FOP Pres Ken Kober - Recent gun violence and what is being done about it

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Hey, Police Department, Welcome back, Ken Kober. It's always a pleasure

(00:02):
to have you on this program.Good morning, Brian, thanks for having
me. Quick question. I thinkit's sort of like an assumption when the
heat goes up and it gets reallyoppressive, we get this heat advisory and
effect. Temperature is feeling more likeone hundred plus degrees with the heat index,
humidity is really bad. Is ittrue that crime goes up when the
heat gets into these real high temperatures? Oh, without a doubt, because

(00:25):
you have people that are trying tofind a way to escape the heat.
Of course, everybody's tempers get short, you know, so they're outside,
and that's typically when these things tendto get the worst. Oh that's a
shame because I'm not sure that theheat had anything to do with it.
But we had this shooting in BramblePark broad daylight shooting described as a mass

(00:46):
shooting. I suppose it depends onyour definition of that, but certainly terrible
five people got shot. What informationdo we have about the idiots who did
this? Were they there to quoteunquote enjoy the event which was a family
event, supposed to be you know, a community event, get together smile,
share a sense of community values andsome fellowship, and these idiots show

(01:07):
up and start shooting in people.We do you have suspects we know anything
about this as anybody cooperating with thepolice, because there were a lot of
people there, and you'd think there'dbe a lot of witnesses, sure,
you know. So that's that's thefrustrating part. You you have three hundred
or so people there, you know, probably a third of them or kids.
You know, they're on inflatables gettingtheir faces painted, and you have

(01:29):
two groups that are feuding. Oneof the groups was already there, another
one decides to come and they engagein a gunfight in the middle of what
should have been a peaceful, fantasticSaturday afternoon in Madisonville. The erupts in
gunfire. There's thirty forty shots fired. The interesting part is and the police
know that there are several people whotook cell phone excuse me, cell phoned

(01:53):
videos, and what we're asking isthat they turned them over to the police.
Call crime stoppers, give crime stoppersthat if you don't want to,
you know, have people know whoyou are, you can do it anonymously.
But I'm confident that this will getsolved, but it's something that just
never should have happened to begin with. Well, clearly it never should have
happened to begin with. But youknow, this has been an ongoing problem.

(02:16):
I think since I've been on theradio, I mean my eighteenth year
of radio, and I feel likeI've been talking to police since day one
about failure of the quote unquote communitieswherever these incidents happen, these shooting incidents,
where you have all kinds of peoplewho witness it, not a single
person will utter a syllable to lawenforcement. I mean, this is their
neighborhood, whatever neighborhood it happens tobe. You'd think that they would want

(02:38):
to do anything they can to getthese what would be or actually are murderers
off the streets. Sure, youknow, I find it ironic that you
June first, you know, thepolice have an interaction with a guy who's
resisting arrest, and everybody's filming it, and everybody's put it on social media.
They're sending it to the police,wanting the cops, you know,

(02:58):
crucified for this. But yet folksin your own community get shot. We
know there's video, yet they don'twant to cooperate with the police. I
just I'll never understand it, andthat has been a problem. I gues
suppose one could argue and easily argue, so that you know, that problem
pre existed this whole George Floyd BlackLives Matter a thing that swept the country

(03:20):
where defunding the police became the normin so many cities, and obviously with
significant downside results. I mean,fewer police on the streets, crime has
gone up, and no one canargue to the contrary on that one.
Ken, Well, you know,we have, you know, this collaborative
agreement that says that the police willwork cooperatively with the citizens, which I
wholeheartedly agree with, but that hasto be a two way street. You

(03:43):
know, if the citizens aren't workingcooperatively with the police, there's certainly going
to be a breakdown when it comesto solving crime. And that's exactly what
we're seeing here. Where do youI mean, what group of people elected
officials, ministers, community organizers,community leaders, whoever, who do you
think is in the best position tochange the hearts and minds of people who

(04:04):
literally have video evidence of this actuallygoing and could help, but do not
if that is a systemic problem,and it apparently is who's the best person
to change that dynamic commit all thesescreams and cries about you know, police
being unfair and racist and not worthyof working with That narrative needs to be

