Ask A Cop
Ask A Cop is live and unscripted. Each episode gives other officers and the community a window into a police officer's world and provides authentic community engagement with law enforcement professionals.Listeners can relate by asking questions, hearing some of their own struggles, and finding solutions. Despite preconceived notions, these men and women, who serve and protect, are approachable and eager to answer questions. This resource provides meaningful engagement for officers, their families, and the community. As chaplains, we have witnessed the immeasurable rewards of simply sitting down and having these positive conversations. Produced in partnership with Gods Way Radio.
Ask A Cop
028: How did supporting Law Enforcement and Bleeding Blue start?
Step into the inspiring world of law enforcement with Danny Morales and Brandon Espinosa, two Miami-Dade officers deeply influenced by their stepfather, a seasoned 31-year veteran of the Hialeah Police Department. You'll hear how Brandon got his start as a police explorer at just 14 and how Danny's unique journey took him from a police-oriented high school to a brief stint in the medical field before joining the force. Both emphasize the vital importance of staying proactive and productive in their demanding careers, and they share heartfelt tributes to the families who support them unconditionally.
We also take a moment to remember Cesar Echaverry, or "Etchy," a beloved fallen officer whose dedication to his family, church, and community left an indelible mark. His loss profoundly affected his colleagues and underscored the tight-knit solidarity within the law enforcement community. Hear the powerful reflections on the emotional toll of his passing and how the unity symbolized by the thin blue line offers strength and support during times of grief. A listener’s mother even shares a touching message that illustrates the irreplaceable role families play in the lives of officers.
Finally, discover Bleeding Blue, the impactful organization co-founded by Brandon and Danny to support law enforcement families. Learn about the deep, personal stories behind its founding and the impressive achievements already made, including $135,000 donated to 22 families in its first year. From the Just Ask mental health campaign to community-building events and partnerships with influencers like Enrique Santos, Bleeding Blue is making a substantial difference. Join us for an episode that celebrates dedication, honors legacy, and builds community.
This is Ask a Cop, a conversation with those serving our community in law enforcement. We're connecting to ask questions, hear perspectives and continue to build a relationship between the community and officers. If you'd like to connect with us, stay tuned after this episode to learn how. Right now, though, get ready to Ask a Cop. Right now, though, get ready to ask a cop.
Speaker 2:Good to be with two of our fine law enforcement professionals here today and Adrian at the control. So, guys, I want to allow you a moment to introduce yourself and whatever you would like to share with us. We'll start at my right here and then go down the table.
Speaker 3:Hey, good afternoon. I appreciate you having us. I'm Danny Morales, I'm 27 years old, I'm a law enforcement officer down here in Miami and I'm happy to be here. I appreciate you guys, and to my right is my brother.
Speaker 4:Hey, good afternoon guys. Like my brother said, I appreciate you guys having us here. My name is Brandon Espinosa, I'm 31 years old, I'm a sergeant with Miami-Dade PD and I'm the co-founder of our organization, Bleeding Blue.
Speaker 2:Awesome, awesome. So we're going to talk about Bleeding Blue. We're going to hear a little bit about you guys as well. Want to give you an opportunity if you want to shout out to your wonderful family. I see part of them here even today. Anyone want to give a shout-out or anything?
Speaker 4:Shout-out to my two kids, Aurora and Matthew, and to our family and all of our supporters.
Speaker 2:We appreciate you guys. Awesome.
Speaker 3:Anyone you want to give a special shout-out to the family is the reason that we're here and we're doing everything that we do Honestly. They're our backbone to everything, so shout-out to them and they're listening.
Speaker 2:Good, good, I love it. I love it.
Speaker 5:He's still waving. Go ahead, Adrian.
Speaker 2:There we go.
Speaker 5:So I know that one of the two brothers that we're getting to meet today has a little, as he said, more time in his hands than the other one with the two little ones.
Speaker 3:Precious, two little ones For sure. But my time shall come, but it will come after that awesome, so uh again. Uh, danny, you've been with uh miami-dade police for about six years you said, sir, yeah, six years, and um, it's been a blessing, yeah and, and you started law enforcement there in miami-dade.
Speaker 2:This is your first, your first department first and only and hopefully the only one until I finish. Awesome, awesome. And brandon, what about you?
Speaker 4:I've been on for a little over 10 years and just with miami-dade- awesome, awesome.
Speaker 2:And you guys have a family, uh, in law enforcement as well correct, correct.
Speaker 4:Our stepfather who raised us, uh did 31 years in hialeah, amazing.
Speaker 2:So, guys, we want to talk a little bit about just to get to know you guys a little bit more. Is it that simple that you had your stepdad, you know, and you thought, man, I want to do what he does? Was there something that changed in you to decide to want to become a police officer?
Speaker 4:I'd say that, at least for me, I wanted to be a police officer at a very young age. I was a police explorer at 14, uh, which is essentially it's a program through the police department, sponsored by the boy scouts of america, where you get to do like ride-alongs with police officers, you get to go to events, you get to compete in certain competitions. We had the drill team, we had our pistol team, we had our competition team, which is you do scenarios and stuff like that. So, at least for me, I knew at a pretty young age that I wanted to follow in his footsteps. As soon as I turned 19, I applied for the academy and I got hired at 21 and I've been on ever since.
Speaker 2:Awesome, awesome and danny, what about you?
Speaker 3:yeah, I mean obviously growing up in that, in that lifestyle, with our stepdad raising us and going to all the police functions and all the events and the police rodeos and even the law enforcement memorials every year, um, you know, walking around the police station. At a young age I went to a high school that was police and fire oriented and then brandon becomes a police officer first, so at 18 it was kind of just like a robotic move. I was like, okay, this is what my destiny is. I need to become a cop. But I didn't get hired for three years, so it took three years.
Speaker 3:I was trying to figure out what I wanted to do in between all that. And I was working at a pharmacy, so I figured I was like, okay, let me dabble in this medical field a little bit. And then one day, out of the blue, I'm standing at the pharmacy and I get an email from the police department and I was like, hey guys, got to go.
Speaker 2:Go to the police academy. That's amazing, you know. Even you know, being 27, I mean there might be 20 somethings listening. You know even that element of the story. You know. You just didn't wait around, you know for the police department to call you. Oh, you know, I'll just uh, you know which. Again, I don't mean to stereotype or generalize, but we do see that a lot right in the 20 somethings they not sure where you want to you know, not sure you want to where you want to go, but they um, and it could be any age, right.
Speaker 2:But here's the point you, you, you got a job, you, you were busy, you were making money, you were developing skills, you know, you didn't just sit around and wait. I think that's, that's important. I don't know if you guys want to touch on that real quick.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I mean we both started working at a very young age. Our family I mean I personally was working at Publix since 14. Brandon worked at Publix as well, so eight years at Publix before I even got hired with the police department. It teaches you the discipline of having to go to work, the responsibilities of you know just being there early and not on time. There's a difference between that and understanding the responsibilities that you have from that day to day really set us up for the future as being law enforcement officers.
