Russell Coleman on violence and drugs in the KY, Back the Blue, and collabortion with Mayor Greenberg

Attorney General-elect Russell Coleman discusses his background in law enforcement, the issues of violence and drug addiction that continue to plague the Commonwealth, Back the Blue, and his new collabortion with Mayor Greenberg...

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
And so we'll talk with Ian ina little while and Paul Miles, and
we'll sort of catch up on everythingthat's going on in the world. But
first, just rolling in here acouple of minutes ago, is Kentucky's incoming
attorney general. His name is RussellColeman. Welcome, Russell. Thank you
think sitting in what those of usover a certain agek new is the Galleria
your new fancy office here in downtownLouisville. And let me say those of

(00:22):
us in blue are not hesitant fornext week to occur. We're looking forward
to it. Let me just laydown the market right now. Everybody online
is saying, will you sell meyour tickets? I mean we're seeing that
all the time. Hey, Louisvillefan, you don't want to be there
next Thursday. Sell your town.It's cold, it's absolutely stay home and
rap presence. I think about otherthings. By the way, I finished

(00:44):
wrapping presents this morning. You've beenbusy running for office, and now,
of course I've seen you on thenews. You are making some important announcements.
You met up with the mayor ofthe City of Louisville. So before
we get to any of that,have you done any shopping for your family
yet, Russell, if I've learnedmany lessons over the last eighteen months running
for Attorney General, I'm gonna pivotoff of that and just say how grateful
I am to be here and howexcited I am for Christmas. That means

(01:07):
no, he hasn't yet, butwe'll get to work on that this weekend.
That's what this weekends for. Crossthat bridge. Congratulations on the victory
in the election. Thank you.Obviously you served us well as in multiple
roles here, but you've been alaw enforcement person here for a long time.

(01:30):
Give people a little bit of yourbackground about how you worked your way
to this day. Law enforcement forme has been a calling. I was
an FBI special agent earlier in mycareer. It was something I'd wanted to
do since I was a kid growingup in rural western Kentucky, and I
had a chance to be an FBIspecial agent. Served across the river in
Indiana, served down ranging a rockwith US military as an agent for a

(01:53):
short period of time, worked inWashington, d C. I was injured
and left the FBI. Served asSenator McConnell's legal council focused on drug policy,
law enforcement issues, federal judiciary issues, still able to play in that
space, although I wasn't going throughthe door anymore, wasn't wearing a badge
and a gun anymore. Because ofmy injuries and then President Trump, we
moved back here to raise our familyin Kentucky. Kids were losing their Kentucky

(02:15):
accent. We had to get backin a hurry from watching DC. Although
if you met my wife, who'sfrom Grayson County, my kids would never
lose their accent been exposed to theirmom. So that's fantastic western Kentucky accent.
That's awesome. President Trump won andafforded me the opportunity. Senator McConnell
and Senator Paul recommended me to thepresident, and I served as I was
nominated by the President, conferred bythe Senate, served three and a half

(02:38):
years as the state's attorney here.I wish the issues that we're going to
talk about today weren't the exact sameissues that you and I sat across a
little bit dingier area back at yourother headquarters, but talked about these very
same issues gun violence, and noteven just violence in general, where our
firearm is used, murders in thiscity, are jackings in this city,

(03:00):
non fatal shootings, overdose, sonsand daughters, moms and dads, empty
seats on the pew next to you. These are the same issues you and
I talked about throughout my tenure asUS Attorney. And unfortunately we're drowning now.
We're we're bleeding out still, andthat's what's astounding. Yeah, we've
gone through all this as you're theWestern District US Attorney through all this.

(03:22):
Now you are the Attorney General forthe entire Commonwealth of Kentucky. But I
know that you've had a recent focuson what happens here in Louisville. I
know the commonwealth is yours all theway across. But can we focus for
a few minutes on what's happening herelast night? Four carjackings. Attorney General
Coleman elect Attorney O g ag Rightnow for the two weeks January First,

(03:46):
James, First, that scares people. Obviously, they think, well,
these are random things. No,this is not a this is not a
typical occurrence. It's just becoming moreand more to where people are a nest
the ties to it, where theyhear about it. And then two minutes
later, the thinking about Christmas treesor whatever. It is still a rising
problem. So last night here wefind there was multiple juveniles involved and we

