"Tough on crime" making a comeback (01-17-2025--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.

[00:00:28] At the 33rd Annual Union County Crime Stopper Barbecue here at the Union County Ag Center on Presson Road in Monroe. And thanks again to Congressman Mark Harris, as well as State Senator Todd Johnson for stopping by. Good to talk with them again about hurricane relief efforts in Western North Carolina and other topics. That was in hour number two. So if you missed it, you can get the Pete podcast, thepeatpod.com. That's the website.

[00:00:59] All right. So a story at the AP I found to be interesting with a headline, a tough on crime approach is back in US state capitals. Tough on crime approach. And it kind of feels like this is mirroring a pendulum swing that occurred in the 80s. We just had Mark Harris on. We were talking about the inauguration being moved indoors. The last time it got moved

[00:01:28] indoors. Do you know when that was Ronald Reagan? It was so cold they moved it inside. And there are some other similarities that people are drawing. You had the return of hostages right before taking office. And you had the assassination attempt.

[00:01:50] Very eerily similar. Not that history repeats. But sometimes it rhymes. Although in this case, it does kind of sound like it's repeating a little bit. But so there's that. And in the 80s, we saw, you know, crime getting out of control. And then there was the backlash. Tough on crime policies came about. And then, you know, we ended up with a pretty relatively safe.

[00:02:16] I say that relatively safe. But look, the crime stats, the crime rates have been declining for the last 30 years. So in there, I've read enough material on this where nobody really knows why. There are all sorts of theories and stuff. But in general, when you zoom out, looking back 50 years, the data's on a downward slope, which is very good. Very good.

[00:02:41] Now, that being said, Charlotte Mecklenburg Police put out its latest crime report. This for 2024. Overall crime down 3% in Charlotte. And that's their headline. Overall crime is down 3%. That's good. Right? Good news.

[00:03:06] Yeah. But if you look at the breakout, which they do include, I will give them credit. CMPD did include the breakdown of the crimes at the very end of the four-page press release.

[00:03:20] But at the very end, they list the breakdown as violent crimes and then homicides and then aggravated assaults, rapes, armed robberies, property crimes, residential burglaries, and commercial burglaries, larcenies from auto and vehicle thefts and arsons.

[00:03:43] Okay. Violent crime is actually up. Violent crime is up by about 200 offenses. Now, keep in mind also, we have more people living here. So, when you break it out as a proportion of the population, right? You're looking at a violent crime rate per 1,000 people. And, you know, you have more people, you have more crime incidents.

[00:04:13] So, if you have more crime incidents, then yes, you're going to see this number increase, obviously. So, 7,400 offenses versus 7,200 in 2023. So, it's basically a 200 incident increase. Homicides went up by 22. Aggravated assaults went up by 130. Rapes dropped by 20. Armed robberies declined by 20.

[00:04:41] And property crimes declined by 1,500. And so, I would submit that is the driver of the data decline. Which makes sense because when you look at the property crimes numbers, it is by and large, it's the biggest category of crime. Property crimes account for like 37,000 crimes. And all the others are in either the hundreds or the mid, you know, 5,000, 6,000, 7,000 range.

[00:05:10] Property crime is the biggest category. So, that declined 1,500. Residential burglaries were down 250. And I have no idea if this is true, so I'll say it anyway. I think it probably may have something to do with the rise of the affordability of home security systems. Commercial burglaries were up by 100. I would guess that might be due to all of the construction sites getting raided reels and such.

[00:05:41] Larcenies from automobiles up by about 1,000. These are people that usually, this is people leaving stuff in their vehicles unlocked. And I do not understand why people do this. Why you can't see it in your vehicle with the doors unlocked. Unless you're trying to get the laptop stolen so you can collect insurance money and get a new one. That's the only reason I can think people do this and then do it multiple times.

[00:06:10] And I know some people that this has happened to multiple times. Like, if you don't lock your car after the first time you get robbed out of your car, like... I'm sorry. Like, that's mainly a you problem. You need to be paying way more in insurance rates. But that's the second biggest category. There was 11,000, over 11,000 larcenies from autos last year. Vehicle thefts up. Sorry. Vehicle thefts. Down.

