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Speaker 1: What's going on? Thank you so much for listening to

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this podcast. It is heard live every day from noon

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to three on WBT Radio in Charlotte. And if you

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want exclusive content like invitations to events, the weekly live stream,

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my daily show prep with all of the links, become

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a patron go to thepeteclendarshow dot com. Make sure you

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hit the subscribe button. Get every episode for free right

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to your smartphone or tablet. And again, thank you so

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much for your support at the thirty third annual Union

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County Crime Stop barbeque here at the Union County agg

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Center on Pressin Road in Monroe. And thanks again to

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Congressman Mark Harris as well as State Senator Todd Johnson

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for stopping by. Good to talk with them again about

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hurricane relief efforts in western North Carolina and other topics.

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That was in hour number two. So if you missed it,

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you can get the PEAT podcast thepetepod dot com. That's

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the website. All right, So a story of the AP

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I found to be interesting with the headline a tough

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on crime approach is back in US state capitols Tough

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on crime approach and it kind of feels like this

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is mirroring a pendulum swing that occurred in the eighties.

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We just had Mark Harrison. We were talking about the

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inauguration being moved indoors. The last time it got moved indoors.

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Do you know when that was. It's Ronald Reagan. It

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was so cold they moved it inside. And there are

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some other similarities that people are drawing. You had the

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return of hostages right before taking office, and you had

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the assassination attempt, very eerily similar. Right, Not that history repeats,

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but sometimes it rhymes, although in this case it does

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kind of sound like it's repeating a little bit. But

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so there's that. And in the eighties we saw, you know,

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crime getting out of control, and then there was the backlash.

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Tough on crime policies came about, and then you know,

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we ended up with a pretty relatively safe I say

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that relatively safe, but look, the crime stats have the

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crime rates have been declining for the last thirty years.

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So and there I've read enough material on this where

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nobody really knows why. There are all sorts of theories

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and stuff, but in general, when you zoom out looking

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back fifty years, the data is on a downward slope,

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which is very good, very good. Now that being said,

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Charlotte Mecklenburg Police put out its latest crime report this

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for twenty twenty four, overall crime down three percent in Charlotte.

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And that's there, that's their headline. Overall crime is down

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three percent. That's good, right, good news. Yeah, But if

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you look at the breakout, which they do include, I

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will give them credit. CMPD did include the breakdown of

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the crimes at the very end of the four page

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press release. But at the very end they list the

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breakdown as a violent crimes and then homicides and then

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aggravated assaults, rapes, armed robberies, property crimes, residential burglaries and

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commercial burglaries, larcenies from auto and vehicle thefts, and arsons. Okay,

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violent crime is actually up. Violent crime is up by

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about two hundred offenses. Now keep in mind, also we

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have more people living here. So when you break it

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out of proportion of the population, right, you look at

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a violent crime rate per thousand people, and you know

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you have more people, you have more crime incidents. So

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if you have more crime incidents, then yes, you're going

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to see this number increase. Obviously, So seventy four hundred

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offenses versus seventy two hundred in twenty twenty three, so

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it's basically a two hundred incident increase. Homicides went up

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by twenty two, aggravated assaults went up by one hundred, thirty,

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rapes dropped by twenty, armed robberies declined by twenty, and

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property crimes declined by one thousand, five hundred, and so

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I would submit that is the driver of the data decline,

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which makes sense because when you look at the property

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crimes numbers, it is by and large it's the biggest

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category of crime. Property crimes account for like thirty seven

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thousand crimes, and all the others are in either the

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hundreds or the mid you know, five six seven thousand range.

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Property crime is the biggest category. So that declined fifteen hundred.

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Residential burglaries were down two hundred and fifty. And I

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have no idea if this is true, so I'll say

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it anyway. I think it probably may have something to

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do with the rise of the affordability of home security systems.

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Commercial burglaries were up by one hundred. I would guess

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that might be due to all of the construction sites

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getting raided. Reels as such larsnees from automobiles up by

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about one thousand. These are people that usually this is

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people leaving stuff in their vehicles unlocked. And I do

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not understand why people do this. Why see it in

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your viewvehicle with the doors unlocked, unless you're trying to

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get the laptops stolen so you can collect insurance money

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and get a new one. That's the only reason I

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can think. People do this and then do it multiple times.

