August 5, 2025 • 18 mins
Cincinnati FOP President Ken Kober joins Willie to talk about the effort to get more men and women into the Cincinnati Police force.
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Speaker 1 (00:06):
Billy cunning in the Great America, and welcome to Tuesday.
After moving the triest reds, Baseball had a gift last
night when a runner did not touch first base for
the Cubs. That's a good thing. But back out at
tonight first pitch about eight oh five. Our coverage really
starts at six oh five and more. But until then,
you know, the main streets of Cincinnati are going to
get less mean. According to city council committees, the changes
(00:27):
they're going to want to implement is to have a
uniform citywide curfew for anyone un a company under the
age of eighteen and eleven PM. But then it gets
more harsh when it comes to otr into the Banks project.
They kind of went different curfews for that, and a
man in charge of imposing a curfew is, of course,
the Cincinnati Police. Ken Kober is the head of the union.
(00:49):
Ken Cober, Welcome again to the Bill Cunningham Show. And
first of all, the Public Safety Committee met this morning,
as you may know, and because of the rise in crime,
especially among the youth, and they want to and Cheryl
Long says she wants to be clear about this quote.
My mother said nothing good happens after eleven pm. My
mother said nine pm, but that's a different issue. The
(01:09):
current curfew ordinance sets curfew for those on the age
of sixteen after ten pm and after midnight, the age
would go from sixteen to eighteen. I don't know how
you keep an adult off the city streets. But the
new proposal was said in an earlier curfew I'd had to
otr in downtown of nine pm and the curfew district
south of Liberty Street. Miners who violate can on immediately
(01:29):
be taken home. The city would establish curfew centers, which
would be Seven Hills Community Center in the Lighthouse Youth.
As a police officer who wears the uniform as head
of the union, Ken Kober, what is your reaction to
this if anything.
Speaker 2 (01:43):
Well, yeah, my initial reaction was, I mean, it all
sounds all good and well, but at the end of
the day, there's no consequences for these kids if they
don't they don't cooperate. No question was asked by some
of the council members is what if they're non compliant,
Because I think there's a difference between Wow, they think
this is going to go and what's really going to
happen when you have thirteen, fourteen, fifteen year old kids
(02:06):
cussing out the police. I don't think that they're going
to take too kindly to a police officer walking up
and telling them, hey, you're violating curfew.
Speaker 3 (02:13):
You should go home. Now, that's the problem. I don't
get it.
Speaker 1 (02:17):
So if you're is this a regular event that when
I was thirteen or fourteen years old, I was a
seventh grader of Saint Savior Grade School, scared the death
of sister Monica Anne much less when I got home
with my mother. If she, my sister, would send a
note home to my mom, I was done. But nonetheless,
thirteen and fourteen year olds on the mean streets of
Cincinnati will tell an uniformed police officer in essence, f U,
(02:41):
I'm not going to go. Does that regularly happen?
Speaker 3 (02:44):
Absolutely?
Speaker 2 (02:45):
I mean we got thirteen and fourteen year olds carrying
guns shooting each other, So yeah, it does happen regularly.
Speaker 1 (02:50):
All right, So assuming this passes, and I would anticipate
it will because you know, you know, it's you have
to do something, and so it's not reasonable, but none nonetheless,
So let's say city council today tomorrow, the next day whatever.
They passed this brand new curfew, and you come up
to a situation where there's dozens of kids that appear
to be under eighteen, may not have id with him
(03:12):
to demonstrate their They won't give their name, they won't
say how old they are. They say, I'm not talking
to you. My lawyer says, I'm not saying a word.
What do you do?
Speaker 2 (03:21):
Well, I guess what they're telling you to do is
if the lighthouse is open, you take them there.
Speaker 3 (03:26):
Then what them is and well is actually is actually
talked about.
Speaker 2 (03:29):
One of the shelters that they want to take them
to is a shelter that you can sign yourself out of.
Speaker 3 (03:36):
So you take the kid there and then he goes, hey,
I'm not staying here and signs himself out. Least what
if he doesn't. What if he or she.
Speaker 1 (03:42):
Says I'm not I'm not going you do you arrest him?
Speaker 2 (03:48):
Well, twenty twenty won't take them unless there's another crime.
So I mean, I guess if they don't identify themselves,
you can charge them with bill failing to identify yourself
and that is a crime.
Speaker 3 (04:00):
Then I assume.
Speaker 2 (04:00):
Twenty twenty will take but there's not a whole lot
that they are taking, so I guess it's yet to
be seen.
Speaker 1 (04:06):
So if an informed kid of this will go around
quickly says, here's my name. My name is Timmy Smith,
my name is Jimmy Jones, and this my name, he complies,
where do you live? Well, I live at this address,
and then he says, well, where's your where's your mom
and dad? I don't know. And we got to take you.
