Speaker 1: What's going on? Thank you so much for listening to
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your support. Had the white smoke haven't had the pope
on the balcony yet, so we don't know who the
pope is yet. You are fully caught up. You're welcome. Yesterday,
the Mayor of Charlotte and the Charlotte City Council and
the Charlotte City Attorney held a news conference. They did
not take questions from the lectern. They all read statements,
and then they broke off and did one on one
interviews with members of the media. So all I have
is the press of the statements, rather that they I
keep calling it a news conference or a press conference,
but I shouldn't call it a press conference because press
is just print. But it wasn't really a conference. It
was just an address. Basically, they issued statements. They read
the statements and what were the statements about. They were
not about the settlement with Chief Johnny Jennings. It was
about whacking Watlington and mole hunting. That's what their statements
were about. They loved the police chief and we are
not corrupt. Victoria Wattlington put out a statement after the
settlement news broke and everybody was asking questions about why
are we paying the police chief three hundred thousand dollars,
like for what and everything? And she then put out
this fundraising press release right where she said that she
was extremely concerned with the level of unethical, immoral, and
frankly illegal activities occurring within city government. And she said
she has witnessed the brazen disregard for dissenting opinions and
the rule of law. So that's corruption. She is accusing
her colleagues and city management of corruption. Right. We talked
about this yesterday. Kudos to Jason Puckett over at WBTV
who actually got a hold of Virginia Watlington after the
news conference. Not a news conference. She said her concerns
were being misrepresented. I don't think they were, okay, I
don't think you get to use that kind of language
and then say no, no, no, you're you're taking it
out of context. I'm pretty sure I got the context
loud and clear. Okay, But she says, as I understand
what was being portrayed at the press conference, I feel
like was grossly overemphasized. The message is we've got to
make some adjustments, some things have to change with how
we operate. And that was the message, and it has
become something completely different than that. No, I think you
just you chose your words poorly. I think you fired
this this statement out. I don't know if she had
campaign staffers helping her write it or what, but I
think you fired this thing off and you did not
weigh the words properly because the words you used mean something.
What you what you have alleged is corruption, and coming
from a sitting city council member who has been there
for five and a half years, who tried to become
the mayor pro tem after you were the top votainer,
not vote getter. Votainer is the correct word to hear people. Votainer.
You got more vote it's in the at large city
council race last time around than any other candidate yet
your colleagues did not put you into the position of
mayor pro tem. I suspect that's part of this as well.
There's hurt feelings on her side of it that she
was robbed of this position for backroom political dealings. She
was not happy with this. Democrats have done this for
the last two mayor pro tem selections. They screwed over
Dimple Ashmera and named Braxton Winston the BLM activist guy.
They made him mayor pro tem and then they just
made Dante Anderson mayor pro tem, who, by the way,
I will tell you, like in just watching the way
she behaves, far superior than Braxton Winston. And I would
even submit superior to Victoria Watlington, but she's a district Rep.
She's the District three, I believe rep. And you usually
don't give it to a district Rep. You give it
to an at large Rep. Somebody who represents the whole city,
which Victoria Watlington does. Malcolm Graham city councilman. He was
on city council back when I was a reporter. He
then went into the state legislature for several terms and
then he came back ran for city council again, got
back on. So he's been on city council for most
of the last twenty years, and he said he spoke
with Watlington twice yesterday morning before the news conference, and
he told her words matter.
Speaker 2: Words like unethical and moral, illegal activities, disregard for descending opinions,
and the rule of law. They matter a lot. They
echoed outside of the building. They echoed to potential corporations,
all looking to publish, all at home, to those that
we want to retain, to economic development activities, et cetera.
Speaker 1: Completely correct, he is completely correct. The words she used matter.