Speaker 4:I really got to thank my mom for that one. She told us that if we wanted to drive, we had to start working. So my responsibilities started very early in life because I was dead set on driving my own car.
Speaker 5:So I like it and we haven't stopped since and those are the kind of things that I hope you know. People listen and they're like oh, we're gonna hear. Ask a cop, get to know some officers, maybe call in or whatever, and what you get is parenting tips. You know on how we were and you get all sorts of uh, good information. But I strongly believe in that right. It's so much of the parents we get to mold and shape our kids and I got to tell someone recently, you know, when a person who teaches is called a what? A teacher? A teacher, right. So a person who waits is called a waiter. That's just my joke on the words there. But when you look at a waiter in a restaurant, like, which kind of waiter do you want? The?
Speaker 5:one who sits around. You have to almost yell because he's on his phone. He doesn't give you anything, you know you don't even want to leave a tip at that point. Or you want the waiter. Who's on it? Man, your soda's not even done, he's filling in your water. Waiter, who's on it? Man, he, your soda's not even done, he's filling in your water and you know he's bringing your food, he knows the timing. So talking about waiting, man, waiting is like that. Hey, I was waiting to be an officer, but meanwhile, let me, where am I at right now?
Speaker 2:and I think that goes into law enforcement, you know it goes into law enforcement and it goes into bleeding blue. You know we made that, that comment, or um, you know we want to talk about how, uh, you want to see what your passion is, pursue your passion is, go, go after your, your dream, uh, just a lot of stuff. So, uh, moving forward a little bit, um, six years on the department, 10 years on the department, and, uh, you guys had a I don't know, just a heart, a gifting. Maybe it was being brought up a certain way. I think it goes to some specific, even incidents that you experience. Basically, the background of Bleeding Blue, you know, one way you guys put it is we had been doing this already before it was official. So take us way, way back. Can you remember the first time that you did any kind of fundraiser or anything like that?
Speaker 4:Yeah, absolutely. So. I became a sergeant with MDPD back in June of 2019. As soon as I got promoted, one of the first squads that I got, I had an officer assigned to me that was out on leave. He had previously just been involved in an accident off duty, a personal accident. He was in his personal car and unfortunately he totaled the car. He got into a real bad wreck.
Speaker 4:He was out of work for a couple of months and I started asking around. I said, hey, you know, like, is there anything that we're doing for this guy? Are we raising money? Is he okay? Like, like, what's going on? Because I haven't really seen anything? You know, I start asking around in the district and everybody's just kind of like, well, I don't know. You know, I mean, a couple of his like close friends were going by taking him food, you know, making sure they watched his after his mom and stuff like that, but nothing like you know being done for him and his bills, right, like, regardless of what happens, our bills they keep coming. Yep, you know. And now this guy, having been somebody that works a lot, he had a business. He, uh, he used to fix up motorcycles and sell them and build bikes and stuff like that on the side, in addition on the side, separate from police work.
Speaker 4:Yeah, I go, man, this, this guy's got to be hurting, you know we don't know his finances. So I reached out to my brother my brother was very big into the the challenge coin community at that point and I said, hey, like you know, you know a little bit more about this than me. You know what do you think about this idea. And he's like, yeah, let's do it. So we quickly organized, like you know, we made the phone calls we had to make just to make sure we weren't stepping on anybody's toes, and we created the intercoastal uh challenge coin. We advertised it, you know. Accordingly, okay, you know, we're donating this money for edwin, you know, with his permission and everything. And at the end we donated uh, I think it was about fifty five hundred dollars yeah, nice, nice.
Speaker 2:So let me ask you something, and again, not to get into people's other people's personal details, but is it when, when a police officer in a situation like that, is it that the pay is reduced or it's not coming in, or just because of the excess of bills in a situation like that, or are there any?
Speaker 4:so when it's an, there's a difference between an off-duty incident and an on-duty incident. If it's something that's on duty, you know, and god forbid you you pass away, which we have had. We have had people's families, you know, like ecchi and stuff like that, that we've helped out. Those families get taken care of. There's, you know the department's going to go above and beyond for them to do that. Unfortunately, you know, and no fault of the department, when, when things happen off duty you know they used to you're able to burn your time or file for fmla and stuff like that, but you're not making any extra duty pay. You're not going to court you, but you're not making any extra duty pay. You're not going to court. You're not getting any of that. Unfortunately, especially living in Miami, and you guys are no stranger to that it is very expensive and the majority of police officers depend on that. They're off-duty pay, they're overtime pay and stuff like that just to kind of make ends meet.
Speaker 3:Full transparency is, I mean. Obviously we work extra hours to get extra pay right, so there's there's off duty assignments, whether you're working at a hospital or, uh, even some schools that hire us or churches that hire us or certain events and stuff like that.
Speaker 3:So you know, being injured, even with a leg injury, a minor leg injury, like personally I was I had a leg injury and you're out for six months and you can't pick up these extra jobs that you know maybe someone's Christmas gift or, you know, pay an extra bill at the house that may come up, your AC breaks you need to work an extra job. Thankfully we have that ability to do so and although, even if you are injured on duty, the department takes care of you but you're still not getting that surplus that you're used to.
Speaker 2:Gotcha, gotcha, yeah, again. Just the uniqueness of the profession. And it makes sense, right? If you have a four-day-a-week schedule, why not take that extra day or two to get some more income? So it's a double whammy. When you're out of work, it's almost like being out of two jobs, right? Your four-day-a-week schedule and then that fifth or fifth and sixth day.
Speaker 5:Absolutely.
Speaker 2:So thank you, thank you for shedding light on that for us. If you're listening live, remember Ask a Cop is recorded live and then put on the podcast later. So if you're listening live, you can participate by calling or texting into the studio. If you want to ask Danny or Brandon a question, if you want to give a word of encouragement, if you want to make a comment, they are open to you. We are welcome to those phone calls and those texts. The studio phone number is 786-313-3155. 786-313-3155. You know anybody that knows law enforcement in South Florida. The history of law enforcement pays attention to people that have south florida. The history of law enforcement pays attention to people that have, well to say it like it is, died in the line of duty. Um, they know that name, cesar echavaria. His last name always gets me to stumble, but etch user echavary echavary known to us, uh that knew and loved him as etchy etchy.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I just, I always have etchy in my mind, so anytime I have to try to pronounce the name I don't usually, but I wanted to try, but I failed. Okay, we're going to come back to that because, man, I wanted to hear from you guys that worked close to him. How was that like going through that? And then again it brings us back to Bleeding Blue and that passion and that mission that you guys have, so blue and that passion and that mission that you guys have. So we're going to come back to that in just a moment, but we have somebody that uh has taken our invite to call right now or not.
