This one went a bit long. We catch ups with KG and the surging Minnesota Wild. KG provides a hotel review. We apologize to theHM class of 87 and connect again with recently retired St. Paul Police Sergeant, Mike McGinn. Pack a lunch for this one.
This one went a bit long. We catch ups with KG and the surging Minnesota Wild. KG provides a hotel review. We apologize to theHM class of 87 and connect again with recently retired St. Paul Police Sergeant, Mike McGinn. Pack a lunch for this one.
welcome to the Kindness Chronicles, where we hope to inject the world with a dose of the Minnesota nice that it desperately needs. So today, we are having a back by popular demand event. I have to, uh, start out with an official apology. To the Hillmurray class of 1987. Oh yeah. Those of you that listen, I understand that you're probably sick of us talking about Hillmurray and Mata Midi. A lot of Hillmurray. a little bit more of that today. I just sensed a big eye roll from a lot of viewers. We made a comment at the last deal that We had people from the class 88, class 86, we're all very old people, and there really wasn't anybody worthy to talk to in the class 87. Which is totally false. I, I made a false statement that they were known as being unkind. Unkind, bad. Just throwing it out there. Steve said that, I didn't. I thought of Nick Guzzle right away too, like, oops. Yeah, Nick Guzzle. I mean, there ain't a better guy than Nick Guzzle. Yeah. Oops, oh well. Yeah, we, we met, uh, on Monday, a group of us from the class 86 and they were rattling off people from 87 that were good people. So we're going to have an ode to the class 87 sometime in the first quarter of 2024. They'll get their retribution, but they better be kind for God's sake. They better be kind. They better have some good kind stories. You know what? Some of them haven't been very kind since, uh, the response has been less than kind. They're proving it. They have to prove us wrong. So KG, we got KG on the horn. All right. Where are we calling you at? I'm in beautiful Vancouver, uh, my favorite city, uh, north of the border. It's, uh, you know, we're a couple hours behind, so the sun is just setting over Vancouver Bay. And, uh, it's, uh, for once it's happy times in the Minnesota wild. It feels like the last couple times we did the pod. Uh, it was negative, uh, thoughts, negative feelings, tough times. And it did suck that Dean Everson, uh, lost his job because he was one of the good ones for sure. But, uh, it's fun to see the guys playing well. Well, I, I just need to say before we even get into any of that, KG, we haven't talked to you for a long time. You were, over the pond, you were in Sweden, right? We want to hear a little bit of that too. You've been all over the place. first time to Europe. And I will say that Sweden was beautiful. Uh, the people are beautiful. It was cool. Everything was fun. The only thing I can complain about is, you know, it's my own doing. I'm a mental midget. I'm a, you know, middle aged man in my mid fifties that gets up once in a while overnight to use the bathroom and I couldn't fall back asleep with the time change, seven hours ahead. And I just, every time I got up, that was it. I was up for good and that was tough to adjust to. But I thought you were going to say the food was great. How was the food? Yeah, I thought it was a food complaint. Food was awesome. I had authentic Swedish meatballs the first night with this potato puree and this beautiful gravy, honest to God. It was life changing. It was so damn good. Did, were you sweating after, uh, after the meal? I gotta say I was sweating during the procession because I was so excited about the dish, like there was seven of us at this table. So who were you there with? Paint a picture for us. Uh, Ryan Carter, uh, Michael Russo, Anthony LaPanta, John Stroh, who's our long time, uh, producer of, of wild hockey, and the nephew of Father Malone. Oh! And then his, his, um, daughter dates a professional bandy player that plays in Sweden, so that kid came with. What's bandy? And, so we sat there, and of course LaPanta did not get the Swedish meatballs. He's above that. He got something, some fancy veal dish, but, uh, five of us got the Swedish meatballs and we were just. So he ate a baby cow. You know how cute veal are? You ever seen the South Park episode? When they go to the veal farm and there are these beautiful doughy eyed, uh, Yeah, it was terrible. Just by the way, we're going to be visiting with our friend Mike McGinn here. I was going to call him, uh, Ossifer McGinn, but he was Sergeant McGinn, I think, upon retirement. Is that accurate? Yeah. But, uh, we had a number of people reach out and say you gotta let McGinn talk some more, he's got some good stories to tell. But, uh, the, the Sweden trip was a good one. Yeah. And since you've been back in the, uh, the States and Coach Evanson was, let go, the Wild are 4 0, and, uh, it's gotta be much more enjoyable to be winning What a shift. Everybody's happier, right? I mean, all the jobs surrounding the team, including the guys like us that do the media coverage, it's just a more enjoyable time when the guys are having fun, they're smiling again. You know, they're paid to play to a high level, they're paid to win games, and when they don't, they're Not a very happy bunch of humans. They take it serious and you know, so that week and a half leading up to Dean's last game in Detroit a week ago, Sunday, they were all frustrated. They were all trying. They were all, you know, kind of out of answers with what was going along with the hockey team. And now you get into four game, one streak and everything just changes. It's like you flip a switch. They look like a completely different hockey team. They're happy right now. Uh, they're flourishing. We'll see if it could continue. It's certainly a small sample size, but you know, they've always had it within them to be. Better than they were they had they had just gone to a bad place and lost a lot of confidence So yeah, it's a lot more fun right now for sure guys. What are the new guys on the team like some of the rookies? Well, you know Marco Rossi. He's been up and down years old. Does he really but he's a good kid like him and Brock Faber both are the kind of guys that you get excited about when you look at the future of his team because They work their butts off. They're they're not one bit cocky And they just love to play the game of hockey. You know, they're the kind of guys you dream of having in your system because they're never going to be an issue. You can move them all over the lineup. They'll play with whoever you want them to play with. Uh, they'll go out there. They'll, they'll play a checking role. They'll shut down guys. They can go out there and provide offense on a power play. They can do it all. And they're just like sponges. They're just there to get better and learn. And so, yeah, I think that the organization looking forward to, you know, a year and a half from now when the Souter and Parisi contracts come off the books and they've got some really good young talent and it starts with Brock Faber and Marco Rossi. What