Speaker 1: It's Night Side with I'm.
Speaker 2: Well, thank you very much, Madison Rodgers, as we embark
Speaker 2: on a Thursday night.
Speaker 3: I was not with you.
Speaker 2: Last night, so I just want to thank my friend
Speaker 2: Gary Tangway, who sat in last night. Obviously, big night
Speaker 2: last night, Joe Biden made his speech. Sorry that I
Speaker 2: missed that, but I had a prior commitment which I
Speaker 2: needed to take the night off. I don't take a
Speaker 2: lot of nights off, although sometime in early August I
Speaker 2: will be take you some nights off and.
Speaker 3: Then I'll be back.
Speaker 2: So just bear with us here. It's the summertime. Everybody
Speaker 2: needs a few nights off. My name is Dan Ray.
Speaker 2: I'm the host of Night's Side. We're about to embark
Speaker 2: on year eighteen, although frankly some could argue that we're
Speaker 2: already in your eighteen.
Speaker 3: The history on this, by the way, is that.
Speaker 2: I inherited this show from the late great Paul Sullivan,
Speaker 2: who passed away unexpectedly in the summer of two thousand
Speaker 2: and seven. He was a very young guy. He's only
Speaker 2: fifty years of age. I didn't even realize how young
Speaker 2: fifty was at that time, and I was wrapping up
Speaker 2: my time with WBZTV, having worked there for thirty one
Speaker 2: years and had finished up on the Savadi Lamoni case,
Speaker 2: which probably all of you have heard me talk about,
Speaker 2: and at that time the radio news and programming director
Speaker 2: for WBZ, Peter Casey, asked me if I'd be interested
Speaker 2: in doing the eight to midnight show here in WBC,
Speaker 2: and since I was about to leave television, I said, yeah,
Speaker 2: I'd like to give.
Speaker 3: That a try.
Speaker 2: I had done some talk radio early in my career,
Speaker 2: and so it was around this time. Actually it was
Speaker 2: a little earlier than I started just filling in for Paul.
Speaker 2: I began filling in for Paul in May of two
Speaker 2: thousand and seven, but around this time it was clear
Speaker 2: that Paul was not coming back to the program. He subsequently,
Speaker 2: unexpectedly and at such a young age, passed in September,
Speaker 2: and we continued to do the program as the Paul
Speaker 2: Sullivan Show.
Speaker 3: Again.
Speaker 2: When I first started, I was convinced he was coming back,
Speaker 2: and as it turned out, he didn't, and Peter decided
Speaker 2: to designate that I would be the permanent host, and
Speaker 2: then we had to name the program, and it was
Speaker 2: Peter Casey, then my boss on the news and programming
Speaker 2: director who said to me, what about calling it Nightside
Speaker 2: with Dan Ray? Said, Peter, fine with me, if that's
Speaker 2: what you want. So as Peter Casey who came up
Speaker 2: with the name Knightside with Dan Ray, and the first
Speaker 2: the actual first nights I with Dan Ray took place,
Speaker 2: it was a Monday night, October first, two thousand and seven.
Speaker 2: So I don't know how you count it, but certainly,
Speaker 2: as of October one, twenty twenty four, we will be
Speaker 2: starting year eighteen, although some might have argued that we've
Speaker 2: already begun year eighteen because I've been doing this show
Speaker 2: for some time. Anyway, I never started this program, and
Speaker 2: I would like to just take a moment to mention
Speaker 2: that I always think of my two predecessors, Paul Sullivan
Speaker 2: and before Paul, David Broadnoy, and I made the comment
Speaker 2: when I took this show over in two thousand and
Speaker 2: seven that I was nowhere near as smart as David Broadnoy.
Speaker 2: I think I can prove that on a nightly basis,
Speaker 2: and nowhere near as funny is and maybe even irreverent
Speaker 2: as Paul solve it. And I don't think that I
Speaker 2: have failed those observations.
Speaker 3: They were great.
Speaker 2: Talk show hosts and great entertainers, and I have this
Speaker 2: opportunity to carry on their tradition, and that's what we
Speaker 2: do here every night of the week. So I just
Speaker 2: thought to take a moment to reflect on that. The
Speaker 2: reason I'm also reflecting is that our first guest tonight
Speaker 2: a little while ago told us that they could not
Speaker 2: make it, and we will try to reschedule that guest.
Speaker 2: They were kind enough to tell us in advance that
Speaker 2: they would not be with us. But we have three
Speaker 2: interesting guests coming up. At a fifteen, We're going to
Speaker 2: talk with Lee Richardson. She's a brain health coach and consultant,
Speaker 2: a licensed professor, counselor, and founder of the Brain Performance Center,
Speaker 2: and she says that the presidential election is taking a
Speaker 2: toll on the mental health of Americans, and I suspect
Speaker 2: she's correct, So we'll talk about that at eight point thirty.
Speaker 2: You've heard of the five fingered discount. Well, shoplifting has
Speaker 2: skyrocketed by twenty four percent across America, even as many
Speaker 2: other crimes in several cities have fallen to pre pandemic levels.