Speaker 5:We want them to call again. So if you just called, if you just called, please call again. The call dropped, so we want to take your 786-313-315 great, great.
Speaker 2:Uh, we have a text as well. Adrian will pull that up for us here in a moment, but let's hear about oh well, we got the text. Great, adrian, share with us the text.
Speaker 5:I don't know if you guys can see it, but it says the text that came in. Please tell them that their mama is listening and is so very proud and that she loves you both.
Speaker 3:think, joey, you mentioned it uh you mentioned it that the reason we did this and everything that we, that we have and we're blessed with is is because of our foundation and our mom is a huge supporter. She has to deal with three law enforcement officers bless her, yeah in the family and um.
Speaker 4:Also credit to her for coming up with the name. So oh nice she gets naming rights there.
Speaker 5:Amazing. Well, maybe in a future episode we're going to get all the wives and have a special wives of police, moms of police, because they deserve a whole track.
Speaker 3:It's a nice outlook. I'm sure they'll have a good outlook on what they go through as well.
Speaker 2:I like it, I like it. So, coming back to just that moment in your career, uh, everything that happened with ecchi, if you could tell us, uh, you know, from your side of the story okay, well, I was ecchi's sergeant in rid, which was a unit that he worked in where he unfortunately passed away.
Speaker 4:um, I wasn't his sergeant during the incident, I had already left the unit, but I did work with him personally. Etchi was to say that he was the best of the best is just an understatement. He was truly just an individual that was very dedicated to his family, very dedicated to the church, and really I don't know of an individual that didn't get along with him. I don't know of an individual that didn't get along with him. Unfortunately, Etchie went to work one day and unfortunately didn't come back home.
Speaker 2:As far as how it was in motors.
Speaker 4:No, he was in RID. The robbery intervention detail, and that's that's where the incident happened. It was correct, correct, they were. They were attempting to apprehend a robbery subject yeah, okay, which. Unfortunately, the shots were fired and he passed away. Um, as far as that how that affected us I mean at least me personally when, when I first heard um more parts of part of numerous like police chats and supervisor I'm, you know, being a supervisor, I'm on a supervisor chat here and other chat there. On one of the ones I was on, I was off um, somebody got on there and say, hey, rid officer shot trying to get more information.
Speaker 4:Immediately, you know, having been part of that unit, I started making phone calls and etchy was actually my second phone call. He didn't answer the first guy that I called. I immediately turned on my radio and I heard his voice. So I said, all right, it's not him. So I called etchy and he didn't answer. Quickly I went, I got dressed and I just beelined it for the hospital and on my way over there I find out it was Echi. I mean, at least I could tell you, for me it was very personal, it was heartbreaking. We cried. Obviously he was not only somebody that worked for me, but a close friend of ours, somebody we broke bread with. We know his family, we've kept close contact with them and it was definitely something that struck home for us.
Speaker 3:It hits the department as a whole. I don't know if you guys have had the thin blue line. It's huge in the police world and it's one big family, no matter where you are, no matter who you are, even if you had personal issues with this person.
Speaker 3:Once you put that uniform on, it all drops right. You're you're defending what you stand for and what you believe in and why you did this job. And even if you didn't know as a person, if you didn't know him as a co-worker, somebody that goes down in the line of duty, everywhere, it's all hands on deck so everyone is responding, everyone's going to the hospital to show support to the family members that may be arriving. Everybody may be doing a certain role, even if it's caring for one of his close friends that may be going through it, and it impacts everybody differently, but it definitely impacts the whole department. It impacts the city overall, because there's people that are not, that are just civilians that knew him, went to school with him and you know a fallen officer is huge.
Speaker 5:Yeah, we got to be there. Right, we're city of Miami chaplains and we immediately heard of it. Right, the hospital is in the city, so we hear of a lot of these incidences. Hospital is in the city, so we hear of a lot of these incidences. And, as a matter of fact, that was a very special one for me because my dad, the night or the day of so, during daylight, whenever that was that day was my dad had a. So he has a heart attack or no, a stroke, um, and he's in jackson. So I'm, I was going back and forth, I was going from from the trauma center over to the heart emergency room and then back and forth and I was teaching an officer wellness class. So those first couple days, you know seeing and I don't, I saw so many people. I don't remember actually seeing you there. We met later, but all of us were there different color uniforms, different people, uh, all united.
Speaker 5:You know, especially that one time, I remember, you know, there was a prayer circle.
Speaker 3:I mean even the people walking around the hospitals. You know the civilians that are just there because maybe they're seeing a family member and they'll go up to an officer on the side of the road and be like, hey, what's going on? And then you tell them and they're like, oh wow, like I'm so sorry for your loss, or I'm sorry that this is happening, and even if they may not like cops or not, at the end of the day an officer went down, like there's a level of respect there and you know it's felt worldwide.
Speaker 2:I think that if people are reasonable, you know you have the criminal element which, to say it lightly, they want to see police hurt and out of the way. To say it lightly, they want to see police hurt and out of the way. But I think that maybe even a lot of people that complain or have something against the profession or police officers or whatever, you know, you just said it it's like oh, whoa, wait, that happened, like someone might be dying. Okay, like my silly, you know, complaint now, like this got real. You know what I mean.
Speaker 2:I think that most people react that way and again, it's hard because I wonder if anyone listening if you're listening and you've maybe been on that of that perspective, you know, had complaints or had issues. I mean I don't think we get many people listening to Ask a Cop that way, but maybe you did tune in today. I would ask you to put it in perspective. You know, put it in perspective. So just things to think about. And it is, it's very impacting, you know.
Speaker 2:Again, you know, brandon, I don't think anybody had to teach you that. You know, oh, something incredible, something tragic, there's another word for it, it's a big deal, you know. You just go. We've seen that and I I don't know, I mean how. I don't think there's any way to describe it as you become an officer you were saying it just you become family, but it, is there anything to it? I mean, did, did, do you just know? I mean, as soon as you put the uniform on, hey, when, when something like this happens, you go, you find parking wherever you can, I mean I, I.
Speaker 4:I think that when you constantly put that uniform on every day and you go out and you risk your life every day with these individuals, I mean it's hard not to become close to them, right, it's hard not to be battle buddies and stuff like that. You know, because I got to have your back out there and, like Danny said, like there's people that I might not like on a personal level, but if you call for a backup, I'm coming and the cavalry is coming and after that, hey, whatever man, it is what it is, but right now, what counts?
Speaker 2:Maybe get back to arguing, but we got to make sure you're okay first, so we can argue.