would you say is like the median age right now, like just as a general, I'm just curious how old these guys are? Well, it's funny you ask that because last night we, we had a graphic on our broadcast. Kind of celebrating 600 points for Matt Zuccarello, who's 36 years old and he's on pace this year to put up near 100 points and numbers like that don't happen for guys that are 36 years old. You just don't see a lot of players that age in this league anymore. So, you know, he's on the, him and Marc Andre Fleury, who's 39, are on the high end, but a bulk of this roster, you look at Conor Dewar, Brandon Duhaime, Rossi, Faber, Kaprizov, Boldy, um, all, you know, all young players in their early twenties to mid twenties. So, you know, look at the superstars on this roster. And I mentioned Boldy and Kaprizov. Rossi has that potential. Faber has that potential. You know, a core of young guys that they're going to build around. And then you look at the goalie, Gustafson, who's 24. And you look at the goalie down in Iowa, Jesper Walstad, uh, who's 21 years old. And he's supposed to be just a stud. He is. He's a first round draft pick. And right now he's the best goalie in the American Hockey League. And so, yeah, I think next year he'll be here full time and he'll be a mainstay. He looks like the real deal. Very fun. So, in our pre production meeting, you know, because we spend many hours preparing for this. Oh my god, that was a long meeting, too. Um, you'd mentioned that the hotel that you're staying at in Vancouver is one of your favorites. Um, while this isn't the Travel Channel, why don't you tell us a little bit about that hotel. So, you know, obviously when you travel with a professional hockey team, you stay in hotels, you're probably not going to stay at, when you're on your own dime. I'm going to speak for yourself. Well, you're a fancy boy. This is the Fairmont Pacific Rim, and it sits on Vancouver Bay, and it's one of those hotels where you walk in and they've got that fancy aroma, they've got this beautiful piano bar, and you know, it's got the Rooftop Spa, where it's got the uh, the Nordic Spa, where you can go indoors, outdoors, you got saunas, you got this beautiful, beautiful, uh, outdoor like bar area. It's, it's a really cool place. The rooms are gigantic. Uh, including the bathrooms. It's just one of those hotels where it just feels like you're in the movies and so, you know, we only come to Vancouver once or twice a year, depending on the schedule every year rotates and it's such a cool walking city. The hotel is amazing. So, between this and New York, those are my 2 favorite stops and you wish you came here more. It's that kind of spot. You going to take a spa while you're there? Are we going to see you walking around in your robe and slippers or anything like that? No, no, I know the bulk of the players did the Nordic Spa thing today. Oh, really? I don't de robe anywhere near the hockey team. Probably, probably a good idea. Yeah, I'm guessing that taking your shirt off in front of those guys might be, uh You can't imagine It wouldn't be the Can't imagine KG's walking around with his With his robe, with a couple Swedish meatballs in the pocket, just cruising around the hallways and checking out the beautiful hotel in Vancouver. Yes, that's a good look. Thank you for that visual. Yeah. Yeah, I don't think anybody wants to be part of that. So KG, now that we've, uh, we've, we've spent ten minutes on, uh, sports with KG, we're gonna go to news and weather next. Weather on the nines. Um, no, we've got, uh, We've got, uh, the, the retired Sergeant Mike McGinn, and, uh, a number of guests, a return guest because a number of people, including my sister, reached out and she's like, you gotta get Mike McGinn back on. He sounds like one hell of a storyteller. And I don't want this to turn into the Sadness Chronicles, but yesterday, Tommy Lyons, who was a classmate of, uh, of ours at Hill Murray, he was at a, uh, at a function with our friend Marty Rathmanner, who was a former guest, and he sent me a picture. of a news article about, um, Ronnie Ryan and Tim Jones when those two police officers were killed in the line of duty. Was that like 93? 92, 93, somewhere around that time. And you weren't a police officer at the time. No. But you were very close to the police department because your dad was, uh, was he a master commander? Commander. Commander, whatever they call him, you know. Do you recall that? I wasn't living in the Twin Cities when that happened. But, you know, Ronnie Ryan, just, you know, he was, again, this is not the Hillmary Chronicles, I apologize, but he was the kind of guy that you all, we all aspired to be like. All American guy. All American guy. Year class or older? He was a year older. Yeah, okay, that's right. He was a year older, but Just couldn't have been a nicer guy and the fact that, you know, his dad was a police officer and The fact that you know, he's a guy that could have done anything. He could have made a fortune selling something I mean he was just that kind of a personality and he decided he wanted to serve the community by being a police officer and As I understand it he was in the parking lot, checking on a car at Sacred Heart Church, and this guy shot him. yeah, I was living, I was living in Mounds Park at the time. Oh, so right there. Still working for the city. And, uh, I, I went into work, and we could hear, when I was leaving for work, you could hear sirens, sirens and all this kind of stuff. And we were like, something's going on. You don't know what it is, and you get into work, and one of the truck drivers came in and said, Yeah. A cop got shot and, uh, you know, they said he was a kid of a cop. Well, there's, there's several, especially at that time in St. Paul, there were several. And then when I found out it was Ronnie, that was just devastating because Ronnie was somebody that, um, I felt close to him, but Ronnie was the kind of guy who would make. You know, everybody felt close to him. Everybody felt close to Ronnie. He was just, he had that personality and just, I mean, his whole family is that way. Yeah. I mean, I mean, last show I was on, we were talking about just amazing families. The Ryans are Speaking of the class 87, me or Ryan, 87, there's an example. That's a good one. Fine. But, uh, Friends with Carla Jones, who was fantastic. Yep. And then, and then, uh, so anyway, uh, Ron senior, uh, he came on the police department with my father. Oh, no kidding. And so they were, they were in the same academy class. So I grew up knowing who Ron was and Ron was working. He had worked through high school and St. Paul parks and recreation. And so our, our paths crossed quite a bit. And then later on that day, uh, St. Paul lost another officer, Tim Jones. And, um, and his dog. Yeah, his dog. Laser. Yep. Laser. How do I remember that? I don't know. Well, that, that's a, that was, that was a huge trauma for the city of St. Paul. And now, uh, um, Tim's son is on, uh, St. Paul pd. Oh, is he really? Yep. I don't think his mom was too happy about it, but, uh, um, he's, he does. He's a good officer, he does a hell of a good