Crime fighting is a core city responsibility (01-08-2025--Hour3)

[00:00:04] What's going on? Thank you so much for listening to this podcast. It is heard live every day from noon to 3 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 thepetekalendershow.com. Make sure you hit the subscribe button, get every episode for free, write to your smartphone or tablet. And again, thank you so much for your support.

[00:00:28] So when government fails to focus on priorities, you end up with the residents, the citizens of that jurisdiction, suffering the consequences. Now, a lot of politicians will blame the other guy, the other party, some other branch of government or maybe a different level of government. You know, the locals will blame the state and the state will blame the feds or whatever.

[00:00:57] They always try to deflect the blame rather than to acknowledge, yeah, you know, we've been diverting more money to these other areas and doing other things with it. These things that we want to have, but things that we don't actually need to have. And the very first thing that you need to have is security.

[00:01:17] These are, you know, first order needs. You've got security, and that's fire protection, police protection, criminal justice, food, water, shelter. These are the first order issues.

[00:01:39] Everything else is a nice to have, right? I would say your second order, your second tier is probably going to be your infrastructure, like your transportation infrastructure, roads and sidewalks and that kind of thing.

[00:01:53] Really, anything outside of that is a nice to have. And if you can afford it, fantastic. But if you can't afford it, you definitely should not be diverting money away from the first order things to get to the third, fourth and fifth level of services.

[00:02:12] And the problem is that the incentives are generally not there for politicians to focus only on the first order problems.

[00:02:22] Because, like, for example, out in Los Angeles, and this is also the case in Asheville, I think that Charlotte has actually done a pretty good job of maintaining its water infrastructure.

[00:02:37] Not to say it's perfect, but they've done a better job, I think, than Asheville has. I mean, Asheville's water system is a joke. It's just an absolute joke.

[00:02:46] And they have diverted money out of their water fund for decades to fund other projects, to subsidize their general fund, keep their taxes low while they pay for all of these other things that they want, you know, like a national basket weaving monument or whatever.

[00:03:04] I'm just kidding. They didn't do that. But it wouldn't surprise you if they did, right?

[00:03:09] Same thing in Los Angeles. The water system, the infrastructure there is decrepit.

[00:03:15] So when they start losing focus from those core services and start doing all of these other nice-to-have projects and spending, what happens then is that those core services suffer and the people's lives that live there suffer.

[00:03:34] And then the politicians blame all these other things and say, well, we need to have, or these other levels of government or the economy or something else.

[00:03:43] It wasn't our fault. So now we need to raise taxes. And if you don't agree with the raising of the taxes, well, that means you're not going to get fire service.

[00:03:51] That means you're not going to get police. And they always throw those things out at you as the threat.

[00:03:58] I've told this story before up in on Long Island, where they still have this this system set up where all of the towns have their own school systems.

[00:04:11] And the funny thing is up there, they're like, we should consolidate. That's going to solve the problems.

[00:04:15] And then I came to Charlotte and it's all a consolidated Charlotte Mecklenburg school system.

[00:04:20] And people were saying, we need to deconsolidate. That'll solve the problems.

[00:04:24] I know the problem is the model, but they would up there on Long Island, you would have to put your budgets as the school district.

[00:04:30] You'd have to put your budget up for a vote every year.

[00:04:33] So voters were going and voting on budgets. And of course, the school board would throw out some ridiculously exorbitant budget.

[00:04:44] It would get voted down. And what would they do? What would the school district do?

[00:04:49] They would cut the after school activities like football and they would cut buses.

[00:04:56] The two things that hurt the parents and hurt the kids the most.

[00:05:02] There were, I think, two or three years in my.

[00:05:08] In my K-12 experience, it may have maybe more than that, where I had to walk to school and the schools were, you know, one was, I think, over a mile and one was about three miles away.

[00:05:20] And we would have to walk to school because there were no buses.

[00:05:24] They would just scrap all of the buses, no more bus service as a way to stick it to the parents to get them to vote for the budget on the second go round.

[00:05:34] That's the budget dance here in Charlotte Mecklenburg.

[00:05:37] It's a little different where the the the school district goes to the county and they ask for an exorbitant amount of money.

[00:05:43] And the county says no. And then they yell at each other.

