NC House Dems vote against "Iryna's Law" (09-24-2025--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 I Daily Show prep with all of the links. Become a patron, go to dpeteclendershow dot com. Make sure you hit the subscribe button. Get every episode for free right to your smartphone or tablet, and again, thank you so much for your support. So, as I mentioned in the last hour, talked a little bit about the broken windows theory, right, this idea that policing the little things matter. Okay, it matters because in a nutshell, it means that somebody cares. Right, you see a bunch of litter on some property and it just stays there all the time, and then you know, more people throw more litter. There just becomes a dumping ground because the message is that nobody cares about this piece of property. If you clean it up and you keep it tidy and you take care of it, it sends a message that somebody actually does care about this property. And if you come to the property to try to vandalize it or litter there, whatever, you may encounter that person who cares. It's the same thing with media coverage of political violence. This pass that the left has gotten for twenty thirty years now of escalating rhetoric while pointing to everybody else's escalating rhetoric. But it's also evident in the criminal justice system. When you don't care to enforce the small stuff, then people particularly criminals, anti social people, people with antisocial personality disorders, right, they they do not care about following whatever norms of a society exist. They're going to break the rules. They don't care, and if they escape punishment, then they keep ratcheting up their antisocial behavior. And the people who otherwise would follow the norms, they now see that the little things don't matter to the institutions, and so they quit caring about the little things too, and that's how you end up with a breakdown. This is also I've talked about this for years as well, the preference cascade. There was a sociologist who did a bunch of studies on rioting from the sixties and seventies. They talked about, you know, the first person to pick up a rock and break a window, their number, if you will, is zero. They don't need to see somebody else break a window in order for them to go break a window. But if my number is one, and I see that person engage in the behavior, so now I join in. And whoever had a number of two, now they see me and the first person, and now they engage, and more and more and more people's numbers get hit, and then more and more people start breaking the rules. If you've ever been to a Grateful Dead show and watch people crash over the walls to get on the field, same thing it just you can watch it. I was a part of one, like you can you feel it, you see it happening. The crowd builds and builds and builds, and then preference cascade. Everybody jumps over the wall, storms the field to get better seats or standing room closer to the stage. You wouldn't do it on your own because you'd probably get caught, But when you see hundreds of people doing it at once, your number gets checked. And that brings us to the North Carolina House debate yesterday. I want or listen to the entire thing. It ran. While all of the debates were hours long, this one ran almost two hours, and it was on the passage of House built three oh seven called IRENA's Law, and according to the write up by the Legislative Analysis Division, it provides a new procedure to have defendants with suspected mental health issues to be evaluated for involuntary commitment. To Modify the laws related to pre trial release to provide stricter guidelines for defendants charged with violent defenses and defendants with extensive criminal histories. Eliminates the condition to release a defendant on a written promise to appear. Modify the laws related to aggravated factors considering its sentencing to provide that committing a crime in a public transit system is what's called an aggravating factor to be considered. Modify the laws related to oversight and discipline of magistrates. Direct the North Carolina Collaboratory to study mental health in the justice system. Prohibit the Task Force for Racial Equity and Criminal Justice from being recreated because it's sunseted and so and the General Assembly said the Governor cannot reconstitute or recreate this thing. This was a Roy Cooper pet project after the summer of fiery and mostly peaceful riots. Modify death penalty proceedings to provide that appeals and post conviction motions for appropriate relief must be heard within twenty four months of the triggering events. And also to provide that the venue for any proceeding related to a death penalty case must be in the county of conviction. Modify certain procedures for involuntary commitment of a defendant found incapable of proceeding. Extend the terms of probation and post release supervision for youth adjudicated of certain violent offenses, and clarify victim's right to be notified about termination of probation or post release supervision so they will be notified now. And also give ten new additional full time assistant district attorneys and five full time legal assistants for Mecklemberg. So, in introducing this measure, Representative Tricia Coffam, who was recovering from a broken jaw, I was not aware of that, but she introduced the bill and she recounted the story of Arena Zarutska and how she was murdered by a deranged monster. That's what she said, a deranged monster. And this is apparently what got Democrats a little hot and. Bothered, who already had fourteen previous convictions including and not limited to, armed rawbery, felony, larceny, and the list goes on a diagnosed schizophrenic. He was released by a magistrate without a secured bond, and the magistrate ignored all the very obvious red flags, including his erotic behavior just recently before this event that the police brought forward. Right, so he was released without a secured bond, and she says, a magistrate ignored the obvious red flicks. The key here the question is how do you make magistrates give a crap? Like? How do you make that im I want to say all magistrates hashtag, not all magistrates, but how do you force them to look back at the person's record and