In this podcast episode, KLBJ 590's Todd Jeffries offers a unique perspective on Austin's most pressing issues. The conversation delves into the complexities of maintaining integrity within the police force, explores significant law enforcement events, and addresses tough questions such as whether policy changes are creating a haven for crime. The episode also examines the impact of political influences and activist groups on the criminal justice system, prompts us to think critically about our education system's role in shaping our society, and reflects on the power of communication to bridge divides. Don't miss out on this opportunity to gain a unique perspective - listen to the episode on the "Todd and Oz Show" on KLBJ or online at https://www.newsradioklbj.com/show/todd-and-oz-show/.
email us at- bluegrit@tmpa.org
In this podcast episode, KLBJ 590's Todd Jeffries offers a unique perspective on Austin's most pressing issues. The conversation delves into the complexities of maintaining integrity within the police force, explores significant law enforcement events, and addresses tough questions such as whether policy changes are creating a haven for crime. The episode also examines the impact of political influences and activist groups on the criminal justice system, prompts us to think critically about our education system's role in shaping our society, and reflects on the power of communication to bridge divides. Don't miss out on this opportunity to gain a unique perspective - listen to the episode on the "Todd and Oz Show" on KLBJ or online at https://www.newsradioklbj.com/show/todd-and-oz-show/.
email us at- bluegrit@tmpa.org
The rhetoric would have never been tolerated when I was in high school. No, ever. I would never even think of some of the things we hear. Yeah, are there bad things that happen in policing? Yeah, yeah, there are, but I don't know any cop that wants to allow it. Yeah, right, yeah, nobody wants that. Nobody wants to work with someone. That's bad for the business.
Speaker 3:Hey, Blue Grit Podcast. We are back this week.
Speaker 2:Your co-host clint mcnear and tyler owen, how are you good? Good, I don't have any socks, everything is going good.
Speaker 3:My laundry's done all good, yeah, what all events we got coming up we've got the texas fop spring board meeting and corpus christi.
Speaker 2:Very much looking forward to that be my first time to uh to attend april 12th through 15th, I think, in Corpus I believe. So I'm just excited that I get to attend it with you and get to be standing by your side in Corpus Christi for such a monumental event of my first FOP attending meeting to help out and show some analytics, nice.
Speaker 2:Then the Texas Peace Office Memorial is in last weekend of April, yep, two weeks after that. And then we've got the joint Texas FOP and TMPA conference coming up July 26th to the 28th in Dallas. So we've got some stuff coming up within TMPA, yep. So anyway, who do we got on, you know, moving here to Austin. You know, when TMPA told me to move to Austin, I was thinking this is going to be just an absolute craziness down here. You actually realize over the five or six years that this craziness has gone on with this Austin police experiment, that you find similar-minded people. I found one on the radio station, actually KLBJ 590. Todd noshow, I was, I was. I started listening to them probably about a year ago and I became a huge fan, and so, uh, man, for todd to come on and uh thank you, that's nice and and, uh, you know you guys always start every podcast by buttering each other's biscuits.
Speaker 1:Is that what you do? Yeah, is that it okay and I want to.
Speaker 3:I want to thank you because when he said he was moving to Austin, I really expected he would be living down by the river in a yurt smoking marijuana and trying to grow his own mushrooms. It hasn't happened yet. He's turned out okay, but he tells me it's because he gets up and listens to you every morning.
Speaker 2:Well, thank you, he is my balance. Todd and Oz are my balance. Thank you for living in the Austin area.
Speaker 1:It's very nice of you. I've been here for 30 years plus. Started as just a weekend news anchor, then full-time anchor, then became news director and then got a chance to start hosting the morning show about 20 years ago. It's all been behind me since then 20 years here and it's it's all been behind me 20 years here in austin.
Speaker 1:I've been here in austin on the air for for right at 30 years. It'd be 30 years this coming october actually. Wow, where were you born? Where'd you grow up? Grand prairie, texas. Yeah, grand prairie memorial hospital. It became an animal shelter a few years after I was born. That's true. That's true, not related to you being there.
Speaker 3:It wasn't because of me or anything. I don't think.
Speaker 1:I don't think there's some brothers and sisters.
Speaker 2:I don't know, it's possible.
Speaker 1:But yeah, got into radio out at Abilene I went to Hardin-Simmons University, went, broke out there, worked at a Christian rock station, came back to work at the USA Network, did overnight news for Armed Forces Radio. Oh cool, for I guess it was about four and a half five years. Worked at WBAP in Dallas, krld and finally made the big move down here Nice yeah.
Speaker 3:What steered you toward the broadcast?
