Speaker 1: What's going on? Thank you so much for listening to
this podcast. It is heard live every day from noon
to three on WBT Radio in Charlotte. And if you
want exclusive content like invitations to events, the weekly live stream,
my daily show prep with all the links, become a patron,
go to thepeteclendershow dot com. Make sure you hit the
subscribe button. Get every episode for free right to your
smartphone or tablet. And again, thank you so much for
your support. All righty, so I will get to more
of the text messages as they have been rolling in,
I promise. First, though, let's set the table because Mayo
will be brought back into this because people just really
love talking about Mayo for some reason, and not only
because a woman named Mayo just won the primary yesterday
in district race in Charlotte, but also the condiment itself.
So this from the Washington Times piece by Matt Delaney
and Valerie Richardson. A North Carolina man accused in the
dead caught on camera stabbing of a Ukrainian war refugee
in Charlotte could receive the death penalty after federal prosecutors
brought charges against the ex khan with a lengthy rap sheet.
See there's a word. There's a word that we don't
use anymore, x khn. That word was ubiquitous when I
was growing up, back in my day. There's x cohn
all the time, even when we didn't need to use
it now x khn. And I mentioned in the last
hour Tijuana Brown, the indicted Charlotte City council woman who
lost her primary like her campaign two years ago for office,
was focused on the fact that she had served time,
that she was an x khan, that she never said
x khan. She called herself a FIP. Well, she didn't
call herself a FIP. She called herself a formerly incarcerated
person FIP. A FIP, so I used the acronym. But
this is how this is how the left sanitizes language.
They launder the language in order to mask the actual
reality of things. Gender affirming care, women's health care.
Speaker 2: Right.
Speaker 1: They do this all the time. And that's what I
think they what they mean when they say we haven't
figured out, you know, the messaging. It's not our policies,
it's the messaging, right, This is what they're talking about.
They can't convince you that, oh, it's totally fine to
you know, abort a baby halfway out the birth canal,
because when people hear that, it's like, oh my gosh,
that's awful. But if you call it women's healthcare or
reproductive rights, well that's way dressed up. And now it
sanitizes the thing. And that is to tie it back
to this murder on the light rail. Was the release
of the video right the way the story the attack,
i should say, was described in the stories. It sanitizes
it because it's simply, you know, a woman on the
train is attacked and murdered, stabbed by this guy, and
it conjures up different images in people's heads, but nothing
as graphic and shocking and jarring as the actual video
of what occurred. Attorney General Pam Bondi said. Prosecutors filed
one count of causing death on a mass transportation system
against de Carlos de Juan Brown, Junior, thirty four. The
repeat offender is accused of killing twenty three year old
Arena Zarutzka in a random act on August twenty second
random attack on a light rail train by the way
before I forget on Saturday this Saturday, September thirteenth, three pm,
at the East West Links Station. That's the Charlotte area
transit stop. They called the Lynx the Links station. So
at that platform, there's going to be a community gathering
at the stop called Justice for Arena, asking people to
bring signs, candles and your voice to spread the word
demanding justice for Arena, accountability for public officials, and consequences
for violent criminals and repeat offenders. So that's Saturday, three pm.
At the East West station, a community gathering is being
planned there. The suspect had been arrested at least fourt
ten times since twenty eleven, served a stint in prison,
already has been charged by the Mecklimberg County DA with
first degree murder under state law. Now, North Carolina does
still have on the books the death penalty, However, it
has not executed anybody since two thousand and six due
to all of the legal challenges about cruel and unusual
punishment and racial disparities and the like. So we have
a death penalty, but we just don't use it. FBI specially,
a agent in charge, James Barnacle, at a press conference yesterday,
said that Zarutzka chose Charlotte to escape the violence of
her war torn home in Ukraine, she got a work permit.
