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February 2, 2025 33 mins

Felipe Rodriguez, a former NYPD officer and our guest in this deeply impactful episode, opens up about his experiences on the front lines during one of America's darkest days, September 11, 2001. With a career that began amidst the turbulent crack wars of New York, Felipe's story isn't just about professional growth but also about personal resilience and the unwavering call to serve. From the crackling police radio to the heart-stopping moment the Twin Towers fell, Felipe's account is a testament to the courage and camaraderie shared by first responders who faced unimaginable chaos. His vivid recollections take us through the emotional and physical trials that tested him as he balanced his duty to the city with the instinct to protect his loved ones.

As Felipe shares his journey from the moment of crisis to the profound silence that enveloped New York City, listeners are offered a poignant reflection on the bonds forged through shared trauma. We explore the lasting scars, both seen and unseen, that 9/11 left on those who answered the call. Through Felipe's candid narrative, we are reminded of the enduring power of human connection and the importance of remembering the lessons and sacrifices of that fateful day. This episode is not just about recounting history; it's about honoring the resilience of those who lived it and ensuring their stories continue to resonate.

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Transcript

Episode Transcript

Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Carol Park (00:03):
Hi everybody, welcome back to the Courage
Unmasked podcast.
I'm Carol Park, your host, andI'm so excited, delighted, to
have Felipe Rodriguez with usthis morning.
You are going to, you're in fora treat, is all I can say.
Treat in the sense of to hearfrom somebody who was in New

(00:26):
York on September 11th 2001, apart of the NYPD, and we're
going to hear his story.
That, of course, is all aboutvulnerability, being in the
midst of uncertainty, risk andemotional exposure, and that's
what we highlight here on thispodcast.

(00:46):
So, felipe, welcome thismorning.
We are so honored to have you.

Felipe Rodriguez (00:53):
Well, thank you for having me.
It's going to be interesting.

Carol Park (00:56):
Well, I know it is going to be interesting and wow,
I know you have such stories totell.
So let's just start with tellus a little bit about your
background in the NYPD.

Felipe Rodriguez (01:09):
Well, you know , real simple, my policing has
been my life.
I actually took the police testat 16 and a half, which is
something that you're not reallygoing to hear.

Commix.io (01:18):
Wow, Very young, you can say it's a calling.

Felipe Rodriguez (01:21):
You know I was 20, very eager to do the job.
It was, you know, a crazy time.
It was the crack wars.
It was New York City.
People were getting murderedleft and right.
We had some of the highesthomicide rates ever.
And you know what?
It wasn't even thinking aboutdanger, it was just thinking
about getting the job done andbeing a good cop.

(01:42):
So you know, and we'll see now,so many years, how things have
changed.
But at the end of the day guesswhat?
I'd be a detective.
By the time I was 26, 27,relatively young.
I was in narcotics.
I was running around in thevice unit seeing things that you
know as a kid that grew up inthe Bronx I wasn't really
exposed to.

(02:03):
So you know, that's a lot, you,you know, as a young age, to
take on.
Uh.
I made sergeant with 12 years onthe job and once again, you
know, new doors opened up, uh.
But yet in my, my lifetimethese doors have been sometimes
larger than you could even walkthrough, you know.
So it's almost like you'rewalking into the unknown.
I actually made boss with 12years on the job and I was part
of an elite unit at the time.

(02:24):
So I only did a year on patroland I came back to supervise my
very own team.
So I'm supervising guys that are50 years old, that are second
grade detectives, you know,detectives that have gone beyond
some of the things that I'vedone first grade detectives.
And here I stepped into a worldwhere now I became their boss

(02:44):
and then to say, 11 months afterthat we were rocked into this
situation that would overwinanybody, which was 9-11.
So here I am, a young sergeanthaving to look out for older
people that might not understandat the time what I'm doing to
keep them alive, and yet it hadto get done, retired after that,

(03:05):
and you know I still miss thejob every day.