Speaker 5:We got to make sure that you're assigned to and you're supposed to take care of, and you were wondering how they were doing when they weren't there, Not just on a hot call when there's danger. But how is that?
Speaker 5:person doing at home and that's what I think feeds into Bleeding Blue, where the concern is not just the day-to-day calls that's part of it but there's a whole person and family that goes way beyond that and again I think, and because of that in your heart, in your mind, is part of the heart and the mind in Bleeding Blue.
Speaker 5:It goes beyond just that call and that's where it comes in to fill in whatever gaps we kind of know. But we just get lost so busy that a lot of people would just say I don't even know what to do and they won't do it. In a sense, Bleeding blue came from that. Well, what can we do? Where is a gap that maybe I can assist? Can't do it all, but then boom so, yes, yes.
Speaker 2:So so you guys have um, you know you've put some stuff online. Uh, people can go to bleedingblueinfo bleedingblueinfo bleedingblueinfo for themselves to be able to check out the information. You know the whole About Us page, all of it is at bleedingblueinfo bleedingblueinfo. But just wanted to give you guys an opportunity to tell us more about it. The official launch date right on the paperwork November 4th 2022. But I just wanted to give some backstory. Right, you've been doing this for a while. Maybe there's other stories you want to share, but just let's get into it. Tell us what Bleeding Blue is and what it's all about.
Speaker 3:Also, like Brandon said earlier, this was I'll give credit to the name for my mom.
Speaker 1:It was more so.
Speaker 3:So obviously we've been doing this for a year now. No-transcript touches home for us as, being a homicide detective, I was, you know, by his bedside the entire time with his family. Brandon is in close friends with him, the kid is. He's a young kid, you know. His fiancee was there, he was about to get married. Like it touches home, right, we're at the same age group, you know. We're both officers, we both have a very extensive career to come and and then this happens.
Speaker 3:And then, you know, a couple weeks later, one of our other good friends, um, gets shot and basically paralyzed and his entire life has, and his entire life has changed. His entire family has changed, and that was in a domestic violence incident. And he's also a law enforcement officer, somebody who is big into the community giving back. He owns a shop down here in Miami that's oriented for first responders and wherever he can give back, he gives back and whatever he can do, he does. Now he's never going to be that same person again. Thankfully, he's still with us, with the grace of God, but you know it's not him.
Speaker 3:And that's when Brandon and I said, okay, we need to. You know, we're doing these fundraisers, but we need to do them legit. We need to be on the books. You know, save money where we can so that money that we're saving can be donated to that family. We can do fundraisers, we can do t-shirts and, and you know, partner with different organizations, partner with different companies that are going to benefit what we're trying to do. And then that was the mission behind getting Bleeding Blue started. You know, 501c3 process is very extensive with the state of Florida and the and the IRS.
Speaker 3:Yeah, you know a little bit about that yourself and I, um, I think when, when Adrian and I first met, you know he was still going through his process there and um, you know it's, it's not easy, but you know, thankfully it came. It came quick for us and a lot of mentorship as well, the different organizations reaching out and making sure we're doing things the right way and not just for, you know, personal gain.
Speaker 3:And that's a big thing behind us is that there's no personal gain here. This is blood, sweat and tears, and we get zero compensation from this other than the gratification of knowing that we're helping somebody. So Bleeding Blue starts November 4, 2022.
Speaker 2:Congrats on one year.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it's been a blessing, Successful year and we've worked hard for it. And it's not only us. There's a lot of people behind the scenes. There's our family members, our coworkers, our friends, our supporters, people that come just randomly from showing up to an event and then become family to us, like Adrian here, and it's been great. And hopefully, 2024, what are we? January 2nd now? Yeah, we're getting it started. I was doing the books before we got here.
Speaker 2:That's amazing. Hey, if you want to call or text, you know, mentioning again that this is being recorded live from the studios of god's way radio on january, the 2nd 2024, if you're listening going, hey, that's what. That's not. That's not the date on my watch, that that's because you got the podcast. You're doing good. But if you're listening live can call or text us 786-313-3115. Again, the studio phone number for God's Way Radio 786-313-3115. Brandon, anything on that, on what Bleeding Blue is all about, on getting started, on your first year, anything we want to hear more about Bleeding Blue?
Speaker 4:Well, we've been fortunate enough to donate about $135,000 to 22 families. We're all about trying to help. That was just in one year, correct?
Speaker 5:Correct.
Speaker 4:And just over one year. Yeah, we're all about helping the next guy. Our main mission is officers that have died in the line of duty or officers that have been injured in the line of duty. But we have had a couple of special projects here and there. You know, one of our officers daughter was unfortunately sick. We were able to do something for her and donate some money to her, but we've kind of ventured into the, the mental health aspect of police work as of as of late.
Speaker 4:You know, one of the things that we always preach and you know I always tell my hey man, if you're ever going through something, call me. I know Adrian touched on that earlier. I'm very big on that. I would hate for one of my guys to be going through something and I could have done something about it, something as small as a phone call. So recently we announced our Just Ask campaign and we put it know to all of our followers and all of our officers Just hey man, you know, if you're going through something, I'm I'm no professional.
Speaker 4:You know I'm not a psychologist, I'm not a doctor, I'm not certified in anything, but I do that too. You know I've been a cop for for quite some time. I grew up around it, so it honestly feels like longer than 10 years. You know, I feel like I've been a cop my whole life and you know I go through it too.
Speaker 4:You know we're not perfect and we have had some individuals that have called us, you know, and it's never who you think is going to call you. You know it's never like my buddy that I know is hey man, like he's going to call me. It's always like that person that you're like oh wow. You know, I didn't think I was going to hear from you and we've been fortunate enough that we've. We've had some people call upon us that we're we're in a crisis and we were able to help out, you know. So from that stemmed our mental health conference that we're going to be doing in july. We've got some some nationally renowned speakers that are going to be coming out to that. I'll let danny touch on that in a little bit, but we're we're very excited for that.
Speaker 4:We're expecting over 500 people at that event. So that should be very, very cool.
Speaker 2:We're going to continue to talk about that here in a bit. But bleeding blue, bleeding blue again and again. In case people haven't gotten the the gist of it, bleeding blue is is what exactly? It's a, a fundraising organization. It's a so we're so we're a non-profit organization that raises money for South Florida law enforcement families.
Speaker 3:So through fundraising means through hosting events, selling merchandise, you know, bringing people together in a day of unity and just essentially raising funds to assist other law enforcement officers in South Florida and their families.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you know I love that. I wanted to make that really clear because it's a let me see if I say this properly it's a very specific mission, right? Does that make sense? What I'm saying Like it's it's, it's, it's refreshing because, okay, there's, there's one mission, there's one very specific thing that we want to accomplish here, and I just think that's refreshing. I don't know, you don't have to do everything right. We see one need, we see one thing.
