Speaker 1: It's night side with Dan Ray on Boston.
Speaker 2: Welcome back. It's a little bit after ten o'clock here
Speaker 2: and on a Friday night. I'm delighted to be joined
Speaker 2: by a friend of many years, someone who uh, I
Speaker 2: think is familiar to everyone in New England. Uh. Former
Speaker 2: Boston Police Commissioner Bill Bratton. But he's also former New
Speaker 2: York Police commissioner twice, former chief of police in Los Angeles,
Speaker 2: a career in the in law, in law enforcement. And
Speaker 2: we could we could spend the entire hour going through
Speaker 2: the resume and the awards and all of that. Like me,
Speaker 2: he is a graduate of University of Massachusetts in Boston. Bill,
Speaker 2: did did you go to Boston State and then by
Speaker 2: virtue of the merger becoming U Mass Boston Graduate or
Speaker 2: did you go to U mass Boston?
Speaker 3: Uh?
Speaker 2: And it's in its old area, in the Park Square area.
Speaker 2: How are you tonight?
Speaker 3: I'm well tonight, Dan, good to be with you. I
Speaker 3: actually started at Boston State in nineteen seventy one under
Speaker 3: a federally funded program to provide college educations to police officers.
Speaker 3: So as part of one hundred police officers from around
Speaker 3: the Great Boston area. It started at Boston State, but
Speaker 3: then in mid seventies it was merged into the U
Speaker 3: mass system. So I ended up graduating out of Boston.
Speaker 3: In your run up of my bio, you left out
Speaker 3: I'm up here in Boston. We got the Vagatta, one
Speaker 3: of the great events here in this city this weekend.
Speaker 3: I got a gorgeous weekend for it. A lot of
Speaker 3: listeners might remember the old MDC Police, the Metropolitan Police. Yes,
Speaker 3: that used to used to police the Charles River among
Speaker 3: its responsibilities, and so I was superintendent of that for
Speaker 3: a few years old.
Speaker 2: Also are the head of the MBTA Police, if if.
Speaker 3: I recall that's correct. It was the first of my
Speaker 3: two transit developments. I headed up the transit police in
Speaker 3: New York.
Speaker 2: Also, yeah, so yeah, as I said, we could, we
Speaker 2: could have read the entire and we'll be wrapping up
Speaker 2: and saying thanks very much you having joined us.
Speaker 3: So I've had I had a hard time holding on
Speaker 3: to a.
Speaker 2: Job, Don and you you were sought after by by
Speaker 2: some of the great cities in America, New York, Los Angeles,
Speaker 2: and Boston. My understanding is that you're in You're in
Speaker 2: town not only for the regatta, but I also think
Speaker 2: there's some sort of a law enforcement event going on
Speaker 2: this weekend that you're involved in or or was I misled?
Speaker 3: Actually this series of them over the last two days.
Speaker 3: The Major City Chiefs Association, which is made up of
Speaker 3: the seventy five largest cities in America and Canada, we're
Speaker 3: holding their conference here attended by four or five hundred
Speaker 3: law enforcement officials, including the chiefs, to discuss a wide
Speaker 3: range of current issues of concern. The elections were in
Speaker 3: the middle of the crime situation, the various crime issues
Speaker 3: we're dealing with, terrorism, what's going on in the mid
Speaker 3: East now it's impacting here. Starting tomorrow, the fifteen thousand
Speaker 3: member International Association of Chiefs of Police, which represent almost
Speaker 3: all of the police organizations in this country, are here
Speaker 3: in Boston for their annual conference. So you'll see a
Speaker 3: lot of those chiefs in the city the next five
Speaker 3: days and then on Sunday and organization I'm may be
Speaker 3: proud to be part of the Police Executive Research Forum,
Speaker 3: headed up by a Bostonian Chuck Wexler, who I work
Speaker 3: with in the Boston Police Department. Well, well, you and
Speaker 3: I have taught together at his program over BEU every
Speaker 3: summer so he'll be doing his things. So it's a
Speaker 3: very exciting weekend for the law enforcement community here in
Speaker 3: the United States and Canada, which brings me.
Speaker 2: To the topic at hand. And this has been a
Speaker 2: very interesting presidential election campaign, unfortunately made more interesting by
Speaker 2: a mere assassination of one candidate, Donald Trump and a
Speaker 2: second assassination attempt that there were more questions about both
Speaker 2: of these that have been answered, so I'd like to
Speaker 2: talk about those. I'd also like to talk about the
Speaker 2: idea of that the Middle East does have a splash
Speaker 2: over effect here at Bill and you know this better
Speaker 2: than I do, and I know there is probably some
Speaker 2: things that you can't say. And so, as I've said
Speaker 2: earlier tonight, I always have the right to take the
Speaker 2: Fifth Amendment here on nightside when we get to an
Speaker 2: area that we should not be talking about. But I'm
Speaker 2: hearing a lot of roomors. I'm looking at a Washington
Speaker 2: Post piece as a matter of fact, from this past
Speaker 2: August about the idea of Iranian hit squads looking to
Speaker 2: take out American politicians of either party and maybe in
Speaker 2: retaliation for our support of Israel and the fact that
Speaker 2: we were able to get rid of solomony during the
Speaker 2: Trump administration. So there's just so much to talk about here.
