Charlotte leaders tepidly respond to murder on a train (08-27-2025--Hour2)

What's going on? Thank you so much for listening to this podcast. It is heard live every day from noon to three on WBT Radio in Charlotte. And if you want exclusive content like invitations to events, the weekly live stream, my daily show prep with all the links, become a patron, go to dpeakclendershow dot com. Make sure you hit the subscribe button. Get every episode for free right to your smartphone or tablet, And again, thank you so much for your support. So Monday, when I was filling in for Brett Winterble, we covered the story of the murder of Arena Zarutzka. She was stabbed to death on what we believe to be on one of the Charlotte light Rail trains. This was down in South End. It seems like now there's a bit of confusion as to whether the murder occurred on the train or at the station. It was in South End on Camden Road. Very popular place among the young demographic. Okay, it's referred to as Millennial Row, although I guess it will probably need a rebrand at some point. But a lot of young people are there, a lot of bars and restaurants and such. And the guy who is alleged to have murdered her with a knife, stabbed her to death. A fifty sorry thirty four year old de Carlos Brown has been arrested, charged with first degree murder. And the guy has a rap sheet going back years and years and years. He has spent about a quarter of his life in jail in prison, so a repeat, repeat, repeat, repeat, repeat, repeat offender. This came up a little bit at the Charlotte City Council meeting on Monday, because she was murdered at about ten pm on Friday. She was a Ukrainian refugee fled the war zone to seek safety in America in Charlotte, where she was stabbed to death by a man with a rap sheet and a lengthy criminal history and obvious mental problems, a man who we just could not seem to figure out how to keep him out of a civil society. We could not figure out a way as a society to say this guy is a threat, even though at the last court proceeding that he had about a month ago his own defense attorney public defender submitted him for mandatory psych eval and the judge signed off on that. Because the guy, to Carlos Brown, he had apparently misused the nine one one call system. He called police or somebody called police for a wellness check on him while he was at the hospital outside the hospital, and when police showed up, he said that people had put a bunch of material, man made material or something inside of his blood and his body and his bones, and he wanted the cops to figure out what they did, and they were like, that's a medical issue, that's not we can't do that. So then he got upset about that, so he called nine to one one to try to get police to come and investigate his claims, and that's when the cops were like, yeah, now you're misusing the nine one one system. So that's how he ended up in front of a judge most recently, and he obviously is mentally unstable. So this came up at the city council meeting. Here's the Charlotte Observer report. Multiple Charlotte City Council members called for immediate steps to improve public safety on the city's transit system after the fatal stabbing of a twenty three year old woman on a light rail train and other recent incidents of violence. Now, one of the things that you rarely see, if ever mentioned in any of these stories about crime and violence on the train system or or on the train or at the stations. Is that it's basically the honor system. There are no gates, there are no turnstiles, there's no way to keep people who aren't paying from accessing the platforms and from accessing the trains themselves. They can get on the trains, they could ride the train and if one of the guys, one of the ticket takers or whatever, if they don't come through. And that is apparently a rarity as well. They don't make it through the trains all the time. Very rarely do they make it through the trains. So you could literally ride our light rail lines and never encounter somebody that's going to ask you for proof that you actually paid. Which means that people are now using the mass transit system for free, which I think that's not exactly a great idea if you're trying to, you know, bring in revenue, But it also makes it a magnet for people who don't have any money, are mentally unstable, and want to get around. They will now just get on the train for free. They'll ride around for free. Ashville actually tried this. They don't have trains, but they have buses, and they experimented with this. I don't know if they're still doing it, because no matter how many times the experiment fails, they always bring it back. Free buses. They want to run free buses, and what they what ends up happening is you get homeless people who just ride the bus all day long and they make up, they make a permanent encampment basically in the bus, and they trash it. They pee, they poop, they throw away their garbage just all over the seats and stuff. And then people don't want to ride the mass transit system, which is a problem, right if you're trying to provide a mass transit system for your citizens so they don't they don't need to have a vehicle. Particularly, this harms the lower income people who rely on mass transit. You're making it less safe for them to be on the bus or the train. But what's even more acute now for these city leaders is the fact that they're coming to us and asking us for approval to raise the