The political impact of Charlotte's light rail murder (09-03-2025--Hour3)

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Charlotte mayoral candidates are rolling out plans to address crime after a high profile murder on the city's public transit system and calling out current Mayor Vy Lyles's response to the situation, which is not mentioned in the piece, but I will note here that her initial response to the stabbing was a single sentence thoughts and prayers for the victim, the twenty three year old Ukrainian refugee who had settled in Charlotte after fleeing a war zone, and one sentence their thoughts and prayers were for her family, and then five paragraphs about how somehow we the community all failed the suspect and you know, we need to do better by him, and people thought that was a little tone deaf after it took her like four days to even issue any kind of a statement at all. Multiple city council members now called for action to improve safety on public transit in the wake of the killing. Lyles issued a statement, as I mentioned, days after the incident, offering condolences to Zerutzka's loved ones that's Arena Zeruitzka, the victim here, and calling the case a tragic situation that sheds light on problems with society safety nets related to mental health care and the systems that should be in place. Right. So it's always this call to spend more money on more stuff, more services. How did we fail that suspect? Some of her opponents in the Democrat primary are questioning whether she has done enough to address crime. However, you've got candidate Brendan McGinnis. He called Lyles's initial response to the stabbing quote less than adequate. He told The Observer that he worries that the Trump administration could use a high profile killing to justify intervening in Charlotte. I don't even know if Trump knows Charlotte exists. Okay, No, okay, he does know it exists. But I don't think it's like, I don't think we're on his radar for the crime situation. Okay. I think he's looking at cities like LA Chicago, DC, you know where, like until he works all the way down that list. You know. I don't think you got to worry about that, mister McGinnis. I do applaud him, though, because he actually released a public safety plan he calls it, in the wake of the stabbing, and I looked it over. I read through his plan and it's a lot of expansion of government spending and services in order to address the very things that vy Lyles said in her statement, which he called less than adequate. So he says he wants there to be two hundred cameras installed across Blue Line stations, uh, and link those to the Charlotte Chlamburg Police departments Real Time Crime Center. This was actually part of the meeting today h the transit Metropolitan Transit Commission members was Uh. They were asked about, you know, all of the cameras that we've got there, do they connect into the you know, the the CMPD Real Time Crime Center where they got all these you know, monitors and stuff, and they can they can see cameras from all over the city. And the answer is no, they're not tied in. There's not a direct feed into CMPD. And so look, I mean that's an idea. I'm not I'm not against that. If you if there's a way to give them a feed somehow of these cameras, I think that would be helpful. Right if they're trying to track somebody down, they want some evidence of some kind or whatever they think it's going to help. If they think it's going to help, do it, sure, why not. He also wants de escalation training for cats operators. That's what it always comes down to. It's always like de escalate the person who's you know, behaving insane right. What about what about criminally insane? What about people who are who are deranged? Right? I don't know. You think the bus drivers getting some de escalation training. I mean, I guess it could help, but I would say probably the primary problem is that they're you know, driving the bus for example, And while there are a lot of buses, I don't think you can put a cop on every single bus. Although I will say the cat's officials say they're trying to beef up security. Right now, the system has one hundred and eighty four officers on staff. They want to raise that to two hundred and nineteen. So they want to add well that's sixteen plus ninety, so they want to add thirty five more security officers. Okay. They want to decouple the security from the fair collection. Okay. But something I heard Brent Kagil say. It was the interim CEO of CATS. I heard him say today at the meeting. He said that, you know, fair collection and fair enforcement is mainly like a revenue protection operation. That's why they do it well. Right, But that's that's one part of it. It's the right to protect your revenue collection, which I would submit that's also important. However, when you crack down on fair jumping, you are also making your transit system safer because the people who who would jump the fares, jump the turnstiles to get into your system right to not pay. They then feel emboldened to engage in more criminal activity because it doesn't cost them anything, especially if they're under the age of eighteen. They can run amok, they can get arrested, they're gonna get released right back out to their parents or guardians within hours, and there's no penalty, right so at least if you have to pay it again in why do you think Disney charges so much money to get into their theme parks? As Neil Boorts would tell you, famous talk show host out of Atlanta, it's to keep the riff raff out. And maybe that's offensive for you to hear, or some lefties to hear. Oh my gosh, he said, riffraff. Yeah, that's behavioral. If you're going to behave like a jackass, then you don't get to come onto the property. If you cannot abide by the social norms of a civil society, then you don't get to participate in those privileges that the society pays