Speaker 2: Maybe what we could do is just have one question
Speaker 2: and then I got to go to break And did
Speaker 2: you ever think in your lifetime after what we experienced,
Speaker 2: and you and I are very close in age as
Speaker 2: young teenagers in nineteen sixty three, the assassination of a president,
Speaker 2: what we witnessed as young men the summer of sixty eight,
Speaker 2: including the assassination of doctor King and Senator Robert F. Kennedy,
Speaker 2: did you ever think, and you know there have been
Speaker 2: other events along the way, but that there would be
Speaker 2: two assassination attempts during a president a campaign in this
Speaker 2: year twenty twenty four.
Speaker 3: Too, directed against the same candidate you left out, George Wallace.
Speaker 2: No, I did, yeah, yep, no, And I interviewed him
Speaker 2: after that event. As a matter of fact, I remember
Speaker 2: him rolling in in a wheelchair into the old WBC
Speaker 2: studio at Soldier's Field Road. Now I remember that. And
Speaker 2: we could also mention Gerald Ford who two crazy women.
Speaker 2: One was Wiki Frome and the other was I think
Speaker 2: it was Jane Jane Moore or Mary Jane Moore. They
Speaker 2: both took a shot and both of the myssed they
Speaker 2: had pistols, so and of course Ronald Reagan, who himself
Speaker 2: nearly died. But but it just it just it boggles
Speaker 2: my mind that there could be two of these. And
Speaker 2: you know, from a security perspective, what did you think
Speaker 2: of the first one in Butler, Pennsylvania. That had to
Speaker 2: be a total and it appears to have been a
Speaker 2: total miscommunication between the locals and the FEDS. And I'm
Speaker 2: sure you've handled many of presidential visions in your life,
Speaker 2: in your experience, how could that happen?
Speaker 3: Well, it's quite clear that it should not have happened.
Speaker 3: That the report that was just issued this week was
Speaker 3: pretty damning of the Secret Service and its protocols and
Speaker 3: procedures and is calling for a widespread reforms of that organization.
Speaker 3: It's recruiting, it's training, its leadership, and it's something that
Speaker 3: the Secret Service itself has freely admitted that it recognizes
Speaker 3: that they are major issues in the organization that need
Speaker 3: to be corrected, including recognizing that it's ironic that the
Speaker 3: agency started as an entity with the Treasury Department to
Speaker 3: investigate financial crime, and the protection of the president was
Speaker 3: actually a smaller part of it. Their workload. Now it's
Speaker 3: become almost the major focus of the workload because it's
Speaker 3: so much more public than the Financial Primees investigation. So
Speaker 3: there's no denying that there were major, major omissions, deficiencies,
Speaker 3: screw ups basically at almost every aspect of that event.
Speaker 3: In Butler, less so on the golf course incident, the
Speaker 3: second incident. Second incident did reflect, However, one of the
Speaker 3: struggles that the Secret Service does have with its limited
Speaker 3: manpower is the idea of a spontaneous event that the
Speaker 3: president may seek to engage in something they discourage the
Speaker 3: golf course not having enough time to effectively inspect that site,
Speaker 3: if you will, And so going forward they will change
Speaker 3: their protocols on doubtteredly a lot more use of drones,
Speaker 3: for example, securing larger areas. And these events, these near tragedies,
Speaker 3: are always learning exercises in the sense of trying to
Speaker 3: prevent them from occurring in the future. Nation attempts against
Speaker 3: presidents are not new, unfortunately in this country of democracy.
Speaker 3: We celebrate democracy, but unfortunately we have seen to have
Speaker 3: even more assassination attempts than they do elsewhere in the world.
Speaker 2: Yeah, the one in Pennsylvania, it seemed to me that
Speaker 2: that's a roof of a building that was I think
Speaker 2: it was something like one hundred yards away or less
Speaker 2: than one hundred yards away. And what I'm getting is
Speaker 2: that somehow there was a line of communication. They run
Speaker 2: different radio channels, and even though this guy was spotted
Speaker 2: on the roof and there would have been plenty of
Speaker 2: time to get the former president off the stage, that
Speaker 2: was not communicated to the agent of age.
Speaker 3: That issue, Dan, I think is the one that is
Speaker 3: the most frustrating. The New York Times Day had a
Speaker 3: summary of the very large report that it was commenting
Speaker 3: on and reference the idea that is, many of his
Speaker 3: six Secret Service agents were aware of this character that
Speaker 3: was roaming around the area of the event, and yet
Speaker 3: none of them took the initiative to basically not let
Speaker 3: the president get up on the stage, and once he
Speaker 3: was on the stage, get.
Speaker 4: Him off the stage.
