It's mainly the judges (09-29-2025--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 the links, become a patron, go to vpetelendershow 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. And going over some of the audio from this field hearing that was held today in Charlotte by the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Oversight. Topic was violent crime, and there was a comment made by a Congressman, Kevin Kylie. He's a Republican from California. They do exist, and he talked about this shooting at an ABC television affiliate station in Sacramento as an example of the failure of the criminal justice system that's happening in predominantly, if not exclusively, in large Democrat run cities. That is not a coincidence. Okay, it's not a coincidence. Let me play one more snippet of his comments here before I get to the ABC story. The good news is public opinion has turned sharply against these sort of radical policies that have gotten to this to this point. Even in California. Last year, Californians passed a proposition to make a crime illegal again by restoring appropriate consequences. That passed with almost seventy percent of the vote, despite opposition from the governor and the political establishment. We also saw some of these reckless and district attorneys in our state removed from office and became Because of that, we've actually seen a modest improvement in crime that is starting to be felt in our state. So, mister chair, I think this is precisely at the time when we can say, and we're seeing it in Washington, d c. By the way, where we have a controlled experiment going on where you can at least turn a couple of the levers to increase the certainty of punishment, and what do you know, crime goes down. I think that we need to use that as an example for how we can bring public safety to communities across this country. And I think that starts, by the way, first and foremost with supporting our law enforcement. So thank you to all the law enforcement with us here today. All right, that's Kevin Kylie, and he is precisely correct. And by the way, we're now going to see another experiment Portland. They're getting some National Guard troops too, or no, well, not the National Guard. I think this is actually US military that's getting sent there. I've I've got the story somewhere in the stack of stuff. Let's get ray on. Hello, Ray, Welcome to the. Showp My comment and question is I would like to, if they can hear this, offer my deepest condolences, as a father of two daughters to this grandfather, I mean grandmother and father of these victims. And I can only imagine what they went through. Only imagine. And the question to you is concerning her not being able to go to her granddaughter. I think Mary Logan's funeral because of Governor Cooper's shutdowns. Back when that happened, I think, Cooper, We're going to shut it down for two weeks, and then it just went on and on and on. And after that was done, I heard some talk about the legislature of passing a law that's saying the governor can only cut things down for a couple of weeks and then if it's extended, the legislature has to do that. Do you know if that ever passed? Yeah, yeah, that did pass. Okay, yeah, so he has to keep coming back. Well, the original I mean, the original law that he just completely ignored, was to go through the Council of State, but he was not going to get the support to keep everything shut down, and so he just issued it on his own. So, like I would contend that he violated the state law when he did the emergency declaration or as I call it, Roy Cooper's D. So from in the future, any governor of North Carolina can't do it except for two weeks and then the legislature has this whether to extend it or not. Is that correct, I believe. Yeah, I don't know if it's I would have to go back and read the law again to find out if it's two weeks or what kind of time period. But yes, the kind of you know, indefinite extensions of these emergency declarations and lockdowns and stuff. They need legislative approval to keep going. Right. Well, thanks a. Lot for taking Yeah, yes, sir, Ray, good here from you. Bye, take care. So here is this story out of the Sacramento. I mentioned it at the end of the last hour, but here are the details about this guy and what he did. Allegedly. Prosecutors believe that the suspect who allegedly opened fire on the ABC ten station in Sacramento was politically motivated. Sacramento County DA theen Hoe told National Review, explaining that a search of the suspects vehicle yielded a note that criticized members of the Trump administration and appeared to reference the recent assassination of Charlie Kirk. The Sacramento Police Department executed a search of sixty four year old Annibal Hernandez Sentana's home, where they found not only the semi auto nine millimeter handgun he allegedly used to fire into the station multiple times, but also various pieces of evidence that suggest he was motivated by anti Trump animus. The arraignment originally was set for they moved it up. That's just a scheduling thing, and then he bailed out. They