August 8, 2023 • 10 mins
You've heard it on the show before..."California's Crumblin!" Well, we have figured out part of the problem. Gov. Gavin Newsom, in 5 years, has never met with the 58 sheriffs of the state.
Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco joined Joe to talk about how the governor has zero idea what is actually happening on the ground in California.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to the Armstrong and Getty Show. Sheriff Chad Bianco
of Riverside County first elected in twenty eighteen, re elected
in twenty twenty two to his second term. A twenty
nine year veteran of the sheriff's office, Chad is the
chief law enforcement officer of Riverside County and beautiful southern
California Sheriff.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
How are you, sir, I'm doing well. Thank you, Thanks
for having me on.
Speaker 1 (00:19):
Oh it's our pleasure. We played a bit of audio
from you the other day in which you are describing
the California Sheriff's Association and its long history of meeting
with and conferring with governors, because obviously the chief executive
of the state needs to be in touch with law enforcement.
And we are just shocked and appalled and not like
(00:43):
fake talk show host appalled, but just appalled by the
fact that Governor Gavin Newsom has not met with you, folks.
Is that right?
Speaker 2 (00:53):
That is one hundred percent correct, and it's in the
first time ever. I mean, we talked about all the
sheriffs have a long history of meeting with the sheriffs,
and the Sheriff's meeting with the governor about crime in
the state. It's a unique place to meet with only
fifty eight sheriffs and talk about what everyone is experiencing
across the state in terms of public safety. And Newsom
(01:13):
flat out refuses to meet with us. We've begged, we've pleaded,
we've tried, and he's the only governor that anyone can
remember that has refused. And so you know that did
me saying that, and that play did get a lot
of traction. And the funny thing about it is his
crazy little run for governor, which our for president, which
(01:35):
I hope the rest of the country clues in on
what we already know. He immediately reached out and said, oh,
we need to work together and we need to please
stop stop Sheriff Bianco from saying that. And so now
he met with a group of five sheriffs. It was
completely uneventful. It was a token meeting. So technically I
(01:55):
can't say he doesn't meet with us, because he did
arrange one meeting, but it was useless. It was a
tool so he can kind of keep me quiet, but
it won't work.
Speaker 1 (02:05):
Wow, that is astounding. So just a word to the
audience all across the country and around the world, not
in California. If you know, if our fifty states are
indeed laboratories of democracy, you need to know what some
of the progressive experiments in law enforcement are doing to
(02:25):
a beautiful, beautiful state. I think it's worth hearing no
matter where you live. But Sheriff, let's talk about some
of the recent you know, ballot measures and changes to
California law and what that has meant to citizens and
what you see on the street.
Speaker 2 (02:43):
Yeah, there's been so many and they and they didn't
start this just today. They didn't start yesterday. They started
a decade ago, a little bit more than a decade ago.
And the policies that they have put into places there
are policies of decriminalization. They they are policies of emptying
our prisons, not because people aren't committing crimes. It's because
(03:05):
people will never go to prison anymore. They have overcrowded
our jails by forcing state prisoners into county jails where
they do not belong. So now none of our county
jails have room for the regular people that we arrest
every day. That should you know that spend a couple
of days or a couple of weeks or months in
jail and then go back into society. We're housing state
prisoners now, and then they close state prisons, so once
(03:28):
they've emptied out enough bed space in prisons where they
can consolidate and empty a prison. Governor Newsom's stated goal
is to close as many prisons as he can. And
it has nothing to do with eliminating crime. Everyone in
this state knows that crime is through the roof. They
have changed the definition of crime, so crimes that were
(03:49):
felonies ten years ago are now misimeanors or infractions or
sometimes not even a crime anymore. And then for people
that don't know, that aren't paying attention, you get people
like Newsome that get up and tout his you know
how well he's done with fighting crime because his crime's down. Well,
(04:09):
anyone with common sense knows that if nothing's a crime anymore,
there isn't going to be any crime. So they're legalizing drugs.
They want date rate drugs legalized. They're trying to prevent
law abiding residents from having guns, while they flat out
refuse to penalize criminals who commit crimes with guns. It
(04:30):
is a very bizarre situation. We are here living in California,
and I hope the world learns it.
Speaker 1 (04:36):
Yeah, for folks who haven't heard this, we've been tracking
a handful of the radical left DA's in LA and
San Francisco and Oakland, California, among other places. And while
the left is always howling from stricter and stricter gun control,
if you are caught committing a felony with a gun,
these das will not apply the use of a gun enhancement.
(04:57):
I mean, how insane is that?
Speaker 2 (04:59):
Anyway?
Speaker 1 (04:59):
I don't want to get too hung up on that.
