Teen Takeovers Across NC| 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, I Daily Show prep with all of the links, become a patron, go to dpeakclendarshow 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. Lots of headlines going on today. Among them, we're talking about teen takeovers. This is something that we've been talking about, certainly in Charlotte and in Raleigh. Even just over the fourth of July weekend, thousands of young people flooded Raleigh's Ryer Creek Glenwood South areas over the weekend, leaving police to respond to shootings, fights, arrests. Thousands of teens taking over those very popular areas in North Carolina City seem to be facing growing pressure to crack down on these social media driven youth gatherings, and they're drawing concern from local from local officials too, as these crowds of teenagers converge on these downtown areas, parks, nightlife. There's been an issue. Certainly in Charlotte. They've been talking about this issue and told public officials there that this is something we should consider, you know, perhaps even doing you know, teen curfews and Raleigh mayor. City Raleigh Mayor Janet cow said the city Council is going to start drafting a curfew ordinance for the Capital City of Raleigh, but may not be in effect until August. She said she would be willing to use emergency measures if these similar incidents occurred before then. The Raleigh violence has really put a focus on this idea that local leaders say is really not isolated to the capital city or Charlotte or you know, some of the bigger areas in North Carolina. Greenville, North Carolina, Major Mayor PJ. Connelly issued a state of emergency back in June and established a temporary curfew for kids under age eighteen in the city's downtown area. It bars unaccompanied juveniles from those designated areas. Because they said that the city of Greensboro had been experiencing similar teen takeovers back then kind ofly urged parents to keep their children from downtown events in downtown areas, saying they really need stronger accountability and guidance from adults. That's something that we were talking We've been talking about to where are the adults in this? Do they have a responsibility? Is this a freedom to gather issue? You know, those are one of the things that a lot of folks are asking each other. Charlotte is taking kind of a different approach. They're talking about stepped up enforcement of existing youth curfews, targeting police operations during these large teen gatherings. Charlotte Meck police responded back in June to a gathering of more than two hundred teenagers in a downtown park, but that led to twenty four arrests, twenty three of them being juveni Police also cited thirteen parents in the Charlotte area for contributing to the juvenile delinquency so. Charlotte's existing curfew ordinance, children younger than thirteen must be off public streets by ten pm, while teens thirteen to fifteen have to be home by eleven pm. So CMPD Chief Estella Patterson warned parents in a statement posted on social media that there are some consequences of these gatherings. She said, if your child is out late at night, participating in an organized takeover. They are not safe. These gatherings have led to violence, property damage, innocent people getting hurt. She urged parents that if your child is out contributing to violence or committing illegal activities, the parent will be charged. She asks for parent help in keeping communities and children safe and encouraging them to know where their kids are. I don't know if you grew up in the seventies like I did, but I remember those late night commercials do you know where your kids are? Maybe we need to bring some of those back and splash them across social media. So there was a meeting Tuesday morning the City council. Charlotte City Council's Safety Committee held a special meeting this morning to talk about possible responses to juvenile curfew violations. At the meeting, Patterson Warren that consequences could become fatal if these are not adhered to and if they failed to act. She said to her specific concern was that if they don't get a handle on it, we really could have seriously violent problems. City leaders are considering curfews new restrictions, but you know, maybe this is something that North Carolina needs to modify. Existing statues to create a new offense to address these team takeovers, but really enforcing the laws that are already on the books seems to be the quickest, the quickest, most effective way to just deploy more police as peacekeepers and enforce the rules that are currently on the books. Really encourage parents to pay more attention to where their teens are. You know that North Carolina is not the only ones dealing with these. Cities across the country have been grappling with us that are really amplified by large social media gatherings in you know, Pensacola, Florida, the Newport Beach, California. Uh, they're talking about these as like TikTok takeovers. But you know, the potential for difficulty with these, the potential for violence grows each time. So North Carolina's big cities and small towns are going to be wrestling this with us for a while. In other news, former FBI Director James Comy is expanding his legal fight against criminal charges. Comy's attorneys have asked a federal judge Monday for permission to file a more detailed legal brief challenging the States case against him. The request comes as both sides can continue battling over whether he can be prosecuted for a social media post that