[00:06:41] Sorry. Down. Down by about 500. Arsons. There were 162 last year. There were 143 the previous year. So arson has gone up by about 20. So it's kind of a mixed bag. But again, the violent crimes, homicides, and aggravated assaults have all gone up. So, while overall crime is down, the violent crime seems to be up.

[00:07:10] CMPD reported a 3% decrease in overall crime victimization and overall incidents. This is the result of the department's focus on key areas such as juvenile crime, automobile thefts, street takeovers, and curtailing violent crime in areas of high victimization. Violent crime was up 3% in victimization, but down 1% in the number of incidents in 2024.

[00:07:40] The main driver of this rise in victimization was the 4% increase in aggravated assault by pointing a firearm. Now, in the fourth quarter of 2024, CMPD launched what's called the CORE 13, the Coordinated Overlap Response Effort. The C-O-R-E, or as I call it, the CORE. Well, they call it that too.

[00:08:05] It's an initiative involving all 13 CMPD divisions to increase... What do you think? Officer presence. Not like gifts, but their... Right, them being places. Their presence in the community. During the first two months of CORE 13, 75 firearms were seized, 123 arrests were made. The initiative was a driver in lowering violent crime by 4% just in the fourth quarter. Overall, it was up.

[00:08:35] Okay, so what are they saying? What is CMPD saying? That when we increase officer presence, it leads to a decrease in crime. Particularly violent crime. Charlotte also saw a decline in juvenile crime. In part due to the launch of CMPD's Juvenile Accountability and Diversion Empowerment Team.

[00:09:02] The J-A-D-E Team. Or as I call it, the Jade. Well, they call it that too also. Alright, so Jade's focus is juvenile investigations, monitoring at-risk youth, and conducting operations to reduce crime and break the cycle of recidivism. Which is like returning to the life of crime kind of thing, re-offending. This is the program where they go and they visit the homes of, quote, at-risk youth.

[00:09:31] They arrested 122 juveniles involved in criminal activity. And violent crimes involving juvenile suspects decreased 2% for the year. So again, another example. What is this? Targeted enforcement. More police. Reduces the crime. Hmm. If only there was some sort of a trend that we could tease out of this data.

[00:10:00] Street takeovers. They are down. Pop-up takeovers are down 88%. This is where the people drive their cars and donuts in the intersections of roads and stuff. 2024, CMPD had 400. Oh, sorry. I read the wrong part here. This is street takeovers. Pop-up takeovers down 88%. And the pre-arranged events declined 71%. Street takeover vehicle seizures rose.

[00:10:29] So they seized a whole bunch of people's cars that were involved in the takeovers. Almost as if punishments might reduce the bad behavior. Again, is somebody keeping a list of this stuff? Because I feel like we may be close to cracking the code on some of this. 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.

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[00:11:52] 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. All right, so joining me, by the way, I am here at the 33rd annual Union County Crime Stoppers BBQ. And I got the sheriff here of Union County, Eddie, is it Kathy or Kathy? Kathy. Kathy, okay. I didn't want to mispronounce it, so I figured I'd say it both ways just to be safe. That's covered, you're covered.

[00:12:20] Okay, so I also made sure, he says, I'm not going to get towed for parking along the side of the road in order to get here and make my on-air shift. See, it's good to know people. I think you'll be good. I'll go out there and check, and I'll be sure nobody's already towed it. But I think you'll be good. All right, if I get out there now and I find my car towed, would that be City? No, call Reed and him. Okay, right.

[00:12:45] All right, so first off, let's talk just a bit about the event here, this Crime Stoppers BBQ event. 33 years, and so what do you all use the money for? And is this it? Is this the big fundraiser of the year? It's the only fundraiser. It's the only one. It's the only fundraiser. We have all year, and all the money goes back into the community. A big portion of what we did today was donated by the public.

[00:13:14] All the meat, the slaw, everything is donated. So the money that comes in is a lot of money, but every bit of it goes back out in the community. Nobody gets a salary. Nobody touches anything. Don't go through Crime Stoppers board. And the money is used to pay, what, the rewards for tips? Rewards for tips. Yeah.