Speaker 3: And it's just highlighting something of the Secret Service itself
Speaker 3: has admitted that it is having large turnover. A lot
Speaker 3: of seasoned people leaving the paper today actually have not
Speaker 3: a chance to be the full report, but some of
Speaker 3: the excerpts in the New York Times states reporting that
Speaker 3: the Agent in charge of security for mister Trump had
Speaker 3: only joined the agency four years ago, and she was
Speaker 3: already a team leader the most important assignment of the
Speaker 3: Secret Service, protecting the President, and she only had four
Speaker 3: years on the job and this was one of her
Speaker 3: first assignments in that capacity. So no, a lot to
Speaker 3: be learned from what's going forward. Secret Service is committed
Speaker 3: to doing that. Congress is aren't going to have to
Speaker 3: be committed to adequately funding them for the increased security
Speaker 3: that's now going to be required going forward. And the
Speaker 3: security issues are immens today because we now have these
Speaker 3: concerns about drones outside events, with the issue of drones
Speaker 3: flying over those events and god for offendion ever on,
Speaker 3: and social media encouraging and basically almost enabling it sounds
Speaker 3: kind of like what I see the idea of encouraging
Speaker 3: through social media people to basically become terrorists. And we've
Speaker 3: got a lot of that now with all the hates
Speaker 3: viewing out of social media, that we're creating an enemy
Speaker 3: from within. If you will, you.
Speaker 2: Know, I want to kit on all of those points
Speaker 2: on Bill. I have a million questions. I got to
Speaker 2: take a quick break. This is a fairly quick commercial break,
Speaker 2: we get back will continue conversation with former bar New
Speaker 2: York Police Commissioner Bill Bratton, chief of police in Los Angeles.
Speaker 2: I don't think there's some more respected police authority with
Speaker 2: a wide variety of experience than Bill Bratton. Delighted he's
Speaker 2: with us tonight. As you said, tell he's going to
Speaker 2: be a very busy guy this weekend with all the
Speaker 2: police meetings and activity in Boston. And we will get
Speaker 2: to some phone calls. But I have a couple of
Speaker 2: other questions that I got to ask Bill Bratton, and
Speaker 2: we'll be back to do that right after this break
Speaker 2: on Nightside.
Speaker 1: Now back to Dan Ray live from the Window World
Speaker 1: night Side Studios on w b Z News Radio.
Speaker 2: Our guest is Bill Bratton. There's so much to say
Speaker 2: about his experience. Most of you know the different places
Speaker 2: that he has served. Bill. I was on a trip
Speaker 2: with listeners from Nightside to Italy in early August, and
Speaker 2: one member of the trip was a guy who was
Speaker 2: fifty two years old. He had retired early from the
Speaker 2: Secret Service. This guy military background. He looked like a
Speaker 2: linebacker for the Patriots. I mean, the sort of person
Speaker 2: who you would want out there protecting the President. But
Speaker 2: he basically said he had burned out that you know,
Speaker 2: the demands on the time was such that he could
Speaker 2: no longer handle it. And I thought to myself, to
Speaker 2: lose an asset like this guy, fifty two years old, smartest,
Speaker 2: a whip, military background, and again you know, look like
Speaker 2: he was a professional football player, you know, just to
Speaker 2: lose him that might be what the real problem is
Speaker 2: with the Secret Service right now, is that the good
Speaker 2: people are leaving at such a rate. I got to
Speaker 2: assume that you can identify with that story without me
Speaker 2: telling you much more about this guy. This guy should
Speaker 2: not have been retiring at fifty two years of age.
Speaker 2: He was at the prime of his career.
Speaker 3: Well, his story is not unusual in American law enforcement.
Speaker 3: It's not just a Secret Service problem. It's a problem
Speaker 3: in American policing now. Because of the incredible pressures on
Speaker 3: law enforcement offices from a lot of different directions and anxieties,
Speaker 3: a lot of them are leaving earlier than they did
Speaker 3: during my time. My time, you come on the job
Speaker 3: in your twenties, you stay till sixty five, you know,
Speaker 3: and you've left before that. It was very unusual. But
Speaker 3: today the burnout factor is it's happening much quicker for
Speaker 3: people at the anxiety levels, the mental stress, let alone
Speaker 3: the physical wear and here so the Secret Service experience
Speaker 3: is not unique. But the issue that the Secret Service
Speaker 3: is facing, as was reflected in the conversations the last
Speaker 3: two days from the major city chiefs, almost every one
Speaker 3: of those departments represented here in barcelon the last couple
Speaker 3: of days is talking about the severe personnel shortage is
Speaker 3: that they're facing. I think American police forces are fifty
Speaker 3: two hundred thousand fewer offices than we had at the
Speaker 3: time of the murder of George Floyd, and trying to
Speaker 3: fill that deficiency is very difficult. In secret services, probably
Speaker 3: even more pressured because the nature of what they do.
Speaker 3: Think of it Dan the sense of in this presidential campaign,
Speaker 3: the movements of the presidential candidates, two of them around
Speaker 3: the country doing two or three events a day, and
Speaker 3: a planning that has to go in before that, the
Speaker 3: protection during the event, the movement of equipment, the armored cars,
Speaker 3: the communications gear, and we've all seen the length of
Speaker 3: these presidential convoys, twenty thirty vehicles. A lot of that
Speaker 3: has to be moved every time. That candidate moves, and
Speaker 3: now that they've requiring that, in the case of Trump
Speaker 3: and the vice president, that they receive presidential level protection,
Speaker 3: the stresses on those agents that they're constantly on the move,
Speaker 3: and once they're in a location, then the anxiety ramps
Speaker 3: up because then the challenge is to actually protect the
Speaker 3: physical person a little on over planning before the event.
