Have you ever stopped to think about the vital role firearms play in our society and the immense responsibility they carry? That's the focus of our enlightening and candid discussion with Brandon, an officer and veteran, he's also an advocate for responsible gun ownership. We unearth the fears, stigmas, and misconceptions associated with firearms, emphasizing the importance of proper education and training. The conversation extends beyond gun laws to the realm of physical fitness and mental clarity in law enforcement, laying bare the significance of regular training and assessments necessary for the high-stress nature of their jobs.
We delve deeper into the world of respect and discipline, particularly in parenting, advocating for the importance of instilling these values early on. Through our personal experiences and shared anecdotes, we underline the effects of absentee fathers and the need for a 'remasculine movement.' We also explore the critical, but often overlooked aspect of mental health in law enforcement and the military. We shine a light on the efforts of the Officer Support Initiative, a nonprofit aiming to provide resources for struggling first responders and call attention to the alarming suicide rates among veterans.
Our discussion takes a personal turn, as we share inspiring stories from our guests. Brandon, in particular, has channeled his experiences into starting a nonprofit to support officers and veterans. We wrap up this riveting conversation by promoting mental health awareness and the importance of advocacy for our veterans. So, tune in for an episode packed with real talk, challenging topics, and inspiring stories. Your perspective on firearms, respect, discipline, law enforcement, and mental health will never be the same again.
https://www.instagram.com/b_john_/
https://www.instagram.com/officer_supportinitiative/
Have you ever stopped to think about the vital role firearms play in our society and the immense responsibility they carry? That's the focus of our enlightening and candid discussion with Brandon, an officer and veteran, he's also an advocate for responsible gun ownership. We unearth the fears, stigmas, and misconceptions associated with firearms, emphasizing the importance of proper education and training. The conversation extends beyond gun laws to the realm of physical fitness and mental clarity in law enforcement, laying bare the significance of regular training and assessments necessary for the high-stress nature of their jobs.
We delve deeper into the world of respect and discipline, particularly in parenting, advocating for the importance of instilling these values early on. Through our personal experiences and shared anecdotes, we underline the effects of absentee fathers and the need for a 'remasculine movement.' We also explore the critical, but often overlooked aspect of mental health in law enforcement and the military. We shine a light on the efforts of the Officer Support Initiative, a nonprofit aiming to provide resources for struggling first responders and call attention to the alarming suicide rates among veterans.
Our discussion takes a personal turn, as we share inspiring stories from our guests. Brandon, in particular, has channeled his experiences into starting a nonprofit to support officers and veterans. We wrap up this riveting conversation by promoting mental health awareness and the importance of advocacy for our veterans. So, tune in for an episode packed with real talk, challenging topics, and inspiring stories. Your perspective on firearms, respect, discipline, law enforcement, and mental health will never be the same again.
https://www.instagram.com/b_john_/
https://www.instagram.com/officer_supportinitiative/
show time.
Speaker 2:Brandon stole what's up brother. Welcome to the show. That's my man. What's up, guy, how we doing baby with the keys. We got the motherfucking keys. He's just staring at you. He just wants your love, man. Hey bro, he wants your love, he just yeah. There you go.
Speaker 1:We love that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I love when, I love when he, I love when he loves all my guests. You love Uncle Brandon, right? Yeah, sir, yeah, the gun stuff is cool man. I'm just, I'm getting more I don't know if it's my older age, I really don't I'm just getting more and more into firearms. I've just, I think just the freedom of them and just, in general, the ability to protect yourself and your family and, yeah, dude, just the tactical use of firearms. Oh yeah, I just I find them very Fascinating. It's and there's a lot of cool shit. Like we were talking about Keanu before. Keanu's out here Just doing side stories. Now. My man is just like he's an actor. He plays base, he likes to ride motorcycles. Yeah, he shoots guns for fun.
Speaker 1:I mean, it's just don't. That's like just the crazy thing is like what we're talking about earlier, like I've got so cool. They're like no, that guy can do that shit for real. Oh yeah. Oh yeah that's, that's all. That's real. Yeah, no, no. That dude like this dude practices that he is the stuntman. Like you know me, that is him. Yeah, it's all legit, that is all real.
Speaker 2:Yo, he loves you have a good key. Yeah, we love a good keen scratch. He loves you, man, I love a good neck scratch. Yeah, it's, it's. It's super cool.
Speaker 2:And and the unfortunate side of things for me on the firearm related topics is how uneducated a lot of people are and I get the fear behind them. They're scary man, they could kill you. You could kill yourself using a firearm improperly See you all the time and you can hurt you. Listen, in your line of police work. You see a ton of shit, even in the military. You see improper use, improper people Discharging their weapons or accidentally not holstering it properly and horrible trigger control and it's scary man. And you know I I hate to sound like Some people look at it like they don't get. No, no, I get it. I get why you're afraid of them. But when you're afraid of something, sometimes the best way to overcome that fear is to Learn and understand more about the actual item. Like I hate blood tests, I hate blood tests, but for my health I needed to get uh-uh the blood donations to for my iron.
Speaker 1:My iron's too high, oh you're like now, you're not like, not like needles or whatever.
Speaker 2:I just don't like needles. I just, I just never. I mean, listen, I don't know anybody that likes needles, that just sit, I mean, except for maybe addicts. But then again, I don't even know. I don't even know if they like it. To be honest, I think they just like what comes from it. Yeah, so they, they tolerate the. The actual Mechanism to get them to that point makes sense, but I just, I never fucking like needles. But the way that I had to get over it was I just fucking went there, I went to the blood donation spot and I just was like I gotta donate like just go do it for my health, like I have to do it.
Speaker 2:So, uh, when you think about firearms, you think about people that are afraid of them. I have a buddy who his wife is a teacher or his girlfriend's a teacher, and she's very anti-gun and and I get it because the stigma is that you know school shootings and whatnot and the. Not even the stigma, but like the, the, the altercations that happen.
Speaker 1:What's the thing right, so like To take that video that we were watching earlier with it was the barbershop video. Yeah, I comes in with a pistol. Yeah, the guy has a shotgun shout to active self-protection.
Speaker 2:Great channel to learn about. Just Sorry to cut you off. No, you're good, great, great channel to learn about just firearms safety when to draw if you're holding a firearm, when not to draw, when to just like yo it's, I'm not gonna draw my pistol because the dude's got it in my face, like he's got a gun in my face, like that's a stupid time to try to counteract violence and maybe there is no perfect time. And you don't draw at all and you just sit there and you, okay, take my money, man, I'll see what I've, yeah. But like like we were watching the video You're saying yes, or what's in the video, dude.
Speaker 1:Like you look at a situation like that, right guys, a shotgun, right. So you see all these Not to get like anything political related, but like you see all these like very leftist people like, oh, why do you need an AR? Why are you just a rifle?
Speaker 2:If somebody comes at me with a shotgun like I want to have something, something, I have something, dude, my my standpoint on all this stuff is like you see, in a lot of cities that ban guns and that are so super harsh on the owning and the Distribution legally even though it's your, your second amendment, right right, they're very harsh on even allowing you to have it, but gun crime is through the roof. So, as a as a logical thinking human being and I don't want you to think of like left, right, anything like that I Couldn't be further from hating both sides. To be truthfully honest, I just I hate everybody. Yeah, they all have I say it all the time and they all have fucking agendas, and the agenda is to keep us in the same position that we're in and not gain power or strength over them. That's really what it is. There's a method to the madness.
Speaker 1:Yeah, man on there.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and at both sides. And the issue with having a two-party system is you. They pit everybody against each other and everyone's fucking miserable and angry. And you know you're wrong because you don't believe in the left and you're wrong because you don't believe in the right. No, you're both wrong because there is good on both sides. There's good. Yeah, you can meet in the middle and say, okay, well, I like some things over here and I like some things over here. It doesn't have to be so drastic.
Speaker 2:But now, going back to like a statistic, I don't have any statistics like ready to be pulled up, right, but if you think about cities that have harsher gun laws and Restrictions, why is it that gun crime and gun violence are up? Do we believe that it's actually law-abiding citizens that are going out expressing their second and utilizing their second amendment right to bear arms and protect themselves and their family in their home or on them, if allowed by the state? No, man, it's criminals, bro. And oh, and I know I'm not preaching to you, but you deal with this shit all the time and the criminals are always gonna get guns. At the end of the day, they're always going to get guns and they're always gonna have a way to to enact harm and violence to get their way, and they had it at the end of the day. Maybe their way is money, maybe they're stealing something from you. Maybe it's property or valuables, maybe it's a sex, like assault, like that's. That's fucking scary dude yesterday I was.
Speaker 1:I was out to breakfast as my mom, my aunt, moncle and it's a Moncle, he was a cop in NYPD. He came out to go and go retire from there and it's fun cuz a lot of things, like you know, cop-to-cop were having these conversations and he's obviously a lot older than I am, but yeah, it's crazy, like Years ago, how like it's still the same shit. Yeah, you know, I mean, it's just, it just may look a little bit different. But so we were talking about guns and, like you know, gun violence and how you know people, like in states like New York, she got like please, that like super strict gun laws, right, like how that affects crime rates and all that stuff and like, and we were both saying the same thing, like If somebody wants to get a gun, they're gonna get a gun gonna get a gun right, no matter what.
Speaker 2:They will have the ability and the means to Get a gun right so you take Summer like Florida, right, I live in Florida, right.
Speaker 1:So Florida, like to. San just passed that permalice concealed carry law. Right, so you don't need a permit, you can still carry. I can come visit you and carry one down with you so you can conceal carry there, cool. So, people, as soon as that stuff was coming out, right? People like you know we're in uniform or working, people like, oh, what you guys think about? I'm like, honestly, if you're a law-abiding citizen, you're a civilian. That's great, it's incredible. Like you don't have to jump through any hoops to any paperwork, you just go. Yummy.
Speaker 2:Obviously, you still gotta go to background checks and whatnot. You gotta do all that mental health issues Right, all the right, proper channels.
Speaker 1:But you don't gotta get like the process that you guys have to go through here in New York good Lord, dude, two years Like I couldn't imagine that two years to get a pistol license. You don't need a permit right to carry, to conceal carry in Florida. But on the law enforcement side I'm like that's a nightmare because now Anybody could have a gun. Yeah right, so you know, obviously there's still stipulations, oh, you can't be a convicted felon, so on, so forth. But generally speaking, in law enforcement are you getting 99%?
Speaker 2:of convicted felons have guns? Yeah, but they do it's. Let's just be real about it. But generally speaking, in law enforcement and from your, you know, dealing with people in the community and whatnot Generally a law-abiding citizen isn't gonna put, even if they have a firearm and you stop them for a traffic stop, somebody who's a good person is not gonna just pull a gun out on a cop and just start blasting. It's like it's not. I mean, often they're not.
Speaker 1:They'll tell you, oh yeah, I mean like, even, even people who are like they have full of a cars that like might be sketchy and like you go over there and it's, they're a decent person. But yeah, I have a firearm in the car. Yeah, cool, that's the right way and that's the right way to do it, like okay, it is what it is, you're allowed to have it. Yeah, it's not that big of a deal, but you know, like there's drugs in the car, you know me like there's now we have some, I mean sometimes there might be a little bit more right and whatever you take every situation as it is.
