August 4, 2025 • 18 mins
Former Vice Mayor of Cincinnati Chris Smitherman joins Willie to talk about the infamous brawl that happened in Cincinnati's downtown core.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:03):
Billy Cunningham, the great American. Of course, the other day
was put together a town hall meeting, which I love
these events in which the media largely is ignored. The
activists have their say, but normal people can come together.
This afternoon five point thirty at Jim and Jacks. I've
been there once or twice. By the way, they have
great Hamburgers on River Road, which is on the outskirts
of Cincinnati near Dell High Township. But nonetheless Jim and
(00:25):
Jacks as the sight is today of Viveke Ramaswami, the
man who would be the governor. He's winning in the
polls by about forty percent. But of course Viveke Ramaswami
once a local connection. And there's no better local connection
to what's happening here than Christopher Smitherman, former Vice Mayor,
been on council for many years, former President ANDAACP and
(00:45):
he's going to be there with vivike Rama Swaman to
keep an eye on things and Vice Mayor Smitherman. Welcome
again to the Bill Cunningham showing first of all over
the last ago nine or ten days. This is such
a big story that Scott Sloane relates that on the
end out back of Australia, where he spent the last
ten days. He was in a hut somewhere and his
phone was able to get a signal, and he's watching
(01:07):
the events in Cincinnati, eight thousand miles away. I got
calls from Europe, which happens every now and then from
the bbcnlsewhere also spoke to some German radio station about
what's happening in America, what's happening in Cincinnati, which is emblematic.
They're telling me of every major city in America. So
how does Christopher Smitherman, the former president of the NAACP,
(01:31):
a leader in this town, how do you process what
happened ten days ago?
Speaker 2 (01:36):
Well, one is I hope tonight that I can do
a good job representing Cincinnati, having been the former vice mayor,
and I make everybody proud. And the message is one
of solutions and hope and giving people the opportunity to
share what they think the solutions are. But I think
(01:57):
part of it has to be looking at what's been
happening at city Hall. We don't want to be an ostrich,
put our head in the sand and act like the
comments that are coming from the president pro tim for example,
saying that those who were victims begged for the fight,
for the beatdown that happened, like we can't we can't
avoid these big things. That's what that's what's been happening.
(02:20):
We've been sweeping these things under the rug. There's no
one there. Holly did not deserve to be punched in
the face. I thought she was dead when she hit
the ground, the way her eyes went still on the video,
the blood that came out of her mouth, I've never
seen anything more serious and more horrific. And I really
haven't been able to watch the video more than one
(02:41):
or two times because of the violence, the WWE stuff
that I saw. Willie. A lot of people have not
seen that part of the video where you have this
African American male who's acting like he's jumping off the
top rope in some and sometime for ring and landing
on the body of the white male that's in the
middle of the street. And he did that two or
three times. It was through the cheers of the of
(03:04):
the crowd watching while they were videotaping it. And then
we saw the man who just was was knocked out
and the and the commentator was saying here it Colins
put him to sleep. They put him, they punched him
in his face, They tell him he shouldn't be walking
out downtown. They tell him this is karma. They grab
his leg and pull him in the middle of the
street as he's knocked out. This is what actually happened,
(03:26):
and we've got to face the reality of what is happening.
And I don't understand the mayor at his press conference
having been gone probably a week, a week and a half,
but let's say it's been a week to come back
in town. I was really looking for his leadership to say,
first what happened to the victims was wrong and that
he doesn't condone it at all. Two that he called
for the resignation of council Member Victoria Parks, who made
(03:49):
the comment that the that the victims were begging for it.
I was looking for that from the leadership of the
strong mayor. And then the third part was for him
to be very clear that he was against violence, any violence.
There is no excuse, There is no way that you
can explain this away. So everybody walked away thinking it's
our fault, it's Willie's fault, it's the media's fault. It's
(04:09):
the alcohol's fault. It's everybody. It's the police department. They
had no part in it. They had to you know.
It's like the mayor, the city manager, the police chief,
the members of council took no ownership for being understaffed,
underprepared for big events that were happening in downtown. Your
mayor was absent and then took the vacation. He didn't
(04:31):
own any of it. And that's what we needed to
hear from him on Friday.
