1-2-26 Mike Allen in for Scott Sloan

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Do you want to be an American idiot? News Radio
seven hundred WLW Mike Allen in for Slowly Today. Well,
I'll tell you what. I really was hoping that I
wouldn't have to be talking about something like this this morning.
But I think it's appropriate that we do. Some of

(00:21):
you may know already we had an eleven year old girl,
little girl shot and killed in a West End playground yesterday.
She becomes the second child, because that's what she is
at eleven years old, a child. She becomes the second

(00:43):
child shot apparently very very close to the same place
West End playground as a young boy, eleven year old
Dominic Davis. I think that was a couple of years ago,
and apparently that is unst you know, back in the day.

(01:04):
I mean, you just you didn't see this. Yes he
saw shootings, Yes you saw killings, but you sure didn't
see eleven year olds being killed. You just didn't. I
don't know what the situation is with the police yet.
I don't think they've released too much. And before you
start getting all honked off about that, there are reasons

(01:26):
for that. The investigation is ongoing.

Speaker 2 (01:29):
You know.

Speaker 1 (01:30):
We live in a world now where I think people
expect instant everything. You know, if a crime isn't solved
within the first couple of days, then it's like, what's
taken them so long? What's taken them so long? But
they have not that I know of, issued a statement
about this yet. Wanted to let you know too. At

(01:51):
ten o'clock, we will be talking to former Vice mayor
and former chair of the Law and Public Safety Committee,
Christopher Smitheman. And I just connected with Corey Bowman, former
mayor candidate and current pastor of The River Church, and
Corey put out a statement on x just a heart

(02:14):
rendering statement. It's personal to Corey. It would appear because
the family of this young girl that was shot and
killed is a congregant of Corey Bowman's church. So we're
going to be talking to Corey about that. You know,
what he may know about this little girl, her name

(02:34):
was Queener Reid. Just how the neighborhood's feeling down there.
I mean, I guess that's kind of obvious, but I've
been in this system fifty one years, fifty one long
years in any number of positions, and there's just so

(02:56):
much changing in the world, not changing for the better.
You just didn't hear that. You didn't hear about ten
eleven twelve year olds being killed it It didn't well,
it did happen back then, but extremely rarely now quite
a bit now. I haven't looked at the statistics lately,

(03:18):
but some people are saying that crime is down, violent
crime in the city of Cincinnati. But you know, go
tell that to Queen of Reed's family. Go tell that
to the young man a couple of years ago that
was shot and killed pretty close to the same place,
as I understand it. So we will be talking to

(03:42):
those two, Christopher Smitheman and Corey at Christopher at ten o'clock,
Corey at ten thirty about this just tragic. There is
some insinuation and I'm going to ask Corey Bowman about
this that the family when they responded to Children's Hospital,

(04:04):
apparently they say that they weren't treated very what's the
word respectfully? I guess now that would surprise me. Children's
Hospital has an excellent reputation, and you know, people in
those situations are trained to kind of understand trauma and
what a family's going through. But we'll talk to Corey
about that too. And you know what the situation with

(04:28):
crime in the city of Cincinnati. Perhaps it's getting a
little better, but in some areas it's not. I mean
the West End over the Rhine, it's just hard to
believe that it's any better down there. And you know,
from an economic standpoint, we've talked about this a number
of times. Over the Rhine. My goodness, it's a jewel

(04:50):
for this city. People don't realize that there aren't any
other cities that have what we have there in our
downtown in particular. But this stuff keeps on happening. And
this was not otr This is a West End playground
that Golden Goose is just gonna leave. I mean, they're
not going to be laying any more golden eggs. It's

(05:13):
something that the city has to get under control. And
I don't want to politicize this tragedy. However, we don't
have a police chief. Now, we do have an interim
chief who is I understand it's doing a very good job,
but we don't have an official I guess, for lack
of a better word, police chief, and they're trying to

(05:34):
find a reason to fire her, and they hired a
law firm to do that. They extended the contract. I
think into February. It's Frost Brown Todd, which is a
great law firm. No thought at all that they're doing
anything untoward. But I mean, if you got to go
looking for reasons, if you have to hire a law

(05:56):
firm to try to figure out, well, what are we
going to have hang our hat on when we fire
this police chief? What are we doing? What are we doing?
I mean the city already got rang up or they're
gonna get wrung up on what they did and how
they did the fire chief. I don't know. Something has

(06:17):
to change in this city. I guarantee you too. Probably
before the day is out, if it hasn't happened already,
we'll have someone on city council or some politicians somewhere
whining and wailing about the availability of guns. And yes,
you have to keep guns out of the hands of kids,

(06:38):
you have to, But it is not the gun that
killed little Queen A Reid. It's the person that was
behind it. And again, as I understand it very early on,
it appears that it probably was an errant shot and
not intended for this beautiful, a left year old girl.

(07:02):
But you know, and do we need a sensible gun
control of course we do, and no conservative Republican whoever
is going to say that we don't. But you have
to look deeper than the instrument that was used to
do the killing. You have to look at the person
that did the killing. I don't know why people can't

(07:25):
seem to understand that. Well, anyway, let's do this. Let's
take a short break and come back and from nine,
from nine thirty two ten o'clock, we'll be available for calls.
And you know, if you want to talk about this
horrible subject, we will do that and we'll be back. Okay,

(07:50):
I guess we can't break right now. Why why I
don't know, but oh I'm sorry. Yeah, the computer's locked up.
Thank you. Okay, now we're good. We'll be back in
a bit. Mike Allen in for Sloaney, seven hundred WLW.

(08:10):
They we're back. Mike Allen in for Sloney. As I
have been all week talking about the breaking story, the
tragedy of an eleven year old girl, girl by the
name of Queener Reid. I hope I'm pronouncing that right.
She died at children's hospital yesterday from gunshot wounds she

(08:32):
sustained for doing what children do, being in a playground
and on a playground, it just you can't. You can't
write a worse script than this. Fox nineteen as usual
is all over this. It seems like they're well, they're
all covering it, but they usually get stuffed first. Oh

(08:54):
their story reads. The eleven year old girl eleven year
old who died following a shooting near West End playground
on New Year's Day has been identified Queen of Reid.
She's eleven, as I said, died at Cincinnati Children's on Thursday.
According to Cincinnati Police. They say the shooting that killed

(09:14):
her happened near the Laurel Playground at the corner of
West Liberty and John Street down in the West End District.
One officers were flagged down and told that somewhat had
been shot. Cincinnati Police Lieutenant Jerome Herrings said police later

(09:35):
found Read suffering from a gunshot wound. Medics transported her
to Children's Hospital, where she died from her injuries. It
is unknown what led to the shooting. You know, I mean,
my guess is, but you don't know, probably probably an
unintended shot, if you will, that she was not the

(10:00):
tended victim, or at least you would hope so but
there again, what difference does that make to her family
and loved ones. Let's see what else I think that's about. Factually,
they've got a little bit more here. Hang on a second,

(10:22):
I think there's a little bit more here. Yeah. Former
Cincinnati mayoral candidate Corey Bowman, and again he will be
with us here at ten thirty for Vice Mayor and
Chair of the Law and Public Safety Committee, Christopher Smithman
will be with us at ten o'clock. The Channel nineteen
story goes on. Cincinnati mayoral candidate Corey Bowman is the

(10:46):
pastor of the church where some of the seven excuse me,
some of the eleven year old's family members attend. He
shared that he received the news of Reed's death when
he got a call from her grandmother. And Corey has
an extended statement on X and he makes very clear

(11:08):
and when I talk to him, you know, I'm going
to make sure that people know he's not talking about
this as a politician. He's not talking about this as
a candidate. He's talking about this as a pastor. He's
the pastor of the River Church down there, which apparently
was like right in the neighborhood, are very very close

(11:28):
to where this thing happened, so again we'll be talking
to him to get his perspective on it. The story
goes on this as yet another shooting to add to
the list of tragedies families in the West End have
experienced over the years. Then they talk about this eleven
year old boy back in November at twenty twenty three

(11:49):
that I had mentioned Dominic Davis along with four children
and an adult. They were shot near Laurel Playground. But
I think the slaying of Dominic, although I'm not one
hundred percent certain that was a standalone thing and not
linked to the four other children in an adult. But

(12:09):
I'm not one hundred percent sure about that. We'll just
have to see more than twenty rounds. More than twenty
rounds were fired toward the group of victims at the
intersection of Jones Street and Wade Street. Davis was dead
at the scene. Again, that's going back to this Dominic
Davis case. Twenty rounds. Police have not said anything about

(12:33):
a possible suspect yet in that shooting. You can rest
assured though, that the Cincinnati Police Department is looking for
the suspect in that shooting. And you know when it's
a child like that. I was never a homicide investigator,
but I have to think that when as a child
like that, you're going to work even harder than you

(12:55):
normally do. So we will see what happens. Again, it's
a breaking story and we will keep on top of it.
Keeping with the criminal justice theme, I suppose we found
out yesterday and boy, this is really going to shock you.
One of the suspects in the Downtown what I call

(13:18):
the Downtown beat down, is in custody again for violating
the conditions of her bond. You may recall that situation
over the summer. It got national and frankly international. The
BBC was covering it international coverage when just things got
completely out of hand down there and people were beaten,

(13:42):
beaten within an inch of their life. Well again, this
is Fox nineteen reporting this. Aishia Devan. She's twenty six.
You may remember she was one of the ones that
was a suspect and ultimately charged in that situation. She
is being held and jail without bond. Now without bond

(14:02):
after she violated the terms of her bond. Court documents say,
I got on the Clock's website this morning and pulled
the documents off. What happened. Apparently, according to this KPIST warrant,
she failed to follow the conditions of her electronic monitoring
unit on Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, and December twenty sixth,

(14:25):
when she was found outside of her home during unapproved times.
Let me just read it to you here. This is
the allegation from the Probation Department. Probation, they take care
of it and they administer the program with respect to
the situation when they have to wear the wrisk or

(14:46):
the ankle bracelet electronic monitoring. Okay. The accusation is that
mister Bond did fail to follow the terms and conditions
of EMU electronic monitoring unit. On twelve twenty four five
twenty six the defendant was outside her residence at unapproved times.
On twelve twenty four to twenty five, the defendant was

(15:08):
located out of state in Kentucky at a liquor store.
All attempts to get the defendant to return to her
listed address during these times, and I presume they're talking
about all three or the three of these dates, all
attempts to get her to return to her listed address
during these times were unsuccessful. When you're placed on electronic

(15:33):
monitoring in lieu of being locked up on a cash bond.
The probation apartment and it was run by the Sheriff's
office before that. They're pretty strict because they have to be.
You know, they have limited hours that they can be
out most of the time. Depending upon the individual and
depending upon the crime charged, they'll get a little slack,

(15:55):
a little leeway to, you know, go to the grocery store,
go to medical appointments. They have to, but they monitor
those things closely, and if you go out of where
you are supposed to be, they know, and they're on it.
They're on it. We used to have, and I believe
the common police judges and their infinite wisdom voted to

(16:16):
get rid of this. We had probation neighborhood probation offices
within some of the communities. I think there were four
of them that they had in the city of Cincinnati.
If I'm not mistaken that you know, assisted and went
out and checked up on these people. I think that
they are gone now, so you know, that would have
been something that probably would have helped in this case.