You're broken, broken curfew. We've got to take you to
(04:29):
the lighthouse or whatever. And the kid says, I'm not going.
Do you arrest him?
Speaker 3 (04:34):
Well, that's the whole issue with all of this.
Speaker 2 (04:38):
I mean, I get that they're trying to do something
to fix this problem, but when.
Speaker 3 (04:41):
There's never an enforcemate side of this, it's not going
to work.
Speaker 2 (04:46):
And you know, I wait for the first time that
one of these officers has a violent encounter with one
of these juveniles, because it's going to happen, and then
is the city going to stand up and say the
officer did the right thing?
Speaker 3 (04:57):
And I hope, I hope the answer is yes. But
that's yet to be seen.
Speaker 1 (05:02):
Before we get to the activity involving Iris Roley, I
talked to you about an hour ago. You have something
new on Iris Rolie, who's one hundred and nine thousand
dollars a year consultant to the mayor. Before we get
to that point, I've had on some residents of Clifton
about these street takeovers happening in the Clifton area. And
according to Steve Gooden, who lives there and the mayor
lives there, this is an ongoing problem. Can you discuss
(05:25):
what's happening on Ludlow Avenue around midnight to two o'clock
three o'clock in the morning, and now you're overwhelmed by
what's occurring. What are the facts on the ground.
Speaker 2 (05:34):
Yeah, I mean these street takeovers, you'll have people to
show up forty to fifty cars of block intersections due donuts.
I know they did a similar one over the weekend.
Thankfully there was some enforcement action taken. I think they
end up towing three vehicles, cited some people for traffic violations,
some civil sites, things like that. But it's happening so
(05:55):
often and there's so many people it's hard for the
police to be able to get these things under.
Speaker 1 (06:00):
So if one or two police cars show up and
there's one hundred people. Streets are blocked off. I saw
on Fourth Street on the night in question about ten
days ago. Donuts are being employed on Fourth Street. The
police show up one or two and there's a couple
hundred people, boomboxes, streets are blocked open air use of marijuana.
What do you do.
Speaker 2 (06:21):
Well, I mean, I guess you just pull up until
your lights and sirens on and hope these people leave.
Speaker 1 (06:26):
And if they don't, you're not going to arrest them,
right you can't.
Speaker 2 (06:29):
Well, there's a pretty good likelihood that someone is going
to get stopped and they're they're either going to be
arrested have their vehicle towed. But what we see is
as soon as the police show up, for the most part,
they'll just start scattering. And then you grab the ones
that you can grab and whatever you can do to
arrest them, cite them, whatever you got to do is
what these officers are going to be doing.
Speaker 1 (06:49):
Ken Kober, the police department talk about Iris Rollie. For
those who may not know, describe the position of Iris Rolli.
I have seen some videos sent around by Signal ninety
nine and others that indicate that she's a consultant for
the mayor, and she is actually interfering with the duties
of a police officer. Explain who is Iris Rowlie and
what is she doing.
Speaker 2 (07:10):
Well, my understanding is she's the consultant to the city manager.
And yeah, I mean recently she has interjected herself and
interactions were one specifically on Republic Street. This police officer
is just walking up and down the street talking to people.
You know, there are some parking violations there. Hey, can
(07:31):
you just move your car? Everybody's compliant, you know, everything
is going well. These are all consensual encounters. An officer goes, hey,
by the way, picks out a guy and knows him,
says it by his first name, and says, hey, you
didn't go to court.
Speaker 3 (07:46):
You have a warrant. Let me give you a new
court date.
Speaker 2 (07:48):
And then Iris Rowley decides to interject herself in this
and basically become tried to become an agitator between the
police and the public. What should have happened, she should
have been charged with obstructing official business. But the police
officer involved I know very well, absolutely fantastic officer, and
decided instead to just try to de escalate the situation.
Speaker 3 (08:09):
When Iris was trying to escalate.
Speaker 1 (08:12):
It, and she is in a sense she represents the
mayor because she's a consultant to the mayor on I
guess civil rights issues and she makes I think one
hundred and nine thousand dollars a year as a consultant.
And the video I've seen, the officer is trying to say, look,
you didn't show up for court. You got to go
(08:32):
to court, let me give you another date. Then Iris
really got in the middle of it and said she'll
start filming what this officer is doing and made her
job more difficult. Can you say why she wasn't charged?
Was it fear of the outcome or was it fear
of what would happen next?
Speaker 2 (08:46):
Now I think from the officer's standpoint, it was Listen,
I'm just going to try to deescalate this because the
moment that this went any further, there's no doubt that
Iris would have acted foolish. And the reality is she
is just a taxpayer funded agitator. I can't believe that
taxpayers are okay with them paying her to do these
(09:07):
kinds of things.