Speaker 1 (04:35):
Going back a little bit, you're a father, I'm a father,
hopefully I think you have a grand child. I have
a couple. I love them with my life anything. And
to use your five year old son as an excuse
to be absent from your jobs despicable. Let's go back
a little bit. It wasn't a secret the dates of
the music festival. It wasn't a secret the Reds are
(04:57):
in town against Tampa. It wasn't a secret that the
ice Cube, my new wrapping buddy, was having his big
three tennis tourny. And in other words, there's a quarter
of a million people, mainly from out of town, coming
to Cincinnati to your town. And so when you schedule
time with your family, which everyone needs. You don't do
it for that weekend. You don't say, Okay, of all
the weekends I could take, let's take let's go to
(05:19):
Canada for that week. And I thought it was week
for him to use his son's five year old before
he goes to half day kindergarten in two weeks. We
need we needed some time alone in Canada. Now that
was weak. I wanted a mayor to come up with
a better excuse than that. But secondly, when you had
Victoria Parks saying that the Holly begged for that beatdown,
(05:41):
the knockout game. One punch and you're out that Victoria Parks.
We all have bad days. I mean you've said things.
I've said that, but then to double down a couple
of days later and say, you know what, that's exactly
what I think should have happened. Holly begged to be
punched like that. To me, it is despicable. But here
can I ask you the big question is a little
(06:02):
bit early?
Speaker 3 (06:03):
Oh ask you?
Speaker 1 (06:04):
Because you and I are brothers from a different mother.
It can be Cincinnati, Atlanta, Memphis, Chicago.
Speaker 3 (06:11):
Just picked the city. I've done a little quick math.
Speaker 1 (06:14):
Cincinnati is a majority white community, if someone wants to
think about it in the racial terms. According to US
Census Bureau in twenty twenty, fifty percent or white in
the city, forty five percent or block, and five percent
shallisy or others. I never answer questions on these questionnaires.
What race am I I'm an American. I'm in the
human race. I don't add, subtract, multiply, and divide by race,
(06:37):
but a whole bunch of the Democratic Party does.
Speaker 3 (06:41):
It's all about race.
Speaker 1 (06:42):
And if you had situations with for example, Jesse Similette,
it was all about race and the media went crazy.
Tijuana Brawley was all about race and the media went nuts.
The Duke La Cross charade went nuts. The Covington kids
from Covington Catholic went crazy. Mike Brown hands up, don't shoot,
the media went crazy. The NASCAR nows and media went nuts.
(07:05):
George Zimmerman became a white Hispanic when he killed Trayvon Martin.
It's always about race. The media surveys the scene and
tries to find something about race, but it's a certain
kind of racial story.
Speaker 3 (07:17):
So here's my question.
Speaker 1 (07:18):
I'm getting ready to ask you a question because you're
a great father from a good family. I'll never forget
I'm a Christ Hospital with a family member. I go
into this little chapel and there's a chapel dedicated to
your father at Christ Hospital, and I said, man, that's special.
We live in a city in which the face of
crime is a young black male face. And I've run
(07:39):
some brief numbers about six percent of the city of Cincinnati,
it's between the ages of fifteen and thirty six percent
black mails between the age of fifteen and thirty that
commit about eighty to ninety percent of the crime in
the city.
Speaker 3 (07:55):
The majority. It's a majority white city.
Speaker 1 (07:57):
And I don't see a whole I think your friend
and mine Damon Lynch, said, all the pictures on TV
were black males. Well, they're the ones who committed the offenses.
If the opposite have been true, they have white males,
and white males commit all kinds of offenses all the time.
So why is it that six percent of the population
of the city of Cincinnati commit eighty to ninety percent
(08:20):
of the crime.
Speaker 3 (08:21):
Why?
Speaker 2 (08:22):
Well, well, part of that is just the breakdown of
the family. I mean, at the heart of it, right,
we have fathers that are not fully engaged with their children.
It's a big issue. I have been advocating to Hamilton
County to make sure that they hold dad's accountable for
child support. That's another big problem. You can't have someone
(08:45):
who's working under the table, working with businesses and leaving
the mothers without getting their resources. But at the end
of the day, the quick question is family breakdown. We
have a public school system that's not up to par.
The biggest way to get out into the middle class
is a great education, not having a child early in
(09:05):
your life. These are just kind of two basic things.