(16:38):
But at any rate, electronic monitoring is it's not a right, Frankly,
it's a privilege, and you know, you're not down at
the Justice Center. You're not getting your three hots and
a cot down there, which isn't very pleasant, but you're
at home. But she gotta do what you are told,

(16:59):
and that is to not go where the judge, the court,
the probation officer tell you you can't go. At the
end of the day, it's up to the judge, and
the judge dictates the terms. But apparently this individual, miss
Devong said, out of hell with it, I'm going to
the liquor store over in Kentucky. And she's paying the consequences.

(17:21):
Now she's sitting over in the JC, the Justice Center,
with no bond. So we shall see what happens with
that that case. I don't know the exact date, but
that's going to come to some kind of conclusion, hopefully
early this year. I don't know if there is a
trial date yet. I think there is. But again no

(17:41):
big surprise there. A prime suspect person charged in the
downtown beat down, gets a break, gets home incarceration, but
decides that hey, I ain't following the rules. I want
to go get me some liquor over in Kentucky. So
for her troubles. She's locked up now. I don't know
who the judge is on this case. I would think

(18:05):
that if I were the judge on it, there'd be
no consideration of any other bond now because the person
has proven that she cannot abide by the terms that
the judge and the probation department sets. So therefore, you know,
you're just going to have to sit at the Justice

(18:26):
Center until the case is resolved. But again, different things
are happening these days with respect to those issues in
Hamilton County. I mean, that's all I'm going to say
on that. So we'll be talking about this and of
course the tragic shooting of an eleven year old girl

(18:48):
in the West End yesterday throughout the show. But we
do have some other things that we want to talk
about too, So we are going to take a break
and when we get back, i'd love to hear from
all of you. Think seven four, nine, seven, one, eight
hundred the big one are the numbers. Give us a
call to join in. Mike Allen in for Slowey, seven

(19:08):
hundred WLW. It's nine thirty six News Radio, seven hundred WLW.
Mike Allen in for Slowney. We have on the line,
the great American Willie Cunningham. Bill wants to weigh in
on this thing, and I'm glad that he is. Bill.
Are you there? I think I am. Mike Allen, how
are you? I'm not too good, Bill. I was fine

(19:31):
when I woke up, but as soon as I heard
about this, it just kind of changed the mood. I mean,
you've been around a long time, Bill, you have been
a member of the system for a long time. I mean,
what is it now with eleven year olds being shot?
I mean, in my wildest dreams, I never of course,
you have the rare case. But my goodness, this is

(19:53):
like the third one I think in two years, or
second one in two years. What the hell's going on?

Speaker 3 (20:00):
You know, Mike, I think of what's at play? We
have to assume the eleven year old wasn't targeted. I
have to assume that's the case. And that was simply
one of the twenty thousand bullets that we know about
that fly around about seven or eight zip codes in
the city of Cincinnati. And when I read other publications,
I look at other cities. Cincinnati is now up there

(20:22):
with Saint Louis in Memphis and Chicago, which is a
regular event to have children simply in the way of
the gang bangers. And there's a sense, and you know this,
that juvenile court is now back to being kitty court again,
in which you have I guarantee you if and when
the perpetrators are located, they have lengthy previous criminal records.
They were given opportunity, effort after opportunity failed to take it.

(20:46):
And it's a cultural thing that happens in certain parts
of our city that does not happen in certain other
parts of our city because they're fatherless homes, because the
acceptance of crime, because of the ideas much like those
who are stealing all these cars. It's a way of
getting guns and getting notoriety and being somebody no education,
no fathers in the home, and you can have all

(21:07):
the programs you want. But part of the unintended consequences
of the cultural collapse in many American cities is the
fact that children will be in the way of bullets.
And this is going to continue in the year twenty
twenty six until I guess it's unacceptable to have guns.
It's unacceptable not to marry the mother of your kids,

(21:28):
is unacceptable not to get an education. When I spoke
a couple of days ago with some CPS teachers who
told me it's utter chaos and many of the schools,
all it is is a daycare service in which many
of these young men, especially get notoriety because of the
criminal lifestyle, not because they have good grades, and not
because their attendance is up to snuff. I mean, seventy

(21:51):
five percent of black boys are absent from school. They're
chronically absent. And we can have all the Damon Lynches
and all the others who running around town talking about
what has to be done, but until the hearts and
minds of individuals change, nothing's going to change. And we
have to deal with the consequences. And Mike, you and
I came up in a system where if you engage
in these forms of behavior, you went to prison. A

(22:12):
remember Judge Grossman who was a juvenile course, Purgeendary and
Judge Powers, they would send you up the river. But
today it does not happen. You're giving chance after chance
after chance after chance. And that's the blood is on
the hands of all kinds of individuals. And I want
to I don't want to dump on Damon Lynch. He's
well intended. He's simply wrong and having the recipe of

(22:35):
the difficulties that we have. And Mike is not going
to change until the culture changes. And you tell me
when that happens.

Speaker 1 (22:42):
Yeah, well, I'll tell you what the last sentence that
you said hit the nail. Rop it all did, but
especially that, who knows when it's going to change. And
I don't want to politicize it because it's not political,
but I guess in some ways it is. But when
you have a city council that's all one party and
not even close to having any other representation, I mean,

(23:06):
you're not going to get a point of view that
a conservative Republican would have. I think Bill, you and
I both will be long long gone before you ever
see a Republican as mayor or on council down there.
It's probably never going to happen. But again, it's not political,
but man, they got it. Start taking a look at
some other ways to go with this. Then we have

(23:28):
a police chief who buy all accounts, all fair accounts,
has done a very good job as chief, and they
want to get rid of her. And they hire a
law firm, a great law firm, Fross Brown Todd to
find out a reason to do it. I guess they didn't,
and so they extended. It's just it's topsy turvy, and
I don't understand it. I don't think I'm the only one.

Speaker 3 (23:50):
Well, you know, we always like it when lawyers make
a bunch of money. But the mayor and the city
manager want to find an excuse and a reason to
do what they did. There was no particular reason why
Chief Thiegi had to go other than she had to
be a scapegoat and she was convenient, convenient, foible, And
now they're looking for a reason for what they did,

(24:10):
and there was no adequate reason to let her go.
She knew, she knew the CPD up and down. But
Adam Henny the rank and file. When I talked to
rank and file, and you've been a Cincinnati cop that
they like Adam Henny a lot.

Speaker 1 (24:23):
But I'm hearing it in Frost Todd.

Speaker 3 (24:25):
I mean, it was those be forty thousand, now it's
going to be sixty thousand, and they keep looking for
a reason. I assume there was no reason. So they
need another twenty thousand dollars to find a reason. And
that doesn't send the message to the rank and file
up and down the lineup that that those in charge
know what they're doing. But it's said that this young girl,

(24:46):
I assumed she was in the fifth or sixth grade.
Her name is Keener Ray Reid, who died yesterday, A
found shot at Laurel Playground about six pm on New
Year's Day. What a way to begin. And I would
assume the family is devastated. I would assume they'll be
made ship memorials. I will assume there'll be balloons released
at some point as the way the family is dealing
with the incredible grief of having their eleven year old

(25:08):
daughter murdered on a playground. Because it is dangerous, and
I know a city doesn't want to hear this, but
OTR Mike, I saw the other day there's there's a
row house on thirteenth in Vine going up for two
million dollars.

Speaker 1 (25:23):
I saw them body and I with.

Speaker 3 (25:26):
The two bedroom, two bedroom row house for two million dollars.
What does it do to the value of property for
people wanting to move in? When twenty can I say
that again, twenty thousand bullets fly around the city of
Cincinnati without a name on him.

Speaker 1 (25:42):
I was going to ask you, Bill was that kind
of rhetorical or is that an actual number? I mean,
it wouldn't surprise me. It was shot Spotter.

Speaker 3 (25:50):
Yeah, it was twenty nineteen, twenty twenty story from Fox
nineteen and every now and then, I know Channel nine
tries to get those numbers as far as what does
shot Spotter pick up? And we're going back five years
and it's not well publicized because it is so injurious
to the way of life in our city, which is
growing a little bit. I see the inquiry said that

(26:13):
population is growing about three hundred and twelve thousand. Of
course it used to be five hundred thousand living in
the city. But when that number it was five years old.
I know that Channel nine is trying to get an
updated number. What does shot Spotter show? And it doesn't.
It's only in certain locations. There's other parts of Cincinnati
that doesn't have shot spotder capability. But every time I

(26:34):
ask city officials, yeah, that's about right.

Speaker 1 (26:37):
Twenty thousand.

Speaker 3 (26:38):
If you lived in your community in Mason, or in Covington,
or in Metamora or in Lawrensburg and there were twenty
thousand bullets flying around, a certain number going to hint
innocent people, Oh, of course what and they blame the
inanimate object. They blame gun violence. The gun is the problem. No,

(26:58):
when fifty thousand Americains they're killed every year in car accidents,
we don't call it car violence. We say what's wrong
with the driver of the car or what went wrong.
But if it's a gun, all of a sudden, the
gun by itself is killing killing. I guess one about
ninety people last year and five hundred were wounded, and
children are being killed. And so it is not gun

(27:19):
causing the violence. It is the person operating the gun
causing the violence. Nothing's going to change until the system changes,
until fathers stay in the home, until fathers and mothers
get together and say we're not going to have seventy
percent of black babies born in Cincinnati without a father
in the house.

Speaker 1 (27:37):
And another teacher told.

Speaker 3 (27:39):
Me that if you go through high school, there's not
one kid there other than Walnut.

Speaker 1 (27:43):
Take the other six six high schools.

Speaker 3 (27:45):
And once a mother and a father are in the home,
they got married and they've been there every day of
the kid's life.

Speaker 1 (27:50):
It is an anomaly. It's rare.

Speaker 3 (27:52):
It's a cultural collapse. And secondly, it is not gun violence.
It is individuals using guns to commit violence. And that's
the difference.

Speaker 1 (28:00):
Absolutely. And I made a bold prediction, as you used
to say, I'll buy a chalk but Sunday, if I'm
wrong about this, by the end of the day, if
it hasn't happened already, some community leader, some person of
some statue in the community is going to say, well, guns, guns, guns, guns, guns.
And they do that, Bill, I think because it's easy

(28:23):
when you blame it on an object, you don't have
to deal with the person. It's just it's crazy. Hey,
let me run something by you. I have a theory,
and you know you were kind of a part of
it at the time. Okay, go back to like maybe
I don't know, mid to late eighties, early nineties. Let's
just use the Hamilton County Municipal Court as an example.

(28:45):
You were there frequently. I was a city prosecutor there
for a while, municipal court judge for a while, saw
you a lot down there. And if you remember back
in those days, Bill, you walk into those courtrooms and
I mean the cops were swinging from the shando. I
mean they're filled up the jury. They were all over
the place. You know, I'm thankfully retired from that now,

(29:07):
but it hasn't been that long. It's about half of
what the police officers, the number of police officers that
you see now. And I've talked to Ken Kobra about it,
and he agrees with me that the reason is these guys,
these men and women, I don't blame them. They're not
sticking their necks out like they used to is because

(29:28):
they're not assured and they don't feel that the city's
got their back. The FOP does, but not the city.
I don't know what do you think about that? Because
you were there, you saw it.