[00:13:40] So do you ever end up in a year where you get more money than you got tips? Or is like the last tip of the year, like December 31st, like if I commit a crime and then tip off myself, could I make a lot of money with whatever's left in the till? We'd have to have the board consider that. I'm just trying to think outside the box. I was going over the crime data from Charlotte Mecklenburg Police. They released the crime data for 2024. And we were just chatting about it before we got on the air here.

[00:14:09] And you unsolicited from me, you said something about car or larcenies from vehicles. This is a big problem in Union County. I mean, I don't think you got the numbers that they got in Charlotte Mecklenburg. But why is this such a problem? I don't understand why people, first off, leave their cars open to get burglarized like that, to get stolen from in the first place.

[00:14:36] And then I guess the thieves know that this crime is easily done. Well, there's a lot of things in play. For one thing, the juvenile law changed in North Carolina to where that hurts all this process. 17, 16-year-old know they're not going to jail. They get recruited by who knows who to hit these neighborhoods, pull on door handles.

[00:15:05] If the public would lock their vehicles every night, and really if they'd just put the stuff out of sight, because they run down through these neighborhoods and pull door handles until they find one open, then they steal everything that's in there. It doesn't make any difference what it is. They'll go through the ashtrays, the computers. Sometimes they get a gun.

[00:15:33] It goes right back out into the criminal world. Yeah. So is this like an organized theft ring? I don't think it's that much organized. I think it's just thieves that band together to be successful at their job. And when they hit these neighborhoods, see, they know they'll have one person drop them off,

[00:15:58] and they run through these neighborhoods, and they're so hard to catch in those neighborhoods. But we have caught them, caught some. We've charged, I think one time we charged 34 people. Oh, wow. So it's a big deal. But they do more damage than they get money. Right. Especially if they're breaking windows or something like that.

[00:16:25] They're breaking some windows, but not a lot of window breakage. If they at least lock the cars. Yeah. Be a big help. Yeah. No, it happens all the time in my neighborhood. I don't understand because usually somebody takes to the Facebook group, and they're like, I just got robbed from my car. And first somebody will ask, did you leave it open? And they're like, well, yes. So maybe that's happening. Maybe you've got people that are coming in and dropping off a whole group of these kids. And a lot of them come out of Charlotte.

[00:16:55] Yeah. A lot of them know that they're coming out of Charlotte. But if we catch them, they regret being in our county because we lock them up, charge them. So apparently CMPD, with their press release that they put out in their news conference that they did, apparently they're claiming, and maybe you can confirm, they're claiming that when they step up police presence and target particular areas and crimes and criminal activity

[00:17:23] with more law enforcement, that the crime goes down. Have you ever heard of this? You know, I'll have to think about that a little bit. If you have more law enforcement and you have more enforcement, it helps crime rate. That's what I'm just throwing it to you. If you were unaware, this could be really innovative. It could be something new we could think about. Right. Right.

[00:17:53] That's pretty amazing. And so you've got, obviously, I mean, we're being sarcastic here. Obviously, Sheriff knows this. It does seem odd that we have to relearn this lesson about every 20 to 30 years, though, for some reason. Well, we don't have to relearn that thing. We've not stopped doing it. We've kept our crime rate low. We've kept, actually, the breaking and entering is low. We had one murder here last year.

[00:18:20] So we've not changed the way we operate. We have people that know where all the break-ins are happening, and we try to target. We try to put extra patrol in there. We put everything we need in there to try to catch them. And we do catch a lot of them. And then? We prosecute them. There's the, I think that's the key here. I think that is a big part of the equation.

[00:18:47] Our district attorney is very pro. So law enforcement supports our agency as well as all the agencies in the county. And we've not adapted those philosophies to just not arrest them. Yeah. Sheriff Ed Cathy, we appreciate you joining us on the program here. Thanks for all of your work at the sheriff's office and with the Crime Stoppers and the barbecue here. Thanks for your service. We appreciate it. Well, thank you.

