October 9, 2025 • 33 mins
Tune in here to this Thursday's edition of Breaking With Brett Jensen!
Breaking Brett Jensen kicks the show off by diving into alarming crime statistics that paint a stark picture of uptown Charlotte’s public safety crisis. Before breaking down the data, he shares information from a trusted source claiming that National Guard members have been placed on an hour's standby for possible deployment to Charlotte—though he makes clear he is relaying, not reporting, this. Jensen connects this tip to a recent federal court ruling in Illinois ordering the National Guard to stand down, suggesting broader legal questions could soon reach the Supreme Court.
Jensen then shifts focus to the CMPD’s recent press conference, where leaders repeatedly referenced a "perception" of crime. Jensen challenges that framing by presenting cold, hard numbers: murders up 200%, robberies, assaults, drug offenses, and even missing person cases all on the rise. He argues these figures aren't about perception—they’re about reality, and says the call for National Guard assistance stems from CMPD being stretched dangerously thin.
Listen here for all of this and more on Breaking With Brett Jensen.
To be the first to hear about Breaking Brett Jensen's exclusives and more follow him on X @Brett_Jensen!
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:21):
Hi Oh, let's go hi Oh, let's go oh, Let's
go oh. Let me talk. Eleven ten at ninety nine
three WBT Brett Jensen here with you on another edition
of Breaking with Brett Jensen as we go up until
(00:42):
seven o'clock tonight, telephone number seven four five seven, eleven ten.
And guys, make sure you follow me on x at
Brett Underscore Jensen for all the lettuce and breaking news
in and around the Charlotte area. Okay, so we got
a lot we're gonna get into tonight, including you know,
sometimes it's not just always news sometimes. You know, you
(01:02):
guys know that I probably am more personable about my
life on air than anyone else here at the station.
I've just always been that way, even way back when
when I was doing sports radio on wfn Z, you know,
literally two decades ago and then fifteen years ago, and
all that the reason I did that or do that.
(01:24):
I mean, you guys know you've heard me talk explicitly
about my dating life or whatever, and so the good stories,
the bad stories, whatever and everything in between. But I
always felt like when I got a radio show, when
they give me my own sports radio show. In twenty eleven,
(01:45):
full time at wfn Z. I knew nothing about radio.
I'd never taken a broadcasting class. I was always the
quote unquote expert sports expert that would come in and
be asked questions or whatever, you know, like how to
have reporters or former athletes like on all the talk
shows and you know, stuff like that. So I knew
nothing about radio, did not take a single broadcasting class
(02:06):
a day in my life. And so I was doing
all this research and I watched even though I'm not
a fan of his per se, but Howard Stern's movie
Private Parts is one of the best movies out there,
Like it is a fantastic movie. Fantastic movie because it
talks about his beginning and how all the struggles and
(02:28):
everything else. But there was a profound moment in that
movie where he said there was a famous scene where
his wife, Allison, is driving in the car with two
relators and the Howard Stern radio show happened to be on,
and in the middle of the show while they're listening,
and they did not know his wife, or they did
(02:49):
not the two realators did not know it was Howard
Stern's wife in the car and they hear him talking
about the miscarriage she had just had. And so afterwards
at the end of the day, because he's talking about
it on air, and these two real estate ladies are
hearing out again, not knowing that's Howard Stern's wife sitting
(03:11):
next to them. So at the end of the day
she goes up and she confronts him about it because
she's extremely ticked off that he would even mention such
a thing on air, and that it's personable and stuff
like that. And he told his wife, he said, look,
I have to get them to know me and to
get them to like me. I have to be honest
(03:31):
with them about everything, because if I start telling lies,
I won't be able to keep up with all the lies.
So I'm just going to be honest. And his daily
life was basically reality TV before there was reality TV.
He was talking about all the things going on in
his life. And I'm like, you know what, that's a
(03:52):
fair point. If something like that were to come up
with me in terms of something personal, I will be
brutally honest about it as much as I can be
in terms of giving the information that I can now. Obviously,
if there's a particular situation where I can't, then I
won't know either to protect the innocent or to protect
the guilty either way. So that has always been my theory.
(04:17):
I'm always going to try to be honest and like
I said a lot of times, I mean, I was
told in nineteen ninety six, Brett, your life is a sitcom.
I was like, yeah, it is, like that was thirty
years ago. Thirty years ago, Brett, your Life's a sitcom. No,
it truly is. Like stupid things happen to me all
the time, good and bad in the terms of stupid,
(04:38):
Like something stupid happened to me a month and a
half ago, and now I'm going to be able to
read the benefits of it next week, and I'm like
kind of geeked out about it. So, but like just weird,
wild things, always in the right place at the wrong time,
something like that type of situation. So I will tell
(05:02):
you what happened to me earlier today, and it it's
something that and most of you are going to be like,
what's the big deal. But for someone who's never experienced
it before, it was a big deal. I would probably say,
I'm just going to take a wild guess. Seventy five
percent eighty percent, eighty five percent of you listening may
(05:27):
have had this happen or you may have done this
particular thing. Today was the first day I did it
ever in my entire life, in my twenty two years
of life. Today was the first day that I'd ever
done that. But so we'll get into that and some
but I think it's kind of funny, That's why I'm
(05:48):
going to tell it. And it's also something that I've
never experienced before. And some of you are going to
go like, dude, suck it up, but it was it
was a thing. It was a thing, and I am
extremely sore right now, like extremely sore. Other things that
we're going to get into when we return so next week.
(06:14):
So you know, you heard me talk about the big
nothing burger of a press conference that they gave uptown
last week, right, the big nothing burger or excuse me,
yesterday they gave uptown yesterday about crime and all that
stuff and how what they're going to do, some new
measures that they're going to do, But they didn't get
into a whole lot of specifics. They did a little bit,
but not a lot. And you know, the CMPD officer
(06:37):
or the major gene Lamb or Jene Limb kept calling
it like the perception, Well, I got news for you.
You know they always like to say, you know, well,
perception's reality, that old cliche.
Speaker 2 (06:52):
Right, how about reality is reality? How about that? Because
I have reality and I have every crime statistic breakdown
in Uptown?
