December 8, 2025 • 17 mins
Dan Carroll talks with Christopher Smitherman on the issue of crime in the city of Cincinnati.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:04):
Tiger on the Big One seven hundred WLW eleven thirty
nine coming down the home stretch. Dan Carolyn for Scott Sloan,
Bill Cunningham, The Great American is coming up at twelve noon,
so you want to be here for that. When I
saw this story over the weekend about the eight point
one million dollars that the City of Cincinnati is going
to pay out to people who were rioting in the
(00:25):
streets of downtown Cincinnati, I wrote this Cincinnati where criminals
do no time, where punks and agitators can riot and
get paid, and the politicians and judges who allow it
to happen get re elected on a regular basis. Of course,
we couldn't let this story pass without having our buddy
Chris Smithman, the one time Vice mayor of the City
(00:46):
of Cincinnati, the head of the Law and Public Safety Committee,
weigh in on this as well. Chris Smitheman, great to
have you here. Is that a fair statement that I
wrote that punks and agitators can riot and get paid
by the city oft Or is that the message that
we are going to send when this h when this
settlement gets approved.
Speaker 2 (01:07):
Oh yeah, you know, when you think about this and
I and I and I and I said this publicly,
and I'll say it again here. The city did not
have to settle dank Care. The city could have fought
this and said I'm going to go to a jury trial.
I'm going to present evidence, and I'm going to allow
(01:28):
a jury to make the decision. Right. They knew before
the election that we just had, which is another problem,
that they were moving or had probably already dissettled this case.
So this is all gamesmanship from the elected officials downtown.
You know, I heard the beginning, which I just think
(01:50):
is riveting. That you're you're the lawyer for the gentleman
who was viciously attacked in downtown, who city call a
white racist, who said council members said, I've got one
in the chamber, and you got forty eight hours to
arrest somebody white. You heard that lawyer say, I'm not
(02:12):
gonna settle, I'm gonna go to a jury trial. Now,
what he's saying here is that a city you are
better be prepared to come into a court and explain
your actions, not just from the public, but specifically the
members of council. The President pro Tien, who said that
Holly who was almost, in my estimation, was almost murdered
(02:36):
when she hit the ground. You're gonna have to come
in the court and explain your words to us. And
you know what's going to happen, Dan Carroll. At the
end of that trial, they're going to say this man
did not start the fight. Because we've seen the videos.
He now knows that he didn't start to fight. And
so we know that the city's going to have to
settle the case. Now, if we just gave this these
(02:59):
group of people eight or ten million, because the lawyers
are gonna get two millions, know that they're gonna they're
gonna be another level of judgment bombs in the next
couple of years. For this case that we're talking about,
where at the at the music festival, we had a
group of people that were viciously attacked and ambushed and
clearly we can see that they didn't start the fight.
(03:21):
We also have Chief Washington, this administration fired him wrongly.
A judge has already said you all fired him wrongly.
It was appealed. They lost. They're in settlements, Kate, they're
in settlement talks right now. But there was a trial.
At least there was there was discussion, and ultimately the
judge looked at them and said, you're gonna lose. Now
(03:42):
we've got Chief Fiji, our police chief, who's now negotiating.
So this isn't just the ten million that I believe.
It is the two million to the lawyers in eight
point one million in settlement too. As you've indicated, twelve
thousand or so per person. When you put all these
cases together, you're probably talking about twenty million dollars or
north of that, because we don't know what this gentleman
(04:05):
is going to get from downtown. He might get ten
or fifteen million dollars himself because you called him a
racist on the national stage. How does he repair How
does that man repair his reputation when you have the
President pro Tien, the chair of Law and Public Safety,
members of council saying go arrest somebody white. So when
(04:26):
you talk about this to me, it's the context, Dan Carroll,
of all of that together, and this is the most
outrageous thing that you would see because in the future,
what's going to happen is we have some incident that's
that's five hundred miles away from the city of Cincinnati
and which we had nothing to do with George Floyd,
(04:47):
meaning our officers did not suffocate George Floyd. We have
nothing to do with it. But people decide that they
were going to come down and block our highways and
set things on fire and break into business is and
one officer was shot. He had a he had a
helmet on, so his ballistic helmet stopped him. If not,
we would have one of our officers killed in downtown.