Speaker 2: And we'll talk with doctor Alex del Carmen. Why shoplifting
Speaker 2: has increased. And then a little bit later on tonight
Speaker 2: at eight forty five, we'll talk with Justin Green about
Speaker 2: the twenty twenty four Boston Walk for a praxia hoping
Speaker 2: I'm pronouncing that right. Justin has a a praxia, which
Speaker 2: is not an uncommon but I couldn't call it a
Speaker 2: rear condition. It's a condition that affects a lot of
Speaker 2: young people where and this is not stuttering, but where
Speaker 2: they do not connect the word they want to say
Speaker 2: from the brain, as I understand it, with their ability
Speaker 2: to pronounce that word orally.
Speaker 3: And they struggle with that. Some grow out of it,
Speaker 3: some don't.
Speaker 2: And Justin Green will explain it to us because it's
Speaker 2: one of those I don't want to call it a disease,
Speaker 2: although probably it is technically listed as a disease, but
Speaker 2: I think I think of it more as a condition,
Speaker 2: and it's not stuttering, and I don't know if it's
Speaker 2: I don't think it's related to stuttering. But again, it's
Speaker 2: one of those sets of circumstances that hopefully, hopefully we
Speaker 2: can come up and take care of. So we'll talk
Speaker 2: about that at eight forty five, and then at nine
Speaker 2: we will be joined by the president of the Boston
Speaker 2: Police Patrolman's Association, Larry called Aerone, talking about staffing of
Speaker 2: the police department in Boston. The police department in Boston
Speaker 2: has done a great job, and certainly the patrolman of
Speaker 2: the backbone of that police department, and they do a
Speaker 2: great job. They're out in the streets every night dealing
Speaker 2: with the potential of criminal activity and they never know
Speaker 2: what they're going to run into, as of course every
Speaker 2: police officer in America. But it's interesting. New York City,
Speaker 2: which is a much bigger city than the United States,
Speaker 2: has about forty thousand police officers. Here in Boston, we're
Speaker 2: struggling to get back to two thousand. And we'll break
Speaker 2: that down with Larry Calderone and find out what is
Speaker 2: going on. Boston right now is a city that is
Speaker 2: in a little bit of trouble financially, and we'll explore
Speaker 2: that a lot in the weeks and months ahead, particularly
Speaker 2: as we get out of this election cycle, because we'll
Speaker 2: be pretty soon moving into a mayoral electoral cycle.
Speaker 3: And one of the questions is where.
Speaker 2: Will Boston find the money to continue to be the
Speaker 2: great city that it has been for well to some
Speaker 2: really great mayors, going back to well, you can go
Speaker 2: back to John Collins and who I never covered with
Speaker 2: Kevin White who I covered, and Ray Flynn, the Tom Menino,
Speaker 2: Marty Walsh. So there's there's there's a lot to talk
Speaker 2: about in that regard, and we'll get we'll get back
Speaker 2: to that with this conversation tonight, and we will continue
Speaker 2: to do more of it as as we go along.
Speaker 2: So I'm just gonna take a very quick break. We
Speaker 2: came back to be talking with our first guest tonight.
Speaker 2: I sometimes appreciate these opportunities just to sort of give
Speaker 2: you a little perspective of how I feel and where
Speaker 2: I'm coming from as the host of the show. I
Speaker 2: just want you to know I'm very appreciative, and I
Speaker 2: mean genuinely appreciative, appreciative of all of you who tune
Speaker 2: in this program, and particularly all of you who call
Speaker 2: the program. Whatever topic we're talking about. I know sometimes
Speaker 2: I have disagreements with you, but that's okay. We can
Speaker 2: have a passionate disagreement. I like to have a conversation
Speaker 2: as opposed to screaming and yelling at each other. That's
Speaker 2: the home of the show. This is a show that
Speaker 2: does welcome all points of view. We've had, god knows
Speaker 2: some wide points of view. What I don't tolerate is
Speaker 2: people who just really want to make speeches and us
Speaker 2: talking points. It's a conversation. It's America. It's North America's
Speaker 2: back porch. It's been that way since we christened this
Speaker 2: program back in two thousand and seven and all it
Speaker 2: has intended to replicate a metaphorical back porch in the
Speaker 2: neighborhood where you grew up, and there might be people
Speaker 2: sitting on the porch and you walk by and someone says, hey,
Speaker 2: come on up, have a beer or have a cup
Speaker 2: of coffee or whatever. That's what we're doing here on Nightside.
Speaker 2: And for those of you who are regular callers, you're
Speaker 2: the backbone of the program. For those of you who
Speaker 2: are new callers, the injection of fresh ideas and fresh
Speaker 2: voices so stimulates the program. And for those of you
Speaker 2: who have listened all these years and maybe never summon
Speaker 2: the will to call the program.
Speaker 3: Please feel free any night on any subject that is
Speaker 3: of interest to you. My name's Dan Ray.
Speaker 2: This is Nightside, Rob Brooks. It's back in the control room,
Speaker 2: back in broadcast headquarters. He's got a few easy minutes here.
Speaker 2: He doesn't start to get answering those phone calls until
Speaker 2: after nine o'clock.
Speaker 3: But we get back, we're going to talk to.
