Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
A lot of shootings going on to some police involved
shootings down in Grove City, which typically is such a
quiet community, but there was an officer involved shooting down there.
I still don't know how that washes out. We're going
to go to FOP president from Lodge nine, Brian Steele.
Let's get him on the line here. Brian, you are
on the Legacy Retirement Group dot com phone lines. High.
Speaker 2 (00:20):
Good afternoon. Good to hear from you.
Speaker 1 (00:21):
Good to hear from you too. How are things developing
in Grove City. I'm still not real clear on that story,
whether it was indeed a stranger or a domestic situation.
Do we know what's going on yet?
Speaker 2 (00:36):
Yeah. I was my understanding that either the homeowner came
home or the homeowner was home and an individual came
into his house, an armed individual. So I've not heard
any indications that they knew each other. It's my understanding
that he did not know who he was. The individual
brandished a weapon, maybe said something along the lines of
you know, kind of keep quiet and you'll make it
through this. That individual got out of the house, called
(00:59):
the police you're a barricade, and ended up resulting in
a shootout.
Speaker 1 (01:03):
From what I've seen some of the neighbors on television
coverage said that this guy, I guess had been there
for several days or something, camped out in the parking
lot or it just it just it seemed like such
an odd story. I'm glad that it ended with the
homeowner being safe and the officer apparently has he been
released yet? I know he was recovering, but has he
been released from the hospital.
Speaker 2 (01:24):
Yeah, the officer's been released, and you know, the officers
obviously take some time off to decompress. And I understand
everybody wants to know, you know, the effects of the
case now, and these are investigations. These are long investigations.
It will take some time. Very transparent, very professional run
department in Grove City and we'll get our answers soon.
Speaker 1 (01:42):
So the officers around all of central Ohio have been
I don't know, the world's changing. As I was just
talking about getting into the next hour, I'm going to
be talking about the young people and the crimes that
are being committed. But we had the Grove City story,
we had the up OSU campus area. Is it the
time of year ran things? Is there a pattern at all,
(02:03):
or is it just an overall overall downward slide we
seem to be on lately.
Speaker 2 (02:09):
I could tell we're we're a major city where we're
one of the largest cities the United States, and with
that comes comes crime. And here's something interesting though. Today
I did a news story with Channel six talking about,
you know, the dangers we face and our officer getting shooting,
and a lady walked up to me and after the interview,
I introduced myself and she was the individual who the
(02:29):
police shot and kills grandmother. And I got to tell you,
we had a great conversation. We prayed together, and it's
a reminder that no matter what you know an individual does,
they are loved by someone. They do have a family,
and it just kind of hit me a little bit.
And I have nothing but grace and embassy for the family.
I mean, this grandma, you know, did the best she
(02:51):
could raised in this individual, but just went left the
center and got himself involved in this incident, was shot
by the police. And it's a shame either way around.
Speaker 1 (03:00):
That's a sad reality to us. So often, unless the uh,
unless the family tries to make a spectacle of themselves
and and create a bunch of chaos around, so very often,
if not usually, we don't even think about them, the
people that like that grandma, or like the parents, or
the brothers and sisters, those who who came up with
them raised them up, and many times they are as
(03:22):
much at a loss as as the rest of society
and explaining what happened. And we we probably should, just
as human beings, put a little more effort into thinking
about the family.
Speaker 2 (03:32):
Sure, sure it was. It was a good reminder for
me and something I'll definitely think about and I'll pray
on it.
Speaker 1 (03:38):
A couple other things that I told you, I you
represent a group of people, and uh, and what you
do reflects what their their their will, their their wishes
indicate this uh. The endorsement of Zach Klein, Yep. I
got to talk to you about this because I, you know,
(04:01):
more often than not, it feels like you were on
the opposite side. And I was kind of surprised by that.
Speaker 2 (04:08):
Yeah, so I'll give you a little backstory how endorsements work.
You know, like many unions organizations, we endorse selected officials.
They're looking for our support, we're looking for theirs. So
I guess we'll just start with our purpose and a mission.
What we're doing when you do these endorsements is you're
building and maintaining a strategic clitical relationship, and that is
critical for our success. Clitical climate's ship, elected official ship.