(05:10):
You're gonna You're gonna pay out eight point one million dollars.
And I want the president of the FOP to understand
that the position here from the city is the problem
is the city should have fought the case and said
we're going to go to trial. We're gonna put We're
gonna put everybody on trial and figure it out, not
get in a room and settle the case and make
(05:31):
the taxpayers pay that kind of money.
Speaker 1 (05:33):
So part of this settlement includes the creation of a
guidebook that established his former stand formal standards for dealing
with protests and similar events, a standard for dispersal orders
that police used during civil unrest, and updated procedures for
mass arrest the Hamilton County Municipal Court. So Chris Smitheman,
(05:54):
We are you know, they they talk about how well
the settlement doesn't you know, accepts no blame or it
doesn't it doesn't find fault with the City of Cincinnati.
But now we have to go back and say our
police officers need additional training. Is IRIS really going to
be in charge of the training now? Is are we
going to hear from some some you know, community organizers
(06:17):
on how police ought to deal with these issues?
Speaker 2 (06:20):
Now?
Speaker 1 (06:20):
Are we going to say that the mayor is powerless
to issue an emergency order for a curfew when there
is damage and uh and vandalism being committed on the
streets of Cincinnati, that we have to refer now to
this guidebook in order to see how to deal with that,
that the mayor can't exercise his proper his or her
(06:43):
proper powers to deal with these situations in the future.
And then, Chris Smitheman, what if you're one of the
ones who are out there and did not get arrested,
did not spend a night And I'm and I'm told
by people who are close to the situation that this
notion that there weren't bathrooms available, a water or a
blanket because they might have spent the night waiting to
(07:05):
be processed into the justice center. What about the people
who didn't get arrested, who didn't spend the night out there?
How do you reconcile that If someone right next to
you who did get arrested winds up getting a twelve
thousand dollars payday and you're sitting there with nothing, how
do you How do you deal with that if you're
one of those people?
Speaker 2 (07:25):
I don't I don't think you reconcile it, Dan Carroll.
But at the heart of it is the problem here
is that the city didn't fight the nonsense, right they
surrender to it.
Speaker 1 (07:36):
Go to court.
Speaker 2 (07:37):
That's the whole part. Court, that's the whole that. Let's
go to court.
Speaker 1 (07:40):
Come on, al gaer Arthstein, how committed are you to
the corect That's it.
Speaker 2 (07:45):
Let's go, let's rock and roll. I'm gonna I'm going
to bring my best to the table, even if I
have to hire outside council and pay them a million
dollars to fight you because of the implication of losing
control of the the strong mayor to make decisions like
a curfew here, meaning you're neutering the mayor when you
do these kinds of things. This is a horrific decision
(08:08):
of public policy, and the money that they're paying out,
it's just it's just completely out rapist. Let me also
say that John Cranley, if he's listening, if his father
and mother are listening, you know, if his wife is listening,
his son is listening. John Cranley, you are a great mayor.
You made the right decision at the right time. You
(08:28):
saved our city from being put on fire. Right, this
is this is where you have the blue dog Democrats
like the John Cranleys, the Tom Lukens, the Charlie Lucins,
who really don't exist anymore. They've been marginalized by this
very liberal left part of the Democratic Party. And anybody
who doesn't believe that the left has taken over the
(08:49):
city of Cincinnati. These are the kinds of decisions because
because our mayor, our city manager, nor the city solicitor
had to settle this case, they made the decision we're
going to settle the case. I believe that this thing
would have gone to trial. They wouldn't have found a
jury in our in our county, in our state. Even
if they had moved venue, they wouldn't have found anybody
(09:12):
that would have said that our Mayor John Cranley and
facing that what was happening with George Floyd, with highways
and streets being blocked, things set on fire, businesses being robbed,
an officer being shot, that we're gonna sit back and
pay eight point one million dollars out to anybody. Now,
the peaceful protesters, you and I aren't discussing. I don't
(09:33):
you know. I can engage in a peaceful protest. That's
that's not the issue. And so the people who protested peacefully,
I don't have a beef with that. That's why I
love this country. My first amendment right, my second Amendment right.
