Speaker 1: You want to be an American.
Speaker 2: He's got flown back on seven hundred doty wall. W
Speaker 2: could just jump right back into it. Man over the fence,
Speaker 2: over the wall, as they say. City council members are
Speaker 2: pretty tight lipped about taking sides regarding the city manager's
Speaker 2: decision AKA after Perevol's decision a place Chief teris a
Speaker 2: Thigi on leave. We heard from Ken Kober immediately following
Speaker 2: yesterday's press conference with Steve im at the Finny Law
Speaker 2: fram who is representing Chief Thiji in this whole situation.
Speaker 2: He came on my show.
Speaker 3: Live on seven hundred WW and his immediate reaction to
Speaker 3: this thing was like, listen, there's many in the rank
Speaker 3: and file weren't necessarily Teresa Thigi fans, but guess what
Speaker 3: we all are now because what happened to her, that
Speaker 3: she's being railroaded out of her job and being called
Speaker 3: this is nothing but politics and she's a political scapegoat,
Speaker 3: and finding out on her thirty fifth anniversary of or
Speaker 3: hire as a new cop and now the chief of Cincinnati,
Speaker 3: the first woman to do that long history of service
Speaker 3: for her family as an insult to the badge, insult
Speaker 3: to the whole process. And what's interesting about this after
Speaker 3: the followed very very few and that's, by the way,
Speaker 3: I may say, not serving all of them, but the
Speaker 3: only one to voice an opinion on counsel and this
Speaker 3: whole thing joins me now and that is Seth Wall Seth,
Speaker 3: good morning. I'm doing well, but I'm also probably doing
Speaker 3: better than you right now. I can't imagine what you
Speaker 3: woke up this morning and went in the seconds where
Speaker 3: the cobwebs are there, they go away. The first thing
Speaker 3: you probably thought of is is this dumpster fire?
Speaker 4: It's been It's been quite a week of chaos and
Speaker 4: hectic and yeah, it's been. It's been a week, Scott,
Speaker 4: and not the best week that we've had in Entity council.
Speaker 1: Yeah, is Terry Thiji.
Speaker 4: The problem, you know, I think the problem with that question,
Speaker 4: Scott is how do we know that they're not telling
Speaker 4: you anything, They're not telling me anything. None of us
Speaker 4: know why this decision is being made. So issues the
Speaker 4: I'm waiting for the evidence to be shown to us.
Speaker 3: But in people say, wow, this is you know, it's
Speaker 3: share along because the way it works is the chiefs,
Speaker 3: the chiefs administrators, they all report to city manager, share along.
Speaker 3: So this is Cheryl's But again she's just the executioner, right,
Speaker 3: This is the mayor. This is af tad pirival. This
Speaker 3: isn't Sheryl Long. She is a subordinate and she's doing
Speaker 3: what she I don't know what she is commanded to do,
Speaker 3: I suppose.
Speaker 1: Or I don't know. Is Cheryl Loong run the whole thing?
Speaker 3: Either way, it's a horrible look for the mayor, especially
Speaker 3: with an election coming up in a couple of weeks.
Speaker 4: Well, I think it's a bad look for the city
Speaker 4: as a whole. You know, from everything that I've been told,
Speaker 4: which is pretty much what you see in the media.
Speaker 4: I mean, this seems to be a decision made by
Speaker 4: Cheryl Long, and I think that leads to a lot
Speaker 4: of questions about the fact that the police chief, at
Speaker 4: the end of the day, is a very important decision,
Speaker 4: especially when we are trying to get crime under control
Speaker 4: in our downtown or over the Rhine and in these
Speaker 4: neighborhoods were seeing spice and crime in it is a
Speaker 4: very very important decision. And to change the police chief,
Speaker 4: no matter when you're changing the police chief, but to
Speaker 4: change it in such a chaotic, hectic fashion with no
Speaker 4: clear plan, no clear evidence about why the decision is
Speaker 4: being made. That is a massive problem, and it is
Speaker 4: I think it's I think Ken was spot on. I imagine
Speaker 4: this is terrible from hero out for the police Department
Speaker 4: because you know, even if it's not a situation of escapegoat,
Speaker 4: it sure feels that way. And it's a situation that
Speaker 4: we need to be providing stability right now. We need
Speaker 4: to be showing leadership and we need to put our
Speaker 4: plan for because the most important thing is public safety,
Speaker 4: not personality conflicts.
