Brian talks to FOP Pres Ken Kober

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:14):
Seven oh six fifty five Karised Talk station. Hope you
have an happy Monday, as is always the case. Former
Vice Mayor of the City of Cincinnati, Christopher Smithman with
an advanced morning to me over the weekend via text. Uh,
he's really ginned up and fired up and ready to
launch this morning in between now and then, And I'm
not sure what he's going to talk about, but something
tells me it may be the violence going on in

(00:34):
downtown Cincinnati. Joining the program this morning, Welcome back, Fokey,
President the Federal Order Police Chapter sixty nine for the
Sincinni Police Department. Ken cober Or, President, Welcome back, Ken.
It's always great to have you on the program.

Speaker 2 (00:46):
Hey, good morning, Brian, thanks for having me.

Speaker 1 (00:48):
Do you start out this morning? One thirty this morning,
Hutchins Avenue, Reading Road to abdel We have someone killed
in a shooting going back, just looking at the headlines.
Two teens injured in a West End shooting happened on
Sunday morning. Three people hospitalized after a shooting near the
banks happened on Saturday morning. Police investigating incident believed to
involve shots fired at officers in Westwood happened Saturday night,

(01:11):
got a winon hill shooting police investigating that was happened
Saturday night as well. I mean, the list is almost endless,
and it seems to be getting worse. Ken Cobert, your reaction,
and plus the list that Joe Strecker compared he got
from the since A Police department showing all of the assaults, thefts,
and other arrests that happened, mostly like in the central
business district of Downtown over the past several days leading

(01:33):
up to the fourth of July holiday weekend. I mean,
this is crazy, Ken.

Speaker 2 (01:38):
Yeah, yeah, I mean, let's not forget too On fourth
of July, we had a two police officers that were
shot at that after watching the video, one of them
especially is absolutely lucky to be alive. I mean, by
the grace of God, he didn't get hit by some day.
It was almost almost point blank range. Wow.

Speaker 1 (01:53):
And where did that happen?

Speaker 2 (01:56):
That was on Western Norman Boulevard, an apartment complex, investigating
a US passing complaint. Oh my god, violent, violent weekend.
I talked to two ulcers yesterday, both of them been
on more than twenty years. They said this weekend has
been the worst weekend they've worked in their careers, the violence,
the droves of kids unsupervised, you know, just creating absolute mayhem.

(02:17):
At one point would have been Sunday morning, the District
four was calling for standby cars meeting. They needed more
cars to help them because nearly every third shift car
was at the jail with the prisoner.

Speaker 1 (02:30):
Oh my lord, and you're short on numbers too. And
it can't be understated that we don't have enough police
officers out there. And the police officers that are out
there are working substantial overtime hours. So what would you expect.
Jostrecker told me the Indianapolis had a violent weekend and
the mayor there immediately instituted a curfew.

Speaker 2 (02:50):
We do it.

Speaker 1 (02:51):
We talked about this before. There is a curfew, is
there not for young people in downtown Cincinnati, Ken.

Speaker 2 (02:57):
Yeah, there are absolutely a curfew. And like I said,
using District four as an example, you know that they
can't arrest their way out of this problem when you
have nine or ten cops that are encountering three hundred juveniles. Yeah,
there's only so much that you can do, you know.
It's just the violence is absolutely just out of control
in the city. Like I said, you use Indianapolis as

(03:19):
another example. You know, they had seven people shot and
two murdered in one incident. You know, homicide after homicide
after homicide in Cincinnati. This stuff is just out of control.

Speaker 1 (03:29):
Well, if you could have your way, I mean, what
do we have by way of solutions that are out there?
I mean, if enforcing the curfew, could we hold parents accountable?
I mean, you have to enforce the curfew, bring the
kid in front of some judicial authority, obviously to get
their parents involved. And then why did you let your
kid out pass curfew hours? And maybe get some answers

(03:51):
from parents who maybe absent here just really don't care.
I mean, Lord Almighty, I consider my life growing up.
My folks need to know where I was all the time.
And you know, you need to ask permission to be
out past a certain curfew hour. And if you didn't
ask for mission, you're going to get in a world
to hurt when you finally got home. I mean that
kept me out of trouble for the most part anyway.

Speaker 2 (04:12):
Sure, but you know it's a good point bringing up
the judicial system. I know, well, the juveniles I got
arrested at Red Went and Blue Ash, you know, Friday
night from throwing fireworks in a crowd of people.

Speaker 1 (04:23):
The video it's so disturbing.

Speaker 2 (04:25):
Right, was arrested Saturday morning at juvenile court. A magistrate
dismissed the charges. This is the This is part of
the problem that we're dealing with is we can't arrest
our way out of this problem. And when you do
make arrest, you have magistrates in the juvenile court system
that just decided that I don't like this charge, so
they dismiss it. So, you know, only one part of

(04:47):
the justice system seems to be working right now, and
that's never going to fix things. Now.

Speaker 1 (04:52):
We had a prosecutor there willing to move forward and
prosecute the charges, and yet the judge just said, no, no,
exercising my discretion. I'm just checking this case out.