Speaker 3 (29:39):
There were about twelve municipal courtrooms, which is a lot
of times where the minor cases are dealt with, not
the felonies right in which the cops from all over
Hamilton County would sit in the jury box as for
an early call, and if you were a person of
some status, you might get an early call as an
attorney and you'd be there till noon or one o'clock
room ay, in which there were two to three hundred

(30:01):
people present. They were overflowing courtrooms. Less Gaines and I
would walk around the hallway handing out our car. Do
you need some advice, some help, and the system now
does not encourage your rest. Look at what happened in Red,
White and Blue Ash when they had those events out there,
the cop who was shot and the person that did that,
the charges were dismissed. Cops are told don't pull over

(30:24):
individuals when you see somebody speeding. That's why we have
speed bumps. Don't want to pull people over. Scottie Johnsons
have said, too many people have pulled over that looks
like me. When you pull somebody over for a lifestyle issue,
it's allowed, it's allowed sounding car, it's a speeding or
it's leaving your land to travel. You find they got
warrants out for their arrest. You find that individuals got

(30:46):
a gun, that the minimal policing that would keep it
from mushrooming and the more serious offenses is gone. And
a lot of the cops from outside of the Corps
Cincinnati understand that they don't want to take the time
to go out town. And so you have crimes committed
in Green Township and it's somewhat unusual for a Green
Township cop to arrest somebody take them to the justice

(31:08):
center because they know they'll be out before the paperwork
is done. And Cincinnati, I might it is no different
than Columbus, are no different than Toledo, no different than
New York or Atlanta, and which is a soft approach
to criminal justice, and it has horrible consequences and that's
not going to change either. If I'm a cop and
I'm told don't be aggressive, don't pull people over if
you see somebody littering or smoking a cigarette, a pot,

(31:32):
marijuana joint and public lead malone, you get rid of
the active policing that often mushrooms in a more serious offenses,
and then the cities a safer place. The business leaders
don't like it, the judges are okay with it because
most are liberal Democrats, and it's not going to change
anytime soon. And as a consequence, we have more and
more eleven year olds getting shot in playgrounds with individuals

(31:54):
that should be locked up or not.

Speaker 1 (31:56):
You know, and I'll ask you when was the last
time limited to the city, maybe a county, but especially
in the city, you actually saw a traffic stop, you
drove by, it doesn't happen. And that's where that's where cops,
you know, they would find drugs, they would find weapons,
of course, you know, very dangerous and I'm not knocking

(32:17):
them at all. And it's not a matter of cowardice.
It's a matter of hey man, why am I gonna
stick my neck out when I know it's going to
get chopped off? You know, Bill. I mean, we darn
near had on the Ohio ballot the last time a
proposal for a state constitutional amendment to take away qualified
immunity for police officersol which would cause and are some

(32:41):
jurisdictions that have done that, which would cause police officers
like lawyers have to do, to go out and get
malpractice insurance.

Speaker 3 (32:49):
It's crazy well that provision and in most states, most
Blue states have it. If a cop commits a negligent act,
not a reckless act or a knowing act, but negligent
act to which a cop might do on a regular basis,
it means that if the city doesn't buy him insurance,
it means he's not going to make a rest. Because
if you make too many arrests and someone's claims I

(33:10):
was falsely arrested for god knows what, that means, the
cop is going to have insurance problems. That means the
CoP's not going to get credit cards. That means the
CoP's not going to have more I'll be able to get,
in short, not able to buy a house because his
credit's ruined and so qualified immunity would further destroy law enforcement,
giving us the Momdanni effect in New York City. And

(33:33):
thank god it didn't get on the ballot in Ohio,
but in other Blue states. Blue states have that, and
that's why cops are so passive. They don't want to
do anything and want to wait for their pension and
not to rest anybody.

Speaker 1 (33:43):
Well, yeah, and they want to go home to their
families at night too. And you know, and some of
the young ones I talked to Bill, I know you
haven't been down there too much in the last I
don't know, no, ten fifteen years. These are really fine
young men and women, and they want to go out
and be police officers, and they want to go out
and be appropriately aggressive. But they're just like you just said,

(34:08):
they ain't sticking their neck out. They're just not gonna
do it.

Speaker 2 (34:11):
You know.

Speaker 1 (34:11):
Ken Kober told me the other day, I had him
on my Saturday show. This is incredible, Okay, So I
guess Ken said that they had funding for fifty new
cops Okay, they gave the test and they do whatever
they got to do. I think he said they had
like twenty they couldn't even fill fifty. And I'll tell
you what, back in the seventies and early eighties, I

(34:34):
had to take the test twice because we got laid off.
Down there at the convention Center. There are two three
thousand people there. People don't want to be police officers anymore.
And that's a darn shame too.

Speaker 3 (34:46):
It's a great profession. And whether it's the Sheriff's department,
or whether it's the FBI, whether it's whether it's ICE,
imagine being an ICE official. I saw last night in
Atlanta that several so called prot testers followed the ICE
officials around with their with their cell phones taking pictures.
They go to a hotel, the ICE officials at night,

(35:06):
after rest, they go to a hotel and all night long,
these so called protesters kept the ICE officials awake in
their rooms by blaring music, yelling and shouting. They called
the Atlanta police to come to arrest them, and they
said it was First Amendment protected, and they're for these
clowns and these fools who don't want the criminals arrested

(35:27):
or had the legal right to harass the crap out
of law enforcement officials called ICE and it's accepted. And
to me that is disgusting. It is disgusting.

Speaker 1 (35:35):
I mean, the last time I checked, there's a federal
law that says you can't trespass into our country. And
by god, ICE is there to enforce that law that
Congress promulgated. It's really pretty simple to people like you
and I, but others know, Hey, I appreciate you calling in. Bill.
You might want to listen if you can, because right after,

(35:57):
right after this, after the news, we've got Christopher Smithman
coming on, former vice mayor and former chair of law
in Public Safety. Then ten thirty Corey Bowman and reading
you know, I don't know if you had a chance
to yet reading what Corey had to write on it's
personal to Corey because that's that's one of his parishioners.
I think. So we'll be doing that. But as always,

(36:18):
sure appreciate your input. God bless America. And by the way,
happy New Year you too. Oh Bearcats, hopefully I don't
want I want the Navy to beat the Bearcats. I
never root against the Navy. Okay, we shall see Bill,
God bless you. Okay, thank you, all right, man, I'm
glad he did that because he's got a he's got
a great perspective, obviously, but you know, he toiled in

(36:40):
the fields of the criminal justice system back in the day,
and it sounds to me like he agrees with me,
Ken Kober and the hell of a lot of other people.
Take the handcuffs off the cops, let them do their jobs,
and crime will go down if, if, and only if
they have the port of Cincinnati City Council. The other

(37:03):
thing I didn't have time to get into with Bill,
but knows about this issue five. Issue five is I
believe in two thousand city Charter amendment that took the
police chief and the assistance chief assistant chiefs out of
civil service. They had no civil service protection. So therefore
you can probably get rid of them pretty much at will,

(37:24):
although the city seems to be struggling a bit with
finding a reason to get rid of cheap Fiji. By
the way, tomorrow on the Saturday show, not as sure
exactly what time yet, but I am going to be
talking about that and going to have Russ Neville, former
Cincinnati police Captain, I believe the brother of the chief.
We're going to be talking about that whole situation. But hey,

(37:46):
we got to break for the news now. But when
we get back, we'll talk to Christopher Smithman. Mike Allen
in for Sloane seven hundred WLW. Do you want to
be an Americani? Hey, we're back, Mike Allen in four
Scott's loan.

Speaker 4 (38:02):
Uh.

Speaker 1 (38:02):
I'll tell you what it seems like. Obviously a new year,
but the same old stuff. Horrible stuff in the city
of Cincinnati with respect to the death and the shooting
death yesterday of an eleven year old girl, if you
can believe that. Here to talk about it is former
vice mayor of the City of Cincinnati, former chair of

(38:24):
the Law and Public Safety Committee. I'm talking about Christopher Smithman. Christopher,
thanks so much for calling in this morning.

Speaker 2 (38:31):
Hey, thanks Mike. You know it's a somber mourning for
both of us, yep, and I want to I want
to extend my condolences. I'm sure you do too, to
the family who lost an eleven year old child. You know,
I have been very public having lost a spouse to
breast cancer. But there's there there is in my mind,

(38:54):
there's no comparison to the loss of a child. No,
that's another level down. And to lose a child like
this so senseless. The child was doing, Mike Allen, what
I did as a kid, played in the park. This
is what we tell the kids to do. And she
shot and murdered in the West End. And a lot

(39:17):
of people who are listening to us probably don't even
know this story that a young lady, an eleven year
old child was killed in the West End right near
the FC Stadium. Yeah, and this community, Mike Allen has
been requesting cameras in lights from this council and this
mayor for.

Speaker 1 (39:37):
Years, for years that came through. They had somebody and well,
I don't know if it's a family member or parishioner,
of course, you know, I mean, this is Corey Bowman's parish,
if you will, his congregants. And it seems to me
he's taking it very personally, not politically at all. It's
all personal. It's all in his role as a minute.

(40:00):
But anyway, it's a long way saying he's saying the
same thing too, Christopher. You know they've been asking for
a long long time for it, And you make the
point too. I don't care if you live in Indian Hill.
I don't care if you live in del Hi. I
don't care if you live in Amberley Village. I don't
care if you live in Over the Rhine. When you
send your eleven year old out, you expect to play

(40:22):
on a playground. You expect them to come home. You
don't expect them to be shot dead. It's just staggering
to me.

Speaker 5 (40:31):
It's staggering.

Speaker 2 (40:32):
And I'm going to say a couple of comments because
I think everything flows through politics at some level, because
the mythshap here, and I hope City Hall is listening
because there's a high level of incompetence there that we
should know already. If they had placed the cameras there,

(40:52):
we'd have the offenders. The problem is that council doesn't
care about it is if the West End voted for
this council and this mayor, overwhelmingly Mike Allen, elections have consequences.
They hate to hear that, but this is what you
voted for. You kept asking the city Hall to bring

(41:14):
cameras and lights. Your Corey Bowman's there, his name was
on the ballot, his church is there. You didn't vote
for him. You voted for this mayor and this council
that continue to refuse to bring lights and cameras to
an area that is riddled with bullets. And you have
yuppies and buppies that are down there going to procter

(41:37):
and gamble living in those five or six hundred thousand
dollars condos with bullets going through their windows. But they
still voted for this democratic mayor and democratic council. No cameras,
no lights, Dead eleven year olds in the park doing
what any eleven year old would be doing. Mike Allan,
the last thing I want to say to you is

(41:58):
that you're my white brother, and I'm going to inject
race in this conversation. There are seventy there are you
care you are my white brother. There are white brothers
and sisters all over the county who care about African
Americans being murdered senselessly in our streets. Period. This notion

(42:20):
that white Americans don't care about Americans whether they're black, Latino,
whether they're white, whether they're Asian, wherever you live, who
are being senselessly murdered in our streets, that is a
policy that I must address. You care deeply about these
Americans that are losing their lives at this notion that

(42:40):
the Democrats keep pushing that black lives matter, you cannot
see it with their public policy. These are Democrats whoul saying, man,
I really care about black lives matter. We got a
mural in front of city Hall black lives matter. But
when the west end comes and says, I like some
cameras and I like some life down here, they do nothing.

Speaker 1 (43:04):
You're exactly right, Christopher, and you outline the problem perfectly.
I mean, I don't care, and the white people I
know don't care if the guys, if the person is pink,
polka dot, green, orange or yellow, it doesn't matter. What
matters is that is an eleven year old fifth grader.

(43:24):
And the same thing with young Dominic Davis who was
shot very close to their as ioners stand that about
three years ago, Christopher, you outlined the problem as well
as I've heard anybody do it. Here's the problem, though,
I mean, what do you do about it? You saw
the result, well, you were in it. I mean the
results of that last election I lost. Yeah, I know,

(43:45):
and you shouldn't have. But I mean, what do you
do in a situation like that? What can you do
if people just are going to vote that party ticket.