So the prison thing is speaking of insane. So the
federal judge said a number of years ago, California's prisons
are way too crowded. You got to do something about it. Well,
if you have that many people breaking that many laws,
you clearly need more prisons. But the answer from the
one party state, and it's only in recent years, what
(05:20):
a dozen, fifteen years that California has become a one
party state, the answer was, well, we got to empty
out the prison. As Sheriff Bianco pointed out, we're going
to jam the state prisoners into the county jails. Now
the county jails have no room for the local bad guys.
Then you have prosecutors won't prosecute, and so you get
the revolving door of committing sometimes very serious crimes and
(05:40):
you're just out on the street to commit another crime. Tomorrow,
I want to talk about it's recently come out that
a lot of the system, the what do you call it,
the organized shoplifting rings as are some of them are
actually controlled by the Mexican drug cartels because it's become
so popular. How is Riverside County doing with the rampant
(06:03):
shoplifting thing. Are all your you know, shampoos and bottles
of scots and everything behind lock and key, like in
northern California.
Speaker 2 (06:12):
No, they're not. Well. I will have to say that
some stores, if they're like large department stores that are
all across the state, if they have a policy of
doing that. Yes, we have some stores that are locking
up their merchandise. But here in Riverside County, we are
an extremely proactive law enforcement area county, not only with
(06:33):
me and my large department, but all of our police departments,
and we have a very pro law enforcement DA who
actually believes that criminals should be prosecuted and held accountable
for their crimes. So I'm not going to say that
we're immune to these these smash and grabs and these
retail thefts. But when we have them, they seem to
(06:56):
be coming from other counties, and they we catch them
and we prosecute them, We arrest them, we jail them.
So the criminal element knows that we are a little
bit different here because we are very proactive in our
law enforcement response, and we hear that from the criminals.
But it is certainly across the state. They have emboldened
(07:18):
criminals to the level where the cartels and the gangs
are now taking advantage of these situations and running rings
crime rings because they know they're not going to get prosecuted.
Speaker 1 (07:31):
That's amazing and astounding. Sheriff Chad Bianco, policy matters so much.
We got an email from a cop that was just priceless.
I can't remember precisely the counties that were involved. It
was in the Bay Area, California, and he was talking
about busting somebody who did one of those big shoplifting sprees.
And the guy looked at the CoP's badge and said,
(07:53):
oh my god, I didn't realize I was in Santa
Clara County. He was like on the side of the
street that was that county. He thought he was still
in whichever other county it was where they don't prosecute
at all. Policy matters. Doesn't it to quality of life?
Speaker 2 (08:10):
Oh? One hundred percent? And I'm telling you the criminals
know it. We recently arrested a jewelry a smash and
grab at a jewelry store that we linked to several
others in our county and out of county, and their
response when we caught them was, where did all the
cops come from? We didn't know you guys did enforcement here?
(08:31):
And it truly is policies mean things. Policies mean everything,
and we California is under the leadership of Newsom, at
the direction of Newsom, is in a state where we
have decriminalized everything. We believe that criminals are victims of
society and it's the law enforcement's fault that someone commits crime.
(08:54):
It's not theirs, and it's hurting us. It's really it's
killing our communities. It's driving our business. Isn't our residents
out of state, it's driving our law enforcement officers out
of state, and we're going to collapse.
Speaker 1 (09:08):
I was just going to ask, how's the riverside County
Sheriff's Department doing Do you have all the deputies you need?
How staffing well?
Speaker 2 (09:16):
We are actually doing well, and we are unique to
law enforcement in California. I meet with chiefs and I
meet with other sheriffs all of the time, and we
talk about our issues with recruiting and with retention, and
because I am so vocal, because we are so pro
law enforcement, and you know, we want to go out
and rest as many people as we can, and we're
(09:36):
very vocal about it. Law enforcement officers that want to
be in the job come here. So we are not
while well. We experience the same less applications across the
country because people are just not coming into law enforcement
like they used to. Our agency, we're actually doing fine.
We're hiring enough to keep up with attrition. We're increasing
(09:57):
increasing our ranks a little bit, so we're doing well,
but the rest of the state is not.
Speaker 1 (10:03):
You know, they say a good lawyer should know the
answer to a question before he asks it. I didn't
know the answer to that question, Sheriff, but I had
a really strong feeling, given you know, the reasons you gave,
and that you have a pro law enforcement DA and
everything I had a feeling you were doing a lot
better than a lot of places where the cops know
(10:26):
the brass doesn't have their backs because the politicians don't
have the chiefs back or the sheriff's back or whatever.
And these are the cities that are hundreds of officers short.
Whether it's you know, San Francisco or Portland, Seattle, you know,
LA policy matters once again, Sheriff Chad Bianco or Riverside
County Sheriff really enjoyed the Chad. I hope we can
stay in touch. This stuff is important.