Speaker 2: A very interesting guest who is basically going to tell
Speaker 2: us that, hey, this election is causing a lot of
Speaker 2: people unnecessary stress and increasing anxiousness anxiety as we move
Speaker 2: from July into August. I'll also mention that tomorrow night
Speaker 2: is the last night in Friday, and as we have
Speaker 2: done for every month March, April, May, June, on the
Speaker 2: last night, the last Friday night of the month, which
Speaker 2: this Friday, Tomorrow night, the twenty sixth of June will
Speaker 2: be we will conduct a one hour quick snap flash poll.
Speaker 2: It is not scientific, but it's a little different this
Speaker 2: month last month. The contest since we're Donald Trump, President Biden,
Speaker 2: former President Trump, current president then well currently still President Biden,
Speaker 2: and Robert Kennedy Junior. Well, one of those candidates has
Speaker 2: stepped out of the race, and out of course Joe Biden.
Speaker 2: So therefore the contest tomorrow night will be between former
Speaker 2: President Trump, Vice President Harris and Robert F. Kennedy Junior.
Speaker 2: So it'll be a little different tomorrow night. But it'll
Speaker 2: be interesting to see how we come out tomorrow night.
Speaker 2: That's in the eleven o'clock hour on Friday night. And
Speaker 2: as I think all of you know, despite our wish
Speaker 2: that you call the program but once a week. Pure
Speaker 2: are exceptions, but for the most part, once a week
Speaker 2: at eleven o'clock on Friday night and the twentieth hour
Speaker 2: of the last hour of the week, everyone gets a
Speaker 2: clean slight. It's like a hall pass. Okay, so you
Speaker 2: can call if you've called earlier in the week. He
Speaker 2: also been called during the eleven o'clock hour at Friday night.
Speaker 2: We're back on Nightside right after this.
Speaker 1: Now back to Dan Ray live from the Window World
Speaker 1: night Side Studios, WBZ News Radio.
Speaker 2: Our first guest this evening on the Nightside News Update
Speaker 2: is doctor Lee Richardson. Doctor Richardson is a brain health
Speaker 2: coach and consultant, a licensed professor, counselor, and founder of
Speaker 2: the Brain Performance Center, and she reports to us that
Speaker 2: Pole suggests that seventy three percent of Americans are stressed
Speaker 2: over the election. We have one of these every four years,
Speaker 2: Doctor Richardson, Is it worse this year than other years,
Speaker 2: or is this just the normal part of the quadrennial
Speaker 2: election roundup.
Speaker 4: Well, I think we're always stressed around the election. The
Speaker 4: family feuds that I hear about during election time are unbelievable.
Speaker 4: But what's interesting about this is that seventy three percent
Speaker 4: was reported before the attempt was made on Donald Trump's five,
Speaker 4: before President Biden moved aside, before Kamala Harris has been
Speaker 4: endorsed as the new Democratic Party. So when you think
Speaker 4: about so much has happened since then, which creates so
Speaker 4: much more uncertainty and so much more fear, I wonder
Speaker 4: what that percent would be like today.
Speaker 3: It's been a wild week and a half, nearly two weeks. Now.
Speaker 2: Why is that every year the politicians say, this is
Speaker 2: the most important election in the history of the country.
Speaker 3: The future of America depends upon this election.
Speaker 2: And we've gone through these quadrennial elections now for.
Speaker 3: More than more.
Speaker 2: Than two centuries, two hundred and you know whatever, it
Speaker 2: would be two hundred and thirty years or so if
Speaker 2: you go back into the first elections, which probably weren't
Speaker 2: really anything near what we're dealing with today. Is it
Speaker 2: the fact that every one group is saying, we kind
Speaker 2: of like this other guy because he'll take America in
Speaker 2: a direction into.
Speaker 3: A dark place.
Speaker 2: And then the other guy is saying, these people are
Speaker 2: crazy and whatever. It's gotten really personal, hasn't it.
Speaker 4: It really has. And I think what complicates that is
Speaker 4: the American public has gotten to where they don't educate
Speaker 4: themselves as much as maybe they could. You know, we have.
Speaker 4: I mean I got an email today from doctor Mary Trump,
Speaker 4: from Joe Barden, from j D Event. We're bombarded with information,
Speaker 4: and that puts me in a stand of, Oh, I
Speaker 4: don't you know, I don't want to look into that.
Speaker 4: I don't want to do research. I have too much
Speaker 4: information coming at me. So I think that one of
Speaker 4: the things that we can do is educate ourselves. I mean,
Speaker 4: what's important to you?
Speaker 1: What you know?
Speaker 4: Is it gay rights? Whatever it is, that's what's important
Speaker 4: to you. Research who stands behind that.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm a little concerned personally about those Russian and
Speaker 2: Chinese bombers flying off the coast together a couple of
Speaker 2: days ago, off the coast of Alaska. I'm a little
Speaker 2: bit concerned about that alliance. What about my theory that
Speaker 2: we have stopped teaching the equivalent of what we learned
Speaker 2: at civics in high school back in the day of
Speaker 2: the Dark Ages, when you actually learned about the balance
Speaker 2: of power between the three branches of government and the
Speaker 2: role of the executive versus the legislative versus the judicial,
Speaker 2: and the fact that every state has two senators and
Speaker 2: there's members of the House are based upon their population,
Speaker 2: but even little states like Rhode Island in Wyoming, they
Speaker 2: have two senators, just like California and New York. It's
Speaker 2: kind of the way that the way the system has
Speaker 2: been set up. Is there a lot of Well, that's
Speaker 2: my theory. Do you think I'm off base with that theory?
