Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
The one, the only, the president of FOP Lodge number
nine here for the Columbus Division of Beliefs.
Speaker 2 (00:05):
Chuck, thanks for talking to me. How are you.
Speaker 1 (00:07):
I'm doing okay, I made it through the weekend. I'm
good at the coffee hide.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
Yeah. I love that. I love that. So you listen.
Busy weekend. We could start with wed Whyne and boom.
We could talk about another mass shooting. I mean, you
name it, let's do it.
Speaker 1 (00:19):
Well, let's let's let's start with red, white and boom
and progress our way through the time element.
Speaker 2 (00:24):
Yeah. So the Red Wine and Boom. I worked down there.
It's a great event and a lot of a lot
of happy families come down there. And then the Division
of Police put a lot a lot of effort into
this year into making sure it was safe for the
people that went down there. If you saw down there,
there was a lot of cops. There was hoards of
cops in each corner. Unfortunately, it wasn't a very big turnout.
It seems like every year it gets a little bit
(00:45):
less and less. But for those that were there, I
think the Division of Police and our partners did a
great job of keeping the community safe. And I'm proud
of them.
Speaker 1 (00:52):
Did the police department or traffic engineering come up with
the evacuation plan for traffic afterward?
Speaker 2 (00:59):
So that that's something that that there's really no good
way to do that. We've tried over the years, tried
to perfect it. When you get hundreds of thousands of
people in a small amount of time coming into one area,
it's just that there is no good way. I usually
don't plan to be home to two in the morning.
I don't sit in that traffic. I just wait an
hour or so.
Speaker 1 (01:17):
We were on the western fringe outside of downtown, and
I thought we were strategically so well pleased. I'm going
to be able to boom zip here, get home no problem,
beat the traffic and everything else. And right there, like
ten minutes before the end of the show, the police
cruisers showed up and they changed the direction of traffic
on the street. I'm like, oh my gosh, you're kidding me.
(01:38):
Oh so I was. I was trapped. I was trapped, Brian,
and I blamed you.
Speaker 2 (01:43):
Frankly, I thinks it's like an OSU home game. You know,
you know you're gonna go see a great football game,
but guess what you're going to sit and traffic for
a while.
Speaker 1 (01:50):
Yes, were the people that showed. I heard estimates around
four hundred to four hundred and twenty thousand. Does that
sound about it right to you?
Speaker 2 (01:59):
Yeah, it's hard to tell. I just know that it's
just you could walk around freely. It felt like there
was more cops than people. It was not jam packed
like it has.
Speaker 1 (02:07):
Been years past, and and behavior wise more well behaved
or about as bad or as good as any other time.
Speaker 2 (02:15):
Or this was one of the better years. And the
CPD did a lot of good lead work. They they
went out and purposely did some sweeps cha some some
misguided youthful call They went out to try to get
off the street to kind of, you know, to to
stop those individuals from coming down and messing it up
for the rest.
Speaker 1 (02:31):
That's wonderful. And see, this is exactly what I will here.
As I was saying, go in and I would, I'd
love to go back down. It's just years past experience,
especially when you've got the kids and so forth. It's
it's it just feels like not worth the risk to me.
And hearing that it was more civilized and better behave
this year than what I recall it being is a
that's actually very encouraging thing. I appreciate hearing that.
Speaker 2 (02:54):
Yep, no, it was good and Chief Brian did a
great job. I always give credits to credit due. Chief
Brian is doing is a good job with this and
she really put a lot of resources and we're happy
about it.
Speaker 1 (03:03):
Now move us through, we get through Red white, and
boom the rest of the weekend. Statistically, Columbus is lower
in homicides this year than last year, but it certainly
does not feel like it.
Speaker 2 (03:15):
So let's talk about that, because homicides is not really
the number you have to look at if you listen
at press conference, Colonia's assaults shootings is up right. So
if you look at you have to look at the
dynamic of the city at Columbus. If you were to
be shot in a city to Columbus within minutes, it's
a priority one run. You have officers pulling up who
are now trained to render aid, their experience and render aid,
(03:36):
and they're going to provide a tournique. You're going to
get a CFD paramedic, one of the local sixty seven
guys from Steve Steinshop, an actual paramedic, giving you a
level of care higher than a basic EMS service that
you might have in other cities. And you have two
Level one hospitals right here in town, so the chances
of surviving is much greater than some of the other
(03:57):
cities in America. So you can't just look at murders.
You have to look at floonius assault shootings, and unfortunately
they are up.
Speaker 1 (04:05):
This young man seventeen years old out on Wilson Avenue.
Is that at last I heard before I came in
this afternoon, there was still no positive trail, no leads,
no suspects, and people were being invited and requested to
send any information they may have. Are we still pretty
much in that position, still in the same boat.
Speaker 2 (04:24):
And it's the same as always. And this is what
we've talked about, Chuck, over and over. It's the same
exact thing. It's people of color, between young for juveniles,
young adults being shot and killed in our streets. And
we've talked about this, Chuck, You and I are the
only one that's talking about it for what it is.
There's an atrocity in our neighborhoods, disproportionally impacting people of color.