When a sitting city council member accuses the city government
of corruption, that matters. Business leaders take note, Civic leaders
take note what is going on here. That's what they
think to themselves. Is Charlotte worth the investment? Should we
be looking to the Queen City or should we be
looking someplace else? This is the same problem. And this
now compounds with former mayor Patrick Cannon going to federal
prison on bribery charges, being convicted for bribery, and then
he voted after being a convicted felon. Right, So it's
kind of a two for there. It's a problem, and
you have enough of these scandals. Enough of these accusations
and people start thinking it's true. I still make jokes
to this day about the river catching fire in Cleveland,
and from what I understand, that was like thirty years ago.
Their fire has not caught or their river has not
caught fire in a very very long time. But that's
the rep you get, and that's very difficult to come
back from. Although Drew Carey did make I think he
made real progress in rehabbing Cleveland's identity there. But this
is the major concern. I think Charlotte has always been
about business right, So that's one element the brand of Charlotte,
the corruption allegation. The other problem, Malcolm Graham said, is
the problem of leaked information from the closed sessions. He said,
leakage matters, and that is true actually in many different
areas of life, but anyway, leakage matters, and has requested
an investigation into who who is the leaker? The council
and staff must trust. He says that closed session deliberations
remain confidential. I get that too. I get that as well.
You know, you you're in there, you're in a privileged conversation,
and then you find out that somebody is leaking to
the media about conversations inside that that space. At the
next closed session, you're not going to speak speak freely.
Your staff, the city staff is not going to be
speaking freely. Everybody now is going to be worried that
what they say is going to be twisted and leaked
out to the media. And that's that is a real
problem for a governing body. He is absolutely correct. But
sometimes sometimes what is discussed in a closed session is
either not appropriate for a closed session, or as in,
it doesn't belong in closed session, or what you're doing
closed session is not right, and people the public need
to be alerted to it. Okay, so hang on a second,
So we have our We have our announcement here from
the Vatican City. I don't speak Latin, so I will
not be able to translate this for you. Oh well,
I can. This is cheering.
Speaker 3: I can translated dominoma, dominoma, robertumfuma song de Romaine Clesier,
Cardinal prevost quise ce b no man named posuita Leonema.
Speaker 1: Like I said, I cannot translate this for you, so
I will wait for the translation. When I hang on
a second. He just stopped and see more cheering. They've
been out there cheering for like an hour. Okay, there
opening up the red curtains and we're waiting up. They're
opening some other windows next to the balcony, and some
looks like some cardinals are coming out there. Okay, so
why don't we do this? Well, I don't want to
break away and rob you of this historic moment, because well,
this is a historic moment. This is a global news event,
all right.
Speaker 4: There.
Speaker 1: Now you've got two balconies filled with cardinals. They're opening
some other doors. More cardinals are coming out onto the
top floor balconies. They've unveiled or unfurled the big uh,
a big banner over the railing of the of the
balcony where the pope will come out, and we're waiting
and still waiting. Okay, there are guys now making sure
that the banner is fully attached and it doesn't I
guess fall off. That would be embarrassing. I still waiting,
still waiting. Okay. So we're seeing reports that an American
has actually been now named the Pope, Robert Prevost from America.
I believe he would be the first American pope, as
memory serves. But we are still waiting to hear the
official announcement, but it's now being reported. What is that
CBS over there? And this is Fox News American cardinal
announced as new pope and which you know, the Vatican
News here your Twitter account. Like I kind of feel
like you guys should have been the ones to break that.
They're just still showing white smoke with a seagull on
top of the roof. The first American pope in history,
Robert Prevot. This is from BNL News, Robert Prevost from
the US elected pope. So there you go. That seems
like it's confirmed while the crowd waits. All right, if
you're listening to this show, you know I try to
keep up with all sorts of current events, and I
know you do too, And you've probably heard me say
get your news from multiple sources. Why well, because it's
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so impressed with Ground News. It's an app and it's
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news slash Pete. I put the link in the podcast
description too. I started using ground News a few months
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my podcast, but it also supports ground News as they
make the media landscape more transparent. The next pope will
take the name Leo the fourteenth, and apparently he has
a Twitter account. Robert Prevost does doctor It's yeah, d R.