Speaker 2: We have we had downplayed civics in high schools across
Speaker 2: the country.
Speaker 4: I don't think you're off based at all. I think
Speaker 4: you are right on. I think we've gotten away from
Speaker 4: what's truly important and the system that's in place explaining it.
Speaker 4: We're into drama and trauma, and that's that's what we
Speaker 4: want to hear about, and that's what we're going to
Speaker 4: make decisions on. I think that your theory is right on.
Speaker 3: And then the other theory. I've got a couple of
Speaker 3: theories here.
Speaker 2: So I'm not a psychologist I'm not as smart as
Speaker 2: you are, and I don't understand the way the brain functions,
Speaker 2: but I do understand how people work. I think also,
Speaker 2: we have now two teams. We got the Blue team
Speaker 2: and the Red team.
Speaker 3: And everybody in.
Speaker 2: The red team listens to the cable network news that
Speaker 2: reinforces their points of view, and everybody in the Blue
Speaker 2: team listens to the cable news that enforces reinforces their
Speaker 2: points of view. And they're in what I call silos,
Speaker 2: you know, information silos. They're never going to change no
Speaker 2: matter what happens.
Speaker 4: I don't think they are. I think, you know, at
Speaker 4: some point in time, we heard a little bit of
Speaker 4: talk about purple, but I haven't heard I haven't heard
Speaker 4: that word mentioned in a while.
Speaker 2: Well, they'll talk about the posters who talk about a
Speaker 2: purple state, maybe Minnesota or Virginia, whatever, that they have
Speaker 2: reliably been on this team in the past, but now
Speaker 2: there's a couple of polls that show that maybe the
Speaker 2: state might be going in another different direction, whether again
Speaker 2: it's Virginia, you know, or Georgia or the states that
Speaker 2: the states that are reliably read you know, they're red states.
Speaker 2: And we know that that the election now is really
Speaker 2: everybody in about forty three states could stay home and
Speaker 2: not vote and it wouldn't matter because it's going to
Speaker 2: be decided by the voters in seven states.
Speaker 3: Most people don't understand why that is so, but and
Speaker 3: that's part of the problem.
Speaker 2: I'm sure people are watching TV and saying, well, you know,
Speaker 2: I live in Maine, or I live in Florida, or
Speaker 2: I live in California, my vote should count too. Well,
Speaker 2: it will count, but I don't care how you go
Speaker 2: to Florida. I can call those races right now.
Speaker 4: Yeah, And you make a really good point, because I
Speaker 4: think that's one thing that people have stopped doing is
Speaker 4: taking how serious their vote is. And it's hard. It's
Speaker 4: hard to take it seriously when the numbers show. Yeah,
Speaker 4: you know, it's all about the electoral votes. It's not
Speaker 4: about Lee's vote.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's the electric What state do you live in?
Speaker 4: I live in Texas.
Speaker 2: I'm calling Texas tonight will be carried by the Republican candidate.
Speaker 4: You are a brilliant man, you know.
Speaker 2: But there are a lot of there's still a lot
Speaker 2: of Democrats who would go to the polls nonetheless, and
Speaker 2: they should, and the Republicans help so polls, but I
Speaker 2: don't know. And this is the anxiety, and it does
Speaker 2: impact our families too as well, in our relationships with
Speaker 2: our friends and our neighbors.
Speaker 3: It's very corrosive.
Speaker 2: It's corrosive in my opinion, and I hope you keep
Speaker 2: studying it and maybe we'll have you back between now
Speaker 2: an election day. If it's getting worse or getting better
Speaker 2: either way, that we can call it breaking news.
Speaker 4: Fair enough, that's fair enough. Thank you so much for having.
Speaker 3: Me, doctor Lee Richardson.
Speaker 2: Folks, how can folks follow you? You must have a
Speaker 2: website or email or something or it's the Brain Performance Center.
Speaker 3: How can folks check that out?
Speaker 4: Well, you're right, we have the old fashioned website, the
Speaker 4: Brain Performancecenter dot com.
Speaker 3: What's wrong with that? That's the only type website that
Speaker 3: I understand?
Speaker 4: From LinkedIn, you're on LinkedIn as well, but.
Speaker 3: The Brain Performance Center dot com.
Speaker 2: Everybody can find you there, and you're on LinkedIn as well,
Speaker 2: Doctor Lee Richardson.
Speaker 3: Pleasure to have you on once again, and we'll talk soon.
Speaker 4: Okay, thank you, you're welcome.
Speaker 3: We get back. We're going to talk about what we
Speaker 3: call the five finger discount, you know, shoplifting. Well, shoplifting skyrocketed.
Speaker 3: I don't know why.
Speaker 2: Well, and maybe I might take a run at that too,
Speaker 2: but I'm not an expert. Maybe the price of things
Speaker 2: have gotten so high that people are saying, you know,
Speaker 2: it's it's I'll take that chance because if I can
Speaker 2: walk out of here with whatever.
Speaker 3: I don't know, maybe people are running out of money.