Speaker 1 (09:08):
What's interesting with the only one? There's more videos, Please
go ahead and explain. Irish Rowlie explain what else she
does she's supposed to be what and civil rights advocab
I'm not sure. I'm in favor of civil rights too,
I'm not opposed to it. But explain what her role
is working for the mayor.
Speaker 3 (09:24):
Quite honestly, I have no idea.
Speaker 2 (09:25):
I guess it's she does whatever they asked her to do,
and I guess that includes trying to obstruct official business.
Speaker 1 (09:33):
Shouldn't she be in charged with the crime from the
video I saw?
Speaker 3 (09:37):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (09:37):
And those are things where it's the officer's discretion whether
they want to or not. And in this case, the
officer decided, you know, chose not to. Could she have
been charged, absolutely, but that was the officer's discretion. In instead,
just tried to deal with the situation and you get
the work that she needed to get done done well.
Speaker 1 (09:58):
At the end of the day, it's a problem. Can
you step back from this? Because I know the police
have almost an impossible burden to carry. You're about one
hundred and fifty two hundred cops short. Many times there's
one or two units per district able to respond. Just
in general, how do the rank and file process what's
going on in the past ten days?
Speaker 3 (10:21):
You know, our job as police officers is to show
up and protect the public the best we can.
Speaker 2 (10:27):
Now, we can't consider this nonsense that went on Fourth Street.
You know there were if I think, three shootings last night.
We just continue to show up and do our job
because that's what the taxpayers expect us to do. So
while it is a trying time, you know, we have
a lot of trying times, but we still show up
every day do what we have to do to make
sure that the public is as safe as they can be.
Speaker 1 (10:50):
Isn't it true you bounce from event to event when
you have I don't know, twenty thousand shots fired every
year in Cincinnati, four hundred people wounded, seventy eighty murders.
Do you just bounce from event to event without adequate
resources because there can't be investigations of those firing twenty
thousand shots in the city of Cincinnati or four hundred
(11:11):
people are wounded, you don't have the resources to fully investigate.
Is that fair to say?
Speaker 2 (11:17):
Well, I mean there's everything's being investigated, and be quite honest,
they're making a lot of arrests in these cases. But
when it comes down to going to one thousand Main Street,
at the courthouse and people aren't being held accountable for
these crimes.
Speaker 3 (11:33):
That's what happens. You know.
Speaker 2 (11:34):
If we could put these shooters in prison where they belong,
that's on the judges. They've got to do that. That's
what should be occurring. Instead, we're just letting them out,
you know, one right after another. And this is what
you see is continued violence.
Speaker 1 (11:49):
You've been there a long time, sergeant, and you've seen
it all. You've been out it for about twenty five
or thirty years. Hasn't there been a market change in
the viewpoint of the judges the past ten to fifty
years as far as sentencing for serious offenses, Oh, without
a doubt.
Speaker 2 (12:05):
I mean I've seen it. You know, some of these
judges that you used to give you hundred and eighty
days in jail for driving that a license, Now you
get probation for gun charges. And there has certainly been
a shift in the ideology behind some of these judges.
Speaker 3 (12:22):
Absolutely, and we're seeing the effects of it.
Speaker 1 (12:25):
And in fact, you have said before that the many
times the defendants are out before the paperwork is done.
And as far as doing your job, some have said
you're told directly or indirectly when I see open air
drug use at Washington Park or by Saint Francis, Sarah,
there's individuals prostituting themselves, I assume for drugs or profit
in some sense. Are you kind of discouraged from arresting
(12:48):
somebody for drug use because there's an implicit or direct
order from the chief do not enforce certain laws?
Speaker 2 (12:57):
Well, sure, you know, if we're being told you don't
worry about enforcing this, and the actual the words, especially
when it came to the public use of marijuana, as
we were told that there is no expectation for us
to take enforcement action. So what does that tell you?
And of course the city's standing behind, Well, we didn't
see you can't. We just said there's no expectation for
(13:19):
you to enforce this. So of course what our else
is going to do. I'm not going to go out
and stop somebody for smoking marijuana in public and it
turns into a fight, And then of course the old
body camera footage and it looks ugly when the police
have to fight people. And then the response say is wow,
I mean it was just just marijuana consumption and public.
Is it really that big a deal? Cops?
Speaker 3 (13:38):
You know, what. I'm not going to deal with it,
and be quite honest, I don't blame them.
Speaker 1 (13:42):
No, I wouldn't go hands on because from that point on,
your life is different forever. Lastly, on an issue, I
rolled up the comments of Iris Rowley from it was
September the nineteen, twenty fifteen. This is a consultant hired
by the mayor to the tune of about one hundred
nine thousand dollars a year to consult him. She said, quote,
(14:03):
white Americans are the biggest terror threat in the United States.
Have you seen that posting?
