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Speaker 1: If you got CATERCD talk station. It being Monday, regular

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Speaker 1: listeners know it is that time of week we get

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Speaker 1: the blessings of Christopher Smitheman, former Vice mayor of the

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Speaker 1: City of Cincinnati. Well venting this believe it called the

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Speaker 1: Smith Event. Welcome back Christopher smithem and my friends. Always

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Speaker 1: pleasure having you on the show.

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Speaker 2: Oh brother, it's so so honored to be here with you.

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Speaker 2: And I just want to give a quick disclaimer. Man,

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Speaker 2: I'm struggling with the brew a little bit, so I

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Speaker 2: don't have the same energy this morning, but I'm gonna

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Speaker 2: I'm going to give your listening audience the very best

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Speaker 2: that I have. First, I want to start off with

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Speaker 2: just say I just we're so honored to have an

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Speaker 2: FOP president that's willing to make himself available to you

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Speaker 2: on a regular basis so that we get offense of

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Speaker 2: what is going on in Cincinnati real time. So I

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Speaker 2: just love hearing those hearing those interviews. And where I

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Speaker 2: want to start, Brian Thomas, is just having your listening

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Speaker 2: audience as they drive to work, you know, as they

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Speaker 2: sit at their desk and they listen to you, or

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Speaker 2: they're in their home drinking their coffee. Let me just

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Speaker 2: go through a few incidents this weekend in Cincinnati, Hawaii

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Speaker 2: and Terras. A twelve year old who was shot in

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Speaker 2: the stomach in his home. He was shot mail Black seventeen,

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Speaker 2: Mail Black fifteen, Mail Black seventeen. Our police recovered the

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Speaker 2: gun three young people below the age of eighteen opening fire,

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Speaker 2: and one of those bullets went through the home where

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Speaker 2: the twelve year old was shot in the stomach. Before

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Speaker 2: I even go on to the other incident, I just

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Speaker 2: want everybody to think what that does to that twelve

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Speaker 2: year old's life, What that does to that family. They're

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Speaker 2: doing what they're supposed to do. They're at home, they

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Speaker 2: know where their child is. Briton Thomas, He's sitting right

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Speaker 2: in front of me. He's not in the street. It's

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Speaker 2: like the eleven year old who was shot on the

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Speaker 2: playground in the West End. That we hear Corey Bowman

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Speaker 2: talking about the eleven year old girl who was killed.

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Speaker 2: She was on the playground doing what she was supposed

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Speaker 2: to do, be a kid. This child is at home,

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Speaker 2: they're not in the street, and they're shot in the stomach.

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Speaker 2: Next incident, this was on Reading Road. Suspect was reported

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Speaker 2: discharging a firearm. Male Black nicknamed Taco led the scene.

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Speaker 2: This is right in the heart of Avondale. Third shooting.

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Speaker 2: This is on Saturday, eight sixty Glenwood Avenue. Mail black

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Speaker 2: killed right in their basement, shot multiple times, fatally right,

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Speaker 2: suspect gone, but you've got a dead person. This is

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Speaker 2: on eight sixty Oak Street. Listen to this. Twelve shots fired,

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Speaker 2: Male black, thirty suffering from a gunshot wound to the butt. Right.

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Speaker 2: Then we moved to Sunday. Right, We've got at eight

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Speaker 2: o'clock at night at the sixteen hundred block of Buying Street,

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Speaker 2: and this is what you're talking about. Found a victim

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Speaker 2: gunshot wound to the head, walked over to a nearby

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Speaker 2: Cincinnati Fire department located on West Liberty Street. The victim

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Speaker 2: was transported to UC Then we got a fifteen year

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Speaker 2: old dead right in Avondale. This is on Sunday. Officers

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Speaker 2: say they were dispatched at twelve o'clock at night and

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Speaker 2: this young person, fifteen year old, was shot dead. And

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Speaker 2: then just after seven thirty pm, twenty one hundred block

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Speaker 2: Saint Michael's Street, officers arrived to location located a man

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Speaker 2: on the scene had suffered gunshot wounds. Two remain at large.