Speaker 2:Besides having the sexy voice that you do have.
Speaker 1:I don't know, I just always have been kind of Sounds like Barry White over there.
Speaker 3:I thought that was Barry White sitting next to you.
Speaker 1:My whole life, all through high school. It'd be a teacher for some event at school. Here's a microphone. Can you do the announcements? Oh really, hey, can you do the football games? Really Stuff like that All the way through high school.
Speaker 1:And through high school and I was just happened organically I was in theater, you know, I was always the guy that would, you know, get up in front of the crowd and read the read whatever's happening today, for whatever exercise we're doing or whatever. You know that sort of thing. And it just kind of got into it. I dj'd a little bit, mixing vinyl, you know, and in the clubs and stuff did that for a while did that, you know, with the two and third tables and then got a great chance to do afternoon drive at KGNZ, the guns of God, kgnz 88.1 FM, and I thought I made it.
Speaker 1:I was making $3.85 an hour Big money. I was the afternoon drive jock in a college town that had three Christian universities ACU, mcmurray and then Hardin-Simmons, and all of the girls there are looking for MRS degrees. So there was no trouble or anything. You just had to stay away from them. They were looking to get married. But then I came back and worked at the USA Network and WBAP. I don't know, I just kind of gravitated to it. It was something I could pick up and do easily. Yeah.
Speaker 2:Have you always had support. You know, one of the things that I love about y'all's morning radio show is one you call BS. Or what do you call it? Bravo, sierra, bravo, sierra, you call.
Speaker 1:Bravo Sierra, sometimes you're talking out the north end of a southbound mule. Yes, that happens sometimes too.
Speaker 2:And you have to tell them that that's right.
Speaker 1:Because they don't know. No, they don't know, they're saying something stupid.
Speaker 2:But I like the fact that you all call it like it is and you call out Bravo Sierra, like you see it, and your support for law enforcement. You're not afraid to do that, you're not afraid to say by God, I stand up for law enforcement, I stand up for the Austin Police Department, I stand up for Travis County Sheriff's Office. I stand out for these guys, because people that don't live in this area, that don't understand the politics behind Travis County, the current DA, they don't understand really what's at risk and then what else is going on across the state. And so for you to stand up and stand with the men and women that serve us, that protect us, means a whole lot.
Speaker 1:Well, what's on the line is community. If you don't have a safe city, a safe community, you don't have families. Families is what built this nation and if families don't feel safe at school or just walking down to the park, then you don't have a community. You've got something completely different that is foreign to me personally and I just can't imagine. I graduated from high school in 1987.
Speaker 1:I can't imagine some of the rhetoric back then that you hear today About people that serve our community. You know firefighters, ems and police. The rhetoric would have never been tolerated when I was in high school no, ever. I would never even think of some of the things we hear. Yeah, are there bad things that happen in policing? Yeah, yeah, there are, but I don't know any cop that wants to allow it. Right, yeah, nobody wants that. Nobody wants to work with someone. That's bad for the business. Nobody wants that. And I think DA Garza bad for the business. Yeah, of community and family and public safety. You know, when you run a campaign on, uh, I'm going to indict cops. That's what he did and he destroyed this city and I'm not 100 sure we could fix it. I'm not sure we can fix it before things get really bad, especially after this last election we had when he won the nomination again.
Speaker 3:Yeah Well, and we've said it on here a couple of times, is Austin's full of reasonable people, a lot of educated people in Austin. I would almost admit Austin's probably one of the more educated counties in Texas. And the scary, sad, crazy part is Austin has had examples around the country of what not to do San Francisco, portland, seattle, minneapolis, and Austin's about 18 months to maybe two years, two and a half years behind those cities, and so they know where they're headed and those cities are kind of starting to swing back a little bit. But Austin continues going straight to the bottom of the ocean With all these beautiful examples of what not to do. By God, we're committed, we're going all the way to the bottom of the ocean.
Speaker 1:Because they haven't been affected by the crime yet. Yeah, that's the issue. The people don't get involved unless it really affects them, it affects their business or their neighborhood and they just assume. You know they're busy, People are busy, Smart people are going to work and taking care of families and you know paying their bills.
Speaker 3:Was it Monday or Tuesday? The headline was like a third of Austin was without a patrol officer for more than two hours because of manpower staffing.
Speaker 2:It was last week, two weeks ago.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it's most weekends A portion of the city with no one for several hours at a time. That's not in the community's best interest.
