John - From Infantryman to Law Enforcement Captain: Navigating Military Life and Leadership Challenges - Hector Bravo UNHINGED

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
Hector Bravo.
Unhinged chaos is now insession.
Welcome back to our channel,warriors.
We are still growing.
Today, another special guest wehave a guy by the name of john
who was infantry 11 bravo, alsoa police officer and worked in

(00:22):
correction.
So we're gonna get into thisright now.
What, what's up, dude?
How's everything?
What's up?
Everything's good, everything'sgood.

Speaker 2 (00:26):
Thanks for taking the drive down south, dude?
No, I definitely appreciate it.
It took a little bit longerthan normal for the drive, but
it was a good drive still.
Was it a rain or no?
No, it wasn't rain.
It sprinkles and I startcrashing Out of control.
Dude, we used to laugh aboutthat on patrol.

(00:47):
Like it rains, it's like, oh,get ready for the accident
report.
Fuck dude, so where did yougrow up at?
I grew up in Oxnard, california, in Ventura County.
That's what's up, dude.

Speaker 1 (00:56):
Oxnard.
Shout out to Oxnard At what agedid you decide you wanted to
join the Army?

Speaker 2 (01:05):
I would say honestly, probably around 15 or 16.
I think because growing up inOxnard if anyone from Ventura
County it's usually like Oxnardis considered, I guess, like the
more ghetto part of the countyor the more where the gangsters
are like.
Oh, it is, bro, it is yeah, andso, you know, growing up and
kind of seeing that that was notsomething that I really wanted

(01:27):
to do, but I was always aroundthat because, you know, my
cousins were that's how theywere growing up in just the
different that just was theculture around there.
So I just kind of was like, oh,let me try to.
You know, go to the militaryand see, the only person I knew
from the military was my uncle,my two uncles actually and they
kind of told me about it and gotme interested in it and I just

(01:48):
wanted to do something differentthan anyone else was doing.
Because even though my friendswere going to the Marines, a
couple of them went to theMarines and I didn't even want
to go with them because mymentality was like I'm going to
go do some shit on my own, awayfrom everybody else, right, and
then see what I could do.
That was it.
That was like, honestly, mymentality.
I probably would have even wentthe marine route, but I was
more like, once a couple of myfriends went, I was like I don't

(02:09):
want to go on, nobody from dude.

Speaker 1 (02:10):
Our fucking stories are almost identical.
Dude.
I was telling you I found mylost, my long lost brother man.
Fucking identical dude, likethe majority of my friends, like
they all went to the marinecorps.

Speaker 2 (02:19):
Yeah and yeah, it was crazy because I didn't even
want to, um know, a couple of mycousins were supposed to go
with me and they didn't.
And so like right now, whenpeople you know meet me or like
they never really see my guycousins, they only see my girl
cousins, and I always tellpeople I said, you know, that's
the thing to me.
I guess sometimes I feel likesad about because they were all
going to somewhat go with me tothe military and they didn't.

(02:42):
And that's honestly where ourlives just went like two
different directions.
So I feel like if they wouldhave went to with me to the
military like they would havehad, they probably wouldn't be
the same people.
Like that's how crazy it was.
Yeah, so you know, it's likeyou know, and my mom, probably
being on my ass too, probablyhelps.
Did you skateboard at all?
Uh, no, I didn't skateboard oranything.
But I was kind of cool, like Iwas kind of cool, like I was

(03:03):
kind of cool with everybody,like I kind of a couple of the
guys I knew were skaters.
You know, there was the homies,the jocks, everyone.
I think I don't really think Iwas in one particular group, I
was just more like interminglingwith everybody, for sure.

Speaker 1 (03:15):
So the recruiter station, man, where was it at?
And when you walked in did theyhave?
Did he break it down to you?
Did you already know your MOS?

Speaker 2 (03:23):
Damn you know the recruiting station was, my
recruiter was a girl actually,so that was kind of she didn't
know shit about, like infantry Idon't think she knew anything
about.
Did you know anything aboutinfantry?
I didn't know, anything about.
The only thing that I knew, likeliterally, was that when I
walked in there there was a dudethat was a ranger and he was

(03:46):
like had a, or that, a rock thatsaid the ranger on it, and he
was like take a picture of thisrock and this is what a ranger
is and all this other stuff, andI was like all right, cool.
And he kind of told me aboutthe job like shoot guns, you
know this and that and I waslike, oh, that sounds cool, like
that's literally the extent ofwhat I knew about the job, right
, and um, so it was like Ididn't really know anything
about it.
Honestly, I think I just wantedto do something like hard but

(04:06):
didn't really care what it was.
I think I was just looking tokind of test myself.
I think one of the things gotme interested in too was my
cousin got sent to um, what'sthat?
The grizzly program you know,where they send the kids that
act like so I remember so robles, yeah, yeah, my, it's funny
because a guy I work with now heactually went to to the same
program.
So when my cousin went he cameback and I just remember he was

(04:27):
kind of like yoked out, you know, from doing burpees and pushups
, and I was like I said, whatdid he do?
And he was like he's all man,they just made us do burpees and
pushups and you know, they weremarching.
I went to his graduation andthings like that and he was one
of the ones supposed to go withme to the military.
So actually, I think kind ofseeing that actually kind of
made me even more like, oh yeah,you know I want to go, um, you

(04:48):
know I want to get in shape, Iwant to do stuff like that, and
so it kind of prompted me inthat way to do it.
But yeah, the recruiter, uh,she was cool, but she didn't
really tell me anything.
Yeah, it was honestly, I don'tremember her being like, not
that she wasn't helpful, but itdidn't really help me make them.
I think I was just already inmy own mind like just send me,
send me somewhere hard.

Speaker 1 (05:07):
Send you somewhere hard dude.
So where was MAPS?
Was MAPS in that area?
No?

Speaker 2 (05:11):
So MAPS, the recruiting station was right
there in Oxnard.
I want to say it was off oflike Oxnard Boulevard and like
Gonzalez or something.
I don't know if it's stillthere or not.
Um, and then meps was in la.
So then we would, then we'd go,yeah, we'd go all the way to la
.
Uh, yeah, it was funny when, uh, when I left because I
graduated I'm not sure the exactdate I graduated from high

(05:34):
school, what year 99?
Yeah, um, and but I left onjuly 26, and so my parents had
to go to a funeral in Arizona.
So before I left, my dad waslike, he just was like, hey,
there's alcohol above therefrigerator.
You know, you could have aparty if you want to, because I
was like they were going to begone the weekend.
I was leaving.

(05:54):
So literally they left on.
I think it was like a Thursdaynight or something, and then I
was leaving that Sunday morning.
I think I was leaving thatSunday morning, so you know, of
course, inviting my friends over.
We had like a little party andthis and that, and then, boom,
they picked me up on Sunday.
The recruiter picked me up frommy house on Sunday and I was
gone.
That was it Gone.

(06:15):
Yeah, I was like, yeah, I wentto Fort Benning.
I don't remember the wholething.
It was like I went to LA.
They put us up in some hotel.
You probably had the same hotel, I bet you that.
Well, I did it out of San Diego.
Oh, you did it out of San.

Speaker 1 (06:31):
Diego, yeah.
So what was your mindset atthat time, dude, because I was
kind of fucking scared ofleaving the nest, like exploring
the world.
What was your mentality?

Speaker 2 (06:40):
Mine was like, honestly, I was ready for it,
like let's get this shit on andcracking.
Yeah, because and you know what, I think it's good that I had
that mentality, because I tellpeople like I don't know about
their experience in basictraining, my shit was like
juvenile hall, it wasn't notlike no.

Speaker 1 (06:53):
Oh, I bet.

Speaker 2 (06:54):
It wasn't like this friendly environment, Like I
would say, my experience withthe Army didn't get better till
I got to my command, but goingin there it was kind of good
that I came from the background,that I came from, because it
wasn't this like warm receptionand not in the way of like, oh,
they're just being hard on youto, like you know, be as more.

(07:15):
I want to say borderline Likewhen I went to Georgia.
I always tell people inCalifornia we stereotype people.

Speaker 1 (07:21):
When I went to Georgia it was borderline racism
you know it wasn't borderlineracism, it was, yeah, it was
yeah, it was right, it was.

Speaker 2 (07:29):
It was weird.
It was a weird atmosphere.
Um, um, in the group that I wasin, uh, what unit were you in?
A basic, I don't even remember.
It was like charlie, come likeblack hawk charlie company.
We were on sand hill somewhere,like, but it was a um, it was
weird because we were with allthese guys from the south.
So, like me, this guy Horn, Iremember him, he was from

(07:50):
Detroit and a guy fromCincinnati and a guy from San
Diego.
We all kicked it togetherbecause we were all from like
kind of cities and these otherguys were like I don't want to
say they were hillbillies, butthey were kind of Hazard
Kentucky.

Speaker 1 (08:01):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (08:02):
And so that was like one of the first things is like
we just noticed like these guysdidn't really like interact with
us.
I think I was like the first,you know, brown person that some
of them saw and it was kind ofso.
It wasn't like they would sayanything in particular they did
one time.
So that's what that's like.
My I think, second week there Igot in a fight with the dude
from Texas and he was because hethought I was Puerto Rican, so

(08:22):
Texas and he was because hethought I was Puerto Rican.
So he's like, hey, you fuckingPuerto Rican.
Well, he white, yeah, he's awhite dude.
But actually me and him becamecool after that.
You know, after, I think, um,yeah, we got a little fight.
I just hit him a few times.
It wasn't really like a yeah,like a back and forth, it was
more like I just punched him afew times and then, I think
after that people knew I wasn'tlike afraid.
And then the guy horn, fromDetroit, I think he, he likes,

(08:44):
he ended up getting in a fighttoo, rocking somebody.
And I think after that, becausewe're all together, they kind
of left us alone.
Um, but yeah, it was not this,like, hey, we're all buddies and
this and that, even though theguy Floyd, which was funny when
we graduated um, me and himactually were cool, we took a
picture together and we shookhands and everything, like I
think I think me kind of notbacking down from him because
these are pretty pretty, youknow, stocky white boy dude,

(09:05):
like, but he was cool.
I mean after that it was cool.
But uh, but the experiencethere wasn't, I would say, fun.
So was Oxnard predominantlyHispanic?
Yeah, it's mostly Hispanic.
Um, it's uh, I would say like95 percent, right, um, you have
not too many.
Uh, you know black people there.
Uh, white people.
There is One of my friendsgrowing up.

(09:26):
His name was Robert Paisano,but to me sometimes, when they
grow up with you, they'rebasically like they're Mexican,
it don't matter what culturethey're from.

Speaker 1 (09:34):
I'm telling you, our stories are identical bro
Because as you go to FortBenning, you're introduced to
the white people from fuckingAlabama, Kentucky, black people
fromigan or new york and puertoricans from puerto rico and
you're like oh, whoa, yeah kindof like cultural overload.

Speaker 2 (09:51):
Yeah, it's all these different people from different
uh places and yeah, they're allit was funny.
Was that a hard?

Speaker 1 (09:56):
time for you to adjust or to get to open up or
like maneuver.
Navigate through that not toomuch.

Speaker 2 (10:04):
I mean I I think my the way I was raised, probably a
pretty personable for the mostpart, I always like talk with
everyone.
I don't know why, I thinkbecause I wasn't the youngest
cousin but I wasn't the oldest,so I was kind of where I would
say I was kind of the morereasonable of my cousins.
Like my other cousins wereextremes, you know what I mean
like they were like homies andthey're like you know they're,

(10:25):
and I was kind of the dude likeI was.
One day I'd be with you know Iremember this girl telling me
she's all I like hanging outwith you, but I don't like your
friends like you know what Imean and she was a straight like
preppy type of girl, yeah, andmy friends and my cousins were
like very much the completeopposite, so it was like I was
intermingling these differentcrowds so maybe I just kind of
knew how to like I don't knowthat.

(10:46):
I feel like the same thing likebeing a cop, like I could one
day I would be, you know,talking to dudes that you know
committed felonies.
The next day I'd be in ameeting with all these nerds
that you know they never and Ijust meant the same person, but
I just know how to, I guess.

Speaker 1 (10:59):
Uh, definitely, yeah, act different um, but how was
the physical portion for you?
I mean, you know it's not.
I mean doing pushups all thefricking time getting smoked.

Speaker 2 (11:08):
It was hard for me at first, honestly, because one of
the things cause I never workedout really before I mean I work
out here, it was working outlike here and there.
You know, you think you're likeI'm getting ready, but I didn't
have anyone to tell me.
You know I didn't do this andthat my uncle would try to help
me, um, with that, because youknow he had been to the army.
But he was uh, I don't rememberwhat his exact job was, but he

(11:30):
just was like, hey, you need toget running shoes and this, this
and that.
And so he got me some like a,um, I don't know, they're like
some asics, so you know, likethe lovely shoes they make you
wear.
And so I was kind of like, uh,um, I wasn't really trained up
too much.
So when I got there I I want tosay I failed the first run,
which is kind of goes into, like, I guess, my mentality, how I
am now.
I failed the first run, so theyput me into a running group

(11:53):
with one of the drill sergeantswho was actually a pretty.
He was pretty nice, he was likean older black guy, but he kind
of reminded me of, I guess, ifI like had like a black grandpa
or something, yeah, like that,because the first when I out he
didn't really yell at me, hejust kind of was more like
seemed like disappointed and forsome reason for myself when I
went back to the I keep wantingto call them the barracks, but I
know we didn't call thembarracks, it was like the dorm,

(12:15):
I guess, or whatever.
The fuck, the bay, the bay orwhatever it is I remember going
back and kind of like looking atmyself and being like I ain't
going to fall out of like anymore runs and I didn't.
In my entire career from thatpoint to long for it, I've never
fallen out of a run because ofthat Cause, because that feeling
I didn't want.
I was like, no, I'm not goingto do that, I'm like I'd rather,
you know, pass out.
Oh, I know, dude for sure.