If you hit a bad education, you have a children,
a child too early in life, where you have like
a sixteen year old who's raising a child, it is
very difficult to get into the middle class, in the
upper middle class, and so we have this dynamic that's
going on. But it's also important for me to tell
(09:27):
my white brother that, you know, the super majority of
African Americans in this country, not just in Cincinnati and
Hamilton County, get up every day, go to work, pay
their bills, and are not involved in any of this
craziness that you're talking about. And they are the silent majority,
meaning they're calling me going Lord, what in the world
is happening? Like, why do I have? Why am I
looking at my stream? No matter what has happened like
(09:50):
this notion that poverty and values are connected are wrong.
There are people who are poor who have very high values.
They're single mothers out there day who are taking their
kids to school, doing their homework with them, making sure
they're doing everything they can to support their family and
their moms and dad who have children in their homes
(10:10):
that are African American, the super majority of them trying
to handle their business. So I think it's important that
we frame this as these are a very small number
of people, and these are people that continue to repeat
the crime. We have judges that are not doing their job, Willie.
It's one part of this. Like if you've got somebody
with a gun that shoots somebody, why are they having
these low bonds? Why are they letting them out? That
(10:32):
makes no sense to me. We have prosecutors that want
to prosecute, and we have cops that want to do
their job. But if a cops arrest somebody and then
one app you know, they arrest them on a Friday
on a Monday, a shooter, we call them a shooter,
they're back on the street. It undermines the whole judicial system.
So it's a very big picture thing that includes the
public school system and its own failures in the city
(10:54):
of Sysiety and across the United States of America. The
other point that I want to make is the LA
Mayor and the mayor of the City of Cincinnati have
something in common. Both of them like to travel at
the wrong time. I mean, he didn't even learn from
what we saw right by the LA Mayor that here here,
she's out of the country. I think she was in
Africa while while there were wildfires burning in La Meaning
(11:18):
this mayor knew that we had high levels of violence
that were happening on the banks, youth that we are
not in check. We had curfews that were not being enforced.
We had a big three, three big events that are
happening in your downtown. And you decide to go to
a mayor's conference, leave the mayor's conference, and then go
to some type of vacation. Meaning there was nothing he
(11:39):
was willing to give up to make sure that his
town was together. I'm saying to you that remember the mayor,
the vice mayor, and President pro tem, the President pro
Tem said, has said publicly and doubled down on it.
What happened to those victims, including Holly? They begged for it,
I did. There's a problem at city Hall, and I
(12:00):
think that the election in November, if the fifty two
neighborhoods don't get it now, they'll never get it if
they don't know if Product Hills, North Side, Clifton as examples, Roseline,
bond Hill, Westwood Price. So if they don't get it
now based on what they're seeing, the lack of leadership
that's coming out of city Hall in November, if they
(12:22):
don't want to make a change, then guess what elections
have consequences? Will the cutting hands?
Speaker 1 (12:28):
I would also did a little quick figuring, and we're
talking about six percent committing about eighty ninety percent of
the crime. However, that six percent has a total. Is
there black males between the ages of fifteen and thirty.
There's approximately twenty thousand black males between the ages of
fifteen and thirty in the city of Cincinnati, twenty thousand,
(12:51):
and of that number, about one thousand commit disproportionate commit
the crime. So that means about ninety five percent of
young black kids are functional, performing, not taking. But the
six percent commit eighty ninety percent but crime of crime.
(13:13):
But ninety to ninety five percent of black youth in
the city of Cincinnati males aren't.
Speaker 3 (13:18):
Committing any crime at all. So those are the numbers.
That's a blair to me.
Speaker 1 (13:24):
And I don't want America or Cincinnati to descend into
a tribal morass of double standards and racial fixations.
Speaker 3 (13:32):
Let's deal with the behavior.
Speaker 1 (13:34):
Of that group or that individual, white, black, or otherwise.
Deal with the behavior in a fair harsh way, but
let's not paint with such a broad brush. When I
see a young black kid, I think about your children.