Speaker 2 (43:56):
Yeah, we just pray that one day enough will be enough.
I'm tired. I think there were seventy murders last year
in Cincinnati. Every decade we're losing seven hundred people. Just
think about a high school. They're high schools that don't
have seven hundred students in the high school. Every decade
in the city, we're riping out entire high schools, and
definitely of our big schools, we're killing off the entire

(44:20):
senior and junior classes at most of our schools. Every
decade in Cincinnati, and we're numb to it. Seventy people
lost their lives. As the majority of those people that
lost their lives are African Americans. There's a mural in
front of city Hall that says Black lives Matter. You
would never know it from the public policy that's coming
from city Hall because, you know what, they're focused on

(44:42):
speed bumps across the city. They're focused on street cars, right,
They're focused on FC stadiums. They're so distracted and they're
not focused on the people who are suffering in the streets.
I mean, this is an epidemic of rate proportion think
about this last thing I make about this. Look about

(45:03):
this the Iraq War. I estimate that over four thousand
people lost their lives in the entire Iraq War. We
are probably losing seven to eight thousand people to gun
violence easily across the United States of America every year,
every single year. And the most of those people are
black and brown people. Whether it's la whether it's Detroit,

(45:26):
whether it's Chicago, whether it's Cincinnati, whether it's Dayton, whether
it's Cleveland, these are all democratically run city and that
is where you are seeing the highest level of gun
violence and the murder rates of black and brown people.
We're losing more people every year than we lost in
the entire Iraq War. Get the gun violence and murders,

(45:48):
and guess where the Democrats sit there and they playcate.
They send out the sample ballots, and these communities vote
for them over and over again. So I'm answering your
I don't know what's gonna take them to wake up today.
I want to do something very different. But I'm tired
of the gun violence and the death And it's not

(46:09):
Mike Allen, because law abiding citizens have guns. So what
the Democrats will do is to all man, we got
to stop selling guns. We got a legal guns. Exactly
what are you talking about? Human beings pull the trigger.
What we have are judges that are not holding these
people accountable when they come to them with a gun
on their lap, on their person, shooting. We don't have

(46:31):
a Hamilton County judicial system that is willing to hold
people accountable who have guns and exercise this kind of
violence with our community.

Speaker 1 (46:41):
Yep, you're right, and you talk about holding people accountable.
It leads me into what I want to ask you
before we talk about the police chief. I don't know
if you saw it. Christopher. One of the people that
was involved in what I referred to as the downtown
beat down, Ayisha Devon, twenty six years old. He was
locked up, I believe in this with a pretty high bond.

(47:01):
The judge let her out on EMU Well. Apparently over
the holidays twenty fourth, twenty fifth, and twenty sixth, she
violated that. And I know this because I was in
the system. They monitor that closely, the Probation Department does.
Apparently she went out one of those nights, drove over
to Kentucky and was at a liquor store. Trying to

(47:22):
buy a liquor. Well, she's back in jail now with
no bond. But I guess the point of bringing this
up is it seems like it's a never ending battle
and I don't know. I mean, I don't know the
full facts of it, Like presumably the judge did, but
I don't know why that person should have been out
at all.

Speaker 2 (47:45):
Look, we have a big election next year. Leah dink
and Lacker Lacker on public mispronouncing her last name, But
Leah dink and Locker is running for re election in
Hamilton County. We want to vote for her. We got Winkler,
we want to vote for him. We've got to make
sure that the Vet Ramaswami wins the governor's office. I'm

(48:06):
saying we have some big races in twenty twenty six,
and this is part of the penicillin. We can't just
surrender our state, our county, our local governments to one
party and what we have here. It never works, in
my opinion, if all the Republicans are running it, if
all the Democrats are running it, it's never good. You

(48:27):
want to have a balance of ideas and parties. Who
are a part of our board, who are part of
the board of directors and who are governing. But back
to this point, the penicillin is the community has to
wake up. We've got to start walking around thinking white
people don't support us, white people aren't interested in this stuff.

(48:47):
Everybody is a racist. Mean, this notion continues to be
pushed out, and then we see them handling these massive
contracts out to somebody like Irish Roley. Nobody knows what
she's doing. You start seeing the talking about street cars
which make no sense. You see them undermining our police department,
not empowering them to do proactive policing, not putting up cameras,

(49:10):
not putting up lights, not being responsive to the Western community.
And by the way, I hope they're listening, and I
hope they at least respond to this conversation. All of
us should be writing the members of council and the
mayor saying, why didn't you have cameras and lights up
this lady. You might not have prevented her being shot,
but what you at least would do is have somebody

(49:31):
arrested this morning because you had cameras up.

Speaker 1 (49:34):
You would think, you know, I mean you would and
if you had Christopher Smitheman on that councilor if you
had Corey Bowman as mayor, if you had if you
had Donnie Dreehouse independent on the on the council, you
had Liz Keating Peter, Yeah right, Steve Good. I mean,
I'm just throwing them out there, Christopher. I think you'd

(49:55):
have people that were clamoring for answers and to get
things done. But what we have in this city, Christopher,
I know you know this already. You know you've got
the city administration that goes out and hires a law firm,
a very very good and highly ethical law firm, Frost
Brown Todd. Yeah, never say it. I'm not saying anything

(50:16):
against them. They don't have a reason to fire her.
So well, okay, let's extend the contract. Try a little harder,
you know, I mean, it's preposterous.

Speaker 2 (50:28):
Look, here's the fact here, this family we're talking about
the Neville family. Yes, Chief Fiji, who is the police officer,
that is her married name, She is a Nevill That
that family has two hundred and fifty years of police
service in our city and in our county. That is
just a fact. They still have young people that are

(50:48):
serving right now for the Sheriff's department and different local
police jurisdictions across our county. This is a very respected family.
Number two, Chief Fiji, I know personally when I was
the vice mayor of the City of Cincinnati. She's a
true professional and has never had a write up in

(51:10):
her file in thirty five years. Never. That's from being
a parole, a patrol officer all the way to being
an assistant chief to being a chief Frost, Brown, and Todd.
They're going to have a hard time finding why this
termination took place and why it took place the way
it did. What's going to happen is there's going to
be judgment bonds that are issued. They're going to pay

(51:32):
out a big check to her to her lawyers because
the city law firm and their lawyers are representing her,
and they also will pay a big checkout to Chief Washington.
These were derelict and disrespectful terminations and shouldn't happen. And community,
please listen to what I'm sharing with you. There is
nothing in Chief Fiji's file that would say she should

(51:55):
have been terminated. Remember the mayor was saying crime was down,
everybody was safe. You're literally saying the chief was doing
a great job. All of a sudden in the middle
of the election, you're looking for a scapegoat. He didn't
know where this election was going. Let's fire her. And
that's what he did.

Speaker 1 (52:12):
For what I mean, you know the thing of it is.
And boy, they're in this fight for the long haul.
I've got Russ Neville coming on tomorrow my Saturday show
to talk about it. They are all over this. I mean,
I'm not hearing anything like, well, okay, we'll run up
the white flag and you know, get eight million dollars
from the city, like the fire chief is going to.

(52:33):
They're fighting it. That family is and you point out
that they are probably no probably about it, the most
premier law enforcement family in this city that I know.
I go back to their father, Gary Neville, who was
the chief or excuse me, the captain at District three,
A wonderful man, a role model to young people like

(52:54):
me at the time coming up. You just don't treat
people like you don't treat anyone like that. But you
don't someone who's a member of that family like that.
You just don't do it.

Speaker 2 (53:05):
No, and people will, you know, when I put on
my social media account, which is access at vote Smitham
and people would say, well, you know this is not
about the family. Yes, it is. Integrity matters. Your last
name matters my mother. Just say to me, your your
last name is on loan smitheman, don't this is a
loan to you. You know you can't just destroy the name.

(53:28):
The point is that I don't think that this mayor
who is from Dayton understood we're talking about mayor pure
of all, understood.

Speaker 6 (53:37):
Who Chief Fiji was.

Speaker 2 (53:39):
And he didn't understand the Neville family as they pulled
the trigger here. Because you have somebody from North College
Hill who's the city manager. You also didn't have a
mayor that has that lived and went to high school
in Dayton, Ohio. They have no understanding of the Neville family.
This is not gonna fly. They're they're not gonna find
a jury or a judge that's going to look at

(54:01):
Chief Fiji and say, hey, this was a right termination
because there's nothing in her file. I want to reiterate
to the public. I'm the outgoing Vice mayor of the
City of Cincinnati, Chair of Law in Public Safety for
the City of Cincinnati. I work personally with chieftg There

(54:22):
is nothing in her file.

Speaker 1 (54:23):
Nope, you know, and everybody seems to know that. But
the city administration and you know, and they're in they're
in for a battle. I mean, if you go look
at some of the the op eds that have been written,
I mean, they're not backing down. So anyway, we'll see
where it goes. Got to let you go. Christopher up
next to Corey Bowman though, and I know Corey's this

(54:45):
is from what I'm reading, it's personally him and I
certainly understand that, and we'll get his story listening.

Speaker 2 (54:51):
Mike Allah, thank you so much. I really appreciate you.
Happy New Year to you and your family too. And
I'm so sad that it started off with an eleven
year old girl losing her life on a playground in
the West.

Speaker 1 (55:01):
Dya God bless absolutely thank you, Christopher, thank you. Okay,
that last thing he said just sums it all up.
It's not the way you wanted to start the year.
But anyway, we got to take a break for the news.
But when we get back Corey Bowman, we're going to
get his take on this. Mike Allen in for Slowey
seven hundred WLW. I actually know that one smooth criminal

(55:29):
Michael Jackson. I think that's the first. Okay, maybe that hey, listen,
moving along here on a very very very serious subject.
You know, we all woke up this morning to the
news that although we are in a new year, things
are unfortunately pretty much the same, at least early out

(55:51):
of the shoot in the city of Cincinnati. The horrible
moves and I mean I literally woke up to it
and turned on TV and heard about it, the shooting
death of are you ready? An eleven year old girl
on a playground in the West End, And it's just heartbreaking.
There's no other way to look at it. You know,

(56:14):
I tell you all all the time, and you're sick
of hearing it. I've been in the system fifty one
years and no matter what, you just never never get
used to something like this. Here to talk about it
is someone who it is personal to, not for political reasons,
but because he has a connection with this young woman,

(56:36):
this eleven year old and her family and friends. I'm
talking about Corey Bowman. Corey was the Republican candidate for
mayor of Cincinnati in last year's election. As I understand
that the family are congregants of Corey's at the River
Church in the West End. Corey, thanks so much for calling.

Speaker 6 (56:55):
In, and Mike, thank you so much for having.

Speaker 1 (56:59):
Me accurate what I stated. I was kind of shooting
from the hip there, but I did get a chance
to read some of what you posted on X and
it sure seems like it's personal to you, not political.
Is that a fair statement.

Speaker 6 (57:13):
Well, that's the thing. It's always been personal to me.

Speaker 5 (57:16):
I know.

Speaker 6 (57:16):
Yeah, there was an election year last year, but all
the issues that we were standing for was things that
we had experienced firsthand in the four and now five
years of pastoring in the city. And last night, I'm
on my way to Greaters. I had a date night
with my wife. I think it was our first date
night in six months, and we had gone to OTR

(57:37):
and then I picked up my kids and we were
about to go to Greaters And as we were on
our way, I get a call from a church member
and there was a grandmother of the eleven year old.
Her name's Queen, and she just basically was hysterical on
the phone, you know, and just said the situation. And

(57:57):
we dropped everything and drove straight to Children's hospital and
we had been there for the family. You know, I
had known the daughter, which was the mother of the
of the child, and then I got a chance to
meet the father for the first time there and spoke
with me and the family members that I've met over
the years in the West End, and it was just

(58:20):
about it as terrible of a situation that you could
imagine from anybody's perspective.