job. For people who didn't go to Hill Murray, I'm trying to, you know, think for them and if they haven't, you know, you gotta imagine, Ron Ryan, I didn't really know him, he's obviously older than me, but this guy was, um, all American guy, you could tell he was a nice guy. Yeah, he was like homecoming king kind of guy. He reminded me, as Time's gone on. When I see Channing Tatum. Totally. I think of Ron Ryan. Ron Ryan's actually better looking than Channing Tatum. He was a big guy like that. That's high praise. That is high praise. Well, I don't know. I don't know. Ron was a good looking guy, but Channing, come on. Let's, let's be serious. I'm just saying, just take a picture of him. He was just a good looking, super good guy. Right. Incredibly sad. But he also had kind of a Ryan Reynolds personality. I mean, he, he could make, make you smile and make you laugh. He, he was just great. I mean, I'm, I don't know if you remember like the lobster family. Oh God, that. I mean, just, just as really weird, weird quirky stuff that they would come up with and they just. Mike Duranic, was that one of the guys? Mike Duranic, uh, uh. Was Katie Regan part of that group? Some kind of bit they had going? It was just a thing. Talent show thing? Well, I mean. Yeah. Like, but they were just, it was endearing. It was just very odd. It was almost like an inside joke that they really love to share with everybody. And again, now, not to knock 87, class 85. They, they had some just tremendous, 85, 84, they had some tremendous people in there. And so did 87. They did. Let's, let's not go there did. Sounds like they were a little late. That's all I'm trying to say. Well, and on Monday, we were talking, we were talking about that and uh, um, Tim O'Brien. Class 87. Class 87. We kind of, we kind of owe these get togethers to him. Because he puts up with us. He doesn't throw us out of the restaurant. Tim O'Brien, by the way, owns the Green Mill, kind of in that Woodbury Eastside area over by Merritt Chevrolet. Great chow. Always great service. Green Mill. Yeah, future sponsor, future sponsors, Green Mill, whoever, if we ever asked for sponsors, I'm sure he'd be happy to. Yeah. So with, with Ron, it was, yeah, that was a very horrible, tragic day. And in my career, I've been to several funerals for, uh, police officers and, uh, cause in, in the Twin Cities metro area, we went through an. It was a period where it was happening way too often. Oh yeah. And uh, everyone is just the most tragic story. Um, but um, Ron and uh, Ron's funeral and Tim Jones funeral are, They're the ones that stick out to me the most because it was huge. I mean, it was, uh, What was national news? It was national news. I mean, for St. Paul to lose two was, you know, that was horribly tragic. And, but huge news. But then they're doing those two funerals back to back. And I remember the procession. And it was just the whole way to the cemetery from the church to the cemetery, it seemed like it was 12 people deep and just people in tears. Yeah, I was in Wilmington. I lived in Wilmington, North Carolina at the time, and it was a, you know, breaking news story, which is kind of crazy because now when there's a police shooting, like they're For this, uh, for this police shooting and they said these St. Paul cops and I'm like, well, I know like three St. Paul cops and then they put the picture of them up there. I'm like, Oh my God, what are the chances? KG, do you remember when that happened? I do. Yeah. Because of my friendship with Dan Baudette, Billy's brother. Um, you know, I, I had a bunch of conversations about that at the time and just to, it was, it hit so close to home because. You know, we, we went to college with a bunch of guys that are on the force. We know a bunch of the guys. It's just, it was a, it was a tough deal. Not to, this is a terrible non sequitur, but I got to bring it up before I forget cause I'm not on Prevagen yet. So my, my, my mental capacity needs, if I have another future, another future sponsor. I, I have to mention this. I'm sad we know what that is. I don't even know what that is either. He'll tell us. I know what it is. He can't remember what it is. It's something to do with memory, right? It's supposed to help you with your memory. Okay. Anyways, KG, um, ran into a man named Ted Bolio. Do you remember that name? I do. And you must, you coached like a couple of his kids he mentioned. Ed Moundsview, that's absolutely correct. Ed Moundsview, you know, he must be a listener to the podcast because he knew that I knew you. Um, you know. Oh wow. Who's not, of course. Yeah. Um, but yeah. Good luck finding those people. Cause I think you played against him once upon a time, didn't ya? Way back in the day. And that's what made it such a small world. I ended up coaching his kid. And who won that big championship game? Do you recall? I think Burnsville. That's right. It was Burnsville. And who's the goalie on that team? Stop it. Number 21. Oh, yeah. That's the one. It always goes back. So we gotta, we gotta work. So, back to Mike. I just, thank you for, for letting me throw that in there. Um, have you seen the movie or the, the, the documentary? The, uh, the fall of Minneapolis. No. Have you seen it, Mike? I, I've seen parts of it. Okay. I don't want to, you know, put you in a corner. Are you talking Tom Lydon's piece? No, no. This is the one that was done by Alpha News. Regarding the, the George Floyd, uh, incident. No, no. Well, Tom Lydon did a piece. Okay. And, um, which. I thought was very well done and, uh, um, very powerful, but the one, the one that you're talking about, um, I don't believe I've seen it. So people wanted me to ask you, this is, uh, you know, this is all the feedback you're getting. Caller questions. Yeah. The, the, the nights after the, the, the George Floyd incident, were you on patrol? Were you part of the group that was wearing the, the, the gear? On the Ford Bridge, you know, keeping people from, do you remember? Yeah. Down by Town and Country Club? Yeah. Town and Country, yeah. Um. again, incredibly rough times. Um, seeing, I mean, for me, I grew up in St. Paul and seeing your city torn apart by, you know, I understand the rage. Uh, I think a lot of it was some misplaced stuff. I also felt that there was a lot of people that took advantage of the situation just to cause mayhem. And, um, and so many people that aren't even from here were just kind of streaming in. Um, the night with, on the Ford bridge, um, I was there, um, with, we were all geared up and, um, but I was not front lines for that. Um, I was assigned to head up a, uh, a secondary team. To handle, uh, uh, arrests and bookings. And so, I mean, I got put into kind of an administrative role for that. Okay. And, and I, and I can say at first I was a little disappointed because it's just like, I want to be a part of. Um, you know, being a part of this thing because I think every, I mean, even for a lot of the police officers, you're kind of confused about everything that's going on and how to feel about it. And I mean, I mentioned before when I first saw the video of George Floyd, um, just being heartbroken, sickened