Light rail attacker, DeCarlos Brown Jr., goes to court (12-11-2025--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 dpetecleanershow 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, a couple of things have occurred over the last twenty four hours with regard to our vaunted light rail system. First off, the man charged with murdering Arena Zarutska, the Ukrainian refugee, on the Cat's Blue Line light rail back in August. He made his first court appearance today. His name is de Carlos Brown Junior, and according to the Charlotte Observer story published a little while ago, he appeared for the first time since his August arrest. His initial appearance this morning came more than three months after his arrest. During the last three months or so, his capacity to proceed has remained in question, as attorneys waited for an evaluation by a forensic psychologist. When US marshals brought Brown into the US District Court for the Western District of North Carolina, this is federal, this is a federal proceeding. He looked around the court room, holding mostly lawyers and reporters. This happened at about eleven am today. Typically, a judge will hold a detention hearing after reading aloud the charges that the defendant is facing. But since Brown is already being held on no bond in the Mecklenburg County Detention Center, his attorney, Joshua Kendrick, waived the detention hearing and consented to keep Brown in custody. So he's not going anywhere, which that's good news considering that De Carlos Brown Junior has a very lengthy criminal record. He is, according to his family, suffering from schizophrenia, has had violent outbursts and such, and honestly, there's not a lot of confidence that I have in our local court system to keep him off the streets. He's got a criminal history dating back to two thousand and seven. WBTV reports Back then, he was charged with three misdemeanors. His charges ranged from simple assault to disorderly conduct to resisting a public officer. All of those cases were dismissed. This as part of the problem. This is why I call it a catch and release turnstile court system that we've got operating in Mecklenburg County. And by the way, this is not new. When I was a reporter in the early two thousands, this was the same story. There were people that were released over and over and over and over again. This is what's so frustrating about it is that there is a small percentage of the population. They're sort of repeat frequent flyers, you know, they keep getting arrested. A small percentage of the people commit a disproportionate amount of the crime. And when you just run people through, and we've heard stories from local police officers who talk about it takes longer for them to fill out the paperwork after an arrest than it does for the defendant to be released back out. They bring the person in filling out the paperwork, and before you know it, and before they can finish the paperwork, the guy's being released, which then, of course sends the message that there are no repercussions for the types of law violations that you're engaged in, which then, of course means that oh, I can keep doing this. There's no punishment or very little punishment. And then if you get all of your charges dropped, then there is no punishment. You've just been sort of inconvenienced for a while, right, You've been taken off the street, run through processing, then released, and then you got to wait a while, do a couple of court appearances, and then you get your charges dropped. What's the big deal? And that's a problem. So last week we had a bunch of our local officials in the court system as well as our sheriff, and I refer to him as Sheriff Gary. Not my fault, McFadden, because nothing is ever his fault. He'll tell you, like all of the problems you got, jailed, deaths and stuff, and it's not his fault. None of this is his fault. Nothing is ever his fault. When you know he was caught on tape using racial slurs, not his fault, not his fault. He just became, as he said, flustrated with his command staff, employees. They made him use these racial slurs because they weren't doing what he said to do. Not his fault. But with the after the murder of Arena Zarutzska. The state legislature passed reforms for bonds, saying no more you know, cashless bail if you will, or what we called it in North Carolina is released on your own personal recognizance, basically a promise to appear in court and you don't have to put up any money. No, no family member has to put up any money. So if you gip the court appearance, nobody is held responsible for that. And that's probably why, as McFadden said the other day during his news conference, that they've got a repository of warrants that includes hundreds of outstanding warrants. I'm assuming for people that never showed up. See, a way that you make people show up is you make them responsible or they're family members responsible through bail. But this was part of the quote reforms that we're enacted over the last decade less than a decade to have a sort of kinder, gentler court system. And McFadden is arguing, hey, we have all of these new requirements. That's going to you know, people are now going to be held in the local jail for longer, and I don't have the capacity because of