August 28, 2025 • 35 mins
Laura Carno, Executive Director of FASTER Colorado (Faculty/Administrator Safety Training & Emergency Response) joins George Brauchler (in for Dan) to discuss the details and logistical aftermath of the Minneapolis church shooting and the importance of making such vulnerable spaces with our most precious assets (children) 'hard targets' for would-be mass murderers.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
This is Dan Capless and welcome to today's online podcast edition
of The Dan Caplis Show. Please be sure to give
us a five star rating if you'd be so kind,
and to subscribe, download and listen to the show every
single day on your favorite podcast platform.
Speaker 2 (00:15):
Well, it's George Brockler filling in for the mighty Dan Kaples.
Speaker 3 (00:19):
I listened in yesterday.
Speaker 2 (00:21):
I too wish it was Sheriff Steve Reems again for
another day, but he couldn't make it. He's pulling himself
over or something up there in Weld County. Will be
together in this studio on September the ninth. Mark your calendars,
get your shots, get ready to get where we are
and it'll happen. Now, this day is kind of special here.
(00:42):
We're going to have a guest at four oh seven.
We're gonna have a guest four to thirty six. But
I just want to say this about August the twenty eighth.
In any man's life, you get a handful of days
that you can you'll remember for the rest of your life.
They're the best days of your life. I had one
of these eighteen years ago today and the product of
(01:03):
that special, magical day for me is sitting right across
from me right now. You know him as my left
hand in this setup here, if you could see at
this left hand man, it's my co pilot for the day.
Happy birthday, son, Jeff Brockler.
Speaker 4 (01:15):
How are you? Thank you?
Speaker 5 (01:17):
I'm good, you know, having a good eighteenth birthday.
Speaker 2 (01:22):
Yeah, listen, it's not every eighteen year old that gets
to spend time on the radio talking with one of
the best audiences. And if we could see them, we
would see that they're the best looking and likely brightest
audiences in all of radio.
Speaker 3 (01:35):
So congratulations for.
Speaker 5 (01:36):
That, man, Thank you so much.
Speaker 2 (01:38):
We're going to, I believe, transition from these nice words
to our call a guy named Joe Rattner. Now let
me he's not on the phone line yet, but let's
talk about this case. Back on December the eighteenth, before
I was DA, I had a press conference and I
mentioned this a couple times, and one of the features
(01:58):
of the press conference was to say, hey, if you're
a criminal, my advice to you is don't commit crimes.
Seems like it's pretty common sense. Follow the law. But
the second advice I gave was if you cannot follow
the law, then go break it somewhere else.
Speaker 4 (02:17):
And that was serious.
Speaker 3 (02:19):
And at this point.
Speaker 2 (02:20):
We're about seven and a half, coming up on eight
months into this, there are still folks that have not
yet figured that out. And that brings us to the
case that we're going to discuss. It's a guy named
Albert Jean Vargas, and as soon as we get to
Joe on the phone, he's gonna tell us about that.
By the way, Jeff, what's it like living in the
safest part of the metro area.
Speaker 5 (02:43):
I mean, I don't really have any reference point because
I've always lived.
Speaker 2 (02:45):
There, but well, you've been up to Denver before. I mean,
like you and your brother have gone to like DCPA
and other best boarding events and stuff like that up there.
Speaker 4 (02:53):
What are your thoughts?
Speaker 5 (02:54):
Uh? I don't know. I mean, you know, my normal
is different from a lot of other people's norms. So
you know, when I live in safe and secure Douglas
County South Metro Denver, I'm not really exposed to a
lot of you know, kind of like worse things that
can happen in kind of our general area, like a
(03:15):
lot of the homelessness situation in around Denver, a lot
of the crime and things too, I just, you know,
haven't seen any of that.
Speaker 2 (03:24):
Well, I want to humbly say you're welcome, because that's
really the product of.
Speaker 3 (03:30):
Many, many years.
Speaker 2 (03:31):
On the Batford and well, if I don't, who's gonna
do it? Hey, let's go to our phone caller to
talk about why that's true, Jeff, this is a fantastic
case on the line with us right now. One of
the great young prosecutors in the DA's office. His name
is Joe Rattner. He prosecutes felony. Those are the big
crimes from us. Joe, thanks for joining.
Speaker 6 (03:52):
Us, Hey, George, thanks.
Speaker 5 (03:54):
Glad to be on jo Oh, thank you.
Speaker 3 (03:56):
Yeah, that's so nice.
Speaker 2 (03:57):
Now listen, Joe, I don't want to tell everybody this,
but you're a little nervous. Oh I just told everybody this.
Is that help it all? To actually announce it?
Speaker 6 (04:07):
Not really? Just like I mean, I know you interviewed
Chased a couple of days ago. He left Candida interview
in a puddle of sweat. I don't know what's going to.
Speaker 4 (04:14):
Happen here, but well it was a puddle. It wasn't sweat.
Speaker 2 (04:16):
But hopefully you will be in a different bode Let's
get right to it. My man, you had a huge
victory in a case recently on a guy named Albert
Jeane Vargas. Tell us about that case, tell us about
what this guy did.
Speaker 7 (04:30):
That's right.
Speaker 6 (04:31):
So on Tuesday of this week, list of Argus twed
guilty to do count one of those that was to
account one drug at Class one drug fellony offense and
also count for for being in possession of a weapon
as a previous defender. He was sentenced to twenty years
(04:53):
in the Department of Corrections for the actions that he
took in August of twenty twenty one. And let me
tell you what he did. You're probably wondering why it
took so long for a twenty twenty one case to
come to it.
Speaker 4 (05:06):
I am, yeah, I am.
Speaker 6 (05:07):
That's because mister Argus doesn't like coming to court. I
checked his history in the case. He failed to appear
for court about five times. He even failed to appear
on his trial date coops. So we did eventually pick
him up again this pass June and he finally pled
guilty this Tuesday. So back in August of twenty twenty one,
(05:31):
in Castle Rock in the Meadows, officers received a tip
that there was a drug dealer dealing in the area CRPD,
let's say Castle ARPD. They went, they scared the area,
They couldn't find anything, so they went on to different halls.
Later that night, though an hours or later, there was
(05:51):
a flock hit.
Speaker 2 (05:54):
Folks, what flock is most of them know, but some
of them don't. What's a flock hit?
Speaker 6 (05:58):
Yeah, flock is a is a system that Castle Rock
and other cities in the Denver metro area. I don't
think Denver uses them anymore, but other cities do use
them where they scan l likense plates and they run
those license plates that they scan against the database which
notified local agencies of outstanding warrants or stolen the own.
Speaker 2 (06:22):
Carny like yeah, and so they got a flock hit
on this guy because of the stolen car.
Speaker 6 (06:29):
Not a stolen car, the likening plates were stolen.
Speaker 3 (06:32):
Oh well, that's even better.
Speaker 2 (06:34):
And so what makes castle Rock somewhat unique is there
are agencies out there that have flock cameras. They're called
lpr's license plate readers, is that they also have a
real time response center. So they don't just document oh
this car came through it here at this time it
was stolen. They send dudes and dudets to go out
and get them.
Speaker 6 (06:54):
Absolutely, and that's what they did here. So they start
tracking this guy. They're using the tracks the cameras around town.
They see him driving on the Parkway. They tracked him
to the meadows he found about a block away from
Meadows View Elementary School. This is around eleven pm. They
conduct the high risk stop. He's the only guy in
(07:16):
the car. They detain him and they start interviewing him.
They believe that this is their guy that they got
a tip about dealing drugs. So they interviewed mister Vargas.
You know, initially he denies having any drugs, but the
officers and castle Rock they don't let up, and he
eventually admits that he has quote some drugs in the car. Well,
(07:38):
they searched the car, Georgia and some drugs ends up
being dozens of sentinel bills and an entire brick of
methads nearly five hundred grams.
Speaker 4 (07:50):
Oh, that's plenty. There's plenty of myth right.
Speaker 6 (07:53):
There and here at the kicker George under his seat
where in the driver's seat they found the loaded handguns.
Speaker 2 (08:01):
Oh, and that's bad in general to mix guns with drugs.
But in this particular case you had mentioned to us
before he got popped for previous affair. That means this
dude's got another felony conviction at least one. What's going
on in his background?
Speaker 6 (08:14):
This guy, well this on Tuesday. This was his eight
selony convictions. What he's a career criminal. It started back
in nineteen eighty six in Denver where he picks up
selling and menacing. I think he actually shot somebody in
that case, but he ended up leaving guilty to fellony menacing.
He got probation up in Denver. Then he's got felonies
(08:36):
in ninety two and ninety seven. He's got other felonies
that for also drug felonies as well as another felony
menacing from twenty eighteen. He's never done more than four
years of prison. He's done short since here and there,
eighteen months DUOC, twenty four months DEOC. The most he's
(08:57):
ever done until now was four years.