Speaker 2:And while that's going on, you've got people like Greg Cazar, the guy that was very much responsible for the defund movement of the Austin Police Department, actually sending out emails and requesting extra patrol for his own private residence of the same police department that he defunded while being a city elected official. Good for me, not for thee, yeah it's okay for me to defund this police department, but by God, I want my own house and home protected.
Speaker 1:The thing is, if you look at the obituaries and this reimagining of public safety and this defunding of police, if you look at the obituaries, it is people of color and women that have been victimized the most, and I think that the DA Garza's, the Greg Kassar's, the Steve Adler's should be held accountable for these things. Yep, yep.
Speaker 2:And I thought they would be held accountable by elections Because, let's face it, elections they have consequences, good and bad. They do Absolutely. And I can't fathom the fact of people like Chris Harris with the Austin Justice Coalition. They stand up and they represent their own political views, but to sit back and think about what they really represent is, just like you said, people of color women. They're being re-victimized by failed policies by Jose Garza, but I can't understand why they would continue to support that, unless it's for personal gain. Right, it's got to be. It's got to be.
Speaker 1:That's the only thing I can think of, it's got to be because nobody wants to. I don't think DA Garza wants to live in an unsafe neighborhood. I don't think he does, but he has definitely created that for everybody else, that's for sure. I mean, when you have an entertainment district on a Friday night that has four officers available for the entire entertainment district, that is a recipe for death and robbery and mayhem, right? I mean, if something big is going on over here, it's easy to victimize somebody else over here, and we see it all day. We got the perfect storm. We got a DA that hates cops and everything he's doing is destroying families. We got an open border. We got some local judges that fail to prosecute, and it's because of this restorative justice that the Chris Harris's of the world push. I still don't fully understand what he's talking about when he brings up these issues, and I believe in second chances. I do. I believe in redemption and second chances. I truly do.
Speaker 1:We've all done bad things in our past, right, that we regret, but what they're doing is different things. We were in our past, right that we regret, but what they're doing is different. If, if, if a 25 year old is caught with a lot of drugs and guns and you catch them again with drugs and guns stealing a car. You've got to crack down. The progression of crime is only going to escalate to some sort of aggravated assault. Yep, it's emboldening them. You know these criminals? Yep, the austin, they hate me when I talk criminals. Yep, the austin guys, they hate me when I talk like this.
Speaker 2:Yeah, they, they just they hate me well, and the austin justice coalition uh is one of the groups that that that stood up and applauded uh the fact that texas dps withdrew, uh at one point when they when, when the chris harris's of austin claimed that they were thrown out of austin, uh, when dps came in, when abbott stood up, up and the great governor that he is brought DPS in. The interesting part about that is is Michael Bullock, at Austin police association president, talked about it is that while all this was going on, there was a string of burglaries by a group that was being done and when they realized that DPS was coming in, they stopped. Imagine that, yeah, yeah, you, you, you. That's a crazy concept.
Speaker 2:You think right, so just thought of it, just to talk of it higher visibility of law enforcement and more cops, less crime.
Speaker 3:Let's put that higher number of law enforcement officers equals less crime and officers that are staffed and don't have political influence and are ready to go fully do their job. People did not want DPS rolling up here because DPS is going to take care of business. That's right. Austin is short staff they're having to. All their specialized units are slashed, cut, don't exist anymore. They're scraping by and you have DPS showing up ready to let's rock and roll and if you break the law you're going to jail. Well, we don't want that and I don't want to be held accountable. That's good for somewhere else, not here.
Speaker 2:And the crazy part about it is is the moment that DPS was kicked out or thrown out of Austin. That's what some of the Austin City Council members want to believe is that that's when this homicide happened, and they actually had them on tape during an interview while they were interviewing. The suspects involved with this said they knew DPS was leaving and that gave them the opportunity to come in and start victimizing these people of property crimes and led to a homicide. So the progression was there, right and we didn't protect them.
Speaker 1:Yeah, some criminals are smart. You think they really are. I mean, they're very conniving and very smart. Yeah, and they'll go where the wounded gazelles are to take advantage of them. Yeah, whether it's organized distribution of fentanyl, the organized theft of catalytic converters which is a much bigger story than most people think Yep, you steal somebody's catalytic converter out of their driveway, you potentially have gunfire in the making. People will defend their property. If that's a work truck out there, you're stealing my tools. It sets the stage for bad things to happen to good people. Yep, right, just people, somebody just scared enough to defend themselves. Yeah, we should try to avoid creating those situations. Yep, well, you mentioned Michael Bullock.
Speaker 3:We should try to avoid creating those situations.
Speaker 1:Yep.