Speaker 2 (14:10):
I have seen it, and that's why I said. She
is a taxpayer funded agitator. There is no collaboration with her.
She wants to go out and try to make the
police's job as part as he can.
Speaker 3 (14:23):
And that's what she does, and that's what these videos
are exposing.
Speaker 1 (14:27):
Everyone's got a viewpoint, but to have the taxpayer fund
her to one hundred nine thousand dollars a year plus
Before we go, what are your comments on city council
members who talk about those who were beaten down to
within an inch of their life they kind of deserved
it or that's what they wanted. It occurred that way.
I'm talking about Victoria Parks, who talks about the woman.
Holly's given many interviews and she's clearly indicated, let's face it,
(14:50):
we got a problem. And then you have a city
council member who is essentially saying she brought it on
herself to something she wanted to occur. And I'm glad
the truth came out. What are your about Victoria Parks?
Speaker 2 (15:02):
She is absolutely no business being an elected official. Man,
that's just the bottom line. Any any elected official that
says something like that, they're not fit to.
Speaker 3 (15:12):
Be in charge of anything. And it's absolutely absurd.
Speaker 2 (15:16):
And the fact that she doubled down and stood by
her comment tells you the kind of person she is.
Speaker 1 (15:20):
She said, quote, they begged for that beat down, and
I'm grateful for the whole story. So what is the
whole story? Because I'm told by another one of your
fellow officers there was a minor marijuana deal going on
between the white guy that had the crap beat at
him and who was lit up, and he wanted marijuana
and one of the people involved didn't want to sell
(15:42):
him the marijuana, and so he kind of pushed him
off and may have slapped his face and used the
N word, and then that precipitated everything that happened after that.
Of course, Holly had nothing to do with the in word,
which doesn't give someone an excuse to commit a felony,
by the way, and had no dealing with buying some
street level marijuana. Is this scenario accurate because I'm hearing
(16:06):
all the time, Well, that isn't what happened. As I
understand that there was a minor sale of marijuana involving
the white guy that was beaten up and a black guy,
and the price wasn't agreed on, and the white guy
either pushed him or slapped him, and that precipitated the
whole fight. That doesn't excuse what happened to Holly. Am
I on the right track there.
Speaker 2 (16:27):
I've talked to these investigators and there is absolutely no
evidence whatsoever to indicate that any.
Speaker 3 (16:32):
Of that happened, both that this was over marijuana. There's
no evidence.
Speaker 2 (16:36):
If there is, and that's certainly true, then people need
to give this information to the police because that's not
what happened.
Speaker 3 (16:42):
What happened that the evidence doesn't suggest that.
Speaker 1 (16:45):
Well, what about the end word? That didn't give anyone
an excuse to almost kill somebody. But I listen to
the tape and I didn't hear the end word. But
of course that's one of the most popular words in
black culture. But that's a different issue. Was the D
word expressed by anybody.
Speaker 2 (17:00):
There's been so far nothing that can prove that that
actually happened either. I know there's a lot of people
on social media saying a whole lot of things, and
you know what I encourage them to do is if
they have this information, they have a video that shows
these things, then give them to the police.
Speaker 3 (17:13):
Because so far that has not been produced to the police.
Speaker 1 (17:16):
So the end word expression is according to one council member,
I spoke was saying, I didn't hear it anywhere. That
didn't give anybody an excuse to do what happened? So
what started at all? Can you tell me?
Speaker 2 (17:26):
A bunch of adults that can't behave themselves? Probably drank
too much and can't behave yourself. If you can't go
out in public and be a civilized human being, you
should probably just stay home.
Speaker 1 (17:38):
Yeah, well, the beat goes on, you said, and with
the inquirit will take another six months to a year
to hire additional cops by the end of the year.
How many how many experienced cops are going to step
down by the end of the year.
Speaker 2 (17:53):
I'm guessing we're probably going to have another forty to
fifty we'll retire before the year's end.
Speaker 1 (17:58):
How long will it take to replace those forty or
fifty As it's twenty six, twenty seven, twenty eight, how long.
Speaker 2 (18:04):
It's twenty eight weeks for the traditional academy which we
have one end that started in July, they won't graduate
till February, and then they're going to have after that,
they'll have a twelve another another three months with their
field training officers. So it's going to be months before
we actually see that impact of the street straight. But
understand this, while all this is going on, we still
(18:25):
have cops out are retire in weekly.
Speaker 1 (18:28):
Can't take it all, right, Ken Kober out of the Union,
you got some tough road to hoo to you, and
I don't see it changing anytime soon. But Ken Cober
of the Queen City Lodge, sixty nine fop, thanks for
coming on the Bill Cunningham Show. Thank you again.
Speaker 3 (18:41):
Sure, thanks for having me. God bless you. Let's continue
with more. Wow.
