LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- On the same day that Louisville recorded its 100th homicide of the year, Mayor Greg Fischer sat down with WDRB's Chris Sutter to address the continuing violence and the city's plans to deal with it.
A transcript of the interview appears below. You can also watch the interview in its entirety by clicking here or view it in the player:
MAYOR GREG FISCHER INTERVIEW TRANSCRIPT - 8-18-20
SUTTER: First of all Mayor, I want to thank you for making yourself available to journalists every week. It is our job to get answers, and that has become very difficult with COVID.
A little background for our viewers: most agencies like LMPD send out press releases or do online press conferences now, saying it's in the interest of safety. So it is nearly impossible for us to ask questions that are important to our community, and we do have some very serious issues in Louisville right now. I think we can all agree on that.
So let's start with the push for you to resign, Mayor Fischer. Seven Republican Metro Council members announced the resolution yesterday. So we put that question (Should Mayor Fischer resign) to our Facebook viewers in a poll, and the overwhelming response is that they do agree. You have lost a massive amount of support according to this poll, from this community, and from city leaders in a time of crisis.
So the big question is, will you step down?
MAYOR FISCHER: Look, yesterday's call was divisive, it was political, it was shameful. Anybody whose been through any kind of adversity in life, whether it's at home or on the sports team or at work, what you do is: you come together. That's the way you succeed. You don't try to divide folks. We're dealing with a pandemic, protests, recession, an increase in violence in our community. Those are the types of things we should be fighting against together, not trying to divide the community right now.
So I think it was very unfortunate, and it's a distraction to what we need to be doing. I'm focused on the work of the community.
SUTTER: Has it ever been a consideration to you, though, in the midst of all of the things that have been happening in this city? A lot of people would just say 'this is a lot, maybe it is time?'
MAYOR FISCHER: Look, I wish it was as simple as one person, and all of a sudden everything gets better. These are massive forces that are impacting the entire country right now, and our city as well. I've never been more determined, never been more passionate. This is my hometown. We've built a great city here over the last nine years, the past nine years of my administration. Then the pandemic hit. So bad things have happened. We've had Breonna's tragedy in the middle of this as well.
So what we've got to do is come together. We've got to work harder, we've got find solutions. And that's what I'm going to do.
SUTTER: Beyond the calls for your resignation, you've been blamed for the poor handling of the Breonna Taylor response, you've been accused of a lack of transparency as well. What grade would you give yourself as the Mayor?
MAYOR FISCHER: I'm doing what I can do within the constraints of the law. So what's important to me is that the truth gets out. And that's why I asked the attorney general, the FBI, and the U.S. Attorney to look at this case. So that there's no question what took place there.
And I'm not waiting for improvements as well. That's why we started the civilian review process. That's why we passed Breonna's Law, changed LMPD policy -- lots of improvements taking place under very difficult circumstances. And we're going to continue to make those improvements.
SUTTER: What about that letter grade? What letter grade would you give yourself?
MAYOR FISCHER: I don't get into games like that. What I know is that we're working as hard as we can, 18 hours a day, so that we can move the city forward.
SUTTER: I don't really think it's a game though, Mayor. I mean, I think people would want to know the answer to that.
MAYOR FISCHER: It's a "gotcha" question. People can look at how hard I'm working, how hard our team is working focused on what our citizens need. That's the kind of grade that I like.
SUTTER: So you don't want to answer that question?
MAYOR FISCHER: To me, it's a "gotcha." I'm going to be criticized either way -- so I appreciate you asking, but the important thing is focus on what our citizens need: safety, education, out-of-school time, affordable housing -- all the type of things that we've been working on for a long time.
SUTTER: Putting it bluntly, I think you can agree with this, the city is scared. A lot of people in the city are scared.
MAYOR FISCHER: Oh, absolutely.
SUTTER: So violent crime is spiking. This week alone we just had 100 homicides confirmed, a shooting in broad daylight on the Watterson; a 3-year-old was shot and killed; her dad was, too. He was 21 years old. So what does your police force need to do to bring this under control?
MAYOR FISCHER: Well I wish it was as simple as just the police force, right? The police force are about enforcement. Let's talk about all the things before that: intervention, prevention, the responsibility of family units and community units to make sure that people are safe and not toting guns around and doing illegal activities.
So that's at the bottom of a lot of these things. Not poor little 3-year-old Trinity. I mean that is a disaster, a tragedy that I would hope would wake people up to say 'what are you doing, driving around shooting like this, and having victims like this?'
