June 3, 2025 • 11 mins
Attorney Brad Koffel weighs in on the latest shootings that have injured and killed Columbus-area Police officers
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
At eight minutes after eight o'clock, let's check in on
the Legacy Retirement Group dot com phone line. Brad Kopfle,
Columbus defense attorney. You can hear his show right here
Friday nights at six it's called for the Defense. Also
here it again on Sundays at eleven and seven, and
on the iHeartRadio app too. If you search for the Defense,
You've got a lot of people listening on the app
(00:21):
from around the country.
Speaker 2 (00:22):
Brad can congratulations on that. How you doing this morning?
Speaker 3 (00:24):
Thank you? Thank you doing great. I does Tom Homan
know that this heerent dust cloud is on its way?
Speaker 1 (00:31):
You know that's a good point. We put Homan on it,
and that dust cloud will turn right back around. I
mean as long as it you know, it doesn't have
the proper credentials to come into this country, let's send
it back home on board of that.
Speaker 3 (00:44):
Yeah, what happens if the slabbers on a big dust
club just comes a big mud mudpile. Yeah, slobbers on the.
Speaker 2 (00:53):
Anyway, you don't hear about.
Speaker 1 (00:55):
The Aharon dust cloud. That's why I brought it up.
I just you know, it's something that stood out to
me this morning. I wanted to check in with you.
This last week was a really difficult week for law
enforcement in central Ohio. Three separate incidents brad one of
them fatal.
Speaker 2 (01:11):
Of course.
Speaker 1 (01:11):
The Moral County Sheriff's deputy was shot and killed over
a Memorial Day weekend. He was responding to a domestic call.
He had the two Mifflin Township cops that were shot
at during a traffic stop. One of those guys has
been released from the hospital once still recovering. He had
an incident on I think it was Friday, Marysville police
were fired at after responding to a domestic call, leading
(01:33):
to a pursuit situation. That kid was apprehended. Thankfully no
one was injured in that confrontation. But what is going on?
I mean, And we can talk about the dangers of
police responding to domestic calls and traffic stops. We know
those are the most dangerous situations for police to go
and because they don't know what they're dealing with when
(01:54):
they roll up. But what is going on with people
seemingly thinking it's okay to pull a gun and shoot
at police officer?
Speaker 3 (02:03):
Man? I don't know. I mean, as a credle defense
Floyer and for the last thirty one years and plugged
into the police community. It's such a foreign concept. I mean,
it's just something that I just don't think a lot
of our brothers and sisters who are in uniform are
(02:25):
expecting to. I think they're always expecting it, right, I mean,
that's just their training, that's their muscle memory when they
approach a vehicle or when they approach a domestic disturbance.
I mean, there are a lot of people that are
just absolutely losing their mind. And I think number one,
if you look at police deaths over the decades from
(02:51):
violence on the streets, it remains pretty steady. I mean
all the way back to the nineteen twenties. It's not
a big number it and it fluctuates, but we're certainly
not at the at the zenus of it. It feels
like it merely because of the the media attention to
put on it. I think that we're dealing with perhaps
(03:14):
the beginning of economic conditions that are going to put
even more downward pressure on people that are already struggling
in life. It's not just going to be uh, you know,
the folks that are born into poverty, the folks that
are born into you know, one parent, zero parent, poems
(03:40):
and grew up in the foster cure system, and those
folks have their own set of problems. But I think
we're we're going to be moving into a new category
of people that are just desperate or they've lost there,
they've lost their any hope, their desire to live. There's
mental health. At the end of the day, It's just
going to be a tremendous mental health issue because no
(04:02):
one in their right mind would be shooting at police
officers or anybody.
Speaker 1 (04:07):
I mean, that's a different discussion, but I mean it
seems like it's a different level when you're pulling the
gun and pointing it at a cop. Speaking with Columbus
de Best attorney Brad Koffel, and it's I don't know, right,
I mean, all those factors and you mentioned, you know,
people dealt a bad hand, or they're struggling, or they
lost their job, or they're they're going through that nasty divorce.