Speaker 1 (07:07):
Because you know, the press conference they had yesterday was
about safety and uptown. The perception on Uptown is they're unsafe.
Residents feel unsafe. The perception the perception, and city leaders
are saying that. CMPD is saying that. So clearly someone's
giving them a talking point so they can all be
on the same page. How about a talking point of yeah,
(07:28):
it sucks uptown because guess what, I have all the data,
every single crime stat you could even ever imagine. I
have everything, and guess what it ain't perception. It is
bold stone cold reality that uptown is extremely dangerous, extremely dangerous,
(07:54):
and I have all the status. You remember how they've
been saying, whoa crime and Charlotte is down? Okay, maybe
it's down in Balentine in Providence, how's that working out
for you? In Uptown? It's through the roof. And I
have all the data. So when we return I'm going
to go through this with you and tell you how
bad Uptown really is and why I avoid Uptown like
the plane. Well about breaking with Brett Jensen. All right,
(08:29):
So something that coincides with the crime sets that I
have for Uptown. This came to me from a very
very very well respected source. Okay, someone I've known for
many years, and I can tell you this. I'm not
(08:58):
reporting it. I am just re laying information. There's a
big difference before we get to the crime stats. Someone
that I trust implicitly just said he was made aware
that the National Guard has been put on an hour
(09:20):
standby for possible deployment to Charlotte members of the National Guard. Now,
this also coincides with a judge in the Northern District
of Illinois saying that the troops have to stand down.
The National Guard has to stand down because you know,
they went into Illinois without being invited. And the governor,
(09:44):
who's a loser of all losers like and just basically
I'm just not a good person in my opinion, has
been fighting this just like the people in Portland or
in Oregon are trying to fight it. So a judge
just ruled tonight that the National Guard has to stand down. Now.
(10:08):
Clearly this will be kicked up the food chain to
the Supreme Court. The ultimate ruling will be the Supreme
Court that will decide whether or not the National Guard
can go into cities without being invited because they can
say a particular clause about the you know, safety and
protection and stuff like that. So we'll see. But had
(10:34):
this ruling gone the other way, which is not surprising
that it went this way considering where it's located, where
the ruling came from. So like, you know, just it's
like the Ninth Circuit. You expect rulings like this. But
someone that I trust very much in the world of
news and have known for a long time said that
(11:00):
it's his understanding that National Guard have been put on
an hour deployment or an hour notice. Now that hour's
notice could last a long time. Doesn't mean that they're
going to be deployed in an hour, just means hey,
just so you know, be ready to go within an
hour if and when we call you. We may not
(11:20):
ever call you, but just be ready and we'll tell
you to stand down when to stand down. Now, again,
I'm not reporting this, so don't say all over Twitter
and Facebook anywhere else. Brett Jensen's reporting. Brett Jenson's not reporting.
I'm just telling you what someone told me that I
trust a lot, and that it's his understanding that National
(11:46):
Guard members have been put on an hour's notice for
deployment to Charlotte. And I know that'll upset a lot
of leaders because they always like to use the word perception,
the perception as sean it's not safe. CMPD would use that,
as a matter of fact. CMPD used it twice yesterday
in their press conference. And here is Major Jean Limb
(12:10):
talking about.
Speaker 3 (12:11):
That in the fourth quarter of this year as a
direct response to residents and businesses who have clearly stated
that Uptown no longer feels safe to them. I want
to be clear that this feeling is unacceptable. This is
a focused, high impact effort to immediately shift the environment
and perception of our center city.
Speaker 1 (12:30):
All right, And then shortly thereafter he came up with
this little ditty about perception.
Speaker 3 (12:36):
The goal is simple and imperative, to achieve an immediate,
tangible improvement in public perception of safety in Uptown, reduce
overall crime, and emphatically reinforce the fundamental mission of policing.
Speaker 1 (12:50):
All right, So perception twice twice. That's coming from a
CMPD major. Okay, And you've heard the word perception from
S leaders and you know things like that. Right. How
about instead of perception, we just use the word reality.
How about them apples, Because when CNBD probably gives what
(13:12):
it gives their press conference next week, if crime is
down at all, they will say crime is down in
the city of Charlotte, Charlotte's safe, okay, Maybe in Providence,
maybe in other areas, you know, the South Park area,
maybe in Myers Park area, maybe in the Balantine area maybe.
(13:38):
But you know where it's not safe. That'd be uptown.
You're playing with your life if you go uptown. Don't
believe me. Murder is up two one hundred percent through
the first three quarters in Uptown, two hundred percent these day.
These numbers go from January first to October fifth, January first,
(14:01):
October fifth, the first three quarters in twenty twenty four,
through the first three quarters three murders so far, nine murders.
That's a two hund percent increase. How about forcible rate
that's up ten percent. How about armed robbery from a
commercial standpoint, up thirty three percent. How about strong armed
(14:22):
robbery and the commercial up one hundred and fourteen percent.
Strong armed robbery personal not commercial up nineteen percent. How
about aggravated assault with a knife up fifty nine percent.
How about aggravated assault with a gun. How about up
eighteen point seventy five percent? Right, I mean again, this
(14:45):
is uh, this is what we do. Vehicle theft up
five percent. It's unbelievable. Look the perception, the perception is
that people are unsafe. Really murder being up two hundred percent.
That doesn't feel like a perception. That feels like a reality.
(15:09):
Theft of motor vehicle parts from a vehicle up thirty
one percent. When I tell you I have every possible
stat you could ever want, I have it. I mean
some of these things I'm not even going to name
on air because it just won't go. It won't go well.
(15:32):
Forcible finding up that is up eight percent, simple assault
up nine percent. It's a intimidation up twenty four percent.
Forgery up thirty five percent. It's again, I'm just going
(15:58):
through all of them, looking at all the data here.
It's just it never ends. It never ends. How about
this drug narcotic violations with marijuana up seventy seven percent.
Drug narcotic violations with opium up thirty thirty four percent.