Carol Park (03:09):
Wow, you know, I hear the calling and I also hear
that I think a lot of timeswith the calling which I hear so
many first responders say itwas a calling, that's a common
theme.
But I think a lot of times withthe leaders that had the
calling, there's just aptitudesthat you have.

(03:29):
It's etched in our memories ofwhere we were, what we were

(03:51):
doing, when we saw the news,heard the news.
Somebody called us there's anassault on our country, but you
were there.
So walk us through what yourmorning of 9-11 was.
Walk us through, Tell us more.

Felipe Rodriguez (04:08):
It's difficult .
You know, here you are, I was.
I had my second daughter waslike eight months old, you know,
and at that point my wife was adetective at NYPD, so she was
already down at one police plazaand it's almost, you know, do I
leave?
I have to leave my familybehind and abandon them, because

(04:30):
I have an entire team waitingfor me to take charge.
So I called my aunt at the timeand I kind of just threw my kid
out of my newborn the older onewas still in school and you
kind of jumped in your car andyou said, let's get this done,
you know, and it's a lot to do.

Carol Park (04:59):
Well, just, I can't even imagine that decision that
you had, aspects of thevulnerability which is the
emotional exposure piece, thatsometimes we just don't even
think about, the emotions thatare involved as we move into the
uncertainty risk.
So, as you called your aunt andyou handed off your
eight-month-old daughter to goto the call, driving there, tell

(05:24):
us more how the morningunfolded for you.

Felipe Rodriguez (05:28):
It's something surreal.
So, being in an investigativeunit, we had take-home radios.
You know, some departments do,some departments don't.
I made the mistake of turningon that radio immediately, since
I saw the planes crashing and,as cops, no matter what happens,
we show up.
You know, when another fellowcop calls for help, I don't care

(05:48):
if you come in horseback on atrain, if you commandeer a taxi,
you make sure you're there forsomeone else.
So we had a transit officerthat was screaming into the
radio and this poor.
I'll never forget these screams.
It's still etched in my mindand the inability for me to even
get there because I was in thecounty of the Bronx and she was
in Manhattan and it just to thisday it still.

(06:10):
It sticks with me.

Carol Park (06:12):
I bet it haunts you at.
Really, it sticks with you in ahaunting way.
Uh, just hearing that, soyou're, you know it's like I'm
going to get there.
I'm going to get there, so yeah, then what?
Then what happens?

Felipe Rodriguez (06:28):
Yes, we, we ended up meeting.
We had a clandestine location.
Pretty much it was a house,because our units would
basically rent houses near thesubjects that we were
investigating.
So the community at largedidn't even know that we were
the police.
And that day, you know, we gorunning out with gun belts and
we wear, you know, the NYPD raidjackets, you know, like the
tactical jackets that we wear,and just seeing them look at us,

(06:51):
you know they were like whatthe hell is going on.
They knew something was goingon bad and we put on the radio,
the car radio, and we havedifferent levels of police
response here.
Level one would be like thelocal officers assigned to the
area, but they jumped upstraight to level four,
something that I think happenedmaybe one other time in the

(07:14):
entire history of the NYPD,which is, if you're off duty,
show up no matter what.
So it was the ultimate call foranyone to hear.

Carol Park (07:22):
So it was the ultimate call for anyone to hear
.
So you mentioned.
You saw the plane crash intothe towers.
You saw it.

Felipe Rodriguez (07:30):
Yes, no, I was still in my house when that one
hit and at that point I wasn'tfar from that clandestine
location that we came out of.
I got four of my guys in a cartogether and I directed the rest
of my team to start responding.
And this is when it getssurreal.