understand that this guy is unwell, mentally unwell, or as we used to say in my day, crazy, And he's got a record of violent behavior. And while he may have been brought in for misuse of a nine to one one system, the elements of that arrest indicate someone who is crazy, and so his history plus that arrest would indicate he needs to be objected to some sort of mental health exam. She says, this bill is going the hope is that it ends this cycle. This in and out, repeat, repeat cycle. He should have never been allowed out of the jail. The catch and release practices for violent offenders will end today with your support. This heineous act was preventable and is a direct result of judicial officials being too soft on crime and allowing too many criminals to have a revolving door that come into our neighborhoods and into our communities. These violent offenders are wreaking havoc, not just in Charlotte, but all over our North Care, North Caare Carolina and in everyone's district. Right, So the real outrage here is that she called him a deranged monster, and she called the uh, the Democrats approach here soft on crime. That's what That's what hacked off her former Democrat colleagues, because she is now a Republican. Right she converted to a Republican switched parties about two years ago. They did not like, They did not like this this narrative. And look, Democrats at the state level, they are in a fight right now because after spending five years touting all sorts of quote unquote reforms in the wake of the George Floyd mostly peaceful riots, right, they need to flip this script and they need to do it quickly because they know what the polling shows on this and it's not good for them. 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 slash walk and then you can search for my team name Pete's Pack. 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. Listening to some of the audio, we are playing some of the audio from the North Carolina House floor debate yesterday before passage of Arena's Law, named after Arena Zarutzka, murdered on the Charlotte light railcar a month ago, stabbed in the neck by a repeat, repeat, repeat, repeat offender, and Tricia Coffin, when introducing the bill for the vote, called the attacker in this case a deranged monster. And that's what tripped the trigger of several of the Democrats, who, by the way, all of them voted against this measure, just like in the Senate, they all voted against it. And there is a member of the House, member of the Progressive Caucus, former Judge Marsha Morey from Durham, a Democrat, and along with her fellow Democrats, she objected to the use of the word monster. We say a prayer in this body before we start a session, and we pray to God and we talk about kindness, we talk about mercy, we talk about justice. And then we have a bill come up. And what do we do? We call out a monster. Our president calls this person an animal? Boy, do our Christian values go down the tube? Within an instant. Emotional blackmail from the judge from the former judge right, And so I guess now you don't want there to be a separation of church and state. It's just so difficult to keep these standard straight when you guys keep changing them based on whatever argument you need to make at any given moment. I'm sorry, I have difficulty keeping up here. So now you want all of the Christians to be governing as Christians first? Because like I hold enough to remember when you guys have said that you don't want that like literally on everything. No, this is emotional blackmail. This is I'm going to use your faith against you. I'm going to hold you to this standard that you claim to be about you, about mercy and this and that. Yeah, there is a difference. There is a difference, right, Yes, you are to forgive. We went over this yesterday. As a Christian, you forgive, But the state is to punish. This woman is a former judge from Durham, which really need I mean that explains everything here. As a friend of mine pointed out, I guess she's holding up what Durham as the example of all of the criminal justice outcomes that we should try to emulate statewide Durham. Really okay, So you cannot use the word deranged monster, You can't use the word animal if you're if you're a Christian. If you do, you're just not a Christian. You're not acting very christian y. She then objected to how Democrats have been blamed for this crime and basically all crimes and Democrat controlled cities and that's not fair even though they control they control the courts in these cities. Okay, she called all of this political theater and a lie that Democrats are soft on crime. We cannot judge this crime based on press conferences where the Democrats have been blamed to be pro criminals. We're a press conference where a Democrat governor and a North Carolina justice are blamed for this crime. When a form congressman demands a judge be fired and held personally liable for a cashless bail system. None of that follows the facts of what happened in this case. Right, So she's going to try. See this is the difficulty that the left always has is they try to make these kind of logical arguments when logic isn't on their side. It's very difficult to do. So I actually have some sympathy here. She said. Look, this attack occurred in like seconds, in like three seconds, and probably could not have been prevented. He was obviously going through some sort of mental health crisis. And what did the officer do. They could have gone to a mental health professional and got an involuntary commitment. What did the officer do? Handcuffed and let's take him to a magistrate. Let's book him on a criminal charge, a misuse of a nine to one to one system. All right, Just to be clear, now, the cops are supposed to be the social workers. Now do I understand that correctly? You want the cops to be doing the involuntary commitments for the crazy people. You don't want them to bring them to the magistrate who would be able to look at their criminal record and make this kind of judicious, well informed, sober decision to try to plug them into the right services. So the court system is not where that's supposed to happen. You want cops making this determination in the field right away. You want them doing that in