Speaker 3:Well, you mentioned Michael Bullock. Austin Police Association right now has had ebbs and flows with leadership and right now they have a chief that seems to want to handle business and try and get things on the right track. Michael Bullock is a phenomenal guy. He's been on the podcast and it's common sense people trying to figure out how to navigate during crazy times and I wish the community of reasonable people could realize and latch on to some of these leaders right now that they're fortunate to have that are trying to navigate crazy times and they're being sensible. They're not asking for unrealistic. You know we need 6,000 officers and we need to be paid $800,000 a year. I mean it's reasonable things that they need to protect the community and I just keep praying that the reasonable people at some point will stand up. Robert.
Speaker 1:Henderson is one of those. She's an angel, that's for sure. Michael Bullock's a great guy. I wish it doesn't seem as if, though, the city is sincere about negotiating a contract, and that's just me on the outside looking in. I'm not privy to any of the negotiations, but I just don't see the city council members demanding a contract.
Speaker 2:Well, I think the buffer is that the whole prop situation, I think, is an issue and they're trying to basically cater to certain influential groups that are led by radical lefts and they have a seat at the table.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's the issue the agitators have a seat at the table. The ones that were throwing rocks and bottles at police headquarters have a seat at the table. I don't get that. I think it's because some of the city council are scared. They're afraid that the city could turn into a Baltimore or something, with a really big riot, as if what happened at police headquarters in 2020, in the summer of love and hate, wasn't big. I think their fear is truly a fear of retaliation, a fear of the enemy rallying their forces and causing damages on the streets.
Speaker 3:It's amazing. About two years ago I was in California for a law enforcement school and me and one of my coworkers were the only ones from Texas. Probably 180 people in the room, all California cops. Probably 180 people in the room, all tech uh, california cops and the Oakland police association president he's from Ireland, has a cool Irish accent really good guy. Um, barry Donilon. He's up speaking and he puts on a montage. If I can get ahold of it, I'll send it to you. It is a montage of Austin city council meetings. It's just a montage of all the nuts.
Speaker 3:You would almost think it's like an snl skit, like it's fake yeah so he plays it and he's like my boys from texas, you know where this is. And we're like, oh, yes, sir, yeah. And he says in the room with probably 180 california cops from all over California. Ladies and gentlemen, if you think we've got it bad here, let's all just thank God we're not in Austin, texas. And I'm like holy cow. I never dreamed in my life that they would mention something about Texas anywhere and I would be like, oh God'm, yeah, I'm not from Texas, but Californians were glad they weren't from Austin. Crazy relief.
Speaker 1:They thought there was relief there, Literally, yeah. Now guys, listen, I'm not a super religious guy, but there is a battle between good and evil and the way that some of the agitators talk at Austin city hall whether it's the DSA, the Democrat Socialist of Austin they don't talk the way that we do about this country. They don't believe in the country that you and I grew up and believe in. They don't believe in the red, white and blue and we, the people, and the Bill of Rights and God-given rights. In fact, I think you could ask some of them that speak at Austin City Hall do they believe in God-given rights? They may not. There may be city council members that do not understand that concept that no man could take some rights from you.
Speaker 1:There are certain things that was given to you by God and they don't get that. They don't like that. There's a whole other world for them. They live in a world where all of their decisions and thought process come from a worldly view. If your decisions and thoughts come from a higher power not to get religious on everybody here, but then you have a good guidepost but if you make all of your decisions based on worldly views, you've got to be ready for it to change on a dime, quickly and instantly, and you might get canceled tomorrow for what you believe today. And that's the world they live in. They live in a very unpredictable, scary world that's coming to an end because of climate change, Right.
Speaker 3:Oh in.
Speaker 1:California and they'll never be able to own a home because of interest rates. They live in a miserable place. The DSA, on the 40 acres at UT runs Austin City Hall, never thought of it that way, never thought of it that way.
Speaker 3:Well, the one thing that montage from city council meeting highlights, of all those speakers, is that our priority of helping people with mental illness is not flourishing, because there's a lot of mental illness displayed during that montage of people speaking at Austin City Council. It highlights one area that we're failing in our country is helping people with mental illness.
Speaker 2:Yes, yeah. One of the things that I was going to ask you is that you're obviously 30 years of radio business here in the Austin area. What do you see? Do you see the community of Austin in general? Are they becoming more supportive of police because of the catastrophic failures and the experiment that's gone wrong? Are you starting to see more of a trend, just kind of that pendulum, swinging back towards the pro-law enforcement support?
Speaker 1:I am. I do hear that, I do see that. I see it, I first saw it with business owners, and that's a great first step because that's money, that's how you get votes. And then you start to see it in the burbs, around the suburbs, maybe not in the core of the city, but I do see it. I hear the phone calls, I get the emails, you hear people that are, you know, taking at least a softer tone towards police.