(12:36):
So it was, it was, yeah, it wasa player, I was a wrestler, I'd
never done any of that shit.
I just came straight from, youknow, the streets of oxford to
like to this and I so I didn'thave any formal like training.

(12:57):
I was like I don't know whatthe fuck these are talking bear
crawling and bear crawling,monkey, monkey fuckers.
Yeah, atomic squats.

Speaker 1 (13:06):
Yeah, dude.
So at the end of it, man, youturn blue, you get your blue
cord, you get your cross rifle.
Did you feel proud, man, thatyou had accomplished that, you
know?

Speaker 2 (13:15):
what's crazy about that experience.
So this is where I tell wherebasic training wasn't.
It taught me a lot of goodthings and bad things, right.
It taught me a lot of goodthings and bad things, right.
So one of the things was whenwe were doing the last I don't
know if you guys, they made youguys do the same thing they were
trying to copy, like the MarineCorps, the crucible.
We called it the bayonet 25 mileroad march yeah they didn't

(13:37):
call it the bayonet, yeah, theyjust were like we want to do
something like the crucible.
It was a 25 mile road march andall that stuff like that.
So, um, you know, like I said,the entire time in there was
kind of like with this littlegroup, um, and when we did that
last, those last events, thedrill sergeant, one of them, two
of them were assholes, butthey're kind of assholes to
everybody.
One of them was a kind of.
He was the one I didn't really,uh, really like and when I was

(14:01):
originally like the you knowknow, carrying the old M16,
whatever.
So when we're going to do the,we did the 15 mile out and then
a 25 mile back.
I don't know if it's the sameway, right?
So he's all like no, you'regoing to carry the 60.
And I'm like okay, whatever youknow what I mean Losey they
lose it right.
So he's all.
Yeah, people can know they cantrade out with you.

(14:23):
Of course, only one dude evertraded out with me that entire
the 15 and the 25, only one guy,um, I can't remember his name,
but he maybe for a couple miles,maybe like two, three miles.
Other than that I carried thatbitch the whole time.
Had they done that previously?

Speaker 1 (14:36):
another.

Speaker 2 (14:36):
No, they never did that they never did that before.
So they never had done thatbefore.
So that's that's kind of thepoint I was getting to.
So I carried it to 15 miles.
In my mind I was like thismotherfucker wants me to quit,
bro, like he want you trying tobreak me or something, and so
did the 15 mile.
By the time we got to like ourlittle combat town, like all my
toenails fell off, every fuckingone of them was off, fell off.

(14:56):
The medic was like he's all youknow, if you don't, you don't
need to do the 25 mile back.
You want?
And I was in my mind I'm likefuck this dude.
Like I know he wants me to like, not, that's what he wants.
And so what was crazy about it?
The guy that they picked to bethe class leader, this fool
didn't even do the 25 mile back.
He fucking sat in the back ofthe thing, yeah, sat in back of
the thing.
Uh, the, the half ton orwhatever fucking.

(15:18):
And um, he didn't do it.
And this is a dude they pickedto be as a class leader.
So when we got back and we gotour fucking cross rifles the
drill sergeant, when he gave oneto me, he said I hope you don't
make it in the army.
Swear to god what the fuck.
He said who the fuck was thisguy?
I don't even want to say hisname, I know his.
I know, like I don't know hisfirst name, but I know who he
was.
Oh damn dude.
Yeah, so I you know, it's oneof those things I'm like.

(15:38):
I don't know how I'd react if Isee him.
If I seen him, like later on,when I was growing up, I'd
probably be like what the fuckbitch?
You know.

Speaker 1 (15:44):
Dude.

Speaker 2 (15:44):
So it was one of those things, honestly like,
where I was kind of like man,what the what the fuck is this?
So it was kind of a weirdexperience in that and I
remember the people next to meand the group actually, you know
, because what they said andthis is what I heard, just the
murmurs right Of like of peoplewere like they're like martinez
did the whole fucking thing, andI can't remember the guy.
They're like our class leader,that motherfucker didn't finish.

(16:06):
So to me I was like you know,like you know, dude, you, I that
kind of taught me early likethere's always gonna be people
trying to tear you down, it'snever gonna be fair, it's never
gonna be.
That's why, like you know, Iused to always bring that up
honestly when I used to givelike little speeches, not the
the whole thing, but it'd belike this whole thing, like it's
gonna be fair and it's alwaysgonna someone's gonna always
help you know where dude.
No bro, you're gonna you'regonna need opposition and you

(16:27):
gotta fucking go through it justeverywhere, bro.
So yeah, it was pretty crazy.
That was kind of a weirdexperience having that kind of
happen.
So when I talk about basic,it's never really like this
jolly oh yeah, it seems like aunique experience dude yeah,
yeah, it was, it was different,it was definitely different.
I learned a lot of good thingsand you know and saw I saw the

(16:48):
bad side of people with that butand I still tell people, go to
the military and I thinksometimes you got to go in those
situations and just fucking andin basic did you learn that you
can push your body further thanyour uh, than what your mind
can think it can push yeah, it'slike I.
I tell people now when I talkabout it it's like leveling up
in like a video game and I feellike once you know where you can

(17:09):
go, it's very hard to to goback or relate.
Or relate to people like even inthe gym I tell people like,
like my knee's been kind ofbugging me a little bit lately
because I was running a lot yeahbut I don't know how to stop,
like I'll tell people, like Idon't know how to, I'll slow,
maybe I'll alter my exercise,I'll do this, something like
that, but I'm not gonnanecessarily stop what I'm doing.
And I can't really relate withsomeone's like oh, you know, I'm

(17:32):
sore, I'm tired, likeeveryone's sore, they're tired.
So like, go do it anyways,right, like push yourself.
You know, I, I don't, I likethat feeling of like, kind of
like progressively gettingbetter.
So like, when I listen to dudes, like you know, david gog is
like oh, yeah, yeah, I like, Ilike that mentality, I guess.
Right, so then you land in fortlewis.
Yeah, second, id, yep, second, Iwas only one that went there

(17:53):
actually out of my whole thing,because it was in my contract,
because I was, because I was thein my.
When I signed my contract, um,I was trying to get as close as
I could to californ, but thearmy has shitty bases.
You know what I mean?
All the bases are like andfucking, I don't know, for some
reason, like the Navy.
I'll give them that they hadthe up and down the coast.
You know, what I mean.
For me it was like I think theygave me the choice of Fort

(18:16):
Lewis or I think that was itsteward or something it was like
.
So I was like, well, I guessI'll go to washington.
I don't know, I don't know.
So I was like I didn't reallyto me.
I was like kind of just likewhatever about it.
I just like let me go check itout, so yeah.
So then I uh, front front, wentthere.
I actually came home for alittle bit because they made me
do, um, hometown recruiting.

(18:36):
I don't know if you rememberthat you come yeah, so I would
come and I would, uh, I didhometown recruiting and it was.
It was pretty and it was prettyfunny.
It was funny because I pulledover a guy, probably like it had
to be like five years, sixyears ago it was a while ago and
I pulled over this guy and he'slike do you remember me?
And I was like no, he's like.

(18:58):
You came to my class and toldus about joining the Army.
He's like you're the reason Ijoined the Army.
That's what he told me.
I was like, I was like whathe's like, yeah, the way you
were talking about it and this.
And that I was like oh, yeah,yeah, because I never even
having that experience it beingbad, I didn't come back and talk
bad about it, I just was likeright, I just came back and was
like like okay, like yeah, thisand that.

(19:18):
And you know, but in group, butespecially in, I guess, the
environment from oxn, becausesometimes they call Oxnard
Boxnard for being like, becauseall the boxers, like Fernando
Vargas, I think, like VictorOrtiz is not from there, as far
as I know, but he trains inVentura.
There's a couple of boxers thatare out of there.
Oxnard is just known for havinga strong boxing community.
So a lot of the guys were notlike, oh yeah, there's fighting,

(19:41):
I don't want to go.
They're like oh yeah, likethat's cool.

Speaker 1 (19:44):
So it was funny.
Let's go back to the basictraining, because I thought of a
question real quick how did youfeel living with lack of
privileges?
Because you're right, you don'thave a TV, you don't have radio
.
You sure the fuck didn't have acell phone?
Oh yeah, how did?

Speaker 2 (19:59):
it fit.
It was kind of a went from Idon't know because.
Also, I think because we didn'thave cell phones like they do
now, it wasn't like all like Iwas used to having a cell phone,
I think.
I don't know if you rememberthe first time they let you call
home from your parents.
Yeah, I remember like notreally feeling any way about any

(20:23):
of it, until I remember hearingmy parents' voice and being
like, oh, you know, like I don'tknow I I felt like, but I felt
like that was common witheverybody.
You know, right, I think youdon't really realize it impacts
you until it does.
And the only other time Iremember feeling some like oh
shit, this feels crazy is, uh,we were on one of the range
buses you know the white busesto go to the range and some
country music started playingand I hadn't heard music in like
four weeks, yeah, and for somereason that shit made me like

(20:44):
emotional.
I was like it was weird.
It was like the weirdest thing.
I don't.
I don't know if anyone's ever Imean, I'm pretty sure guys have
in the military but it's likethis weird, I guess, once you're
deprived of something and youand you hear it or it's, it's
like that's a different, wholedifferent feeling oh, it's like
it's brand new again, likeyou're hearing it for the
fucking first time, dude,especially music yeah, I

(21:04):
remember that everyone being onthe bus and I remember everyone
be getting quiet.
I do remember that, like thiscountry song came on, everyone
got quiet and it was just likethis weird thing where I think
everyone was kind of likeinnerly like reflecting on why
they were there, missing theirfamily.

Speaker 1 (21:19):
Whatever they're missing, that's what they're
probably so I would actuallyhave my mom print out lyrics to
songs and mail them to me so Ican be reading and pretending
I'm listening to the song.
You know what I mean?

Speaker 2 (21:28):
yeah, I actually think kids nowadays would
actually benefit from gettingaway from all that shit bro,
like that's one of the things Ilike, that there's technology
and things like that, but Ithink when you, when you take
away something and then you youget it back, you appreciate it
more it makes it different yeah.
So yeah, it was.
It was definitely different.
Um, I was trying to think ofwhat else was kind of um, the

(21:48):
washing the clothes.
I remember when we first gotthere they were like they would
make us wake up in the middle ofthe night and we had to go wash
our own clothes and for somereason, I think the ceo of the
um heard about this and then allof a sudden we had to pay like
10, 15 bucks for someone wewould throw our clothes into
like a white bag and then theywould wash it for us.
But before that we were gettingup in the middle of the night

(22:09):
randomly and you go downstairs,you wash clothes, and then so
they were like, hey, these guysaren't getting enough sleep.
So they kind of took that out.
They kind of did little thingslike that.
So it was weird little things.
I never ate as much as I didwhen I was in basic training.

(22:29):
I went in and I weighed 150,and I came out and I weighed 175
.
And that was not touchingweights, that was just doing
push-ups, getting smoked, justall that stuff.
I did meet a lot of good, eventhough there was that guy who
was a bad drill sergeant.
There was a guy whose last namewas Junior.
I just remembered that he was astaff sergeant.
Um, he was actually.
You know, like you don't startyour class yet.
They're like that weird inbetween thing where it doesn't

(22:50):
count.

Speaker 1 (22:51):
Reception is fucking horrible yeah, you're just
getting smoked for no fuckingreason, like you're.

Speaker 2 (22:54):
It wasn't even reception.
They took us out of reception.
They sent us to um, to ourcompany, and the drill sergeants
weren't back yet from theirbreak so they had this dude
named uh junior that waswatching us, a shorter black
dude.
Um, actually he was cool, hewas mean to us, like he was like
, but he would smoke us.
He had a thing called the treeof woe, so there'd be like this

(23:17):
tree and he'd be like uh, treeof woe go, and then we just run
over there.
I guess he's trying to break inour boots.
That's what he told us, youknow.
You know, you know sometimesthey're trying to like, they
tell you crazy shit, like youdon't know why they're doing it,
like they throw your boots inthe shower and then they turn
the water on.
So, um, yeah, it was, it was.
But talking to him, you know hewas, it was a good experience,

(23:50):
actually I.
That's why I still remember him, us, but he was tough on us but
fair with us, and then he wouldsit us down and talk to us and
and tell us to stay motivatedand, uh, totally different.
I think having him kept memotivated when I was dealing
with the other dudes.
You know what I mean.
Absolutely.
I think having that experiencewas like okay, well, not
everyone's an asshole, right?

Speaker 1 (23:59):
so you get you fort lewis.
Um how was that touching downin your unit?
Um did your leaders approachyou right away with a specialist
?

Speaker 2 (24:08):
sergeants.
It was crazy because you know,um, the first guy I met there
was staff sergeant price.
He's the guy I told you aboutwho ended up later getting um
killed in afghanistan first guyI met there.
So when you know I'm a private,eat nothing.
He picks me up and you know,like, at that point you're like
terrified out of basic training,of dealing with like NCOs,
right, you're like, yeah, so hepicks me up and he's all

(24:29):
chilling Shit, does bumpingmusic, but he tells me, you know
, hey, what's up, I'm, my name'sa Sergeant price and and this
honestly, he was from themilitary to law enforcement,
best leader that I want to everuh met.
Just because his um demeanorvery the way he used to explain
it to us was just like, hey, youknow, if I ask you to do

(24:52):
something, do it, and when it'stime to handle business, we'll
take care of it, and when it'stime to like have fun, we'll
have fun.
And that was it.
I mean him like uh, so mean himclick from day one, even though
he was my staff sergeant,things like that.
I was always respectful to him,but I would say he was more
like almost like, uh, like kindof like a older brother type of
figure kind of thing like that.