(04:27):
changed. It needs to be thisthat this that that that that lie needs
to be dispelled. Who can actuallydo that? It has to come from
within the community. You can havethe city manager or the mayor stand up
and say, look, we're notgoing to tolerate this, and we shouldn't.
But ultimately it has to be thepeople that are in the community,
the leaders of the community. Andit doesn't have to be an elected leader

(04:48):
of the community. It could beyou know, the you know, the
preacher that's in that community. Itcould be the block watch person, whoever's
respected in each one of these community. These are the ones that are going
to have to get the word outthat we're not going to tolerate this and
you know, we are going tocooperate with the police because it's the right
thing to do. You know theother part of this is we got to

(05:10):
have the courts cooperate as well.And you know, when the police do
arrest these people for these violent crimes. They need to make sure that they
stay locked up. That's the waythat we're going to be able to protect
these people who decide that they willtry to cooperate with law enforcement. Yeah,
and I'm glad you brought that partup because we obviously have a real
challenge, you know, concerned aboutHamilton County prosecuting Melissa Powers getting re elected.

(05:30):
She is very tough on crime,but she comes on this program and
points out at different judges, youknow, zero bond, owned recognizance bods
on some pretty darn horrific crimes.And then ultimately when it comes to sentencing
very light sentences for some pretty horrificcrimes, that sends a message out that,
you know, there is no priceto be paid for actually committing crimes.

(05:53):
So if you had a community thatwas willing to cooperate, let the
police know, drop the dime,it's got to result in some strong sentences
and some harsh prosecutions to send themessage out to the world that crime will
not be tolerated. There's a wholebunch of different pieces to this puzzle that
need to work together. Oh,there's no doubt. I mean, you
look at at counties just in theacross the state of Ohio that don't deal

(06:17):
with the violence that we deal with, and it's primarily because the court system
is going to hold these people accountable. You know, if there's no fear
of being held responsible or have consequencesfor your actions, you're going to see
what we just saw Saturday is goingto continue to happen. And as we've
seen that, it's continued to happenin Cincinnati around Hamilton County because right now

(06:42):
there just aren't enough consequences for committingthese violent acts. Well, word has
clearly gotten out on that, andit's a sad reality. You know,
it's kind of interesting. I waslooking at reporting from a local news channel
nine to w CPO quoting a policechief three Stategi who said, this problem
is not going to be solved bypolice. Alan Our police are understaffed and
extremely tired now and the summer hasjust begun. That article also contains a

(07:06):
statement saying community council representatives across insaneneighborhoods say they can't solve the issue alone.
Leaders say everyone has a role toplay. It's like folks are pointing
in all different directions. I agreewith it. With its police chief.
Know, there's only so many policeand you know you guys are going to
be responding to crimes in progress.You're not. And it doesn't sound to

(07:26):
me like you're capable of being ina proactive preventative position. I mean to
me that starts at home. Imean, you can engage the community.
You can ask for more youth programs, as some of these people have suggested,
you can engage them with community partners, which are statements that I keep
reading from local leaders. But inthe final analysis, if you're not raising

(07:47):
moral children, this problem is notgoing to go away. Isn't this something
that starts at home? Oh,there's no doubt. I mean, if
you have not taught a kid tobe respectful of themselves, of each other
when they're four and five and six, by the time they're fourteen, fifteen,

(08:07):
and sixteen, you're going to havewhat we have right now in Hamilton
County and in Cincinnati, which iskids carrying guns, shooting each other.
It this is not a problem that'sgoing to be fixed overnight, but it's
going to have to be you know, a societal change where we decide that
we are going to value each other. We're going to value said not only

(08:30):
our lives, but our neighbors,and that that's the only way that we
begin to put a dent in thingslike that occurred Saturday. Let's pause where
we can cover back. Got afew more questions to talk about, Maybe
discuss whether this is having an impactdowntown Cincinnati in terms of uh like business
and people, people's willingness to evengo downtown, because I've heard a lot