Speaker 3:And we want to attack it. If we can impact one person's life once a month, even if it's just, like Brandon said, a conversation with a friend, or if we impact one family in a year and that's what 2024 has for us then so be it but, we did. We did something and that's something that we're going to work hard at doing. So, and thankfully, 2023, we were able to help 22 different families 22 families is amazing.
Speaker 2:And and before we get to some more uh stuff here, I want to I want to keep on the straight thought because, uh, bleeding blue is different and it's unique, um in in what you guys are able to accomplish, the, the fact that you're personal, the fact that the families attend the events. I mean, tell us more about that. And again, there's a lot of incredible organizations. We know that, we receive that, we respect that, we acknowledge that, but Bleeding Blue is special. Tell us why Bleeding Blue is so special.
Speaker 3:So shout out to all those other organizations right, we support them, they support us, we have great relationships with all of them and, like I, like I mentioned earlier they, they guided me through that process of getting everything registered and whatnot. Um, there's no difference between us and them there. We're doing the same mission and what we try to do is fill in that gap where there there may be means to raise other money. So, for instance, if one organization is doing a poker run, we'll never do a poker run because that's just going to take money away from what their mission is right.
Speaker 3:If somebody's doing a golf tournament, we're not going to do a golf tournament, we're going to do something different. We're going to do basketball, we're going to do softball, we're going to do a bike night, right, and that's where we fill in that gap and we're able to generate that money from a different crowd for the same purpose. And we try to keep that personable aspect when we do these events. We invite the family members out, even from previous events.
Speaker 3:Another family that we have assisted already, we'll invite them out to a future event of somebody else's family that needs assistance, to bring them together, to understand that this is the Thimphu line, this is our family. Our family is out there. They get to meet me, me, brandon, our co-workers, my mom and dad, who raised us, and understand that this is a personal aspect. Here's my cell phone number, car text man anytime. Here's my Instagram. Here's my Facebook, my personal one and you know we keep those relationships with them and uplift each other through life, because it's not easy. Yeah, we all, we all have our struggles in life, regardless of what it is, and losing somebody is the most difficult thing, especially unexpectedly, in the line of duty, um, even an injury. So when we do these events, you know it's, it's to bring everybody together for a common goal.
Speaker 3:You know, invite your friends, invite your co-workers and we've been successful thus far, you know yeah, Brandon, how have you seen that?
Speaker 2:How have you seen the community relationship aspect of Bleeding Blue? You know where these families become friends with other families, become friends with new officers and new families Anything come to mind over the last year.
Speaker 4:I mean, yeah, we've really had a lot of community support, you know, and in this game per per se of trying to organize events and trying to do things for certain people, I mean, you quickly realize that this is a game of who you know. You know, and who you've done favors for that can do you a favor, or hey, I know that guy that can help me, you know, move this mission along, and stuff like that. And we've really partnered up with a lot of people. You know, the community has really gotten behind this. There's so many people that we've crossed paths with, you know, like even enrique santos.
Speaker 4:At the last event that we were just at, we had a two-minute conversation with him and he said, hey, I'm on board, take my personal cell phone number. You know, in two minutes, somebody that has a huge reach compared to us, you know, we have what? Two thousand something followers on instagram. I mean, this guy's got half a million followers, you know, and in two seconds he was like, hey, man, let's go. You know, so we've been able to cross paths with a lot of people like that that you know have a lot more reach than we do, and then they've been so on board with this mission and it's it's truly been a blessing for us Awesome, awesome.
Speaker 2:Well, we have some. We had some people take up the challenge here. 786-313-3115, if you want to call or text Adrian, what do we got?
Speaker 5:So we have a text message. It says here for anyone who is thinking of supporting Bleeding Blue, do it With an exclamation point. Whether it's through buying the challenge coins or t-shirts on the website or attending events, everything makes a difference. Law enforcement officers put their life on the line every day. This is the perfect opportunity to give back to them and their families. Brandon and danny are both amazing individuals with great hearts. Thank you both for all that you do. That is, she put her name you. Sometimes we try to.
Speaker 2:Yeah if you put your, if you put your name, we're gonna give you a shout, a shout out From Gabby. Awesome From.
Speaker 5:Gabby, and how much did you have to pay her to write you this amazing text?
Speaker 4:message Gabby, we'll shoot you the zone after that I appreciate it Good.
Speaker 3:Good, we're going to dinner later.
Speaker 5:So we got another text message.
Speaker 2:This is another from this is his gamer tag. No, no, I'm just kidding, I hope tag yeah. No, no, I'm just kidding, I hope that wasn't insulting.
Speaker 5:I was gonna say his department but, but he put sheepdog danny. But it says shout out to danny and brandon. They are amazing persons. I will always support them.
Speaker 4:Hashtag bleeding blue that's actually gonna be. Uh, danny, he was at the round table that we did the other day, yeah yeah, yeah, so he's part of a regional peer team, also in the county very big in the mental health community and also a big challenge coin.
Speaker 3:Yeah, sheepdog projects is his business and he's worked with us. Um, you know, he's a partner with us and he's a shout out to sheepdog projects they are good, they're great they're
Speaker 2:I'm googling them right now. He does some great designs too.
Speaker 5:Uh, your aunt, your aunt is proud. Boys are grateful to have you as cousins. So you got family. Family shout out, friends shout out, and that's what it's about. We can't do it alone and it does get lonely, but, man, when you have people, just a little bit of encouragement on those tough days, and so very thankful.
Speaker 2:So proud of my nephews. Did we read that one? So proud of my nephews Awesome.
Speaker 5:Little hugs and kisses, little hug, little hug. Yeah, man that's family.
Speaker 2:I have a very serious question for you, Danny.
Speaker 3:How many?
Speaker 2:challenge coins do you have?
Speaker 3:Oh God. So six years worth and a lot of money well spent.
Speaker 2:What do you think 100, 200?
Speaker 3:Well, currently. So I had to buy a house so obviously, so you traded in half.
Speaker 2:Yes so now.
Speaker 3:I currently only collect coins that are relative to homicide investigation so whenever I travel, or stuff like that, or coins that I've created myself for fundraisers, but prior to this I was in the couple, hundreds that's amazing 20, 25 a pop, sometimes even more than. You just sit there and look at them and you're like, wow, these are beautiful. You know, danny sheepdog, danny did great, orly? And mike made a really nice design, but you know, this is 20 that I can use towards my house, so that's amazing in the couple of hundreds.
Speaker 2:If you can rival Danny's collection, text us. Text us your number of Challenge Coin 786-786-313-3115. Guys, you mentioned a couple of things, again, the fact that you were able to donate almost $135,000 to 22 families. Tell us a little bit about what Bleeding Blue is planning for this year, and we'll save the conference for the end, but there's some other events that you guys already have planned as well.