Speaker 3: Seth Walshaw immediately following the press conference yesterday with Steve Vam,
Speaker 3: who did a great job. By the way, I spoke
Speaker 3: to Ken Cobra, President the FOLP, live on the show,
Speaker 3: and that was one of the questions I had to him.
Speaker 3: It's like, we just spent what kramerting four and a
Speaker 3: half million dollars with Kramerting, Jefferies, yourself and others voting
Speaker 3: to fund the police department. We got to get more
Speaker 3: bodies and we got to recruit. We're down one hundred
Speaker 3: and thirty one hundred fifty officers. Can't have that. We
Speaker 3: got have lateral recruiting class. We're going to pull officers
Speaker 3: from other jurisdictions and make an appeal to them with
Speaker 3: money and the job at hand, to come to Cincinnati
Speaker 3: and work here and work for a district and make
Speaker 3: a difference in crime, make some money yourself and all that.
Speaker 1: That's all well and good.
Speaker 3: Four and a half million dollars does in this whole
Speaker 3: move undermine that, Because if I'm a officer, if I'm
Speaker 3: a beat cup, and let's say I don't know I
Speaker 3: work in a jurisdiction, I'm maybe considering making the move
Speaker 3: over to Cincinnati go a whole ont of second, Look
Speaker 3: how dirty they just did the chief and that's a chief.
Speaker 3: I'm nobody. What chance do I have? So did we
Speaker 3: just shoot ourselves in the foot? We opened the coffers
Speaker 3: up to four and a half mil. But at the
Speaker 3: same time send the message out that we don't know
Speaker 3: what we're doing over here, and we'll make you escapegoat
Speaker 3: politically if.
Speaker 1: We have to.
Speaker 4: Well, that's where my concern comes in in terms of
Speaker 4: there's a lot of concern I have here. But yes,
Speaker 4: when we're talking about our law enforcement members, not only
Speaker 4: the morale of existing police rale of those we're trying
Speaker 4: to hire but is that plan even heading forward the
Speaker 4: five and a half five point four million dollars that
Speaker 4: we just allocated, Like, what is the plan for that now?
Speaker 4: Because it was moving forward under the last police chief
Speaker 4: who's currently on administrative Leaf's not That's what That's.
Speaker 5: My frustration where I'm most.
Speaker 4: Upset right now is we are trying to get crime
Speaker 4: under control in the city of Cincinnati. It is not
Speaker 4: clear the stability in the past for that, because nothing's
Speaker 4: been laid out to us other than this hectic process
Speaker 4: that we've all watched play out in the media. We've
Speaker 4: named an interim police chief who by all accounts is
Speaker 4: an amazing individual and going to be a great leader
Speaker 4: for the department. But it's not clear what the transition
Speaker 4: is and what's carrying on and what the problem even
Speaker 4: was in the first place that led to this change.
Speaker 4: So how can you and I even confidently say we
Speaker 4: know what's happening next? You know, is all the plans
Speaker 4: that we've done for the last two months drown out
Speaker 4: the window and we're starting fresh or are we continuing it?
Speaker 4: And if we're continuing it, how are we going to
Speaker 4: provide the confidence people that that's what's happening. I don't know,
Speaker 4: and that is not an acceptable answer for somebody who's
Speaker 4: city on city council ne' to give you, And it's
Speaker 4: not an acceptable answer for the city manager to give
Speaker 4: us that as the solution right now is that we
Speaker 4: don't have enough information to even answer that question. So yeah,
Speaker 4: I'm very worried about that.
Speaker 3: Yeah, And as I understand, I don't know any but
Speaker 3: I understand from the rank and file many of they
Speaker 3: respect him.
Speaker 1: They love the guy.