There's no issue with that. Visu here is that every
every everybody wasn't doing that if and there wouldn't have
(09:54):
been fires, streets blocked, businesses robbed and broken into. So
every everybody wasn't peaceful, and so you're rewarding that bad behavior,
Dan Carroll, And that's what you're worried about. And at
the backdrop of it, and I'm gonna say this publicly,
is that this is a way that people try to
say racism. This is about racism, This is about white
(10:16):
people doing stuff to African Americans, African Americans, and not
that everybody that was arrested was African American. That's not
what I'm saying. It's this notion that our institution in
itself is racist and that we weren't out there doing
our job the city that we're governed to protect, we're
sworn to protect. And you're gonna see that come out
(10:38):
in the trial of the white guy who was beat
up and ambushed in downtown. His lawyer is taking the
right position that our city solicitors should have taken. Let's
take this thing to court. I'm not gonna settle. We're
gonna I want a trial. I want you to dismiss
all of the all of the dog one charges against
my client, because when that's all over, you know what's
(11:00):
going to happen. He's gonna sue the city of Cincinnati
and win.
Speaker 1 (11:05):
Well, Chris Smitheman. When I look back and I remember
those times in May or late May and the beginning
of June and twenty twenty, I remember telling my wife,
what are we going to watch on TV tonight? Well,
I'm going to turn the riots on. There are riots
happening all across the country. City after city where there
were police cars being overturned, businesses on fire, there were
(11:26):
demonstrations and fights going on out in the streets. And
then these individuals tried to bring the same thing to
the city of Cincinnati, and guess what, it didn't happen
in the city of Cincinnati because of the actions they
were taken by our law enforcement and by Mayor John Cranley.
I had my differences with John Cranley over the years,
but I think in this instance he did the exact
(11:48):
right thing. Put the curfew in place, shut it down,
limited the damage, and did what was right for the
people of Cincinnati. And he said, he commented on the
Fox nineteen p that was put out over the weekend,
he said that curfew in our police department saved our
city when other cities were burning. Everything I saw was
of the utmost professionalism and restraint, and their actions saved
(12:13):
our city. I want the record to show that they
did a great job. And so now we have to
for all these protesters who were out there and claimed
about that. You know, they they might have been a
little uncomfortable when they were getting booked into the Hamilton
County Justice Center that we're going to cough up eight
point one million dollars to satisfy them and make this
(12:36):
go away, and then set ourselves up for future protesters
to do the exact same thing. To me, is just
despicable and there's no way this should be happening.
Speaker 2 (12:46):
Well, let me tell you something that happened to me.
I parked when I was parking at City Hall. Parking
lot is across from Plumb and I walked across the
street and this young white male as I was crossing
the street demanded that I kneel to him. Hear what
I said. I demanded that I kneel. I'm going into
City Hall. This is doing these riots during this craziness.
(13:11):
I looked at this young white dude and I said, dude,
have you lost your mind? If you think that I'm
going to be somebody that's gonna kneel to you, you
have lost your total mind. Now. My problem was, unfortunately,
and this needs to change, I had to leave my
weapon in my car every time I got out, and
(13:31):
I'm looking at this craziness happening around City Hall. Because
we had our swat team in the basement. They're all
lined up prepared because they're all surrounding City Hall as
we're going in, right, I'm saying, when I got into
that basement, from the door all the way down that hallway,
we had to have our swat teams out there. These
dudes that are big as big as elephants now they're
just bative dudes like linemen, and they're down there in
(13:54):
all of that. I shook everybody's hands as I went
down that hallway, but I had had some guy outside
as I'm walking in tell me that I needed to kneel.
And I'm an African American. This is a white dude
telling me I need to kneel. Kneel for what? Brother,
what the heck are you talking about? That is how
crazy it was down there during that period of time,
(14:16):
right that, where people are trying to make us feel
uncomfortable as we're trying to do the business of the city.
It is unbelievable. And I'm going to emphasize here John
Cranley did a great job if he had not made
the decisions he made. And by the way, I was
on and off the phone with John, I was the
vice mayor at the time. As he was trying to
(14:36):
sort it all out and make the decisions he was making,
so John Cranley and I don't want to detach from
the mayor here. He was making very good decisions, and
I was doing the very best I could as his
vice mayor to advise him on how to make good
decisions to protect the city of Cincinnati. But they were
his decisions to make, and I am glad he made them.