Speaker 2 (10:47):
Absolutely anytime I'm available, I'm strong
Welcome to the Armstrong and Getty Show. Sheriff Chad Bianco
of Riverside County first elected in twenty eighteen, re elected
in twenty twenty two to his second term. A twenty
nine year veteran of the sheriff's office, Chad is the
chief law enforcement officer of Riverside County and beautiful southern
California Sheriff.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
How are you, sir, I'm doing well. Thank you, Thanks
for having me on.
Speaker 1 (00:19):
Oh it's our pleasure. We played a bit of audio
from you the other day in which you are describing
the California Sheriff's Association and its long history of meeting
with and conferring with governors, because obviously the chief executive
of the state needs to be in touch with law enforcement.
And we are just shocked and appalled and not like
(00:43):
fake talk show host appalled, but just appalled by the
fact that Governor Gavin Newsom has not met with you, folks.
Is that right?
Speaker 2 (00:53):
That is one hundred percent correct, and it's in the
first time ever. I mean, we talked about all the
sheriffs have a long history of meeting with the sheriffs,
and the Sheriff's meeting with the governor about crime in
the state. It's a unique place to meet with only
fifty eight sheriffs and talk about what everyone is experiencing
across the state in terms of public safety. And Newsom
(01:13):
flat out refuses to meet with us. We've begged, we've pleaded,
we've tried, and he's the only governor that anyone can
remember that has refused. And so you know that did
me saying that, and that play did get a lot
of traction. And the funny thing about it is his
crazy little run for governor, which our for president, which
(01:35):
I hope the rest of the country clues in on
what we already know. He immediately reached out and said, oh,
we need to work together and we need to please
stop stop Sheriff Bianco from saying that. And so now
he met with a group of five sheriffs. It was
completely uneventful. It was a token meeting. So technically I
(01:55):
can't say he doesn't meet with us, because he did
arrange one meeting, but it was useless. It was a
tool so he can kind of keep me quiet, but
it won't work.
Speaker 1 (02:05):
Wow, that is astounding. So just a word to the
audience all across the country and around the world, not
in California. If you know, if our fifty states are
indeed laboratories of democracy, you need to know what some
of the progressive experiments in law enforcement are doing to
(02:25):
a beautiful, beautiful state. I think it's worth hearing no
matter where you live. But Sheriff, let's talk about some
of the recent you know, ballot measures and changes to
California law and what that has meant to citizens and
what you see on the street.
Speaker 2 (02:43):
Yeah, there's been so many and they and they didn't
start this just today. They didn't start yesterday. They started
a decade ago, a little bit more than a decade ago.
And the policies that they have put into places there
are policies of decriminalization. They they are policies of emptying
our prisons, not because people aren't committing crimes. It's because
(03:05):
people will never go to prison anymore. They have overcrowded
our jails by forcing state prisoners into county jails where
they do not belong. So now none of our county
jails have room for the regular people that we arrest
every day. That should you know that spend a couple
of days or a couple of weeks or months in
jail and then go back into society. We're housing state
prisoners now, and then they close state prisons, so once
(03:28):
they've emptied out enough bed space in prisons where they
can consolidate and empty a prison. Governor Newsom's stated goal
is to close as many prisons as he can. And
it has nothing to do with eliminating crime. Everyone in
this state knows that crime is through the roof. They
have changed the definition of crime, so crimes that were
(03:49):
felonies ten years ago are now misimeanors or infractions or
sometimes not even a crime anymore. And then for people
that don't know, that aren't paying attention, you get people
like Newsome that get up and tout his you know
how well he's done with fighting crime because his crime's down. Well,
(04:09):
anyone with common sense knows that if nothing's a crime anymore,
there isn't going to be any crime. So they're legalizing drugs.
They want date rate drugs legalized. They're trying to prevent
law abiding residents from having guns, while they flat out
refuse to penalize criminals who commit crimes with guns. It
(04:30):
is a very bizarre situation. We are here living in California,
and I hope the world learns it.
Speaker 1 (04:36):
Yeah, for folks who haven't heard this, we've been tracking
a handful of the radical left DA's in LA and
San Francisco and Oakland, California, among other places. And while
the left is always howling from stricter and stricter gun control,
if you are caught committing a felony with a gun,
these das will not apply the use of a gun enhancement.
(04:57):
I mean, how insane is that?
Speaker 2 (04:59):
Anyway?
Speaker 1 (04:59):
I don't want to get too hung up on that.
So the prison thing is speaking of insane. So the
federal judge said a number of years ago, California's prisons
are way too crowded. You got to do something about it. Well,
if you have that many people breaking that many laws,
you clearly need more prisons. But the answer from the
one party state, and it's only in recent years, what
(05:20):
a dozen, fifteen years that California has become a one
party state, the answer was, well, we got to empty
out the prison. As Sheriff Bianco pointed out, we're going
to jam the state prisoners into the county jails. Now
the county jails have no room for the local bad guys.