Speaker 1 (25:11):
I get it dude.
So do you start training rightaway?

Speaker 2 (25:15):
I mean, you got to do your equipment draw so when I
got there, my unit was in thefield.
So when I walk in, I walk inthe company in the back and shit
and there's like three fuckingstaff sergeants right there, and
you know.
So I'm like.
I'm like, oh yeah, I'm checkingin so immediately, like I like
immediately, within five minutes.
They're like we're doing pisstests right now, start drinking

(25:36):
water and doing jumping jacks.
So I'm like the fuck hell yeah,so I'm just doing jumping jacks,
fucking, you know, doing thatfucking immediately, do a piss
test.
Yeah, it was pretty much um,running and gunning right from
the beginning of with thatcompany.
Uh, they were to me.
They were a good company.
They're always um, we're alwayskind of pushing and doing

(25:57):
things.
We did the um they had likereal quick the piss test.

Speaker 1 (26:00):
Were they staring at your dick?
Because I know in germany, bro,they were just like fucking
right there, like a fucking footaway from your dick, dude yeah,
I think, if I remember.

Speaker 2 (26:08):
Yeah, they were kind of there, I think.
But you know, there's a dude Iwant to say his name was a
skyler, sergeant sky.
I want to say they were kind ofclowning him about that, so I
don't think he was going toohard we called the dude a meat
gazer bro.

Speaker 1 (26:19):
I got punched in the chest for that because, oh yeah,
because I was still.

Speaker 2 (26:22):
I was still, you know , young, so I was still kind of
like, uh, not really saying toomuch, you know what I mean.
I was more because, coming fromthat basic training environment
, I was more, I would say, alittle bit more weary, like I
wasn't like really bullshittingwith anyone.
I was kind of more, just kindof like.
That's why, when I met, youknow, my squad leader, you know
threw me off because he was sofriendly that I was like the

(26:42):
motherfucker's trying trying totrick me, bro, yeah he's trying
to trick me and shit.
But no, they weren't.
They were all cool with it.
But yeah, the piss test wasfucking.
Yeah, they're always crazyabout that.
I think the funny thing withthe piss test was I don't know
if they did this to you guys,but they're waking us up at like
2, 3 in the morning to do pisstests.
And it wasn't like hair, itwasn't like hey, um, get dresses

(27:03):
.
Like.
Come out, however you like youare, come on your shorts.
Dude's sitting there with noshirts on like, because I guess
they just thought someone wasgonna piss hot, so they didn't
even want you to like, have anychance to like.
Weird.
Yeah, it was.
I think this is before.
There was things like you knowthat's considered like hazing or
right or thing.
Yeah, they would just pull usout like early in the morning.
It was before pt, so it waslike before five.
It went and we're just standingout in the hallway and they're

(27:25):
just like pp and then you knowlike it was fucking yeah, I just
remember that was being cut alittle bit like what the fuck?

Speaker 1 (27:33):
what, uh, second id?
What was that dude?
Mechanized or what?

Speaker 2 (27:36):
was that it was mechanized, but then they went
to being 11 bravo.
So when I got there they hadthe, the bradley still and they,
but they were I don't know whatthey're called decommissioning
them or something.
So that was like that dude,charles Price, I mean it was
crazy because he had a CIB.
He was like the only dude inour entire unit that had a CIB.

(27:57):
He came from Desert Storm andso watching him was kind of
that's what was crazy about.
It was I'm like what's thatrifle he has on his?
You know, because a lot ofdudes there had the EIB, yeah,
and then he had the or airbornewings, yeah, and he had that.
Well, actually none of themreally had too many airbornes
because they were like it wasweird.
In our unit they were very bigon sending us to any school,

(28:18):
like any.
Basically you could go to anyschool except airborne.
That's weird.
Yeah, because we were the onesthat um, uh, went from the, the
11th for the bradley's to thestrikers, like we were the ones
that were all um, like kind ofbreaking them in and telling
them things we didn't like andthis didn't work and like at
first those would always getlike stuck in the mud and things
like that.

(28:38):
So it was weird.
So when I started, as soon as Igot there, we would go to the
um, what do they call it, whatis it?
The yard or whatever.
They had the fucking Motor pool, the motor pool.
So we go to the motor pool andthey were basically putting all
the Bradleys onto the railsystem and we did that for maybe
a month or two.
It was like we're just gettingall the Bradleys and then they
got rid of them.
That was it.

(29:08):
No-transcript I learned how todrive them, drove them in this
because it was like what was it?
Basic training, then infantryschool rolled right in the basic
training.
That was the 16 weeks, and thenI went right to bradley school
from there, which was likeanother week or two, I want to
say another week or two, I think.
I was in total I'm there forlike 21 to 22 weeks.

(29:31):
I was there for a minute like Iwent.
I was there from like july 26th.
I don't think I came back.
Holy shit, dude, I was therejuly 23rd yeah, hot as fuck.
Huh yeah, it was hot as fuckingblack flag, weather, people
passing out all over the place,and yeah, that was, it was funny
.
Um, yeah, but as soon as Irolled up there, yeah, they,
they were getting rid of thebradley's like super quick.
And this was prior to 9-11, andthat's what I'm saying.

(29:51):
Like seeing, see, my squadleader with the cib was like
that was, it was unique.
At that time it was like, ohshit, what is that?
No, and then he, and then hetold us about it.
He was like he said that he wasin desert storm.
Um, he was telling us how, whenthe tank rounds would hit the,
the bradley's, like it would gothrough the shit and suck you
could.
I don't know if it really wouldsuck you through, but that's
what he told you.

(30:12):
The sable rounds, yeah, he said, yeah, it would fuck you up.
And so he was.
He said he got it his cib as aprivate e1 oh, bro, like.
So that's what I mean, but theway this dude conducted himself,
bro, was like you wouldn't eventhink that, and this was a time
before.
It was like oh, and this foolcould have been walking around,
this dick, you know anyone youknow, because.
But he wasn't.
He wasn't like that.
So it was crazy hearing aboutthat from him and he was like,

(30:34):
yeah, when they sent me there, Iwas a private and it was like,
came back.
So, yeah, they got rid of themand then they came, uh, they
brought the the strikers realquick.
After that, dude, our unit waspretty hooked up in that sense.
We got the strikers, we got allthe new molly gear, a lot of
that shit.
You guys got molly gear.
We had a lot of that shitbefore.

(30:56):
I think this is what I heard,this and I don't know how true
it is, because at that time I'mjust fucking eat whatever, so I
don't really know what's all thegoing on.
Um, but we got all the strikers, we got all the molly gear.
Our fucking uh, we got m4s, wegot acogs, we got red dot sights
, we got everything.
We got everything.
I think the only ones that hadmore shit than us was probably
the ranger bat, which was rightacross the airfield from us and

(31:19):
we were shooting rounds downrange like all the time.
They said that we shot half amillion rounds in probably like
six months between the fourcompanies live fire ranges live
fire ranges.
Dude, we were doing the tirehouses, clearing rooms with life
, with live fire ammo.
Before that shit was like whenI see, dude, oh, like you know
doing it, like we were doingthat shit, this was in what?
2000, 2000, 2001, yeah, and wewould go and they would, uh,

(31:41):
they had the tires and then youwould have the you and we'd be
shooting saws and fours next toeach other shooting.
Now when I think about it, I'mlike we never did that shit in
like law enforcement.
We weren't doing really.

Speaker 1 (31:51):
Well, I don't really blame why we don't do it in law
enforcement, bro.
Some motherfuckers are justdummies with guns.

Speaker 2 (31:56):
Yeah, but that's what I'm saying Like a lot of um
training in the wood line, oh.
And then, all of a sudden, theysaid we're gonna start doing
mount, that's what they calledit.
They said missions on urbanterrain, yeah, and this is

(32:17):
before 9-11.
So we went to the strikers, wegot the molly gear, we got all
the high speed shit, um, andthen we were just training like
all the time, training, training, training, like to to the point
of where, when I was in the umarmy, I had got married and
there was no point even movingmy wife there because I was
never there.
Like we were literally goingout to the field for like a

(32:38):
month, two months, come back,being there, being the back, and
you know, uh, for like maybe aweek, two, three weeks, and then
, bam, back again.
Our CEO told us he was like Iwant us to get the point, this
is what he used to tell us allthe time.
He was like praying for it forsome reason.
Yeah, he was all about it.
He was a PT stud.

(33:01):
I used to think this is, I guess, where you see, like in
maturity levels.
I used to think this is, Iguess, where you see, like in
maturity levels.
I used to think he was kind oflike we used to clown, like you
know.
Behind the scenes we'd belaughing and joking.
He used to say the same thistoo shall pass, and we used to
always laugh and make fun of it.
We used to be like, oh, as Igot older in life, I kind of

(33:22):
knew what.
I kind of realized all thisfood.
Like we were, we weren't smartenough to know what he was
really telling us.
Right, so it was a yeah, it wasa um.
Yeah, we just basically weretraining a lot and um I don't
know if you wanted me to getinto the whole like 9-11 thing
or real quick.

Speaker 1 (33:35):
Yeah, before we do that.
Um, you mentioned that you guyswere not old enough to
understand what he was tellingyou.
Now, did uh staff sergeantprice that good leader?
Was he ever trying to dropknowledge or hints of what
combat would be like?

Speaker 2 (33:48):
yeah, he was always he was real big on um
camaraderie.
He was real big on hey, if Iask you to do something, I need
you to do it without question,like I need you to trust me.
And you know, when you thinkabout it now, right, like I'm
and my squad leaders at thattime because it was, you know,
price, mccombie, um, ryan andadams they were like our, our
primary ones, and they were allwhat, mid-20s for us, mid-20s,

(34:12):
bro, mid-20s, and I think aboutthat now, like man, imagine
mid-20, you have theresponsibility of training.
You know 18 year olds, 19 yearolds, that don't know shit,
right, you know.
So, yeah, he would tell us hewould.
That's why he told us about thecib.
He told us, um, he made sure weall got our eibs, our whole
squad, like our whole platoon.
We all had our eibs, like wewere.
We were training boom, boom,boom all the time.
The funny thing about price was,um, he was just very, uh,

(34:38):
nonchalant, but, like you,better know your shit too.
I can't describe it.
It's almost like a dude.
Just like hey, like um, he'llbe joking around.
Hey, take this, take it, takeyour weapon apart, show me this
real quick.
And it was a weird mix becausehe was very nonchalant like that
.
The other dude, um adams was,uh, came from the ranger
battalion so he was a fucking amonster, end up going.
He ended up becoming a greenberet.

(34:58):
Sergeant mccombie was from thehonor guard, ended up becoming a
green beret.
Damn, they all be.
Yeah, they're fucking studs.
Yeah, and it was.
It was crazy and it's howdifferent sometimes I think in
my life could have beendifferent.
So when I actually got out ofthe military, like my last day
in the military, I spent thenight at sergeant adams house
and he was going to um start hisprocess for the green berets
and was like, bro, you need tostay, we need to go to the green

(35:20):
berets this.
And I was like, oh no, I want togo, like I'm stupid bro like,
and when I think about that now,I'm like like how far, uh, you
know, but he was a monster.
Like these dudes were pt studs,road marching every like.
They're monsters like I can'teven describe it how I how I
ended up with all them as mysquad leader.
I don't even know.
It's good dude, it's a blessing.

Speaker 1 (35:41):
Yeah, so 9-11 happens .
Man, you said you were on thefield when you guys how did that
go down?

Speaker 2 (35:47):
so we're on the field , like we're like I said, we're
always, always training, sowe're there.
And then one of the um, one ofour squad leaders from the from.
He wasn't from our squad, hewas from one of the other.
He was our number two, but hewas one of the other squad
leaders.
He was kind of like a techienerdy dude.
I can't remember his name.
Um, he had a.
He was like had a cell phone,for whatever reason.

(36:07):
You know, like uh actually hadone, because he was one of those
guys you know always up on likehe's all, he's all.
Hey, some planes crashed into abuilding, I swear that's how he
said it.
And we're like like what do youmean?
Some planes crashed into abuilding, we don't even know.
We're like we're like what?
So we're just training, doingwhatever.
And then so the dude captain, um, I want to say captain glick,
that was his name, captain uh,for some reason I always

(36:29):
associate him with you ever seenband of brothers?
Yeah, with the captain, uh,sobel sobels.
He wasn't like dumb, like that,he, but he would just like
pushed us like that dude, likehard.
He was hard, like that um.
So he was like hey, I want tomeet with you guys and we're
gonna have a meeting.
So he uh came out and theybrought like this is like this

(36:49):
how it tells you how old it was.
They brought like a tv with avcr and shit in the field.
Yeah, to the field.
The fuck did they plug it into,I don't fucking generator or
something.
Yeah, it was a generatorsomething, um, and they played
us the video and they're likeamerica's under attack, we're
going to war.
And right then, and there theymade us sign our papers.
For you know, like our wills Iwant to say it's deployment

(37:13):
paper they made us sign a bunchof shit.
We signed it, they said andwe're like, are we going back in
?
And they're like, fuck, no,we're going to keep training.
Swear to God, this is so.
9-11 happens.
Right, we don't even go back infrom the field, we're just keep
training.
We just kept training, training, training.
We come back and our like youknow, at that we don't I was
going to say our cell phones,but our answering machines are

(37:39):
just full of calls.
People are like no one couldget a hold of you guys.
Our parents thought we were all.
I thought you were fuckingbagged that already, because I I
don't know if it's still thegoal of the strike we hate, but
our goal for where we told wasto be deployable anywhere in the
world within, I think, 72 to 96hours, something like that.
It was some kind of.
That was the overall goal ofthe strikers and everything.

