Dodging questions about Charlotte's light rail murder (08-29-2025--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, my daily show prep with all of the links, become a patron, go to vpeteclendershow dot 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. All righty, so there is a link a connection between the. Minnesota shooting and what occurred on the light rail line in South End on Friday night, where a mentally deranged homeless man stabbed and killed a twenty three year old Ukrainian refugee. Miranda Divine writes about not the second story from Charlotte, but about the Minnesota sh shooting and Minnesota or Minneapolis specifically, and how it's ground zero for social disorder. Obviously, the George Floyd defund the police movement right now. The deadly mass shooting. But at least now we do have an FBI that's going to tell the truth about the motivating hatreds so that we could try to understand the pathology to stop its spread, She says. The leadership Tim Walls, Jacob Fry, Keith Ellison, these are the top leaders in Minnesota. They played a central role in the calamity that struck a pandemic crazed country in the summer of twenty twenty, the deadly blm Antifa riots that raged after the death of Floyd. Instead of behaving responsibly after the tragedy, these Democrat leaders poured gasoline on the fire and seemed to revel in the mayhem. Walls delayed calling out the National Guard for almost a full day. His wife, Gwen, you'll recall, weirdly, spoke of keeping the windows to the house open as long as she could so she could smell the fumes of the burning tires, because she said, quote, I felt like that was such a touchstone of what was happening. Fry ordered the Third Precinct to surrender its police station to the mob as a sort of ritual sacrifice. Keith Ellison railroaded Derek Chauvin and three other cops for George Floyd's death and lied that President Trump's supporters were to blame for the riots. These are the people who find political profit and chaos and disorder. It is incredible that they paid no price for the death and destruction they unleashed, which continues to this day in the form of undermanned and demoralized police forces, not just in Minneapolis, but across America. The Minneapolis police force has been so beaten down that it now has just three hundred fifty street cops. Three hundred and fifty. You know how many they had before the summer of mostly peaceful, sometimes fiery protests, They had nine hundred. They now have three fifty. If Democrats wonder why their political stock is spiraling into the death zone, they need to look no further than their own willful failures on urban crime and border protection. Biden, who once posed as a tough on crime moderate, he came into the White House and immediately dismantled all the Trump era border protections. He allowed millions of illegal aliens, including rapists, child molesters, murderers, sordid gangbangers, to come in and roam free along with our own homegrown criminals. He turned a blind eye to urban crime while prioritizing the fake crisis of global era climate change and equity as well. She concludes, it's a very lengthy piece here at the New York Post. She concludes, instead of admitting fault and embracing common sense policies like more cops on the beat, Democrats are siding with the criminals. New York is about to sign our own death warrant if zoron no misdemeanor's Mamdani gets his way and wins the mayor's race. But Trump's successful DC crime crackdown lays bear the lie that law and order is too complex to solve with policing. Right. They Democrats have been telling us for generations that they're trying to get to the root causes of all of the crime issue. Then they're so close to cracking the code, and they got all these different ideas, these innovations, and then all these things are going to work. And it's not just cops. More cops don't reduce crime. We can't arrest our way out of this and all that. And then Trump pours a bunch of agents and officials and law enforcement. Into d C. And lo and behold, what have we seen? A reduction in crime so profound that even the Democrat mayor of DC has acknowledged that it worked. He saved the lives of at least half a dozen people. Trump did by doing this because they see a murder in DC every other day, and so for twelve days there wasn't a single murder, and by the record, by the book, by the data, that would be on average six people dead that are not that. By the way, the twelve day homicide free streak ended early on Wednesday, but there's no doubt that the streets are safer, and the most affected residents are grateful, since most, if not all, of the lives saved are the young black men who usually film more virtuary slabs. It's a rich irony that the loudest critics of Trump's law and order push are the same Democrats who weaponized Black Lives Matter into an insane movement to defund the police. In Chicago, where Trump is now threatening to send the National Guard next, six people were killed last weekend