Speaker 1 (58:25):
And you hit the nail on the head there. I mean,
it's impossible to imagine that. Uh, they are members of
your congregation?

Speaker 6 (58:32):
Is that?

Speaker 1 (58:33):
Is that accurate, Corey?

Speaker 6 (58:35):
So the grandmother has been a member of our church
for years, and it was about because the daughter, you know,
without getting too much detail, you know, the daughter actually
has gone back and forth between Columbus and Cincinnati with
her parents. To my understanding, she was an honorable student,
straight a student, eleven year old girl, nothing you know,

(58:56):
crazy about. She was just visiting her dad and her
grandma and she used to be a student Hayes Porter
Elementary as well, and she just went out about six
o'clock and said, you know, Grandma, I'm going out to play.
And it was the park right across the street from
the house. We were there last night, looking across the
street from the house there, and they heard gunshots in

(59:19):
the entire neighborhood realized what happened once everybody came out
and saw that she had been a part of a crossfire.

Speaker 1 (59:28):
I mean, how do you, as a pastor, Corey, how
do you deal with that? I mean, obviously, you're a
human being, and you're a very kind human being, so
that kicks in. But as a pastor, how do you
console members of the congregation or anyone when something like
this happens. I mean, honestly, I don't know that i'd

(59:49):
know what to say.

Speaker 6 (59:52):
Well, I think the biggest thing that we have to
realize is that we're living in a world to where
there's a lot of divisiveness. There's a lot of things
that we can disagree on, but you know, there's nothing
more important than human life, no matter what side you're on.
Doesn't matter what a political persuasion might be, It doesn't
matter what background, what race, or creed. The life of

(01:00:15):
a human is the most precious thing that God has
ever given us. And I think that that's one of
the biggest things that we're losing side of is the
importance of life. Now, it hits a little harder when
you hear that's eleven year old girl that had her
whole life ahead of her. All she was simply doing
was you know, playing with her cousin, who had witnessed
the whole thing, was standing right next to her, and

(01:00:35):
her cousin, who was another teenage girl, was the only
one that stuck with her while everybody else was running
and it's just not a good situation for her. But
we were with them at the children's hospital and then
we came back to the West End and I kind
of used some contacts I had had to make sure
that the area was protected and because you never know

(01:00:58):
in situations like that, going to drive by and who
wants to do something stupid. And we were just there
to be there for the family, get them some pizzas
and pray with them. And in a situation like that,
it's not about having solutions, it's just about having peace
and just comforting people. And ultimately you can only do
that by a strong spiritual relationship with the Lord, because

(01:01:20):
he's the one that brings the ultimate comfort in a
situation like that. I've been in many situations as a passor.
It's where you look at people in the eye they
are going through a heartache like that, and they'll look
at me and they'll say, I don't know how somebody
can do this and not believe in God though, or
not rely on God, because if you don't have a
relationship with the Lord, then you'll lose it. And I

(01:01:42):
think that's one of the defining things about what we
do in our mission for not only for our church,
but just in our lives. Pursuit is bringing that peace
and that hope to people even in their hardest times.

Speaker 1 (01:01:53):
You know, you are literally and figuratively, but I think
more literally doing the Lord's work in that situation, Corey,
and I'm sure the family appreciates that. I can't imagine
anything tougher than that, but you know what I mean.
We just talked to Christopher Smithman and I asked the
same question to him. When an eleven year old girl,

(01:02:16):
I don't care where she lives OTR, West End, East End,
Green Township, Indian Hill, can't go to a playground to
play or just associate with her friends. We got problems
in this city, we got problems in this country. Honestly,
I'm usually not without some kind of solution when it

(01:02:39):
has to deal with a law enforcement criminal justice situation,
or at least a proposed solution. But I don't know
what you do about this. You know better than anybody,
and I know you don't want to make this political.
I get that. But when you got eighty percent of
the city that want to vote for one political party
that I don't want to say they don't care, I'll

(01:02:59):
be slee They care, but don't have the solutions and
don't seem to want to try anything. I mean, what
do you do? What can you do? Well?

Speaker 6 (01:03:09):
Mike, what I would say too, I mean, you have
you know, the background that you have in law enforcement, prosecuting.
You know that there's simple methods compat in crime. I
think the biggest you know, from a practical aspect, you
were understaffed from a Cincinnati police department. We have to recruit,
we have to bring the complement levels up. We're twenty

(01:03:30):
percent understaffed right now. Have to enforce lateral hiring, aggressive
lateral hiring all year long to bring these these numbers up.
The police have to know that the criminals are going
to be held accountable. You know, the judges cannot just
release these repeat defenders on a street. Because this is

(01:03:50):
a thing everybody wants to make this about, you know,
even a wider black issue. But when you talk to
people on the streets, the criminals do not represent the
community that was affected last night. These are people that
are repeat offenders. They are criminals that deserve to be
locked up, and everybody in the community knows this. And
this is the problem, is that because we have lack

(01:04:12):
of judges, a lot of these criminals just get released
right back out on the street. But then this is
something that I realized even more so last night, was
through the campaign. You know, I've had the opportunity to
get a lot of contacts with the Cincinni Police Department.
So I was doing everything I could to try to

(01:04:32):
work at because there was a crazy situation with coroner
and just you know, viewing of the body and everything.
So it's just you know, processes that it's very hard
to go through in a situation like that. So I
was trying to help the family navigate through that. But
when we came to the park, you know, it's about
you know, maybe ten eleven o'clock, and you know, in
that community, people are going to show up to the

(01:04:54):
door have their condolences. We're going to be outside we're
going to be talking about the memories of the girl
and just kind of comfort each other. And so I noticed,
we all noticed that there was several cars that would
drive by slowly with tinted windows. I mean there's tents
of windows on about every car. But everybody would like

(01:05:14):
have a knee jerk reaction because they don't know who's
going to try to drive by and pull something else,
maybe a hit on the family, or you have no clue.
So I called up, you know, some people, and I said, hey,
can we have some police presence at the park right here?
And it wasn't to kick anybody out of the park,
It wasn't to do any of that. It was just
simply just to provide protection. So when the cops showed up,

(01:05:37):
a lot of people in the community were like, what
are they doing here? They don't need to be here
because they need to let us grieve. And I looked
at them all I said, no, I called them in
for us. They are here for you to protect you.
You guys, do whatever you need to do to grieve
in this park, but these cops are here to make
sure that your family and everybody is safe. And it
bridged that gap between the cops and the commune that

(01:06:00):
they so desperately want to protect and serve. And in
my mind as a pastor, it's a no brainer. But
as a city official and elected leader, that is your
job to bridge that gap between these amazing officers that
want to protect and serve the community and the community
that they serve. At City Hall right now, we have

(01:06:20):
elected officials, consultants, contractors and people that are doing everything
they can to divide the community from the cops. And
last night was proved to me that we need leadership
to step up and bridge that gap. I'm calling upon
Councilman Scottie Johnson. He's got a background in the police force.
He and other council members have the amazing opportunity to

(01:06:44):
bridge this gap, to show the community that the cops
are there for them. And if we can't bridge that gap,
then the crime is continuing to rise and the crime
will continue to affect families like it did last night.

Speaker 1 (01:06:58):
Very very well ed, Corey very well said, you know,
kind of along the lines of what you were talking
about with respect to responsibility and things of that nature.
I know you were preoccupied, you might not have seen,
but I guess overnight a story Fox nineteen about what
I refer to the downtown beatdown. One of the suspects

(01:07:21):
that was locked up initially on no bond changed bond
to EMU Electronic Monitoring. That person is now in custody
again with no bond because she violated the conditions of EMU. Apparently,
according to the complaint that's in the official court file,
this person just said the hell with it and went

(01:07:42):
over to northern Kentucky and was caught at a liquor
store buying liquor. She had violated three times. And I
guess the point in mentioning that is sometimes in this city,
the more things change, the more they stay the same.
I don't know, do you have any comment on that,
any thoughts about it.

Speaker 7 (01:08:02):
No.

Speaker 6 (01:08:03):
I just think that goes right in line with what
we're seeing. You know. The heartbreaking thing last night was
I'm mom the stoop with the family and we're sitting
there talking and they said, well, are there any cameras up?
And I mean there could be one or two cameras
in the air, Whe'll know. I mean we're one hundred
yards away from a two hundred and fifty million dollars stadium.
You'd think there'd be some type of you know, security

(01:08:23):
in the area. But they said they told us that
the cameras would be up when dom was shot. Well,
they're talking about Dominick that was shot two years ago
in the West. And then yeah, and then they said, well,
do you think that they'll catch whoever did this? And
then another person said, well, they didn't catch whoever did
it to Chrissy. Well, they're talking about Krishana Win who

(01:08:43):
was a single mom of five who got shot two
blocks away from where I kept my family y'uring the
election and she got gunned down and they still haven't
found the suspect, even though they have a clear picture
of the faith of the man that did it. And
so these are things to where the community has lost
hope in the system and the system has failed them

(01:09:05):
time and time again while telling them that the system
is on their side. And I'm here just say that
we need to hold elected officials, leaders and anybody else
available accountable for this, and just to say hey, it's
not it's not a way to have a blame game.
It's about we need to come together and say this
is more than red or blue, This is more than

(01:09:27):
right or left. This is about right and wrong. This
is about helping people. And this same grandmother is staying
in housing that I've been fighting all year because the
housing is city funded and has been treating their tenants
like garbage, and she's been suffering from black mold. And
so this isn't just a crime issue. This has concentrated poverty,

(01:09:48):
treating people like garbage and then not providing them any
way out of poverty. And then all of a sudden
you see a rise in crime and you say, hey,
how can we combat this? Well, there's simple things that
we can then, but that's why we need competent leadership
to really have the city at the heart of their priorities.

Speaker 1 (01:10:06):
It has to be, has to be. And you know,
I don't want to cast any aspersions. I mean, it's
what all of about eleven o'clock, but I mean I
haven't earn anything from anybody as far as a public
statement goes from the city. I hope that is forthcoming.
I guess we'll have to see one thing in your
statement of a very lengthy, very good statement on X

(01:10:26):
that you put out kind of an insinuation that the
people at Children's were not as sensitive as perhaps they
could be. It's a tough, tough job. I think you
are nurses and things like that, But is there anything
you wanted to say about that, Corey, I wanted to
give you the opportunity.