sales tax for us to now pay more money on every purchase we make in order to fund an expansion of this system that you can't control, that you can't even come close to guaranteeing people's safety, and maybe that's a bit much in a free society. I get it. But you also prohibit me from carrying concealed on a train. I'm not allowed to bring a gun concealed in my waistband or in my coat so as to protect myself because you can't do it right. If you're not going to provide security for me to ride the train, my options are to violate the law and carry concealed in a place I'm not supposed to and suffer any repercussions if God forbid I ever have to use the firearm to protect myself, or I just won't take your train. And that's what I've opted to do. I'm just not going to take your train. And people who have concealed carry permits. We deal with this stuff all the time. Right, you walk into a store, you look at the front door, you see, oh my goodness, they got a sign not going in there. So those are the options. And when you're coming to ask me now to support raising my tax on literally every purchase I make, where not every there are some exemptions like food and stuff, but almost all of the purchases I make are going to face increase taxes for a service that is unsafe and that I can't ride because it's unsafe, and you won't allow me to protect myself, Well, then I'm not going to say yes to that deal. It's not a good deal. Once again, the primary function of any government, as part of the social compact here between the citizenry and the government is that the government has to provide a certain level of security and justice. And if you're not holding up your end of that compact, then I walk. Then there's no compact. I'm not giving up my own liberty to you, so you cannot do the thing you're promising to do in exchange for my liberty. That's the whole point. So city Council now is quite interested and what immediate steps we can take, What can we do? Well? I got an idea. Number one, install some freaking turnstiles. How about start there, restrict access If you don't have a ticket, you don't get in, and then actually kick people off the trains all the time. When I was on the subway up in New York and the Long Island Railroad when I was up there, they walked through every time like they walk past me. Repeatedly checking tickets so it can be done. That's number one. Number two, you guys need to start exerting your political pressure onto the justice system. You guys are all democrats. You guys are all on the same party, right, You're all at the same fundraisers and functions. Figure it out, all right? So you've heard me talk about Creative Video for almost a year. 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More fun, more memories, more ROI check it out now at incentive tripkit dot com or call Eric at eight eight eight five three three seventy six thirty seven Extension two seven for the details. Jim says, picture the pete. Charlotte hires three violence interrupters. They show up to get their reflective vests. Only two vests are available. The third interrupter threatens to sue the city. The city council settles for three hundred thousand dollars and then makes the vests optional. That does that tracks, Bob says, I wonder why they're not telling us the name of the coward who shot and killed kids at the Catholic church this morning. Could it be he thinks he will be enjoying his virgins tonight. What a piece of dirty was so, I've not seen the shooter's identity released yet. Out of Minneapolis. I would say that if it was a jiehattist, they usually don't commit suicide, right, They usually keep murdering as many people as possible while screaming how much God wants them to do that sort of thing, because that is what their God wants them to do, they believe, and they just keep doing it. They murder everybody they can until they are shot and killed themselves. So I don't know who. I've not seen the ID yet, but it will come out. It's only been like two hours, not even two hours, so I mean, just give it some time, just be patient. I know I'm asking for a lot to ask for patients in today's day and age, but these things take time. Unless the guy was carrying a driver's license on him and a manifesto or something, but we don't know who he was yet or and people always ask about the motive in these situations, and we do not know the motive, and we may never know the motive, by the way, because usually these people are evil and deranged, and so trying to make some bit of sense out of why they did something evil and deranged, it's not going to make sense to us. Okay, So this is from an anonymous I don't mean to sound crude, which, by the way, that's a really good way for me not to read your text messages to lead with that, but I do appreciate the heads up. I do not mean to sound crude, but the homeless have to be sheltered in places that can handle their mental and drug issues. Well, that's actually one of the problems is that a lot of the homeless refuse to go to shelters because the shelters don't allow them to do their drugs and drink their alcohol. They don't want to follow the rules, so they don't want to go to the shelters. And this then leads to the question of well, what do you do then, And that's when you get into the line of thinking that leads to involuntary commitment and oh no, no, we can't do that one or two here and there is one thing, but I see them all over the place. There should be signs that