prosecutors say amounts to a threat against then presidential candidate now President Donald Trump. So it all. Started when Comy posted a photograph on Instagram showing seashells arranged to display the numbers eighty six forty seven. Prosecutors argue that the phrase eighty six forty seven could reasonably be interpreted as a call to eliminate the forty seventh president, President Donald Trump. Now, Komy has maintained that the post was innocuous that he removed it after learning that some people had interpreted that way. The federal prosecutors argue the Instagram post constitutes a criminal threat. According to court filings, Coomy's attorneys want to submit additional legal arguments addressing those constitutional issues and still content his Instagram post is protected political speech under the First Amendment. Now this, of course, even though it was right there on a North Carolina beach, it's getting some national attention because it raises that question, where's the line between political expression and criminal threats, particularly in the age of social media. So far, no hearing date has been set on the latest filing, but the judge will first decide whether to allow that expanded brief before considering the broader constitutional questions raised by Comy and his lawyers. We're gonna be talking a lot about this kind of thing. Where are those lines, where is First Amendment? And what should we be talking about when we particularly when it comes to social media. Coming up in just a few minutes, we have John Hood, president of the John William Pope Foundation. We're be talking a lot about that and a lot more as we move into this final hour of the Pete Kellner Show. I'm Donna king, all right. For over a year now, you've heard me talking about Create a Video, great local company in mint Hill that has helped more than two million families preserve their memories by turning old photos, VHS, tapes, film reels, and slides into lasting keepsakes. Now Creative Video is helping families and groups create brand new memories while they're traveling, introducing group travel videos perfect for family reunions, church mission trips, group vacations, destination weddings, student trips, senior adult groups, sports teams. I mean, really, any gathering of people that you care about that's traveling together. Group Travel Videos gives your traveling pack a private app where everyone can share photos during the trip, send messages, share schedules and important documents. 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We've been talking a little bit about the team takeovers, and Craig is calling in wants to comment on that, Craig, how's it going over there? Have you seen some of those happening? That's doing all right? Yeah? I just wanted to come about how bad these team taker risks can be for the local area, particularly this one with they just about happened at University. Now that if it all it takes is one of these to happen to forever tarnish the area and to drive customers away. I mean, people with money aren't going to go take their families out there if they're running a risk of you know, fandolized property, injured family members, things like that. And so it's really good that that got stopped. But the only way these are actually going to stop is to stop treating people under eighteen like they're still kids. I mean, once you're about fifteen sixteen, you need to start facing adult consequence. Is you know enough by then what is right? What is wrong? And start taking away these little welfare checks from these bow Mass parents. That's really what these kids are is just a welfare check for their single mom. It is alarming, and I do feel like that there's you know, there's a lot of there's a big squath of a younger generation that struggles with respect for authority, and this is what we're seeing is manifesting. You sound like a small business owner, you know, maybe somebody who has an interest in small business, because that's what I worry about is some of these communities where this is happening. These folks have to keep their doors open, they have to put food on the table for their families, and they're not going to be able to do it when these things are happening. Yeah, you could just eat a lot of it. And these aren't really teen takers. We need to call them what they are. They're riots. They are teen riots, is what they are. And all it takes is a riot in a certain area to forever damage that place. I mean, you've seen that in Detroit and New Jersey. All's going to take is a big riot, and people aren't going to come back with the money. And you don't come back with the money, the business is closing up with vacancies. Sure sure, Craig, Well, thanks so much for calling. I appreciate your input on it. We're gonna be talking a lot more about that, certainly. Joining us now. John Hood, President of the John William Pope Foundation. John, thanks so much for calling in today. Certainly thanks for having me Donna. Absolutely, I know that this isn't what we were going to talk about. What are your thoughts on this team takeover thing? It really is alarming, It's beyond alarming. It's scary. As the last caller just said, it has tremendous risk to the community's long term, not just the night of the takeover, but the effects that linger, whether it's property destruction or as the caller mentioned, the credibility and confidence for people to go to these regions. Again, I'm a little sympathetic to the law enforcement because you get to scale, you get this number of young people congregating, rioting, doing