Speaker 2 (05:02):
Yeah, I my understanding. I believe the prosecutor's office is
likely going to appeal this decision. Yeah, But like I said,
you have kids that get arrested, the police do the
right thing, only for them to be let back out.
It's no wonder that we're having a problem with all
these juveniles, not only here in Hamilton County, but across
the country because this is a problem everywhere in every
major city.

Speaker 1 (05:21):
Well, and if I was in Mayor Aftab Purvoll's place
or as one of the council members, I would out
loud say something about that, say listen. In order to
bring about some safety and some comfort for the citizens
of Cincinnati and some relief from this epic youth violence problem.
I am calling upon magistrates and everybody involved in the
judicial system, from prosecutors through the judges on all levels,

(05:43):
to start taking these crimes seriously and not throwing them out.
The silence from the council and elected officials, including the
mayor is deafening, is it not, Ken?

Speaker 2 (05:53):
Yeah, I mean absolutely. I mean said, not only have
you had all this violence, you had two give police
officers shot at back to back days. Yeah. Absolutely, nothing
from elected officials. Nothing.

Speaker 1 (06:05):
That's heartbreaking, Ken, it really is, you feel, I mean,
we all feel so let down about it. It's almost
it's it's tacit approval. If they're not out loud screaming
about the violence and demanding answers and demanding accountability and
demanding prosecutions, then they're silence. I think shows support indirect
or tasked support for the violence that's going on. In
other words, kids, keep it up because nothing is going

(06:28):
to happen to you.

Speaker 2 (06:30):
Yeah, And to be quite honest, the cops are fed
up with it. They're done with it. You know, the
every weekend you have cops working Friday and Saturday nights
with SWAT, CDRT. You're working over time. It's going to
come to a breaking point where cops are just going
to say, I'm not doing it anymore. I'm wasting my time,
I'm not doing it anymore. And then what's That's when
that's when things are really going to get bad. As

(06:51):
if it's not bad enough already.

Speaker 1 (06:53):
Are the number of officers planning on retiring or taking
early retirement or just basically dropping out of law enforcement?
Do you get any indications those numbers are going up
right now? Are they getting warse sure?

Speaker 2 (07:05):
I mean it's weekly. We're losing people weekly. That just
that the people that weren't even really on the radar,
if you will, of Hey, I'm going to retire. I
got a classmate of mine that just said I'm out,
I'm done, and he's yeah, I think the end of
this month, he's done. He's not staying for the you know,
the drop program. He's like I've had enough on out.

Speaker 1 (07:25):
Well, and you know, in terms of lateral hires, and
I know the Council has taken steps to try to
bring more lateral hires and officers that have experienced some
other law enforcement. It's a shorter window of training, not
like a brand new cadet class, and those are in
line too. But I mean, if it's bad, that bad
morale wise, and from an officer considering employment of the
insane Police Department, here's about this, Like wait a minute,

(07:47):
I'm gonna be out there putting my life on the line,
spinning my wheels, and they're going to get just freed
by the justice system because well the magistrates, you don't
think it's a legitimate charge. What's the point I'm gonna
I'm gonna go in with a bad taste in my
mouth as a potential employee.

Speaker 2 (08:02):
Well, because it's going on in every department around this country,
to be quite honest. So I think they're they're looking
at it as the financial benefit of coming here, because
you're going to do pretty well. I mean, over time
is so readily available, you can make as much money
as you want. And I think that's what a lot
of officers are going to be coming here.

Speaker 1 (08:21):
For well, at least, I guess that's one bright spot
in the whole equation. We have officers that are still
willing to work for this insane police department. But it's real,
it's heartbreaking to know that this is happening broadly and
across our country. Of course, I can only blame the
Democrats for their anti police policies, and of course all
the liberal prosecutors and liberal judges that they put in

(08:41):
place in these various blue cities. They're getting what they're
asking for, it seems, Ken.

Speaker 2 (08:47):
Yeah, I mean, it's absolutely disgusting that you don't have
elected officials speaking out against his violence. That you're not
going to judges saying hold these people accountable, just not occurring,
and that's's why we're in the position that we're in. Wow.

Speaker 1 (09:03):
Well, not a pretty picture you're painting today, at Ken Kober.
But at least we get to talk about it and
raise everybody's awareness to it, and maybe we can start
making demands on our elected officials, like threaten them with
being chucked out of office in November. There's an option,
Ken Cobert, God bless you and each and ever remember
the police department We obviously appreciate how tough it is
to do your job every day, and I'm a little
disappointed that so many more are retiring. But you know what,

(09:26):
it doesn't shock me in any way, shape or form,
given this the current climate. God bless you man. Keep
up the great work, and you're always have a venue
here to talk about what's going on.

Speaker 2 (09:36):
Sure, thanks for having me, Brian.

Speaker 1 (09:38):
Thanks Ken, always a pleasure. Christopher Smithman up next. Yeah,
I wonder what he wants to talk about first. Oder
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