This is the FCB podcast Network. This is The Laws Extra. Welcome to the Outlaws Extra. This is Darvold to King pen Mal. Make sure that you subscribe to the show on Apple, podcast, Spotify, iHeart, or wherever you get your podcast. And if you listen to the show and Apple, make sure you leave us a five star review and a comment is very important for the algorithm and for those of you who've already done so, thank you, oh so very much. We have a special interview with Cleveland City Councilman Brian Casey recently. As a matter of fact, yesterday there was a city council meeting. They were meeting in part they had a lot of other things to do as well, but they're you know, a large part of the conversation obviously was the violence. For people who aren't aware, there was a mass shooting in Cleveland recently a couple of days ago, where an assailant open fire on nine people in Cleveland's Warehouse District, which is a popular nightclub spot here in the city. So obviously that has been consuming everything that's been going on here. It's also in more evidence of the rising crime issue that we're having in this city and city council had a meeting on Wednesday, and no one from the mayor's administration showed up to it, and when they were questioned about it by the local media, they also issued a very little nasty, nasty Graham note statement explaining why they intentionally chose not to show up. So Councilman Brian Casey is going to respond, as a matter of fact, I believe he's going to be the first person, if I'm not mistaken, to respond on the record to this. And we thank Councilman Casey for being generous with his time and in the coming and talk to us on such short notice. So you know how we normally do. For those of you who are listening to the show, you know how we normally do outlaws extras. Usually we would take a break right here and then air the interview in its entirety. But what we're going to do this time around is we're going to go to the interview now and then we'll take a break at the end, so we'll get to Cleveland Councilman Brian Casey right now. All right, we have a very special guest on the show today. He is Cleveland City Councilman Brian Kazy, Welcome to the show. How are you doing? Sorry, I'm well. How are you I'm good, I'm good. It's been an eventful where taking this one just the end of Wednesday, It's been an eventful day for city council apparently, Um, there's been some sort of of issue or dispute or what have you. Before I get before I read the statement from the mayor and get you to respond, first, tell people what happened. Now, normally members of the administration you know, show up to city council meetings. I'm assuming to answer any questions that you guys may have or get any feedback from council or what have you. So what happened at You're at Wednesday's council meeting, right, So usually on any typical normal council night, the administration shows up and it's a it's just really basically an opportunity for you know, the council to talk to the commit to the to the directors, the chiefs, the mayor himself. It's really a powerlow session for us. It gives everybody the opportunity to come together have those face to face conversations. It's where a lot of a lot of the meeting potatoes, work gets done. Are at the council meetings today? Not so much. So, if I'm not mistaken, no one from the administration showed up to the city council meeting, absolutely correct, nobody, not one person. And in you've how long have you been on council serving my ninth year? Is that the first time that's ever happened. Not only that, but other council members who've been there a lot longer than me can't remember it ever happening either. So I would say that at least since all before the seventies, that this hasn't happened at all. Wow. Wow. So, of course there was a controversy surrounding this, and council felt disrespected, especially considering a lot of the issues that you guys were dealing with today, pertaining to a lot of the violence, the issue that we have in the city right now. So Mayor Bib's administration late Wednesday issued a statement, and so I want to read the statement and get your response to it says the administration has been working tirelessly every single day to push Cleveland forward. The city's problems and violence does not get a summer recess like Council. The administration works around the clock, showing up every day and doing everything we can to keep our residents safe and ensure they receive the services they need. We were informed of the political grandstanding that was going to occur tonight. The Mayor will not subject his cabinet to sit politely for yet another monologue attacking their integrity, ethics, and basic functionality. Real progress takes place with hard work and action, not expressing frustration in front of an audience. Continue to tax like these rip at the fabrics of collaboration are unproductive in hinder progress, hurting those who need help the most are residents. We look forward to genuine collaboration with Council in the near future so we can work together to find solutions for our residents. They deserve nothing less. Your response to well, it sounds to me like somebody's butt hurt, right, And the reason that they're butt hurt is because they, the administration and the mayor himself aren't the ones to get the cost twenty four to seven right. We're the we're we're the ones that are closest to our residents, and when the residents reach out to us and they start voicing their frustration. We don't administer, we don't hire, we don't fire. Right, that's on the mayor's point, and the mayor is the mayor, and the buck stops with him, doesn't stop with the council. And he seems to be a little bit upset because he's being held accountable by the council, which is our job. Sorry, if you've got thin skin and can't take a little bit of criticism, or you can't take the fact that somebody's actually holding you accountable for the position that you wanted, and if this is the way you're going to react, then it's going to be a