Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
I'm Christy Burton Brown in for Dan on January second.
Hopefully you're in new year is off to a good start.
I think if you were on the show on Monday,
I was also hosting then, and it was a good
time to like close out the year. And now we're
beginning the year. And as you know, there's never any
shortage of news and things happening no matter which year
it is. Twenty twenty six promises to be a very
(00:23):
politically dense year with midterms and Zora and Mom Dommi
becoming the new mayor of New York City. We're going
to talk a lot about his swearing in and a
few key things he said in his speech, as well
as things that Bernie Sanders and aoc more Democrats socialists
said would be happening in New York City. I think
(00:44):
a big question will be whether or not we'll see
a flight out of New York City, like California is
currently experiencing with the threat of the wealth tax being
passed there this year. But that is all for later
on in the show. First of all, we're going to
talk about one of my fays issues to talk about
because I think it really affects all of our lives
here in Colorado, and that is public safety. I have
(01:07):
Elizabeth Cabin with me today, who i'll introduce to you
in just a moment. She currently works for Advance Colorado,
where I also work as our outreach director and policy analyst.
But she released a really important report that I think
you want to know about, largely informed by her two
and a half years working at the state legislature. And
(01:28):
so this report is called the Crisis of Safety, How
policy choices put Colorado's at risk. You can get it
at Advancecolorado dot org and download this report. I think
it's actually really critical information for everyone to understand if
you live here and you're at all concerned about public safety.
But Elizabeth, welcome to the Dan Kaplis Show. Thanks for
joining today.
Speaker 2 (01:48):
Yeah, thanks for having me.
Speaker 1 (01:50):
All right, Well, before you came to work for us
at Advance, you worked at the state capital for three
years or two and a half years, a long time,
and you saw firsthand the inner working at the legislative process,
including what actually happened behind the scenes on some of
the bills that are discussed in your report Crisis of Safety.
And before we actually get into the report, because I
want people to know what's in it. Can you just
(02:11):
talk about some of the things you saw inside the capital,
especially when it comes to how like the public safety
bills are handled or discussed.
Speaker 2 (02:18):
Yeah, so, I think one of the major things that
I observed while working at the Capitol was the way
certain language was used so carefully during the conversation surrounding
public safety. So it was all about diversion or alternative
programs to prison. Or if we don't call criminals criminals,
we call them people who commit crimes. Or Okay, one
(02:43):
of my favorites are we refer to prisons as cages?
Well not we they do, right, these words and phrases
that they use, it almost like demonizes or makes you
feel bad about just wanting criminals to receive adequate justice
and or sorry, criminals to receive justice and victims to
(03:03):
receive justice. So it's all very calculated. So it's almost
like the criminals become victims of their own crimes. It's
so backwards there, But that's the way that they want
you to think about public safety so that they are
more justified in achieving more soft on crime legislation.
Speaker 1 (03:20):
Right, And it seems like almost every bill a pass
tends decide with the criminal over the victim. And I
think you make an interesting point that if that's what
they want to do, they have to justify it and
come up with language, always change words to justify what
they're doing. And I know you also saw first hand,
and this is what we've talked about some of our listeners.
The House Judiciary Committee in particular is very notorious at
(03:42):
this point for striking down good legislation, not letting it
pastor committee that would keep caller out and safe if
we're able to pass it. A lot of times the
public safety measures going through their committee are very popular.
If you pull them, people are like, yes, put child
predators in jail, for example. But the chairman of that
committee and several members are also members of the dem
Socialist Party, and they seem to believe no offender, no
(04:03):
matter how dangerous, should serve a mandatory jail sentence. So
can you tell our listeners what you saw happen on
that committee.
Speaker 2 (04:10):
Yeah, So, the the Democrat leadership is responsible for appointing
Democrats to committees, right, and so the speaker of the
majority leader have the final say and who's going on
the Judiciary Committee and it's a hot committee. You know.
I'm sure there are many legislators who aren't in the
Democratic Socialist of America that want to be.
Speaker 1 (04:29):
On that committee, right, you would think.
Speaker 2 (04:31):
But this is where I go back to saying everything
is so calculated. The Democrat leadership intentionally puts the most progressive,
openly sought on crime legislators on that committee. And so
in recent years, that's why we've been seeing the Judiciary
Committee being ifamous for killing all of our good common
sense some of them bipartisan too, these good bills, and
(04:53):
it's just unfortunate to see the way that they treat,
you know, citizens or das or sheriffs that come to testify,
they're just not taken seriously, or they're i don't know,
scheduled for midnight when they are being told they're testifying
at three pm. I think when we have Sheriff Darren
Weekly on our podcast, he was telling us about how
(05:15):
he's just not treated very well. He's looked down upon
when he's there, and it's all for testifying the truth
about their communities, the safety of their communities. So it's
very disheartening for the average citizen to hear that's the
way that the safety of our communities are being treated.
Speaker 1 (05:33):
Yeah, no, exactly. And I do think that's an interesting
point that typically when you hear a bill in committee,
you put the most expert witnesses on first. That usually
is what happens because committee members just get tired and
when it's at midnight, they're not really listening anymore, like
if we're being honest, or they leave right that too,
And so I think it is a show of like
how unseeriously they take the perspectives of law enforcement, be
(05:57):
they need district attorneys or sheriffs or police officers to say, hey,
if you really want to talk to us as legislators,
you're gonna sit here and wait until midnight, when I
think they probably have a lot better things to be doing,
like rostcating criminals, keeping us safe. But that I think
is a really interesting observation. If you're just tuning in,
you're listening to the Dan Kapli Show. I'm Christy Burton
Brown joined with Elizabeth Cavin, who spent two and a
(06:17):
half years working at the legislature recently and now works
over at Advanced Colorado as our outreach director and policy analyst.
We're talking about a new report that was released late
last year called the Crisis of Safety, how policy choices
put Colorado's at risk and with Colorado being the second
most dangerous state in the nation according to US News
and World Report. That's why if you tune in to
(06:38):
Dan Kapla's show. Whenever I'm hosting, we commonly talk about
public safety issues and Elizabeth, we're gonna have to get
to a break kind of soon, but I know we
have time for another question. Hopefully you'll stay on with
me for another segment, but let's at least introduce people
to your report. I thought this line was really interesting
in the report. You said lawmakers have prioritized leniency over accountability.
(07:00):
You've already talked about at least one example of that,
but can you talk about a couple more.
Speaker 2 (07:04):
Yeah, So, when I talk about this, I'm referring to
the long standing efforts to keep people out of prison
and get people out of prison. So over the last decade,
there's been a hard push, very public too, by legislators
on the Democrat side to I don't know, reduce the
prison population, reduce arrests, cut the public safety budget. I mean,
(07:25):
I cover a lot of the ways they've done that
in the report, but some of which would include sentence
reductions for certain crimes including arson, increase parole eligibility. Before
Prop One twenty eight passed in twenty twenty four, I
think violent offenders were only serving I think, what is it,
less than fifty percent, Yeah, something crazy like that on
(07:47):
average of their sentences. You know, pr bonds, expanded competency laws,
diversion programs, all these things are aimed at putting the
criminal over the victim, like we keep saying and just
assuming the best will come out of us, but we
aren't saying positive results whatsoever. But that effort continues right well, and.
Speaker 1 (08:05):
We see if you look at statistics, which I think
you know, numbers tell us a lot more than random
soundbites you might hear from people in the legislature. And
Coloro's recidivism rate is extremely high. And in part I
think because of what you identify in your report that
leniency is prioritized over accountability. And when you just say, oh,
let's give someone another chance without actually holding them accountable
(08:25):
and putting them through real rehabilitation or reform, which I
think is possible for some people, it is more victims
that pay the price, so we have to take a break.
Now you're on the Dan Capla Show. You can call
in soon on the show if you'd like two three
oho three seven one three eight, two five five, or
text Dan at five seven seven three nine share your
thoughts about public safety issues. I think Elizabeth is going
(08:47):
to stay on with me and we'll continue to fill
you in on key parts of this report and why
you should care how it affects your life here in Colorado.