all these cases. Is that what I'm hearing? So cops encounter some crazy homeless guy on the street, and you want them to just pick them up and bring them for an involuntary commitment without the handcuffs. I guess as she said there because that was also an outrage. So not cuffed, just bring the guy for an involuntary commitment. You want the cops to do that? Do you hear yourself? You guys wanted the cops defunded because you couldn't trust them because they're all systemically racist. Yeah, this is These arguments are based on pulling 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 a DraftKings. Every play is your next shot to win. Will the Panthers win? Will we even get a touchdown? New customers bet just five dollars and get three hundred dollars in bonus bets instantly, plus get over two hundred dollars off NFL Sunday ticket from YouTube and YouTube TV. So your season starts now. Download the Draft Kings sports book app and use code Pete to get three hundred dollars in bonus bets instantly when you place your first bet of five dollars or more, plus over two hundred dollars off NFL Sunday ticket from YouTube and YouTube TV. But you gotta use promo codepete in partnership with DraftKings. The Crown is yours. Gambling problem called one eight hundred gambler In New York call eight seven seven eight hope and why, or text hope and why four six seven three six nine. In Connecticut, help is available for a problem gambling Call eight eight eight seven eight nine seven seven seven seven or visit CCPG dot org play responsibly on behalf of Boothill, casino and resort Kansas. Fees may apply in Illinois twenty one plus. Age and eligibility varies by jurisdiction. 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 Ticket slash terms Limited time offer. On Twitter at Pete calener is the handle where I have a message from Moral Compass. It's a Pete tweet. Moral compasses forgiveness and accountability are not antonyms. In other words, opposites right Democrats don't seem to understand this. Right, She's only trying to use Christianity against her political opponents to score points, to make an argument. That's it trying to shame them, bully them into you know, you're not really a Christian. It's just name calling. Marsha Morey, former judge out of Durham, which is I understand it is like the safest and most peacefulest place in North Carolina. So their criminal justice system has been just the paragon of efficiency and defectiveness my entire adult life. And she makes this case that somehow the cops should have taken de Carlos Brown Junior to an involuntary commitment before bringing him to a magistrate or to the court system, that they should have just involuntarily committed the guide themselves, which I find to be I don't know at odds with the way Democrats usually talk about law enforcement. So she continues here from the floor of the House yesterday during the debate over IRENA's law. It is not a violent offense, and that magistrate went to the suggested bail guidelines and because of that charge gave a written promise to appear, which is common. And in all of your districts, or most of them, you have suggested bail guidelines. Oh that your magistrates follow, your judges follow, and you will see that is one of the options if there is not a victim and is not a felony, and they can promise to come back. And oh wait a minute, all right, hang on a second, let's just let's just pick this apart a little bit suggested bail guidelines for each of the districts, and those are done at the district level. So the courts, the judges, the Democrat judges, they're the ones who craft the guidelines. I'm assuming they're the ones that give the guidelines to the magistrates. And according to this judge, former judge who used to draft the guidelines herself, she's gonna mention that the magistrate was simply following the guidelines and she listed them there. But notice what's not listed any kind of a look back into the defendants criminal history. So maybe you should make that I don't know one of the guidelines. I'm just spitballing here. I'm no lawyer, but it seems to me like, if you've got somebody who is exhibiting mental health problems and they've got a long rap sheet including violent felonies, they've served time in prison for it, I'm thinking that might be kind of relevant. Now. I understand magistrates will tell you, they're like, well, we're only you know, we're only supposed to do the bails. Our job is to make sure that they come to the next court appearance. So you want to okay, you want to deflect the blame off of this magistrate. Okay, then I'm blaming the judges because you've just told me that this problem is in the district courts. It is the judges that are setting the guidelines. Guess what after his first appearance before a magistate and he got a promise spear, he came back. He didn't fail to appear to court. He came back for his next court dates in July and finally finally got an evaluation. I think in July. He did not get that evaluation. He came back and his public defender said, this guy needs a mental health exam, and the judge Wiggins, said, yes, he needs to have this mental health exam. Now, imagine had they done that back in January when he was first arrested. But no, they said come back, and it took seven months, almost seven months for him to come back for that court appearance, which she points out he did come back. See, so the magistrate did her job. He came back to court for mental health. He didn't go to that. No, he didn't go to the mental exam, right, so the judge let him back out. So Again, if you want to say that the magistrate was just doing her job, just following orders, fine, then the judges who have created the guidelines and didn't recognize that this guy is a threat, is a danger to the community because of his past behavior, and you're not taking into account, you're not taking into account his mental instability, and how do you know he is mentally unstable? He came in on that nine to one one call that he made, the misusing nine to one one system. He came in saying that he had some sort of man made material implanted into his body that was making him say things, and it was dictating what he eats and how he speaks. Say he's crazy, that was part