(08:50):
of anecdotal stories that is not doingwell for the city. Seven to fifteen.
If you have Karcity talk Station,a strong recommendation to save five kar
City talk Station Brian Thomas with Kenkober fop President's in the Saint Police Barber
real quick here before we get withKen, shout out to Jeff. Every
time I mentioned Jeff saving thirty onehundred bucks on his image, he sends
me a smiley face. So helloto the crew, Jeff and the crew

(09:13):
at mar Contool. They're listening rightnow. He's like to give me a
shout out. Anyway back over toKen real quick here, going back to
the Bramble Park shooting of five peoplein broad daylight on Saturday, you mentioned
when you were describing that you saidthere were groups that were feuding. There
were two groups feuding gang members.I mean, are these groups quote unquote

(09:35):
groups known to police? In whatI mean? Is this some sort of
ongoing dispute that the police are awareof. I think a lot of this
comes from the people that did cooperate. This is just kind of the the
rumor, if you will, isthat this is what this was about.
But you know, we're gonna letdistrict to continue to investigate. Okay,

(10:00):
I'm pretty confident that they will eventuallyget who these bad actors were and they're
going to end up bringing them tojustice. Well, I sure hope so,
and we will certainly be pop fanclose attention to how that justice system
works in so far as people whoare actually responsible for gunning people down at
this event for families. Now,there was another one over the weekend over

(10:20):
the Rhine. Apparently three people gotshot on Saturday morning, one reportedly listed
in critical condition at East twelfth andClay Streets. You know, over the
Rhine is one of those who wentthrough regentrification. They put all that money
into it, and I'm not goingto argue one way or another whether it
was worthwhile. Although I think thatWashington Park investment was certainly worthwhile. It
transformed that area. But the ideais to get more people downtown. Businesses

(10:45):
started popping up, restaurants started opening, ignoring COVID has the reports of this
violence that we keep hearing and readingabout these gangs of roving teenagers on motorcycles
or gathering around Government Square wherever theyhappen to be. Is this having an
impact on business downtown? Has wordgotten out? Are people now afraid to
go back down in Cincinnati? Well, I could tell you, like last

(11:07):
weekend, I worked the Reds Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, you know,
did three sold out crowds. Thebanks was just packed with people.
Good. So I think people arekind of taking this for what it's worth
is that these are these are isolatedincidents, although they seem to be popping
up more and more and more.But you know, you talk about the

(11:28):
shooting at twelfth and Clay, thatwas at one thirty in the morning,
most people, most people are goingto be gone and you know, back
home, you know, before onethirty in the morning. And at least
that's that's our hope, because aswe know that typically nothing good happens after
midnight. It stood true if mymom and dad knew that that was what

(11:50):
curfews are all about. Right,going back to parenting, Yeah, I
got to know where your children areand if you don't, you darn Moore
better have a way to get intouch with them. The other thing,
I guess I was wondering, gosh, I I apologize, I lost my
training thought on that one. OhHell's bells. I actually what I thought

(12:15):
was a clever question, and nowit's escaped me. The police contingency.
I know the numbers are down,and I know the last time you and
I talked Ken about it, morepeople were entering the drop program and more
people were planning on retiring. Isthat still a situation. We're still short
on officers and you know, Godbless each and every one of you.
I mentioned folks that have to workout doors in the suppressive heat, and
certainly police in their black uniforms thatcannot be very comfortable. But how are

(12:41):
you in terms of numbers and whichdirection are we going? And are we
in a state of urgency? Yetwe were getting it I mean critically low.
I mean we started the year ateight hundred and ninety eight. You
know, had a class of fortyfive graduate, we're back down to almost
below nine hundred. Again. Wedo have a class that's in that'll graduate

(13:03):
the end of August, but wewon't really see the effects of those folks
until after the first of the yearbecause you know, they graduate the end
of August and they've got another threemonths with their their field training officers.
So it's going to be really thefirst of the year before we feel those
effects of new officers. And inthe meantime, we have people leaving weekly.

