Death penalty for train murder; removal for the magistrate (09-10-2025--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 thepeteclendershow 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. All righty, so I will get to more of the text messages as they have been rolling in, I promise. First, though, let's set the table because Mayo will be brought back into this because people just really love talking about Mayo for some reason, and not only because a woman named Mayo just won the primary yesterday in district race in Charlotte, but also the condiment itself. So this from the Washington Times piece by Matt Delaney and Valerie Richardson. A North Carolina man accused in the dead caught on camera stabbing of a Ukrainian war refugee in Charlotte could receive the death penalty after federal prosecutors brought charges against the ex khan with a lengthy rap sheet. See there's a word. There's a word that we don't use anymore, x khn. That word was ubiquitous when I was growing up, back in my day. There's x cohn all the time, even when we didn't need to use it now x khn. And I mentioned in the last hour Tijuana Brown, the indicted Charlotte City council woman who lost her primary like her campaign two years ago for office, was focused on the fact that she had served time, that she was an x khan, that she never said x khan. She called herself a FIP. Well, she didn't call herself a FIP. She called herself a formerly incarcerated person FIP. A FIP, so I used the acronym. But this is how this is how the left sanitizes language. They launder the language in order to mask the actual reality of things. Gender affirming care, women's health care. Right. They do this all the time. And that's what I think they what they mean when they say we haven't figured out, you know, the messaging. It's not our policies, it's the messaging, right, This is what they're talking about. They can't convince you that, oh, it's totally fine to you know, abort a baby halfway out the birth canal, because when people hear that, it's like, oh my gosh, that's awful. But if you call it women's healthcare or reproductive rights, well that's way dressed up. And now it sanitizes the thing. And that is to tie it back to this murder on the light rail. Was the release of the video right the way the story the attack, i should say, was described in the stories. It sanitizes it because it's simply, you know, a woman on the train is attacked and murdered, stabbed by this guy, and it conjures up different images in people's heads, but nothing as graphic and shocking and jarring as the actual video of what occurred. Attorney General Pam Bondi said. Prosecutors filed one count of causing death on a mass transportation system against de Carlos de Juan Brown, Junior, thirty four. The repeat offender is accused of killing twenty three year old Arena Zarutzka in a random act on August twenty second random attack on a light rail train by the way before I forget on Saturday this Saturday, September thirteenth, three pm, at the East West Links Station. That's the Charlotte area transit stop. They called the Lynx the Links station. So at that platform, there's going to be a community gathering at the stop called Justice for Arena, asking people to bring signs, candles and your voice to spread the word demanding justice for Arena, accountability for public officials, and consequences for violent criminals and repeat offenders. So that's Saturday, three pm. At the East West station, a community gathering is being planned there. The suspect had been arrested at least fourt ten times since twenty eleven, served a stint in prison, already has been charged by the Mecklimberg County DA with first degree murder under state law. Now, North Carolina does still have on the books the death penalty, However, it has not executed anybody since two thousand and six due to all of the legal challenges about cruel and unusual punishment and racial disparities and the like. So we have a death penalty, but we just don't use it. FBI specially, a agent in charge, James Barnacle, at a press conference yesterday, said that Zarutzka chose Charlotte to escape the violence of her war torn home in Ukraine, she got a work permit. She found a job on the first day she was allowed to be employed legally. She juggled jobs at a senior center, a senior citizens center as well as a pizzeria, and she took care of her neighbor's pets. She was building her young life. She had recently moved in with her boyfriend. Her family let us know. She graduated from college in Kiev with a degree in art and restoration. Russ Ferguson, the US attorney here in the Western District, said that the death penalty could be considered under the statute. The attacker is homeless, has reportedly been diagnosed with schizophrenia and is currently undergoing a competency evaluation, which could preclude a death penalty, could preclude a conviction by reason of insanity, so insane enough to avoid punishment, but not insane enough to let loose with a promise to appear and murder somebody. The addition of federal charges came as the Trump administration turned up the heat on Democrats, blaming progressive policies like cashless hail for allowing a repeat violent offender to go free despite fourteen arrests. For far too long, this is Trump. In a video, he showed pictures of Zerutzka and Brown in the Oval office yesterday. He said, for far too long, Americans have been forced to put up with Democrat run cities that set loose, savage, bloodthirsty criminals to prey on innocent people. And by the way, like this really is the point in all of this for me at least, which is Democrats, your policy prescriptions have been attempted, and like most of your dumbass ideas, they have been shown to fail. They're not working. The answer isn't more money. The answer is to stop doing what you're doing. Stop it. That's what you are facing right now. The backlash you are facing is from people who thought you knew what the hell you were talking about when you were talking about restorative justice and bail reform