(04:32):
No matter what side of the aisle you're on, we
look for individuals that today are helping us advance our
organization and partnerships. When we endorse you, we're just saying, hey,
we're not going to agree with everything you do. You're
not going to agree with everything we do, but we
were asking for an open communication. These are strategic relationships,
not friendships, even though a majority of elected officials I
(04:55):
do consider personal friends. So in this case, when we
talk to our members about and our members agreed, we
could say instances where zach Klein might have been we'll say,
quote unquote against us in law enforcement maybe twenty twenty today.
One of the biggest supporters of law enforcement today, and
that's the most important thing is that client, whether it's
(05:16):
helping us go after violent offenders, violent domestic violence defenders
requesting bail our high bonds, or fighting for officers in
the federal courthouse. Individuals forget about that Zach Klein is
fighting for one of our officers right now who's indicted
for murder. He's fighting for him civilly in the federal courthouse.
And that sends a message because the city Attorney's office
(05:39):
believes that our officer acted appropriately, and that's where we align.
Speaker 1 (05:44):
I hope that, I hope the allegiance has returned. I
really do. I would love to see a strong relationship
between everything happening at city Hall and the police department.
As you said, too often, it has not been the case.
But if he is, but you know, we all live
and learn. Perhaps perhaps mister Klein is changing his points
(06:04):
of view on some things. That would be a wonderful thing.
Speaker 2 (06:07):
Yeah, I can tell you, police officer in this city,
we've been hosed by Democrats and Republicans. Historically, we have
been supported by Democrats and Republicans. The FLP is a
non partisan organization. We're about sixty fifty maybe sixty forty
where we lean endorsements. Overwhelming majorities are members are conservative
(06:29):
based members. The overwhelming majority of individuals that we work
for in this city, in this county are Democratic members. Again,
I'm a non partisan union. My personal politics do not matter.
It's how do I best support and advocate for our officers,
and that's the lens we look through when we do
these endorsements.
Speaker 1 (06:46):
Now, speaking of getting hosed by both Democrats and Republicans,
I've heard some scuttlement coming out of the State House.
I don't know how much is out there, how deliberate
for it is, but it seems like there is an effort,
especially when it comes to pensions, to kind of mess
with law enforcement around the state of Ohio.
Speaker 2 (07:09):
Yeah, so full disclosure. I'm the vice chairman of the
Police and Fire Pension Board, and I am on the
pension board or a police and Fire pension board historically underfunded.
It was started underfunded. We have very good rates of returns.
We don't have many officers signing up for this job anymore.
Less officers taking this job, that's less money going into
the fund. There's Republican impact efforts. It looks like to
(07:32):
first maybe to group all these funds together. Maybe you know,
you openly see there's some changes they did with the
teacher's pension. I'm a firm believer one fall, we all fall.
We have a coalition of all members on the pension board.
We're sticking together. Nobody ever takes a job as a police,
a fireman, a teacher, to start rolling around in the money.
(07:52):
But the one thing is to promise is the pension.
When I signed up, they said, look, twenty five years,
you're going to be a police officer. You're gonna deal
with some of the worse to worse. You're going to
see horrific things. But at the end of the goal line,
we're going to let you retire in dignity. And we're
starting to see attacks on our pensions and that's something
we simply can't have.
Speaker 1 (08:10):
Is there anything the general public can do? Are there
any public hearings, any committee chairs that can be contacted,
anything like that the general public can do to try
to suite them in the right direction.
Speaker 2 (08:22):
You contact your local senator, your local state center, your
loos of state representative. If you tell them, look, the
backbone of Ohio is labor. Is these middle class jobs
such as police officer. You tell your elected officials you
know that we expect you to support your cops, your teacher,
your firemen, your nurses, And that goes a long way.
(08:42):
And again, these are just some bills right now, some
bills out there to make some changes in the pension system.
We vehemently oppose them. We also want to see some
equalization in the employer contributions that we've not had before.
We have to keep our pensions strong in Ohio, and
this money generally stays in Ohio. This money's used to
stimulate the economy. And I think everybody would agree if
(09:04):
we did not have pensions, nobody would take these jobs.
Speaker 1 (09:07):
Yeah, well yeah, the bi weekly paycheck ain't worth it.
That's what not the way the world is today. So
you've got to have some kind of light at the
end of the light at the end of the tunnel,
and that pension has been that light for a long time.
So if anything changes, anybody gets active or whatever, you've
always got access to me if you need me.
Speaker 2 (09:25):
I appreciate thank you all your listeners. God bless you.