(37:59):
Because, uh, I don't, um, theyhad us mixed with.
Uh, I don't know if you guyshad them too, was like tankers
and we had some guys right Idon't know they had us mixed
with.
I don't know if you guys hadthem too was like tankers and we
had some guys I don't know ifthey were mortars, we had
tankers with us.
We had tankers in our companyLike tankers and we had a sniper
component.
That's why I ended up going toschool to be a squad designated
marksman.
You did, yeah, I went to schoolbecause I was actually supposed

(38:27):
to go to.
This is where I was stupid as akid, right like I actually um
had my slot to go to sniperschool, but they waited to send
me until like a month out fromwhen I was supposed to get out
of the army.
So they basically were like, ifyou want to go, you're gonna
have to um, not re-enlist butextend.
And I was like, fuck.
I was like man, I want to go.
But I was like but they've beentelling me this shit forever.
I've've been waiting around forlike a year to go.
So my roommate Adams, he tookit.

(38:48):
That fool looks like Frodo fromLord of the Rings, like Bilbo
Baggins.
Did he have to extend?
No, he was just there.
I don't know how my roommategot it out.
I think me and him actuallyboth went.
I think we both went to no,maybe we didn't go to the SDM
together, but I went to thatSquad Disney and Marksman.
I know he went to Pre-Rangerand I think he went to Squad

(39:10):
Disney and Marksman.
They ended up sending him.
That's why I said, like it wasweird, we were offered every
school, every school you couldthink of, except Airborne,
because they said they didn'tmake, because they said we

(39:30):
weren't going to jump out ofplanes.
They're like he isn't jumpingout of planes, but as far as
like I, um, uh, like we got someguys that did some demo stuff,
I went to a squad that's nameduh marksman.
Uh, we had guys, any.
They wanted every team leader,every team leader and every
squad leader need to go to aminimum pre-ranger and they
wanted you to go to a ranger.
Did you go to pre-ranger?
No, I didn't go to pre-ranger.
They went to, uh, they calledit at that time.
They didn't call it pre-ranger,they called it, uh, tomahawk

(39:51):
trials.
But then they actually went topre-ranger.
Like my roommate went topre-ranger, I should have went
with them actually, because hewanted me to go with them, yeah,
and he came back all fucked upyeah, bro, that's why I didn't
opt to go.
Man, just go get your ass kickedbut I learned how to get.
I learned how to do land navfrom him, which helped me get my
EIB, and he went.
So I actually wish I would havewent like cause you know, back
then I was like I think I justhave a different mentality now.

(40:12):
I think back then I wasn't likeso much, like oh yeah, I want
to challenge myself.

Speaker 1 (40:16):
Hearing your stories, man, and I've told you, it's
like because I think the factthat you already had the idea
you wanted to be a cop, that wasyour goal.
Yeah, and same for me, becausethey did offer me to extend for
air assault.
But I'm thinking to myself,what do I need air assault for?
As a civilian, I don't need airassault, yeah, and plus, you
guys are gonna stop loss me if Ifucking extend.

Speaker 2 (40:34):
That's exactly what I thought like.
And it was, and I had to kindof, you know, make the decision
to get out of the militarybecause I had was married at the
time you know a little bit overa year and I was never home and
I felt bad.
I felt like I was like, man,I'll end up like one of these
divorce the fucking militarydudes in here because I'm never
home.
I said I can't move her hereCause I'm never here either.

(40:55):
She's going to end up inWashington by herself, and and
so I just kind of made thatdecision to get out.
That's kind of led me to it andit was even something to I want
to say to this day.
But when I found out that someof the guys from my unit passed
away at different times, it mademe feel guilty.
I don't know how to describe it.

(41:17):
Survivors, absolutely bro that'sthe only way I could.
I was like man and because myplan was always, if you ask my
mom, go in 18, get out 21, joinlaw enforcement.
That was always my plan.
And when I found out yearslater that they all had died, I
still felt guilty.
I was like fuck, like I don'tknow.
It kind of was something that Ihad to like kind of think about

(41:39):
a lot.
So I don't know, it was justdifferent.

Speaker 1 (41:42):
Oh, you end up ETSing Yep.
And then what did you say?
You got into right away.

Speaker 2 (41:52):
When I first got out I was just working kind of like
regular jobs because I didn'treally know the process of how
to get into the police because Ididn't know anyone in law
enforcement.
That was the crazy part.
I was like, besides my unclesthat were in the Army, I didn't
know anyone in law enforcementnot one person.
So I didn't even know where lawenforcement not one person.
So I didn't even know likewhere to start.
So I guess this is I.

(42:12):
How I got led back onto the pathof law enforcement is, I think,
how it shows, like how you meetcertain people when they can
like alter your, like your path,good or bad.
So I came out, I was workingthis regular job.
I got offered a job like in alumber yard, I worked at a
fucking paper mill for a littlebit and then, but I was like man
, I still want to be a cop.
So I go to this uh uh interviewfor this job and the guy who

(42:36):
interviews me I think it waslike retired um sheriff, retired
for Turk County sheriff deputy,and he's interviewing me and
he's just like, bro, like Icould hire you right now, but
you need to go be a cop, bro.
Like this is not for you.
Literally, that's what he tellsme.
He just like this is not foryou.
Like you need to be um, he'sall looking at like your resume

(42:57):
and the you know the way you'retalking to me and this he's all
you need to go be a cop.
And I ended up working there,damn dude, just off of like a
five-minute because I guessmaybe I needed someone to tell
me like hey, go do it.
Because I didn't know theprocess, I didn't know the, and
I actually think the first timeI went to take the written test

(43:19):
I failed it.
It was a weird.
Even law enforcement was aweird experience for me, because
I had no one really guiding meand this was a time not this is
not law enforcement now whereyou know they're like hey, you
know what, you're welcome withopen arms.
It wasn't like that it was.
It's probably the same way itwas for you, where it was like
very almost I don't sayunwelcoming, but almost like

(43:41):
until you prove yourself yeahtill you gain their trust yeah,
that's what it was.
They used to tell us this thingin a college course.
You know, you're like we, thatwas like a the funniest thing to
say in the college course.
You know we'd ask you to behere Like type of, and I think
because I, you know Oxnardalready had a certain type of
reputation.
And even when I was doing youknow, polygraphs and stuff, my

(44:03):
friends which I didn't knowbecause my friend was kind of a
knucklehead His, his dad, was aretired sheriff deputy.
I didn't even know until Iwanted to go take the polygraph
and he's there and I'm thinkinglike you know, your son's like
the motherfucker always gettingin trouble, right.
So he says, uh, he told me hewas like, hey, you know, make
sure that you, uh, um, presentyourself well, he's all because

(44:25):
they are gonna judge you, that's.
He told me.
He's all you have tattoos,you're mexican, you're from
oxford, he told me.
He's like you have tattoos,you're Mexican, you're from
Oxnard, he's like they're goingto judge you.
That wasn't the first time I gottold that, honestly, like I got
told that probably one othertime by one of the captains.
It wasn't anything bad, he justtold me it was good advice.
He basically said you know,joining the department and

(44:55):
things like that.
And he said that when he wantedto, I think, be I think he
wanted to be cadre or somethingat the academy that they
wouldn't let him.
And he said something to theeffect of like, you know, when I
went back, when I was runningthat motherfucker, that's what
he told me he literally pulledme aside to have this
conversation with me about itand that always kind of like

(45:16):
made me like oh, okay, you know,sometimes you have to.
You know, sometimes you have tolike step back to go forward or
you have to kind of oh,definitely, you know, you You're
going to meet certain things.
That's not going to go your way, you have to kind of maneuver
around, and things like that.
So it was always goodconversations like that.
I don't know why I had thesepeople have these conversations
with me.
Maybe they just like saw how Iwas and they thought you know, I

(45:38):
needed I don't know it was Ialways felt kind of like blessed
, like having thoseconversations that kind of kept
pushing me the right way.

Speaker 1 (45:49):
Well, you were a captain Eventually.
Eventually you would make yourway to captain.
So I'm sure I mean you hadsubordinates under you.
I'm sure you could look atsubordinates and see which ones
had it and which ones didn't ohyeah which ones were eager to
learn which ones you werewilling.

Speaker 2 (46:00):
I probably saw that in you, dude yeah, I literally
like, honestly, I never forgotthat, forgot uh, any of that
stuff.
I think that's why it was theway it was and I would kind of
like, look for the guys.
Like, one of the last guys Ipromoted was, um, he's a
sergeant right now at thedepartment I was at.
He was, uh, he was not wellliked by guys in the department,

(46:23):
not because he didn't do hisjob, it's because he was just
kind of an asshole.
You know that kind of assholepersonality.
I'm pretty sure you know thosetype of guys right.
So he would always, like youknow, voice his opinions during
training and voices up here.
So finally, you know, when Ipulled him to the uh, to the
side, um, I told the mayor youcan apply for the sergeant's
position and he was like I don'tknow.
I said because you, you know,basically you're talking a lot

(46:45):
of shit, but if you want to makechange, you need to also be
part of you.
You know, like, help out andmake change.
And so and I told him, andpeople are going to want you to
fail.
I want you to understand thatpeople want because you kind of,
you know, are the way you are.
You know people are going towant you to fail.
And not only that, they'regoing to ask me why that.
I think that you should be asergeant, you know, when it
comes down to to having inputinto it and things like that.

(47:07):
And he ended up becoming thesergeant and became one of the
best sergeants that we had inour department.
And I used to tell him all thetime, like you know, if you
don't do good, it's not onlymaking you look bad, it makes me
look bad.
You know, and so I'm kind ofcounting on you to you know to
handle business.
And I said but you said you gotto.
I'm not telling you to bedifferent, but you got to learn
to know your audience andconduct yourself a little bit.

(47:29):
Different Facts yeah, so that'skind of so.
I was.
I don't know every lesson thatI learned along the way.
I kind of brought that intodifferent, my different
interactions with people anddifferent things, every part of
it, like from the just the being.
I was never, I would say, likethis, throwing my rank around or
anything like that.

(47:49):
I was always interacting witheveryone.
I made sure a good part of myday where I would make sure to
interact with everyone who wasin the department.
Obviously you can't.
There's not enough time in thedata, like I can't be at every
shift, and things like that.
And that was kind of somethingI had to learn too as moving up
in the ranks was that there's noway for me to you know touch
bases with every person on four.

(48:10):
You know four sections for us,like all day long.
So what I would do was try to goin during the first part of the
day, do, um, you know myadministrative stuff, and then
go out and walk around thebuilding, talk to anyone who was
in there, go on, uh, I wouldhave literally the watch
commander, someone pick me upand take me out.
And hey, take me over here, letme talk to this dude.
And I would just go in thereand bullshit with them, because

(48:32):
I wanted to be able to know alittle bit about every person
that I worked with.
That's leadership dude.
Yeah, and that was, honestly, Ithink, one of the reasons why I
was able to have such a goodrapport, I guess, with a lot of
people in the department.
Obviously, you can't pleaseeveryone.
That's what.
The other thing, you know,there's some people, it doesn't
matter what you do, they'regoing to, and so it was.

(48:53):
It was good, it was a, it was agood, a good experience, to
kind of grow.
Have all these good leaders inmy on my way up and then to
actually have to put the thingsinto practice and actually they
molded you, bro.

Speaker 1 (49:09):
Yeah, it was, it was good, it was a good experience.
That's actually in the bookGates of Fire, the Spartan book
about Spartans yeah, leonidas,about going along and knowing
everything about your men, theirfamily life and stuff like that
.

Speaker 2 (49:19):
What motivates them, what are their desires?
Because I feel like if youdon't know what they're doing,
it it for, then you can't reallyhelp them.
Because you meet some guys thatthey were just happy being
patrol officers right, theydon't never want to move up the
ranks.

Speaker 1 (49:35):
You know they don't want to, and that's cool too,
because we need patrol officerswe need grunts at the bottom
yeah and then.

Speaker 2 (49:39):
So then I would know that, okay, this guy won't do it
.
But if guys were like more, Ifelt like had something more to
offer, then, lucia, I would talkto them and say, hey, you know,
if you want to make, don't be acomplainer.
Like, if you want something tobe different, then make the
change Like be.
You know, I had this kind of Idon't want to say a saying, but
I used to tell people you know,if you don't have a seat at the

(50:05):
table, then you can't complainabout what they're serving.
So when people, when I used totell them that they're like,
like, well, what does that mean?
Like I said, I said I go toevery meeting, I'm involved in
every um, special, you knowlittle project or bullshit that
we're doing, even if it wasinconvenient to me, I said
because I'm there representingus, and if I'm not, that means
that decisions are going to bemade without us and I didn't
want that to happen.
So I was always involved, Iwanted to know what's going on.

(50:27):
I wanted, wanted to know whowas, uh, what was being, you
know said or anything, how itwas going to affect us, and I
always trying to represent, like, our department in that kind of
that way, in a positive kind ofway, and have some input.

Speaker 1 (50:38):
So when you first became a supervisor in the
police department.
Um, was that a struggle for youto accept the role of being in
charge of people, or did you,like, fall into it right away?