of Those were the facts of the case. It's why he was in front of you in the first place. He's kind of insane and he has a violent record. One plus one equals involuntary commitment, Like, why wouldn't you order it right then? And there can a magistrate do that? Well, if it's not in the guidelines, well then how about you add that to your freaking guidelines? How about that? Do you need legislative approval to do that? No, you do not, apparently, But don't correlate what happened in Dan worry and a manager said, who set a bail according to guidelines to what happened in August. There is no correlation, no correlation whatsoever. Well, no, I think that people are saying there's actual causation. Causation is what people are saying, not correlation. They're saying causation, which is actually directly connected because it is that's the process that got the guy out on the streets. He did come back to appear in that first core proceeding, a mental health devoal was ordered and then you'll let him back out. And a couple days later he murdered Arena Zariska. That's causation. Now you could say it was unforeseen. I don't believe that. I think that if you have somebody with again his record and presenting with the mental health issues that he presented with at the arrest that you are adjudicating at this very proceeding, I'm thinking mental health exam should have been ordered immediately. But again, if you'd like to kick that or over to the judges and say it's their fault, I'm okay with that too. Totally fine with that as well. In fact, I've been blaming all of them from the beginning, So it's kind of like, Yeah, if she's just following the guidelines that were written by the judges, then that just just it's like a balloon and I'm just squeezing one side of it, but there's still the same amount of air. Yeah, just going to give more evidence to the judges versus the magistrate. 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 in 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. 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, Christmas, family vacations, birthdays, or just your family stories all told through images. That's what your photos and videos are. They are your life told through the eyes of everyone around you and all who came before you, and they will tell others to come who you are. Visit creative video dot Com. Let us Ham and Tomato go over to the phones. Here's Ralph, Welcome to the show. Hello Ralph. Hey, get so, the first thing that needs to happen is the Republican Party needs to put up candidate for the DA and run on tough on crap. You've got the Chief Justice down at mccamburg is a d advocate. Everybody she's placed in those positions as far as masts and stuff like that go from her order for walking orders. But you know, we need to get a candidate that's going to go out there and reach out to the young people, especially the ones that have children, and say, Okay, we're going to clean up CHARLT. We're going to have police off duty police or police on at least one on these trains at all time with the backup of these private security firms. You know, the WBT reporter that was I think she was with David Hodges. They did the one of the first reports. She said, she wrote it and people homeless, people are urinating on the train. That that is a travesty at everything when we can't have uh, you know, this supposed to be the world class city. Its supposed to be tidy town. But you know, my lives done anything. They would have done nothing if this young lady had to die, and they got all. This national correct, Well, they didn't do anything, even for two weeks, right, two weeks it took, and it was only after the video was released and went viral. Ralph, I appreciate the call, Buddy good to hear from you. All right, Yeah, I mean that's it. They didn't do anything. In fact, the mayor's statement became part of that national outrage because she spent a single sentence saying thoughts and prayers to the victim, and then five paragraphs on how we failed the attacker. From the text line driven by Liberty Buick, gmc anonymous says, would the broken window theory support why now instead of one person in Charlotte running a stoplight, five people do it, and they do it when the light has been read before they get to the intersection, so before it was squeaking through and nobody gets a ticket. Now it's blatant and nobody gets a ticket. What's next? Yeah, by I mean this is part of you know, enforcement activity. If people are first off in a high trust society, fewer people break the rules because they believe everybody's following the rules. But when you see enough people not following the rules not suffering any repercussions for it, then which of course, the repercussions of running a red light is that you get into a horrific collision and die. But if you are not motivated by that, then you would be motivated by enforcement activity. And if there's no enforcement activity, well now there's nothing to keep you in the boundaries of those norms. So yes, Amy says, how would you define who or what we are at war with? If you were talking to a moderate or liberal who's not a Christian. I know it's truly a spiritual battle against evil. I agree, but I don't think or I don't know if that would resonate with them. Would you say? It's the communist or socialist ideals and those attempting to who spread them. So what I'd like to do, Amy, is to play the role of the inquisitive student in those types of discussions, ask them what do you think it is? Do you think there's something larger going on? Like? Why is this happening? Why is all of this violence escalating? What's the reason for it? What do you think? And you know, they give you some answer, probably you know, Orange Hitler or something, and then just keep probing and keep asking and act like oh wow, really, Oh I hadn't considered that. Oh then what about this? Then? Like and you know, behave as if you are seeking clarity on what it is. What this information is, this knowledge that they are trying to impart upon you. And eventually I think you will get to them using the word and once they use the word now, you can't. 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 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.