Speaker 1: Tiger on the Big One seven hundred WLW eleven thirty
Speaker 1: nine coming down the home stretch. Dan Carolyn for Scott Sloan,
Speaker 1: Bill Cunningham, The Great American is coming up at twelve noon,
Speaker 1: so you want to be here for that. When I
Speaker 1: saw this story over the weekend about the eight point
Speaker 1: one million dollars that the City of Cincinnati is going
Speaker 1: to pay out to people who were rioting in the
Speaker 1: streets of downtown Cincinnati, I wrote this Cincinnati where criminals
Speaker 1: do no time, where punks and agitators can riot and
Speaker 1: get paid, and the politicians and judges who allow it
Speaker 1: to happen get re elected on a regular basis. Of course,
Speaker 1: we couldn't let this story pass without having our buddy
Speaker 1: Chris Smithman, the one time Vice mayor of the City
Speaker 1: of Cincinnati, the head of the Law and Public Safety Committee,
Speaker 1: weigh in on this as well. Chris Smitheman, great to
Speaker 1: have you here. Is that a fair statement that I
Speaker 1: wrote that punks and agitators can riot and get paid
Speaker 1: by the city oft Or is that the message that
Speaker 1: we are going to send when this h when this
Speaker 1: settlement gets approved.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, you know, when you think about this and
Speaker 2: I and I and I and I said this publicly,
Speaker 2: and I'll say it again here. The city did not
Speaker 2: have to settle dank Care. The city could have fought
Speaker 2: this and said I'm going to go to a jury trial.
Speaker 2: I'm going to present evidence, and I'm going to allow
Speaker 2: a jury to make the decision. Right. They knew before
Speaker 2: the election that we just had, which is another problem,
Speaker 2: that they were moving or had probably already dissettled this case.
Speaker 2: So this is all gamesmanship from the elected officials downtown.
Speaker 2: You know, I heard the beginning, which I just think
Speaker 2: is riveting. That you're you're the lawyer for the gentleman
Speaker 2: who was viciously attacked in downtown, who city call a
Speaker 2: white racist, who said council members said, I've got one
Speaker 2: in the chamber, and you got forty eight hours to
Speaker 2: arrest somebody white. You heard that lawyer say, I'm not
Speaker 2: gonna settle, I'm gonna go to a jury trial. Now,
Speaker 2: what he's saying here is that a city you are
Speaker 2: better be prepared to come into a court and explain
Speaker 2: your actions, not just from the public, but specifically the
Speaker 2: members of council. The President pro Tien, who said that
Speaker 2: Holly who was almost, in my estimation, was almost murdered
Speaker 2: when she hit the ground. You're gonna have to come
Speaker 2: in the court and explain your words to us. And
Speaker 2: you know what's going to happen, Dan Carroll. At the
Speaker 2: end of that trial, they're going to say this man
Speaker 2: did not start the fight. Because we've seen the videos.
Speaker 2: He now knows that he didn't start to fight. And
Speaker 2: so we know that the city's going to have to
Speaker 2: settle the case. Now, if we just gave this these
Speaker 2: group of people eight or ten million, because the lawyers
Speaker 2: are gonna get two millions, know that they're gonna they're
Speaker 2: gonna be another level of judgment bombs in the next
Speaker 2: couple of years. For this case that we're talking about,
Speaker 2: where at the at the music festival, we had a
Speaker 2: group of people that were viciously attacked and ambushed and
Speaker 2: clearly we can see that they didn't start the fight.
Speaker 2: We also have Chief Washington, this administration fired him wrongly.
Speaker 2: A judge has already said you all fired him wrongly.
Speaker 2: It was appealed. They lost. They're in settlements, Kate, they're
Speaker 2: in settlement talks right now. But there was a trial.
Speaker 2: At least there was there was discussion, and ultimately the
Speaker 2: judge looked at them and said, you're gonna lose. Now
Speaker 2: we've got Chief Fiji, our police chief, who's now negotiating.
Speaker 2: So this isn't just the ten million that I believe.
