December 24, 2025 • 36 mins
What happens when a cop gives 34 years to the badge… survives five shootings… then collapses from a stroke in the middle of his shift — only to have his own department refuse to pay his medical bills?
Lieutenant Randy Sutton, the most-featured officer in COPS history and a Las Vegas Metro watch commander, tells Joe Pags the story no one in the media wants you to hear.
In this raw, emotional conversation, Sutton reveals:
• Why 85,000 American police officers were assaulted last year — nearly double from just six years ago
• How radical police chiefs are refusing to cooperate with ICE while putting their own officers in danger
• How politicians eliminated consequences for attacking cops — and why violent crime exploded
• The untold suicide epidemic inside law enforcement — where more officers die by their own hand than in the line of duty
• Why Sutton created The Wounded Blue, a charity that has already helped more than 16,000 injured and disabled officers who were abandoned by the system
• The shocking moment Sutton collapsed from a stroke in his patrol car — and was told by his own agency: “This isn’t personal. It’s just business.”
He also exposes how cops who are shot, paralyzed, or permanently disabled are being fired, denied treatment, losing their homes — and in some cases, wishing they had died instead.
This episode will change how you see law enforcement forever.
🎧 Listen now.
📚 Get Randy’s book: Rescuing 911: The Fight for America’s Safety
❤️ Support injured officers at TheWoundedBlue.org
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
What he is doing is he's putting his own police
officers in jeopardy.
Speaker 2 (00:04):
Some of the men and women in blue are being
sold out by so called leadership. You've seen these radical
police chiefs on television, well, twenty five year plus police
veteran lieutenant Randy Sutton from Las Vegas. You probably saw
him on Cops as well. He's calling them out. He
says that these chiefs refuse to work with ice and
they're playing politics while cops get hurt and killed. He
(00:25):
says it's finally starting to change under Trump. You need
to see this. You were a cop, yes, and for
how long?
Speaker 1 (00:31):
I was a cop for thirty four years. I started
my career in Princeton, New Jersey, did ten years there,
and then I did twenty four with the Las Vegas
Metropolitan Police Department, retiring as a lieutenant.
Speaker 2 (00:42):
So I mean, that's a whole long that's a good
long time. I'm guessing that there are people injured in
the service as police officers all the time. But the
problem we have in this day and age is that
for some reason, the left thought they would vilify police
officers and act like you guys are out there, you know,
looking to harm people for no reason, and you know,
throw your authority around. By and large, police officers are
(01:04):
some of the finest people on the planet. You guys
put on a uniform and you're willing to die as
you go to work that day. Any any comments on
on with with the left of this country. I don't
want to make it left versus right, but that's what
it is those in this country that are pushing this
anti cop rhetoric. Any comments on how that's going. Is
it getting better under Trump, who is a guy who
loves law enforcement.
Speaker 1 (01:24):
Yeah, there's been a there's been a change, but the
change has been because of the president. Uh the Under
the previous administration, under Biden and beginning with Obama, the
Department of Justice was weaponized against law enforcement. The media
of course carried on and vilified the American law enforcement officer,
(01:45):
you know, with the with the great lie of hands up,
don't shoot, and then you know other other lies that
were told about law enforcement, and it really created a
very toxic atmosphere for the men and women work in
the streets, and that has led to not just not
just emotional psychological injuries leading to post traumatic stress, but
(02:08):
also a much more dangerous place for cops because last year,
I don't know if you're aware of this, but more
than eighty five thousand American law enforcement officers were physically
assaulted in the line of duty. Five thousand. Yeah, it's
(02:28):
in astounding number. And it's up. It was fifty thousand
just you know, six years ago. So you can see
that the change has been dramatic and why there And
there's so many reasons that I get into, but in
my book Rescuing nine to one one, but much of
it began with I traced it back to the Obama
(02:51):
administration when the President of the United States came out
and said that the police acted stupidly when they arrested
a buddy of his. Who is really the one who
acted stupidly, Yes, but that showed that showed a deep
disrespect for law enforcement, and Obama despised police officers, and
(03:12):
he showed it in every fiber of his being, including
not even showing up for National Police Week on several
occasions where we honored those who gave their lives in
the line of duty. So under President Trump, there has
been a change good, but we're still we're still a
long way from normalcy.
Speaker 2 (03:33):
Rescuing nine one one, The Fight for America's Safety's name
of the book, as Lieutenant Randy Sutton. I gotta tell
you something, man, I watched Cops for a very long time,
and I, just as you were speaking, look through the
notes and I went, why don't I know this guy?
And I absolutely watched you a lot on Cops. You
were featured for a while. Was that in Las Vegas?
Speaker 1 (03:49):
Yes? In fact, I was the most featured officer on
the television show Cops. And that led to other things.
Did you ever see the movie Casino? Of course, then
you saw me. You're there too, Okay, yeah they saw
So what happened was that the a casting director saw
me on Cops, and then when they were filming Casino
(04:10):
in Las Vegas, they reached out and said, hey, the
director is looking for realism in the part of a
police officer. Would you come down do an audition. I
had no idea what I was auditioning for. And I
walk into the room and who's standing there but Robert
de Niro and Martin Scurees eight Wow, and they said.
Speaker 2 (04:27):
You're the guy.
Speaker 1 (04:29):
Well. I wound up telling them stories about being a
Vegas cop and they said, yeah, you're the guy, and
that's how I got the Screen Actors Guild, and I've
been doing movies and TV ever since.
Speaker 2 (04:37):
Yeah, I'm actually as you're speaking, I'm looking that you've
actually got somebody's listed casino fools rush in Miss Congeniality Too.
What the hell do you do in Miss Congeniality Too?
Speaker 1 (04:46):
What was you were in most of them? But I
was actually a casino boss in that particular one. But
one time I got to play a bad guy. I
was in the I was in the premiere episode of
the TV show Las Vegas with James Cohn. Oh yeah,
and for the first time I got to play a
(05:06):
bad guy and it was really fun.
Speaker 2 (05:08):
Oh, that's got to be awesome. It is Lieutenant dot
Randy Sutton. Go and follow Where do we just go
to the Wounded Blue dot Org. Are you on Socialist
too or not?
Speaker 1 (05:15):
Yeah? The Wounded Blue dot Org. We're all over Facebook.
We're under Lieutenant Randy Sutton on Instagram and yeah, we're
all over We're all over social media.
Speaker 2 (05:27):
I got to check you out on Instagram. I got
a pretty good following on Instagram. We'll go to check
you out over there. Let me go back to something
you mentioned Obama that the whole situation was and you
mentioned it, and just by memory, I believe it was Cambridge, Massachusetts.
He was a Cambridge professor. Name was Skip Gates. He
was a friend of Obama. The police officer or the
neighbors see this guy breaking into a house going through
the window, and they called the police. Police officer shows
(05:50):
up and knocks on the door, says, hey, somebody saw
somebody going in the window. Can you can you show
me that you belong here? And suddenly it was about race,
and suddenly it was about white cop. You know, black professor.
How dare you profile?
Speaker 1 (06:03):
No?
Speaker 2 (06:04):
If I jump through, you know, with my big Italian ass,
I mean, they'd call on me too. So that whole
thing really did set the stage for what Obama would
end up doing. And this is not a law enforcement thing,
although people made it like that. The whole George Zimmerman
and Trayvon Martin thing, the same thing. You had Barack
Obama say if I had a son, he'd looked like Trayvon.
He never said if I had a neighbor, he'd look
(06:24):
like George. So and they called him a white Hispanic.
The guy's his mother's from Lima Peru, George Zimmerman. So
they made him a white guy against a black kid.
How do you work through that? You and I see
the videos on TikTok and Instagram and everywhere else, and
police will pull somebody over for a valid, reasonable suspicion reason.
They'll they'll tell them to get out of the car.
(06:45):
I'm not getting out of the car. You don't go
out of the Car'm gonna pull you out of the car.