Speaker 1:But and now?
Speaker 2:I think that that's worse. I think it's worse. The legalization of marijuana and the ability for people to use drugs on not a grand scale but a more widely quote-unquote acceptable scale.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I remember we had a guy a couple years ago I mean nobody were riding together and we arrested this dude. He had a shit ton of weed on him, shit ton of weed, and he ended up finding a gun, alright. So we arrest the guy. Whatever for god charges on him and he's like you know, we're in the car and he's like talking to us. He's like you know, like what could? I don't like what I could do and I'm like I'll see. But I'm like listen, like if I was like nobody cares about weed. I'm like let's just listen, to be real. I'm like the fact you had a gun and with the weed and you had, you know you have babies like you. Obviously you have to sell, you know. I mean I'm like the gun is what's gonna screw you. I mean like let's just be real, because now you put yourself in a really like bro, we it's. It's gonna get dropped. The whole, the case is gonna get dropped.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's a waste of everyone's time.
Speaker 1:You know I mean but you know, yep is asian with sale and delivery with our arm, Like now you're talking a pretty serious charge, right, but dude, people are gonna get a fire. I'm doing, yeah, kids are breaking into 20, 30, 40 cars at night. They're gonna get a firearm. It's gonna happen. People are. People are really stupid. People will sit here and, oh yeah, I could leave my gun in my car overnight. No, you can't. Oh god, no, you cannot, I don't care, really know you can't and see.
Speaker 2:Now, that's that's the side of it that I have a problem with. Like, even though it's me, it's great that it could be easily accessible to a lot of people. There needs to be proper channels for training. Yeah, there has to be an understanding and we go back to a liability and we go back to the same. It's the same topic that started it all off. It's like if you're scared of something, whether you are or you're not, there needs to be training. You have to have an understanding of this item and what it can do in your hands or and in the wrong hands.
Speaker 2:Yep, and it's not just like watch a shooting video and see the massacre that can happen. It's not about that. It's about understanding that if you draw your firearm, you have now engaged in potential legal issues, no matter if you're allowed to carry or not. What are you gonna do? You're not just gonna show your gun off to people. Sometimes that makes people go crazy and like go, oh yeah, well, go ahead, fucking shoot me. And then they get now you're in like an ego battle and you're gonna go to jail because of this asshole and like that that's the thing with like with law enforcement.
Speaker 1:I can you know I'll speak for my department. I have I've only worked at one department, right.
Speaker 2:But you also have a military background right.
Speaker 1:But, like you know, even in the military, and Specifically with law enforcement, like we're told all the time right, every round, you fire off like you're responsible for that. Yeah, so that's not just law enforcement, that civilians like you were responsible for that. If you miss your target and that goes and hits a bystander, that's on you. Yeah, that's a new charge, that is on you. Yeah, so it's not, and you know.
Speaker 2:You see people just mag dumping and shit like that. You're like, bro, you can't do that dude Like there, you got to watch your backstop. There's a million and one things that you have to have a mental checklist on. And guess what, when you're having a fight or flight Moment and you have to actually draw your firearm because you fear for your life, let's talk about like a real situation. You fear for your life and you have to draw that firearm. Well, you have to. You have to have that training already in in grained and stone in your brain. I've drawn my firearm, I have to watch it. The people that are the targets. I have to watch people around them. I got to make sure that if I do, I'm counting my rounds. Yeah, like one, two, three. If the dude turns around and runs away like, can't shoot him in the back, like do it like you know.
Speaker 1:It's funny, like I will say like since I've started, they didn't say I work for a man. Since I've started, they have always, always, always, always preached you cannot go where your mind hasn't gone. So and again, like a lot people public, always a super bias, because where it works, no like legitimately, our training department is phenomenal, unbelievable, and Do the amount of like active shooters or drills we do, because they that's the closest you're gonna get, you know me, without going through the real thing, but of literally Force on force. You're using some rounds, you know, I mean you're going through their plan, noise in the background, like People screaming and what now you have to have, you have to have these things got to go through training, man, that's gonna put you as close as it can get.
Speaker 1:So God forbid, if that moment actually happens in real life, you're not freezing up or you're not just oh my god, oh my god, oh my god right.
Speaker 2:I was talking to Aaron about this yesterday and it's too. It's a two-fold type of a response. Yeah, the first is Aaron talked to me about how he's been all over the country and he's seen training for a lot of departments and it's scary how bad it is, even even enrolling officers. He said I've seen they give them P90 X tape, they do a P90 X tape and then they oh bro, it's like what?
Speaker 2:Just like fitness just for fitness, just for the, just to pass the test, and then that's basically it. That's basically it, that's their training. And then you, you know you talk about on the other side of things. I talk about jujitsu and it's like the first time somebody takes my back and they're trying to choke me out. Bro, today I felt like I got choked out by fucking ever it was insane dude because I haven't rolled in two weeks. So it's like I'm rusty. I'm trying to like get get back into the swing of things and I don't want to just muscle people out, I want to actually use technique and every foot, almost every interaction I had. Somebody was trying to take my back today, but because I've been there before, I'm able to like slow down, understand block.
Speaker 2:Yeah, block, and I do, I like it. I like when people put me in horrible positions, because now the next time that it actually happens again, I'm like, okay, let's get out of this crazy, like in those situations and like what I've seen over.
Speaker 1:You know I've been a law enforcement almost four years now. It's really not that long, but in a city where I work, where we're crazy busy all the time, like your experience levels a lot different than a small town, you know. I mean so. You know you get in those moments where you get into a fight or something like that. When you have some sort of training at least.
Speaker 1:What I've noticed is like you can almost like slow your brain down a little bit or slow the situation down and like See and feel what you're doing, versus like you're not just like foiling around trying to just grab whatever you can grab. Like Dude, like one of my last fights have I was in, do if there's a full pursuit and I'm getting the guy, get him down onto the ground and like I was able to like control him and then look up and see like who's around me, where am I at, get on the radio, take a moment, you know I mean like hey, this is where I'm at, you know, and somebody was able to get to me quick and be like okay, cool, I know where he's at, help me cuff whatever and go on, you know, with the rest of the investigation or whatever. But it's having that experience that I trained you do, where you can sit there and be like, okay, I know what's going on. I've been here before, I know what this feels like. Now I can, like, control things.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you know, I almost wish, and maybe this is something that you can pitch to your department and you guys can maybe be the first one to my not, I'm not an officer, but to my knowledge, maybe you guys could do some breathwork courses.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think that's super important being able to slow down Breathe, because when you're in that fucking mode, that go, go, go, go, go mode, being able to, like exactly what you're saying slow down, gather your aware, your bearings or your awareness of your surroundings and other potential hazards and bystanders and what the actual purpose doing. I mean, I listen once again, I'm not an officer, but I can only assume that's something like that would help, yeah, in being able to control internally with your own body. Help, yeah, in being able to control internally what's going on while externally shit's just hitting the fan.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, dude, I mean absolutely cuz like and we'll hear it on the radio. Man, like you can hear people that you know maybe they're not in an area where that kind of stuff happens a lot, or they just haven't had that much experience with it. And you could hear their voice on the radio, yeah, shaky. You could hear like they're yelling super loud or they're out of breath or they're trying to say things, and it just Sounds like a bunch of just girl. Yeah, cuz, it's just a bunch of slow down. Well, relax. Yeah, you know, I mean like sometimes you have those guys that get on the radio and they're like to good you, brother, shut up.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's not helping.
Speaker 1:I mean, like you've been here before, like you know what it's like shut up.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you know, this person's first interaction having an issue, right, you know it might be a younger person, right, like it's just, it is what it is.
Speaker 1:But like yeah, no, I agree. Maybe something I've never done, a like breathwork type stuff. Obviously, at least I don't think so.
Speaker 2:Well, there's a. There's a lot. I mean, there's a lot of different type of breathwork. Who'd I speak to? I spoke to Taylor, who is one of the owner of OG. Okay, and Taylor has been certified. I believe in the Wim Hof method. Yeah, I'm sure you've heard of Wim Hof.
Speaker 1:Yeah yeah, Wim Hof is a different type of he's a different type of breathing technique.
Speaker 2:He's that like go into the ice and like and I believe that that is pivotal for anybody across all avenues of life. It's just putting yourself in uncomfortable positions and then being able to overcome that and then the some of the mid-stress flow, stressful level occurrences, and things don't really seem that bad anymore. So I think I do believe that that's pretty important. But Taylor actually spent time out at the UFC training center because they were running seminars for breathwork and all different kinds of stuff. And, bro, you learn a lot, man. You learn a lot about yourself. You learn a lot about just how the body works when you take the time to slow down.
Speaker 2:And From what I remember and I could be butchering this, so, taylor, if you're listening to this, my bad brother they would do a lot of vigorous exercise and then they'd have to work on the breathwork and then kind of go right back into sets while they're still frazzled and whatnot, or they'd have to do some type of a task while they were trying to recover but utilize the breathwork and there was a putting them into that stressful, like we have to amp yourself up and get your nervous system enacted, and then they would do the exercises to get their bodies used to being in that situation. It's pretty interesting, man. It's like all these modalities and all these different styles. Now, because of the information spread that we get through podcasts, we get through tick tock Instagram, all these different social sites when they're used for good, yeah, you're able to like, pick these things up and go oh shit, I had no idea that this was even a thing.
Speaker 1:Yeah, 100%, like there was, like I know for us, like one of the I don't know if it's one of the last things you do anymore, but like when I was in orientation we did like a. It was like a foot pursuit exercise or whatever. It's basically like you know, you get in a car, you literally you run for I forget how long it was, but you run like a pretty good distance and you get there and there's another officer they're already fighting. You have to. You guys don't work together. Yeah, I mean like guys can be out of breath and you guys got to really think through it under stress. You know military does the same stuff long for. You know you just stress shoots and stuff like that. You do a bunch of exercise, run around, do whatever, and you guys sit there, okay, and start getting your rounds on target. It's tough man, it's not, it's not easy, you know. I mean obviously a lot of that goes through your fitness level too. Yeah, I mean, are you really?
Speaker 2:also, I was talking Aaron about as well.
Speaker 1:It's just, I see an over.
Speaker 2:I see an overweight officer and I'm just like come on, man, I do this, no way, this is helping your job. You got to be ready to go. And I see, I see dudes get. I see dudes get manhandled, fucking manhandled by dudes, because they're just not in any particular fitness.
Speaker 1:There is a video recently and Some of them are tough watches, bro. I am like it went pretty viral recently and this is nothing against females, because there are a lot of females I can, that can, do this job. I've seen it. But there was a video in Chicago. It was four female cops. They got a call. I think it was a shoplifting one, one dude, right, one, do shoplifting.
Speaker 1:I'm ain't, I'm getting dude. They're all like on like a street corner. So they're trying, like the dude still on his feet, like they're trying to like basically, I'm assuming what they were trying to detain him. That's what it looked like, because they were trying to push him up like against the wall. This dude single-handedly overpowers all four of them, takes off running. Yeah, and I was like and you look at like all of them were, you can tell visually out of shape and it's like that's not good. Yeah, that's not a good look, especially if you look at a place like like a Chicago right, that's like already in just absolute shambles. Yeah, you know what I mean for a city.