Welcome back to the Dan Capla Show. I'm Christy Burton
Brown filling in for Dan today. Thanks for tuning in
if you were listening in our first segment, I'm talking
with Elizabeth Cavin, who currently works with me at Advanced
Colorado as our outreach director and policy analyst, but prior
(09:09):
to that worked to the state capital for two and
a half years, which if you've ever been there to
testify or me the legislator, I think you can imagine
how long two and a half years is in that building.
But what we've specifically been talking about is a report
that Elizabeth was able to offer author actually called Crisis
of Safety, and it talks about just a broad overview
(09:31):
of the public safety issues here in Colorado that have
been made a lot worse by the legislator's failure to
pass important bills cracking down on criminals, their preference to
prefer leniency for criminals over accountability for them and over
justice for victims. And I think this is a particularly
interesting conversation because we talked the legislators a lot on
(09:53):
the show. Sometimes Dan gets to interview congressmen who work
in DC, but I think, really, do you hear from
this staff that work behind the scenes and see what
really goes on at the committee level, And just so
many interesting conversations that I think really highlight the party
in control and how they view these bills. So I'm
(10:14):
gonna go back to Elizabeth, thanks for staying on the
show with us, and let's talk about a particular issue
in this report. I think a couple of really good
things you talk about are increased parole eligibility in Colorado
pr bonds where criminals can basically just say yes, I
promise I'll come back for trial and they don't have
to pay anything, or maybe a dollar or two if
(10:34):
the judge really wants to crack down on them. So
those are interesting things people should look into. But mental
incompetency is something we've talked about here on the show.
It's been in the news a lot, and mental incompetency
you write about in the Report and some key stories
I think throughout Colorado where there's this huge loophole the
legislature passed to allow people who are deemed permanently mentally
(10:56):
incompetent back out on the streets. Charges have to be dismissed,
even if they're a danger to communities. So fill us
in more on that.
Speaker 2 (11:04):
Yeah, So what's interesting about the competency laws is that
we've had them around for a really long time, like
I think close to three decades, maybe more. But it's
only now that we're starting to see the issue pop
up in the news and go to mainstream media. And
that's because there is a statute that was added in
twenty twenty four under HB twenty four ten thirty four
(11:25):
that basically says, if you are deemed in competent and
unable to be restored back to competency, all charges against
you must be dropped and the trial ends. So this
statue has become a major loophole, as you can imagine,
for offenders to just get out of their charges, and
many of whom we've seen commit crimes weeks after they've
(11:46):
been released, and then gets cycled back into the system
again where they are claiming in competency again, and the
cycle continues. And of course, you know, I think that
we should be thinking of the genuinely mentally ill during
trial proceedings. I mean, those laws were on the books
for a long time before they were expanded, and they
were working well. However, like it just has become a
(12:10):
major loophole, like you said, for it's just a get
out of jail free card at this point. So we
even have had offenders on record saying that they know
that if they claim in competency that.
Speaker 1 (12:24):
All this goes away.
Speaker 2 (12:26):
So they're just admitting to taking advantage of the system.
And I think if we are going to have these
comptency laws, the state has to have tighter language, higher
metrics around the issue of incomptency, Like we just need
real follow up. If someone is deemed too in comptent
to stand trial, then how can we assume that they're
comptent enough to go back on the streets to the
(12:47):
communities they just harmed. We can't just take their word
for it. Like the pre bonds. We can't just take
their word for everything. And I think the state has
to start taking responsibility for the consequences of the laws
that they choose to make. And this is just one
example of that. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (13:02):
Well, and I think Elizabeth, to your point, these are
people who still retain their driver's licenses. In many cases,
they own weapons and have them. And it's this one
little piece of participating in society, like you know, having
to go through a trial if you get charged with
a crime that you know the current law says, well,
you're not competent for that, even if you're still competent
to drive and to own weapons and to do all
(13:24):
these other things. Because even if and I think we
do have a lot in Colorado where you can't own
a gun if you're a felon, their felony charges are
getting dropped, right, So these are people like actually committing
the dangerous felonies, but the state has no basis to
take their weapon away from them because their charges are dismissed.
And yet they're equally dangerous to people who are getting
their weapons removed.
Speaker 2 (13:43):
Right. The laws is very very arbitrary, and we've even
seen judges when they are deeming someone incompetent reluctantly saying,
you know, the law is so arbitrary, I have no
other choice but to release you. Yes, and they yeah, right.
They can't take away their drivers license. They have no
traditional authority too, And so that's why I said that,
(14:04):
I think the law really needs to be tightened in
that way.
Speaker 1 (14:07):
No, and I think your report outlines it really well.
And we also at Advanced Colorado released another report over
the last couple of days on mental and compacy, in
particular because this is going to be a huge issue
during the legislative session and it dives even deeper. So
I think the combination of those two reports if you
want to get a picture of what's going on in
Colorado with mental incompetency and how it relates to crime
and some of the most dangerous criminals on the streets
(14:28):
right now who are just sent right back out into
the communities, those reports will help you get a fuller picture.
If you have thoughts, call it any time three zero
three seven, one three eight two five five or texts
Dan to five seven seven three nine. You're on the
Dan Kapli Show. I'm Christy Burton Brown talking to Elizabeth
Cavin right now, and I do have one more question
for you, Elizabeth. Throughout the report, you cover a number
(14:51):
of bills that were sponsored by conservative members of the
legislature or I think, most interestingly, some moderate bipartisan legislators,
where people from both parties got on the bill unsponsored it.
It would have curbed crimes like theft or put child
predators in jail, like some of the worst of the
worst people. But were there any particular ones that surprised
you the most when they were killed in committee usually
(15:12):
the House Judiciary Committee, but really anywhere, maybe even on
the floor.
Speaker 2 (15:17):
Yeah, So I would say that the most surprising, maybe
depressing of them all was the one you just mentioned,
the bipartisan bill to give a two year minimum sentence
to child predators. So these are people who you know,
committed a sexual act on a child, the worst of
the worst, and it died in judiciary, like not enough
Democrats could even muster up a vote for two years minimum,
(15:40):
like we're not giving them a life sentence. They couldn't,
like obviously we'd know they wouldn't give them that, but
but just two years and they couldn't even they couldn't
even do that, and I remember one of the Democrat
legislators saying that she didn't feel that sending a child
predator to prison would make them come out better. Then
they went in wow, like how unsettling is that?
Speaker 3 (16:02):
What a comment?
Speaker 1 (16:03):
Well, and to even think that that's the focus is right?
I mean, and I'm all for rehabilitation to reform if
you can accomplish it with and I think with some
people you definitely can. Sure, but for that to be
the focus as well, because they won't be better, we'll
keep them on the streets. Like, how does that keep
children better? Keep right?
Speaker 2 (16:18):
Right?
Speaker 1 (16:19):
Which you think the main focus should be making the
victim's whole and keeping the offender away from the victim
they just offended against exactly. Yeah, well that's crazy, what
a comment. Well, Okay, Elizabeth, thank you for joining us
today on the Dan Capel Show and introducing issues in
your report. Really enjoyed your insight from the inside of
(16:39):
the Capitol.
Speaker 2 (16:39):
Yeah, thanks for having me.
Speaker 1 (16:41):
Absolutely, you're on the Dan Capital Show. I'm Christy Burton Brown,
and I hope you were able to listen to some
of those key issues. I think some of them are
going to be resurrected at the Capitol this year, the
session beginning again on January fourteenth, just about two weeks
from today. You can go visit any time, and here's
these committees for yourself. And I actually think that's something
(17:03):
that citizens who are voting for some of these legislators
would do well to do, is go down and sit
in on some of these hearings, especially the House Judiciary Committee,
when criminal justice bills are brought out. Here are the
questions the legislators ask, here are the comments that they make,
and see them vote over and over again to prioritize
criminals over victims. I suppose there's always a chance that
(17:26):
something different could happen, maybe some different version of a
bill cracking down on child predators, cracking down on theft.