She found a job on the first day she was
allowed to be employed legally. She juggled jobs at a
senior center, a senior citizens center as well as a pizzeria,
and she took care of her neighbor's pets. She was
building her young life. She had recently moved in with
her boyfriend. Her family let us know. She graduated from
college in Kiev with a degree in art and restoration.
Russ Ferguson, the US attorney here in the Western District,
said that the death penalty could be considered under the statute.
The attacker is homeless, has reportedly been diagnosed with schizophrenia
and is currently undergoing a competency evaluation, which could preclude
a death penalty, could preclude a conviction by reason of insanity,
so insane enough to avoid punishment, but not insane enough
to let loose with a promise to appear and murder somebody.
The addition of federal charges came as the Trump administration
turned up the heat on Democrats, blaming progressive policies like
cashless hail for allowing a repeat violent offender to go
free despite fourteen arrests. For far too long, this is Trump.
In a video, he showed pictures of Zerutzka and Brown
in the Oval office yesterday. He said, for far too long,
Americans have been forced to put up with Democrat run
cities that set loose, savage, bloodthirsty criminals to prey on
innocent people. And by the way, like this really is
the point in all of this for me at least,
which is Democrats, your policy prescriptions have been attempted, and
like most of your dumbass ideas, they have been shown
to fail. They're not working. The answer isn't more money.
The answer is to stop doing what you're doing. Stop it.
That's what you are facing right now. The backlash you
are facing is from people who thought you knew what
the hell you were talking about when you were talking
about restorative justice and bail reform and all of these
things that would somehow drive down the crime rates and
get at the root of crime. What are the really
what are the driving factors to eliminate the systemic racism?
And it was all crap. It was all just garbage.
I tried to warn people, but that's the thing about
these types of contagions. You know, people just got all
swept up in the moment. They just got carried away
by your narrative and you were wrong. You were wrong.
You need to say that you need to acknowledge that
that these policies, this direction that you started taking the
court system was wrong. Brown had previously been arrested for
crimes including armed robbery, felony, larcriy ars, breaking and entering, shoplifting.
He was released from prison in twenty twenty after he
had served five years for robbery with a dangerous weapon.
Even so, Brown was released in January by a Mecklinberg
County magistrate judge on a written promise to appear back
in court after being arrested for the misuse of the
nine to one to one system. That was when he
said that people were putting man made materials into his
body that was directing him when to eat, what to say,
when to walk, And the cops were like, that's a
medical thing, that's not a law enforcement thing. You're at
the hospital here, so why not just go inside and
talk to people in the hospital. He got angry at that,
called the police again while the cops were still standing there,
and that's what then got him. The misuse of the
nine one one system, and when he appeared in court
before the magistrate, they said, his own lawyer said he
needs a psyche val, he needs a competency test.
Speaker 2: And.
Speaker 1: That was agreed to. So the court recognized that this
guy was not well, and rather than do anything to
prevent him from walking the streets, his mom had told
them he's got schizophrenia, and rather than take him into
custody for an involuntary commitment to do the psyche val,
then in there they said, just promise you'll come back
for a court appearance, and they released him out to
the streets. And while people on CNN were discussing this
yesterday and they couldn't fathom the idea of like, well,
just throw everybody who was schizophrenic in a mental institution. No,
but how about the ones that have a violent track record?
How about those? Can we agree on that if somebody
has a rap sheet of over a decade long with
violent offenses and they are schizophrenic, maybe that should be
a category. Maybe those elements, those criteria all together, maybe
they could all together form an understanding of the challenges
this person is facing. And also to protect the public,
because when you defer to the criminal who's brought before you. OK,
psych exam. We'll get that done at some point. Just
make sure you come back. Promise, Promise. You're putting the
rest of the society at risk, as we saw so
when I was a kid, my grandpa died with Alzheimer's,
and before he died, my mom and my dad took
care of him as he got worse. Forty years ago,
there were no treatments and not much support for caregivers
and family. But things are different today because of the
work of so many people, including the Alzheimer's Association of
Western Carolina. It's a great organization with awesome people with
huge hearts. I've been a supporter for twenty five years.