alone, including a five year old boy. Again, I say this is a choice. Voters keep choosing to put these people in power, and these people in power keep choosing policies that allow for more chaos. That's the problem. It is a social disorder. It is chaos rather than order. And by the way, there is Potentially a reason for this is that the more chaos you have, then the more people clamor for order, and they are willing to sacrifice more of their liberties in order to obtain greater security. It's almost as if the people that are cooking up the virus are also cooking up the antidote. You know, same lab, same people, which brings us back to South End Charlotte. A Charlotte Mecklemburg police affid David filed in court yesterday provided new details of that fatal stabbing on the light rail train in South End on Friday night a week ago. Today to Carlos Brown, who we heard in the newscast there at the top of the hour that he was denied bond. Finally, he is charged with stabbing and murdering Irina Zarutzka, who was a twenty three year old refugee who came to Charlotte with her family from Ukraine. At about nine to fifty five pm, police got a call for service reporting that a man had just stabbed a woman in the throat on the. Lynx Blue Line. It said that when the police arrived, witnesses pointed them to the suspects standing on the outbound light rail platform. He had a cut on the outside of his right hand, and he matched caller's description. Detectives also got the video from inside the train, which reportedly shows her entering and sitting in front of Brown for about four and a half minutes. The ride continues as normal. He then pulls out a knife. He unfolds the knife, he pauses, he stands up and just stabs her three times and walks away, and then she becomes unresponsive. There was no interaction between the two of them. She was ambushed, So there is a video. Charlotte Area Transit said to the Charlotte Observer that it has Contractedcurity Company that is working to fill thirty five vacancies. I'll give you more details on this Professional Security Services PSS. It's a Charlotte based company and the guy who founded it, his name rang a bell with me. So we'll get to that in a moment. 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And then after the trip, Incentive trip Kit turns those memories into a professional storytelling video you can use to motivate, inspire, and get people fired up for next year's trip. 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 O seven for the details. All right, So, according to this piece of the Charlotte Observer by Ryan Orley, the Charlotte Area Transit system has its contracted security company called Professional Security Services. It's run by former CMPD officers has one hundred eighty four security personnel, but there are two hundred nineteen total positions. Kat said, Now, I'm unclear as to that whether that's two nineteen for all of KATS or whether that's two nineteen for the entire staff of PSS, the Professional Security Services. The two nineteen is the total employment number, and that they are dispersed through various other contracts, so I'm not sure if that's just a cat's specific number. Asked by the observer, what the agency is doing in response to the killing, CATS said that it has been working to reimagine its approach to safety and security over the past eight months. Okay, well, stop reimagining whatever you've been doing, because obviously it doesn't look like that's working. This has included working with the security company. CATS is also deploying security officers across the system during all hours of operations, seven days a week. Now. The problem is, of course, that you know, it's difficult to staff like every single bus. Okay, and I understand this argument. In fact, ws so see TVs. Hunter Sayings sat down with Brent Kagel, the interim CEO for CATS. Eric Ostness, the chief Safety and security officer for CATS and Lee Ratliffe Assistant chief for Professional Security Services PSS. And if the name Lee Ratliffe rings a bell for you, it also rang a bell for me. I knew Lee Ratliffe when he was the spokesperson for CMPD, so I would have to deal with him. Not have to, but I would deal with him. When you go out to the scene of a crime and the most famous or maybe infamous I'm not sure scene of the crime that he appeared at, and it would turn out to be I believe one of his last, if not his last, was when Carr driving on two seventy seven through on the south side of Uptown, like from College Street, coming you know, going towards Midtown, and a guy jumps out of the back of the trunk of a car driving down the road. He rolls out, I should say, because he is his hands are tied, he's got tape over his mouth, his feet are bound, and he hops across two lanes of traffic to get to the side of the road. And I believe it was a duke. Power lineman in one of the trucks sees this. He pulls over at that ramp going up to College Street, I believe it was, and he pulls over to help the guy and the car that