Speaker 3: That then when the event is underway and they're bringing
Speaker 3: agents from all over the country to basically secure these events,
Speaker 3: Congress is going to have to face up to the
Speaker 3: fact that they're going to have to spend a lot
Speaker 3: more money on to high a lot more agents because effectively,
Speaker 3: these threat situations are probably not going to lessen in
Speaker 3: the future. That social media is here to stay. The
Speaker 3: political hostility is ramping up rather than the client You
Speaker 3: and I have been about a long time and we've
Speaker 3: watched it steadily increase through these election cycles, which for
Speaker 3: the last twenty years, there's so much anger and once
Speaker 3: again in our country there's one hundred some villion guns.
Speaker 3: You know, that becomes another problem in our country, that's
Speaker 3: just the availability of fire aps.
Speaker 2: I want to jump back just for a second, Midus,
Speaker 2: is this eight thousand secret Service agents. They're looking to
Speaker 2: try to bump it up to ten thousand. I know
Speaker 2: that in Boston there have been at least a dozen
Speaker 2: Boston police officers who have left as young police officers
Speaker 2: and have transferred over to become firefighters. I'm sure that
Speaker 2: if that's going on here, it's going on elsewhere, and
Speaker 2: it is. It is the fallout from this horrific incident,
Speaker 2: the George Floyd incident, which I think became very politicized.
Speaker 2: It was one police officer who was a rotten apple
Speaker 2: who obviously took advantage. And I remember watching the video
Speaker 2: of that guy get up off the neck of George
Speaker 2: Floyd and preened around like he was that he had
Speaker 2: done something heroic. That was a guy that should not
Speaker 2: have been a police office. You now have going back,
Speaker 2: and I want to jump back to Butler. I haven't
Speaker 2: seen any information that assassination is now nearly one hundred
Speaker 2: days old, or that assassination attempt is one hundred days old.
Speaker 2: We know nothing. I know nothing more about this kid,
Speaker 2: and yet we were told that he was on encrypted
Speaker 2: websites with people in foreign countries. And do you think
Speaker 2: that we're ever going to get the true story on
Speaker 2: who he was working with. I don't buy the fact
Speaker 2: that this kid got up that morning and said to himself, well,
Speaker 2: I'm going to go take a shot at Donald Trump.
Speaker 2: I mean, and if he did, what are all the
Speaker 2: encrypted messages about, you know of what I speak?
Speaker 3: Well, the issue of encryption interesting enough. The FBI director
Speaker 3: yesterday made a presentation and one of his major points
Speaker 3: of frustration was that with the Apple devices and the
Speaker 3: Mata devices, that the ability to basically get into all
Speaker 3: these smartphones, for example, into laptops, into computers is each
Speaker 3: year is diminishing their ability to get into these devices
Speaker 3: because the manufacturers are basically making them even more difficult
Speaker 3: to penetrate. The encryption is becoming more significant. So I
Speaker 3: think you're correct. I don't think we're ever going to
Speaker 3: know what the hell this kid's motivation was because we're
Speaker 3: probably never going to be able to access a lot
Speaker 3: of what he was doing because it was encrypted.
Speaker 2: Could could not and this is this is part of
Speaker 2: a legal question. Could not I don't know what type
Speaker 2: of phone he had, but but could not the government,
Speaker 2: the FBI go to the manufacturers of the phone and say, hey,
Speaker 2: whatever security precautions you know, that you have in this phone.
Speaker 2: This was the phone owned by the guy that took
Speaker 2: a shot and almost killed a presidential candidate. We want
Speaker 2: you to take that phone and break it down. We
Speaker 2: want to know who he was talking to. And it
Speaker 2: would seem to me maybe you'll up in court, But
Speaker 2: I kind of imagine that that any company under those
Speaker 2: extreme circumstances would fight back and say, no, we have
Speaker 2: to we have to protect the privacy of our of
Speaker 2: our dead customer.
Speaker 3: Well, the reality is they won't do it, and the
Speaker 3: device is are purposely designed so they cannot be penetrated
Speaker 3: even by the manufacturer. In other words, there's no bare's
Speaker 3: there's no back door. They basically it's one of the cells.
Speaker 3: The selling teachers that your information is protected from even
Speaker 3: us the manufacturer, that we're not secretly applying into your life. Now,
Speaker 3: this issue of encryption is international terrorism. When I was
Speaker 3: commissioner in New York, in particular, that we were frustrated
Speaker 3: at every turn by the inability to get into these homes.
Speaker 3: That and as the FBI Director indicated yesterday, each year
Speaker 3: the ability to get into them is lessened despite the
Speaker 3: increasing capabilities of the FBI. For example, Wow.
Speaker 2: Boy, I'll tell you, I think it was Khrushev back
Speaker 2: in the day, said that he would sell the rope
Speaker 2: to the United States, which would hang themselves. There was
Speaker 2: some comment that you have made like that, and that
Speaker 2: almost sounds eerily familiar here, that we're producing products which
Speaker 2: enabled twenty year old kids to be in contact with
Speaker 2: who knows whom he could be. He could have been
Speaker 2: in touch with the cuts forces in Iran for all
Speaker 2: of them.
