This is the FCB Podcast Network. This is an FCB Radio news special reports. All right, we have a very special guest with us here today. He is the Cleveland City Council President, Blaine Griffin. Welcome back. How you doing. Sorry, Hey, I'm doing okay. Man, always I'm venting the honor to beyond the show man. Unfortunate circumstances, but it's always good to the other show. Yeah, I appreciate it. Man, I appreciate you taking the time to come and talk to us as well. This unfortunately, there was a huge incident. It's made national news. So the city's making national news for all the wrong reasons. Again, there was a mass shooting in the Warehouse District. And for people who don't know, the Warehouse District is a very popular area of downtown Cleveland with a lot of nightclubs. People who live in the city, people who live outside of the city, people who live outside the state spend a lot of time down there. They come and hang out. Its bars and nightclubs and things like that. And there was a mass shooting. So first, before we talk about kind of the big picture, can you tell us what you know about the case itself, what like do we know what happened, yet it's very very preliminary. I don't have a lot of details. There is an active investigation and an act of an active, aggressive hunt to try to find this person who did this. I do believe that they at least have a description of the suspect. And I can't tell you that not only the Creating Division of Police, but the US MARS shows, the FBI, the County Sheriff's office, everybody has an all hands on decaproach right now finding this individual. So it's too preliminary to get into any details of what happened. All we know is right now is that there was a suspect on Johnson Court that opened fire on several people into a crowd of people, and nine people were struck and one seriously, and right now our cities traumatized. We have sent out our condolences to the entire family, and we hope that all of these victims have a speedy recovery. But we can't tolerate this, and we got to draw the line and be and we can't give up the ship. We got to continue to fight for our city and that's what Cleveland City Council is going to continue to do so. I mean, this is obviously very concerning for a lot of reasons. It's, first of all, it's a mass shooting. Me. Anytime you have nine people shot at the same time like that's obviously a scary for a lot of people. It's also scary because to you know, the Warehouse district is one of our tourist destinations and it's place that attracts a lot of people every weekend. Are you concerned that something like this or incidents like this could hurt the city long term, that it could make people feel like it's not safe to come to the city. Two games. Anytime that there is a mass shooting, right this number one multiple people being shot, it is alarming, and it diminishes the trust and the comfortability not only to tourists and visitors, but to the people that live and work and play in the city on the daily basis, and you know, want to be able to recreate and work and do what they need to do in a safe place. And say Manning, but I want to say this, this is just the latest incident of a rash of multiple shootings throughout the city. Earlier this week we had three people shot over in the Lee Harvard area. We had three people shot last night in the Tremont area. So this epidemic of gun violence is not relegated to a small district, and it is not just a Cleveland problem. It's a problem, as we've seen unfortunately at the national level. But I don't worry about that because I was elected and my colleagues were elected, and the mayor was elected to address Cleveland's complex electing issues of gun violence. And that's what I'm staying focused on. And once again, like I said earlier, Darville, I will not give up the ship. This is our city and this is more. There are more people who mean will and great citizens of this city than for our city to be defined by this idiot who did this heinous crime. We're talking with Cleveland City Council President Blame Griffin, and you have been consistent on these issues. You have spoken out about these This is not the first time you've spoken out on this show about these issues. This there are people who are wondering what is it going to take to fix this, because we know it wasn't always like this, and you don't have to go back that long ago. These the last couple of years has clear there's clearly been an uptick and violence, and there is a conversation about what exactly is going on we As a matter of fact myself, I've made a tweet thread yesterday before this happened concerning the controversial issue twenty four that got a lot of responses, over one hundred thousand views and all that people are really passionate about this. Now we know the West the Warehouse District incident wasn't necessarily a problem of capacity or not having enough officers down there, because anybody who's been to the Warehouse District, like got used to regularly in my twenties, you know that there's plenty of cops. There's cops everywhere in the Warehouse District. But as I saw this, I see the two issues connected in this sense that there is an overall climate of people feeling like they can do whatever they want to and get away with it. I don't understand other than in that context, why the hell you would shoot nine people when you know that there's a bunch of cops there, there's surveillance cameras, I mean, the place is. I just don't understand, like, you can't possibly care about consequences if you're if you're willing to do something like that, So what are your thoughts on how we got here? A couple of things. If someone goes and shoots into a crowd of people the way that that just happened, I think a couple of things that we have to assul this. Number one, it's not normal, which means that this person evidently was dealing with some mental health is es and dealing with some angry issues and some other issues that is making them result to this kind of violence. To do that, to randomly shoot into a crowd of people, I don't know the details if this was targeted or if this was just