How about this, drug narcotic violations with synthetic narcotics up
(16:21):
one hundred and thirty three percent. Drug narcotic violations with
dangerous non narcotics third up thirty percent. This is this
is what we This is we I mean, weapon law
violations with a gun up sixty two percent, Weapon law
(16:41):
violations with a knife up fifty percent. Curfew loitering vagrancy
violations up four hundred percent. Okay, I mean this is
this is it, This is what we do. This is
Charlotte missing persons under the age of sixteen up three
(17:04):
hundred and thirty three percent. Is that a little scary
for you? Is that a little scary for you? Again?
But the perception, the perception. If they say the word
perception one more time in my presence, I will immediately
call them out on it. Immediately. I will interrupt them
(17:27):
and say that is blatantly Why are you saying the
word perception? What city pr person told you to use
the word perception? All those numbers I just gave you
are cold hard facts, cold hard facts. Well, the perception
there is that people feel unsafe, and the perception is okay, No,
(17:50):
how about reality? And now you want to know why
the Fraternal Order of Police ask for the National Guard's
help because they are so thin and so short of numbers.
They're like, dude, we have to combat this and we
(18:10):
don't have the manpower. It's not that we can't do
our jobs. We can totally do our jobs. We just
don't have the people to do our jobs. So hey,
National Guard, how about helping out with the manpower. And
like I said, I'm not reporting. I'm not reporting. I'm
not reporting. Did you hear I'm not reporting. I'm relaying
(18:30):
information because I don't have it confirmed. I don't have
it verified. But some that I trust implicitly said that
the National Guard members have told him that they have
been put on an hour stand by notice for deployment
to Charlotte. This comes right after a federal court judge
told the National Guard to stand down when it comes
to Chicago. So my guess is, if I had to guess,
(18:51):
nothing will be happening here in Charlotte until this stuff
goes all the way up to the Supreme Court and
the Supreme Court rules on it one way or the other.
(19:18):
We'll go back to breaking with Bret Jensen on this
Thursday night, Thursday night, Thursday night, Thursday night. Okay, so
now let's get into some personal stuff. Not bad or
anything like that. Nothing, nothing like, oh no, bright, it's
something wrong. No, nothing like that. Like everything's fine, Like,
everything's fine. So last week Thursday, I believe it was Thursday.
(19:45):
I don't think Friday. I think it was Thursday. I
felt this thing in my back, lower left hand corner
of my back, right at the very top of what
would be like my hip bone right and it started swelling,
and then there was a golf ball, not size of
(20:07):
a golf ball, i should say. And then my left
glute or my left cheek as it were, was hurting
and numb, and the numbness would go down halfway down
the back of my hamstring, which is the back of
your leg, about halfway down, and it was getting more
(20:32):
and more painful. I tried to play golf on Sunday.
It was hurting. It was hurting, you know, especially hurt
a lot afterwards, and it really hurts when I'm just
sitting in my car, like it hurts my back, my hip,
my buttock, my left cheek, and then the back of
my leg hamstring. So I was like, oh, you know,
(20:54):
you got a sciatic nerve, You've got this, You've got that.
It's like okay. Then people are like, hey, go to
I'm a massage therapist. Because I'm not the world's biggest
chiropractor guy. I'm just not. I just I sort of
find out about like psychology, like you never get cured,
you always have to go for the rest of your life,
(21:16):
you know. I mean, I'm not putting either one down.
And I know chiropractors, and here's the thing. I know
a lot of people who swear by them, who swear
by chiropractors. My whole thing is, I don't want to
have to go to you every three weeks for the
rest of my life. Like, give me a shot, give
me surgery, be done with it. Whatever. So anyways, so
(21:40):
I went to messus today an eighty minute session, super
nice lady, super super nice, and I told her, I said, look,
I said, I don't care about my chest, I don't
care about my arms. I am here strictly for the
middle of my back down to the middle of my legs.
(22:02):
Only on the back. That's all I care about for
eighty minutes, you know, with the hot stones and aromatherapy.
And she said, do you want a sweetish massage or
deep tissue And I said, I have never had a
deep tissue massage ever in my entire life. And I said,
but everyone tells me I need to get this for
(22:23):
my back because of the knots and everything else, hip flexers, everything.
This I call her girl. I mean, she's clearly a woman.
She's in her mid twenties, five foot four. Maybe she
(22:43):
got in there and started using elbows and putting all
her weight on her elbow and in her wrists and
in her thumbs and on her like forearms. And it
didn't hurt in the back like I needed it, And
I'm glad. She was just like beating the fool out
of my back. But then she would slide up from
(23:06):
the bottom of my back near the hip, up the side,
through my rib cage up to my shoulder blades. And
she did that like two or three times, and I
jumped up. I said, whoa, you gotta break a rib.
I that pain digging her elbow in between my ribs.
(23:27):
And I said, I just want to let you know
that is not hurting. That's not hurting. But I truly
I was like, am I gonna have to go to
a doctor now because of a cracked rib? Like holy moly.
I was like, where is this five foot four five
foot three woman getting all this power and strength from?
(23:50):
But that elbow was killing me? And I was like,
you got to stop. And then at the end she uh,
She's like, hey, rollover, I'll you know, I'll do your
the bottom of your you know, your shins and caves
real quick. It's like, all right, whatever. I didn't care.
And then she started missing with my feet almost kicked
her in the face, and I felt so bad. She's like,
(24:12):
do you want me to stop? I say, look, it's
an involuntary reaction. I didn't mean to jerk, but you
touched my foot and I damn near kicked you in
the face. And I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I didn't mean
to like like nearly take you out and break your
nose with my heel. Sorry about that, but I wanted
to go. That's what you get from damn near breaking
my ribs. Let me tell you something, not a fan
(24:34):
of deep tissue, not a fan. Give me the sweetest
massage all day. Every day, you know, nice and relaxing
and whatever. God, but here's the thing. So then we're
done and she looks at me and she goes, are
you okay to stand? I'm like, well, yeah, like why
(24:58):
wouldn't I be? And she goes, well, a lot of
times when we do the deep tissue and the lower
back and the glutes and hamstrings, people get wobbly legged.
I'm like, no, I think I'm all right. I'm not lightheaded.
I'm okay. My legs aren't noodles right now. So I'm
you know, got dressed, and we got ready to leave.