This cause means a lot to me. I participate in
the annual Walk to End alzheimer and I'm leading a
Charlotte team again this year, and it's called once again
Pete's Pack. You can sign up and you can join
the team and walk with us. It's on October eighteenth
that truest field. Sign up at alz dot org slash
walk and then you can search for my team name Petespac.
There's also a link at thepetepod dot com. There's also
a link in the description of this podcast. Also, I'll
be am seeing the Gastonia Walk on October eleventh, and
so you can make a team and join that one too,
or make a donation and help me hit my goal
of five thousand dollars. If you do, I really appreciate it.
There are a bunch of other walks all over the Carolinas.
You can go to alz dot org slash walk for
all the dates and locations. We're closer than ever to
stopping Alzheimer's. Can you help us get there? Will you
walk with me? For a different future, for families, for
more time for treatments. This is why we walk. CNN
apparently did an interview with Tracy Brown, the the attacker's sister,
and she said that she told CNN that she asked
her brother why he did it, and his reply, according
to her, was quote because she was reading my mind,
That's what he says, according to her. The possibility of
a racial motive was raised Tuesday after social media commentators
said that audio from the surveillance well yeah, okay, well,
I mean the audio shows it, you hear it. The
surveillance video appears to show the suspect who is black
capital B because remember we always capitalize the bee in black. Now,
thanks to Saint George Floyd, all of the AP style
books and everything changed to capitalize the B for black
as tribute to the shared experience. Hispanic gets a capital H,
Asian gets capital A. White does not. Sorry, white does
not get the capitol W. But he is on the
He's on the video. You can hear him muttering to
himself after he attacked the victim, saying, quote, I got
that white girl. I got that white girl, although I
would point out the Washington Times does capitalize the W
in white, so in violation of the AP style book.
And then that brings us to Teresa Stokes, who was
the magistrate. And for people who are not aware, magistrates
are nominated essentially like hired on by the Clerk of
court and then appointed to the position by the Chief
District Court I believe, and then they answer to the
chief judge. That's their It's pretty convoluted. But magistrate's job
is to when people come in and they want to
take out warrants on somebody or whatever they're supposed to
be setting a bond to ensure that the suspect before
them appears in court for the first appearance. That's what
they're supposed to be doing. And if you have a
magistrate who is of the philosophy that systemic racism is
the reason why this person is standing before her, then
she is probably going to apply that philosophy and not
give that person a bail.
Speaker 2: Right.
Speaker 1: This is the whole cashless bail quote unquote reform. And
so here in Charlotte, the magistrate, Teresa Stokes was the
one who let Brown out without any kind of bail, despite,
as the Independent Journal Review reports, despite every screaming warning sign,
decided that he could be trusted for his return for
his next court date if he just promised he would
no bond, no ankle monitor, no mental health hold, just
a handshake with the system. Basically the result a young
woman dead in her seat, blood on the train. But
now ten North Carolina Republican lawmakers, led by Congressman Tim Moore,
former Speaker of the House, are calling for Stokes to
be removed. And I mean, honestly, I think that's a
fair ramification for her. Game on week one starts now,
and every touchdown brings you closer to a payout with
Draft King Sports Book and official sports betting partner of
the NFL. This isn't just football, it's first touchdown firework anytime.
TD rushes live bets that ride every momentum shift. At DraftKings,
every play is your next shot to win. Will the
Panthers win? Will we even get a touchdown? New customers
bet just five dollars and get three hundred dollars in
bonus bets instantly, plus get over two hundred dollars off
NFL Sunday ticket from YouTube and YouTube TV. So your
season starts now. Download the Draft Kings sportsbook app and
use code Pete to get three hundred dollars in bonus
bets instantly when you place your first bet of five
dollars or more plus over two hundred dollars off NFL
Sunday ticket from YouTube and YouTube TV. But you got
to use promo code pete. In partnership with Draft Kings.