Speaker 1 (18:46):
Well, let's continue your comments five one, three, seven, four, nine,
seven thousand. Bill Cunningham News Radio seven hundred w ULW
Billy cunning in the Great America, and welcome to Tuesday.
After moving the triest reds, Baseball had a gift last
night when a runner did not touch first base for
the Cubs. That's a good thing. But back out at
tonight first pitch about eight oh five. Our coverage really
starts at six oh five and more. But until then,
you know, the main streets of Cincinnati are going to
get less mean. According to city council committees, the changes
(00:27):
they're going to want to implement is to have a
uniform citywide curfew for anyone un a company under the
age of eighteen and eleven PM. But then it gets
more harsh when it comes to otr into the Banks project.
They kind of went different curfews for that, and a
man in charge of imposing a curfew is, of course,
the Cincinnati Police. Ken Kober is the head of the union.
(00:49):
Ken Cober, Welcome again to the Bill Cunningham Show. And
first of all, the Public Safety Committee met this morning,
as you may know, and because of the rise in crime,
especially among the youth, and they want to and Cheryl
Long says she wants to be clear about this quote.
My mother said nothing good happens after eleven pm. My
mother said nine pm, but that's a different issue. The
(01:09):
current curfew ordinance sets curfew for those on the age
of sixteen after ten pm and after midnight, the age
would go from sixteen to eighteen. I don't know how
you keep an adult off the city streets. But the
new proposal was said in an earlier curfew I'd had to
otr in downtown of nine pm and the curfew district
south of Liberty Street. Miners who violate can on immediately
(01:29):
be taken home. The city would establish curfew centers, which
would be Seven Hills Community Center in the Lighthouse Youth.
As a police officer who wears the uniform as head
of the union, Ken Kober, what is your reaction to
this if anything.
Speaker 2 (01:43):
Well, yeah, my initial reaction was, I mean, it all
sounds all good and well, but at the end of
the day, there's no consequences for these kids if they
don't they don't cooperate. No question was asked by some
of the council members is what if they're non compliant,
Because I think there's a difference between Wow, they think
this is going to go and what's really going to
happen when you have thirteen, fourteen, fifteen year old kids
(02:06):
cussing out the police. I don't think that they're going
to take too kindly to a police officer walking up
and telling them, hey, you're violating curfew.
Speaker 3 (02:13):
You should go home. Now, that's the problem. I don't
get it.
Speaker 1 (02:17):
So if you're is this a regular event that when
I was thirteen or fourteen years old, I was a
seventh grader of Saint Savior Grade School, scared the death
of sister Monica Anne much less when I got home
with my mother. If she, my sister, would send a
note home to my mom, I was done. But nonetheless,
thirteen and fourteen year olds on the mean streets of
Cincinnati will tell an uniformed police officer in essence, f U,
(02:41):
I'm not going to go. Does that regularly happen?
Speaker 3 (02:44):
Absolutely?
Speaker 2 (02:45):
I mean we got thirteen and fourteen year olds carrying
guns shooting each other, So yeah, it does happen regularly.
Speaker 1 (02:50):
All right, So assuming this passes, and I would anticipate
it will because you know, you know, it's you have
to do something, and so it's not reasonable, but none nonetheless,
So let's say city council today tomorrow, the next day whatever.
They passed this brand new curfew, and you come up
to a situation where there's dozens of kids that appear
to be under eighteen, may not have id with him
(03:12):
to demonstrate their They won't give their name, they won't
say how old they are. They say, I'm not talking
to you. My lawyer says, I'm not saying a word.
What do you do?
Speaker 2 (03:21):
Well, I guess what they're telling you to do is
if the lighthouse is open, you take them there.
Speaker 3 (03:26):
Then what them is and well is actually is actually
talked about.
Speaker 2 (03:29):
One of the shelters that they want to take them
to is a shelter that you can sign yourself out of.
Speaker 3 (03:36):
So you take the kid there and then he goes, hey,
I'm not staying here and signs himself out. Least what
if he doesn't. What if he or she.
Speaker 1 (03:42):
Says I'm not I'm not going you do you arrest him?
Speaker 2 (03:48):
Well, twenty twenty won't take them unless there's another crime.
So I mean, I guess if they don't identify themselves,
you can charge them with bill failing to identify yourself
and that is a crime.
Speaker 3 (04:00):
Then I assume.
Speaker 2 (04:00):
Twenty twenty will take but there's not a whole lot
that they are taking, so I guess it's yet to
be seen.
Speaker 1 (04:06):
So if an informed kid of this will go around
quickly says, here's my name. My name is Timmy Smith,
my name is Jimmy Jones, and this my name, he complies,
where do you live? Well, I live at this address,
and then he says, well, where's your where's your mom
and dad? I don't know. And we got to take you.
You're broken, broken curfew. We've got to take you to
(04:29):
the lighthouse or whatever. And the kid says, I'm not going.