(25:20):
She goes, do you want me to walk you to
your car? I said, am I wobbling? She goes, well, no,
I said, okay, No, I'm good. I said, I'm mean
a hell of a lot of pain, but I'm good.
I'm like, you know, you damn your brook a rib
and a verder bruh. But that's okay. But uh, she
(25:40):
was super nice and then she goes, Brett, can I
tell you something? I was like, yep, go ahead. At
this point, I mean you've seen me in mind where
we're not strangers at this point. And she said, uh,
she goes, you need a two hour session. She goes,
eighty minutes, ain't gonna do it. She goes, you got
a lot going on down there at the lower part
of your back. So then when she said that, that's
(26:01):
when I was like, Okay, maybe I should go to
the chipright. If you guys remember last year, I went
through the lower back, a completely separate part of the back.
It was like near the tailbone part, and I had
to do all this therapy stuff before they would even
do an MRI and before they would give me a shot,
I had to do like six weeks of physical therapy
just because that's what insurance requires. I'm like, dude, you're
(26:23):
killing me. Just give me the shot, Just give me
the quarter zone, give me something. So now I'm thinking
about instead of having to go through five or six
weeks of physical therapy for my back or whatever, I
think I'm just gonna go to a chiropractor and see
what that is, see how that works. And if that
(26:45):
doesn't work, then I'm not gonna have a choice. Then
I have to go back to the back doctor. Not thrilled,
not happy, not happy, but like my hip, like glute
and my uh you know, the gluteus maximus, my glute,
my left glute. I'm just laying in bed at night
(27:07):
watching Netflix or of sports or whatever, like it just
starts aching beyond belief. Let me put a cheat this way.
On Monday and Tuesday and Wednesday, Like I'm eating a
thousand milligrams of ibuprofen at the exact same time I'm
taking a thousand milligrams of extra strength talinol. So I'm
(27:30):
getting like two thousand milligrams of pain relief and stuff
into my body, just because that tells you how bad
it's been on that side. So somebody, Isaac told me
that Bernie sort of had something similar with the siatic nerves.
So I got to talk to Bernie about that. Welcome
(27:50):
Back to Breaking with Brett Benson if you got me
for about six more minutes, seven ten. That is the
WBT text line driven by Liberty Buick gmc okay. So
in two days or three days, yeah, Friday Saturday sight
in three days, yours truly will be part of Talk
October Fest on Facebook doing a live stream video with
(28:17):
the one and only the Master, Vince Cokeley. He is
the best and I like to call him the second
most mysterious man in Charlotte, the first being, of course,
being the city manager. So but I am, I am
(28:37):
actually truly excited about this because every time I've said
this in the past, I think I said this earlier
in the week. Every time I'm around Vince, like together,
like in the same room or whatever, he makes me
laugh so much because he's just got this little bit
of snarkiness around him and people have a hard time
determining whether he's being sincere or if he's joking, just
(29:00):
because the way he speaks and he you know, in
the way it comes out, and I just think it's hysterical.
I think it's absolutely sterical, and I can't wait. Well, Brett,
I love it, love it, love it. So anyways, he
and I are going to be doing a live Facebook
stream starting at six pm, starting at six pm on
(29:21):
the WBT Facebook page, right, so looking forward to that,
and then also Saturday will be at six pm. That
will be We're doing it every Saturday and Sunday at
six pm. And it's a different group, different tandem every
single night. So you know, you had like Zochi and
Bo and Winnable did it last week, and then like
(29:42):
I said, this Sunday, it's going to be me and Vince.
By the way, this is the only time I will
be doing it in October this year, so make sure
you join, make sure you watch. You can type in
questions as we go along. I'm sure I'll be on
my rooftop and I'll be firing up a cigar and
(30:05):
maybe have a cocktail in my hand. So join us.
You don't have to have a cocktail. You can. You
can have milk, you can have Coca cola, whatever it is,
you want, whatever it is, but yours truly will be
having a cocktail. I promise you that. And then coming
up October twenty ninth is our news and Bruise. And
(30:29):
that's that hight Brewery, not the one in Noda, it's
the other one. There's two, there's two high St breweries,
one a Noda, the original, and then the other one.
And the other one has a really nice stage and
a really nice setup. And I will tell you sometimes
it can be hard to hear in the back. So
when you get your seats, get there early and move
(30:51):
up towards the front because it sometimes can be difficult
to hear in the back. It just a little bit
sometimes every once in a while, unless people are really quiet,
it will sound like Charlie Brown's teacher. That's what it
sounds like sometimes, especially if there's noise and people are talking,
that's what it will sound like in the back. So
(31:12):
that's why I'm saying get there early and get up front.
Just being honest with you, just just being brutally honest
with you. I want you to have the best seats available.
So again, we are we do this stuff because look,
(31:34):
we do events. We all do events, right, I mean
I've had what I had what six speaking engagements just
in the month of September for goodness sakes, right, So
we you know, we go out and we speak to
you and everything else. But this is also a chance.
On Facebook when we stream it, you get to see us.
(31:55):
Maybe you've never been to any of the events, and
that's totally natural and totally understandable. But now you don't
even have to leave the comfort of your home. You
can just get on Facebook and you can just watch us.
So again, you can ask us questions, you can see
our reactions, our facial expressions, you can see all of that.
(32:17):
And I swear to you, I swear to you. Maybe
the single most annoying thing about being on radio, and
it happens routinely, and everyone thinks they're being funny because
they all think it's an original joke, even though it's
(32:38):
probably been around since nineteen forty, nineteen fifty. You gotta
face for radio, you know how they always say, you
gotta face for TV, you gotta face for me, You
gotta face for radio. I promise you, I've heard that
joke and everyone else in radio has heard that joke
seventeen million times, and that's just in twenty twenty five.
(33:00):
So just do as all a favor. Just leave that alone.
It's not being clever, it's not being funny. And you go,
oh huh, yeah, yeah, I hadn't heard that one? Who
told you that? One? Who wrote that one for you?
That's usually my calmback, Oh clever, who wrote that for you?
So just do us all a favor. The face for radio.
(33:23):
You've heard it a million times. We're good. We're good.