Speaker 2 (09:00):
It seems like giving the math there in the years
in which he's committed these acts, and I just presume
he's gonna sit in jail penning any case after the
first couple of felonies. Is that the only time he's
not committing new crimes is when he's in custody.
Speaker 6 (09:15):
Yep, two three the case. Yeah. Every time, yeah, he
gets out, he goes back to his old ways. So
my presumption here is that you know, when his time
was up, uh, he's gonna come out and go go back.
Speaker 3 (09:28):
To except dude sixty seven.
Speaker 2 (09:30):
Man, even if he makes it halftime, even if they
pull this cat at ten years, he's going to be
old enough that the only thing he's going to be
stealing is some sort of denture cream or something like that.
As far as as far as you know, Joe Ratner,
fantastic prosecutor in our office. You've had a couple of
big wins this year. Man, thrilled to have you on
to talk about it. Not as bad as you thought
it was going.
Speaker 4 (09:49):
To be too bad?
Speaker 2 (09:51):
Y Okay, awesome. I will see you next week, my man.
Keep up the great work.
Speaker 3 (09:55):
Thanks charge.
Speaker 6 (09:56):
I appreciate it.
Speaker 4 (09:56):
See you.
Speaker 2 (09:57):
Hey, that's a that's Joe Ratner. We're gonna away for
a break here, Jeff. I want to get your reaction
to this too. But again, the point is this dude
could have driven his drugs around the judicial district. Don't
know what would have happened to him there. Don't know
how long it would have taken him to drive around,
but I know this, it's less than twenty years. Hey, listen,
when we come back, we can get to your text
at five seven seven three nine five seven seven three nine,
(10:20):
or of course you can call us on the line
seven one three eighty two fifty five three zero three
seven one three eight two.
Speaker 3 (10:26):
Five five George Brockler and Jeff.
Speaker 2 (10:29):
Happy birthday, Jeff eighteen years old today on the Dankapless Show.
Speaker 8 (10:40):
And now back to the dan Kapless Show podcast eighteen today.
Speaker 2 (10:45):
That means that all the crimes that you commit now
are for legit.
Speaker 5 (10:49):
This is that's the eighth time someone's told me that it's.
Speaker 2 (10:52):
Important that I think that the community knows that there
is a line of demarcation between.
Speaker 3 (10:59):
We're just going to hug it out out if.
Speaker 2 (11:00):
You're eighteen, if you're below eighteen, and it's for keeps
if you're over eighteen.
Speaker 5 (11:05):
Yeah, does Grammy get the privileges like that?
Speaker 2 (11:08):
Graham right now could really do almost anything. In the
state of Colorado has devolved into such a place of
no accountability for children that I don't even think they
would take him into custody.
Speaker 3 (11:17):
I mean, it's gotten that bad.
Speaker 2 (11:19):
But speaking of that, did you, and I reminded you
of this last night, did you do something that would
warrant scrutiny by law enforcement before you turned eighteen?
Speaker 5 (11:29):
Uh? I think I got one traffic ticket, yeah, but
that we still got to resolve that. By the way,
and Castle Pineskin, I didn't get anything. You do anything.
Speaker 4 (11:40):
Fine.
Speaker 2 (11:40):
You are one of the most law abiding rule following
kids that I think we have.
Speaker 5 (11:46):
As you should be.
Speaker 3 (11:47):
Yeah, I guess if that's the way.
Speaker 2 (11:49):
I mean, you correct me when I'm driving, which is
frustrating because I'm a brilliant driver.
Speaker 3 (11:55):
I am a great driver.
Speaker 2 (11:57):
Listen, what are you going to do with the rest
of your eighteenth per What are your goals?
Speaker 3 (12:01):
Man?
Speaker 2 (12:01):
I mean I told you today at breakfast. I don't
really remember my eighteenth birthday. I don't remember what I did.
It could have been a tattoo, but I don't have any,
so I don't know what that is.
Speaker 5 (12:13):
I mean, maybe it's just in a place you've been
able to see, you know.
Speaker 2 (12:16):
You know, that's the kind of thing that only a
doctor or your cellmate would know.
Speaker 4 (12:20):
And I don't I don't really have the.
Speaker 3 (12:21):
Answer to that.
Speaker 2 (12:23):
Our text out of course five seven seven three nine.
If you remember what you did when you were eighteen
years old? Ryan, are you you track on what happened
when you were eighteen?
Speaker 3 (12:31):
I know it's only a couple of years ago.
Speaker 4 (12:33):
Oh lord almighty, it was much different world back then.
Speaker 2 (12:36):
Yeah, but on your birthday, Like, do you remember I
did this special thing on my eighteenth I did.
Speaker 9 (12:40):
We were talking about during the break the nerd thing
with Brian and the breakfast club that I am. Well,
that's right again, this is parental abuse that Jeff has
not seen the breakfast Club. I would expect it as
Dan Kaplis being a father. But you, George Brockler, being
tuned in the pop culture the way that you are
unacceptable anyway, I have to concur I was on campus
(13:01):
at Michigan State University, so my birthdays in late September,
so not too far off, but exactly a month after
Jeff's here, and I registered to vote.
Speaker 8 (13:10):
It was an election year.
Speaker 9 (13:12):
Nineteen ninety two, and oh my goodness, I was just
in time by like bush reelection time. It's like a
month and a half and I would end up voting
that year ninety two for.
Speaker 2 (13:21):
H Ross Perot. Oh, so you're the reason we got
Bill Clinton. Thank you, Ryan, You're welcome.
Speaker 3 (13:26):
Can I finish? Can I finish? I? Can I finish?
Speaker 5 (13:30):
I mean in such a you know, crazy political world. Honestly,
he seemed like a pretty reasonable option from what I
learned into APUs sister.
Speaker 3 (13:37):
Jeff, No, did you stuck us?
Speaker 2 (13:39):
It stuck us with William Jefferson Clinton from Hot Springs, Arkansas.
Speaker 9 (13:43):
Well let me tell you why though, because I had
special again nerding out here, I had special tickets. There
was going to be a debate at Michigan State University
that year, one of the two or three that they
were going.
Speaker 4 (13:54):
To be, Yeah, and it was going to be Bush.
Speaker 9 (13:56):
Pero and Clinton. Bush's team backed out last minute. I
don't even remember why. But Bill Clinton smartly.
Speaker 4 (14:04):
Goes, you know what, I'm gonna come there anyway.
Speaker 5 (14:06):
That's a really good impression.
Speaker 4 (14:09):
And so I'm Jeff's age.
Speaker 7 (14:10):
Right.
Speaker 9 (14:10):
Just think about this, Jeff, imagine you're me. It's nineteen
ninety two. Put yourself back in time. You know, girls
are wearing bagg your jeans at that time.
Speaker 3 (14:16):
It wasn't good.
Speaker 4 (14:17):
No, it was not no, no, no, So I go
to this event.
Speaker 9 (14:21):
He's having it at the Bell Tower there on Michigan
State's campus, and there's a cameraman for one of the
local TV stations.
Speaker 3 (14:26):
He's got this even extra special pass.
Speaker 4 (14:28):
Yeah, he goes, do you want this?
Speaker 8 (14:29):
I'm not going to use it.
Speaker 9 (14:30):
Okay, So I get it and they shuffle me in. Now,
mind you, I'm not a Democrat, not even close, not
even at that age. But I'm standing between former Michigan
Governor James Blanchard and future Michigan Senator Debbie Stabin of her,
and I'm right behind Bill Clinton, and I got my
Clinton Gore signed that they handed me.
Speaker 4 (14:48):
Oh my, I'm a prop.
Speaker 9 (14:50):
But then afterward, afterward, I didn't get to go to
the debate, but I was in a line and I
shook Bill Clinton's hand, kind of like the moment he
had that picture of him shaking out in his hand.
Speaker 5 (15:00):
Well, it was like his left hang, thank you, appreciate you.
Speaker 2 (15:02):
Being here, lean in for a kiss or something.
Speaker 9 (15:06):
Well not exactly. I wasn't looking my Monica best at
that point. But what I will say is it took
me entirely off the hw Bush Square. I was not
going to vote for him. I kind of like Bill Clinton.
You know, he's affable, he's very charismatic, very endearing guy. Yeah,
but I ended up, you know, and I can't do
that either. I'm going to vote for a pro.
Speaker 2 (15:26):
Well again, you gave us Bill, and that's okay. It's
my fault, that's okay. I do like the appearanst there,
even though you're not a Democrat. I did something similar,
not on my eighteenth, but you remember when Barack Obama
and the columns and stuff came to town for the
big thing out of Here with It. Friend of mine,
friend of mine, my best friend growing up. His wife
was running for office at the time as a dem
(15:48):
She got an extra ticket to this thing, and she's like, hey,
would you.
Speaker 3 (15:51):
Want to go?
Speaker 2 (15:51):
And I'm like, of course, missus history right, like, of
course you're going to go to this thing. And I
don't think I saw another Republican other than the law
enforcement officers who are making.