I don't think about Ryan Hinton. I think about and
if there's four kids coming at me and they're white
(13:55):
and they have tattoos and their hats are on crooked,
I'm thinking this might be a problem. I got four
black guys walking toward me that look like you. I
don't see a problem, but I'm looking for it. And
so and so we have to understand, don't throw the
baby out with the bathwater. Now, what's gonna happen this
say afternoon at a five thirty with you in Viavek Ramaswami.
Speaker 2 (14:15):
If anything solutions, you know, an opportunity for people to
come and vent obviously. But then at the end of
the day, this is about bringing us together and being productive,
and so that's the that's the objective of this. I
hope that the mayor and the leadership of city Council
because believe me, they could have called a special session
(14:35):
of council and kind of come out of summer recess
anywhere in this I would have done that if I
were the vice mayor. I think Mayor John Cranley would
have done that, and he were the mayor. As a
matter of fact, John Cranley would not have left the
city with three officers downtown, you know, at two or
three o'clock in the morning. You know, I think people
miss John Cranley and they can see the difference. As
hard as John could be, they can now see the
(14:57):
difference between his leadership and the current leaders But having
said that, this is all about positive energy, giving people
an opportunity to share their stories and for us to
also send a different message out of Cincinnati right because
the message right now is that we're okay with this,
that we're okay with African Americans beating up white people
(15:18):
in the middle of the street and making excuses for it.
There is no excuse for this violence. People say, well,
someone used the in word. I've listened to the video, Willie.
You cannot determine who's using the in word, right that's
number one. Number two, that the slap that we talk
about right like that doesn't excuse twenty or thirty people
descending on four or five people, kicking them in the head,
(15:41):
stramming them on the ground, knocking them out, punching a
woman in the face and almost killing her. That was
like second, that was like almost murder to me. Nothing
that I have heard excuses it. When I don't understand,
I really do not understand this. I don't understand why
the mayor, while anybody on council, the city manager, while
(16:01):
why it seems like they're protecting those criminals who are
engaging in that behavior. I don't get it. You know,
at the end of the day, if you're a leader
in this city, you're and I'm the former president of
the Cincinnatian Double ACP. This is where you weigh in
as the n Double ACP, and you call a ball
a ball, a strike a strike. Remember the NAACP was
(16:23):
started by Jewish people, white people and African Americans. It's
a group that's about bringing people together. It's not a
divisive group. You're just supposed to be out there calling
ball's ball strike strike. If I were the president of
the Cincinnati in DOUBLEACP, I would be on the record
saying what happened in downtown was not even close to
our best, that this was not a fight. I wouldn't
(16:44):
even use that word. This was an ambush. This was
an ambush. This was something that never should have happened.
And I even am taking a step and I owned
this that I think that this was a hate crime.
I think that we should view it that way untill differently,
and that's why the federal government is looking at it.
Willie Cunningham meaning if this were in reverse in conclusion,
(17:07):
in my comment, if this were in researse, meaning if
there were a group of white people that has surrounded
three or four or five African Americans in the streets.
They were doing the WWE, jumping off like and slamming
their bodies on people, knocking them out. They knocked out
an African American woman cold and looking like she was
almost dead. We would have everybody in the city of
(17:28):
Cincinnati marching on us demanding justice for everything. And that's
the reality. And we've got to make sure that we
don't send the message that the white people that were
downtown that their life is worth less than anybody else's life.
Speaker 1 (17:42):
I need you to get back in public service if possible,
but we got to run. Christopher Smitherman five point thirty today,
you and favek Ramaswami at Jim and Jackson River Road
on the outskirts of Cincinnati. I've been there a couple
of times. I love Jim and Jackson. Christopher Smitherman, good
lucky five Ye Can I.
Speaker 2 (17:57):
Just correct one thing. Jim and Jackson is in the
city of Cincinnati. It's about two miles out. It's not
in jil High And I want to tease those who
live on the eastern side of town like they're not
going to California, Like this is like just the west
side of town, and it's about a couple of miles out.
So it is absolutely. The owner lives in Price Hill.
(18:19):
He's lived in the same house for fifty four years.
He's owned the business for forty one years, and the
super majority of all of his employees actually live and
pay taxes in the city of Cincinnati. Want to make
that clear.
Speaker 1 (18:30):
Good Luck tonight at five thirty. Good Luck. Let's continue
with more. Remember race should not matter when it comes
to this kind of human behavior. Treat the behavior and
don't blame a race for the misbehavior of a few.