Don't touch me, You're not allowed to touch me. I mean,
people really have it backward. Who law enforcement is. I mean,
we've raised our five daughters to understand law enforcement is
there to protect, serve, and to be our neighbors. That's it,
nothing more, nothing less. And they will save your life
if they're able, if you're in trouble. What about this
whole generation that we're seeing on social media that treat
(07:07):
your guys like garbage?
Speaker 1 (07:08):
Is that from That's what's that well? That began that began.
You see people began becoming empowered because there began to
be no consequences for what they have, what they were
doing criminally. This is now, this is what This is
a big This is a bigger picture, right we're talking
about about the lack of consequences for a lack of
(07:31):
accountability for committing crimes. This is what we have seen
taking place literally over the last you know, most especially
since George Floyd, where people burn the cities and never
and never faced any consequences for it. So you can
you can now remember there's eighty five thousand cops who
(07:53):
were assaulted last year because the Left has reduced or
eliminated consequences for attacking the police. Meaning what they're saying
to the police is, listen, your lives really don't matter
because we don't even we won't even hold those who
attack you responsible for it. And so we've seen, we've
(08:16):
seen a direct correlation between the lack of consequences in
in all aspects of criminality. That's why the crime stats
have been, you know, so insane with with with violent crime,
because they have eliminated or reduced the consequences low bail,
no bail, perfect example. Yes, and we've seen we've seen
(08:39):
laws actually being being created to tell the police you
can't you you're not allowed to enforce the law.
Speaker 2 (08:49):
Well in Chicago and Raandy, you know this. In Chicago,
they literally told cops you cannot pursue somebody, a bad
guy in a suspect by running. You can pursue them,
but you have to walk. I'm not even getting you
can't run after a suspect. Are we on crack? What
are we doing here?
Speaker 1 (09:06):
So?
Speaker 2 (09:06):
How do we fix that? Because you've got you've got
cities and states being run by idiots in some in
some instances, other states like where I am in Texas
not so bad, uh, Florida not so bad? But how
do you fix that? Because the residents of that of
those cities and those states don't feel safe because they
know the police are are handcuffed.
Speaker 1 (09:25):
Yeah. But but here's the here's the the dichotomy here
is that they keep on voting people into office that
continue that tradition. When I mean, look at look at
Johnson in uh in Chicagogo. That guy, that guy from
the from the very beginning, declared war on common sense
criminal justice. He did, and he has continued that. And
(09:45):
yet they took they I mean, after LORI Lightfoot, I
thought nothing could get worse. It got worse, and then
and then they elect and then they elected this guy. Yeah,
I mean, and now look at New York City Mondamie
getting elected.
Speaker 2 (10:00):
You want to what's the open Riker's island? Everybody out.
Speaker 1 (10:05):
Exactly because if the people, if the people are going
to elect these these leftist politicians who care nothing about
the safety of the people that they have just been
voted in to govern, then then then you're fighting a
losing battle. That's why I wrote the book Rescuing nine
(10:28):
one one. It's a call to action for people to
get involved. Look at the look at the dismal number
of people who actually even voted in the election. Right,
So if if you if you want to be if
you want your family to be safe, it's so counterintuitive
that it makes no sense. It's like watching lemmings jumping
(10:49):
off the cliff by voting people in that that have
an ideology that is that is counterproductive to safety, and
it's it's absurd to see. But it's also highly dangerous
because it's not only dangerous for the citizens, it's dangerous
for the police. I literally every single day I'm dealing
(11:13):
with a police officer who's been severely injured. And many
times those injuries I know would never have occurred had
we been in a different state. In policing in this country, it.
Speaker 2 (11:24):
Is Lieutenan Randy Sutton. Go and get his book. It's
called Rescue in nine to one one, The Fight for
America's Safety. Rescuing nine to one one, The Fight for
America's Safety. Let me just add a little bit of
context on this as well. I'm in the news and
information business. I had never heard that eighty five thousand
police officers were assaulted last year. We should be reporting that.
I just didn't know it. But I do know that
(11:45):
one ICE agent somewhere put his knee on somebody's back
and the people were yelling and screaming about your kidnapping
kids off the street. I do know that the police
chief in Minneapolis, Minnesota, looked at the camera and said
to residents, if you see people showing up who are
addressed in what looks to be enforcement outfits with masks on,
they might be kidnapping people, call nine one one.
Speaker 1 (12:04):
What about that?
Speaker 2 (12:05):
When you've got a police chief who's clearly a politico,
who is using his position to tell people to abuse
the nine one one system to have cops show up
to confront ICE agents, what do you do about that?
Speaker 1 (12:17):
Is it is he's an embarrassment to law enforcement, you know,
And I listen. I was a police leader in one
of the ninth largest police department in this nation. I
have seen incredible police leadership at the highest levels, but
I've also seen dismal failures. And seeing that police chief
(12:39):
and watching him in his public addresses, it's an embarrassment
to me. But it's also what he is doing is
he's putting his own police officers in jeopardy. Now the
Minneapolis Police Department is a shadow of its former self.
I have very very good connect actions with police officers
(13:02):
at Minneapolis PD, and I not just a week ago,
was given information that they are so they have so
few cops they can't even answer their nine to one
one calls.
Speaker 2 (13:14):
Wow.
Speaker 1 (13:14):
Because they are because nobody wants to work for them.
And the reason they don't want to work for them
is because the mayor is a I don't even have
words for him.
Speaker 2 (13:26):
But he's the guy that said He's the guy that
said let them burn down the third Precinct. He's the
guy that right this Jacob Fry, guy who took a
knee in front of Black Lives Matter and immediately said
that the cop was guilty. And the George Floyd thing.
When we know that the medical examiner says, there something
else going on there.
Speaker 1 (13:43):
So I'm with you.
Speaker 2 (13:44):
So so why would you want to work at at
a police department like that? You wouldn't know. It's got
your back exactly.
Speaker 1 (13:50):
And so they have fled, and so you have you
have a leftist mayor who cares nothing about law enforcement.
They're doing everything they can. The only reason that there
are cops there because they have to have them for
show right and and to and to because they they're
not prosecuting anybody anyway. You have you have the you know,
(14:11):
the the disc attorney there is just as bad as
the chief of police. You have everything the higher I
call I call them trojan horse prosecutors, Yes, because they're
elected into office and then what they do is they
turn on the people that elected them and they and
they care nothing about their safety.
Speaker 2 (14:30):
Well, you've got the attorney general. Keith Fellowson is the
attorney general. He's a guy literally said in a zoom
call with Karen Bass from from Los Angeles and somebody else.
He said, if you've been a victim of rape and
the rapist has already left the scene, why call a cop,
call a therapist. And he's the guy also who's pictured
holding the Antiqua playbook. So how do you defeat that?
(14:52):
I mean, there's a cop you're gonna go to a
place like in Florida or Texas or somewhere else where
you know that somebody's going to have your back. It's
like the border patrol. It's not different. The border patrol
under under Biden and under Obama, they weren't getting any
support at all. In fact, they were being called the
KKK half the time by the left in this country.
But now that it's that it's Trump again, people are
flooding the border patrol. They want to be border patrol
agents again because they feel like somebody's gonna have their back.
Speaker 1 (15:14):
Can you fix that? Shows them? That shows you leadership.
That shows what leadership does and can have both. He
goes from one end of the spectrum to the other.
You have a you have a President Trump who really
really does truly respect the American law enforcement officer at
all levels and has shown that for as long as
(15:34):
as he's been even before he entered politics. Yes he was.
He was legendary for treating police officers right in the
right way, even when he was just in business. Then
you have the Bidens, and the and the Obamas who
despise law enforcement officers, who make no bones about it,
(15:55):
and as a result, you have a criminal justice crisis
that is now is now generational. We there's no way
in the world that President Trump, as much as he
would like to to, can right the ship as in
any in any timely fashion, because the damage has been done.
We've lost incredible amounts of very very good police officers,
(16:21):
people who are very competent, who have institutional knowledge, who
who have incredible knowledge and investigative work. They have fled,
they said when they when the eligible for retirement, they left.