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And I know some people that this has happened to

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multiple times, Like if you don't lock your car after

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the first time, you get robbed out of your car, Like,

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I'm sorry, Like that's mainly a you problem. You need

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to be paying way more at insurance rates. But that's

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the second biggest category. There was eleven thousand, over eleven

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thousand larcenies from autos last year. Vehicle thefts up, sorry,

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vehicle thefts down, sorry down down by about five hundred.

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Arsons There were one hundred and sixty two last year.

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There were one forty three the previous year, so arson

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has gone up by about twenty So it's kind of

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a mixed bag. But again, the violent crimes, homicides and

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aggravated assaults have all gone up, So while overall crime

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is down, the violent crime seems to be up. CMPD

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reported a three percent decrease in overall crime, victimization, and

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overall incidents. This is the result of the department's focus

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on key areas such as juvenile crime, automobile thefts, street takeovers,

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and curtailing violent crime in areas of high victimization. Violent

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crime was up three percent in victimization but down one

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percent in the number of incidents in twenty twenty four.

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The main driver of this rise in victimization was the

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four percent increase in aggravated assault by pointing a firearm. Now,

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in the fourth quarter of twenty twenty four, CMPD launched

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what's called the CORE thirteen, the Coordinated Overlap Response Effort,

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the CORE, or as I call it, the CORE, well

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they call it that too. It's an initiative involving all

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thirteen CMPD divisions to increase what do you think, officer presence,

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not like gifts, but there right them being places, their

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presence in the community. During the first two months of

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CORE thirteen, seventy five firearms were sized, one hundred and

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twenty three arrests were made. The initiative was a driver

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in lowering violent crime by four percent just in the

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fourth quarter. Overall, it was of okay, so what are

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they saying. What does CMPD say that when we increase

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officer presence it leads to a decrease in crime, particularly

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violent crime. Charlotte also saw a decline in juvenile crime,

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in part due to the launch of CMPDS Juvenile Accountability

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and Diversion Empowerment Team, the JADE Team, or as I

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call it, the Jade Well they call it that too

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also all right, So jade's focus is juvenile investigations, monitoring

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at risk youth and conducting operations to reduce crime and

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break the cycle of recidivism, which is like returning to

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the life of crime kind of thing, reoffending. This is

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the program where they go and they visit the homes

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of quote at risk youth. They arrested one hundred and two, sorry,

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one hundred and twenty two juveniles involved in criminal activity

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and violent crimes involving juvenile suspects decrease two percent for

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the year. So again another example, what is this targeted enforcement?

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More police reduces the crime. If only there was some

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sort of a trend that we could tease out of

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this data. Street takeovers they're down pop up takeovers or

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down eighty eight percent. This is where the people drive

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their cars and donuts and the intersections of roads and stuff.

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Twenty twenty four, CMPD had four hundred and sorry I

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read the wrong part here. This is street takeovers. Pop

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up takeovers down eighty eight percent, and the pre arranged

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events declined seventy one percent. Street takeover vehicle seizures rose,

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so they seized a whole bunch of people's cars that

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were involved in the takeovers, almost as if punishments might

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reduce the bad behavior. Again, is somebody keeping a list

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of this stuff? Because I feel like we may be

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close to cracking the code on some of this. Here's

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All right, So joining me by the way. I am

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here at the thirty third annual Union County Crime Stoppers Barbecue,

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and I got the sheriff here of Union County Eddie,

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is it Kathy or Kathy Kathy? Okay. I didn't want

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to mispronounce it, so I figured i'd say it both ways,

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just to be safe. That's COVID your coverd okay. So

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I also made sure he says, I'm not going to

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get towed for parking along the side of the road

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in order to get here and make my on air shift. See,

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it's it's good to know people think you'll be good.

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Speaker 2: I'll go out there and check and I'll be sure

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nobody's already, toady, thank.

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Speaker 1: You'll be good. Right if I get out there now

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and I find my car, toad it was it with

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f B City with no call, okay, right, all right?

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So first off, let's talk just a bit about the

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event here, this Crime Stoppers Barbecue event. How thirty three

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years and so what do you all use the money for?

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Speaker 2: Uh?

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Speaker 3: And is this like? Is this it? Is this the

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big fundraiser of the only fund It's the only one.

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It's the only fundraiser have all year and all the

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money goes back into the community. A big portion of.

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Speaker 2: What we did today was donated by the public. All

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the meat, the slaw, everything is donated. So the money

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that comes in is a lot of money, but every

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bit of it goes back out in the community. Nobody

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gets a salary and nobody touches anything that don't go

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through the crime stoppers board.