Speaker 3: Well, look look at this kids in terms of the
Speaker 3: number of cases underway right now, with these mass murders
Speaker 3: where the parents basically out buying the guns for them,
Speaker 3: and that once again the insanity of our gun laws,
Speaker 3: that even the idea of things that seem that eighty
Speaker 3: five percent of America support, Congress just will not pass
Speaker 3: appropriate legislation. Same thing around the issue of encryption. They
Speaker 3: just will not under stand that we are in this
Speaker 3: incredible crisis in this country of incidents of the creating fear,
Speaker 3: creating the political dissatisfaction that we're experiencing. A lot of
Speaker 3: the have has to do with the frustration that nobody
Speaker 3: seems capable of resolving things of the creating fear, and
Speaker 3: a lot of that you can only wait at the
Speaker 3: footsteps of our Congress.
Speaker 2: Well, I agree with you on that. I also think
Speaker 2: it's a good development that a couple of these parents
Speaker 2: in Michigan are now spending time in jail because they
Speaker 2: failed to adequately supervise their child. And this situation exactly,
Speaker 2: and it's just down in Georgia, if I'm not mistaken.
Speaker 2: I think it was Georgia where apparently this this kid
Speaker 2: was in a totally dysfunctional house and the father was
Speaker 2: in effect the uh he was in parenta and prentis
Speaker 2: loco and in local parentees. I think the mother was
Speaker 2: out of the picture totally. But maybe he's got to
Speaker 2: go to jail as well as the kid who who
Speaker 2: shot and killed his classmates. You know that's this There's
Speaker 2: got to be some prices to pay. Bill. I got
Speaker 2: a whole bunch of calls, and I I am so
Speaker 2: appreciative of your time. I hope you can stick with
Speaker 2: us for a little bit into the right afternoons, we'll
Speaker 2: go to phone calls. Okay, this is This has been
Speaker 2: an invaluable conversation to me. I learned a lot and
Speaker 2: normally I don't learn is you know, you're so far
Speaker 2: down the down the track for me on some of
Speaker 2: these issues like encryption, I had not even thought about that.
Speaker 2: I wish, I wish the the no no no, I
Speaker 2: totally get it. And there are aspects of my world
Speaker 2: probably enough, but but the aspects of your world it's
Speaker 2: a lot higher stakes. But I think this is an
Speaker 2: opportunity that when I talk to these members of Congress
Speaker 2: now that something needs to be done. You put a
Speaker 2: cell phone in some whack whacky eighteen year olds hands
Speaker 2: who's able to know that he can contact the kud's
Speaker 2: forces in Iran and maybe have money deposited somewhere because
Speaker 2: he's going to do something these Oh my god, there
Speaker 2: has to be Look, if people want to buy cell
Speaker 2: phones that they can't get because they're going to fool
Speaker 2: around with their secretaries or something like that, they got
Speaker 2: to give that up. Okay, you know, I don't know
Speaker 2: why anybody wants to if there are cell phones that
Speaker 2: now have this benefit that Laura. Enforcement can't look at
Speaker 2: the cell phone of a person who is deceased. It
Speaker 2: seems to me that the right of privacy of that
Speaker 2: person who is deceased, who's been involved in the potential
Speaker 2: assassination of a president has to be waived. But we'll
Speaker 2: leave the Okay, my acl you friends are going to
Speaker 2: dislike me even more as because of that comment. My guess,
Speaker 2: Bill Broughton going to go to phone calls. If you
Speaker 2: like to join us, you have the numbers, just give
Speaker 2: us a call back on Night Side.
Speaker 1: Right after this, you're on Night Side with Ray on
Speaker 1: Boston's news radio.
Speaker 2: With me is Bill Bratton. Name really doesn't need an introduction,
Speaker 2: but he is. It's a large forcement legend, I guess
Speaker 2: would be the way to describe it. Former police commissioner
Speaker 2: here not only in Boston, but in New York twice
Speaker 2: in New York Chief of police in Los Angeles. We've
Speaker 2: touched upon a wide variety of topics. I'll give you
Speaker 2: an opportunity to ask a question or make a quick comment,
Speaker 2: but again, he I want to hear his answers as
Speaker 2: much as I want to hear your questions. Let me
Speaker 2: go first to Joe and Belmont. Joe, you're on with
Speaker 2: former police commissioner of a whole bunch of places, Bill Broughton.
Speaker 2: Go ahead, Joe, God.
Speaker 5: Bless you, Dan and Dan. Nobody does it better than
Speaker 5: you do.
Speaker 2: Favor. I appreciate that, but I want to have you
Speaker 2: talk to Bill brought and go right ahead.
Speaker 5: Yes, I have two questions for Commissioner Bill. First, Commissioner Bill, Uh,
Speaker 5: you talked about the enemy within if you were going
Speaker 5: to write a special delivery letter to the next president,
Speaker 5: what checks the balances and what solutions could you offer
Speaker 5: to stop the enemy within and the fake news? And
Speaker 5: my second question is, Uh, do you think there's too
Speaker 5: much secrecy involved in the people who are doing the
Speaker 5: fake news?
Speaker 2: Yeah, you take the answer off here, Joe. I think
Speaker 2: the area of fake news or good news is really
Speaker 2: not Phil Bratton's area. Bill, I'll let you off the
Speaker 2: hook on that one.