and all of these things that would somehow drive down the crime rates and get at the root of crime. What are the really what are the driving factors to eliminate the systemic racism? And it was all crap. It was all just garbage. I tried to warn people, but that's the thing about these types of contagions. You know, people just got all swept up in the moment. They just got carried away by your narrative and you were wrong. You were wrong. You need to say that you need to acknowledge that that these policies, this direction that you started taking the court system was wrong. Brown had previously been arrested for crimes including armed robbery, felony, larcriy ars, breaking and entering, shoplifting. He was released from prison in twenty twenty after he had served five years for robbery with a dangerous weapon. Even so, Brown was released in January by a Mecklinberg County magistrate judge on a written promise to appear back in court after being arrested for the misuse of the nine to one to one system. That was when he said that people were putting man made materials into his body that was directing him when to eat, what to say, when to walk, And the cops were like, that's a medical thing, that's not a law enforcement thing. You're at the hospital here, so why not just go inside and talk to people in the hospital. He got angry at that, called the police again while the cops were still standing there, and that's what then got him. The misuse of the nine one one system, and when he appeared in court before the magistrate, they said, his own lawyer said he needs a psyche val, he needs a competency test. And. That was agreed to. So the court recognized that this guy was not well, and rather than do anything to prevent him from walking the streets, his mom had told them he's got schizophrenia, and rather than take him into custody for an involuntary commitment to do the psyche val, then in there they said, just promise you'll come back for a court appearance, and they released him out to the streets. And while people on CNN were discussing this yesterday and they couldn't fathom the idea of like, well, just throw everybody who was schizophrenic in a mental institution. No, but how about the ones that have a violent track record? How about those? Can we agree on that if somebody has a rap sheet of over a decade long with violent offenses and they are schizophrenic, maybe that should be a category. Maybe those elements, those criteria all together, maybe they could all together form an understanding of the challenges this person is facing. And also to protect the public, because when you defer to the criminal who's brought before you. OK, psych exam. We'll get that done at some point. Just make sure you come back. Promise, Promise. You're putting the rest of the society at risk, as we saw so when I was a kid, my grandpa died with Alzheimer's, and before he died, my mom and my dad took care of him as he got worse. Forty years ago, there were no treatments and not much support for caregivers and family. But things are different today because of the work of so many people, including the Alzheimer's Association of Western Carolina. It's a great organization with awesome people with huge hearts. I've been a supporter for twenty five years. This cause means a lot to me. I participate in the annual Walk to End alzheimer and I'm leading a Charlotte team again this year, and it's called once again Pete's Pack. You can sign up and you can join the team and walk with us. It's on October eighteenth that truest field. Sign up at alz dot org slash walk and then you can search for my team name Petespac. There's also a link at thepetepod dot com. There's also a link in the description of this podcast. Also, I'll be am seeing the Gastonia Walk on October eleventh, and so you can make a team and join that one too, or make a donation and help me hit my goal of five thousand dollars. If you do, I really appreciate it. There are a bunch of other walks all over the Carolinas. You can go to alz dot org slash walk for all the dates and locations. We're closer than ever to stopping Alzheimer's. Can you help us get there? Will you walk with me? For a different future, for families, for more time for treatments. This is why we walk. CNN apparently did an interview with Tracy Brown, the the attacker's sister, and she said that she told CNN that she asked her brother why he did it, and his reply, according to her, was quote because she was reading my mind, That's what he says, according to her. The possibility of a racial motive was raised Tuesday after social media commentators said that audio from the surveillance well yeah, okay, well, I mean the audio shows it, you hear it. The surveillance video appears to show the suspect who is black capital B because remember we always capitalize the bee in black. Now, thanks to Saint George Floyd, all of the AP style books and everything changed to capitalize the B for black as tribute to the shared experience. Hispanic gets a capital H, Asian gets capital A. White does not. Sorry, white does not get the capitol W. But he is on the He's on the video. You can hear him muttering to himself after he attacked the victim, saying, quote, I got that white girl. I got that white girl, although I would point out the Washington Times does capitalize the W in white, so in violation of the AP style book. And then that brings us to Teresa Stokes, who was the magistrate. And for people who are not aware, magistrates are nominated essentially like hired on by the Clerk of court and then appointed to the position by the Chief District Court I believe, and then they answer to the chief judge. That's their It's pretty convoluted. But magistrate's job is to when people come in and they want to take out warrants on somebody or whatever they're supposed to be setting a bond to ensure that the suspect before them appears in court for the first appearance. That's what they're supposed to be doing. And if you have a magistrate who is of the philosophy that systemic racism is the reason why this person is standing before her, then she is probably going to apply that philosophy and not give that person a bail. Right. This is the whole cashless bail quote unquote reform. And so here in Charlotte, the magistrate, Teresa Stokes was the one who let Brown out without any kind of bail, despite, as the Independent Journal Review reports, despite every screaming warning sign, decided that he could be trusted for his return for his next court date if he just promised he would no bond, no ankle monitor, no mental health hold, just a handshake with the system. Basically the result a young woman dead in her seat, blood on the train. But now ten North Carolina Republican lawmakers, led by Congressman Tim Moore, former Speaker of the House, are calling for Stokes to be removed. And I mean, honestly, I think that's a fair ramification for her. 