found a calendar that was attached to his refrigerator. On that particular calendar for the date of September the nineteenth, he had written the following message for that date of the shooting, quote, do the next scary thing as we put on his calendar the day he went and shot at the station, there was another search warrant executed inside his Inside of his vehicle where more evidence was uncovered. Authorities discovered an anti Trump book as well as a handwritten note which read for hiding Epstein and ignoring red flags do not support Patel, Bongino and ag Bondi. There Next, the handwritten note was signed with the initials c K and then the words from above. The DA's office believed that CK stands for Charlie Kirk, leading officials to believe that there is evidence this individual engaged in attacks on the media and the free press for political purposes. The DA said that his office is bringing three charges against Hernandez Santana, including shooting into an occupied building, assault with a semi automatic handgun, both of which are felonies, and several counts related to the illegal possession of a firearm. Hernandez Santana is also facing federal charges, including possessing a firearm within a school zone, discharging a firearm within a school zone, and interfering with a radio communication station. The maximum penalty for the state charges is seventeen years, which is much more than the suspect will face federally. However, the federal charges allowed the Feds to go pick him up after he bailed out. He was released after posting two hundred thousand dollars bail, but then got rearrested by the FBI later that day. Hernandez Santana a lawyer, retired lobbyist, and quote educated liberal. Why is that important because that's what his lawyer is claiming is the reason why he's being politically persecuted. This is the lawyer Mark Rischell, arguing that the federal charges brought against his client represent political persecution motivated motivated by the fact that his client is quote an educated liberal. A LinkedIn account matching his name indicates he previously was a legislative director for the California Federation of Teachers and is now retired and engaged in full time parenting. Dude was the legislative director for the Teachers' union in California and went and shot up a police station with an illegal firearm and that's how he had the money to post the bail. I guess it's unreal, absolutely unreal. Oh not as unreal as what happened up in New York City. Did you see this video of this woman punching an interviewer interface they dropped all the charges. 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's 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 Slam Walk and then you could search for my team name Pete's Peck. 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. Then, 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. So this is from the New York Post. The bronx woman caught on camera sucker punching a pro life activist has dodged criminal charges in the case because the Manhattan District Attorney's office failed to meet a legal deadline instead of remorse actor victim again. So the puncher is Brianna Jay Rivers. She had been facing a second degree assault charge for the incident, which took place in April in Harlem. She walked over to Savannah Craven and Tao, who had a microphone and is doing like person on the street interviews talking about abortion and Brianna Rivers approaches her to talk with her for an interview that is clearly being recorded, right they're on camera, and let's see here and jump ahead to the Okay, here it is Craven and Tao asked whether foster kids, because this the attacker Rivers, she made the she was pro abortion and Craven Anto is pro life, and so Antoo asks her whether foster kids should be killed because they're not wanted, and Rivers responded why not, which is shocking. So then they go back and forth for about a minute, and then Antoo says, well, I'm not the one who admitted they'd be okay with killing babies and foster care and killing children that have been abused, at which point Rivers says, that's not the point what I'm saying is and then just bashes her in the face on camera, very clear, can't miss it, punches her like two or three times, and then storms off, flipping the bird at the at the camera and telling the camera got to perform a sex act on her, which would be impossible because she doesn't have the anatomy required, but whatever. She later apologized on social media for socking her interviewer, but claimed the antagonistic victim goaded her into violence. This is the classic scene from the documentary Forrest Gump when Jenny's abusive boyfriend right hits her and then blames just this war in that SLB Johnson like, that's the reason. The brute has since posted a string of videos online gloating about the assault, telling critics to back off now that the case has been dismissed. She also launched an online fundraiser begging for cash to pay her legal bills. Now, she's not out of the woods. Just because Alvin Bragg's office missed their deadline for providing discovery