Speaker 3: I mean, he's the guy that wrote that citation a
Speaker 3: month later or charged anyway, the white guy in the brawl,
Speaker 3: because that was at the behest of the rabid reverence
Speaker 3: out there who demanded a flash demanded of whitey be
Speaker 3: charged because he got black guys who were an assault
Speaker 3: and no officer on the scene would write it because
Speaker 3: they didn't think a crime was committed. But he took
Speaker 3: essentially the political bullet and said, okay, final, I'll be
Speaker 3: the one that puts my name to this, this thing
Speaker 3: that got that ball rolling. And that was all the
Speaker 3: behest of the mayor's office. So that's greasy and dirty
Speaker 3: as well, because that is a potential civil rights violation,
Speaker 3: which you know again, when you're fighting to keep your
Speaker 3: nose above water, like after that perivalis and keep his
Speaker 3: political career going, that seems like a pretty big misstep
Speaker 3: to me. You open yourself up for a civil rights case.
Speaker 3: But I don't know, does they only care about this
Speaker 3: election coming up and damn the torpedoes.
Speaker 1: We'll see what happens after that.
Speaker 4: You know, again, I don't know. From everything I've heard,
Speaker 4: it doesn't sound like this was the mayor's decision, which
Speaker 4: I know is you know, we think the way the
Speaker 4: city government works, that this would be the marrior's decision.
Speaker 4: This is legally and technically the city manager's decision. And
Speaker 4: everything that I've heard behind the scenes, which again it's
Speaker 4: not much more than what you've heard, does not sound
Speaker 4: like the mayor's the one who made the decision on this.
Speaker 4: It sounds like the mayor may have been aware of
Speaker 4: conversations transpiring behind the scenes which led to comments last week.
Speaker 4: But beyond that, I don't have anything to indicate that
Speaker 4: Aftab was the one who made the decision.
Speaker 3: Ultimately, But there was a political component to this, There's
Speaker 3: no question about it. This wasn't a criminal charge. This
Speaker 3: was a political charge.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I mean, I think that that's one of the
Speaker 4: big questions. Why does this decision made? Right now?
Speaker 5: What was the urgency that required.
Speaker 4: This decision to be made so quickly that the police
Speaker 4: chief had to fly back from college out of And
Speaker 4: I've asked that question. I don't have a satisfactory answer
Speaker 4: to it, right, And it seems like there was again,
Speaker 4: I mean, it's chaos, and it seems like chaos reigned
Speaker 4: for thirty six hours at city Hall and bad decisions
Speaker 4: were made and that's not okay and that's not acceptable,
Speaker 4: and that's the big problem here. Some people need to
Speaker 4: come out and say what actually happened and led to
Speaker 4: this and why this decision was made. You know, this
Speaker 4: is a really big decision, and the absence of information
Speaker 4: leads to rampant speculation that is not good for anybody.
Speaker 4: And I don't understand why people are so gun try
Speaker 4: to come out and just say what happened and what
Speaker 4: led to this decision. It's not like we don't know
Speaker 4: what's happening.
Speaker 5: You know.
Speaker 4: Last Wednesday, I think they put out like three press
Speaker 4: releases saying that she was still employed, which is you know,
Speaker 4: you know that Scott, you're in the media is like,
Speaker 4: that's the kiss of death.
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, I don't I don't understand you.
Speaker 3: We're good at reducing force around here, so we know this. Well,
Speaker 3: I don't heard when somebody get called back from a
Speaker 3: conference in Denver and going, hey, you got to get
Speaker 3: back here right away because you've got a we've got
Speaker 3: a violence emergence. Well, you know, the emergency would happen
Speaker 3: immediately found what happened to Fountain Square?
Speaker 1: This was, this was after that.
Speaker 3: There's nothing newsworthy going on, and just out of the blue,
Speaker 3: she's in Denver and now we got to pull the
Speaker 3: plug on or doesn't make any sense. And I brought
Speaker 3: up A. Henny's name earlier and he seems like a
Speaker 3: great guy, be a great chief. But I guess the
Speaker 3: question is, wasn't that Terry. We don't know why Terry
Speaker 3: Thigi got fired in the first place. There's no reason
Speaker 3: around this. And technically she's not fired, she's still on
Speaker 3: administrative leave. So there's that level of confusion. What are
Speaker 3: you getting with Henny that you didn't have with Thigi?
