Live from Music Row Monday morning on The Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy – broadcast on Nashville’s Talk Radio 98.3 and 1510 WLAC weekdays from 5:00 a.m. to 8:00 a.m. – host Leahy welcomed the original all-star panelist Crom Carmichael to the studio to discuss the potential run for governor of Michigan by former police chief James Craig and the challenges he’ll face.
Leahy: Well Crom, I don’t know about you, but I am really enjoying the new Shoot 270 Ranges at the Nashville Glock Store.
Carmichael: You know, I have had now three lessons, and I will tell you you can learn a lot more shooting with an instructor than just going into any old downrange and shooting that way. Instructors are great.
Leahy: I’ve never shot at a lane range. Should I try one?
Carmichael: I don’t know why you should. Why go to Class B when you can go to Class A, which is the Glock Store.
Leahy: Makes sense. That’s a very good point. Now you use Shoot270.com to book your sessions. Is it easy?
Carmichael: Yeah. Yeah, it’s very easy. And if you don’t want to do that, you can call them and that’ll work, too. If you use the Shoot270.com website, they’ve got a reservation system right there and it works great.
Leahy: Shoot270.com. I’m logging in right now. And Crom, I just have to say I love going to the Glock Store.
Carmichael: It is fun.
Leahy: It is fun. And you learn a lot.
Carmichael: Oh, yeah.
Leahy: Especially if you’re new to shooting guns, you learn a lot.
Carmichael: Not only that, that makes it a lot of fun.
Leahy: Yeah, it’s a fun place.
Carmichael: It is a lot of fun.
Leahy: It’s an impressive place. You know, one guy who learned a long time ago how to shoot a gun: James Craig, former police chief, Detroit. Do you like that segue?
Carmichael: Great segue. That’s very impressive. There’s a great article in The Journal back on July 9th. And they’ve interviewed him and they ask him questions about why is it – why did Detroit not have all of the violence that all the other big cities had?
And he said the Police Department in Detroit is very, very heavily minority. And they have worked very, very hard over the years. And he was chief of police there, I believe, for eight years.
Leahy: Eight years.
Carmichael: They worked very, very hard within the community to explain to the people in the community, it doesn’t do you any good to burn down your own community.
It doesn’t do you any good to trash the merchants who serve your community. So not only is it not smart for you to do it, our police department is not going to allow you to do it.
The police department there in working with the community, then the community held up their end of the bargain. And if there are any outside agitators, which is what happens a lot, Craig shut down the outside agitators.
The outside agitators figured out pretty quickly, don’t go to Detroit. You’ll get arrested if you’re trying to stir up trouble. And so now he is considering running for governor of Michigan.
Leahy: Please. Please do run against Gretchen Whitmer, the face of left-wing totalitarianism in America, the Democrat.
Carmichael: And he tries to tell her, he said, look, he said, we gave up kings and queens back in 1776. And it’s refreshing, by the way, that he used 1776 as the year of the change.
Leahy: Yes.
Carmichael: And he said that’s the year that we said tyrants be gone. And so he’s considering running. I hope he does run.
Leahy: I hope he does run. He’s born in Detroit. It’s a very interesting background. He went to work for, as I guess, a beat cop for the Detroit Police Department from 1977 to ’81.
He was laid off in ’81, so he went West. He spent three decades as a police officer in Los Angeles.
Carmichael: Wow.
Leahy: Then, in 2009, he was named police chief in Portland for two years. In 2011 and 2013, he was chief of police in Cincinnati. And then in 2013, police chief in Detroit. This guy knows policing well.
Carmichael: That’s well said. He understands policing. But he also understands the role of police and the importance of the broken windows theory of policing.
And so they work closely with the community and the community in Detroit. Now, by the way, Detroit is still a fairly violent place compared to other cities. It’s a violent place.
In one other segment, what I’d like to do is talk about the root causes of that violence, especially within Black and Hispanic communities – but a primarily Black community.
Leahy: Well, if you’re a Democrat, you would say the root cause is poverty.
Carmichael: Well, then that’s exactly right. That’s what they would say. Now you have to then ask yourself, is poverty the root cause, or is there a root cause of poverty?
This gets to the question of simple-versus-complex problems. And in the case of racial inequities, I think you have to go back six different steps to find the root cause.
And there may not be a single root cause. There may be two that are equally powerful. And then you might be able to argue that one of those precedes the other.
But they definitely are the cause of poverty. Poverty is not the beginning point. Poverty is not the endpoint either. But poverty is not the beginning point of solving the problem.