for. That's the deal. If you don't like that deal, then go live off somewhere else where there are no transit services, right, and there might not also be a lot of victims for you to pray upon. Uh, let me go to Ralph. Hello, Ralph watching. Yes, I would like to come in defense of live bials read and I why it took so long for her to make a statement four days she was keeping her grandchildren that week, and I mean, you know I ever heard this probably you know her number one priority and everything you know for tidy town. We don't like these little messes. We would need to squeak them under the rug. And especially the news media outt they don't need to be reporting because if we if we won't visit to come to Charlotte, we don't need this kind of coverage. Well, then it's a fair point. I do not deny that mentality exists. I would submit, if you don't want the coverage, then address the crime, address the problem, Ralph. I appreciate the call, Buddy, good to hear from you. I think that's really the like, that's the problem. The problem is the problem. It's not the coverage of the problem. 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 could search for my team name Pete's Peck. 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. I got this text from Dana. You keep speaking on George Floyd's murder, almost as if you think it was his fault that he was choked out. You don't know it, but you sound like an undercover racist. Okay, sorry, Dana, that charge carries no purchase any longer. Here there is a difference between commenting on the way George Floyd was killed and the way that he was essentially elevated to martyr status by the left and the media. Okay, that's why I call it. That's why I call him, you know, Saint George Floyd, because that's what was done to him. That is that is. A commentary on the media reaction to him. They disregard all of the stuff that he did, all of the contributing factors everything else, and it just becomes this this hagiographical figure. That's it. And then in his name, now defund all the police, tear down all the systems of oppression and institutional racism, and now here we are. And people like me were saying you're being stupid at that time, and now we are in the reaping phase. Not very pleasant, but I would venture to guess I know which side of that argument you were on, and now you are trying to avoid the responsibility of what we are reaping, right, Craig, Welcome to the program. Hello Craig, Hey, how are you good? How are you. So? I don't believe that paying the fare is a priority for our mayor or any of our city council, because if it was, they would have had things and programs in place from day one to ensure that it was. Being that. They are Democrats who think that pretty much everything should be free. I can pretty much guarantee you they believe that there should be no fair being charged with us are light Rail, so they don't care about trying to make sure anybody pays it. Well, that would be I mean, that would explain sort of the response today from the interim CEO of CATS, Brent Kagel, who said that, you know, fair enforcement is primarily a revenue protection operation. And to your point, if they don't care about revenue protection, then they wouldn't care about enforcing the fares. When in fact, there's a twofold reason for the fair collection, which is, as I said, you know the other part of it is to keep the riff raff out. Well, I don't believe they do care because as we all know, this one penny sales tax, it's going to happen on the votes just a formality. So if they can just keep going back and raping the taxpayers for the money that they need to run these programs, then they're not going to concern themselves with warring about making people pay. They don't believe these people should have to pay anyways. They think that they're poor and they're maligned, and they're unserved and any other adjective democrats like to say about people, and that they're basically owed a free ride because of their situation in life. Book, there are yeah, I mean there are the City of Ashville. I mean not just reparations. They literally just did this, Uh, they did their reparations presentation this week. But they also they have done free buses in Ashville for years. They've been doing that for that for those very reasons, and they are rolling homeless shelters, and then they wonder why people don't want to get on the buses and sit in somebody else's vomit and defecation. Right, And you're again like you you can't come to me and ask me to increase funding for your transit system through this referendum while the transit system has the has these problems. Right, It's a hard sell to now have to make. And I'm not so sure that I'm not so sure that they aren't too worried that they aren't worried about the way this election might go, because I mean, this is going to be an off year low turnout election for where this reference is up. You've already got voters that are mad because it doesn't have funding for the light rail to Huntersville, right, So people are complaining or not hunters But but Matthew's right, they're complaining about that, and the North side is complaining about bait and switch stuff. I'm not so sure that there isn't going to be enough of an oppositional force that may very well turn out and vote this thing down. It is a county wide referendum, so it could happen. I mean they hope it does. Yeah, I mean the the Arena vote back in two thousand went down in a you know, an in an odd year off cycle referendum vote too, because if you just get the angries that get out and vote, you could have a lot of people that are angry, you know, for different reasons, and then they all create one big coalition to vote it down. So it's possible, Craig, I appreciate the call man. Good to hear from you. And to Craig's point, I got this message from Mark who says the blame for this