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Speaker 1: And the money is used to pay what the rewards

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forward for tips. Yeah. So, so do you ever end

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up in a year where you get more money than

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you got tips where it's like the last tip of

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the year, like December thirty first, Like if I commit

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a crime and then tip off myself, can I make

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a lot of money with whatever's left in the till

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We'd have to have the board consider that. I'm just

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trying to think outside the box. I was going over

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the crime data from Charlotte Mecklenburg Police. They released the

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crime data for twenty twenty four, and we were just

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chatting about it before we got on the air here

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and you, unsolicited from me, you said something about car

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or larcenies from vehicles. This is a big problem in

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Union County. I mean, I don't think you got the

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numbers that they got in Charlotte Mecklburg. But why is

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this such a problem. I don't understand why people first off,

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leave their cars open to get burglarized like that to

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get stolen from in the first place, and then I

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guess the crime. The thieves know that this crime is

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easily done.

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Speaker 2: Well, there's a lot of things in play. For one thing,

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the juvenile law changed in North Carolina to where yeah,

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that hurts all this process, seventeen sixteen year old. No,

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they're not going to jail. They get recruited by who

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knows who to hit these neighborhoods, pull on door handles.

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If the public would lock their vehicles every night, and.

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Speaker 1: Really if they just put the stuff out of sight.

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Speaker 2: Because they run down through these neighborhoods and pull door

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handles till they find one open, then they steal everything

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that's in there.

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Speaker 1: It doesn't make any difference what it is.

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Speaker 2: They'll go through the ashtrays, the computers, sometimes they get

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a gun. It goes right back out into the criminal world.

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Speaker 1: So it's this like an organized theft ring.

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Speaker 2: I don't think it's that much organized. I think it's

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just thieves that band together to be successful at their job.

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And then when they hit these neighborhoods, see they know

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they'll have one person drop them off, and they run

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through these neighborhoods and they're so hard to catch in

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those neighborhoods. But we have caught them, caught some we've charged.

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I think one time we charged thirty four people. Oh wow,

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so it's a big deal. And but they do more

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damage than they get money.

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Speaker 1: Right, Yeah, if they especially if they're breaking windows or

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something like that.

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Speaker 2: They're breaking some windows, but not a lot of window breakage.

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Speaker 1: If they just locked the cars, yeah, be a big help. Yeah. No,

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it's say it happens all the time in my neighborhood.

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I don't understand because usually somebody takes to the Facebook

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group and they're like, I just got robbed from my car,

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And first somebody will ask did you leave it open?

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And I'm like, well, yes, uh so maybe that's happening.

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Maybe you got people that are coming in and dropping

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off the whole Uh.

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Speaker 2: Well these kids, and a lot of them come out

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of Charlotte. Yeah, a lot of them know that they're

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coming out of Charlotte. But if we catch them, they

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regret being in our county, be called, we lock them up,

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charge them.

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Speaker 1: So apparently CMPD with their press release that they put

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out in their news conference that they did apparently they're

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they're claiming and maybe you can confirm they're claiming that

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when they step up police presence and target particular areas

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and crimes and criminal activity with more law enforcement, that

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the crime goes down. Have you ever heard of this?

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Speaker 2: You know, you know, you know what, hard meat. I don't

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have to think about that a little bit. If you

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have more law enforcement, and you have more enforcement, it

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helps crime rate.

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Speaker 1: That's what I've I'm just throwing it to you. You're

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if you if you were unaware, like this could be,

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this could be really.

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Speaker 2: Innovating, something news you could think about.

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Speaker 1: Right, That's it's pretty amazing. It's and so you've got obviously,

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I mean we're being sarcastic here. Obviously sheriff knows this. Uh.

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It does seem odd that we have to relearn this

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lesson about every twenty to thirty years though for some reason.

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Speaker 2: Well, we don't have to relearn that thing.

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Speaker 1: We've not stopped doing it.

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Speaker 2: We've kept our crime rate low, we've kept actually the

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breaking the entrings low. We had one murder here last year,

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so we've not changed the way we operate. We have

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people that know where all the break ins are happening.

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And we try to target. We try to put extra

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patrol in there, we put everything we need in there

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to try to catch them, and we do catch a.

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Speaker 1: Lot of them, and then we prosecute them. There's I

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think that's the key here. I think that is a

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big part of the equation.