long political toll road to toll. UH in this in this game. And you know, I watched UH council council meeting today and one thing that I noticed was that many of you were still saying that you want to work with the administration. You're looking to collaborate with the administration to solve problems, to address these issues. Um, what does something like this due to the nature of that relationship, Well, it definitely puts puts everybody on edge, right, and then it puts a wall because what he's doing, he's he's attempting to divide the administration and the council, and that's not a good move for our residents of the city. And what this said to us today was almost like, hey, we're taking our ball and going home. You're not going to hold us accountable anymore. And then to throw the shot across the course about having summers off. There are no body harder working in this city than in city council members and we're twenty four to seven. We don't just get to punch a clock and show up at the office at nine am and get to leave at five pm, which is what a lot of the administration does. That parking lot today in that garage was cleared out by five pm. So we don't just get to work, you know, nine to five. You know, we take phone calls twenty four seven, and the majority of our phone calls our complaints about stuff that basic city services and in the administrations of is to be servicing our residents with you know, uh, this is you know, this is up to the mayor and if the buck stops with him, and if he doesn't have the skin, the tough enough skin, uh to be able to handle a little bit of criticism without you know, acting like you know, UM, he's hurt. You know, his feelings are hurt, or his administration's feelings are hurt. You know that he's got a long two and a half years left on his h on his term. We're talking with Cleveland City Councilman Brian Casey, UM, and I appreciate you spending time with us and coming on showing short notice. M one. Obviously, the main issue that a lot of you, you know, a lot of y'all were talking about today was the issue of crime. And I know that that's an issue that you have, uh focused on. This not the first time that that you have expressed concerns concerning crime or anything like that. UM, and your assessment, you know, where do you think the city is right now with crime and how it's impacting you know, pretty much every neighborhood in the city at this point. All Right, it's to a point now where either you're getting used to it or you're so scared you don't want to leave your house, right And I'm really starting to become a little perturbed over the fact that nobody wants to be a police officer. So for this last police Academy at class nine hundred and twenty seven people applied to be a police officer. I'll give you just the fact that half of those police officers, or half of those applicants eliminate themselves on background checks or whatever. I'll be generous and give you that that still leaves more than four hundred and fifty of the four hundred and fifty that would potentially be eligible. The administration only hires thirteen. We only have eight people graduate in this next academy academy class. You mean to tell me that only eight people out of a generous four hundred and fifty that could potentially be eligible, if not more, maybe a little less, are only good are good enough to be Cleveland police officers. This says there's something more going on here, and the proof is in the you know, is right in front of our faces. I don't know what downsizing or right sizing. The problem is if we don't do if we don't get a handle on this, and again we don't hire, you know, the administration that hires um the right size is going to be no size because we ain't gonna have anybody left on our police force. So as far as you know, nobody wanting to be we had plenty of applicants. We just had an administration that just refuses to hire. So well, that's that that's breaking news there. I'm sure most people aren't aware of the amount of applicant we know, you know, we've heard the number of recruits to the academy, but you know, most people, I think probably aren't aware of the number of applicants, and that that suggests a deeper problem here. Um. Also there is a concern that you know, we've lost over three hundred officers in the last couple of years, and if I'm not mistaking, two hundred of them of the current officers are approaching retirement eligibility. So what what does that look like like? That we're we're approaching crisis levels of of of police here. And not only that, but what makes it worse is the uh violence and the level of violence and the crimes that are that are perpetrating, perpetrating. Right, It's not like you know, back in the day, when you know somebody would have a disagreement, we'd fight in ten minutes later your your friends again, and you know they're solving their disputes. Nowadays, with god right, nobody has you know, the respect for life like like we did back in the day. And a lot of this is just visibility, right, It's it's, you know, nothing's going to prevent a crime, more like seeing cops all over the place. And we're getting to a level where our police are, our current police officers are just going from call to call to call to call. We have nobody left, you know, in any of our specialized units, and nobody seems to think that this is a problem or a crisis. And one of the issues is even if you hired three three hundred police officers tomorrow, it takes nine months to get through our academy, So you're not you're looking at hiring a mass amount of people until next year, sometime first quarter and next year, and that's if they get hired today. Wow, we're we're we're in a crisis here. And you know, um, I don't know the mayor's standing in in extand and the if he doesn't find a way to get out of that quickstand soon, you know, it's it's we're all going to be in a world to hurt. Yeah, I mean my concern is and I talked to a count President Blaine Griffin, a couple of a couple of days ago on my show about this, like