Do you arrest him?
Speaker 3 (04:34):
Well, that's the whole issue with all of this.
Speaker 2 (04:38):
I mean, I get that they're trying to do something
to fix this problem, but when.
Speaker 3 (04:41):
There's never an enforcemate side of this, it's not going
to work.
Speaker 2 (04:46):
And you know, I wait for the first time that
one of these officers has a violent encounter with one
of these juveniles, because it's going to happen, and then
is the city going to stand up and say the
officer did the right thing?
Speaker 3 (04:57):
And I hope, I hope the answer is yes. But
that's yet to be seen.
Speaker 1 (05:02):
Before we get to the activity involving Iris Roley, I
talked to you about an hour ago. You have something
new on Iris Rolie, who's one hundred and nine thousand
dollars a year consultant to the mayor. Before we get
to that point, I've had on some residents of Clifton
about these street takeovers happening in the Clifton area. And
according to Steve Gooden, who lives there and the mayor
lives there, this is an ongoing problem. Can you discuss
(05:25):
what's happening on Ludlow Avenue around midnight to two o'clock
three o'clock in the morning, and now you're overwhelmed by
what's occurring. What are the facts on the ground.
Speaker 2 (05:34):
Yeah, I mean these street takeovers, you'll have people to
show up forty to fifty cars of block intersections due donuts.
I know they did a similar one over the weekend.
Thankfully there was some enforcement action taken. I think they
end up towing three vehicles, cited some people for traffic violations,
some civil sites, things like that. But it's happening so
(05:55):
often and there's so many people it's hard for the
police to be able to get these things under.
Speaker 1 (06:00):
So if one or two police cars show up and
there's one hundred people. Streets are blocked off. I saw
on Fourth Street on the night in question about ten
days ago. Donuts are being employed on Fourth Street. The
police show up one or two and there's a couple
hundred people, boomboxes, streets are blocked open air use of marijuana.
What do you do.
Speaker 2 (06:21):
Well, I mean, I guess you just pull up until
your lights and sirens on and hope these people leave.
Speaker 1 (06:26):
And if they don't, you're not going to arrest them,
right you can't.
Speaker 2 (06:29):
Well, there's a pretty good likelihood that someone is going
to get stopped and they're they're either going to be
arrested have their vehicle towed. But what we see is
as soon as the police show up, for the most part,
they'll just start scattering. And then you grab the ones
that you can grab and whatever you can do to
arrest them, cite them, whatever you got to do is
what these officers are going to be doing.
Speaker 1 (06:49):
Ken Kober, the police department talk about Iris Rollie. For
those who may not know, describe the position of Iris Rolli.
I have seen some videos sent around by Signal ninety
nine and others that indicate that she's a consultant for
the mayor, and she is actually interfering with the duties
of a police officer. Explain who is Iris Rowlie and
what is she doing.
Speaker 2 (07:10):
Well, my understanding is she's the consultant to the city manager.
And yeah, I mean recently she has interjected herself and
interactions were one specifically on Republic Street. This police officer
is just walking up and down the street talking to people.
You know, there are some parking violations there. Hey, can
(07:31):
you just move your car? Everybody's compliant, you know, everything
is going well. These are all consensual encounters. An officer goes, hey,
by the way, picks out a guy and knows him,
says it by his first name, and says, hey, you
didn't go to court.
Speaker 3 (07:46):
You have a warrant. Let me give you a new
court date.
Speaker 2 (07:48):
And then Iris Rowley decides to interject herself in this
and basically become tried to become an agitator between the
police and the public. What should have happened, she should
have been charged with obstructing official business. But the police
officer involved I know very well, absolutely fantastic officer, and
decided instead to just try to de escalate the situation.
Speaker 3 (08:09):
When Iris was trying to escalate.
Speaker 1 (08:12):
It, and she is in a sense she represents the
mayor because she's a consultant to the mayor on I
guess civil rights issues and she makes I think one
hundred and nine thousand dollars a year as a consultant.
And the video I've seen, the officer is trying to say, look,
you didn't show up for court. You got to go
(08:32):
to court, let me give you another date. Then Iris
really got in the middle of it and said she'll
start filming what this officer is doing and made her
job more difficult. Can you say why she wasn't charged?
Was it fear of the outcome or was it fear
of what would happen next?
Speaker 2 (08:46):
Now I think from the officer's standpoint, it was Listen,
I'm just going to try to deescalate this because the
moment that this went any further, there's no doubt that
Iris would have acted foolish. And the reality is she
is just a taxpayer funded agitator. I can't believe that
taxpayers are okay with them paying her to do these
(09:07):
kinds of things.
Speaker 1 (09:08):
What's interesting with the only one? There's more videos, Please
go ahead and explain. Irish Rowlie explain what else she
does she's supposed to be what and civil rights advocab
I'm not sure. I'm in favor of civil rights too,
I'm not opposed to it. But explain what her role
is working for the mayor.
