Roy Cooper released more convicts during COVID than previously reported | Hour 3

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 vpetecleanershow dot com. Make sure you hit the subscribe button. Get every episode for free, write to your smartphone or tablet, and again, thank you so much for your support. Have you been wondering? Man? I wish that I only could get my hands on a searchable database of all of the convicts that my good friend Ray cutam loose Cooper let loose. Well, you are in luck. Such a database exists. Stephen Horn joins me. Now he is the editor of the Triangle Trumpet. He's an independent journalist who put together this searchable database called Cooper released him. And welcome to the program, Steven, How are. You pretty good? Thanks for having me? Yees sir? So okay? First off, is this all of the the convicts that were released by Cooper or are you still building the database? Well? This is based on a document that was obtained by I believe it was WSOC and Charlotte. So you know, they got it from the North calind Apartment of Adult Corrections. I believe this is a document of what they gave the court. So this is based on the information they gave the court. You know, if they want to come back and say that the information they gave the court was inaccurate, you know, that's on them. But this is what it's based off of. And so it's got all of those that are in that list. Yep, gotcha, all right? So why did you start building this this? And I guess, but you just go in there and you could type in a name or something and find somebody, like if you were the victim of a crime and the guy got put away like twenty years ago, Like you could go in there and justug in the name. Yeah, you can search by name kilny, type of offense, all sorts of different fun features. But the reason I created it was because when I looked at this document, it has been reported for years that they released thirty five hundred offenders. But when I started playing around with the data, what I saw was that the actual number of offender ideas and this document was over four thousand. So it's forty two hundred and thirty four, which is significantly higher than the minimum number of offenders that he agreed to release. And so when I started putting it together, I realized I could I could cross correlate it with the sentencing data put out by the North Lines Apartment of Adult Corrections and basically make this little public access tool to you know, make it easier for a citizen to view these public records that are out there, but you know, kind of hard for the average person to access. Well sure end media as well, unless they're going to take the time. How long did it take you to do this? I mean, I guess I've been working on it part time for you know, a couple of months. Yeah, yeah, I mean that, like, yeah, it's time intensive, data intensive. It's and I think the initial list did it include their names or wasn't it just their inmate numbers? Yeah, it was just their identification numbers. Yeah, so you got to go and find the inmate number. You got to then attach that to the data set. So good for you for doing this. Let's kind of walk back a bit and explain why this mass release actually occurred. This was during COVID and the ACLU and the NAACP I think North Carolina Chapter and maybe others sued the state government because they wanted these people to be released or else they would all die of COVID or so when the argument. Right, yeah, that is exactly true. You know, you have these organizations that are generally against and scarceration as a principal, and then when COVID comes around, they say, oh, COVID, that's why you should let all these people out. That's a I'm glad you made the connection to the decarceration ideology, because I cannot see and I have not seen this story as anything other than connected to that very sentiment. Because this occurred remember during COVID, so rewind six years ago, and you know this is right at the same time as we're seeing all of the BLM marches and the fiery but mostly peaceful riots, and we're seeing this defund the police campaign, and the decarceration crowd was really feeling empowered. At the same time they were just sort of like hooking their wagon onto this train and saying, yeah, yeah, and decarceration. I can't, like, there's no way you can convince me that the decarceration movement played no role in any of this. I also and what I'm curious what your thoughts are on the the settlement that was reached, because now I see the Cooper campaign is coming out and they're like, oh, no, no, we fought this in court. What is your what's your take on that? Well? I think the numbers tell the whole story. They agreed to release a minimum of thirty five hundred. The number they actually released forty two hundred and thirty four quite a bit above the minimum. So if they want to say, oh, we fought it, we did the bare minimum that we had to, I think the number shows that they went above and beyond that minimum, even above and beyond what they agreed to, to release more criminals than that, and those criminals went on to most of them went on to reoffend. Yeah, so let's talk about some of the some of the data points that you found regarding the number of reoffenders and who was let loose. And you've got a press release that you have issued. And also if people want to go look at this, they can look at the database Cooper released him dot com. So what are some of the data points that jumped out at you. Yeah, The one of the data points was that out of these four thousand children and thirty four of fenders two four hundred and twelve. That's over fifty six percent have you know, an additional conviction and offense on their sentencing records in the North Skine part of adult correction. And that that's not even counting arrest that is that is a conviction or that is you know, their release or their parole being revoked. That's over there's a rate of over fifty percent, over half of the people let up. So you know, I know in some of the Cooper campaign statements they pointed to, oh, we tried to use criteria or what not to you know, reduce the impacts of letting all