Maybe eventually it makes its way through committee and legislators
here from enough citizens that we actually think children should
be prioritized over criminals, and something like that gets changed
to the Capitol. Maybe mental and competency gets solved this year.
(17:46):
But I think what's disappointing, this is what we can
see in the report Elizabeth was discussing, is that it
takes so long for these changes to happen session after session.
Good bills are run and they get shot down in
committee and don't even give an opportunity for all just
laters to vote on them. So one of the biggest
issues facing our state. I think, as again we're the
second most dangerous state in the nation, second only to
(18:07):
New Mexico. That is a really bad sentence for Colorado.
You're on the dan CAPLA Show. I'm Christy Burton Brown.
Call in over the break three oh three seven to one,
three eight, two five five or text five seven seven
three nine. When we come back, we'll discuss Mayor Zori
and Mondami's speech as mayor. Welcome back to the dan
CAPLA Show. I'm Christy Burton Brown. Thanks for joining tonight.
(18:27):
We were just talking about Colorado's public safety laws, criminal
justice with a guest that I had on and specifically
about the mental incompetency laws, just because I think this
is going to be one of the issues that not
only covered like the last half of twenty twenty five
multiple news agencies discussing some pretty frightening stories, but it's
also supposed to be one of the big bills the
(18:48):
legislature plans to deal with on a bipartisan basis. In
twenty twenty six session. You know, we'll see if they
actually do. There's a lot of things that they think
they can deal with on a bipartisan basis, and then
sometimes it happens, sometimes it doesn't. But certainly the citizens
of the state deserve mental competency to be solved because
there's a good number of dangerous criminals being released to
the streets because of a loophole in Colorado law. Now,
(19:10):
I do have a texture saying that my guests said
some wildly misleading things about competency laws in this state.
I think if you actually think that's true, you should
call in and we can discuss it. Because I've looked
at the laws myself, the evidence, myself, read the news
stories myself. I don't know if you've done the same
thing or not, but it's actually it's I agree. It's
(19:30):
surprising a lot of people hear the details, like, oh,
that can't possibly be the case. We can't possibly be
handling competency laws in the state that way, And yet
we are in many ways. On public safety, Colorado is
one of the outlier states. We do things that not
even California and New York do. For example, we don't
even let law, we find law enforcement agents here in
(19:52):
Colorado if they proactively report violent criminals to the Department
of Homeland Security. That's something not even California and New
York do. They have exceptions for that. On competency laws,
many other states have pathways for civil commitment for people
who are incompetent to stand trial but are grave dangers
to their communities. They don't put them in jail similar
(20:14):
to Colorado. They dismiss charges against them similar to Colorado,
but they provide an easy path to civil commitments. So
these people are off the streets. So if you texted
that and you want to talk about it, feel free
to call in. But also if you're surprised by Colorado's
laws that require a dismissal of charges even against people
who literally kill people or people who attempt to kidnap children,
(20:37):
and we just put these people back out on the streets, Yeah,
that's actually a law in Colorado that was passed in
twenty twenty four, really bad loophole. So yes, I'm with
you on being quite shocked by it, but it's also
reality here in Colorado. So let's move on to another topic. Though,
I think the swearing in of Zoran mom Dami in
New York City as the mayor. He had this huge,
(20:59):
big saramon. If you're on social media at all, if
you're following the news, you probably saw some clips of it.
But I was listening through some pieces of his speech,
some of the speakers that he had. You know, unsurprisingly
since he ran as a Democrat socialist, he had AOC
give a speech, he had Bernie Sanders give one of
the headline speeches that he's swearing in. And I'm going
(21:19):
to play some of these clips for you, both from
those speakers but also from mom Dammi himself. I think
it's been like an open question that some people have had.
Like he ran as a Democrat socialist, he set all
these views and positions that a socialist would have. I mean,
you could even say a communist would have these views.
But is he really going to crack down on that, like,
you know, I guess zero in on it and say, yes,
(21:41):
this is actually how I'm governing New York City. Well,
if his speech is to be to be believed, yes,
it's absolutely how he's planning on governing New York City.
So I think the residents of New York City are
in for a very difficult awakening. One of the things
that he did, I think to do to get himself
elected is he focused in on walking the community, talking
(22:03):
to people, getting young people excited. I mean, if you listen,
he's a good speaker. If you listen to him speaking,
he's even say possibly charismatic. I'd recommend that people look
at a whole lot of dangerous leaders around the world
who are also down for their charisma and good ability
to speak, and they right exactly, and they led people down,
(22:28):
you know, a terrible path. So we'll get to some
of those clips in just a minute. I'm going to
go to a caller on line one. Welcome to the
Dan Kapli Show. Thanks for calling in.
Speaker 3 (22:39):
Well, I just had one comment to make, and it's about,
you know, putting child abusers in jail. Oh sure, yeah,
I have not personal experience, but I have friends who
have had personal experience being in jail with child offenders.
Most of the guys that are in the pod, if
you will, in the groups have children, and they do
(23:03):
not take kindly to child offenders.
Speaker 4 (23:06):
True when put in their pod, typically child offenders or
anybody with that type of iess conviction is isolated to
keep modeled away because it's a dangerous place to put
them in the general population. That's just a comment I
have to make as a data point, and that's about it.
Speaker 1 (23:27):
Okay, Well, thanks for calling in. Appreciate you sharing your thoughts.
And that caller, you know, is reference to what we
talked about in the first couple segments of the show,
where that's probably one of the most surprising things the
color The legislature did was reject mandatory minimum sentences for
some of the worst defenders against children, child predators. You
just basically can get out on probation here in Colorado
(23:50):
and not actually go to jail. Very true that other
criminals in jail tend to not treat you well if
you're known for abusing children, and I think it's because
the majority of society thinks that if anyone should be protected,
it should be our children. The bill specifically that got
shot down that would have required a mandatory minimum of
(24:11):
only two years for assaulting and abusing children in some
of the worst ways. So, you know, very popular among people,
and you know, if your fellow inmates don't appreciate what
you do to children, I think that's a very fair
conclusion that they're making, and certainly what a lot of
them would do to people like that put in jail,
(24:33):
But I think just mandatory minimums part of the point
of them is to stop certain kinds of crime and say,
you know what, if you know that you can commit
certain crimes in Colorado and just get out in probation,
get a slap on the wrist, not have to go
to jail, and not have to experience what the rest
of the inmate population thinks of you, well, then why
would you not continue certain bad actions if that's what
(24:53):
you're driven to do? And we see that happening over
and over in Colorado. When there aren't significant consequences, people
just go ahead and continue to commit the crimes like
Colorado is I think the eleventh worst state in the
nation when it comes to sexual assault crimes, and a
big portion of those crimes in Colorado are specifically committed
against children ages zero to ten. So that's very disturbing,
(25:16):
and part of it is because it is unfortunately easier
to commit those crimes in Colorado without consequences, without serious consequences,
than it is in other states. So Colorado just really
having a terrible record on public safety issues. If you
have thoughts about that, or about Zorah and Mom Dammy
getting sworn in in New York City. We're going to
(25:36):
get to clips of him in the next segment. But
if you have thoughts about it or heard parts of
his speech that I think are deeply concerning, you can
call in three zero three seven one three eight two
five five, or you can text your thoughts to Dan
at five seven seven three nine, just as a little
preview before we start playing the clips.
Speaker 2 (25:54):
Uh.
Speaker 1 (25:55):
He specifically talked about contrasting collectivism with individual This is
one of his clips that have really gotten spread and
possibly even gone viral at this point. But he downgrades
individualism as this cold, rugged experience that you know in
contrasted with collectivism, which is warm and welcoming, like it's
(26:15):
literally the kind of language he uses. And what a
scary thing for like the mayor of the biggest city
in the United States to openly say is criticize individualism.
