Phil Bratton's area. Bill, I'll let you off the
hook on that one.
Speaker 3 (26:49):
No, necessarily, Dan, because he was part of what what
creates so much of the fear, anxiety, hatred, and I
wish there was a resolution to it. But once again,
we have a First Amendment in this country, freedom and speech,
and a lot of language is even though it appears
(27:12):
to be threatening, appears to be hateful, is protected, and
it's in many respects allowed to multiply because of the
incredible social media world that we have created in the
last twenty five years. You figured the smartphones didn't come
along to two thousand and six. It's only eighteen years ago.
(27:33):
And look at there's eight bay of them in the
world today, almost as many as of our people. So
that the gentleman's comment about the fake news is it
is an element of so much of the concern that
we have today, and even in talking about the election,
the upcoming president's election, the concern about something we never
(27:53):
used to worry about this country, the validity of our
election process, and even in the the former presidents concerns
or allegations about a higed election. Nobody has been ever
to basically prove or find that, but it's still out
there as fake news. So it's again, it's an element
(28:17):
of our world today that we don't have an answer
for because in oposiety in particular, we allow freedom and
speech and as long as it does in rise to
the level of actually creating a crime, go go at it. Unfortunately.
Speaker 2 (28:33):
Yeah, I think also the part of the problem is
that a lot of Americans, they are in a news
cycle a silo, and that they only watch news programming
that they are comfortable with and reinforces whatever point of
view they have, and I think that has contributed to
this as well.
Speaker 3 (28:52):
Because if you're exactly in terms of Fox viewership, MSNBC
viewership that I try to basically watch the walls to
just get at that. I've always enjoyed the news, I'm
sorry to would buy four or five papers New York Times,
Terroll's Traveler, the Globe, and you know that's how I
stopped my day. But now you can sit there with
(29:14):
that smilephone in your hand and basically access twenty to
thirty of them. But people still tend to gravitate toward
basically the news source that that satisfies their need for information,
and they don't bound some on the channels as much
as we used to when we were younger.
Speaker 2 (29:32):
Yeah, I would call it the need for reinforcement too,
of their beliefs and ideas, you know, of ratification of
what they happen to believe in. So yeah, let's let's
keep rolling here. Joe, appreciate your question. Thank you very
much for the call. Let me go next to out
of country, up to Darryl in New Brunswick, Canada. Daryl
next on nice side with Commissioner Bill Bratton.
Speaker 4 (29:55):
Hey, how do you Commissioner and how do you Dan?
I hope things are well? What I'd like to ask,
is we're talking about conflict and all the different geopolitics
and what not going on, is North Korea if I
can ask the question. My understanding is North Korea is
still under truce with the US, and if they're participating
(30:17):
with Russia in North to participate in Ukraine, would that
not become an active war and that would would that
be a problem nowadays as well?
Speaker 2 (30:28):
Yeah, well again we're getting into the era of international
relations there again. I want to if Bill Braden wants
the way into that.
Speaker 3 (30:35):
Yeah, that that that one I'll stay away from because
this area of any expertise at all.
Speaker 2 (30:43):
You're correct, Daryl Darryl in that there was never a
peace treaty UH signed between the United States and North
Korea out of the Korean More UH, and so it
technically we are still at war with North Korea. But
from a practical point of view, North Korea does a
lot of weird stuff. I did read the articles that
(31:05):
you talked about, Daryl, that there are somehow some North
Korean troops that have are joined with Russian forces on
the ground in Ukraine, which to me is.
Speaker 1 (31:17):
Cool.
Speaker 4 (31:17):
I wasn't trying to cause a proble, No, no, no, No, you're.
Speaker 2 (31:20):
Not going to cause it. No, But it's a good question.
It's a good question. But I think unless you have
one that relates more to what's going on in this country,
I'm concerned about the potential of assassination squads. Do you
feel Bill that that is overblown or is there something
that actually exists?
Speaker 4 (31:40):
I know.
Speaker 2 (31:42):
In Europe, I do know that.
Speaker 3 (31:45):
It's something of concern to American law enforcement. Once again,
the ability to inspire, maybe not necessarily direct, but through
the social media. It's kind of how I SES grew
as rapidly as it did. Al Qaeda was never basically
active on social media, but ICs was, and look at
(32:05):
how quickly they grew had their own caliphate for a while. No,
so the idea of Iran maybe not necessarily directing an
actual assassination of violence effort, but certainly being in a
position to encourage it, to inspire it, to provide information
(32:27):
about how to do it. And we've seen much, much,
a lot of reporting in recent weeks about Iran trying
to interfere in our elections. That and you know, that's
widely known and understood to be an actual threat in
terms of their efforts to try and interfere with the
(32:49):
elections that are underway commonly.