(14:57):
If he hadn't done it, as you indicated, Dan, here,
downtown would have been on fire.
Speaker 1 (15:02):
Well, Chris Smitheman. Tomorrow, Tuesday, December ninth, the City of
Cincinnati's Public Council or I'm sorry, Public Safety and Governance
Committee is expected to look at this settlement, review it,
and approve it. I would urge the members of that
committee to say no. I would urge the members of
that committee to say, we need to take this to court.
(15:23):
We need to stand up as a city for what's
right and send the message that you cannot come into
our city and agitate and do property damage and ignore
lawful orders of the Mayor of the City of Cincinnati
and Cincinnati Police and not expect to be paid for
We've got one minute, let's.
Speaker 2 (15:42):
Right, And all I will say is that you and
I agree that peaceful protests in this country are fine
all day. Maybe you're coming here and it's all days.
It's what makes the United States the United States. We
are the greatest experiment on the globe. It's when you
come and you start destroying things that you and I
(16:02):
are talking about. And by the way, I'm very sympathetic
to what happened to George Floyd. In my opinion, it
shouldn't have happened. It was bad policing, but it had
nothing to do with the city of Cincinnati. That's the
most important part of here. We've gone through the collaborative agreement,
we've had, federal oversight, saw Green has given us the
green light. This is the greatest Cincinnati Police Department. People
(16:25):
come from all over the world to see how we
do policing in the city of Cincinnati. This is a
flap in the face. Obviously, counsel will rubber stamp this tomorrow.
I don't have anything that they'll do anything different. Cheryl,
thank you so much.
Speaker 1 (16:37):
Brother. All Right, you're the best press we got to run,
and thank you so much for that. Bill Cunningham is
coming up next on seven hundred WLW.
Speaker 3 (16:45):
I don't know why you'd miss any of our shows.
Maybe you're playing at a door blow off when you
crash landed in a jungle id to use a pointy
stick to fend off a woredem hungry cannibal. I don't know,
maybe another reason it really doesn't matter. Just remember you
(17:08):
can always listen to the podcast of your favorite seven
hundred WLW shows on the free iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 1 (17:14):
This season, make the holiday an unforgettable one.
Speaker 2 (17:18):
Every
Tiger on the Big One seven hundred WLW eleven thirty
nine coming down the home stretch. Dan Carolyn for Scott Sloan,
Bill Cunningham, The Great American is coming up at twelve noon,
so you want to be here for that. When I
saw this story over the weekend about the eight point
one million dollars that the City of Cincinnati is going
to pay out to people who were rioting in the
(00:25):
streets of downtown Cincinnati, I wrote this Cincinnati where criminals
do no time, where punks and agitators can riot and
get paid, and the politicians and judges who allow it
to happen get re elected on a regular basis. Of course,
we couldn't let this story pass without having our buddy
Chris Smithman, the one time Vice mayor of the City
(00:46):
of Cincinnati, the head of the Law and Public Safety Committee,
weigh in on this as well. Chris Smitheman, great to
have you here. Is that a fair statement that I
wrote that punks and agitators can riot and get paid
by the city oft Or is that the message that
we are going to send when this h when this
settlement gets approved.
Speaker 2 (01:07):
Oh yeah, you know, when you think about this and
I and I and I and I said this publicly,
and I'll say it again here. The city did not
have to settle dank Care. The city could have fought
this and said I'm going to go to a jury trial.
I'm going to present evidence, and I'm going to allow
(01:28):
a jury to make the decision. Right. They knew before
the election that we just had, which is another problem,
that they were moving or had probably already dissettled this case.
So this is all gamesmanship from the elected officials downtown.
You know, I heard the beginning, which I just think
(01:50):
is riveting. That you're you're the lawyer for the gentleman
who was viciously attacked in downtown, who city call a
white racist, who said council members said, I've got one
in the chamber, and you got forty eight hours to
arrest somebody white. You heard that lawyer say, I'm not
(02:12):
gonna settle, I'm gonna go to a jury trial. Now,
what he's saying here is that a city you are
better be prepared to come into a court and explain
your actions, not just from the public, but specifically the
members of council. The President pro Tien, who said that
Holly who was almost, in my estimation, was almost murdered
(02:36):
when she hit the ground. You're gonna have to come
in the court and explain your words to us. And
you know what's going to happen, Dan Carroll. At the
end of that trial, they're going to say this man
did not start the fight. Because we've seen the videos.