And of course we're talking the major cities in this country,
especially those run by democratic politicians, have lost the majority
(16:45):
of the the retirement eligible police officers. Now here's the
other side of that coin. So you lose, you lose
all that experience. Then you can't recruit people because they
have made the job so dangerous both physically, emotionally psychologically,
and so now you're not getting enough people. When I
(17:07):
took the police test in Las Vegas in nineteen eighty six,
because I'm dating myself here, they stopped it at five
thousand applicants for one hundred jobs. They wouldn't allow anymore.
Now we're lucky to see eight or nine hundred applicants,
and we're in a city that doesn't have the woke insanity.
(17:28):
So you go. They gave a police test in Saint
Louis not long agoing about like twelve people showed up
because nobody wants to work there. And so you look
at the just the numbers themselves. You have everybody fleeing
from the experience level. Then you can't hire enough people.
So what do they do. They lower the standards, of course,
(17:51):
and so and has that has just the opposite effect.
But it needs to happen because if you hire people
that really shouldn't be police officers to begin with, then
they commit acts of misconduct or corruption. Then the left says,
you see all police, Yeah, exactly right. And so it's
like it's like the self fulfilling prophecy.
Speaker 2 (18:13):
Lieutenant Randy Sutton going and check out the Wounded Blue
Dot org. Get his book called Rescuing nine one one,
The Fight for America's Safety. I want to beat up
on Brandon Johnson just for another minute or so if
we can, because he was my pledgure, my pleasure exactly.
He was asked by CNN or MSNBC here some stupid network,
this very simple question, would five thousand more police officers
in Chicago help to solve the shooting and murder problem?
(18:37):
And he wouldn't answer, and wouldn't answer, and no, no, no,
just I think it was Joe Scarborough, for God's sake,
so it's certainly not a righty. He said, no, no,
but I just want to know if you got five
thousand more, well, there's no way to get fired. But
if you had five thousand more, would that solve the problem.
And his answer was, you can't incarcerate your way out
or something. Crime is is we're calling things crimes that
(18:59):
aren't randy. He would not say that five thousand more
men and women in blue in the city of Chicago
would help cut down crime when you and I both though,
of course it would.
Speaker 1 (19:09):
That's it.
Speaker 2 (19:09):
That's an easy answer, isn't it.
Speaker 1 (19:12):
Of Course it's an easy answer, but it's not his
political ideology. When you put ideology ahead of safety, then
you get exactly what's happening in Chicago. You have incredible
amounts of violent crime, you have a leadership that even
I mean, I'm still I'm still very, very angry. I'm
(19:35):
curbing my words. Thank you for you after what happened
with the ice raids and the and the chief of
Police coming out on the radio telling officers not your response,
I mean you talk about about the he shouldn't even
be the chief of police.
Speaker 2 (19:53):
Well, anybody know this. I got to stop you for
a second because those watching listening might not know this.
You know this. The Ice agents were literally surrounded by
angry people, and angry mob was surrounding them, and they
simply said, we need backup. And you heard it wasn't
the chief of police. It was the Knight supervisor in
charge who said we're not going there. And and the
(20:14):
chief of police did not say that guy's in trouble
or he's gonna get fired. They basically said, well, we
should really support law enforcement, but they didn't that night.
So I wanted to make sure we put it in context.
These Ice agents who were there to enforce the law
and get bad guys out of Chicago were surrounded by
an angry mob and cop said no, go ahead.
Speaker 1 (20:33):
Yeah exactly. And that's and that's not the only place
that's happening. You have you have state legislators, legislators who
are passing laws telling the police they can't they can't
respond to help ice. I mean, it's it is, it is.
It goes beyond politics. It's it's entered some weird stage
(20:53):
where common sense doesn't even play a role anymore. Well,
they should be arrested.
Speaker 2 (20:59):
It's hitting, the betting, is harboring, it's aiding a betting, harboring,
putting officers in danger. It's obstruction of an investigation. Whatever
you want to call it. It's something. It's illegal, isn't it?
Speaker 1 (21:10):
Yes? It is. If I would love to see prosecutions,
I'm happy to see that the judge that that aided
the the illegal alien and escaping was just convicted. And
I thought, you know, maybe there would be jury nullification
and they would go along with some of the ideology there.
But I was happy to see that after after six
(21:32):
hours of deliberation, they in fact did did find her guilty, which,
which is a good is a good sign. But can
can we pivot this to just for a moment, anywhere
you want to go? Let's go all right, I want
to talk about how this affects the mental, the mental
and emotional health of our of ours do.
Speaker 2 (21:52):
Yes, I definitely want I want to know about that.
And by the way, I'm in San Antonio, which is
military city, USA. I am familiar with with veterans, you
with PTSD. You mentioned PTSD earlier about police officers, which
I've never even considered. Tell me what that's all about. Yeah,
this is so.
Speaker 1 (22:09):
The Wounded Blue is a national charity and we help
injured and disabled officers across this country. And we recognize
injuries as either being physical or emotional and psychological because
post traumatic stress can be as real as a bullet.
And what is rarely talked about is the suicide rate
of law enforcement. It is abysmal. It is startling how
(22:32):
many police officers end their own lives. Roughly, the estimate
is three to five times the number of officers who
die in the line of duty will take their own lives.
Speaker 2 (22:42):
I've never even heard that reported.
Speaker 1 (22:44):
That is a statistic that should frighten everyone in America.
That should bring attention to what the challenges are emotionally
and psychologically. Now, I don't use the word PTSD I
because post traumatic stress disorder. I use the word post
traumatic stress injury because it is an injury and it
(23:06):
can be fixed, don't. It doesn't have to become a disorder.
But it's hugely challenging because there are many police agencies
who who don't even recognize post traumatic stress injury as
a legitimate injury and these and that leads to officers
(23:27):
not asking for help when the help is available for them.
We've helped more than sixteen thousand American law enforcement officers
in the six and a half years that we have
been in service, and many of those have been injured
emotionally and psychologically. And there's so many reasons for that.
First of all, it's just the job itself, right, The
(23:50):
job itself can be emotionally damaging because you are seeing
literally the worst that humanity has to offer. I mean,
I can tell you from from thirty four years of
law enforcement that there were very very dark times in
my personal history and I was not ashamed to ask
for help when when it when when the darkness really
(24:13):
really fell? But you know, I mean I remember, I remember,
you know, a baby that dyed in my arms, that
I whose life I tried to save after she drowned.
And I still see your face.
Speaker 2 (24:30):
So I was gonna I was gonna ask you what
trigger is something like that. I mean, so it's a
specific I mean, that's I can't even imagine. I just
have a brand new granddaughter was just born. I can't
even imagine having to go through that. And then you're
expected just to put the uniform on again, just keep
on going.
Speaker 1 (24:44):
You're supposed to not only clear the call and then
go right to the next call. And so and every cop,
every cop will go through trauma. Every police officer will
see things that will that will challenge them and that
will change them internally externally the way that they view
things and the way they affect their family. And so
(25:07):
everybody feels alone. Our motto at the Wound of Blue
is never forgotten, never alone, And that is because when
you get injured, either physically or psychologically, you feel alone.
And when you are, when you get that sensation, it's
a very very dark place to be. Now, let me
tell you some other things that they're going to shock you, Joe,
(25:28):
and why I created the organization to begin with. If
you had asked me twenty years ago, Randy, what's your
future going to be? I would never have said it'll
be running a national wide charity that helps injured and
disabled cops, that was not that it was not on
my to do list, But what happened to me was
I had a stroke in my police car. That is
(25:50):
what ended my police career, right on Las Vegas Boulevard
at two thirty in the morning, and I was the
watch commander. I was the highest ranking officer on duty
that night, and luckily I had a patrol officer with me.
And at two thirty in the morning, we're driving down
Las Vegas Boulevard having a conversation like I'm talking with
you right now, and suddenly I found myself talking slower
(26:13):
and I literally felt my brain slowing down, and I
knew I was having a stroke. So I stopped the
car right in the middle of the street and I said,
get me medical, I'm having a stroke, and I got
out of the car to go round to the passenger
side in case he needed to get me the hospital.