Speaker 2 (32:51):
Yeah, but I'm I'm actually the stuff that I'm seeing
is that Iran has used their agents assassination attempts in Europe.
Speaker 3 (33:01):
And well, that's that is that is known in the
sense of whether that rises the level of basically going
after one of our presidential candidates, I'm not sure that
there's been any ability to actually prove that want of speculation.
Speaker 2 (33:17):
Yeah, and the suggestion is even former officials in both parties.
As I've often said to people, Uh, some of these
countries around the world hate us. And one of the
reasons that we should be more unified as Americans is
that there are countries around the world that hate us.
They don't care what gender we are, they don't care
(33:37):
what political party we are, they don't care if we
root for the Red Sox or the Yankees. They just
want to kill Americans. Those guys on the planes that
crashed into, uh, into the World Trade centers, uh, you know,
one of which flew out of Boston, they didn't take
any sort of account on board and say to the
people who were most of them, Oh, we're gonna we're
(33:58):
gonna land first and let you off. They killed Americans
of all backgrounds and faiths because they were Americans or
they were in American and and I think that we
have forgotten that lesson in my in my opinion, and
they feel the same way, Daryl, towards Canadians as well.
They see our systems as much more uh you know,
(34:18):
much much more secular, as opposed to the the theocracy
under which they function. Darryl, I appreciate the call.
Speaker 4 (34:26):
Well, I'd like to say thank you all for your service.
And uh, all right.
Speaker 2 (34:32):
Thanks Darryl, appreciate very much. We have a lot of
listeners up in Canada. Bill, I have a few more callers,
and I got a few more minutes with you, and
I promised to let you go by eleven o'clock. You generously.
Speaker 3 (34:44):
I'm enjoying working on my Boston accent. And again, hearing
that accent of north of the border was very interesting.
Speaker 2 (34:51):
Also, Yes, we get a lot of accents. We have
people literally from all over the world. I mean, obviously
you know as a Bostonian that Z has a great
terrestrial radio signal, but we get him from all over
the world.
Speaker 3 (35:04):
Well, I'll tell you the Bostonian accent is love when
I give my speeches around the country. No, people are
people are fascinating, and I have a pretty pronounced one,
and it's uh. They're usually very complimentary about it. They
like it, which is which is endearing.
Speaker 2 (35:20):
No, I get that I tried a long time ago
to learn how to pronounce my rs so I could
stay in television and radio.
Speaker 3 (35:25):
And yeah, well it's as you know that it's not
the idea that it's the letter. It's a H. We
tend to stay a H rather than uh the letter
up and so all the jokes about the Boston it's
really a H that.
Speaker 2 (35:42):
It was the old park your car in Harvard Yard, exactly.
Speaker 3 (35:52):
Syllable.
Speaker 2 (35:55):
We should have taken declamation or something at uh and
I school had been better, but then we would lose
our charm as Bostonians. Moving back a Nice Side with
Bill Bratton for a few more calls right after this.
Speaker 1 (36:09):
Now back to Dan Ray live from the Window World
night Side Studios on WBZ News Radio.
Speaker 2 (36:16):
I guess this Bill Brett really needs no introduction at
this point. Eric in Attleborough. Eric, you're next on Nice.
I'd like to get you in at least one more
in Please Eric, go right.
Speaker 6 (36:25):
Ahead, Hey, Jan how you doing tonight?
Speaker 2 (36:28):
We do a great I'm running out of time, Go right,
go ahead.
Speaker 6 (36:31):
Yeah, yeah, I want to get straight into the point
number one. The number one point is that something I
found it interesting when someone mentioned fake news earlier on
I did a Google search.
Speaker 2 (36:43):
I'd rather ask your question and honest, Erica, I'm not
interested in debatings. Uh, you know fake news. Have a
question from my guests, please, it's it's a very important
guest to me.
Speaker 6 (36:56):
Well, I mean, I I mean, I'd like to know,
you know. I mean as far as Iran being an adversary,
I mean who, who, who appoints them as that?
Speaker 3 (37:08):
As such?
Speaker 6 (37:09):
I mean, who has that authority? And why I think
they were actions.
Speaker 2 (37:13):
In the Middle East? And again we're getting into into
international stuff to hear that. I don't know that this
is comfortable for Bill Bratt, and I'm sure he has
thoughts personal thoughts on it, but I'm going to let
him off the hook on this one. We certainly have
seen what Iron has done in terms of taking American
hostages some forty four years ago and holding them for
(37:34):
four hundred and forty four days right to the bombardment
of Israel.