Speaker 2 (50:51):
um, I think I kind of was kind of not groomed for it
but kind of already had beendoing it in a certain way.
Uh, so when, uh, when I was,even when I was a patrolman, one
of my old lieutenants actuallyjust passed away.
He passed away in november.
Um, he, it was funny, like kindof I guess how the world's kind
of like small, when I met him,he I guess he knew my, my dad,

(51:13):
he kind of grew up with my dadand my uncles, they kind of knew
him.
So he, when I was a patrolmanfor him, you know he was uh, I
don't want to say he, let me uhlike not mentored me, but he
kind of would give me adviceabout you know little things
here and there, like, hey, youknow, this is why I do this and
this is why I do that, and sothat kind of would give me
advice about you know littlethings here and there, like, hey
, you know, this is why I dothis and this is why I do that,
and so that kind of helped meunderstand that position more so

(51:37):
by the time I got there,because I went from being the
patrolman and then I was an FTO,then I was a sergeant and then
I went to the trainingdepartment and I was training
the guys and then I went up tocaptain.
So I like the lieutenant thing.
And then I went up to captain.
So, like the lieutenant thing,I never stood as lieutenant but
as a sergeant you could bebasically depending on who's
your lieutenant.
You were the lieutenant.

Speaker 1 (51:57):

Speaker 2 (52:01):
So I kind of was already kind of doing that stuff
.
I think, honestly, it was more.
For me, more of the strugglewas the administrative and just
seeing how retarded shit is Like, how retarded like the meetings
upon meetings, upon meetings.
To go to another meeting totalk about another meeting, like
the waste of time.
That's what I kind of startedseeing was like I was confused
about why we wouldn't get thingsthat we needed to.

(52:26):
That's what I think wasbecoming like it was becoming
annoying to me where I'm likewe're not asking, we're not over
here asking you to give us, youknow, helicopters to fly in,
and we're asking for basicnecessities of things.
You know, um, you know we usedto do some like, uh, you know
big special event things and I'dbe like I need food for my guys
, we need fencing, we needlittle simple things like that,

(52:48):
and it would be you usuallywould have thought I was asking
for fucking gold and you knowunicorns like why?
because there's so much of thered tape and and protocol um, I
just think that they uh didn'tknow, I don't, I don't know, or
they weren't decision makers andwere afraid to make a decision.
They weren't decision makers.

(53:09):
There was also just too manypeople that had a lot to say.
They were more concerned about,I think, their image and money.
Like when we used to bring upwe had a big special event and
it was like they weren'tbringing up like fencing to
control all the people, becausewhen everyone came in it was
like I think that weekend it wasat least 150 000 people a day

(53:32):
for the special event we weredoing and, um, and I was the one
in like in the event, like youknow, coordinating everything
and they were they didn't wantit to, I don't know look
intimidating, I'm not sure whatit, what, what their all the
public perception yeah, publicall the like the public, and
then at the you know and notunderstanding, like, okay, you
know we're gonna.

(53:53):
I only have so many people wecan't control.
You know, all of this we wereable to, but there's a lot of I
can, especially now, you know,when I see the news and see
certain oh, how did that happen?
I I tell people all the time.
I say you know how to happen.
I said someone who's not a copmade a lot of bad decisions and
the and the, but the cops are.
It's easy to blame lawenforcement.
It's easy to say, oh, you know,the cops didn't do this and

(54:15):
that we're the scapegoat foreverybody.
So that's kind of how I andthat's how I started seeing it
was like saw a lot of the upperleadership that were.

(54:36):
I told them I said you're there, you'll take credit.
You'll take credit whensomething goes good.
You know you'll take the photoop and you'll take the good
rapport, the razor, whatever itgets you, but when shit would go
bad, you're not there.

Speaker 1 (54:48):
They throw you under the bus with a quickness.

Speaker 2 (54:55):
So, yeah, that was the hard part to me about moving
into that position and alsoseeing they're kind of in
company, a lot of them.
I used to think a lot that Iguess, as you I don't know if
you ever felt this way, Like youknow you see people like, oh
man, they must be so smart orthey must be.
How did they get to thatposition?
And once I started getting tothose that level, I realized
like they're human, just likeyou.

Speaker 1 (55:14):
Yeah, bro, lieutenant at the prison.
Yeah, yeah, yeah they're.

Speaker 2 (55:19):
They're human, just like you, and you realize that
they some of the people.
You don't know how they gotthere, you don't know what?

Speaker 1 (55:24):
in straight dumb bro, fucking booger eaters, crayon
eaters, dude motherfucking,illiterate bastards.
Yeah, I'm gonna rant bro.

Speaker 2 (55:32):
Yeah, and that's what I tripped out on the most.
So, like a lot of the stuff youknow happening like you know, I
mean if you, I told people Isaid if it was happening in the,
you know, the white house withthe political stuff it is
happening at the white house,bro.
Yeah so then it's like every,every place is you know can, can
be, what is it susceptible?

Speaker 1 (55:50):
to it.

Speaker 2 (55:50):
Susceptible to fucking trash man.
Yeah because it's like you knowthat was actually the?
that's what I told people To me.
I don't know.
I feel like law enforcement isnot something.
Having a degree will not makeyou a good cop.
Having going to some kind ofleadership.
I feel like it's somethingthat's either you have to evolve
, you have to keep evolving.
I feel like it's somethingthat's either you have to evolve

(56:10):
, you have to keep evolving Likethat's how you end up becoming
like a good cop and a goodleader within law enforcement is
like it's that constantevolution, and I feel like the
cops that don't do that, they'rethe ones that are always like
I'm pretty sure you got likesalty dudes, you know, oh fuck,
I hate that.
And you're like because youdon't do nothing, bro, you don't
challenge yourself.
You fucking don't do nothing,bro, you don't challenge

(56:34):
yourself, you fucking don't workout, you don't.

Speaker 1 (56:35):
You don't do anything , but you're mad all the time
about what, and then they try topass that attitude on to other
people.
Oh, toxic dude.
Yeah, I hated that shit.
It's like cancer, bro it'llspread.

Speaker 2 (56:38):
Yeah, and the thing is this is what I used to say
under, uh, you know an artdepartment to be like you can't
have half cancer.
What person says, oh, I onlyhave cancer on my leg.
Like, once you have that cancerin your department, it infects
everything and you have to getrid of it.
But it's hard to becausethere's so much I've seen it
myself Like there's so much youknow.
Well, give this guy you know,55 chances and you know this and

(57:00):
that, and were you really meanto him?
And it's ridiculous the amountof time, like there was so much
time spent on just like whyshould I have to?
That was kind of my, even withnew, you know new hires to have
to explain sometimes so age, orlike this dude can't you know
he's not passing a test and he'ssaying we're, you know we're
picking on him because of youknow he's, you know he's saying

(57:21):
he's egyptian and I don't evenknow he's egyptian, right, how's
this becoming?
How is this a factor?
I'm like I've been I said atthat I was like I've been a cop
for 15 years.
He's been a cop for two monthsand I'm having to explain why
he's not meeting our standardlike that what about like field
training?

Speaker 1 (57:35):
didn't there?
Like, can't you fail somebodyprobation?

Speaker 2 (57:37):
well, this was even this.
Not even them going to theacademy.
This is just.
Are this them waiting to go tothe academy?

Speaker 1 (57:42):
and they're already filing grievances on eeo yeah,
because you have again.

Speaker 2 (57:47):
That's where you have those guys.

Speaker 1 (57:48):
What are they teaching this crap at man?
Elementary school.

Speaker 2 (57:50):
But those are the guys that are learning from guys
in the department.
You know what I mean, becausethey're trying to gather,
they're trying to game thesystem, yeah, and I feel like,
just like light reflects light,people that are trying to do bad
shit, they're also looking forother people to go along with
their game.
So that was one of the things Ididn't really like.

(58:13):
You know, I, I it was weird, itwas just a weird time and I
don't really think that was athing, at least for us.
Um, the lot for the last fiveyears, the first, I feel like
the it was just something Istarted noticing more and more
and I think, because of thecurrent climate of like
everything, of being likefeelings and and this, this, and
that it was becoming moreprevalent.
I mean, there was a time wherewe had a lot of.
We would get talked to by, notHR, but I don't know what

(58:37):
they're called.
They would call us victimblamers.
You know the people that comein and say what's going on,
what's the culture?

Speaker 1 (58:47):
And that's what we get told that we're victim
blamers, that we're insensitive.

Speaker 2 (58:51):
Did they push the transgender agenda in your
department?
They didn't push it, but it wassomething like.
I think, overall as a whole itwas like for us to just be
tolerant of anybody that youknow that came around, but it
was tolerant Like you couldn't.
So if a guy's failing his PTtest, you can't tell him to work
out or get in shape, becausenow you're fat shaming him.
It's like.

(59:12):
But then you see all thesevideos of you know cops out of
shape getting their ass kickedtons of them, yeah.
And you see, I saw a videotoday where a guy was uh,
reaching over to um, uh, I don'tknow what he's doing.
I don't know he's trying to tiethe mhu or whatever.
He looked like a deputy, looklike a county jail, though
bending over and trying to bendover in front of an inmate yeah,
yeah so, but he was so big thatthe inmates in a wheelchair
this motherfucker's in awheelchair, right, so he's in a
wheelchair starts fighting forhis gun.

(59:33):
How out of shape does a deputyhave to be for a dude in a
wheelchair to fucking be like Ican take him, let's talk about
that man, now that we're on thisjuicy subject here, which is my
specialty, bro, you have theexperience of going to fucking
Fort Benning, georgia, infantry.

Speaker 1 (59:51):
uh, you went to fort lewis, you were a cop for a long
time and now you're in thisadministrative role as a manager
, supervisor and you're seeingthese changes.
Dude, what is that doing to youinternally, your mindset?

Speaker 2 (01:00:07):
uh, me personally, I I didn't like it.
I already knew law enforcementwas.
I knew law enforcement wasgoing in a brad direction.
That's what I said like fiveyears ago.
I could already see it, becauseI I don't want to, I don't I'm
not trying to toot my own horn,but I think I'm very good at
like looking at the overallsomething and seeing the
direction is going.
Like even prior to the election,I told everyone, I said oh,
we're gonna's going to sweep it.

(01:00:28):
And I said not only that, Ithink California is going to go
red pretty soon.
They're like what?
And I said why?
I said because if you actuallyget down and put your you know
your ear to the ground andlisten to what people are saying
, not what the news is tellingyou, like shit is jacked up and
you know, and law enforcementalready kind of knew, and some

(01:00:51):
of it was also on us as a as, asa cult, as a culture, a little
bit right.
And I think that was because atsome point, you know I it's
funny because this guy said itas a joke.
I think you were on, I want tosay maybe you were on his
podcast or like with them, buthe said at a thing like
firefighters will support eachother's businesses and cops
won't support each other, andthat's what I think was hurting
us is that?
You know, I to me I don't knowif this experience or have you I

(01:01:11):
felt like sometimes I would goto training with different cops
from different agencies andeveryone's just kind of like
yeah, and you're like like I'malmost starting to think that
that's a defense mechanism, bro,to become like egotistical,
yeah, and build a fucking wallyeah, and I'm like
and like bro, like we're, weshould all be like, and I mean
you would meet people here andthere.
But it was very it was weird tome where I'm like.

(01:01:33):
I told people.
I was always honest about it.
I said 50% of the cops I knoware guys that are doing it for
the right reason and the other50% are assholes Like they're.
I don't know.
I don't know if they gotbullied or whatever they, just
their mind and their heart isnot in the right place.
Because you can't be doing itfor money.
We know this is not a job likeyou can't.
Doing it for money is not theright motivation because you're

(01:01:56):
just under so much scrutiny.
There's too many factorsplaying in that.
That shouldn't even be a factor.
It has to be in your heart.
It's like a fighter.
You have to want to do it.
That's how I personally feel.
It has to be part of your,almost like your dna to be able
to be like, um, you know, oneminute you're talking to someone

(01:02:17):
and then killing somebody.
Yeah, and I said, I said it's,it's crazy and if you're hard in
your mind or not in the rightplace, it's gonna, it's gonna
mess you up.
So, um, yeah, the the cultureit.
Just I, five years ago, I wouldsay to me that's when I noticed
where I felt like there wasstarting to be a change and I
think it's because they were.
I felt like bringing in um, notthat it's like the best

(01:02:38):
candidates.
I even think that to me, thisis my.
I feel like guys like.
I think I think I've heard likea lot of with your story, like
the um kind of similarbackgrounds and you know and
similar struggles.
One of my friends used to tellme that he's all the best cops
are not perfect cops.
The best they've they had theirown struggles.

(01:02:58):
They're not.
They can think like a, like acriminal things.
They could think like what theywould be like.
I can understand, dude, why youwould want to knock that dude
out.
Because I would like, becauseif I was, I would too, and that
makes you relatable, that makespeople to you.
I think this whole thing isthat I can't relate to a dude
that you never been in a fightin high school.
You ain't you.
You've never struggled.
You don't understand what it isto be poor.

(01:03:18):
Your, your cousins are yourfamily.
You've never been around gangmembers outside of you know, I
said you're, you're not going tohave understanding.
Just like when I used to tellguys that were on domestics,
like if you ain't never beenmarried, how are you going to go
to a domestic and give adviceto a guy who's been married when
you ain't never been married?
You know, not that it's a badthing, but it's just more like
how do you de-escalate somethingthat you don't even know what
you're talking about?

(01:03:38):
True, and so I used to kind ofbe like the more experience you
have life experience, the loserit was better.
So the lousy it was, it wasbetter.
Um, so it was weird with I.
I felt like they were justbringing in a lot of people to
just to like fill in bodies, butat the same time the leadership
above was getting weaker.
I mean, you might as well havebidens just across the fucking

(01:04:01):
elite.
I don't know.
That's why they they seem likethey were just there to to
collect money, to to nod theirhead, push an agenda, push an
agenda and Push an agenda, and Ithink they stopped caring about
their guys or stopped caringabout the troops.
I used to like to say this thingLike I said, you can't be a
slave to two masters.

