DC cops rigging crime data & staffer trash Crockett (08-08-2025--Hour3)

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, I Daily show prep with all of the links, become a patron, go to vpeteclendarshow 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 last hour we were talking a little bit about the perception of safety in uptown and crime and that sort of stuff as it related to the tying in of the transportation plan, mass transit and all of that into center city and one of the things like I'm going to move off of the transit stuff. But one thing to keep in mind that the City of Charlotte created Vision Plans Charlotte twenty ten Charlotte twenty twenty right where they put all these bright and shiny things all over the uptown area. And the whole point was to create, as Pat McCrory said in one famous and often used SoundBite on WBT years ago, synergy like you've never seen before. The idea was you pack all of these attractions around the convention center, and that's how you would lure things like the DNC. Like that was a huge thing. Like they really wanted to get the Democrat National Committee here or convention rather, and they did when Obama won in twenty twelve, right because in two thousand and eight Obama was in Colorado where he did like the whole Greek Parthenon re construction whatever. And then they did hold the DNC here in twenty twelve, and then of course we were supposed to have the RNC in twenty twenty, but then Governor Cooper can't that because he hates Trump. No, I'm kidding. It was over COVID technically over COVID, and there were a lot of people that were very mad about it because you know, Orange Man Hitler. So that was the idea. But part of that is also that you have what's called central Business district or whatever. Essentially it operates like a like a tax syncrome in finance district or a tiff. You have extra money that is collected via property taxes inside the central business district, and then that money is used to fund things inside the core center city area. And part of that was always for, you know, an increase presence of law enforcement. And then Democrats lost their minds and began this, you know, defund the police rhetoric and started placating the radical hearts of their base. And when you do that this I always say, I always say this, there is a fine line between chaos and order in a society, and when people have a perception of chaos, they will avoid those chaotic environments unless they want to participate in the chaos, in which case then you get more of it. So that line I think got crossed about five or six years ago. It probably started with the shooting of Keith Lamont Scott when everybody was like he was reading a book, like actually no, he was smoking weed with a gun at a bus stop and cobs told him to get out of the car. And then he gets out of the car with the gun, points to the cops and they shoot and kill him. They're like, hey, he's racist cops killing black men. It was actually a black officer that shot him, but that didn't matter. They protested, Yeah, they tore stuff up. That was before Saint George Floyd. So you know that perception matters, and when people now perceive Uptown to be chaotic and dangerous, they stay away. That was supposed to be part of your end of the bargain gov CO. The social compact is you maintain order, and if you're not going to maintain order, then the compact is scrapped. Okay, then there's no more mutual agreement you have. Your primary job is to provide security. That's the primary job. To try to prevent stuff from happening, yes, but also then to meet out the justice when people violate the social norms that are codified in law, and if they violate these norms, they're supposed to suffer punishment. And when people don't suffer punishment, they continue to violate the norms or the laws. And then people who do not wish to be victim stay away from those areas where they are more likely to be victimized, at least in their perception if not in reality. I mentioned the crime stats. I don't have the Charlotte crime stats. It's not important for the purpose of this story right now. But we have to rely on local law enforcement to provide us with accurate data on the actual state of crime and law enforcement we have to be able to measure this stuff to know whether our perceptions are true. I cannot fight against a perception of insecurity in uptown if you don't give me good data. Right, I'm not accusing this c MPDIA of not giving good data. It's just this is just in general, we have to have the data. We have to have the data for all the judges. Every judge, we need to know how many people come before them in their courtroom and what are the nature of the charges, how many people are they letting go? What is the average sentences for certain crimes? Like, all of this stuff can be collected and can be produced, and that would be the way to have an informed citizenry so we know, oh my gosh, we have a judge that keeps releasing people. For example, a twenty eight year old man who was caught on video attacking two pro life activists outside of a planned parenthood clinic in Baltimore was sentenced to a year of home detention and three years probation. He blinded an eighty four year old man, He knocked out a seventy three year old man because they were outside of a planned Parenthood clinic silently praying. He attacked them and Baltimore Circuit Judge Yvette Bryant rebuffed