and, and. Understanding. Sort of like blowing up all of the goodwill that you had been working on. Yeah, yeah. I mean, we had just gone through this with, uh, at least for the St. Paul area with Philando Castile. Yeah. And, and again, another one that's really, for people in law enforcement, for most of us, pretty hard to wrap your head around is to, okay, how do we process this? And, uh, Um, and, and there's, there's a whole mess of emotions that go with it. Um, some officers are just like, we, they did nothing wrong and they did it by the book or whatever. And there's other officers that look at it and they say, no, this should have been done and this should have been done. Everybody it's like with the public, even within law enforcement communities, everybody had an opinion about what should have happened in both of those incidences. Yeah. And, but the tragic thing is people. People died, right? And so now we're processing. And with George Floyd, the world was a powder keg. I mean, it was, it was, it was just what is going to set it off. So along those lines, and again, this is a question that came from one of our listeners. There had to have been moments of Of kindness, moments of, of joy that you experienced from people that were super supportive of the police department. Do you have any examples of, of things like that? An example is, uh, my son Jack lived in a house about two blocks. from the Ford Bridge. I mean he was a St. Thomas student and of course not knowing what it was actually like down there. You're freaked out because you're thinking like this mob of people is gonna come across the bridge and burn the city down. You just don't know. And as a hypochondriac like I am and you know I amplify everything in my brain I wanted to drive down there and, and pick them up and bring them out to the suburbs. But they're boarding up the Target in North St. Paul because these crazies from Chicago are coming to burn down. They were doing that in Cottage Grove as well. They were, they were putting out, there were cops at the, uh, the high school and we're like, what is going on? It was high alert. Every pharmacy, every auto parts store, they were all targeted. Yeah. And again, I'm not. Pervy to what that was all about. I mean, a lot of it was, they're just going in there and raiding drugs and, and you can't tell me it comes from the social unrest of, that's just opportunists, chaotic to me, it's opportunists. So, I mean, you have people who are truly. They're devastated by, by George Floyd's death and are expressing their outrage. And then there's opportunists that are taking advantage of it on top of it. And so to try and get to a point where, when we can finally sit back, you know, catch a breath, take a step back and say, okay, this happened. How do we move forward? How do we fix this? When you have the opportunists in there that are just there to. Take advantage. Well, to hurt. Yeah. And, I mean, and not just hurt people, but also hurt a community, then it makes it tough because then all of a sudden movements get labeled as, uh, like social terrorism or something like that. And it's just like, they're. I believe there was some of that, but that's not what it all is. Well, and I think that it's analogous to the shit that went on on January 6th. You know, there were some people that were there because they wanted to protest, and it was a peaceful thing. And you had some people that were there that were bad actors, and there's all kinds of conspiracy theories about that. But let's get to the other side of this coin and talk about Some of the nice things that that that were the result of this sort of civil unrest. I would say somewhat positive things I remember being After the Ford Bridge, when things had started to calm down, but it was still, you were still seeing raids on, uh, pharmacies and other locations like that, I remember we, we were all packed into, vans, and we're doing group patrols in targeted areas. And I remember being down on the West side of St. Paul, a very strong, uh, uh, Hispanic community down there. And it was, um, uh, restaurant El Burrito Mercado. Oh yeah. I mean, it's, it's. Awesome. It's a staple in that community and there were all these guys standing outside with automatic weapons surrounding this building. Protecting it. Protecting it. And we pulled up and we get out and talk to them and it was just like, you know, Hey, how's everything going? You know, you got a guy who's got an AR 15 or something like that and you're standing talking to him and it doesn't look normal, but nothing was normal at that time. And in some of these guys probably have. Um, some criminal records or they have probably weren't really entitled to the gun that they were possessing. And that wasn't the time to ask that question, but I mean, they maybe had some blemishes with on their record, but at that time it didn't matter because you knew what was going on. It was the one guy I talked to, he goes, are we okay? And I'm like. Yeah, man, just take care of yourselves, be safe, watch each other's backs, and don't, don't do anything stupid. And just keep They're just a deterrent, really, is all they're doing, right? They're just being a deterrent. They're making sure that this business, which is so important to that community, nobody messes with it. But isn't that just the perfect That's wild. That is the perfect description of what the community needed at that point in time. You needed people that cared about their community. cared about the resources and the assets in the community that were willing to step up and protect those things that were important to them. And also remember the, the background of all this is there's a pandemic going on. So that was, there was. Extra attention just with every person at home or, you know, our lives were already upside down to begin with. So now this was, that summer was weird. Steve, would you, could you, would you consider calling it the perfectly terrible year? I would call it that, yes. Yes, so just those of you that aren't aware, the, uh, the, the, the music. That we have at the beginning of our podcast as part of a, uh, a song that Johnny Clueless, or was it just Steve Brown that did it? It was, it was me and my guitar player that, that ended up recording it, but it was my song I wrote and it was called perfectly terrible year. It's quite a lovely song. Maybe we'll. You know what? Maybe I'll attach that song. Can I do that or are there copyright? Or am I gonna owe you something? You'll pay. You'll pay paid for it. Pay through the gnomes for that. No. Yeah, yeah. No. It was a perfectly terrible year. Yep. It was. It was an awful year. It continued into the next year, actually, but yeah. Well, I'm not sure we're out of it completely yet. No, we're, yeah, we're not quite out of it yet, I don't think. K kg, you're in Canada. What, is it different in Canada? Is there a different vibe up there? Cause I feel like, if you, the closer you get to the country's tallest buildings, like when I'm in a metro area, I'm just not as comfortable as I used to be. I was in downtown St. Paul today, and I parked in the ramp that's right