Then you have prosecutors won't prosecute, and so you get
the revolving door of committing sometimes very serious crimes and
(05:40):
you're just out on the street to commit another crime. Tomorrow,
I want to talk about it's recently come out that
a lot of the system, the what do you call it,
the organized shoplifting rings as are some of them are
actually controlled by the Mexican drug cartels because it's become
so popular. How is Riverside County doing with the rampant
(06:03):
shoplifting thing. Are all your you know, shampoos and bottles
of scots and everything behind lock and key, like in
northern California.
Speaker 2 (06:12):
No, they're not. Well. I will have to say that
some stores, if they're like large department stores that are
all across the state, if they have a policy of
doing that. Yes, we have some stores that are locking
up their merchandise. But here in Riverside County, we are
an extremely proactive law enforcement area county, not only with
(06:33):
me and my large department, but all of our police departments,
and we have a very pro law enforcement DA who
actually believes that criminals should be prosecuted and held accountable
for their crimes. So I'm not going to say that
we're immune to these these smash and grabs and these
retail thefts. But when we have them, they seem to
(06:56):
be coming from other counties, and they we catch them
and we prosecute them, We arrest them, we jail them.
So the criminal element knows that we are a little
bit different here because we are very proactive in our
law enforcement response, and we hear that from the criminals.
But it is certainly across the state. They have emboldened
(07:18):
criminals to the level where the cartels and the gangs
are now taking advantage of these situations and running rings
crime rings because they know they're not going to get prosecuted.
Speaker 1 (07:31):
That's amazing and astounding. Sheriff Chad Bianco, policy matters so much.
We got an email from a cop that was just priceless.
I can't remember precisely the counties that were involved. It
was in the Bay Area, California, and he was talking
about busting somebody who did one of those big shoplifting sprees.
And the guy looked at the CoP's badge and said,
(07:53):
oh my god, I didn't realize I was in Santa
Clara County. He was like on the side of the
street that was that county. He thought he was still
in whichever other county it was where they don't prosecute
at all. Policy matters. Doesn't it to quality of life?
Speaker 2 (08:10):
Oh? One hundred percent? And I'm telling you the criminals
know it. We recently arrested a jewelry a smash and
grab at a jewelry store that we linked to several
others in our county and out of county, and their
response when we caught them was, where did all the
cops come from? We didn't know you guys did enforcement here?
(08:31):
And it truly is policies mean things. Policies mean everything,
and we California is under the leadership of Newsom, at
the direction of Newsom, is in a state where we
have decriminalized everything. We believe that criminals are victims of
society and it's the law enforcement's fault that someone commits crime.
(08:54):
It's not theirs, and it's hurting us. It's really it's
killing our communities. It's driving our business. Isn't our residents
out of state, it's driving our law enforcement officers out
of state, and we're going to collapse.
Speaker 1 (09:08):
I was just going to ask, how's the riverside County
Sheriff's Department doing Do you have all the deputies you need?
How staffing well?
Speaker 2 (09:16):
We are actually doing well, and we are unique to
law enforcement in California. I meet with chiefs and I
meet with other sheriffs all of the time, and we
talk about our issues with recruiting and with retention, and
because I am so vocal, because we are so pro
law enforcement, and you know, we want to go out
and rest as many people as we can, and we're
(09:36):
very vocal about it. Law enforcement officers that want to
be in the job come here. So we are not
while well. We experience the same less applications across the
country because people are just not coming into law enforcement
like they used to. Our agency, we're actually doing fine.
We're hiring enough to keep up with attrition. We're increasing
(09:57):
increasing our ranks a little bit, so we're doing well,
but the rest of the state is not.
Speaker 1 (10:03):
You know, they say a good lawyer should know the
answer to a question before he asks it. I didn't
know the answer to that question, Sheriff, but I had
a really strong feeling, given you know, the reasons you gave,
and that you have a pro law enforcement DA and
everything I had a feeling you were doing a lot
better than a lot of places where the cops know
(10:26):
the brass doesn't have their backs because the politicians don't
have the chiefs back or the sheriff's back or whatever.
And these are the cities that are hundreds of officers short.
Whether it's you know, San Francisco or Portland, Seattle, you know,
LA policy matters once again, Sheriff Chad Bianco or Riverside
County Sheriff really enjoyed the Chad. I hope we can
stay in touch. This stuff is important.
Speaker 2 (10:47):
Absolutely anytime I'm available, I'm strong
Hosts And Creators
Joe Getty
Jack Armstrong
Popular Podcasts
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com