Speaker 3 (09:24):
Quite honestly, I have no idea.
Speaker 2 (09:25):
I guess it's she does whatever they asked her to do,
and I guess that includes trying to obstruct official business.
Speaker 1 (09:33):
Shouldn't she be in charged with the crime from the
video I saw?
Speaker 3 (09:37):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (09:37):
And those are things where it's the officer's discretion whether
they want to or not. And in this case, the
officer decided, you know, chose not to. Could she have
been charged, absolutely, but that was the officer's discretion. In instead,
just tried to deal with the situation and you get
the work that she needed to get done done well.
Speaker 1 (09:58):
At the end of the day, it's a problem. Can
you step back from this? Because I know the police
have almost an impossible burden to carry. You're about one
hundred and fifty two hundred cops short. Many times there's
one or two units per district able to respond. Just
in general, how do the rank and file process what's
going on in the past ten days?
Speaker 3 (10:21):
You know, our job as police officers is to show
up and protect the public the best we can.
Speaker 2 (10:27):
Now, we can't consider this nonsense that went on Fourth Street.
You know there were if I think, three shootings last night.
We just continue to show up and do our job
because that's what the taxpayers expect us to do. So
while it is a trying time, you know, we have
a lot of trying times, but we still show up
every day do what we have to do to make
sure that the public is as safe as they can be.
Speaker 1 (10:50):
Isn't it true you bounce from event to event when
you have I don't know, twenty thousand shots fired every
year in Cincinnati, four hundred people wounded, seventy eighty murders.
Do you just bounce from event to event without adequate
resources because there can't be investigations of those firing twenty
thousand shots in the city of Cincinnati or four hundred
(11:11):
people are wounded, you don't have the resources to fully investigate.
Is that fair to say?
Speaker 2 (11:17):
Well, I mean there's everything's being investigated, and be quite honest,
they're making a lot of arrests in these cases. But
when it comes down to going to one thousand Main Street,
at the courthouse and people aren't being held accountable for
these crimes.
Speaker 3 (11:33):
That's what happens. You know.
Speaker 2 (11:34):
If we could put these shooters in prison where they belong,
that's on the judges. They've got to do that. That's
what should be occurring. Instead, we're just letting them out,
you know, one right after another. And this is what
you see is continued violence.
Speaker 1 (11:49):
You've been there a long time, sergeant, and you've seen
it all. You've been out it for about twenty five
or thirty years. Hasn't there been a market change in
the viewpoint of the judges the past ten to fifty
years as far as sentencing for serious offenses, Oh, without
a doubt.
Speaker 2 (12:05):
I mean I've seen it. You know, some of these
judges that you used to give you hundred and eighty
days in jail for driving that a license, Now you
get probation for gun charges. And there has certainly been
a shift in the ideology behind some of these judges.
Speaker 3 (12:22):
Absolutely, and we're seeing the effects of it.
Speaker 1 (12:25):
And in fact, you have said before that the many
times the defendants are out before the paperwork is done.
And as far as doing your job, some have said
you're told directly or indirectly when I see open air
drug use at Washington Park or by Saint Francis, Sarah,
there's individuals prostituting themselves, I assume for drugs or profit
in some sense. Are you kind of discouraged from arresting
(12:48):
somebody for drug use because there's an implicit or direct
order from the chief do not enforce certain laws?
Speaker 2 (12:57):
Well, sure, you know, if we're being told you don't
worry about enforcing this, and the actual the words, especially
when it came to the public use of marijuana, as
we were told that there is no expectation for us
to take enforcement action. So what does that tell you?
And of course the city's standing behind, Well, we didn't
see you can't. We just said there's no expectation for
(13:19):
you to enforce this. So of course what our else
is going to do. I'm not going to go out
and stop somebody for smoking marijuana in public and it
turns into a fight, And then of course the old
body camera footage and it looks ugly when the police
have to fight people. And then the response say is wow,
I mean it was just just marijuana consumption and public.
Is it really that big a deal? Cops?
Speaker 3 (13:38):
You know, what. I'm not going to deal with it,
and be quite honest, I don't blame them.
Speaker 1 (13:42):
No, I wouldn't go hands on because from that point on,
your life is different forever. Lastly, on an issue, I
rolled up the comments of Iris Rowley from it was
September the nineteen, twenty fifteen. This is a consultant hired
by the mayor to the tune of about one hundred
nine thousand dollars a year to consult him. She said, quote,
(14:03):
white Americans are the biggest terror threat in the United States.
Have you seen that posting?
Speaker 2 (14:10):
I have seen it, and that's why I said. She
is a taxpayer funded agitator. There is no collaboration with her.