you know, had the guy in the trunk. He the car turned around and a guy got out, walked up and shot and killed the guy that was in the trunk, right in front of the Duke Lineman, and then got in the car and drove away. So we all descend. It's right down the street from the WBT studio. So I was one of the first people there. We get there, Lee Ratliffe is there, but I'm not sure why, but he was. Lee was dressed with like a big fedora hat, a white blazer. It was just a very a unique look. But because of the nature of this crime, this press conference on the side of two seventy seven, it went out all over the country and people in the city government and CNBT were not happy with the image that was projected anyway, So and anyway, so that's but I worked with Lee and Lee was very nice, but apparently he's one of the founders of this company anyway, so he's They sit down for this interview with nine and Ratliff said, it was a pretty horrific event. It was a random act something that I don't feel any person from a law enforcement security perspective, could have done anything to prevent that, Okay, and I don't believe that's true. I don't believe that's true. Now. Yeah, if like there was some officer on the train but was too far away and the guy got up and stabbed her, the cop would not have been able to get over and stop the attack in time. So from that perspective, and maybe that's what he's talking about. Sure, However, the mere presence of the officer, the mere presence of security or a police officer, acts as a deterrent, and so the deranged maniac might not have even attempted it because of the presence of somebody with a firearm, see my point. So this is where and this was very early in the interview, and I thought the reporter did a good job with the questions that he asked because it's a transcript almost in this piece, it's a very lengthy piece. But this idea that like, well, we couldn't we couldn't have done anything to prevent the attack if the guy wanted to attack, or he would have. And again, yes, but your presence may have actually acted as a deterrent. So I don't think it's I don't think it's a good argument to say that, you know, putting a cop on the train wouldn't have stopped it, because it might have. You don't know that to be true. In fact, studies show increased law enforcement presence does in fact reduce crime in the area where law enforcement is Sains asked if this was a security failure. There was a security failure, there was no security guard on that train, and Ratliss said no, on this night, I think that while the outcome is horrific, it's terrible. Oh sorry, this is now Brent Kagel from Cats. He says, it's the outcome is horrific, it's terrible. But the system, the processes, they all functioned as they should have on that night. So the system worked as intended like this. This is okay. That is definitely one way to go here, he says. I think, knowing what we know now, there may have been other opportunities for this, but for this person to have got the help they needed, uh or to not been where they weren't at night, But on this night, I believe that processes. I believe the processes worked, Ratliff said, I want to talk about the things that were successful that night. The nine to one one call went in and then the response from the call coming in six minutes. This person was in police custody. The reporter says, you say your systems and policies worked, but a woman died, and Kegel said, absolutely, and I acknowledge that. See, this is why people conceal carry is because the process worked as intended. After she was dead, a call went in, police arrived six minutes later, and but for the fact that the attacker happened to remain on a platform instead of running away, they caught him. Had he run away, they probably would not have. So the process worked. And that's why I concealed carry, because in the minds of professionals, this is what passes for security. This is a process that works. So then the reporter asks, we have heard from law enforcement that there is power in presence that if we may have seen, if he may have seen a guard on board that train that night, he would have thought twice before he did what he did. And Ratliffe responds, I can't put a police officer or security officer on every street in Charlotte. It's just not feasible. Well, that's not that's not what he was asking. He's asking about an officer present on that train. There are far fewer train cars in Charlotte than there are streets. Nobody's asking you to put a cop on every single street all the time. The question is, could you put a cop on a train that just runs like an eight mile line, up and down, up and down. Up, and then you just put them on the train. He just sits on the train all day? Could you do that? 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. 