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Speaker 2: The bottom line here is this was one heck of

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Speaker 2: a weekend between Saturday and Sunday, and you and I

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Speaker 2: haven't even talked, yeah about the takeover in Price Hill,

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Speaker 2: which I'm going to.

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Speaker 3: Talk about where, and with the warning about from Ken

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Speaker 3: Cover that it's only going to get worse, not maybe

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Speaker 3: if it's going to get that, we're.

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Speaker 2: Going to get worse. So I just want to set

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Speaker 2: up my spleening event when we come back after the break.

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Speaker 2: But we have to have the context for your listening

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Speaker 2: audience because the news isn't reporting what I'm seeing. It

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Speaker 2: sounds like Gossam City. We have moved like Chicago in Cincinnati,

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Speaker 2: and the underreporting from our news reporters out there. I'm

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Speaker 2: talking about all the stations collectively, right is.

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Speaker 1: Really not only in my mind couldn't agree with you more.

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Speaker 1: You certainly have laid the foundation well, Christopher unleashed the

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Speaker 1: Smither event coming after after the timing on this one

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Speaker 1: couldn't be better. Yes, it may be. Fifty five CARC

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Speaker 1: Detalks Station Brian Thomas and Christopher Smithman regular segment here

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Speaker 1: on the fifty five carssee morning show one that you

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Speaker 1: can find on the podcast page fifty five Carce dot com. Christophy,

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Speaker 1: you laid the foundation. We got a lot of violence

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Speaker 1: over the weekend in downtown Cincinnati, some of which was reported,

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Speaker 1: some of which was not. Setting you up for the

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Speaker 1: Spleen event. Have out of my friend.

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Speaker 2: Look man, the takeover of teenagers in Price Hill completely unacceptable.

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Speaker 2: The number of officers that had to be dispatched to

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Speaker 2: deal with that, and to have the news not even reported.

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Speaker 2: It's just on the borderline of negligence but complete insanity.

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Speaker 2: And these youths up there were fighting there, jumping on vehicles.

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Speaker 2: It was complete chaos in that area, and it's terrifying.

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Speaker 2: Our communities are one of our fifty two neighborhoods, and

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Speaker 2: to act as if we don't, we have to have,

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Speaker 2: you know, a citizen like Jim Keefer who's bringing this

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Speaker 2: to our attention. There's something have because he lives there.

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Speaker 2: This is his neighborhood. He's saying, this is what's happening

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Speaker 2: in my neighborhood, but I can't find it anywhere to

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Speaker 2: be read. Look, white liberals, I want you to hear this.

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Speaker 2: I'm going to be so pointed. White liberals who are

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Speaker 2: living in the safety of their neighborhoods, who think they

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Speaker 2: can tell me, a black man, what is best for

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Speaker 2: my community. They need to sit down and shut up.

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Speaker 2: I am so sick of hearing them run their mouths

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Speaker 2: trying to lecture people like me about what is in

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Speaker 2: the best interest of the Black American communities. Unities are

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Speaker 2: living and the super majority of our families are law

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Speaker 2: abiding citizens who are getting up every day to go

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Speaker 2: to work. And we are sick and tired of seeing

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Speaker 2: our baby slaughtered every single weekend with no response from

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Speaker 2: this incompetent mayor, this incompetent council, this incompetent administration. They're

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Speaker 2: giving out evaluations and saying that people are doing a

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Speaker 2: great job while our babies are being slaughtered in their homes,

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Speaker 2: shot in their stomach, shot in their heads. You can't

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Speaker 2: even drive down Reading Road and go by our recreation

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Speaker 2: centers without the fear of being shot in the street

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Speaker 2: as you're just trying to go to the University of

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Speaker 2: Cincinnati to do your job. I am sick and tired

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Speaker 2: of these white liberals who are voting and acting as

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Speaker 2: if this chaos is not happening in our community and

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Speaker 2: thinking that we can just open up a wreck fenter

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Speaker 2: in the middle of the afternoon and it's going to

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Speaker 2: save somebody. We need law enforcement intervention now, that's what

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Speaker 2: needs to happen in Cincinnati. And if I am not

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Speaker 2: blaming our Cincinnati Police department, I went President Kim kob

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Speaker 2: to understand that this is not on his legs here

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Speaker 2: on his lap. But if I have to write the

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Speaker 2: federal government, if I have to write the state and

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Speaker 2: ask them to bring in the National Guard because we

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Speaker 2: can't stop the blood and murders in our streets, I

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Speaker 2: will begin to do it personally. Well.