read do not feed the homeless, and you should not I've seen signs. They do put signs out there. There are some local jurisdictions that post sign do not give money to the panhandlers, because you're just encouraging more of it. If it ceases to be a revenue generating enterprise for them, they will not be there anymore. They will find something else. To do. This is from an anonymous person city asking its citizens to raise taxes? How dare they your president unilaterally charging or changing tariffs on a whim. And then he's got a little emoji with the zipper across his lips. The selective outrage is comical. So I don't know who you think you were texting here. You obviously don't listen to my show. You obviously did not hear what I just said, which was the city is asking me and all Mechlimurk County residents asking us to raise our taxes in order to fund a system that they cannot give assurances is safe. That is in no way a commentary on them asking us to raise our taxes. It's a commentary on the nature of the offer. See but I know you wanted to hear this thing and twist it through the prism of Orange Hitler. So and I get that. That's why I call it Trump derangement syndrome, is it deranges the way you think about things. Number one. Number two. Also, I was opposed to Donald Trump's tariffs. So I'm sorry you're going to need to update your left wing narrative talking points because they don't apply to me. See, I'm an individual. I have my own thoughts and opinions on individual topics. I don't make my opinion based on Donald Trump's opinion. I don't look to him and say, well, if he says it, it must be true. I don't do that. And sometimes, yes, that does get me a little bit, and it's sideways with some Trump supporters, but I don't care. It doesn't matter to me, because see, I can't. You cannot do this kind of a job for as long as I've done it. If you just change your opinions based on who the president is, based on whatever you think the audience wants to hear see the news talk audience, and I would put you obviously Democrat, lefty leaner kind of a guy in there, or maybe you were never Trump used to be a Republican some of our call or something like that. But people will call you out when they know that you are lying about a position you were taking now that was different from a position from the same position you held earlier. You get called out for that. So I've always just said this is what I think, and. You know it. If I changed my mind about something, I'm going to tell you why I changed my mind. But uh yeah, no, so sorry, your selective, outrageous comical. You're going to have to try that out on somebody else who actually meets the critteria that you so wish I did. Here's a great idea. How about making an escape to a really special and secluded getaway in western North Carolina. Just a quick drive up the mountain and Cabins of Asheville is your connection. Whether you're celebrating an anniversary, a honeymoon, maybe you want to plan a memorable proposal, or get family and friends together for a big old reunion, Cabins of Asheville has the ideal spot for you where you can reconnect with your loved ones and the things that truly matter. Nestled within the breath taking fourteen thousand acres of the Pisga National Forest, their cabins offer a serene escape in the heart of the Blue Ridge Mountains. Centrally located between Ashville and the entrance of the Great Smoky Mountain National Park. It's the perfect balance of seclusion and proximity to all the local attractions, with hot tubs, fireplaces, air conditioning, smart TVs, Wi Fi grills, outdoor tables, and your own private covered porch. Choose from thirteen cabins, six cottages, two villas and a great lodge with eleven king sized bedrooms. Cabins of Ashville has the ideal spot for you for any occasion, and they have pet friendly accommodations. Call or text eight two eight three six seven seventy sixty eight or check out all there is to offer at Cabinsofashville dot com and make memories that'll last a lifetime. A message from Russ who says a friend of mine saw a travel blog that had Charlotte's free trains listed as one of the pluses for visiting the city. They're not supposed to be free, okay, So the Charlotte City Council, some members of council tepidly addressed this murder of Arena Zarutska, a Ukrainian refugee twenty three years old, stabbed to death by a repeat, repeat, repeat offender, mentally ill man on a train in South End on Friday at around ten pm. First up, we have the at large council member dimple Ashmira. In past couple of days, I've heard from several constituents regarding how they're afraid to ride our public buses, especially after recent violent incidents, and that is concerning. Clearly, our current safety policies are not enough, and with the referendum this November, I'm even more concerned because we cannot let fear drive peat away. So I would like a city manager to provide us immediate steps that are being taken to ensure the safety of our writers, our operators, and to restore the confidence in our system. Right, So look good thing to do. Definitely want to take a review, maybe assemble a blue ribbon commission, give it a couple months, maybe a year, put together a whole you know, action plan, nice binder and stuff, stick it on a shelf. Then and you know, ignore it. That's kind of the way this stuff goes. I think that's one course, you know, Or you could, I don't know, maybe like light a fire under some