Speaker 4:So right now we're working on doing a like. Our closest event is probably going to be the first weekend in February. We haven't announced it on our page yet, but a little sneak preview for anybody that's listening.
Speaker 5:Oh, let's go here we go Ask the cup.
Speaker 4:We've got a workout event set up for one of our officers that unfortunately passed away outside of police work. But he passed away and we reached out to his family and he was very big into working out and stuff like that. So a buddy of mine, David from from sweat 440, miami lakes. I reached out to him and he's going to partner with us and we're going to do an event there.
Speaker 4:Probably february 3rd is the date we're looking at awesome um, after that, we have our annual 5k coming up in march. That should be good. That's going to be dedicated to Brandy, and Brandy was a dispatcher with the city of Hialeah, who was also a close friend of ours. Not only did I grow up with her daughter, megan, but her dad, oscar, went to the academy with our dad. So, again, something that hit close to home and we decided that this year we were going to dedicate it to her. So hashtag, run for Brandy, look out for that.
Speaker 1:So you guys, want to sign up for our 5k. That's on our website also zoo miami.
Speaker 4:So sign up for the 5k and you get an entrance. Yeah, you're running, you're running.
Speaker 3:Next, to the animal. Oh sorry, yeah, yeah, um, if you run like one, maybe you'll be the first place winner and we'll have a prize for you.
Speaker 4:We promise not to have the alligators chase you, yeah so all right get everybody to run.
Speaker 2:That sounds fun. It's in Miami.
Speaker 3:I mean, I think it's a cool. Last year we did Tropical Park and I mean, obviously it's Tropical Park, it's one of our like staples in Miami Bird Road. This one's a little different because you can get with signing up for the 5K. You're donating to this family, this first responder family. They're all in. So it's the husband, she was a dispatcher, the husband's a cop with us, the daughter and son are both first responders themselves, so we're donating back to them. And then you also get entrance to the zoo to spend the day with your family and stuff too. So it's interesting. That's going to be in March. We have a couple other things lined up for the year Probably another bike night. Hooters invited us out to do another bike night.
Speaker 2:There they're, they're huge now, this is bike motorcycle.
Speaker 4:Bicycle, motorcycle motorcycle come in a bicycle, it'll be interesting no, no, don't come like no, so if you just some guys come with the bikes with the little engines on them okay, and it's a broom broom awesome.
Speaker 2:So that's all again at bleedingblueinfo. Uh guys, as you said and I want to give you a chance to talk about this a little bit at length Danny you said and again it's really a profound stance that you have and I want to give you an opportunity to elaborate on it and tell us again about this conference coming up, you and Brandon but you said that you think that there could be a lack of respect for mental health in law enforcement and because of that and because of what's transpired over this last year, you guys have really seen a shift, even in Bleeding Blue as an organization. So start to talk to us about that, please.
Speaker 3:Yeah. So the idea, idea there was a sequence of unfortunate events, um, within law enforcement that kind of ignited this mission that we have in bleeding blue now, right. So originally it starts off with let's just do some fundraisers, and then it becomes like, hey, let's just do this, just ask mental health movement. And then we're here launching a conference for 500 people, and that sequence of events has led us to understand that there is a there's a gap that needs to be filled in. There's we're trying to bridge that gap between law enforcement professionals themselves and their family members and the mental health stigma. Right.
Speaker 3:So, you know, being a being a homicide detective there's stuff that we see on a day-to-day.
Speaker 3:Being a road officer, you know you're going to a call of a domestic violence and then you're going to an old lady that might be having a heart attack, and then you might be going to a dead dog, right, whatever it is, yeah, but at the end of the day, there's traumas that come from the day-to-day job that people are not open to talking about, because you need to have this awful personality, you need to be ready to snap out of it and get into the next day, and a lot of us will go to work, experience eight hours of trauma and then come home to your family members and your kids and you're supposed to act normal.
Speaker 3:And there is there's a lack of conversation about mental health within first responders in general, not only law enforcement, and that's where we we wanted to to bridge that gap. So this mental health conference is aimed to to bring motivation to to the topic right. So our speakers, specifically, will be providing insight and experiences that they've encountered so that we can, you know, learn from them. And then, on the second aspect of it is unity bringing all these officers together, start networking, meet people, see what's out there.
Speaker 3:You know, if there's a peer support team, if there's some type of organization that I'm a part of, if I like to fish, there's going to be organizations that are going to be available to you with those resources to have a better career.
Speaker 2:A better career and a better retirement, Because when you don't take care of yourself for lack of a better term, you have nothing left to give after 20, 30 years. I know Adrian's big on that. After 20, 30 years, I know Adrian's big on that Not only that you have a good career, but that you still have something left to offer your family, your friends, your church, the community, the Lord Ryan I think I've heard you explain it that way.
Speaker 5:Yeah, yeah, absolutely. It's these amazing men and women and not everyone gets to meet them and that's why we like to do these Ask a Cop programs and we wish we could do more. But there's so many amazing men and women that we get the privilege of meeting and seeing, that are in the law enforcement community, officers and civilians alike, and these amazing men and women don't deserve to then get to the end of their career and their pension is gone. Their relationships are, know, relationships are torn up again and you know they're, they're not doing well they, you know, um, it's, it's, it's it's not right in a sense, now, uh, so, yes, the ending, I think, is very important and part of what we do as chaplains is there's a spiritual component, I think, to every person and we want to guide and help people to last a long time beyond their career and beat those statistics of a diminished life at the end of a career, but be thriving.
Speaker 5:Have a family, have a career that even through all the end of a career, but be thriving. Have a family, have a you know a career that even through all the struggle, if anything, it just made them stronger, better, more of a family man knowing how to treat their family, knowing how to treat others. So definitely I think that's a big focus of of what I look at is is uh.
Speaker 5:I want to help you now, because I'm thinking of 20 years from now. How are you going to be doing? How is your family going to be doing? They deserve the best version of you at that point. And when I say the best version of you, not like in today's, I don't know. People have all sorts of ideas. This isn't a party thing. It's your life. Like that, you are able to take care of them have a relationship with them. I think they did a study two seconds on this.
Speaker 5:Yeah, yeah they did a study on the most satisfied people, and they started with Harvard graduates. They quickly realized they needed a bigger kind of audience, and so they went to like 400 Baltimore inner city kids and they looked at them their whole life and they studied them and they said what do the majority of these people say that makes them the most satisfied? And what they realize is that a good life is built on good relationships. And those good relationships require time, require you to be in your right mind to be able to treat them correctly, and so in an officer's career it's hard to keep those good relationships. You have to diligently put in effort to get there so that at the end you have that.