[00:05:46] And then eventually the county says, OK, to the second to the second number.

[00:05:50] Right. That's the budget dance. It happens like every year here.

[00:05:54] And so just like the Long Island school districts would penalize the citizens and threaten them with removing core elements of the service if they didn't get all the money they wanted for these other things.

[00:06:08] So, too, do cities do this with police and fire.

[00:06:14] And in Charlotte.

[00:06:19] After the the fiery but mostly peaceful protests that we saw over the course of years, dating back to even before the BLM stuff, because you had Keith Lamont Scott, you had those riots that occurred and all those protests and stuff.

[00:06:35] And I think somebody actually that was one of the protests where somebody got killed at one of the peaceful protests.

[00:06:40] Somebody got shot and killed by another protester, whatever.

[00:06:42] So. So. What then what what did that prompt?

[00:06:47] Right. This backlash. And then you have the rise of the DEI stuff.

[00:06:52] And then you get an inability to recruit more officers.

[00:06:56] All of these things have an effect then downstream onto the citizens.

[00:07:03] And all of that is to say that Charlotte Mecklenburg police reported for the year of twenty twenty four.

[00:07:12] One hundred and ten homicides.

[00:07:16] And that is a twenty four percent increase over the previous year.

[00:07:22] now that number might change if they get you know certain uh uh deaths get recategorized or

[00:07:29] something but it probably won't change much 110 people are still dead 2024 the previous year there

[00:07:37] was 89 the year before that there was 107 the year before that there was 96 and then going back to

[00:07:43] the pandemic year 2020 there were 118 so 118 96 107 89 110 so it kind of goes up and down up and down

[00:07:54] it's like a plus or minus 20 every year 20 more deaths or homicides and then 20 fewer than 20

[00:08:03] more and then 20 fewer and it goes just goes up and down but like it looks like we're averaging a

[00:08:08] little over a hundred homicides annually and why is that now as of january cmpd reported and this

[00:08:17] is reported at the charlotte observer that uh cmpd had identified a suspect in about 75 percent of the

[00:08:26] homicide cases and some of those identifications occurred within a day of the homicide the 110

[00:08:35] total is more killings in a single year since the start of the pandemic back in 2020 looking through

[00:08:43] some of the data um familiar patterns they say to lives lost according to the data as reported by the

[00:08:53] charlotte observer two-thirds of the people killed were black and 80 percent of the victims of all the

[00:09:01] victims were male 65 killed were black 20 hispanic and 12 white 80 percent are males the average age of

[00:09:18] the victims 31 the youngest less than a year the oldest was 82 and the most cited reason for the

[00:09:28] homicides arguments an argument there is something going on and um government cannot stop this stuff

[00:09:43] from happening people wanting to murder somebody over an argument government can't really stop that

[00:09:50] right but what it can do is it can drop the hammer on people who get caught after doing it

[00:09:57] and maybe the fear of that punishment will prevent somebody from going down that path

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[00:11:23] uh saw this story this is over at inside higher ed.com just real quick uh the marching band at

[00:11:29] mississippi valley state university um they got invited to the inauguration and they said yes it's a

[00:11:36] historically uh black university uh and hbu um and so they launched a gofundme to raise money

[00:11:43] for its mean green marching machine band to go to dc for the inauguration and this prompted all sorts of

[00:11:52] backlash because it's a black college and how dare you go and celebrate the inauguration of donald trump

[00:12:04] like they got invited to inauguration

[00:12:08] by the president like why would you not want that kind of recognition for your school

[00:12:14] so there is a gofundme they're trying to raise 350 000 uh i think they're somewhere in the neighborhood

[00:12:20] of about 270 275 now so um if you uh if you're interested gofundme's got a campaign for the mean green

[00:12:30] marching machine mississippi valley state university getting all sorts of backlash because they said yes

[00:12:36] they would very much like to participate in the inauguration and uh the root and hbcu sports

[00:12:43] has slammed the decision as an apparent endorsement of trump which of course it is actually not

[00:12:49] it is just participation in a nationally televised event that would be good for your college

[00:12:58] gosh gosh focus people focus um house gop up in um washington a member of the house gop leadership

[00:13:14] team actually from north carolina richard hudson um has introduced a new bill to radically expand

