Political leaders are abandoning the social compact (08-28-2025--Hour3)

[00:00:04] What's going on? Thank you so much for listening to this podcast. It is heard live every day from noon to 3 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 thepetekalendershow.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.

[00:00:29] So last hour, we started talking about the latest developments in the story of the murder of the 23-year-old Ukrainian refugee. She was stabbed to death by a repeat, repeat, repeat offender on the Charlotte Area Transit System's light rail line through South End on Friday night at about 10 p.m. Her name was Irina Zarutska.

[00:00:56] Our friend Andrew Dunn over at Longleaf Politics. He also is a contributing columnist at the Charlotte Observer. And he wrote about this yesterday in the paper. And he made some really good points. He says, he says, he says, he says, the civic response so far has felt strangely blase.

[00:01:21] Right. He's exactly right. Which is why, despite the texter's complaint, that's why I covered it on Monday at great length, criticized the city council. In fact, you'll hear promos of some of the comments that I was making at that on Monday and Tuesday, yesterday. And now again, today, because I think Andrew Dunn's assessment is correct. Strangely, blase.

[00:01:50] And the through line is, and you've probably heard me say this repeatedly if you've been listening, the social compact. It ties into the story out of Britain, ties into the story out of D.C., where the grand jury refuses to indict somebody for assaulting a federal officer. Ties into this story, the social compact. You hear me talk about high trust societies, right?

[00:02:20] You must have societal cohesion that cannot occur if you have one party in the compact that is not upholding its end of the bargain. I trade liberty for security. That's part of why there is a government. We are all part of this compact. We are all giving up a little bit of our liberty and agreeing to live under the rules.

[00:02:48] And we set up the rules to say, here are the rules. Here's how you change the rules. And here are the penalties if you do not follow the rules. And then by giving over some of that security or liberty, rather, in exchange for the creation of a government to create the security apparatus to enforce those rules.

[00:03:11] When you have a government that is now not fulfilling its end of the bargain, there isn't any reason for that compact to continue.

[00:03:21] And the people who are in this government, whether it's the city of Charlotte, the state of North Carolina, the U.S. government, when you don't fulfill your end of the bargain, then, as the founders talked about in the Declaration of Independence, it's our responsibility to throw off this tyrannical government. Because now there's no benefit to me.

[00:03:49] Because the only thing I was trading the liberty for was for you to provide an umbrella of security under which we may all engage in commerce and live our lives. And as long as we follow the rules and don't hurt people and break their stuff and take their stuff, then we should be allowed to move about freely. That's the whole point. And if you're not going to hold up your end of the bargain, well, then there is no bargain anymore. There's no compact.

[00:04:17] And when our local officials, state officials, federal officials lose sight of this fundamental premise, then you've gone tyrannical. Because now you're not giving me what I traded for. And now you're just taxing me and you're doing all this other stuff and you may dress it all up and, oh, I'm doing these nice things for other people and whatever, whatever. Right. But you're failing on the fundamental reason for your existence in the first place.

[00:04:45] You would not be able to give the Carolina Panthers hundreds of millions of dollars from taxpayers, right, if they did not entrust you with their security. That's the reason you exist. It is your number one job. Number one. And so when this woman is murdered at 10 o'clock in the evening going into South End by some, you know, whacked out homeless guy.

[00:05:14] Who's got a rap sheet a mile long and was involuntarily committed by his family. And the courts even recognized. Yeah. Like his, his own public defender said he's. He needs to be evaluated. If you can't. Provide protection from that. Then you need to fix that. Because that's part of your responsibility. That's your job. That's what you're supposed to be doing.

[00:05:45] But there's, there's been this, you know, reimagining of policing and reimagining of just of the justice system under the banner of equity and the banner of social justice. Yes, but under this banner of, you know, defund the police, systemic racism, institutional injustice. Policing is actually a remnants of the slave trade and all of this garbage.

[00:06:12] No, it is, it is fundamental and core to the reason you exist, GovCo. And if you can't do it, or if you won't do it as an elected official, get the hell out and let somebody else in to do it. That's it. Because that, because that's it. That's the deal. You will have a continuing erosion of law and order, more chaos, lower trust in the society. It will break down.