whatever they're going to do. I'm sure that law enforcement officers were prepared, but maybe not prepared for the scale. And that's just a learning opportunity for everybody that works in public safety, law enforcement, local government that if you get an inkling that something like this is coming, you have to be prepared to scale up significantly because a few cops isn't going to be able to control hundreds or even thousands of people. Sure, what do you think about parental liability and something like this? Generally, I do think parents need to be liable for what their children do. When you're talking about seventeen and eighteen year olds, I'm not sure that's the right policy. They probably can be charged as to tell you how serious the offense is, they could be charged as adults. North Carolina changed its law in this regard. I'm not sure what's how Carolina's law is, but in North Carolina they did change the law to make certain kinds of crimes that had previously been potentially chargeable to younger teams as adults, made them into the juvenile justice system. But when you get the violent action, I think that direct action or direct penalties to the perpetrators is probably going to be the most effective to terrent. Sure. Sure, North Carolina is certainly growing. We've had a ton of in migration over the last decade. I know we've both been watching that pretty closely, and it's kind of shifted who we are as a state in a bit. But we've also seen some policies that have created the prosperity that is bringing people here, you know, as newcomers arrive. Switching topics a bit, you have a new column that is freer Carolinas mean more Carolinians. I mean, that is exactly what we're talking about. As more newcomers arrive in North Carolina, how can we preserve some of those policies that attracted them to us in the first place. Well, it is a risk. Speaking of risks, sure, exactly limited. This is not limited, of course to the Carolinas. And my column actually does talk about North and South Carolina. There was a reason analysis that looked at the in migration rate. This is the number of people that arrive every year, divided by the population of the state, so that you don't just creating a list that always has Florida and Texas because they have a lot of people moving in As have a lot of people already there. And South Carolina was second in the nation in the last five years, and in migration rate, North Carolina was ninth. Depending upon the year, sometimes North Carolina is a little higher, sometimes South Carolina. But these are both states that have adopted relatively low taxes, less regulations. They deliver better quality public services for every dollar spent than you will find in the likes of Illinois and New York and California. So not surprisingly, lots of people want to leave other states from the Northeast, the Midwest, the West, and in our neighboring states Virginia, places like that leave them and come into the Carolinas. That the challenge is, how do you preserve the policies that make us attractive when the people moving in may be coming from jurisdictions where very different policies have been chosen, more left wing policies. Now, the truth is that some of this is a selection effect. The kinds of people who want to live in a freer state leave Illinois. So it's not as if the predominant sentiment of people who are leaving Illinois to come to North Carolina is let's recreate Chicago and Charlotte. I mean, that's not really what most of them want. Some of them might want that, but most of them don't. But that doesn't mean that we don't have to be vigilant about this. We have to have policies that not only make the Carolinas attractive and people can move into them, but also illustrate the value that citizens receive from the services that they get. It isn't the case that people are just looking for a place that has no government or that has no services, and they do value good roads and good schools and public safety. As we were just talking about that. The irony is a lot of my progressive friends seem to think that there's two boxes, and one of them has low taxes and no services, and the other box has higher taxes and great services. And the truth is that there just isn't a whole lot of a correlation between the tax burden and the value of the service. There are lots of places like California, where the taxes are relatively high, the services are very good, and so you don't really get the value. Which you have is a larger welfare state, You have more money spent on unionized employees. You have all sorts of other policies and regulations that raise the cost of delivering public services, which has passed along to people in the form of higher income taxes, sales taxes, business tax and the like. So the truth is that your Florida's, your Texas is, and your North and South Carolina's, these are places where taxes are relatively low and fools roads, public safety is at or above the national average. Sure, sure, if you won't mind sticking around, I want to go to a quick break, but I want to talk more about this, What does this mean for our housing, for job opportunities, a lot of other things. We're gonna be coming right back down. Donna King from Carolina Journal filling in for Pete this week. We've been talking a little bit about how North Carolina's policies have really triggered prosperity in our state over the last decade, brought a lot of new folks here. North Carolina continues to attract residents from high tax, high cost states. John Hood, President the John William