Prevost And back in February he retweeted something or no,
he tweeted this himself. JD Vance is wrong. Jesus doesn't
ask us to rank our love for others. So that's
what I don't know. But I did see somebody say
that Donald Trump did promise he would make America great again,
and there you go, first America Pope. All right, all right,
so we're going over this Prescott reference at the City
of Charlotte held yesterday where I got more questions after
watching this thing than I had before. I didn't really
get any questions answered. City councilman Malcolm Graham said that
he is asking for an investigation by the city attorney
and I guess the manager, but inside the city to
find the leaks, to find who leaked the information from
closed session meetings to the media. Now, I don't know
how these city staffers are going to be able to
conduct such an investigation. Interviews obviously with all of the
members of the council. But if the council lied, are
they going to go under oath or something for like
depositions or something I am I don't know. Are they
going to go after local reporters trying to get them
to reveal their So don't know. May I have to
go outside get some outside council to do this? We
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Let me get to some messages here regarding the UH
this whole deal with the payoff to the Charlotte Mecklenburg
Police Department. This is from or to the chief. Rather,
this is from Kevin. The chief raised a valid concern
regarding the use of outer carrier vests, these vests projecting
militaristic appearance without providing significant additional protection. I mean, I
think any additional protection is good and is significant. If
it's going to stop a bullet, even just a tenC
weens a little bit better. I feel like I would
want that vest, you know, and you get to carry
all sorts of stuff on the outside of the vest
rather than having to carry it all around your waistband.
Speaker 5: Right.
Speaker 1: It's just it's from a practical standpoint, there were benefits
there the initial level, so he goes Kevin goes on
to say, the initial level of force in policing is presence,
and when officers arrive wearing ball caps, displaying beards, tattoo sleeves,
and outer carrier vests, they resemble military personnel, which can
escalate public tension. See I've never felt that, I've never
felt an escalation of tension based on what a cop
is wearing. Whatever tension exists, It's usually because I was
doing something wrong and the cop has now confronted me
about it, and I don't want to go to jail.
That's always the tension that I have. Yeah, I look,
I have made the argument about, you know, a militarized
police department. I understand that, But that to me is vehicles.
That's the kind of equipment, like heavy equipment that you're
rolling in with.
Speaker 4: You know.
Speaker 1: I understand that argument that, but vests, I'm not. I'm
not as persuaded by the vests. I really am not.
I expect all law enforcement in today's day and age
to be wearing vests of some kind. Exterior or interior,
doesn't matter. If it's below the shirt or in front
of the shirt. To me, doesn't matter. I expect all
of them to be wearing vests. Police officers are distinct
from the military and should maintain a professional appearance that
reflects their role in community safety. All that being said,
this payoff is ridiculous. Any public servant is subject to criticism.
Speaker 5: Right.
Speaker 1: Well, so here's the thing. The argument about the vests
was had and is over. We had the argument a
year ago, right, and Kevin's argument was what the argument
from the police chief, and a lot of the BLM
activists were saying at the time, and a lot of
city council members said at the time, And so that
argument was had and having the argument. To Kevin's last
point there, having the argument and having people vehemently disagree
with you. That's part of the gig of being the
police chief. When you say no to the vests and
you've got a council member who says you should resign,
I'm going to make your life difficult. You should allow
the vest. This is what the people want, this is
what the officers want. Like, that's not reputational damage. You
take a position, and if you suffer reputational damage because
of the position you have taken, that's on you. That's
your position that you took. If the rank and file
now don't respect you or trust you, or think you
their best interests at heart, like, that's because of your
position that you took on the vests. I'm not arguing
whether the vests should have been adopted or should not
have been adopted. Because Jennings won the budget fight, they
were not included in the taxpayer funded budget, and then
Bokari went and raised the money on his own privately
and got the vests donated, and at that point Jennings
then allows them to voluntarily ask for the vests. Why
would he do that, right, if he really did believe
that you should not be wearing these vests because of
the militaristic view, why did he do it? Why did
he allow the officers to now wear the vests unless
he didn't actually believe that argument, or at least he wasn't.