(07:52):
So it just happened that atthat time I was trying to finish
my first masters at John Jayand I was actually studying
terrorism and sometimes too muchknowledge can almost kind of
put fear in you.
And we decided to take theMidtown Tunnel.
And as we're ready to take theMidtown Tunnel going from, as
we're ready to take the MidtownTunnel going from the LIE
Highway, I saw the second towerfall and it fell straight down.
It was something like it lookedlike a Lego house, it looked

(08:14):
like one of your kids just tookone of their toys and toppled it
over and it came straight down.
And here we are now going into atunnel and, knowing that
terrorism sometimes, you know,terrorists plant secondary
devices the panic of me goingthrough that Midtown tunnel, I
told the guy that was driving me, the detective.
I said listen, you got to stepon this gas.

(08:34):
We got to get out of here fast.
We're in a bad position.
So, knowing all of this, itjust you know.
Sometimes knowledge is great.
But knowledge could also add toyour fear, which people don't
realize.

Carol Park (08:42):
Oh, absolutely so.
Y'all are driving too because,like you said, you're going to
be there.
You're driving into all of thedanger.
So what is surreal?
I'm sure your brain was in amultitude the emotions, the
rational thinking like how didyou stay grounded enough to know

(09:05):
next steps to support, to leadto direct.

Felipe Rodriguez (09:10):
It's just you know, we do have an intensive
training academy, it's calledBMOC, basic Management, and you
kind of, just you know, defer tothat, I've always been kind of
I know my policies, I know myprocedures.
I was always a resource for mylieutenant that sometimes
wouldn't know all of them.
So I prided myself on kind ofknowing what to do, but still
it's ad hoc.

(09:31):
Sometimes I had one officer inthe car calling his parents
leaving like his last will andtestament, and I had to quell
that immediately.
I said listen, no one's dyingon my tour, we're all making it
home.

Carol Park (09:55):
Did you all make it home?
Yeah, we did.
Wow, wow, so so then you'redriving to get down there.
Did you actually go to that?

Felipe Rodriguez (09:59):
that ground level, like what we were there.
I mean, we were right next tothe church, you know, the famous
church, and uh, you know, uh,and once again I'm still missing
half my team, you know, becausemy other team decided to take,
you know, another highway, so wekind of got, you know, and then
communications went down.
People don't realize this.
So, you know, one of our mainabilities as police officers is

(10:24):
being able to communicate, gethelp, be able to disseminate
information of danger.
So we were basically, you were,left on your own to figure it
out and, you know, my guyswanted to go into the building
and once again, thank God, youknow, I had a little bit of
knowledge base and I said,listen, the first building fell.
Take it from me.

Carol Park (10:54):
The second one's going to fall and they were like
Sarge.
We got to be heroes, we got tohelp people and that's a hard
decision.
You know you got to hold theseguys back.
Particular moment where it feltexceptionally vulnerable
because I'm hearing all alongthe way it's one thing after the
other, it's the okay, the restof the team's not there, this

(11:14):
tower fell, we don't haveability to communicate.
You're leading and directingthis team.
Is there any moment inparticular for you that stands
out as really extraordinarilyvulnerable, where you felt like,
maybe physically or emotionally, you didn't know what to do,

(11:37):
how to respond and how did youcope?

Felipe Rodriguez (11:39):
You just couldn't.
It kind of went on autopilot.
The cops are going to, you know, my detectives, because they
were all detectives they'regoing to feed off of me.
So there is no time to panic.
And it was just heartbreakingbecause, you know, I got this
detective in the backseat andhe's calling his mother and he's
saying Mom, I love you.
You know, you know, you knowhe's basically saying his last

(12:04):
goodbyes, absolutely.

Carol Park (12:06):
Yeah, yeah, this is yeah, and you just go on
autopilot and did you just haveto kind of detach from your own
emotions at but?
But you can't right, you can'tdo that.