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Speaker 1: And here ken the police are just following policies, notably

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Speaker 1: when it comes to the teens and the enforcement of

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Speaker 1: the curfew. They're not allowed to enforce the curfew by

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Speaker 1: under the definition of the law, which carries with it

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Speaker 1: some criminal penalties. They're not allowed. Their hands have been

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Speaker 1: tied by the city administration. And of course take a

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Speaker 1: step too if you got rid of the policy from

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Speaker 1: the city that is forcing the police to well not

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Speaker 1: deal with them on a criminal level, but just pat

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Speaker 1: them on the back and send them home with mom

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Speaker 1: and dad with a cookie and a glass of juice.

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Speaker 1: Even if they were allowed to process them and ticket

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Speaker 1: them and take them in and process them for criminal prosecution,

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Speaker 1: that we know the prosecutor's office wouldn't bother and if

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Speaker 1: they got in front of a judge, the judge would

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Speaker 1: probably chuck it out anyway.

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Speaker 2: But what I'm tired of, Brian Thomas, are the white liberals,

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Speaker 2: oh yeah, who are living in our neighborhoods, in safe environments,

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Speaker 2: tucked away in Hyde Park and Mount look Out Over

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Speaker 2: in the North Side, you know, getting together and talking

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Speaker 2: about these issues as if they know what the heck

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Speaker 2: is going on for a single Black American trying to

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Speaker 2: raise a child and go to work at the same time,

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Speaker 2: we are frustrated about the lack of law enforcement response.

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Speaker 2: Our first line of defense, Brian Thomas, is law enforcement,

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Speaker 2: and they are being castrated by this mayor and this council.

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Speaker 2: We are living in Gossam City in many of our pockets,

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Speaker 2: and it's just a small group of African Americans right

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Speaker 2: who are acting out this criminal behavior that if we

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Speaker 2: allowed our police to do their job, they clean it up.

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Speaker 2: That is why I'm staying publicly on your station. If

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Speaker 2: I have to write the federal government. If I have

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Speaker 2: to write the state before we get to this violent

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Speaker 2: summer and ask them for intervention, It's exactly what I'm

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Speaker 2: going to do. I'm not going to sit back and

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Speaker 2: continue to see young black families like the twelve year

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Speaker 2: olds we start in the stomach in his home. For

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Speaker 2: him to live in that terror and us not have

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Speaker 2: some type of spot. He deserves better. The girl, young girl,

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Speaker 2: eleven year old in the West End who was murdered

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Speaker 2: on the playground, he deserves better.

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Speaker 1: Yep, I was waiting for that one too. Pause. We're

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Speaker 1: and Christopher back. Let get the rest of his spleen

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Speaker 1: vent out this morning. First, I want to mention my

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Speaker 1: friends at Galaxy Concrete Coatings.

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Speaker 2: OK Station.

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Speaker 1: Seven one fifty five KARROSG talk station Brian Thomas with

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Speaker 1: Christopher Smithman. We get the benefit of Christopher smithment every

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Speaker 1: Monday between seven and twenty and the close of the

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Speaker 1: seven o'clock hour, after which we're gonna get money. Money

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Speaker 1: Brian James, who will talk about oil, gas and electricity

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Speaker 1: prices of impacting your budget. Chocking no on, Christopher Smithman,

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Speaker 1: you have the floor back, Look.

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Speaker 2: Brian, I've been listening on the federal level. People talk

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Speaker 2: about Jim Crow two point zero, and I'm going to

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Speaker 2: tie together the violence that I just spoke about and

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Speaker 2: this subject matter. You have people like Senator Schumer, a Democrat,

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Speaker 2: who continues to pimp out the black vote by trying

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Speaker 2: to emotionally charge us that having an ID on its

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Speaker 2: face is racist. It is not racist to require someone

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Speaker 2: who is voting in our election to produce identification. You're

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Speaker 2: also trying to say that African Americans are stupid, that

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Speaker 2: we don't walk around every day with an ID the

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Speaker 2: function in our society. So I don't know what these

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Speaker 2: people are talking about, but I can share with you.