And then I started speaking gibberish and I knew I
was speaking gibberish, but I couldn't control it, and it
(26:34):
was the most frightening moment of my life. And then
I lost the ability to speak and move all together,
and I crumpled to the pavement and that's where my
police career ended laying there helpless, watching people walk by
me taking my picture as I'm laying there, absolutely helpless
in the dirty gutter of Las Vegas Boulevard.
Speaker 2 (26:55):
Wow.
Speaker 1 (26:56):
And it was, I tell you, quite honestly. I wasn't
afraid to die. In fact, I was wishing to die
because I didn't want to live like that. Right, But
once again, that angel has been on my shoulder. My
entire career was with me again that night, and the
blood clotting through my brain did its damage, but it
certainly could have done substantially more. But it ended my
(27:21):
police career. And what happened next is what is going
to shock you as it shocked me, And that's my
own agency turned its back on me. I said, we're
not paying your medical bills, We're not giving you your benefits.
Speaker 2 (27:35):
I'm sorry, I said, I mean hold on, not only
I mean if it happened at home, they still should
pay for everything. But you were driving down Las Vegas Boulevard.
What't happened in uniform? And they're not paying for anything.
What are you talking about? That's what I said. I said,
what do you mean you can't do that? It's the law.
And they said, yeah, well make us. And I got
(27:57):
to tell you, I've never felt so abandoned. So after
twenty four years of service, and I believe me, I
almost gave my life more than on more than one
occasion as a police officer in Las Vegas, I survived
five shootings. So I feeling this devastating feeling of abandonment
(28:21):
was very difficult to deal with.
Speaker 1 (28:23):
I even went to go see the sheriff who I
served with for twenty four years, and I said, how
do you treat me like this? And he looked at
me and I'll never forget this. Look me right in
the eyes, Randy. This isn't personal, man, It's just business.
And here's the harsh reality. He was telling me the truth.
You see, I was no longer I was no longer
an asset to my agency. I'm now a financial liability. Wow.
(28:46):
And I didn't realize this. It's very difficult to fathom.
And then and they fought me every step of the way.
They lost every single hearing and still continue to fight me.
And it lasted a year and a half before the
judge finally said, you got to pay his medical bills.
It's the law. You got to give them his benefits.
(29:06):
And here's the here's what's going to be very difficult
for most people that are listening to this to believe,
but it is the harsh reality. They were hoping that
I would die in the meantime. Oh wow. And and
I thought that this was just me, Joe. I just
thought this was Randy. Well. Then from being on the
(29:27):
show Cops and writing books and being in the movies
and being so visible in the law enforcement community, cop
started reaching out to me. Randy, I know you don't
know me, but I was shot in the line of duty.
They're not paying my medical bills. They've thrown me away. Randy,
I was paralyzed when my police car was hit by
a drunk They they've thrown me. They thrown me to
(29:48):
the to the to the wolves. And I realized that
this wasn't Randy. This is a national issue, and there
was no national resource for these men and women. All
of the all of these terrible, heartbreaking stories that came
to me ended with the same words. At the end,
(30:09):
I feel abandoned, I feel alone. And then the worst,
I wish I'd never survived that night. At least I
wouldn't be a burden of my family and it's heartbreaking, heartbreaking,
and that's why I created The Wounded Blue. And they
we sure as hell are doing something now. We are
saving lives, we are saving careers, we are saving marriages.
(30:32):
But I live with heartbreak every single day. Heartbreaking stories
that that that are that would just curdle your We
actually have a documentary film. If you go to Amazon
dot com, I put in the Wounded Blue, you'll see
a documentary and you better bring your tissues because you're
gonna see stories that you will find unbelievable. Police officer
(30:53):
was shot in it on Amazon dot com, right, and
that's that's that's where you'll you'll find our our documentary
film Can you Imagine Being? And this is all captured
on video. Police officer in pursuit of He does know it,
but they're three hired killers from the cartel in the
vehicle that he's pursuing. And this is all captured on
(31:15):
video during the pursuit. This is in Oklahoma. They're doing
one hundred miles an hour. Suddenly you see the back
windshield break out of the of the dark out suv
either end and they open fire on him with a
high powered rifle. One of the Rounds, goes through the windshield,
hits him right smack in the forehead. He goes unconscious,
and you see his police car drift off the road
(31:38):
and smash into a tree after tumbling. They get him
to the hospital. They get him to the hospital, and
they refuse to give him a neurologist, saying it's medically unnecessary.
They don't pay his medical bills for over a year.
He loses his house, he loses his car, He's got
three children. And it's not until a news station did
(32:03):
an expose on it that suddenly they paid his medical bills.
Speaker 2 (32:07):
Wow.
Speaker 1 (32:07):
And if it weren't for the Wounded Blue and by
the way, then they fired him. Couldn't come back to
work full duty, so they fired him. If weren't for
the Wounded Blue being able to help him get a
federal benefit of about four hundred thousand dollars, he would
have lost everything. This is criminal, but it's happening all
(32:30):
over the country.
Speaker 2 (32:32):
Yeah, if you would ask people before before the interview,
had you asked me and Randy, I'm running a short
on time and I want to have you on often
because I love talking to you. But had you not
told me this, I would not. I would not have
known ever, because they're hiding it, and they're hiding it
very well. My assumption is you guys not only have benefits,
You've got the best benefits on the planet because you're
literally willing to die to do what you do for
(32:54):
a living. I would never ever have thought that a
police agency would not stand behind everybody so quickly and
only a couple of minutes. And I do want to
have you back soon. A Why is your your organization necessary?
I'm glad it's there, but because you won your case,
because these other cops have won their cases, why wouldn't
this make them fix what's wrong in the agencies? And
(33:15):
I love that you're doing it. I want you to
do charity forever. But again, your organization should not be necessary.
Why haven't necessary change has been made in these agencies
since your case and others?
Speaker 1 (33:26):
You are one hundred percent right, I wish my charity
did not exist. And by the way, I want people
to know this because it's very critical. We're all worried
about charity money right about where it gets spent. I
live on my pension. I do not take a salary
from the wounded Blue. I take no money from the
wounded blue. It all goes into the services that we provide.
(33:47):
But we should not need to exist. And the reason
we do is because of the age old reason and
that is money.
Speaker 2 (33:54):
Wow.
Speaker 1 (33:55):
There is incredible amounts of greed that are that that
play out in the in the space of insurance companies
and third party administrators that get hired to uh to
do the workers compensation system. Uh, it's all about money,
quite honestly. Now, there are some agencies that do it right.
(34:16):
If you get if you get hurt in New York City,
they have a very strong police union and they have
very strong workers' compensation laws in New York City. So
you're gonna you're gonna get good medical attention, you're gonna
get you're gonna get good benefits. But if you go
across the I'm dealing with a police officer in New
York State right now, right now that we are getting
(34:36):
into see the finest final surgeon, one of the finest
final surgeons in the United States, because his own department,
after he fractured his skull fighting with the suspect, have
refused to give him his surgery. I was just with
him just five days ago and this week we're getting
him in and we're paying for it. We shouldn't have
(34:57):
to be paying for it. But here there's the other. Here,
here's just one one that there are great Americans that
that believe in the Wounded Blue And and we just
paid three hundred thousand dollars to fix a cop who
was told he would never walk again, and six weeks
ago he danced with his daughter at her wedding. That's amazing.
(35:19):
So and that's because there are great Americans that believe
in law enforcement, that believe in my organization. So I
asked that anybody that supports law enforcement go to the
Wounded Blue dot org. See who we are, see what
we do, give what you can. If you are a
law enforcement officer and you're struggling, you don't have to
walk this journey alone, reach out to us at the
(35:42):
Wounded Blue And if you want to contact me directly,
I'm Randy at the Wounded Blue dot org. That's Randy
at the Wounded Blue dot org. And I am very accessible.
Speaker 2 (35:52):
That Wounded Blue dot org. Go to that website right now,
go see how you can support what Randy's doing for
these amazing people out there who are risking their lives
for you and me the Wounded Blue dot Org. Get
his book. It's called Rescuing nine one one, The Fight
for America's Safety. It's the number one best seller. Go
to Amazon and go check it out again. Rescuing nine
one one The Fight for America Safety.