I mean, everybody has a dark time in their life
(04:28):
at some point or another, but most people don't resort
to committing crimes and then ultimately turning a gun towards
a cop. I mean, you figure out how to get
through whatever it is you're going through without having, you know,
attempting to take the life of a police officer. You know,
to me, I think it's a lot of this might
have come out of you know, five years ago in
(04:48):
the Summer of Love and you know, the George Floyd situation,
and you know, we had our own issues downtown Columbus
here with cops, and you know, they constantly they are
battling an image that you know, the cops are are
the bad guys, that they're the ones, they're the ones
you know, doing wrong here, and you know that sentiment
is sticking with some people.
Speaker 2 (05:08):
And it's just the lack of respect.
Speaker 1 (05:10):
The lack of respect for authority has permeated this culture.
And you know, you add in some pop culture and
you know music you know with you know blank the
police and all of this stuff. You know, that tends
that that's going to build up over time and people
get this in their head that it's okay to do,
and it's just it's just extremely troubling for me.
Speaker 3 (05:31):
I I when it comes to this topic and some
more of the more sensitive topics cultural topics, I go
to doctor Thomas Soule s O. W. E l h uh,
it's just the guys in his nineties. He's been around
a long time. I think I think we need to
look at the older folks who have lived experience and say,
(05:55):
you know, you've you've watched policy changes at the federal
and state, local and local levels. You've seen what works
and doesn't work. You know, you don't need to have
a PhD from Harvard and be twenty eight years old
to have efficacy to chime in on this. I really
think we need to ask. I think we really need
(06:15):
to add the old barbers you know around town that
have been cutting hair and there in their eighties and nineties.
Now they've got some wisdom, say what do you think's
going on? I think that blaming poverty and blaming blaming
racism oversimplifies, because historical data shows that there was actually
(06:36):
lower crime in the nineteen thirties, despite racism being a
lot worse, despite the economic conditions being a lot worse.
I think it's more than that, and it's I think
that we have a narrative now post George Floyd, that
America is institutionally racist and authoritarian, and then everything Donald
(07:01):
Trump does or everything that his successors may do is
tied to inherent racism. I think the narrative of how
bad it is from the perspective of minorities has been
has changed for the worst, despite the facts not supporting it.
Speaker 1 (07:24):
If that makes sense, it does, and it's a great point.
And you know, the other thing we're speaking with Columbus
defense attorney Brad Koffel two. By the way, the other
thing that we haven't touched on this with another minute
or two left here is the home life. And you know,
a poor parenting. You know, when I was young, I'm
sure you got the same talk from your dad. Is
if you get pulled over for speeding, or you get
(07:45):
pulled over for running a red light for whatever reason,
if you have a police interaction, you put your hands
on the wheel, you roll your window down, and you
shut up, and you do whatever the police officer tells
you to do. You want you to hand over your license,
You hand over your license. You have alternate respect for everybody,
man and women in blue wearing the uniform, and you don't.
(08:05):
That's just that, that is a non negotiable. You respect
the police, and you don't hear You're not hearing that now.
I mean, these kids are coming in and you know,
a single parent household, and you know mom's doing her best,
and she's working three jobs and there is no dad
in the household. To have this discussion, you know, a
firm but fair talk with the kid of don't mess,
don't put yourself in a position.
Speaker 2 (08:26):
It's the easiest thing to do.
Speaker 1 (08:28):
And if I just don't understand, don't put yourself in
a position to get in trouble with the cops.
Speaker 3 (08:34):
Let's let me take the heat off of single parent
single moms. I grew up half my childhood was my
mom raised me. My dad died and I was nine,
very very young. I had uncles, I had aunts, I
had older cousins, And so blame it on a on
(08:56):
a on a mom led home. It's kind of disingenuous.
A single parent home is a little disingenuous. There's still
a community, the community, whether it's the family community or
the extended neighborhood community. The community should be keeping their
kids on the straight and narrow, and the current needs
(09:18):
to come from the community first. The community is being told,
in my opinion, falsehoods that America isn't inherently racist country,
and the police are inherently bad and they might shoot
you if you don't do exactly what they say in
(09:38):
a nanosecond. I think kids are spooped from this narrative.