Pope Foundation, is joining us here. John, We've talked a little bit about this already, but how much of that in migration do you think is really caused by some policy and the impact of our policy versus other factors, say, whether geography, job opportunities, that kind of thing. Well, this question has been studied rigorously. So you take a bunch of different sets of data and include weather, include other kinds of things that are natural in nature that aren't because of public policy, and if you adjust for those factors, you will still find places like North Carolina are relatively attractive. So there's no question really at this point that our tax policies, our regulatory policies, our other policies to facilitate growth do explain a fair amount. Now, it's true that everything else being equal, lots of people wouldn't want to move to northern Minnesota as they really like snow, and some do because they do like snow and go and hunting or something. But even if you adjust for all of that, the sun Belt states, some of the Sun Belt states are growing faster than others. And the ones that are growing faster are the ones that have gotten their policy mikes. Right now, I'm not suggesting, and nor does anyone else seriously suggest that families get together around the kitchen table. They pull out a study from one of my colleagues and look at the spreadsheets, and it's not how people make these decisions. What they do look at is the tax rate, the availability of jobs, and increasingly, how much does it cost to live there? What is the average housing price? What can I afford if I'm getting a new job and I can potentially move into North Carolina, what does the housing market look like? How long will I commute be? And all of those factors are influenced by policy too. Some places make it really hard to add new housing stock. Again, Southern California is a good example. Colorado more recently is a place that had been growing, had been experiencing in migration, but has recently experienced out migration because it's simply too hard to build apartments and houses in some of the faster growing areas of Colorado, and so people are moving somewhere else where they can find a place to live or move from a starter home to a nicer home as their family expands. It's one of the major advantages North Carolina has and South Carolina is that even though we have a lot of room to reform, I think we still need to do a lot to make it easier to add housing inventory in our major markets Raleigh, Charlotte, et cetera. But compared to other places, it's a lot easier to build here. And there's a reason why our rents our housing prices, even in a hot smoking market, still compare favorably to some of these other jurisdictions. That's why people are leaving those places and moving here. Sure, you know, my daughter is going through something similar right now. She and her fiance are in the process of putting an offer in on a house, and I am shocked at prices things are going for over asking where are we going to put all these people, and what policies can we put in place then ensure everybody can afford a roof over their head. Property taxes are going to be on the you know, hope could be on our ballots in November. Do you think that's just one tool in the toolbox? What else do you think we need to do to make it easier for folks to get housing. I do think it makes sense to try to limit over time the property valuations for property tax purposes or otherwise try to keep property taxes from soaring. But I don't think it's the major driver for home ownership home affordability. Really, it has to do with the cost per square foot of building new inventory. You know, people assume when I say that, well, I'm not buying a new house, that doesn't matter. Even if you're not in the market for buying a new house. The fact that new housing is being added to the market means people can move out of the house they're currently in and into that new house, or move from an apartment to a new house, and that frees up inventory for other people. So it has an effect on the entire market, not just new homes. But all homes Now. I happen to think that we need to go be on just making it easier to build traditional stick built homes on sites. I think we need to make it easier to manufacture homes. I think manufactured and modular housing needs to be more widely available. It needs to be easier for people to buy and cite those kinds of homes. Maybe you or I wouldn't buy a manufactured home, but there are people for whom a manufactured home would be fantastic. They would love that idea because it's affordable. It costs fifty to seventy five percent of the cost of a comparable stick built house, so it's a much cheaper alternative and often is newer. The appliances would be newer, the accouterments would be newer. So I think we didn't make it easier to add inventory, be it traditional housing or manufactured housing. And I also think that our federal colleagues, our federal compatriots up in Washington, need to get their act together and reduce federal budget deficits, which help drive up interest rates, including interest rates on mortgages. So if you look at the cost of housing, I think state local policy can be the primary actor there when it comes to mortgage rates and interest rates, that's really a federal matter, and our federal representatives, our senators, our presidential administration. I think that to get a lot more serious about bringing our federal budget into ballance so we can try to reduce the pressures pushing interest rates up. Absolutely. John