next to the Intercontinental Hotel. Sure. It was so Shockingly disgusting. Garbage everywhere. I'm like, what the hell has happened to St. Paul? That's, that's a capital city. That's the one. Yeah, it's a capital city ramp, and um, that one's not really directly attached to a building. No, but it's And it's, it's very open, and in that area, um, because the light rail run Right. The green line runs just a block away from that, that Homeless, a lot, a lot of homeless, a lot of, uh, narcotics usage and the, so my last, my last few years I was a sergeant in the downtown beat. So this was, this is a ramp that I'm very familiar with. And, and unfortunately, I mean, the owners are trying to do their best, but you know, you can only get one person to staff it. And what are they going to do? Get out of there. Go get, go confront 20 people. Not safe for them. No, it's, it's very much not safe. And so, yeah, that ramp is really tough. The intercontinental ramp. The one that's directly attached to it, that one doesn't have the problems because it's attached to the building and they have their hotel staff. It was, it was shockingly awful. So along those lines, since you know, you had the downtown beat, you know, tell us about the homelessness problem because, and you know, how are we As people that are, you know, privileged to, to, what do they call it? Uh, it's not homeless anymore. The unhoused. Unhoused. Unhoused. Unsheltered. Um. What, what, what's it like interacting with those folks? Um, for the most part, the one, there's a whole bunch of different categories in there. There's some people that, um, they're in the tents because their shelter situations had fallen through. Okay. And that's what they had. There's other people that, um And there's tons of teams, both St. Paul and Minneapolis do a great job. Um, having like housing coordinators and when we were breaking up some of those little tent encampments. Tent cities, yep. They would, they would go in and people, both in St. Paul and Minneapolis, I think the misconception was the police were going in and were just yanking people out of tents and throwing, you know, throwing their stuff away. That is not at all what happened. When police were involved, we were just more standing by because this was. the city. Um, the locations that most of them were on were parks. And so it was actually fell under parks and recreation. Okay. And so we're standing by. Well, public works crews, parks and recreation crews come in. We put out Before that, we would put out notifications, I mean, we would actually go through these encampment areas and put out notifications, Hey, this is going to be cleared. You have, you know, three, four days. If you have questions, if you need different housing accommodations, these are people that you can talk to. The city was very slow and methodical. As far as removing people. And, uh, When you say slow and methodical, that's a good thing. They were, they were careful about it. Kind of give good warning. Trying to do it with dignity and Warning one, warning two, warning three. And dignity, I think, is, that's what we were striving for. Because, I mean, can you imagine what an undignified feeling it must be to be in that situation? I mean Yeah. I mean, where do you, it's pretty low. Yeah. Where do you go to the toilet? My God. Yeah. Well, well, and that's where, I mean, the city was actually with good intentions putting a port a potties in kind of those larger communities, but then that's drawing people in, which isn't what you want to do. But then people are using drugs in the port a potties or they're using it as a means to transport where they can't be. If, if we do have any kind of surveillance on. Uh, group, they're, they're smart enough to hide it. So there's, there was a lot of mental illness, a lot of Uh, addiction issues and you wouldn't find somebody who just like, Oh, you know, I, I, I lost my life savings and I'm just down on my, down on my luck and I'll, I'll buck up and find a way through this and I just got to get a job that doesn't exist. That's not out there. Yeah. I would say the majority there's. Pronounce mental illness and then there's pronounced addiction issues. Oh, in the end. So what is a police, as a police officer, what is your mandate? When you see, for example, the other day I was driving to St. Paul, actually I was going to. I was going to Assumption Church for Sunday Mass. And already in the morning there was a guy who was standing up on the corner of like Marion and Kellogg, that kind of, that intersection there by the old Sears. Yep. And this person was so obviously messed up, like, It was shocking. As a police officer, do you take those people into custody? Do you let them just be One, number one, what would I take them into custody? I don't know. That's what I mean, just out of concern. So, number one, what we have to look at, has a law been broken? And if they haven't committed a crime, you know, if they're just wandering around and they're talking to themselves, maybe having a very animated argument with themselves, that's not against the law. No, but in this, in the spirit of to protect and serve, isn't this to like protect? But then where do you take them? I don't know. That's the question. What we, what we're running into or what, what police departments, cities are running into and especially cities. The, the options are super limited and the, the two main options you have are number one jail and number two, uh, hospitals. And the jails are full and the hospitals are full. Jails are full. Hospitals are full. Hospitals need their beds and beds are at a premium right now. Jails, we can't house people for petty things. And so, so if you're the mayor of St. Paul, and you had access to a hundred million dollars, not enough. Okay. How much do you need a billion dollars? There almost needs to be a complete cultural shift. Okay. So what would you do if you were the all powerful? Magoo. McGinn. I would. Well, okay. Do you remember when we used to do calisthenics and we would say ready McGinn and you'd get all mad? Instead of ready begin, we'd go ready McGinn and you'd get all pissed off. Was that you leading that, I'm sure? Yes. Why would I get mad at that? Ready McGinn. I probably said it, McGinn, let's go. Well, that's because you weren't as smart as you are now. No, my, oh, believe me, my ego was well injected out of there. Um. Yeah. So how would you fix St. Paul? So I guess one of the things in this, just my own personal beliefs is, um, we are overlooking what to do with mental health and addictions. Yeah. And so, uh, you know, former Dorothy day, higher ground, they built this big facility and. It's like, I remember them saying, you know, we'll be able to service three times the amount of people great, but there's more than three times the amount of people out there. So it kind of becomes this like a homing beacon where people are coming into there. Some people are looking for it, but it's, they also know it's a place where they can go for food. It's a place that they can go for clothing or something like that, but it also brings in predators. And so like right around