Not saying that it's not true, just saying that we've
heard it. It was a big difference. It may be true. Well,
we've also heard it eighty seven million times since twenty
twenty two, So all right, that's going to do it
for US tonight everyone again. Look forward to doing this
(33:46):
all over again tomorrow and TJ Richie Show is coming
up next. My name is Brett Jenson and you've been
listening to Breaking with Brett Jenson.
Hi Oh, let's go hi Oh, let's go oh, Let's
go oh. Let me talk. Eleven ten at ninety nine
three WBT Brett Jensen here with you on another edition
of Breaking with Brett Jensen as we go up until
(00:42):
seven o'clock tonight, telephone number seven four five seven, eleven ten.
And guys, make sure you follow me on x at
Brett Underscore Jensen for all the lettuce and breaking news
in and around the Charlotte area. Okay, so we got
a lot we're gonna get into tonight, including you know,
sometimes it's not just always news sometimes. You know, you
(01:02):
guys know that I probably am more personable about my
life on air than anyone else here at the station.
I've just always been that way, even way back when
when I was doing sports radio on wfn Z, you know,
literally two decades ago and then fifteen years ago, and
all that the reason I did that or do that.
(01:24):
I mean, you guys know you've heard me talk explicitly
about my dating life or whatever, and so the good stories,
the bad stories, whatever and everything in between. But I
always felt like when I got a radio show, when
they give me my own sports radio show. In twenty eleven,
(01:45):
full time at wfn Z. I knew nothing about radio.
I'd never taken a broadcasting class. I was always the
quote unquote expert sports expert that would come in and
be asked questions or whatever, you know, like how to
have reporters or former athletes like on all the talk
shows and you know, stuff like that. So I knew
nothing about radio, did not take a single broadcasting class
(02:06):
a day in my life. And so I was doing
all this research and I watched even though I'm not
a fan of his per se, but Howard Stern's movie
Private Parts is one of the best movies out there,
Like it is a fantastic movie. Fantastic movie because it
talks about his beginning and how all the struggles and
(02:28):
everything else. But there was a profound moment in that
movie where he said there was a famous scene where
his wife, Allison, is driving in the car with two
relators and the Howard Stern radio show happened to be on,
and in the middle of the show while they're listening,
and they did not know his wife, or they did
(02:49):
not the two realators did not know it was Howard
Stern's wife in the car and they hear him talking
about the miscarriage she had just had. And so afterwards
at the end of the day, because he's talking about
it on air, and these two real estate ladies are
hearing out again, not knowing that's Howard Stern's wife sitting
(03:11):
next to them. So at the end of the day
she goes up and she confronts him about it because
she's extremely ticked off that he would even mention such
a thing on air, and that it's personable and stuff
like that. And he told his wife, he said, look,
I have to get them to know me and to
get them to like me. I have to be honest
(03:31):
with them about everything, because if I start telling lies,
I won't be able to keep up with all the lies.
So I'm just going to be honest. And his daily
life was basically reality TV before there was reality TV.
He was talking about all the things going on in
his life. And I'm like, you know what, that's a
(03:52):
fair point. If something like that were to come up
with me in terms of something personal, I will be
brutally honest about it as much as I can be
in terms of giving the information that I can now. Obviously,
if there's a particular situation where I can't, then I
won't know either to protect the innocent or to protect
the guilty either way. So that has always been my theory.
(04:17):
I'm always going to try to be honest and like
I said a lot of times, I mean, I was
told in nineteen ninety six, Brett, your life is a sitcom.
I was like, yeah, it is, like that was thirty
years ago. Thirty years ago, Brett, your Life's a sitcom. No,
it truly is. Like stupid things happen to me all
the time, good and bad in the terms of stupid,
(04:38):
Like something stupid happened to me a month and a
half ago, and now I'm going to be able to
read the benefits of it next week, and I'm like
kind of geeked out about it. So, but like just weird,
wild things, always in the right place at the wrong time,
something like that type of situation. So I will tell
(05:02):
you what happened to me earlier today, and it it's
something that and most of you are going to be like,
what's the big deal. But for someone who's never experienced
it before, it was a big deal. I would probably say,
I'm just going to take a wild guess. Seventy five
percent eighty percent, eighty five percent of you listening may
(05:27):
have had this happen or you may have done this
particular thing. Today was the first day I did it
ever in my entire life, in my twenty two years
of life. Today was the first day that I'd ever
done that. But so we'll get into that and some
but I think it's kind of funny, That's why I'm
(05:48):
going to tell it. And it's also something that I've
never experienced before. And some of you are going to
go like, dude, suck it up, but it was it
was a thing. It was a thing, and I am
extremely sore right now, like extremely sore. Other things that
we're going to get into when we return so next week.
(06:14):
So you know, you heard me talk about the big
nothing burger of a press conference that they gave uptown
last week, right, the big nothing burger or excuse me,
yesterday they gave uptown yesterday about crime and all that
stuff and how what they're going to do, some new
measures that they're going to do, But they didn't get
into a whole lot of specifics. They did a little bit,
but not a lot. And you know, the CMPD officer
(06:37):
or the major gene Lamb or Jene Limb kept calling
it like the perception, Well, I got news for you.
You know they always like to say, you know, well,
perception's reality, that old cliche.
Speaker 2 (06:52):
Right, how about reality is reality? How about that? Because
I have reality and I have every crime statistic breakdown
in Uptown?
Speaker 1 (07:07):
Because you know, the press conference they had yesterday was
about safety and uptown. The perception on Uptown is they're unsafe.
Residents feel unsafe. The perception the perception, and city leaders
are saying that. CMPD is saying that. So clearly someone's
giving them a talking point so they can all be
on the same page. How about a talking point of yeah,
(07:28):
it sucks uptown because guess what, I have all the data,
every single crime stat you could even ever imagine. I
have everything, and guess what it ain't perception. It is
bold stone cold reality that uptown is extremely dangerous, extremely dangerous,
(07:54):
and I have all the status. You remember how they've
been saying, whoa crime and Charlotte is down? Okay, maybe
it's down in Balentine in Providence, how's that working out
for you? In Uptown? It's through the roof. And I
have all the data. So when we return I'm going
to go through this with you and tell you how
bad Uptown really is and why I avoid Uptown like
the plane. Well about breaking with Brett Jensen. All right,
(08:29):
So something that coincides with the crime sets that I
have for Uptown. This came to me from a very
very very well respected source. Okay, someone I've known for
many years, and I can tell you this. I'm not
(08:58):
reporting it. I am just re laying information. There's a
big difference before we get to the crime stats. Someone
that I trust implicitly just said he was made aware
that the National Guard has been put on an hour
(09:20):
standby for possible deployment to Charlotte members of the National Guard. Now,
this also coincides with a judge in the Northern District
of Illinois saying that the troops have to stand down.