(04:13):
don't have a place to put themhere. What I've been told by law
enforcement is that we don't have ayouth detention center or the rules of change,
and that a grown up shows upand says, oh, he's my
nephew. Okay, you can takehim, and he's back on the street
an hour later. Well, multipleissues to unpack, but let me just
first and foremost say it's not justthat we don't have a youth detention center,
and our legislators are changing that we'llbe opening that. My understanding is

(04:38):
in the near term less that wedon't have a juvenile detention center, although
that's a big limiting factor to officersthat are having to take juveniles all over
the state to be housed, andthat means they're not chasing nine to one
one calls and protecting your family becausethey're running too a Dare County or Northern
Kentucky. More importantly, if there'sa takeaway from this in terms of juveniles
committing these carjackings, don't have asense of deterrence in the juvenile justice system.

(05:02):
The juvenile justice system in this countyespecially is broken. There is no
sense of deterrence. There is noability to to push back, no ability
to disincentivize these young people for committingthese these acts. I say that I
wanted to make sure I understood whathad been happening. I've talked to a

(05:23):
couple of police officers in the lastcouple of hours, folks that have been
engaged here for some time, tomake sure I was I was updated.
And the number one challenge here isour kids. Those whether we're talking about
what the new story that Paul justdisclosed, this what happened last night,
Middletown, South Louisville, all overthe Jefferson County. It's there is no

(05:46):
safe neighborhood. This threat is presentacross Jefferson County. Not only are they
these kids out stealing vehicles at gunpoint, they're pulling triggers, they're committing homicides.
We're at almost one hundred and fiftyhomicides this year, one hundred and
fifty, and so many of thoseare committed by juveniles. And so it
is a complex problem. There ismuch to unpack, to dig in.

(06:10):
At the end, of the day, though, there is a sense on
the streets of Jefferson County that thereis not a deterrence that these kids don't
think they're going to get caught.If they are caught, they know they're
going to be either not detained orthey're going to be right back home.
The joke is, before the officercan file the citation, there's no fear
of repercussion. So where do weinsert the repercussions? And you eat an

(06:33):
elephant one bite at a time.What I was here yesterday to talk to
the mayor about what our commonwealth attorneyyou and I our old friend Tom Wyne
who we lost on Derby Day.We have a new Commonwealth's Attorney here.
Jerina Weathers had served as personnel secretaryfor Governor Basheer and she's served in state
government for a couple of decades.Someone that was the very first person I

(06:56):
reached out to after I won,the very first person text to reach out
to, because the relationship that isthe most important office. I would argue,
along with the mayor in this citythat most people don't know who the
comos attorney is. Well, Iwill tell you the person that serves as
Commos Attorney is a big deal becausethat office plays a critical role here,
so reached out to her very earlyon. I've sat down with her with

(07:18):
her team, sat down with themayor yesterday to talk about how we the
dex Attorney General's Office can come alongsideand collaborate and be of assistants here.
You and I have talked about thisbefore. The number one limiting factor in
law enforcement. It's not personnel,and although we're always underwater with personnel,
it's not resources, and we canalways use more. It's that we don't

(07:39):
traditionally collaborate well in law enforcement.What it says on our badge oftentimes is
a bit of a limiting factor.So the state police isn't talking to the
LMPD, who the heck knows whatthe Feds do, or the prosecutor.
We have silos, Terry, andbecause of those silos, if you and
I call nine one one, youand I have someone kicking our door in

(07:59):
we call nine one one. Wedon't care who responds. We just want
to make sure they get their fastand they're effective, and they eliminate the
threat and they protect our families.So that's what people on the street want
but the reality is we've got todo a better job of tearing down these
silos because the bad guys, they'reproliferating the dope, the poison we see
that's jumping in here from over aporous southwest border, coming from the cartels.