Speaker 9 (16:02):
Sure somebody hold this is funny. How could you tell?
Because I kind of think I could tell in a
way it was.
Speaker 3 (16:08):
I can't really explain it at all.
Speaker 2 (16:09):
It's like the end scene in Invasion of the Body Snatchers.
Speaker 9 (16:13):
You know what I mean, I thought you were gonna
say the bar scene in Star Wars.
Speaker 2 (16:16):
That that too. There's a little bit of that. I
don't jo either, you know all that it was like that.
But Jeff, then, so what are you gonna do? How
are you gonna other than being on the radio, which
is brilliant, good call, How are you gonna remember your
eighteenth birthday?
Speaker 5 (16:33):
I don't know. I mean, you know, last time I
was on we talked about my whole process to get
an Eagle scout. The only thing I've left is just
to do the Board of Review. But that's kind of
taken like this entire summer to get to and I
got the last signature probably four years ago, so I
like went right up to the line. And I think
what I'm probably gonna remember most about my eighteenth is
(16:55):
just you know, being able to say that I'm done
with that. But it's just relax take it.
Speaker 2 (17:01):
There's some incredible numbers on how few scouts that start
the process ever get eagle, and I can't remember what
the number is about three. That's pretty good, man, And
that's why you should go into the military. Listen, what
I want to do is and we don't have time
to go through it all right now, because we're going
to cut away for a break at the bottom of
the hour and be joined by Laura Carnoll from Smarter
Colorado to talk about the school safety stuff and what
(17:25):
she does and sort of the shooting that took place your.
Speaker 3 (17:27):
Track in that one, right, Yeah, yeah, I do at some.
Speaker 2 (17:30):
Point here today want to hear your experiences with the
school in your era in addressing this, because when Ryan
and Kelly and I went to school, and I presume
Kelly went to school, I'm not sure if that's true
or not, there were no school shootings like this. There
was nothing like this, Like, there were no drills, like
(17:52):
I'm not old enough to have had to hide under
my desk for a nuclear explosion, which sounds ludicrous now, but.
Speaker 3 (17:58):
I wasn't old enough for that.
Speaker 4 (18:00):
What.
Speaker 5 (18:00):
I'm sorry, you're grounded?
Speaker 3 (18:01):
Can I ground an eighteen year old?
Speaker 1 (18:02):
Ye?
Speaker 4 (18:04):
You never did those drills.
Speaker 3 (18:05):
I don't think I'm read to do those drills.
Speaker 7 (18:07):
But also you.
Speaker 3 (18:09):
Didn't have to do the shooter drills. Oh definitely not those, No, no,
But we also had to do earthquake tris.
Speaker 9 (18:14):
You didn't do the red do we call them the
red don drills in eighty four you can put your
head between your knees and.
Speaker 3 (18:19):
Kiss your ass.
Speaker 2 (18:19):
I don't remember the Red although that's a great movie.
Patrick Swayze sees Thomas Howel powers Booth. I don't remember
those drills. But after we get done with Flori, by
the way, you should be prepared to ask Laura some questions.
I want to get your feedback on this because your
generation has grown up with these things, and I just
wonder how that changes you and will affect you and
(18:41):
your kids. Jeff, I love having you on here. I
can't believe I'm saying this thirty minutes is gone. When
we come back from the break. Laura Carnos, she knows
stuff about guns, school safety and all that.
Speaker 4 (18:51):
Talk to her in a bit Dankapas Show.
Speaker 8 (19:00):
You're listening to the Dan Kaplis Show podcast.
Speaker 2 (19:04):
Look huge, huge news out of Minneapolis yesterday, And frankly,
there were a number of shootings that took place in
Minneapolis yesterday, but the big one that has sort of
captured the attention of Americans at least in the short term,
and I promise you it'll be in the short term
because the shooter is dead and we've had so many
of these, we find a way to just quickly move
(19:25):
past them to the next catastrophe, is the shooting that
took place at the Catholic church up there, the Ascension School,
and to have a conversation about what to do, because,
as you know, whenever these shootings take place, politicians from
both sides rush forward to say, here's the answer to
how we prevent these things. And by the way, that's
(19:46):
a fair analysis. We want to prevent these things.
Speaker 7 (19:50):
Well.
Speaker 2 (19:50):
Coming on the r right now to have a conversation
about how to magic away every single gun on the
planet Earth to keep us super safe is our friend
Laura Carnal from Faster Call Laura, how do we do it?
Speaker 7 (20:03):
Yeah, that's exactly what I'm here to talk about. I'm sure.
First Happy birthday to Jeff. I can't remember it. It was
so long ago.
Speaker 4 (20:10):
Yeah it is, but he I can't believe he's an adult.
Speaker 2 (20:14):
And sadly, Laura, you and I are talking in a
state where just still can't exercise his Second Amendment rights
at age eighteen, so we'll have to have him back
on a twenty Okay with that though, I actually I
think I'm okay with that too. For the moment, for
the moment. Laura has a program. Everyone's heard of this
thing by now called Faster Colorado. Have you been contacted
(20:36):
a bunch since this event? Or is this just like
white noise anymore? It happens so often, Laura, that it
doesn't even become something where people engage you and say, hey,
how can we keep this from happening in our school?
Speaker 7 (20:48):
Yeah, it's an interesting question. You know. We've been at
this for going on ten years. We're in our ninth
training year now, and in the beginning, when there was
yet another now shooting, specifically a school or a church,
my phone would just be on fire with people saying
we need to get this in our school, we need
this in our church. And it has been very interesting
(21:12):
in the last few years, fewer and fewer calls, as
we still do get calls. I mean, and don't get
me wrong, there are schools and churches today that are
saying we need to be doing something better and different
so that this doesn't happen. But it's not the same volume.
It's as if people are numb to it. And that's
a very very sad place to be.
Speaker 4 (21:32):
And I should have done this.
Speaker 2 (21:34):
I just take For granted that everybody knows what Faster does,
there may be folks out there wondering what and the
heck is it that they're putting in the schools.
Speaker 3 (21:40):
Talk about what you guys.
Speaker 7 (21:41):
Do, Laura, sure thing. There are lots and lots of
armed staff people in our K twelve campuses. Some of
them are full time security guards, some of them are
school resource officers, but most of them are armed staff members.
So it's the principal, the janitor, the coach who goes
(22:03):
about their day with the job that they have. They
just happen to be stilled caring while they do it.
And these are people that are hand picked. They have
to go through pretty intense vetting processes and then they
have to make a commitment to training that far exceeds
that law enforcement goes through. And as I said, we're
(22:26):
in our ninth training year. We've seen over four hundred
of these folks come through. We are still going to
be training. We usually train in the summer, but we're
training all the way through November this year just because
of all the schools that have passed these policies and
are going to have armed staff protecting children. So it's
been a great program and just honored to have been
(22:49):
involved with it from the beginning.
Speaker 2 (22:51):
How many teachers have gone through this program in the
state of Colorado, and then specifically, how many are in
Denver schools?
Speaker 7 (23:00):
So so when you say teachers, I say armed staff staff. Yeah,
forty percent of them are teachers, sixty percent of them
are non teachers. But we've seen over four hundred come
through our program. I know that there are some schools
that go to other training programs. I don't know the
numbers there, but you know, you picture somebody in you know,
(23:22):
the lower left hand corner of the state, and it
takes them six hours to get to me. They're crossing
the border into you know, Novada or Utah or somewhere
and getting their training somewhere else. But you know, I'd
say there's easily five hundred people protecting K twelve campuses
in Denver. To answer your question, Denver now has school
resource officers back, and school resource officers are sworn members
(23:46):
of police department, sheriff's offices, that sort of thing. They
only have school resource officers in their on their campuses now.
But there was a time when they very publicly said
we don't want this is during to defund the police time.
We don't want any armed people in our schools at all.
And my comment was on a number of shows that
(24:08):
that I'm talking about this, why are you announcing this?
All you're doing is waving a big flag and saying, hey, killers.
Speaker 4 (24:17):
Yeah, come here here.
Speaker 7 (24:18):
Because nobody's armed. And you know, thank god, they didn't
have any big mass shootings, but they sure had, you know,
a shooting of two deans at East High School during
that time.
Speaker 2 (24:30):
Do the school districts advertise that they have the program
even if they're not making these staff members wear some
special colored shirt or something. And I asked that because
having handled a number of these, maybe more than any
other prosecutor in America, the conclusion that I've drawn is
that these folks are largely cowards, these mass shooters, and
they're looking for what they believe to be the undefended
(24:52):
and unsuspecting and the entirely defenseless, and that knowing that
there's armed someone any where might in and of itself
be a deterrent. Do you guys advertise this like this house,
you know, this school protected by brinks or something like that.
Speaker 7 (25:08):
Yeah, yeah, And you're exactly right, there's a huge deterrent effect.