rests squarely on the show of Pat McCrory and ron to Pat McCrory, the former mayor of Charlotte, ron Tober the original Cats CEO. They were the ones driving the train, if you will. No consideration was given to securing access to riders who had paid by installing security turnstiles. That is, not the little green ones with a silver waste bar, but actual security where a person cannot breach the system. Of course, that would imply there were people in Charlotte that weren't the patrician Southerners that the mcrory's and Tobers and others thing populate. The Queen City curses upon them all. So, yeah, this was the original design flaw with the system was the open platforms, Like you can walk up to any of these platforms. They wanted it nice and clean and tidy, right, They wanted it all nice and clean and open, so anybody could just walk up. And that's the whole idea with the trolley line too. Oh, just like I got these visions of San Francisco, I just jump aboard the trolley and I just write it up the hill. That's that was the vision. And yeah, how are you gonna stop the fair jumpers? How are you gonna keep the revenue protected? They didn't care to. It was the original design flaw. They're not gonna go back on retrofit this stuff now. 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 Draft Kings, 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. 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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. Let me get back to the text line with some more commentary. Do these people, this is from a nine to eight zero number, do these people realize that you aren't going to find volunteers to check tickets? You would be the one being knifed. Oh that's from Doug. Well, yeah, I mean cats employees you would hire. You would hire employees and they would walk the trains and they would check the tickets, and then if somebody doesn't want to show the ticket or doesn't have a ticket, whatever, they then call that in to the security and then the security comes and removes the people. The cat's conductor isn't supposed to be doing enforcement, Like they're not cuffing people and anything like that. Bob says, uh, felony rap sheet. I wish the courts and judges were civilly liable for felonious behaviors in some circumstances. I've heard that kicked around as a potential way to reign in some of these people. Baine thanks me for taking his call, and not a problem. I always good to talk with you. Ban. Whatever happened to institutes that housed all of the crazy people, Well, it's funny you mentioned that there actually are still some of these. Now, there was a piece I pulled from actually twenty twenty one North Carolina Healthnews dot org. So this was at you know, twenty twenty one. The defund the police movement was really you know, genned up at this time. And one of the things that they were talking about in the North Carolina General Assembly actually before the summer of fiery but mostly peaceful riots. Before that, they had passed a law on involuntary commitments or ivc's, And part of the problem North Carolina has is that there aren't a lot of these institutions still open for and involuntar Harry commitment, and most counties use their sheriffs deputies or law enforcement in general to transport people to the to the hospitals, and the mental health professionals are saying, have been saying for years that that compounds the trauma, so there needs to be some different kind of an ambulance service. Basically, we shouldn't be handcuffing people and sending them to these hospitals. Although I would point out, as Russ did here in a message on Twitter, that all the people who want to prioritize de escalation over police use of force seem totally unaware that professional mental health institutions also use very large people with straight jackets, batons, and tasers in case the de escalation fails, right, I This idea that you just got a couple of you know, nurses that are talking kindly to somebody, and that's going to de escalate the situation, Yet it ignores the fact that they are backed up by three or four very large guys in white lab coats or smocks, right, that are able to physically restrain somebody who is a danger to themselves or others. Let me see, I let me clear out another texter to do do you? De escalators will not help? Uh? Says another Texter, Tell that jackass that said in the meeting this morning that there is no way to check tickets for every rider to take a ride on Amtrak, Long Island Railroad or any well run public transportation. The LI double R has been doing it successfully for as long as I've been alive, seventy years. Yeah, it's like it's a very simple it's a very simple system, right, Like train technology is not new, Okay, it's been a round for over a century, So they figured this out a long time ago. Guy walks through with a little ticket puncher and he puts it onto your seat, this little clip on the seat, and you stick the ticket on the seat, and they know that you have paid for that ticket, and you click, you punch the hole in it, you put it on the seat, and now they know I've already come through, I've already talked to you. Because there are a lot of stops, so they're constantly walking through checking for tickets. Mike says the state needs to change the law for legal concealed carry on cats trains and buses. That would help the crime problem, No, because then then the bad guys would conceal carry on the buses and trains too. Mike. Oh wait, oh, they already do, if you want to call their bluff, says Stan. Put the light rail up for sale so somebody can run it and maintain it for a profit. That's an idea. Why not privatize it, See if somebody else can do a better job. Simple solution until they can figure out is to bring in the National Guard. Bring off duty sheriffs and CMPD officers, team them up with the National Guard MP or soldier