Hector Bravo UNHINGED
Official Hector Bravo Podcast
Hector Bravo UNHINGED
Javier - From Correctional Officer to Marine: Navigating Law Enforcement and Military Transitions
This episode explores the personal journey of a former Florida correctional officer who transitioned to the Marine Corps. He shares insights about the realities of working in corrections, including staffing shortages, ethical dilemmas, and challenges in law enforcement.
• Discusses early influences and path to corrections
• Details the quick hiring process for Florida corrections
• Shares experiences from the training academy
• Highlights the stigma surrounding certain inmate classifications
• Explores issues of overtime and staffing shortages
• Contrasts body camera use in Florida and California law enforcement
• Reflects on the transition from corrections to military service
• Emphasizes the need for genuine motivations in pursuing law enforcement careers
Hector Bravo. Unhinged chaos is now in session welcome back to our channels, warriors.
Speaker 2:Another special guest today, believe it or not, man, this guy is a former Florida Department of Corrections correctional officer, javier. What's up, dude? How are you LT? What up you, dude? How are you LT? Good afternoon, you don't have to call me LT, bro, hector's cool man? Yeah, hector, very informal. And you're probably thinking how the hell is this guy a former former when he looks 12 years old? Right, no disrespect. But to be honest, you only have to be 18 years old to apply, dude, to apply to the Florida Department of Corrections.
Speaker 1:Minimum age is 18 years old.
Speaker 2:Holy shit, bro. So is that where you're from? Florida, Orlando, florida?
Speaker 1:Born and raised Whole life in Central Florida. Never got out much out of the state until now.
Speaker 2:Did you go to Disney World a bunch, or have you been there?
Speaker 1:Never been there. I mean, yeah, like when you're little, I mean when you're raised there. Disney World, all those parks, they become like our little hangout spots, not vacation spots, if that makes sense.
Speaker 2:Makes sense, dude, and at what point in your young life?
Speaker 1:did you decide you wanted to work in a correctional setting? Not necessarily specifically a correctional setting, just law enforcement in general. Due to my family background former law enforcement officers in puerto rico, all military, you know war vets, grandfather, great-grandfather, uncle I have a cousin who's a sheriff in florida.
Speaker 2:So did your parents come from Puerto Rico, or were they already in the States?
Speaker 1:No, my mother. She came to the States she was about 18. So right before she had me. So she spent a good part of her life in the States too.
Speaker 2:So and anybody in your family from the Florida department of corrections that had served and anybody in your family from the Florida Department of Corrections that had served Nobody Nobody.
Speaker 1:Everyone in my family was just a regular state police officer in Puerto Rico or a sheriff in Florida.
Speaker 2:Did you think about going to college at all, or you didn't want to do that. Yeah, I feel you, bro, I feel you Not for me, did you look at other agencies, such as police agencies, maybe the state troopers? What happened? The age group or something?
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean in Florida at that time. Right now they've raised up the age for pretty much everything, but at that time you could be 19 years old and apply to certain police departments and sheriff departments and the FHP. But you know, I was 18, out of high school, I didn't want to keep working at Home Depot and I come across an ad that says that Corrections is hiring at 18. And I was like I mean, it's an enforcement job, I guess. So why not try? Was not expecting anything, cause I mean, who's going to hire someone at 18 out of high school for that job? But it says it. It says it in the ad.
Speaker 2:It says it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, but I was so unexpected so I just applied without even thinking much of it and like in a short amount of time, like a week or two later, I get a phone call to start submitting paperwork for the hiring process and I'm like no way that this is actually happening. Keep going with the process and I wait about a month. The hiring process is pretty short. It's pretty short for corrections. It's about a month or two until you can get hired. Is there a written examination? Yes, we have the CJBAT, so criminal justice basic abilities test. You take that before you apply to any law enforcement job in the state. You cannot apply without having CJBAT results. It's just basic memorization, reading comprehension, one of the easiest tests you'll take. You take that, you submit it along with your other paperwork and you're going to go from there.
Speaker 2:Is there a background investigation?
Speaker 1:Yeah, but I mean there's not much background to do on me, I guess. But for another candidate will they look at previous employment background investigation? Yeah, but I mean there's not much background to do on me, I guess, I mean but for another candidate, or will they look at previous employment, criminal record, drug usage stuff?
Speaker 1:like that. Yeah, definitely, but it's even with someone who might have so much experience, a lot of jobs or up in age, the hiring process is still pretty short. I mean, I know in some states it takes like six months to a year to get hired anywhere. And it sounds weird for me because, like even for police departments and sheriff departments, process like three to six months to get hired Depends on you, of course, if you submit everything correctly.
Speaker 2:And you know how many academies are there in Florida for the Department of Corrections.
Speaker 1:I'm not entirely sure. I believe every region has their own academy. So in Central Florida we are Region 3. So everyone goes to the Florida Corrections Academy for Region 3, which is in the city of Orlando. And I know there's other academies because in South Florida I think North Florida, central Florida and South Florida have their own academy. So I assume it's probably three. I could be wrong. I didn't even know there was an academy for the department, because in Florida there's not really much police academies, it's just colleges.
Speaker 2:Right.
Speaker 1:So if you want to be an Orlando police officer, there's no such thing as an Orlando police academy. You go to the Valencia Criminal criminal justice academy and it's for all departments, you know. There's only about what I think.
Speaker 2:Miami, and like two or three more counties in the state, have their own department ran academies so once you became once you become a correctional officer for the state of florida, can you then transfer to any state penitentiary? Yeah, you can transfer easily.
Speaker 1:Some people were transferring in the academy. They applied for this prison but they want to be in a different prison. You just have to submit the proper paperwork and it's not a problem at all to transfer.
Speaker 2:Now I know you told me earlier that sometimes they'll hire you and then they'll send you to the academy after. Would that happen in your case?
Speaker 1:yes, so I was working in the prison for a month and a half before I went to the academy and during this time were you working at the prison that you would eventually work your career in yes uh, were, you, were you wearing a uniform. First day was class a uniform. Yeah, you know, like the fancy proper uniform you have to go and buy that out, everything yourself.
Speaker 1:No, it was provided to us. It's all hand-me-down stuff. To be honest. What about duty equipment, or the belt at least? Yeah, you gotta buy that yourself. I mean, some people they just wore a regular belt and just had their chemical agents in handcuffs. Some people had their duty belt so they could have other stuff on it. That was pretty simple. I don't really carry much of my duty belt. All I carried was my set of handcuffs, chemical agents and a flashlight and gloves always have gloves.
Speaker 2:That's pretty much all I carried on my duty belt did you see that video recently of the uh new york prison guards that beat the shit out of that guy and killed him you did yes I did pretty crazy, huh, you guys get down like that in florida too, or? Uh well, just fucking around, dude. Just putting you on the spot, bro. Well, even if we do, there wouldn't be any evidence.
Speaker 1:You don't have body cameras like they do yeah, I mean they're pretty wild for doing something like that, knowing that they have cameras on them. I mean you shouldn't be doing that either way. But.
Speaker 2:I mean he was handcuffed.
Speaker 1:So it's like Exactly. I keep trying to say that you know, it's a big thing. You never, I would never put my hands on someone that's handcuffed. That's not, it's not manly, no, there's no point in that. Not ethically Ethical? No, it's not.
Speaker 2:I mean he's in handcuffs, it's like yeah, shooting fish in a barrel is not fucking fair.
Speaker 1:If you want to do something that bad, if you really have to, I mean, just take the handcuffs off, right, but having them on that was pretty crazy.
Speaker 2:So I know I kind of just threw you a curveball, bro, just testing you out, man, getting a feel for you, and what type of job duties were you doing at the prison prior to you going to?
Speaker 1:the academy. Do they have you working the line? Everything, everything, everything. Not supposed to correct, you're not supposed to. You're supposed to be in the bubble observing what's the bubble?