Speaker 1:You know, there's, you know, right at 2020, leading up to 2020 in the riots, there was this incredible anti-police movement that was underway. We saw it everywhere across the country, right, and then it really just catapulted after George Floyd and all of that stuff. That gave them everything they needed to to really inflame things. And then there was that period up until about 2023, where people were just afraid to say anything because, you know, I'm I, I like, I like my neighbor, he's a police officer, he's a great guy. But I don't want to say that at work, you know, because somebody might think you may judge me, they may call me a conservative if I say I like a police officer, right, and so there's this, been this hesitation.
Speaker 1:But now that people see the stories of lake and riley, the homelessness, um, you name it, the, the, the pack of 12 and 13 year olds that steal cars out in Lakeway, the ones that rob the bank in Houston. People are starting to wake up and say, hey, there's something wrong here. We've got a lot of broken families. We see it in our schools. Even educators see it. Educators are starting to come around and see it. They see the broken home in their own schools. They see the kids that are there today but gone tomorrow but come back with an ankle monitor, and they see that something's not right where people are not being held accountable for their day-to-day actions. Is it going to get better sooner, and soon enough? I, I don't know, but I do see what you, what you're asking. I do see a turn. That's good yeah.
Speaker 2:do you have advice, uh, from from from your perspective, of how a law enforcement can improve that image other than just continue doing what they're doing now?
Speaker 1:I have never, ever, in my 30 years of working in radio in this city, another 10 years up in Dallas, I have never, ever, ever received a press release of something good that a police officer did.
Speaker 1:There you go, so we need to do more of a good job. I could get countless press releases about the one that violated policy, right, but nothing about that officer that ran into the house and saved someone, or delivered a baby, or saw a homeless person and helped them. You never, ever. There should be a monthly tip sheet that comes to every newsroom in America, highlighting the good.
Speaker 3:Well, we lost the messaging battle. We realized that we've been out messaged and we lost it. And that was part of the creation of this podcast is realizing we lost the messaging battle years ago. It got hijacked by the nuts and Joe people like Joe Gamaldi, the national vice president of internal order police. Um, joe, people like Joe Gamaldi, the national vice president of internal order police, and this podcast is an attempt to take back some of that narrative and and give our our side of the story, not the slanted other. Tell me about being a conservative radio personality and a known person in a very far left community. Is that, is that challenging? Is that you get called in and cussed out and threats, or is it pretty low key?
Speaker 1:Uh, it was very low key up until about 2020, 2019, for sure. Uh, there's occasional threats there's. There's, uh, we have security there's. Uh, yeah, there's a few things that happen. You know, people waiting for me at certain places. Uh, I've gone to restaurants and somebody is there waiting for me before you know emails telling you how much they appreciate you and your.
Speaker 1:Lots of that lots of emails, lots of emails text messages, social media posts Uh, they love to flip a finger every once in a while if they see me. You know that kind of thing. But that's okay, I'm fine with that. I'm very confident in my decision and my thoughts and you know response to things and what I believe.
Speaker 3:But that's sad to hear, and I'm not surprised, that's why I asked the question. But it's sad to hear because we've come to a society that no longer do we have civil discourse and you're allowed to have an opinion, I'm allowed to have an opinion, and then we'll go have a beer together. Now it's you know you don't believe the way I do. Okay, well then, screw you.
Speaker 1:You're POS and that's not how this world works, and there's a little bit of that on both sides. Really there's some. You know, the extremes on both ends are the ones that scare me the most. Yep, you know, but the extremes on both ends are the ones that scare me the most. But I don't know. I do see things changing. I really do.
Speaker 2:Well, that's good, yeah, and I think it's not just changing. We're starting to see it in California. Just like you said, we're two years behind these experiments going on in California. We're just starting to see it now. Oakland I saw an article the other day that a lot of the businesses in Oakland are refusing to pay their taxes because they do not feel safe. I don't blame them. I don't blame them. How can you argue that? I don't know how it's going to work out for them, but I don't blame them.
Speaker 3:Well in Seattle the city attorneys elected they just elected a Republican in Seattle. I would have lost a lot of money betting on that ever happening again in Seattle.
Speaker 1:Well, jeremy Silestine, the Democrat that tried to get the party's nomination over DA Garza here in Austin, he he did a really good job, if you think about it right. In a short period of time he got about 30,000 votes raised, about a million dollars in about three month period. I think if he would have had a little bit longer, I think we may have had a different outcome.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we were certainly hoping for different results on that election, but we're going to see what happens and we've still got some other weapons, I guess, in our arsenal that we're exploring alternatives to possibly use. But yeah, it's just a bad situation. The DA's office in Travis County is the worst that I have ever seen in Texas at all, if not the country.