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Speaker 2: Our district attorneys very pro law enforcement supports our agency

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as well as all the agencies in the county, and

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we've not adapted those philosophies to just not arrest them.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, Sheriff ed Kathy, we appreciate you joining us on

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the program here. Thanks for all of your work at

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the Sheriff's office and with the crime stoppers and the

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barbecue here. Thanks for your service. We appreciate it.

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Speaker 2: Well, thank you. I appreciate you all being here from WBT.

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Absolutely all right.

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Speaker 1: I hope you had a happy holiday season. But tell

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me if something like this happened at your house. Your

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family and friends are gathered around, maybe y'all are in

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the living room, you're laughing, swapping stories, reminiscing, and then

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somebody says, hey, Dad, remember those old VHS tapes? Did

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00:19:36,440 --> 00:19:39,039
you ever get them transferred? And then the room gets

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all quiet. All eyes are on Dad, who says, oh,

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you know, well, I've been meaning too, but I just

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having gotten around to it. Look, don't let those priceless

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memories sit in a box for another year, all right.

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00:19:50,799 --> 00:19:53,680
Create a Video has been helping families in the Charlotte

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00:19:53,680 --> 00:19:57,519
area preserve their history since nineteen ninety seven. Simply bring

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in your old camp quarter tapes and Creative Video will

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transfer them to a USB flash drive for just fourteen

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ninety five per tape. You have a big collection, they've

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got a discount for you. And next year, instead of

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00:20:09,319 --> 00:20:13,720
talking about those memories, imagine gathering the family to watch

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00:20:13,799 --> 00:20:17,000
them together. Talk about a memorable gift. So do what

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00:20:17,039 --> 00:20:20,440
I did. Trust the experts at creat a Video, conveniently

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located in mint Hill right off I four eighty five

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and online at create avideo dot com. So the AP reports.

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00:20:29,920 --> 00:20:33,960
Within minutes of his inauguration Monday, new Missouri Governor Mike

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Keho is expected to issue a variety of orders targeting crime.

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The tone setting move reflects a national trend. After a

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period of relaxed sentencing laws, a tough on crime approach

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is back in political favor in the US. Now you

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know me, I am a why guy, I like to

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ask why, and so when I read that last sentence

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after a period of relaxed sentencing laws, why why was

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there a period of relaxed sentencing laws? What contributed to that?

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What prompted that? And then it says a tough on

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crime approach is back in political favor once again. Why

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why would it be back in favor? What happened? Why

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the change? Yeah, so this is what Sheriff Cathy was

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talking about. There was the state law changed in North

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Carolina under Republicans, the raise the age law where they're like,

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we're the last state in America that still prosecutes, you know,

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sixteen and seventeen year olds as adults, and so they

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passed this law the age made at eighteen. Then all

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of a sudden, you'll never guess what happened, a whole

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bunch of sixteen and seventeen year olds started skating on

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violent offenses. So then they came back and they were like, Okay,

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we're gonna add some more offenses to the list where

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you can still be charged as an adult if you're

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sixteen or seventeen and you commit these types of really bad,

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egregious crimes. So the criminal enterprise is criminals do know this.

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They know that if you don't penalize people under the

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age of eighteen, then they will get people under the

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age of eighteen to do parts of the operation for

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them that carry the most risk for incarceration for them

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if they get caught doing it. Republicans and Democrats alike

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the AP reports are promoting anti crime initiatives as a

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new year of lawmaking gets underway in state capitols. That

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comes after voters in several states approved ballot measures in

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the full imposing stricter penalties for crimes ranging from shoplifting

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to deadly drug dealing. Once again, why why would voters

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in several states approve ballot measures to impose stricter penalties

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What happened? In some states? The anti crime measures are

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intertwined with efforts to crack down on those living in

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the US illegally la burring, an emptis of President elect

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Donald Trump. Many also propose tougher penalties for trafficking fentanyl.

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Asynthetic opioid killed tens of thousands of overdose deaths every

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single year. Other measures go beyond that. Some seek stricter

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sentences for sexual offenses involving children, violent crimes or retail

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theft rings and those have gained attention from social media

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videos showing shoplifting crews rampaging through stores. So, once again,

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why what is prompting people to choose to get quo

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tough on crime? In Maryland, Democratic State Representative or sorry,

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State Senator Ron Watson is sponsoring legislation he said would

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let prosecutors file felony charges against everybody involved in a

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group theft if the total value exceeds fifteen hundred dollars,

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even if each person stole less than the fifteen hundred dollars. So, like,

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if you are part of one of these retail theft