these prisoners out. But obviously whatever criteria they used was very flawed because we can see how many of them reoffended and it's. A lot, yeah, fifty almost fifty seven percent recidivism rate and the and as you just mentioned, these are simply the incarcerations after the fact, right, This isn't anybody who like de Carlos Brown Junior I talked about the update in that case, the guy who you know on video murdered Arena Zarutska and he was on the list. This is one of the things that drives me nuts with the Cooper campaign. They're like, you know, there's no connection wr L. There no, No, Cooper didn't release him. Well, Cooper's administration did let him out early, and had he not been out let out early prior to this settlement, he was on the list, So he would have been released had he not been released prior. Right. So, and this this list isn't you know, a list they put out just for public assumption. This is a list they reported to the court. So they're saying, oh, well, we told the court we let him out early under the settlement, but we actually didn't. Well that that seems like a pretty big issue. That's that's a major admssion. That's not just like, oh, it got a little data on this, you provided inpec data to the court. And I think that what's more likely is that he was released under the criteria of the settlement. They knew the settlement was in the pipeline, and so when he got arrested, they let him back out because of the settlement. Bingo, I think that's exactly right. I think that the administration knew because this lawsuit had been filed and they were getting pressure from their Democrat you know, coalition base voters and stuff. Because the lawsuit was filed in April of twenty twenty. It went the judge then said, oh, I think the Yeah, I think they're going to win this against Erroy Cooper. That was in June. And then de Carlos Brown Junior is released in September. This is all twenty twenty. Then he gets re arrested in February in twenty one, he's allowed to remain out. Then the settlement occurs in February of twenty one. And I cannot believe that the people who made those decisions inside the Department of Adult Corrections were oblivious to this lawsuit and the progress tored words what I considered to be a collusive settlement. And to your point about what they told the court, it seems like they were padding the numbers so they could get more accolades, right, like we're going to start cutting people loose, and we're gonna we're gonna put a whole bunch of people on this list in order to like puff it up and be like, look at us, we did this great thing. What's your teake? Yeah, I mean I think you know, he was sort of hedging his bets, because if there wasn't this massive upswell of you know, popular sentiment of oh crime is bad and letting from no doubt is bad, he could be running with the same set of fact. You could be running on the opposit platform of oh, I let all these people out early. So you know, he kind of is able to plant either way. And I guess it's up to the media like you and I to point to the fact and say, well, this is what the record actually shows. You agreed to let thirty five hundred out, you let forty two hundred and over, some of them has reoffended. Those are the facts. We appreciate the tool that you created here, Stephen Horn. You can check out his work at the Triangle Trumpet and the name of this website Cooper released him dot com. Steven thanks so much. I appreciate the time, sir. Thank you all right, buddy, take care. 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 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. All right, So. Of the offense the offender data set, according to Cooper released him dot com. The searchable access to the offenders includes name counting convictions. The data reveals pre release convictions for hundreds of murderers, rapists, and child molesters. Here are some of the highlights. Fifty three of those released. We're serving life sentences. But remember up until like I think it was in the nineties a life sentence in North Care, Carolina was not actually a life sentence. Life now means life, life means life without parole. But you used to be able to be sentenced to life. In prison and then get out, so it wasn't really life, you know, false advertising there. So of the fifty three people prisoners who were set free serving life sentences, one has gone on to reoffend. Of the seventy convicted murderers, nine reoffenders, of the ninety nine convicted of rape or sexual offenses ninety nine of them, forty five have gone on to reoffend. And of the two hundred three prisoners that were convicted of taking indecent liberties with a child, more than half have reoffended at one hundred and nineteen. He goes on to say that the true reoffense rate is higher than the fifty six point ninety seven percent or fifty seven percent. As we covered with Stephen, that the data from the Department of Adult Corrections omits crimes where charges were never filed, where charges were dropped, or where the prosecution is still in progress and has yet to result in a conviction. So, for example, de Carlos Brown Junior would not show up on this reoffender list because he has not been convicted. Those are just the convictions or the disposition of the case. If they took a. Plea deal or whatever, and they're now you know, they got parole, they got probation or whatever. This from The New York Post yesterday. A mass release of North Carolina prisoners under Democratic Governor Roy Cooper cutam Loose Cooper as I call him, during the pandemic had a devastating effect on public safety, with half of the sprung inmates going on to commit more crimes, according to a Post review of state records and reports. See So they're looking at the thirty five hundred number, and as Stephen Horn said, that number is not accurate because when you actually plug all of the data in, it turns out it's over forty two hundred. So a difference of like twenty percent, right, it's like seven hundred over the thirty five hundred. At least thirty five hundred convicts were released as part of a little known settlement between Cooper's administration and civil