That is like literally what made America america, not as
if we don't work together with each other. Of course
we do. You can be an individualist who still welcomes
(26:35):
people in community, helps others like That's also what America
is known for we give the most charity around the globe,
and even our poor people in America are treated, you know,
light years better than average citizens in many countries around
the world. So you compair helping communities and serving people
with individualism. It's that individualistic spirit that creates innovation and
(26:59):
has made our nation, you know, the human rights protector
that we are around the globe, but certainly not what
Zoran Mondami thinks. He would rather have the warmth of collectivism,
which how many communist dictators have you heard those kind
of slogans from over the centuries. We'll dive deeper into
that and many more clips in the next segment. I'm
Christy Burton Brown. You're back to the Dan Kaplis Show.
(27:20):
I'm Christy Burton Brown. You can call in anytime if
you want to discuss the issues today three zero three seven,
one three eight two five five or text your thoughts
to five seven seven three nine and start it with Dan.
Let's get to some of these clips I wanted to
play you from the swearing in of Zoran mom Domi
in New York City. Uh, he definitely made it very
(27:41):
clear that he wants to govern as he would call
a socialist, but it's really communism when you break it
down and look at everything he say, everything AFC was saying,
everything Bernie Sanders was saying. He's just made it very
clear that he wants to take New York City down
a different path. I think it's going to be very
interesting to see if he actually suks does this. And
(28:01):
I actually am not aware of how much power the
mayor alone has in New York City versus bringing the
city council with him. Different cities, you know, have all
the ideas in the world when you're the mayor, but
your city council's got to go with you. And then
other cities have what's called a strong mayor, and the
mayor actually can do a whole lot themselves. And I
actually now I'm very curious which way New York City
(28:22):
is set up. But what I think is gonna be
interesting is if he's actually able to do a lot
of things he's talking about doing. Are we going to
see a mass exodus out of New York City, just
like California is seeing right now among very wealthy individuals
like Peter Teel. All I believe the reports say anyway,
is that they left California on December thirty first or
(28:45):
before and made it public very soon thereafter, and they
left because California is considering a ballot measure to tax
the wealthy, as they would like to say, a wealth tax.
And basically if they pass this in ballot measures usually
voted on in November. Sometimes you can get them earlier
in the year, depending on state laws, but it would
(29:05):
be retroactive to January first, So if you were in
the state living there as a resident on January first,
you would get this wealth tax applied against you. And
that is why there was a mass exodus buy or
before December thirty first. Of Peter Teel, he's the most
famous one, but a number of rich people out of California.
They're like, I'm not going to just sit here and
keep my companies here and stay a resident. If California
(29:28):
is threatening to tax me, and I can go to Miami,
I can go to Texas all these other places and
do the same kind of business and do the same
kind of good that they like to do with a
lot of their money. A lot of America's wealthy individuals
give tons of money to charities, and it seems as
if the government loves to ignore that, and some of
the states they live in are like, oh no, let's
(29:49):
force you to pay for government programs instead of, you know,
allowing you to have enough room in your budget to
willingly donate to charities. But yes, So anyways, California is
certainly experiencing it exodus just with this potential ballot measure
on the horizon. So I'm very curious what's going to
happen in New York City with the actual threats their
new mayor is making. So I'm gonna let's let's play
(30:11):
this clip where he specifically talks about raising taxes.
Speaker 2 (30:15):
Two questions.
Speaker 1 (30:16):
The first one, there was a pretty big tax the
rich chant.
Speaker 5 (30:19):
I know a lot of your supporters like, is that
governor doesn't want that praise?
Speaker 2 (30:22):
But you maybe to.
Speaker 5 (30:22):
Speak to that divide and where that gets among your
priorities going forward. Now, I have said over the course
of our campaign, and I will now say as the
mayor of this city, that the two most straightforward ways
to raise revenue to not only take on the fiscal
challenges that we are inheriting, but also to fulfill the
affordability agenda that we have been running on, is by
(30:43):
raising taxes on the one percent of New Yorkers who
make a million dollars a year by an additional two percent,
and by raising the state's top corporate tax rate to
match that of New Jersey. And in this we would
raise nine billion dollars. And we put this forward because
it is critical in a moment like this to not
(31:06):
allow fiscal challenges to become an excuse for austerity, but
instead to respond to them with the seriousness they deserve
and the ambition that New Yorkers require, such that we
not only protect what they have today, but ensure that
they have more tomorrow.
Speaker 1 (31:21):
So, according to him, it is seriousness and ambition to
tax the people who like make the economy run in
New York City. And then note that he also said
instead of taking things from people, we're going to be
giving things to people. Well, which people, because you're specifically
talking about taking money from rich people and giving it
to people in poverty or even just like the working class.
(31:43):
And a note actually is actually not talking about giving
money to people. He's talking about taxing them, which is
giving money to government. So it's not just redistributing wealth
from one person to the next person. It's redistributing your wealth,
saying you're too rich to live here without giving the
government more money. Now, the government, you know, goes to
all their bureaucratic layers and all their programs, and like,
(32:05):
it's a fact that the government is never as efficient
as a charity, as a nonprofit, as a church, as
an individual who chooses to come alongside someone in poverty
and help them. And I think that's a big piece
that a lot of people who criticize the conservative view
of not raising taxes on anyone, whether they're rich, middle class,
(32:26):
well we're you know, poverty class. I'm not a fan
of raising taxes on anyone, but because I don't think
the government needs more money. But people say, oh, then
you don't believe in government programs, you don't want to
help poor people, you don't want it to be easier
for the middle class. That's all completely wrong. It's not
the conservative view. The conservative view is that government does
a bad job of fixing those things. That government isn't
the one who our wealth should be redistributed to, so
(32:49):
they shouldn't forcibly take money from people who have more
and say we know better how to help people than
you do. Completely ignoring the fact that often some of
the wealthiest people give some of the most money to
charities and actually do help people on their own, but
also the fact that by and large charitable organizations are
(33:10):
the ones who give people far more aid and far
more effective help. In the government, I'm just not a
fan of all the bureaucratic layers of the government. Certainly,
there's some programs that the government has to be the
one to run, which is why we all do pay
some taxes. But the point is, when your supposed stated
goal is we're not going to we're going to take
money from who we want to give it to others
(33:31):
who we think deserve it. A it doesn't work. Like
when states try and do this, people with money leave
your state because they know they can go somewhere else
and not have it happen to them. But b usually
what it creates is government bloat, more administrators hired, more
layers of bureaucracy, and the money very rarely actually funnels
down to the people you're claiming to serve. And then thirdly,
(33:55):
it's just not the American viewpoint. We think communities and
nonprofit fits and businesses and foundations and churches and people
can give to each other and help each other, and
that it's not actually the responsibility of government, because when
governments given more to do, they do a worse job
with what they're supposed to do in the first place.
And so, you know, we'll see how that New York
(34:17):
City experiment works and how many rich people are actually
left for zorn Mom Dommy and his administration to tax
if that's really what they decide to do. And he
uses a lot of fancy words, a whole lot of
big vocabulary words to make this sound like great and
wonderful and fancy. There's a reason it hasn't been adopted
across the United States. There's a reason Democrats socialists are
(34:40):
in the deep minority of their own party. It simply
isn't an American view. It's a communist view, and it
hasn't worked around the world. Is it going to work
in the US? And I think New York City, unfortunately,
is going to become the latest experiment in seeing what happens.
We'll play more clips that prove even more that he's
leaning towards communism when we come back in the next
hour of the show. You're on The Dan Kapitlis Show.
(35:02):
I'm Christy Burton Brown. Feel free to call in three
O three seven one three eight two five five, or
text your thoughts to Dan at five seven seven three nine.
Sorry
I'm Christy Burton Brown in for Dan on January second.
Hopefully you're in new year is off to a good start.