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Call her 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. I don't know. Let's see WBT. This is from Kevin who says WBT reported that he sat behind her on the light rail train. You just read that she got on and sat in front of him. Well, according to the Charlotte Observer, the video shows I've not seen The video shows that he's on the train. She The video shows her entering and then sitting in front of Brown. I don't know, like facing each other or if she has her back to him or what. I don't know. They don't say that in the in the article, but this interview that Hunter Sayings got with the three Cats guys, Brent Kagel, the interim CEO, Eric Ostnessnessess Anyway, the chief safety and security officer for Cats, and Lee Ratliffe, Assistant chief for Professional Security Services. I think it's unsettling to me. Let me say it that way. It's unsettling because the way they're answering these questions does not indicate to me that they are, I don't know, approaching this in the way that I think most people are, or at least what I'm seeing and hearing in the text line in the emails from the phone calls. It's just like, Okay, so I can't put a police officer or security officer on every street in Charlotte. It's just not feasible. Nobody's asking for that. Why would you say that? Ratliffe says that it's not from a budget standpoint. From a hiring standpoint, the perception of having security and presence is always great, and we want to increase those numbers. Right, But at the end of the day, if someone wants to commit a violent crime and that crime can be done in seconds. Okay, there's nothing that a police officer can do to stop that act from happening. We can react to it, but to prevent it, it's not a lot we can do. So again, that's a false choice, right, You're setting up sort of a straw man argument here, because the point is you're like skipping right past the presence of the officer to as a deterrent, and you're making this argument that you know, well, we can't have a cop everywhere, and you know people are going to do bad things and all that, and sure that's true, but the presence of an officer may have convinced this attacker not to try anything because he saw the officer. Cagel said, this is the cat's CEO, the interim CEO. I also know that when we think about trying to have security personnel everywhere throughout the system, every day, all day, it's challenging. It's not something that is feasible. The reporter then asks, we want to be this large, big city, a world class city. There are other transit systems in this country that have a goal of putting two officers on every single train from nine pm to five am. Let's say, why can't we do that here? And Ratliffe responds, quote, we can do anything we choose to do when we choose to do it, all right, But the thing I want to look at is there's budgets, there's numbers, there's all these things that go into factor into those decisions and how they're made, which that just seems like a dodge. What's the cost? How many trains are there? How about we start there. Let's go let's go down to just basic data. Right, how many trains are there? Ten? Right? I mean well that aren't broken with you know, unmaintained wheel trucks, Like how many are actually running? Okay? And like now I'm not talking cars train cars. I'm not saying you put an officer in every car. I'm saying, how about one officer on each train and they could walk up and down the train. Right, So, how many trains? Ten? So we have ten officers that ride the trains. We could do that, right, What would that cost? Let's see some numbers running Outlet give me a proposal, show me some figures. Cat's officials said they know their system is not perfect, and even before the deadly attack, they said plans were already underway to enhance safety. Oh so they did know there are gaps. One of those plans is to better enforce tickets on the light rail, ensuring riders actually buy a ticket to get on. Yes, yes, that would be a good idea. People like me have been saying this for a very long time, that there's no fair enforcement which allows any sort of homeless, vagrant, criminal to board the train, victimize people get off and there's no record or there's no way to kick them off. And one thing that people are also doing is they get on the train and then if somebody does eventually come along and ask to see their ticket, they buy the ticket right then and there no see And they talk about this that, hey, we didn't build this system. We didn't build our train platforms all this with any kind of security like turnstiles, so anybody can get on the platforms, and then anybody can jump on the train when the door's open. A federal study, According to WSOCTV, a federal study notes that there's an overlap between unpaid train fares and an increase in crime on transit. He was asked, did the attacker have a ticket to be on the train, Did de Carlos Brown have a ticket? And Cagle said, I do not know the answer. Ratliff said, I don't know the answer. Austin has said it's part of the investigation, and the reporter says, seems like a pretty easy part of that investigation to look up. Ratliff said, that's a really great question. But what's more important to me is getting a conviction. No, right now, it's important to find out did he have a ticket? And I suspect just spitballing here making a prediction. He did not. I'm going to say he did not. He was homeless, he was insane, so I'm assuming he just got on the train. Thereby proving the point that the reporter Hunter Sayings is making with this federal study that when you have high amounts of unpaid train fares, you have more crime. So maybe we focus on enforcing fares. Maybe you harden with exterior security, the train stations put turnstiles in. 