(01:04:21):
You can't be a slave to.
You can't do what you know.
Necessarily, I guess the mayoror someone wants you to do and
also take care of your guys.
You have to choose one, or thewants you to do and also take
care of your guys.
You have to choose one or theother sometimes and I feel like
if you take care of your guys,everything else should fall in
line.
But if the people above you arenot taking care of you, then
now you're kind of caught in themiddle.

Speaker 1 (01:04:39):
You know what I mean because you look, I think, in
every if you take care of yourtroops on the ground, the people
above will throw a wrench inyour fucking program and attempt
to fuck off your shit.

Speaker 2 (01:04:47):
Yeah, and I think you self-sabotage or sabotage you,
oh yeah, and I think that atevery level, I mean you saw with
, uh, I don't know, and I don'tknow their department.
I mean you look at the one ofthe biggest departments in the
nation, lapd right, like theirwhole shit was weird with their,
with the chief right.
One chief is supposed to go forchief.
All of a sudden they're like,oh, he's throwing apple air tags
into this and all of a suddenit's another chief, me, I guess

(01:05:09):
from, and I maybe you probablythought the same thing.
It just looks weird like all ofa sudden, like, oh, it kind of
makes it feel like, so all of asudden, this dude's supposed to
get promoted is not gettingpromoted, this other guy's
getting promoted, and then theywould be in hueva, I think, the
sheriff.
They're like, oh, you're bannedfrom getting the job.
And to me what that told me wasI said people probably don't

(01:05:29):
like these guys for whateverreason, and it doesn't really
matter if they're the bestcandidate or not.
And maybe they did do this upthere, I don't know.
But also, sometimes we know howthe game is played when you
want to get someone out of theirposition.
You just look for something youcan't have nothing to do with
the job.
You find a way.
They make something up.
They make something up.

Speaker 1 (01:05:55):
And they get pushed out of the way.

Speaker 2 (01:05:57):
And then you get other people like, oh, this guy
will play ball.
And I don't know that'snecessarily the case for you
know LAPD, because I'm not there.
Oh bro, I don't know LAPD, butI can assume it's like LAPD, it
seems it's.
It's cancer, it's gonna falleverything downhill, is gonna
get poisoned because now a weakleader is gonna put another weak
leader in charge, is gonna putanother weak leader and just
gonna keep funneling off and andthat's and that kind of is is

(01:06:21):
what happens we laugh nowbecause we're sitting in a cozy
chair in san diego, bro, awayfrom that.

Speaker 1 (01:06:26):
We laugh, right, but how dangerous is it for brand
new cops that are out theredealing with criminals, dude,
that sometimes have guns,sometimes have knives and their
mind is not in the right placebecause of the bad leadership?

Speaker 2 (01:06:42):
oh yeah, it's, it's super, it's.
It's one of those things that,especially if they're not being
told beforehand to like, hey,this is what you should expect,
or be ready for this, this andthat, and I think that's why
they're catching I don't want tosay cops slipping so much, but
now you have these guys morebrazen with cops, right, and
I've seen it.

(01:07:02):
You know, like even before Ileft, there was times where you
know guys not understanding thatwhen you put that, you know the
badge and the gun on.
You know guys not understandingthat when you put that, you
know the badge and and the gunon.
You know you're this guy.
It wasn't, it wasn't me thatsaid.
It was a guy forced, all that Iused to work with.
He said he's all.
You're basically saying I'm agunfighter and you're telling
other guys that are gunfighters,I'm a gunfighter.
So if a dude, criminal, cop,whatever, you're basically

(01:07:24):
saying, hey, we're allgunfighters and what's gonna
happen sooner or later?
Someone wants to have agunfight, you know what I mean?
That was golden bro.
Yes, so he, he's the one thattold me that and that's what
makes sense.
So I used to tell the guys allthe time when you throw on that
uniform, you put that badge onyour chest and you have that gun
on your hip.
You're saying you want to fight.
I said whether you're thefriendliest dude, whether you're

(01:07:45):
the fattest dude, whetheryou're the whatever you, you're
basically saying I'm about thebusiness, I'm about that life,
I'm about that life, and sopeople are going to eventually
want to challenge you.

Speaker 1 (01:07:53):
They're going to want to test your gangster, bro.

Speaker 2 (01:07:55):
Yeah, and I used to tell guys, if this isn't for you
, I said there's other jobs,there's other things that you
could do to, because if yourheart and I'm like I'm trying to
help you out, bro, and youworked corrections too, right,
yeah, you worked the jails, yeah, for about two, I would say two
and a half, three years.
It was somewhere around thattime.

Speaker 1 (01:08:14):
So how does that relate to?
And again, I want you to speakas if you're speaking to the
younger crowd out there howwould you be able to tell them,
like hey, understand yourenvironment.
Like these dudes are fuckingpredators, Like these dudes will
fucking kill you.

Speaker 2 (01:08:27):
Well, you know, one of the things I used to tell
them all the time was that to me, I think every cop should work
in either the jails, I don't.
You know the prison, I know isdifferent than the jails because
they're a little bit, I guess,more what settled in.
I guess they're more that'swhat they used to at least say
at the county jails, and youknow the inmates or whatever.
Um, I think it teaches you alot of things.
One is like like respect.

(01:08:48):
It's like respect goes a longway because you know in there
it's like you don't got a gun,you don't got a, you know.
It's like you know you got yourhands.
You got a little fucking beepermaybe.
Hey, help me, something likeour pepper spray or something.
I said there's a lot morerespect and you're always
outnumbered and so all the Iused to, because maybe this
happens more in departments onthe street level.
Right, there are more pettydisagreements.

(01:09:10):
To me I felt like in the jailenvironment.
I said there's only three orfour of you, you know, at least
for us in the housing section Isaid you have to have each
other's back.
Who cares if you fucking gotoffended about this and that you
put that shit to the sidebecause you know you got to have
each other's back in that thingand I felt like that kind of
squashed a lot of that and Ifelt like it was a good
experience for me, for myself,to be able to see that and then

(01:09:33):
also understand like hey, youhave dudes in here working out
every day, fucking training day,and people think I'm like, no,
I'm like these dudes should havebeen in the military, bro, oh
dude, I'm like you know,machines, yeah Fucking machines
Across the board board.
I tell people this.
I said from growing up inoxnard to the military, to
working in jails of patrol, Isaid the commonality is purpose

(01:09:55):
to me.
For men, right, if every manwants a purpose and if you don't
give them a good purpose,they're going to find a bad
purpose.
So I used to see guys in thejails where I'm like man if
these dudes would have actuallybeen told to go to the military
because they need structure.
One of the things my big thingwas that some people work better
under their own vision and somepeople work better under

(01:10:16):
someone else's vision.
Some people just don't havethat vision for themselves,
right, they just they want to bepart of something and like this
is our mission.
It's like I said, why do guysjoin the motorcycle clubs?
Because they want to belong toan organization and at a certain
point they don't care what themission is because they felt
belonging.
But if you would have actuallytook that person and I'm not
saying all motorcycle clubs arebad or anything like that, it's

(01:10:38):
just as a purpose type thing.
They want that feeling andthat's what I saw on the jail
site.
People want to belong Becauseyou saw guys in there that are
not dumb.
Right right, right right.
They're not, they're privy,yeah, they're like, like, if you
take them away from the drugsor the elements, like whatever
they're, I guess their achillesheel is whatever is pushing,
like most of these dudes had, um, you know, seem to have like,

(01:10:59):
you know, good, have a strongmind.
The guy you just did a podcastwith, I saw his uh, his uh
debrief.
Uh, a boxer, yeah, when I wentto the training up in Redding
California, the dude, his namewas like Marquez something.
He was the guy that was incharge of the ad seg in Pelican
Bay.
Okay, okay.
So we went to this class and heI don't know if he taught it or

(01:11:22):
someone that he knew taught it.
So we saw all these things withit and it was that we saw the
conversation with him.
He kind of went into all ofthat, uh, showing us crazy
pictures and things, of thingsthat people probably don't know
from the prison.
They're like, oh, you thinkthese guys are like, you know,
it shows some crazy, some crazythings.
So it was kind of, and then youwould hear him talk and it was

(01:11:44):
totally different than I wouldthought they would talk.
I remember the first timehearing him talking like this
was like a fucking professor,yeah yeah, I was like the way
they were saying just even evenlearning the um, whatever they
call it, uh splashing or signing, I'm like I don't know how to,
like I'm not, I don't know howto do that shit.
I'm not learning how to read,uh mayan languages yeah, no,

(01:12:05):
that's true, dude.

Speaker 1 (01:12:06):
I know fucking white boys that learn spanish sitting
the shoe man Reading books,fluent German Spanish.
Hey guys, consider becoming apatron, where you will get first
exclusive dibs on the videobefore it airs to the public and
you'll get to ask the guestspecial questions that you have
in mind.
So that's also another way tosupport the channel.
Thank you, guys.
Appreciate all of you.

(01:12:26):
Keep pushing forward.

Speaker 2 (01:12:38):
Make sure you hit that link in the description
below.
So do you think you have to bea good follower first in order
to be a good leader?
Yeah, I think that's.
One of the concepts I took fromthe military was the what did
they say?
They basically said well, be agood.
When I was a captain, there'sguys that know more than me in
certain areas, there's guys thatare more tactical, things like
that.
So if they were good at beingthe lead in something with that,

(01:13:01):
I wasn't afraid to be like, hey, bro, you got this.
Let me know what I need to doto support you, but could you
take lead on this?
You know what I mean, know whatI need to do to support you
Right, but you know, could youtake lead on this?
You know what I mean and I'lltake I'll still be assuming my
role, but I had no problem, youknow doing that and I think
because I knew how it was bothsides to have.
You know, leadership thatsupport you and leadership that

(01:13:22):
didn't.
You know one of the things, likeI said, good and bad
experiences I guess how they cankind of um leave an impression
on you.
I remember what I'm going to adomestic and everything.
You know.
We ended up working everythingout.
Cps had to come, they had a um.
They didn't have to take thekid but it was pretty close the
lady was working with and I hadhe was helping the lady from cps

(01:13:42):
and she ended up writing melike this nice, like letter,
like how to help her and stuff.
And I remember my lieutenant atthe time.
He gives me the letter and saysI don't know what she gave it
to you for, you're just doingyour job broken hater bro so I
was just kind of like whateveryou know, fuck you dude.
And so when, when I, when I was,you know, um, in that position

(01:14:06):
and guys did good, I would bringthem up in front of everyone, I
would give them all their props, you know, on emails, on
everything, because oneverything, cause I want, cause
I knew how it felt to not begiven that credit, and so that
it does it like how you, um, youknow, being in that position,
you learning, hey, this iswhat's good to do and what's not
.
You know, like the Lieutenant Isaid that had just passed away
in November, um, me and him werevery close.

(01:14:26):
He's the one that taught meabout, like choir practice,
going out to eat after shift andbeing close with your guys, and
you know he was one of thoseguys.
You know even me and myleadership style, um, one
situation that was funny was Igot called to um some guy
violating his restraining order.
And you know, my lieutenant wassmall little little stocky,
little fucker filipino dude, buthe was known for being like a

(01:14:48):
brawler.
Even my dad told me.
My dad, actually my dad and myuncle both kind of told me the
same story.
They said that when they're inhigh school together, like this
dude had a punch two guys in theface at the same time, like he
just walked up to him.
He was like he did like karate,and so he said he walked up,
punched these dudes.
Like it sounds make-believe butthey told me like yeah, that he
like he did it, like he waslike kind of known for that.
You would think he was more abiker than a cop.

(01:15:09):
That was like the way he kindof kind of carried himself.
And I remember going to thiscall for the guy violating his
restraining order.
So I go in and I'm coming out,walking out with the guy and
then he's there and I'm likelike I'll tell you what he's
doing here.
He's all I heard you on theradio.

(01:15:30):
But he wasn't there like Likeyou know, you would think a
lieutenant like oh, report, morelike like I was making sure
everything was good, like I'mgoing to fuck this dude up.
So it kind of taught me thatkind of like that guys know when
you care about them.
So that made me be like that.
So when I would hear somethingon there, oh shit, let me go,
let me go check it out, even ifit was something you know,

(01:15:52):
because I felt like I knew thatthat feeling and it kind of it
helped me in a lot of differentcases.
I remember we had a guy who weknew from the department, kind
of like in a reserve officertype of role, and so we ended up
having to remove him from thedepartment because his spouse
was always causing issues, likealways getting we're always
getting calls for this chick,and so we end up getting a call
where they're saying that she'shurting herself, she's like
slamming her head into therefrigerator, and this is, I

(01:16:15):
guess, goes back to the unsafeofficer kind of thing.
So we had a female officer, sothis ladies, inside the
passenger seat of a car, likekind of sitting, like I guess
how I would be sitting like this, and she has a knife.
And for some reason the femaleofficer decided like hey, this
is the time to go up and try tolike counsel her, for whatever
reason.
So me and this other guy,sanchez, walk up and we see it,

(01:16:38):
and I'm just like so in my mind,I already know what I gotta do.
I'm like okay, I can't let thisshit stay like that, because
either one is like we can't, wecan't, even even though she has
a knife, we can't pull our gunsbecause you know she's there
trying to give her a, you know,a hug or whatever she's trying
to do.
And I said, but I got to getthis situation kind of handled,
so I literally like just walk up, grab her out the car, we put
her on the floor to get theknife out around real quick,

(01:16:59):
like you know, grab the lady outof the car.
Yeah, yeah, you're almost likewhen something's like I don't
know how to describe it likeit's quick.
You're like more.
I got to do this quick becausethat's the only way it's gonna
work.
Right, I can't really, oh yeah,yeah so I'm also you.

Speaker 1 (01:17:10):
I was gonna say that's a pretty dangerous and
bold move.
But you're right, you mustengage the whole totality of the
circumstances and be like I'mgonna snatch, well the situation
was the dad, the husband'sright here holding two babies.