It's not us that faster. We are essentially training providers,
but the schools can make their own decisions. Fewer schools
these days than when we started are keeping it quiet.
More schools these days than when we started have huge signs.
(25:29):
There's one school that's off a major interstate in a
rural area that has a big sign that you can
see from the freeway, and I applaud that. You know,
we don't make the decisions except to them, but I
applaud that because I do think there's a big deterrent effect.
In the Covington Christian School shooting, there is indication in
(25:53):
the shooters manifesto that there were multiple campuses considered. One
was eliminated from the possibility list because of the security.
That's what she wrote in her manifesto. There's early information
coming out of Minneapolis, and early information is, you know,
(26:13):
half of it's bad, half of it's good. But there
is early information about this shooter's manifesto from a similar standpoint,
like because this person allegedly hated Catholics and Jews equally,
so said I would go to a Jewish school, but
there's too much security there thank God that the Jewish
(26:35):
Day schools are They've learned a lot in synagogues and
Jewish Day schools are have multi layers of protection, including
external hardening, which it sounds like this this church maybe
didn't have external you know, security or patrols or what
have you. But it really goes to the to the
point that these killers are thinking about where do I
(26:58):
go that I'm going to have the least amount of
resistance because sadly, what they want to do, George, is
they want to have the highest body count, and they
think that if there's going to be a school resource
officer or other common person, it might it might end
their spree more quickly.
Speaker 2 (27:17):
Jeff is a senior at the greatest high school in
Douglas Counties called Rock Canyon.
Speaker 4 (27:23):
It's a great day to be a JAG.
Speaker 3 (27:25):
Jeff has a question.
Speaker 5 (27:27):
Okay, So, I mean I always one to wondering, you know,
outside of the kind of determ effect of a lot
of the training that you do for staff members for
preparing them for these situations, what's kind of like I
would say, like the most important part of doing these
trainings kind of you know, for students like me and
for people inside of these facilities.
Speaker 2 (27:47):
Like Jeff, worry about you know, a teacher just firing
off some errant shot and taking him and his classmates
down or what.
Speaker 7 (27:54):
That's not what I'm mask I don't know if that's
what Jeff was asking about.
Speaker 3 (27:57):
No, I just threw that in.
Speaker 4 (27:58):
You can answer Jeff's question.
Speaker 7 (28:00):
I'll answer two different questions here. You know, what I
want students to know in these schools is that there
is somebody the adults are going to protect you. If
God forbid, something happens on your campus, the adults are
going to mobilize and protect the children. You know, schools
(28:20):
act in loco parentis, which means in place of the parent.
And when parents drop their kids off at school, they
expect they are going to come home to them at night.
They expect them to get taught, they expect that all
kinds of things. But you're acting in place of the parent,
keep my kids safe. So kids should really know nothing
about it. They should just feel like you and I, George,
(28:43):
when I'm significantly older than you, when we were in school,
we didn't think about these things. We did earthquake drills
where we got under the I grew up in California.
I got under the desk in case there's an earthquake,
but never thought about anything like this. And it's very
sad that we have a generation of kids that has
(29:05):
to think about this, that has to think about the
you know, the evil in the world. But that's our reality,
and so what we do at faster in advocating for
these armed staff programs, we want schools to know that
there has never been a mass shooting in any any
school that has armed staff. That's a big deal. We
(29:26):
also want schools to know, to answer you know your
second question there, George, there has never been any incidents
in schools with armed staff of things going wrong, like
a teacher popping off on a student or something. Those
things just aren't happening.
Speaker 2 (29:42):
Yeah, I think that's a huge statistic. I almost felt
like knocking on wood for that. Laura Carno, as always,
you're a wealth of information and a breath of fresh
air in this space. Not another voice saying, Hey, if
we can only make all the guns disappear, we can
all be safe again. Because that ain't going to happen.
Speaker 4 (29:59):
Laura Carno, how can folks to learn more about your organization?
Speaker 7 (30:03):
Yeah, they can go to Faster Colorado dot org fast
r Faster Colorado dot org. You can read about our team.
They're all active duty law enforcement instructors. You know what
we do at faster We are at five oh one
c three. If you want to throw us a couple
bucks to help us run this program, it's very important
to the safety of students and George. You need to
(30:24):
take Jeff out to a very very expensive birthday dinner.
Speaker 2 (30:27):
Oh what we couldn't hear you on that last thing, Laura,
Thank you so much for your time. I'm certain I'll
see you very soon at some law enforcement related event.
Speaker 4 (30:35):
Thank you so much. That was Laura Carno.
Speaker 2 (30:39):
Horrible connection. I presume she's somewhere out in Elbert County. Hey, listen,
when we come back, it's going to be more of
Jeff and George. But here's what I'd love to do
is I'd love to get you to engage us on
this five seven seven three nine ARM staff members yay
or nay. I haven't really asked Jeff his opinion on this.
You can also give us a call three oh three
seven one three eighty two fifty five, Jeff says.
Speaker 3 (30:59):
The Dan Kaflick show.
Speaker 5 (31:00):
It's the Dan Camp.
Speaker 8 (31:07):
And now back to the Dan Kapless Show podcast.
Speaker 2 (31:11):
Eighteen years old today, Man, so many good ones. Seventeen
was a little trickier because of course you have Winger
and the others. I did do a little compilation for Jeff.
Speaker 7 (31:20):
But all the W bands you had White Lion, White Snake,
Winger Want.
Speaker 4 (31:26):
Yeah, what is it?
Speaker 3 (31:26):
What the w's seventeen?
Speaker 2 (31:28):
But eighteen a good one, Jeff, Here's what I wanted
to ask you. Having listened to Laura o' carnall and whatnot,
we talked about the drills we didn't have to do,
and includes the one like what's it like being in
school these days? Like how much time do they spend
saying here's how you survive a shooting.
Speaker 5 (31:44):
Yeah, so they don't. They don't like spend a lot
of time doing it. It's kind of just it's become
more of, like, I guess, an integrated part of the
things that we do do for do do okay, come
on dad? For like emergency response things. So at the
beginning of the year, in our kind of homeroom classes,
we always have to watch a video that was filmed
(32:05):
in Legend and Parker. That's kind of like going over
this thing called the Standard Response Protocol or SRP, which
is like kind of a set of five kind of
like things that are supposed to be like so standardized
anyone can like kind of remember them and understand them. So, uh,
there's a hold, which is like something's happening in the building,
(32:27):
but it's like I don't know, a medical emergency or something.
So students are supposed to stay in their.
Speaker 3 (32:32):
Classroom and they signal hold, like they scream out hold.
Speaker 4 (32:35):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (32:35):
They go on the you know, like the loud speakers
and say, yeah, oh there's a hold, So just keep
your you know, kids in the classroom, okay, time bearing, Okay.
So there's a hold, and then there's a secure where
something is happening outside. Let's say, like I think at
my elementary school one time we had a secure where
a mountain lion was just prowling around in the neighborhood outside.
(32:57):
So that's kind of normally what it's for. Then there
is fire, which is a normal fire emergency shelter where
you know, you do your normal shelter in place things.
And then there's a lockdown, which is for if there's uh,
you know kind of like urgent emergency inside of the building.
That's the one that I don't think a lot of
people really know unless they are kind of in my generation,
(33:21):
grow up in this time of a lot of you know,
like active shootings and things like that, where us students
have to practice going into kind of like a corner
against a wall that's like the least visible from the
hallways outside. But stop right there.
Speaker 2 (33:37):
Because I remember this from when you were in middle
school at Rocky Heights Middle School, which is a great
middle school. You describing this as like I think I asked,
what do you guys do in your early you know,
science class, And you're like you're describing this, and I'm like,
my god, man, how does that affect the little kid's
brain that they're telling you, Hey, we're gonna have you
go hunker down in some places not visible from the
door window, and we're gonna play dead there.
Speaker 4 (33:58):
But I mean, what the hell?
Speaker 5 (34:00):
Yeah, I don't know. I mean, it's like I guess
now it's kind of a fact of life that we
have to deal with as students and as kids in
kind of this like you know, time and age. But
there's a yeah, it's kind of just become like a
norm I mean, I've been doing that for my last
thirteen years of education, so I mean it's like certainly
(34:21):
changed in some ways. Like my freshman year, when the
fire alarm was pulled, we'd have to go into lockdown
before they would tell us that it's safe to like
exit the building because apparently, in like one circumstance somewhere
an active shooter pulled a fire alarm and people like
ran out of the class.
Speaker 2 (34:39):
Think about things like that, like here's once you focused
on reading, writing, arithmetic, and are you thinking about my gosh, man,
this is what I have to do if some other
student or person comes in and tries to kill me
and my fellow student.
Speaker 5 (34:51):
I mean, I don't think about it all the time,
and I'm fairly certain most of my friends and classmates
don't either. But it's, you know, it's kind of just
a thing that we have to deal with now, and
it does come up every quarter or at the being
of the year, and it really does, you know, make
you think about what's happening.