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gangs that go into a store and you know, raid

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the shelves and pull a bunch of stuff off the

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shelves and run out, and you're one of ten people,

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and all ten people steal two hundred dollars worth of items,

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that would be what a total of two grand, and

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that would mean you get felony charge. Criminals have become

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emboldened because they can get away with things and pretty

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much get a slap on the wrist. Watson said, violent

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or nonviolent, a crime is a crime, and that crime

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needs to be punished. This is one of the things too,

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when you get when you're victimized by crime, which is

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a quote unquote nonviolent crime, that's a property crime, and

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people think that somehow or another, that there isn't any

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kind of you know, without getting all lefty on you,

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but trauma, right that there isn't some trauma involved in that,

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And there is. There absolutely is. People's homes get burglarized,

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right there is. You never feel safe in your home again,

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trust me on that one personal experience. You'll never feel

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as safe in your home again once you get burglarized.

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If you're working in a store and a bunch of

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hooligans rush in and steal a bunch of stuff and

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terrorize people as they're you know, menacingly threatening them and

394
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grabbing stuff and running all around the store, right, that's

395
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a scary situation because here's the thing. You may know

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you're going in there to just steal some clothing. I

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don't know you're coming in here to just steal clothing.

398
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I don't know that. All I see is ten fifteen

399
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people storm the gate and start grabbing everything in sight.

400
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I have no idea what your intention is. It's obviously

401
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to engage in some sort of criminal activity. So I

402
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don't know that that's a scary thing. So the federal

403
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government in many states have backed away from the nineteen

404
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eighties policies that imposed harsher I don't know why they're

405
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doing this, like drug crimes in spotlight. This is the

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associated press. So of course they're going to go to

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the different sentences for crack cocaine versus powder cocaine from

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the nineteen eighties, as civil rights activists noted a disproportionate

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impact on minorities. But the police chief of the Salt

410
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Lake City suburb of Roy that's the name of the town, said,

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these sentencing enhancements for fentanyl are justified. See so it's like, well, whoa, well,

412
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I don't know if we can do these, you know,

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increased harsher penalties for fentanyl because remember the whole crack

414
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versus powder coke thing, I mean, you know, racism. You

415
00:26:57,920 --> 00:27:00,880
are aware that there's a difference between fentanyl and crack.

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00:27:01,039 --> 00:27:05,960
You do know that, right. Many types of crimes rose

417
00:27:06,319 --> 00:27:10,519
during the coronavirus pandemic, according to the AP story. More recently,

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the rates of violent crimes and many property crimes have

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trended back down. However, shoplifting remains above pre pandemic levels.

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This is according to the Council on Criminal Justice that

421
00:27:21,720 --> 00:27:24,599
is a non partisan think tank. But people's sense of

422
00:27:24,640 --> 00:27:30,119
security is not necessarily tied to statistics. You hear CMPD

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Police Chief Johnny Jennings say this sort of thing all

424
00:27:32,920 --> 00:27:35,480
the time, where he says, you know, if they don't

425
00:27:35,519 --> 00:27:37,920
think they're safe. I think Malcolm Graham's city councilman has

426
00:27:37,960 --> 00:27:40,359
said this as well. If people don't believe they're safe,

427
00:27:41,319 --> 00:27:46,400
that perception means that like that they're not doing their job.

428
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Police and the courts are not doing their job, and

429
00:27:48,720 --> 00:27:51,400
police get I think they get tagged with all the

430
00:27:51,440 --> 00:27:55,759
responsibility for this when oftentimes they arrest people and then

431
00:27:55,799 --> 00:27:58,519
they go before a magistrate and a magistrate looks at

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them and they're like, oh poor babe, and they're like,

433
00:28:00,839 --> 00:28:03,000
go ahead, you can go home. Release you back into

434
00:28:03,039 --> 00:28:05,599
the custody of your mommy and daddy, who obviously are

435
00:28:05,640 --> 00:28:08,079
doing such a bang up job that you got kittye

436
00:28:08,079 --> 00:28:13,200
porn on your computer. Oh yeah, that happened literally a

437
00:28:13,240 --> 00:28:20,319
case out of Mecclinburg County, Cornelius. The guy's name, eighteen

438
00:28:20,400 --> 00:28:24,279
year old accused of distributing child porn of girls as

439
00:28:24,319 --> 00:28:28,880
young as four. He spent two hours in jail before

440
00:28:28,880 --> 00:28:32,599
being released to his mother with no bond. Now, the