Speaker 2: It is the two million to the lawyers in eight
Speaker 2: point one million in settlement too. As you've indicated, twelve
Speaker 2: thousand or so per person. When you put all these
Speaker 2: cases together, you're probably talking about twenty million dollars or
Speaker 2: north of that, because we don't know what this gentleman
Speaker 2: is going to get from downtown. He might get ten
Speaker 2: or fifteen million dollars himself because you called him a
Speaker 2: racist on the national stage. How does he repair How
Speaker 2: does that man repair his reputation when you have the
Speaker 2: President pro Tien, the chair of Law and Public Safety,
Speaker 2: members of council saying go arrest somebody white. So when
Speaker 2: you talk about this to me, it's the context, Dan Carroll,
Speaker 2: of all of that together, and this is the most
Speaker 2: outrageous thing that you would see because in the future,
Speaker 2: what's going to happen is we have some incident that's
Speaker 2: that's five hundred miles away from the city of Cincinnati
Speaker 2: and which we had nothing to do with George Floyd,
Speaker 2: meaning our officers did not suffocate George Floyd. We have
Speaker 2: nothing to do with it. But people decide that they
Speaker 2: were going to come down and block our highways and
Speaker 2: set things on fire and break into business is and
Speaker 2: one officer was shot. He had a he had a
Speaker 2: helmet on, so his ballistic helmet stopped him. If not,
Speaker 2: we would have one of our officers killed in downtown.
Speaker 2: You're gonna You're gonna pay out eight point one million dollars.
Speaker 2: And I want the president of the FOP to understand
Speaker 2: that the position here from the city is the problem
Speaker 2: is the city should have fought the case and said
Speaker 2: we're going to go to trial. We're gonna put We're
Speaker 2: gonna put everybody on trial and figure it out, not
Speaker 2: get in a room and settle the case and make
Speaker 2: the taxpayers pay that kind of money.
Speaker 1: So part of this settlement includes the creation of a
Speaker 1: guidebook that established his former stand formal standards for dealing
Speaker 1: with protests and similar events, a standard for dispersal orders
Speaker 1: that police used during civil unrest, and updated procedures for
Speaker 1: mass arrest the Hamilton County Municipal Court. So Chris Smitheman,
Speaker 1: We are you know, they they talk about how well
Speaker 1: the settlement doesn't you know, accepts no blame or it
Speaker 1: doesn't it doesn't find fault with the City of Cincinnati.
Speaker 1: But now we have to go back and say our
Speaker 1: police officers need additional training. Is IRIS really going to
Speaker 1: be in charge of the training now? Is are we
Speaker 1: going to hear from some some you know, community organizers
Speaker 1: on how police ought to deal with these issues?
Speaker 2: Now?
Speaker 1: Are we going to say that the mayor is powerless
Speaker 1: to issue an emergency order for a curfew when there
Speaker 1: is damage and uh and vandalism being committed on the
Speaker 1: streets of Cincinnati, that we have to refer now to
Speaker 1: this guidebook in order to see how to deal with that,
Speaker 1: that the mayor can't exercise his proper his or her
Speaker 1: proper powers to deal with these situations in the future.
Speaker 1: And then, Chris Smitheman, what if you're one of the
Speaker 1: ones who are out there and did not get arrested,
Speaker 1: did not spend a night And I'm and I'm told
Speaker 1: by people who are close to the situation that this
Speaker 1: notion that there weren't bathrooms available, a water or a
Speaker 1: blanket because they might have spent the night waiting to
Speaker 1: be processed into the justice center. What about the people
Speaker 1: who didn't get arrested, who didn't spend the night out there?
Speaker 1: How do you reconcile that If someone right next to
Speaker 1: you who did get arrested winds up getting a twelve
Speaker 1: thousand dollars payday and you're sitting there with nothing, how
Speaker 1: do you How do you deal with that if you're
Speaker 1: one of those people?
Speaker 2: I don't I don't think you reconcile it, Dan Carroll.
Speaker 2: But at the heart of it is the problem here
Speaker 2: is that the city didn't fight the nonsense, right they
Speaker 2: surrender to it.
Speaker 1: Go to court.
Speaker 2: That's the whole part. Court, that's the whole that. Let's
Speaker 2: go to court.
Speaker 1: Come on, al gaer Arthstein, how committed are you to
Speaker 1: the corect That's it.
Speaker 2: Let's go, let's rock and roll. I'm gonna I'm going
Speaker 2: to bring my best to the table, even if I
Speaker 2: have to hire outside council and pay them a million
Speaker 2: dollars to fight you because of the implication of losing
Speaker 2: control of the the strong mayor to make decisions like
Speaker 2: a curfew here, meaning you're neutering the mayor when you
Speaker 2: do these kinds of things. This is a horrific decision
Speaker 2: of public policy, and the money that they're paying out,
Speaker 2: it's just it's just completely out rapist. Let me also
Speaker 2: say that John Cranley, if he's listening, if his father
Speaker 2: and mother are listening, you know, if his wife is listening,
Speaker 2: his son is listening. John Cranley, you are a great mayor.