(13:26):
So it certainly is a struggle rightnow. You know, that's hopefully
that you're work. They're gonna haveanother class in October. Hopefully that'll be
another forty or fifty cops. Butright now we're just we're kind of drowning
because as soon as we get theclass that we get in is already you
know, trying to fill seats forpeople that have already left. Wow,
So we're not we're not able tocatch up well, you know. And

(13:48):
it's it's one thing when you thinkabout in the context of an emergency situation
where it's a nine to one onecall and response time is really critical.
That's an active new case. Butthe other problem with this is you have
to do a lot of work anda lot of investigation. For example,
the evidentiary issues like finding people tocooperate, gathering the evidence that's sufficient to

(14:11):
turn it over the prosecutor's office.That takes a lot of man hours or
hours behind the scenes that I thinkpeople don't even think about. Solving cases
requires a lot of effort by thepolice department. Sure, I mean we
just use Bramble Park. You knowthat shooting is an example. You know
there were I think they said,like twenty five evidence markers. That takes

(14:33):
hours upon hours to process that sceneand then to try to go gather your
video footage and then try to canvasfor witnesses and then try to put all
these things together. These are monumentaltasks that these officers are doing. And
while they're investigating this, they're stillgetting more cases. So it is certainly

(14:54):
a challenge right now. And thenyou look at the beat officers that you're
going from run to run to run. They don't have time to try to
proactively enforce traffic laws or you know, any other complaints that they're getting in
the neighborhoods that they serve. Proactivepolicing right now is just becoming obsolete because
we don't have the people to beable to engage in those kinds of activities.

(15:18):
It's all reactive policing, which youknow, got to get ahead of
it if you're ever going to doanything about it. And I did finally
remember the question I wanted to askthem earlier. In apologies for that brain
bubble. We all have them.There was a time when and I heard
it repeatedly, and we can goall the way back to you know,
Chief Striker administration. We used tohave a cop show on here on the
Morning Show. If you weren't engagedin criminal activity or drugs specifically, you

(15:41):
were safe. In other words,you weren't going to be the victim of
a crime. And the vast majorityof cases downtown as long as you were
not engaged in well, in mostcases was dealing with or buying and selling
drugs. Is that still a defaultsort of rule or have we gotten away
from that and we've just entered aperiod of what general more like lawlessness.

(16:03):
I mean that that rule stands truetypically you like said the Bramble Park.
Going back to that again, thatthat's kind of of the anomaly because you
did have people there that were thatwere innocent, that weren't engaged in criminal
behavior, were there, you know, and they were just innocent bystanders.
But by and large, most ofthe shootings that you see on the news,
especially when it's one person getting shot, those are due to bad life

(16:29):
choices, you know, because you'veengaged in some kind of criminal behavior,
you've engaged in the drug trade.Those typically are the case. Like I
said, you know, when youhave multiple people shot, is typically when
it's ends up being an innocent bystander. That's just a victim of circumstance.
All right, Ken, And onemore question before we part company. I
know I'm over time, Joe,but I got to get this in.

(16:49):
I keep reading about all of andyou look at LA and New York and
other places. These just amazing shockingvideos of smashing grabs. These groups they
you know, run into the stores, smash everything, steal everything, and
run out. Are we there yet? I mean I haven't do I my
recollection got any reports or noted thatthat's been happening in our local community in

(17:11):
the area. If we avoided thatthus far, that type of sort of
organized smash and grab type attacks onstores. Yeah. Typically, you know,
we did have this a couple ofholidays ago where Saxspith Avenue was getting
hit and they were getting hit byguys that were coming in from out of
town that were doing these You're runningto Saxspath Avenue and steal thirty you know,

(17:36):
high end purses, and you knowthey flee. But overall though,
we're not we're not seeing this likewe are in other cities where they're just
you know, just absolute, justchaotic smashing grabs. And I believe is
it Mark Twain that made reference toCincinnati that's so far behind the time ten
years is hopefully that stands true forus. Well, let's hope it never

(18:00):
comes. God bless you, thepolice department, my fifty five KRS listeners
all have your back and certainly anythingwe can do to help support you and
your efforts. You have an opportunityto speak on the program, sir,
and I certainly appreciate your willingness todo that again today, and I'll look
forward to having you back on againreal soon. Sure, Brian, thanks
for having me. I appreciate itanytime, sir, anytime, seven thirty

(18:21):
right now, fifty five KRSC talkstation and you can call fants and pro roofing