He wasn't willing to, you know, draw a line in
the sand on that. He caved, He gave, he allowed officers.
He didn't mandate it, but he allowed those who wanted
it to get them, which is a perfectly appropriate response,
by the way, And that's why I thought compromise achieved
and we can all go about our day. And I
didn't hold the chief in any lesser esteem. Now maybe
his officers did, I don't know. One of the accusations
made by council member Watlington was that dissenting opinions were disregarded.
That's what she says, dissenting opinions are disregarded, and I've
heard similar comments from other council members Renee Johnson, mainly
because she brings up stuff that's just like, what are
you even talking about? And she doesn't have support, she
doesn't whip votes for her position, and she's crossed swords
with a couple other council members because she's not an
effective council member. And I think that's where this is
coming from Watlington and Johnson, I think that's sort of
this connection. Malcolm Graham, their colleague on council. He addressed
this idea, this accusation that dissenting opinions are not allowed
to be heard or are disregarded in some way.
Speaker 2: Off cast thousands of votes here in Charlotte as well
as in Raleigh. Sometime I'm in the majority, sometimes I'm
in the minority position, and I treat each in every
vote to saying because there's always another and so the
descending opinion. We have debates. Sometimes we win, sometimes we lose,
but every opinion, every thought is heard, and then there's
a vote and then we move on.
Speaker 1: Right, And some people can't. Some people they don't like
the fact that they are on the losing end of
votes all the time. That's what they care about something
a lot. They are unable to persuade people to vote
for them or vote with them. On an issue and
they get their feelings hurt and then they hold grudges and.
Speaker 4: Like.
Speaker 1: But that's part of the gig is You're not going
to win every vote just because I don't. I've said
this so many times. Just because I don't agree with
you doesn't mean I haven't heard your argument. I have
heard your argument, I've heard what you have said. I disagree,
and I'm not going to go along with what you're advocating.
Because I disagree, that doesn't mean I'm ignoring you. All right,
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Let's go to the Twitter machine. Read some peate tweets.
This is from Melissa who says settlements are tax free.
Jennings is laughing all the way to the bank. I've
never received a settlement. Well, I think I got like
a dollar twenty five. And when those class action things
like it just showed up one day like, yeah, you're
part of this class because you were a customer of
some corporation that got sued and here's your payout, Like
oh okay, but yeah, so I don't know, I did
not declare it, but it was only like a buck,
fifty buck twenty five something like that. Trent says, I
don't think that the police chief cares about all of
the backlash at this point, he's at retirement age and
we'll probably ride off into the sunset soon with a
nice bonus. Now, leaving everything and everyone in disarray. Bubba says,
I would be curious to see where the three hundred
k came from the Charlotte budget. The CMPD budget. Keep
in mind Mecklenburg County pays a good amount for CMPD services.
There's so many layers to uncover in this shakedown. Yeah,
they do usually have a line item for settlements and
that sort of thing. Or maybe it's paid out through
an insurance company. I don't know, but that's a very
good question. Where's the money coming from? Is that going
to increase insurance rates for the city if it is
coming from an insurance policy. Rh pub says the more
I hear about the city of Charlotte, the more thankful
that I do not live there. And let me see here.
I got another message. This is from Mamitudid, who says
the city council press conference was very disturbing. We do
not appreciate the spin on investigating leakers when we want
to know why the police chief received three hundred thousand
dollars behind closed doors. Do not agree with the way
tark Bakari handled the situation last year, and it looked
pretty bad on his part. But giving the chief all
that money behind closed doors is what we want to
know more about, since its taxpayer money. The spin on
investigating the leakers is just making the city council and
the City Attorney look even worse than they already do.