441
00:28:32,640 --> 00:28:36,480
magistrates will tell you that in this case Brett Kimberl

442
00:28:36,920 --> 00:28:43,119
the quick release, that his quick release was okay, basically

443
00:28:43,160 --> 00:28:45,759
because look, they're just following the law, and they're trying

444
00:28:45,799 --> 00:28:48,400
to the magistrate is just following the law, and the

445
00:28:48,799 --> 00:28:50,480
purpose of the bond is to make sure that they

446
00:28:50,559 --> 00:28:52,519
show back up in court or if they are some

447
00:28:52,559 --> 00:28:56,079
sort of a you know, existential threat or immediate threat

448
00:28:56,319 --> 00:29:00,599
to the community. Well, I would submit that the guy

449
00:29:00,759 --> 00:29:04,519
who was living at home probably shouldn't have been remanded

450
00:29:04,559 --> 00:29:06,559
back to the custody of the people that were supposed

451
00:29:06,559 --> 00:29:10,119
to be looking after him at that home. It doesn't

452
00:29:10,160 --> 00:29:11,960
seem like a wise move. But what do I know.

453
00:29:12,079 --> 00:29:15,440
I'm just a radio host. I'm no magistrate, all right.

454
00:29:15,480 --> 00:29:17,279
If you're listening to this show, you know I try

455
00:29:17,319 --> 00:29:19,079
to keep up with all sorts of current events, and

456
00:29:19,119 --> 00:29:21,200
I know you do too, And you've probably heard me

457
00:29:21,240 --> 00:29:25,440
say get your news from multiple sources. Why, Well, because

458
00:29:25,480 --> 00:29:28,160
it's how you detect media bias. Which is why I've

459
00:29:28,160 --> 00:29:31,519
been so impressed with ground News. It's an app, and

460
00:29:31,720 --> 00:29:34,640
it's a website, and it combines news from around the

461
00:29:34,640 --> 00:29:37,359
world in one place so you can compare coverage and

462
00:29:37,440 --> 00:29:41,279
verify information. You can check it out at check dot ground,

463
00:29:41,599 --> 00:29:44,599
dot news slash Pete. I put the link in the

464
00:29:44,640 --> 00:29:47,880
podcast description too. I started using ground News a few

465
00:29:47,880 --> 00:29:50,599
months ago and more recently chose to work with them

466
00:29:50,640 --> 00:29:53,400
as an affiliate because it lets me see clearly how

467
00:29:53,519 --> 00:29:56,920
stories get covered and by whom. The blind spot feature

468
00:29:57,000 --> 00:29:59,599
shows you which stories get ignored by the left and

469
00:29:59,680 --> 00:30:03,759
the right. See for yourself. Check dot ground, dot news

470
00:30:04,079 --> 00:30:07,240
slash pete. Subscribe through that link and you'll get fifteen

471
00:30:07,240 --> 00:30:10,359
percent off any subscription. I use the Vantage plan to

472
00:30:10,359 --> 00:30:13,799
get unlimited access to every feature. Your subscription then not

473
00:30:13,839 --> 00:30:16,839
only helps my podcast, but it also supports ground News

474
00:30:16,880 --> 00:30:20,480
as they make the media landscape more transparent. And by

475
00:30:20,519 --> 00:30:23,039
the way, yes, they are still doing the thirty third

476
00:30:23,079 --> 00:30:25,880
annual Union County Crime Stoppers Barbecue down here at the

477
00:30:25,960 --> 00:30:29,920
Union County Agricultural Center. Brett winter Bill will be taken

478
00:30:29,960 --> 00:30:36,359
over the con after I am done. Seven oh four, five,

479
00:30:36,400 --> 00:30:39,480
seven oh eleven ten. Got an email here to Pete

480
00:30:39,519 --> 00:30:43,640
at vpeteclenarshow dot Com from John, who says, wait, I

481
00:30:43,680 --> 00:30:48,559
am confused. Are you saying that defunding the police and

482
00:30:48,599 --> 00:30:52,400
shifting their funds to social programs did not reduce crime?

483
00:30:53,039 --> 00:30:57,119
How was this possible? We had social policy geniuses like

484
00:30:57,400 --> 00:31:02,599
Braxton Winston and councilwoman Dimple Ajmerah tell us that it would.