[00:13:21] concealed carry permissions for americans across the country the national republican congressional

[00:13:27] committee chairman um which is the house republican campaign arm um they unveiled the constitutional

[00:13:38] conceal carry reciprocity act yesterday it's already backed by more than 120 uh house republicans

[00:13:46] it has gotten support from one member of the house democrat caucus jared golden democrat from maine

[00:13:53] um hudson told fox news what we're talking about is just requiring states to recognize the permit of

[00:13:59] another state just like you recognize a driver's license when i drive to dc from north carolina across

[00:14:06] virginia i don't stop at the virginia line and take a driver's test to get another license the state

[00:14:12] recognizes that north that north carolina license president trump has already said that he would sign

[00:14:18] such a bill if it gets to his desk um the bill previously passed the house back in 2017 but it was

[00:14:27] never taken up by the senate nearly 22 million americans have some form of a concealed carry permit

[00:14:36] and uh hudson raised the example of shanine allen a single mom from philadelphia who got pulled over

[00:14:45] during a routine traffic stop in new jersey but was arrested for unlawful possession when she told

[00:14:51] officers of her concealed carry permit and the firearm that was in her vehicle he said quote there's a

[00:14:58] hodgepodge of different state laws when it comes to concealed carry and so this bill just clarifies that

[00:15:03] and then rectifies the situation where a law-abiding citizen can become a criminal just by crossing an

[00:15:09] invisible state line yeah um you know the people who go through the process to get concealed carry

[00:15:17] permits commit far less crime than virtually if not all demographics i want i remember seeing a stat

[00:15:26] that they commit fewer crimes than cops so uh this just makes sense i agree with the rationale if you're

[00:15:36] going to go through the process you're going to go through the training and the class and everything else

[00:15:39] and you're going to go through the background checks and the uh the check in the uh the mental health

[00:15:44] facilities and make sure that you are good to go and now you're allowed to carry concealed that that

[00:15:49] permit should apply no matter what state you go into that has concealed carry permits and by the way

[00:15:54] um 49 states allow non-resident carry and uh 50 states all 50 states do issue concealed carry permits now

[00:16:05] so it just makes sense we'll see how it goes all right i hope you had a happy holiday season but tell me if

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[00:16:32] well i've been meaning to but i just haven't gotten around to it look don't let those priceless memories

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[00:17:18] show dot com kirk wants to know if uh walking to school when i did it was uphill both ways in the

[00:17:26] driving snow yes of course it was with newspapers wrapped around my feet instead of shoes um

[00:17:35] so house lawmakers yesterday afternoon passed the lakin riley act the lakin riley act passed by a vote of 264

[00:17:48] to 159 there were 48 democrats that joined with the 216 republicans to pass the legislation

[00:17:59] that legislation is named after the georgia nursing student who was brutally murdered last year by an

[00:18:06] illegal immigrant it will now go to the senate um the legislation requires federal agents to detain

[00:18:15] illegal immigrants suspected of convict of committing non-violent crimes so not violent crimes non-violent

[00:18:23] crimes if somebody is in the country illegally and they get picked up for some sort of misdemeanor

[00:18:30] charge they've been arrested okay that's how you come in contact with them they end up in the jail

[00:18:35] and you know now that north carolina has told our local sheriff here gary not my fault

[00:18:41] mcfadden that you have to cooperate with ice now they're going to have to hold these people and then

[00:18:49] um they can be removed from the country

[00:18:54] last congress there were 37 democrats so more so what do we have eight or sorry nine more democrats

[00:19:02] joined republicans in voting for this act this year versus last year 37 democrats joined republicans so

[00:19:11] i guess what eight democrats got the message from the election maybe um the bill did not go anywhere

[00:19:20] last year because it went to the senate and that was democrat controlled and so it died there this time

[00:19:27] around the bill heads to a gop controlled senate where it is picking up momentum there are actually two

[00:19:34] democrats in the senate now who have endorsed it they have signed on to it gary peters out of michigan

[00:19:42] and john fetterman from pennsylvania okay i am not on the fetterman bandwagon yet but i'm listening

[00:19:58] this guy ever since he had um you know the the stroke and got the brain injury um now it's right