Assumption Church, right? You have people, they don't really care about any of the services being offered at Higher Ground. They're more interested in who can I sell my product to? Oh. Or how can I get money from these people? Who don't have any money. Who don't, who don't have any money. So then you get into things like human trafficking and there, it just, there's this huge snowball, uh, you know, I, I guess what, what I would have liked to have seen, like, um, we just had a huge bump budget surplus in the state of Minnesota, 19 billion. Where did that go? And I think everybody, um. Within a certain, under a certain income level, they're getting like a check back for 200. Oh, that'll go a long way. Or whatever it is. I, I, I don't know what people are getting back and it, I think it's based on, um, and, and I didn't, I, I would not put in for it because we've already been through that before under the Ventura administration when he, there was a surplus then and he gave money back. Jesse checks. Yeah. Yeah. And, and, and then. Like, with most people who have taken Economics 101, there's ebb and flows in the economy, and then all of a sudden we go into a recession and now the state's in debt, and there's furloughs in this, with employees with the state of Minnesota. Um, you know, we, there was no rainy day fun and people are pounding the, give it back to the taxpayers. It belongs to the taxpayers. Yes. It belongs to the taxpayers. But we also in this, in the state of Minnesota, we pay taxes with an expectation of a quality of life. And that's where I think we're kind of missing something. And so for the governor or the, the legislatures who are out there, you know, let's give it back. Yeah. It sounds good. And it might get you some votes. Yeah. That's what. What? What are the needs in? Minnesota. I mean, obviously we have infrastructure things. We have roads. We have bridges. We've got to take care of that stuff. Um, you know, 35E bridge collapse was a big deal and that opened up a lot of people's eyes. But right now we're able to take kind of our, our underserved, our forgotten, and we just kind of want to push them away so we don't have to see them. And, but if you go to a wild game, Oh, they're there there. I mean, you're people that park over by St. Joe's. Yeah, you're, you know, you think, Hey, there's this big parking ramp here in this hospital that's not open. And, uh, since we haven't heard from KG for a while, KG is a, as a guy who spends a little bit of time at the XL Energy Center. What has your experience been like when it comes to, you know, people that are struggling? You know, game nights are different down there because you've got so many people coming to the game, right? You've got 18, 19, 000 people coming to the game. So you, you're not really exposed to that segment of the population because the time of the game is normally at night. And they blend in more than I feel so bad like they're at the exits when you come off the, uh, the, the freeway to get to the rink. There's always someone at the exit there that's looking for, for money and stuff. And you feel so bad about, you know, why they're in that situation. You see the tents somewhere usually around the exits there off 35 E, uh, when you get off on Kellogg, um, game nights are different because when you come and go on game nights. It's it's all the people that are coming in from the suburbs right to come to the wild game So you don't see as much around the rink It's more around the exits and then the tents around the city and and I always you know again I feel that especially in Minnesota where it's so damn cold and we haven't got to the bad weather yet We're about to get there here later this month. So you always just you have a lot of guilt. I do anyway And, you don't know how to fix the situation and I know, uh, you know, they've got different areas down there, especially at night where people can go stay, but it still makes you feel bad. KG, I was happy that you brought up the, uh, the, the, the weather forecast because I did promise that earlier in the show that we're going to get to, uh, the news and weather. Yeah, on the nines. We're past that. So apparently we've got a, uh, Calcutta Clipper coming in at the end of the month. Remember the Calcutta Clipper? Denny Green. Get Denny Green. He'd talk about the Calcutta Clipper. They were going to Buffalo. He was talking about the Clipper. Where would he get that from? The weather front comes in, the weather front goes out. Yeah, he was breaking it all down in a football press conference. Wouldn't that be warm? Yeah, exactly. You'd think a Calcutta Clipper would be very warm, but he says it sweeps up, sweeps down, lake effect, and it's out. And it was, God, that's just a classic. A weatherman. That's a classic. soundbite. It really is. It's his second best one because the meltdown, uh, later in his career when he was coaching Arizona, they blew that three touchdown lead in the second half against the bears and he got on the podium and said, the bears are what we want. You didn't think that through. Yeah, that did. But nothing will compare to the, uh, the uncle, uh, uh, Coach Bernsie. Coach Bernsie with the F bombs and Schnellker. Schnellker. He's out there. And they F ing boo him. They put his picture up on the screen and the Effers Boom! He was a character. And who was it? Uh, uh, Fenny, you know, if he would have picked up his feet, God, it's just classic. Okay. One last question. I just looked at him like, oh my God, we've been on for 45 minutes. Um, we have a shortage of police officers. Big time. Um, As a, you know, I, in this, uh, documentary I was referring to, they talked about how Minneapolis has gone from, say, 850 cops to something like 520. How, how can, how can that be and what can be done? I've had so many people come up to me and say, you know, one, you get told all the time, you know, thank you for your service. Thank you for what you do. That's nice. Yeah. It is. After a while. Yeah. I don't know. For me, it just kind of, it's like saying hello. But, um, I'll never say that to you again. Well, no, I appreciate when people do it cause they do it with good intentions, but you hear it so much and it's like, oh, thank you for your service. And yeah, what does that mean? It's what I get paid for. So, you know, you're welcome for. Doing my job. And, um, but I think one of the hard things is then they say, I could never do your job. That's the problem. Because if you think you can't do this job, then what is that saying? And if you get so many people saying, I would never want to do your job, well, okay, I mean people say that about teachers and they say it about police officers, right? There's all these other careers out there, but nobody wants to do the job. And we gotta, we gotta find a way where just like this sense of responsibility, uh, you know, get out there and do it. So for me, I, I grew up in a peace police family, but I had no intention of being a police officer. Right. Or you would have been one right away. Yeah, exactly. I would have gone for it, you know, followed the, you know, go all blue bloods or something