So we need community outrage as well to say that this is not acceptable. We need people to grow up and say just because there's a social media beef doesn't mean you're going to go shoot somebody. And then of course if you're involved with drugs, gangs, guns, get out of that life. Your life is too important, and the life that you're going to impact as well.
SUTTER: What about police officers? What can they be doing?
MAYOR FISCHER: Police officers -- you saw last week we announced a new approach with the carjacking and violence task force. With the federal task force we can re-allocate where police officers are, we're doing that type of things. So it's constantly re-establishing strategy and bringing in new partners.
SUTTER: In all of this turmoil, the Kentucky Derby of course is just a couple of weeks away. Now the NFAC coalition is promising to bring its armed militia back to the streets that day. That's in addition to other protesters. The police force already stretched thin, too, as we know. So how is the city preparing to handle this, and with COVID in the mix is it even a good idea to have the Derby?
MAYOR FISCHER: So let's remember a lot of this is because we're waiting on the disposition of Breonna's case, it's with the attorney general right now, to see what decision he is going to make on criminal charges that could take place with that. So what we'll do is what we've done like with NFAC and other groups before, is coordinate with them beforehand. We successfully did that when they were in town a couple of weeks ago. We'll do that again. So depending on how many folks are involved, it depends on what the LMPD presence looks like on Derby Day. It's unusual, no question about that. There'll be less people going to the Derby so that helps in terms of crowd control.
SUTTER: Is it a good idea to have this, though, with the virus raging and with all of these other things happening? Should we maybe just cut our losses and say hey maybe this isn't the year?
MAYOR FISCHER: The year for what?
SUTTER: The Derby.
MAYOR FISCHER: Well the Derby has gone on for 100 consecutive years, so it's a big part of the tradition of the city and of America as well. Churchill is working with the governor to make sure that the Derby can go on safely relative to COVID. You've got 200 acres out there. We do have to take COVID seriously, obviously. We're continuing to see a slight uptick in positivity rates so we'll ask everybody: Do your part. Wear a mask. Social distance. Wash your hands. Those blunt force measures are what decrease the COVID positivity rate.
SUTTER: So right now, as the Mayor of Louisville, you're OK with the Derby moving forward?
MAYOR FISCHER: What I'm OK with is the plan that's in place, as of today. Things can obviously change with COVID and other circumstances, and we have to be very attentive to those. Whether it goes on or not is up to Churchill Downs and the governor.
SUTTER: We're also hearing from people, on social media all the time -- and people who call our newsroom quite frequently -- that they're scared about another event. The announcement of whether or not there will be criminal charges against the officers in the Breonna Taylor case. So do you have a timeline on when to expect that decision, and does the city have a plan to respond if there's more violence?
MAYOR FISCHER: Well obviously the city has a plan to respond. You've seen how LMPD has handled large protests before, so we're waiting on the attorney general, Daniel Cameron, to see what his announcement is going to be on this. So we'll be ready. And obviously, we'll be working not just locally, but with our regional and state partners as well.
And this is a choice that people have on how they're going to respond. Because we're all going to be together after this already. So think about our kids, our grandkids, the kind of city we're leaving for them. And then think about the statement to the rest of the nation. The statement we can make around moving through this, growing a city of more equity, more opportunity, more justice.
That's really what justice for Breonna means, when the big picture is that everybody, regardless of their skin color, has the same opportunity. And throughout history that has not happened in our country. We need to change that, that's another factor that we're working on.
SUTTER: The last time that we spoke you said you would get advance notice from the attorney general's office when the decision is coming down. You said you don't know how long that would be. Have you got that notice yet?
MAYOR FISCHER: No, I don't know any more about the timing. Obviously, we need to know from a public safety standpoint just to prepare. We want to plan for the worst, and hope for the best. And then continue to encourage people in the community that the response is up to us. It's a choice. It doesn't have to be violent. You can be disappointed, you can be happy -- whatever takes place. But we've got to build this city for tomorrow. For our kids, for our grandkids, and each one of us has a choice on how to do that.
SUTTER: Are you concerned that it will be violent, based on what we've seen in the past?
MAYOR FISCHER: Really I don't know. It just depends on what the leaders do. And I say leaders in the protest movement, agitators that might want to come to town and then leave town. This is our town. And this is why we've got to make sure it's safe throughout all this and that we move forward together regardless of what the outcome is.
SUTTER: All right, Louisville Mayor Greg Fischer. Always appreciate the time.
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