She wants to go out and try to make the
police's job as part as he can.
Speaker 3 (14:23):
And that's what she does, and that's what these videos
are exposing.
Speaker 1 (14:27):
Everyone's got a viewpoint, but to have the taxpayer fund
her to one hundred nine thousand dollars a year plus
Before we go, what are your comments on city council
members who talk about those who were beaten down to
within an inch of their life they kind of deserved
it or that's what they wanted. It occurred that way.
I'm talking about Victoria Parks, who talks about the woman.
Holly's given many interviews and she's clearly indicated, let's face it,
(14:50):
we got a problem. And then you have a city
council member who is essentially saying she brought it on
herself to something she wanted to occur. And I'm glad
the truth came out. What are your about Victoria Parks?
Speaker 2 (15:02):
She is absolutely no business being an elected official. Man,
that's just the bottom line. Any any elected official that
says something like that, they're not fit to.
Speaker 3 (15:12):
Be in charge of anything. And it's absolutely absurd.
Speaker 2 (15:16):
And the fact that she doubled down and stood by
her comment tells you the kind of person she is.
Speaker 1 (15:20):
She said, quote, they begged for that beat down, and
I'm grateful for the whole story. So what is the
whole story? Because I'm told by another one of your
fellow officers there was a minor marijuana deal going on
between the white guy that had the crap beat at
him and who was lit up, and he wanted marijuana
and one of the people involved didn't want to sell
(15:42):
him the marijuana, and so he kind of pushed him
off and may have slapped his face and used the
N word, and then that precipitated everything that happened after that.
Of course, Holly had nothing to do with the in word,
which doesn't give someone an excuse to commit a felony,
by the way, and had no dealing with buying some
street level marijuana. Is this scenario accurate because I'm hearing
(16:06):
all the time, Well, that isn't what happened. As I
understand that there was a minor sale of marijuana involving
the white guy that was beaten up and a black guy,
and the price wasn't agreed on, and the white guy
either pushed him or slapped him, and that precipitated the
whole fight. That doesn't excuse what happened to Holly. Am
I on the right track there.
Speaker 2 (16:27):
I've talked to these investigators and there is absolutely no
evidence whatsoever to indicate that any.
Speaker 3 (16:32):
Of that happened, both that this was over marijuana. There's
no evidence.
Speaker 2 (16:36):
If there is, and that's certainly true, then people need
to give this information to the police because that's not
what happened.
Speaker 3 (16:42):
What happened that the evidence doesn't suggest that.
Speaker 1 (16:45):
Well, what about the end word? That didn't give anyone
an excuse to almost kill somebody. But I listen to
the tape and I didn't hear the end word. But
of course that's one of the most popular words in
black culture. But that's a different issue. Was the D
word expressed by anybody.
Speaker 2 (17:00):
There's been so far nothing that can prove that that
actually happened either. I know there's a lot of people
on social media saying a whole lot of things, and
you know what I encourage them to do is if
they have this information, they have a video that shows
these things, then give them to the police.
Speaker 3 (17:13):
Because so far that has not been produced to the police.
Speaker 1 (17:16):
So the end word expression is according to one council member,
I spoke was saying, I didn't hear it anywhere. That
didn't give anybody an excuse to do what happened? So
what started at all? Can you tell me?
Speaker 2 (17:26):
A bunch of adults that can't behave themselves? Probably drank
too much and can't behave yourself. If you can't go
out in public and be a civilized human being, you
should probably just stay home.
Speaker 1 (17:38):
Yeah, well, the beat goes on, you said, and with
the inquirit will take another six months to a year
to hire additional cops by the end of the year.
How many how many experienced cops are going to step
down by the end of the year.
Speaker 2 (17:53):
I'm guessing we're probably going to have another forty to
fifty we'll retire before the year's end.
Speaker 1 (17:58):
How long will it take to replace those forty or
fifty As it's twenty six, twenty seven, twenty eight, how long.
Speaker 2 (18:04):
It's twenty eight weeks for the traditional academy which we
have one end that started in July, they won't graduate
till February, and then they're going to have after that,
they'll have a twelve another another three months with their
field training officers. So it's going to be months before
we actually see that impact of the street straight. But
understand this, while all this is going on, we still
(18:25):
have cops out are retire in weekly.
Speaker 1 (18:28):
Can't take it all, right, Ken Kober out of the Union,
you got some tough road to hoo to you, and
I don't see it changing anytime soon. But Ken Cober
of the Queen City Lodge, sixty nine fop, thanks for
coming on the Bill Cunningham Show. Thank you again.
Speaker 3 (18:41):
Sure, thanks for having me. God bless you. Let's continue
with more. Wow.
Speaker 1 (18:46):
Well, let's continue your comments five one, three, seven, four, nine,
seven thousand. Bill Cunningham News Radio seven hundred w ULW
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