and so they had to drop the case doesn't mean that the victim has no more recourse. She says. That she's now looking into filing a lawsuit against Rivers. I feel like people with real common sense know exactly what's going on. She's just fishing for more clicks and empathy and targeting me for harassment. So yeah, I don't really feel anything about it, said the attacker. She's thirty years old. By the way, I was apologetic to her. I felt sorry about the situation. She wants to continue to just kind of drag it out. Yeah, because you've suffered no punishment for it. You you punched a person in the face on camera, and you are escaping any kind of criminal charge for that. Antao said she wasn't surprised by River's response and doesn't believe her assailant felt any remorse for the attack. She says, I have dozens of screenshots of her liking comments saying things like you ain't hit that girl hard enough, or you did the community of service. She a thousand percent deserved it. Never doubt yourself, queen. Apparently this woman made a rap song blaming the victim for the assault. The DA's office confirmed what it called an unacceptable error in this case, which occurred after the case was transferred to a different prosecutor. The bungled case is now being reviewed by the Chicago based firm Thomas Moore Society, which plans to sue Rivers on the activist's behalf. I mean, she had like several thousand dollars worth of legal bills, and there's the whole accountability element here. Christopher Ferrara, senior counsel with the Thomas Moore Society, said, quote, people need to learn accountability for what is happening in this country over the last year, which is the wave of violence by left wing activists to think that the appropriate response to an opinion they don't like is punching, kicking, assaulting, or shooting somebody. The DA's office also failed to update the victim when the case got tossed, when the charges were dropped, and the Thomas Moore Society has been trying to communicate with the DA's office and they're just ignoring all the calls and emails. Antell said she didn't know the case was dismissed until she saw her assailant flaunting the news on her Instagram posts. Diana Florence veteran prosecutor who worked as an assistant district attorney under Bragg's predecessor, Cy Vance, and now she's running as an independent for Bragg's seat. She said, violence of any sort is absolutely abhorrent and shouldn't and should be prosecuted here. This was an extremely strong case. It was caught on video. There's no question about what happened. Like it doesn't get any easier than this case. It's all right there, it's all recorded. You got the victim's name, you got the assailant's name, everything's there. Just unbelievable. What's going on with these prosecutors. 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 Minhill, 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. 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I agree that. And by the way, we are waiting on Tim Moore, congressman from North Carolina. We had booked him a couple of days ago. Yeah, so we're waiting on him to call in. If he calls him, we'll get him on and says I agree that when there are suspects with a long prior criminal record, that should be taken into account. But here's my concern. What happens if somebody is charged with murder in Mecklimburg County since they are like five years behind schedule and going to trial, and that person is then denied bond because it's a murder charge, but then they're found not guilty. That means they were imprisoned for five years for a crime they did not commit. I don't know the balance there, because obviously these career criminal types know that just get picked up in her back out. Okay, spell check your people, please. I think he's saying that the career criminals know that. You know, they get picked up, they're right back out the next day. And that's a serious problem. But that's I mean, that's why, like the judges that make these decisions have the latitude right to make k specific defendant specific decisions. And you know, when you start getting into the territory where you're directing at you know, the legislative level, and you're directing sentencing or bail requirements and stuff like that, and you're pushing that down, there's no way that you are going to foresee every single type of a case, right, And so when you make these broad blanket laws, that becomes problematic for that kind of a situation that John just described. So the alternative has been to allow the judges the discretion to look at the facts of a particular case, weigh the risk of letting this person back out onto the streets. Are they going to reoffend? And therein lies the problem is that the judges discretion oftentimes is terrible. So this is where we are. And we went over this last week when they were debate leading Arena's law in the North Carolina legislature, and that former judge from Durham County, Marshall Morey, was talking about and she's now a representative, she's been up there for years, and she's saying, well, you know, I, as a district