Speaker 2:like a central control.
Speaker 1:So what we have is. So every prison in Florida has two different types of layouts. You have the butterfly dorms, so you have like a bubble right here, like this table would be, and this chair is one bay. This chair is one bay, that's one bay. That's one bay like a butterfly dorm.
Speaker 2:Like pods, yeah, pods, and there's cells in there. Yes, do they ever riot in those fucking?
Speaker 1:Not that I've seen A lot of that stuff hasn't happened in recent times Because in Florida, something I, like you, know that we pride ourselves on is we have a good amount of control on the inmates, so riots are not that common. Because I was like every officer if you have email access which I did you would always get a text or email if anything happened around the state in any prison, whether it was an assault on staff.
Speaker 2:That's very good bro. That's good communication.
Speaker 1:So we would know if someone, like if a staff, got assaulted in North Florida, six hours away, we would know about it. And how often were you getting those Not that often. Not that often, man, not that often.
Speaker 2:It's interesting to know, dude, because I don't have any knowledge of the department of corrections for florida.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean, I'm pretty sure there are staff assaults that are probably isolated and they don't wasn't too serious, so doesn't get sent out there. I don't, I don't want to sit here and say assaults don't happen like that, right, but for the like serious assaults where someone got killed or seriously injured, yeah, and my experience was not common at all. That's a good thing, dude. Yes, it's. Uh, I give it credit to something that I heard on a podcast from a new york city correction officer a few years ago, something called the fear of unknown. You know, um, what would happen? You know me as an inmate. What's gonna happen if I assault that officer? You know, are they just gonna like, like I? What's going to happen if I assault that officer? You know, are they just going to like like I've heard you say sometimes, where a cop can get assaulted and they get a tablet the same day? They get a tablet within an hour bro.
Speaker 1:I don't even know how that's okay. And like the prison just keeps running, like normal after an assault. So it's like no, that would never happen. If we have an officer assaulted, even just the use of force in general, that prison is going on lockdown, he's getting sent to the box, to confinement, and most of the time when an officer gets assaulted they get transferred out the prison the same day Because they don't want other officers, you know.
Speaker 2:So it's kind of what I'm gathering from man. Of what I'm gathering from man. It's like the prison runs smooth and also, um, kind of like the the street cops that I see, or the troopers that I see in florida. They're wild bro. Yeah, pit maneuvers, jumping on hoods, just crazy shit, dude.
Speaker 1:You know we have good, a good support system from the governor that makes a difference, dude yeah, and our, I mean there's some negatives about him too. You know there's some things that could be better, Right, but our secretary, he, you know he was there, you know he would. He visited the academy one time. He likes to visit academies, he likes to, you know, every other week we would have like a TV and like he would have like a message out to the staff.
Speaker 1:Every other week at the academy you would have a tv, not in the, not in the academy, but um, just in the prison itself. If there is some time, some idle time, you know, usually at night, the tv was there.
Speaker 2:Where did the tv come from? Like a spare office or something?
Speaker 1:yeah and then we would see. Like you know, the secretary gave me on a message or something, so he cares about his staff and he was a CEO for around what? 25 years? Pretty sure his name was Ricky Dixon, secretary Ricky Dixon. He was a CEO for around 25 years, so he knows 100%. Can you guys watch movies?
Speaker 2:on those TVs.
Speaker 1:No, we have computers. I mean, we're pretty old school. Like, due to funding, we don't get a lot of funding. You know, like we don't get equipment issued to us. All we get is the handcuffs and the chemical agents. You know, if you want all that extra stuff, you're going to have to buy it yourself. If you want duty bills, get a, buy it yourself. You know, like, lack of funding is definitely something that has affected the department.
Speaker 2:You mentioned how much were you getting paid. Starting out was 39 000 39 000. Now you said you worked at home depot before. Was that? Were you making more when you became a ceo? I was making more, of course, because of the overtime so 39 000 bro, 18 years old youngster I mean, you're still young. Yes, uh, the academy. How long was that academy?
Speaker 1:Well, around three months, maybe a couple weeks shorter, was it a live-in academy?
Speaker 2:No, you would go home after, and it was in Orlando.
Speaker 1:So you lived in Orlando.
Speaker 2:So how far was your drive to the academy? 20 minutes 25 minutes.
Speaker 1:Oh, that's not bad, bro. Yeah, so it was easy. You just go to school, you know, the academy was pretty cool, I mean. I mean, my academy class had a lot of former law enforcement from new york and other states, so it wasn't necessarily a class of probably because they, everybody, retires in florida.
Speaker 1:Florida seems to be a retirement, yeah, and they just leave. They don't like where they're at, you know they don't like how the department's treating them. They come here or over there, right, and you know it was cool to have their experiences there Made the academy run smooth too, because I mean, everyone knew more or less what they were doing. Of course I had to play catch up a little bit with everyone else.
Speaker 2:Why?
Speaker 1:because of your age difference, the age difference, and like I didn't know anything about handcuffing or I mean I learned how to handcuff before the academy, because when I was working in the prison before the academy, I've had to apply cuffs numerous times, which you're not supposed to- During that time frame when you're working in the prison, when you're not supposed to be working in the prison, are the inmates treating you a certain way because they know you're not even supposed to be there.
Speaker 2:They calling you rookie, or they calling you fish or any names like that?
Speaker 1:I never got called any of that, actually no, never. If they rookie, are they calling you fish or any names like that? I don't know, I never got called any of that actually no, I never. If they did, I didn't hear it. But, um, I mean, they know you're not supposed to be there, but they know how it works. You know on paper, yeah, you're not supposed to be there, but they know damn well they'd be doing that because you don't got chemical agents on you.
Speaker 2:So it's like now, do you think that the inmates mess with the cos or they try to leave the COs alone so they can do whatever dirt they want to do?
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean for the most part we got left alone. Like I said, things ran pretty smooth. I mean you would have your couple guys that like were the problem childs or whatever the problem children. But for the most part I mean if you want to do dirt, that's like that's your thing. You know what I mean. Dirt, that's like that's your thing. You know what I mean. Like there's no doing it in front of me, yeah, or like while I'm there, because I mean it depends on what it is and how far I'll go with it. I mean, if it's like tattooing or something, I mean what do you want me to do about that? You know?
Speaker 2:Like I'm not putting you in the box for that Tattooing against the rules in.
Speaker 1:Florida. Yeah, you go, you go to the box for that. You can put someone in the box for anything. No way, I mean, if you feel disrespected, you can lock them up for disrespect on an officer and put them in the box. Did you ever see that happen? Yes, that wasn't my style, right.
Speaker 2:I wasn't going to do paperwork or the captain paperwork, because I felt disrespected. I can handle that myself in-house. We can handle it ourselves. There's no reason for that. Um, you get to go home for the academy every day. Um, are you eating at the academy? Do they have a cafeteria? You get to. They break you guys for lunch. We get break for lunch. So it's basically like going to college, going to school and learning how to apply handcuffs, work in a prison, getting trained by the OGs.
Speaker 1:Yes, real OGs. I had a lot of respect for my instructors. They put a lot of years into the department. They were all Marine Corps and Army veterans. They would always walk around with their Marine hat Army hat 25 years in the department marine hat, army hat 25 years in the department.
Speaker 2:I know that before we started recording you say you didn't understand how here in california you can only have two years in and be an academy instructor. No like you can't.
Speaker 1:That doesn't make sense. I mean it doesn't make sense correct?
Speaker 2:did you know that they actively do not want people with experience and a lot of times in, because they want somebody new that's going to push whatever agenda they want to push out? That's the reason for the madness.