The National Guard has to stand down because you know,
they went into Illinois without being invited. And the governor,
(09:44):
who's a loser of all losers like and just basically
I'm just not a good person in my opinion, has
been fighting this just like the people in Portland or
in Oregon are trying to fight it. So a judge
just ruled tonight that the National Guard has to stand down. Now.
(10:08):
Clearly this will be kicked up the food chain to
the Supreme Court. The ultimate ruling will be the Supreme
Court that will decide whether or not the National Guard
can go into cities without being invited because they can
say a particular clause about the you know, safety and
protection and stuff like that. So we'll see. But had
(10:34):
this ruling gone the other way, which is not surprising
that it went this way considering where it's located, where
the ruling came from. So like, you know, just it's
like the Ninth Circuit. You expect rulings like this. But
someone that I trust very much in the world of
news and have known for a long time said that
(11:00):
it's his understanding that National Guard have been put on
an hour deployment or an hour notice. Now that hour's
notice could last a long time. Doesn't mean that they're
going to be deployed in an hour, just means hey,
just so you know, be ready to go within an
hour if and when we call you. We may not
(11:20):
ever call you, but just be ready and we'll tell
you to stand down when to stand down. Now, again,
I'm not reporting this, so don't say all over Twitter
and Facebook anywhere else. Brett Jensen's reporting. Brett Jenson's not reporting.
I'm just telling you what someone told me that I
trust a lot, and that it's his understanding that National
(11:46):
Guard members have been put on an hour's notice for
deployment to Charlotte. And I know that'll upset a lot
of leaders because they always like to use the word perception,
the perception as sean it's not safe. CMPD would use that,
as a matter of fact. CMPD used it twice yesterday
in their press conference. And here is Major Jean Limb
(12:10):
talking about.
Speaker 3 (12:11):
That in the fourth quarter of this year as a
direct response to residents and businesses who have clearly stated
that Uptown no longer feels safe to them. I want
to be clear that this feeling is unacceptable. This is
a focused, high impact effort to immediately shift the environment
and perception of our center city.
Speaker 1 (12:30):
All right, And then shortly thereafter he came up with
this little ditty about perception.
Speaker 3 (12:36):
The goal is simple and imperative, to achieve an immediate,
tangible improvement in public perception of safety in Uptown, reduce
overall crime, and emphatically reinforce the fundamental mission of policing.
Speaker 1 (12:50):
All right, So perception twice twice. That's coming from a
CMPD major. Okay, And you've heard the word perception from
S leaders and you know things like that. Right. How
about instead of perception, we just use the word reality.
How about them apples, Because when CNBD probably gives what
(13:12):
it gives their press conference next week, if crime is
down at all, they will say crime is down in
the city of Charlotte, Charlotte's safe, okay, Maybe in Providence,
maybe in other areas, you know, the South Park area,
maybe in Myers Park area, maybe in the Balantine area maybe.
(13:38):
But you know where it's not safe. That'd be uptown.
You're playing with your life if you go uptown. Don't
believe me. Murder is up two one hundred percent through
the first three quarters in Uptown, two hundred percent these day.
These numbers go from January first to October fifth, January first,
(14:01):
October fifth, the first three quarters in twenty twenty four,
through the first three quarters three murders so far, nine murders.
That's a two hund percent increase. How about forcible rate
that's up ten percent. How about armed robbery from a
commercial standpoint, up thirty three percent. How about strong armed
(14:22):
robbery and the commercial up one hundred and fourteen percent.
Strong armed robbery personal not commercial up nineteen percent. How
about aggravated assault with a knife up fifty nine percent.
How about aggravated assault with a gun. How about up
eighteen point seventy five percent? Right, I mean again, this
(14:45):
is uh, this is what we do. Vehicle theft up
five percent. It's unbelievable. Look the perception, the perception is
that people are unsafe. Really murder being up two hundred percent.
That doesn't feel like a perception. That feels like a reality.
(15:09):
Theft of motor vehicle parts from a vehicle up thirty
one percent. When I tell you I have every possible
stat you could ever want, I have it. I mean
some of these things I'm not even going to name
on air because it just won't go. It won't go well.
(15:32):
Forcible finding up that is up eight percent, simple assault
up nine percent. It's a intimidation up twenty four percent.
Forgery up thirty five percent. It's again, I'm just going
(15:58):
through all of them, looking at all the data here.
It's just it never ends. It never ends. How about
this drug narcotic violations with marijuana up seventy seven percent.
Drug narcotic violations with opium up thirty thirty four percent.
How about this, drug narcotic violations with synthetic narcotics up
(16:21):
one hundred and thirty three percent. Drug narcotic violations with
dangerous non narcotics third up thirty percent. This is this
is what we This is we I mean, weapon law
violations with a gun up sixty two percent, Weapon law
(16:41):
violations with a knife up fifty percent. Curfew loitering vagrancy
violations up four hundred percent. Okay, I mean this is
this is it, This is what we do. This is
Charlotte missing persons under the age of sixteen up three
(17:04):
hundred and thirty three percent. Is that a little scary
for you? Is that a little scary for you? Again?
But the perception, the perception. If they say the word
perception one more time in my presence, I will immediately
call them out on it. Immediately. I will interrupt them
(17:27):
and say that is blatantly Why are you saying the
word perception? What city pr person told you to use
the word perception? All those numbers I just gave you
are cold hard facts, cold hard facts. Well, the perception
there is that people feel unsafe, and the perception is okay, No,
(17:50):
how about reality? And now you want to know why
the Fraternal Order of Police ask for the National Guard's
help because they are so thin and so short of numbers.