random, but for someone to fire into a crowd of people that way has to be a little a little challenged with mental health issues. Which is why I've always been a fan that we got to be better around attaching gun laws, gun laws and red flag laws to mental illness and other things. The other thing is that a lot of these guys are repeat offenders, and this is where we have to have a better partnership with the cool authority and others, because we got to start being proactive whenever we think that these kind of issues are going to emanate, and a lot of times they start to bubble up on social media and that's where they start to eliminate. But Dario, I'll be less than vest than honest and disingenuous if I didn't tell you that there is a morale problem with the Cleveland Division of Police and we got to do better to support our police department. I was not in favor of Issue twenty four. I thought that it would it was not the right solution to the problem that we were dealing with. But I don't want to blame all of this on Issue twenty four. I think that there are several other factors that might lead someone to doing this. That we have to be better across our systems, not just law enforcement and not just the city police, but the mental health agencies, the parole Authority, the US Marshals, the FBI in order to try to get ahead of these kind of gun crimes and be more proactive. So I think it is the perfect storm. People are still stressed, people you know, are forgetting that we are just coming out of a pandemic that through the entire world ecosystem off that people are still trying to adjust and dealing with a lot of mental health issues. But at the end of the day, we just can't make excuses. We just got to get some things done, and we got to be willing to shake up the status quo and even some of our friends that want us to always be politically correct and always want us to say and do the right things to be balanced, which even as I'm doing right now, people want us to hold these folks accountable. And the thing that I'm more concerned about is apprehending the suspect and making sure that all of the money that Counsel allocates to the administration and these other partnerships that we have showed the results, because right now, people think they could do this stuff and get away with it. That's the danger in this city. Any time people think they can pull a trigger, harm or kill or name another human being and believe it in their mind that because we don't have enough officers or we don't have enough resources, that they'll be able to get away with it. We got to dispel that, myft. So that's why it's imperative that we catch this person, hold them accountable, and work on all of our systems as we're trying to deal with this complex and vacine issue. Yeah. I mean, you know, criminals aren't stupid, many of them, right, Like they they have TVs too, they have they have access to the internet too. They can they can see. They know about the policing issues and the staffing issues. And one thing that you talked about specifically is morale, which I am very concerned about because of the fact that we've had over two hundred officers leave in the last couple of years, and there are two hundred more if I'm not mistaking that we are that are approaching retirement eligibility. That is a huge concern, especially if people aren't happy. And I want to read to you a message that I received from a former Cleveland Police officer and then kind of get you to respond to that and to you know, some of the concerns that people that are that are still in the department have. So someone on Twitter told me, I'm proud to say that I'm one of the officers that have left. It was the best decision I have ever made, more money, less stress, in a different city that actually supports me and wants me to keep the city and its residence safe. I feel bad for my fellow officers stuck in Cleveland. My response was, if this is the common sentiment among Cleveland police officers, then this city is in trouble, and he followed up with Unfortunately, I can say with one hundred percent certainty that this is a widespread sentiment among those still in Cleveland and the people that have left. I'm very close with a few guys still, and almost daily they tell me how it's getting worse every week. It's really bad. What can we do to fix that? Well, hopefully we can provide the incentives and the rate of pay, as well as the supports that they need. But before I go into that, let me say this, I, along with my colleagues and most of Cleveland, does support our officers. And once again I want to make sure we reiterate this incident that happened with this man shooting downtown was not because there was a lack of officer presents at the time. Correct, This was not because of that. But once again, to speak to that issue, there are officers that feel overwhelmed, and I don't think that it's just because of Cleveland. I think it's a national tone and tenor that has taken route against police and perpetuated. But I can tell you the calls that I get every day, and I have a the Kinseia model of reward that has people that are on the margins of society and people that are affluent, and whether they're important neighborhoods or whether they're neighborhoods that are are wealthy and affluent, they want police, and every day they ask how they can get more police. So this thing that the citizens don't support them, I wouldn't actutely say that that's the entire case. I don't like to make broad day statements like that because in the interactions that I've had, we do support. But I would be less than genuine if I was to tell you that, yes, there is officers that feel overwhelmed right now and they feel like they're just being pounded on every day, and we do need to support the people that we're hard to try to keep our communities safe on our very good public service. Yeah, And I want to get your thoughts on this because I feel like this a lot of the tone and tenor surrounding police, not only locally but nationally, has come to it basically was an overreaction to some legitimate concerns that people in our community have and