Speaker 1:I don't get it, honestly, and the agenda is not doing any. I mean, I don't know the agenda is hard for me to believe it. Half the stuff you post, all that California model stuff, I don't get it. I don't get it. You don't get it or you don't believe it. Both. Let's say both. I don't because it doesn't, because I, because I was trained and I was in an environment where you know you, the inmate, do your thing, I do my thing and I go home and you just keep going on your routine and whatever you do during the day. But wouldn't that just be common sense in general? Of course it's common sense. I mean, I don't know where, the whole pickleball thing or the playing basketball with the m?
Speaker 2:I don't know, I don't know I mean we, you I know you commented on that young ceo getting his neck cracked.
Speaker 1:Man, probably the worst thing I've seen in my life so far, so far, so far, yeah, I don't. Probably the worst thing I've seen in my life so far, so far, so far, yeah, I don't probably the worst thing you've seen, probably the worst thing a lot of people I don't know probably the worst thing a lot of people have seen.
Speaker 2:Bro. It's fucking far out there, dude, it is. Uh, that's not. I'll tell you right now. That's not normal, right? But I'm not surprised in the sense of yeah, why wouldn't that happen? I mean, if that's what's being pushed from the top down, uh, ridiculousness, why wouldn't that happen?
Speaker 1:I just have a different mindset then, because I know 100 I'm younger than that ceo, correct? And he was a young ceo. Yeah, like I'm younger than him, they could have pushed whatever agenda they wanted to want me over there. I was not gonna let an inmate grab my head and crack it like that put a dick beater all over your face, bro.
Speaker 2:I mean damn, I don't know. So you have been observing what's going on in california. You got your experience in florida, um, so you can definitely tell that there's differences between the two states Too much differences. You know, I find that to be disheartening, bro, when damn near disrespectful, only because not against you, because we actually used to be a legit or CDCR, used to be a legit fucking law enforcement agency. Oh, I'm sure, correctional agency, bro, it was fucking legit.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I've seen some documentaries. I've seen your, your stories about the past and I. The way y'all used to do things is how we do things now. In other words, so you can only imagine how florida was rolling 20 so like when you were coming up in 2006 yeah, I can't even imagine how florida was running like new york.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean, we're new york still barely catching up now.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean slowly and slowly. I think the same thing is gonna happen, though, because we're getting more of those, you know, officers that are more I don't want to say timid, but uh, it's a generational thing? I think it pretty much is. Yeah, I was raised by my grandparents most of the time. So did you have an iPad growing up? No, I didn't even have a phone did your friends have iPads?
Speaker 2:I was the only one without it. Oh, that's probably why you're fucking normal dude.
Speaker 1:That's why I hated it because it's like damn like he got a phone and they got a tablet. Why can't I have a phone to tell it?
Speaker 2:I didn't get a phone trust me, you're better off yeah, I didn't get a phone.
Speaker 1:Trust me, you're better off. Yeah, I didn't have that until I was 14. Oh, you're better off, bro. 14, 15 is when I got my first phone.
Speaker 2:Yeah, because you don't strike me as an average young dude, bro. If you know what I mean. There's a difference. And you strike me more as an old soul. That's probably what you are an old soul type of dude.
Speaker 1:Yeah because I mean, I'm pretty, I like the way things ran, I like the old way of running things.
Speaker 2:I'm not going to lie, it makes sense.
Speaker 1:It makes sense. You know, like this new way is not doing anything. I mean it's creating havoc. Yeah, exactly. And like people don't know what's going, I don't know that young officer, the guy's neck cracked, I don't think he knew what he was doing.
Speaker 2:Well, they said he quit and then sued the department because apparently the video got out there in the public and he won two million dollars.
Speaker 1:That's what the rumor is so hey, good for him two million dollars.
Speaker 2:I mean shit, yeah, but I don't know, I mean so when, when you were working, you go to the academy, you graduate, where did they have you first? In a housing unit.
Speaker 1:My first post was Alpha Dormitory, so Alpha Dormitory was the only one. You know, how I said earlier, how we have these butterfly dorms. That was the only dorm in the prison that was open bay.
Speaker 2:So you said there was two kinds two kinds of open base in the butterfly. What are the open bays look like? Um, it's open base like this.
Speaker 1:I just imagine bunk beds all around in a circle. There was two kinds. Two kinds the open bays and the butterfly. What do the open bays look like? Um, it's open bay. It's like this like just imagine bunk beds all around in a circle, like the marine corps, like a squad bay, squad bay, just like that. It kind of it kind of shocked me when I arrived to boot camp, actually, because it looked just like an open bay and like the red light and everything at night. When I would see the red light, I'll be like I feel like I'm an inmate right now, because it's the exact same thing. It's like a squad bae, more dangerous, because when you're doing your counts, no one is secured, they're just on their bunk sitting up.
Speaker 2:Are those lower levels On the bunks On the open? To be honest, how many levels are there in fucking?
Speaker 1:Florida. I don't want to give a wrong answer, but I believe there's four. So level one through four. Yeah, I believe it's four, but that dorm had a reputation Four. It was known as the Chomo dorm. So we call Chomos like pedophiles, child molesters. Right, that was probably back in the day, but the stigma carried on because there was a good amount of guys in there that were not Chomos. But with that stigma the dorm was not treated the best. By who? The officers and other inmates too. I mean I don't really call it the Chomo dorm. I've met a lot of inmates that weren't Chomos in there, but there was a good amount, because the whole reason for them having an open bay like that is for the older inmates, the old inmates what can barely walk. They have that little p thing, little bag of p or whatever. Yeah, dirty, fucking old yeah and those are.
Speaker 1:I mean I can't put a generalization that they're pedophiles, but I mean the most of them were so Right, Damn dude.
Speaker 2:So when you would get the call, say hey, you're working Alpha Dorm, your friends would be like, oh, you're working the Chomo Dorm.
Speaker 1:Well, no, because we didn't really understand it like that at the time. What do you mean? You know, no one knew it was the Chomo Dorm until I got in the dorm and the inmates would tell me stories and then I would talk to my sergeant about it, be like, yeah, this was considered the chomo dorm back in my day, my damn okay, um, whatever. But it was a pretty chill post because it's mostly old guys, so it's like there's not much going on. You know, most of my really doing stuff was during child time. You know, we get really you release them for child the inmates and then you would go to your post what was the worst part of the prison?
Speaker 2:I'm where the rowdy inmates were at, like what was that? The rowdy, rowdy inmates like where were they going to be some type of incident or some fight, a stabbing?
Speaker 1:I'd say charlie dorm.
Speaker 2:Charlie dorm was fucking horrible damn bro, it almost seemed like every charlie yard is a horrible, freaking nightmare. Dude, charlie dorm were fucking horrible. Damn bro, it almost seems like every charlie yard is a horrible freaking nightmare dude.
Speaker 1:charlie dorm was a nightmare and I did work. That was my second assignment was charlie dorm? Because I had a sergeant that she was a very tough sergeant like she was a a tough one. You know you can never. You know she would get complaints from inmates and officers alike. You know she was tough, but I did want to learn from her and of course, I think she didn't like me in the beginning because of my age. All she saw was a young, you know kid, yeah, so she didn't like that she made it known to. She did, yeah, like she didn't she. You know she was tough. She was tough but after a couple days of working together she ended up working with me. It was a good partnership, a good relationship. She was tough, yes, but definitely someone you would want with you. Experience.
Speaker 2:Experience-wise and if something were to go down, you would want her there definitely. I know you mentioned that there was a lot of overtime. Were you guys understaffed the whole time you were? Very understaffed like how much understaffed hey guys, consider becoming a patron, where you will get first exclusive dibs on the video before it airs to the public and you'll get to ask the guests special questions that you have in mind. So that's also another way to support the channel. Thank you, guys, appreciate all of you. Keep pushing forward.
Speaker 1:Make sure you hit that link in description below like honor staff, to the point where they would call eight names for overtime, every shift that's normal.