Speaker 3: Nobody knows.
Speaker 4: Right, And you know, again, a hard number one priority
Speaker 4: has to be public safety, So you know, I I
Speaker 4: think Henny is going to do a great job. But
Speaker 4: at the end of the day, you know, things I've
Speaker 4: heard from police officers are are we being held accountable
Speaker 4: for the fact that crime is happening? And I can't
Speaker 4: imagine what the morale is and I have it.
Speaker 1: It's a very.
Speaker 4: Difficult question for me to answer right now because I
Speaker 4: don't know what we're holding her accountable for. There may
Speaker 4: verver will be a good reason, Scott that you and
Speaker 4: I would agree with and say, yeah, that's the right decision,
Speaker 4: and you know it had to happen urgently, but we
Speaker 4: absent of information, we don't know that, and so the
Speaker 4: perception is chaos, and uh, you know, we're reacting to crime,
Speaker 4: but we're reacting now to it as opposed to over
Speaker 4: the summer, where you and I've had multiple conversations about.
Speaker 5: It, and this is just it doesn't make sense.
Speaker 4: And I think the clarity is so badly needed because
Speaker 4: it is going to have a negative impact on our police,
Speaker 4: can have a negative impact on our citizen. We'rele it's
Speaker 4: going to have a negative impact on what we are
Speaker 4: trying to do as a city. And right now, I
Speaker 4: don't think that we need that forget the election, think
Speaker 4: about liscinating and what we are trying to achieve. And
Speaker 4: know I talk about economic development all the time. You know,
Speaker 4: right now is when we need the inspiring confidence that
Speaker 4: we've got this under control, because we want people coming downtown,
Speaker 4: we want people coming to over the run. This is
Speaker 4: not a good time to indicate in any way that
Speaker 4: we you know, we're not. We don't have a plan
Speaker 4: for how we're handling public safety. And again there may
Speaker 4: very well be a plan. They come out and tell
Speaker 4: it to us, show us what the plan is.
Speaker 3: I don't have a censor as a plan, Council Member
Speaker 3: sas Walsh, I really really don't. Here's the issue. Though
Speaker 3: you're out now, can't painting as all members of council are.
Speaker 3: When election coming up in just a few short days.
Speaker 3: You're almost down to the wire right now. When you
Speaker 3: talk to your constituents, When you talk to the good
Speaker 3: people of Cincinnati, not only the citizens, but also the
Speaker 3: people who operate and own businesses in in downtown, just
Speaker 3: to maybe travelers too as well, who the hell knows
Speaker 3: you make contact with. What is the consensus among the
Speaker 3: constituents in this.
Speaker 4: I mean, I'm hearing I imagine this is what you're
Speaker 4: hearing and what people are feeling who are listening to this.
Speaker 4: You know, opinions about the police chief varied, but opinions
Speaker 4: about how this has been handled are pretty nified, which
Speaker 4: is that she didn't deserve to be treated this way
Speaker 4: so publicly. It's not clear why it happened, and so
Speaker 4: the opinions on the entire process is that it is
Speaker 4: it's been atrocious, and that nobody deserves to go through this,
Speaker 4: least of all for not a clear reason about why.
Speaker 4: And people are pretty offended by it, and I think
Speaker 4: rightfully so, and I think again, absence of information, it
Speaker 4: looks bad.
Speaker 5: It looks really bad. O.
Speaker 3: The FOP issued to voted no confidence on the mayor's
Speaker 3: conduct here in an indirect way that with Thigi and
Speaker 3: now they're standing behind Fiji going listen. There are numbers
Speaker 3: who had issues with Terry and how she ran the shop,
Speaker 3: as you will with any boss for that matter. But
Speaker 3: at the same time everyone is coalesced. I guess on
Speaker 3: the thin blue line to say this is outrageous and
Speaker 3: there's no plan going. The way I look at it politically,
Speaker 3: Seth is what's the strategy here? I mean, you have
Speaker 3: turmoil with an interim chief which implies you have no
Speaker 3: control over crime and that it's all Terry Thigi's fault.
