Meanwhile, the Daily Planet contacted Cecil Bothwell, a prominent Asheville liberal, to schedule a telephone interview to discuss — in detail and for this story — his knowledge and impressions of what is going on with violent crime in Asheville,  but instead he texted the newspaper on Sept. 24 the following response:

“I think you would benefit from turning off FOX. Cheers.” 

For the conservative side, the Daily Planet contacted Rondell Lance, president of the local Fraternal Order of Police and a retired police officer, who said in a Sept. 25 phone interview:

“Well, first thing, when you hear people say” just about anything about the level of crime, but “look at the statistics” because “different agencies report their crimes in different ways, and it can skew the numbers.”

Upon being informed that Bothwell declined to be interviewed for this story by urging people to turn off FOX News, Lance said that, on the story about Asheville’s violent crime increase, “You’ve got not only FOX News, but, as well, (Asheville television station) WLOS (News 13) , the Asheville Citizen Times” newspaper” and others covering it — and they, in his estimation, do not show a conservative slant in their reporting.

The FOP leader added, “The reason people watch FOX News is because it is the No. 1-rated news” provider in the United States.

“They (leftist Democrats) are saying, ‘Don’t listen to ‘them,’ listen to what ‘our’ network says.’’ To that, Lance said, “They (the leftists) are just blowing smoke.”

As for his own experiences, Lance noted that he has been out about every day or night recently at the local candidates’ forums and, unusually for him, people continually approach him to complain about crime and safety and, “at many of the forums, both the Democrats and Republicans all agreed there is an issue (with crime) and we need to address it.

“What Bothwell (a former member of Asheville City Council) and Jeffrey Rose (chair of the Buncombe County Democratic Party) are trying to do is convince people” that there is no unusual roblem with rising violent crime, locally, Lance said.

“That one reason is because (otherwise) it all falls in the lap of the Democratic Party of Buncombe County” with the mantra: “Crime is up and this is unsafe because of the Democratic Party.” He noted that that “concern about local violent crime crossed party lines among the candidates at a recent East Asheville debate,” which was covered at length in the Daily Planet.

Lance then reiterated, “In going around to all the political events I go to — and I go to two or three a week — people come in and the No. 1 thing (they say to Lance) is, “Hey, what are you going to do about this crime?”

Inasmuch as his career has been in law enforcement, Lance said, “When you get tot that level, where the public is asking about it (everywhere he goes), it (concern about rising violent crime locally) means something.

“The biggest difference between now and when I worked there is there are no consequences for their (the perpetrators’) actions, so they can figure they can get away with more... We’re stuck with the same DA (Todd Williams) for four more years.”

After a pause, Lance asserted, “Crime is up. Vagrancy is up. Panhandling is up. Everything is up. And you don’t have enough officers out there because there aren’t enough officers.”

He added, “For Democratic leaders to say, ‘There no crime problem,’ it shows how out of touch they are with the communities of Buncombe County.” (The Democratic leaders to whom he referred to specifically were Bothwell and Rose.)

What’s more, Lance asserted, “Violent crime is defined in different ways... To try to say, ‘It’s not as bad as the news’ (claims it to be) , shows how out of touch they (Bothwell and Rose) are. It is their fault. And they’re trying to do a smokescreen” to avoid having to accept the blame.

 

In returning to his assessment of violent crime in Asheville, Lance first said, “There’s so much that goes on that doesn’t get reported.”

He then noted, “I would be hesitant to say, ‘Violent crme in the Asheville is skyrocketing,’ but I would say, ‘It’s increasing.’ I hear so many people say, ‘We don’t go down to downtown (Asheville) anymore.’”

In concluding the Daily Planet interview, Lance said, “Violent crime has reached a level of major concern to the people in our community.”

Meanwhile, in regard to the APD’s recently released statistics showing a steep rise in violent crime in Asheville, APD Capt. Joe Silberman said Sept. 21, according to News 13. “Our staff are working around the clock to follow up on the cases of reports that have been recorded.”

The website localtoday.news reported that “APD released the latest statistics for News 13 after FOX News Digital released a report last week (mid-September) on how violent crime skyrocketed by 31 percent per 100,000 people between 2016 and 2020 — nearly double the national average and 18 percentage points higher than the statewide increase of 13 percent in North Carolina during the same interval.“

The new violent crime figures, which include a 59 percent year-to-date increase in armed robbery since 2021, come as two suspects made local headlines this week (at 7 a.m. Sept. 18) for allegedly hitting a man with a baseball bat and robbing him along a busy road (Merrimon Avenue) in the north from downtown Asheville.“

According to an APD spokesman, much of Asheville’s violent crime stems from serious assaults.

“APD chief David Zack recently told FOX News Digital that his department has lost more than 100 sworn officers since May 2020 and that they are struggling to maintain visibility while ‘working at a nearly 42 percent drop every day.’

What’s more, the website reported, “Several local law enforcement agencies who recently spoke to FOX News Digital blamed the mass exodus on the city’s liberal leadership and left-wing activists undermining the police force.

“Former Buncombe County Sheriff Van Duncan, who retired as sheriff and resigned from the Democratic Party in 2018, recently told “FOX & Friends First” co-host Todd Pirro that local ‘sentiment against the law enforcement’ contributed to the problems with police detention.

"Even though we’ve made good progress in the community and reduced crime rates, we still saw ourselves as a negative in the community in the eyes of some left-wing politicians who were elected at the time,” Duncan said on “FOX & Friends.”

Further, Duncan told Pirro, “So when officers have to work in these conditions, when they’re out there and they’re serving the community really well, and we’re seeing a high rate of discharge from the prosecutor, low bail or no bail for these people who are just about to be released back into the community into it, it becomes very frustrating for the officers.”

Meanwhile, local website avlwatchdog.org on Sept. 23 touted what it billed as an accurate story by Sally Kestin, disputing the FOX News reporting, with a teaser headline on its promotion, â€œFOX News misstates stats, claiming ‘Asheville iscrime-ridden, dangerous.’”

To that end, avlwatchdog.org stated:

"Fox News recently told a national audience that Asheville has seen a 31 percent increase in violent crime in the last five years.“

‘Asheville once touted as a top-10 tourist destination back in 2017, but with crime raging, the city now ranks, get this, in the top 10 percent of most violent cities in America,’ anchor Todd Piro said. ‘That’s tough to believe.’”

“Yes, it is.“The 31 percent increase is not current. It refers to a period ending in 2020, when crime had increased nationwide. Violent crime — murder, rape, robbery and aggravated assault — went down in Asheville in 2021.

“And the reference to Asheville being among the most violent cities came from an analysis, also based on 2020 data, that combined all violent crimes — a potentially misleading way to view the statistics, said Christopher Herrmann, an assistant professor at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York City....”

This story will be continued in the next edition of the Daily Planet