Bill Cunningham News Radio seven hundred WLW
Billy Cunningham, the great American. Of course, the other day
was put together a town hall meeting, which I love
these events in which the media largely is ignored. The
activists have their say, but normal people can come together.
This afternoon five point thirty at Jim and Jacks. I've
been there once or twice. By the way, they have
great Hamburgers on River Road, which is on the outskirts
of Cincinnati near Dell High Township. But nonetheless Jim and
(00:25):
Jacks as the sight is today of Viveke Ramaswami, the
man who would be the governor. He's winning in the
polls by about forty percent. But of course Viveke Ramaswami
once a local connection. And there's no better local connection
to what's happening here than Christopher Smitherman, former Vice Mayor,
been on council for many years, former President ANDAACP and
(00:45):
he's going to be there with vivike Rama Swaman to
keep an eye on things and Vice Mayor Smitherman. Welcome
again to the Bill Cunningham showing first of all over
the last ago nine or ten days. This is such
a big story that Scott Sloane relates that on the
end out back of Australia, where he spent the last
ten days. He was in a hut somewhere and his
phone was able to get a signal, and he's watching
(01:07):
the events in Cincinnati, eight thousand miles away. I got
calls from Europe, which happens every now and then from
the bbcnlsewhere also spoke to some German radio station about
what's happening in America, what's happening in Cincinnati, which is emblematic.
They're telling me of every major city in America. So
how does Christopher Smitherman, the former president of the NAACP,
(01:31):
a leader in this town, how do you process what
happened ten days ago?
Speaker 2 (01:36):
Well, one is I hope tonight that I can do
a good job representing Cincinnati, having been the former vice mayor,
and I make everybody proud. And the message is one
of solutions and hope and giving people the opportunity to
share what they think the solutions are. But I think
(01:57):
part of it has to be looking at what's been
happening at city Hall. We don't want to be an ostrich,
put our head in the sand and act like the
comments that are coming from the president pro tim for example,
saying that those who were victims begged for the fight,
for the beatdown that happened, like we can't we can't
avoid these big things. That's what that's what's been happening.
(02:20):
We've been sweeping these things under the rug. There's no
one there. Holly did not deserve to be punched in
the face. I thought she was dead when she hit
the ground, the way her eyes went still on the video,
the blood that came out of her mouth, I've never
seen anything more serious and more horrific. And I really
haven't been able to watch the video more than one
(02:41):
or two times because of the violence, the WWE stuff
that I saw. Willie. A lot of people have not
seen that part of the video where you have this
African American male who's acting like he's jumping off the
top rope in some and sometime for ring and landing
on the body of the white male that's in the
middle of the street. And he did that two or
three times. It was through the cheers of the of
(03:04):
the crowd watching while they were videotaping it. And then
we saw the man who just was was knocked out
and the and the commentator was saying here it Colins
put him to sleep. They put him, they punched him
in his face, They tell him he shouldn't be walking
out downtown. They tell him this is karma. They grab
his leg and pull him in the middle of the
street as he's knocked out. This is what actually happened,
(03:26):
and we've got to face the reality of what is happening.
And I don't understand the mayor at his press conference
having been gone probably a week, a week and a half,
but let's say it's been a week to come back
in town. I was really looking for his leadership to say,
first what happened to the victims was wrong and that
he doesn't condone it at all. Two that he called
for the resignation of council Member Victoria Parks, who made
(03:49):
the comment that the that the victims were begging for it.
I was looking for that from the leadership of the
strong mayor. And then the third part was for him
to be very clear that he was against violence, any violence.
There is no excuse, There is no way that you
can explain this away. So everybody walked away thinking it's
our fault, it's Willie's fault, it's the media's fault. It's
(04:09):
the alcohol's fault. It's everybody. It's the police department. They
had no part in it. They had to you know.
It's like the mayor, the city manager, the police chief,
the members of council took no ownership for being understaffed,
underprepared for big events that were happening in downtown. Your
mayor was absent and then took the vacation. He didn't
(04:31):
own any of it. And that's what we needed to
hear from him on Friday.