prosecutor's calls for a ten year sentence against Patrick Bryce, who is twenty eight years old. He was found guilty of two counts of second degree assault and reckless endangerment, and she gave him a slap on the wrist, not even a slap on the rest. One year of home detention, three years of probation. He also has to do some anger management classes. So there's that. Regarding the stats up in DC, a police commander there is under investigation for allegedly making changes to crime statistics in his district. This is what in the TV show The Wire they referred to as juice in the stats. They would puff up stats for arrests as an indication that they're getting tough on crime, even though they're making arrests for you know, ridiculous little things, or arresting people for no reason, but they just need the arrest numbers. The Metropolitan Police Department confirmed that Michael Pulliam was placed on paid administrative leave back in May. That happened just a week after Pulliam had filed an equal employment opportunity complaint against an assistant police chief is superior and the Police Union is accusing the department of deliberately falsifying crime data. Deliberately falsifying it. The union claims police supervisors in the department manipulate crime data to make it appear that violent crime has fallen considerably compared to last year. So how are we supposed to have confidence in whatever strategies you're employing, whatever effort you think are working. You want us to believe are working. But people look around and say this, that doesn't seem like it's working. Whatever they're doing, right, You can't defend. You can't defend a police department that's lying about its crime stats. Here's a great idea. 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This according to five law enforcement sources familiar with the investigation. That came about a week though after he filed a complaint against his boss, Executive Assistant Chief of Police Andre Wright. So there's some other stuff going on here, okay, Because Pullium has a wife who also works for the police department, and she got transferred by the police chief, Pamela Smith. She got transferred from Youth Division over to the seventh District, working the midnight shift, and apparently Pullium, the husband, Commander Pulliam, was told by Executive Assistant Chief of Police Andre Wright, to go move his wife's stuff to her new location claar out her office and bring it over to the other place. Apparently that that is at the heart of the initial fight that he filed a complaint over and then he's announced to be under investigation. So is this retaliation, Like, oh, we know that you change those stats, but the union is saying, yeah, this is coming from the top. You're telling everybody to do this. Here's what the union said, the Fraternal Order of Police chairman Greg Pemberton. When our members respond to the scene of a felony offense where there is a victim reporting that a felony occurred, inevitably there will be a lieutenant or a captain that shows up on the scene and directs those members to take a report for a lesser offense. So instead of taking a report for a shooting or a stabbing or a carjacking, they will tell the officer to take a report for a theft or injured person to the hospital, or even a felony assault, which is not the same type of classification. So they're manipulating, they're falsifying the stats. The police department's command staff is focusing on two categories to drive the numbers down. Those two categories are armed with a dangerous weapon and injured person to the hospital. Felony assault is not a category of crime that's listed on the department's daily crime stats. What does that mean? Well, if I show up someplace and some guys shot, well, I can classify that as a felony assault and as and when I do that, it doesn't show up in their daily stats. It's also not something that's a requirement of the FBI's uniform Crime Reporting program. The it was a uniform they called the UCS I think is something like that or the UCR Uniform Crime Report. And this used to be sort of the the gold standard. Everybody you know would put their stats, report their stats to the FBI, and then you would do and they still do, but now you have some major cities that they don't report anymore. They've they quit sending data to the FBI, and which I don't think they should be allowed to do. I think every I think everybody should be reporting their crime stats and they should be that they should be classifying them the same way. But I remember doing these stories and Charlotte would come out as a, you know, a deadly city and in the amount of homicides and rapes and violent attacks and stuff per one hundred thousand people. And when we would show up on the list, because then there was like some I forget what who it was, it was like a it was it congressional quarterly or something. They would take the UCR stats and they would rank most dangerous and safest cities. And of course when Charlotte made the list of most dangerous cities, the Charlotte city leaders were very upset because we are building a synergistic uptown entertainment zone that is a world class city people, right, So they were very upset. I remember they brought out the former police chief, Darryl Stevens, he was chief at the time. They had city leaders and stuff, and they're like, you shouldn't be using this as a comparison, but why not