court judge, I set all of the bail guidelines for all the magistrates. So you can't blame the magistrate in Mecklenburg County for Arena Zarutzka's murder because she was just following the guidelines, right, But they are developed by who then our district judges, So Wiggins, Judge Wiggins, So okay, blame him. Then what are the guidelines? She didn't go over those guidelines. But at the hearing today, Congressman Tim Moore, do you remember the story? Let me see here, actually, let me see if I can pull it up. Yeah, well dollars, yeah, so that this person will be in card. All right, So I'm going to back this up a little bit. This is there's Mark Harris and he's done there and then Tim Moore starts speaking here here. I certainly hate the circumstances under which that the committee has to be here to our tour our witnesses here. I have no words. Some of you I have talked to before. Some this is the first time, and the tragic deaths that you all have discussed that you have lied that you're living through Officer Campbell, your injuries are things that should never ever have happened. And I do want to push back on some of the argument that this is a money issue. This is not a money issue. Uh. This is a policy issue. UH. This is a choice that is made by often by magistrates. And I can give you some examples. One is reason just a couple of weeks ago, uh, two of the district attorneys and two of the neighboring counties. I represent Travis Page from Gaston County, Mike Miller from Cleveland County or here. And I can tell you a story that I think is very telling. And this happened just September third, so this is very recent. A guy by the name of John Alexander was accused of breaking into a Belmont Abbey College dorm room and sexually assaulting a student that happened in Gaston County. However, he was initially arrested here in Mecklenburg County. Guess what his bond was, mister chairman. Here, the bond was set at fifty thousand dollars. He made bond once the case. Once he the case got transferred over to Gaston County, the district attorney and the judge there raised the bond to five hundred thousand dollars so that this person will be incarcerated. That's an example from just a few weeks ago, right here showing the difference. Yeah, these are choices that these judges and magistrates are making. District attorney, Yes, look I am open and you've got my support, Democrats, you've got my support to fund more prosecutor positions at the DA. One of the. Stats, because Democrats got to invite a couple of witnesses as well. They brought in a statistics guy that made the case that violent crime is down over the last two years, historic declines in violent crime after the historic increases from twenty twenty. But we don't like to talk about that. But anyway, so it's gone down again, so good. But their other witness was Dina King, former US Attorney for the Western District of North Carolina. Of course, she was replaced by a Republican when Trump won again, so now it's Russ Ferguson. So Dina King she used to be a a Mecklemberg assistant da as well, and she said that for a population of our size in Mecklimburg County, we should have one hundred and forty four prosecutors. Okay, one forty four. We have eighty four, So we're sixty positions short of what full staffing should be according to whatever this analysis was that she was citing. Now there is an additional ten that is included in Arena's law that the legislature just passed, so that'll go up to ninety four, but we're still fifty below where we should be. Now, I don't know if one forty four is actually the correct number, but probably we should be getting closer to it, because I think she makes a compelling case that the fewer prosecutors you've got, the greater the workload is, which means they are incentivized to do plea deals, to push cases out of the system, to just close them, get them out of there, and also burn out these assistant das will burn out and then they leave and they go, you know, make make, you know, some real money in the private sector. That's a problem. So yes, like, I'm okay with hiring more prosecutors. Absolutely. This is from the text line the grumpy major who says, I am retired from CMPD with thirty two years within that organization. Seven of those years were spent as a commander of several different felony investigation bureaus. One part of this slow to prosecute major cases is that that's never mentioned is the role the defense attorneys play. It is a common practice for defense attorneys to seek as many delays and continuances in these cases as their friendly judges will give them. This is done to put as much time as possible between the crime and the court, so that witnesses are lost, case detectives retire and move away the shock of the crime has passed. It also puts extra strain on the prosecutors as cases pile up, leading them to be more willing to offer a soft plea bargain to get the case resolved. I have yet to see the heroic defense attorney often portrayed in media, just ones who are getting as many billable hours as they can charge with no interest in justice. Yeah, I