Speaker 2 (01:17:21):
Okay, like the babies are in his arm, like this.
She's like I'm here, like ifthis is the lady sitting the,
the female is right here and thegirl's holding a knife right
here.
It wasn't a knife or a pair ofscissors, it was something like
that.
So, very like there's no youknow standoff distance between
them.
So me and the other guy kind ofwalk up like around the car and

(01:17:42):
I see them.
I'm like what the?
Because I think it was astarting time.
I'm the fuck is going on, and Ithink it was this guy, sanchez,
and I swear I don't know if Ilooked at him or maybe he just
knew what I was gonna do,because you know, sometimes you
can feel what someone's gonna do, right.
So I just like walked up, likeI don't even think I really
stopped other than a splitsecond to think about it and I'm
like I gotta kind of I don'tknow how to describe it, I guess
for maybe for other cops, maybethey describe the feeling.

(01:18:04):
Sometimes things are just likeit's like a flow, like you hit
that kind of flow state, right,you just know what you have to
do and it just kind of starts so, um, we pull her out the car,
put her on the ground, fucking,we're handcuffing her.
She, you know, she's kind oflike fucked up.
Um, she's trying to piss on us.
I remember that she's like I'mgonna fucking pee on you guys.
That was like her, for for somereason that was like her thing.
She always tried to pee on usevery time she got arrested for

(01:18:25):
that the what she was known for,that yeah, she tried to pee on
you.
She'd say I'm gonna fucking peeon you and you know, um, and
after arrest her, I went up toher husband, who had worked with
us before, and I told him, said, hey, bro, I'm sorry I had to
do that, I heard, because I knowthat's your, your spouse,
regardless of what we think, youknow.
Oh, we could just be like.
This is where I think copssometimes don't.
I think not that they do it onpurpose, I think it's because

(01:18:46):
you see so much shit and you'refucking desensitized.
Because I know that I get likethat sometimes.
I just was like, regardless ofwhat we're thinking, like this
crazy lady, I'm like that's hiswife.
So when everyone was kind ofclearing, I went up to him and
was like, hey, bro, you know,I'm sorry, I know that was your
wife, I don't know.
Hope you don't take it likepersonal that, like as a person

(01:19:07):
that I needed to do that.
So it was a, but it was asituation created by someone
being unsafe and I don't know.

Speaker 1 (01:19:15):
Now that female cop.
Is that something you wouldhave a conversation with
afterwards?

Speaker 2 (01:19:19):
Oh yeah, we were.
It was a, it was more, it was a.
If it was up to me I would havebeen like you're going back to
like fucking field training,like you fuck training like you
thought.
Not even it was, it was more,it was a.
That wasn't her.
She wasn't a good, um, a goodcop to me and that hurt.
I think sometimes people were inthat situation and they just
don't.
They weren't really ready forit because they.

(01:19:39):
So what could have happened?
She could have got stabbed,basically stabbed, bled out.
You know if?
I think if you had lessexperienced officers that the
guy sanchez, he was squared away.
You know, I was squared away.
I think if you had lessexperienced officers, like the
guy sanchez, he was squared away.
You know, I was squared away.
I think if you, if you were toplay it out with the say,
inexperienced officers, right,not knowing, like, okay, she's
in the way of our bullets, youknow what I mean in the line of

(01:20:01):
fire, right, like weapons,weapon safety thing, right, pull
out their guns.
Next thing, you know they're.
That's how you end up onfucking a tiktok.
Hey, look at this cop shootinghis partner.

Speaker 1 (01:20:08):
Absolutely, you know what I mean no, dude, you're
seeing a lot of that shit now.
It's fucking going viral, it'sbecause they're to me.

Speaker 2 (01:20:15):
This is, it's panicking, right?
I don't, I don't know.
I don't know if it's the rightway or this.
I just tell people, when I usedto put on the uniform not that
I used to be an unemotionalmonster, but I used to mentally
tell myself to turn off- myemotions.

Speaker 1 (01:20:29):
We were unemotional monsters, bro.
Yeah, but you have to be.

Speaker 2 (01:20:32):
Yeah, you have to make logical decisions, not
emotional.
So even I would never want itto ever feel a way like I would
never let anyone get me riled up.
I never wanted to act outemotionally.
Even if a dude was like I usedto like what dude was trying to
talk shit I used to always saythe same thing do what you got
to do, we'll do what we have todo, and whoever wins wins.
That's why I used to always saythe same thing Do what you got
to do, we'll do what we have todo, and whoever wins wins.

(01:20:52):
That's why I used to be likeand I said not in the middle, I
said I don't want to fight you,bro, but if you're going to do
something, then do it.
I remember I specificallyremember a Marine guy.
He was like this dude wasalways the last one was he had
side swiped some cars and hewould just like and he was you

(01:21:13):
know, and obviously he had ptsdbecause he was, he was telling
us about some of his stuff andhe was.
But he kept saying I'm gonnabreak, I'm gonna break my cuffs,
I'm gonna break my cuffs andI'm gonna fuck you guys up.
And I told that's exactly what Itold him do what you got to do
and we'll do what we got to do.
And I said it's not.
And I said you said you were amarine, what would you do?
And he was like, and after thathe just kind of like stopped,
like it's a man thing, like youknow what I mean.

(01:21:33):
Like I'm not trying to fightyou, I'm not trying to do
anything to you, it just it,just um.
But but if you make us have todo something, that we will, and
I think it's a lot of.
Even going back to the, theofficers.
Now, it's just sometimes howyou word things.
For me, me personally, when Iused to have to pat people down,
I used to say hey, I'msearching you for mine and your
safety.
I wasn't just a dick, like oh,let me make sure you don't got

(01:21:55):
no shit on you, bro.
Like I don't know why, for somereason I try to treat people
the same way I'd want to betreated.
And I had a family member theyhad went to county for like a
argument.
It wasn't like a domestic, likethey had, it wasn't just an
argument.
I think they had pushed.
They're pushing and shoving.

(01:22:15):
But I remember him telling melike man, I was getting
fingerprinted.
And the deputy told me, likeshut the fuck up.
And I remember kind of it kindof upset me because I was kind
of like, because I knew himpersonally, right, like I knew,
like I knew the person I wasgetting, and I was like that's
not you know, like there's atime and a place for it, not
right, yeah, no, you know what Imean.
So I just kind of alwayscarried that with me when I was
always on.

(01:22:35):
But for like to treat peoplelike in a certain way I don't
good or bad, even when it waslike you know, hey, if we have
to put hands on you, hey, youknow, if I can pick you up, and
it ain't personal bro, it'sbusiness.
That's the way I always treatedeverything, even when I I don't
know why I just I always keptthat mentality about doing
things.

Speaker 1 (01:22:50):
So you had mentioned becoming an emotionless monster
and being exposed to a lot ofthings working the field.
Do you believe that affectedyour personal life?

Speaker 2 (01:23:03):
I think that I just I think it affected my personal
life in the sense of where Ivalue life more.
I think I value things thatother people take for granted,
right.
Like we had talked aboutearlier with the Army thing,
half of the guys from my squadhad died at different times.
My lieutenant passed away inNovember.

(01:23:26):
My other friend, robert, who isalso 11 Bravo military, he
passed away a couple years back,had a brain aneurysm out of
nowhere, fucking passed away.
For I want to say unlucky andlucky.
You know, I've met all thesegood people but a lot of them
have died and I think that itkind of taught me more what's

(01:23:47):
important, what's not important.
I don't like to get upset aboutthings that aren't worth
getting upset about.
I try to look at like everyoneis a human, everyone is
imperfect.
So a lot of times when I seekind of things like, especially
when they're being veryjudgmental of cops or things
like that, it's like bro, younever been in that position,

(01:24:07):
like you've never.
I said so to me.
Not even like saying, oh, allcops are right all the time.
That's not what I'm saying.
I'm just saying I say whenyou're, when you never been in
the arena, it's easy to say, oh,I would have fucking done this.
And it's just the same thing aslike when you hear, guys, I
would have went to mondaymorning quarterback, and yeah so
you know, yeah, it affected mein that way where I think I I
feel like I train a lot harderthan other people and when it

(01:24:30):
comes to like physical fitness,I don't drink.
I'm not a big.
I mean I'll have a.
If it's like a wedding orcelebration, maybe I'll have a
drink.
I'm not a smoker.
I'm very mindful of what I lookand listen to.
Just because I don't like anylike negative shit.
Really it just made me likethat.
And then anytime I feel likesomething like oh man, this like

(01:24:51):
honestly, like this week for mehas been like pretty busy.
I remember I saw somethingyou're saying the same thing too
, like hey, so, like you know,on Monday this week, you know, I
had to went up to, I went upnorth to the Paso Robles area,
then I was in to Larry, then Iwent back to Paso, then I was in
you know where I'm from, inCameroon, ventura County, out

(01:25:12):
there, and then I was cominghere and then I'm going back on
Monday and I remember I don'treally never where I'm like.
You know, some people are likeoh, I'm just so busy.
I guess when I start thinkingabout all these things it makes
me more like well, at least I'malive doing this shit.
That's honestly how I think.
Every time I think somethingthat's hard, I don't know why,
but like I think of all thepeople I know that passed away

(01:25:32):
and it just makes me be like Idon't got shit to complain about
and I literally, just like I Iwas, I was talking to someone
about they're like, they're likeI never like, they were like I
never thought of it.
Like I said, dude, whether it'sgood or bad, I just look at it.
Like I said, um, someone likeyou know, with um, the guys I
know that were young, thatpassed away, I said I bet they
wish I had the problems that Ifucking had, but they're dead.
So I said so to me, yeah, so tome.

(01:25:53):
I feel like I got to representthem by not being a fucking like
, oh, like I just I don't know.
I just kind of look ateverything like fuck it, you got
to go through it.

Speaker 1 (01:26:02):
Absolutely.
Yeah, no dude, even.
How do you look at failure andmistakes?
What's the prism that you lookthrough it as?

Speaker 2 (01:26:15):
I think it's something that can I evolve, can
I fix it.
I think I give myself like thegrace and the sense of like hey,
I'm human, I'm not perfect.
I've never, you know, claimedto be like a perfect person and
also just kind of, but also kindof trying to do more, um, more
good than bad.
It was something funny that Ilearned in the the academy when

(01:26:37):
they were like I don't know ifthey would ever tell you guys
this, like whether I'm like markon your calendars like green
days are good days and red daysare bad days.
It'd be all fucking red anddonovan bro so yeah, so I used
to kind of think of of it likethat, like I'm trying to have
more good days than bad days.
So if something doesn't go myway.
I I maybe just uh, having thatI don't want to say like the,

(01:26:58):
the mindset from um, kind of astrategic standpoint.
I just think of how can Iapproach it different, how can I
win?
That's all I'm thinking about.
Like all the time I never thinkabout, oh my, am I gonna lose?
I like I never think about thator this is not going my way.
I really just try to think of,like how can I win?
Like how can I win this, howcan I, what can I do to
different, even if it means like, hey, maybe I have to.

(01:27:19):
What are they?
You know tactical, you know,you know not retreat, what do
they used to call because theywant to be fall back you know
what I mean?
yeah, yeah, improvise, overcome,and yeah, and so it was one of
those things.
That's, you know, whensomething, if I have a
shortcoming on something, Ireally try to look at it and
think about it and then kind oflike, okay, how can I do this
better?
And then try not to make thesame mistake.

(01:27:39):
And sometimes you have to takelosses, like you have to.
I feel like you don'tappreciate the wins unless you
take the losses Absolutely,unless you take the losses
absolutely.
And I feel, like the guys thatif and it's not to shit on them,
but if you look at people likeyou know, um, say, ronda rousey,
for example, or mike tyson, oryou see, or even conor mcgregor,
these guys that super talentedmonsters, right, that swept up

(01:28:03):
against, annihilated thecompetition, but then eventually
they run into something thatthe someone or someone that are
that won and lost, that doesn'tgive a fuck about what their
reputation is, and eventuallythey get humbled and if they
can't adapt, then they nevercome back.
They never.
If you think they never comeback to that same, like that
same type of I don't know whatit is, how to say they're not

(01:28:25):
that same person, no more.
And I think that people thathave took wins and losses, you
can come back.
If you, when you think, whenpeople think of muhammad ali, or
they think of, uh, I'm tryingto think of, like even canelo
took a loss, you're not like, oh, this guy's undefeated, he's
never lost.
You're like, no, he's a fighter, you know what I mean?
Like it makes you a fighter,like when it's something I think
it's good to take those lossesbecause you can kind of now

(01:28:46):
become a better version ofyourself, where you, if you were
just winning, you're just like,fuck, I'm doing it, what am I
going to change?
yeah, you haven't experiencedadversity yeah, so and so I
that's the way I kind of look atthose things, like okay, well,
this, this is something, or thisis a weak point for me and I
gotta address it and you know,and fix it.
And also just having good, youknow good habits of you know um,

(01:29:08):
I always you know the gym, I Igo to you know church every
sunday.
It's not the same.
Oh, that's what's up, dude.
Yeah, I just started too, likelike two months ago.
Yeah, I go to um, I go to umshepherd church and simi valley,
and it's one of those thingswhere I don't know I I feel like
that's another thing.
I think in law, law enforcement,that it always confused me.
Maybe other departments have it.

(01:29:29):
They don't like we not that weneed to have like therapy
sessions or things like that.
There's, there's a not ofunderstanding of how do you, how
, what you're not getting fedthe things you are to make you a
better cop?
Right, it's just a lot of.
It is just you know traininghere, read your you know, read
your penal codes.
That will will make you like,like.