shouldn't we though, well, every city is different with different challenges and blah blah blah blah blah. Yeah it doesn't. If I'm one of one hundred thousand people and I'm in Charlotte, am I more or less likely to be murdered in another city of one hundred thousand people that is a lower crime rate? Right, Like, that's yes, you can make those comparisons. They didn't like the comparison once it was made, landing them in the most dangerous city category, and that's why they were like, we have lots of different influences and things going on in our community that others aren't having to deal with whatever, And they never would tell you what that is. So By listing these things as felony assault, it avoids both the Metropolitan Police Department and the FBI from reporting it as a part one or a felony offense. The union has been gathering evidence for some time now by looking at reports and taking talking with officers all over the city. Pemberton said from the FOP, what we've heard through our members and through members of management that we're willing to talk with the union is that this is a directive from the command staff. They want to make sure that these classific the classifications of these reports are adjusted over time to make sure that the overall crime stats stay down, and that this is deliberately done. DC crime data shows violent crime was down twenty eight percent. Your falsification efforts are working. Pemberton called those numbers preposterous. Now, the police chief, Pamela Smith, put out a statement. Here's what she said. The Metropolitan Police Department is committed to upholding the trust and the confidence of the public. Any irregularity in crime data brought to my attention will be addressed immediately. Okay, well, are you aware of data that's been brought to you? Has any of this's been brought to your attention yet or are you saying that if in the future you get some attention or you get some data that that then you will then you will address it. She doesn't really say, It's not quite clear. She said she does not condone any official reclassifying criminal offenses outside the guidelines set in our policy. Any allegation of this behavior will be dealt with through our internal processes, which will ensure those members are held accountable. Don't know if that'll be a personnel record so they won't have to release the information. That would be my bet though. And by the way, all of this comes on the heels of the attack on Big Balls. That was the doge guy, remember one of those coders, and he went by the online moniker of Big Balls. It's like, you know, the kinds you see at the beach. Those I'm I'm assuming Yeah. He apparently was severely beaten after his girlfriend was There was an attempted carjacking of her by a bunch of teenagers fourteen, fifteen and sixteen years old in DC, and Elon saw it because he was a doge guy. Elon saw it, tweeted it out, Trump saw it, commented on it, and then Trump started saying maybe we need to federalize DC take it over because if they are unable to control crime there, turn it over to federal government, which is like, I'm not so sure that's actually going to do the job. You know. Stories are powerful. They help us make sense of things, to understand experiences. Stories connect us to the people of our past while transcending generations. They help us process the meaning of life, and our stories are told through images and videos. Preserve your stories with Creative Video started in nineteen ninety seven and mint Hill, North Carolina. It was the first company to provide this valuable service, converting images, photos and videos into high quality produced slide shows, videos and albums. The trusted, talented and dedicated team at Creative Video will go over all of the details with you to create a perfect project. Satisfaction guaranteed. Drop them off in person or mailed them. They'll be ready in a week or two. Memorial videos for your loved ones, videos for rehearsal, dinners, weddings, graduations, Christmas, family vacations, birthdays, or just your family stories all told through images. That's what your photos and videos are. They are your life told through the eyes of everyone around you. And all who came before you, and they will tell others to come who you are. Visit Creative video dot com. Here's a Pete mail from Thomas Pete. Yes, the downtown problem in Charlotte has ebbed and flowed ever since we moved to town in nineteen seventy nine. It's always been the struggle for Charlotte not to become another Atlanta while trying to keep the uptown area viable. We solved our problem in twenty fourteen when we moved out of Charlotte and into South Carolina. Now if we want, we enjoy the best of the area without paying all of the higher extra taxes for it. Now looking back, yes, Charlotte has become another but smaller Atlanta. Yeah. I mean that's and that's always been the challenge for you know, these cities is that people come in from outside. They don't pay to build the stuff, to maintain the stuff, or anything like that. The locals are paying the freight for all of that. And that's why you get places like in Asheville, there was one Democrat on the city council that was always trying to it was always trying to get a commuter tax for people that commute into Ashville, so we could tax them when they come in here. It's like, but they're working here for a business. You're collecting taxes on the business