He now knows that he didn't start to fight. And
so we know that the city's going to have to
settle the case. Now, if we just gave this these
(02:59):
group of people eight or ten million, because the lawyers
are gonna get two millions, know that they're gonna they're
gonna be another level of judgment bombs in the next
couple of years. For this case that we're talking about,
where at the at the music festival, we had a
group of people that were viciously attacked and ambushed and
clearly we can see that they didn't start the fight.
(03:21):
We also have Chief Washington, this administration fired him wrongly.
A judge has already said you all fired him wrongly.
It was appealed. They lost. They're in settlements, Kate, they're
in settlement talks right now. But there was a trial.
At least there was there was discussion, and ultimately the
judge looked at them and said, you're gonna lose. Now
(03:42):
we've got Chief Fiji, our police chief, who's now negotiating.
So this isn't just the ten million that I believe.
It is the two million to the lawyers in eight
point one million in settlement too. As you've indicated, twelve
thousand or so per person. When you put all these
cases together, you're probably talking about twenty million dollars or
north of that, because we don't know what this gentleman
(04:05):
is going to get from downtown. He might get ten
or fifteen million dollars himself because you called him a
racist on the national stage. How does he repair How
does that man repair his reputation when you have the
President pro Tien, the chair of Law and Public Safety,
members of council saying go arrest somebody white. So when
(04:26):
you talk about this to me, it's the context, Dan Carroll,
of all of that together, and this is the most
outrageous thing that you would see because in the future,
what's going to happen is we have some incident that's
that's five hundred miles away from the city of Cincinnati
and which we had nothing to do with George Floyd,
(04:47):
meaning our officers did not suffocate George Floyd. We have
nothing to do with it. But people decide that they
were going to come down and block our highways and
set things on fire and break into business is and
one officer was shot. He had a he had a
helmet on, so his ballistic helmet stopped him. If not,
we would have one of our officers killed in downtown.
(05:10):
You're gonna You're gonna pay out eight point one million dollars.
And I want the president of the FOP to understand
that the position here from the city is the problem
is the city should have fought the case and said
we're going to go to trial. We're gonna put We're
gonna put everybody on trial and figure it out, not
get in a room and settle the case and make
(05:31):
the taxpayers pay that kind of money.
Speaker 1 (05:33):
So part of this settlement includes the creation of a
guidebook that established his former stand formal standards for dealing
with protests and similar events, a standard for dispersal orders
that police used during civil unrest, and updated procedures for
mass arrest the Hamilton County Municipal Court. So Chris Smitheman,
(05:54):
We are you know, they they talk about how well
the settlement doesn't you know, accepts no blame or it
doesn't it doesn't find fault with the City of Cincinnati.
But now we have to go back and say our
police officers need additional training. Is IRIS really going to
be in charge of the training now? Is are we
going to hear from some some you know, community organizers
(06:17):
on how police ought to deal with these issues?
Speaker 2 (06:20):
Now?
Speaker 1 (06:20):
Are we going to say that the mayor is powerless
to issue an emergency order for a curfew when there
is damage and uh and vandalism being committed on the
streets of Cincinnati, that we have to refer now to
this guidebook in order to see how to deal with that,
that the mayor can't exercise his proper his or her
(06:43):
proper powers to deal with these situations in the future.
And then, Chris Smitheman, what if you're one of the
ones who are out there and did not get arrested,
did not spend a night And I'm and I'm told
by people who are close to the situation that this
notion that there weren't bathrooms available, a water or a
blanket because they might have spent the night waiting to
(07:05):
be processed into the justice center. What about the people
who didn't get arrested, who didn't spend the night out there?
How do you reconcile that If someone right next to
you who did get arrested winds up getting a twelve
thousand dollars payday and you're sitting there with nothing, how
do you How do you deal with that if you're
one of those people?
Speaker 2 (07:25):
I don't I don't think you reconcile it, Dan Carroll.
But at the heart of it is the problem here
is that the city didn't fight the nonsense, right they
surrender to it.
Speaker 1 (07:36):
Go to court.
Speaker 2 (07:37):
That's the whole part. Court, that's the whole that. Let's
go to court.