Felipe Rodriguez (12:20):
No, you kind of go into to to.
You know, you know they saysometimes you fight flight and
sometimes you have to lead andwe position ourselves to be able
to evacuate and assist people.
And you know, like I said, Ihad a couple of guys that wanted
to play hero, but I knew thesecond building would fall.
I had that feeling.
I know from you, know myteachings, things that I've

(12:40):
learned and everything else andI said no, we got to stand fast.
And one thing that wasincredible and everything else.
And I said no, we got to standfast and one thing that was
incredible we were trying tolead people in a certain way
because I knew the buildingshould fall straight down, like
the first one did, but I wasalways feared that it would
topple over.
So I was kind of redirectingpeople to the area that I
thought was the safest.
And I had somebody and it goesto show you how people don't

(13:02):
think I'm positioning myself tomake sure that you get home
safely.
And this one person wanted toargue with me and they said,
well, how am I going to get hometo Brooklyn?
And sometimes your brain waslike, and that's when I had
enough, that's like when, youknow the pot boiled over and
everything I'm like listen atthis point.
Either you listen to me or youdie.
Those are your options and youknow you never want to talk and

(13:25):
I'll never forget that.

Carol Park (13:30):
But I'm like why are you arguing me when I'm trying
to save your life?
Yeah, you know, I think of whatwe see sometimes, and I mean
this just from images, that kindof the slap therapy like boom,
boom, wake up.
Like listen to me, you've gotto because the brain can go into
that irrational panic mode andyou had to stay calm.
People running with the smokeand the billowing, and you know

(14:10):
they're covered in ashesthemselves For you.
How would you describe what youwere seeing and what was going
on?

Felipe Rodriguez (14:21):
It was surreal .
So when the second buildingfell, we were there and it's
something like I said if youweren't there you're not going
to understand it.
You saw it as a billowing, youknow, cloud of smoke to me, as
we were running, that thinglooked like it was alive.
It looked like it was a monstercoming to get us and no matter

(14:43):
how fast you ran, you couldn'toutrun it and I turned the
corner.
And just so you have naive,your brain could be, I turned
the corner and I kind of turnedaround.
I'm like, well, I turned thecorner, maybe it's not going to
follow me.
It wasn't.
It was like a living entitythat just swallowed us up.
So we just kind of duckedunderneath some cars and then

(15:06):
when we woke up, we looked likesnowmen.
It was.

Carol Park (15:08):
It was incredible, yeah, so then what?
So then you come out from underthe car and you're in this
scene, and then then what do youdo?

Felipe Rodriguez (15:17):
I mean it, I'm sure it's the overwhelm no, we
already had a smell of smoke,but then it was, it was I don't
know.
It was almost like instant, youknow, you got the the weird
smell of burning things that noone should smell.
Yeah, you know, it was mercury,it was asbestos and it was just
you know.
And after a couple hours there,we actually smelled like

(15:39):
burning flesh.
It's horrible.
I mean, how do you, how do youget away from this?
And we just, you know it keptgoing on and on.
My team was still missing.
You know, we saw people comingout, you know, covered in blood
covered, and it just kept goingon and on.
It was like the day never ended.
It was, everything was in fullmotion.

Carol Park (16:01):
You know I'm I'm thinking your decision, as you
had to think, ok, I've got toleave my family because there's
a call and I have to go to that.
At what point in time were youable to pause to let your own
family know hey, I'm OK, likeI'm going to be here, but I'm OK
.
How did that?
I mean your family was probablyso panicked, I mean your family

(16:26):
was probably so panicked.

Felipe Rodriguez (16:26):
Yeah, I mean, like I said, she was assigned to
administrative duties at onepolice plaza.
I have no idea what happenedwith that at that day, Just it,
just.
We have no communications.
I think at the end of the dayone of our guys had one cell
phone that worked, but onlytexting, and texting wasn't you
know as prevalent as this thing,and I think we got a text to a

(16:48):
text.
It was you know what at the endof the day.
I don't even know because I wasthere so many hours and the day
just dragged on.
It was the weirdest thing.
At the end of the night I'llnever forget this before we
actually found the rest of myteam, and that's another crazy
story.
Remember when they toldColumbus if he kept sailing, he
was going to fall off the earth.
At the end of my team andthat's another crazy story
Remember when they told Columbusif he kept sailing he was going
to fall off the earth.
At the end of the night, it wasthe darkest void that I've ever

(17:12):
seen in life.
It was.
There was no light there, therewas no noise in a city of
millions of people, and Iactually said, like you know
what this is.
It's almost like they openedthe gateway to like something
evil.
It just nothing existed.