Speaker 1 (09:27):
He is president of FOP Lodge number nine. Brian Steele
A lot of shootings going on to some police involved
shootings down in Grove City, which typically is such a
quiet community, but there was an officer involved shooting down there.
I still don't know how that washes out. We're going
to go to FOP president from Lodge nine, Brian Steele.
Let's get him on the line here. Brian, you are
on the Legacy Retirement Group dot com phone lines. High.
Speaker 2 (00:20):
Good afternoon. Good to hear from you.
Speaker 1 (00:21):
Good to hear from you too. How are things developing
in Grove City. I'm still not real clear on that story,
whether it was indeed a stranger or a domestic situation.
Do we know what's going on yet?
Speaker 2 (00:36):
Yeah. I was my understanding that either the homeowner came
home or the homeowner was home and an individual came
into his house, an armed individual. So I've not heard
any indications that they knew each other. It's my understanding
that he did not know who he was. The individual
brandished a weapon, maybe said something along the lines of
you know, kind of keep quiet and you'll make it
through this. That individual got out of the house, called
(00:59):
the police you're a barricade, and ended up resulting in
a shootout.
Speaker 1 (01:03):
From what I've seen some of the neighbors on television
coverage said that this guy, I guess had been there
for several days or something, camped out in the parking
lot or it just it just it seemed like such
an odd story. I'm glad that it ended with the
homeowner being safe and the officer apparently has he been
released yet? I know he was recovering, but has he
been released from the hospital.
Speaker 2 (01:24):
Yeah, the officer's been released, and you know, the officers
obviously take some time off to decompress. And I understand
everybody wants to know, you know, the effects of the
case now, and these are investigations. These are long investigations.
It will take some time. Very transparent, very professional run
department in Grove City and we'll get our answers soon.
Speaker 1 (01:42):
So the officers around all of central Ohio have been
I don't know, the world's changing. As I was just
talking about getting into the next hour, I'm going to
be talking about the young people and the crimes that
are being committed. But we had the Grove City story,
we had the up OSU campus area. Is it the
time of year ran things? Is there a pattern at all,
(02:03):
or is it just an overall overall downward slide we
seem to be on lately.
Speaker 2 (02:09):
I could tell we're we're a major city where we're
one of the largest cities the United States, and with
that comes comes crime. And here's something interesting though. Today
I did a news story with Channel six talking about,
you know, the dangers we face and our officer getting shooting,
and a lady walked up to me and after the interview,
I introduced myself and she was the individual who the
(02:29):
police shot and kills grandmother. And I got to tell you,
we had a great conversation. We prayed together, and it's
a reminder that no matter what you know an individual does,
they are loved by someone. They do have a family,
and it just kind of hit me a little bit.
And I have nothing but grace and embassy for the family.
I mean, this grandma, you know, did the best she
(02:51):
could raised in this individual, but just went left the
center and got himself involved in this incident, was shot
by the police. And it's a shame either way around.
Speaker 1 (03:00):
That's a sad reality to us. So often, unless the uh,
unless the family tries to make a spectacle of themselves
and and create a bunch of chaos around, so very often,
if not usually, we don't even think about them, the
people that like that grandma, or like the parents, or
the brothers and sisters, those who who came up with
them raised them up, and many times they are as
(03:22):
much at a loss as as the rest of society
and explaining what happened. And we we probably should, just
as human beings, put a little more effort into thinking
about the family.
Speaker 2 (03:32):
Sure, sure it was. It was a good reminder for
me and something I'll definitely think about and I'll pray
on it.
Speaker 1 (03:38):
A couple other things that I told you, I you
represent a group of people, and uh, and what you
do reflects what their their their will, their their wishes
indicate this uh. The endorsement of Zach Klein, Yep. I
got to talk to you about this because I, you know,
(04:01):
more often than not, it feels like you were on
the opposite side. And I was kind of surprised by that.
Speaker 2 (04:08):
Yeah, so I'll give you a little backstory how endorsements work.
You know, like many unions organizations, we endorse selected officials.
They're looking for our support, we're looking for theirs. So
I guess we'll just start with our purpose and a mission.
What we're doing when you do these endorsements is you're
building and maintaining a strategic clitical relationship, and that is
critical for our success. Clitical climate's ship, elected official ship.