Speaker 2 (35:08):
Please, buddy, we're going to talk more about this after
the top of the hour.
This is Dan Capless and welcome to today's online podcast edition
of The Dan Caplis Show. Please be sure to give
us a five star rating if you'd be so kind,
and to subscribe, download and listen to the show every
single day on your favorite podcast platform.
Speaker 2 (00:15):
Well, it's George Brockler filling in for the mighty Dan Kaples.
Speaker 3 (00:19):
I listened in yesterday.
Speaker 2 (00:21):
I too wish it was Sheriff Steve Reems again for
another day, but he couldn't make it. He's pulling himself
over or something up there in Weld County. Will be
together in this studio on September the ninth. Mark your calendars,
get your shots, get ready to get where we are
and it'll happen. Now, this day is kind of special here.
(00:42):
We're going to have a guest at four oh seven.
We're gonna have a guest four to thirty six. But
I just want to say this about August the twenty eighth.
In any man's life, you get a handful of days
that you can you'll remember for the rest of your life.
They're the best days of your life. I had one
of these eighteen years ago today and the product of
(01:03):
that special, magical day for me is sitting right across
from me right now. You know him as my left
hand in this setup here, if you could see at
this left hand man, it's my co pilot for the day.
Happy birthday, son, Jeff Brockler.
Speaker 4 (01:15):
How are you? Thank you?
Speaker 5 (01:17):
I'm good, you know, having a good eighteenth birthday.
Speaker 2 (01:22):
Yeah, listen, it's not every eighteen year old that gets
to spend time on the radio talking with one of
the best audiences. And if we could see them, we
would see that they're the best looking and likely brightest
audiences in all of radio.
Speaker 3 (01:35):
So congratulations for.
Speaker 5 (01:36):
That, man, Thank you so much.
Speaker 2 (01:38):
We're going to, I believe, transition from these nice words
to our call a guy named Joe Rattner. Now let
me he's not on the phone line yet, but let's
talk about this case. Back on December the eighteenth, before
I was DA, I had a press conference and I
mentioned this a couple times, and one of the features
(01:58):
of the press conference was to say, hey, if you're
a criminal, my advice to you is don't commit crimes.
Seems like it's pretty common sense. Follow the law. But
the second advice I gave was if you cannot follow
the law, then go break it somewhere else.
Speaker 4 (02:17):
And that was serious.
Speaker 3 (02:19):
And at this point.
Speaker 2 (02:20):
We're about seven and a half, coming up on eight
months into this, there are still folks that have not
yet figured that out. And that brings us to the
case that we're going to discuss. It's a guy named
Albert Jean Vargas, and as soon as we get to
Joe on the phone, he's gonna tell us about that.
By the way, Jeff, what's it like living in the
safest part of the metro area.
Speaker 5 (02:43):
I mean, I don't really have any reference point because
I've always lived.
Speaker 2 (02:45):
There, but well, you've been up to Denver before. I mean,
like you and your brother have gone to like DCPA
and other best boarding events and stuff like that up there.
Speaker 4 (02:53):
What are your thoughts?
Speaker 5 (02:54):
Uh? I don't know. I mean, you know, my normal
is different from a lot of other people's norms. So
you know, when I live in safe and secure Douglas
County South Metro Denver, I'm not really exposed to a
lot of you know, kind of like worse things that
can happen in kind of our general area, like a
(03:15):
lot of the homelessness situation in around Denver, a lot
of the crime and things too, I just, you know,
haven't seen any of that.
Speaker 2 (03:24):
Well, I want to humbly say you're welcome, because that's
really the product of.
Speaker 3 (03:30):
Many, many years.
Speaker 2 (03:31):
On the Batford and well, if I don't, who's gonna
do it? Hey, let's go to our phone caller to
talk about why that's true, Jeff, this is a fantastic
case on the line with us right now. One of
the great young prosecutors in the DA's office. His name
is Joe Rattner. He prosecutes felony. Those are the big
crimes from us. Joe, thanks for joining.
Speaker 6 (03:52):
Us, Hey, George, thanks.
Speaker 5 (03:54):
Glad to be on jo Oh, thank you.
Speaker 3 (03:56):
Yeah, that's so nice.
Speaker 2 (03:57):
Now listen, Joe, I don't want to tell everybody this,
but you're a little nervous. Oh I just told everybody this.
Is that help it all? To actually announce it?
Speaker 6 (04:07):
Not really? Just like I mean, I know you interviewed
Chased a couple of days ago. He left Candida interview
in a puddle of sweat. I don't know what's going to.
Speaker 4 (04:14):
Happen here, but well it was a puddle. It wasn't sweat.
Speaker 2 (04:16):
But hopefully you will be in a different bode Let's
get right to it. My man, you had a huge
victory in a case recently on a guy named Albert
Jeane Vargas. Tell us about that case, tell us about
what this guy did.
Speaker 7 (04:30):
That's right.
Speaker 6 (04:31):
So on Tuesday of this week, list of Argus twed
guilty to do count one of those that was to
account one drug at Class one drug fellony offense and
also count for for being in possession of a weapon
as a previous defender. He was sentenced to twenty years
(04:53):
in the Department of Corrections for the actions that he
took in August of twenty twenty one. And let me
tell you what he did. You're probably wondering why it
took so long for a twenty twenty one case to
come to it.
Speaker 4 (05:06):
I am, yeah, I am.
Speaker 6 (05:07):
That's because mister Argus doesn't like coming to court. I
checked his history in the case. He failed to appear
for court about five times. He even failed to appear
on his trial date coops. So we did eventually pick
him up again this pass June and he finally pled
guilty this Tuesday. So back in August of twenty twenty one,
(05:31):
in Castle Rock in the Meadows, officers received a tip
that there was a drug dealer dealing in the area CRPD,
let's say Castle ARPD. They went, they scared the area,
They couldn't find anything, so they went on to different halls.
Later that night, though an hours or later, there was
(05:51):
a flock hit.
Speaker 2 (05:54):
Folks, what flock is most of them know, but some
of them don't. What's a flock hit?
Speaker 6 (05:58):
Yeah, flock is a is a system that Castle Rock
and other cities in the Denver metro area. I don't
think Denver uses them anymore, but other cities do use
them where they scan l likense plates and they run
those license plates that they scan against the database which
notified local agencies of outstanding warrants or stolen the own.
Speaker 2 (06:22):
Carny like yeah, and so they got a flock hit
on this guy because of the stolen car.
Speaker 6 (06:29):
Not a stolen car, the likening plates were stolen.
Speaker 3 (06:32):
Oh well, that's even better.
Speaker 2 (06:34):
And so what makes castle Rock somewhat unique is there
are agencies out there that have flock cameras. They're called
lpr's license plate readers, is that they also have a
real time response center. So they don't just document oh
this car came through it here at this time it
was stolen. They send dudes and dudets to go out
and get them.
Speaker 6 (06:54):
Absolutely, and that's what they did here. So they start
tracking this guy. They're using the tracks the cameras around town.
They see him driving on the Parkway. They tracked him
to the meadows he found about a block away from
Meadows View Elementary School. This is around eleven pm. They
conduct the high risk stop. He's the only guy in
(07:16):
the car. They detain him and they start interviewing him.
They believe that this is their guy that they got
a tip about dealing drugs. So they interviewed mister Vargas.
You know, initially he denies having any drugs, but the
officers and castle Rock they don't let up, and he
eventually admits that he has quote some drugs in the car. Well,
(07:38):
they searched the car, Georgia and some drugs ends up
being dozens of sentinel bills and an entire brick of
methads nearly five hundred grams.
Speaker 4 (07:50):
Oh, that's plenty. There's plenty of myth right.
Speaker 6 (07:53):
There and here at the kicker George under his seat
where in the driver's seat they found the loaded handguns.
Speaker 2 (08:01):
Oh, and that's bad in general to mix guns with drugs.
But in this particular case you had mentioned to us
before he got popped for previous affair. That means this
dude's got another felony conviction at least one. What's going
on in his background?
Speaker 6 (08:14):
This guy, well this on Tuesday. This was his eight
selony convictions. What he's a career criminal. It started back
in nineteen eighty six in Denver where he picks up
selling and menacing. I think he actually shot somebody in
that case, but he ended up leaving guilty to fellony menacing.
He got probation up in Denver. Then he's got felonies
(08:36):
in ninety two and ninety seven. He's got other felonies
that for also drug felonies as well as another felony
menacing from twenty eighteen. He's never done more than four
years of prison. He's done short since here and there,
eighteen months DUOC, twenty four months DEOC. The most he's
(08:57):
ever done until now was four years.
Speaker 2 (09:00):
It seems like giving the math there in the years
in which he's committed these acts, and I just presume
he's gonna sit in jail penning any case after the
first couple of felonies. Is that the only time he's
not committing new crimes is when he's in custody.