Speaker 1 (04:35):
Going back a little bit, you're a father, I'm a father,
hopefully I think you have a grand child. I have
a couple. I love them with my life anything. And
to use your five year old son as an excuse
to be absent from your jobs despicable. Let's go back
a little bit. It wasn't a secret the dates of
the music festival. It wasn't a secret the Reds are
(04:57):
in town against Tampa. It wasn't a secret that the
ice Cube, my new wrapping buddy, was having his big
three tennis tourny. And in other words, there's a quarter
of a million people, mainly from out of town, coming
to Cincinnati to your town. And so when you schedule
time with your family, which everyone needs. You don't do
it for that weekend. You don't say, Okay, of all
the weekends I could take, let's take let's go to
(05:19):
Canada for that week. And I thought it was week
for him to use his son's five year old before
he goes to half day kindergarten in two weeks. We
need we needed some time alone in Canada. Now that
was weak. I wanted a mayor to come up with
a better excuse than that. But secondly, when you had
Victoria Parks saying that the Holly begged for that beatdown,
(05:41):
the knockout game. One punch and you're out that Victoria Parks.
We all have bad days. I mean you've said things.
I've said that, but then to double down a couple
of days later and say, you know what, that's exactly
what I think should have happened. Holly begged to be
punched like that. To me, it is despicable. But here
can I ask you the big question is a little
(06:02):
bit early?
Speaker 3 (06:03):
Oh ask you?
Speaker 1 (06:04):
Because you and I are brothers from a different mother.
It can be Cincinnati, Atlanta, Memphis, Chicago.
Speaker 3 (06:11):
Just picked the city. I've done a little quick math.
Speaker 1 (06:14):
Cincinnati is a majority white community, if someone wants to
think about it in the racial terms. According to US
Census Bureau in twenty twenty, fifty percent or white in
the city, forty five percent or block, and five percent
shallisy or others. I never answer questions on these questionnaires.
What race am I I'm an American. I'm in the
human race. I don't add, subtract, multiply, and divide by race,
(06:37):
but a whole bunch of the Democratic Party does.
Speaker 3 (06:41):
It's all about race.
Speaker 1 (06:42):
And if you had situations with for example, Jesse Similette,
it was all about race and the media went crazy.
Tijuana Brawley was all about race and the media went nuts.
The Duke La Cross charade went nuts. The Covington kids
from Covington Catholic went crazy. Mike Brown hands up, don't shoot,
the media went crazy. The NASCAR nows and media went nuts.
(07:05):
George Zimmerman became a white Hispanic when he killed Trayvon Martin.
It's always about race. The media surveys the scene and
tries to find something about race, but it's a certain
kind of racial story.
Speaker 3 (07:17):
So here's my question.
Speaker 1 (07:18):
I'm getting ready to ask you a question because you're
a great father from a good family. I'll never forget
I'm a Christ Hospital with a family member. I go
into this little chapel and there's a chapel dedicated to
your father at Christ Hospital, and I said, man, that's special.
We live in a city in which the face of
crime is a young black male face. And I've run
(07:39):
some brief numbers about six percent of the city of Cincinnati,
it's between the ages of fifteen and thirty six percent
black mails between the age of fifteen and thirty that
commit about eighty to ninety percent of the crime in
the city.
Speaker 3 (07:55):
The majority. It's a majority white city.
Speaker 1 (07:57):
And I don't see a whole I think your friend
and mine Damon Lynch, said, all the pictures on TV
were black males. Well, they're the ones who committed the offenses.
If the opposite have been true, they have white males,
and white males commit all kinds of offenses all the time.
So why is it that six percent of the population
of the city of Cincinnati commit eighty to ninety percent
(08:20):
of the crime.
Speaker 3 (08:21):
Why?
Speaker 2 (08:22):
Well, well, part of that is just the breakdown of
the family. I mean, at the heart of it, right,
we have fathers that are not fully engaged with their children.
It's a big issue. I have been advocating to Hamilton
County to make sure that they hold dad's accountable for
child support. That's another big problem. You can't have someone
(08:45):
who's working under the table, working with businesses and leaving
the mothers without getting their resources. But at the end
of the day, the quick question is family breakdown. We
have a public school system that's not up to par.
The biggest way to get out into the middle class
is a great education, not having a child early in
(09:05):
your life. These are just kind of two basic things.