Speaker 3: You mean, Kenny the chief, it's a fresh start. Then
Speaker 3: you get to the election. Were the repercussions here? Because
Speaker 3: I'll be honest with you, even with this nonsense and
Speaker 3: this mess that's going on right now in this s
Speaker 3: show and the way this has been handled, I don't
Speaker 3: know how Aftab loses the election.
Speaker 1: I really don't.
Speaker 3: I mean he can, I suppose, but I don't see
Speaker 3: this huge ground swell for Corey Bowman, who's a political
Speaker 3: no name upcomer, and Jad Vans's brother dad has baggage.
Speaker 1: You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 4: Well, I mean I saw a great faith and a
Speaker 4: mayor of the Cincinnati and I do think that his
Speaker 4: election results will be very positive for him. But I
Speaker 4: think it's important to remind you, know, your listeners, that
Speaker 4: Cincinnati is three branches of government. You know, it's the mayor,
Speaker 4: it's a city council and the administration, and all three
Speaker 4: are are theoretically equal. So you know, the mayor, I
Speaker 4: think you're right, he's going to get re elected city Council.
Speaker 4: Obviously that the vote there is important for people to
Speaker 4: show up and make their voices heard, but.
Speaker 5: Also equally so you know, even if you know.
Speaker 4: All AID incumbents are re elected and you know, we
Speaker 4: get the ninth member Bryan James elected on the Democratic
Speaker 4: slate there, people may feel frustrated, but the administration is
Speaker 4: still equal on here that you know, you should be
Speaker 4: expecting us to be asking these hard questions of you
Speaker 4: should be asking us and expecting us to be challenging
Speaker 4: them to come up with the answers and tell us
Speaker 4: what is going on in a public setting, not behind
Speaker 4: closed doors, not in a way that you know it's
Speaker 4: not clear, because this is too big and too important
Speaker 4: of an issue not to have clear answers off for
Speaker 4: the public. And I think that's really important people understand,
Speaker 4: you know, the mayor and city council or your voice
Speaker 4: is near representatives. But the way our government is set up,
Speaker 4: as the administration's in charge, and if we are not
Speaker 4: getting clear answers, we need to be pushing them to
Speaker 4: get the clear answers. And we can't just rest on
Speaker 4: our laurels and say like, well that's their decision. We
Speaker 4: need answers. We need to hold them agount and we do.
Speaker 4: This is one way to do it. Let's make it
Speaker 4: clear where we're frustrated.
Speaker 3: All right, voters most likely will choose aftab over Corey Bowman.
Speaker 3: But at the same time, does this have an effect
Speaker 3: down ticket? Should you be concerned as well? Should the
Speaker 3: odd members of council because so many people that are
Speaker 3: running because of the way this was mishandled. We've got
Speaker 3: so many hats in the ring right now. Anything can happen.
Speaker 3: You say you support AFT to add pereval, but what
Speaker 3: if he costs you your seat?
Speaker 4: Like anybody running for any office should be scared when
Speaker 4: they have to go out there. They have to earn
Speaker 4: votes every single day. It's one of the reasons that
Speaker 4: I'm trying to be vocal about this. I think that
Speaker 4: people's for people need to feel their frustration is being
Speaker 4: vocalized at a relucts of leadership capacity. I think anybody
Speaker 4: running right now should be worried and should be willing
Speaker 4: to take a stance on this issue, and they have
Speaker 4: their opinions known on this issue because this is an
Speaker 4: important issue that determines kind of how the next administration
Speaker 4: operates in terms of you know, whoever gets elected this cycle,
Speaker 4: and if you're not willing to speak out, if you're
Speaker 4: not willing to challenge and the hold people accountable. You know,
Speaker 4: that's the role of a city council member. Is the
Speaker 4: whole the administration accountable to ask the hard questions. It's
Speaker 4: how you're not to become I would say we're friends now, Scott,
Speaker 4: but you know, we started having these conversations about a
Speaker 4: bridge fire where they thought that three years was acceptable
Speaker 4: to take to get it fixed, and I've said, no way,
Speaker 4: and we got done one hundred days.