every which way till Sunday. So like, But anyway, let me shift gears real quick. You know, Jasmine Crockett is jazzy, as I've heard her referred to. She is a congresswoman from Texas. She has positioned herself as an unfiltered critic of President Trump. She called Texas Governor Greg Abbott wheels, and she then said it's not because he's in a wheelchair, but she has used it to refer to him many times, so it's obviously because he's in a wheelchair. Anyway, it's earned her regular TV appearances and an enthusiastic online following. Among the worst people, I would say, but congressional aids to her tell The New York Post that the Dallas Democrat is just as rude and mean to her own staff. The liberal loudmouth has rocketed to fame since taking office in January twenty twenty three. Three sources who have worked with or four Crockets say she is rarely present when TV cameras are not rolling and that she terrorizes staff When she does come into work. She's not often found at her government provided suite in the Longworth House office building, with one insider saying she prefers to work from her nearby luxury apartment building. Sometimes for weeks on end. She's laying around in her apartment, won't come into the office, and is really just indifferent to staff and will scream at them. The former aide said she's never in the office and is very disengaged. She does her bs that goes viral and then freaks out over the most random things. She seems completely stable right. A second source close to Crockett's team added quote, it is widely known that she's not nice to staff and is just not a really dedicated member focused on constituents. She's focused almost exclusively on being an influencer, not a member of Congress. A third source who has worked with Crockett described her as quote all diva know wow, which I acknowledge. I don't know what that means, but they've said the same about me. She prefers to have a staff member drive her the short distance to her office. When she does come into the office, she has them come pick her up, but they can't pick her up in their own car, which is the norm. And it's a way, you say money, because every congressional office gets a bunch of money to operate, you know, Rand Paul every year makes a point of returning the money back to the US taxpayers, right back to the government, saying I didn't use all the money. I think they get like two million a year to run their offices. So no, no, She takes full advantage of this. She has the staff rent a car, usually an escalade because of course has to be an escalade or an upscale similar make and then they go and pick her up, and then she waits for them to open the door for her. She made one of her aides cry at one point. And when they put out an ad, they posted a job listing for her team. It was shared among a large group of black Democratic women, and not a single one wanted the gig because they knew, they knew what it's like to work for her, and they were like, no, thank you. One said quote. Truly, the only person that she thinks about and cares about is herself. She is more focused on get me on the view, get me on this late night talk show, which well, then at least she's consistent, you know, wanting to get on sinking ships. That's at least there is that. 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 stories 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. So, Brett, you're doing well. I'm really I'm very well. You're never not well. That's really true, it is I'm an optimist. Well, I mean, I can't see in your brain at all times. I'll take your word for that. I will just say Brett is like ninety nine percent of the time always telling people things are fantastic. It is everything is fantasic. Look, we are so lucky. Are you kidding me? I'm not kidding it. We're super lucky. I do agree with that. It's incredible. And one of the things also, I feel like if if you have gratitude, like if you're grateful, yes, like you reckon yes, when you are blessed, when you've got something good and you just take a moment to say, this is a good thing. I'm I'm grateful for this thing or these people or this experience. I feel like people are happier when they recognize things to be grateful for. Oh yeah, I think that that may be the secret to life. Are you a dweller, Like do you dwell? I have a dwelling, But do you dwell. When like, something doesn't go right, I mean, you do dwell on it. For I'm not a ruminator. I like that. I don't ruminate. That's very bad in psychological terms. People who ruminate, they dwell, like you're saying, they dwell on stuff. I don't do that unless it's something that's unresolved. If I've done something and I've hurt somebody, I did something bad, yeah, right, then it's like I will. But then it's like, but that forces me to try to fix it. You're a people pleaser, not really, you don't like people more. That's that's more real. I like it. Yeah, yeah, no, I yeah, And I'm grateful for the way I am. So let me. Have you heard this story out of Carrie, North Carolina. I'm a big fan of Carrie North Carolina, but I don't I don't know the city. You know, So you know Carrie North Carolina, you knows what. She's very nice? Yes, you know what? Carrie stands for. Justice in the American one, No Carrie. According to the locals, Carrie suburb of Raleigh's up in Wake County, Oh Boy, and it's called a it's called Carrie stands for it's an acronym, and it stands for Containment