Carol Park (17:28):
No light, nothing, yeah, oh yeah.
The darkness was justparalyzing almost of just whoa.
I don't know what to do, how tofeel, how to respond.
How did the rest of the teamI'm sure the other listeners are
like me like did y'all finallyget together?

(17:51):
Like how did you find them?
Did everybody survive?

Felipe Rodriguez (17:56):
the rest of the team.
We actually found each otherlater on and we just, you know,
we hugged, yeah, yeah, that'sall we could do.
We hugged, yeah, yeah, that'sall we could do.
We hugged, yeah.
And until recently.
We just had a dinner a coupleof weeks ago and it was funny.

(18:19):
One of our officers had writtensomething on his Facebook page
and it's funny how we look atthings from different
perspectives and the way hewrote it it actually brought
back.
It was amazing.
I'd like to read it, if youdon't mind to take a second.
I would be so honored.
It says 23 years ago this day,I was assigned to the NYPD, a
unit called DOCID, which is theOrganized Crime Investigation

(18:42):
Division.
After the first plane hit thetower, half my team went down to
the area of Broadway and Fultonand the other detectives took a
different route to the BrooklynBridge.
The first tower collapsed.
When we ran down Fulton, thedust swallowed us up.
You know, I was trying to keepmy eyes closed and my breath as

(19:02):
long as we could.
So basically we were trying tosee and breathe something.
That's just basic.
You know, the dust was eatingaway.
It was horrible.
It was eating away our vision,that concrete dust that people
don't even understand.
Later on, thank God, the RedCross came and actually, you
know, gave us first aid to beable to see the rest of the
night, because we were muchblinded and we would have been
if they hadn't have shown up.

(19:23):
And then it says, uh, weregrouped.
The saint paul's church, that'sthat's the church where I was
already at we were covered likesugar cookies.
The second tower collapsed andwe ran again.
Once and when we regroupedbecause we were just getting
scattered, thrown about by thedust and this beast that was
chasing us.
And then it says we couldn'tfind any of our teammates.
We didn't know who was dead oralive.

(19:44):
You know, we got closer to thefallen towers and saw the
destruction and, standing hereat St Paul's Church again,
remember, another Tower, 7 fell.
So once again we startedrunning for our lives because it
looks like it was a white tigerchasing us down.
And it says I could barelydescribe the scene as we ran a
couple of hundred feet towardsthe front of the church, it

(20:06):
swallowed us up.
It says we broke into ahardware store to get tools to
be able to save people and dowhatever we could.
He says I could admit this nowbecause the statute of
limitations has passed.
It says it's funny, cop humor.
Right, we're a little different.
Yes, yes, it says well, it getclose to midnight and guess what

(20:28):
?
We finally saw Flip, mike andBobby and the others coated with
dust and debris.
Sadly, many of our otherfriends didn't make it.
But that day, you know what, wemade it home.
That was written by DetectiveJason Spiller and until a couple
of weeks ago, guess what, Ihadn't seen his perspective.
But seeing that, you know itmeans a lot.

(20:49):
It means a lot.

Carol Park (20:51):
Yeah, it means a lot .
It means a lot, yeah, it meansa lot.
What I know today, it stillhaunts and lingers.
I can't, truly I can't evenimagine and thank you for
sharing that perspective that wesaw these images on TV, that it

(21:12):
was like, oh, some smoke andbillows, and to hear you
describe, no, it was alive, itwas like a tiger, it was chasing
you, you couldn't get away, andthat you couldn't see, you
couldn't breathe.
The things that we take forgranted, like you living through

(21:32):
that which I'm so grateful thatyou lived through it and so
incredibly sad and devastatedfor those who did not.
And then the impact on theirfamilies and friends and lives
of those who love them.
It's just so dramatic, tragic.