Speaker 2:Oh my God, in terms of crime and all that, zero interest in visiting Chicago Right, zero interest.
Speaker 1:Dude, I mean fitness level takes.
Speaker 2:It can keep their deep dish pits at least. I'm good on that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, like it's crazy man, but that's that's. You know, that's just an example, right, but like that's across all the law enforcement. I see it in my own agency. It's across all the law enforcement dude and it's, it's so bad.
Speaker 2:If I had to do battle with perps every single day? Yeah, and it was life or death. And these people wanted to, intentionally, wanted to harm me and get away with the crime. But I mean, they're stopping it. Yeah, you know, these people don't give a fuck about you. They don't care about you. They're going to try to hurt you, yeah, and I'm going to give them every opportunity to not best me. That's really what I'm going to do. So my physical fitness is going to be up, my mental clarity is going to be up. I'm going to practice jujitsu, I'm going to practice all of these things, I'm going to practice my shooting and I'm going to do that tactical shit that Keanu does and all of these different places. Dude, that should be standard Every month. Everybody should be. Should still have to go and have X amount of hours in range time. I don't know if they do or they don't.
Speaker 1:And that's why I let off that earlier about our training department for where I work, dude. I mean we qualify four times a year, which like for some departments to go once a year.
Speaker 2:And that would be like a whole range of times, that's fucking insane.
Speaker 1:Like we qualify four times a year and there's other training in between, that with firearms. You know what I mean. So obviously you know every agency is kind of up to their own demise. You know what I mean. It's what you make of it. But yeah, I mean they do all that stuff collectively, right, Like instills that confidence.
Speaker 1:And I had this conversation with my uncle yesterday and, like you know, generationally right, Like you can see, the cops are kind of like coming onto the road now and you'll see, not all of them right, but like a good amount of them are like generally, yeah, a little bit more apprehensive now, especially because you know they're coming up seeing all the processes, They've seen all these different things. Well, they're worried that if you fuck up once it's over, Right, and like sometimes you have to tell these kids like no, grab this dude. You know what I mean, Because this is what I was saying to mom. I guess I'm like right this if you're a criminal, right, you don't give a fuck. If this dude is first day on the road or if he's been a cop for 15 years, Doesn't matter, A criminal is a criminal, right? He does not care. What do criminals do when you show up?
Speaker 2:Yeah, they're eyeing your gun. They're trying to see. They're sizing you up, man. They're trying to see what you can do.
Speaker 1:They're trying to see what you can do. They're running on you like that's what they do, right, and that's not going to change. It's been like forever, Like, like it was like this in old.
Speaker 1:Western times too. My uncle was literally telling me a story yesterday and I'm like I've been through these. It's the same shit. But it's like 20 years later, like or no, he I'm sorry he retired in. He retired like 12 years ago I think. So I'm like, but it's the same shit. Same shit he was doing back then NYPD out here on my island. That's the same stuff. People at criminal act the same way. They don't change. Like they may get a little bit smarter here and there about how they do things that you know after they fuck up a couple of times, but generally how they react to a long person, it ends up always being the same. Yeah, like you can tell when somebody's going to run.
Speaker 2:As a criminal. I don't even know what I would want. I don't know if I would want somebody that's been 15 years on the job or if I want somebody that's been day one, cause I feel like the day one dude's shakier, the day one dude's you know quicker to make a mistake. The 15 year vet, he's just trying to get his time in and he just wants to get the fuck out.
Speaker 1:I'll do it. It's funny, man, like you'll see, you'll see it. Like, sometimes, like dudes that have been, you know they've been in jail 10, 20 times, they're like oh man, you're a rookie, yeah, they start picking you apart, bro, Like they'll start calling people out.
Speaker 2:Yeah they know you better than you know yourself sometimes, and they want to see it like you know.
Speaker 1:are you going to jaw back at me? Yeah, you know what I mean. Obviously, you know we have body cameras and stuff like that, so you got to be careful.
Speaker 2:You got to keep it. You got to keep it professional.
Speaker 1:You know you have to give that confidence of like you know we're not going down that road.
Speaker 2:And that's tough also. Like just the body cameras and stuff like that, like because you know you have to be upheld to a golden standard but and you get jawed at all day and shit like that, and people just say what the fuck they want to say to you? And you have to sit there and just take it and when that dude that starts wearing on you mentally, Dude I had.
Speaker 1:I had a. I was working off duty at Universal one day and it was like a bunch of like 15, 16 year olds were like, oh, they're the fucking worst.
Speaker 2:I don't think that anything could happen to them.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's like causing havoc for something stupid, right? So like their security flags me down and like they were basically like blocking a doorway for, like a VIP area, so I let her grab the girls and get out of the way so they start freaking out. Oh, fuck you.
Speaker 2:Did you touch me? Oh you, piece of shit, Fuck I hope you fucking died or not, right?
Speaker 1:So this, this lady, right, like she comes over. She's like oh my God, I got the whole thing on video. I'm like I don't fucking for what?
Speaker 2:Yeah, Cause I moved the kids. What?
Speaker 1:do you want me, what do you want me to do with that?
Speaker 2:Yeah, somebody tomorrow is going to say the same shit to me, and the crazy thing to me is that that starts at the home. So that's, that starts at the home. So the the respect for not only officers, but the respect for other human beings oh dude, that's a lack of respect for other humans. I've never spoken to somebody like that. It's like to just, I was always, always. Just like we are the same, Like you and I are the same, the CEO of Amazon, Jeff Bezos, and the janitor are the same.
Speaker 2:I hate that example, but like that's really true, Like we're all the same on this fucking planet.
Speaker 2:So it's like you have to have respect for your fellow man. Now, if they don't give you respect, if right out the gate, you've been super nice, forthcoming, you know whatever you need, officer, my ba-ba-ba. And then there's like back and forth. Back and forth, not initiated by yourself, I can understand having a fucking attitude, jacking some Joe or whatever, but like that starts at the home, man, the disciplinary actions of parents telling your kids what is acceptable as a human being, what is not, because parents that raise children like that you're just creating in the way kids, you're creating people that just are okay with being a nuisance to society. You're creating the how. I don't understand how my son could do this, because he's such a good boy yeah, he's a good boy in your eyes, but when he's out on the streets it's a fucking menace. He's a menace. So like there's a lot of problems that you have to address at the root, not just like send him out and hope that school does it and there's an that no man.
Speaker 1:No no.
Speaker 2:What was I saying before? I want to be dangerous and not bad. Dangerous because I'm trying to inflict harm on people. I want to be dangerous because I want to be the man of the house and that means something to me. I'm older, school in that thought process. My grandfather, the head of the house, type shit, old school Italian, second generation, you know Italians coming to the US. To me, the man is the head of the house and it doesn't mean that we boss people around this and that, but you are the head, so you hold a lot of the strength. And if the house is in shambles and the house isn't strong and kids are getting away with shit at home and at school and the man isn't coming in and going yo, enough of that fucking shit.
Speaker 1:Dude, you see it crumbles bro. Fatherless homes. Dude, a lot of these young kids that we deal with because, dude, I mean you like juvenile, they're out of control. Out of control, I can't speak for every state, but where I'm at, our juvenile system horrible, right. But a lot of the times, dude, you get these juveniles and like, for us, like our policy, like we have to contact their parents? Yeah, Right, so who's the parent? Usually mom or grandma. These kids run all over them. Oh yeah, you know what I mean.
Speaker 2:They're the quote. Unquote man of the house. It's sad.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I've literally watched like almost like disabled grandmas like come walking up, like trying to pick up these kids, and like this poor lady yeah, she don't want to do this shit. She has no control. I mean like she's probably 70, 80, zero control.
Speaker 2:And guess where it starts with even before then Stop putting grandma at fucking bad situations. Wear a condom and stop fucking without consequences. Bro, if you have a kid and you're a man, be there for the kid. Don't fucking dip, don't be a wishy washy dad, my dad's wishy washy. He always has been. I'm very lucky that my mom was a strong human being. Ah, we love Karen. Shout out to Karen. Shout out to Karen. Very lucky that Karen is who she is, because without her and without my grandfather I would have turned out very differently. I say it all the time and I mean it, but if you are a man and you impregnate a woman, and whether you believe in keeping it or not, whatever your belief system is, if that child is born, you as a man are responsible for that kid for the rest of their life. Don't be a fucking deadbeat dad. I can't stand that.
Speaker 1:Teach your kid, I'll talk real man.
Speaker 2:Dude, teach your kid how to do things. Take them hunting, take them fishing. Take them do different activities. Stop making these coca-mellon babies. I've said that before too. Just a bunch of in the way fucking humans that are on the LIE, just going two miles an hour. Yo, I'm done with it, bro, Like dude. There is a changing of the guard. I don't care what anybody says. There is a remasculine movement coming into this world where men wanna be men again and we have to be, because there's too many bitches around here now we have to be like. There's too many dudes that are acting like bitches and they're not being men and they're not going out and do it. You don't have to wrestle human beings, you don't have to do, but you should know how to defend yourself, how to defend your family, how to provide for your family. Because guess what, when shit hits the fan, wifey's gonna look at you and go. What do we do? She's not gonna look at herself and go. I got it. No, she's not, Unless it's Brock Lesnar's daughter. No, it's fine.
Speaker 1:This probably gonna cause a lot of controversy because I know people hate him, but I was watching an Andrew Tate clip. Oh, oh, oh oh, People are probably blowing.
Speaker 2:Yeah, no, no, no, my, my, my channel, just my channel just lost 500 subscribers.
Speaker 1:So yeah, whatever, but but no, seriously, right. So he was. He was talking about like he had a girl at his house or whatever and he was saying somebody was knocking on his door, like violently, and he's like. He like looks at the female right and the female looks at him. He's like, well, I guess I'm gonna have to go do that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I have to answer that Dude you gotta be a man, you gotta go face that shit. Don't let her do it. No, you know what I mean. But like there's some dudes that like, oh God.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, dude, cause they've never had. They've never had to, they've never had to. Fucking grab you testicles. It's a good time, dude. Hey, grab you fucking nuts, bro. It's time, dude. That's, that's what this is, man. That's what there is.
Speaker 2:There are distinct differences between men and women. Probably people hate that, hate to hear that too. There is. It is what it is.
Speaker 2:I don't care what you do, I don't care if you decide to change, don't matter to me. I've had Alex, my friend on, who transitioned from being a female to a male. Doesn't matter to me. I want everybody to live their best and favorite life. But when it comes biologically to humans, there are very big differences between men and women and there are role. There are role differences in the family structure, whether you wanna admit it or not. And when that fucking door is getting kicked in at the middle of the night, you are not sending your 110, 120 pound wife downstairs to go address that. Hey, babe, I'm gonna call the cops. You go down and address that. No, bro, you're grabbing the fucking gat, you're grabbing your fucking dick and you're going down there and you're addressing whatever the hell just entered your house to do harm to you, to do harm to your wife, to do harm to your family, your fucking dog. Whatever it is, Bro, it is time, man.
Speaker 1:That's why I meant to. I think we started talking about this last night. There was a guy that went viral out in. I wanna say it was Los Angeles, so he was going to his fucking home, right? You see this video.