And so the way the Democrats are trying to approach the issue is not going to solve the problems. Craig is somebody who understands that. We haven’t mentioned to our audience that Craig is Black.
And if he runs for governor, then it will be a very interesting contrast between a rich White woman running for re-election and a Black former police chief who should have tremendous name recognition and popularity in Detroit.
Leahy: I think he would do very well in that. The problem he’s going to face is this: Jumping into the political arena even if you look like you’re a strong candidate. As chief of police, that’s a highly political job.
Carmichael: Sure it is.
Leahy: No question about that. He’s got a little bit of that background, but it’s a bare-knuckles game in politics. It really is a bare-knuckles game.
Carmichael: Maybe. But he’s up to it.
Leahy: Do you think so?
Carmichael: Oh, yeah. And I’ve seen him interviewed, and I’ve seen him interviewed by people who are hostile to him. And he can handle it. He handles it great because he has logic and truth on his side.
Leahy: I’m rooting for him.
Listen to the full second hour here:
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Tune in weekdays from 5:00 – 8:00 a.m. to the Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy on Talk Radio 98.3 FM WLAC 1510. Listen online at iHeart Radio.
Photo “Detroit Police Chief James Craig” by City of Detroit.
Live from Music Row Monday morning on The Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy – broadcast on Nashville’s Talk Radio 98.3 and 1510 WLAC weekdays from 5:00 a.m. to 8:00 a.m. – host Leahy welcomed the original all-star panelist Crom Carmichael to the studio who outlined the convoluted gun requirements to obtaining a firearm in certain blue states while making it harder for lower-income people to own, and how these resemble Jim Crow voting laws from the past.
(Maxine Waters clip plays)
Leahy: That is Representative Maxine Waters, who is Black and who is a Democrat and was up in Brooklyn Center, Minnesota, the site of the second police shooting of a young Black man or the shooting of a young Black man who was resisting arrest and sounds like inciting violence to me. In Florida Ron DeSantis doesn’t like that kind of idea Crom.
Carmichael: What Maxine Waters said there was, we need to stay in the streets, correct?
Leahy: That is what she said. Now, the Constitution allows us to peaceably, assemble to address the government with our grievances. That’s what the Constitution allows. What Ron DeSantis and the Republicans in Florida have done is they’ve passed legislation that essentially says that if your protest turns to intimidation that is by definition of their law, not peaceful.
And so mostly peaceful in Florida won’t fly anymore. And if it’s two or more people, two or more people. I remember seeing videos, for example, of all the riots all over the country. But I also saw videos in Washington, D.C., outside of the Capitol, where you had some protesters, and they were just like the protesters in so many cities across the country that were acting intimidatingly against the Capitol Hill police. In Florida that will be an arrestable offense. That will be a felony, not a misdemeanor.
Leahy: There’s no state law, apparently that addresses that in Minnesota although there are certain constitutional elements to it. Here’s the story about Waters, from Breitbart. Waters in her remarks to reporters, that a protest in Brooklyn Center, where thousands have been protesting the death of Daunte Wright encouraged people to ‘take to the streets if Chauvin (Derk Chauvin the officer charged with, I think second-degree murder in the death of George Floyd back in May) we’re looking for a guilty verdict,’ Waters said.
‘And we are looking to see if all of the talk that took place and has been taking place. And after they saw what happened to George Floyd, if nothing does happen, then we know that we’ve got to not only stay in the street, but we’ve got to fight for justice.’ That’s what she said. That sounds like inciting violence to me.
Carmichael: Sure does. I would like to compare that to anything that Trump said. Trump didn’t say anything like that.
Leahy: Nothing like that.
Carmichael: And they’re claiming that Trump said this. But if I could, Michael, let me do a Jen Psaki here and circle back.
Leahy: Jen Psaki, the incompetent Press Secretary for Joe Biden.
Carmichael: No, she’s actually quite competent. She just provides zero information. She’s very competent. She does have information. She does exactly what the Biden administration wants her to do.
Leahy: Which is to give no information.
Carmichael: Which is to provide nothing. But anyway, let me give you some more information. We’ve talked about this previously, the Jim Crow laws. First of all the Jim Crow laws were passed post-Civil War by the Democrats in the South. This is extremely important that we recognize as it was the Democrats in the South who passed the Jim Crow laws. What did the Jim Crow laws do? They did two primary things. Anyway, the two things: one is they imposed poll taxes to make it expensive to vote.
Leahy: Right.