I think if you were on the show on Monday,
I was also hosting then, and it was a good
time to like close out the year. And now we're
beginning the year. And as you know, there's never any
shortage of news and things happening no matter which year
it is. Twenty twenty six promises to be a very
(00:23):
politically dense year with midterms and Zora and Mom Dommi
becoming the new mayor of New York City. We're going
to talk a lot about his swearing in and a
few key things he said in his speech, as well
as things that Bernie Sanders and aoc more Democrats socialists
said would be happening in New York City. I think
(00:44):
a big question will be whether or not we'll see
a flight out of New York City, like California is
currently experiencing with the threat of the wealth tax being
passed there this year. But that is all for later
on in the show. First of all, we're going to
talk about one of my fays issues to talk about
because I think it really affects all of our lives
here in Colorado, and that is public safety. I have
(01:07):
Elizabeth Cabin with me today, who i'll introduce to you
in just a moment. She currently works for Advance Colorado,
where I also work as our outreach director and policy analyst.
But she released a really important report that I think
you want to know about, largely informed by her two
and a half years working at the state legislature. And
(01:28):
so this report is called the Crisis of Safety, How
policy choices put Colorado's at risk. You can get it
at Advancecolorado dot org and download this report. I think
it's actually really critical information for everyone to understand if
you live here and you're at all concerned about public safety.
But Elizabeth, welcome to the Dan Kaplis Show. Thanks for
joining today.
Speaker 2 (01:48):
Yeah, thanks for having me.
Speaker 1 (01:50):
All right, Well, before you came to work for us
at Advance, you worked at the state capital for three
years or two and a half years, a long time,
and you saw firsthand the inner working at the legislative process,
including what actually happened behind the scenes on some of
the bills that are discussed in your report Crisis of Safety.
And before we actually get into the report, because I
want people to know what's in it. Can you just
(02:11):
talk about some of the things you saw inside the capital,
especially when it comes to how like the public safety
bills are handled or discussed.
Speaker 2 (02:18):
Yeah, so, I think one of the major things that
I observed while working at the Capitol was the way
certain language was used so carefully during the conversation surrounding
public safety. So it was all about diversion or alternative
programs to prison. Or if we don't call criminals criminals,
we call them people who commit crimes. Or Okay, one
(02:43):
of my favorites are we refer to prisons as cages?
Well not we they do, right, these words and phrases
that they use, it almost like demonizes or makes you
feel bad about just wanting criminals to receive adequate justice
and or sorry, criminals to receive justice and victims to
(03:03):
receive justice. So it's all very calculated. So it's almost
like the criminals become victims of their own crimes. It's
so backwards there, But that's the way that they want
you to think about public safety so that they are
more justified in achieving more soft on crime legislation.
Speaker 1 (03:20):
Right, And it seems like almost every bill a pass
tends decide with the criminal over the victim. And I
think you make an interesting point that if that's what
they want to do, they have to justify it and
come up with language, always change words to justify what
they're doing. And I know you also saw first hand,
and this is what we've talked about some of our listeners.
The House Judiciary Committee in particular is very notorious at
(03:42):
this point for striking down good legislation, not letting it
pastor committee that would keep caller out and safe if
we're able to pass it. A lot of times the
public safety measures going through their committee are very popular.
If you pull them, people are like, yes, put child
predators in jail, for example. But the chairman of that
committee and several members are also members of the dem
Socialist Party, and they seem to believe no offender, no
(04:03):
matter how dangerous, should serve a mandatory jail sentence. So
can you tell our listeners what you saw happen on
that committee.
Speaker 2 (04:10):
Yeah, So, the the Democrat leadership is responsible for appointing
Democrats to committees, right, and so the speaker of the
majority leader have the final say and who's going on
the Judiciary Committee and it's a hot committee. You know.
I'm sure there are many legislators who aren't in the
Democratic Socialist of America that want to be.
Speaker 1 (04:29):
On that committee, right, you would think.
Speaker 2 (04:31):
But this is where I go back to saying everything
is so calculated. The Democrat leadership intentionally puts the most progressive,
openly sought on crime legislators on that committee. And so
in recent years, that's why we've been seeing the Judiciary
Committee being ifamous for killing all of our good common
sense some of them bipartisan too, these good bills, and
(04:53):
it's just unfortunate to see the way that they treat,
you know, citizens or das or sheriffs that come to testify,
they're just not taken seriously, or they're i don't know,
scheduled for midnight when they are being told they're testifying
at three pm. I think when we have Sheriff Darren
Weekly on our podcast, he was telling us about how
(05:15):
he's just not treated very well. He's looked down upon
when he's there, and it's all for testifying the truth
about their communities, the safety of their communities. So it's
very disheartening for the average citizen to hear that's the
way that the safety of our communities are being treated.
Speaker 1 (05:33):
Yeah, no, exactly. And I do think that's an interesting
point that typically when you hear a bill in committee,
you put the most expert witnesses on first. That usually
is what happens because committee members just get tired and
when it's at midnight, they're not really listening anymore, like
if we're being honest, or they leave right that too,
And so I think it is a show of like
how unseeriously they take the perspectives of law enforcement, be
(05:57):
they need district attorneys or sheriffs or police officers to say, hey,
if you really want to talk to us as legislators,
you're gonna sit here and wait until midnight, when I
think they probably have a lot better things to be doing,
like rostcating criminals, keeping us safe. But that I think
is a really interesting observation. If you're just tuning in,
you're listening to the Dan Kapli Show. I'm Christy Burton
Brown joined with Elizabeth Cavin, who spent two and a
(06:17):
half years working at the legislature recently and now works
over at Advanced Colorado as our outreach director and policy analyst.
We're talking about a new report that was released late
last year called the Crisis of Safety, how policy choices
put Colorado's at risk and with Colorado being the second
most dangerous state in the nation according to US News
and World Report. That's why if you tune in to
(06:38):
Dan Kapla's show. Whenever I'm hosting, we commonly talk about
public safety issues and Elizabeth, we're gonna have to get
to a break kind of soon, but I know we
have time for another question. Hopefully you'll stay on with
me for another segment, but let's at least introduce people
to your report. I thought this line was really interesting
in the report. You said lawmakers have prioritized leniency over accountability.
(07:00):
You've already talked about at least one example of that,
but can you talk about a couple more.
Speaker 2 (07:04):
Yeah, So, when I talk about this, I'm referring to
the long standing efforts to keep people out of prison
and get people out of prison. So over the last decade,
there's been a hard push, very public too, by legislators
on the Democrat side to I don't know, reduce the
prison population, reduce arrests, cut the public safety budget. I mean,
(07:25):
I cover a lot of the ways they've done that
in the report, but some of which would include sentence
reductions for certain crimes including arson, increase parole eligibility. Before
Prop One twenty eight passed in twenty twenty four, I
think violent offenders were only serving I think, what is it,
less than fifty percent, Yeah, something crazy like that on
(07:47):
average of their sentences. You know, pr bonds, expanded competency laws,
diversion programs, all these things are aimed at putting the
criminal over the victim, like we keep saying and just
assuming the best will come out of us, but we
aren't saying positive results whatsoever. But that effort continues right well, and.
Speaker 1 (08:05):
We see if you look at statistics, which I think
you know, numbers tell us a lot more than random
soundbites you might hear from people in the legislature. And
Coloro's recidivism rate is extremely high. And in part I
think because of what you identify in your report that
leniency is prioritized over accountability. And when you just say, oh,
let's give someone another chance without actually holding them accountable
(08:25):
and putting them through real rehabilitation or reform, which I
think is possible for some people, it is more victims
that pay the price, so we have to take a break.
Now you're on the Dan Capla Show. You can call
in soon on the show if you'd like two three
oho three seven one three eight, two five five, or
text Dan at five seven seven three nine share your
thoughts about public safety issues. I think Elizabeth is going
(08:47):
to stay on with me and we'll continue to fill
you in on key parts of this report and why
you should care how it affects your life here in Colorado.