[00:06:41] And it breaks down, like all preference cascades, slowly at first and then very quickly. And so the strangely blasé comment here that Andrew Dunn makes is spot on. And the mayor's comments in that statement she put out, which maybe somebody didn't hear it.

[00:07:04] Jimmy, you didn't hear this on the text line, but I read the statement, went over it yesterday, dragged the mayor for it. She gave one sentence about the victim and spent five paragraphs on how we failed the attacker. That's what Dunn is talking about here, too, in his piece. Three days after the stabbing, the CMPD published a graphic bragging about the, quote,

[00:07:30] real picture of crime in our city, claiming that homicides and armed robberies are down 30 percent from last year. And Dunn says that may be true or it may not be. But Irina Zarutska's murder makes a mockery of the comfort we try to take in statistics. It reveals something deeper, a justice system that tolerates career criminals on the streets and a transit system that shrugs at disorder until it turns deadly. Right? Right?

[00:08:00] I mentioned yesterday, the man, the veteran who was beaten by four youths on a bus in Pineville. Don't know if they've caught those guys. The youths, that vet went to the hospital. Dunn says, too often Charlotte leaders have talked about crime as if it's a perception problem. Well, Uptown business groups launch PR campaigns, new slogans and billboards, billboard ads to assure people that it's all safe.

[00:08:29] They talk about vibrancy and image, about whether visitors feel comfortable. But this is not a marketing issue. He says it's a human one. Right? In a statement, Mayor Vi Lyles said that Charlotte is, by and large, a safe city and that Katz is, by and large, a safe transit system. And that framing is part of the problem. By and large, it's cold comfort when it's your daughter who doesn't come home.

[00:08:58] Safety is not something you average out. He says a city worthy of its people treats every writer's life as non-negotiable, not a rounding error. 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.

[00:09:24] 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.news.com.

[00:10:06] I put the link in the podcast description, too. Which then not only helps my podcast, but it also supports Ground News as they make the media landscape more transparent. Let me read some messages I've got. This is from Citizen of NC. It's a Pete tweet. Who says, Charlotte leaders proclaimed that Charlotte is a safe city and residents are shocked. Are we? Are we shocked that this could happen? Charlotte is a violent city. Shootings and stabbings are happening every week. Charlotte hasn't been safe for a long time.

[00:10:36] Do not pass more projects for this train system. Yeah, this is I said this the other day that I try to not be cynical. No, you know, hear me out. I try. I'm not saying I succeed. I'm just saying I try to not be so cynical all the time.

[00:10:55] But part of me wonders if the silence that we are hearing from the local GovCo officials is because they do not want to draw any attention to any kind of problem with the train system while they are going to the voters to ask us to approve a one cent sales tax to fund an expansion of this system.

[00:11:23] Why would we expand a system that cannot be protected where people who ride it cannot be protected? A couple of years ago, Christy and I went to New York trying to remember how long ago this was, but we we flew up and we've we flew into JFK.

[00:11:45] And then we got onto a train to take it out to Long Island and it requires some transfers and stuff. But at the time there was a there was this large increase in violence in the subways. And do you remember what they did? They brought in the National Guard, right? They stationed National Guardsmen in the subways and I saw them.

[00:12:15] I was so scared. I wasn't actually. No, I was not scared. But that show of force, the same thing that Trump is doing in Washington, D.C., right? The police presence acts as a deterrence. And for some reason, this idea is lost. On the Democrats, they'll talk about community policing.

[00:12:40] They talk about, you know, the old cop walking the beat, knowing the neighborhood and knowing the people and all of that. Yeah, but it's not just about like acting as a as an ambassador or some social worker or something. Yes, there is value in walking the beat, obviously, rather than just sitting in a patrol car, driving around, not meeting people and learning about the zone you're you're patrolling.

[00:13:05] But there's also something to be said for a lot of police in an area where there's a lot of pedestrian activity going on. So they can respond overwhelmingly and catch the bad guys. But then the second part of that equation is you have to have a court system that actually follows through with repercussions.

[00:13:25] And what we have seen over the last five to ten years with the explosion of youth violence, youth crime, car thefts, burglaries, right? All of that is because we can't treat them like adults. They had a hard life. We can't we can't throw the book at them. We're going to end up, you know, the school to prison pipeline and all of this. And meanwhile.