Carmichael: And the other is they set up certain standards and certain procedures, things that you had to pass in order to have the right to vote. And those were disproportionate. They truly did subdue the Black vote.
Leahy: Absolutely.
Carmichael: Absolutely did that. Now, let’s look at Illinois, and let’s look at Indiana. Of the people in Illinois, less than have a firearm. In Indiana 20 percent have firearms. And in Indiana, the cost of applying for a firearm is $12. In Illinois, it’s $450. Democrats control Illinois. Are Democrats trying to keep low-income people from owning a firearm?
Leahy: From legally owning.
Carmichael: From legally owning. Great point. The violence in Illinois is terrible. The violence in Chicago is terrible. The people committing the violence, do not own legal guns.
Leahy: And there are usually illegal guns.
Carmichael: These are mostly illegal guns. And so in Illinois, it is the Democrats who are trying to have a poll tax as it were on the right on the right of self-protection. Now in Illinois, you have to have 16 hours of training. If you live in the city of Chicago, you have to drive a long long way away to get training. But you have to have 16 hours. And that’s also expensive because you have to pay for the training.
Leahy: Pay for the training.
Carmichael: But that means if you tried to do it in two full days, eight hours a day, you’d have to drive someplace and stay overnight. So what they’re doing is they’re making it as difficult as possible in Illinois for a low-income Black person in Chicago to own a gun.
Leahy: Legally.
Carmichael: Legally. That is the definition. What the Democrats are doing in Illinois to keep black people from protecting themselves is the essence of Jim Crow.
Leahy: It’s a Second Amendment suppression.
Carmichael: It is Second Amendment suppression. No question about that. But it is the tactics. It is the tactics that they’re using. They’re making it expensive, and they’re making it almost like you have to jump through all kinds of hoops. And the results are that Black people, especially in Chicago, the honest Black people, which is the vast majority they can’t afford the time or the money to protect themselves. And the police and the mayor simply aren’t able to do it. For whatever reason, they aren’t doing it. And so this is resulting in murder. This is resulting in death. And it’s all Jim Crow gun laws. Jim Crow Gun laws.
Leahy: You make a very fine point there, Crom.
Listen to the full second hour here:
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Tune in weekdays from 5:00 – 8:00 a.m. to the Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy on Talk Radio 98.3 FM WLAC 1510. Listen online at iHeart Radio.
Live from Music Row Wednesday morning on The Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy – broadcast on Nashville’s Talk Radio 98.3 and 1510 WLAC weekdays from 5:00 a.m. to 8:00 a.m. – host Leahy welcomed journalist and author Andy Ngo to explain why he was canceled from the upcoming Q Ideas – Culture Summit Christian conference in Nashville and how critical race theory is seeping into evangelical Christianity.
Leahy: We’re joined by our good friend Andy No, author of Unmasked. Welcome to the Airwaves in Nashville Andy.
Ngo: Thank you for having me on.
Leahy: Andy, you are welcome to talk and discuss your work here. You have brave journalistic work investigating Antifa, the left-wing group that engages in violence. You yourself were injured very seriously when you were covering some of their violent activity in Portland. We are delighted to have you on The Tennessee Star Report.
We believe in freedom of speech here. And what you have to say is very important. I was trying to unravel this crazy story from last week where a Christian conference here in Nashville canceled your appearance after a former speaker had said, well, I don’t like Andy. What happened there?
Ngo: Yeah. So I was really looking forward to speaking to this conference because even though I myself am not religious, I do find that Christian institutions and the church act as probably the most important bulwark against critical race theory and this neo-racism that you are seeing on the far left.
And so I was invited to speak about Antifa. The conference is meant to be about discussing different ideas and inviting people who may not be part of the evangelical community or church, but nonetheless have important things to say. I was supposed to be speaking with the conference founder, Gabe Lyons, and everything was set to go and was finalized.
And then last week I got just a very short email, letting me know that they were no longer moving forward with having me there. And I didn’t quite understand why until I saw the reporting that came out to the Religion News Service that a former speaker who is also a BLM activist and friends with the founder had reached out to Mr. Lyons to tell him to disinvite me.
Leahy: So this guy Jason “Propaganda” Petty just asserted that Andy Ngo is a bad guy, and that’s it no evidence, nothing other than that. That’s all we see here. Well, first, you’re a good guy. A. And B, you tell the truth. Why would a purportedly Christian conference and why would Gabe Lyons, whom I don’t know why would he bend to these false accusations against you and disinvite you?