Welcome back to the Dan Capla Show. I'm Christy Burton
Brown filling in for Dan today. Thanks for tuning in
if you were listening in our first segment, I'm talking
with Elizabeth Cavin, who currently works with me at Advanced
Colorado as our outreach director and policy analyst, but prior
(09:09):
to that worked to the state capital for two and
a half years, which if you've ever been there to
testify or me the legislator, I think you can imagine
how long two and a half years is in that building.
But what we've specifically been talking about is a report
that Elizabeth was able to offer author actually called Crisis
of Safety, and it talks about just a broad overview
(09:31):
of the public safety issues here in Colorado that have
been made a lot worse by the legislator's failure to
pass important bills cracking down on criminals, their preference to
prefer leniency for criminals over accountability for them and over
justice for victims. And I think this is a particularly
interesting conversation because we talked the legislators a lot on
(09:53):
the show. Sometimes Dan gets to interview congressmen who work
in DC, but I think, really, do you hear from
this staff that work behind the scenes and see what
really goes on at the committee level, And just so
many interesting conversations that I think really highlight the party
in control and how they view these bills. So I'm
(10:14):
gonna go back to Elizabeth, thanks for staying on the
show with us, and let's talk about a particular issue
in this report. I think a couple of really good
things you talk about are increased parole eligibility in Colorado
pr bonds where criminals can basically just say yes, I
promise I'll come back for trial and they don't have
to pay anything, or maybe a dollar or two if
(10:34):
the judge really wants to crack down on them. So
those are interesting things people should look into. But mental
incompetency is something we've talked about here on the show.
It's been in the news a lot, and mental incompetency
you write about in the Report and some key stories
I think throughout Colorado where there's this huge loophole the
legislature passed to allow people who are deemed permanently mentally
(10:56):
incompetent back out on the streets. Charges have to be dismissed,
even if they're a danger to communities. So fill us
in more on that.
Speaker 2 (11:04):
Yeah, So what's interesting about the competency laws is that
we've had them around for a really long time, like
I think close to three decades, maybe more. But it's
only now that we're starting to see the issue pop
up in the news and go to mainstream media. And
that's because there is a statute that was added in
twenty twenty four under HB twenty four ten thirty four
(11:25):
that basically says, if you are deemed in competent and
unable to be restored back to competency, all charges against
you must be dropped and the trial ends. So this
statue has become a major loophole, as you can imagine,
for offenders to just get out of their charges, and
many of whom we've seen commit crimes weeks after they've
(11:46):
been released, and then gets cycled back into the system
again where they are claiming in competency again, and the
cycle continues. And of course, you know, I think that
we should be thinking of the genuinely mentally ill during
trial proceedings. I mean, those laws were on the books
for a long time before they were expanded, and they
were working well. However, like it just has become a
(12:10):
major loophole, like you said, for it's just a get
out of jail free card at this point. So we
even have had offenders on record saying that they know
that if they claim in competency that.
Speaker 1 (12:24):
All this goes away.
Speaker 2 (12:26):
So they're just admitting to taking advantage of the system.
And I think if we are going to have these
comptency laws, the state has to have tighter language, higher
metrics around the issue of incomptency, Like we just need
real follow up. If someone is deemed too in comptent
to stand trial, then how can we assume that they're
comptent enough to go back on the streets to the
(12:47):
communities they just harmed. We can't just take their word
for it. Like the pre bonds. We can't just take
their word for everything. And I think the state has
to start taking responsibility for the consequences of the laws
that they choose to make. And this is just one
example of that. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (13:02):
Well, and I think Elizabeth, to your point, these are
people who still retain their driver's licenses. In many cases,
they own weapons and have them. And it's this one
little piece of participating in society, like you know, having
to go through a trial if you get charged with
a crime that you know the current law says, well,
you're not competent for that, even if you're still competent
to drive and to own weapons and to do all
(13:24):
these other things. Because even if and I think we
do have a lot in Colorado where you can't own
a gun if you're a felon, their felony charges are
getting dropped, right, So these are people like actually committing
the dangerous felonies, but the state has no basis to
take their weapon away from them because their charges are dismissed.
And yet they're equally dangerous to people who are getting
their weapons removed.
Speaker 2 (13:43):
Right. The laws is very very arbitrary, and we've even
seen judges when they are deeming someone incompetent reluctantly saying,
you know, the law is so arbitrary, I have no
other choice but to release you. Yes, and they yeah, right.
They can't take away their drivers license. They have no
traditional authority too, And so that's why I said that,
(14:04):
I think the law really needs to be tightened in
that way.
Speaker 1 (14:07):
No, and I think your report outlines it really well.
And we also at Advanced Colorado released another report over
the last couple of days on mental and compacy, in
particular because this is going to be a huge issue
during the legislative session and it dives even deeper. So
I think the combination of those two reports if you
want to get a picture of what's going on in
Colorado with mental incompetency and how it relates to crime
and some of the most dangerous criminals on the streets
(14:28):
right now who are just sent right back out into
the communities, those reports will help you get a fuller picture.
If you have thoughts, call it any time three zero
three seven, one three eight two five five or texts
Dan to five seven seven three nine. You're on the
Dan Kapli Show. I'm Christy Burton Brown talking to Elizabeth
Cavin right now, and I do have one more question
for you, Elizabeth. Throughout the report, you cover a number
(14:51):
of bills that were sponsored by conservative members of the
legislature or I think, most interestingly, some moderate bipartisan legislators,
where people from both parties got on the bill unsponsored it.
It would have curbed crimes like theft or put child
predators in jail, like some of the worst of the
worst people. But were there any particular ones that surprised
you the most when they were killed in committee usually
(15:12):
the House Judiciary Committee, but really anywhere, maybe even on
the floor.
Speaker 2 (15:17):
Yeah, So I would say that the most surprising, maybe
depressing of them all was the one you just mentioned,
the bipartisan bill to give a two year minimum sentence
to child predators. So these are people who you know,
committed a sexual act on a child, the worst of
the worst, and it died in judiciary, like not enough
Democrats could even muster up a vote for two years minimum,
(15:40):
like we're not giving them a life sentence. They couldn't,
like obviously we'd know they wouldn't give them that, but
but just two years and they couldn't even they couldn't
even do that, and I remember one of the Democrat
legislators saying that she didn't feel that sending a child
predator to prison would make them come out better. Then
they went in wow, like how unsettling is that?
Speaker 3 (16:02):
What a comment?
Speaker 1 (16:03):
Well, and to even think that that's the focus is right?
I mean, and I'm all for rehabilitation to reform if
you can accomplish it with and I think with some
people you definitely can. Sure, but for that to be
the focus as well, because they won't be better, we'll
keep them on the streets. Like, how does that keep
children better? Keep right?
Speaker 2 (16:18):
Right?
Speaker 1 (16:19):
Which you think the main focus should be making the
victim's whole and keeping the offender away from the victim
they just offended against exactly. Yeah, well that's crazy, what
a comment. Well, Okay, Elizabeth, thank you for joining us
today on the Dan Capel Show and introducing issues in
your report. Really enjoyed your insight from the inside of
(16:39):
the Capitol.
Speaker 2 (16:39):
Yeah, thanks for having me.
Speaker 1 (16:41):
Absolutely, you're on the Dan Capital Show. I'm Christy Burton Brown,
and I hope you were able to listen to some
of those key issues. I think some of them are
going to be resurrected at the Capitol this year, the
session beginning again on January fourteenth, just about two weeks
from today. You can go visit any time, and here's
these committees for yourself. And I actually think that's something
(17:03):
that citizens who are voting for some of these legislators
would do well to do, is go down and sit
in on some of these hearings, especially the House Judiciary Committee,
when criminal justice bills are brought out. Here are the
questions the legislators ask, here are the comments that they make,
and see them vote over and over again to prioritize
criminals over victims. I suppose there's always a chance that
(17:26):
something different could happen, maybe some different version of a
bill cracking down on child predators, cracking down on theft.