Speaker 6 (09:15):
Yep, two three the case. Yeah. Every time, yeah, he
gets out, he goes back to his old ways. So
my presumption here is that you know, when his time
was up, uh, he's gonna come out and go go back.
Speaker 3 (09:28):
To except dude sixty seven.
Speaker 2 (09:30):
Man, even if he makes it halftime, even if they
pull this cat at ten years, he's going to be
old enough that the only thing he's going to be
stealing is some sort of denture cream or something like that.
As far as as far as you know, Joe Ratner,
fantastic prosecutor in our office. You've had a couple of
big wins this year. Man, thrilled to have you on
to talk about it. Not as bad as you thought
it was going.
Speaker 4 (09:49):
To be too bad?
Speaker 2 (09:51):
Y Okay, awesome. I will see you next week, my man.
Keep up the great work.
Speaker 3 (09:55):
Thanks charge.
Speaker 6 (09:56):
I appreciate it.
Speaker 4 (09:56):
See you.
Speaker 2 (09:57):
Hey, that's a that's Joe Ratner. We're gonna away for
a break here, Jeff. I want to get your reaction
to this too. But again, the point is this dude
could have driven his drugs around the judicial district. Don't
know what would have happened to him there. Don't know
how long it would have taken him to drive around,
but I know this, it's less than twenty years. Hey, listen,
when we come back, we can get to your text
at five seven seven three nine five seven seven three nine,
(10:20):
or of course you can call us on the line
seven one three eighty two fifty five three zero three
seven one three eight two.
Speaker 3 (10:26):
Five five George Brockler and Jeff.
Speaker 2 (10:29):
Happy birthday, Jeff eighteen years old today on the Dankapless Show.
Speaker 8 (10:40):
And now back to the dan Kapless Show podcast eighteen today.
Speaker 2 (10:45):
That means that all the crimes that you commit now
are for legit.
Speaker 5 (10:49):
This is that's the eighth time someone's told me that it's.
Speaker 2 (10:52):
Important that I think that the community knows that there
is a line of demarcation between.
Speaker 3 (10:59):
We're just going to hug it out out if.
Speaker 2 (11:00):
You're eighteen, if you're below eighteen, and it's for keeps
if you're over eighteen.
Speaker 5 (11:05):
Yeah, does Grammy get the privileges like that?
Speaker 2 (11:08):
Graham right now could really do almost anything. In the
state of Colorado has devolved into such a place of
no accountability for children that I don't even think they
would take him into custody.
Speaker 3 (11:17):
I mean, it's gotten that bad.
Speaker 2 (11:19):
But speaking of that, did you, and I reminded you
of this last night, did you do something that would
warrant scrutiny by law enforcement before you turned eighteen?
Speaker 5 (11:29):
Uh? I think I got one traffic ticket, yeah, but
that we still got to resolve that. By the way,
and Castle Pineskin, I didn't get anything. You do anything.
Speaker 4 (11:40):
Fine.
Speaker 2 (11:40):
You are one of the most law abiding rule following
kids that I think we have.
Speaker 5 (11:46):
As you should be.
Speaker 3 (11:47):
Yeah, I guess if that's the way.
Speaker 2 (11:49):
I mean, you correct me when I'm driving, which is
frustrating because I'm a brilliant driver.
Speaker 3 (11:55):
I am a great driver.
Speaker 2 (11:57):
Listen, what are you going to do with the rest
of your eighteenth per What are your goals?
Speaker 3 (12:01):
Man?
Speaker 2 (12:01):
I mean I told you today at breakfast. I don't
really remember my eighteenth birthday. I don't remember what I did.
It could have been a tattoo, but I don't have any,
so I don't know what that is.
Speaker 5 (12:13):
I mean, maybe it's just in a place you've been
able to see, you know.
Speaker 2 (12:16):
You know, that's the kind of thing that only a
doctor or your cellmate would know.
Speaker 4 (12:20):
And I don't I don't really have the.
Speaker 3 (12:21):
Answer to that.
Speaker 2 (12:23):
Our text out of course five seven seven three nine.
If you remember what you did when you were eighteen
years old? Ryan, are you you track on what happened
when you were eighteen?
Speaker 3 (12:31):
I know it's only a couple of years ago.
Speaker 4 (12:33):
Oh lord almighty, it was much different world back then.
Speaker 2 (12:36):
Yeah, but on your birthday, Like, do you remember I
did this special thing on my eighteenth I did.
Speaker 9 (12:40):
We were talking about during the break the nerd thing
with Brian and the breakfast club that I am. Well,
that's right again, this is parental abuse that Jeff has
not seen the breakfast Club. I would expect it as
Dan Kaplis being a father. But you, George Brockler, being
tuned in the pop culture the way that you are
unacceptable anyway, I have to concur I was on campus
(13:01):
at Michigan State University, so my birthdays in late September,
so not too far off, but exactly a month after
Jeff's here, and I registered to vote.
Speaker 8 (13:10):
It was an election year.
Speaker 9 (13:12):
Nineteen ninety two, and oh my goodness, I was just
in time by like bush reelection time. It's like a
month and a half and I would end up voting
that year ninety two for.
Speaker 2 (13:21):
H Ross Perot. Oh, so you're the reason we got
Bill Clinton. Thank you, Ryan, You're welcome.
Speaker 3 (13:26):
Can I finish? Can I finish? I? Can I finish?
Speaker 5 (13:30):
I mean in such a you know, crazy political world. Honestly,
he seemed like a pretty reasonable option from what I
learned into APUs sister.
Speaker 3 (13:37):
Jeff, No, did you stuck us?
Speaker 2 (13:39):
It stuck us with William Jefferson Clinton from Hot Springs, Arkansas.
Speaker 9 (13:43):
Well let me tell you why though, because I had
special again nerding out here, I had special tickets. There
was going to be a debate at Michigan State University
that year, one of the two or three that they
were going.
Speaker 4 (13:54):
To be, Yeah, and it was going to be Bush.
Speaker 9 (13:56):
Pero and Clinton. Bush's team backed out last minute. I
don't even remember why. But Bill Clinton smartly.
Speaker 4 (14:04):
Goes, you know what, I'm gonna come there anyway.
Speaker 5 (14:06):
That's a really good impression.
Speaker 4 (14:09):
And so I'm Jeff's age.
Speaker 7 (14:10):
Right.
Speaker 9 (14:10):
Just think about this, Jeff, imagine you're me. It's nineteen
ninety two. Put yourself back in time. You know, girls
are wearing bagg your jeans at that time.
Speaker 3 (14:16):
It wasn't good.
Speaker 4 (14:17):
No, it was not no, no, no, So I go
to this event.
Speaker 9 (14:21):
He's having it at the Bell Tower there on Michigan
State's campus, and there's a cameraman for one of the
local TV stations.
Speaker 3 (14:26):
He's got this even extra special pass.
Speaker 4 (14:28):
Yeah, he goes, do you want this?
Speaker 8 (14:29):
I'm not going to use it.
Speaker 9 (14:30):
Okay, So I get it and they shuffle me in. Now,
mind you, I'm not a Democrat, not even close, not
even at that age. But I'm standing between former Michigan
Governor James Blanchard and future Michigan Senator Debbie Stabin of her,
and I'm right behind Bill Clinton, and I got my
Clinton Gore signed that they handed me.
Speaker 4 (14:48):
Oh my, I'm a prop.
Speaker 9 (14:50):
But then afterward, afterward, I didn't get to go to
the debate, but I was in a line and I
shook Bill Clinton's hand, kind of like the moment he
had that picture of him shaking out in his hand.
Speaker 5 (15:00):
Well, it was like his left hang, thank you, appreciate you.
Speaker 2 (15:02):
Being here, lean in for a kiss or something.
Speaker 9 (15:06):
Well not exactly. I wasn't looking my Monica best at
that point. But what I will say is it took
me entirely off the hw Bush Square. I was not
going to vote for him. I kind of like Bill Clinton.
You know, he's affable, he's very charismatic, very endearing guy. Yeah,
but I ended up, you know, and I can't do
that either. I'm going to vote for a pro.
Speaker 2 (15:26):
Well again, you gave us Bill, and that's okay. It's
my fault, that's okay. I do like the appearanst there,
even though you're not a Democrat. I did something similar,
not on my eighteenth, but you remember when Barack Obama
and the columns and stuff came to town for the
big thing out of Here with It. Friend of mine,
friend of mine, my best friend growing up. His wife
was running for office at the time as a dem
(15:48):
She got an extra ticket to this thing, and she's like, hey,
would you.
Speaker 3 (15:51):
Want to go?
Speaker 2 (15:51):
And I'm like, of course, missus history right, like, of
course you're going to go to this thing. And I
don't think I saw another Republican other than the law
enforcement officers who are making.
Speaker 9 (16:02):
Sure somebody hold this is funny. How could you tell?
Because I kind of think I could tell in a
way it was.