Speaker 3:The sad part about I felt for Celestine um, when he didn't come out as an extremist, then he became labeled as well. He's just a. He's just a bitch boy to the Republicans.
Speaker 1:I think they called him MAGA at one time. Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3:Yeah, god forbid, he just be not as he was, a center dim or, or you know, a reasonable Democrat. But that must he could there's. That is not a possibility. That is not a possibility. He must be, there must be something else. So they start labeling and villainizing him.
Speaker 1:I'm like wow wow, that's your own party. Here's the thing about DA Garza. Forget the politics of it. We all disagree with his politics. He doesn't know how to run the office. There's currently 7,000 felony cases just sitting there because he doesn't have enough people to work for him or he'll allow the time frame to expire and then they're released. He just doesn't know how to run the office. And at the very least, democrats should have thought about that. He's never been a prosecutor. He's never prosecuted a felony case.
Speaker 1:No never I think that should be a requirement for a big city. Da right.
Speaker 2:Yeah hey, we're going to make you a director of a radio station, but you've never been a DJ before in your life. That makes absolutely no sense. Nobody in their right mind would ever do that. You're going to make mistakes yeah, yeah for sure, catastrophic mistakes.
Speaker 3:Well, I feel like he's running the DA's office from a basement, because he's very selective in how he engages and appears. We've offered on a couple of occasions to communicate and there always seems to be an excuse of why he's just not available. He's just not available.
Speaker 1:His voters would get very mad if he came on this podcast. His supporters would say say, what are you doing sitting at a table with law enforcement like this? That's, they would seriously be angry because heaven forbid americans communicate that's hey, that's, you're absolutely right. When we stop communicating, that's.
Speaker 2:That's when bad things happen yeah, well, and we even had one of his supporters on. Uh, I was shocked by it. Chaz Moore came on.
Speaker 1:I saw that.
Speaker 2:And you know there was a lot of things that we didn't agree on and we still don't agree on, but I will tell you that I think this podcast and this platform and even him going through some of the exercises that we put him through with the shoot, don't shoot and use of force situations there in Williamson County and we're thankful he came out. It took a lot of courage for him to do that and he had been a very vocal person against law enforcement, but when he came on the podcast, I think it opened his eyes to a different lens and perspective and he caught flack for coming on too. Yeah, which is not shocking, right?
Speaker 1:Well, you're much more generous towards him than I am.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, yeah, we'll leave that alone.
Speaker 1:Just leave that right there.
Speaker 2:Yeah Well, I'm trying to think of what else we were going to, the hot topics we were going to hit on.
Speaker 3:In your 30 years in Austin. Austin used to be a really normal town, cool place, I mean. It was an amazing place, always been a little artsy-fartsy A little hippie, yeah, a little hippie, I mean Willie, yeah, yeah. But it was never where people in California were making fun of it for being a bunch of psychos. When did you see you've been here 30 years. When did you see that?
Speaker 1:In the late 90s it started to change. Was there a gosh? I'm gonna get into so much trouble here, but was there something yeah?
Speaker 1:yeah, it began in our universities, uh, when universities uh turned their back on seeking truth, and, and the and the motto became at the university of texas what starts here changes the world. Not let's find the truth, but what changes the world. And it began in the 90s when we started raising a couple of generations to be activist. Yeah, and, and and. Everything that is america is bad, right, yeah, you know, it's a systemic racism every the red, white and blue bad, and, and and. It began in our universities in the 90s and it just kind of trickled down from there, you know.