I think that it's a situation where the community itself
has crumbled, the aunts, uncles, cousins, and I don't know
when the community of the poor where it lost the
(09:59):
family nexus.
Speaker 1 (10:02):
And your point, it's a fair point, Brad, and your
mom did a terrific job, and your aunts and uncles
with you, and I don't know if you've got siblings
or at all, but you know, I think the My
point was that there's a failure at some point when
kids are young, that they've not been taught to properly
respect the cops, and that's the problems they come up.
And then they don't have whether it's a dad or
(10:23):
a mom or an aunt or somebody in their.
Speaker 2 (10:25):
Life telling them, hey, don't mess with the police.
Speaker 1 (10:28):
If you get into an interaction with the cops, do
what they say and you won't have any problems.
Speaker 2 (10:33):
That was my point. I wasn't singling out you, Oh no,
I understand, Oh no, I get it.
Speaker 3 (10:36):
I'm just saying I think it's not just a lot
of a lot of people grow up and mom led
or single parent led homes. There should be the sufficient
that what really keeps kids straightforward is the aunts, uncles, cousins,
the community that the men and women around on the block,
that you know, they instill a sense of pride, instill
(10:58):
a work ethic. But this narrative, and I think it's
been poured into these communities that police represent your oppressor,
and we've been oppressed for hundreds and hundreds of years,
whether you're whatever minority group we're talking about. That narrative
is false and that narrative needs to change. I would
(11:22):
like to see politicians call out the people that are
in these communities saying, tighten things up, you know, stop
looking to the state to fix the problem. You guys
need to fix it internally, because the state isn't doesn't
have schools for this, nor is that really the purpose
of the state.
Speaker 1 (11:42):
Yeah, the government's not there to raise your kids and
did teach them right from wrong.
Speaker 2 (11:46):
That's your job as a parent.
Speaker 3 (11:48):
The state, right, the state steps in when the kids
in your community step across the line, and if they
go across the faundy line, they might wind up locked
up
At eight minutes after eight o'clock, let's check in on
the Legacy Retirement Group dot com phone line. Brad Kopfle,
Columbus defense attorney. You can hear his show right here
Friday nights at six it's called for the Defense. Also
here it again on Sundays at eleven and seven, and
on the iHeartRadio app too. If you search for the Defense,
You've got a lot of people listening on the app
(00:21):
from around the country.
Speaker 2 (00:22):
Brad can congratulations on that. How you doing this morning?
Speaker 3 (00:24):
Thank you? Thank you doing great. I does Tom Homan
know that this heerent dust cloud is on its way?
Speaker 1 (00:31):
You know that's a good point. We put Homan on it,
and that dust cloud will turn right back around. I
mean as long as it you know, it doesn't have
the proper credentials to come into this country, let's send
it back home on board of that.
Speaker 3 (00:44):
Yeah, what happens if the slabbers on a big dust
club just comes a big mud mudpile. Yeah, slobbers on the.
Speaker 2 (00:53):
Anyway, you don't hear about.
Speaker 1 (00:55):
The Aharon dust cloud. That's why I brought it up.
I just you know, it's something that stood out to
me this morning. I wanted to check in with you.
This last week was a really difficult week for law
enforcement in central Ohio. Three separate incidents brad one of
them fatal.
Speaker 2 (01:11):
Of course.
Speaker 1 (01:11):
The Moral County Sheriff's deputy was shot and killed over
a Memorial Day weekend. He was responding to a domestic call.
He had the two Mifflin Township cops that were shot
at during a traffic stop. One of those guys has
been released from the hospital once still recovering. He had
an incident on I think it was Friday, Marysville police
were fired at after responding to a domestic call, leading
(01:33):
to a pursuit situation. That kid was apprehended. Thankfully no
one was injured in that confrontation. But what is going on?