The Crown is yours. Gambling problem called one eight hundred gambler.
In New York call eight seven seven eight hope and why,
or text hope and why four six seven three six nine.
In Connecticut, help is available for a problem gambling Call
eight eight eight seven eight nine seven seven seven seven,
or visit CCPG dot org play responsibly on behalf of boothill,
casino and resort Kansas. Fees may apply in Illinois twenty
one plus. Age and eligibility varies by jurisdiction. Void in Ontario.
Bonus bets expire seven days after issuance. See Sportsbook dot
DraftKings dot com, Slash promos NFL Sunday Ticket offer for
new subscribers only and auto renews until canceled. Digital games
and commercial use excluded. Restrictions apply additional NFL Sunday Ticket
terms or at YouTube dot com slash Go Slash NFL
Sunday Tickets slash Terms Limited time offer. Let's head over
to the phone lines and chat with Rick. Welcome to
the program.
Speaker 2: Hello Reck, Hello Pete. Hey love your show, Thanks sir,
listen to it about every day that I can.
Speaker 1: I appreciate it. Thank you.
Speaker 2: But you know, you've just spent a long time talking
about the fact that the Democrats foolish and stupid policies
have failed. They don't work, they're wrong, and I'd argue
that they're succeeding wonderfully.
Speaker 1: If they've been lying about the intent.
Speaker 2: Yes, right, because the issue is not the issue, right right.
The issue is always.
Speaker 1: The revolution, so right, So, but I am giving them
the benefit of the doubt because I am a I'm
a giver. I'm a nice person, you know. I don't
try to ascribe motive to people. And so when they say,
we are going to reduce crime by doing these things,
and we want to do these things, and they seized
or pounced on the death of George Floyd in order
to advance their judicial reform agenda, and now we see
the fruits of that labor is just all spoiled. I'm
going to assume that they are just stupid and thought
those things would work when they didn't. And so now
we're saying these things are not working, we're not doing
them anymore. Unless what you say is correct, which is
that they knew this stuff would cause chaos and it
would help to undermine the institutions of the West and
undermine the high trust society that we all enjoy. But
that would be nefarious, right, I mean, surely people wouldn't
be acting with that kind of nefarious motive, and.
Speaker 2: Arguably most of the ones are not that way, But
the people behind it all who are actually dreaming up
these policies and finding ways to get them implemented are nefarious.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 2: And the people who are being fooled, the Democrats who
go out and vote for all this garbage, you know,
are being misled I think, and have been poorly educated,
which is another nefarious plot.
Speaker 3: Right.
Speaker 1: Well, they control the left controls the education system as well,
so it's easier to get them to believe in yea.
Speaker 2: They generate useful idiots exactly. Well.
Speaker 1: And the useful idiots are I mean the first word
there is useful, right right, they need them right, so,
they need so they are. You got your shock troops,
your street radicals, your useful idiots, your academics and such,
your journalists, right, these these people that helped to move
the agenda. But you know, if successful and the revolution
comes to pass, all of those people, you know, they
get they get trampled under the jack boots too.
Speaker 2: Absolutely, yeah, that's always. In the meantime, you know, you
have the politicians who sit there and watch the cities burn,
you know, and smile because it's burning. Rubber smells so great.
Speaker 1: Yes, the mayor or the governor, Tim Wallas's wife who
left the windows open for as long as she could
in her house so she could smell the tires burning
from the Minneapolis mostly peaceful but sometimes fiery riots.
Speaker 2: Yes, yes, and most of the smile on our face
because of how successful their policies are.
Speaker 1: Paying which, now, to be fair, in her defense, she
has that creepy smile at all sorts of inappropriate times.
So all right, Rick, I appreciate the calls. They're good
to talk with you. I see you too. Let me
jump over and get Allen on next. Hello, Allan, Welcome
to the program.
Speaker 4: Hey, how are you doing?
Speaker 2: Hey?
Speaker 3: Am I right?