Speaker 2: You made the right decision at the right time. You
Speaker 2: saved our city from being put on fire. Right, this
Speaker 2: is this is where you have the blue dog Democrats
Speaker 2: like the John Cranleys, the Tom Lukens, the Charlie Lucins,
Speaker 2: who really don't exist anymore. They've been marginalized by this
Speaker 2: very liberal left part of the Democratic Party. And anybody
Speaker 2: who doesn't believe that the left has taken over the
Speaker 2: city of Cincinnati. These are the kinds of decisions because
Speaker 2: because our mayor, our city manager, nor the city solicitor
Speaker 2: had to settle this case, they made the decision we're
Speaker 2: going to settle the case. I believe that this thing
Speaker 2: would have gone to trial. They wouldn't have found a
Speaker 2: jury in our in our county, in our state. Even
Speaker 2: if they had moved venue, they wouldn't have found anybody
Speaker 2: that would have said that our Mayor John Cranley and
Speaker 2: facing that what was happening with George Floyd, with highways
Speaker 2: and streets being blocked, things set on fire, businesses being robbed,
Speaker 2: an officer being shot, that we're gonna sit back and
Speaker 2: pay eight point one million dollars out to anybody. Now,
Speaker 2: the peaceful protesters, you and I aren't discussing. I don't
Speaker 2: you know. I can engage in a peaceful protest. That's
Speaker 2: that's not the issue. And so the people who protested peacefully,
Speaker 2: I don't have a beef with that. That's why I
Speaker 2: love this country. My first amendment right, my second Amendment right.
Speaker 2: There's no issue with that. Visu here is that every
Speaker 2: every everybody wasn't doing that if and there wouldn't have
Speaker 2: been fires, streets blocked, businesses robbed and broken into. So
Speaker 2: every everybody wasn't peaceful, and so you're rewarding that bad behavior,
Speaker 2: Dan Carroll, And that's what you're worried about. And at
Speaker 2: the backdrop of it, and I'm gonna say this publicly,
Speaker 2: is that this is a way that people try to
Speaker 2: say racism. This is about racism, This is about white
Speaker 2: people doing stuff to African Americans, African Americans, and not
Speaker 2: that everybody that was arrested was African American. That's not
Speaker 2: what I'm saying. It's this notion that our institution in
Speaker 2: itself is racist and that we weren't out there doing
Speaker 2: our job the city that we're governed to protect, we're
Speaker 2: sworn to protect. And you're gonna see that come out
Speaker 2: in the trial of the white guy who was beat
Speaker 2: up and ambushed in downtown. His lawyer is taking the
Speaker 2: right position that our city solicitors should have taken. Let's
Speaker 2: take this thing to court. I'm not gonna settle. We're
Speaker 2: gonna I want a trial. I want you to dismiss
Speaker 2: all of the all of the dog one charges against
Speaker 2: my client, because when that's all over, you know what's
Speaker 2: going to happen. He's gonna sue the city of Cincinnati
Speaker 2: and win.
Speaker 1: Well, Chris Smitheman. When I look back and I remember
Speaker 1: those times in May or late May and the beginning
Speaker 1: of June and twenty twenty, I remember telling my wife,
Speaker 1: what are we going to watch on TV tonight? Well,
Speaker 1: I'm going to turn the riots on. There are riots
Speaker 1: happening all across the country. City after city where there
Speaker 1: were police cars being overturned, businesses on fire, there were
Speaker 1: demonstrations and fights going on out in the streets. And
Speaker 1: then these individuals tried to bring the same thing to
Speaker 1: the city of Cincinnati, and guess what, it didn't happen
Speaker 1: in the city of Cincinnati because of the actions they
Speaker 1: were taken by our law enforcement and by Mayor John Cranley.
Speaker 1: I had my differences with John Cranley over the years,
Speaker 1: but I think in this instance he did the exact
Speaker 1: right thing. Put the curfew in place, shut it down,
Speaker 1: limited the damage, and did what was right for the
Speaker 1: people of Cincinnati. And he said, he commented on the
Speaker 1: Fox nineteen p that was put out over the weekend,
Speaker 1: he said that curfew in our police department saved our
Speaker 1: city when other cities were burning. Everything I saw was
Speaker 1: of the utmost professionalism and restraint, and their actions saved
Speaker 1: our city. I want the record to show that they
Speaker 1: did a great job. And so now we have to
Speaker 1: for all these protesters who were out there and claimed
Speaker 1: about that. You know, they they might have been a
Speaker 1: little uncomfortable when they were getting booked into the Hamilton
Speaker 1: County Justice Center that we're going to cough up eight
Speaker 1: point one million dollars to satisfy them and make this
Speaker 1: go away, and then set ourselves up for future protesters
Speaker 1: to do the exact same thing. To me, is just
Speaker 1: despicable and there's no way this should be happening.
Speaker 2: Well, let me tell you something that happened to me.