That spin is not accomplishing what they think it is
in the public eye. Also, don't don't waste your time
on that Conclave movie. They could have done much better
on highlighting the dedication of popes than how it actually ended.
The filmmakers missed a huge opportunity. Yeah, I've not heard
good things. I feel like this pope's selection. This is
from the Hellian who says, I feel like this pope
selection is this Rounds Steele dossier moment. This guy will
dog Trump daily. I don't know, Russ says, I don't know.
I'm not a fan of over militarized police or abuse
of power, but I feel like jacked officers in outer
vests are more likely to deter conflict than the five
foot much less in shape and less threatening officers. Yeah,
it feels like some of these arguments. Again, sensitive to
the militarized police argument. I am, and I've argued with
people on the araout this over the years. However, I
feel like there is often coming from the you know,
militarized police crowd. There is oftentimes sort of this disregard
or dismissiveness of the oppositional defiance disorder that is apparently
prevalent in a lot of the activist protesters. When people
show up at these events, these protests and they are
looking to commit violence, right, the militarized police doesn't make
them commit violence. There are people there that are seeking
to do it, and there are some people that they
believe they have a right. And I'm not kidding about this.
There is a there is a theory that exists. It
is predominantly in the African American community that you have
a right to resist arrest, which then of course escalates
the situation. So all of that is part of that debate,
which again we had these arguments a year ago. I
thought this was all put to bed. Next up, I've
got a SoundBite of this is the Mayor pro tem
Dante Anderson. She said it's unfortunate that they had to
address the accusations of immoral and criminal activities made by
a member of the body for five and a half years.
She thanked the Chief, is command staff and all the
officers who keep the Queen City safe.
Speaker 4: Our chief stepped up when there was a void of leadership.
Those with a discerned understanding of leadership lean into those moments,
clear eyed of the gravity of that role. The Chief
did so and saw us through a number of tenuous
situations throughout the years. I want to commend the Chief's
leadership and express my gratitude for his dedication to the
City of Charlotte.
Speaker 1: She said. The Chief, as an employee, has a right
to privacy on personnel matters, and that's why the discussions
were held in closed session, not to hide anything from
the public. I was just gravy. She said that if
Victoria Watlington has concerns her allegations, she should come forward
with a complaint to the city attorney for an investigation.
Councilwoman dimple Aghmera said she is not here at the
press conference to attack Watlington or to point fingers.
Speaker 5: Let me assure you there is no illegal activity or
corruption going on in our city. And as the chair
of the Budget, Governance and Inner Governmental Relations committee, there
is something. I take it very seriously. Obviously, there are
processes that we can improve on, and I have had
that conversation with some of my colleagues, including Councilwoman Watlington.
But we can do that by working collaboratively without silencing
anyone's voice, while working with the city attorney the City
manager's office to ensure there is greater transparency and accountability.
Speaker 2: All right.
Speaker 1: Finally, Ed Driggs, the only Republican on city Council, said
we should all be proud of the good governance of Charlotte.
Speaker 6: It saddens me for Charlotte that a member of council
would use scare mongering tactics like this to draw attention
to herself. I'm not aware of any foundation for council
Member Watlington's allegations, and it is important to note that
they are not supported by any specific assertions of fact
in respect of which she could be held responsible. These
are wild allegations. It's not even clear what they mean,
but they are offered in such a way that she
doesn't have to defend them.
Speaker 1: Okay, and I understand what he's saying. I agree, but
I would submit that we don't have the specifics of
assertions or facts of Jennings accusation of reputational harm either. Right,
So the very thing that you're nailing Watlington for because
of her statements is the very thing that the public
is nailing Council for. Right, What reputational harm was suffered
and how was that value assessed? All right, that'll do
it for this episode. Thank you so much for listening.
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