I mean, And we can talk about the dangers of
police responding to domestic calls and traffic stops. We know
those are the most dangerous situations for police to go
and because they don't know what they're dealing with when
(01:54):
they roll up. But what is going on with people
seemingly thinking it's okay to pull a gun and shoot
at police officer?
Speaker 3 (02:03):
Man? I don't know. I mean, as a credle defense
Floyer and for the last thirty one years and plugged
into the police community. It's such a foreign concept. I mean,
it's just something that I just don't think a lot
of our brothers and sisters who are in uniform are
(02:25):
expecting to. I think they're always expecting it, right, I mean,
that's just their training, that's their muscle memory when they
approach a vehicle or when they approach a domestic disturbance.
I mean, there are a lot of people that are
just absolutely losing their mind. And I think number one,
if you look at police deaths over the decades from
(02:51):
violence on the streets, it remains pretty steady. I mean
all the way back to the nineteen twenties. It's not
a big number it and it fluctuates, but we're certainly
not at the at the zenus of it. It feels
like it merely because of the the media attention to
put on it. I think that we're dealing with perhaps
(03:14):
the beginning of economic conditions that are going to put
even more downward pressure on people that are already struggling
in life. It's not just going to be uh, you know,
the folks that are born into poverty, the folks that
are born into you know, one parent, zero parent, poems
(03:40):
and grew up in the foster cure system, and those
folks have their own set of problems. But I think
we're we're going to be moving into a new category
of people that are just desperate or they've lost there,
they've lost their any hope, their desire to live. There's
mental health. At the end of the day, It's just
going to be a tremendous mental health issue because no
(04:02):
one in their right mind would be shooting at police
officers or anybody.
Speaker 1 (04:07):
I mean, that's a different discussion, but I mean it
seems like it's a different level when you're pulling the
gun and pointing it at a cop. Speaking with Columbus
de Best attorney Brad Koffel, and it's I don't know, right,
I mean, all those factors and you mentioned, you know,
people dealt a bad hand, or they're struggling, or they
lost their job, or they're they're going through that nasty divorce.
I mean, everybody has a dark time in their life
(04:28):
at some point or another, but most people don't resort
to committing crimes and then ultimately turning a gun towards
a cop. I mean, you figure out how to get
through whatever it is you're going through without having, you know,
attempting to take the life of a police officer. You know,
to me, I think it's a lot of this might
have come out of you know, five years ago in
(04:48):
the Summer of Love and you know, the George Floyd situation,
and you know, we had our own issues downtown Columbus
here with cops, and you know, they constantly they are
battling an image that you know, the cops are are
the bad guys, that they're the ones, they're the ones
you know, doing wrong here, and you know that sentiment
is sticking with some people.
Speaker 2 (05:08):
And it's just the lack of respect.
Speaker 1 (05:10):
The lack of respect for authority has permeated this culture.
And you know, you add in some pop culture and
you know music you know with you know blank the
police and all of this stuff. You know, that tends
that that's going to build up over time and people
get this in their head that it's okay to do,
and it's just it's just extremely troubling for me.
Speaker 3 (05:31):
I I when it comes to this topic and some
more of the more sensitive topics cultural topics, I go
to doctor Thomas Soule s O. W. E l h uh,
it's just the guys in his nineties. He's been around
a long time. I think I think we need to
look at the older folks who have lived experience and say,
(05:55):
you know, you've you've watched policy changes at the federal
and state, local and local levels. You've seen what works
and doesn't work. You know, you don't need to have
a PhD from Harvard and be twenty eight years old
to have efficacy to chime in on this. I really
think we need to ask. I think we really need
(06:15):
to add the old barbers you know around town that
have been cutting hair and there in their eighties and nineties.
Now they've got some wisdom, say what do you think's
going on? I think that blaming poverty and blaming blaming
racism oversimplifies, because historical data shows that there was actually
(06:36):
lower crime in the nineteen thirties, despite racism being a
lot worse, despite the economic conditions being a lot worse.
I think it's more than that, and it's I think
that we have a narrative now post George Floyd, that
America is institutionally racist and authoritarian, and then everything Donald
(07:01):
Trump does or everything that his successors may do is
tied to inherent racism. I think the narrative of how
bad it is from the perspective of minorities has been
has changed for the worst, despite the facts not supporting it.