Speaker 2: I parked when I was parking at City Hall. Parking
Speaker 2: lot is across from Plumb and I walked across the
Speaker 2: street and this young white male as I was crossing
Speaker 2: the street demanded that I kneel to him. Hear what
Speaker 2: I said. I demanded that I kneel. I'm going into
Speaker 2: City Hall. This is doing these riots during this craziness.
Speaker 2: I looked at this young white dude and I said, dude,
Speaker 2: have you lost your mind? If you think that I'm
Speaker 2: going to be somebody that's gonna kneel to you, you
Speaker 2: have lost your total mind. Now. My problem was, unfortunately,
Speaker 2: and this needs to change, I had to leave my
Speaker 2: weapon in my car every time I got out, and
Speaker 2: I'm looking at this craziness happening around City Hall. Because
Speaker 2: we had our swat team in the basement. They're all
Speaker 2: lined up prepared because they're all surrounding City Hall as
Speaker 2: we're going in, right, I'm saying, when I got into
Speaker 2: that basement, from the door all the way down that hallway,
Speaker 2: we had to have our swat teams out there. These
Speaker 2: dudes that are big as big as elephants now they're
Speaker 2: just bative dudes like linemen, and they're down there in
Speaker 2: all of that. I shook everybody's hands as I went
Speaker 2: down that hallway, but I had had some guy outside
Speaker 2: as I'm walking in tell me that I needed to kneel.
Speaker 2: And I'm an African American. This is a white dude
Speaker 2: telling me I need to kneel. Kneel for what? Brother,
Speaker 2: what the heck are you talking about? That is how
Speaker 2: crazy it was down there during that period of time,
Speaker 2: right that, where people are trying to make us feel
Speaker 2: uncomfortable as we're trying to do the business of the city.
Speaker 2: It is unbelievable. And I'm going to emphasize here John
Speaker 2: Cranley did a great job if he had not made
Speaker 2: the decisions he made. And by the way, I was
Speaker 2: on and off the phone with John, I was the
Speaker 2: vice mayor at the time. As he was trying to
Speaker 2: sort it all out and make the decisions he was making,
Speaker 2: so John Cranley and I don't want to detach from
Speaker 2: the mayor here. He was making very good decisions, and
Speaker 2: I was doing the very best I could as his
Speaker 2: vice mayor to advise him on how to make good
Speaker 2: decisions to protect the city of Cincinnati. But they were
Speaker 2: his decisions to make, and I am glad he made them.
Speaker 2: If he hadn't done it, as you indicated, Dan, here,
Speaker 2: downtown would have been on fire.
Speaker 1: Well, Chris Smitheman. Tomorrow, Tuesday, December ninth, the City of
Speaker 1: Cincinnati's Public Council or I'm sorry, Public Safety and Governance
Speaker 1: Committee is expected to look at this settlement, review it,
Speaker 1: and approve it. I would urge the members of that
Speaker 1: committee to say no. I would urge the members of
Speaker 1: that committee to say, we need to take this to court.
Speaker 1: We need to stand up as a city for what's
Speaker 1: right and send the message that you cannot come into
Speaker 1: our city and agitate and do property damage and ignore
Speaker 1: lawful orders of the Mayor of the City of Cincinnati
Speaker 1: and Cincinnati Police and not expect to be paid for
Speaker 1: We've got one minute, let's.
Speaker 2: Right, And all I will say is that you and
Speaker 2: I agree that peaceful protests in this country are fine
Speaker 2: all day. Maybe you're coming here and it's all days.
Speaker 2: It's what makes the United States the United States. We
Speaker 2: are the greatest experiment on the globe. It's when you
Speaker 2: come and you start destroying things that you and I
Speaker 2: are talking about. And by the way, I'm very sympathetic
Speaker 2: to what happened to George Floyd. In my opinion, it
Speaker 2: shouldn't have happened. It was bad policing, but it had
Speaker 2: nothing to do with the city of Cincinnati. That's the
Speaker 2: most important part of here. We've gone through the collaborative agreement,
Speaker 2: we've had, federal oversight, saw Green has given us the
Speaker 2: green light. This is the greatest Cincinnati Police Department. People
Speaker 2: come from all over the world to see how we
Speaker 2: do policing in the city of Cincinnati. This is a
Speaker 2: flap in the face. Obviously, counsel will rubber stamp this tomorrow.
Speaker 2: I don't have anything that they'll do anything different. Cheryl,
Speaker 2: thank you so much.
Speaker 1: Brother. All Right, you're the best press we got to run,
Speaker 1: and thank you so much for that. Bill Cunningham is
Speaker 1: coming up next on seven hundred WLW.
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