Speaker 6 (01:10:45):
Well, first off, this isn't any knock on any specific
nurses or general group of people that work to go
through these very tough situations in the urgent care, in
the emergency room. I mean to be there in a
regular hospital, to be there in the children's hostil you
see the worst of the worst. But when I walked
in and these are just microtiques and things that I

(01:11:07):
just don't think we're done right. Was when I walked in,
the entire family was in the crowded lobby and there
was no private area, there was no counseling area, there
was no anything, and they were all just grieving and
just going through the hardest situation you could ever imagine exactly.
And I'm sorry. I know that there's protocol or whatever,

(01:11:28):
but you don't need to have all these social workers
come in with mass on that do not have any
sense of showing their face and showing empathy. All of
them have masks and they just seem very militant and
very like just not sensitive to the situation. Maybe it's
because they've gone through it over and over and over.
But the thing that got me was that the detectives

(01:11:50):
were in and they brought the mother who was not
in the best situation at all, and the teenage girl
cousin who had witnessed the whole thing. Where they bring them, Well,
the mother grabbed my arm and said, pastors, stay with me.
The pastors stay with me. So I walked them. They
walked them to some random maintenance closet by the elevators,

(01:12:12):
and the detectives brought each of them in individually, wouldn't
let anybody in this dark room with them or whatever.
And I was just sitting outside the door, just wanting
to comfort and it just in my mind. You know,
I know there's protocols and processes, there's people that are above,
you know, Mike Paygray, that know more about this than me.
But the process from start to finish of how to

(01:12:34):
deal with this grieving family was not the best. And
then on top of that, the number one reason why
they're in the waiting room is because they're wanting to
see their daughter. They're at least wanting to have some
type of closure and then all of a sudden, all
the social workers and the staff come out. There's about
three or four of them. And as they come out,
they're all wearing masks, not you know, just no you know,

(01:12:58):
look on their face so you can see any empathy.
And they say, the coroner has already arrived and you're
not going to be able to see your daughter. Well,
the mother is not in a good position there, and
all of a sudden, the entire family is trying to
calm her down. And then in the middle of all that,
in the middle of everything trying to be calmed down,
the family estate is said that or they're told there's

(01:13:21):
nothing more to do. We need everybody that's in your
party to be out of the lobby. So essentially, in
the politest way possible, they're kicking the entire Morning family
after they just found out they're not going to be
able to see their girl until she's released to the
funeral home. And then they're the only thing that they
offer is we can uber anybody that needs to be ubered.

Speaker 1 (01:13:44):
Wow.

Speaker 6 (01:13:46):
And then as we're out, and then as we're out,
you want to talk about communication, You want to talk
about near the perception. As we come out a cop.
A Cincinnati Police Department cop pulls up to the front
entrance because he was called by the staff just to
ensure that there wasn't a scene out front.

Speaker 1 (01:14:04):
Well, I'll tell you what, and you know, it sounds
like some training would be appropriate for that. You know,
we're about out of time, Corey. I'm really glad that
you shared that though. One last question though, is there
anything that you know of that folks can do go
fund me, Paige or anything to help this family, because
my guess is a lot of people would want to do.

Speaker 2 (01:14:24):
Yeah.

Speaker 6 (01:14:24):
Well, the first thing is that whenever these situations happen,
there's so much an outpouring of support and people that
want to get behind it. I mean, as far as
our church members go, we already have church members that
are cooking meals for them and doing everything they can.
You know, cash happen whatever. But I talked with the grandmother.
I'm hoping to talk with her more today and just say, hey,
figure out by the family where the funds need to go,

(01:14:46):
where it's needed most. And once we know that, the
funds will be secured for a specific purpose, because you
know how that goes. Once you get called, there's a
lot of divisions stuff. So that's just something I'm navigating
through as the pastor, and I told them, once we
know for sure where the funds are going to go,
then we will start to go fund me and we
will drive that to wherever outsource outlets that we can,

(01:15:09):
and we can do our best to help this family out.
And I believe there's going to be an outpouring of support,
but we have to start it off right to know
where the funds are going and where the help is
going to go, so it's not going to be misappropriated
like many funds urned well.

Speaker 1 (01:15:23):
And you know what, that's very very smart, very appropriate
to So, Hey, I can't tell you how much I
appreciate this, Corey. I mean, it's a tough deal for you,
but really really appreciate it, and also appreciate your mentoring,
if you will, of that family and taking care spiritually
of that family during their time of need. I appreciate it.

(01:15:43):
I know the community does too.

Speaker 6 (01:15:46):
Absolutely well. Thank you Mike Allan for your show and
for having us on. And I would just encourage any
listener just be in prayer for our city, be in
prayer for this family that peace comes upon them. And
then just you know, pray for proper solutions for our
city so that things like this don't happen.

Speaker 1 (01:16:02):
Yes, sir, all right, thanks again, really appreciate it. Corey
Bowman all right, well, I'll tell you it's I'm just
kind of speechless. But anyway, gotta have to take a
break for the news butt when we get back, kind
of lighten it up a little bit. It's still serious,
but we're going to talk with Greg Stanley, realtor Greg
Stanley about the twenty twenty five real estate review. Kind

(01:16:24):
of some ups and downs in it. We'll talk to
Greg about that when we get back. Mike Allen and
for Slowey seven hundred WLW. Do you want to be
an Americanity News Radio seven hundred WLW. Mike Allen in
for Sloaney today. Well, i'll tell you what. We check
in with this guy periodically, local real estate expert Greg Stanley.

(01:16:47):
He's with Comy and Shepherd Realders. We probably checked in
with him four or five times. Wanted to talk to
Greg about twenty twenty five, the year in real estate
and the Queen City area and his thoughts on that. Greg,
thanks so much for joining us this morning.

Speaker 6 (01:17:04):
Not a problem.

Speaker 5 (01:17:05):
My Happy New Year, you too. I hope you hit
a great Christmas.

Speaker 1 (01:17:08):
Thanks I did, I did. I hope you did too. Hey,
before we begin, I found something. It's off of Redfin.
I just wanted to read it to you see if
you agree with it, and we can go from there. Okay.
According to Redfinn, Cincinnati's twenty twenty five housing market recap,
median sale price three hundred and one thousand and eight

(01:17:30):
fifty five, monthly total home sales two thousand, two hundred
and fourteen. Now I'm assuming Greg, this is the greater
Cincinnati area and not just the city, but monthly new
construction sales that's kind of low, one hundred and sixty nine.
I would have thought it'd been more. Monthly inventory five thousand,
five hundred and seventy one, months of supply two point

(01:17:55):
six months, which can trast with the national average months
of supply three point five months, and days on the
market in this area forty two point six days in
the country eight point five days. So, I mean, does
that sound like it's in the ballpark, Greg?

Speaker 5 (01:18:14):
Some of those numbers do sound like they're in the ballpark.
But I just pulled these are fresh numbers, okay, right
off the multiple listing services, Cincinnati based multiple listing service,
and it boats well. I mean, if you look at
these numbers, it votes really well for the local real
estate market. I mean it kind of defies some of

(01:18:37):
the national numbers and it's real positive news. I mean,
I'm just looking at I look at Hamilton County, Warren County,
Claremont County, Butler County, just those counties, localized counties, and
I'm seeing a number again, fresh numbers. This is December
year to date, twenty twenty five. Unian home price increase

(01:19:02):
five percent in twenty twenty five to three hundred and
they were close. I think you said three hundred and one.
This is three hundred and ten. But that prices keep
going up and which bodes well for homeowners like you
and I sure. I mean the value of our homes
keep increasing, and I think that's positive. Also. I mean

(01:19:25):
the number of units sold has increased two point six percent,
not a huge year, but still up again as compared
to other other areas, like you said, and active inventory
of homes has increased, so there are more homes available
for home buyers. You know, last year there was a

(01:19:47):
very low inventory. Well, I mean, twenty twenty four, I'm
saying was very very low inventory. Now inventory has increased,
so there's more homes available. You know, I'm real positive,
Mike on this market. I mean, even though home prices
have gone up in Cincinnati, real estate is still a

(01:20:11):
bargain in Cincinnati. I mean if you compare that, if
you compare our median sales price of three to ten
with just close cities like Lexington, they'red at three forty,
Chicago is at three eighty. I mean, that's a that's
a jump of thirty thousand through Lexington, seventy thousand to Chicago.

(01:20:33):
And we don't even need to talk about the West
Coast that's gone absolutely crazy. Sure, the median sales price
on a West coast is over a million, but yeah, yes.
And also, I mean for first time home buyers, Mike,
interest rates have actually gone down from starting in twenty

(01:20:55):
twenty five, interest rates are we're hovering around now, they're down,
hovering around six low sixes. I mean I just talked
to a mortgage provider. They're at six point one on
a thirty year fix. So you know, uh so that
vodes well for people that aren't in the market yet

(01:21:17):
or want to make a move. Interest rates are lower
in Greg Craig, do you see them?

Speaker 1 (01:21:23):
I know it's a difficult quote. You see them going
lower than that? I mean, I think I mentioned to
you when I bought my condo five six years ago,
Halla was just right above three. Do you see him
going down any And that's probably an impossible question.

Speaker 2 (01:21:36):
I think I do it.

Speaker 5 (01:21:37):
You know, you and I have talked about this before.
You know, we remember when interest rates were as high
as as fourteen percent, fifteen percent during the Carter administration. Yeah,
and now you know there's a lot of people and
that's that's the issue, is that there's a lot of
people sitting with a three and a half or a
three or whatever. I don't think it'll ever get there,

(01:21:59):
but I do see them going down more as we
move into twenty twenty six. I mean, you know the
picture all signs point to a more robust economy in
twenty twenty six, you know, and as we move to
a new FED chair, right, you know, I think that's
due in April time frame, away from Jerome Pale to

(01:22:21):
somebody else. I think there's positive news there. I think,
you know, my prediction in don't take this to the bank.
But my prediction is you're going to see mid five
interest rate I think sometime in twenty six and twenty
twenty six.

Speaker 1 (01:22:38):
At least it's going the right way this time.

Speaker 6 (01:22:41):
Yes, sir, I want to ask I want.

Speaker 1 (01:22:42):
To ask you this too. Now I'm assuming and we've
talked about this too. The best time to sell your
home is in the spring, if that is accurate. When
does the spring market ramp up? And what can people
do to prep their homes, condos, whatever? So it sounds
quickie and at the for the most bucks.

Speaker 5 (01:23:03):
Yeah, good question. Yeah, Mike, you hit the nail on
the head.

Speaker 6 (01:23:06):
The best best.

Speaker 5 (01:23:08):
Time to sell it's it's cyclical, especially here in Cincinnai.
Best time to sell is spring market. In spring market
really starts end of February, starts to ramp up.

Speaker 6 (01:23:23):
You can see it.

Speaker 5 (01:23:23):
It starts to ramp up the end of February and
continues all the way through June July time frame, and
then people kind of settle in around August. They want
to be in the school district, uh that that they
want to be in that kind of stuff. But yeah,
spring is the best time. In February probably when it
starts to ramp up.

Speaker 2 (01:23:45):
Ye know, as far as far as.

Speaker 5 (01:23:47):
What people are looking for in a home and how
you can prep your home. I mean people are looking
for neat, clean, well organized. You'd be surprised what a
would a to paint will do.

Speaker 6 (01:24:01):
Sure, people are.

Speaker 5 (01:24:03):
Looking these days. People are looking for You know, when
when when you and I first started in the housing market,
we were okay with putting the code of paint on something,
doing a little sweat equity, that kind of thing. Anymore,
we see that people want a move in, pack your
boxes right, move in, and and that's it.

Speaker 1 (01:24:22):
Well, let me ask you this, so, Greg, what about
you know, plastic fake bricks on a wall. Does that
help the value.

Speaker 5 (01:24:28):
Any not at all? Okay, you know it's funny. We
talked about organization. I mean, you know that those those
bricks have to come off the wall. We talked about organization.
I had a client that I was looking at, previewing
their house, making recommendations, and they had you know, I
went in the garage. They had a car, a boat,

(01:24:51):
a motorcycle, all kinds of car parts fewn all over
the garage and.

Speaker 1 (01:24:56):
I had to tell them, hey, screens out for a
package deal.

Speaker 2 (01:25:00):
Exactly.

Speaker 5 (01:25:01):
I mean, you know, you gotta either either do a
storage shed, run a storage shed, or something like that.
It's all about organization. I mean, the trim up the
bushes in the front yard, put some fresh mulch down.
You'd be surprised that the return on investment when you
do those kind of things.