Speaker 1 (36:10):
Randy.
Speaker 2 (36:10):
Great to meet you in person. I've been a fan
for a long time. I just realized as we started
talking that's the guy, so I really I love hanging
out with you. Let's do it again very soon, my friend.
Speaker 1 (36:18):
Thank you. Let's do that and you have a very
merry Christmas.
Speaker 2 (36:22):
You too, Merry Christmas, my friend. That's it for Unshaken
and Unafraid with Joe Paggs this time. Make sure you
subscribe and we'll have another one very soon
What he is doing is he's putting his own police
officers in jeopardy.
Speaker 2 (00:04):
Some of the men and women in blue are being
sold out by so called leadership. You've seen these radical
police chiefs on television, well, twenty five year plus police
veteran lieutenant Randy Sutton from Las Vegas. You probably saw
him on Cops as well. He's calling them out. He
says that these chiefs refuse to work with ice and
they're playing politics while cops get hurt and killed. He
(00:25):
says it's finally starting to change under Trump. You need
to see this. You were a cop, yes, and for
how long?
Speaker 1 (00:31):
I was a cop for thirty four years. I started
my career in Princeton, New Jersey, did ten years there,
and then I did twenty four with the Las Vegas
Metropolitan Police Department, retiring as a lieutenant.
Speaker 2 (00:42):
So I mean, that's a whole long that's a good
long time. I'm guessing that there are people injured in
the service as police officers all the time. But the
problem we have in this day and age is that
for some reason, the left thought they would vilify police
officers and act like you guys are out there, you know,
looking to harm people for no reason, and you know,
throw your authority around. By and large, police officers are
(01:04):
some of the finest people on the planet. You guys
put on a uniform and you're willing to die as
you go to work that day. Any any comments on
on with with the left of this country. I don't
want to make it left versus right, but that's what
it is those in this country that are pushing this
anti cop rhetoric. Any comments on how that's going. Is
it getting better under Trump, who is a guy who
loves law enforcement.
Speaker 1 (01:24):
Yeah, there's been a there's been a change, but the
change has been because of the president. Uh the Under
the previous administration, under Biden and beginning with Obama, the
Department of Justice was weaponized against law enforcement. The media
of course carried on and vilified the American law enforcement officer,
(01:45):
you know, with the with the great lie of hands up,
don't shoot, and then you know other other lies that
were told about law enforcement, and it really created a
very toxic atmosphere for the men and women work in
the streets, and that has led to not just not
just emotional psychological injuries leading to post traumatic stress, but
(02:08):
also a much more dangerous place for cops because last year,
I don't know if you're aware of this, but more
than eighty five thousand American law enforcement officers were physically
assaulted in the line of duty. Five thousand. Yeah, it's
(02:28):
in astounding number. And it's up. It was fifty thousand
just you know, six years ago. So you can see
that the change has been dramatic and why there And
there's so many reasons that I get into, but in
my book Rescuing nine to one one, but much of
it began with I traced it back to the Obama
(02:51):
administration when the President of the United States came out
and said that the police acted stupidly when they arrested
a buddy of his. Who is really the one who
acted stupidly, Yes, but that showed that showed a deep
disrespect for law enforcement, and Obama despised police officers, and
(03:12):
he showed it in every fiber of his being, including
not even showing up for National Police Week on several
occasions where we honored those who gave their lives in
the line of duty. So under President Trump, there has
been a change good, but we're still we're still a
long way from normalcy.
Speaker 2 (03:33):
Rescuing nine one one, The Fight for America's Safety's name
of the book, as Lieutenant Randy Sutton. I gotta tell
you something, man, I watched Cops for a very long time,
and I, just as you were speaking, look through the
notes and I went, why don't I know this guy?
And I absolutely watched you a lot on Cops. You
were featured for a while. Was that in Las Vegas?
Speaker 1 (03:49):
Yes? In fact, I was the most featured officer on
the television show Cops. And that led to other things.
Did you ever see the movie Casino? Of course, then
you saw me. You're there too, Okay, yeah they saw
So what happened was that the a casting director saw
me on Cops, and then when they were filming Casino
(04:10):
in Las Vegas, they reached out and said, hey, the
director is looking for realism in the part of a
police officer. Would you come down do an audition. I
had no idea what I was auditioning for. And I
walk into the room and who's standing there but Robert
de Niro and Martin Scurees eight Wow, and they said.
Speaker 2 (04:27):
You're the guy.
Speaker 1 (04:29):
Well. I wound up telling them stories about being a
Vegas cop and they said, yeah, you're the guy, and
that's how I got the Screen Actors Guild, and I've
been doing movies and TV ever since.
Speaker 2 (04:37):
Yeah, I'm actually as you're speaking, I'm looking that you've
actually got somebody's listed casino fools rush in Miss Congeniality Too.
What the hell do you do in Miss Congeniality Too?
Speaker 1 (04:46):
What was you were in most of them? But I
was actually a casino boss in that particular one. But
one time I got to play a bad guy. I
was in the I was in the premiere episode of
the TV show Las Vegas with James Cohn. Oh yeah,
and for the first time I got to play a
(05:06):
bad guy and it was really fun.
Speaker 2 (05:08):
Oh, that's got to be awesome. It is Lieutenant dot
Randy Sutton. Go and follow Where do we just go
to the Wounded Blue dot Org. Are you on Socialist
too or not?
Speaker 1 (05:15):
Yeah? The Wounded Blue dot Org. We're all over Facebook.
We're under Lieutenant Randy Sutton on Instagram and yeah, we're
all over We're all over social media.
Speaker 2 (05:27):
I got to check you out on Instagram. I got
a pretty good following on Instagram. We'll go to check
you out over there. Let me go back to something
you mentioned Obama that the whole situation was and you
mentioned it, and just by memory, I believe it was Cambridge, Massachusetts.
He was a Cambridge professor. Name was Skip Gates. He
was a friend of Obama. The police officer or the
neighbors see this guy breaking into a house going through
the window, and they called the police. Police officer shows
(05:50):
up and knocks on the door, says, hey, somebody saw
somebody going in the window. Can you can you show
me that you belong here? And suddenly it was about race,
and suddenly it was about white cop. You know, black professor.
How dare you profile?
Speaker 1 (06:03):
No?
Speaker 2 (06:04):
If I jump through, you know, with my big Italian ass,
I mean, they'd call on me too. So that whole
thing really did set the stage for what Obama would
end up doing. And this is not a law enforcement thing,
although people made it like that. The whole George Zimmerman
and Trayvon Martin thing, the same thing. You had Barack
Obama say if I had a son, he'd looked like Trayvon.
He never said if I had a neighbor, he'd look
(06:24):
like George. So and they called him a white Hispanic.
The guy's his mother's from Lima Peru, George Zimmerman. So
they made him a white guy against a black kid.
How do you work through that? You and I see
the videos on TikTok and Instagram and everywhere else, and
police will pull somebody over for a valid, reasonable suspicion reason.
They'll they'll tell them to get out of the car.
(06:45):
I'm not getting out of the car. You don't go
out of the Car'm gonna pull you out of the car.
Don't touch me, You're not allowed to touch me. I mean,
people really have it backward. Who law enforcement is. I mean,
we've raised our five daughters to understand law enforcement is
there to protect, serve, and to be our neighbors. That's it,
nothing more, nothing less. And they will save your life
if they're able, if you're in trouble. What about this
whole generation that we're seeing on social media that treat
(07:07):
your guys like garbage?
Speaker 1 (07:08):
Is that from That's what's that well? That began that began.