Ngo: Well, your listeners are probably aware that many evangelical churches and even institutions like the Southern Baptist Convention have been slowly allowing critical race theory to creep insensibly under the guise of what looks like very noble racial justice. But the ideas, the theory behind critical race theories are not about equality or protecting equal rights and human rights.
It’s about giving in to grievance and hatred really. And I do think that this is (Inaudible talk) to Christian theology, and it’s unfortunate that many important Christian institutions in the West have been allowing us to come in. That’s the bigger picture and the bigger takeaway that I have for this. I wish the conference well.
It’s moving forward very soon anyway, I won’t be a part of it. But it’s unfortunate that the audience wasn’t able to hear what I have to say, given that we’re now in the past four days experiencing another round of extreme political street violence by BLM and Antifa in many American cities.
Leahy: Yes. Now, this event is called the Culture Summit. It’s the 15th annual conference for a group called Q Ideas. It’s scheduled for April 22 in Nashville which is next week. Were you going to appear in person or by a Zoom call? How are you going to appear?
Ngo: I was invited for a virtual discussion.
Leahy: Okay, so it’s a virtual discussion. I’ve never heard of these guys. How did you get to get to know them?
Ngo: So they actually reach out to me. But if you Google them, they’ve been doing these yearly annual conferences all around the country. They usually host it. They’ve even done it in Portland, Oregon, of all places. At one point some of the past speakers have included, like now the former mayor of Portland. So they do include people on the left, center, and right. And they try to analyze the discussions through a Christian worldview. That’s been my understanding.
Leahy: Let me read to you a couple of comments from our story at The Tennessee Star about this group’s decision to cancel your appearance for no good reason other than one guy is a BLM activist who doesn’t like you for unspecified reasons. Here’s one comment, I’m going to read these three comments. This is what our readers had to say about that decision. ‘Stupidity also affects some Christians. And last time I checked, you can’t legislate stupid.’
That’s one comment. Okay. Another reader says “a healthy culture needs to hear a variety of ideas, but I will choose what variety of ideas you can hear. Does anyone see any hypocrisy in that statement? What is fascism?” That’s a second comment. Here’s a third. “Nothing more than leftist cancel culture masquerading as Christian. Funny thing, the record company of the quote Christian rapper mentioned here who got Ngo canceled is in Portland, Oregon. So who really is the con artist? Hint, it’s not Andy Ngo.” What do you make of our readers when they say that about this cancellation?
Ngo: It sounds like you have some good readers on your site. I appreciate that support. You know, I dug into the background of this BLM activist/rapper who used his personal connections to get me removed from the conference. I actually found out that he hosts a podcast with an Antifa activist that’s based in Portland named Robert Evans.
He’s very extreme and radical. And their podcast is extremely anti-police. And they are pushing the Antifa lie that policing today is the same as essentially slave patrols in the past where law enforcement historically in the South were used to return slaves to the masters. Therefore, the institutions today need to be destroyed.
That’s what their podcast is about. I mean, this particular activist/rapper has his own personal grievance against me. I had never heard of them. And I would have appreciated an opportunity to explain my side of things to the organizers. But again, it’s not really about me. This is just one speaking opportunity. I think it’s emblematic of a larger trend we’re seeing in the evangelical Christian churches in America.
Leahy: Are you still based in Portland, or where are you based now, Andy?
Ngo: So last year, I had to leave Portland because it was extremely unsafe for me with all these frequent death threats coming in, violence in the city, and the shrinking police department because of the defunding of the Portland police after George Floyd’s death. And we’re seeing now weekly riots continue as they have for months on end.
They are escalating into really bad attacks. Just over the weekend Antifa gathered outside the local ICE facility and barricaded the front to lock the officers inside and then started it on fire. And then on Monday night, they set fire at a Portland police station. And then last night, they set the police union hall on fire.
So we’re having riot after riot. It’s not just Portland. We’re having riots in Seattle, and, of course, near Minneapolis because of the shooting death that happened a few days ago. It’s like I wrote in Unmasked and even my writings before then have always been a warning to the public and to politicians that this is what’s coming.
And these are the lessons we can learn from mistakes not just from 2020 but even going back to 2016. How do these far-left extremist groups in a way where they can systematically chip away at the rule of law and get the police department defunded and ruin morale, and then carry out acts of violence with impunity?
Listen to the full first hour here:
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Tune in weekdays from 5:00 – 8:00 a.m. to The Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy on Talk Radio 98.3 FM WLAC 1510. Listen online at iHeart Radio.
Photo “Andy Ngo” by Andy Ngo.