If you hit a bad education, you have a children,
a child too early in life, where you have like
a sixteen year old who's raising a child, it is
very difficult to get into the middle class, in the
upper middle class, and so we have this dynamic that's
going on. But it's also important for me to tell
(09:27):
my white brother that, you know, the super majority of
African Americans in this country, not just in Cincinnati and
Hamilton County, get up every day, go to work, pay
their bills, and are not involved in any of this
craziness that you're talking about. And they are the silent majority,
meaning they're calling me going Lord, what in the world
is happening? Like, why do I have? Why am I
looking at my stream? No matter what has happened like
(09:50):
this notion that poverty and values are connected are wrong.
There are people who are poor who have very high values.
They're single mothers out there day who are taking their
kids to school, doing their homework with them, making sure
they're doing everything they can to support their family and
their moms and dad who have children in their homes
(10:10):
that are African American, the super majority of them trying
to handle their business. So I think it's important that
we frame this as these are a very small number
of people, and these are people that continue to repeat
the crime. We have judges that are not doing their job, Willie.
It's one part of this. Like if you've got somebody
with a gun that shoots somebody, why are they having
these low bonds? Why are they letting them out? That
(10:32):
makes no sense to me. We have prosecutors that want
to prosecute, and we have cops that want to do
their job. But if a cops arrest somebody and then
one app you know, they arrest them on a Friday
on a Monday, a shooter, we call them a shooter,
they're back on the street. It undermines the whole judicial system.
So it's a very big picture thing that includes the
public school system and its own failures in the city
(10:54):
of Sysiety and across the United States of America. The
other point that I want to make is the LA
Mayor and the mayor of the City of Cincinnati have
something in common. Both of them like to travel at
the wrong time. I mean, he didn't even learn from
what we saw right by the LA Mayor that here here,
she's out of the country. I think she was in
Africa while while there were wildfires burning in La Meaning
(11:18):
this mayor knew that we had high levels of violence
that were happening on the banks, youth that we are
not in check. We had curfews that were not being enforced.
We had a big three, three big events that are
happening in your downtown. And you decide to go to
a mayor's conference, leave the mayor's conference, and then go
to some type of vacation. Meaning there was nothing he
(11:39):
was willing to give up to make sure that his
town was together. I'm saying to you that remember the mayor,
the vice mayor, and President pro tem, the President pro
Tem said, has said publicly and doubled down on it.
What happened to those victims, including Holly? They begged for it,
I did. There's a problem at city Hall, and I
(12:00):
think that the election in November, if the fifty two
neighborhoods don't get it now, they'll never get it if
they don't know if Product Hills, North Side, Clifton as examples, Roseline,
bond Hill, Westwood Price. So if they don't get it
now based on what they're seeing, the lack of leadership
that's coming out of city Hall in November, if they
(12:22):
don't want to make a change, then guess what elections
have consequences? Will the cutting hands?
Speaker 1 (12:28):
I would also did a little quick figuring, and we're
talking about six percent committing about eighty ninety percent of
the crime. However, that six percent has a total. Is
there black males between the ages of fifteen and thirty.
There's approximately twenty thousand black males between the ages of
fifteen and thirty in the city of Cincinnati, twenty thousand,
(12:51):
and of that number, about one thousand commit disproportionate commit
the crime. So that means about ninety five percent of
young black kids are functional, performing, not taking. But the
six percent commit eighty ninety percent but crime of crime.
(13:13):
But ninety to ninety five percent of black youth in
the city of Cincinnati males aren't.
Speaker 3 (13:18):
Committing any crime at all. So those are the numbers.
That's a blair to me.
Speaker 1 (13:24):
And I don't want America or Cincinnati to descend into
a tribal morass of double standards and racial fixations.
Speaker 3 (13:32):
Let's deal with the behavior.
Speaker 1 (13:34):
Of that group or that individual, white, black, or otherwise.
Deal with the behavior in a fair harsh way, but
let's not paint with such a broad brush. When I
see a young black kid, I think about your children.
I don't think about Ryan Hinton. I think about and
if there's four kids coming at me and they're white
(13:55):
and they have tattoos and their hats are on crooked,
I'm thinking this might be a problem. I got four
black guys walking toward me that look like you. I
don't see a problem, but I'm looking for it. And
so and so we have to understand, don't throw the
baby out with the bathwater. Now, what's gonna happen this
say afternoon at a five thirty with you in Viavek Ramaswami.