like that. But, uh. Um, I didn't want to do that because I. Didn't like the profession. I, I saw it because with, with anything it has its problems. I mean, there's, I, I saw, you know, families falling apart. Uh, I mean, the stresses of the job and the way it was dealt with kind of back through the seventies and the eighties. You know, we're, we're going to drink and eat sticks of butter and have heart attacks and we're going to, we're going to cheat on our spouses and we're going to, you know, we're going to work these horrible shifts and never have any relationship with our kids. And I'm generalizing all this stuff, but that's what. It kind of was, and the big thing too, and I've talked about mental health just within the community, but just even mental health within the police department, again, the amount of addiction issues, especially alcohol that were prevalent in law enforcement and during that period that, but it was never dealt with and, you know, if all of a sudden, You go to a tragic or a tragic scene, you're just kind of, uh, you know, suck it up, kid. It's trauma and that's anxiety and all the things that are coming out of that are very damaging. And it's huge. And I'm, I'm, I'm super proud that As, as a, um, community, law enforcement community, they finally started, in my career, they started to recognize that stuff and take it seriously. That's good. And, you know, we, we started, you used to do these, um, annual physical exam, examinations PT testing and you had to pass physical. Standards and or at least you're supposed to pass physical standards, but, um, And so you work towards that, but then, well, what about your, your, your emotional psychological self? And so then wellness checkups became a part of it and, and where you would go sit down with a counselor. You didn't have to talk to them, but you had to go and sit down with somebody. And in, so it had nothing to do with anything that happened on the job, but I had some Personal thing. Maybe my oldest son diagnosed with cancer. Hang on for one second. KG? Yeah. You got a movie to get to, right? I'm, we're fine here. Okay, I just, I know that, I know that you want to go see The Abyss, which is a movie that came out 35 years ago, but whatever, you know, you can see that on Netflix. James Cameron, he's going to a fricking movie tonight in Vancouver that's been out for 35 years. 91 or something. I haven't seen it in 20 years. And it's a wonderful theater and the popcorn's good. I, I saw, I saw the Abyss on the big screen when it first came out. That is definitely a movie to see on the big screen. Yeah. And then you know what else? Yeah. Movie is out tonight for the 48th and a half anniversary. 48th and a half. I'm actually skipping it. So 75. Rocky Horror Picture Show? I don't know. Jaws? You're, you're, you're closer, but, uh, Monty Python and the Holy Grail. Oh, wow. So that's playing at AMC theaters. What time? We'll get you out of here. No, I won't. So anyways, I, I interrupted you. You were talking about your son who had the cancer. And I'm like, that's a perfect time to interrupt. That's a perfect time to cut that off. No, so it was You better edit that out. No, but So there were some things happening in my, my personal life where I had lost a couple very close friends to cancer. My son was diagnosed with cancer and I, I could feel myself, you know, becoming angry and I went out and I was on a counselor. Yeah. And it was one of the great, actually it was, the funny thing was I went there and started just kind of like, yeah, you know, I'm doing this, I'm doing this, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And she goes, okay, now that we're done talking about the BS, are you ready to talk about what you really came here to talk about? And it's like, Whoa, I really like you. You called it the way it needed to be. And at first I didn't know how this would go. And I was a little. You know, kind of went into it begrudgingly, but I felt it's what I need to do. So my experience gave me the courage to. Um, start telling other police officers, go find absolutely deal with it, deal with a psychologist, something before you need it because you will see things on this job that normally human beings are not supposed to see. And your brain is going to try and process it. And if you do that by yourself, you're going to wind up wrong category. Yeah, exactly. It'll start messing with you. And it can. And, you know, we, we, we've addressed things like police officers, you know, Causing, doing self harm. Oh yeah. And it's just like, no, we, we got to catch that stuff. So back to with the numbers question, I was hired under a program and, um, where they were looking, uh, City of St. Paul posted for a police officer position with the qualifications where you had to have a four year degree in anything. And life experience. That's it. And so I, there was a whole ton of people who probably would have thought, Well, geez, I didn't go to school for law enforcement. So, I, I, even though I might want to do it, I don't want to go back for two years to get a law enforcement degree. So, City of St. Paul came up with this and, um, It's the only time they've ever done it. And there was about 35 of us that got hired and, and we probably took a test with well over a thousand people and 35 of us came in and out of that 35, I think roughly 30 made it through all of the seven month academy. Um, I'm one of the first to retire out of it and out of that 35 we've lost hardly anybody. So I have a confession to make and it's always been something that I don't know if I felt guilty for feeling this way. But I remember thinking back, we all went to St. Thomas. You and I went to St. Thomas. Dee Frazier went to St. Thomas. KG went to St. Thomas. KG went to St. Thomas. But Tim Flynn went to St. Thomas, Axel Henry went to St. Thomas, and I knew all you guys. And I was always super impressed with you guys. And I always thought, what in the hell are those guys going to be cops for? I mean, and I feel bad for feeling this way, but it was like, you know, you could be so much more. Pause. Pause. No, I mean, honestly, that's how I felt, and that's terrible to feel that way. But what's ended up happening is, I now get it. I, and it just so happens, that all four of you guys have had great success as police officers, and the police department had an understanding that the people that they recruited saw the potential in you guys. As young police officers, and you know, a couple of you have become chiefs and master commanders and sergeants doing all this community service stuff. And now it's like, it's, it's like, this is where, like, guys that are, I mean, cause you were all tough guys too. You really, no, no, but I mean, think about it. We're all teddy bears. Well, you know, maybe deep down inside you guys are pussies, but generally speaking. Like, Tim Flynn was a tough guy. Steve Fraser was a tough guy. You were a tough guy. Axel Henry, I mean, he was a tough guy. Yeah. But, I, I just, I, I, I have such admiration for the fact that You know, I'm not going to say thank you for your service because we've been told that that's a bad