rights groups back in February twenty twenty one, and the New York Post found. More than six hundred of those later committed serious felonies like homicides, sex offenses, or other violent crimes. Eighteen have been charged with murder in the four years since. Like, how do you not say that that's directly attributable to the left wing groups that sued and all so the governor right, they entered into this agreement. I call it a collusive agreement. Why because it is you get a left wing organization that files a lawsuit against a government that is run by Democrats, and so they're not exactly oppositional forces, right, there are simpatico in their politics, in their incentives. They did this when the lefties did this. The NAACP did it when they sued the state over the voting rules during the pandemic as well. And that's when Josh Stein I believe it was Androy Cooper, they entered into the collusive agreement with those litigants in order to open up to relax the restrictions on voting laws during the pandemic, and the legislature was cut out of that. And then when they tried to insert themselves into the case, they were successful. But then the state, the executive branch, the Attorney General and the Board of Elections. Right, they just did an end run. They just never told the Republican legislature that they cut this deal. That's a collusive settlement. So you forum shop, if you are the ACLU, you forum shop. You find a judge that's also a Democrat, that's simpatico, and you bring the case before that judge and that judge goes, hmmm, yes, I think you do have a very strong case and you are likely to win. And then Roy Cooper's office is like, oh my gosh, we're gonna lose. Let's just do it. But Roy Cooper's campaign for US Senate they will claim and they are claiming that, well, we fought this in court and then we you know, a judge told us we have had to do this. That's not really the case, Like, you did not really fight this in court. You got sued, you made a case not. To release the prisoners, and then the judge is like, I think you're going to lose, and then you immediately folded. And I mentioned this a couple of weeks ago. Roy Cooper does know how to appeal, He does know how to fight in court for a longer period of time. Than the what six months or four months that it took to craft this collusive deal, which apparently they were asking for like eighteen thousand prisoners, which I mean classic negotiation tactic. You come in with a really large number, they say no to that number, They're like, okay, how about thirty five hundred, right, okay, fine, and then they released more than that forty two hundred. Roy Cooper spent fourteen years defending against a lawsuit that was brought by a political opponent in a campaign because he lied about that opponent. He spent fourteen years in court so we wouldn't have to do what he ended up having to do, which was apologize for lying. So don't tell me that he fought this in court, because I know what it looks like when Roy Cooper fights in court, and this was not it. Let's head over to the WBT text line nine to eight zero number. Anonymous, of course, says, I haven't heard you mentioned these sixteen hundred convicted criminals pardoned by another convicted criminal aka potis how many have been rearrested and for what? Well, let me google that for you. You do know how to use a computer. I assume you texted me, but I asked the brave browsers AI, I believe his name is Leo. How many pardoned J six defendants have been convicted since being released? At least thirty three. Thirty three pardoned J six defendants have been rearrested, charged, or sentenced. So that's all of it. So this isn't. Exactly an apples to Apple's comparison with the ones that Cooper released and their recidivism rate of fifty seven percent, because that does not include the Cooper number does not include re arrests or charges. It only includes disposition. So the sentencing fifty seven percent of the Cooper crop has been sentenced for their reoffense, thirty three pardoned out of sixteen hundred. I'm going to use your number, and if I do the math on that, that works out to be. Two percent two percent. So I'm not sure that makes the point you thought you were making. Also, there's a little bit of a difference between somebody being convicted for murder and somebody walking through the Capitol building after Capitol police waived them in. Do you think there's a little bit of a difference there, because that's what a lot of people got charged with. They got charged with like trespassing and stuff, but solid point otherwise. Let me see here, this is seven four number. Uh. That's just the people that have been caught, you know. The vast majority of them also have been doing the various things and they just haven't been caught yet. Danny says, I'm not sure about the others, but we say nationwide because if we didn't three zz tops or the zz Top song, it wouldn't sound right. That's a fair point. I don't know what that audio is. Sorry, okay, and that's a wall. Today is a froggy national holiday. Oh yes, today is V Day, Victory Europe Day. That's from Ian. I cannot see the rest of the message because it's just not loading for some reason. Up there it is. They act as though they were liberating heroes, not us. On the same note, they still consider themselves a great power. Indeed they do. I don't click links. But thank you, I mean, well, no, not thank you for sending it, because I'm not going to open the link. So if you send me a link to something, I'm not going to open the link. You can post a picture. I can see the picture, but I don't click links, all right, So This is the story from the New York Post. Cooper campaign spokesperson said, quote, keeping the public safe is Roy Cooper's top priority, which is why he refused to commute sentences when outside groups asked him to during the pandemic. Right, he wouldn't commute the sentences. Right, Well, again, they came in and asked you for all these things, and then you just do the things that are defensible depending on how this plays out for your future run for US Senate. Right, Oh no, no, I'm sorry. That's right. He has said he thought