course they're not building any new jail in Mecklenburg County. That was their decision. They scrapped the plan to build an annex to the jail about a decade ago. They scraped that plan. They closed down Jail North, that facility, they shut that down. Those were their choices they did that. But if you've got repeat, repeat, repeat, repeat, repeat offenders, right, the logic would indicate that if you keep them behind bars, they're not repeating over and over and over again. So actually you're not going to have to worry about doing the intake processing for these people over and over and over again because they're still in the jail. Right. So back to the WBTV story on de Carlos Brown Junior. His charges ranged from simple assault to disorderly conduct to resisting a public officer. All of those cases were dismissed. That was going back to seven in a four year span from twenty eleven to twenty thirteen, or sorry, a two year span. Brown was charged with more misdemeanors because he failed to show up for court. In twenty eleven, he was issued a criminal summons for communicating threats, but he was not arrested, according to court records. In twenty fourteen, he was convicted of felony breaking and entering. He was assigned to thirty days in jail twenty four month supervised probation with the Sheriff's office. But then he assaulted a man and stole a Samsung Galaxy phone and about seven hundred and fifty dollars using a handgun, although those items were found in his apartment. He was charged with possession of a dangerous weapon firearm by a felon. He was convicted and he served just over five years in the state prison. He was released in twenty twenty put on parole for a year, and then in twenty twenty five this year, in January, he was charged with misusing the nine to one to one system. And this is the video that came out with his interaction with CMPDS officers that showed up after he called nine to one one and he says that that there was like a man made material had been placed in his inside his body and was controlling his movements, so definitely mentally ill, right, and police said that that's a medical thing, that's not a law enforcement thing. So then he tries to call nine one one again as the cops are standing there, and that's when he got the charge for misuse of the nine one one system. Fast forward to August is when he's on the train and completely unprovoked, he stands up and stabs Arena Zarutzka from behind internet, killing her within seconds. He is then apprehended and taken into custody. That prompted House built three oh seven, known as Arena's Law. The governor signed it into law and makes it harder for people who have been charged with violent offenses or those with extensive criminal histories to be released on a promise to appear. And that takes us to these second stabbing on the light rail line. This occurred almost a week ago on Friday, and again. Now this is the confluence of all of these different stories that are just they're distilled down into this latest incident. 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 mail them. They'll be ready in a week or two. Memorial videos for your loved ones, videos for rehearsal, dinners, weddings, graduations, smith's 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. On the text line, Kevin says, I guess because I said do I sound I was asking if I sound taller. I was told I was going to sound taller on the FM stick, but Kevin says, I sound wider. Also, the switch to one oh seven point nine FM is not coincidental. Upon your return, you need to take credit for the switch, Pete, because you know TJ. Ritchie is going to take the credit because of his greatness. That's yeah, he probably will let me go over to the phones here and chat with Richard. Hello Richard, welcome to the program. Hey Pete, how are you? Well? What's going on? You know what you lived in New York? Well, the places. It's no coincidence to me that what's happening with this letting people gold, criminals, illegals, not holding them for ice. There's a pattern here that this is a democratic run. Cities are doing this purposely and are okay with the collateral damage. I mean, it's I mean, we just have to follow the bouncing ball here, and people have this is an ideological battle that they don't care about women being raped coming into the country over the border. Let the border wide open, illegals who are in custody, don't hold them for ice, let them out, crazy people, criminals, et cetera, et cetera. So, whether it's Charlotte Mecklenberg, Chicago, New York, Baltimore, Seattle, Portland, there's a pattern here that I think we really have to say, well, what is their game here? What is what is the objective that they're trying to do? And it comes to my mind I say, well. Who is Well, who is the they that you're talking about? I'm talking about the I don't know progressive socialist Marxists. I don't know Democrats. They're the ones that. Are in power where these things are happening. So so well, okay, right, so the people, So you're talking about the people in power because I think, you know, it's difficult. Look, I understand the truth is general, right, So that's why people, you know, make generalizations. I understand that. Yeah, but they're you know, but everybody is