thing to say. No, I'm just effing with you. I almost said it. We don't swear on this, on this, uh, on this program. But I, um, you know, I just admire the fact that, you know, these are guys that, in my opinion, probably had opportunities for economic Uh, success. Police officers get paid a nice wage, but it's not like what a lot of us that went to St. Thomas were aspiring, you know, I'm in the nonprofit world, so what changed for you to see that seeing this, like my admiration for the people that originally like, what are they doing being police officers? I get it now. They're running the police department for God's sake. And thankfully there are people that are in the pipeline That are those kind of people that are, you know, aspiring to be, and ultimately become those leaders because if you got shitty leadership in a, in a police department, like the St. Paul police department, the city's a disaster. Yeah, it's got to start up at the top. I would say in my career, one of the, one of the things, so I spent the five years, like you mentioned, of doing community outreach. Yep. I would say early on in the career that, that just kind of was stuff that we did and it was all behind the scenes and nobody noticed it. And this is where law enforcement has had to come into the today, today's standards with social media and things like that and talk about what we do. I mean, uh, when I, when I first started doing this, they're just like, Hey, you need to have a Facebook page and you need to have put out these little, uh, uh, reels or, or whatever kind of marketing. I mean, thankfully it was before tick tock, but, um, it was, you know, putting stuff out there. Hey, this is what we're doing. We're doing a. Bike rodeo at this rec center, or we're, we just took, uh, 75 kids to the Minnesota twins game or to show activity and show relevance and show to show that. Wait a minute. We're actually having a chance to impact communities and right in, in not just. Taking calls and pulling people over the stuff you see on TV. That's what they don't show is where you're sitting down and you're talking with kids and having one on one conversations. A few years ago I was given, um, it's called the Richard Rowan Award and it's, Bill Baudet's received it as well. Okay. And, uh, um, Um, it's kind of a reflection of your body of work and it's a lifetime achievement award. That's pretty cool. Sort of. Okay. And, uh, um, so I remember being up and addressing this crowd at the St. Paul hotel and it's a whole bunch of people that are willing to give money to the St. Paul Police Foundation, which helps us fund programs like that, the things that we can't budget for. Yep. And I mean, they're, they're a wonderful organization. But I remember telling them a story and we were at myself and another and a few other officers were at Dayton's Bluff Recreation Center in St. Paul. It's traditionally a rather poor neighborhood and, uh, um, There was a, a young girl that I was doing an art project with and so I spent about a half hour helping her do her art project and I was her buddy that day. She kind of adopted me and then it was time or it's time to go to the gym and in school they're, they're, they're learning floor hockey in. PHY ed class. And she goes, do you know anything about floor hockey? I'm like, well, yeah, I know a little bit about it. And she goes, W can you show me, how did you say in high school I was kind of a big deal. uh, KG was a big floor hockey guy. Hockey, well, KG would've been, oh yeah, I was a basketball player. Well, sort of a basketball. I was a basketball thug. And, uh, I, I set pics, but, um, they, uh. What we're walking, her and I are walking to the gym and she has my right hand. Well, I'm in uniform and she looks at my duty belt and she goes, she goes, Mike, do you, do you shoot black men? Oh, Jesus. And the whole crowd just kind of gasped, like, I can't believe she said that. And I said, yeah, that may sound inflammatory, but how much trust did I have to earn from her? Yeah. She's like 10 or 11. Yeah. Yeah. How much trust did I have to earn from her to see a black girl? Yeah, she's okay to say something like that. And I said, no, no, honey, I don't. Why, why, why do you ask that? She goes, TV says that, Oh, please. So shoot black men. And I go, well, what do you think? And she, she kind of looks up at me and she's being very reflective about it. And she goes, no, not you. And we went on and we went on, we played for hockey. And I mean, just this. Did you dominate her? Thirty second. Oh, she destroyed me. She's got a good slap shot. She made me look like a Burnsville goalie. Oh! There it is. Right there. There we go. There it is. It took so long to set up that joke. Well done boys. But. But. But like I said, you know, then we just went on and nothing was ever said of it, but for that little 15, 30 second stuff, it was so poignant to me. And I share that with a group and they got wonderful donations from people. And then I, but I had so many people coming up to me afterwards, the, um, Minneapolis police chief was there and, you know, he, he came up to talk to me and he goes, those are the kind of stories that we need and, and, and the thing is, is that those stories out there and it's, we're on an hour here, so let's shut this down. Um, here's my advice. Maybe it's a two parter. No, here's my, yeah, I may have to cut this in half. Here's my advice to people on YouTube. And I could sit and watch these all night long. There are these great videos of, for example, the cop down in Florida who, came upon this group of kids playing basketball and he gets out and starts shooting hoops with them. I love this video. And do you remember who he brings back the next day? Shaq? Shaquille O'Neal. Yeah. And, and, and I've seen these videos, you know, where a cop sees these kids doing like this. Dance contest and he gets out there and he's an even better dancer than these kids are. I saw that too. And it's just, I could watch those videos all the time. And the reason is, just like Mike's story. Hoxytocin! No, the reason, the reason why it It affects you and gives you Octytocin is because it's real, it's a real story. It's a true thing happening in front of you and it's showing humanity and showing exactly what Mike's here to show us and talk to us about. Well, Mike, thanks for keeping it real. Thanks, Mike. KG. Thanks for having me back. Mike. Go check out that 35 year old movie. I'm going to go watch it upstairs. I'm going to ruin the ending for you. And I won't have to walk an hour and a half to get there. Have you seen it already, KG? I thought years and years ago, I just, I was looking for a movie to see and everything that's out right now, either I've seen or I have no interest in what a weird choice. Yeah. You know, you could probably go see the wizard of Oz too, but you can watch it. It's better than the wizard of Oz dude. You watch that movie on Netflix. It's not the same. Oh God. Don't encourage him. When you have this 40 foot screen in front of you. Changes it. Okay. You know, I just, the idea of being in abyss is just, you know what? Off we go, goodbye. Off we go, guys. Thank you.