[00:13:52] People who are playing by the rules, people who are going about their day. Engaging in economic activity and commerce and. You know, engaging in high trust society functions. The people that you want in your society to be productive members of it. Right. They're the ones that get victimized. And at some point they realize I don't want to do this anymore. I don't want to live here. I don't want to work here.

[00:14:18] And then they leave and they go someplace else that can provide them with that security. That's where Charlotte is right now. Some people think it's already lost. It's too late. Know this. I choose not to believe that. I choose to believe that we are at a point where city leaders and the court system and the judges and the magistrates and the attorneys.

[00:14:46] You guys have the ability to turn this around. You can do it pretty quickly, too. You just have to have the will to do so. But here's a good point raised by Good Wahoo on Twitter. We have a situation where Democrats basically believe certain groups of people should be given a pass for criminal behavior because they or their ancestors have been disadvantaged. Right.

[00:15:13] This is the problem with this oppressor oppressed worldview that Marxism inculcates in people. Right. Which is that once you're in one group, then that's it. And then anything you do as an oppressor is bad. Anything you do as the oppressed is forgivable. You get a pass for all of that stuff. The innocent woman killed on the links train is just an unfortunate casualty.

[00:15:35] And she, like all victims, should just accept crimes as retribution for the past sins the perpetrators have suffered at the hands of the bigoted majority. This also explains no cash bail, jury nullifications, and soft sentencing for offenders. Yeah, he's exactly right. Or she's exactly right. He. I don't know, Good Wahoo, what your gender is. I don't want to misgender you. I'm not trying to be offensive there. All right.

[00:16:03] So you've heard me talk about creative video for almost a year. But did you know they also offer a game-changing app for businesses that reward their teams with incentive trips? Well, they do. It's called Incentive Trip Kit. If you own a business or work at one that offers these incentive trips, this is a must-have. It maximizes the impact and value of these motivational trips.

[00:16:23] It's a super easy-to-use app built just for your group with private messaging, shared photos, important trip documents, even a find-the-group locator just in case somebody gets separated. And when I say it's private, I mean it. No personal emails, no phone numbers, no ads, no account sign-ups. Everyone uses one shared login. So it's super easy. No hassles. During the trip, everybody can post their best photos and short video clips, and folks back at the office can even follow along.

[00:16:50] 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 IncentiveTripKit.com or call Eric at 888-533-7637, extension 207 for the details. I promised that I would play you this audio. This is from Monday's Charlotte City Council meeting. I'm just going to play it in its entirety.

[00:17:20] This woman came down and spoke to the Charlotte City Council during the public forum portion of the meeting. You're going to hear her comments, and then you're going to hear the response from City Council. I think. Let's see. Maybe. Hello, everybody. My name is Sheila Nordone. Some of you know me.

[00:17:43] I'm here to discuss gang violence in Druid Hills and the policy failures of the city to prevent gang violence and violent crime in residential neighborhoods. Those of you who know me know my daughter's house was shot with 29 bullets over two separate shootings, April 29th and August 9th. At first, I could not understand how this could happen.

[00:18:08] CMPD knew within 24 hours it was mistaken gang retaliation and that the people across the street were the intended targets. These were renters in a house using housing vouchers. My daughter tried to talk to the DA and the city council. I tried to talk to the city council. We got nowhere. Here's the bottom line. It is due to policy failure.

[00:18:33] If this street were in Wake County, they do full criminal background checks for all housing vouchers. Full. They go back five years and any felonies class A through I are disqualifiers. If this were a habitat house, habitat for humanity in Charlotte, exact same thing. Full criminal background checks, five-year look back and they take it a step further and they look at misdemeanors going two years back.

[00:19:02] And I quote, they do this to ensure community safety. Finally, I want to discuss the word, oh, I do want to discuss CMPD. They have been amazing throughout this whole thing. They are not the problem in Charlotte at all. They did a thorough investigation. They executed a no-knock warrant. They confiscated semi-automatic weapons from the house across the street. They made arrest.

[00:19:26] But because one of the offenders was a juvenile, he was out within three hours back in this house. And within hours, he reentered that cycle of gang violence, was able to acquire more weapons that led to the second shooting on August 9th. Thank you. Thank you very much for that. Two minutes. We certainly hear what you're saying. I think it's just difficult at this time. Just a quick question for clarification.