485
00:31:03,480 --> 00:31:07,039
I know, it's so weird. Is it possible? And I'm

486
00:31:07,079 --> 00:31:11,519
just spitballing here though, John, Is it possible that just

487
00:31:11,559 --> 00:31:15,319
because you win a seat on a city council doesn't

488
00:31:15,359 --> 00:31:20,440
mean you know how to actually do police work. It

489
00:31:20,480 --> 00:31:24,480
doesn't mean you know how to solve crimes. That's just

490
00:31:25,279 --> 00:31:32,079
I'm just spitball in here. It's just an idea. So

491
00:31:32,119 --> 00:31:37,960
the federal government and many states backed away from the

492
00:31:38,039 --> 00:31:43,599
nineteen eighties policies. They don't say why in this Associated

493
00:31:43,599 --> 00:31:47,799
Press story. But now there is this newfound respect for

494
00:31:47,880 --> 00:31:51,359
getting tough on crime. Many types of crimes rose during

495
00:31:51,359 --> 00:31:54,240
the pandemic, as I mentioned, but people's sense of security

496
00:31:54,319 --> 00:31:59,000
isn't necessarily tied to the statistics. High profile crimes such

497
00:31:59,000 --> 00:32:01,079
as the New Year's they attack in New Orleans, the

498
00:32:01,079 --> 00:32:03,400
burning of a woman on the subway in New York,

499
00:32:04,240 --> 00:32:08,559
the fatal shooting of the United Healthcare CEO. Right, all

500
00:32:08,599 --> 00:32:13,440
of these things impact the perception of public safety. And look,

501
00:32:13,599 --> 00:32:16,680
that is true. I agree with this AP story on

502
00:32:16,720 --> 00:32:23,400
that front. It does actually impact the perception of public safety.

503
00:32:24,200 --> 00:32:26,119
But here's the thing. If you don't have a lot

504
00:32:26,160 --> 00:32:30,200
of these events, then the impact is minimized. The more

505
00:32:30,400 --> 00:32:34,000
types of events you have like this, then the more

506
00:32:34,079 --> 00:32:39,400
impact it has. Adam Gelb is President and CEO of

507
00:32:40,039 --> 00:32:42,680
the Council on Criminal Justice. He said, quote, many people

508
00:32:42,720 --> 00:32:45,400
seem to think that the reforms over the past two

509
00:32:45,480 --> 00:32:53,759
decades overshot the mark and there needs to be a rebalancing. Yeah,

510
00:32:53,759 --> 00:32:56,720
that's one way to say rebalancing. Of course, there were

511
00:32:56,759 --> 00:32:59,119
some people that were saying, whoa, whoa, whoa, what are

512
00:32:59,160 --> 00:33:01,680
you doing? Stop? Stop, don't do this. We remember the

513
00:33:01,680 --> 00:33:03,880
seventies and eighties. I mean it wasn't me because I

514
00:33:03,960 --> 00:33:06,640
was like I wasn't even born. But I mean, well,

515
00:33:06,640 --> 00:33:09,359
I wasn't born in the early seventies, but like I

516
00:33:09,400 --> 00:33:12,240
don't remember. I just remember you didn't go to New

517
00:33:12,319 --> 00:33:15,119
York's Times Square. I remember that as a kid. You

518
00:33:15,119 --> 00:33:18,559
didn't go there. It was gross, it was crime written,

519
00:33:18,680 --> 00:33:21,440
it was nasty, So you didn't go there. And then

520
00:33:21,759 --> 00:33:24,559
it was like, I'm down south and I'm seeing all

521
00:33:24,640 --> 00:33:27,279
these things about New York Times Square and like all

522
00:33:27,319 --> 00:33:30,480
of these TV studios are now live in the morning

523
00:33:30,480 --> 00:33:32,200
from there, and I'm like, why would you be in

524
00:33:32,240 --> 00:33:38,240
Times Square? That's nasty? Like Holy Toledo. They really have

525
00:33:38,319 --> 00:33:43,200
made a difference there, Rudy Giuliani. California voters gave overwhelming

526
00:33:43,240 --> 00:33:46,160
approval in November to a ballot initiative. Did you hear

527
00:33:46,200 --> 00:33:51,279
about this? They voted for a ballot initiative in California

528
00:33:51,799 --> 00:33:58,400
making shoplifting a felony for repeat offenders and increasing penalties

529
00:33:58,640 --> 00:34:02,799
for some drug charge is, including those involving fentanyl. The

530
00:34:02,960 --> 00:34:08,480
measure rolled back parts of progressive law passed by voters

531
00:34:08,719 --> 00:34:13,880
in twenty fourteen that downgraded several nonviolent crimes to misdemeanors,

532
00:34:13,880 --> 00:34:16,719
including theft valued under nine hundred and fifty dollars and some

533
00:34:16,800 --> 00:34:20,760
drug offenses. Right, so this is the restoration of sanity.