Speaker 3: No, necessarily, Dan, because he was part of what what
Speaker 3: creates so much of the fear, anxiety, hatred, and I
Speaker 3: wish there was a resolution to it. But once again,
Speaker 3: we have a First Amendment in this country, freedom and speech,
Speaker 3: and a lot of language is even though it appears
Speaker 3: to be threatening, appears to be hateful, is protected, and
Speaker 3: it's in many respects allowed to multiply because of the
Speaker 3: incredible social media world that we have created in the
Speaker 3: last twenty five years. You figured the smartphones didn't come
Speaker 3: along to two thousand and six. It's only eighteen years ago.
Speaker 3: And look at there's eight bay of them in the
Speaker 3: world today, almost as many as of our people. So
Speaker 3: that the gentleman's comment about the fake news is it
Speaker 3: is an element of so much of the concern that
Speaker 3: we have today, and even in talking about the election,
Speaker 3: the upcoming president's election, the concern about something we never
Speaker 3: used to worry about this country, the validity of our
Speaker 3: election process, and even in the the former presidents concerns
Speaker 3: or allegations about a higed election. Nobody has been ever
Speaker 3: to basically prove or find that, but it's still out
Speaker 3: there as fake news. So it's again, it's an element
Speaker 3: of our world today that we don't have an answer
Speaker 3: for because in oposiety in particular, we allow freedom and
Speaker 3: speech and as long as it does in rise to
Speaker 3: the level of actually creating a crime, go go at it. Unfortunately.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think also the part of the problem is
Speaker 2: that a lot of Americans, they are in a news
Speaker 2: cycle a silo, and that they only watch news programming
Speaker 2: that they are comfortable with and reinforces whatever point of
Speaker 2: view they have, and I think that has contributed to
Speaker 2: this as well.
Speaker 3: Because if you're exactly in terms of Fox viewership, MSNBC
Speaker 3: viewership that I try to basically watch the walls to
Speaker 3: just get at that. I've always enjoyed the news, I'm
Speaker 3: sorry to would buy four or five papers New York Times,
Speaker 3: Terroll's Traveler, the Globe, and you know that's how I
Speaker 3: stopped my day. But now you can sit there with
Speaker 3: that smilephone in your hand and basically access twenty to
Speaker 3: thirty of them. But people still tend to gravitate toward
Speaker 3: basically the news source that that satisfies their need for information,
Speaker 3: and they don't bound some on the channels as much
Speaker 3: as we used to when we were younger.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I would call it the need for reinforcement too,
Speaker 2: of their beliefs and ideas, you know, of ratification of
Speaker 2: what they happen to believe in. So yeah, let's let's
Speaker 2: keep rolling here. Joe, appreciate your question. Thank you very
Speaker 2: much for the call. Let me go next to out
Speaker 2: of country, up to Darryl in New Brunswick, Canada. Daryl
Speaker 2: next on nice side with Commissioner Bill Bratton.
Speaker 4: Hey, how do you Commissioner and how do you Dan?
Speaker 4: I hope things are well? What I'd like to ask,
Speaker 4: is we're talking about conflict and all the different geopolitics
Speaker 4: and what not going on, is North Korea if I
Speaker 4: can ask the question. My understanding is North Korea is
Speaker 4: still under truce with the US, and if they're participating
Speaker 4: with Russia in North to participate in Ukraine, would that
Speaker 4: not become an active war and that would would that
Speaker 4: be a problem nowadays as well?
Speaker 2: Yeah, well again we're getting into the era of international
Speaker 2: relations there again. I want to if Bill Braden wants
Speaker 2: the way into that.
Speaker 3: Yeah, that that that one I'll stay away from because
Speaker 3: this area of any expertise at all.
Speaker 2: You're correct, Daryl Darryl in that there was never a
Speaker 2: peace treaty UH signed between the United States and North
Speaker 2: Korea out of the Korean More UH, and so it
Speaker 2: technically we are still at war with North Korea. But
Speaker 2: from a practical point of view, North Korea does a
Speaker 2: lot of weird stuff. I did read the articles that
Speaker 2: you talked about, Daryl, that there are somehow some North
Speaker 2: Korean troops that have are joined with Russian forces on
Speaker 2: the ground in Ukraine, which to me is.
Speaker 1: Cool.
Speaker 4: I wasn't trying to cause a proble, No, no, no, No, you're.
Speaker 2: Not going to cause it. No, But it's a good question.
Speaker 2: It's a good question. But I think unless you have
Speaker 2: one that relates more to what's going on in this country,
Speaker 2: I'm concerned about the potential of assassination squads. Do you
Speaker 2: feel Bill that that is overblown or is there something
Speaker 2: that actually exists?
Speaker 4: I know.
Speaker 2: In Europe, I do know that.
Speaker 3: It's something of concern to American law enforcement. Once again,
Speaker 3: the ability to inspire, maybe not necessarily direct, but through
Speaker 3: the social media. It's kind of how I SES grew
Speaker 3: as rapidly as it did. Al Qaeda was never basically
Speaker 3: active on social media, but ICs was, and look at
Speaker 3: how quickly they grew had their own caliphate for a while. No,
Speaker 3: so the idea of Iran maybe not necessarily directing an
Speaker 3: actual assassination of violence effort, but certainly being in a
Speaker 3: position to encourage it, to inspire it, to provide information
Speaker 3: about how to do it. And we've seen much, much,
Speaker 3: a lot of reporting in recent weeks about Iran trying
Speaker 3: to interfere in our elections. That and you know, that's
Speaker 3: widely known and understood to be an actual threat in
Speaker 3: terms of their efforts to try and interfere with the
Speaker 3: elections that are underway commonly.