You see people began becoming empowered because there began to
be no consequences for what they have, what they were
doing criminally. This is now, this is what This is
a big This is a bigger picture, right we're talking
about about the lack of consequences for a lack of
(07:31):
accountability for committing crimes. This is what we have seen
taking place literally over the last you know, most especially
since George Floyd, where people burn the cities and never
and never faced any consequences for it. So you can
you can now remember there's eighty five thousand cops who
(07:53):
were assaulted last year because the Left has reduced or
eliminated consequences for attacking the police. Meaning what they're saying
to the police is, listen, your lives really don't matter
because we don't even we won't even hold those who
attack you responsible for it. And so we've seen, we've
(08:16):
seen a direct correlation between the lack of consequences in
in all aspects of criminality. That's why the crime stats
have been, you know, so insane with with with violent crime,
because they have eliminated or reduced the consequences low bail,
no bail, perfect example. Yes, and we've seen we've seen
(08:39):
laws actually being being created to tell the police you
can't you you're not allowed to enforce the law.
Speaker 2 (08:49):
Well in Chicago and Raandy, you know this. In Chicago,
they literally told cops you cannot pursue somebody, a bad
guy in a suspect by running. You can pursue them,
but you have to walk. I'm not even getting you
can't run after a suspect. Are we on crack? What
are we doing here?
Speaker 1 (09:06):
So?
Speaker 2 (09:06):
How do we fix that? Because you've got you've got
cities and states being run by idiots in some in
some instances, other states like where I am in Texas
not so bad, uh, Florida not so bad? But how
do you fix that? Because the residents of that of
those cities and those states don't feel safe because they
know the police are are handcuffed.
Speaker 1 (09:25):
Yeah. But but here's the here's the the dichotomy here
is that they keep on voting people into office that
continue that tradition. When I mean, look at look at
Johnson in uh in Chicagogo. That guy, that guy from
the from the very beginning, declared war on common sense
criminal justice. He did, and he has continued that. And
(09:45):
yet they took they I mean, after LORI Lightfoot, I
thought nothing could get worse. It got worse, and then
and then they elect and then they elected this guy. Yeah,
I mean, and now look at New York City Mondamie
getting elected.
Speaker 2 (10:00):
You want to what's the open Riker's island? Everybody out.
Speaker 1 (10:05):
Exactly because if the people, if the people are going
to elect these these leftist politicians who care nothing about
the safety of the people that they have just been
voted in to govern, then then then you're fighting a
losing battle. That's why I wrote the book Rescuing nine
(10:28):
one one. It's a call to action for people to
get involved. Look at the look at the dismal number
of people who actually even voted in the election. Right,
So if if you if you want to be if
you want your family to be safe, it's so counterintuitive
that it makes no sense. It's like watching lemmings jumping
(10:49):
off the cliff by voting people in that that have
an ideology that is that is counterproductive to safety, and
it's it's absurd to see. But it's also highly dangerous
because it's not only dangerous for the citizens, it's dangerous
for the police. I literally every single day I'm dealing
(11:13):
with a police officer who's been severely injured. And many
times those injuries I know would never have occurred had
we been in a different state. In policing in this country, it.
Speaker 2 (11:24):
Is Lieutenan Randy Sutton. Go and get his book. It's
called Rescue in nine to one one, The Fight for
America's Safety. Rescuing nine to one one, The Fight for
America's Safety. Let me just add a little bit of
context on this as well. I'm in the news and
information business. I had never heard that eighty five thousand
police officers were assaulted last year. We should be reporting that.
I just didn't know it. But I do know that
(11:45):
one ICE agent somewhere put his knee on somebody's back
and the people were yelling and screaming about your kidnapping
kids off the street. I do know that the police
chief in Minneapolis, Minnesota, looked at the camera and said
to residents, if you see people showing up who are
addressed in what looks to be enforcement outfits with masks on,
they might be kidnapping people, call nine one one.
Speaker 1 (12:04):
What about that?
Speaker 2 (12:05):
When you've got a police chief who's clearly a politico,
who is using his position to tell people to abuse
the nine one one system to have cops show up
to confront ICE agents, what do you do about that?
Speaker 1 (12:17):
Is it is he's an embarrassment to law enforcement, you know,
And I listen. I was a police leader in one
of the ninth largest police department in this nation. I
have seen incredible police leadership at the highest levels, but
I've also seen dismal failures. And seeing that police chief
(12:39):
and watching him in his public addresses, it's an embarrassment
to me. But it's also what he is doing is
he's putting his own police officers in jeopardy. Now the
Minneapolis Police Department is a shadow of its former self.
I have very very good connect actions with police officers
(13:02):
at Minneapolis PD, and I not just a week ago,
was given information that they are so they have so
few cops they can't even answer their nine to one
one calls.
Speaker 2 (13:14):
Wow.
Speaker 1 (13:14):
Because they are because nobody wants to work for them.
And the reason they don't want to work for them
is because the mayor is a I don't even have
words for him.
Speaker 2 (13:26):
But he's the guy that said He's the guy that
said let them burn down the third Precinct. He's the
guy that right this Jacob Fry, guy who took a
knee in front of Black Lives Matter and immediately said
that the cop was guilty. And the George Floyd thing.
When we know that the medical examiner says, there something
else going on there.
Speaker 1 (13:43):
So I'm with you.
Speaker 2 (13:44):
So so why would you want to work at at
a police department like that? You wouldn't know. It's got
your back exactly.
Speaker 1 (13:50):
And so they have fled, and so you have you
have a leftist mayor who cares nothing about law enforcement.
They're doing everything they can. The only reason that there
are cops there because they have to have them for
show right and and to and to because they they're
not prosecuting anybody anyway. You have you have the you know,
(14:11):
the the disc attorney there is just as bad as
the chief of police. You have everything the higher I
call I call them trojan horse prosecutors, Yes, because they're
elected into office and then what they do is they
turn on the people that elected them and they and
they care nothing about their safety.
Speaker 2 (14:30):
Well, you've got the attorney general. Keith Fellowson is the
attorney general. He's a guy literally said in a zoom
call with Karen Bass from from Los Angeles and somebody else.
He said, if you've been a victim of rape and
the rapist has already left the scene, why call a cop,
call a therapist. And he's the guy also who's pictured
holding the Antiqua playbook. So how do you defeat that?
(14:52):
I mean, there's a cop you're gonna go to a
place like in Florida or Texas or somewhere else where
you know that somebody's going to have your back. It's
like the border patrol. It's not different. The border patrol
under under Biden and under Obama, they weren't getting any
support at all. In fact, they were being called the
KKK half the time by the left in this country.
But now that it's that it's Trump again, people are
flooding the border patrol. They want to be border patrol
agents again because they feel like somebody's gonna have their back.
Speaker 1 (15:14):
Can you fix that? Shows them? That shows you leadership.
That shows what leadership does and can have both. He
goes from one end of the spectrum to the other.
You have a you have a President Trump who really
really does truly respect the American law enforcement officer at
all levels and has shown that for as long as
(15:34):
as he's been even before he entered politics. Yes he was.
He was legendary for treating police officers right in the
right way, even when he was just in business. Then
you have the Bidens, and the and the Obamas who
despise law enforcement officers, who make no bones about it,
(15:55):
and as a result, you have a criminal justice crisis
that is now is now generational. We there's no way
in the world that President Trump, as much as he
would like to to, can right the ship as in
any in any timely fashion, because the damage has been done.
We've lost incredible amounts of very very good police officers,
(16:21):
people who are very competent, who have institutional knowledge, who
who have incredible knowledge and investigative work. They have fled,
they said when they when the eligible for retirement, they left.
And of course we're talking the major cities in this country,
especially those run by democratic politicians, have lost the majority
(16:45):
of the the retirement eligible police officers. Now here's the
other side of that coin. So you lose, you lose
all that experience. Then you can't recruit people because they
have made the job so dangerous both physically, emotionally psychologically,
and so now you're not getting enough people. When I
(17:07):
took the police test in Las Vegas in nineteen eighty six,
because I'm dating myself here, they stopped it at five
thousand applicants for one hundred jobs. They wouldn't allow anymore.
Now we're lucky to see eight or nine hundred applicants,
and we're in a city that doesn't have the woke insanity.
(17:28):
So you go. They gave a police test in Saint
Louis not long agoing about like twelve people showed up
because nobody wants to work there. And so you look
at the just the numbers themselves. You have everybody fleeing
from the experience level. Then you can't hire enough people.