Speaker 3:So I'm from North Texas. I was a single dad for quite a bit. My oldest son, who's now in the military, grew up in Forney small graduating class. He got accepted into McCombs Business School at UT. So I'd him down here drop him off and, uh, he was a little overwhelmed. His psychology class had more kids in it than his entire graduating class, wow. But about two weeks in he sends me a grainy video and I can't figure. I can't tell what it is. It looks like a parade. I can't tell what it is. And he was a little overwhelmed, he was a little shell-shocked. Coming down here, 52,000 students and that's like four times bigger than 40. So I call him like what's the video you sent me? And he goes you can't hear it or see it, and I said no, and you could kind of zoom in and see there's a bunch of cute little girls, young girls walking. I thought it was a parade, I had no idea what it was. And he said it's outside my window and it's hundreds of college girls marching with giant penises.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 3:And they're all chanting cocks, not glocks, yeah. And I'm like, dear God, that's what that is. So I'm trying to look and there's girls marching with these giant penises and I thought is that really what college is for? What are their dads thinking that are seeing this? Because I would be driving to Austin 100 miles an hour to figure out what the hell. There's so many things that I had thoughts of. And so, as he, as he progressed through McCombs and he was fortunate to be McCombs, cause it wasn't as crazy but he's like, yeah, there's not a lot of really college stuff being taught, it's more professors just telling, spewing their politics. And I'm like, well, that's good, I'm spending money for you to go down there and somebody attempt to brainwash you to what they believe, not talking about in McCombs. I like McCombs and it's it's very respected, so he was distanced from it a little bit, but I thought, man, that's not what a university is for is to go down there and somebody to individually try and impart their politics and beliefs on 19 year old, impressionable people.
Speaker 1:Yeah, there's a. There's a an expression that if your child goes to the university and they and they and they sleep in all day and play video games all afternoon, that's good because they could go to class and pay attention all day.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I'm not saying I'm against college educations, but for many that's the scenario that they have. They're going to go to a professor that's tenured and has Marxist ideals openly. They don't hide that, they don't deny that, they don't push back against that. They do have Marxist ideals that are being taught in college universities and now in, uh, in high schools too.
Speaker 3:You see it yep, yep, and I think we've seen it was at harvard here a while back. There's, there's, it's crazy well start becoming a round rock.
Speaker 2:The other day they had a situation at round rock. I can't, I can't remember the specifics, uh, but that was one of the reasons why we chose not to go, uh, to round rock. Isd was because a situation there. But it's just. Public education has no business for that.
Speaker 1:There's a lot of problems in the Round Rock ISD, you know every school district every big city has major issues. You know. You got board members and the same at City Hall. You got council members that are busy dealing with the dozen or so agitators all day, every day. Those are the ones that show up to the meetings, that have the attention, and that's what they're dealing with all day long.
Speaker 3:Well, it gives me hope. It gives me hope there's a lot of reasonable people in this Travis County. There's a lot of educated, reasonable people. It gives me hope. And then seeing our friend on city council, mckenzie, have the intestinal fortitude to stand in the fire, get flaming arrows shot at her daily and she continues to do what she believes is best for first responders, for the community, it'd be easy to bow out and go home, but to stand in the fire. It gives me hope that there's travis county and austin can. Can I agree with you it's going to take a while because it's damaged, yeah, but I feel like at some point it's going to swing back.
Speaker 1:It's got to A little compromise. You know some calmer heads prevail. You know some negotiations on certain things. Maybe it'll start to turn.
Speaker 3:And I hope it doesn't get to the point of Seattle and Portland.
Speaker 1:No, god help us. If that's the case, it wouldn't take much to get there. No, truly, it really wouldn't. I don't think the people that live in Austin, business owners, the downtown Austin Alliance. It only takes one or two incidents to really set a city back. Yep.
Speaker 3:Well, you know, everybody really wants to talk about holding the police accountable. Das are not held accountable and when you weaponize the grand jury process to indict 21 officers knowing full well you're never going to get them convicted, you're never going to get them to trial. You barely met the mark to get them indicted and in some case perverted the law to get those indictments, that's official oppression. It is. And if me as a cop in Garland had abused someone and been charged with official oppression, I'd have been held accountable to the nth degree and all the nuts at city council would have been demanding it. But the same is not true for Garza and his weaponization of the justice system.
Speaker 1:I'm not sure it should be an elected position. I'm not sure about that anymore.
Speaker 2:This is what we were talking about actually last episode with Sean Teer, the newly Democratic nominee for Harris County, is that I don't feel that any position elected position, I don't feel that any position elected position closely to the criminal justice system should have any party affiliation, because I feel like the Silva-Steins he would have been phenomenal for that position. But then we've got Betts, jeremy Betts, jeremy Betts for district attorney, who's a Republican. That is going to be a very uphill battle, I might add, coming into travis county. But if you think about that criminal justice and law, it's not blue or red, it's not democrat or republican, it's black and white.
Speaker 1:Yeah yeah, yeah. When you mix politics with anything, you get politics. When you mix politics with health care, what do we get? Politics, politics, right. When you mix politics with policing, you get politics.
Speaker 3:Yeah and uh, and it's dangerous, you know, it's very dangerous it ought to be an apolitical for sheriff, for da it ought to be, apolitical and everybody puts their qualifications out there and let the chips fall where they may.