Speaker 2: Yeah, but I'm I'm actually the stuff that I'm seeing
Speaker 2: is that Iran has used their agents assassination attempts in Europe.
Speaker 3: And well, that's that is that is known in the
Speaker 3: sense of whether that rises the level of basically going
Speaker 3: after one of our presidential candidates, I'm not sure that
Speaker 3: there's been any ability to actually prove that want of speculation.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and the suggestion is even former officials in both parties.
Speaker 2: As I've often said to people, Uh, some of these
Speaker 2: countries around the world hate us. And one of the
Speaker 2: reasons that we should be more unified as Americans is
Speaker 2: that there are countries around the world that hate us.
Speaker 2: They don't care what gender we are, they don't care
Speaker 2: what political party we are, they don't care if we
Speaker 2: root for the Red Sox or the Yankees. They just
Speaker 2: want to kill Americans. Those guys on the planes that
Speaker 2: crashed into, uh, into the World Trade centers, uh, you know,
Speaker 2: one of which flew out of Boston, they didn't take
Speaker 2: any sort of account on board and say to the
Speaker 2: people who were most of them, Oh, we're gonna we're
Speaker 2: gonna land first and let you off. They killed Americans
Speaker 2: of all backgrounds and faiths because they were Americans or
Speaker 2: they were in American and and I think that we
Speaker 2: have forgotten that lesson in my in my opinion, and
Speaker 2: they feel the same way, Daryl, towards Canadians as well.
Speaker 2: They see our systems as much more uh you know,
Speaker 2: much much more secular, as opposed to the the theocracy
Speaker 2: under which they function. Darryl, I appreciate the call.
Speaker 4: Well, I'd like to say thank you all for your service.
Speaker 4: And uh, all right.
Speaker 2: Thanks Darryl, appreciate very much. We have a lot of
Speaker 2: listeners up in Canada. Bill, I have a few more callers,
Speaker 2: and I got a few more minutes with you, and
Speaker 2: I promised to let you go by eleven o'clock. You generously.
Speaker 3: I'm enjoying working on my Boston accent. And again, hearing
Speaker 3: that accent of north of the border was very interesting.
Speaker 2: Also, Yes, we get a lot of accents. We have
Speaker 2: people literally from all over the world. I mean, obviously
Speaker 2: you know as a Bostonian that Z has a great
Speaker 2: terrestrial radio signal, but we get him from all over
Speaker 2: the world.
Speaker 3: Well, I'll tell you the Bostonian accent is love when
Speaker 3: I give my speeches around the country. No, people are
Speaker 3: people are fascinating, and I have a pretty pronounced one,
Speaker 3: and it's uh. They're usually very complimentary about it. They
Speaker 3: like it, which is which is endearing.
Speaker 2: No, I get that I tried a long time ago
Speaker 2: to learn how to pronounce my rs so I could
Speaker 2: stay in television and radio.
Speaker 3: And yeah, well it's as you know that it's not
Speaker 3: the idea that it's the letter. It's a H. We
Speaker 3: tend to stay a H rather than uh the letter
Speaker 3: up and so all the jokes about the Boston it's
Speaker 3: really a H that.
Speaker 2: It was the old park your car in Harvard Yard, exactly.
Speaker 3: Syllable.
Speaker 2: We should have taken declamation or something at uh and
Speaker 2: I school had been better, but then we would lose
Speaker 2: our charm as Bostonians. Moving back a Nice Side with
Speaker 2: Bill Bratton for a few more calls right after this.
Speaker 1: Now back to Dan Ray live from the Window World
Speaker 1: night Side Studios on WBZ News Radio.
Speaker 2: I guess this Bill Brett really needs no introduction at
Speaker 2: this point. Eric in Attleborough. Eric, you're next on Nice.
Speaker 2: I'd like to get you in at least one more
Speaker 2: in Please Eric, go right.
Speaker 6: Ahead, Hey, Jan how you doing tonight?
Speaker 2: We do a great I'm running out of time, Go right,
Speaker 2: go ahead.
Speaker 6: Yeah, yeah, I want to get straight into the point
Speaker 6: number one. The number one point is that something I
Speaker 6: found it interesting when someone mentioned fake news earlier on
Speaker 6: I did a Google search.
Speaker 2: I'd rather ask your question and honest, Erica, I'm not
Speaker 2: interested in debatings. Uh, you know fake news. Have a
Speaker 2: question from my guests, please, it's it's a very important
Speaker 2: guest to me.
Speaker 6: Well, I mean, I I mean, I'd like to know,
Speaker 6: you know. I mean as far as Iran being an adversary,
Speaker 6: I mean who, who, who appoints them as that?
Speaker 3: As such?
Speaker 6: I mean, who has that authority? And why I think
Speaker 6: they were actions.
Speaker 2: In the Middle East? And again we're getting into into
Speaker 2: international stuff to hear that. I don't know that this
Speaker 2: is comfortable for Bill Bratt, and I'm sure he has
Speaker 2: thoughts personal thoughts on it, but I'm going to let
Speaker 2: him off the hook on this one. We certainly have
Speaker 2: seen what Iron has done in terms of taking American
Speaker 2: hostages some forty four years ago and holding them for
Speaker 2: four hundred and forty four days right to the bombardment
Speaker 2: of Israel.