Area for relocated Yankees. So now I totally believe that, right. I try to stay out of Raleigh at every possible same. Yeah, same, I just don't like going up there. Yeah. Same. So there's a Wendy's in Carrie. Yeah, and have you heard of this show on Netflix called Wednesday from the Adams Family. You know one of the characters. I know that character, the character, right, Well, apparently there's Netflix spin off or something that they're doing. They're promoting the show Wednesday. That sounds over. That sounds all right, And so the Adams Family spooky, kind of kooky, right, all of that. So they've got displays that are going up in the Wendy's and very much like Halloween. Halloween. Oh okay, right right? What makes it? Kind of makes sense? Right? Witch rushing the season? But yes, I'm great. I have cobwebs and that's right, and a noose? Whoa you see where this is going? No? I don't really. I just went you when you drop noos, I go whoa hold on? Right? No? No, no good? It is raising concerns. Yes, the choice to display a noose did not sit well for some customers and civil rights organizations who say it's a form of disturbing symbolism rooted in a racist past. Well, wow, I listen, people are going to you know, take it as they take it. You know. That's that's the that's why I wouldn't. Watch that show, The Wednesday Show. It's like a sci fi thing, right, It's like a it's like. The Monster yea, the Adams Family. It's you know, I got, I got, I got. I'm not gonna I'm not gonna wreck your I'm not gonna harsher buzs. But go ahead, no do it. I don't know. I'm not even this is pregaming. We're working on getting the butts. I watched accidentally show last night that was really magnificent, which was it's called The Penguin Lessons on Netflix. Okay, is it about penguins. There's a penguin involved, and it's about like Buenos Airis in the seventies and the disappearances and the penguins. No that the penguin is just a it's a metaphor. Yeah, it's a metaphor. It's like a mascot. Yes, is that the official mascot. It's the Penguin Lessons. It's really good. Interesting, it's it's really a show, like it's a show, not a documentary or something. No, No, it's a it's a drama. It's a drama. It's a drama with some laughter with it a little bit. But it's really cool. What's it on Netflix? And it's called The Penguin Lessons? And Sherry was watching it and then I, you know, when you're like, then you sort of look out and you go, well, this is kind of interesting, right, I wouldn't watch that normally? Right? Do you sit down to watch a show like or so let me say, do you sit down not to watch a show? Like, if you have a show that you're watching, you'll sit down and watch it, but like, do you sit down and actively look for programs like scroll through to find a program? I don't. I rely I rely on, say my beautiful wife, because I don't have the temperature or tenor to sit there and look at a show. Now. I will watch, like I might watch like nine episodes of a show and there's like thirteen of them, right, and I at some point I just fall off. Yeah, yeah, and I never even know how it ends. That was Yellowstone I was a big fan of Yellowstone, so are we? And then it got weirder and weirder and more and more unbelievable. And then the last season they split into like two seasons. I never saw it. Yeah, so I never saw the end of them. Me neither, because they did the it's like, here's our final season or whatever, and they gave us like six episodes and then they're like mid season finale, Like when did they start doing a mid season finale? And then they don't like that, right, and then you make us wait for like two years. That was two years, that's right. Yeah. I'm like, well, I'm out. I don't remember all of this stuff, right, I'm not going back and rewatching it, right, not gonna happen. I'm with you on that. And I feel comfortable just bailing on a show. Oh yeah. Once. I'm like, I'm like, okay, whatever, this has been kind of good. You know, it's another one for me. You ever watched The Blacklist? James Spader? I think I saw like two episodes of that. Premise fantastic, yeah, right. Premise was guy who's like this international arms dealer, kind of criminal guy, and he goes and he's like I'm gonna turn myself in to work with the this FBI profiler whatever, and he has he knows all the bad guys all around the world. But here's the deal, Like, you know, you don't come after me on this stuff, and I'll work with you and get you these these big guys. And of course he's got his own motivation is to eliminate competition, take out people that want to take him out whatever. Spoiler alert, it ends up the profiler that he demanded to work with turns out to be his daughter. Whoa. And when it's just like and you can see it coming a mile away for like three or four seasons, and then he finally puts it together and I'm like, this is a criminal mastermind. He can't even figure this out. Yeah, she's a profiler and she couldn't figure it out. I figured it out three years ago. There's only really been one show that I watched like the whole thing through. I was Longmyer. I liked Long Mind. Christie likes that that was a great show. All right, that'll do it for this episode. Thank you so much for listening. I could not do the show without yours 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 thepetecleanershow dot com. Again, thank you so much for listening, and don't break anything while I'm gone.