(04:32):
No matter what side of the aisle you're on, we
look for individuals that today are helping us advance our
organization and partnerships. When we endorse you, we're just saying, hey,
we're not going to agree with everything you do. You're
not going to agree with everything we do, but we
were asking for an open communication. These are strategic relationships,
not friendships, even though a majority of elected officials I
(04:55):
do consider personal friends. So in this case, when we
talk to our members about and our members agreed, we
could say instances where zach Klein might have been we'll say,
quote unquote against us in law enforcement maybe twenty twenty today.
One of the biggest supporters of law enforcement today, and
that's the most important thing is that client, whether it's
(05:16):
helping us go after violent offenders, violent domestic violence defenders
requesting bail our high bonds, or fighting for officers in
the federal courthouse. Individuals forget about that Zach Klein is
fighting for one of our officers right now who's indicted
for murder. He's fighting for him civilly in the federal courthouse.
And that sends a message because the city Attorney's office
(05:39):
believes that our officer acted appropriately, and that's where we align.
Speaker 1 (05:44):
I hope that, I hope the allegiance has returned. I
really do. I would love to see a strong relationship
between everything happening at city Hall and the police department.
As you said, too often, it has not been the case.
But if he is, but you know, we all live
and learn. Perhaps perhaps mister Klein is changing his points
(06:04):
of view on some things. That would be a wonderful thing.
Speaker 2 (06:07):
Yeah, I can tell you, police officer in this city,
we've been hosed by Democrats and Republicans. Historically, we have
been supported by Democrats and Republicans. The FLP is a
non partisan organization. We're about sixty fifty maybe sixty forty
where we lean endorsements. Overwhelming majorities are members are conservative
(06:29):
based members. The overwhelming majority of individuals that we work
for in this city, in this county are Democratic members. Again,
I'm a non partisan union. My personal politics do not matter.
It's how do I best support and advocate for our officers,
and that's the lens we look through when we do
these endorsements.
Speaker 1 (06:46):
Now, speaking of getting hosed by both Democrats and Republicans,
I've heard some scuttlement coming out of the State House.
I don't know how much is out there, how deliberate
for it is, but it seems like there is an effort,
especially when it comes to pensions, to kind of mess
with law enforcement around the state of Ohio.
Speaker 2 (07:09):
Yeah, so full disclosure. I'm the vice chairman of the
Police and Fire Pension Board, and I am on the
pension board or a police and Fire pension board historically underfunded.
It was started underfunded. We have very good rates of returns.
We don't have many officers signing up for this job anymore.
Less officers taking this job, that's less money going into
the fund. There's Republican impact efforts. It looks like to
(07:32):
first maybe to group all these funds together. Maybe you know,
you openly see there's some changes they did with the
teacher's pension. I'm a firm believer one fall, we all fall.
We have a coalition of all members on the pension board.
We're sticking together. Nobody ever takes a job as a police,
a fireman, a teacher, to start rolling around in the money.
(07:52):
But the one thing is to promise is the pension.
When I signed up, they said, look, twenty five years,
you're going to be a police officer. You're gonna deal
with some of the worse to worse. You're going to
see horrific things. But at the end of the goal line,
we're going to let you retire in dignity. And we're
starting to see attacks on our pensions and that's something
we simply can't have.
Speaker 1 (08:10):
Is there anything the general public can do? Are there
any public hearings, any committee chairs that can be contacted,
anything like that the general public can do to try
to suite them in the right direction.
Speaker 2 (08:22):
You contact your local senator, your local state center, your
loos of state representative. If you tell them, look, the
backbone of Ohio is labor. Is these middle class jobs
such as police officer. You tell your elected officials you
know that we expect you to support your cops, your teacher,
your firemen, your nurses, And that goes a long way.
(08:42):
And again, these are just some bills right now, some
bills out there to make some changes in the pension system.
We vehemently oppose them. We also want to see some
equalization in the employer contributions that we've not had before.
We have to keep our pensions strong in Ohio, and
this money generally stays in Ohio. This money's used to
stimulate the economy. And I think everybody would agree if
(09:04):
we did not have pensions, nobody would take these jobs.
Speaker 1 (09:07):
Yeah, well yeah, the bi weekly paycheck ain't worth it.
That's what not the way the world is today. So
you've got to have some kind of light at the
end of the light at the end of the tunnel,
and that pension has been that light for a long time.
So if anything changes, anybody gets active or whatever, you've
always got access to me if you need me.
Speaker 2 (09:25):
I appreciate thank you all your listeners. God bless you.
Speaker 1 (09:27):
He is president of FOP Lodge number nine. Brian Steele
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