Speaker 1 (01:25:19):
Now you correct me if I'm wrong. I think you
said this a couple of times pretty clearly. Don't mess
with the door because you don't get your return on that?
Is that acting exactly?

Speaker 5 (01:25:29):
Man?

Speaker 1 (01:25:30):
The memory on me, Greg, Can you believe that?

Speaker 6 (01:25:33):
Oh?

Speaker 5 (01:25:34):
Man, I mean that goes back a while.

Speaker 1 (01:25:36):
Oh yeah, no question about it. Yeah, let me ask you.
This would be the last thing I want to ask
you about. And it's important too. Young people wanting to
get out and buy their first home, first condo or whatever, everything.
And I'm hearing and I'm pretty certain of this. It's hard, hard,
hard for them to do it for you know, any

(01:25:56):
number of reasons. Your thoughts on that, and and I
know you spoke to the favorable direction of the interest rates,
but what can a young couple do or just a
young person in general? You know, the President suggested. I
don't think it went anywhere a couple of weeks ago,
a couple of months ago, about fifty month car loans,

(01:26:18):
which I think is crazy, But I guess the question becomes,
what can a young person do to get in this market?

Speaker 5 (01:26:26):
Yeah, I mean, Mike, you're right, it is difficult. Home
prices keep going up. I'd say get in the market. Now.
Home prices keep going up and jump, you might have
to reset your expectations. But first of all, as a
first time ho buyer, keep that credit score high. Anything

(01:26:47):
you can do to bump that credit score. I mean,
you know, like FAHA loans they require like a five
to eighty plus credit score, So keep that up and
keep paying off other loans that you might have. I
would suggest too, for first to get pre approved, call
your local bank or mortgage provider and get a letter,

(01:27:11):
a pre approval letter, because when you work with your agent,
they're going to ask for that, because a potential seller,
when you put in a bit, they're going to say,
as this person been pre approved, And the ability to
produce that letter, that pre approval letter is huge. So
so yeah, I mean, those are the kind of things

(01:27:32):
I would focus on. Find a good agent, somebody that
knows something about home construction and maintenance. They can clue
you into what might be required to update that house
or you know, maintenance items that might be high cost
if you do buy that home. That kind of thing.

Speaker 1 (01:27:50):
Gotcha.

Speaker 5 (01:27:51):
But by now, I agree, prices are going up. But
by now you've got to jump in this market reset.
Maybe you set your expectations in terms of size and locations. Yeah,
that's key, you know, I.

Speaker 1 (01:28:06):
Gotta I recently saw pol You know, in this job,
you got to read a lot of polls where it's
tricking around young people. I forget what the age kind
of gap was, but ask young people about what they
thought about their financial future, and it's kind of interesting.
The specific question asked to them was what are their
two biggest concerns? And the first one really surprised me. Again,

(01:28:30):
these are young people. Their biggest concerns. The first one
they said, eyesight. I don't get that, but I guess
it means that that they're looking ahead for their financial future.
Does that make sense?

Speaker 5 (01:28:43):
Okay, I see where that comes in. Yes, yes, I
sight's very important.

Speaker 1 (01:28:48):
What would you think the second one would be?

Speaker 5 (01:28:51):
I'm gonna make you guess, Gosh, I don't, I don't know,
probably probably money and the amount of money that they
might have.

Speaker 1 (01:28:58):
Well, you're right, that's what it is. Two things most
important we all got to keep in mind eyesight and money.

Speaker 5 (01:29:05):
Absolutely.

Speaker 1 (01:29:07):
Okay, great. If somebody wants to talk to you further,
how would they get a hold of you?

Speaker 5 (01:29:12):
Yeah, they can call me at Comy and Shepherd Realtors
five one three two two six four four two six
or email me at G. Stanley at stanrealty dot com.

Speaker 1 (01:29:27):
All right, buddy, really appreciate you spending time with us.

Speaker 5 (01:29:30):
Very good, Mike. Hey, Hey, have a great new.

Speaker 1 (01:29:32):
Year you too, buddy, Thank you.

Speaker 6 (01:29:34):
All right?

Speaker 1 (01:29:35):
All right, that was Greg stan Lee of with Comy
and Shepherd Realtors. Those are interesting, I think conversations that
we have, and with the thing about young people, it's
so true. And he's right too. I mean, when we
were coming up the Jimmy Carter era interst rates thirteen
fourteen fifty fifteen percent, there wasn't anybody buying a home.

(01:29:57):
I know I wasn't, So I mean hopefully we can
find a way or a way can be found so
young people can get into the American dream too. Hey,
you know what I'm gonna have to take a real
short break. We'll be back and then we'll take care
of what we're gonna do from eleven thirty to noon.
Mike Allen in for slowly seven hundred WLW. I was

(01:30:28):
going to venture a guess on this one, but now
I don't know. But who ah, I got it magic bus.
How about that? Well, of course it was I guess
in the sixties. So that's kind of been my wheelhouse anyway.
Just to kind of wrap up what Greg Stanley and
I Greg with Komy and Shepherd realtors talked about, it

(01:30:51):
looks like it's and I forgot I always ask him
the ultimate question, good time to sell, good time to buy, whatever?
But I think he's saying a pretty good time. I'm
for everything in the real estate market now, we apparently
are doing better than the rest of the country. And
when he said the average selling price for a place

(01:31:11):
out on the West Coast, I think he said to
me and man, and not only that, you move out there,
then you got to put up with all the liberals too.
I think I'm gonna stay right where I am here.
But the thing though that we talked about, and Greg
and I go back a long time, and that's why.
You know, we talk about back during the Carter years,

(01:31:32):
people getting married and even people not getting married wanted
to buy a house. There is just no way anybody
could do it with those interest rates. So I'm glad
to hear his kind of prediction that they're going to
start going the other way a little bit. Again, we
have a new fed chair, or we will have, so
I mean, maybe that'll help too. But you know, so

(01:31:54):
many and I talked to my son too, and he's, well,
he's still young, he's younger than me. But you know,
he makes the point that a little bit his generation
and a lot of the ones before that don't really
have some of the things and some of the benefits
that we have had my generation. I think he's right
about that. Hopefully all that works itself out at some

(01:32:17):
point or another, and most importantly they turn into Republicans.
I guess we shall see on that, but I mean
it's always good to get an update and keep that
in mind. The air. What did he say, I forget
what he said. Yeah, the median sale price for Cincinnati

(01:32:37):
three hundred one thousand, eight fifty five. Not too bad,
not too bad. And Billy Cunningham mentioned this when we
talked earlier, and I saw the paper too this morning.
There's a home I think it's one of those historic
row homes in over the Rhine. Apparently like everything's fixed
up on it, elevators, the whole deal selling for two

(01:33:01):
million dollars. You know, I love that stuff. I'd love
to live in. It's historic building. But and I love
over the Rhine. I think I mentioned it. I did
my firstb FC game this summer and I really liked it.
Walked around over the Rhine and it's beautiful. But man,

(01:33:22):
they got to clean it up. They got to keep
the stupid shootings out in all the goofballs, and I
know that's easier said than done. Hey, we got to
take a break. But when we get back, boy, I'm
looking forward to this one too. And this is a
serious subject too. There is a thing that is called
the National Security Survey. It's something that is supposed to

(01:33:42):
be done by the president every year. I don't know
that it has been Donald Trump did and basically what
it is he did it. Basically what it is, it's
a survey saying, hey, you know, this is where we
need to go security wise, where we need to be
focusing our resources, and for so long it was very,
very very Eurocentric, and that's because of the Soviet Union

(01:34:06):
back then. You know how we bankrolled them. Trump, thank
God's making them pay their fair share in NATO. It
looks like it's changing. The view now is shifting towards,
of course, red China, communist China, and also South America
where China is really trying to get a toe hold.
But when we get back, we're going to talk to
Todd Sheets about that. Todd is a very prolific author

(01:34:30):
and filmmaker, and well he's right on this subject, so
we will do that when we get back. Mike Allen
in for Slowney, seven hundred WLW. Hey we're back. News
Radio seven hundred WLW. Mike Allen in for Sloaney. You
probably heard about this. If you follow current events and
world events, you would. President Trump recently unveiled his national

(01:34:54):
security strategy that changes years of prior strategy and it
focuses on guess what America first imagine that, but not
everyone likes it. My next guest is Todd Sheets, mister
Sheets author to report. It was an op ed piece

(01:35:15):
that it was titled Finally Political Consensus. Everyone hates the
National Security Strategy. Todd's the author of the newsletter on
Wealth and Progress, currently available free of charge on Substack,
also available on YouTube, Spotify, and Apple. He is also

(01:35:36):
the author of the acclaimed book two thousand and eight,
What Really Happened? Todd? Thanks so much for joining us
this morning.

Speaker 4 (01:35:44):
Mike's a pleasure to be with you.

Speaker 1 (01:35:46):
Hey, let me ask you first if you could explain
to my listeners and me, really, what exactly is the
National Security Strategy? I know, standing alone, it kind of
speaks for herself, but I mean, it's an actual docum,
is it not.

Speaker 4 (01:36:02):
Yes, this year it was a report that was right around.

Speaker 7 (01:36:04):
Thirty pages long. Okay, it's required by Congress. It's supposed
to come out every year. It doesn't necessarily come out
every year, but usually, you know, at least once every
couple of years in administration will put one out that
kind of, you know, sets the tone for what their
strategy is, you know, in the international arena.

Speaker 1 (01:36:25):
I think the Trump administration surprised some people on this,
maybe not because he hasn't had a lot good to
say about Europe, I guess since he started his second term.
But can you kind of explain what the issue is
and what the problem is. And you make the point
in your article that both the New York Times and
the Wall Street Journal criticized the report. I guess they're

(01:36:47):
saying it's an abdication of our traditional role as the
world's policeman. Could you kind of expound on that police.

Speaker 7 (01:36:55):
Yeah, that's kind of both the thinking I think reflected
in their perspective and in general. You know, it reflects
almost one hundred years of history in Europe and even
more if we go back to our founding ideals, but
if we focus on the twentieth century, and I'll try
and be very brief with this, you know, through World

(01:37:15):
War One, World War two, and the Cold War, you know,
we built up a coalition with Europe to try and
defend democracy in the arena where it was most relevant
obviously to Europe, but also to us because of the
threats to Western Europe and the need for the United
States to help step in and help them fight off

(01:37:38):
the Germans in the first two Wars and then the
Soviet Union in the Cold War. And you know, we
developed a mentality out of that, and Europe certainly did
where there was this very you know, deeply connected alliance
between the two sides that was crucial to maintaining peace
and balance throughout the world. And I think the fact

(01:37:59):
of the matter is which Trump has recognized, but I
think the traditionalists have not, and you know, have a
hard time letting go of on both the left and
the right. As you pointed out, is that circumstances have
changed dramatically, you know, since the fall of the Soviet
Union in the early nineteen nineties, and it is time
for us to look at all of this from a

(01:38:19):
very different perspective, taking those changes into account.

Speaker 1 (01:38:23):
And I guess a big part of it is withdrawing
some of the troops from Europe over there. I know
we have done that throughout that I think the past
twenty or so years. My father was in the Air Force.
He was a civil engineer, and he was there in
Germany about five years from about nineteen fifty five to

(01:38:43):
nineteen sixty working on rebuilding. And you know, he said
that Americans, especially the troops, were everywhere. And I guess
the thought is, and it sure makes sense to me,
is that it's time to kind of shift focus to
perhaps the two bad if you will, communists China and Russia.
Is that kind of the gist of it.