Speaker 2: Well, we'll discuss that topic right after the break here
Speaker 2: on Nightside. This is w BZ, Boston's news radio ten
Speaker 2: thirty on the AM dial. My name's Dan Ray. I'm
Speaker 2: the host of Nightside. Thanks for listening, Thanks for being there.
Speaker 2: We'll get to phone calls tonight after the nine o'clock news.
Speaker 2: Coming right back on Nightside.
Speaker 1: You're on night Side with Dan Ray on Boston's news Radio.
Speaker 3: All right back to the phones we go. Want to
Speaker 3: welcome doctor Alex Dell Carmon.
Speaker 2: Doctor Dell Carmon's been on the program before, and doctor
Speaker 2: del Carmon, here is the talk with us tonight to
Speaker 2: talk about in uptick, it's more than an uptick, twenty
Speaker 2: four percent increase in shoplifting across the United States at
Speaker 2: a time when a lot of other crimes have fallen
Speaker 2: into pre pandemic levels. Is it all about the economy?
Speaker 2: Remember that was Bill Clinton's slogan back it's the economy
Speaker 2: stupid back in nineteen ninety two, James carvi Will talk
Speaker 2: that way is shoplifting related to the economy.
Speaker 5: Good evening and thanks for having me again. So, you know,
Speaker 5: many people think that it is the economy. You know,
Speaker 5: we criminologists look at an array of things that may
Speaker 5: actually be responsible for the spiking shoplifting cases, you know,
Speaker 5: for the past six months, and some of it may
Speaker 5: be related to economic reasons, but some of it may
Speaker 5: also be related to lack of what we call capable guardians,
Speaker 5: which basically means the absence of police officers, the absence
Speaker 5: of security guards at stores, and in some cases, the
Speaker 5: fact that some prosecutors are just not willing to prosecute
Speaker 5: those quote unquote minor cases and therefore they look the
Speaker 5: other way.
Speaker 2: So I'm assuming that many stores, particularly the mom and
Speaker 2: pop stores, are the ones with shoplifting is going to
Speaker 2: be have a greater impact. Or I assume that the
Speaker 2: stores like Walmart and Target and the big big chain
Speaker 2: stores across the country that they kind of build that
Speaker 2: in and they also have people they have more people
Speaker 2: in those stores. But I'm assuming it's the mom and
Speaker 2: pop stores that are really feeling the brunt of the
Speaker 2: impact of this or am I wrong?
Speaker 5: Yeah, No, that's exactly right. And I think economically many
Speaker 5: of those very small stores, you know, they don't have
Speaker 5: not only you know, they have the absence of video cameras,
Speaker 5: they the absence of the security guard or two or
Speaker 5: someone that is you know, acting as a quote unquote
Speaker 5: under quot or shopper. And sometimes they even have the
Speaker 5: inability to contact law enforcement because they're so busy handling
Speaker 5: other matters because of the shortage of personnel, and so
Speaker 5: they're the ones that are effected when it comes to
Speaker 5: the shoplifting cases. But obviously we see the volume in
Speaker 5: ms in terms of dollar losses with the big stores,
Speaker 5: right like the targets and the various other stores across
Speaker 5: the nation where you know, they become the target given
Speaker 5: the volume and the amount of money that some of
Speaker 5: those items cost.
Speaker 2: Okay, So this leads me to a second line of questioning,
Speaker 2: and that is that there's a lot of and I
Speaker 2: think about San Francisco, but I assume it's going on
Speaker 2: in other cities around the country. I go in now
Speaker 2: to a CVS, and I noticed that there's more things
Speaker 2: that are under lock and key that never were under
Speaker 2: lock and key before. I mean electric toothbrushes and things
Speaker 2: like that. You can't buy an electric toothbrush unless you
Speaker 2: get some one of the store clerks to come and
Speaker 2: open the.
Speaker 3: Display case for you.
Speaker 2: And I assume that a lot of the shoplifting that
Speaker 2: has occurred has incurred in poorer communities. And my understanding
Speaker 2: is that a lot of these big chains are closing
Speaker 2: up in some of these these these poorer communities. And
Speaker 2: I read a story today that said that there are now,
Speaker 2: you know, they talk about you know, food deserts, supermarket deserts,
Speaker 2: and now pharmacy deserts, meaning the little community that always
Speaker 2: needs a store and a pharmacy and maybe a post office.
Speaker 2: A lot of these stores are disappearing, and people who
Speaker 2: don't have a car to drive to the mall in
Speaker 2: the suburbs now they don't have access to the things
Speaker 2: that they need for day to day life. So there's
Speaker 2: an impact here. Or are they unrelated?
Speaker 5: No, I mean I think they're related. And what we've seen,
Speaker 5: you know, to your point, you know, San Francisco is
Speaker 5: probably the best example. The site right here is a
Speaker 5: city that, although still beautiful and you know, wonderful things
Speaker 5: to see in San Francisco, you go to downtown San Francisco,
Speaker 5: as my wife and I did some months ago, and
Speaker 5: you walk the downtown area and it's completely desolate. I
Speaker 5: mean you you you know, you'll find that some of
Speaker 5: these big stores you know, have left, some of the
Speaker 5: businesses are no longer occupying some of the buildings. Some
Speaker 5: of it is because of the pandemic, no question, and
Speaker 5: many people, as you may recall, moved over to you know,
Speaker 5: to work from home, and a lot of these corporations
Speaker 5: never you know, renew the leases because they found it
Speaker 5: more cost effective to have people off site working remotely.