So what do they do. They lower the standards, of course,
(17:51):
and so and has that has just the opposite effect.
But it needs to happen because if you hire people
that really shouldn't be police officers to begin with, then
they commit acts of misconduct or corruption. Then the left says,
you see all police, Yeah, exactly right. And so it's
like it's like the self fulfilling prophecy.
Speaker 2 (18:13):
Lieutenant Randy Sutton going and check out the Wounded Blue
Dot org. Get his book called Rescuing nine one one,
The Fight for America's Safety. I want to beat up
on Brandon Johnson just for another minute or so if
we can, because he was my pledgure, my pleasure exactly.
He was asked by CNN or MSNBC here some stupid network,
this very simple question, would five thousand more police officers
in Chicago help to solve the shooting and murder problem?
(18:37):
And he wouldn't answer, and wouldn't answer, and no, no, no,
just I think it was Joe Scarborough, for God's sake,
so it's certainly not a righty. He said, no, no,
but I just want to know if you got five
thousand more, well, there's no way to get fired. But
if you had five thousand more, would that solve the problem.
And his answer was, you can't incarcerate your way out
or something. Crime is is we're calling things crimes that
(18:59):
aren't randy. He would not say that five thousand more
men and women in blue in the city of Chicago
would help cut down crime when you and I both though,
of course it would.
Speaker 1 (19:09):
That's it.
Speaker 2 (19:09):
That's an easy answer, isn't it.
Speaker 1 (19:12):
Of Course it's an easy answer, but it's not his
political ideology. When you put ideology ahead of safety, then
you get exactly what's happening in Chicago. You have incredible
amounts of violent crime, you have a leadership that even
I mean, I'm still I'm still very, very angry. I'm
(19:35):
curbing my words. Thank you for you after what happened
with the ice raids and the and the chief of
Police coming out on the radio telling officers not your response,
I mean you talk about about the he shouldn't even
be the chief of police.
Speaker 2 (19:53):
Well, anybody know this. I got to stop you for
a second because those watching listening might not know this.
You know this. The Ice agents were literally surrounded by
angry people, and angry mob was surrounding them, and they
simply said, we need backup. And you heard it wasn't
the chief of police. It was the Knight supervisor in
charge who said we're not going there. And and the
(20:14):
chief of police did not say that guy's in trouble
or he's gonna get fired. They basically said, well, we
should really support law enforcement, but they didn't that night.
So I wanted to make sure we put it in context.
These Ice agents who were there to enforce the law
and get bad guys out of Chicago were surrounded by
an angry mob and cop said no, go ahead.
Speaker 1 (20:33):
Yeah exactly. And that's and that's not the only place
that's happening. You have you have state legislators, legislators who
are passing laws telling the police they can't they can't
respond to help ice. I mean, it's it is, it is.
It goes beyond politics. It's it's entered some weird stage
(20:53):
where common sense doesn't even play a role anymore. Well,
they should be arrested.
Speaker 2 (20:59):
It's hitting, the betting, is harboring, it's aiding a betting, harboring,
putting officers in danger. It's obstruction of an investigation. Whatever
you want to call it. It's something. It's illegal, isn't it?
Speaker 1 (21:10):
Yes? It is. If I would love to see prosecutions,
I'm happy to see that the judge that that aided
the the illegal alien and escaping was just convicted. And
I thought, you know, maybe there would be jury nullification
and they would go along with some of the ideology there.
But I was happy to see that after after six
(21:32):
hours of deliberation, they in fact did did find her guilty, which,
which is a good is a good sign. But can
can we pivot this to just for a moment, anywhere
you want to go? Let's go all right, I want
to talk about how this affects the mental, the mental
and emotional health of our of ours do.
Speaker 2 (21:52):
Yes, I definitely want I want to know about that.
And by the way, I'm in San Antonio, which is
military city, USA. I am familiar with with veterans, you
with PTSD. You mentioned PTSD earlier about police officers, which
I've never even considered. Tell me what that's all about. Yeah,
this is so.
Speaker 1 (22:09):
The Wounded Blue is a national charity and we help
injured and disabled officers across this country. And we recognize
injuries as either being physical or emotional and psychological because
post traumatic stress can be as real as a bullet.
And what is rarely talked about is the suicide rate
of law enforcement. It is abysmal. It is startling how
(22:32):
many police officers end their own lives. Roughly, the estimate
is three to five times the number of officers who
die in the line of duty will take their own lives.
Speaker 2 (22:42):
I've never even heard that reported.
Speaker 1 (22:44):
That is a statistic that should frighten everyone in America.
That should bring attention to what the challenges are emotionally
and psychologically. Now, I don't use the word PTSD I
because post traumatic stress disorder. I use the word post
traumatic stress injury because it is an injury and it
(23:06):
can be fixed, don't. It doesn't have to become a disorder.
But it's hugely challenging because there are many police agencies
who who don't even recognize post traumatic stress injury as
a legitimate injury and these and that leads to officers
(23:27):
not asking for help when the help is available for them.
We've helped more than sixteen thousand American law enforcement officers
in the six and a half years that we have
been in service, and many of those have been injured
emotionally and psychologically. And there's so many reasons for that.
First of all, it's just the job itself, right, The
(23:50):
job itself can be emotionally damaging because you are seeing
literally the worst that humanity has to offer. I mean,
I can tell you from from thirty four years of
law enforcement that there were very very dark times in
my personal history and I was not ashamed to ask
for help when when it when when the darkness really
(24:13):
really fell? But you know, I mean I remember, I remember,
you know, a baby that dyed in my arms, that
I whose life I tried to save after she drowned.
And I still see your face.
Speaker 2 (24:30):
So I was gonna I was gonna ask you what
trigger is something like that. I mean, so it's a
specific I mean, that's I can't even imagine. I just
have a brand new granddaughter was just born. I can't
even imagine having to go through that. And then you're
expected just to put the uniform on again, just keep
on going.
Speaker 1 (24:44):
You're supposed to not only clear the call and then
go right to the next call. And so and every cop,
every cop will go through trauma. Every police officer will
see things that will that will challenge them and that
will change them internally externally the way that they view
things and the way they affect their family. And so
(25:07):
everybody feels alone. Our motto at the Wound of Blue
is never forgotten, never alone, And that is because when
you get injured, either physically or psychologically, you feel alone.
And when you are, when you get that sensation, it's
a very very dark place to be. Now, let me
tell you some other things that they're going to shock you, Joe,
(25:28):
and why I created the organization to begin with. If
you had asked me twenty years ago, Randy, what's your
future going to be? I would never have said it'll
be running a national wide charity that helps injured and
disabled cops, that was not that it was not on
my to do list, But what happened to me was
I had a stroke in my police car. That is
(25:50):
what ended my police career, right on Las Vegas Boulevard
at two thirty in the morning, and I was the
watch commander. I was the highest ranking officer on duty
that night, and luckily I had a patrol officer with me.
And at two thirty in the morning, we're driving down
Las Vegas Boulevard having a conversation like I'm talking with
you right now, and suddenly I found myself talking slower
(26:13):
and I literally felt my brain slowing down, and I
knew I was having a stroke. So I stopped the
car right in the middle of the street and I said,
get me medical, I'm having a stroke, and I got
out of the car to go round to the passenger
side in case he needed to get me the hospital.
And then I started speaking gibberish and I knew I
was speaking gibberish, but I couldn't control it, and it
(26:34):
was the most frightening moment of my life. And then
I lost the ability to speak and move all together,
and I crumpled to the pavement and that's where my
police career ended laying there helpless, watching people walk by
me taking my picture as I'm laying there, absolutely helpless
in the dirty gutter of Las Vegas Boulevard.
Speaker 2 (26:55):
Wow.
Speaker 1 (26:56):
And it was, I tell you, quite honestly. I wasn't
afraid to die. In fact, I was wishing to die
because I didn't want to live like that. Right, But
once again, that angel has been on my shoulder. My
entire career was with me again that night, and the
blood clotting through my brain did its damage, but it
certainly could have done substantially more. But it ended my
(27:21):
police career. And what happened next is what is going
to shock you as it shocked me, And that's my
own agency turned its back on me. I said, we're
not paying your medical bills, We're not giving you your benefits.