[00:19:55] It seems like a lot of the things that she addressed really should be addressed with the courts, since it's the magistrate and the judges, not CMPD. Okay, so first you hear the mayor. Oh, thank you. I'm just so difficult. And then here's LaWanna Slack Mayfield. Not our job. Sounding a lot like our sheriff, Gary. Not my fault. McFadden. You need to be addressing this to the courts. Not us. This isn't us. What are you talking to us for?

[00:20:25] That have the conversation to determine whether or not an individual. So just for clarity sake, for your daughter and for you, just for clarification. Once CMPD does their job, unfortunately, of having to do an arrest, then it goes to the courts. What do you mean, unfortunately having to do an arrest? Why is that unfortunate? It's pretty fortunate for all the people that won't be killed by random gunfire on the street. No?

[00:20:55] Seems pretty fortunate to people who live around this gang house that people are in thanks to housing vouchers, which is what the speaker, Sheila Nordon, that's what she said. She said the house is being occupied by people using housing vouchers. And if they were up in a different county like Wake County, they would not be able to rent that house because they got criminal records and Wake County screens for that.

[00:21:24] So that would be the magistrate or the judge of which District Attorney Merriweather has been working closely with CMPD as well as helping to get legislation in Raleigh. But that's where I think a little more movement regarding the individuals, once they've been arrested, will have more impact versus the city council. Because CMPD, once they make that arrest, then that individual then goes through the court system. And our officers have no control what a magistrate and what a judge does.

[00:21:54] So I just want to make sure that there's clarification. Thank you for coming down to share. Yet, I want to make sure that your daughter, as the resident of the home, is aware of the steps to help ensure future protections. Okay, so she is correct. Magistrates, judges, the judicial system, right? Those are all correct points.

[00:22:20] However, she's ignoring the issue that the speaker raised, which was the housing vouchers. Thank you very much. So now we're... Question on that real quick. Manager or attorney, wouldn't we have authority over housing? Anything as it relates to that? Are these county vouchers or are these city? What is her reference to that? The vouchers are issued by the housing authority. Right. So the housing authority or living would maybe be another avenue for her to seek.

[00:22:51] Because of what I heard in her comments were practices that are being employed by other jurisdictions. And they may want to consider those practices as well. So is it duty of the city or the county? It's in Libyan, which is an authority. It's a federal housing program. It's not a HUD house. And Madam Mayor, just for clarity. So that everybody can hear. Okay, you don't know what you're talking about. You hear the confusion there. Edwin Peacock asked...

[00:23:22] She's talking about housing vouchers. So what are those? Where do they come from? And the manager there says... I think it was the manager who says... Maybe it was the county attorney. That's in Libyan. Oh, so that's not us. Oh, that's federal, somebody says. That's not federal. That's not HUD. So I went to their website.

[00:23:42] We at in Libyan are proactively redefining our role in the Charlotte community and aspire to be the preferred provider of housing that is affordable for our growing population. By partnering with quality service providers for supportive services and becoming stronger financially, our hope is to become a collaborative leader who can present effective, affordable solutions to housing issues in Charlotte. We are a non-profit real estate holding company with a public purpose.

[00:24:10] Our purpose is to provide decent, safe housing that is affordable to low and moderate income families while supporting their efforts to achieve self-sufficiency. Do you think the Charlotte City Council might have an ability to influence in Libyan? Rather than just telling this citizen, hey, go off and go try to get them to change their policies.

[00:24:39] Maybe, just maybe, the city of Charlotte, Charlotte City Council, do they have any contracts within Libyan? Could they pass an ordinance of some kind that talks about criminal background checks or something? Or is that like, is this sort of like, we can't do that because a formerly incarcerated person is now going to be unable to afford housing in Charlotte and all of this. And we have a formerly incarcerated person on the Charlotte City Council.

[00:25:06] I'm sure she would be an advocate for that constituency. See, so it's just this kicking the issue away and somebody else can take care of that. Let somebody else take care of that. But mind you, these city council members gave themselves pay raises. Not all of them were on council at the time, but it was about four years ago. They ballooned up their own compensation package.