Speaker 1 (07:40):
Come on, al gaer Arthstein, how committed are you to
the corect That's it.
Speaker 2 (07:45):
Let's go, let's rock and roll. I'm gonna I'm going
to bring my best to the table, even if I
have to hire outside council and pay them a million
dollars to fight you because of the implication of losing
control of the the strong mayor to make decisions like
a curfew here, meaning you're neutering the mayor when you
do these kinds of things. This is a horrific decision
(08:08):
of public policy, and the money that they're paying out,
it's just it's just completely out rapist. Let me also
say that John Cranley, if he's listening, if his father
and mother are listening, you know, if his wife is listening,
his son is listening. John Cranley, you are a great mayor.
You made the right decision at the right time. You
(08:28):
saved our city from being put on fire. Right, this
is this is where you have the blue dog Democrats
like the John Cranleys, the Tom Lukens, the Charlie Lucins,
who really don't exist anymore. They've been marginalized by this
very liberal left part of the Democratic Party. And anybody
who doesn't believe that the left has taken over the
(08:49):
city of Cincinnati. These are the kinds of decisions because
because our mayor, our city manager, nor the city solicitor
had to settle this case, they made the decision we're
going to settle the case. I believe that this thing
would have gone to trial. They wouldn't have found a
jury in our in our county, in our state. Even
if they had moved venue, they wouldn't have found anybody
(09:12):
that would have said that our Mayor John Cranley and
facing that what was happening with George Floyd, with highways
and streets being blocked, things set on fire, businesses being robbed,
an officer being shot, that we're gonna sit back and
pay eight point one million dollars out to anybody. Now,
the peaceful protesters, you and I aren't discussing. I don't
(09:33):
you know. I can engage in a peaceful protest. That's
that's not the issue. And so the people who protested peacefully,
I don't have a beef with that. That's why I
love this country. My first amendment right, my second Amendment right.
There's no issue with that. Visu here is that every
every everybody wasn't doing that if and there wouldn't have
(09:54):
been fires, streets blocked, businesses robbed and broken into. So
every everybody wasn't peaceful, and so you're rewarding that bad behavior,
Dan Carroll, And that's what you're worried about. And at
the backdrop of it, and I'm gonna say this publicly,
is that this is a way that people try to
say racism. This is about racism, This is about white
(10:16):
people doing stuff to African Americans, African Americans, and not
that everybody that was arrested was African American. That's not
what I'm saying. It's this notion that our institution in
itself is racist and that we weren't out there doing
our job the city that we're governed to protect, we're
sworn to protect. And you're gonna see that come out
(10:38):
in the trial of the white guy who was beat
up and ambushed in downtown. His lawyer is taking the
right position that our city solicitors should have taken. Let's
take this thing to court. I'm not gonna settle. We're
gonna I want a trial. I want you to dismiss
all of the all of the dog one charges against
my client, because when that's all over, you know what's
(11:00):
going to happen. He's gonna sue the city of Cincinnati
and win.
Speaker 1 (11:05):
Well, Chris Smitheman. When I look back and I remember
those times in May or late May and the beginning
of June and twenty twenty, I remember telling my wife,
what are we going to watch on TV tonight? Well,
I'm going to turn the riots on. There are riots
happening all across the country. City after city where there
were police cars being overturned, businesses on fire, there were
(11:26):
demonstrations and fights going on out in the streets. And
then these individuals tried to bring the same thing to
the city of Cincinnati, and guess what, it didn't happen
in the city of Cincinnati because of the actions they
were taken by our law enforcement and by Mayor John Cranley.
I had my differences with John Cranley over the years,
but I think in this instance he did the exact
(11:48):
right thing. Put the curfew in place, shut it down,
limited the damage, and did what was right for the
people of Cincinnati. And he said, he commented on the
Fox nineteen p that was put out over the weekend,
he said that curfew in our police department saved our
city when other cities were burning. Everything I saw was
of the utmost professionalism and restraint, and their actions saved
(12:13):
our city. I want the record to show that they
did a great job. And so now we have to
for all these protesters who were out there and claimed
about that. You know, they they might have been a
little uncomfortable when they were getting booked into the Hamilton
County Justice Center that we're going to cough up eight
point one million dollars to satisfy them and make this
(12:36):
go away, and then set ourselves up for future protesters
to do the exact same thing. To me, is just
despicable and there's no way this should be happening.