(08:20):
That they're getting better. We inlaw enforcement, the threats are getting
larger. We have to run faster, and a way to do that is
we collaborate more effectively. We're speakingto Russell Coleman. He's the Attorney General
elect here in the Commonwealth of Kentuckycoming up, going to be sworn in
here in a couple of weeks.The number of law enforcement officers, as

(08:41):
you noted, we are underwater there. So what do we do to make
this a more enticing career for people? Well, first and foremost, we
use this term. I use thisterm back the blue. Back the blue
doesn't mean that you only use happytalk and say nice things occasionally to a
police officer. Back the blue meanswhen things go south. Back to blue

(09:03):
means that officers, when you havea situation that their leadership stands behind the
podium and supports them as a default. Now they get the benefit of the
doubt in my mind, they getnow. Ultimately, if an officer steps
over the line, we prosecute themlike anyone else. I did that.
Unfortunately half a dozen times or sowith US attorneys, we had that explorer

(09:24):
situation. With the MPD, wehad issues with metro corrections. But back
the Blue means that you support themin word. Indeed, you support them
from the podium as a leader.You support them with resources. You make
sure that their pay is competitive,which has been a challenge here, not
only in Louisville, but across thecommonwealth, particularly with the Kentucky State Police.
They're down two hundred, two hundredand fifty three hundred troopers. LMPD

(09:46):
still struggling to fill a shift.So you have to bring resources. You
measure your priorities by where you investyour resources. And we have to ensure
that we're paying these officers enough.We're supporting them from the podium. We
as leaders are supporting from the podium. And look, the number one role
of government the number one we're conservatives. We want to limited government. We

(10:09):
don't want government as large as it'sgrown and become. But the basic role
of government is to protect our families. And we created governments to protect us
so that you and I didn't haveto go out and bring justice when our
families were harmed two hundred years ago. In his comwaw, it's why we
swear which while in general, firstI'll swear that I've never fought a duel,
we used to do that in person. Now we rely on law enforcement

(10:31):
to protect us. But we've gotto make sure they have resources. We've
got to support them from the podium. What do you say to the percentage
of society that thinks the police areabusive just in general, that's their take,
Oh, here comes a cop bad. You know this is bad.
I mean, there's a certain segmentof society that's always going to believe that.
What can you do, mister AttorneyGeneral, to enlighten folks that you

(10:52):
will indeed prosecute anybody's steps over theline. Well, first of all,
my history demonstrates that when an officerbreaks the law, the turn back the
blue doesn't apply anymore. They've tarnishedthe badge when you cross that line.
But look, I think many ofthe best people I know carry a badge
and a gun. Some of thebest people I know, my closest friends,

(11:15):
I wanted until all of my youngadult life, wanted to be an
FBI special agent. Wanted to bepart of that cadre whose mission is to
protect. That's why the vast majorityof officers go to work. Deputies go
to work every day, kisser familiesgoodbye. They want to protect Louisville,
the Commonwealth, the country. Butthere's a segment. If you grow up
in the western part of this cityand your interaction with law enforcement has been

(11:41):
has been adversarial since day one,you don't have officers that live in your
neighborhood. Maybe you don't go tochurch with officers. You look at the
history of Louisville. David James oncerecommended a book to me. It's called
Behind the Veil. It's written byProfessor A. U. Of L and
it's called Behind the Veil, TheHistory of Blacks in Louisville eighteen sixty nine
to nineteen twenty. I'll tell you, as a white guy with my accent
grew up in western Entucky, youread about the history of law enforcement fifty

(12:07):
sixty years ago in Louisville, onehundred years ago in Louisville, how law
enforcement was utilized, the opportunities thatwere limited, the allowing disallowing folks to
have jobs, disallowing folks to haveaccess to education, to healthcare, and
that stuff is hardwired. And soI recognize that there is a depth of
history that we have to knock down. So we have to be better in

(12:31):
law enforcement at building relationships. Wehave to be better at showing that the
essence of law enforcement isn't repelling outof a helicopter. It's having a conversation.
It's getting you to give me informationso that I can protect your community.
And look in this city. TomWine used to talk about this.
We have deteriorated communities don't want tocollaborate with law enforcement. It's a vicious
cycle, right. They don't wantto collaborate, so they don't share information,

(12:56):
and because they don't snitch share information, we're not as effective at protecting
them. So at the end ofthe day, it's this vicious Gordian knot.
Well, how do you slice that? You slice that one strand at
a time. I do that asAttorney general by building relationships. I do
that as attorney general as saying Irespect law enforcement, I respect that profession.
I've wanted to do that my wholelife. But we have to be
humble in how we look at someof the history of law enforcement in our

(13:20):
own city. Be humble about thatin terms of how we're building relationships going
forward. I've lived here my wholelife. I've known all the mayors,
I mean known about them, andyou see a vary instant the way they've
protected and supported their own police department. And so we'll leave the former mayor's
names out of it. You've metwith the current mayor, Craig Greenberg.