would say that's I'd say that's a big problem too. That's a very big part of the problem as well. Because even one of the witnesses that testified today at this hearing, she said that the DA's office told her in that like she's waited five and a half years, they still haven't gone to trial for three of the four charged with her granddaughter's murder, and the DA's office told her time is not your friend because the longer it goes right, like witnesses disappear, move away, they die. Just people's memory isn't as sharp, they forget things. Whatever. Five and a half years to go to trial is unacceptable. It's just unacceptable. Game on Week one starts now and every touchdown brings you closer to a payout. With Draft Kings sports book and official sports betting partner of the NFL, this isn't just football, it's first touchdown fireworks anytime TD rushes live bets that ride every momentum shift that DraftKings every play is your next shot to win. Will the Panthers win? Will we even get a touchdown? 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Void in Ontario. Bonus bets expire seven days after issuance. See Sportsbook dot DraftKings dot Com Slash promos NFL Sunday Ticket offer for new subscribers only and auto renews until canceled. Digital games and commercial use excluded. Restrictions apply additional NFL Sunday Ticket terms or at YouTube dot com slash go Slash NFL Sunday Tickets slash terms limited timeoffer. Let me get to some more messages here from people who have been tweeting and texting and emailing. This from Eric on Twitter. It's a peat tweet as I take no pleasure in saying this, pete, but the suffering will continue until Charlotte voters make a different choice. I completely agree. And this from Mammaituded says I have an idea as an area to help prevent these shootings. Maybe stop teaching SEL social emotional learning SEO in schools that pit students and children up against each other and cause animosity towards other students victimhood, mentality, class envy, etc. At such an early age. No wonder this festers in their minds from childhood from our schools. Yeah, I mean they The long march through the institutions has been a long march. It's been going on for sixty years. Russ As. I suppose the difference between whining and commentary really does come down to the microphone and the paycheck. Yes, right, Because if I was just standing on a corner or like hanging out in your living room saying everything that I say on the air, you'd just be like, oh man, Pete just doesn't stop talking and it just whinds about everything. But yes, you get a paycheck and a microphone, and then that means that I'm a commentator. That's how that works. Let me see here do some are very scared of angering these criminals by calling police on them. I've been servicing locations in Charlotte for ten years through all through COVID. Majority of businesses have given up on calling the police. It's the same people over and over back in their business that very day. They just deal with the larceny and the chaos. Yeah, that's part of one of the critic criticisms of the crime stat data is that people have stopped calling police for service calls. So which is you should not do that, you should call the police, but people stop because they're like, it doesn't do anything, it doesn't matter, and that has an impact on the crime stats. Um. President Trump, by the way, ordered the Department of War what is it good for to dispatch quote all necessary troops to Portlandia, Oregon to secure the city and safeguard ICE. Trump also confirmed that he is quote authorizing full force if necessary. Amid a spate of daily protests against the federalized detention facility in Portland that have intensified since June the president's announcement. This is from the New York Post article by Ryan King. The president's announcement comes on the heels of multiple high profile attacks against ICE officers and steps announced by US Attorney General and BONDI to crack down on those who attack federal personnel Portland. I'm not sure if you're aware of this or not, but Portland has long been a hotbed of Antifa activities. It's true. Rioters there have repeatedly attacked and laid siege to the ICE facility in Portland. This includes instances where some sicko directed a laser beam into the eyes of an ICE officer. They threw smoke grenades at multiple cops that tried to damage equipment at the facility. All of this has led to an increased federal presence in Portland, which has prompted pleas from local officials for protesters to remain peaceful. Please remain peaceful. On Friday, at grand jury indicted three women for following an ICE agent back to their home and live streaming the address on Instagram. See that's why they wear the masks. People. 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 business. This is that advertise on the podcast, so if you'd like, please support them too and tell them you heard it here. You can also become a patron at my Patreon page or go to dpetecleanershow dot com. Again, thank you so much for listening, and don't break anything while I'm gone.