They're like, dude, we have to combat this and we
(18:10):
don't have the manpower. It's not that we can't do
our jobs. We can totally do our jobs. We just
don't have the people to do our jobs. So hey,
National Guard, how about helping out with the manpower. And
like I said, I'm not reporting. I'm not reporting. I'm
not reporting. Did you hear I'm not reporting. I'm relaying
(18:30):
information because I don't have it confirmed. I don't have
it verified. But some that I trust implicitly said that
the National Guard members have told him that they have
been put on an hour stand by notice for deployment
to Charlotte. This comes right after a federal court judge
told the National Guard to stand down when it comes
to Chicago. So my guess is, if I had to guess,
(18:51):
nothing will be happening here in Charlotte until this stuff
goes all the way up to the Supreme Court and
the Supreme Court rules on it one way or the other.
(19:18):
We'll go back to breaking with Bret Jensen on this
Thursday night, Thursday night, Thursday night, Thursday night. Okay, so
now let's get into some personal stuff. Not bad or
anything like that. Nothing, nothing like, oh no, bright, it's
something wrong. No, nothing like that. Like everything's fine, Like,
everything's fine. So last week Thursday, I believe it was Thursday.
(19:45):
I don't think Friday. I think it was Thursday. I
felt this thing in my back, lower left hand corner
of my back, right at the very top of what
would be like my hip bone right and it started swelling,
and then there was a golf ball, not size of
(20:07):
a golf ball, i should say. And then my left
glute or my left cheek as it were, was hurting
and numb, and the numbness would go down halfway down
the back of my hamstring, which is the back of
your leg, about halfway down, and it was getting more
(20:32):
and more painful. I tried to play golf on Sunday.
It was hurting. It was hurting, you know, especially hurt
a lot afterwards, and it really hurts when I'm just
sitting in my car, like it hurts my back, my hip,
my buttock, my left cheek, and then the back of
my leg hamstring. So I was like, oh, you know,
(20:54):
you got a sciatic nerve, You've got this, You've got that.
It's like okay. Then people are like, hey, go to
I'm a massage therapist. Because I'm not the world's biggest
chiropractor guy. I'm just not. I just I sort of
find out about like psychology, like you never get cured,
you always have to go for the rest of your life,
(21:16):
you know. I mean, I'm not putting either one down.
And I know chiropractors, and here's the thing. I know
a lot of people who swear by them, who swear
by chiropractors. My whole thing is, I don't want to
have to go to you every three weeks for the
rest of my life. Like, give me a shot, give
me surgery, be done with it. Whatever. So anyways, so
(21:40):
I went to messus today an eighty minute session, super
nice lady, super super nice, and I told her, I said, look,
I said, I don't care about my chest, I don't
care about my arms. I am here strictly for the
middle of my back down to the middle of my legs.
(22:02):
Only on the back. That's all I care about for
eighty minutes, you know, with the hot stones and aromatherapy.
And she said, do you want a sweetish massage or
deep tissue And I said, I have never had a
deep tissue massage ever in my entire life. And I said,
but everyone tells me I need to get this for
(22:23):
my back because of the knots and everything else, hip flexers, everything.
This I call her girl. I mean, she's clearly a woman.
She's in her mid twenties, five foot four. Maybe she
(22:43):
got in there and started using elbows and putting all
her weight on her elbow and in her wrists and
in her thumbs and on her like forearms. And it
didn't hurt in the back like I needed it, And
I'm glad. She was just like beating the fool out
of my back. But then she would slide up from
(23:06):
the bottom of my back near the hip, up the side,
through my rib cage up to my shoulder blades. And
she did that like two or three times, and I
jumped up. I said, whoa, you gotta break a rib.
I that pain digging her elbow in between my ribs.
(23:27):
And I said, I just want to let you know
that is not hurting. That's not hurting. But I truly
I was like, am I gonna have to go to
a doctor now because of a cracked rib? Like holy moly.
I was like, where is this five foot four five
foot three woman getting all this power and strength from?
(23:50):
But that elbow was killing me? And I was like,
you got to stop. And then at the end she uh,
She's like, hey, rollover, I'll you know, I'll do your
the bottom of your you know, your shins and caves
real quick. It's like, all right, whatever. I didn't care.
And then she started missing with my feet almost kicked
her in the face, and I felt so bad. She's like,
(24:12):
do you want me to stop? I say, look, it's
an involuntary reaction. I didn't mean to jerk, but you
touched my foot and I damn near kicked you in
the face. And I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I didn't mean
to like like nearly take you out and break your
nose with my heel. Sorry about that, but I wanted
to go. That's what you get from damn near breaking
my ribs. Let me tell you something, not a fan
(24:34):
of deep tissue, not a fan. Give me the sweetest
massage all day. Every day, you know, nice and relaxing
and whatever. God, but here's the thing. So then we're
done and she looks at me and she goes, are
you okay to stand? I'm like, well, yeah, like why
(24:58):
wouldn't I be? And she goes, well, a lot of
times when we do the deep tissue and the lower
back and the glutes and hamstrings, people get wobbly legged.
I'm like, no, I think I'm all right. I'm not lightheaded.
I'm okay. My legs aren't noodles right now. So I'm
you know, got dressed, and we got ready to leave.
(25:20):
She goes, do you want me to walk you to
your car? I said, am I wobbling? She goes, well, no,
I said, okay, No, I'm good. I said, I'm mean
a hell of a lot of pain, but I'm good.
I'm like, you know, you damn your brook a rib
and a verder bruh. But that's okay. But uh, she
(25:40):
was super nice and then she goes, Brett, can I
tell you something? I was like, yep, go ahead. At
this point, I mean you've seen me in mind where
we're not strangers at this point. And she said, uh,
she goes, you need a two hour session. She goes,
eighty minutes, ain't gonna do it. She goes, you got
a lot going on down there at the lower part
of your back. So then when she said that, that's
(26:01):
when I was like, Okay, maybe I should go to
the chipright. If you guys remember last year, I went
through the lower back, a completely separate part of the back.