Speaker 2:You see, Elkari.
Speaker 1:So he was going to his home right and these two dudes were coming off. The robin brought more than likely right.
Speaker 2:No, not more than likely they were coming to. Robin Fucking turns around, starts lying around, Starting to be lasting right. Like bravo, dude, good work. You know what LA did to him? Right, they took away his Scottsdale, kari Pernitt, so that's great. So now, when these guys come back with firearms, he doesn't have any now.
Speaker 1:Crazy right Cause I don't know if those two dudes have been arrested, I'm gonna go with probably not.
Speaker 2:No, of course not. If they were, they're probably out. But LA loves criminals. I can't stand this critical state.
Speaker 1:I wanna say that dude was from. I wanna say he was like from New York. Yeah, he's from the East Coast. Yeah, like he was, he was right here, Entrepreneur, he's from the East.
Speaker 2:Coast. He was getting ready to go for a run. He had a coffee in his hand or a tea or whatever he had. He was opening the door. There's a long corridor that went up to his front door and the dudes ran up on him. I'll probably what's the time stamp on this 33 minutes.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's been 33 minutes right.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's been 33 minutes. I see you just fucking chop it up, we hang out. The last one we did was like almost fucking three hours.
Speaker 2:It's like three hours, crazy, yeah. So I'll have to maybe insert the video. We'll see if I'm able. I don't know if I'm legally able to do, I don't give a fuck, whatever, I don't care. But they ran up on him and he didn't have it. His gun was obviously concealed under his thing. He kind of like, turned around, the dude already, had the gun out on him and he dumped the coffee or the tea right in the dude's face, pulled his gat and just started blasting and guess what man. That's a tough scenario to be in. That is a very tough scenario to be in Because we just went through, like the mental checkpoints that you have to have, the thought process that goes through your brain about making sure that all the boxes are checked.
Speaker 2:I mean, he followed them out and he went for cover and one of the dudes actually went around his car. You don't even know if he was coming around the left side. There's a lot of variables that go into that. You know theoretically if I was in that situation and you always speak from a third party you know, because you're able to, logically I wasn't in it. So I can sit there, watch the video a few times and then think about what I would do Doesn't mean I do it in the moment, but I'm able to now look at it and go, I probably would have went inside. Truth be told, I probably would have went inside following the perps out that ran off. Now I could get ambushed. Maybe there's more outside the gate. Yeah, you never know. You never fucking know, dude. And now I'm out. How many rounds Do I have an extra magazine Like what do I?
Speaker 2:have to worry about dude A lot of variables man and then for the state or the county to take away his concealed carry and his permit to have a firearm. That is absolutely insane. Because guess what, man, if those dudes come back with more people, or even just by themselves and firearms, and they kill that guy and abuse his wife and kids, that is on LA County, that is, the blood of that family is on their hands. But guess what, even saying that it doesn't fucking matter, they don't care. They don't care because criminals need to be dealt with at the root of these fucking problems.
Speaker 1:Remind me to say way back at LA County, because there was someone I mentioned about it. We can go right now, yeah, because you'll see why. But there was dude. Like I will say, like in law enforcement at least the squads that I've been on man like any officer involved shooting or stuff like that, like we all usually collectively sit down and we'll kind of like talk about it and I'm not gonna sit here and say I've been in an officer involved shooting because I have not right, knock on wood.
Speaker 1:I hope you never have to be All right, but I know guys that have been right and there's so many fucking critics. Dude, oh yeah, like you. Look at all these. Oh, we should do this. Shut the fuck up. Yeah, man, if you haven't been there, don't talk about it. You wanna collect thoughts in your head about what you think should have been. Go ahead.
Speaker 2:Sit there and digest, go ahead, but we don't need your two cents.
Speaker 1:But, like, if you have not been in that position, shut up, you know what I mean. Like that's hey, man, you see what it is. You see the video? Okay, got it. This is the circumstances. You know what I mean. Maybe this is what I would have done. Cool, keep it to yourself, man. You know what I mean. Obviously, like amongst law enforcement officers, you know there's certain things we'll talk about, like, okay, yeah, maybe there was covering concealment here. You know, you just kind of start painting the picture and looking at different things. But don't criticize it, bro, especially like these keyboard warriors do. Oh yeah, everyone's got something to say. You'll never sit here and put on a uniform or a badge and go out there and deal with these fucking assholes. Shut up, shut your fucking mouth, dude. Like it's ridiculous, dude, you'll see it all Like it'll never end. That's separate, but it'll never end. People will always talk about it, but, dude, it's just crazy man.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's insane man. It's insane. Everyone's always got something, but that's the internet too. Everyone's always got something to say, unbelievable. I say it all the time. Dre has said it on the podcast. We scroll past things that we don't agree with. No, constantly. Fuck my two cents. I don't need to put my two cents on everything. I can talk about it on my platform. I see something that I don't agree with. I can talk about it on my platform, but sitting there writing nasty comments, writing things like that, this is not in my code, it doesn't work for me, and the same goes. It should be taught to everybody else. It's like yo, it's cool to have feelings about things, but you don't need to speak about everything that you see. And, like you said, if you've never been in that situation, then you really don't know how things actually go down.
Speaker 1:You don't know what you. You might just shit your pants and not do anything.
Speaker 2:Exactly, you don't know.
Speaker 1:You don't know what you don't know.
Speaker 2:And now going back to somebody that has been in military for years prior to being a police officer, you know, you've been in combat, you've dealt with shit. That is fucking scary, bro. It's scary. I don't care how tough anybody is, it's scary and so. But being in those situations I feel like it gets you a little bit more at ease on stateside shit. But sometimes I've heard from Julio stateside shit is more dangerous than the shit that he experienced overseas.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you know it's tough man, because I think a lot of things are very situationally dependent. You know what I mean. There's obviously different variables and stuff to everything, you know, whether it's military, law enforcement, whatever. But like every like, for example, law enforcement, right, Every call you go to is different, right, you can go to a thousand domestic violence calls. Something about each one of those calls it might be like very minute, but something's gonna be different every time. You know what I mean.
Speaker 1:Like it's just, I would say, probably here stateside is a little more, is a little more edgy, I guess, just because, like somebody who you thought might be a victim could flip on a dime and now be going after you. You know what I mean. Versus, like you know. And the point is stuff, like you know, somebody out there is like straight up probably gonna come after you at some point, right, Like if you're in a war zone, like there's obviously people that don't like you, right, but you know, here just random person like could just flip. You know what I mean. You just you never know. I think that's a little bit of the difference with law enforcement in military, at least in my opinion.
Speaker 2:Do you find that ex-military personnel make better officers because they've seen more shit and been in more situations?
Speaker 1:Yes and no, because I would say that I will say this man, there's a lot of officers I know that have zero military experience that are unbelievable.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean they can make great tactical decisions, you know, and it's just, obviously that comes with experience. But you know there are several officers I know that do have military experience that are very good and can't slow situations out like we were talking about and kind of assess things. And you know, and it's just, it is what it is Like. You know a guy I work with now on my squad, you know he's tactically great, he's unbelievable. Zero military experience but like tactically he's great, you know. So it depends, man, you know, I think it depends where you work and where you come from, like Orlando is, hold on, I just outed where I work.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you were outed by that TikTok at that time.
Speaker 2:You were outed by that TikTok at that time.
Speaker 1:I've been on TMZ. Man, it's just hold on.
Speaker 2:But yeah, man, I thought Orlando was so magical and it's the best place in the world.
Speaker 1:Yeah, happiest place on earth too. But no, I mean, I think it depends where you work too. Like you know, we have a lot of guys that come down from NYPD, do it and just shit the bed, and you know what I mean.
Speaker 2:It's just and you would think that because they're throwing you the fire.
Speaker 1:You would think that like, oh, nypd, like dude, it's just different. Everywhere you work is different. Man, volusia County for Jeff, volusia County, like it's just, places are just different. You know what I mean. So at least where I you know, I know where I work. It's just so busy. You know what I mean and I've done my entire career, minus one phase of field training, all on the West side, right, and that's that's our busiest division, at least from like the most recent stuff that I know. And there's a lot of people who like don't wanna work the West side, you know, cause it's just, it's busy, it's violent. You know what I mean. There's a lot of shit that happens.
Speaker 2:But-. So what type of person has to go? What type of person elects to go over there?
Speaker 1:Usually we'll get like a lot of. We'll get people that wanna work like they wanna work dope, you know what I mean. So like the wanna work, the West side is kind of broken up into. All of our divisions really are broken up kind of into like two sections, so like one part of the West is strapped to hood. You know what I mean. You can get a lot of dope and guns and all that kind of stuff. So you got a lot of people that wanna go there and do that kind of work. The other half of the West side, where I was on midnight, you get everything. I mean you can find dope, guns, you'll have car jackings, robbery. I mean you'll have all sorts of shit. Yeah, you know what I mean. To buffet, to buffet of fucking crime. It's crazy, man, the shit. Like I never thought when I went to Orlando. It was like no way.
Speaker 2:You're like man. I can't wait to hang out with Mickey.
Speaker 1:Oh it's crazy, man, like the amount of people that go. You like guard Mickey, I'm like, oh, you have no fucking.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you have no clue what's out of those walls?
Speaker 1:No idea dude, but you know there's a lot of places that are like that, unfortunately. But you know it's just, it is what it is Now.
Speaker 2:Here's the question yeah, do you miss military life versus low enforcement life?
Speaker 1:Bro, I will say this to my dying day the biggest regret of my life so far was getting out of the military. 1,000%.
Speaker 2:Dude, julio said the same thing. Dude, I tell people all and he was a cop in the city and this and that, and every ex which, from what I understand, you're not supposed to say ex military, yeah, you're. You know every person, yeah, every person who is a veteran, who used to be in service. They all say that the worst mistake they ever made was stopping the military, in whatever branch you were in, and then becoming a police officer in the States.
Speaker 1:Yeah, like don't get me wrong, man. I mean like everything's got its ups and downs right. Like no matter what it is in life you do, you could be a fucking store clerk and you know they'll have ups and downs right. So it's just the experiences I had in the military, the friends that I made, like it's so hard to remake that shit. Different bond Dude, like law enforcement dude, like is an honorable job it is. You know what I mean and I'm proud to say I'm a police officer 100%. Like I will never like negate off that. But like law enforcement is a very toxic environment. It's extremely toxic.
Speaker 2:Yeah, aaron and I were going over it yesterday.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and like the military is to an extent, but like and I can't speak on the military too much now Like I was infantry right, I was a paratrooper when I was there. Infantry was all dudes. It was an all male environment, like females weren't? Yeah, they started to like towards the end. It was like my last year I think they were integrating females in, but it was only like. I think it was only like lieutenants at the time, but it was all. It was all men, dude. So like it's just, I don't know. You just like, you just do what dudes do, and you know what I mean. Like if it's locker room talk, you know, just doing dude shit.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you just and it's just and just put your boys in People who aren't dudes. Don't understand that.
Speaker 1:Bro, and like not to bring them up again, but like I watched another video of fucking Andrew Tay. Oh my God, twice Right, dude. Yeah, fucking twice, dude. We might as well cancel this whole thing, dude. I'm just gonna delete all the. I probably just got canceled, just there.