Speaker 2:Because that's important. Yeah, absolutely so. The importance of mental health, absolutely Well, somebody beat your number, danny. Yeah, man, 600 coins, 600.
Speaker 3:Did they leave a name?
Speaker 2:They did it. Of course it did. It's a cheap dog, oh he did that doesn't count.
Speaker 4:Yeah, but he has, yeah, yeah, doesn't count when you're making.
Speaker 3:We share the same name that's amazing.
Speaker 2:Hey, you know what? No, you know what it counts, you know it counts. And this kind of goes back to something else we were talking about. I don't know this individual. I'd like to get to meet them because I want to see their collection, but but it sounds like this individual did something similar to what you guys have done, which is taking your passion, taking your purpose and and making something out of it.
Speaker 2:You guys started a non-profit. It seems that he started a successful business, you know, for-profit business. Can you guys talk to that for just a couple minutes? We we end at 4 30. So we're we're rushing with time here. But, man, if there's officers that they have a passion, maybe it's, it's very philanthropic, in a sense of it's helping people. It's something like what you guys are doing. Or maybe they love woodworking, you know, and they're like oh, you know, they're just kind of grumpy, they don't want to, they don't have time, I can't. No, you know what you know. Follow your passion, develop those things, see where it can go. What? How have you guys seen that happen, even through Bleeding Blue?
Speaker 4:Yeah, I mean I challenge all officers, all of our friends, to have that, you know. To kind of just back to what we're talking about with mental health. You know, I think it's very easy to get institutionalized sometimes. You know you get used to that like going to all these calls and all the trauma that you absorb. Right, because unfortunately police work as officers, we are society's consequence, right? Like people don't normally call us when things are going well, you know that's the fire department People call us. You know when stuff is. You know, excuse my French, but you know it's hit the fan.
Speaker 2:Yeah, right, yeah yeah.
Speaker 4:So we have to get there and we absorb all that and then we get home and it's where do we now channel that energy, you know, and the longer you do it, the more it's it's hard to to release, you know, um. So yeah, man, all of our friends and all of our co-workers and stuff, you know I, I know a lot of them that have cool hobbies and we work with a lot of them. You know, we work with daniel all the time, we work with, um, a couple of other coin entrepreneurs yeah entrepreneurs you know, shout out to mike and orly.
Speaker 4:They've done a bunch of coins for us, a warrior coin company. Um, we, we work with any anybody who's who's willing to to work with us. We work with them, man. And we're always like super cool, we don't charge, nobody're. Just, we want to help each other out. You know, because, like we talked about earlier, it's all about relationships. You know I'll help you out now, you help me out later, you know, and we all have the same goal.
Speaker 3:This is a great story. I'm going to share it right here. I'm going to jump in and all that stuff. So I'm I'm a homeowner. Hurricane comes, my insurance doesn't pay for my fence. I'm here looking for someone to do a fence job. So we have a chat. I get on the chat and I'm like anybody does fences. Somebody reach out to me. He's a city of miami officer and he comes. He gives me a quote and I was like, whatever, this could be more expensive. It can be cheaper. I'm sure I can, I can do it myself, whatever, but he's a law enforcement officer. I'm going to support him and we're going to run with it. You know, he does my fence. They do a great job. A week later we get a windstorm. It breaks down one of the panels of the fences or the gates of the fence that he did. He comes down, he comes to my house he lives an hour away. He fixes it. It took him like two minutes and he's like hey, danny, you know like this was a two-minute job.
Speaker 3:But you know, I'm dedicated to what I do as a business owner. You're a fellow cop. I support it. A week later, his family member, uh, crashes and gets into a car or a motorcycle accident, and his family member is a 22 year old city highly officer that we ended up raising fourteen thousand dollars for. So it comes in full circle how you can help somebody one day in their personal business and then, on the other end, bleeding blue is doing something for their family being prayed for highly right.
Speaker 5:We, just in this conversation alone, we have their call taker last year. We have this young officer who I remember graduating from the city of miami police academy and so that's already, you know, two within our 30 something departments in miami-dade, statistically speaking that's. You know, that's a lot of of difficult situations in one year and we all share.
Speaker 2:Obviously it goes beyond the department yeah, you know, something that's coming to light, I think is um, there is that element to and again I want to hear from you guys on a yard guess uh, there's that element to going to work doing your job, not taking it home with you. You know there's that aspect. But there's the other element of building relationships caring maybe not so much caring about the nitty gritty or the bad stuff, but caring about your coworkers, caring about people going the extra mile, not just to win points but because it's the right thing to do. I mean any of that resonating with you guys, any of that connecting with what you guys are saying.
Speaker 3:I mean just, you know, again, caring, you know caring about the profession, caring about your coworkers how that's made a positive impact in your career, in your life I posted a story the other day on our instagram and it says uh, good things happen to good people and good karma is is something that I believe in and with, with just the grace of god, period, if you, if you're doing something the right way, your, your life is going to get benefited. And if it may not be you directly, it may be your family members, it may be your family members, it may be your kids, it may be your coworkers, but if you surround yourself with good, then you're going to have a positive outlook. You're going to strive, you're going to thrive to do better, and that's what we do. We only surround ourselves with that good energy and try to push away any of the negative.
Speaker 3:And try to push away any of the negative, and that's even in the professional standpoint Surrounding yourself with business partners that are doing good things. Let's say, orly and Mike from Warrior Coin Company and Sheepdog Danny. They make our coins for us that we use for fundraisers. Those are their personal businesses that they're for profit and they donate so much of their money. They make coins at cost and they'll put the hours into package and create and design all this stuff. So if you continue to surround yourself with good energy, it's just your perspective in life is going to be better and your relationships with other people are going to just thrive.
Speaker 2:Thank you so much, Brandon. Anything on that, on just how caring improves your career, your life, going the extra mile.
Speaker 4:I mean just to piggyback on what Danny said. You know we may be the, you know, quote unquote captains of this vessel, you know called Bleeding Blue, but we're nothing without the rest of our shipmates, you know, without the rest of the crew. You know called bleeding blue but we're nothing without the rest of our, our shipmates. You know, without the rest of the crew, you know we're just the two guys that created it. But, you know, without our family, without our friends, without, you know, our co-workers you guys here today you guys, it's everybody.
Speaker 4:You know like we'd be nothing, we'd be unsuccessful, if it wasn't for the partnerships and the friendships and all that that we've created through this. You know, even in my, in my, in my professional life I think anybody that's ever worked for me could tell you that. You know, especially if you've worked for me for a significant amount of time like I try to create a family-like environment at work, you know, and I defend my guys furiously. You know sometimes, sometimes I get pow pow for it. You know, and I've I've gone to bat for my guys and you know, and it is what it is. But I'm going to defend you furiously, especially if I think that you've been wronged.