It was like near the tailbone part, and I had
to do all this therapy stuff before they would even
do an MRI and before they would give me a shot,
I had to do like six weeks of physical therapy
just because that's what insurance requires. I'm like, dude, you're
(26:23):
killing me. Just give me the shot, Just give me
the quarter zone, give me something. So now I'm thinking
about instead of having to go through five or six
weeks of physical therapy for my back or whatever, I
think I'm just gonna go to a chiropractor and see
what that is, see how that works. And if that
(26:45):
doesn't work, then I'm not gonna have a choice. Then
I have to go back to the back doctor. Not thrilled,
not happy, not happy, but like my hip, like glute
and my uh you know, the gluteus maximus, my glute,
my left glute. I'm just laying in bed at night
(27:07):
watching Netflix or of sports or whatever, like it just
starts aching beyond belief. Let me put a cheat this way.
On Monday and Tuesday and Wednesday, Like I'm eating a
thousand milligrams of ibuprofen at the exact same time I'm
taking a thousand milligrams of extra strength talinol. So I'm
(27:30):
getting like two thousand milligrams of pain relief and stuff
into my body, just because that tells you how bad
it's been on that side. So somebody, Isaac told me
that Bernie sort of had something similar with the siatic nerves.
So I got to talk to Bernie about that. Welcome
(27:50):
Back to Breaking with Brett Benson if you got me
for about six more minutes, seven ten. That is the
WBT text line driven by Liberty Buick gmc okay. So
in two days or three days, yeah, Friday Saturday sight
in three days, yours truly will be part of Talk
October Fest on Facebook doing a live stream video with
(28:17):
the one and only the Master, Vince Cokeley. He is
the best and I like to call him the second
most mysterious man in Charlotte, the first being, of course,
being the city manager. So but I am, I am
(28:37):
actually truly excited about this because every time I've said
this in the past, I think I said this earlier
in the week. Every time I'm around Vince, like together,
like in the same room or whatever, he makes me
laugh so much because he's just got this little bit
of snarkiness around him and people have a hard time
determining whether he's being sincere or if he's joking, just
(29:00):
because the way he speaks and he you know, in
the way it comes out, and I just think it's hysterical.
I think it's absolutely sterical, and I can't wait. Well, Brett,
I love it, love it, love it. So anyways, he
and I are going to be doing a live Facebook
stream starting at six pm, starting at six pm on
(29:21):
the WBT Facebook page, right, so looking forward to that,
and then also Saturday will be at six pm. That
will be We're doing it every Saturday and Sunday at
six pm. And it's a different group, different tandem every
single night. So you know, you had like Zochi and
Bo and Winnable did it last week, and then like
(29:42):
I said, this Sunday, it's going to be me and Vince.
By the way, this is the only time I will
be doing it in October this year, so make sure
you join, make sure you watch. You can type in
questions as we go along. I'm sure I'll be on
my rooftop and I'll be firing up a cigar and
(30:05):
maybe have a cocktail in my hand. So join us.
You don't have to have a cocktail. You can. You
can have milk, you can have Coca cola, whatever it is,
you want, whatever it is, but yours truly will be
having a cocktail. I promise you that. And then coming
up October twenty ninth is our news and Bruise. And
(30:29):
that's that hight Brewery, not the one in Noda, it's
the other one. There's two, there's two high St breweries,
one a Noda, the original, and then the other one.
And the other one has a really nice stage and
a really nice setup. And I will tell you sometimes
it can be hard to hear in the back. So
when you get your seats, get there early and move
(30:51):
up towards the front because it sometimes can be difficult
to hear in the back. It just a little bit
sometimes every once in a while, unless people are really quiet,
it will sound like Charlie Brown's teacher. That's what it
sounds like sometimes, especially if there's noise and people are talking,
that's what it will sound like in the back. So
(31:12):
that's why I'm saying get there early and get up front.
Just being honest with you, just just being brutally honest
with you. I want you to have the best seats available.
So again, we are we do this stuff because look,
(31:34):
we do events. We all do events, right, I mean
I've had what I had what six speaking engagements just
in the month of September for goodness sakes, right, So
we you know, we go out and we speak to
you and everything else. But this is also a chance.
On Facebook when we stream it, you get to see us.
(31:55):
Maybe you've never been to any of the events, and
that's totally natural and totally understandable. But now you don't
even have to leave the comfort of your home. You
can just get on Facebook and you can just watch us.
So again, you can ask us questions, you can see
our reactions, our facial expressions, you can see all of that.
(32:17):
And I swear to you, I swear to you. Maybe
the single most annoying thing about being on radio, and
it happens routinely, and everyone thinks they're being funny because
they all think it's an original joke, even though it's
(32:38):
probably been around since nineteen forty, nineteen fifty. You gotta
face for radio, you know how they always say, you
gotta face for TV, you gotta face for me, You
gotta face for radio. I promise you, I've heard that
joke and everyone else in radio has heard that joke
seventeen million times, and that's just in twenty twenty five.
(33:00):
So just do as all a favor. Just leave that alone.
It's not being clever, it's not being funny. And you go,
oh huh, yeah, yeah, I hadn't heard that one? Who
told you that? One? Who wrote that one for you?
That's usually my calmback, Oh clever, who wrote that for you?
So just do us all a favor. The face for radio.
(33:23):
You've heard it a million times. We're good. We're good.
Not saying that it's not true, just saying that we've
heard it. It was a big difference. It may be true. Well,
we've also heard it eighty seven million times since twenty
twenty two, So all right, that's going to do it
for US tonight everyone again. Look forward to doing this
(33:46):
all over again tomorrow and TJ Richie Show is coming
up next. My name is Brett Jenson and you've been
listening to Breaking with Brett Jenson.
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CrimeLess: Hillbilly Heist
It’s 1996 in rural North Carolina, and an oddball crew makes history when they pull off America’s third largest cash heist. But it’s all downhill from there. Join host Johnny Knoxville as he unspools a wild and woolly tale about a group of regular ‘ol folks who risked it all for a chance at a better life. CrimeLess: Hillbilly Heist answers the question: what would you do with 17.3 million dollars? The answer includes diamond rings, mansions, velvet Elvis paintings, plus a run for the border, murder-for-hire-plots, and FBI busts.