Speaker 2:I'm gonna delete all the episodes now. This isn't even posted yet and it's already been sent to your lieutenant.
Speaker 1:But like so in that video though like so he was talking to me he's like one of the best things a guy can do is just sit around with his boys and laugh Tribe shit that's what it is, and he was like there's like nothing greater.
Speaker 1:I mean, obviously there's a lot of stuff a man can do, but like one of the highest that a man can get is sitting there just laughing, genuinely laughing, at a good time with his boys, and I was like God, I felt that, yeah, because like that's how we were. You know what I mean? We just my buddy, tyler, just got married a couple months ago.
Speaker 2:Shout out to Tyler congratulations, brother.
Speaker 1:Yeah, dude, like they got married a couple months ago and like we all got back together, dude, and it was just a fucking blast.
Speaker 2:And it was like you never missed a beat.
Speaker 1:And we never missed a fucking beat, dude, you know what I mean. Like that was probably the hardest I had laughed in like a year. You know what I mean Just all night long. You know what I mean.
Speaker 2:It was just fun, you know what I mean it was one of those nights that you just wished, stretched out for years.
Speaker 1:Dude. Yeah, it was unbelievable. But you know law enforcement. I remember people, dude, when I was getting into law enforcement, people were like this is paramilitary to shut up. No, it's not. They're like, oh, this is paramilitary to us. You know, it's very similar. No, it's not. No, it's not.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:And again, you know I'm proud to be a police officer, but they're two totally different environments. They're two totally different environments. It's crazy.
Speaker 2:On the topic of tribal type behaviors with men, I don't think people understand how important that is for men to be around not only other like-minded men, but just good influences in their life and fun times, happy this, and that there's been a lot of occasions where I had something lined up with a girl to hang out with a girl and you know, my boys became available and I dropped the ability to hang out with the girl to go hang out with my buddies. And some people look at me like I'm crazy. They're like, really, just like you want to go hang out with your boys instead of like hang out with the girl. I go, yeah, because you know why. It's a guaranteed good time with my buddies. There's no stress, there's no, and not that every woman is stressed. But listen, men, I just know that it's going to be a good time with good memories with my boys and if that girl is important, then we can go out another time, we can go out during the week or we can do this and that.
Speaker 2:But to me I'd rather continue building these memories with people that I care about right out the gate, because I don't know if this girl's going to be my girlfriend. I don't know if she's going to be a one night thing. I don't know if she's not going to be anything at all. Maybe she comes through and it's just like awkward, and neither of us want to talk to the other one and it's just like, ok, thanks for coming through. And it's like, wow, what a waste of night. I could have hung out with the boys and, as men, it's almost that primate brain that comes through. It's that primate brain of us just wanting to be in a group, in a group with other men. Bro, apocalypse hits. What's going to happen, dude? There are going to be pockets of strong men that lead groups. That's just what it's going to be.
Speaker 1:Dude. One of the things that it irritates me so much is I love talking about the military dude. I do just because it's just Something special to you too.
Speaker 2:You didn't just sign up because you were offered a car. You signed up because you wanted to.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it was one of those things, dude.
Speaker 1:I was like I will regard this for the rest of my life if I don't do it. So I went and did it right, and after I got out of it and I talk about the friendships I have from the military and people were always like, oh well, you guys deployed together, that's why you guys are so close. I'm like, honestly, not really. I'm like, is that part of it? Yes, yeah, it is. I was like it's the everyday shit, it's living in the barracks together, it's hanging out. Dude, wake up, do PC, go to work all day. It's Friday, you get back. All right, cool, let's fucking go work out, eat dinner, grab some beers, play Xbox. You're just with each other all the fucking time and, honestly, you don't get sick of each other. You just have fun, man, you know what I mean. It's the day in and day out, all the different shit that you do. Man. And I was thinking about this story the other night and this is one of the funnier stories I've had in the military.
Speaker 1:Dude, we were at this bar one night so it's called Patties, right, and it's well-known bar in that area where I was stationed. And, dude, there was. So our platoon, when I was in Charlie Company, the battalion I was in, dude, like our company overall all three platoons were very close. So everybody, you know we all went out that night, right, dude.
Speaker 1:Now I remember like we, you know there's pockets of guys there right, like we weren't all there together, it's just different groups. So like obviously you see guys from the company around and dude was like getting towards the end of the night and we're like kind of hanging out outside and it's a local bar dude, right, like the locals go there. So some dudes like start drawing out a couple of my boys, right, choker. So we start walking up right, and like there's a big fucking dudes like in my company right, so they're drawing back and forth and I'm walking up and we start drawing. You know, we're fucking going back and forth. Dude, I turn around and there's like fucking 20 of my boys like from the company and it's just like nobody's like hey, like no, we're about to fight Like no dude.
Speaker 1:Just seeing them they're like oh fuck.
Speaker 2:Yeah, let's go over there, let's go check out what's going on.
Speaker 1:I'm probably going to say his name but, like our, one of the officers in our company happened to be there that night. We're going to call him Chuck. He like runs over and he's like guy we're not doing this, we're not fighting.
Speaker 1:And we're like, hey, man, like this was about, you know, but it was that relationship of like you turn around and you're like, oh fuck, you know what I mean. You just got a squad, you know what I mean. And it's makes you feel invincible, dude, yeah. And you're like that's dope. Yeah, you know what I mean, that's awesome.
Speaker 2:It makes you feel special, because there's a lot of, there's so many people that you see, especially on the internet, and a lot of it's the keyboard warriors. In my opinion, there's a lot of people that never get that experience. They never make friends, they never get to experience that brotherhood, they never get to actually bond and connect with another man, another human being. It's different I have to keep saying man because it's different. I don't believe women understand that men have that tribal bond. It's a very different experience than girls bonding and women bonding with one another is something that I'll never understand because I'm not a woman. So it's like when you got your boys and you feel like, oh shit, something might pop off. But like you turn around and you look and you're like, oh dude, okay, well, like if it does, I feel a little bit more at ease because I got the boys with me.
Speaker 2:That's a feeling, that's a vibe, man, and it's an inexplainable vibe for people that have never been in that situation. And it's sad because there are people that maybe don't have the interpersonal communication skills. They for some reason can't express themselves on that stage. They just come off as weird, whatever it might be, and that's a tough thing for someone to go through and never feel that, especially as a man. I can successfully say that all of my friends, whether they've been phased out of my life, whether they're in my life, whatever it is, I've always had that feeling and that bond with them. I always had that like yo, it's cool if shit pops up because I got the boys with me, like we're good and even if we all lose, we all lost together. Like we all hang our heads a little lower but we'll be fine the next day, like it's cool, we just keep hanging our head high because nothing happened, because the boys were there. It's a good feeling, man.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's different man. And again, I can't speak on what the military environment would be like right now, but I just know when I was there dude I won't tell too many stories but like, yeah, you're good dude, but yeah, one day we were waiting after some training event, we were waiting for, like, the trucks to come pick us up, and you know, back then, like you fuck with the privates or whatever, like the lower guys, and we were like, hey, go over there and take, like physically, take you know private zone. So so to our fucking, they run over, they fucking snatch this dude up. Bro, we got into a full company brawl in the middle of a field. Why?
Speaker 1:Yeah, everyone's gonna be laughing afterwards For no reason. Like dude, we're just fucking each other up and like that was fun.
Speaker 2:Whether accurate or not. That reminds me of what movie was that? It was the one with Hawkeye from Avengers. They're the bomb patrol guys overseas, over in Iraq, the? Uh, you talking about the hurt locker? Yes, hurt locker, when they're all wrestling in the barracks together and they're all fucking each other up and laughing and, oh yeah, is that how you hit your bitch, like you know, going at it. That's dude, that's that camaraderie. Shit, man. That's that fun shit. That's that. That's male bonding. That's what that is, dude. You know, I was.
Speaker 2:I was making a joke about Jiu Jitsu today and it's like I voluntarily sign up to have other sweaty men just rub their shit all over me and like us to like beat each other up. And, dude, I walk out at Jiu Jitsu. Sometimes I walk out, like today where I haven't gone in a while, and I got home I showered, said what up to the quiche, and then I sat, dude, I sat on the couch and I went. Oh, I feel like my body got destroyed. Today, bro, you are going six, seven, eight rounds, five minute rounds with another grown human. There's bonding involved in that. There's there is there is camaraderie. I don't believe he listens to the podcast, but he is a good friend through Jiu Jitsu, I got to shout out my man, simba, I fucking love this dude. Every time you ask him how he's doing, like you're just like, hey, simba, how you feeling, he just goes, blessed, I just like, I love that man, You're just in a good space. And it doesn't mean that he has bad days, but it means that he always is trying to elevate his energy and his vibrational feelings and this and that, yeah. So he hit me, I got a lot to get there, man, yeah, man. So he hit me up today and he and I was trying to coach some of the guys up. So I'm in white we're, we're a couple of the white belts in the competition class. Competition class is killers, bro, like these are dudes that are purple belts, black belts, brown belts, dudes that train to win, like these are bad dudes. So Simba hit me up and he goes good role today, bro, he goes. Thank you for the in-match coaching he goes.
Speaker 2:Hopefully, over time I'll be able to implement the advice better in real time. So I said, dude. I said to him, I said, dude, excellent, as always. I said you're a beast and it's never not a challenge. Rolling with you Like you are an animal man.
Speaker 2:And I said, truth be told, I don't even know if it'll help in the moment. I said from the outside it seems like it will. I said I just try to give tips because when I'm mid-role at least for me I forget what the hell I'm supposed to do, cause I get so caught up in making sure that I don't get advanced further by the person I'm rolling with. I said I am glad that I can help you, though. I said we all want to. I said we are all a team. At the end of the day, I want to see you fuck shit up, king. So I said and he says hell yeah, dude, I appreciate that Outside eyes and strong advice are always great. You gave some good advice that helped me during my roles. It's always appreciated, bro. That's that's, that's building a bond right there. That's what that is Plus just. And then guess what? When I go to his tournament and I'm watching him do his thing, he has faith in me to give him what I'm seeing from the outside Watch his foot, watch the sweep, watch this. Don't let him overcompensate. Keep your weight back. These are all things that.
Speaker 2:And we're under Sarah, we're under Matt, sarah BJJ. So we feel like a tribe. And it's cool how I talked to Nick Gilberty when he was on the podcast. It's very cool how we have these pockets of tribes of mixed martial arts and Brazilian Jiu Jitsu schools and then everybody comes against each other to compete. But you look in the crowd and you see, oh, those are Tiger Shoman guys, those are those are Matt Sarah guys, these are Wing Jitsu, these are Soka, all the different schools on Long Island. These are 10th planet. And it's cool to see everybody like, oh, that's like me if I went to that school, like I see him with all those boys rooting for the dude in the cage. It's cool.
Speaker 2:I say all that to say that it's very cool when you have that interpersonal bond with other men and especially if there's military, police work, sports. You know anybody that's played sports baseball, football, lacrosse, anything like that. You're all generally, y'all are rooting for each other. You want. You want to see your team do well. It's your best interest for you. If you're my quarterback, it's in my best interest for you to play well. If I'm your running back, it's in. What the fuck are you laughing at? I'll think about when we were watching the UFC fight last night. The cut man. The cut man Go ahead. Tell people no. Go ahead. Tell people no, go ahead. You brought it up. No, you said quarterback. This is part of the bond Go ahead when you said quarterback dude.