Speaker 2 (27:35):
I'm sorry, I said, I mean hold on, not only
I mean if it happened at home, they still should
pay for everything. But you were driving down Las Vegas Boulevard.
What't happened in uniform? And they're not paying for anything.
What are you talking about? That's what I said. I said,
what do you mean you can't do that? It's the law.
And they said, yeah, well make us. And I got
(27:57):
to tell you, I've never felt so abandoned. So after
twenty four years of service, and I believe me, I
almost gave my life more than on more than one
occasion as a police officer in Las Vegas, I survived
five shootings. So I feeling this devastating feeling of abandonment
(28:21):
was very difficult to deal with.
Speaker 1 (28:23):
I even went to go see the sheriff who I
served with for twenty four years, and I said, how
do you treat me like this? And he looked at
me and I'll never forget this. Look me right in
the eyes, Randy. This isn't personal, man, It's just business.
And here's the harsh reality. He was telling me the truth.
You see, I was no longer I was no longer
an asset to my agency. I'm now a financial liability. Wow.
(28:46):
And I didn't realize this. It's very difficult to fathom.
And then and they fought me every step of the way.
They lost every single hearing and still continue to fight me.
And it lasted a year and a half before the
judge finally said, you got to pay his medical bills.
It's the law. You got to give them his benefits.
(29:06):
And here's the here's what's going to be very difficult
for most people that are listening to this to believe,
but it is the harsh reality. They were hoping that
I would die in the meantime. Oh wow. And and
I thought that this was just me, Joe. I just
thought this was Randy. Well. Then from being on the
(29:27):
show Cops and writing books and being in the movies
and being so visible in the law enforcement community, cop
started reaching out to me. Randy, I know you don't
know me, but I was shot in the line of duty.
They're not paying my medical bills. They've thrown me away. Randy,
I was paralyzed when my police car was hit by
a drunk They they've thrown me. They thrown me to
(29:48):
the to the to the wolves. And I realized that
this wasn't Randy. This is a national issue, and there
was no national resource for these men and women. All
of the all of these terrible, heartbreaking stories that came
to me ended with the same words. At the end,
(30:09):
I feel abandoned, I feel alone. And then the worst,
I wish I'd never survived that night. At least I
wouldn't be a burden of my family and it's heartbreaking, heartbreaking,
and that's why I created The Wounded Blue. And they
we sure as hell are doing something now. We are
saving lives, we are saving careers, we are saving marriages.
(30:32):
But I live with heartbreak every single day. Heartbreaking stories
that that that are that would just curdle your We
actually have a documentary film. If you go to Amazon
dot com, I put in the Wounded Blue, you'll see
a documentary and you better bring your tissues because you're
gonna see stories that you will find unbelievable. Police officer
(30:53):
was shot in it on Amazon dot com, right, and
that's that's that's where you'll you'll find our our documentary
film Can you Imagine Being? And this is all captured
on video. Police officer in pursuit of He does know it,
but they're three hired killers from the cartel in the
vehicle that he's pursuing. And this is all captured on
(31:15):
video during the pursuit. This is in Oklahoma. They're doing
one hundred miles an hour. Suddenly you see the back
windshield break out of the of the dark out suv
either end and they open fire on him with a
high powered rifle. One of the Rounds, goes through the windshield,
hits him right smack in the forehead. He goes unconscious,
and you see his police car drift off the road
(31:38):
and smash into a tree after tumbling. They get him
to the hospital. They get him to the hospital, and
they refuse to give him a neurologist, saying it's medically unnecessary.
They don't pay his medical bills for over a year.
He loses his house, he loses his car, He's got
three children. And it's not until a news station did
(32:03):
an expose on it that suddenly they paid his medical bills.
Speaker 2 (32:07):
Wow.
Speaker 1 (32:07):
And if it weren't for the Wounded Blue and by
the way, then they fired him. Couldn't come back to
work full duty, so they fired him. If weren't for
the Wounded Blue being able to help him get a
federal benefit of about four hundred thousand dollars, he would
have lost everything. This is criminal, but it's happening all
(32:30):
over the country.
Speaker 2 (32:32):
Yeah, if you would ask people before before the interview,
had you asked me and Randy, I'm running a short
on time and I want to have you on often
because I love talking to you. But had you not
told me this, I would not. I would not have
known ever, because they're hiding it, and they're hiding it
very well. My assumption is you guys not only have benefits,
You've got the best benefits on the planet because you're
literally willing to die to do what you do for
(32:54):
a living. I would never ever have thought that a
police agency would not stand behind everybody so quickly and
only a couple of minutes. And I do want to
have you back soon. A Why is your your organization necessary?
I'm glad it's there, but because you won your case,
because these other cops have won their cases, why wouldn't
this make them fix what's wrong in the agencies? And
(33:15):
I love that you're doing it. I want you to
do charity forever. But again, your organization should not be necessary.
Why haven't necessary change has been made in these agencies
since your case and others?
Speaker 1 (33:26):
You are one hundred percent right, I wish my charity
did not exist. And by the way, I want people
to know this because it's very critical. We're all worried
about charity money right about where it gets spent. I
live on my pension. I do not take a salary
from the wounded Blue. I take no money from the
wounded blue. It all goes into the services that we provide.
(33:47):
But we should not need to exist. And the reason
we do is because of the age old reason and
that is money.
Speaker 2 (33:54):
Wow.
Speaker 1 (33:55):
There is incredible amounts of greed that are that that
play out in the in the space of insurance companies
and third party administrators that get hired to uh to
do the workers compensation system. Uh, it's all about money,
quite honestly. Now, there are some agencies that do it right.
(34:16):
If you get if you get hurt in New York City,
they have a very strong police union and they have
very strong workers' compensation laws in New York City. So
you're gonna you're gonna get good medical attention, you're gonna
get you're gonna get good benefits. But if you go
across the I'm dealing with a police officer in New
York State right now, right now that we are getting
(34:36):
into see the finest final surgeon, one of the finest
final surgeons in the United States, because his own department,
after he fractured his skull fighting with the suspect, have
refused to give him his surgery. I was just with
him just five days ago and this week we're getting
him in and we're paying for it. We shouldn't have
(34:57):
to be paying for it. But here there's the other. Here,
here's just one one that there are great Americans that
that believe in the Wounded Blue And and we just
paid three hundred thousand dollars to fix a cop who
was told he would never walk again, and six weeks
ago he danced with his daughter at her wedding. That's amazing.
(35:19):
So and that's because there are great Americans that believe
in law enforcement, that believe in my organization. So I
asked that anybody that supports law enforcement go to the
Wounded Blue dot org. See who we are, see what
we do, give what you can. If you are a
law enforcement officer and you're struggling, you don't have to
walk this journey alone, reach out to us at the
(35:42):
Wounded Blue And if you want to contact me directly,
I'm Randy at the Wounded Blue dot org. That's Randy
at the Wounded Blue dot org. And I am very accessible.
Speaker 2 (35:52):
That Wounded Blue dot org. Go to that website right now,
go see how you can support what Randy's doing for
these amazing people out there who are risking their lives
for you and me the Wounded Blue dot Org. Get
his book. It's called Rescuing nine one one, The Fight
for America's Safety. It's the number one best seller. Go
to Amazon and go check it out again. Rescuing nine
one one The Fight for America Safety.
Speaker 1 (36:10):
Randy.
Speaker 2 (36:10):
Great to meet you in person. I've been a fan
for a long time. I just realized as we started
talking that's the guy, so I really I love hanging
out with you. Let's do it again very soon, my friend.
Speaker 1 (36:18):
Thank you. Let's do that and you have a very
merry Christmas.
Speaker 2 (36:22):
You too, Merry Christmas, my friend. That's it for Unshaken
and Unafraid with Joe Paggs this time. Make sure you
subscribe and we'll have another one very soon
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