and let them patrol the light rail until they get it under control. Uh yeah, I mean the mayor can ask for some assistance from the state if she wanted to. Betty says, let me get this straight. They want me to vote yes to millions of light rail dollars and the revenue is not rider shared. I am voting no anyway, because the upticking businesses and dwellings that spring up around the rail should fund it. I am really voting no. Now. How arrogant and irresponsible of the council. Yeah, they're not even protecting their revenue share. That's the frustrating thing too, Like you have this light rail that has spurred all this development, and yet you want to ask me for more money on everything I buy. But you're not even trying to police the fair collection. All right, 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 want a business or work at one that offers these incentive trips, this is a mustap. It maximizes the impact and value of these motivational trips. 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. 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 incentive tripkit dot com or call Eric at eight eight eight five three three seventy six thirty seven Extension two seven for the details. Don't know who this is from. I don't think hang on um no pete. I grew up here, but I lived fifteen years in the DMV area. That was about how long it felt when I was last at the DMV. Anyway, I rode the DC Metrorail every workday for a long time, and when I took the Charlotte light Rail, I was floored that there were no security turnstiles to prevent fair jumping. Granted, the metrorail is the only major public transportation system that I know of that is supported by a tax or sorry, that is not supported by attacks. It's supported by the riders and the jurisdictions promised to pay. So it's a tax from those jurisdictions maybe, but not a standalone in sales tax. I guess, but I don't understand it because seeing homeless people pandering in the or panhandling in the system was way more uncommon up there. Well, that's because the people who work in government don't want to see this stuff. This is just for you people to see and have to suffer through when you ride the train when it's their train. No, no, no, no, they're going to make sure that they're not exposed to any of those people. Stan asks, I wonder why they don't enforce tax collections the same way they enforce fair collection on the light rail. Make it the honor system. I like it, right? Why not that? That makes me think too. It's like, if you paid more attention to the collection of the fares, you wouldn't have to ask me to pay more money, and you wouldn't have to outsource the fair collection to local businesses because that's what you're doing, right. You're having the local businesses collect the sales tax and then refund the sales tax, you know, through the state and then back around. So it's going to devalue that total revenue and then give it back to the local so the businesses become your fair collectors. Is that fair? No? But there's certainty. See, there's certainty. If ever, there's an indictment on public versus private right, the public sector doing something versus the usual superiority of the private sector doing it. This is it no? Right? You have the private sector that is able to actually collect all of the sales taxes to fund your train system. When you cannot do it, nay, you refuse to do it. Here's from the story that wbt's news director Mark Garrison wrote up after the Metropolitan Transit Commission meeting today. Transit chief Brent Cagel told the city council quote, with an open system, it will always be impossible to check every passenger every day. I'm going to need some numbers on that. Actually, I'm going to need to see some analysis before I say that that's true, before I agree with that premise. I'm going to need to see some data. How many people would it take to walk the trains because the buses are a different animal, Okay they are, I mean, because you've got way more buses than you have trains. So I'd like to see what it would cost, Like, how much revenue would be generated if you got close to one hundred percent fair collection, how much revenue is brought in for that versus the cost of hiring the personnel to do it right. And then also I'd kind of like to see what impact that has on public safety security because a greater presence on the trains, I mean other cities have shown us that when you crack down on this stuff and you put more police presence in your transit system, you get less crime. By the way, President Trump told the Daily Caller that he is open to bringing back insane asylums to institutionalize mentally ill individuals on America's streets. So there's that. And also came across this too, Tim Wigginton over at the Blue Ridge Times, reporting that the ashvill City Council passed an update to the city Ordinance addressing panhandling and solicitation in high traffic zones. The update increases high traffic areas to now include areas that experience a large amount of pedestrian foot traffic as well as bicycle traffic. Previously it only applied to areas of downtown and built more village. So they're expanding this out. And so in general, panhandling and solicitation are allowed on sidewalks, but it's prohibited anywhere within the high traffic zones. Prohibited on a median in the street or on a roadside shoulder. Congratulations, Ashville. Finally, I don't know, maybe cleaning up just a tad all right, that'll do it for this episode. Thank you so much for listening. I could not do the show without your support and the support of the businesses that advertise on the podcast, so if you'd like, please support them too and tell them you heard it here. You can also become a patron at my Patreon page or go to thepetecleanershow dot com. Again, thank you so much for listening, and don't break anything while I'm gone.