Speaker 4:And that gains a lot of respect, and these guys know that I genuinely care about them. It's not just hey, I go to work, I'm your boss, don't call me when we're off, because it doesn't seem genuine to me like that.
Speaker 3:So that kind of stems into this. You know, never really understood why people liked brandon as a supervisor and then I was like you know, let me ask them, and then you know, that's amazing. I grew up with him and I was like you know, how do people like this guy?
Speaker 2:that's amazing. That's amazing. Uh man, ask, ask them. Uh guys, I want to end here with you know, I'm a merch guy. I love it, love, love the merch I. I love the designs that you guys have come up with. So I want to ask you about a specific shirt, because it comes talking about coming around full circle. Back to God's Way Radio. You know our ministry here, man, you guys have a very nice shirt. It says here I am, send me from Isaiah, chapter 9, verse 6. Tell us about this shirt, about the inspiration for the shirt, about the meaning of the shirt uh, with the last couple minutes here, that you guys sell on the website.
Speaker 2:By the way, that's bleedingblueinfo go cop a shirt, not one, just two. Two, because you and a friend there's like one of each.
Speaker 3:Right there you go so the here I am shirt is um, our second design that we created. Um, I think we're ready to do a second order of them. We've sold a good amount of them, but we've been raised with a faith-based household. Right, and, with that being said, that's incorporated into what we do on our day-to-day lives. Right, we volunteered to become law enforcement officers and collect a paycheck. That, in my opinion personally and I speak freely is not sufficient. Right, we make ends meet and we're blessed and the bills get paid and we can provide for our families. But the sacrifices that we go through, the traumas, the day-to-day, the hours that are put in there's days that I'm working 30, 40 hours on a homicide scene I don't see my family. I see my coworkers more.
Speaker 3:You know that is God putting us in that position to do better for everybody else. So here I am send me, put me in whatever situation that I need to be in to protect my loved one, to protect that complete stranger on the other side of the road, or put me in between that domestic violence incident that we're responding to my loved one to protect that complete stranger on the other side of the road, or that, you know, put me in between that domestic violence incident that we're responding to. Perfect example. God chose ecchi that day and ecchi's partners were saved. You know, god bless his soul and we thank him for his sacrifice and we appreciate his family for raising such a great person.
Speaker 2:But that shirt resembles exactly what ecchi did that day danny, any thoughts on that specific design, on that shirt, on that sentiment? Uh, brandon, excuse me, I think it's it's.
Speaker 4:It's hard to uh to come after danny you know, and and mention edgy. But it's true, you know, it's, it's something that hits home for me, you know, and I think that you have to have that mentality going out there, you know, especially like I work in north side you and.
Speaker 4:I've on and off worked Northside for the majority of my career, sometimes in different units and stuff like that. And for the audience that may not know what that is, that is, it's probably the worst area we have in Miami-Dade County. You know it's where all our shootings are, so the murders, the robberies and stuff like that. And I think you have to have that mentality, you know, like god send me, because you know you can't give the criminals the upper hand. You know you can't go in there with a mentality that you know you have to be cautious or whatever. I think you have to go in there knowing like hey, you know I'm, this is my chosen profession.
Speaker 4:I am god's warrior and send me. You know, if, if I could save that little boy, if I could save that family, if I could save that, save that woman that's getting beat by her husband, I'm ready, I'm ready for God to use me as his soldier.
Speaker 2:Guys, thank you so much and again, just so much of God's heart in this profession of law enforcement and that's part of why it's so near and dear to us here at God's Radio. Adrian, any last comment or question you had for the guys. If I had a last question, I don't know if we're gonna get to cover it now. This is hard. Maybe they want to say you know, plead the fifth on this one, but I wanted to know what their favorite event has been. Now, that's hard because it's not because it's associated with a specific person. I just meant like the funnest one, or your favorite, or you really like basketball, or you like running better, but maybe there's something a little bit more deeper. That's not good English that.
Speaker 5:Adrian has. I was just seeing the picture my wife sent me of the shirt.
Speaker 4:It's the drip man, let's go Copy some merch.
Speaker 2:There you go.
Speaker 5:No, I mean, you know what. This is the beginning of 2024. And again, you might be listening to this in the recorded podcast, you might be listening to it wherever, but live on air. It aired january 2, 2024 and this is the beginning of the year, and 2023 was a hard year. Let's see what 2024 brings. And and that's kind of the mentality like this is god put us wherever you want us, and I always the way I say it sometimes, like wherever the storm is hitting man, I want to be caught right in the middle. Um, that's where you see some beautiful things that god does. He really does some amazing things and I just want to be caught in the middle. I'm not that smart to figure out where to and I just want to be there.
Speaker 2:So um awesome so I don't know, you guys really, yeah, yeah you're ready for it?
Speaker 3:um, they're all great, obviously, I think the the biggest one is the political answer yeah, no, no. The real one I mean I put, I'm telling you, we put yeah, our heart sweat and tears into all of it, but really quick answer.
Speaker 3:I'd say it was the 5k seeing everybody from from the running community, the police community, just come together at a in a huge park and even the people that the run directors that put it together, they, their response to it after the end of the event was like wow, we didn't think you guys were gonna get that big, so, um, it seems very approachable, you know, because you can walk, you can run, you can take your kids, you can.
Speaker 2:It's very like it's not a crazy distance, yeah, yeah for me.
Speaker 4:Uh, I would have to say it wasn't an event. It was our second project, which was uh for officer damien colón, who was a victim of domestic violence, and that again, was something that hit home for me, because damien was kind of like my mentor when I started.
Speaker 4:He took me under his wing and he showed me a lot. You know he showed me a lot about what it is to be a cop and that family and you know parties at his house and gatherings and stuff like that and you know that that kind of hit home for us to be able to do that for him and his family.
Speaker 2:Amazing guys. Thank you so much for sharing with us. Again, if you've been listening and you want to follow up with Danny and with Brandon and with the work that they're doing, it's at bleeding blueinfo. There you're going to find the information for the mental health awareness conference July 20th 2024. You're going to find the information for the upcoming 5k at Zoo Miami, for all of the events that are going to go to directly benefit law enforcement officers and their families in their time of need. It's all at bleedingblueinfo. Thank you for listening here at God's Way Radio. Check us out on socials as well. Stay connected if you want to know all the good stuff happening in Miami.
Speaker 1:This has been another segment of Ask a Cop. Ask a Cop is a live call-in program featured on the first Tuesday of every month during the morning and afternoon live programs on God's Way Radio 104.7 FM in Miami, florida, or through the God's Way Radio app. Visit GodsWayRadiocom for more details. You can listen to past episodes of Ask a Cop and find more resources at our website, policethankyoucom. If you're a police officer, family to police or a supporter of our law enforcement, you want to visit this website. Again, that's all one word policethankyoucom.