Speaker 1:I should just remind me.
Speaker 2:I should remind you that quarterback quarterback, quarterback quarterback there, all right. So go ahead and give him the, give him the fucking rundown, holy shit.
Speaker 1:Cock Go ahead, all right. So we watched the UFC fight last night and it was wait. Yeah, it was literally the cut man. Yeah, what was his name was Brad Brad Cutman? Yeah, so he literally has Cutman and above he is Brad.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so I said so. I said it's like Brad. I said yo, that's like a dude named Jeeves just becoming a butler. I said why is he Brad Cutman? And he's the dude that's cutting people before they go into the thing. And Jack just looks at me and he goes bro, he's the cut man. I said why is it like that? And then I looked at the other guy the other guy's like ref and I go oh, that's fucking bullshit. That is bullshit. Yeah, brad Cutman.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so we said quarterback. That should just remind me to help.
Speaker 2:Yeah Well, now I don't want you to do. Well, now I want you to get sacked. Talking about that, putting me on the spot about my Cutman mix up, I'm a piece of shit.
Speaker 1:Oh man.
Speaker 2:That was great, that was good left, that's great, that's more man shit bro. Yeah, just like little sis Razz in each other.
Speaker 1:People are gonna be watching us be like. That's so fucking stupid, but I think it's hilarious. We thought it was hilarious.
Speaker 2:It's hysterical in the moment. It's hysterical in the moment. Let me ask you this man How's life?
Speaker 1:Busy man. Yeah, yeah, between work dude, like again, like I said, every agency is different, every city is different, but like we're busy all the time, so work has its own, its own stipulations. Man, that just is time consuming. You know, day is all in, day off, but between that and nonprofit I work with I have dude, it's just busy man. You know, I had this conversation a couple of weeks ago with my parents and I was like really starting to figure out like the whole running a business thing. I'm like it's a lot, you know what I mean and it's one of those things where you learn something every day. It's crazy.
Speaker 2:I've been working for myself. Technically, I've been working for myself since 20,. When did I get fired? I got fired in 2017 from Audio Command, only time I've ever been fired. Thank God I got fired. I fucking hated that place. It's horrible.
Speaker 2:Man driving out to the Hamptons just like a boss who was just super under. We wanna talk about somebody who's like a boss and not a leader Exactly that man Title. Yeah, dude, it was just bullshit. There could have been a very fruitful relationship that came out of that and it just was not what it was supposed to be. But anyhow. And then I quit my job with Casey at CCP June of 2018.
Speaker 2:So technically, like July of 2018, I've been working for myself and then COVID hit. So it's like I actually have to think about that. I'm like holy shit, like I didn't even get two years on my own and then the world shut down. I dealt with all that. I dealt with the adversity of having to find brand new clients and do all that and then navigate getting out of COVID and they're like, oh, it's time to get an apartment, because you're 30 something years old and you can't stay at home forever, and it was kind of just a wild little roller coaster ride, but so let's just call it like 2022, 2021 for argument's sake.
Speaker 2:I'm always learning things, man, and it's tough man, and one of the things that I've learned from listening to a lot of not gurus, but people that are entrepreneurs and been doing it a long time, is you have to be able to delegate the things that you are not the best at. So for me, I'm not good at the bookkeeping. I fucking hate all the accounting shit. I hate all that side of things. So I hired a bookkeeper. She does my books, make it easy.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean you look at all these different facets, man, like you got to market yourself the books, the equipment, right, like clients, right. I mean you go on and create a list for fucking everything.
Speaker 2:On top of dealing with other humans that are involved with the actual project.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I see it like dude. There's things like one of our board members, mike. Recently he brought up to us all these analytics on fucking Instagram and I was like I didn't even know that was a thing, right? So you learn shit every day, dude. It's crazy.
Speaker 2:And that's also important though, because let's give an example for the hum that I was having in my audio recording yesterday. So for those that normally I would get very irritated like very irritated I would not look at the footage, because every time I looked at the footage I had to confront that something was wrong. So in my mind I would just put it off, put it off, put it off. I moved my mixer and amplifier from that side of the table over here. I felt it looked better in the middle, and then I moved my mic stand to shoot out this way, but it wound up being too short and I was too close to the end of the table, so I didn't like that. So now I've moved it to this side and it gives me enough room if I have to like, write notes and whatnot, I have everything right here. Listen, man, I think I have a very good setup all things considered. So it's like you have to work with what you got for the time being. There are things that, of course, I want, but right now we just work with what we can.
Speaker 2:I moved the electrical brick that powers this mixer. I have a basket under this table that holds the wires for the microphones and the wire for the headphone jack Underneath. It's this way they're not just dangling on your feet and my feet. I moved that AC power brick to the basket but, being not that I'm new to this, but I still. I'm a videographer by trade. I just happen to do audio, podcasts, photos, everything else, because I've kind of just been thrown into the fire. So I moved that brick into the basket, not realizing and remembering that once that happens and whatever microphone line that touches the brick is gonna have electrical interference. So my microphone the entire episode with Aaron had a small electrical hum here and there. I took it out the best I could. But being that it's at line level and it's not at like a software thing or a background noise.
Speaker 1:Were you able to hear it when you were talking? No, like on your head. Oh, it's just like when you actually went to the recording of it. Oh, no shit.
Speaker 2:That's why I did the recording just before this with you, to just test the line, put it into my software, listen and hear if it was there Now. I mean it may be here. I have no idea until I get it. I don't believe it is. I believe I fixed it because now I moved that away to that side and I made sure the wires aren't touching it and everything's good now. And then we did the test, listened to. It sounded good.
Speaker 2:The point of that is that, even though everyone thinks I'm an expert in every fucking thing I do, I'm still learning, just like everybody else. Even though I may be, let's say, 20 steps ahead of a guy that's just starting a podcast, I'm still learning and there are still bumps in the road that I have to deal with. You're always gonna be like, and the best way to deal with that is to just go all right, let's figure it out. Let's not get crazy. This is a learning moment. This is something for me to be able to go oh shit, okay, like now. I'll never do that again. So, with business, with life, these are all just ways for you to upgrade your knowledge base and just to feel more confident in things that you do. That's really what it comes down to, yeah that's crazy, man.
Speaker 1:Like, even like with our nonprofit dude. It's just, you know, being a nonprofit has its own challenges, naturally, that you deal with. But like, there's people we've met over the course of this journey, man, that have been in business for a long time or have other nonprofits and things like that, and they'll be like, oh, you know, like well, you need to know this, isn't this. Like, oh, I know I'm throwing a lot at you and we're like no, no, no, keep giving us that information. Like we want to know these things because that's just more education for us. You know what I mean. You're sharing your knowledge with us. Like, the more knowledge we can get from people that have been through these things, we'll take it.
Speaker 2:And when it comes down to it, it just goes right back to what we started this episode on. Is you have to be putting these positions and these uncomfortable things and these fuck ups and these different things to learn and to be more accustomed to when they come down the line again? Because they always will? Oh yeah, yeah, they always will. There's never gonna be a problem free life If you live remote in the middle of fucking nowhere. You're always gonna have problems that you gotta deal with. You're always gonna have adversity. You're always gonna have something. Nothing is perfect in this life or on this planet Definitely not. So you just gotta be able to pivot and be a mature human being. It's tough sometimes. I'm still a little kid at heart. I still laugh at fart jokes and stuff like that is what it is. I admit my shortcomings. I do want you to go in depth about what the goal and mission was behind the nonprofit, because that's just important.
Speaker 1:Yeah for sure. Yeah, it's exciting man. So it's the officer support initiative. So we are a nonprofit based out of Central Florida. So our goal and our mission is to basically provide first responders. Now let me clarify this All of us on our board we are either current or former law enforcement officers. So our overall mission is to provide first responders that are going through any sort of mental issue that they're having whether it's PTSD, substance abuse, something like that to provide them with resources to break this stigma of having some sort of mental issue and being afraid to come out forward about it.
Speaker 1:What we've all seen now when we started this, was we had kind of collectively looked at between the military and law enforcement and been like, okay, what is the issue with mental health? The issue, realistically and this, oh, this is good, because now we could kind of circle back to the LA County thing is there has always been this stigma and it stems from a long time ago. But there's always been this stigma whether it's military or law enforcement, any type of first responder of if I say I have some sort of mental health issue, am I gonna get fired? Am I gonna get demoted? Am I gonna lose my specialty unit. So on the list goes on right, and so you see people that just they don't deal with those issues and then God forbid, but usually in result ends up being suicide, and so you see a lot of these things, like the 22 a day thing with veteran suicide.
Speaker 2:I put that so like real quick, I hate to cut you off. I put that up. Shouts to Matt Kelly. He's a veteran. Love Matt. He's a firefighter now, but he's a friend of mine from Beth's for years. He said that that's not. He's like I love you for putting posts in this he's like, but that's not an accurate statistic. He's like it was actually found to be much lower and I was like I don't know. Everyone seems to be saying that. Do you know if that is accurate or so that's like that's something.
Speaker 1:I saw the number 20 the other day.
Speaker 2:What it just would be. Suicides per day of veterans.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah. So I saw the number 20 the other day and I was like, huh, that might be something to look into, because I know the 22 a day thing like people are doing like the 22 pushup challenge or whatever. You know what I mean.
Speaker 2:Oh, my God, I'm getting the hell potline because I posted how many veterans, yeah, yeah, I mean. So let me just say that I do love that that is there, yeah, Right out the gate, cause you can either chat, you could send a text, you can call. At least the resources are there. But how many veterans are actually gonna use that resource?
Speaker 1:Yeah, a lot of them don't. I mean, there are ones that do. You know what I mean?
Speaker 2:The average number of veteran suicides per day rose from 16 and 16.4 in 01 to 16.8 in 2020. It was highest in 2018. Hold on, let me just click the link, just get this and I'll read off. Mentalhealthvagov is the website that's giving me looking at me like that, kenji Eng. Oh my God, it's a whole PDF. Just where's the information? Key findings in 2020, there were 6,146 veteran suicides. This was an average of 16.8 per day in 2020. There were 343 fewer veteran suicides than in 2019. And the number of veteran suicide was lower than each prior year since 06. From 2018 to 2020, age and sex adjusted suicide rates for veterans fell by 9.7%. This was larger percentage decrease that was observed for non-veteran US adults. Five and a half percent In 2020, adjusting for population age sex differences, the suicide rate for veterans was 57.3% greater than for non-veteran US adults. I mean 60%. 60% you're speaking from veterans to regular citizens of the US that are not veterans that 60% of those people, in contrast, are committing suicide. That's scary.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, it is man and you know, it's a somebody. Recently, when I spoke with the police academy, maybe about a month ago or so, and one of the coordinator there that was helping us, you know, put all this on at the academy. He's like, you know, he's just, he's like this is just one of those topics that these kids will never hear enough about. It's just mental health, you know, especially law enforcement, you know, and listen like I don't. I don't sit here and claim to have PTSD because I don't right. We've all been through our fair share of stuff, but this is something that I thoroughly believe in. You know, and each of us that are involved in this we all have our own story, man, you know, and this is just something that is important to all of us for various different reasons, you know, and you see people affected by it and it's they're not always gonna come straight forward about it.