Speaker 1:That's normal over here bro yeah, but with the art, with already little, you know, we already have not that many officers. Yeah, so it's like, and it has to do with the pay. You know it's all about dollars, right, because the environment was I mean, it's prison, it's a bad environment, no matter what, but we didn't have to deal with too much. Most of that crisis was really due to dollars, hence the overtime, and with all that overtime drives people to quit, which keeps the staffing low. Everyone I know quit because of overtime.
Speaker 1:No one quit because they hated the job. They quit because of the forced overtime 16-hour shifts. They quit because of the forced overtime. The majority of the department, yes, quit because of forced overtime.
Speaker 2:Well, that's something that doesn't happen in California. It didn didn't used to happen. People didn't quit the department. Right, it seems like people now are quitting the department, which is rare, but uh, you're telling me that it's a normal occurrence for people to quit the department of corrections in florida.
Speaker 1:it's so normal to the point where me, as a new officer, with, I'd say, six months into the job, I was already being considered a senior officer no way and being told to teach other people stuff. You know that's how understaffed we were. Is that we didn't have a choice. You know, hey, you know you, you've been here for six months, you know a little bit here and there. Teach these young kids at least something, because you know there's nobody. And all the OGs that work in the prison, that work there. They either are working in the academy they're white shirts, which is a captain, lieutenant or a major or they're working in TNR, which is transfer and receiving when we receive inmates from the county jail.
Speaker 2:What do the white shirts do for a living? Hang out, drink coffee and bullshit or do they actually work?
Speaker 1:My experience. They worked Really. You know it was great, I mean one of the most amazing captains I met. You know he was a great captain. You know that, like you know that captain would be running a child hall, he'd be patting down inmates in the yard. You know he was out there working and like it was to the point where we're like no, no cap, like take it easy, like we got this. You know, because he was a worker, you know our.
Speaker 1:You know we had some lieutenants that were. You know, yeah, you would have the ones that were admin and they would just be in the office all day just smoking coffee, doing all that. But I'd say a good amount of the white shirts, they were there on the line with us and it was great to see it, I mean, and they would back us up too, especially this captain I just mentioned. I probably hope I meet someone else like him, but I probably won't. He was. He would have your back 100, no matter what. Like he was a great captain, really good captain. You know a lot of my experience, of anything I learned I credited to him definitely bro, I had no idea how great fucking florida department of corrections is.
Speaker 1:Man, yeah, I mean, really, people only hated the job because of forced overtime. And I'm not going to lie, there is some favoritism. There's a lot of favoritism which drives people to quit too and not want to be there and hate it. You know a lot of people. I'm not going to sit here and lie. I probably was favorited a lot because of the overtime I chose to do. I would always put my hand up like, hey, you know I'll take this shift. I would always call and be like, hey, I'm coming in in the morning, you guys need help. You know I was that type of officer, so I'm not gonna sit here and say that I probably didn't make me get favorited, because anytime I wanted something, I did get it so but it was just my personality.
Speaker 1:It wasn't even trying to prove anything. You know, I, I wanted to work and be there. I wanted to do law enforcement. I wanted to be like my, my grandfather, great grandfather, who were, you know, working as law enforcement industry and always putting in work. That's what they taught me, you know so.
Speaker 2:Talk to me about that.
Speaker 1:that team, the specialized units that are in, we have three, we have the CERT team rapid response team which is what I was a part of, the Riot Squad, another name for it. We have the Crescent Negotiations team, and the CERT team is amazing. It's an amazing team, something that I would have done if I stayed in, definitely. And RRT was great too. You know, I saw they put a poster up for tryouts. I wasn't qualified to attend the tryouts, why you had to have at least, I believe, two years in before you could. And obviously I didn't have two years in, but a captain encouraged me to go. He's like just go, man, just go. You know you're a worker, You're good, you know, just go get it.
Speaker 1:I went to the tryouts. I did what did the tryouts consist of? Walk me through the day of the tryouts. So tryouts, pushups, sit-ups a mile and a half run, you know, and I believe it was 25 push-ups, around 30-something sit-ups. I did around 50-something push-ups. How many other guys were there? It was a good amount. It was a good amount, probably like 10, 11. 10? Yeah, and I definitely did better physically than most of them. There was only one or two other guys that were kind of. Was this an all-day event? No, it lasted pretty short. It was short. Yeah, just a couple hours.
Speaker 2:So, aside from physical training, did they have any other type of examinations? No, no, no. They want to make sure you can do some fucking push-ups, sit-ups and run.
Speaker 1:That's it, that's it, that's it. You know, I mean something else that people say about the department is that we lack a lot of training. I'm not gonna lie, we do. Yeah, we lack a lot of training the academy. All we do is have the book and get told how it really is so with that riot team, what, uh?
Speaker 2:what are the job duties? When are they called in? What are they equipped with?
Speaker 1:so we get called in whenever there's a major disturbance, such as a riot. If there's like a like, let's say there's a strike, with inmates that don't want to work, and the whole dorm won't come out or they won't lock it up, they won't go in their cells, we'll get called in. You know more of the little stuff called in from home or called in from on the job, both can be, both always on call. We were given state-issued cell phones and you know you get that call, you know it's time to go. We were equipped with uh, we don't carry batons in the department of corrections in florida. Only ones that carry batons are the specialized units.
Speaker 2:Can you buy your own baton and carry your own baton, or is that discouraged? You can't do that either.
Speaker 1:You can't buy anything Unless it's gloves or something like that. You can't bring anything personal in the prison Like a weapon, personal equipment, weapon, anything. You have your chemical agents, your cuffs and that's it. How big is the chemical agent? Mk4?
Speaker 2:it's mk4 this big.
Speaker 1:If you work on the yard, if you're yard staff, you would carry the mk9 right. If you're on the specialized units mk9 we didn't have it issued to us but if we got called in we would make a pit stop at the control center and pick up our MK9s.
Speaker 2:So, aside from OC spray, what other tools did you have?
Speaker 1:We just started. It was a couple months before I left carrying tasers Did you get tased? Yes, I got tased. How was that dude? It hurt Not that bad. I prefer it than the OC spray. Did you guys have grenades? Yes, we have all that. You know.
Speaker 2:Oc grenades, oc grenades or the stinger ball grenades, oc grenades, and it was pretty cool.
Speaker 1:I mean all that equipment. We would have our own like little locker room with all that stuff, all our gear packed. You know it was really nice. We had our vest, you know, riot helmet, like all the essentials that you would see any law enforcement officer wear in a riot did you guys do cell extractions or were cell extractions? A thing.
Speaker 2:Yes, who does?
Speaker 1:those, the rapid team or a regular, no, so you get certified in that. So like everything in Florida is certified, you can't do anything unless you're certified. So we have the DART team which responds to. It's kind of like a team where it's just a bunch of CEOs that kind of sit there and they wait for like that 911 call for help.
Speaker 2:That's kind of what every CEO in California does. They sit there all day long.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and then we have the cell extraction team. You know you get certified in that. You go to a class, a couple hour class, like a day class, you know. You just tell your LT hey, I want to be certified in cell extraction. All right, I'll sign you up for the next class. You go to the class. We have our little ID cards that have whatever we're certified in and it says you're cell extraction certified Whenever we're certified in and it says you're certainly a cell extraction certified whenever there has to be a cell extraction.
Speaker 2:You get called in. What are some other certifications you can get?
Speaker 1:there's a lot of stuff there's so like anything, like the taser. You don't just get issued a taser like, you have to go to a certification class because with the taser comes a body camera holy shit, bro, fuck.
Speaker 2:You probably opt not to get that taser.
Speaker 1:Huh, huh, it doesn't matter really, because with the body camera you don't use it. You really don't use it, like if you're in a use of force, using OC spray or hands-on escorting, just walking around the housing unit. You don't turn on the body camera.