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Speaker 2: I don't know of anybody in my circle. Now I

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Speaker 2: have a pretty broad circle that thinks it's a problem

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Speaker 2: to have an ID. But look how they spend the

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Speaker 2: time talking about that. But when I talk about the

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Speaker 2: violence that it's happening in the urban core where our

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Speaker 2: most talented Black American youth who have nothing to do

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Speaker 2: with this violence are being shot in their homes, are

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Speaker 2: being shot at the bus stop, are being shot on

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Speaker 2: the street. Nine people shot at a function at a party, right,

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Speaker 2: and a fifty thousand dollars bond given to someone who

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Speaker 2: shot nine people in a mass shooting, and then the

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Speaker 2: next day or the next weekend you have a fight

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Speaker 2: at another function, but you hear no voice to this. Right,

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Speaker 2: the leadership has you distracted about things about voter identification

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Speaker 2: that are not racist. The policies that are racist are

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Speaker 2: acting as if you care about Black Americans' lives. But

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Speaker 2: when it comes to providing safety and law enforcement, you

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Speaker 2: have Ken Kober telling us where a one hundred officers down?

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Speaker 2: Who do you think that's going to impact? You think

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Speaker 2: that's going to impact High Park? You think that's going

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Speaker 2: to impact my lookout? Do you think that's going to

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Speaker 2: impact Northside? Or do you think are Clifton? Do you

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Speaker 2: or do you think that's going to impact places like Avondale? Right,

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Speaker 2: the reality of it is that African Americans in Cincinnati

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Speaker 2: deserve to be safe and go to school. We deserve

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Speaker 2: to have school choice. Our children are locked into these environments,

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Speaker 2: and they deserve an opportunity to go to Saint X

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Speaker 2: if they want to, if they want to go to

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Speaker 2: Elder if they want to, if they want to send

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Speaker 2: their daughter to Seatan if they want to, as examples

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Speaker 2: are Ursula. They deserve the same types of opportunities that

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Speaker 2: my family, an upper middle class family, deserves. My ability

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Speaker 2: to pay for my daughter not to go to one

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Speaker 2: of these schools that are failing. The reality is I

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Speaker 2: can afford to buy her way out of the craziness.

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Speaker 2: But there's so many families that don't have the same

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Speaker 2: opportunity to do this. And I'm tired of Democrats trying

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Speaker 2: to distract us and have conversations about Jim Crow two

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Speaker 2: point zero and voter IDs, as if we're stupid in

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Speaker 2: the African American community and we're not walking around with IDs.

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Speaker 2: But when we ask them about school choice or having

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Speaker 2: the right number of officers to keep our baby safe,

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Speaker 2: they won't say anything to it. What we do is

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Speaker 2: we'll fund an Irish Roley at six hundred and fifty

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Speaker 2: thousand dollars who I don't know what she's doing, but

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Speaker 2: will leave out a Hope Dudley, who is phenomenal. If

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Speaker 2: we gave her six hundred and fifty thousand dollars, we

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Speaker 2: would have a better response to what's happening in the violence.

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Speaker 2: I am sick and tired of the elevation of the

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Speaker 2: wrong leadership. Brian Thomas when it's so easy to find

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Speaker 2: the right leadership in our community to make it safe

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Speaker 2: and better. Shame on the mayor, Shame on all nine

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Speaker 2: members of council. Shame on this administration. We just came

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Speaker 2: out of another bloody weekend. You've heard Ken Kober, the

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Speaker 2: president of the FEMP, saying he's looking for unfortunately more

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Speaker 2: of this as the weather gets bad. Shame on all

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Speaker 2: of them. They will never hold a press conference community,

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Speaker 2: and they will just pip out the black vote for

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Speaker 2: more Democratic votes as we go into the May primary

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Speaker 2: and as we go into the general election. And I'm

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Speaker 2: sick of it.