people's asses, how about that. I don't think that doing things the way you've been doing them is going to affect the change that you claim to want to see. Here's Edwin Peacock. I think everybody this dice has received the same news as we all have to hear about the criminal activity that's been occurring throughout this summer. We know about the mass shooting that occurred in Uptown Charlotte that led to a lot of fear in that area. We just last week learned. That a bus rider on a Cat's bus not far from Carolina Place Small was assailed by four individuals. And we just learned on Friday night that there was a stabbing at a very prominent area right in the heart of South End, probably if the very apex of what many people consider to actually be the South End Manager. You know that I emailed you. I wanted to make it public. What my request was also just building off what Missus Ashmir wanted. I wanted to know any. Details about the victim on this East Boulevard shooting, as well as this victim that we have that Carolina Play Small, any information about the accused suspect, including past records that can be disclosed, and then data and trends on criminal activity along the light rail over the past thirty six months, and any actions that have been taken by Cats and CMPD. Now, why I'm underscoring this and why I think it's so important is the very reason that Asmirah and all of us here who know what is on the ballot this November, which is the continued continuance of the expansion of our transit system, and the transit system that we have all put so much energy and effort into but we feel is one of the best in the country. And all I know from my experience of living in Washington, d C. And having a lot of friends in Atlanta is that the moment that the transit system starts to become something where it's not considered to be safe is the moment in which you begin to lose writers, You begin to lose the momentum that you want to keep. And I don't want to see our community. I know our council doesn't want to see that as well too, and that's why I want to request, do we have a trend, mister manager, Do we have something that we need to respond to? We are in a gap period right now. We do not have a police chief that is coming in, he is going out. Is that the cause of this? I don't believe. So I'm not pointing a finger at CMPD. But what I do want is I want us to be proactive and not be reactive to this, and most importantly, I want our public to know that we care about citizens that are being harmed, and especially at such an egregious nature on a public transit system that we have direct authority over. Right, So again good to do. Get some data absolutely, you know what would also work just like the council and this was before Edwin Peacock was on it because he was the replacement for Tark Bocari. But remember Charlotte City council members got so very offended when they were accused of backdoor dealings and corruption by Victoria Watlington, another council member. Remember this when she was bashing her colleagues over the settlement to the outgoing police chief, saying all this stuff was going on, dirty business behind closed doors and all that, and they came out with a full blown press conference they railed against that. How dare you and all of this talking about our reputation as a city is harmed and that's going to jeopardize economic development and all of this. How about that? How about something like that but for crime. How about calling out some of your judges. How about calling out some of your fellow Democrat judges. A united front by City of Charlotte leaders, county leaders, school district leaders, general Assembly leaders, maybe even some people from the court system, right, where are they see? I can't help but wonder if this story is an inconvenience and that's why people are saying these things. Now, Oh, we have to take a look at I don't think Edwin Peacock is doing this only because of the only because of the referendum, but it definitely has an impact, right, And I just wonder how much crime are some elected officials just willing to allow and they're okay with because it doesn't really impact them. But now when we want to expand the government program, we want to expand transit, we want all of this money to come in now that that may be jeopardized because of this story, because of this tragedy that now it's like, well, we got to do something now because now it's actually going to jeopardize something that they do love. I don't like thinking like that, but I do have to wonder. Here's Council Member Renee Johnson. We have an email that CATS consolidated our safety and security to a vendor professional security services, Zach rec Okay, So I think we should get an update from that vendor, some information about the security services because we have a contractor so I'd like to know when their contract is up, and you know, just more information about this vendor and what reports we we're receiving or what outcomes or outputs that we are requiring for the vendor. We do need our citizens to feel safe and to be safe on the train, so I'd like some information on the security company. Yeah, that's also a good idea. Yep. See, I'm an all of the above kind of guy. I'm not saying don't do these things. Do them. I'm just saying I think it needs to be part of a massive effort, because this is what you are supposed to be prioritizing public safety top priority. 