Maybe eventually it makes its way through committee and legislators
here from enough citizens that we actually think children should
be prioritized over criminals, and something like that gets changed
to the Capitol. Maybe mental and competency gets solved this year.
(17:46):
But I think what's disappointing, this is what we can
see in the report Elizabeth was discussing, is that it
takes so long for these changes to happen session after session.
Good bills are run and they get shot down in
committee and don't even give an opportunity for all just
laters to vote on them. So one of the biggest
issues facing our state. I think, as again we're the
second most dangerous state in the nation, second only to
(18:07):
New Mexico. That is a really bad sentence for Colorado.
You're on the dan CAPLA Show. I'm Christy Burton Brown.
Call in over the break three oh three seven to one,
three eight, two five five or text five seven seven
three nine. When we come back, we'll discuss Mayor Zori
and Mondami's speech as mayor. Welcome back to the dan
CAPLA Show. I'm Christy Burton Brown. Thanks for joining tonight.
(18:27):
We were just talking about Colorado's public safety laws, criminal
justice with a guest that I had on and specifically
about the mental incompetency laws, just because I think this
is going to be one of the issues that not
only covered like the last half of twenty twenty five
multiple news agencies discussing some pretty frightening stories, but it's
also supposed to be one of the big bills the
(18:48):
legislature plans to deal with on a bipartisan basis. In
twenty twenty six session. You know, we'll see if they
actually do. There's a lot of things that they think
they can deal with on a bipartisan basis, and then
sometimes it happens, sometimes it doesn't. But certainly the citizens
of the state deserve mental competency to be solved because
there's a good number of dangerous criminals being released to
the streets because of a loophole in Colorado law. Now,
(19:10):
I do have a texture saying that my guests said
some wildly misleading things about competency laws in this state.
I think if you actually think that's true, you should
call in and we can discuss it. Because I've looked
at the laws myself, the evidence, myself, read the news
stories myself. I don't know if you've done the same
thing or not, but it's actually it's I agree. It's
(19:30):
surprising a lot of people hear the details, like, oh,
that can't possibly be the case. We can't possibly be
handling competency laws in the state that way, And yet
we are in many ways. On public safety, Colorado is
one of the outlier states. We do things that not
even California and New York do. For example, we don't
even let law, we find law enforcement agents here in
(19:52):
Colorado if they proactively report violent criminals to the Department
of Homeland Security. That's something not even California and New
York do. They have exceptions for that. On competency laws,
many other states have pathways for civil commitment for people
who are incompetent to stand trial but are grave dangers
to their communities. They don't put them in jail similar
(20:14):
to Colorado. They dismiss charges against them similar to Colorado,
but they provide an easy path to civil commitments. So
these people are off the streets. So if you texted
that and you want to talk about it, feel free
to call in. But also if you're surprised by Colorado's
laws that require a dismissal of charges even against people
who literally kill people or people who attempt to kidnap children,
(20:37):
and we just put these people back out on the streets, Yeah,
that's actually a law in Colorado that was passed in
twenty twenty four, really bad loophole. So yes, I'm with
you on being quite shocked by it, but it's also
reality here in Colorado. So let's move on to another topic. Though,
I think the swearing in of Zoran mom Dami in
New York City as the mayor. He had this huge,
(20:59):
big saramon. If you're on social media at all, if
you're following the news, you probably saw some clips of it.
But I was listening through some pieces of his speech,
some of the speakers that he had. You know, unsurprisingly
since he ran as a Democrat socialist, he had AOC
give a speech, he had Bernie Sanders give one of
the headline speeches that he's swearing in. And I'm going
(21:19):
to play some of these clips for you, both from
those speakers but also from mom Dammi himself. I think
it's been like an open question that some people have had.
Like he ran as a Democrat socialist, he set all
these views and positions that a socialist would have. I mean,
you could even say a communist would have these views.
But is he really going to crack down on that, like,
you know, I guess zero in on it and say, yes,
(21:41):
this is actually how I'm governing New York City. Well,
if his speech is to be to be believed, yes,
it's absolutely how he's planning on governing New York City.
So I think the residents of New York City are
in for a very difficult awakening. One of the things
that he did, I think to do to get himself
elected is he focused in on walking the community, talking
(22:03):
to people, getting young people excited. I mean, if you listen,
he's a good speaker. If you listen to him speaking,
he's even say possibly charismatic. I'd recommend that people look
at a whole lot of dangerous leaders around the world
who are also down for their charisma and good ability
to speak, and they right exactly, and they led people down,
(22:28):
you know, a terrible path. So we'll get to some
of those clips in just a minute. I'm going to
go to a caller on line one. Welcome to the
Dan Kapli Show. Thanks for calling in.
Speaker 3 (22:39):
Well, I just had one comment to make, and it's about,
you know, putting child abusers in jail. Oh sure, yeah,
I have not personal experience, but I have friends who
have had personal experience being in jail with child offenders.
Most of the guys that are in the pod, if
you will, in the groups have children, and they do
(23:03):
not take kindly to child offenders.
Speaker 4 (23:06):
True when put in their pod, typically child offenders or
anybody with that type of iess conviction is isolated to
keep modeled away because it's a dangerous place to put
them in the general population. That's just a comment I
have to make as a data point, and that's about it.
Speaker 1 (23:27):
Okay, Well, thanks for calling in. Appreciate you sharing your thoughts.
And that caller, you know, is reference to what we
talked about in the first couple segments of the show,
where that's probably one of the most surprising things the
color The legislature did was reject mandatory minimum sentences for
some of the worst defenders against children, child predators. You
just basically can get out on probation here in Colorado
(23:50):
and not actually go to jail. Very true that other
criminals in jail tend to not treat you well if
you're known for abusing children, and I think it's because
the majority of society thinks that if anyone should be protected,
it should be our children. The bill specifically that got
shot down that would have required a mandatory minimum of
(24:11):
only two years for assaulting and abusing children in some
of the worst ways. So, you know, very popular among people,
and you know, if your fellow inmates don't appreciate what
you do to children, I think that's a very fair
conclusion that they're making, and certainly what a lot of
them would do to people like that put in jail,
(24:33):
But I think just mandatory minimums part of the point
of them is to stop certain kinds of crime and say,
you know what, if you know that you can commit
certain crimes in Colorado and just get out in probation,
get a slap on the wrist, not have to go
to jail, and not have to experience what the rest
of the inmate population thinks of you, well, then why
would you not continue certain bad actions if that's what
(24:53):
you're driven to do? And we see that happening over
and over in Colorado. When there aren't significant consequences, people
just go ahead and continue to commit the crimes like
Colorado is I think the eleventh worst state in the
nation when it comes to sexual assault crimes, and a
big portion of those crimes in Colorado are specifically committed
against children ages zero to ten. So that's very disturbing,
(25:16):
and part of it is because it is unfortunately easier
to commit those crimes in Colorado without consequences, without serious consequences,
than it is in other states. So Colorado just really
having a terrible record on public safety issues. If you
have thoughts about that, or about Zorah and Mom Dammy
getting sworn in in New York City. We're going to
(25:36):
get to clips of him in the next segment. But
if you have thoughts about it or heard parts of
his speech that I think are deeply concerning, you can
call in three zero three seven one three eight two
five five, or you can text your thoughts to Dan
at five seven seven three nine, just as a little
preview before we start playing the clips.
Speaker 2 (25:54):
Uh.
Speaker 1 (25:55):
He specifically talked about contrasting collectivism with individual This is
one of his clips that have really gotten spread and
possibly even gone viral at this point. But he downgrades
individualism as this cold, rugged experience that you know in
contrasted with collectivism, which is warm and welcoming, like it's
(26:15):
literally the kind of language he uses. And what a
scary thing for like the mayor of the biggest city
in the United States to openly say is criticize individualism.