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Speaker 1: Well, I know, and I can hear it in your voice,

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Speaker 1: and you and I've had any conversations about it, my friend,

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Speaker 1: I hear it, you know. And I got to make

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Speaker 1: make a comment really quickly because last time I checked,

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Speaker 1: you didn't get the benefit of so called white privilege

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Speaker 1: growing up. You are a black man who did grow

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Speaker 1: up in the city. Since now, you did quite well

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Speaker 1: by yourself. You mentioned you're doing very well in terms

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Speaker 1: of your economic your ability to put your daughter and

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Speaker 1: your other children through schools of your choice. Christopher, I

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Speaker 1: want to just make a just a shout out to

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Speaker 1: your late father and your mother for instilling in you

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Speaker 1: important values for themselves being individually successful in their own

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Speaker 1: right in spite of the challenges that they faced, which

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Speaker 1: were far more significant than any challenge a black person

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Speaker 1: might face in today's society. The benefit of having great

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Speaker 1: parents who cared about raising their children. To all those

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Speaker 1: parents who would drop their teenagers, their young teenagers off

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Speaker 1: at a street shutdown event, it's to them, I'm speaking.

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Speaker 1: They have the ability to raise their children to be

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Speaker 1: successful individuals. So just had to get that out.

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Speaker 2: Christopher, Yeah, I appreciate it. All I'll share with you

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Speaker 2: is that you know, my parents who were born in

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Speaker 2: the nineteen thirties, right when racism were in the South,

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Speaker 2: by the way in Montgomery, Alabama and in Birmingham, Alabama,

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Speaker 2: they were facing the Klan and the Dixiecrats head on,

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Speaker 2: filling stations were being burned to the ground, churches burned

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Speaker 2: to the ground. They lived in a different environment, but

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Speaker 2: they loved this country and my grandparents wanted better for them.

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Speaker 2: They still sit my parents out with beautiful clothes, ironed

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Speaker 2: height ready saying education is our way out, high standards,

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Speaker 2: fighting in wars, being a part of the military, like

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Speaker 2: my father, who was an officer in the military. In

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Speaker 2: the army, he was a gunner. I remember when my

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Speaker 2: father was dying, he just started he broke out in

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Speaker 2: his gunner song. It broke us all out into tears

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Speaker 2: as he was fighting for his life. My point to

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Speaker 2: all of you is my father and my mother loved

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Speaker 2: this country and they fought for us to have a

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Speaker 2: better life. Nothing's perfect, nothing's perfect for women, nothing's perfect

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Speaker 2: for Latinos or African Americans or by the way, Appalachian

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Speaker 2: people in West Virginia. We live in a world that's

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Speaker 2: not perfect. But this is the greatest experiment of democracy,

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Speaker 2: and that is why everybody is trying to come here

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Speaker 2: to the United States. And I wouldn't want to live

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Speaker 2: anywhere other than the United States of America period. I'm

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Speaker 2: not trying to go anywhere. And people who sit back

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Speaker 2: and say they want us to live like Cuba or Venezuela,

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Speaker 2: they are absolutely off their rockers. My job as a

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Speaker 2: father is to continue to work to make things better

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Speaker 2: for my family. That's the difference. I don't sit back

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Speaker 2: and play or hate on the billionaire. I want to

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Speaker 2: be the billionaire and I want to position my children

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Speaker 2: to have the best education, and that is what my

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Speaker 2: father and what my mother wanted for their six children.

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Speaker 2: The end of the day, the country isn't perfect, but

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Speaker 2: it's the best place in the world. And I don't

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Speaker 2: want to act like racism and sexism and those things

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Speaker 2: don't exist, but to act as if Iran is better,

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Speaker 2: to act like Venezuela is better, to act like Cuba

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Speaker 2: is better, or Colombia is better. Those liberal white people

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Speaker 2: that are in the street who are saying that are

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Speaker 2: insane and so all up there and completely insane. In conclusion, listen, community,

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Speaker 2: the violence over the weekend was catastrophic. We must support

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Speaker 2: our law enforcement and we must send a serious message

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Speaker 2: of a zero tolerance for this behavior, no matter race,

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Speaker 2: no matter gender, and no matter age. Thank you Brian

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Speaker 2: talking for the opportunity. People can follow me at vote Smitherman.

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Speaker 2: See you next Monday.

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Speaker 1: Please do that. In best of healthy Christopher, I understanding

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Speaker 1: a little out of the way,