Speaker 6: True but also we've seen I'm.
Speaker 2: Going I'm going to next call to get a question
Speaker 2: with Bill Brown. Bill, if you want to jump in
Speaker 2: here and make a comment. I just feel that that
Speaker 2: that's an area.
Speaker 3: That no, once again they thought try and keep us
Speaker 3: focused on that areas I concentrate on, which is primarily
Speaker 3: law enforcement on security.
Speaker 2: I'm happy about that. Let me go to Christy in Manchester,
Speaker 2: New Hampshire. Christy, you have a question for my guest,
Speaker 2: Bill Broughton.
Speaker 7: Police, I do, so, what does he feel about bail
Speaker 7: reform when it results and reoffended people reoffending, so in
Speaker 7: other words, they're let out bail.
Speaker 2: Yeah, we know exactly some of the bail funds as
Speaker 2: law enforcement, I assume that that has to disquiet you.
Speaker 2: There was a trend in this country to let people
Speaker 2: out for ansumption of instance is important, but sometimes there
Speaker 2: are people who were turned back out in the street
Speaker 2: and by time the police officer, they're out of court
Speaker 2: and back in the street by time the police officer
Speaker 2: files this report. Go ahead, Bill.
Speaker 3: Well, I can't speak to what's been going on here
Speaker 3: in Boston, Massachusetts with any real awareness and knowledge, but
Speaker 3: certainly in New York, New York City. It's been a disaster.
Speaker 3: Well intended and well needed reforms of the bail practices
Speaker 3: in New York, but they went too far to the
Speaker 3: effect that you can't basically put people in jail. And
Speaker 3: he worked for some very significant offenses. And the papers
Speaker 3: in New York every day, the New York Post, for example,
Speaker 3: almost every day has examples of the failure of the
Speaker 3: bail reform and issues of the legislature of New York
Speaker 3: in twenty nineteen, twenty eighteen to raise the age, raising
Speaker 3: the idea that you go after somebody unless they eighteen
Speaker 3: years of age for serious crime. Now, New York, a
Speaker 3: lot of the crises and crime that was created devise
Speaker 3: and crime and the struggle to reduce crime has been
Speaker 3: impacted severely by well intended but unfortunately not unexpected negative
Speaker 3: consequences in terms of I'm sorry, there's bad people in society,
Speaker 3: and those bad people need to be kept away from
Speaker 3: the rest of us in New York and its legislature,
Speaker 3: and some of those political leadership just don't believe that
Speaker 3: anybody should go to jail, and I'm sorry that some
Speaker 3: people do need to be in jail.
Speaker 2: That's what well quick follow up question to what Chris
Speaker 2: has asked, do you feel that the trend in this
Speaker 2: country where our federal officers, particularly ICE officers, have been
Speaker 2: almost locked out of cooperation with police departments in major
Speaker 2: cities by a lot of the progressive politicians does.
Speaker 3: Need Sanctuary cities were once again a well intended idea,
Speaker 3: but it's gotten out of control to the extent that
Speaker 3: New York City, for example, really almost precludes in almost
Speaker 3: every instance, allowing the police to deal with ICE. In
Speaker 3: terms of dealing with particularly now at the migrant situation,
Speaker 3: the Venezuelan gangs and now having impact in over twenty
Speaker 3: American cities and an organized gang coming out of Venezuela.
Speaker 3: You can't get rid of them because many of the
Speaker 3: cities a sanctuary cities where the politicians don't allow the
Speaker 3: police to co op collaborate, collaborate with the federal agencies
Speaker 3: to get these people out of our seas, get them
Speaker 3: in a jail, and get them out of the country.
Speaker 3: So there's a well intended policies that basically have had terrible,
Speaker 3: terrible consequences.
Speaker 2: Chris, thank you, Thank you for the question. Was an
Speaker 2: excellent question, and I hope you enjoyed the answer. Thank
Speaker 2: you so much, Bill Bratt, and I enjoyed our conversation
Speaker 2: tonight as always. Thank you for the generosity of your time,
Speaker 2: any response, any night you want, I.
Speaker 3: Thank you. Thanks for the opportunity to refresh my Boston accent.
Speaker 2: Please say hi to your beautiful wife, Ricky school classmate of.
Speaker 3: A few years ago.
Speaker 2: Okay, thanks Bill brad Well.
Speaker 3: The two of you have done very well after law school,
Speaker 3: that's for sure.
Speaker 2: Well she's done exceptionally well, as did you. I think
Speaker 2: she I think she may you married up, my friend.
Speaker 2: Thanks so much.
Speaker 3: If we'll talk I will not argue with you on
Speaker 3: that one.
Speaker 2: Bill Bradton, thanks very much. We'll talk to and look
Speaker 2: forward to seeing you.
Speaker 1: Have a good night.
Speaker 3: See you and you're listening to all the best, my
Speaker 3: best right back at you.
Speaker 2: When we come back. When a little bit long, they apologize, Rob.
Speaker 2: When we come back after the eleven o'clock news, we're
Speaker 2: going to the twentieth hour and we're going to talk
Speaker 2: about traffic etiquette. I think we're going to have some
Speaker 2: fun