Hood, President of the John William Pope Foundation, thanks so much for sticking around with us today. It's always good to talk to you. Lots of stuff going on in North Carolina. If you haven't been following at the cyclospora bacteria or parasite. Mecklenburg County health officials now say they have eighteen cases in Mecklenburg County. There's about two hundred cases across the state, one hundred and fifty of them in Wait County, So pay attention. It's something that they're talking about. They're not quite advising just yet that you don't buy fruits and vegetables, keep an eye out for contaminated water. But to protect yourself, health officials in Mecklenburg County are now saying to make sure you wash your hands thoroughly wash fresh fruits and vegetables before you eat them, make sure you're cooking, cleaning surfaces and countertops frequently, and refrigerate any cooked fruits and vegetables within two hours. So Wait County now has one hundred and fifty cases, mac County has eighteen or so, so it does seem to be something that's growing and paying increasing attention to. So just make sure you keep yourself safe there. Also in North Carolina, US Education Secretary Linda McMahon in North Carolina Tuesday today headlining the America First Speaker series in Newburn. McMahon is a New Bern native graduate of ECU East Carolina University. She's outlining Trump's administration's education priorities, including parental involvement schools, strengthening workforce development, and reducing federal involvement in education. North Carolina has been focused on that over the last decade, with growths in homeschooling and more charter schools and opportunity scholarships, so certainly McMahon's messages will be welcomed there. In Newborn, likely administration of hist will say she will talk to more efforts to return decision making authority to the states and local communities rather than the federal government. While promoting career and technical education programs that better prepare our kids for the workforce. So these are all. Things I expect that elected officials, education leaders, community members from across eastern North Carolina are likely to be tuning in there to Secretary McMahon's comments. Is not new information for her. She's been one of the Trump administration's leading voices on school choice and parental rights since taking office earlier this year, and is certainly a homecoming for her. She frequently credits Eastern North Carolina was shaping her views on education and economic opportunity that we've been talking about today, But those little details of the state budget are more details are coming to light. One of the one that's making headlines today is something that caused two Republicans to vote against the state budget, the controversies over North Carolina state ferry system. The budget will require tolls on all seven state ferry routes beginning no later than January first of twenty twenty seven. So right now, only three ferry routes charged tolls, but under the new budget, the remaining four free routes, including the heavily trafficked Hatteras, Ocracoke and Notts Island ferries, they're going to start collecting fares. Lawmakers also created one hundred and fifty dollars annual commuter pass for residents who rely on those ferries for regular travel. Now supporters say they need it. They need it to help stabilize funding for the ferry system in the state. There's a lot of rising operating costs and a growing backlog of maintenance and vessel replacement. Fairies are a big part of the state's highway system, transporting millions of passengers and nearly a million vehicles each year, but there is some bipartisan opposition from lawmakers in those coastal communities. Republican Senators Bobby Hannig and Norm Sanderson. They both say they've decided to break with members of the Republican Party and voted against the budget, arguing that these tolls really amount to a new tax on residents who depend on the ferries to get to work or school medical appointments. Sanderson is arguing to his colleagues that lawmakers should first wait for the results of a state audit on the ferry division before expanding tolls statewide. Now, the budget doesn't establish the exact toll amounts, so we don't have that information just yet. They're going to leave it to DOT, the Department of Transportation, to set the amount. But the new tolling system is scheduled to be in place by January first of twenty twenty seven, and could be a really contentious issue in eastern North Carolina in the coming months, particularly as we come up to a November election. Also in the news today, federal regulators have accused a Durham based energy company of operating what they're calling one of the largest and most quote brazen fraud schemes in the agency's history. It's drawing some renewed attention to a North Carolina lawmaker's past ties to the company. New in a report from the News and Observer, State Senator Sophia at Chitlick, a Democrat from Durham County, reportedly joined her husband, lobbyist Ben Abram, in twenty twenty four to meet with Congressional offices on behalf of American Efficient. Chitlick says the couple was legally separated, that she complied with ethics requirements, and the Abrams family are large donors to the North Carolina Democratic Party and former Governor Roy Cooper who's now running for US Senate. 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 Thepete kallanershow dot com. Again, thank you so much for listening, and don't break anything while I'm gone.