[00:19:16] And I appreciate you all being here from WBT. Absolutely. All right. I hope you had a happy holiday season, but tell me if something like this happened at your house. Your family and friends are gathered around. Maybe y'all are in the living room. You're laughing, swapping stories, reminiscing, and then somebody says, Hey, Dad, remember those old VHS tapes? Did you ever get them transferred? And then the room gets all quiet. All eyes are on Dad who says, Oh, you know, well, I've been meaning to, but I just haven't gotten around to it.

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[00:20:14] Talk about a memorable gift. So do what I did. Trust the experts at Create a Video, conveniently located in Mint Hill, right off I-485, and online at createavideo.com. So the AP reports, within minutes of his inauguration Monday, new Missouri Governor Mike Kehoe is expected to issue a variety of orders targeting crime.

[00:20:39] The tone-setting move reflects a national trend. After a period of relaxed sentencing laws, a tough-on-crime approach is back in political favor in the U.S. Now, you know me. I am a why guy. I like to ask why.

[00:21:04] And so when I read that last sentence, after a period of relaxed sentencing laws, why? Why was there a period of relaxed sentencing laws? What contributed to that? What prompted that? And then it says a tough-on-crime approach is back in political favor. Once again, why? Why would it be back in favor? What happened? Why the change?

[00:21:35] Yeah. So this is what Sheriff Kathy was talking about there, was the state law changed in North Carolina under Republicans. The raise the age law. Where they're like, we're the last state in America that still prosecutes, you know, 16- and 17-year-olds as adults. And so they passed this law. Raised the age. Made it 18. Then all of a sudden, you'll never guess what happened.

[00:22:04] A whole bunch of 16- and 17-year-olds started skating on violent offenses. So then they came back and they were like, okay, we're going to add some more offenses to the list where you can still be charged as an adult if you're 16 or 17 and you commit these types of really bad, egregious crimes. See, so the criminal enterprises, criminals do know this.

[00:22:27] They know that if you don't penalize people under the age of 18, then they will get people under the age of 18 to do parts of the operation for them that carry the most risk for incarceration for them if they get caught doing it. Republicans and Democrats alike, the AP reports, are promoting anti-crime initiatives as a new year of lawmaking gets underway in state capitals.

[00:22:51] That comes after voters in several states approved ballot measures in the fall, imposing stricter penalties for crimes ranging from shoplifting to deadly drug dealing. Once again, why? Why would voters in several states approve ballot measures to impose stricter penalties? What happened?

[00:23:15] In some states, the anti-crime measures are intertwined with efforts to crack down on those living in the U.S. illegally, favoring an impetus of President-elect Donald Trump. Many also propose tougher penalties for trafficking fentanyl. A synthetic opioid killed tens of thousands of overdose deaths every single year. Other measures go beyond that. Some seek stricter sentences for sexual offenses involving children, violent crimes, or retail theft rings.

[00:23:43] And those have gained attention from social media videos showing shoplifting crews rampaging through stores. So once again, why? What is prompting people to choose to get, quote, tough on crime? In Maryland, Democratic State Representative, or sorry, State Senator Ron Watson is sponsoring legislation.

[00:24:08] He said would let prosecutors file felony charges against everybody involved in a group theft if the total value exceeds $1,500. Even if each person stole less than the $1,500. So, like, if you are part of one of these retail theft gangs that go into a, you know, a store and, you know, raid the shelves and pull a bunch of stuff off the shelves and run out,

[00:24:33] and you're one of 10 people, and all 10 people steal $200 worth of items, that would be what? A total of $2,000. And that would mean you get felony charge. Criminals have become emboldened because they can get away with things and pretty much get a slap on the wrist, Watson said. Violent or nonviolent, a crime is a crime, and that crime needs to be punished. This is one of the things, too.

[00:25:00] When you get, when you're victimized by crime, which is a, quote, unquote, nonviolent crime, that's a property crime, and people think that somehow or another that there isn't any kind of, you know, without getting all lefty on you, but trauma, right? That there isn't some trauma involved in that. And there is. There absolutely is. People's homes get burglarized, right? There is, you never feel safe in your home again. Trust me on that one, personal experience.