534
00:34:22,840 --> 00:34:25,920
I got a message here from Russ He says, violent

535
00:34:26,119 --> 00:34:30,679
versus property crime. I understand I'm not wired like most people,

536
00:34:31,039 --> 00:34:32,960
but a few of us were jumped by a much

537
00:34:33,039 --> 00:34:36,159
larger group in college, and I have had my locked

538
00:34:36,320 --> 00:34:41,639
car twice and office three times burgled. For me, the

539
00:34:41,679 --> 00:34:45,119
invasion and removal of my stuff was much more troubling,

540
00:34:46,360 --> 00:34:49,199
right because the thing is you don't ever know, like

541
00:34:50,119 --> 00:34:55,599
with the with the physical assault, the getting jumped by people.

542
00:34:55,639 --> 00:34:57,559
I've had that occur to me as well, Like you

543
00:34:57,679 --> 00:35:00,599
just get blindsided, somebody comes at you whatever, it's like

544
00:35:00,679 --> 00:35:02,599
here now, and then the threat is over. And it's

545
00:35:02,679 --> 00:35:04,599
very easy to sort of say, like this was this

546
00:35:04,639 --> 00:35:07,559
one isolated event. Somebody gets into your house. You have

547
00:35:07,639 --> 00:35:09,440
no idea what they did, You have no idea what

548
00:35:09,480 --> 00:35:11,960
they took, because like it was years later when you

549
00:35:12,000 --> 00:35:14,519
start realizing some of the stuff that is missing and

550
00:35:14,559 --> 00:35:17,760
you're like, whatever happened to that thing? You know? And

551
00:35:18,159 --> 00:35:19,920
you got to take a guess. You're like, I guess

552
00:35:19,920 --> 00:35:22,239
it was the burglary because I just don't know. But

553
00:35:22,320 --> 00:35:24,880
you also don't know if they're coming back, did they

554
00:35:24,920 --> 00:35:27,440
see something they wanted and then they're going to come back.

555
00:35:28,159 --> 00:35:33,400
In Colorado, voters approved a ballant initiative lengthening the time

556
00:35:33,679 --> 00:35:36,679
that people have to serve in prison before they can

557
00:35:36,719 --> 00:35:44,320
be parolled for certain categories of murder, assault, sexual assault, kidnapping, arson, burglary,

558
00:35:44,760 --> 00:35:49,599
and robbery. That's in Colorado, voters approve that. In Arizona,

559
00:35:49,920 --> 00:35:55,199
voters approved measures boosting penalties for deadly fentanel sales and

560
00:35:55,760 --> 00:36:03,280
mandating life imprisonment for certain child ex trafficking crimes. Yes,

561
00:36:03,440 --> 00:36:06,280
I'm okay with that too. I don't think you recover

562
00:36:06,360 --> 00:36:09,440
from that. Like I don't think you're if you're sex

563
00:36:09,480 --> 00:36:12,280
trafficking children, I don't think like I think you're broken.

564
00:36:12,320 --> 00:36:14,920
You're done. That's it. You need to be taken away.

565
00:36:15,320 --> 00:36:19,119
Other states have also backtracked just years after relaxing sentencing laws.

566
00:36:20,199 --> 00:36:22,800
I think, guys, it may have. This is maybe as

567
00:36:22,800 --> 00:36:24,880
close as we get to an admission that they were wrong.

568
00:36:25,000 --> 00:36:27,320
All right, that'll do it for this episode. Thank you

569
00:36:27,400 --> 00:36:29,360
so much for listening. I could not do the show

570
00:36:29,400 --> 00:36:31,920
without your support and the support of the businesses that

571
00:36:32,000 --> 00:36:35,079
advertise on the podcast, so if you'd like, please support

572
00:36:35,119 --> 00:36:36,760
them too and tell them you heard it here. You

573
00:36:36,800 --> 00:36:39,440
can also become a patron at my Patreon page or

574
00:36:39,519 --> 00:36:43,119
go to thepetecleanershow dot com. Again, thank you so much

575
00:36:43,159 --> 00:36:49,599
for listening, and don't break anything while I'm gone.