Speaker 1 (01:29:52):
So ultimately in your department, bro, you were up
for a promotion to chief, andthen some things happen and it
didn't pan out.
You want to maybe skin thesurface on?

Speaker 2 (01:30:04):
I think with that it's just something like yeah, I
would just say, you kind of see, you know, for myself I just
saw it as you kind of see alittle bit of the politics, you
see a little bit of themaneuvering.
If people have some kind of Iwant to say tactical advantage
over you, they're going to tryto take it and you just have to

(01:30:25):
decide what you're going to dowith that.
Either you're going to me Inever want to be a negative
person or anything like about itum, but I also was already at
the point where I was kind ofnot over being a cop, but I was
where.
I was already not feeling thatsame fire enthusiasm for wanting
to be, to be there.
You know, I had a conversationwith my mom about it, because

(01:30:48):
this was it wasn't like a onelike oh, oh, it just happened
and I just left it was anaccumulation of almost, I would
say like two and a half years.

Speaker 1 (01:30:56):
Damn dude, that's a long time, so for a while it was
just like whatever.

Speaker 2 (01:31:00):
I just kind of looked at it like, oh, this is just
what comes along with the game,but they're relentless huh.
Yeah, that's what it was.
And so at a certain point I hada conversation with my mom and
she said sometimes you knowGod's putting, sometimes you
know you're putting battles infront of you so you can, you
know, go through things, andsometimes he's putting it in
front of you to tell you you'rein the wrong space.

(01:31:20):
And so to me, I started, Iguess, looking at it different.
I'm like, you know, maybe thisis not my, maybe I've done all I
can at this point and and fromwhere I'm at and I need to, like
step back, and that's kind ofwhat I ended up just doing, like
I just I'm not a very likewhere I'm just like undecisive
person I'm just more when Ithink about doing something, I

(01:31:41):
just kind of do it triggerpuller yeah
um, yeah, like that's what, thisis what I'm gonna do.
Um, you know, obviously Ididn't do it like stupidly or I
was just like not didn't have,like you know, things planned or
saving, and things just workedout in a certain way, like the
job that I'm working at now Ihad already got offered, you
know, offered the job.
I was having a conversationagain Like I guess that's where

(01:32:01):
I tell sometimes people theweird, the way things work out,
literally, before this all kindof was playing out, when I was
already feeling that way, I hada conversation with someone and
was telling them about what Idid.
They had a position where theyneeded someone with kind of my
skill set to do things and theyoffered me the position and I

(01:32:21):
was like cool, so it just workedout in that way and, honestly,
the company that I worked for isfucking awesome, nice.
So it's been cool, it's been avery good experience, um, and it
kind of taught me.
I think cops, we kind of sellourselves short in law
enforcement about what we can.
Actually, you know, do I thinkwe can do a lot of shit.
You know what I mean watching,watching you do, the podcast

(01:32:42):
stuff, like I've been watchingyour stuff for probably a good
year or so.
Like I said, um made me morelike oh shit, I want to.
You know, I want to make memore about going on social media
.
So I hate social media.
Like, honestly, I do not.

Speaker 1 (01:32:53):
Like I don't like it either, bro.
Yeah, I don't like it.

Speaker 2 (01:32:56):
I don't really like, and and not because I don't, I'm
just not an attention personlike, oh, like, like you know I.
But I also feel like I have, um, these different experiences
and if they help other people,then you know, then I'm willing
to like, hey, point people inthe right direction to to do
that stuff.
But yeah, the way it kind ofplayed out with that was just,
yeah, just a lot of littlepoliticking and catching people

(01:33:18):
with their hand in the, thecookie jar somewhat and then
realizing I don't want to workwith these people.
That's what it felt like to me.
You know, I don't.
I.
I think I saw your interviewwith dj.
It was.
I think it was a dj, vlad, he'sall I think.
He said something about copsbeing snitches and vlad was like
they can't be snitches.
I'm like, yeah, they can like.
I remember hearing that kind ofwas like there.
I say to me it's like you canbe if you're part of an

(01:33:38):
organization and you're tryingto do things, that if someone's
doing something, it's notcriminal stuff, it's not
anything like that, but you'rejust trying to actively get
people in trouble, right, yeah,bro, that's what you are you're
a snitch bro.
Like it has nothing to do withlaw enforcement.

Speaker 1 (01:33:51):
Has nothing to do with no it's people going out of
their way to fucking get you ina wreck yeah, and that's all it
is.

Speaker 2 (01:33:56):
And so to me and I and you know one of those I
wasn't afraid to you know atdifferent times I had to tell
some of those guys I'm like, I'mlike I see all the reports, I
see all the things.
You don't do shit as a cop.
You might as well you know, youmight as well be a professional
fucking snitch.
You know like, let me just youknow, like that and people, I'm
pretty sure they didn't likethat.
They didn't like that, wasn'tit?

(01:34:16):
But to me, that's the way I sawit, because I felt like for me
as a being, you know, being acop for such a long time is like
if you're not actively helpingpeople or trying to put
criminals where, whatever it is,then what the fuck you doing,
bro?
Have you spent all your timetrying to fuck over other cops
like what are you like?
Well, you're not even a cop.
You're like somewhere.
You're like, uh, you'resomewhere in some weird in

(01:34:37):
between of like you're.
you're too cowardly to almostlike a traitor treasonous yeah,
you're, yeah, you're, likeyou're a snake, you're not a
double agent of some sort yeah,and so that that's kind of way I
looked at it and I didn't likethat.
And to me, I felt myselfsurrounded by too many people
that I deemed to be like thatFrom, not just like this is what
I think they are from theiractions, from things being privy

(01:34:59):
to these meetings.
I was in seeing how they wereunfair to other officers and
I've seen it.
I've seen it firsthand withother officers when it was a guy
that they didn't like and allof a sudden it's like they took
special interest in what theiryou know their punishment was
going to be, and I didn't likethat.
I told them.
I said I don't if, even if Idon't like you as a person or as

(01:35:21):
a cop, if you, if you're asquared away cop, if I don't
personally like you, I was notgoing to just punish you.
To punish you, there was dudesthat I could, that I personally
thought didn't like them.
We know this, that.
But my first thing that I didwhen I became captain, I told
people I said I don't care whathistory we have, what if we ever
had bad bug between us?
Um, to me I have.

(01:35:42):
I'm not holding anything to getthat against you.
So if you continue to want tohave something against me for
whatever reason, that's on you,but as far as myself, I'm not
going to do that and that's theway I kind of conducted myself.
So, um, I gave everyone I think,uh, even my friend, even the
you know, one of the guys that'sstill there that kind of end up
back for my spot.
He even told me that he waslike he's all you, um, you gave
a lot of guys grace and andchances that other people would

(01:36:05):
never have gave them, and itwasn't because, um, I didn't
remember what they did, it'sjust because I saw.
I, you know, to me, I still sawvalue in them as as a person,
as a cop like you can still be,um, have value to people.
There's a book uh, I don't knowif you've read it called
resilience.

Speaker 1 (01:36:20):
I don't think I read that one there's a.

Speaker 2 (01:36:22):
It's this book from a navy seal guy.
He wrote it and the thing hetalks about in there is there's
a story where it says, uh, thisguy was like a great warrior for
some kingdom or I can'tremember the exact story, just
kind of outline of it.
And um, so he goes to this,some land, hence it's a being
like this land that's cursed.
So then he gets cursed, he getskind of he's like, he's uh kind

(01:36:44):
of where he's.
I guess they say he kind oflike smells like shit.
No one wants to be around them,basically.
So they abandon them, they justleave, they just leave this
fool there like, hey, fuck you,we're out.
And so, as they're going alongconquering these other lands,
they eventually meet anotherkingdom and they can't beat him
and they're about to lose.
And then I guess one of thegods comes down and tells them
you're not going to win this warwithout this guy that you guys
abandoned.
So when they go back to him,they talk to him and they say,

(01:37:07):
hey, you know, come with us.
And of course he's like fuckyou guys, you guys did me wrong.
But then, you know, the god orwhatever, comes to him and says
you know their wrongs don'tobligate, they don't free you
from your obligation of doingright.
Damn dude.
Yeah, so that to me that's theway I looked at it like like,

(01:37:29):
absolutely it's like.
It's like because there's a lotof dudes.
To me it's like I could havesmashed them on when I didn't.
Even now, even even now in thisworld if I wanted to like in my
mind I know there's dudes Icould smash on, put on blast or
everything, but then to me I'mlike they're cowards, bro like,
and I don't do, to me I'm just,that's not me, that's not me,
and to me six.

Speaker 1 (01:37:47):
You know, success is the best revenge bro, I respect
the shit out of you dude forsaying that and for and I admire
you dude.

Speaker 2 (01:37:54):
That's not an easy task, man and and I think is,
and you know, I just like I said, I was just lucky because of
the guys that brought me up.
You know, um, even like Italked about earlier with the
dude sergeant price, when I methim the first time I think about
that like he could have smashedon me.
I was at, eat nothing, he couldhave smoked me, talk shit to me
, embarrass me, whatever, and Iwouldn't know different.
And but because that other guydid it, you know, giving me the

(01:38:16):
cross rifles, don't make it thisand that, but I think that kind
of um, him showing me that kindof like that grace, and that
kind of kind of made me be adifferent person.
It's like the path, like whatpath you're gonna choose your
staff sergeant.

Speaker 1 (01:38:30):
Price is my staff sergeant leja dude, who would
eventually get killed in baghdad.
But same thing, man e6 e6s yeah, dude, when I got to country.

Speaker 2 (01:38:39):
So I don't know if I heard this.
Uh, I gotta look at listen tomore.
You talk about that stuff.
I know you, I've.
I I listened to a lot of thestuff you had talked about on
the vlad interview.
I like that.
You were actually um, very like, more honest about it, wasn't
like this?
You made it very, not like, oh,it was this cool shit that I
like, even when you describedlike I think it was like, you

(01:38:59):
said it.
Um, I think you said you hadfallen in the mud and then oh,
yeah, yeah, the fucking blood inmy hands yeah, like to me, that
was real.
It's not like, hey, you know I,yeah, I dropped this fool, like
you know, I mean some guys tryto make it like, very like, and
I'm like to me, you know I'venever, you know, had to kill
anyone or do anything like thator shoot them.
But I, you know, but being inenough of um, you know, violent,
like hands-on confrontations,you know that's not in everybody

(01:39:22):
, it isn't.
It isn't, bro, like it's, it'snot even growing up in, you know
, oxnard.
And fighting, growing know,fighting, that's one of the
first things I started learningabout.
Being around other men, likeeveryone, is not mentally like
that and it's like, not likethey're not capable of defending
himself, but like theyliterally would have to.
I've seen dudes get slapped,punched in the face and not do

(01:39:43):
shit and just stand there like,oh, you know what I mean.
So you have to be, I feel likeguys like you have to.
So you have to be I feel likeguys like you have to.
You have to be a certain typeof a person to be able to do
that.
It's not an easy thing and itcan, you know, change you good
and bad, you know cool dude.

Speaker 1 (01:39:57):
So, uh, you said you're on social media bro, you
want to throw your out your ighandle so people can tap in um,
yeah, good, leader 805.

Speaker 2 (01:40:03):
And then I have my, um, my brand or where I sell
stuff as good leadershop and Ibasically just sell like a lot
of like merch type of shirt,like shirts, kind of things.
I don't know, it's randomthings that I think about.
That I think are, I don't saynot like inspirational, kind of
funny things like that.
I kind of more.
I kind of like to represent mycounty a lot Ventura County and

(01:40:25):
I do a lot of things like, youknow, locals only and things
like that more, because, um,we're so next to la that I try
to put a little bit morespotlight on us and, um, I cop
sayings.
Uh, one of the I get one of theshirts a lot of guys like is
like eat your shit sandwichshirt.
I have a have a guy eating likea shit, like a fucking skeleton
, you know, and so things likethat.
Like little terminology youknow that we may have used in

(01:40:46):
and you know, in cop lingo ormilitary lingo, and I kind of
try to bring that into it.
But, yeah, it's Good Leader 805.
I'm always posting up a lot ofthis motivational stuff.
I post up things about my brand, a lot of just designs and
things that I'm working on.
Anything I'm working on, I'musually posting up on there, oh
yeah dude, that's a way to do it, man.

Speaker 1 (01:41:07):
So, again, dude.
Thank you for coming on theshow, john.
That's the way to do it, man.
So again, dude.
Thank you for coming on theshow, john.

Speaker 2 (01:41:11):
Thank you.
That was an amazing, freakingstory, bro.
No, I appreciate it.
I appreciate you letting me onyour show To me.
I don't feel like I'm some kindof big person on Instagram and
I don't have that status oranything like that To me.
I really respect that.
You guys gave me even theplatform to do it because that's
kind of funny in the socialmedia space.
Platform to do it becausethat's gonna be kind of funny in
the social media spaceeveryone's.

(01:41:31):
I've met a couple people thatare on social.
They're very different thanthey are in person.

Speaker 1 (01:41:34):
So I was like you get used to it, man.
You get used to social media,but like I'm pretty much the
same person on and off camera,so it's like yeah, and I
appreciate it great it's greatlyappreciated.
Cool, thank you, dude.
So there you guys have it.
Folks, another banger sure totap in.
I'll put his links in thebottom below.
If you haven't alreadysubscribed to the channel, make

(01:41:55):
sure you hit the subscriptionbutton.
Love, you Keep pushing forward.
Unhinged line Hector's legendengraved, living life raw, never
been tamed From the hood to thepen.
Truth entails pen.
Hector Bravo, unhinged storynever ends you, thank you.

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John - From Infantryman to Law Enforcement Captain: Navigating Military Life and Leadership Challenges

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}John - From Infantryman to Law Enforcement Captain: Navigating Military Life and Leadership Challenges