Speaker 5: That's why we start talking about.
Speaker 4: Snowplouds because we didn't plow six hundred streets and we
Speaker 4: had to hold people accountable and ultimately the DPS director
Speaker 4: retired because of that, and we got somebody in there
Speaker 4: that is going to get our streets cloud this year.
Speaker 4: And that is the job of the city council member.
Speaker 4: And if you're not willing to speak out the whole
Speaker 4: the administration accountable, I don't know why you should be
Speaker 4: elected to it. And I think that you guys should
Speaker 4: be holding people accountable and challenging us to speak out
Speaker 4: and say these things. We can all be the same party,
Speaker 4: we can all be friends, but our job is accountability.
Speaker 1: I can't say all Seth Walsh.
Speaker 3: I can't say all members of council besides yourself, but
Speaker 3: most members of council and maybe y'all. No one wants
Speaker 3: to come out publicly and chastise the mayor and call
Speaker 3: them out as you just did on the show.
Speaker 1: Why is that? Why do you think that is that
Speaker 1: you're the only one willing to do it.
Speaker 4: I don't know, Scott, and I will prefer to you
Speaker 4: to figure that one out. For me.
Speaker 5: I don't have enough money to go to therapy to
Speaker 5: get that answer.
Speaker 3: Well, I mean it's not I don't understand is It
Speaker 3: seems to me maybe we're just trying to protect the brand.
Speaker 3: Like if I'm a Democrat, I'm not allowed to criticize
Speaker 3: another Democrat. You just did that, and I think you're
Speaker 3: going to be fine. It's okay. We need to get
Speaker 3: back to it. Whether it's same with the Republicans. Republicans, Hey,
Speaker 3: you can't criticize Trump.
Speaker 1: Yeah you can. You're supposed to. That's how the system
Speaker 1: works up.
Speaker 3: I mean, I got I get in fights when I
Speaker 3: was younger, all the time, with my two brothers. I
Speaker 3: still love them. I take a bullet for either one
Speaker 3: or both of them. But you're allowed to disagree with people.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I agree, and I try to lead my example,
Speaker 4: and I hope you know it is scary sometimes to
Speaker 4: step on the ledge and take the phone call with you,
Speaker 4: Scott and say I don't know what his opening question
Speaker 4: is going to be today.
Speaker 5: But we'll find out.
Speaker 1: That's two of us.
Speaker 5: Yeah, right, so we're always surprised. It's always a fun time.
Speaker 4: But yeah, I hope others get the confidence and the
Speaker 4: courage to be speak out too, because I think on
Speaker 4: issues like this it's too important to stay silent.
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, all right, I know you got to get going, Seth.
Speaker 3: I appreciate it. Hopefully you can brave through this. Council
Speaker 3: Member Seth Walsh would appreciate your vote. I'm sure, very
Speaker 3: thoughtful as always, and we'll see where this goes. But
Speaker 3: I even think the people who know I don't know
Speaker 3: where it's going at this point, and that's a scary part.
Speaker 1: All the best, my friend do will.
Speaker 5: Thanks Scott, take care.
Speaker 3: You know, we just had the No King's protest down people.
Speaker 3: Donald Trump is as it's chaos he's making rash decisions,
Speaker 3: no accountability, no context. And if you're a Democrat and
Speaker 3: you're down there, I imagine many Republicans are the No
Speaker 3: Kings rally. But if you're down there at so your
Speaker 3: point and this is your belief, I'd have to ask you,
Speaker 3: isn't this exactly what you were protesting this weekend?
Speaker 1: Chaos?
Speaker 3: No accountability, investigations by law enforcement that are politically compromised,
Speaker 3: unelected appointees like Iris Rawley having too much power, cronyism.
Speaker 3: We protesting Trump when you should have also been protesting.
Speaker 3: After Ted Pierval Scott's loan show seven hundred ww