Speaker 5: But you still have the effect of the fact that
Speaker 5: there are so many thefts and so much lawlessness in
Speaker 5: some of these areas. In prosecutors that unfortunately, you know,
Speaker 5: play play into politics. They look the other way, and
Speaker 5: police officers quite frankly became frustrated because they were like, well,
Speaker 5: why am I going to be risking my life to
Speaker 5: arrest somebody who shut uplifting if the prosecutor is going
Speaker 5: to tell me that they're not going to prosecute the
Speaker 5: case and so, and of course now we have what
Speaker 5: we have in some of those cities, which is either
Speaker 5: chaos or people demanding that those prosecutors be fired and
Speaker 5: to reinstitute the law.
Speaker 2: Well, in San Francisco, the prosecutor was the district attorney
Speaker 2: out there was recalled, So there ares in which they
Speaker 2: can be removed. So how do we turn this situation around?
Speaker 2: I mean, we can appeal to people's better angels, but
Speaker 2: that tends not to work. How can we turn it around?
Speaker 5: Yeah, well, you know, I think that it's going to
Speaker 5: be a matter of time before we start seeing some changes.
Speaker 5: And part of it also is not only the economy,
Speaker 5: but also the fact that some of these areas need
Speaker 5: to start, you know, getting filled with businesses again and
Speaker 5: have that trust effect that we had prior to the pandemic.
Speaker 5: And you know, we've seen this in sort of you know,
Speaker 5: different cycles in the history of the United States, particularly
Speaker 5: in the past fifty sixty years, where you've seen some
Speaker 5: of these cities, in some of these urban areas become
Speaker 5: almost like deserts in the middle of nowhere, and then
Speaker 5: all of a sudden, somebody picks up an investor or
Speaker 5: a real estate company may actually buy some properties and
Speaker 5: reinstitute some degree of attractiveness for investors to come back,
Speaker 5: and before you know it, you have those lively, wonderful
Speaker 5: communities that we had prior to the pandemic. But you know,
Speaker 5: part of it also is, and I don't want to
Speaker 5: underscore the lack of importance that this has, which is,
Speaker 5: you know, law enforcement personnel. We are seeing a shortage
Speaker 5: of cops around the United States and that does affect,
Speaker 5: as we call it, the presence of capable guardians, meaning
Speaker 5: the ability of having people on the lookout that are
Speaker 5: going to enforce the law. And so it's going to
Speaker 5: be years before we see this turnaround.
Speaker 3: I'm afraid. Yeah.
Speaker 2: Matter of fact, that nine o'clock tonight, during the nine
Speaker 2: o'clock I will be talking with the president of the
Speaker 2: Boston Police Patrolman's Association. These are the officers who are
Speaker 2: on the street dealing with with crimes on a day
Speaker 2: to day basis, and we are down a couple of
Speaker 2: hundred or perhaps more police officers from where we should
Speaker 2: be in Boston, and I suspect that there's a problem
Speaker 2: around the country as well.
Speaker 3: You know, my.
Speaker 2: Perspective on a lot of these again small variety stores
Speaker 2: of bodegas or small restaurants in communities, they're really the
Speaker 2: backbone of these communities and people need to support them.
Speaker 2: I go out of my way when I have a
Speaker 2: chance to support a local business or a local restaurant.
Speaker 3: Because if you don't, it's great to have those in
Speaker 3: your community, and if you don't, they go away. How
Speaker 3: do we should? Could there be some.
Speaker 2: Sort of a public service campaign which would make people
Speaker 2: realize that you're stealing when you shoplift from a small
Speaker 2: mom and pop store, or for that matter, when you
Speaker 2: do any shoplifting, you're hurting your own community in the
Speaker 2: long run. Yeah, you might have a cardon of free
Speaker 2: sick you're ats, or you might have a couple of
Speaker 2: candy bars, but the damage that you do in the
Speaker 2: long run to your community far outwaghs the minor benefit
Speaker 2: that you receive when you walk out the door without
Speaker 2: paying for something.
Speaker 5: And boy, that would be wonderful for us to institute
Speaker 5: some sort of moral compass right among some of these
Speaker 5: folks that go out there and do this, you know,
Speaker 5: almost sometimes for a living.
Speaker 3: You know.