Speaker 2:So here in California that bitch stays on 24-7, 365?.
Speaker 1:Yeah, nah, not over there. Over there, the body camera. You don't even turn it on. If you decide to use your taser, the body camera turns on as soon as you, uh, pull it out, pull it from the yeah, from the holster, the body camera turns on automatically.
Speaker 1:That's cool that's the only time that body cameras were ever used. But you did have the option to turn it on if you wanted to for any reason. With that came some officers that you know they were dickheads and they wanted to turn on their body cameras and all of a use of force when they don't have to but they want to. So yeah, you know, we just tell you know, if we hear that beep, we just all yell, hey, we live.
Speaker 2:And then we know you know on camera is um every use of force incident a reportable incident. You guys got to write a report over there, or no?
Speaker 1:yes, yeah, you write an incident, incident report, use of force report. I ain't gonna lie to you, if the captain is cool with you or the, so that the oic officer in charge you're gonna be a lieutenant or captain if they're cool with you, they, they, you know they'll help you out, like to write it out and stuff. You know, like fuck yeah, they'll help you write it out, and it's not even that you know, you just here they make the officers now go into separate rooms.
Speaker 2:Don't fucking look at each other. Don't talk to each other. You're collaborating. Yeah, bro, you get fucking fired for that shit, no, and the use of force.
Speaker 1:We just, captain, just come up to him and say, hey, what happened, hey, that this, hey, this and this happened. All right, you two just go put your ids in the printer, print out a copy and then just start writing. It's like a blast from the past, bro.
Speaker 2:Um, do they scrutinize your guys's use of force?
Speaker 1:a lot they do well, you talking about the public or the bully?
Speaker 2:who's scrutinizing? You guys?
Speaker 1:a lot the public and the how how would?
Speaker 2:who's scrutinizing you guys? A lot of the public and the how how would?
Speaker 1:they know. You know you have the little articles coming here and there. You know inmate being to death in Florida prison, inmate being in Florida prison. We had two officers in a different institution were caught on camera because of an inmate having an illegal cell phone and it showed two officers slapping an inmate. Did it kill him? I think I just slapped him and they got fired and I'd say that scrutinization is what's gonna start pushing the actual body cameras. I can see it happening soon yeah that'll come from a federal court order.
Speaker 1:It will because I mean, I'm still in touch with some guys in the prison, yeah, and they're like, yeah, we ain't got body cameras yet, but it's gonna come eventually, because too much happens in the city. Like too much happens. Yeah, you know there's there's a lot of stuff going on accusations. You know we're, you know the department is known for being really aggressive and brutal.
Speaker 2:The the body worn cameras are really not that bad. That bad. I think they're a great idea, bro, as far as evidence preservation and great training tools. Dude.
Speaker 1:They're amazing training tools because you can literally show hey, look at this, instantly, don't do that or do it this way. It's nice to see it on camera. I just don't like when it's always being used against you. Oh, and it will be Like okay, we have the body camera. That's cool, like if I fuck. Just tell me. Hey, here it is on camera, this and this.
Speaker 2:So, as a CO in Florida man, if you fuck up, are you getting a slap on the hand, on the wrist, or are you getting fucking the book thrown at you?
Speaker 1:I'm just going to slap on the wrist Really. Ah, that's beautiful bro, that's music to my ears. You know like I mean. But again, this is where favoritism might play right. You know, I mean, I was not gonna. You know, they weren't really gonna get me in trouble for anything like that you're the golden boy man, it felt like that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean, all I was trying to do was the best I could to. You know, I know the feeling, bro. You know I just wanted to do the job and learn because I mean, I believe, no matter how many years you have in the department, you're always learning, everyone's always learning. I made sure to have a paper copy, a little packet, of all the policy and procedure, of everything, of the whole chapter 33, which is every regulation in the prison. I would always read it in my spare time to see, hey, what can I do, not do?
Speaker 2:Did you ever see any laws or rules in your policy that you thought were dumb? Not really. No, they all kind of made sense.
Speaker 1:They all made sense. Yeah, I mean nothing.
Speaker 2:Weird, to be honest. If you showed up to work in Florida as a CO and your white shirt said hey, we want you to go play pickleball with that inmate over there, man, no, you just say no. I'll say no, like well, uh, don't you want to be a sergeant?
Speaker 1:there's a sergeant position coming up, man I don't really care about the rank, to be honest. I mean what?
Speaker 2:if they're like hey, your friend billy and john are over there playing with that inmate they're not even my friend at that point like I would not associate myself with people that do that.
Speaker 1:Like you know, the department is I. I don't see if if it ever comes to that, then, like I, oh, it came to that here, bro, we're here. I just can't see it happening over there. And if it does happen, I know for a fact there's gonna be a mass exodus, people quitting, yes, yes, definitely.
Speaker 2:And then you're gonna get it are there transgenders over there?
Speaker 1:yes, because in the state of florida it doesn't matter if you're transgender. If you were born a man, in the state of florida you go to a men's prison, no matter what right. There's actually a complaint about that in miami-dade that a transgender with a with female reproductive parts was put in a men's jail because it doesn't matter, you were born a man. So in florida you get sent to a men's prison. They don't recognize it as anything if you're transgender.
Speaker 2:But I seen a lot titties up to here did you see that in the alpha dorm over there? Yes, that's a weird dorm then, yes, it was crazy.
Speaker 1:I don't know how that exists. You know, they messed up something with the implants or whatever, I don't know. It looked horrible. A lot of transgenders, a lot of those transgenders.
Speaker 2:Now did you see other inmates falling in love with those?
Speaker 1:dudes. Oh yeah, those transgenders didn't even have to get out of their bed, you. You just go to their rack and you see soups, snacks, food, and you're like I never see you go outside. How do you have all this shit? Because they, you know, getting it in with other inmates. And what were you thinking when you?
Speaker 2:were just a young co watching this. You know I was never.
Speaker 1:I was never exposed to that kind of lifestyle that like that stuff. It was kind of a first time for me, I didn't. I mean, it doesn't matter if I like it or I don't like it, right, it's just different to see. Yeah, it was weird, definitely weird, right, you know? No, I agree, hopefully I wasn't offending nobody, but nah, we're not here to be offensive.
Speaker 2:What I'm saying is if you do not used to that and you see it for the first time, dude, it fucking catches you off guard.
Speaker 1:Very much so. Yes, but you know the department's good. I mean it's a good department, it's just it's really all about overtime, dollars and favoritism. That's really what are the things the department could work on to be a better work environment.
Speaker 2:Are there many escapes in the Florida Department of Corrections?
Speaker 1:Not that. I heard of. I never really heard of it. No.
Speaker 2:Do you guys ever transport inmates to a local hospital? Yes, I've done it twice. Transport yes, how did you guys go?
Speaker 1:In a vehicle, in a van. You know there's a van that has a cage in there. Just open the slide door. They're all chained up and shackled, put them in there. Take them to point A, point B.
Speaker 2:I want to know the process of taking an inmate out to the hospital in Florida. You go to his cell. Yeah, we go to his cell.
Speaker 1:Strip them out, of course. Yes, you take them out the cell, you put them in the shower. Strip them out the cell, you put them in the shower, strip them out. All right, we're good, cuff up, we cuff them up, and then we do our, you know routine.
Speaker 2:Are you cuffing him behind his back always?
Speaker 1:shackles always behind the back. Well, shackles, yeah, that's different. But if you're, if you're putting anyone in handcuffs, always from the back, you'll never put someone in the front cuffs never, bro.
Speaker 2:I like you dude man. I don't understand what, how you fucking understand this and 98 of these kids over here do not understand that. Bro. You don't know how many times I've seen dudes get handcuffed in the front. Used to drive me fucking crazy.
Speaker 1:No, I would go, I would crash out, I would not. No, it's not a thing, it's a fucking thing here bro and I don't understand it.