Speaker 1 (07:24):
If that makes sense, it does, and it's a great point.
And you know, the other thing we're speaking with Columbus
defense attorney Brad Koffel two. By the way, the other
thing that we haven't touched on this with another minute
or two left here is the home life. And you know,
a poor parenting. You know, when I was young, I'm
sure you got the same talk from your dad. Is
if you get pulled over for speeding, or you get
(07:45):
pulled over for running a red light for whatever reason,
if you have a police interaction, you put your hands
on the wheel, you roll your window down, and you
shut up, and you do whatever the police officer tells
you to do. You want you to hand over your license,
You hand over your license. You have alternate respect for everybody,
man and women in blue wearing the uniform, and you don't.
(08:05):
That's just that, that is a non negotiable. You respect
the police, and you don't hear You're not hearing that now.
I mean, these kids are coming in and you know,
a single parent household, and you know mom's doing her best,
and she's working three jobs and there is no dad
in the household. To have this discussion, you know, a
firm but fair talk with the kid of don't mess,
don't put yourself in a position.
Speaker 2 (08:26):
It's the easiest thing to do.
Speaker 1 (08:28):
And if I just don't understand, don't put yourself in
a position to get in trouble with the cops.
Speaker 3 (08:34):
Let's let me take the heat off of single parent
single moms. I grew up half my childhood was my
mom raised me. My dad died and I was nine,
very very young. I had uncles, I had aunts, I
had older cousins, And so blame it on a on
(08:56):
a on a mom led home. It's kind of disingenuous.
A single parent home is a little disingenuous. There's still
a community, the community, whether it's the family community or
the extended neighborhood community. The community should be keeping their
kids on the straight and narrow, and the current needs
(09:18):
to come from the community first. The community is being told,
in my opinion, falsehoods that America isn't inherently racist country,
and the police are inherently bad and they might shoot
you if you don't do exactly what they say in
(09:38):
a nanosecond. I think kids are spooped from this narrative.
I think that it's a situation where the community itself
has crumbled, the aunts, uncles, cousins, and I don't know
when the community of the poor where it lost the
(09:59):
family nexus.
Speaker 1 (10:02):
And your point, it's a fair point, Brad, and your
mom did a terrific job, and your aunts and uncles
with you, and I don't know if you've got siblings
or at all, but you know, I think the My
point was that there's a failure at some point when
kids are young, that they've not been taught to properly
respect the cops, and that's the problems they come up.
And then they don't have whether it's a dad or
(10:23):
a mom or an aunt or somebody in their.
Speaker 2 (10:25):
Life telling them, hey, don't mess with the police.
Speaker 1 (10:28):
If you get into an interaction with the cops, do
what they say and you won't have any problems.
Speaker 2 (10:33):
That was my point. I wasn't singling out you, Oh no,
I understand, Oh no, I get it.
Speaker 3 (10:36):
I'm just saying I think it's not just a lot
of a lot of people grow up and mom led
or single parent led homes. There should be the sufficient
that what really keeps kids straightforward is the aunts, uncles, cousins,
the community that the men and women around on the block,
that you know, they instill a sense of pride, instill
(10:58):
a work ethic. But this narrative, and I think it's
been poured into these communities that police represent your oppressor,
and we've been oppressed for hundreds and hundreds of years,
whether you're whatever minority group we're talking about. That narrative
is false and that narrative needs to change. I would
(11:22):
like to see politicians call out the people that are
in these communities saying, tighten things up, you know, stop
looking to the state to fix the problem. You guys
need to fix it internally, because the state isn't doesn't
have schools for this, nor is that really the purpose
of the state.
Speaker 1 (11:42):
Yeah, the government's not there to raise your kids and
did teach them right from wrong.
Speaker 2 (11:46):
That's your job as a parent.
Speaker 3 (11:48):
The state, right, the state steps in when the kids
in your community step across the line, and if they
go across the faundy line, they might wind up locked
up
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