he was out, but he did. They drag him back in. But m that Trump. Trump made him get back in. He's there to fix Washington. He didn't want to. He didn't want to do this. I thought I was done. Yeah, right, everybody was saying this guy is running for senate when he ran for governor. I mean the first time. I was like, yeah, he's going to use this to springboard to a US Senate run. Everybody everybody knew this anyway. But to Steven Horn's point, you have this defund the police movement, you have this decarcration movement inside the Democrat base, so he can't reject it. He can't say no because then he may have a difficult time getting the votes in a primary. So he's got to give him something he's not going to give him, like completely indefensible things, because you still have to keep in mind, like what are. The normies going to think about all of this? Right? What are the moderates, the middle of the road people, the independence, what are they going to think. I can't just commute sentences for you know, rapists and murderers and let everybody out let out what eighteen thousand inmates. I can't do that. That would be indefensible. But if I just let out thirty five hundred or forty two hundred, and I say, oh, I'm using Trump's criteria, that's the criteria the Trump administration. They're the ones that came up with this criteria, not me, right, So it gives him deniability and he could now make these claims that I was keeping the public safe. I rejected the commutation ask after Roy fought against these releases in court. Again, didn't really fight against the releases. North Carolina law enforcement officials and parole officers looked to similar criteria. President Trump used similar criteria a year prior when his administration released thousands of federal prisoners due to COVID nineteen. So what were those recidivism rates? Well, other states didn't see the kind of forty eight percent rate that we saw here, Like New York they were only nineteen percent. California they let loose fifteen thousand and they only had a third thirty three percent. Wow, what criteria were we using exactly? We do this every Friday with Brett Winterbole right here on WBT. He hosts three to six. Hello Brett, Oh, hang on a second, get your hello. Hey, it's me right here. You hear me? Yes, I hear you. Do you hear me? I hear you? All right? And I can see you. You're right across the table from me. Yes, sir. We like to call this pregaming because I hang around for the hangover for the first segment of Brett Show on Fridays. All right, so I have a you can choose your own adventure here, Okay, which would you like cars or beef cars? Or beef cars or beef beef? Alrighty, you've probably seen this story. This is a problem when you're trying to like blindside somebody who does what we do, like you've probably heard of the story. Do you get friends and people that come up to you, oh, have you heard this story about? Oh yeah yeah. I just get the tech or I get a text of yeah. Yeah variety, and then it's just like, yes, I have heard of this, all right anyway. An eco warrior politician has sparked outreach in Denmark after she defended guidelines limiting residents of government run nursing homes to just two point eight ounces of beef a week. That's less than a big man. That's horrible, yeah, brig Bergjete Keller Holst. Oh gosh, do you want to take a guess with what political party she belongs to? Vegan the left wing Green party called the Alternative. That's the name of their party, the Alternative. I'm sure it's in Denmarkian. With the dot of. Yeah yeah, something like that, called the Alternative. She was also accused of saying that old people in nursing homes should be punished by restricting their meat intake. Wow. Now I'm going to read to you or her comment and you tell me if this sounds like she's trying to exact any kind of retribution on the elderly. Okay, here it is quote. She said this during a city council meeting. Right, everyone, including the elderly, must contribute to achieving our climate goals. It is precisely the generation that has screwed up the most. Is that is that the sum total? Is that everything? That's it? That's what Well, that was the comment that prompted the accusations that she is targeting the elderly for retributions. Yes, is that how you would read this? Yes, absolutely, it's retributative. I mean that's that's it's terrible. Yeah, why why are they doing this to these old people? And it's very sad for Gaya Earth Brett, Okay, it's to save the planet because do you know how much the Danish emit? The Danes? Mmm? Not much. I don't think much. You don't think much. I don't think what is the major what is the major eating products over in a don bark. Or whatever it is. I don't know how much emissions come from a Danish, but Denmark emits zero point one percent of the world's human caused co two. Wow. Wow, we need to rescue these people. We need to rescue these people. We need to rescue them. All the elderly Danes. I'll take them all. We should take them all into the United States. It look I mean, we've taken a whole bunch of other people and they will not cause any problems for the Danes anymore. We'll just bring them in. Let them live out in South Dakota or something in some kind of a of a yurt. No, oh, this is brilliant. No, we can bring them in, yes, and ship them to Ohio. Ohio. They have all of those elderly care facilities that they have been running Ohio. Yeah. Have you not seen all the reporting of the billions that have been built with Minnesota. It's the same, It's yeah, it's the same sort of blueprint. Wow. Luke rosiaka Daily Wire, Yes, he's uncovered all of these things. They did a five part series on it. Yes, and you'll maybe a surprise to learn that that's the second largest Somali community in America and they are running the same thing, except it's all like hospice care and in home nurses. Is that why they were doing eating all the dogs and the cats and all that. Remember there wasn't that Ohio. It's not beef. It's not 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 vpetecallanershow dot com. Again, thank you so much for listening, and don't break anything while I'm gone.