That is like literally what made America america, not as
if we don't work together with each other. Of course
we do. You can be an individualist who still welcomes
(26:35):
people in community, helps others like That's also what America
is known for we give the most charity around the globe,
and even our poor people in America are treated, you know,
light years better than average citizens in many countries around
the world. So you compair helping communities and serving people
with individualism. It's that individualistic spirit that creates innovation and
(26:59):
has made our nation, you know, the human rights protector
that we are around the globe, but certainly not what
Zoran Mondami thinks. He would rather have the warmth of collectivism,
which how many communist dictators have you heard those kind
of slogans from over the centuries. We'll dive deeper into
that and many more clips in the next segment. I'm
Christy Burton Brown. You're back to the Dan Kaplis Show.
(27:20):
I'm Christy Burton Brown. You can call in anytime if
you want to discuss the issues today three zero three seven,
one three eight two five five or text your thoughts
to five seven seven three nine and start it with Dan.
Let's get to some of these clips I wanted to
play you from the swearing in of Zoran mom Domi
in New York City. Uh, he definitely made it very
(27:41):
clear that he wants to govern as he would call
a socialist, but it's really communism when you break it
down and look at everything he say, everything AFC was saying,
everything Bernie Sanders was saying. He's just made it very
clear that he wants to take New York City down
a different path. I think it's going to be very
interesting to see if he actually suks does this. And
(28:01):
I actually am not aware of how much power the
mayor alone has in New York City versus bringing the
city council with him. Different cities, you know, have all
the ideas in the world when you're the mayor, but
your city council's got to go with you. And then
other cities have what's called a strong mayor, and the
mayor actually can do a whole lot themselves. And I
actually now I'm very curious which way New York City
(28:22):
is set up. But what I think is gonna be
interesting is if he's actually able to do a lot
of things he's talking about doing. Are we going to
see a mass exodus out of New York City, just
like California is seeing right now among very wealthy individuals
like Peter Teel. All I believe the reports say anyway,
is that they left California on December thirty first or
(28:45):
before and made it public very soon thereafter, and they
left because California is considering a ballot measure to tax
the wealthy, as they would like to say, a wealth tax.
And basically if they pass this in ballot measures usually
voted on in November. Sometimes you can get them earlier
in the year, depending on state laws, but it would
(29:05):
be retroactive to January first, So if you were in
the state living there as a resident on January first,
you would get this wealth tax applied against you. And
that is why there was a mass exodus buy or
before December thirty first. Of Peter Teel, he's the most
famous one, but a number of rich people out of California.
They're like, I'm not going to just sit here and
keep my companies here and stay a resident. If California
(29:28):
is threatening to tax me, and I can go to Miami,
I can go to Texas all these other places and
do the same kind of business and do the same
kind of good that they like to do with a
lot of their money. A lot of America's wealthy individuals
give tons of money to charities, and it seems as
if the government loves to ignore that, and some of
the states they live in are like, oh no, let's
(29:49):
force you to pay for government programs instead of, you know,
allowing you to have enough room in your budget to
willingly donate to charities. But yes, So anyways, California is
certainly experiencing it exodus just with this potential ballot measure
on the horizon. So I'm very curious what's going to
happen in New York City with the actual threats their
new mayor is making. So I'm gonna let's let's play
(30:11):
this clip where he specifically talks about raising taxes.
Speaker 2 (30:15):
Two questions.
Speaker 1 (30:16):
The first one, there was a pretty big tax the
rich chant.
Speaker 5 (30:19):
I know a lot of your supporters like, is that
governor doesn't want that praise?
Speaker 2 (30:22):
But you maybe to.
Speaker 5 (30:22):
Speak to that divide and where that gets among your
priorities going forward. Now, I have said over the course
of our campaign, and I will now say as the
mayor of this city, that the two most straightforward ways
to raise revenue to not only take on the fiscal
challenges that we are inheriting, but also to fulfill the
affordability agenda that we have been running on, is by
(30:43):
raising taxes on the one percent of New Yorkers who
make a million dollars a year by an additional two percent,
and by raising the state's top corporate tax rate to
match that of New Jersey. And in this we would
raise nine billion dollars. And we put this forward because
it is critical in a moment like this to not
(31:06):
allow fiscal challenges to become an excuse for austerity, but
instead to respond to them with the seriousness they deserve
and the ambition that New Yorkers require, such that we
not only protect what they have today, but ensure that
they have more tomorrow.
Speaker 1 (31:21):
So, according to him, it is seriousness and ambition to
tax the people who like make the economy run in
New York City. And then note that he also said
instead of taking things from people, we're going to be
giving things to people. Well, which people, because you're specifically
talking about taking money from rich people and giving it
to people in poverty or even just like the working class.
(31:43):
And a note actually is actually not talking about giving
money to people. He's talking about taxing them, which is
giving money to government. So it's not just redistributing wealth
from one person to the next person. It's redistributing your wealth,
saying you're too rich to live here without giving the
government more money. Now, the government, you know, goes to
all their bureaucratic layers and all their programs, and like,
(32:05):
it's a fact that the government is never as efficient
as a charity, as a nonprofit, as a church, as
an individual who chooses to come alongside someone in poverty
and help them. And I think that's a big piece
that a lot of people who criticize the conservative view
of not raising taxes on anyone, whether they're rich, middle class,
(32:26):
well we're you know, poverty class. I'm not a fan
of raising taxes on anyone, but because I don't think
the government needs more money. But people say, oh, then
you don't believe in government programs, you don't want to
help poor people, you don't want it to be easier
for the middle class. That's all completely wrong. It's not
the conservative view. The conservative view is that government does
a bad job of fixing those things. That government isn't
the one who our wealth should be redistributed to, so
(32:49):
they shouldn't forcibly take money from people who have more
and say we know better how to help people than
you do. Completely ignoring the fact that often some of
the wealthiest people give some of the most money to
charities and actually do help people on their own, but
also the fact that by and large charitable organizations are
(33:10):
the ones who give people far more aid and far
more effective help. In the government, I'm just not a
fan of all the bureaucratic layers of the government. Certainly,
there's some programs that the government has to be the
one to run, which is why we all do pay
some taxes. But the point is, when your supposed stated
goal is we're not going to we're going to take
money from who we want to give it to others
(33:31):
who we think deserve it. A it doesn't work. Like
when states try and do this, people with money leave
your state because they know they can go somewhere else
and not have it happen to them. But b usually
what it creates is government bloat, more administrators hired, more
layers of bureaucracy, and the money very rarely actually funnels
down to the people you're claiming to serve. And then thirdly,
(33:55):
it's just not the American viewpoint. We think communities and
nonprofit fits and businesses and foundations and churches and people
can give to each other and help each other, and
that it's not actually the responsibility of government, because when
governments given more to do, they do a worse job
with what they're supposed to do in the first place.
And so, you know, we'll see how that New York
(34:17):
City experiment works and how many rich people are actually
left for zorn Mom Dommy and his administration to tax
if that's really what they decide to do. And he
uses a lot of fancy words, a whole lot of
big vocabulary words to make this sound like great and
wonderful and fancy. There's a reason it hasn't been adopted
across the United States. There's a reason Democrats socialists are
(34:40):
in the deep minority of their own party. It simply
isn't an American view. It's a communist view, and it
hasn't worked around the world. Is it going to work
in the US? And I think New York City, unfortunately,
is going to become the latest experiment in seeing what happens.
We'll play more clips that prove even more that he's
leaning towards communism when we come back in the next
hour of the show. You're on The Dan Kapitlis Show.
(35:02):
I'm Christy Burton Brown. Feel free to call in three
O three seven one three eight two five five, or
text your thoughts to Dan at five seven seven three nine.
Sorry
Popular Podcasts
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
The Breakfast Club
The World's Most Dangerous Morning Show, The Breakfast Club, With DJ Envy, Jess Hilarious, And Charlamagne Tha God!