Speaker 2:Dude, I'm getting worked up thinking about it bro. No, that's not a thing. It's a fucking thing here, bro, and I don't understand it. I'm getting worked up thinking about it, bro.
Speaker 1:No, that's not a thing. I mean, you know, and then after you cuff them you know, uncuff them, you put on the restraints. You know the shackles, you know like restraints.
Speaker 2:What if the MMA said hey, co, these are too tight man, it doesn't really matter to me.
Speaker 1:I mean why you got to be a dicks yo. I don't even know what I would say to him. I would just tell him just shut the fuck up and just chain up to go to the hospital. You want to go to the hospital, right? I mean you want to go, don't you, you want to go, so fucking do what I tell you to do, and that's it, because then you're not going gun uh, one of us carries a gun, other one carries a taser.
Speaker 2:okay, okay, okay, everything seems normal thus far. Um so, two cops, two, always two one with a gun, with a taser inmate in the back, inmate in the back. Now, theoretically speaking, you open that back door and the enemy just bolted, took off running. What are you guys? How would you guys handle that situation?
Speaker 1:You know, in the state of Florida we're actually allowed to shoot them Right. If they hop the gate or try to escape from our custody, we are authorized to use deadly force. Would that be my first reaction? No, because I mean he's chained up.
Speaker 2:I mean oh, I'm talking about no chains, bro, like if he picked the lock or whatever somehow managed to defeat the mechanism it's not that I wouldn't shoot anyone, but I know he ain't got nothing on him.
Speaker 1:I mean, do you though? I mean, hey, anything could happen, you're right, but I can easily chase after him. I mean, would you?
Speaker 2:give it, would you have given a good foot pursuit yeah, easily that that'd be done fast.
Speaker 1:I can run. Did you see the video bro? Yeah, that's weird. That's weird because I can run. He wouldn't, he, he would have not gone far. That would.
Speaker 2:That would have ended in like oh so you saw that video, right, yeah, kern belly. Uh, fucking shout out to caesar hernandez man, we see you, my boy, you're fucking famous. So, dude, you saw that video. You would have caught up to that. Guy tackled him.
Speaker 1:That's a wrap. That's a wrap. It would even have lasted more than five seconds. There's not even a reason that would never happen to me. Because I mean, I know that because he's chained we have him properly restrained Right Like he can't get anywhere.
Speaker 2:It's complacency, bro. It's complacency, lack of caring. And you know I'm not just blaming the cops and stuff, it's the whole machine, it's the whole system that I See, that was also a problem in my department too was complacency that was getting.
Speaker 1:It was there, it was definitely there. There was an incident where a sergeant of mine got assaulted in the middle of the night by an inmate high for K2. And complacency played a big role because he could have gotten killed because the officer that was there the second one, you know a couple feet apart didn't even call it in.
Speaker 2:Did not call it in.
Speaker 1:That officer talked on the phone and was like oh hey, you know, sergeant Omi here is fighting with someone and the control room is like what the fuck are you talking about? And then they go on the radio blasting you know 1024,. You know officer needs help why didn't that CO do anything?
Speaker 2:Was he dumb? Was he not all there? Complacency, it has to be complacency. Did they give him an ass chewing? Did people talk shit to him? Oh?
Speaker 1:definitely. Yeah, you know, if you, if it gets down like that, you know you're not going to be respected or liked by anyone.
Speaker 2:Yeah let's say you're getting down with the inmate or you're fucking fighting or in an incident and you have a partner that just freezes. That's another shit we keep seeing these days.
Speaker 1:You see free you see, freezing can be a little normal. I've frozen my first couple times during use of force incidents, but what that person did wasn't freeze. They willingly and knowingly saw it and were on the phone talking about it like it was a joke.
Speaker 2:Bro, you're a sharp dude man, you're fucking sharp dude For sure. Yeah, there's a difference between freezing and then fucking willingly opting not to participate in assisting your partners.
Speaker 1:Yeah, because I don't know why my memory is so vivid about my use of force incidents. I mean because mine were pretty quick. I mean I think the first time I froze for like a second, but I just did it, I just went, I just straight did it and what was it? Pepper spray. Yeah, all my uses of force.
Speaker 2:What about physical force? Is that considered use of force per your guys's policy?
Speaker 1:yes, and what can be considered physical a punch. Yeah, like a punch throwing them on the ground slamming them, stuff like that is that common physical force? Am I prison? Yeah, damn. But the state of Florida prefers that you use OC spray rather than putting hands on. They prefer that. Well, it's safer. It's safer. Yeah, they encourage us to use the OC spray instead of putting hands on, but then later on they started encouraging you to use a taser more because of the body camera. Get a documentation of the use of force.
Speaker 1:So they were slowly and slowly, like hey, hey, I know you have your oc spray in your hands, but your taser certified right, you should use it. You know we're trying to get this program going a little bit. Yeah, I never used my taser. I would carry it sometimes. I never used it. Did you have the?
Speaker 2:opportunity to use it and chose not to use it yes, but I don't know why.
Speaker 1:No, I'm not trying to do anything wrong, but for some reason that body camera just doesn't. I don't like it, like I don't know. I feel like, even though I did trust a lot of my superiors, I just saw too much incidents of like people just getting screwed over Because I mean, I don't know for me, I forget what I'd be doing sometimes during use of force, like there is one use of force I had For me I forget what I'd be doing sometimes during use of force, like there was one use of force I had, because when there's a use of force and you call it in, someone needs to come out with a camera, you know, to document the aftermath. And they did that on one of my uses of force and I already written my report. All that and my captain's like, hey, you need to rewrite this stuff Because on camera.
Speaker 2:It shows you body slamming him. Damn, somebody was able to go get a camera run back in time to film you body slamming him before shift um, everyone is told their special duty.
Speaker 1:You know assignment, you know like, hey, you, you and you, you guys are going to be the dart team, you and you and you saw extraction and you, you're the cameraman if anything happens. So the minute a use of force goes on the air, your first reaction is to get that camera and run. And no, my use of force was oc spray. I bought a seven after the worst because he was resisting and that was caught. But I did not remember I did that because I didn't put that on my report and my captain's like hey, like you gotta rewrite your thing because you body slammed them and you didn't put that. I'm like I body slammed them and I looked at the camera like oh, I don't remember that. You know there's things you forget oh dude uh.
Speaker 1:Tunnel vision auditory exclusion, um I get it bro, I really believe that if you get into use of force, you should review your body on camera before writing a report. I agree, or at least write a statement, but it's not your official report, because I I mean, it's happened to me twice where something happened that I completely forgot, I didn't even know happened because it was on camera. So at least they were cool with me. With that, you know, it wasn't a problem.
Speaker 2:So you would eventually join the Marine Corps, bro.
Speaker 1:Yeah, of course I mean whole family's military and law enforcement. I got the law enforcement down. I enjoyed my time. My certification is good for four years after I quit, so it's still active right now. It's going to be active once I get out the Marine Corps. So I was like, why not? I'm still young. I always wanted to be a Marine. You know now is the time to do it. No kids Wife. But the opportunity was there so I took it, went to the Marine Corps. You went to Parris Island for boot camp Parris Island, south Carolina and I could definitely say that being a CO helped me out in the Marine Corps because I knew rank structure. You know you as an LT. I would never go to you for something. I'm going to go to my sergeant first and if I have to go to you then I'll go to you, but I go through the proper channels. So when it came to range structure, you know, I got that down.
Speaker 2:When you first got there, did they start yelling at you right away?
Speaker 1:Yeah, you know how it is. How did?
Speaker 2:you feel about that I?