Speaker 3 (16:08):
I can't really explain it at all.
Speaker 2 (16:09):
It's like the end scene in Invasion of the Body Snatchers.
Speaker 9 (16:13):
You know what I mean, I thought you were gonna
say the bar scene in Star Wars.
Speaker 2 (16:16):
That that too. There's a little bit of that. I
don't jo either, you know all that it was like that.
But Jeff, then, so what are you gonna do? How
are you gonna other than being on the radio, which
is brilliant, good call, How are you gonna remember your
eighteenth birthday?
Speaker 5 (16:33):
I don't know. I mean, you know, last time I
was on we talked about my whole process to get
an Eagle scout. The only thing I've left is just
to do the Board of Review. But that's kind of
taken like this entire summer to get to and I
got the last signature probably four years ago, so I
like went right up to the line. And I think
what I'm probably gonna remember most about my eighteenth is
(16:55):
just you know, being able to say that I'm done
with that. But it's just relax take it.
Speaker 2 (17:01):
There's some incredible numbers on how few scouts that start
the process ever get eagle, and I can't remember what
the number is about three. That's pretty good, man, And
that's why you should go into the military. Listen, what
I want to do is and we don't have time
to go through it all right now, because we're going
to cut away for a break at the bottom of
the hour and be joined by Laura Carnoll from Smarter
Colorado to talk about the school safety stuff and what
(17:25):
she does and sort of the shooting that took place your.
Speaker 3 (17:27):
Track in that one, right, Yeah, yeah, I do at some.
Speaker 2 (17:30):
Point here today want to hear your experiences with the
school in your era in addressing this, because when Ryan
and Kelly and I went to school, and I presume
Kelly went to school, I'm not sure if that's true
or not, there were no school shootings like this. There
was nothing like this, Like, there were no drills, like
(17:52):
I'm not old enough to have had to hide under
my desk for a nuclear explosion, which sounds ludicrous now, but.
Speaker 3 (17:58):
I wasn't old enough for that.
Speaker 4 (18:00):
What.
Speaker 5 (18:00):
I'm sorry, you're grounded?
Speaker 3 (18:01):
Can I ground an eighteen year old?
Speaker 1 (18:02):
Ye?
Speaker 4 (18:04):
You never did those drills.
Speaker 3 (18:05):
I don't think I'm read to do those drills.
Speaker 7 (18:07):
But also you.
Speaker 3 (18:09):
Didn't have to do the shooter drills. Oh definitely not those, No, no,
But we also had to do earthquake tris.
Speaker 9 (18:14):
You didn't do the red do we call them the
red don drills in eighty four you can put your
head between your knees and.
Speaker 3 (18:19):
Kiss your ass.
Speaker 2 (18:19):
I don't remember the Red although that's a great movie.
Patrick Swayze sees Thomas Howel powers Booth. I don't remember
those drills. But after we get done with Flori, by
the way, you should be prepared to ask Laura some questions.
I want to get your feedback on this because your
generation has grown up with these things, and I just
wonder how that changes you and will affect you and
(18:41):
your kids. Jeff, I love having you on here. I
can't believe I'm saying this thirty minutes is gone. When
we come back from the break. Laura Carnos, she knows
stuff about guns, school safety and all that.
Speaker 4 (18:51):
Talk to her in a bit Dankapas Show.
Speaker 8 (19:00):
You're listening to the Dan Kaplis Show podcast.
Speaker 2 (19:04):
Look huge, huge news out of Minneapolis yesterday, And frankly,
there were a number of shootings that took place in
Minneapolis yesterday, but the big one that has sort of
captured the attention of Americans at least in the short term,
and I promise you it'll be in the short term
because the shooter is dead and we've had so many
of these, we find a way to just quickly move
(19:25):
past them to the next catastrophe, is the shooting that
took place at the Catholic church up there, the Ascension School,
and to have a conversation about what to do, because,
as you know, whenever these shootings take place, politicians from
both sides rush forward to say, here's the answer to
how we prevent these things. And by the way, that's
(19:46):
a fair analysis. We want to prevent these things.
Speaker 7 (19:50):
Well.
Speaker 2 (19:50):
Coming on the r right now to have a conversation
about how to magic away every single gun on the
planet Earth to keep us super safe is our friend
Laura Carnal from Faster Call Laura, how do we do it?
Speaker 7 (20:03):
Yeah, that's exactly what I'm here to talk about. I'm sure.
First Happy birthday to Jeff. I can't remember it. It was
so long ago.
Speaker 4 (20:10):
Yeah it is, but he I can't believe he's an adult.
Speaker 2 (20:14):
And sadly, Laura, you and I are talking in a
state where just still can't exercise his Second Amendment rights
at age eighteen, so we'll have to have him back
on a twenty Okay with that though, I actually I
think I'm okay with that too. For the moment, for
the moment. Laura has a program. Everyone's heard of this
thing by now called Faster Colorado. Have you been contacted
(20:36):
a bunch since this event? Or is this just like
white noise anymore? It happens so often, Laura, that it
doesn't even become something where people engage you and say, hey,
how can we keep this from happening in our school?
Speaker 7 (20:48):
Yeah, it's an interesting question. You know. We've been at
this for going on ten years. We're in our ninth
training year now, and in the beginning, when there was
yet another now shooting, specifically a school or a church,
my phone would just be on fire with people saying
we need to get this in our school, we need
this in our church. And it has been very interesting
(21:12):
in the last few years, fewer and fewer calls, as
we still do get calls. I mean, and don't get
me wrong, there are schools and churches today that are
saying we need to be doing something better and different
so that this doesn't happen. But it's not the same volume.
It's as if people are numb to it. And that's
a very very sad place to be.
Speaker 4 (21:32):
And I should have done this.
Speaker 2 (21:34):
I just take For granted that everybody knows what Faster does,
there may be folks out there wondering what and the
heck is it that they're putting in the schools.
Speaker 3 (21:40):
Talk about what you guys.
Speaker 7 (21:41):
Do, Laura, sure thing. There are lots and lots of
armed staff people in our K twelve campuses. Some of
them are full time security guards, some of them are
school resource officers, but most of them are armed staff members.
So it's the principal, the janitor, the coach who goes
(22:03):
about their day with the job that they have. They
just happen to be stilled caring while they do it.
And these are people that are hand picked. They have
to go through pretty intense vetting processes and then they
have to make a commitment to training that far exceeds
that law enforcement goes through. And as I said, we're
(22:26):
in our ninth training year. We've seen over four hundred
of these folks come through. We are still going to
be training. We usually train in the summer, but we're
training all the way through November this year just because
of all the schools that have passed these policies and
are going to have armed staff protecting children. So it's
been a great program and just honored to have been
(22:49):
involved with it from the beginning.
Speaker 2 (22:51):
How many teachers have gone through this program in the
state of Colorado, and then specifically, how many are in
Denver schools?
Speaker 7 (23:00):
So so when you say teachers, I say armed staff staff. Yeah,
forty percent of them are teachers, sixty percent of them
are non teachers. But we've seen over four hundred come
through our program. I know that there are some schools
that go to other training programs. I don't know the
numbers there, but you know, you picture somebody in you know,
(23:22):
the lower left hand corner of the state, and it
takes them six hours to get to me. They're crossing
the border into you know, Novada or Utah or somewhere
and getting their training somewhere else. But you know, I'd
say there's easily five hundred people protecting K twelve campuses
in Denver. To answer your question, Denver now has school
resource officers back, and school resource officers are sworn members
(23:46):
of police department, sheriff's offices, that sort of thing. They
only have school resource officers in their on their campuses now.
But there was a time when they very publicly said
we don't want this is during to defund the police time.
We don't want any armed people in our schools at all.
And my comment was on a number of shows that
(24:08):
that I'm talking about this, why are you announcing this?
All you're doing is waving a big flag and saying, hey, killers.
Speaker 4 (24:17):
Yeah, come here here.
Speaker 7 (24:18):
Because nobody's armed. And you know, thank god, they didn't
have any big mass shootings, but they sure had, you know,
a shooting of two deans at East High School during
that time.
Speaker 2 (24:30):
Do the school districts advertise that they have the program
even if they're not making these staff members wear some
special colored shirt or something. And I asked that because
having handled a number of these, maybe more than any
other prosecutor in America, the conclusion that I've drawn is
that these folks are largely cowards, these mass shooters, and
they're looking for what they believe to be the undefended
(24:52):
and unsuspecting and the entirely defenseless, and that knowing that
there's armed someone any where might in and of itself
be a deterrent. Do you guys advertise this like this house,
you know, this school protected by brinks or something like that.
Speaker 7 (25:08):
Yeah, yeah, And you're exactly right, there's a huge deterrent effect.
It's not us that faster. We are essentially training providers,
but the schools can make their own decisions. Fewer schools
these days than when we started are keeping it quiet.
More schools these days than when we started have huge signs.