Speaker 5: They we've seen in stores where they're coming in, you know,
Speaker 5: twenty or thirty at a time, and they just basically
Speaker 5: rob everything that is accessible to them from the street,
Speaker 5: and before you know it, they're being sold on eBay
Speaker 5: for half the price. And you know, they're taking people's
Speaker 5: jobs away, they're increasing the prices for those of us
Speaker 5: that go out to the store and legally and lawfully
Speaker 5: consume goods. You know, it's really sad. And one thing
Speaker 5: that I've learned over twenty seven years being a criminologist
Speaker 5: is that is that, unfortunately, not everyone has the same
Speaker 5: point of departure when it comes to that level of
Speaker 5: consciousness and moracle that we wish people had as it
Speaker 5: relates to, you know, harming others for absolutely no reason
Speaker 5: at all except to take advantage of them. And I
Speaker 5: wish that were the case. But I will say to
Speaker 5: you that you know, communities that are closely knitted, and
Speaker 5: Boston is one of my favorite cities. In fact, I
Speaker 5: you know, even though I reside in Dallas, my my
Speaker 5: daughter is at BU Law and my sister is a
Speaker 5: medical doctor there. In fact, I'll be out there tomorrow
Speaker 5: night in Boston. Great city, great dynamics, great police department. Unfortunately,
Speaker 5: you know it has not been spared as other cities
Speaker 5: have with the lack of officers and the fact that,
Speaker 5: you know, some crimes are going up. And one of
Speaker 5: the cities that this particular study covered, you know, as
Speaker 5: it looked at thirty two cities across the US looking
Speaker 5: at shoplifting is it was the city of Boston. And unfortunately,
Speaker 5: shoplifting is going up in your city and will likely
Speaker 5: continue until we have a moment of turning this thing around.
Speaker 2: Well, doctor to common, Uh, congratulate your daughter. I'm an
Speaker 2: alumnus of Bosh University. Wonderful last century. It's been a while,
Speaker 2: but very active. And uh ask your daughter as a
Speaker 2: bu is she there now?
Speaker 6: Is she's starting or is she no, she's in her
Speaker 6: last her last year. Okay, Well when you when you
Speaker 6: see her, remember this and just say go check out
Speaker 6: the award winners. It was called the Silver Shingle Award.
Speaker 2: It's the highest award you can get as a Boston
Speaker 2: University Law School alumnus.
Speaker 3: And she'll see my name listed. So it was nineteen
Speaker 3: eighty eight when I received that award.
Speaker 5: And we will look for it together because I'll be
Speaker 5: out there this week.
Speaker 2: There's probably there's probably somewhere where it's engraved in something
Speaker 2: that hangs on the wall, but.
Speaker 3: She could find it.
Speaker 2: Congratulations to you and your family and to your daughter,
Speaker 2: and it's always great to talk to another member of
Speaker 2: the BU Law School family. Thanks so much, Doctor Dougle,
Speaker 2: Thank you. We'll talk again. We come back on the
Speaker 2: talk with Justin Green. He deals with a condition called apraxia.
Speaker 3: I can do that.
Speaker 2: I didn't quite understand until I looked at it today.
Speaker 2: We'll explain it, and I think you'll find it interesting.
Speaker 2: Justin has a praxia, but he communicates very very well,
Speaker 2: and we will. We will explain it all. There's an
Speaker 2: upcoming Boston Walk for a praxia. I always think these
Speaker 2: should be called the Boston Walk against this condition new
Speaker 2: other it's the Boston Walk for this or the Boston
Speaker 2: Walk for this. It should always be the Boston Walk
Speaker 2: against But we'll deal with that with Justin Green on
Speaker 2: the other side of this break.
Speaker 3: Coming back on Nightside.
Speaker 1: Now, back to Dan Ray live from the Window World
Speaker 1: night Side Studios on WBZ News Radio.
Speaker 3: I learned something today.
Speaker 2: My guest Justin Green, explained to us that there's a
Speaker 2: Boston Walk for a praxia. And I got to be
Speaker 2: honest with you, I'd never heard of a praxia, but
Speaker 2: Justin Green deals with this. Justin, I don't know if
Speaker 2: we should call this a disease or a condition.
Speaker 3: I'd love to know what you think. It's apprax your
Speaker 3: A p R A x I A.
Speaker 7: And you said it perfectly. It's a disorder. It's a
Speaker 7: neurological disorder that falls under the speech spectrum.
Speaker 2: Which which spectrum did you say, justin speech?
Speaker 7: Well, the speech spectrum spectrum.
Speaker 2: So so what it is is I understood, and I
Speaker 2: did a little bit of research on it, but you're
Speaker 2: the expert. There's a little bit of a disconnect between
Speaker 2: the word that that the brain wants to articulate and
Speaker 2: the manner in which the vocal cords and the and
Speaker 2: the mouth says the word. Is that it's it's simplest
Speaker 2: form or is it probably more sophisticated than that?
Speaker 7: No, that that that's a great and and I'd also
Speaker 7: say the jaw okay, the mouth, the mouth, jaw and
Speaker 7: tongue out of sync with the brain.
Speaker 2: Okay, Now, how many people a year are either diagnosed
Speaker 2: with this?
Speaker 3: How common is this condition?
Speaker 2: It's a lot more common than I've because I'd never
Speaker 2: heard about this before.
Speaker 7: I think it's very uncommon in my belief. But what
Speaker 7: happens if you have a thousand people born one person,
Speaker 7: one person will have it.
Speaker 2: Okay, so that would be one tenth of one percent,
Speaker 2: And you might say, well, that's not a lot, but
Speaker 2: when you multiply that in a population of three hundred
Speaker 2: and thirty million people, the numbers are significant. Can people,
Speaker 2: either through getting a little older, grow out of this circumstance.
Speaker 7: With years and years of speech therapy, many people are
Speaker 7: able to develop, like myself, a unique accent and speak
Speaker 7: pretty well.
Speaker 3: Well, you speak very well.