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 how you detect media bias, which is why I've been so impressed with ground News. It's an app and it's a website and it combines news from around the world in one place so you can compare coverage and verify information. You can check it out at check dot ground, dot news slash Pete I put the link in the podcast description too. I started using ground News a few months ago and more recently chose to work with them as an affiliate because it lets me see clearly how store get covered and by whom. The blind spot feature shows you which stories get ignored by the left and the right. See for yourself. Check dot ground, dot news slash pete. Subscribe through that link and you'll get fifteen percent off any subscription. I use the Vantage plan to get unlimited access to every feature. Your subscription then not only helps my podcast, but it also supports ground News as they make the media landscape more transparent. In his comments, councilman Edwin Peacock mentioned an attack on a cat's bus in Pineville. This occurred last Tuesday. A fifty seven year old veteran got on the bus and about four minutes later, four other people get on the bus, appear to be male juveniles or young adults, and within minutes the men just get up and attack the veteran, beating him up and as he's trying to get off the bus, one of the attackers sucker punches him on the way out. He was taken to the hospital for treatment. He has been released. There have been no arrests made, according to WSOCTV at the time of that publication. And then WSOCTV also got a hold of Mayor v Lyles and asked her about this attack on the train that left a twenty three year old woman dead, and she put out a statement to WSOC. Her first sentence says, first and foremost, my thoughts and prayers go out to the young women's family and friends, which I was just told by the Minneapolis or Minnesota or Minneapolis mayor, Jacob Frye, that that's not enough thoughts of prayers. Jen Pisaki left us all over the place in the wake of this Minneapolis school shooting at the Catholic school while the kids were in mass they're using this thoughts and prayers aren't enough, which apparently now some of the manifesto has out, people have discovered it of the shooter and he uses that line it was a he, but he thought she was a she. Yeah, that's apparently who the shirter was, which I suspected what might be the case when someone goes in and shoots up a church in a mass shooting style attack like that targeting kids, chances are and I you know, the first thing I thought was was it a jihattist, But no, because they killed themselves, so jihatis don't do that. And the other thought I had then was probably a trance and I said that off air. I don't say that stuff on air, But now that does appear to be the case. YouTube has taken down a channel of one Robin w Robin Westman real name Robert Westman. So the mayor first sentenced thoughts and prayers to the young woman's family and friends, and then five paragraphs on how we failed the attacker. We failed the attacker is There was a a Charlotte City councilwoman, Susan Burgess, twenty years ago, or so I believe. It was in relation to, or in response to, the murder of two police officers, Shelton and Clark, and at the city council meeting, Burgess, a bleeding heart liberal, make some comments about how we as a community failed him the shooter and outrage ensued. Fast forward twenty years and you have the same sort of mentality that is still afflicting our friends on the left. She talks about a tragic situation that sheds lights on shed's light on problems with societet safety nets related to mental health care and the systems that should be in place. We must look at the entire situation. While I do not know the specifics of his medical records, what I've come to understand he is long struggled with mental health and appears to have suffered a crisis. This was the unfortunate and tragic outcome. While there are questions about the safety and security of our transit system and our city, I do know there have been significant and sustained efforts to address safety and security within our transit system and across our city. Charlotte is by and large a safe city by and large. That's that is what you want to hear. That's an assurance right there. Cats by and large is a safe transit system. However, tragic incidents like these should force us to look at what we are doing across our community to address root causes. That's a lie. You do not want to address the root causes. You don't because the root causes. Lack of purpose among men drives crime. Lack of dads and role models in young male lives drives crime. A culture that celebrates criminality and the tendency for Interpersonal Victimhood TIV. You keep telling these guys that they are victims and society is to blame and everything is built to oppose them and depress them. And then you're like, I don't know why they get so frustrated and they lash out violently. You don't want to address the root causes. You just want this to go away, so you get your tax passed. All right, that'll do it for this episode. Thank you so much for listening. I could not do the show without your support and the support of the businesses that advertise on the podcast, so if you'd like, please support them too and tell them you heard it here. You can also become a patron at my Patreon page or go to dpetecleanershow dot com. Again, thank you so much for listening, and don't break anything while I'm gone.