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But you know, you've just spent a long time talking about the fact that the Democrats foolish and stupid policies have failed. They don't work, they're wrong, and I'd argue that they're succeeding wonderfully. If they've been lying about the intent. Yes, right, because the issue is not the issue, right right. The issue is always. The revolution, so right, So, but I am giving them the benefit of the doubt because I am a I'm a giver. I'm a nice person, you know. I don't try to ascribe motive to people. And so when they say, we are going to reduce crime by doing these things, and we want to do these things, and they seized or pounced on the death of George Floyd in order to advance their judicial reform agenda, and now we see the fruits of that labor is just all spoiled. I'm going to assume that they are just stupid and thought those things would work when they didn't. And so now we're saying these things are not working, we're not doing them anymore. Unless what you say is correct, which is that they knew this stuff would cause chaos and it would help to undermine the institutions of the West and undermine the high trust society that we all enjoy. But that would be nefarious, right, I mean, surely people wouldn't be acting with that kind of nefarious motive, and. Arguably most of the ones are not that way, But the people behind it all who are actually dreaming up these policies and finding ways to get them implemented are nefarious. Yeah. And the people who are being fooled, the Democrats who go out and vote for all this garbage, you know, are being misled I think, and have been poorly educated, which is another nefarious plot. Right. Well, they control the left controls the education system as well, so it's easier to get them to believe in yea. They generate useful idiots exactly. Well. And the useful idiots are I mean the first word there is useful, right right, they need them right, so, they need so they are. You got your shock troops, your street radicals, your useful idiots, your academics and such, your journalists, right, these these people that helped to move the agenda. But you know, if successful and the revolution comes to pass, all of those people, you know, they get they get trampled under the jack boots too. Absolutely, yeah, that's always. In the meantime, you know, you have the politicians who sit there and watch the cities burn, you know, and smile because it's burning. Rubber smells so great. Yes, the mayor or the governor, Tim Wallas's wife who left the windows open for as long as she could in her house so she could smell the tires burning from the Minneapolis mostly peaceful but sometimes fiery riots. Yes, yes, and most of the smile on our face because of how successful their policies are. Paying which, now, to be fair, in her defense, she has that creepy smile at all sorts of inappropriate times. So all right, Rick, I appreciate the calls. They're good to talk with you. I see you too. Let me jump over and get Allen on next. Hello, Allan, Welcome to the program. Hey, how are you doing? Hey? Am I right? How are you listen? Okay? You know people are blaming the police. We got to realize that Chief Gettings is down two hundred officers, so he asked to have officers to answer calls in the city. The only well, the only people I've seen coming even close to blaming police. And I don't think anybody's blaming police. It's it's democrats. They're saying we need more police. And that can be true, but that's not that's not a relevant argument in this case, specifically, because the cops did their job. They arrested this guy fourteen times. Yes, I agree with that, but I'm talking about a temporary solution to provide security on the train. Yeah, you could take off duty SEMPE officers, off duty sheriff's deputies and have the mayor call and request a National Guard MP unit to come. And then you team up a deputy with a CMPD officer, a deputy with a National Guard man, or a deputy with or a CMP officer with either one of those, and they could control the trains until a better solution, or if that is the solution is found. Having the presence of that uniform on the train walking the train, two people together. That way you have automatic backup that they can enforce the laws on the train. They can help the ticket holder, the ticket checkers enforce the ticket issues, and you'll make the train safer because as I forget who it was, was talking about how the trains were valuable in making Charlotte more accessible, but now people are scared to rive the train because they don't feel safe. Right, But if they saw two police officers adapty a police I. Got you, any permutation of the three and I got you yeah? No, I mean yeah, you surge the presence in order to act as a deterrence. Uh No, it's a good idea. Alan, I appreciate the call. It's a it's a good idea. I mean, this is what Trump did in Washington, d C. Right, You surge the the agents, the officials into law enforcement agents into the area as a show of force to deter and to let people know. It sends a signal that we are not going to tolerate any of this crap anymore. That's the point. That's the point. And it doesn't seem like that message even now is still sort of resonating a among a lot of our local elected officials. There's just this kind of dancing around about, you know, well, we're looking at things, reassessing safety, blah blah blah blah blah. They don't seem to be passionately animated about We're not gonna put up with this any more. We are done. It doesn't seem like some of them have gotten to their breaking point. All Right, You hear me talk a lot about incentives, right, Well, let's talk about incentive trips, the kind that companies offer employees to fire them up and reward their teams. 