[00:20:09] right yeah i yeah i mean like whatever happened there seems to have impacted him in some way that he now

[00:20:17] makes more sense this time around it heads to the senate where it's got a it's got a couple of democrats

[00:20:26] like fetterman and peters um according to fetterman on twitter he said quote ice reported tens of

[00:20:34] thousands of migrants with criminal records homicide or sexual assault 425 000 have criminal records in

[00:20:43] total and should be deported i suspect or sorry i support a secure border he says i support a legal path

[00:20:53] for dreamers i support the lake and riley act so what is happening right now you have

[00:21:01] a recognition that is sort of dawning i think on more and more democrats that these policies

[00:21:11] and just republican voters i think just got there earlier but there are there are different breakdowns

[00:21:18] inside of the political parties that cut all sorts of ways but at its core you have this division between

[00:21:28] elites and working people and the working class the so-called elites and the so-called working class

[00:21:36] and the elites are pushing and implementing policies and have been and the immigration uh debate is the

[00:21:44] uh prime example of the uh prime example of it where these policies are harming the working class

[00:21:51] right and that's why you end up you've heard i'm sure some of these uh elite talking heads journalists or

[00:22:00] uh uh or uh show hosts uh in the daytime programs or whatever on the view for example and they make

[00:22:07] these bizarre arguments that well you know if you don't have all of the immigrants then you're going

[00:22:15] to have uh you know higher uh grocery prices you know who's going to cut your grass who's going to do

[00:22:22] your gardening and watch your kids and all this stuff now most working class people hear that and they think

[00:22:28] well me because i'm doing it now right i i will continue to cut my grass i will continue to watch my kids and raise my kids

[00:22:39] um and uh labor just like any other uh commodity right when you have more supply of it

[00:22:47] then the cost goes down so the cost of labor drops when you have more of a supply and so by importing more and more people

[00:22:56] it drives down the wages the cost of the labor because you have more competition and you've got people

[00:23:04] that are willing to work for less money because if they don't they get deported back and they don't

[00:23:10] want to get deported back so you actually get to take advantage of them which is what the elites do

[00:23:15] that's what they've been doing by hiring people and undercutting wage hiring people in the country

[00:23:21] illegally who are taken advantage of but are doing it will willingly voluntarily they they go in they

[00:23:28] put themselves in that position to be sure but they do it why for a better life for their kids

[00:23:33] but they're also afraid of getting deported back so they are willing to put up with the um the

[00:23:39] deprivation they're willing to put up with abuse they're willing to get taken advantage of they're

[00:23:44] willing to take the risks to live in crummy places they're willing to do all of that because

[00:23:48] the promise is in their minds that the kids are going to have a better life

[00:23:53] it's a rational thing by the way that is a completely rational thing to think right because

[00:23:58] we as a society have obviously said yeah we're fine with this line of thinking so they make those

[00:24:03] decisions and then the working class people they're not the ones hiring the gardeners they want to do

[00:24:10] the gardening work and so who really benefits it's the people in the upper income strata right and i

[00:24:19] think some democrats guys like fetterman i think they're recognizing this that they are alienating

[00:24:25] this huge core that used to be the democrat voting base and that's why trump is peeling them all away

[00:24:33] will more uh recognize it i don't know we'll find out all right if you're listening to this show you

[00:24:39] know i try to keep up with all sorts of current events and i know you do too and you've probably

[00:24:43] heard me say get your news from multiple sources why well because it's how you detect media bias

[00:24:50] which is why i've been so impressed with ground news it's an app and it's a website and it combines

[00:24:56] news from around the world in one place so you can compare coverage and verify information you can

[00:25:01] check it out at check dot ground dot news slash pete i put the link in the podcast description too

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[00:25:38] supports ground news as they make the media landscape more transparent um so national

[00:25:45] review story by james lynch about the lake and riley act passing uh the house yesterday um and talking

[00:25:53] about its prospects uh going into the u.s senate um fetterman and uh john fetterman from pennsylvania

[00:26:01] and gary peters from michigan both say they'll support it they are both from swing states that president

[00:26:07] elect donald trump won this past november um against harris and in fact peters is up for re-election

[00:26:14] in 2026 and that's expected to be a competitive race senator katie brit from alabama is leading the