Speaker 2:Most of the time I feel like they probably won't. It's either a toughness thing or it's just a I don't want to burden somebody type of thing, or they've gotten to the point of just no return, where they feel like, no matter what, the help isn't gonna be there. They're always gonna feel this way and there's no light at the end of the tunnel, in a positive light. It's tough because there's a lot of factors that vary for people that have not only suicidal thoughts but depression. A lot of it could be chemical imbalances in the brain. A lot of it could be dietary. A lot of it could be lack of physical activity. A lot of it could be a lack of purpose and the feeling that you are wanted or needed on this planet. Every single person is wanted and needed. When it comes down to it, you know you have to really keep that in mind. The dark days don't dictate the brighter days that are ahead and the rollercoaster ride that we all deal with on life. No one has a perfect life. We just said. Nothing on this planet is perfect. People aren't perfect, and because we're not perfect and because there is no real perfect thing, you have to understand that those dark days are what's gonna shape the lighter days to make them even better.
Speaker 2:And one of the things that what's his name, gary Brecca, talks about. He's the guy that helped out Dana White. He talks about depression and methylfolate, that there's a methylfolate issue where that is causing an increase in depression. So when he puts people that are depressed on methylfolate and obviously there's other things involved with like diet and keeping up with your hydration and whatnot and electrolytes not just drinking water that is filtered and you don't re-mineralize it, because then the waters are gonna go through you and strip you of all the minerals in your body you have to be able to re-mineralize the filtered water. But he talks about how, once he puts people on this, they start feeling better.
Speaker 2:I'm not a doctor but I do listen to a lot of different people because the information is easily accessible through all the social means and these things are just teaching points of like getting people to feel better. You know, all of this may not help somebody that has PTSD. That person has a different road that they have to go down versus most of the people that are just dealing with average Mental health issues. Yeah, for sure, but they're all difficult in their own ways and they're super tough to come back from because we go to that point of like Nothing is gonna make this better. Yeah, and there's a lot of things that can make it better.
Speaker 1:Yeah, definitely.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean you know what one of the things that you know, so, like for our nonprofit, we do a lot of speaking things.
Speaker 1:You know different conferences, police academies and and you know, one of the things whenever I speak that I talk about is you know, it's that I try to relay a lot of this to my military time, because when I was in the military Again I can't speak on and now, but when I was in there, on what they're basically training a lot of what gets drilled into you is Suck it up, drive on, keep going right, and you just you bury shit. All right, you just bury shit and bury shinbry, because you just you just got to keep going. Like there's always another mission, there's always something else, right. So when we talk, like with my nonprofit, when we talk to people and one of the points I try to make is and I try to relate that to law enforcement I say, okay, so you guys go to a hot call, right, maybe you see a dead body, you know, maybe you're doing CPR, person dies, right, like everybody, everybody's got their own war stories, right. But like what really happens after that Sergeant comes up, hey, you good, you good, good.
Speaker 2:Yeah, next house next call.
Speaker 1:Okay, go take calls, go to call, right. So do you ever really process any of that? No, you probably go home, you take a shit off, hop in the shower, you get in bed and he go. Now you sit there, now he's our process. Now you string together a career of calls like that. Obviously, again, depending, depending on where you work, you know, I mean, but a Lot of that stuff me, you kind of don't really deal with it, right. And so, again, everybody's got their own story, everybody's got their own things that they go through and see. So Everybody's situation is different, right, but if you don't process a lot of stuff, well, how stuff can sit there and eventually eat at you?
Speaker 2:gonna build up you know, I mean gonna build up and it deposits in.
Speaker 2:It's weird how the body works, man, because it deposits in areas and you start getting sick. Mm-hmm, not even it doesn't, it's not even just mental. Yeah, like deposits itself and like your kidneys or your air. I can't explain it. I know I'm sure there is an explanation for it because I've heard it before, but it actually starts to like give you like pockets of just like Cancerous it not cancer itself, necessarily, but like cancerous things that are eating away at you right and causing issues Just because you didn't be, you weren't able to like down, like download what actually you need to do to Get it out and get, get your mind clear finally, yeah yeah, that's.
Speaker 1:You know, that's the thing is like. So We've been blessed with a nonprofit man with you know, we actually just I Just met with this this guy, mike, his always company is deemed fit. So shout out Mike, chad, mike, come through. He's got a Great message. So so his thing so is. If you look at his logo says deemed fit for duty.
Speaker 1:So his thing is being overall healthy to like do this job, to do a first responder job, mentally, physically, and there's a lot that goes into that diet, your hygiene, fitness level, right like all. There's all these things that go into it. And like a lot of people just don't, don't think about that kind of stuff, right Like. So I had somebody reach out to me a few days ago about some medication type stuff and I said, listen, you know, I don't, I don't know personally that's for anybody that's ever been on that for you know, any anxiety related stuff. I was like I've heard stories, I've, you know, watch different videos, things and I've seen that some of the effects are not great. I was like, but Look at other things. I was like there's a lot of like holistic stuff out there.
Speaker 2:Now, you know, but that also takes you doing the research to you know, yeah, but I think, as a nonprofit, this is part of your journey.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and they bring these things and yeah, and these training styles and these I hate to use the words, it's sort of fucking buzzword nowadays but the modalities and all these different things that you could, that's people, can utilize to De-stress and feel ice baths. Honestly, ice baths are beautiful for people that have stress and depression Because once they do the ice bath and they get out that dopamine rush, that euphoric Sensation after the ice bath, right, I mean, most people cure their depression by continuing to do this hard stuff. And it's weird because there's differences, there's levels, there's different hard stuff. Hard stuff doesn't have to be a shooting. It doesn't have to be a seeing a dead body. Hard stuff can be an intense workout. It could be committing to meditation, it could be committing to ice baths to not only Physically feel better but mentally sharpen the tools, and it gets rid of some of the shit that you've been holding on to as a byproduct.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's like one of the things we started to see. Man is, is and obviously you know Everybody stuff is confidential, so I, you know, obviously I will not put anybody stuff out here. But you start to see like some of it too is not like job related, like some people just go through things in their personal life, you know, and that that that could be an array of different things. Right, so it's, it's also not just towards the job, you know. I mean, and those things like him lead down different habits. Man.
Speaker 1:But then the job stressors build on to the personal stressors, right and that creates the mountain that feels like all these things right and it's just, it's a lot, you know, I mean, and there's. But at the end of the day, right, I wake up, get ready to go to the gym, whatever, throw on my uniform, right, but whenever, as a cop, you go out there and you have that vest on, you're expected to be Superman. Yeah, you know, I mean like nothing is supposed to phase you, but at some point, like you have to deal with all these things, have to be realistic as human being. Yeah, you got to deal with these things. Man, like I, just like we had a kid man. He was, he was missing, he was autistic. He's missing for probably like 45 minutes, dude, and we're One of my buddies on midnight's angel, you know, finds them, pulls them out. You know, god, would you see PR putting the AD on all this stuff? Would you find a minute?
Speaker 1:I know in a lake or something like yeah, and he ended up dying, didn't like that. Didn't like at the time did it bother me? Yeah, it didn't bother me really, until like a couple months later and I was like thinking around. I was like, geez, like that's fucked, yeah you know, I mean like, but I don't know when's the next one. You're like you don't know, man. I like it's crazy to think about and, like you know, how much are you supposed to just keep shrugging off?
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's like how much you supposed to keep rolling off the shoulder, being like fuck it, fuck it, fuck it yeah it's like, did they give me PTSD?
Speaker 1:No, yeah, right, but is it a fucked up thing to see? Yeah, yeah, you know, I mean most law enforcement agencies. Actually, it's actually extended now. A lot of people are like 30 years now but like, imagine that a 30 year career of that and you don't deal with any of that shit over that time, that's a lot. Yeah, you know. I mean they talk about like the life expectancy of like first responders and stuff. How Most of them just died like so early on in life after their careers.
Speaker 1:It's like it's a lot of stress, man, yeah, that's a lot of stress from shit. You see, going hot calls, like, but like to I remember after we had a pursuit a couple years ago it was for some armed robbery kids. I was like a fucking 15 man pursuit by Fucking hundred something miles an hour, dude Foot pursuit, and again these kids and like do I just remember after I was just like Like it's fucking adrenaline dude and that's like at least where I worked, that's that happens a lot, you know, I mean not maybe not the pursuit thing, but those fucking adrenaline dumps, dude, you know, and just Scares with like you know, like this person had a gun on my holy shit. You know I mean it's just, it's a lot man, like it's a lot. It's a long career. You know I'm not gonna see her and act like I've been a cop for like 15 years because I haven't right.
Speaker 2:But I just think about how much has has has been drained on you in four, seen a lot in almost four years, yeah, I mean.
Speaker 1:So you can only imagine like another 16 years. It's a lot, man. So you know, we try to Really push that message, man, of breaking this stigma of I can't I can't talk about my mental stuff. Yes, you can, yes, you can, somebody's gonna fucking listen. You need, we're gonna listen, you need to. You know, I mean you.
Speaker 2:You have to like and you have to have that tribe and it's like there.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and it's like we're not telling you to. When you think you have PTSD, then start talking about it. No, like it, you want to call us and just bullshit with us about Something you dealt with it. Call us man, like that's what we're here for, right, nobody's gonna judge you. Like we're, we're not affiliated with any department, we are our own nonprofit, like we are doing this for you guys. It's as simple as that. You know. I mean, this is for you to get better. You know, and even if you're not like down a dark road and you're just like man, I see a toxin might. Call us man, start getting ahead of that shit. Make sure you're good, because the minute that you're not and you start going out there on the street and you're not all there, that's bad. Yeah, that's bad for you, your partners, the community. It's a lot man.
Speaker 2:And what's crazy is the negative experiences because you're in that state, they almost gravitate to you. Yeah, so you, you experience even worse situations than you would have if you had some type of a grasp on things. You could be in a bad mood, you could be upset, you could be depressed and and and still try to keep your head afloat and nice and airy and happy and this and that, but it's like, bro, you're gonna, you're gonna be thrown to the wolves very quickly and it's scary.
Speaker 1:I remember what I went to therapy do that this is Well, maybe two years ago now. The therapist had told me like when I explained her everything that happened, she was like she's like you know what happens and you know you boil water, right, and it starts rising up and overflow. She's like you're just your pocket full. She's like you just overflowed. And I was like, oh, that's like a good, that's a pretty good analogy, like that's what happens, you're right. Like you. Just, you're just so piling so much shit and like you just get the point you can't pile anymore, you can't put anymore in there and he's gonna overflow, you know me.
Speaker 1:So we want people to get ahead of that man and and really take that stuff seriously and break that stigma of, hey, I can't come forward to anybody. Yes, you can, yes, you can, you can because we're here, we're telling you because we've all done you know me, all of us at our boarders, we've done it and we know you can do it. And we're still here, we're still successful. You can do it, you know I mean. So it's been good man We've had, we've had a ton of good feedback man. So I say this all the time. So anybody that's followed us. Cena speak Like we thank everybody for the support. Man, it's been fucking unbelievable.