Speaker 1:didn't really care, because you have your experience with it as a ceo. I think it's just me as a person, like I don't care, like I was never the yeller type or the you know. I could have had inmates challenge me, get into fighting stances and I would just stare at them and be like you really want to do that in the most calmest voice ever. And what would they do? It would catch them off guard for sure, because they expect the reaction and I'll just tell them, calm like motherfucker no, you don't yeah, and I'll just stare them down and then they would be like, uh, I'll be like, yeah, exactly.
Speaker 1:So I could say that in the marine corps it was pretty simple for me going through boot camp, because nothing really bothered me. I never really cared, it was just getting through it. My mentality has always been just getting through it, just do it. No, they tell you what to do and how to do it in boot camp and they're always with you the drill instructor?
Speaker 2:yeah, but what about the conditioning, like conditioning your body to road march?
Speaker 1:far, I was always pretty physically were you. Yeah, I mean I don't have muscles like that. I've always been more of a cardio person. I'm pretty, I was always skinny, always a runner, you know, I could pull my own body weight. So like nothing about boot camp was hard for me. I think the only hard part was just really missing home and like wondering if I did the right decision and leaving the department. Why is that? You know, because I had it good there. I mean I was.
Speaker 1:I was getting encouraged to put in for Sergeant and like a year or two and like, am I heading out? I'll wait till I hit my five mark to hit sergeant, because I want to keep learning more, because my biggest fear is being a leader in an environment where I don't fully know everything and I could get someone hurt. You know, no one that is two or three years into anything should be that high up unless, like in the military, you get meritoriously promoted. Yeah, that's different. You proving yourself 100, you can do it, but you got to put in your time and then pick up rank after that if you really want it. You can't just be in there for three years and be a sergeant or two years.
Speaker 2:That's not how it works that's how it works here, man. It's, it's wild, it's different dude, oh and florida works like that too.
Speaker 1:You know we we called them one-year sergeants. Yeah, because when you're in the department you're eligible to be a sergeant, really yes, and you know we kind of had to do that. Like I said, the staffing shortage was pretty bad, right, where you had people like me in for not that long having to teach people. Guys in for one year had to be serge sergeants. You know like it was a necessity in a way. You know no one. You know we needed it because we didn't have no one there. You know you were learning by yourself. Everything was being. You know I observed as much as I could for everything, but everything else you had to basically teach yourself. You know no one taught me that you shouldn't have an inmate too close to you, not let an inmate do this. You know I already knew that already in my head because it's like it's common sense exactly. Yeah, so definitely it did me well for the military.
Speaker 2:It wasn't a hard transition so then you said, you went to 29 palms yeah, I go to 29 palms for field operations.
Speaker 1:That's what it is for now. I'm currently on the track of going to thailand next month, in february.
Speaker 2:What is that? A deployment, a station. What is that? It's more of a training exercise.
Speaker 1:Training exercise in Thailand. Doing a training exercise in Thailand, so it's pretty. It sucks, you have your moments, but hey, it's something that I wanted to do, so it's different. It's different when you complain about something that you're doing and you didn't want to do. I signed the paper. I chose to join the Department of Corrections corrections. I chose to be a us marine.
Speaker 2:So you gotta do it. You got trump coming into office very shortly, I think this month. Um, how do you do you feel that that would impact the marine corps as a whole or the united states?
Speaker 1:military. You know a lot of a lot of my staff, sergeants and higher-ups that I talk to say that, no matter who's president, things are the same, correct, it's always the same. It doesn't matter who's president. You know, I feel like people worry too much about who's president. Right, I think what people need to start worrying about is your local governments your governor your mayor.
Speaker 1:You know that's what I care about most. I, you know that's what I care about most. I care, I mean district attorneys, yeah, da's all the sheriffs. You know, like I, I do love this country. I do my whole family, for I have three generations yeah, of us fought for this country. But I mean I'm putting my state first too. Sometimes I mean I care more about who's governing florida, because's like, hey, if you guys in California, new York, when I have this liberal mindset with Gavin Newsom or whoever's mayor or governor in New York, y'all can have that.
Speaker 2:You guys have homeless people in Florida.
Speaker 1:We do, but not like that. Have you seen that shit right here? That's freaking weird. I mean I'm not going to say it's not weird, but that's pretty bad. There's actually a law that came in effect in florida I don't want to miss, say it just in case but they kind of banned homelessness in a way.
Speaker 2:You know you can't just sleep there on the street no, fuck, like you'll get kicked out, an alligator will eat you yeah, that too.
Speaker 1:But no, you'll get arrested or you'll get kicked out or ticketed. You know you can't. There's no such thing as homeless camps. Maybe in Miami there might be some, but in the state in general you don't see that. When I was back home I did not see any of that. You see your casual homeless guy with his sign, you know, walking around. You don't see this stuff. People sleeping on the streets Smells like piss, fentanyl, slamming dope. I almost got exposed to fentanyl one time in the prison Really we were doing a cell search on this guy and white powdery substance all over his stuff in this medication bottle. I'm not sure if it was fentanyl for sure. I never heard back after, but it was getting me a little dizzy once I got a little look at it.
Speaker 1:I don't know what it was, but it's safe to say it could have been that.
Speaker 2:Shit dude. So you have a few more years left on your contract as a Marine. What are your goals right now? What do you envision your future looking like?
Speaker 1:I want to stay in law enforcement. I really do In California or in.
Speaker 2:Florida, florida, I would never do it here. So you don't plan on staying in California? No, on staying in.
Speaker 1:California no. Not for another second, the minute I get my DD214, I'm getting in the car and I'm driving back the same day to Florida. Seriously, yes, you know it's weird how we live in the same country. You know, correct, I mean we live in the same country, but it's very different, absolutely A little too, different.
Speaker 1:It was pretty weird. Just everything. You can look at anything and be like, oh, it's different back home. It's a good thing about this country. It can also be a little, you know, yeah, but definitely staying law force, I'm not sure corrections, because, despite me not having the worst time in the department, you know the department is not perfect. It has, you know, a lot of people hate the department. They hate working there. They do, yeah, because it's the favoritism, little money and the forced overtime. That's really the fact. If the state of florida, which our governor, has been helping us out I got a signing bonus, a pretty big one, when I came on. We're getting bonuses. The governor's trying to bring up the pay. You know like we're getting bonuses. The governor's trying to bring up the pay. You know like they're trying, but the funding there's not. We don't. The state of Florida ain't the richest.
Speaker 2:Who makes the most money the state troopers or the police officers?
Speaker 1:In case you didn't know, state troopers in Florida are probably the lowest paid law enforcement officers in the country.
Speaker 2:God damn bro, there's no, they're not even getting paid that much over there.
Speaker 1:No, but it's going up. You know, little by little it's going up, it's going up. If you really want to make money in law enforcement in Florida, I recommend Fort Lauderdale, pd or those really bougie city police departments. You know, because at a sheriff's office you'll make like $25 an hour Really, you know.
Speaker 2:I don't know how I feel about that dude, because I mean your life is on the line daily.
Speaker 1:It's on the line daily and a lot of people like to use the example hey, we don't pay that much, but we'll back you up that's a good thing.
Speaker 2:I mean I can see the trade-off. Would I rather get paid less but have my people back me, or get paid a shitload and fucking roll the dice.
Speaker 1:I can attest to that, because I'm choosing to go back Right Rather than stay here and make 100K. You know, make bank as a San Diego sheriff or whatever Miserable you know, I just can't. You know the fact that here they legalize marijuana, they legalize drugs like drug usage.
Speaker 2:Well, I guess you're right, bro. I mean, I walked away from a hundred thousand dollars, you see you know the money.