Speaker 7 (01:39:06):
Yeah, that's a very big part of it. And I
think one of the things that's very important to keep
in mind is Russia today is nowhere near the threat
that was posed by the Soviet Union during the Cold War.
And that's one of the things I think that the
left and the right, you know, the critics haven't quite
fully accepted today Russia's GDP, which is, you know, their

(01:39:27):
gross domestic product, which determines how much economic resources they
can put into their military operations. Today they're about the
size of Italy or Canada, so they are significantly smaller. Yes,
back in the fifties and the sixties, they.

Speaker 4 (01:39:44):
Were roughly two thirds you know.

Speaker 7 (01:39:46):
The GDP of the United States, the Soviet Union i'm
speaking of, they were clearly the global threat. Today, the
only country that is even close to that is China,
which you mentioned is the place where we need to
be shifting our focus as well as to the you know,
North and South America to the Western hemisphere and what's
going on here and.

Speaker 4 (01:40:06):
So what's happened is Russia is so.

Speaker 7 (01:40:08):
Much smaller, you know, their lack of power and their
lack of a threat for example, to the United States
is reflected in what happened in the War with Ukraine
where they went in. Ukraine's even much smaller than.

Speaker 4 (01:40:22):
Russia is, and yet here we are four years later
where they're.

Speaker 7 (01:40:26):
Struggling to make advances. So that should be a regional
conflict that Europe should be responsible for dealing with. And unfortunately,
they have mismanaged themselves so much that even countries like
you know, Great Britain, France, Germany, who are much larger

(01:40:46):
economically than Russia is today multiples of what Russia is,
you know, they're basically kind of sitting back and waiting
for the United States to come in and play the
leading role in dealing with what is really a relatively
it's not minor to the people. I don't mean to
diminish it from that perspective, but from the global perspective
and certainly from the United States's perspective, this should be

(01:41:09):
a relatively minor conflict in Eastern Europe that Western Europe
should be responsible for dealing with. And I think that's
what the Trump administration is driving at with, you know,
with this new strategy and with their approach to Europe
is like, hey, guys, it's time for you guys to
deal with things like this so we can focus on
our own hemisphere and today's real threat, which is China.

Speaker 1 (01:41:34):
You know what. And Trump say what you will about him,
but the guy says what he's going to do, and
he does it. And that was part of the campaign
to kind of take a new look at it, you know,
in your and you mentioned it just before. It's really
it's staggering Russia's economic resources, their GDP less than those

(01:41:54):
of Italy and Canada, and you know, no better indication
of their military decline. Now the one thing that Russia
does have, and you know, I think it's sickening. Apparently
Vladimir Putin could care less how many Russians he sends
into battle and are killed. I researched it a little bit.

(01:42:15):
This is from AI, which I find to be usually accurate.
Two hundred and forty three to three hundred and fifty
thousand people Russians soldiers died in that war that's not
even over yet, and some think as many as half
a million. Doesn't that The fact that he can do
that and get away with kind of still make him

(01:42:35):
a threat and Russia by extension, because he's not going
anywhere unless they throw him out.

Speaker 7 (01:42:41):
Yeah, I think they are a threat over time, and
they do have You're exactly right, that's very important what
you pointed out. There's this completely different attitude about the
importance of individuals and citizens when you get into these
hostile regimes you know that are run by autocraft, you
know who basically almost at some point they have to

(01:43:04):
go to war because their own systems become so inefficient
and they're so incapable of helping their people live a
better life that they have to go off to war
to try and conquer somebody else's land and their resources,
and to try and make the people think that something
positive is happening within the country.

Speaker 4 (01:43:23):
So I do think their threat. It's not like we
should completely.

Speaker 7 (01:43:27):
Ignore what's happening over there. But Trump has not been
ignoring it. You know, they've been selling weapons to Ukraine
now being purchased by Europe, which is appropriate. They've been
willing to make some long term security guarantees to Ukraine
to try and halt Russia in their tracks if we
can get a peace settlement, which I'm a little skeptical

(01:43:49):
that Putin's going to be willing to do that, but Yeah,
we need to be vigilant. And it's also very important,
and this is something that many critics have either missed
or outright life about in talking about the National Security strategy.
The Strategy report specifically says, we need to make sure
that no hostile, aggressive company, our country excuse me, comes

(01:44:13):
to dominate any of the major regions of the world.

Speaker 1 (01:44:16):
We need to keep a.

Speaker 7 (01:44:17):
Balance of power. So they're effectively saying we're not going
to allow Russia to go too far with this. You know,
we can't play the leading and the first responder role,
but we will pay play a role that prevents Russia
from gradually taking over too much of Europe.

Speaker 1 (01:44:34):
Yeah, I wanted to ask you. I mean, because you
pay attention to these things, is there any thought that
the Russian citizens will say at some point enough and
get his ass out of there? Does anybody see that
or is that something that is just not going to happen.

Speaker 7 (01:44:52):
Yeah, you know, he has been able to maintain his
power for a long time. I think he vastly oversteps
his boundaries with the Ukraine War, and that's one of
the reasons why he is so unwilling to back down
and make a peaceful settlement that doesn't give him enough
to be able to show his country that, yeah, the

(01:45:13):
last four years and these hundreds of thousands of deaths
were worth it, and that's the big problem. But I
have to think, you know, at some point, the patience
of the Russian people is going to give out. Their
economy is in a very bad shape, is in very
bad condition. They've lost all these people. They have not

(01:45:34):
been able to accomplish very much with the war, and
so you know, I'm actually of the opinion that as
long as Ukraine wants to continue fighting, you know, and
we're not putting our own people over there and risking
their lives, and we're selling weapons to help them do it,
I'm in favor of that because I think at some
point then, you know, Putin's going to have to face.

Speaker 1 (01:45:54):
Up to his people. They can't go on like this forever.
You know. I saw those figures and just astounding. I mean,
we lost fifty thousand, I believe in the Vietnam War.
I mean, you're talking about some people's estimates ten times
that we'll only have a few minutes left. And I
probably should have asked you about this a little earlier
because it's extremely important communists China. Trump has been pretty

(01:46:17):
good his administration about beefing up Taiwan. I think we
just sold them a bunch of new jets. I mean,
is that the strategy with respect to China, or at
least part of it, make Taiwan, which is microscopic compared
to red China. You know in geography, is that pretty
much as you see a todd the strategy to make

(01:46:39):
sure that we take care of our ally Taiwan.

Speaker 4 (01:46:44):
Yeah, And I think the same thing.

Speaker 7 (01:46:45):
We were just talking about, where we can't allow any
hostile country to dominate any region of the world. It
applies even more so to China, Taiwan, and Asia than
it does to you Europe at this point in time,
given the size and threat that China poses. And I
think it's also very important to remember Trump in his

(01:47:06):
first term is the one who finally started dealing with
the rise of China by imposing the first round of
tariffs on them. So the first round of tariffs and
Trump one point zero, what he's proposing to the increases
that they're pushing through right now in Trump two point
zero and the document very specifically states that, you know,
we cannot allow anyone to dominate the South China seas

(01:47:30):
and the shipping channels there, because too much of the
world's commerce needs to flow through those channels, and we
can't allow somebody like China to get to the point
where they have so much control over them that they
can shut down significant portions of the world economy.

Speaker 1 (01:47:47):
So, yes, that is.

Speaker 7 (01:47:48):
Definitely where they're shifting their focus. And they're very you know,
zeroed in on the importance of all that well, which
is obviously smart. Well, unfortunately we're out of time. We
could talk for hours of this really appreciates your point
of view, Todd, and appreciates you calling in this morning.

Speaker 4 (01:48:05):
Yeah, Mike, thanks so much.

Speaker 1 (01:48:06):
It was great to be back with you. Okay, you too.
I'll tell you what. It's certainly food for thought. And boy,
I think he's right on the money, and so is
Donald Trump. I mean, you know, we I don't know,
use the term babysat Europe for a long long time.
It's time for them to kind of do a little
bit more for themselves as a continent. Hey, Mike Allen

(01:48:27):
in for Sloaney seven hundred WLW. Hey, we're back, Mike
Allan in for Sloaney. As I have been all week.
Tomorrow Saturday midday we're back at it. Also, I wanted
to let you know it looks like, although I'm not
sure what time yet, we are going to have Russ

(01:48:49):
Neville in for to talk about the situation with I
believe it's his sister, the Chief Fiji, who is being
very very, very badly mistreated by the City of Cincinnati.
Willy mentioned this when I was talking to him earlier.
It's a family. It's the premier law enforcement family in
this area, a bar none a beginning with their father,

(01:49:13):
Captain Gary Neville. He ran District three, great man. He
was somebody that I looked up to when I was
starting to come up. But and I think Willy kind
of said maybe this was Chris Fivman said this. It's
in many ways it's reputational. I mean, you just can't
do this to people. You can't say, all right, chief,
well we don't want you anymore and we're going to

(01:49:35):
fire you. But wait a minute, we don't really know why.
So let's hire a law firm and find a reason.
And the law firm doesn't find a reason. And again
I'm taking no shots whatsoever at Frost Barron Todd it's
a great law firm with great lawyers, highly ethical. But
then to come back and say, well, you know, we
don't have a yet, then extended through February. It's just

(01:49:57):
not right. It's not right. You can't say it is.
And I'll tell you one thing, and you'll find this
out tomorrow if you tune in. The Neville family ain't
taking this sitting down. They're not. They're fighting back. And
who can blame them? Who can blame them? I tell
you they interview I just had with Todd Sheets. I
don't know about you. I mean, I hope you all

(01:50:19):
found that interesting, because I did. I don't really get
all that jazzed up about foreign policy. I know I should,
but this is important. I mean, it really is because,
as Todd Sheets outlined there, for so many years after
World War Two, for obvious reasons, our national security strategy

(01:50:40):
was very, very europe centric, if you will. It was
all about Europe because of course, everybody was afraid of
the Red Hordes coming through from China, or probably more
problematic would be the Russians. Immediately well, actually was brewing
before the end of the war. We were kind of

(01:51:02):
at loggerheads with them. And now Donald Trump. You know,
I tell you other presidents just kind of sloughed things aside.
Ah man, we don't want to deal with it. I'm
going to be out of office in a few years. Let
somebody else deal with it. He didn't do that on
this national security issue. He's making it clear that he's
got his eye on and focused on communist China, Red China.

(01:51:24):
You know, there is still communism in this world, and
they're the biggest ones, and they are definitely a threat
to us. I think putting it probably kindly, they are
an adversary and will continue to be. They want to
overtake us. They want to overtake us in just about everything.
I think they would prefer to do it without firing

(01:51:45):
a shot, and they think they can pull that off.
You know, you go back to Ronald Reagan. I mean,
Ronald Reagan got it. He got it. He pretty much
made the Soviet Union spend itself militarily into oblivion. He
knew they couldn't do it. They collapsed, and that was
the end of communism. Soviet Union was not the end

(01:52:05):
of Russia. And we got a thug running that country
that we will continue to have to deal with. Well,
I'll tell you I got to get out of here,
but make sure you stay tuned for the bear Cat Report. Boy,
it's gonna be a good game today with Navy Naval
Academy playing U. See, looks like UC's pretty heavily favored.
Then after that the Great American and Willie Cunningham, and

(01:52:27):
I'm really appreciative of Willy stopping by today to give
his two cents worth on that horrible, horrible shooting of
that eleven year old girl down in the West End.
It doesn't get any worse than that anyway. As I said,
I'll be back tomorrow for Saturday Midday. Mike Allen seven
hundred WLW

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