Speaker 2:Apolitical, yeah, I agree, agreed well, we like to highlight, you know, and uh, and say thank you on behalf of law enforcement, not just ones that serve here, you know, in Austin or Travis County, but across Texas. For you to have the intestinal fortitude to stand up and say I stand with cops and I support cops, and highlight cops, man, it means the world, thank you, thank you, it's the least I could do.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean yeah, it's not like a hard job.
Speaker 2:I mean, it's to say, hey, I support cops, right, but you get arrow stoned at you and you do get under scrutiny for that reason, and so we at TMPA tend to kind of lean on and say this is that we need to support those who support us, and that's that's kind of where we're at, feelings mutual. Thank you.
Speaker 1:Thank you very much. I appreciate that.
Speaker 2:Is there anything you would suggest for this podcast? You, being in the radio business that you as a private citizen and as a 30 year member of a of this Austin area radio you know show industry, would that you would recommend or you would like to see this podcast kind of focus on to promote the pro-law enforcement approach?
Speaker 1:I think you're doing it. I think you're just having a conversation, willing to bring in people that you normally may not get along with, like you did with some of your other guests. I think that's great, being able to talk, because when we stop talking is when you start to lose traction and things go sour. But I think you're doing it. I think you guys, you know all across the state and I think you're doing it. You know reaching out and bringing the people together and just have an open dialogue. Yeah, you know, don't be afraid to say the wrong thing in some situations, just to you know further the conversation, and I think you guys are doing that.
Speaker 3:Well, and I agree completely, my boys are big podcasters and turned me on to Joe Rogan's podcast and one of the things really cool about Joe is he may not agree with a word that comes out of your mouth, but come on the show and let's have civil discussion about it and you can tell sometimes he probably thinks the person's a complete nut, but's talk about it. Why do you think that? Why?
Speaker 3:is your belief built on that and I think that's why rogan's gotten so big is. He doesn't just have on you know his reflection, you know people, his, his reverb people, to just step on there and say whatever joe wants him to say. And he's curious yeah, yeah, and I, I admire that and it's been a leap for me. At times He'll throw out like hey man, what do you think about this guest? I'm like, no, I don't think so.
Speaker 1:Yeah. Yeah, it's a tight room in here, man, you got to be careful. Yeah, that's right.
Speaker 2:Well, man, again, we appreciate you. I appreciate it. You're a guest here. Anytime You've been in Austin. I absolutely.
Speaker 1:Thanks for calling the show occasionally. I appreciate it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I tell him all the time. Hey, I just got. I just got the phone with Todd and Oz and he's like who?
Speaker 3:And I'm like you gotta listen you gotta get the app he said he calls up sometimes and uses a girl voice Sometimes he does try to win.
Speaker 1:What are you? Doing yeah what are you?
Speaker 2:doing? What are you doing, anyway, man?
Speaker 3:I truly respect what you're doing, thank you. Respect you and your partner's intestinal fortitude to do what you're doing and if you see us screwing up or things we can do better, 100% we have no clue what the heck we're doing, so please fire away anytime and tell us You're doing great guys. Thank you, appreciate it.
Speaker 2:You got anything else, Big Dog.
Speaker 3:Nope April 12th through 15th, corpus Christi, is the Texas FOP State Board meeting. Texas Peace Officer Memorial last weekend in April. Yes, police Week in. Dc the week of May 13th 13th, 14th, 15th, I believe, DC. Tnpa FOP Joint Conference July 26th through 28th in Dallas.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's going to be a good. We've got a busy couple weeks. In fact, we've got to get some podcasts recorded so we can give ourselves a break. Yes, yep, you guys take care, stay safe. Tune in to the Todd and I Show if you live here locally in Travis County. If not, you can get the app. I think it, believe it. I believe it's KLBJ app. It's intergalactic, we're everywhere.
Speaker 2:Yes, yes, yes absolutely Todd and Osho. I think you guys will really enjoy it. They are on at 5 am to 9, 10, 10, 5 to 10, 10 am. You can listen to this absolutely beautiful voice of Todd it's bedtime right now.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it is.
Speaker 2:You've got to get up early. You've got to make that drive. What time do you get up? Just before 3. You've got to get prepared for the show. You've got to tune in tomorrow for the show. I'll do. You should have listened this morning when we came down, I left Forney at 4.30. I should have listened, oh goodness.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you can tune in. You can be be a regular caller. That's right. They will welcome it with open arms.
Speaker 2:We will take your call. You guys, take care, stay safe. God bless you and, as always, may God bless Texas. We are out.
Speaker 1:The name Zafira means ''Pure'' Religion, ''major'' Religion, ''muslim''. Thank you.