this was after right when the shooting in West six happened. The concern is when you have this low amount of police officers. You know, criminals, not all of them are stupid, right, like some of them. They they can read, they they have televisions, they can read on their phone. They know that the Cleveland Police Department doesn't have as many officers as they need. And the fear is that that the knowledge of that creates an environment, a climate where they feel like they can do whatever they want, where criminals feel like they can do whatever they want with impunity because they know that there's not enough Cleveland police officers to address it. Well, let's just used the West sixth shooting as an example. Where did guy come from? Who did the shooting? All right? Came from Lorraine, right. The only reason he got caught was because a private citizen put up a nice sum of cash as a reward. Fifty thousand dollars could be life changing to a lot of people. If that reward was only two hundred and fifty or five hundred dollars, nobody's going to snitch that guy out. But that guy's intention the head to have been I can, I can get away with this, And you're going to drive twenty five miles into the city from where you live to commit a crime like this thinking you're going to get away with it because we don't have enough police. The only reason you got caught, my friend, was because there was a nice bounty on your head. If that bounty wasn't on his head, we'd still be asking who this guy was. Yeah, And the frightening thing about it is, you know, I'm I'm a little too old for the Warehouse District. Now I've kind of aged out, But when I was in my twenties, I was in the Warehouse District a lot. Anybody who goes there, right, like, you know that there's cops everywhere, there's surveillance cameras everywhere. So to be that brazen to shooting a crowd of people when you know that there are cops there, when you know that they're our cameras everywhere, shows like that's that's frightening to me because that shows that you don't care at all, no respect for life today. You know, these criminals out here today think they're playing the video game. That's what it seems like, right. Listen, This ain't call of duty. You know, this is real life. You get shot, you don't get to respond, right. So that's you know, between between the there's no respect for life, the fact that we don't have enough police officers, you know, on the street. And we've done a great job of letting people know, you know that we don't have enough police officers on the street. But that's another subject between you know, the culture today of nobody caring about anybody's life and the fact that we don't have enough law enforcement around. It's just the perfect storm. Wow. So this this is very concerning, I think and especially not I'll close with this. I think you all are more, maybe even more aware of the situation because you get the calls, right, Like, the residents are calling you. Sometimes they call the mayor, but most of the time they're calling you and they're they're telling you about the issue. So are you are you getting calls like that from your residence concerns about what's going on? All seventeen of us do, right, I even though there's an incident that happens, we'll just say on West six my residence and I represent more than sixteen, they're calling me saying, hey, is it safe to go out? Hey? Can I go downtown to go shop? Am I gonna you know? Am I if I go downtown? Am I gonna come back? Right? Um? But you know the West sixth thing. You know, obviously there was a mass shooting nine people's shop. But we've got this, the shootings going all over the city east, west, north, south. It doesn't matter where you live now, you know, And every time something pops off or something makes the news, you know, it makes our residents become on edge and the closest people that they have in government to talk to other council people, because we are the ones that pick up the phone. They're the ones that know us. They don't call the safety director, they're not calling the chief of police, they're not calling the district commanders. They don't know them. You know. They call their councilperson. And we're the ones that get all the calls. So we have to deal with you know, uh decisions that the administration has made, and we have to deal with them on on a daily basis. Right And it's just not safety, it's try garbage isn't picked up in time. You know, our streets aren't plowed. You know, we got you know, vacant you know, vacant lots that have grass that are four feet tall. You know, nobody's calling those commissioners to get the work done. But they're calling. They call their council person. And I'm not complaining. You can call me all day long. I'll deal with you. Know. Um, but then if you but then when we start holding those responsible or those who are in charge, you know, when we start holding their feet to the fire because the lack of city services, no matter what it is, isn't being provided. Don't get mad at us because we're just doing our job. We just have oversight, and our job is to hold you you accountable, just like the residents hold us accountable. Right. We can't complain about it. We can't get butt hurt, you know, we can't cry about it. We just have to to to suck it up. And then we have to go do our job. And when we go to do our job, don't don't don't go crying. Don't don't take your ball and run home. You know, Uh, suck it up, buttercup, and you know, let's let's move the city forward, all right, Cleveland Couslim and Brian Kayesy, thank you so much for coming on the show and spending some time with us, especially on short notice. I really appreciate it, sir, all right, Garbial, take care, all right, stay tuned. We'll be right back one more time. Thank you to Cleveland counselman Brian Kayes if you're coming on the show. Really appreciate it. We are out of here. We'll see you next time. Peace. This has been a presentation of the FCB podcast Network, where real talk lifts. Visit us online at FCB podcasts dot com.