(04:46):
And I can't get to anybody to really want to
talk about it.
Speaker 1 (04:50):
This indication, or the indication I saw, was the neighborhood
patrol had stopped by. The police officers had stopped by
about forty five minutes before the firing star did on
Wilson Avenue, and that all was well. That there, you know,
they checked in, everybody doing good, Okay, have a good time,
behave yourself, see you later. Is that consistent with what
you hear too, that there was no no scene or
(05:12):
felt element there when they stopped buy it for that
little check.
Speaker 2 (05:15):
So I didn't hear that part of it. That may
or not be true. I can tell you Thanksgiving dinner
is usually okay in my house until my mother in
law starts in, So you know what I mean. Just
because it's okay one minute doesn't mean it just can't
go off the rails the next.
Speaker 1 (05:26):
Well, you should you shouldn't invite her to Thanksgiving.
Speaker 2 (05:29):
These parties are kind of out of control. The airbnbs
are out of control. We're having these apartment takeovers right now.
You know, we had the street takeovers a couple of
years ago with the racers. Now these hordes and hords
and people will descend on apartment complex and just have
a free for all, a KA party, and that's the
next thing that we're working through. How do we deal
with it?
Speaker 1 (05:50):
And the street takeovers have gone by the wayside. However,
speaking as somebody who resides on my beloved westside, the
parking lot donut Olympics, your colleagues over at the Sheriff's
Department seem to have made an impact on that a
couple of weeks ago. But I will sit sometimes if
I'm up late, I will sit and I will hear
somebody that sounds like they're in a parking lot of
the shopping center where just going in donuts, burn and
(06:12):
rubber until there's no tire left on the rims. And
I don't I don't get the logic the appeal. Why
why waste your money like that? What are you doing?
Is there some kind of competition I don't know about.
Speaker 2 (06:24):
Yeah, listen, it's ridiculous. We go back to the basis
of policing. The loud music revving engines our motorcycle unit
I work this weekend in the short North. They did
an outstanding job. It sounds like there it might look
to somebody outside of their being picky, especially when you
get stopped and ticketed for revenue engine. But when I
was watching these motorcycle guys do their job, I was
going up to the violators and telling them, we're here
(06:46):
because the community is calling. They're sick of this. Nobody
out in the Sport North having dinner or at home
wants to hear you revving your engine like a moron,
and if you do that, you're gonna get a ticket
for it.
Speaker 1 (06:56):
We get about two and a half minutes here. Tell
me something positive. What's department got going on? What's the
city game plan here? What can we look forward to
in the way of positive changes in the city of
Columbus this summer.
Speaker 2 (07:09):
So we got recruit class in. We still have men
and women. Even though it's not what it quite was,
we're still getting some coming in the door. I was
down with the Sheriff's office today talking to new recruits,
and my message is simple. This is one of the
most challenging and difficult times to become a police officer deputy.
It's one of the best times to become a police
officers and deputy. So anybody looking, anybody that wants to
(07:29):
work to community make a difference. You know, there's fabulous
police departments here in Central Ohio, not just CPD, not
just the Sheriff's office, fabulous suburb police departments. We just
need more men and women to step up and to
make impact.
Speaker 1 (07:42):
It wasn't that long ago, maybe two years ago you
and I were talking to end there was some glean
of possibility of the Columbus Auxiliary returning. Did that end
up going by the wayside too?
Speaker 2 (07:55):
Yeah, we're told it to work in progress. They may
be coming back reserve program. It's still work in progress.
Nothing's been set in stone yet.
Speaker 1 (08:04):
Man, By the time they get this worked out, I'd
have to come from the rest home to work my
special duty.
Speaker 2 (08:09):
I can do. Are you joining? You're coming in? You're
going to get a gun belt.
Speaker 1 (08:13):
I was almost convinced about the fifteen twenty years ago,
and shortly thereafter they disbanded it. But I had some
serious talks about it's probably twenty years ago now, back
when my knees were much better and I'm lighter now,
but I don't move as quickly.
Speaker 2 (08:30):
So Yeah, Unfortunately that was disbanded by Chief Jacobs and
Chief Brian's trying to bring it back. I'll tell you
another go to real quick. July thirty first, at seven pm.
It's gonna be badgets in bands. This is an FOP
fundraiser open to the public through Ticketmaster. It's only twenty
five dollars and it's headlining by North and Nashville. So
(08:50):
this is at the Bluestone July thirty first, Get on Ticketmaster,
go to the FOP website. One hundred percent of these
proceeds go to our officers that are sicker in distress,
and we love to see the community we serve out
there supporting our officers.
Speaker 1 (09:02):
Wonderful July thirty first, seven pm. And you said Ticketmaster
for the tickets.
Speaker 2 (09:07):
Ticketmaster YEP one in North Nashville is the headliner, all right.
Speaker 1 (09:10):
I will make sure I talk about that a lot too.
Brian Steele, I'm glad you were out there. I'm glad
you made it through the weekend as did most of us,
safe and relatively happy. And let's look forward to the
next time we get together. Thank you, brother day you
take care of yourself out there.