Speaker 4: How are you listen?
Speaker 1: Okay?
Speaker 4: You know people are blaming the police. We got to
realize that Chief Gettings is down two hundred officers, so
he asked to have officers to answer calls in the city.
Speaker 1: The only well, the only people I've seen coming even
close to blaming police. And I don't think anybody's blaming police.
It's it's democrats. They're saying we need more police. And
that can be true, but that's not that's not a
relevant argument in this case, specifically, because the cops did
their job. They arrested this guy fourteen times.
Speaker 4: Yes, I agree with that, but I'm talking about a
temporary solution to provide security on the train. Yeah, you
could take off duty SEMPE officers, off duty sheriff's deputies
and have the mayor call and request a National Guard
MP unit to come. And then you team up a
deputy with a CMPD officer, a deputy with a National
Guard man, or a deputy with or a CMP officer
with either one of those, and they could control the
trains until a better solution, or if that is the
solution is found. Having the presence of that uniform on
the train walking the train, two people together. That way
you have automatic backup that they can enforce the laws
on the train. They can help the ticket holder, the
ticket checkers enforce the ticket issues, and you'll make the
train safer because as I forget who it was, was
talking about how the trains were valuable in making Charlotte
more accessible, but now people are scared to rive the
train because they don't feel safe. Right, But if they
saw two police officers adapty a police I.
Speaker 1: Got you, any permutation of the three and I got
you yeah? No, I mean yeah, you surge the presence
in order to act as a deterrence. Uh No, it's
a good idea. Alan, I appreciate the call. It's a
it's a good idea. I mean, this is what Trump
did in Washington, d C. Right, You surge the the agents,
the officials into law enforcement agents into the area as
a show of force to deter and to let people know.
It sends a signal that we are not going to
tolerate any of this crap anymore. That's the point. That's
the point. And it doesn't seem like that message even
now is still sort of resonating a among a lot
of our local elected officials. There's just this kind of
dancing around about, you know, well, we're looking at things,
reassessing safety, blah blah blah blah blah. They don't seem
to be passionately animated about We're not gonna put up
with this any more. We are done. It doesn't seem
like some of them have gotten to their breaking point.
All Right, You hear me talk a lot about incentives, right, Well,
let's talk about incentive trips, the kind that companies offer
employees to fire them up and reward their teams. If
you own a business or you work somewhere that offers
these incentive trips, first off, good for you. But also
there is a custom app that's a game changer for
these trips. It's called incentive trip Kit. Private group messaging,
shared photos, your itinerary, travel details, all built into a single,
easy to use app. There's even a traveler locator so
Carl from Accounting doesn't get left behind. The best part
about incentive trip Kit it's totally private. No email captures,
no sign ups, no cringe ads. It's simple, clean and secure.
And when the trip is over, Incentive Tripkit turns those
highlights into a professional storytelling video. So think about it.
When you launch next year's incentive trip campaign, that video
becomes your greatest motivator. Talk about a return on investment. Right,
You got to check out incentive trip Kit for your business.
Visit incentive tripkit dot com because great trips deserve even
better returns. I'm looking at the text line now driven
by Liberty Buick GMC. Did I hear that there is
no fine if you get caught on the train with
no ticket. They simply ask you to get off at
the next stop. That's a problem. Yeah, if they even
ask you to show a ticket. Here's another text I've
written the light rail streetcar about fifty times. Well, the
streetcar don't think does tickets. That's designed as a free thing.
But you're supposed to have tickets for the light rail.
I've writ it fifty times over the last few years.
I've never been asked to show a ticket. That's the problem.
When I ride, I've never felt threatened, but it's full
of homeless slash weed smokers. I would never allow my
daughter to write it. That's a problem. What I'm wondering,
says Stan is how do democrats ask for more police
and then call for defunding them at the same time. Well,
it doesn't have to make sense. That's democrat privilege. From
the Independent Journal Review, ten North Carolina Republican congress members,
led by Tim Moore, are calling for the magistrate Teresa
Stokes to be removed from her position. And it's about time.