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I'm looking at the text line now driven by Liberty Buick GMC. Did I hear that there is no fine if you get caught on the train with no ticket. They simply ask you to get off at the next stop. That's a problem. Yeah, if they even ask you to show a ticket. Here's another text I've written the light rail streetcar about fifty times. Well, the streetcar don't think does tickets. That's designed as a free thing. But you're supposed to have tickets for the light rail. I've writ it fifty times over the last few years. I've never been asked to show a ticket. That's the problem. When I ride, I've never felt threatened, but it's full of homeless slash weed smokers. I would never allow my daughter to write it. That's a problem. What I'm wondering, says Stan is how do democrats ask for more police and then call for defunding them at the same time. Well, it doesn't have to make sense. That's democrat privilege. From the Independent Journal Review, ten North Carolina Republican congress members, led by Tim Moore, are calling for the magistrate Teresa Stokes to be removed from her position. And it's about time. It's about time somebody started treating this kind of judicial failure with the seriousness that it deserves. Tim Moore and nine of his colleagues sent a letter to Chief Judge Roy Wiggins demanding that Stokes be removed for what they call a wilful failure to perform her due right. A willful failure, and they write that it was not only reckless, but it was prejudicial to the administration of justice that this wasn't an accident. This is the natural consequence of a broken ideology. And what the IJR reports here is that or they what they submit is that unless people like the magistrate here, Teresa Stokes, unless they are held accountable, not just scolded, but actually removed from their position, this kind of stuff is not going to stop, right, It's just not going to stop. I understand about second chances, the idea that you know, maybe people can get a second chance and get rehabilitated, turn their life around in all of that, But when you've got fourteen priors, I think the second chances expired a long time ago, number one and number two. When you have recent assaults after you served the time and you come out and then get assault charges pinned on you for beating up on your sister, and then you get picked up because you're exhibiting schizophrenic distress, I would submit that the mental illness and the history of violent behavior would deem you to be a threat to society and you should have been held until the psyche val at minimum. Let me jump over here and get sid on. Hello, Sid how are you? Hey, Hey, I'm good. What's going on? I just can't get get your opinion on something? Well, I've got a lot of those. We're good. When the light rail system when they go to all of it in the upcoming weeks and they find out that it's not making any money, what do you what do you think of transpire with it? Well, we know money at it, or we know that they we know that the transit system does not make money, none of them right, Only New York City, I think actually comes close. So they don't make money, and so that won't be enough to do anything, right. I think what they're going to be looking at, According to the state Auditor Dave Bullock and his press release that he sent out yesterday, I think what they're looking for is what is the amount of money that they are spending on security? What kind of security model are they running? And how does that compare to other transit systems in America? Are we spending too little? By comparison? Like what kind of a system are we running as it compares to a comparable one, and how much are we staffing. I think that's what they're going to be looking at. They're looking for a breakdown or where every dollar goes to as far as flayers, how is distributed evenly over? Yeah, and if they're not collecting the fares, I think they're going to identify that. Like you know, if you're doing ad for example, and you're saying we're going to collect a certain amount of fair revenue and then you're not actually collecting the fares like that, like they would identify that too. I suspect to say, why are you making these projections for fair collection when you're not actually trying to do enforcement, you know, stuff like that. What would be the repercussions one say, who's in charge of collecting the fares? What would be the repercussions on I'm sorry not following, I'm. Just you know what would they be held accountable if the person in charge of collecting the fairs or whatever group is in charge. The Yeah, so cats would be available? Well, I mean right. So the usually the process goes something like the auditor does the they do the investigation, they do the audit. They then give the agency or city that they're auditing the opportunity to respond and make any corrections, and then they publish it after everybody's had a chance to respond and go back and forth. Uh so, I mean, I guess, you know, worst case scenarios, it could have affect ratings, bond ratings or something. I don't know. That's a good question, though, said I appreciate the call, but they usually give them time to respond to then make corrections, and so maybe that would be sort of the most beneficial short term fix. 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 thepetecleanershow dot com. Again, thank you so much for listening, and don't break anything while I'm gone.