(21:53):
How do we even find horrific,how do we find words that can
even begin to grasp the horrific?
Horrendous Again, I don't havewords.
So, yeah, and your service init to be there, to run into the

(22:17):
scene, to help people, toprotect yourself as the building
fell, and then to continue tobe there like and this went on
for days and months, and then,as a detective, years trying to
probably understand what.
What is this?
And so I don't know.

(22:39):
Tell us anything more aroundthis that really stands out to
you.

Felipe Rodriguez (22:44):
It's just you know, now, a couple of years
later, you know we kind ofrelive it and there's always
triggers and things that happen.
Like you know, you'll get asmell, that just it hits you in
a certain way.
And I remember some of theequipment they brought down.
There was heavy equipment andyou know, trying to save people
that might have been trapped andmoving debris and you'll be

(23:07):
amazed Like there's a clangingmetal noise and you'll be amazed
like there's a clanging metalnoise or it could be bought off,
sometimes from certain plateshitting like dinner plates or
something so innocuous.
As you know, in my new jobthere's cashiers and sometimes
when they bring down the likethe slot that comes out and
holds the money in the cashdrawer, that clinging or that

(23:27):
metal, the way it sounds andreverberates.
I almost you would have thoughtI got shot at, the way my body
just cringes.
So now it's kind of like,without wanting to, you're
reliving moments and it'ssomething a lot of people don't
understand.

Carol Park (23:49):
Yeah, I know you describing what I would, as a
therapist, call a trauma trigger, which the body keeps score and
a sound, a smell, a touch ofsomething, it all comes flooding
back.
And as an EMDR trainedtherapist, you know we we
believe in that.
But I said to you, you know I Ibelieve in EMDR and I also

(24:13):
understand that that level oftrauma to completely move it
through your body I can'timagine you know that that it
might even be possible.
Now there may be other EMDRtherapists out there that may
have a different opinion, butthis was just at a level when

(24:37):
you described level four thatyou can only remember one other
time in the history of NYPD andit went immediately to level
four.
Wherever you are come.
Now that that level of trauma,at that, I would think that
these trauma triggers wouldstill be, because you told me

(25:00):
you did some EMDR that theyprovided some different
therapies for y'all as firstresponders to help.
But yeah, there's just a levelat which it still exists, right.

Felipe Rodriguez (25:13):
It does, and it's just, you know.
But the problem and I'm nottrying to say we're different,
it's just this thing was so sucha level of magnitude that it
just the wounds keep coming.
You know, we get magazines fromlike the union, or sometimes
I'll, you know, attend anacademy graduation because my

(25:34):
officers you know that I'vetrained over the years they get
promoted and they want me toshow up and everything.
And I walk into the policeacademy and it's it's like who's
next?
You know, they have a giantpost of officers that have
passed cancers and all sorts ofdiseases, giant posts of
officers that have passed, youknow, cancers and all sorts of
diseases.
You know people that have lungcancers, people that have never

(25:56):
smoked and all sorts of thingsthat you know young people
should not have at that age.
And it's almost like, do I wantto look, you know?
And then I look at that boardbecause I feel guilty after, and
then I'm like, oh my God, Iknew him.
I worked with Dumb andNarcotics.

Carol Park (26:16):
You know we were both sergeants together and it's
like we're still dying.
Yeah, I know I keep saying this, I don't have words, and I
really am so grateful thatyou're willing to share your
story this morning, because Ithink those of us who were old
enough to see the pictures don'tunderstand until as I hear it

(26:38):
from your mouth with your words,of the intensity that it's not
just a picture that we saw on TVand has passed.
And, of course, now there areupcoming generations that
weren't alive when it happened.
And I know that when you and Italked and I know that it still
is so difficult as you tell thestory, because it's like you're

(27:02):
reliving it and I said are yousure you want to do this?
And you told me yes, I do,because for those who weren't
around or don't understand, Ithink it's important that people
understand Is there somethingthat you really want those of us
who are old enough or those whoweren't alive at the time, what

(27:22):
do you want them to know andunderstand?