Speaker 6 (37:40):
True but also we've seen I'm.
Speaker 2 (37:43):
Going I'm going to next call to get a question
with Bill Brown. Bill, if you want to jump in
here and make a comment. I just feel that that
that's an area.
Speaker 3 (37:51):
That no, once again they thought try and keep us
focused on that areas I concentrate on, which is primarily
law enforcement on security.
Speaker 2 (38:02):
I'm happy about that. Let me go to Christy in Manchester,
New Hampshire. Christy, you have a question for my guest,
Bill Broughton.
Speaker 7 (38:07):
Police, I do, so, what does he feel about bail
reform when it results and reoffended people reoffending, so in
other words, they're let out bail.
Speaker 2 (38:23):
Yeah, we know exactly some of the bail funds as
law enforcement, I assume that that has to disquiet you.
There was a trend in this country to let people
out for ansumption of instance is important, but sometimes there
are people who were turned back out in the street
and by time the police officer, they're out of court
and back in the street by time the police officer
(38:45):
files this report. Go ahead, Bill.
Speaker 3 (38:48):
Well, I can't speak to what's been going on here
in Boston, Massachusetts with any real awareness and knowledge, but
certainly in New York, New York City. It's been a disaster.
Well intended and well needed reforms of the bail practices
in New York, but they went too far to the
effect that you can't basically put people in jail. And
(39:11):
he worked for some very significant offenses. And the papers
in New York every day, the New York Post, for example,
almost every day has examples of the failure of the
bail reform and issues of the legislature of New York
in twenty nineteen, twenty eighteen to raise the age, raising
the idea that you go after somebody unless they eighteen
(39:32):
years of age for serious crime. Now, New York, a
lot of the crises and crime that was created devise
and crime and the struggle to reduce crime has been
impacted severely by well intended but unfortunately not unexpected negative
consequences in terms of I'm sorry, there's bad people in society,
(39:55):
and those bad people need to be kept away from
the rest of us in New York and its legislature,
and some of those political leadership just don't believe that
anybody should go to jail, and I'm sorry that some
people do need to be in jail.
Speaker 2 (40:09):
That's what well quick follow up question to what Chris
has asked, do you feel that the trend in this
country where our federal officers, particularly ICE officers, have been
almost locked out of cooperation with police departments in major
cities by a lot of the progressive politicians does.
Speaker 3 (40:29):
Need Sanctuary cities were once again a well intended idea,
but it's gotten out of control to the extent that
New York City, for example, really almost precludes in almost
every instance, allowing the police to deal with ICE. In
terms of dealing with particularly now at the migrant situation,
(40:50):
the Venezuelan gangs and now having impact in over twenty
American cities and an organized gang coming out of Venezuela.
You can't get rid of them because many of the
cities a sanctuary cities where the politicians don't allow the
police to co op collaborate, collaborate with the federal agencies
to get these people out of our seas, get them
in a jail, and get them out of the country.
(41:12):
So there's a well intended policies that basically have had terrible,
terrible consequences.
Speaker 2 (41:18):
Chris, thank you, Thank you for the question. Was an
excellent question, and I hope you enjoyed the answer. Thank
you so much, Bill Bratt, and I enjoyed our conversation
tonight as always. Thank you for the generosity of your time,
any response, any night you want, I.
Speaker 3 (41:34):
Thank you. Thanks for the opportunity to refresh my Boston accent.
Speaker 2 (41:39):
Please say hi to your beautiful wife, Ricky school classmate of.
Speaker 3 (41:45):
A few years ago.
Speaker 2 (41:46):
Okay, thanks Bill brad Well.
Speaker 3 (41:48):
The two of you have done very well after law school,
that's for sure.
Speaker 2 (41:52):
Well she's done exceptionally well, as did you. I think
she I think she may you married up, my friend.
Thanks so much.
Speaker 3 (42:00):
If we'll talk I will not argue with you on
that one.
Speaker 2 (42:04):
Bill Bradton, thanks very much. We'll talk to and look
forward to seeing you.
Speaker 1 (42:07):
Have a good night.
Speaker 3 (42:08):
See you and you're listening to all the best, my
best right back at you.
Speaker 2 (42:10):
When we come back. When a little bit long, they apologize, Rob.
When we come back after the eleven o'clock news, we're
going to the twentieth hour and we're going to talk
about traffic etiquette. I think we're going to have some
fun
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