different. People are motivated by different things, and so it's important, I think, to differentiate voters from the elected officials because because there are different motivations. And you talk to a lot of the Democrat voters and they want, you know, they want their streets cleaned up, you know, they want to be safe in their neighborhoods. I think though, that they are sold a prescription that doesn't actually treat the problem, but they believe it does. And as far as like an undergirding philosophy, I've talked about this for quite a while now, this idea of suicidal empathy, right, where if you elevate empathy as the highest order trait or characteristic of a society, that that's the thing we value the most, is empathy to the point where you are willing to lay down your life or your society's life in order to attain and to be seen as hitting that mark of empathy. And I think that is part of what motivates people who are otherwise good hearted. They just think that this is the way that they can express their empathy in the best way, which is how you end up with the mayor saying something like after the Zarutzka murder, something on the order of, you know, how did we fail this this attacker? Well, that's suicidal empathy, right, because you're elevating the criminal and how they feel and where did we go wrong with that person? And somehow or another it's our fault, it's society's fault. We failed him somehow. Rather than saying no, no, no, that person did this thing. That person is wrong. You should not feel empathy for them simply because they committed a crime. That's suicidal empathy. And I think that's part of what's going on. There's also there's also a there's a nihilism at play. There's a postmodernist view that has infected a lot of the progressive left. And I use the term leftist for this reason. I don't mean liberal I mean leftists postmodernism, where it's just, hey, you know what we're gonna We're gonna tear down these instantitutions in order to perfect them. Somehow. It's a Hegelian philosophy, and that means essentially it ends up worshiping the state, elevating the state. And that's how Yeah, that's how you end up with all of these things downstream of Hegelian philosophy. Very good piece, Richard, Hi, buddy, I appreciate, yeah, appreciate the call. And I think and that is the connection. There's also a point here about packing, you know, hundreds of thousands of people into a very small area like a city. It changes people, it does you put you put a lot of people into a city, and a lot of them forget about God, put them out in the middle of nowhere. You know. It's sort of like the atheist in the foxhole kind of a thing. I think that is part of it as well. There there are a lot of factors, but yes, it is something that is for some reason most notable and most observable in democrat run cities. Here's a great idea, how about making an escape to a really spec and secluded getaway in western North Carolina just a quick drive up the mountain and Cabins of Ashville is your connection. Whether you're celebrating an anniversary, a honeymoon, maybe you want to plan a memorable proposal, or get family and friends together for a big old reunion, Cabins of Asheville has the ideal spot for you where you can reconnect with your loved ones and the things that truly matter. 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So I mentioned this the stabbings on the light rail line UH first with the murder of Arena Zarutska, then with the stabbing on Friday of the twenty four year old Kenyon Dobie I believe is his name, has brought together a bunch of these different stories of national importance but local importance as well. I touched on this yesterday on the program. I went, actually I went in depth on this. I'm not going to spend a lot of time connecting all of these dots. But you've got the immigration issue, right, the sort of a radical open border approach to immigration that we saw during the Biden administration. And by the way, you know, now the truth can be told. The New York Times just did like a four thousand word report on what people like me were pointing out for four years that the policy implications, the repercussions of what they were doing was acting as a magnet. And people inside the administration, now it can be told, were telling Biden that this is what would happen, and then they were saying, they were saying, this is what is happening. So they were fully aware of what they were doing before, they did it, as they were doing it, and now after. So what we don't know is why I've got the New York Times story. I will get to it. Well, I intend to get to it. Okay, no promises here because I tend to go off on tangents and then I run out of time. I'm sorry. What other issues are at play in the stabbings? You've got the quote unquote reforms that we saw in the criminal justice system that really ramped up and gained momentum after the summer of fiery but mostly peaceful riots post George Floyd. We also have local budgeting priorities where Mecklemberg County has not prioritized public safety spending for the jails, for the sheriff's office, instead funding to greater levels parks and rec for example. Right, So they're funding priorities. And you also have nullification efforts. What do I mean by