Felipe Rodriguez (27:27):
I see the logo on these shirts and the slogan
about you know, never forget.
It's a part of history.
If we don't remember history,it's going to happen again.
We have to make sure somethinglike this never happens again in
this country.
You know it was the firstattack on American soil.
People forget that.
You know we were in the pileand you talk about a moment

(27:49):
where you kind of feel like holyshit.
You know I'm proud to be anAmerican.
You know you had to see whenthey started the combat air
patrols and you know when yousaw those military jets coming
over us to make sure nothingelse would happen.
You know those are sounds younever forget.
You know you could love America, hate it, whatever, but you
know what?
We're all Americans, we're allhere and you can't forget this.

(28:12):
People are still dying.
I myself have had five medicalprocedures on my face.
I've had major sinus issues.
I choke when I sleep at nightand some of these procedures are
just heinous.
Some of these procedures arejust heinous.
You know.
Imagine waking up and half theinside of your sinuses are
missing and you know the days ofblood coming out.

(28:40):
It's just, you know.
And some things areexperimental.
I had them put a rod on my nosewith some sort of like spider
mesh and they basically usedradio waves to burn the back of
my sinuses off.
You know 9-11 people are stillsuffering.
You know it happened a longtime ago.
But our bodies guess what?
We were damaged not onlypsychologically, physically, and
a lot of people have died as aresult.
That's what we need to notforget.

Carol Park (29:03):
Yeah, so never forget, never forget Wow, I know
that there's probably so muchmore that you could share with
us and really I'm just thinkingokay, we, we will definitely
have you as a guest again,because nine, nine, eleven was

(29:26):
huge.
But also, you have otheraspects of the NYPD and I also
know that today you are onnumerous like news channels CBS,
nbc, cnn for all of the thingsthat are still occurring today
the shooting of theUnitedHealthcare, the murder of

(29:49):
the UnitedHealthcare CEO, theNew Orleans terror attack.
I saw you on CNN last night.
So I know that we're going tohave you on this podcast again.
But to kind of just end today,never forget absolutely anything
else that you just feel isimportant, that we should know.

Felipe Rodriguez (30:12):
You know people need to realize cops, you
know, we're just human beings,nobody's a superhero.
And cops also need to realizewhen you need help, reach out.
You know, don't be afraid tosay you're not okay.
You know, for the longest, whenI came out of the job, we had a
huge stigma of you suck it up.
You know, and as a sergeant youhave to pay special attention

(30:33):
to your cops.
You know them better thananyone else.
They spend more time with youthan they do with their spouses
or their family.

Carol Park (30:45):
As a frontline supervisor, you need to be there
for your cops at all times.
I mean, what a great parting.
You know we've talked on otherepisodes with some fire chiefs
around the psychological safety,people feeling like it's okay
to say you're not okay and forleaders to understand that we're
not always okay and it's okayand that you're going to be

(31:07):
there for them no matter what.
So that's safety, to not beokay and to share and to ask for
help.
So, Felipe, again, wow, I knowthis episode.
I hope that it just goes viralso that people can hear and
understand more of what it waslike then and even now, even

(31:31):
today, the impact that stilllingers.
And so let's never forget.
Let's continue to put this outthere, Never forget, unite as
Americans, as as a country, andto just support one another.
So, again, thank you, sograteful for your time this

(31:53):
morning.

Commix.io (31:57):
Thanks for tuning in to the Courage Unmasked podcast.
If you enjoyed today's episode,don't forget to subscribe and
leave a review.
It really helps us grow.
Follow us on social media forupdates and a look at what's
coming next, and a big thank youto our sponsor, comixio, for
supporting this journey.
Until next time, keep leadingwith courage.
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