Speaker 2 (14:15):
If anything solutions, you know, an opportunity for people to
come and vent obviously. But then at the end of
the day, this is about bringing us together and being productive,
and so that's the that's the objective of this. I
hope that the mayor and the leadership of city Council
because believe me, they could have called a special session
(14:35):
of council and kind of come out of summer recess
anywhere in this I would have done that if I
were the vice mayor. I think Mayor John Cranley would
have done that, and he were the mayor. As a
matter of fact, John Cranley would not have left the
city with three officers downtown, you know, at two or
three o'clock in the morning. You know, I think people
miss John Cranley and they can see the difference. As
hard as John could be, they can now see the
(14:57):
difference between his leadership and the current leaders But having
said that, this is all about positive energy, giving people
an opportunity to share their stories and for us to
also send a different message out of Cincinnati right because
the message right now is that we're okay with this,
that we're okay with African Americans beating up white people
(15:18):
in the middle of the street and making excuses for it.
There is no excuse for this violence. People say, well,
someone used the in word. I've listened to the video, Willie.
You cannot determine who's using the in word, right that's
number one. Number two, that the slap that we talk
about right like that doesn't excuse twenty or thirty people
descending on four or five people, kicking them in the head,
(15:41):
stramming them on the ground, knocking them out, punching a
woman in the face and almost killing her. That was
like second, that was like almost murder to me. Nothing
that I have heard excuses it. When I don't understand,
I really do not understand this. I don't understand why
the mayor, while anybody on council, the city manager, while
(16:01):
why it seems like they're protecting those criminals who are
engaging in that behavior. I don't get it. You know,
at the end of the day, if you're a leader
in this city, you're and I'm the former president of
the Cincinnatian Double ACP. This is where you weigh in
as the n Double ACP, and you call a ball
a ball, a strike a strike. Remember the NAACP was
(16:23):
started by Jewish people, white people and African Americans. It's
a group that's about bringing people together. It's not a
divisive group. You're just supposed to be out there calling
ball's ball strike strike. If I were the president of
the Cincinnati in DOUBLEACP, I would be on the record
saying what happened in downtown was not even close to
our best, that this was not a fight. I wouldn't
(16:44):
even use that word. This was an ambush. This was
an ambush. This was something that never should have happened.
And I even am taking a step and I owned
this that I think that this was a hate crime.
I think that we should view it that way untill differently,
and that's why the federal government is looking at it.
Willie Cunningham meaning if this were in reverse in conclusion,
(17:07):
in my comment, if this were in researse, meaning if
there were a group of white people that has surrounded
three or four or five African Americans in the streets.
They were doing the WWE, jumping off like and slamming
their bodies on people, knocking them out. They knocked out
an African American woman cold and looking like she was
almost dead. We would have everybody in the city of
(17:28):
Cincinnati marching on us demanding justice for everything. And that's
the reality. And we've got to make sure that we
don't send the message that the white people that were
downtown that their life is worth less than anybody else's life.
Speaker 1 (17:42):
I need you to get back in public service if possible,
but we got to run. Christopher Smitherman five point thirty today,
you and favek Ramaswami at Jim and Jackson River Road
on the outskirts of Cincinnati. I've been there a couple
of times. I love Jim and Jackson. Christopher Smitherman, good
lucky five Ye Can I.
Speaker 2 (17:57):
Just correct one thing. Jim and Jackson is in the
city of Cincinnati. It's about two miles out. It's not
in jil High And I want to tease those who
live on the eastern side of town like they're not
going to California, Like this is like just the west
side of town, and it's about a couple of miles out.
So it is absolutely. The owner lives in Price Hill.
(18:19):
He's lived in the same house for fifty four years.
He's owned the business for forty one years, and the
super majority of all of his employees actually live and
pay taxes in the city of Cincinnati. Want to make
that clear.
Speaker 1 (18:30):
Good Luck tonight at five thirty. Good Luck. Let's continue
with more. Remember race should not matter when it comes
to this kind of human behavior. Treat the behavior and
don't blame a race for the misbehavior of a few.
Bill Cunningham News Radio seven hundred WLW
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