Speaker 2: First of all, justin I'm not patronizing you, but you
Speaker 2: speak very well. I've inter interviewed you before when you
Speaker 2: had the mini horses for the folks at the the
Speaker 2: the Elder Elder care Home last last spring. Tell us
Speaker 2: about the walk, what can be done here, what the
Speaker 2: money that's raised, how can people get involved in it?
Speaker 7: And yes, thank you, it's a proxya. Hyphen Kids dot
Speaker 7: Org is the website and it goes across the country
Speaker 7: and we have it in Boston and the easiest way
Speaker 7: to do it is Google bought in a proxy of
Speaker 7: WALK twenty twenty four and that'll make the website. We
Speaker 7: usually have about twelve to fifteen kids in the WALK.
Speaker 7: And for like myself, what happens is a lot of
Speaker 7: people have difficulties saying a lot poly polysylibic words, you
Speaker 7: get choppy, like I have difficulty with all else ounds
Speaker 7: like pools before swine. And this helps research and it
Speaker 7: also gives speech therapists an opportunity to come to the
Speaker 7: Pittsburgh office for a week of training for just dealing
Speaker 7: with a proxia, because what happens If you have one
Speaker 7: hundred kids with speech impediments, only three kids might have
Speaker 7: a proxia. So many speech therapists don't even deal with
Speaker 7: don't have any training in the approxia.
Speaker 2: What are the resources in Boston available? In other words,
Speaker 2: if someone has a child who's listening tonight, or someone
Speaker 2: themselves who's an adult who realizes that they have this condition,
Speaker 2: and I have never I'd never heard of it before.
Speaker 2: I mean, I you know, we've talked about people who stutter.
Speaker 2: When I went to elementary school grammar school as we
Speaker 2: called it in those days, I had two boys in
Speaker 2: my class who had a bad starter and the nuns
Speaker 2: were for the most part, pretty empathetic, and we became
Speaker 2: empathetic because we realized that, hey, they're not stuttering because
Speaker 2: they want to. They're stuttering because they that's that's the
Speaker 2: way they have to speak.
Speaker 3: But I'd never heard of a proxy.
Speaker 7: To be honest with you, yeah, you'd like this. So
Speaker 7: when I was twenty nine years old, I went back
Speaker 7: to find tu my speech and the second session, the
Speaker 7: speed s thearapist gave me a less of ten characteristics.
Speaker 7: I med them. I said, I have nine out of
Speaker 7: ten of thees and she smiled, she said, yes, flip
Speaker 7: it over. This is characteristics of a proxy. It came
Speaker 7: out around two thousand and it started getting known, so
Speaker 7: it's somewhat relatively new, okay, And most speech therapists will
Speaker 7: be able to have in an office, be able to
Speaker 7: recommend someone that does have training. And still more, speech
Speaker 7: therapists can still do a wonderful job. It's nicer if
Speaker 7: they have training, but if not, the speech therapists with
Speaker 7: so much research going on, it's wonderful. And I love
Speaker 7: the word you use, empathetic. I go my favorite day
Speaker 7: of the year is to go to the Lincoln Elliott
Speaker 7: School in Newton in March, I read the kids for
Speaker 7: the book reading, the community book reading. And when I
Speaker 7: was in eighth grade, I was the only student the
Speaker 7: teacher for God Blesses, so Coach Missler let me skip.
Speaker 7: I didn't have to read a paragraph out loud, and
Speaker 7: that was wonderful. But I wasn't part of myself. So
Speaker 7: I kept going back to Speech Helpy as an adult,
Speaker 7: and now every year I read to the kids and
Speaker 7: it's my favorite day of the year. And I tell
Speaker 7: the kids my story and I tell them Sympathy is nice,
Speaker 7: Kindness is better, Empathy and compassions the best.
Speaker 3: Well, oday, I think you're doing a great job. I'm
Speaker 3: certainly getting the word out.
Speaker 2: But you speak very well, you communicate very well, and
Speaker 2: I wish you're best of luck with the walk. The
Speaker 2: walk is in September. What's the date?
Speaker 7: September fifteenth?
Speaker 3: Okay, So folks can get in touch.
Speaker 2: They should go to a proxya ap r a xia
Speaker 2: right a pr a xia hyphen kids dot com.
Speaker 7: And if I could leave one last thing, it'd be
Speaker 7: wonderful if anyone who like to donate. But my biggest
Speaker 7: request is when people go to different businesses and there's
Speaker 7: a service employee that has difficulty talking, maybe stuttering or
Speaker 7: speaks slowly, try to be try to be patient if
Speaker 7: they're doing the best they can and if you can
Speaker 7: come implement them afterwards. You don't make that day. I
Speaker 7: know anyone's in the US and perfect news can be fired,
Speaker 7: but that would be my biggest.
Speaker 2: Great great to end, great to end on a positive note.
Speaker 2: Justin is always pleasure to speak with you. Thank you
Speaker 2: so much. We'll talk again. You're welcome. We come back
Speaker 2: to nine o'clock news Here on ninth second, I'm talking
Speaker 2: with the head of the Boston Police Patrolman's Association, Larry Calderone,
Speaker 2: about the need to get more officers in uniform on
Speaker 2: the streets of the city of Boston