(13:41):
Do you have a sense there's agood collaboration here. You're a Republican,
he's a Democrat. He's going toa Republican supermajority in Frankfort with his palms
upturned? Is Louisville's voice going tobe heard? Ours and D's don't matter
when it comes to crime victims?And that's not just some pithy line.
When I held hands with the QuanteHobbs grandmother as we prosecuted the shooter of

(14:05):
that young seven year old, WhenI went and stood at Saint James in
twenty twenty, in October twenty twenty, standing with Trendy Randolph's mom with her
Disney shoes and her Disney Coffins,killed in her house, kill a house,
literally in her playhouse, along withher father. It was a reprisal.

(14:26):
No one gave a damn that Ihad an R behind my name.
At that point, I didn't knowanyone in the room what their political identification
was. What I knew is wehad a three year old, beautiful little
girl that had lost her life.And we've had too many of those little
girls and little boys. Too manypeople who have colostomy bags and are in
wheelchairs now, who can't provide fortheir family. Too many families screaming in

(14:52):
the in and around the emergency departmentat the University of Louisville when they've been
told that their son or daughter,their mama, they're anti not coming home.
So the R and D stuff,let's just put that aside. And
Mayor Greenberg and I view a numberof issues differently. We view the Second
Amendment potential differently. We don't viewthe world necessarily through the exact same lens.

(15:13):
But maybe what's more important than myconversation with Mayor Greenberg and his team
yesterday as to how we're going tocollaborate and how we're going to work together
with the commonwealths Attorney and with LMPDbeing creative here the Attorney General's office coming
here. Coming alongside is my conversationswith Mayor Greenberg started some time ago,
sharing information, sharing my advocacy forgroup violence intervention focus to turnch You've heard

(15:35):
me talk about this acronym quite abit, how we target the most violent
offenders, how we use the carrotand a stick, And folks in this
space don't like to use the termcharacter stick from the country. I kind
of boil it down. It's theincentive or disincentive. We're going to get
you out of this neighborhood, We'regoing to get your opportunity, We're going
to get your job training. We'what do you need to stop this reprisal

(15:58):
or we're going to send you toprison for me many years. It is
a carrot and it is a stick, and it works this set of and
it's an acronym that's painful, andI wish it had had a more pithy
name. But the reality is thishas worked in cities all over the country.
It's not yet worked here. We'vehad some limiting factors. And my
goal as Attorney General is do everythingI can to help the mayor, help
LMPD, help the US Attorney,help our partners, good from Volunteers of

(16:22):
America to Goodwill. I mean,this is a this is a this is
an all of community effort. Wewant to make it work here like it's
worked in South Bend, and it'sworking in Gary, and it's work in
Boston and Terry. We're talking aboutfifty percent reduction in youth homicides in a
place like Boston. What's the matterhere, then? Is a communication funding?
What's happening? Why doesn't GVI?How come it hasn't worked the same

(16:44):
way? Well, we talked aboutthat yesterday. We've had some bureaucratic issues
within this city. We've had someWe're going to leave former mayors after this.
I want to be focused on movingforward. But when it's worked,
it's worked in these cities because themayor is the first amongst equals the city.
As I learned when I was USAttorney, with all the acronymned atf

(17:07):
DEA, with all the powers wehad as the United States Attorney DOJ.
At the end of the day,law enforcement is essentially a state and local
matter. LMPD is the most importantinstitution in this city for production of violence,
and so LMPD, the Mayor's office, all of the entities within metro
government have to be rowing in thesame direction, and they weren't rowing in

(17:30):
the same direction. Russell Coleman,best of luck as Attorney General going forward
here. Glad you're talking to theCity of Louisville leadership. We need it.
I'm grateful and look, I havea duty to do that when I
take the oath in about two weekson my birthday January first, I'll take
an oath to be Attorney General forall of Kentucky to include Jefferson County.

(17:51):
And so I plan on you andI if you'll have me back having conversations
at successes, hopefully in saving lives. Would love that. Happy birthday upcoming.
And most of the importantly, whenI see in the Young Center next
Thursday, don't tease me too much. Go cats, go carts. That's
Russell Coleman, your incoming Attorney General. Back in a few on news Radio
eight forty whas