[00:25:32] And Edwin Peacock told me on Twitter the other day that they're somewhere over $60,000 a year for a, quote, part-time job that they claimed was a full-time job. But that's why they have such high absentee rates. Right? They gave themselves these raises because it's basically full-time. We want to attract people who could just do this work and not have to have another job, blah, blah, blah. And then we saw the story, we covered it the other day from the Charlotte Observer, that, oh, actually, they got high rates of absenteeism.

[00:26:00] And out of like 79 meetings, only three of the meetings have been attended by every council member and mayor. So we're paying them to go to these offices and they're not doing the work, dare I say. Yeah. We're getting a little frustrated with you guys. 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.

[00:26:27] 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. Nestled within the breathtaking 14,000 acres of the Pisgah National Forest, their cabins offer a serene escape in the heart of the Blue Ridge Mountains.

[00:26:50] Centrally located between Asheville and the entrance of the Great Smoky Mountain National Park, it's the perfect balance of seclusion and proximity to all the local attractions. With hot tubs, fireplaces, air conditioning, smart TVs, Wi-Fi, grills, outdoor tables, and your own private covered porch, choose from 13 cabins, 6 cottages, 2 villas, and a great lodge with 11 king-sized bedrooms, Cabins of Asheville has the ideal spot for you for any occasion.

[00:27:19] And they have pet-friendly accommodations. Call or text 828-367-7068. Or check out all there is to offer at cabinsofashville.com and make memories that'll last a lifetime. Jerry says, your friend Andrew Dunn is exactly right in his column. Never stop pushing issues such as this. I lived in Charlotte from 71 to 2019. I raised a child, went through public schools. I would never do that today for all the reasons you address.

[00:27:46] It's very sad how the city has changed, and it's almost 100% due to the leadership. Sure, we had wealthy people leading us for years, but while they were feathering their nests, they helped the rest of us. I love your cynicism. Keep questioning everything. By the way, just moved over the state line, and glad I did. Jerry does raise this point. There used to be, like we used to joke about it to the public-private partnerships.

[00:28:14] There were business and civic leaders in Charlotte. There were the three big ones. Hugh McCall, Ed Crutchfield, and Bill Lee. Lee was with Duke Energy, president and CEO of Duke. Crutchfield. Who was Crutchfield with? Why am I drawing a blank on that one? First Union?

[00:28:42] Well, it wasn't First Union back then. Yeah. And then Hugh McCall was Bank of America. Anyway, and they weren't the only ones, but they were the big ones. And if they put their names on some sort of a civic project, people fell in line. People got behind it. The business of Charlotte has always been business, right?

[00:29:03] And those business leaders recognized the importance of building up the civic pride in the local society. For whatever else you want to say about them, and I'm not making any other comments about any of their businesses or anything else.

[00:29:24] But there was this civic ethic among those, not just them either, but they were sort of like they were the heavy hitters. So I think that's what Jerry is referencing. This is from Craig, who says, Yeah.

[00:29:53] Either make the buses free and stop trying with this forgery of a fair system, or install turnstiles. Because you guys got to police, you got to secure the borders of the train stations. I mean, that's what this comes down to. And I know Democrats and borders, it's like oil and water. I get it. But you're not going to have people that are going to be confident in riding this system when anybody can jump on.

[00:30:22] There's no security on the trains and the platforms and everything else. It's just, you have to acknowledge here that whatever you were doing did not work, and you need to adopt mechanisms that do, really. Andrew Dunn talked about the response by the city council members to the murder of this Ukrainian refugee.

[00:30:52] And, you know, he talked about the mayor and her statement. I have as well, which, by the way, like, the way you write that statement is you anchor every single paragraph in a reference or with a reference to the victim. You don't take one sentence to say thoughts and prayers and then spend five paragraphs talking about how we failed the attacker. Right? There are ways to do that. Confidence only returns after safety is real, Dunn says.

[00:31:22] And he is exactly right on that. Exactly right. He says, I don't pretend to have all of the answers, but if Charlotte doesn't rally to find them, then things are deeply rotten here. Irina Zarutska deserved better from us. Her death is a terrible loss. And if it doesn't jolt Charlotte back to its senses, then we will have failed her twice. 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.

[00:31:52] 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 thepeetcalendorshow.com. Again, thank you so much for listening. And don't break anything while I'm gone.