that? When local officials do not agree with state or federal law but they cannot do anything about it. They can't change the law, so they try to nullify it in some other way. And that's what we have seen with the immigration issue. States particularly have attempted, but also cities, bigger cities have attempt to nullify federal immigration law. And they do this in all sorts of ways. And we see these ways being used in Mecklemburg County. Our current sheriff, Gary not my fault. McFadden ran in twenty eighteen on a platform of cutting ties with ice and the two eighty seven G program. That was his explicit campaign promise. When he won, they had a big celebration and they had a cake and the cake had a big red circle with a red line through the letters to and numbers two eighty seven G. And he takes the knife and to great fanfare and photos, he cuts the cake right through the center of the two eighty seven G label. The message is unmistakable, right, there's no like, I'm not taking an unfair, uncharitable reading of his position. This was explicit, So this was an attempt to nullify. They're like, we're not going to cooperate with immigration in the jail. So somebody gets arrested for something, they get brought into the jail. We're not going to check through the ICE database anymore who this person is and whether they've got a rap sheet that has been identified by immigration authorities. They didn't want to know who was in the jail, and then they wouldn't tell ICE before they released them out into the public, which is how you ended up how we ended up with hundreds of people in Mecklenburg County with criminal records here illegally not being held for ICE despite ICE's requests. You also have a nullification effort at the direction of the policy makers locally that they tell their law enforcement officers you do not question someone's citizenship as part of that initial interaction, you know, like a cop pulse me over and I'm from another country here illegally. The cop doesn't ask me that. The cop doesn't do any kind of examination or exploration as to whether I'm in the country illegally. And if he does happen to find out that I'm here illegally, that's not a reason to take me in either. Right. Those are decisions that were made by local policy makers to direct law enforcement to take a hands off see no evil, hear no evil kind of approach, a willful blindness. Right, And this was touted, this was celebrated, This was used as a way to get certified as a quote welcoming city. Charlotte is certified welcoming city. And that's one of the things that you have to do. And so that's what Charlotte did. So that means when you have an interaction with a fellow like Oscar Solarzano thirty three years old, twice deported, charged and convicted of illegal re entry, but then came back a third time. Don't know when, don't know where he crossed in, how he got in, but he got in again. But he had interactions with local security or law enforcement, and they never checked his status. See, had they checked his status, they would have found out, oh he's an illegal alien and oh he's already been deported twice, but they never took him in. That left him free to roam around, free to live on the streets of Charlotte. He listed his address as a roof above a local homeless center, a low barrier or no barrier homeless center, which allows people like this guy who is you know, getting drunk, accosting people on the trains, carrying around a large fixed blade knife that allows him to gain access to the services and then continue, you know, walking around Center City riding the train. That's another issue that is sort of at this nexus point here of this story. The guy was banned from the trains. He was not allowed to be on cats, but there's no enforcement mechanism because we have an open system, we also don't have a lot of security. 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 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. All right, let me jump over and get some calls in. This is Mark. Hello, Mark, Welcome to the show. Hey Pete. Hey, First off, I love your show, Thanks sir. I listen NonStop, and I just want to say the congratulations to the whole entire like radio team for switching over to FM. That's incredible. Well, thank you. Yeah, I can't wait, but I just want to say so I lived in Charlotte ever since I was a child. I was born and raised. I'm twenty six now, and I have seen the homeless population here in Charlotte grow immensely and it's and it's sad, and it's troubling, and I just I'm just confused as to like you were saying earlier, this gentleman who went on the the tram and had had a knife was drunk. And I mean these individuals, Pete, like I mean, they they have nothing to live for really, like honestly, like people who are homeless like that they don't care. Yeah, a lot of out there. Yeah, they're they've become hopeless, they're you know, they're addicted, they're suffering from mental illness of some kind. Yeah, it's not a human like the way that we you know, quote unquote treat homelessnes. It's not This is not a humane way to do it. Michael Schellenberger wrote a whole book about it called San Francisco, and it's just depressing because you have an entire part of the problem is you have an entire cottage industry