[00:25:28] You'll never feel as safe in your home again once you get burglarized. If you're working in a store and a bunch of hooligans rush in and steal a bunch of stuff and terrorize people as they're, you know, menacingly threatening them and grabbing stuff and running all around the store, right? That's a scary situation because here's the thing. You may know you're going in there to just steal some clothing. I don't know you're coming in here to just steal clothing. I don't know that.

[00:25:56] All I see is 10, 15 people storm the gates and start grabbing everything in sight. I have no idea what your intention is. It's obviously to engage in some sort of criminal activity. So I don't know that. That's a scary thing. So the federal government in many states have backed away from the 1980s policies that imposed harsher, I don't know why they're doing this, like drug crimes in spotlight. This is the Associated Press.

[00:26:22] So, of course, they're going to go to the different sentences for crack cocaine versus powder cocaine from the 1980s as civil rights activists noted a disproportionate impact on minorities. But the police chief of Salt Lake City, suburb of Roy, that's the name of the town, said the sentencing enhancements for fentanyl are justified. See, so it's like, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. I don't know if we can do these, you know, increased, harsher penalties for fentanyl.

[00:26:51] Because remember the whole crack versus powder coke thing. I mean, you know, racism. You are aware that there is a difference between fentanyl and crack. You do know that, right? Many types of crimes rose during the coronavirus pandemic. According to the AP story, more recently, the rates of violent crimes and many property crimes have trended back down. However, shoplifting remains above pre-pandemic levels. This is according to the Council on Criminal Justice.

[00:27:21] That is a nonpartisan think tank. But people's sense of security is not necessarily tied to statistics. You hear CMPD police chief Johnny Jennings say this sort of thing all the time, where he says, you know, if they don't think they're safe, I think Malcolm Graham, city councilman, has said this as well. If people don't believe they're safe, that perception means that, like, that they're not doing their job. Police and the courts are not doing their job.

[00:27:48] And police get, I think, they get tagged with all the responsibility for this when oftentimes they arrest people and then they go before a magistrate and a magistrate looks at them and they're like, oh, poor baby. And they're like, go ahead, you can go home, release you back into the custody of your mommy and daddy, who obviously are doing such a bang-up job that you got kiddie porn on your computer. Oh, yeah, that happened. Literally a case out of Mecklenburg County. Cornelius.

[00:28:18] The guy's name, 18-year-old accused of distributing child porn of girls as young as four. He spent two hours in jail before being released to his mother with no bond. Now, the magistrates will tell you that, in this case, Brett Kimbrell, the quick release, that his quick release was okay, basically, because, look, they're just following the law and they're trying to, the magistrate is just following the law,

[00:28:47] and the purpose of the bond is to make sure that they show back up in court or if they are some sort of a, you know, existential threat or immediate threat to the community. Well, I would submit that the guy who was living at home probably shouldn't have been remanded back to the custody of the people that were supposed to be looking after him at that home. Well, it doesn't seem like a wise move, but what do I know? I'm just a radio host. I'm no magistrate.

[00:29:14] 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. 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 slash Pete.

[00:29:43] I put the link in the podcast description, too. I started using Ground News a few months ago and more recently chose to work with them as an affiliate because it lets me see clearly how stories get covered and by whom. The Blindspot feature shows you which stories get ignored by the left and the right. See for yourself. Check.ground.news slash Pete. Subscribe through that link and you'll get 15% off any subscription. I use the Vantage plan to get unlimited access to every feature.

[00:30:12] Your subscription then not only helps my podcast, but it also supports Ground News as they make the media landscape more transparent. And by the way, yes, they are still doing the 33rd annual Union County Crime Stoppers BBQ down here at the Union County Agricultural Center. Brett Winterbull will be taking over the con after I am done. 704-570-1110.

[00:30:37] I got an email here to Pete at thepetecalendarshow.com from John who says, wait, I am confused. Are you saying that defunding the police and shifting their funds to social programs did not reduce crime? How is this possible? We had social policy geniuses like Braxton Winston and Councilwoman Dimple Ajmera tell us that it would. I know. It's so weird. Is it possible?