Speaker 1:I mean, yeah, we want to get paid, yes, I want a pension and benefits, but I I believe that real cops don't look too far into all that stuff, right? You know, when my family was on the job in puerto rico, they didn't you don't get even right now, you don't get paid anything there. And they were proud cops. They loved that job. So I'm one of those that I want. You know, I believe a real cop joins because they actually want to do something Right, whether it's help someone out, whether it's. You know that's what I think the job is for. You know, for corrections, you're there to provide. You know. I mean, what we say in Florida is care, custody and control. You know that's what we do Care, custody and control. You're there to keep them there, make sure they get their three meals a day and that they don't kill each other. You know that's your job here. The motto is provide them fun, fun, leisure and activities, bro. I mean activities aren't the worst, right, but I mean.
Speaker 2:What advice do you have for younger viewers, because they don't listen to me, bro.
Speaker 1:That's actually why one of the main reasons why I wanted to get on the podcast is for this part. Right here, what's that? Maybe some advice for the younger officers? You know, right here, what's that? Maybe some advice for the younger officers. You know, um, like I don't know what I could really say because it's like you said earlier. It seems generational, the, the timidness and the not really wanting to work hard or falling easy to any little agenda that there might be.
Speaker 1:You know, the best thing I could say is like, if you want to get into the job, get into it for the right reasons. You know, if you're using you in Florida people join corrections most of the time because we have a program called the crossover program, me graduating the academy I can use that certification to go to a three month course to be a police officer. You know, just transfer directly. So a lot of people just join to be a police officer. So if you joining the department, join for the right reasons, if you're joining to gain some experience on custody to be a police officer, do it. You know, if you want to make a difference in any way, do it if it was your passion, because you actually want to help others and you know you can't help everyone but you can make someone's day just a little bit easier what would you say to an individual that is on the fence or doesn't have it in them to be law enforcement?
Speaker 2:yet they apply anyways, and they become a liability.
Speaker 1:Don't do it. There's no point like we don't need them, we really don't. If you don't really want to do that job or you're just going in there for the money, we don't need you. You know we don't. You know cops back in the day they didn't get paid shit and that was probably the best generation of cops in the 80s and 90s that this country has ever seen. So if they can do it, if they were able to bring down crime rates really down with just carrying handcuffs and a revolver and a big ass flashlight A big ass flashlight with no technology, barely getting paid, if they were able to bring down record high crime rates, I don't know why things are going on the way they are right now. It doesn't make sense. We have all this technology, all this training, all the mistakes we've made in the past. We're able to learn from them.
Speaker 2:I mean, you probably can't see it because, I mean, you haven't been exposed to it. But this is all by design, bro. This is all by design. Somebody at the top of somewhere is getting fucking paid to. This has been going on since 2012, man. This has been in the making. That's why you keep saying I don't understand it. I don't understand it. I didn't understand it either till you see how high the bullshit goes, dude it's.
Speaker 1:I don't know why, though like what's the point of it?
Speaker 2:what do you mean?
Speaker 1:you don't know why like I don't understand the point of it, why that person on the top wants it. Money, money greed power.
Speaker 2:It's disgusting dude. Yeah, I mean, that's what wars are made out of, you know, overseas, middle east. But yeah, bro, when that's a, that's a whole nother level, that's a whole nother conversation.
Speaker 1:But yeah, dude, for sure that's what it drew up evilness, and also a lot of these young people joining departments. Because I like to look at videos and ads from time to time. I'm a marine now, but I like to stay in touch with my law enforcement community. Yeah, you know, I noticed that a lot of them, if it's not dollars or benefits, they want to join to be the change. Be the change yeah it's. It's a punisher patch.
Speaker 2:Huh to wear the punisher patch and uh, yeah, thank god I wasn't one of thoseisher patch and the sleeve tattoos.
Speaker 1:You have sleeve tattoos, man.
Speaker 2:I have nothing. That's good, bro. I like you already no.
Speaker 1:Yeah, be the change, as in. I don't understand what that really means. Be the change. In what sense do you mean? Because, what has to change? Have we made mistakes in the past? Yes, is my department, my former department, known for doing some pretty messed up things? Yes, but what changed exactly? Because we just came from a time where cops could do their job, bring down crime rates and actually like help others, to where now you're scared to even pull your gun out when you really have to. Chicago, san francisco I don't like looking at videos from those cities because I just compared to what I would do and it's like, yeah, I would get arrested or fired right then and there the same day because, no, I'm not trying to hurt no one no, I'm not trying to power trip or anything, but if I mean it's common sense, bro.
Speaker 2:We need to get down, we gotta get down it's life and death situation.
Speaker 1:Death and you can't just do whatever you want. You know, if you're doing something wrong and a cop stops you, you know right. You know I've been stopped before. I got stopped before because a cop thought I was shoplifting when I wasn't, was a little upset. Yeah, because I mean I was not having the best day and I wasn't shoplifting. I was just there. He's in the bathroom and he stopped me.
Speaker 1:He stopped you in the bathroom going outside the store and I was like, yeah, I ain't got nothing. You know whatever you need, you know cooperation goes a long way because, hey, I mean you, because you don't know if he got told something right or anything. You know he's just trying to do his thing.
Speaker 2:Usually when you remain calm and you just have a friendly conversation, it ends well what about when you resist the cops and fight them and start grabbing their gun and shit?
Speaker 1:and you see, like if you get shot or you get killed, when you do that, I don't believe you're a victim, correct? Like you're not a victim. If you fight the cops or you're a threat and you end up getting killed or hurt, you're not a victim, you know. So, you know that whole be the change is like what do you mean? Like you want things to go soft. Basically, you know you'd rather tell some guy 20 times to get out of the car rather than giving him. You know you afford him the opportunity to get out the car, you explain yourself, you identify yourself, you tell him everything, but you keep telling him 20 times to get out of the car. Yeah, bro, those fucking videos get me too, man. They get me mad because it's like dude, I mean, I always, when I was a ceo, I had the three the three rule ask, tell, make what was that?
Speaker 2:oh, yeah, tell make.
Speaker 1:Yes, yes, you know, hey, hey, inmate, like you know, and that's what you call, you call them inmate, you know? You don't call them by their name, this or that. It's inmate. What about? What do you think?
Speaker 2:of the term incarcerated persons that's not even a thing. The inmate none of that stuff is a thing, you know.
Speaker 1:You know, inmate come here you know?
Speaker 2:no, what about incarcerated persons? Manufactured weapon?
Speaker 1:seen that one the other day I've never heard of it in my life. Basically a sh? Shank, oh, a shank In woke language. No, you mean, I tell you three times to do something and if you want to take it that far, I can take it that far. You know, I don't mind doing paperwork, I don't mind. You know, I don't care. Like, if you want to take it that far, we can take it that far, but that far we could take it that far.
Speaker 1:But I had a good rapport with the inmates because I was pretty chill. You know. It was more of like, hey, this and this and this, you know, just don't do this. Yeah, all right, it's all good. I can't tell you how many times I stayed overtime, an hour or two, trying to help an inmate find a bed, find a mattress or a pillow. Yeah, whenever they needed a problem they were housed in the wrong housing unit, I would help them out. You know it was never to be like, you know, bad to them. Right, it was more so of hey, let's run this smooth. But if you try something or you test things, it's like I'm gonna take, like, if you take it to this level, I'm taking it to this level.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you kind of thing, cool, man. Well, dude, thanks for coming on the podcast, bro, thanks for reaching out. I definitely want to keep in touch with you, man, and just see how your journey progressed. Bro, I'm stoked for you, man.
Speaker 1:Sky's the limit, like I told you, dude, yeah of course I can't wait too to see how things, where I might end up, what agency I might end up If I stay in the military. Who knows, Fuck, you can become the only be the change there, man which yeah so we need change there.
Speaker 2:Sure I do. Once again, thank you for coming. Man, there you guys have it. Folks. Another banger, probably the youngest guest I'm ever gonna have on here. Man, any younger is gonna get weird. But uh, with that, if you guys like what you saw, make sure you hit the subscribe button. Thank you guys, love you, keep pushing forward unfold, thank you.