that has been erected around this issue, that is funded by taxpayer dollars. And so these organizations they have an incentive, an existential incentive right to continue to have a homeless population. Well you know, and that's that's the troubling thing because you know, way a long time ago, like I know, they had like sanitariums and everything like that, but people were using that money for ill gotten games. A lot of these like doctors, you know. I mean, yeah, there's going to be corruption in any kind of a man made. Structure, and it's and it sucks. And I didn't mean to like when I say they they're they're hopeless or anything like that, that's not that's not true at all. You know, like there's people out there who are suffering from addiction and who need the help. But I mean, like, what do what do we do about this? You know, like what do we Well? Well, I think the key is what do we do to help them? If they want the help? So like, if they want to break free of the addiction. And therein lies the problem is that there are a lot of people that they don't they don't care to. I've got a family member he does a lot of work in this space, and and there are a lot of people that you know, you give them every opportunity and you try to help them as best you can, and they and they will just take from you and then go about and continue the life that they prefer. And that's their choice to do. You know, well, I guess, well what do we do with the uh? I mean with the with the underlying problem of the individuals who don't want to try? Yeah? Well, I mean if they're a threat, I mean, if they are a threat to themselves or the public, then I mean I think, like I think we have to have the quote the conversation a national conversation about reopening and institutionalizing people who are a threat to this is to the society and themselves or themselves. I think that has to be part of the conversation. Clean man, that's all it is. People need to get clean. I mean they need to. Like I work in the restaurant industry, I actually work for Noble Food and Pursuits, and you know, they have a whole program set up for people to get them off the streets. Yeah, but I think you know that's I mean, it's at the end of the day, it's just a person who has to choose to get better. Yeah, yeah, yeah, they have to want to turn their life around. Yeah, Mark, I appreciate the call, Buddy, good to hear from you. Let me go over and get John on real quick. Hey, John, welcome to the show. Hey, thank you for taking my call. Sure, that was really interesting hearing that about the you know, homeless. But I want to mention something. My wife and I we ride the rail all the time. I'm even in Charlotte. We'll get it south Charlotte, so I don't have to park up town when there's you know, a football game, this game, concert or something that's when we use it. And I always thought, my god, you know everybody on here don't even pay. Probably, And we've ridden rail all through Europe, England, everywhere in the States, and I have every single place that I can think of has gates. You have to buy your ticket before you can go out there. Know where the machines are, for example, it's off both of our parking lot. Why can't they You buy your ticket, I can do, and you got to punch it go through a gate before you can go out there. I think everybody should have to pay, and that might control some of these hate saying the dead beats just hanging on the trains all day long. Well yeah, definitely, yeah, definitely. Fair jumping is a major problem. And our system was not designed with turnstiles and control access. That was a design choice, right that was made, I would assume to save money, right, so you don't have to construct the barriers, you don't have to build any buildings and that sort of thing, And so they rely on essentially the honor system, and they know you don't have people coming around checking your tickets. I've talked about riding the Long Island railroad and somebody comes through those cars and they check your tickets. You know, that's how they police it. But we don't do that in our system. And yeah, this surprised me that they decided to set it up this way. If they ever did, they'd probably have to reduce the amount of stops going towards town because they can get on so easy on and off there. There had to be some places where you can only get on where there was barriers were set up right, and then go on. But yeah, I appreciate you taking my call. I just wanted to mention that I think that's not the only solution I can see here. I don't think an honor system is ever ever going to work here. So no, I agree, John, I appreciate the call. It is. And by the way, CATS officials are aware of that very that very solution. They know this. They talked a little bit about it when they appeared at the city council right after the murder of Arena Zarutska, and they talked about how other systems have problems with fair jumping as well. Sure, but when you have an open, uncontrolled access system like Charlotte has, you're basically incentivizing free rides, and when you do that, you get people that can't afford to ride the train to then ride the train and ride it a lot. 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 that don't break anything while I'm gone. Hmm.