(25:29):
There's one school that's off a major interstate in a
rural area that has a big sign that you can
see from the freeway, and I applaud that. You know,
we don't make the decisions except to them, but I
applaud that because I do think there's a big deterrent effect.
In the Covington Christian School shooting, there is indication in
(25:53):
the shooters manifesto that there were multiple campuses considered. One
was eliminated from the possibility list because of the security.
That's what she wrote in her manifesto. There's early information
coming out of Minneapolis, and early information is, you know,
(26:13):
half of it's bad, half of it's good. But there
is early information about this shooter's manifesto from a similar standpoint,
like because this person allegedly hated Catholics and Jews equally,
so said I would go to a Jewish school, but
there's too much security there thank God that the Jewish
(26:35):
Day schools are They've learned a lot in synagogues and
Jewish Day schools are have multi layers of protection, including
external hardening, which it sounds like this this church maybe
didn't have external you know, security or patrols or what
have you. But it really goes to the to the
point that these killers are thinking about where do I
(26:58):
go that I'm going to have the least amount of
resistance because sadly, what they want to do, George, is
they want to have the highest body count, and they
think that if there's going to be a school resource
officer or other common person, it might it might end
their spree more quickly.
Speaker 2 (27:17):
Jeff is a senior at the greatest high school in
Douglas Counties called Rock Canyon.
Speaker 4 (27:23):
It's a great day to be a JAG.
Speaker 3 (27:25):
Jeff has a question.
Speaker 5 (27:27):
Okay, So, I mean I always one to wondering, you know,
outside of the kind of determ effect of a lot
of the training that you do for staff members for
preparing them for these situations, what's kind of like I
would say, like the most important part of doing these
trainings kind of you know, for students like me and
for people inside of these facilities.
Speaker 2 (27:47):
Like Jeff, worry about you know, a teacher just firing
off some errant shot and taking him and his classmates
down or what.
Speaker 7 (27:54):
That's not what I'm mask I don't know if that's
what Jeff was asking about.
Speaker 3 (27:57):
No, I just threw that in.
Speaker 4 (27:58):
You can answer Jeff's question.
Speaker 7 (28:00):
I'll answer two different questions here. You know, what I
want students to know in these schools is that there
is somebody the adults are going to protect you. If
God forbid, something happens on your campus, the adults are
going to mobilize and protect the children. You know, schools
(28:20):
act in loco parentis, which means in place of the parent.
And when parents drop their kids off at school, they
expect they are going to come home to them at night.
They expect them to get taught, they expect that all
kinds of things. But you're acting in place of the parent,
keep my kids safe. So kids should really know nothing
about it. They should just feel like you and I, George,
(28:43):
when I'm significantly older than you, when we were in school,
we didn't think about these things. We did earthquake drills
where we got under the I grew up in California.
I got under the desk in case there's an earthquake,
but never thought about anything like this. And it's very
sad that we have a generation of kids that has
(29:05):
to think about this, that has to think about the
you know, the evil in the world. But that's our reality,
and so what we do at faster in advocating for
these armed staff programs, we want schools to know that
there has never been a mass shooting in any any
school that has armed staff. That's a big deal. We
(29:26):
also want schools to know, to answer you know your
second question there, George, there has never been any incidents
in schools with armed staff of things going wrong, like
a teacher popping off on a student or something. Those
things just aren't happening.
Speaker 2 (29:42):
Yeah, I think that's a huge statistic. I almost felt
like knocking on wood for that. Laura Carno, as always,
you're a wealth of information and a breath of fresh
air in this space. Not another voice saying, Hey, if
we can only make all the guns disappear, we can
all be safe again. Because that ain't going to happen.
Speaker 4 (29:59):
Laura Carno, how can folks to learn more about your organization?
Speaker 7 (30:03):
Yeah, they can go to Faster Colorado dot org fast
r Faster Colorado dot org. You can read about our team.
They're all active duty law enforcement instructors. You know what
we do at faster We are at five oh one
c three. If you want to throw us a couple
bucks to help us run this program, it's very important
to the safety of students and George. You need to
(30:24):
take Jeff out to a very very expensive birthday dinner.
Speaker 2 (30:27):
Oh what we couldn't hear you on that last thing, Laura,
Thank you so much for your time. I'm certain I'll
see you very soon at some law enforcement related event.
Speaker 4 (30:35):
Thank you so much. That was Laura Carno.
Speaker 2 (30:39):
Horrible connection. I presume she's somewhere out in Elbert County. Hey, listen,
when we come back, it's going to be more of
Jeff and George. But here's what I'd love to do
is I'd love to get you to engage us on
this five seven seven three nine ARM staff members yay
or nay. I haven't really asked Jeff his opinion on this.
You can also give us a call three oh three
seven one three eighty two fifty five, Jeff says.
Speaker 3 (30:59):
The Dan Kaflick show.
Speaker 5 (31:00):
It's the Dan Camp.
Speaker 8 (31:07):
And now back to the Dan Kapless Show podcast.
Speaker 2 (31:11):
Eighteen years old today, Man, so many good ones. Seventeen
was a little trickier because of course you have Winger
and the others. I did do a little compilation for Jeff.
Speaker 7 (31:20):
But all the W bands you had White Lion, White Snake,
Winger Want.
Speaker 4 (31:26):
Yeah, what is it?
Speaker 3 (31:26):
What the w's seventeen?
Speaker 2 (31:28):
But eighteen a good one, Jeff, Here's what I wanted
to ask you. Having listened to Laura o' carnall and whatnot,
we talked about the drills we didn't have to do,
and includes the one like what's it like being in
school these days? Like how much time do they spend
saying here's how you survive a shooting.
Speaker 5 (31:44):
Yeah, so they don't. They don't like spend a lot
of time doing it. It's kind of just it's become
more of, like, I guess, an integrated part of the
things that we do do for do do okay, come
on dad? For like emergency response things. So at the
beginning of the year, in our kind of homeroom classes,
we always have to watch a video that was filmed
(32:05):
in Legend and Parker. That's kind of like going over
this thing called the Standard Response Protocol or SRP, which
is like kind of a set of five kind of
like things that are supposed to be like so standardized
anyone can like kind of remember them and understand them. So, uh,
there's a hold, which is like something's happening in the building,
(32:27):
but it's like I don't know, a medical emergency or something.
So students are supposed to stay in their.
Speaker 3 (32:32):
Classroom and they signal hold, like they scream out hold.
Speaker 4 (32:35):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (32:35):
They go on the you know, like the loud speakers
and say, yeah, oh there's a hold, So just keep
your you know, kids in the classroom, okay, time bearing, Okay.
So there's a hold, and then there's a secure where
something is happening outside. Let's say, like I think at
my elementary school one time we had a secure where
a mountain lion was just prowling around in the neighborhood outside.
(32:57):
So that's kind of normally what it's for. Then there
is fire, which is a normal fire emergency shelter where
you know, you do your normal shelter in place things.
And then there's a lockdown, which is for if there's uh,
you know kind of like urgent emergency inside of the building.
That's the one that I don't think a lot of
people really know unless they are kind of in my generation,
(33:21):
grow up in this time of a lot of you know,
like active shootings and things like that, where us students
have to practice going into kind of like a corner
against a wall that's like the least visible from the
hallways outside. But stop right there.
Speaker 2 (33:37):
Because I remember this from when you were in middle
school at Rocky Heights Middle School, which is a great
middle school. You describing this as like I think I asked,
what do you guys do in your early you know,
science class, And you're like you're describing this, and I'm like,
my god, man, how does that affect the little kid's
brain that they're telling you, Hey, we're gonna have you
go hunker down in some places not visible from the
door window, and we're gonna play dead there.
Speaker 4 (33:58):
But I mean, what the hell?
Speaker 5 (34:00):
Yeah, I don't know. I mean, it's like I guess
now it's kind of a fact of life that we
have to deal with as students and as kids in
kind of this like you know, time and age. But
there's a yeah, it's kind of just become like a
norm I mean, I've been doing that for my last
thirteen years of education, so I mean it's like certainly
(34:21):
changed in some ways. Like my freshman year, when the
fire alarm was pulled, we'd have to go into lockdown
before they would tell us that it's safe to like
exit the building because apparently, in like one circumstance somewhere
an active shooter pulled a fire alarm and people like
ran out of the class.
Speaker 2 (34:39):
Think about things like that, like here's once you focused
on reading, writing, arithmetic, and are you thinking about my gosh, man,
this is what I have to do if some other
student or person comes in and tries to kill me
and my fellow student.
Speaker 5 (34:51):
I mean, I don't think about it all the time,
and I'm fairly certain most of my friends and classmates
don't either. But it's, you know, it's kind of just
a thing that we have to deal with now, and
it does come up every quarter or at the being
of the year, and it really does, you know, make
you think about what's happening.
Speaker 2 (35:08):
Please, buddy, we're going to talk more about this after
the top of the hour.
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