Speaker 2 (12:46):
Well, let me tell you something that happened to me.
I parked when I was parking at City Hall. Parking
lot is across from Plumb and I walked across the
street and this young white male as I was crossing
the street demanded that I kneel to him. Hear what
I said. I demanded that I kneel. I'm going into
City Hall. This is doing these riots during this craziness.
(13:11):
I looked at this young white dude and I said, dude,
have you lost your mind? If you think that I'm
going to be somebody that's gonna kneel to you, you
have lost your total mind. Now. My problem was, unfortunately,
and this needs to change, I had to leave my
weapon in my car every time I got out, and
(13:31):
I'm looking at this craziness happening around City Hall. Because
we had our swat team in the basement. They're all
lined up prepared because they're all surrounding City Hall as
we're going in, right, I'm saying, when I got into
that basement, from the door all the way down that hallway,
we had to have our swat teams out there. These
dudes that are big as big as elephants now they're
just bative dudes like linemen, and they're down there in
(13:54):
all of that. I shook everybody's hands as I went
down that hallway, but I had had some guy outside
as I'm walking in tell me that I needed to kneel.
And I'm an African American. This is a white dude
telling me I need to kneel. Kneel for what? Brother,
what the heck are you talking about? That is how
crazy it was down there during that period of time,
(14:16):
right that, where people are trying to make us feel
uncomfortable as we're trying to do the business of the city.
It is unbelievable. And I'm going to emphasize here John
Cranley did a great job if he had not made
the decisions he made. And by the way, I was
on and off the phone with John, I was the
vice mayor at the time. As he was trying to
(14:36):
sort it all out and make the decisions he was making,
so John Cranley and I don't want to detach from
the mayor here. He was making very good decisions, and
I was doing the very best I could as his
vice mayor to advise him on how to make good
decisions to protect the city of Cincinnati. But they were
his decisions to make, and I am glad he made them.
(14:57):
If he hadn't done it, as you indicated, Dan, here,
downtown would have been on fire.
Speaker 1 (15:02):
Well, Chris Smitheman. Tomorrow, Tuesday, December ninth, the City of
Cincinnati's Public Council or I'm sorry, Public Safety and Governance
Committee is expected to look at this settlement, review it,
and approve it. I would urge the members of that
committee to say no. I would urge the members of
that committee to say, we need to take this to court.
(15:23):
We need to stand up as a city for what's
right and send the message that you cannot come into
our city and agitate and do property damage and ignore
lawful orders of the Mayor of the City of Cincinnati
and Cincinnati Police and not expect to be paid for
We've got one minute, let's.
Speaker 2 (15:42):
Right, And all I will say is that you and
I agree that peaceful protests in this country are fine
all day. Maybe you're coming here and it's all days.
It's what makes the United States the United States. We
are the greatest experiment on the globe. It's when you
come and you start destroying things that you and I
(16:02):
are talking about. And by the way, I'm very sympathetic
to what happened to George Floyd. In my opinion, it
shouldn't have happened. It was bad policing, but it had
nothing to do with the city of Cincinnati. That's the
most important part of here. We've gone through the collaborative agreement,
we've had, federal oversight, saw Green has given us the
green light. This is the greatest Cincinnati Police Department. People
(16:25):
come from all over the world to see how we
do policing in the city of Cincinnati. This is a
flap in the face. Obviously, counsel will rubber stamp this tomorrow.
I don't have anything that they'll do anything different. Cheryl,
thank you so much.
Speaker 1 (16:37):
Brother. All Right, you're the best press we got to run,
and thank you so much for that. Bill Cunningham is
coming up next on seven hundred WLW.
Speaker 3 (16:45):
I don't know why you'd miss any of our shows.
Maybe you're playing at a door blow off when you
crash landed in a jungle id to use a pointy
stick to fend off a woredem hungry cannibal. I don't know,
maybe another reason it really doesn't matter. Just remember you
(17:08):
can always listen to the podcast of your favorite seven
hundred WLW shows on the free iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 1 (17:14):
This season, make the holiday an unforgettable one.
Speaker 2 (17:18):
Every
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