Speaker 2:I'm gonna put the links to all your stuff in the show. Yeah, yeah, for the youth, the Instagram. I'll put the website.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we're gonna have our. Our website should be launched here in about a week. I gotta add like one more thing to it tonight Is there a live website now or no?
Speaker 2:No, not yet, so you'll have to remind me. Yeah, so I'll go back and I'll add it when it's ready. I'll just put your Instagram for now.
Speaker 1:Yeah, once I go live with that, that has all our stuff in them. You know I have our bio. You know we've been fortunate enough. We've partnered with the Orlando magic shout out to them. They've been unbelievably helpful with us man, so it's been good. It's been good man. But it's a lot of work. Yeah, I mean it's a lot of work to keep up with Between like just making sure people are good, the people that reach out to us. It's stuff on the business side of it, like we were talking about it's a lot, and then being a cop on top of that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, then being a cop on top of it, I'm not a father, but you know we have guys, we one of our guys is is a father, you know me is husband, right? So then you have that aspect of it right. So it's a lot of different channels to really get a control of. But but it's been good man, it's been a, it's been a real positive experience. So definitely definitely blessed for that.
Speaker 2:I posted. I posted videos recently about Veterans on my story because yes, all that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I get very irritated by the way veterans are treated in our country, not only by citizens, but by the government itself, and the almost back turning that goes on it. Yeah, when you're asking these human beings to put their lives on the line for, let's just say, mostly bullshit Wars that y'all start because of your fucking egos. Yep, mostly, mmm. And that truly irritates me, because these are the people that we should be Hit on our knees thanking for putting their lives on the line so that I can be here on a Sunday doing a podcast with my best friend. Yeah, like I can Go out to dinner and not worry about a stray nuke hitting us. Yeah, like these are important things that y'all keep at bay.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and what a lot of people don't realize is that evil is met with evil. Yeah, because you can't meet evil face head on and face to face and go hey, please stop. Yeah, no, you need to look them in the eye and say it's not happening today. Yeah, and we are not gonna accept that and that's what our military does for us. Yeah, and then, once they're done and they're tossed aside like laundry and the services aren't given to them. No, to not only Secure jobs besides law enforcement, but to ensure that they're taken care of After everything that this country has put them through. Yeah, that bothers me, and so, as I get the fuck if I can't you was there, right, no, keenj, and as I was, and as the show gets more and more popular, yeah, one of the things that I'm big on and is veterans yeah, so I would like to partner with you guys. I'd like to bring more and more awareness, absolutely, because that's super fucking important to me. Yeah, and it's disgusting the way veterans are treated in this country, and that needs to change.
Speaker 2:Yeah, dude alone with the remasculine, the masculine inning of men in this country and people holding themselves Accountable as human beings and good citizens Yep, and good human beings Yep. There needs to be a change About the way veterans are treated 100% after They've put and laid their lives in the line.
Speaker 2:Yeah, 100% man, we had a that guy, that video that I showed you, that not that I showed you, but that I put up of the veteran crying in his car, yeah, as he was on the suicide hotline, yeah, and he gets in a way and he gets out of the car and the cop is like I'm here for you, man, just like, do you have anything on you? He goes no, he says can I just have a hug? Yeah, bro, that's a grown man sobbing and asking for a hug. Yep, that should never happen. That she should never have been in that position Mentally. He should have had all the tools, he should have had all the services available to him to make him feel like he's wanted and that his service was actually an Amazing feet for society and for us to continue living this life that we take for granted. In a lot of ways, that bothered me.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we had it. We had a guy a couple years ago. This was like One of the first times with this nonprofit that we had like a really really Huge full circle moment between law enforcement and military was a couple years ago we had a guy. I Think he came out as like a domestic violence car or something like that, right, but he was in the apartment, former Marine, like was, was in, like the sir, like he was. He saw us, he saw shit in it, yeah and um.
Speaker 1:So I remember that you know he had guns and stuff in the house or whatever. And I Remember going to that call and I was out there with a rifle. You know it was a hot call for us and everybody's out there and my buddy, rick who's, who I partnered with in this nonprofit, he was right there at the door and this guy's inside he's videoing the whole thing cuz he doesn't know what's gonna happen. He's good, you know he's going through a moment, all right, and so I know I don't know exactly what Struggles he was having with the VA, but I know he was having some issues there like getting help and stuff like that.
Speaker 2:Shocker because I've only heard amazing things from the VA right and so Disgusting, you know, rick.
Speaker 1:Rick finds out this guy's a Marine, calls up another officer who was a Marine and they end up talking him and I'm getting to come out.
Speaker 2:They take him into custody, you know, and you have to do the proper channels at that point. Make sure he's not, you know, deadly for anybody.
Speaker 1:So I never saw this guy right, never saw him, never met him. About a month ago or so, when I was talking with the Academy, rick, rick was there. He's like, hey, kurt's gonna come. I was like who he was like, remember that call a couple years ago, do his marine dodo down? I was like, yeah, he was like that guy. I was like, no shit, I'm gonna go back to the. So he comes. Great guy, unbelievable guy.
Speaker 1:And he finally felt comfortable about talking with the Academy a little bit about his experience that night and I was like I remember before he got up there I was like guys, you're gonna sit like this is literally a product of talking, somebody talking, getting somebody help and doing the right thing. You know what I mean. And this guy came back and I was like, dude, nice to meet you, man. Like I was like I was fucking there that night. You know what I mean. And it was comforting man to see like we were able to get this dude help and put him in the right direction and like he's doing a lot better now. And he was confident enough to be able to be like, yeah, I wanna talk to these kids.
Speaker 1:I was like, wow, man, like that felt good. You know what I mean. It was like wow, like. So now you know, we talked to this dude and he's, you know he'll be facing whatever he's gotta face you know for however long and you know, hopefully he gets more of the help that he needs and he's been doing a lot better. But it's just crazy to see that full circle moment of like. Now he's coming back and telling his experience of like hey, I was going through something you know what I mean and it was awesome, man, you know what I mean. It was awesome. We were finally, you know, we were able to see that, like I said, that full circle moment. It was good, but yeah, it's crazy, man, it's a lot.
Speaker 2:What are next steps for you guys?
Speaker 1:So I mean we have more, like we always have these speaking agents coming up. You know, we're mainly in Central Florida. Like I said, we've been fortunate enough to have a lot of these conferences that we'll speak at. Departments from across the country have reached out to us, you know, whether it was in person, through Instagram, sending us a message or whatever. So we're trying to expand and hopefully get as much exposure as we can other places.
Speaker 1:So that's why I like it's been awesome, like you know, we're sitting here talking about it now, when I met with Mike from deemed fit the other day. You know he's coming down in February for a big event that we have that we're going to out in Claremont, which is like a little bit outside of Orlando, you know, and he's a cop up here. So you know we're trying to network, yeah, spread the awareness, yeah, just that's kind of the big thing for us right now and just really get that message out there, you know. So that's really our big thing right now, proud of you, man. Yeah, we try, man, you know we try and it's been, like I said, it's been a good experience, it's been a lot, but it's just it's a lot to learn, man, you know what I mean. You learn something new every day, like every person you talk to that's going through. Something is just different. You know what I mean. They respond differently. It's a lot, yeah, it's a lot, but it's a good thing, man. It's a good thing, man, and hopefully Good sir.
Speaker 2:Yeah, keenys just squeaking his toy. He's getting antsy. Yeah, I like it. I think that's a good place to end. How can people because especially because it's 5.30 and I gotta get you home to get Tinder with grandma? Yeah, yeah, yeah, we can talk for fucking an hour. Yeah, I know for sure. Please address the camera. Let everybody know how they can get in touch with you. I'm gonna have links in the show note and the show notes for audio and then the YouTube channel for people that wanna get in contact with you guys and talk about and see what they can do if they're interested in getting partnering up or just finding out more.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so biggest thing for us is our Instagram account has been our main feedback for everybody that's reached out to us, whether it be departments, anybody going through stuff. We will have our website coming up here, like I said, in about a week or so, so that will be another way to reach out to us. There will be an email link at the bottom of that. If you scroll all the way down through all the information any of our personal Instagrams you'll see we tag all of ourselves through our Instagram page. You can reach out to any one of us specifically. We'll all reach back out to you. If I'll give you our Google phone number, that'll go straight. I'll put it into there. That'll go straight to Rick. That phone will always be answered. So there's multiple ways to reach out to us. We are on Facebook, youtube, tiktok any of those platforms.
Speaker 2:Just give me all the links and I'll put them in the show notes, so they'll all be on that.
Speaker 1:Those are kind of our biggest things, man. That's kind of how everybody can reach out to us and get with us and talk with us about anything. You know what I mean?
Speaker 2:So, yeah, that's what I'm talking about. I've had development on you, brother. I've seen really good shit from you over the last years and knowing you since we were younger and you're doing amazing things bro.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we've seen a lot man. So yeah, it's been good. Appreciate having me dude.
Speaker 2:Anytime you want to come on and chop it up with me. I am blessed to have friends like you and come down spreading amazing messages and doing good for a lot of human beings, and you never forget that when you're going through your mission, that every single life you touch is an unbelievable thing.
Speaker 2:Yeah absolutely, man, but I love you, I appreciate you. Yeah, everybody listening. This is gonna be episode. I haven't put up errands yet. I have to put up errands. This is gonna be episode. I'll tell you right now. I think Aaron was 78. So it's gonna be 79. There's gonna be episode 79 of Rizology. I appreciate everybody for tuning in.
Speaker 2:Like I said yesterday on Aaron's episode, 74% of y'all that watch the episodes on YouTube especially, aren't subscribed. Hit that subscribe button. You don't have to hit the bell notification where you'll get spammed by YouTube every time I upload an episode. If that's more your take and you really want to hear from me, the second, a video comes out number one, I'm flattered. Number two. Fuck's sake, man. Somebody wants to hear me that much. I appreciate every single person, man. So definitely hit that bell or just hit the subscribe button.
Speaker 2:Leave comments on the video when you can. Please share the message that's still and the nonprofit that he has started with a lot of the other officers and veterans. Please share that with veterans that you may know other people because, as Bedris Koolian says, men especially live a life of quiet desperation and a lot of the times you won't understand when they're at their lowest point. They may think that they may seem that everything is amazing and sunshine and flowers and the best thing ever, but unfortunately it may be pretty dark on the inside, so you never know. So, sharing these resources with people that you know they may never use them, they may need to use them, you never know, and it's good to do it either way.
Speaker 2:So, on that note, share, comment, subscribe, please, and on audio platforms, if y'all can leave reviews of the show on Spotify, apple, apple podcasts, whatever you need to do, it becomes a fucking exhausting with how many different social sites and everyone requiring their own thing. But you know what I have to say. It cause, if I don't say it, I'm not my best advocate and I have to be the biggest advocate of my own show. On that note, brandon, once again, love you, bro, appreciate it brother.
Speaker 2:Appreciate all y'all for fucking with us.
Speaker 1:Thank you, bye for listening, man Peace.