[00:31:06] And I'm just spitballing here, though, John. Is it possible that just because you win a seat on a city council doesn't mean you know how to actually do police work? It doesn't mean you know how to solve crimes. That's just, I'm just spitballing here. It's just an idea.

[00:31:31] So the federal government and many states backed away from the 1980s policies. They don't say why in this Associated Press story. But now there is this newfound respect for getting tough on crime. Many types of crimes rose during the pandemic, as I mentioned. But people's sense of security isn't necessarily tied to the statistics. High profile crimes such as the New Year's Day attack in New Orleans,

[00:32:01] the burning of a woman on the subway in New York, the fatal shooting of the UnitedHealthcare CEO, right? All of these things impact the perception of public safety. And look, that is true. I agree with this AP story on that front. It does actually impact the perception of public safety. But here's the thing. If you don't have a lot of these events, then the impact is minimized.

[00:32:29] The more types of events you have like this, then the more impact it has. Adam Gelb is president and CEO of the Council on Criminal Justice. He said, quote, quote, many people seem to think that the reforms over the past two decades overshot the mark. And there needs to be a rebalancing. Yeah, that's one way to say it. Rebalancing. Of course, there were some people that were saying, whoa, whoa, whoa.

[00:32:58] What are you doing? Stop, stop. Don't do this. We remember the 70s and 80s. I mean, it wasn't me because I wasn't even born. But I mean, well, I wasn't born in the early 70s. But I don't remember. I just remember you didn't go to New York's Times Square. I remember that as a kid. You didn't go there. It was gross. It was crime ridden. It was nasty. So you didn't go there. And then it was like, I'm down south and I'm seeing all these things about New York Times Square.

[00:33:26] And like all of these TV studios are now live in the morning from there. And I'm like, why would you be in Times Square? That's nasty. Like, holy Toledo. They really have made a difference there. Rudy Giuliani. California voters gave overwhelming approval in November to a ballot initiative. Did you hear about this? They voted for a ballot initiative in California, making shoplifting a felony for repeat offenders

[00:33:55] and increasing penalties for some drug charges, including those involving fentanyl. The measure rolled back parts of progressive law passed by voters in 2014 that downgraded several nonviolent crimes to misdemeanors, including theft valued under $950 and some drug offenses. Right. So this is the restoration of sanity. I got a message here from Russ.

[00:34:24] He says violent versus property crime. I understand I'm not wired like most people, but a few of us were jumped by a much larger group in college. And I have had my locked car twice and office three times burgled. For me, the invasion and removal of my stuff was much more troubling. Right. Because the thing is, you don't ever know.

[00:34:49] Like with the with the the physical assault, the getting jumped by people, I've had that occur to me as well. Like you just get blindsided. Somebody comes at you, whatever. It's like here now. And then the threat is over. And it's very easy to sort of say, like, this was this one isolated event. Somebody gets into your house. You have no idea what they did. You have no idea what they took. Because like it was years later when you start realizing some of the stuff that is missing. You're like, whatever happened to that thing? You know, and you got to take a guess.

[00:35:19] You're like, I guess it was the burglary because I just don't know. But you also don't know if they're coming back. Did they see something they wanted and then they're going to come back? In Colorado, voters approved a ballot initiative lengthening the time that people have to serve in prison before they can be paroled for certain categories of murder, assault, sexual assault, kidnapping, arson, burglary and robbery. That's in Colorado. Voters approved that.

[00:35:48] In Arizona, voters approved measures boosting penalties for deadly fentanyl sales and mandating life imprisonment for certain child sex trafficking crimes. Yes, I'm okay with that, too. I don't think you recover from that. Like, I don't think you're if you're sex trafficking children, I don't think like I think you're broken. You're done. That's it. You need to be taken away.

[00:36:14] Other states have also backtracked just years after relaxing sentencing laws. I think, guys, it may have this is maybe as close as we get to an admission that they were wrong. 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 the Pete Calendar show dot com. Again, thank you so much for listening.

[00:36:43] And don't break anything while I'm gone.