It's about time somebody started treating this kind of judicial
failure with the seriousness that it deserves. Tim Moore and
nine of his colleagues sent a letter to Chief Judge
Roy Wiggins demanding that Stokes be removed for what they
call a wilful failure to perform her due right. A
willful failure, and they write that it was not only reckless,
but it was prejudicial to the administration of justice that
this wasn't an accident. This is the natural consequence of
a broken ideology. And what the IJR reports here is
that or they what they submit is that unless people
like the magistrate here, Teresa Stokes, unless they are held accountable,
not just scolded, but actually removed from their position, this
kind of stuff is not going to stop, right, It's
just not going to stop. I understand about second chances,
the idea that you know, maybe people can get a
second chance and get rehabilitated, turn their life around in
all of that, But when you've got fourteen priors, I
think the second chances expired a long time ago, number
one and number two. When you have recent assaults after
you served the time and you come out and then
get assault charges pinned on you for beating up on
your sister, and then you get picked up because you're
exhibiting schizophrenic distress, I would submit that the mental illness
and the history of violent behavior would deem you to
be a threat to society and you should have been
held until the psyche val at minimum. Let me jump
over here and get sid on. Hello, Sid how are you?
Speaker 3: Hey, Hey, I'm good.
Speaker 1: What's going on?
Speaker 3: I just can't get get your opinion on something?
Speaker 1: Well, I've got a lot of those.
Speaker 3: We're good. When the light rail system when they go
to all of it in the upcoming weeks and they
find out that it's not making any money, what do
you what do you think of transpire with it?
Speaker 1: Well, we know money at it, or we know that
they we know that the transit system does not make money,
none of them right, Only New York City, I think
actually comes close. So they don't make money, and so
that won't be enough to do anything, right. I think
what they're going to be looking at, According to the
state Auditor Dave Bullock and his press release that he
sent out yesterday, I think what they're looking for is
what is the amount of money that they are spending
on security? What kind of security model are they running?
And how does that compare to other transit systems in America?
Are we spending too little? By comparison? Like what kind
of a system are we running as it compares to
a comparable one, and how much are we staffing. I
think that's what they're going to be looking at.
Speaker 3: They're looking for a breakdown or where every dollar goes
to as far as flayers, how is distributed evenly over?
Speaker 1: Yeah, and if they're not collecting the fares, I think
they're going to identify that. Like you know, if you're
doing ad for example, and you're saying we're going to
collect a certain amount of fair revenue and then you're
not actually collecting the fares like that, like they would
identify that too. I suspect to say, why are you
making these projections for fair collection when you're not actually
trying to do enforcement, you know, stuff like that.
Speaker 3: What would be the repercussions one say, who's in charge
of collecting the fares?
Speaker 1: What would be the repercussions on I'm sorry not following, I'm.
Speaker 3: Just you know what would they be held accountable if
the person in charge of collecting the fairs or whatever
group is in charge.
Speaker 1: The Yeah, so cats would be available? Well, I mean right.
So the usually the process goes something like the auditor
does the they do the investigation, they do the audit.
They then give the agency or city that they're auditing
the opportunity to respond and make any corrections, and then
they publish it after everybody's had a chance to respond
and go back and forth. Uh so, I mean, I guess,
you know, worst case scenarios, it could have affect ratings,
bond ratings or something. I don't know. That's a good question, though,
said I appreciate the call, but they usually give them
time to respond to then make corrections, and so maybe
that would be sort of the most beneficial short term fix.
All right, that'll do it for this episode. Thank you
so much for listening. I could not do the show
without your support and the support of the businesses that
advertise on the podcast, so if you'd like, please support
them too and tell them you heard it here. You
can also become a patron at my Patreon page or
go to thepetecleanershow dot com. Again, thank you so much
for listening, and don't break anything while I'm gone.