[00:26:22] republican senate push to get the lake and riley act passed ahead of trump's inauguration now i am curious

[00:26:28] to see how the two senators from georgia will vote on this measure because that's where lake and riley

[00:26:36] was right she was a georgia nursing student uh brit introduced the companion legislation alongside

[00:26:45] fetterman and uh the senate majority leader john thune along with republican north carolina senator ted

[00:26:52] bud uh and the rest of the senate gop the senate is expected to vote friday on the lake and riley act

[00:27:00] it needs 60 votes in order to avoid the uh the filibuster um jose antonio ibarra a venezuelan illegal alien

[00:27:11] was sentenced to life in prison for murdering lake and riley as she was jogging around the university of

[00:27:17] georgia's campus before killing her ibarra had crossed the southern border received a taxpayer

[00:27:24] funded flight to new york city stayed at the roosevelt hotel along with many other new arrivals

[00:27:30] or newcomers as they are called and from there he was given a flight to georgia and worked at a korean

[00:27:39] restaurant um that all is according to his former roommate who testified against him at trial

[00:27:45] so uh we'll keep an eye on that then uh this story from breitbart.com by john binder illegal aliens

[00:27:54] tourists and foreign visa workers right so three categories of people here illegal aliens tourists and

[00:28:01] foreign visa workers delivered nearly 400 000 children across the u.s last year these are the so-called

[00:28:13] anchor babies right you've heard that term before these people who aren't u.s citizens have a child

[00:28:19] in the u.s and that allows them uh this uh access point if you will to become a u.s citizen or to stay

[00:28:29] at the very least 400 000 um i think the number is like 372 000 technically but uh three so yeah almost

[00:28:40] 400 000 quote-unquote anchor babies this according to the center for immigration studies

[00:28:47] the term anchor babies is used to describe the u.s born children of illegal aliens and other foreign

[00:28:53] nationals with no ties to the country anchor babies are rewarded with birthright american citizenship

[00:29:01] despite their parents having no legitimate ties to the u.s many having only recently arrived

[00:29:09] years later when the child is considered an adult they can then sponsor their parents and foreign relatives

[00:29:16] to get green cards that's why it's called an anchor baby is that it anchors that family

[00:29:25] to the u.s and that is a generational thing and then of course they have like they have like hundreds

[00:29:32] if not thousands of relatives they have now found it's like when you've won the lottery uh and all of a

[00:29:39] sudden everybody is related to you asking for money right it's amazing how many people uh that they can uh

[00:29:45] that they can sponsor to come over in 2024 close to 300 000 anchor babies are estimated to have been

[00:29:52] delivered to illegal alien parents and then another 72 000 anchor babies were estimated to have been

[00:29:58] delivered to foreign tourists foreign visa workers and foreign students now this is something that trump

[00:30:05] has talked about getting rid of this birthright citizenship the u.s supreme court has never explicitly ruled

[00:30:14] that u.s born kids of illegal aliens have to get citizenship the u.s supreme court has not weighed in on this

[00:30:24] specific issue and in the legal community it is actually in dispute there is disagreement among lawyers

[00:30:33] of good faith i will even say that right there there are good faith disagreements about whether or not this is

[00:30:41] legal or not i don't believe it is i i i don't yeah i don't believe it is a lot of the conservative scholars argue

[00:30:52] that the 14th amendment and the clause in there the citizenship clause it doesn't provide it does not provide

[00:31:00] mandatory birthright citizenship um because the kids are not subject to u.s jurisdiction as that language was

[00:31:09] understood when the amendment was ratified right subject to the jurisdiction thereof is the key phrase

[00:31:16] in that clause u.s and canada are among only a handful of developed nations mostly in north and south america

[00:31:22] that have this birthright citizenship policy for anybody regardless of immigration status born within

[00:31:28] its physical borders for example australia france ireland luxembourg malta new zealand and spain reserve

[00:31:39] birthright citizenship for children born to at least one citizen parent and i think that's a pretty good

[00:31:45] standard you should have one parent who's a citizen all right that'll do it for this episode thank you so

[00:31:51] much for listening i could not do the show without your support and the support of the businesses that

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[00:32:06] thank you so much for listening and uh don't break anything while i'm gone