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 could check it out to 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. What do we call it? Oh? Pregaming with Brett Winterble. You can hear his whole program right here on WBT from three until six pm weekdays. Brett how Art thou. Ah, I'm doing well, Thank you very much. Good. Did you get the memo that we are pouncing and seizing. So to which directive are we pouncing in season? Oh, that's a good question because there's a. Lot of options. So what did you get a memo about the pouncing and the seizing for a particular option? Like, are which option are you pouncing and seizing upon? Because we may have gotten different memos or something. I would say Kamala Harris getting getting a stripped of her of her secret service. So you're pouncing on that, not you're not pouncing. I'm encouraging people not to pounce on. You're encouraging no pouncing. Correct. Okay, So I was what are you pouncing? And apparently I've been pouncing and seizing on the murder of the Ukrainian refugee on our light rail. How can that be? Well, according to the let me see here the title here, the deputy opinion editor of The Charlotte Observer, Paige Maston. You know who she knows? She makes frequent appearances on the show. I mean not her but her writings. Yes, I gain headline Republicans are pouncing on Charlotte's light rail stabbing. Wow, because you talked about. It, right, Because like we see it as a symbol of the latest piece of evidence in a general trend. So did she post that today? Yes, that is a very What is her name? I want to page Maston, Page Maston. I'm not trying to pounce or do any of that sketchy stuff, but that is not the way you commemorate the passing the murdering of a person not one week ago. Yeah, it hasn't even been a full week. It hasn't been a full week, and for goodness sakes, I think you need to take the weekend and really change your approach. She says. It's the kind of incident that merits a strong response from Charlotte Lee leaders, especially at a time when fears about safety are already heightened. Adding to the urgency is the fact that tragedies like this also present a perception dilemma that extends beyond the city's borders. For one, Republicans at the state and national level are eager to characterize Charlotte as a lawless, crime infested city, touting it as further quote unquote proof that Democrats are soft on crime. Well, let me just say something, because I have the clip. I have the clip. I went and I harvested the clip and I gotta tell you the last The first time I came to Charlotte in twenty twelve, I watched you guys. Boo God, I saw it. I was in the room. Yeah, I mean, what are we doing? Page? You gotta get your mind right, Paige. The North Carolina Republican Party was quick to levy those accusations on social media, writing quote, Democrats have shown over the past two weeks they don't take violent crime seriously. It cost this young woman her life in our state's largest city. It's unacceptedable. Wait wait, wait she so she said it was an insect in the first In the first cause it was the it was an incident, and then what was the other one? It was something else. That was very She does call it a tragedy, tragedy, He says, it's using tragedies to further a partisan political narrative. Wait, what, what's the tragedy? So she needs to explain what the tragedy is. Is the tragedy the crazy guy or is the tragedy the fact that he murdered a perfectly nice person. Yeah, I don't know. I think it's I think she's talking about the murder. And then she also criticizes the response from the mayor and from the police, and uh, she says, the fop they're raising concerns. Stuff it And basically the whole rest of the piece sounds a lot like what I've been saying and you've been saying, sure, yeah, which is odd because I guess she's not pouncing. Well, here's the thing, and let's be honest here and I'll take I'll take the heat. They can they can deliver the heat and pounce on me and all that. Let me just say this really quick. This was somebody who was from another country. So I guess American life is more valuable than people who have emigrated for safety. Is she an on person? Now? What is this? Maybe Brett will answer that on his show. 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 vpetecleanershow dot com. Again, thank you so much for listening, and don't break anything while I'm gone,