have, and it's unfortunate because I feel like our community gets put in these positions where it's like it's one extreme or the other. Either there are people who say no police should ever be held accountable for anything that they do, or on the other hand, you have people saying defund and abolished the police, when the reality is we need police. We want them to be held accountable when they do wrong, but when they're right, we support them. And I think that that's the position that most rational, reasonable human beings have. So and your thoughts on that, your thoughts on how we kind of got here, well, I totally agree with you. And one of the of things that I don't do is I don't make generalizations or blanket statements because of one off incidents. And that's what I think our society has a tendency to do. They use these things in order to try to make their own opinions. And we all know that we're dealing. We're probably one of the most polarizing times in the history of the United States of America, and people use these kinds of unfortunate tragedies to try to make their political points. I'm not here to make political points. I'm not here to make Democrats, Republicans, independents, conservatives, liberals. I'm not here to try to cater to any crowd. I'm here to do the right thing. And most people that are public servants are trying to do the right things. Unfortunately, there's some people that use their platform to try to gin up these differences and try to make their cases. Right now, I'm more concerned with apprehending this suspect, making sure we bring this person to justice, show that our system still works, give support to these officers as they go out and do their duty, and make sure that we hold officers and our community accountable for how we move forward. Because no matter what we say about officers, we got to look at our culture. And the culture of society is what keeps Cleveland in check, not the police, it never has. It's the culture of our city. And our soul is being searched right now, and we got to fight for the soul of this city. Our soul is being challenged, and until we really stand up and really be honest with people and and stop trying to cater to the polarized, you know, positions of people that really, quite frankly, don't have a midst we'll be living in because let's be honest, this incident took place in the central business district, but in the last week or the last month, this has been one of the most violent years across our city in every neighborhood that we've seen in a long time. So I'm always going to take a measure approach. I don't make polarizing statements because at the end of the day, I'm about accountability, I'm about being honest, and I'm about doing the right thing. We're talking with Cleveland City Council President Blame Griffinman and once again, definitely appreciate your generosity with your time. And finally, you know, I know that you guys have a tough job, especially they're in the city council dealing with a lot of these issues. So and I have people who ask me constantly, you know, those in the general public, you know, what can we do? How can we how can we help? We need to because this is a problem, this is bad. We need to do something. So I don't know if there is some issues or plans that you all are looking at for these things, or if you I know that the voice of the people matter and that it has an impact when you guys hear from them. What for people who are asking what can we do? What do you need us to do? How would you respond to that? What do you need the people to do? Be part of the solution and not part of the problem. And always recognize that democracy is a participation sport, not a not just watching it from the sidelines, Which means if you have young people in your house, have a conversation with them and try to see what their mindset is. Try to redirect a lot of that energy to becoming public servants and working for the police department or MS or fire, or a civic worker like safety or garbage collection or whatever else. Start getting involved with your family. This young person that actually did this crime know somebody somebody kitty interacted with. Probably if I was willing to bet my bottom dollar said one day, man, this guy might just snap in a minute, and and let's try to get him some help. Those are the kind of things that we can't just sit back and just be passive in what we need to do in order to address these things. You know, we can make all kinds of platitudes that we want to, but at the end of the day, the citizens are the ones that we have to really listen to in order to really get this done. So um, you know, I know people talk about, you know, what needs to be done at the state and federal level, but I'm a strong believing that we got to be able to deal with the culture in Cleveland because the way that I was raised, all politics is local. That's right, That's right, Cleveland City Council President, Blame Griffin Man. Thank you so much. I appreciate it. You know how much respect I have for your brother, and thank you so much for the spending time was likewise, And if somebody did in your listening Gudence, because I know you have a large audience, start vio. If somebody knows this young person that did this, to have a conversation, talk this person to turn themselves in before they hurt someone else or before God forbid, they hurt themselves. We need this person apprehended. This city is traumatized right now. Nobody knows the details about this, so everybody's on pens and needles. I had a very needed exchange with a couple of business owners today because they're frustrated, and I understand and frustration, and they have their thoughts on why they believe a lot of this is happening. But at the end of the day, we all just need to push to hold this person accountable and we all need to do better at the City of Cleveland. And I'm the type of person that that starts with me before I point to anybody else. Absolutely, thank you, sir, thank you, thank you. This has been a presentation of the FCB podcast Network, where real talk lifts. Visit us online at FCB podcasts dot com.
