Hector Bravo UNHINGED
Official Hector Bravo Podcast
Hector Bravo UNHINGED
John - From Infantryman to Law Enforcement Captain: Navigating Military Life and Leadership Challenges
John, a veteran turned police officer, shares his incredible journey of resilience and leadership through military service and law enforcement. He emphasizes the importance of camaraderie, integrity, and personal growth while navigating the complexities and hurdles of each profession.
• Growing up in Oxnard and making the decision to join the Army
• Experiences in basic training shaping his mindset
• Transitioning to law enforcement and encountering new challenges
• The importance of maintaining integrity and resilience as a police officer
• Navigating department politics and the impact of leadership on officers
• Insights into handling conflict and fostering community relationships
• Personal reflections on failure as a catalyst for growth
• Advocating for a supportive and compassionate police culture
• Finding purpose and value in both military and civilian life
Hector Bravo. Unhinged chaos is now in session. Welcome back to our channel, warriors. We are still growing. Today, another special guest we have a guy by the name of john who was infantry 11 bravo, also a police officer and worked in correction. So we're gonna get into this right now. What, what's up, dude? How's everything? What's up? Everything's good, everything's good.
Speaker 2:Thanks for taking the drive down south, dude? No, I definitely appreciate it. It took a little bit longer than normal for the drive, but it was a good drive still. Was it a rain or no? No, it wasn't rain. It sprinkles and I start crashing Out of control. Dude, we used to laugh about that on patrol. Like it rains, it's like, oh, get ready for the accident report. Fuck dude, so where did you grow up at? I grew up in Oxnard, california, in Ventura County. That's what's up, dude.
Speaker 1:Oxnard. Shout out to Oxnard At what age did you decide you wanted to join the Army?
Speaker 2:I would say honestly, probably around 15 or 16. I think because growing up in Oxnard if anyone from Ventura County it's usually like Oxnard is considered, I guess, like the more ghetto part of the county or the more where the gangsters are like.
Speaker 2:Oh, it is, bro, it is yeah, and so, you know, growing up and kind of seeing that that was not something that I really wanted to do, but I was always around that because, you know, my cousins were that's how they were growing up in just the different that just was the culture around there.
Speaker 2:So I just kind of was like, oh, let me try to. You know, go to the military and see, the only person I knew from the military was my uncle, my two uncles actually and they kind of told me about it and got me interested in it and I just wanted to do something different than anyone else was doing. Because even though my friends were going to the Marines, a couple of them went to the Marines and I didn't even want to go with them because my mentality was like I'm going to go do some shit on my own, away from everybody else, right, and then see what I could do. That was it. That was like, honestly, my mentality. I probably would have even went the marine route, but I was more like, once a couple of my friends went, I was like I don't want to go on, nobody from dude.
Speaker 1:Our fucking stories are almost identical. Dude. I was telling you I found my lost, my long lost brother man. Fucking identical dude, like the majority of my friends, like they all went to the marine corps.
Speaker 2:Yeah and yeah, it was crazy because I didn't even want to, um know, a couple of my cousins were supposed to go with me and they didn't. And so like right now, when people you know meet me or like they never really see my guy cousins, they only see my girl cousins, and I always tell people I said, you know, that's the thing to me. I guess sometimes I feel like sad about because they were all going to somewhat go with me to the military and they didn't. And that's honestly where our lives just went like two different directions. So I feel like if they would have went to with me to the military like they would have had, they probably wouldn't be the same people. Like that's how crazy it was. Yeah, so you know, it's like you know, and my mom, probably being on my ass too, probably helps. Did you skateboard at all? Uh, no, I didn't skateboard or anything.
Speaker 2:But I was kind of cool, like I was kind of cool, like I was kind of cool with everybody, like I kind of a couple of the guys I knew were skaters. You know, there was the homies, the jocks, everyone. I think I don't really think I was in one particular group, I was just more like intermingling with everybody, for sure.
Speaker 1:So the recruiter station, man, where was it at? And when you walked in did they have? Did he break it down to you? Did you already know your MOS?
Speaker 2:Damn you know the recruiting station was, my recruiter was a girl actually, so that was kind of she didn't know shit about, like infantry I don't think she knew anything about. Did you know anything about infantry? I didn't know, anything about.
Speaker 2:The only thing that I knew, like literally, was that when I walked in there there was a dude that was a ranger and he was like had a, or that, a rock that said the ranger on it, and he was like take a picture of this rock and this is what a ranger is and all this other stuff, and I was like all right, cool. And he kind of told me about the job like shoot guns, you know this and that and I was like, oh, that sounds cool, like that's literally the extent of what I knew about the job, right, and um, so it was like I didn't really know anything about it. Honestly, I think I just wanted to do something like hard but didn't really care what it was. I think I was just looking to kind of test myself. I think one of the things got me interested in too was my cousin got sent to um, what's that?
Speaker 2:The grizzly program you know, where they send the kids that act like so I remember so robles, yeah, yeah, my, it's funny because a guy I work with now he actually went to to the same program. So when my cousin went he came back and I just remember he was kind of like yoked out, you know, from doing burpees and pushups, and I was like I said, what did he do? And he was like he's all man, they just made us do burpees and pushups and you know, they were marching. I went to his graduation and things like that and he was one of the ones supposed to go with me to the military.
Speaker 2:So actually, I think kind of seeing that actually kind of made me even more like, oh yeah, you know I want to go, um, you know I want to get in shape, I want to do stuff like that, and so it kind of prompted me in that way to do it. But yeah, the recruiter, uh, she was cool, but she didn't really tell me anything. Yeah, it was honestly, I don't remember her being like, not that she wasn't helpful, but it didn't really help me make them. I think I was just already in my own mind like just send me, send me somewhere hard.
Speaker 1:Send you somewhere hard dude. So where was MAPS? Was MAPS in that area? No?
Speaker 2:So MAPS, the recruiting station was right there in Oxnard. I want to say it was off of like Oxnard Boulevard and like Gonzalez or something. I don't know if it's still there or not. Um, and then meps was in la. So then we would, then we'd go, yeah, we'd go all the way to la. Uh, yeah, it was funny when, uh, when I left because I graduated I'm not sure the exact date I graduated from high school, what year 99? Yeah, um, and but I left on july 26, and so my parents had to go to a funeral in Arizona. So before I left, my dad was like, he just was like, hey, there's alcohol above the refrigerator. You know, you could have a party if you want to, because I was like they were going to be gone the weekend. I was leaving. So literally they left on.
Speaker 2:I think it was like a Thursday night or something, and then I was leaving that Sunday morning. I think I was leaving that Sunday morning, so you know, of course, inviting my friends over. We had like a little party and this and that, and then, boom, they picked me up on Sunday. The recruiter picked me up from my house on Sunday and I was gone. That was it Gone. Yeah, I was like, yeah, I went to Fort Benning. I don't remember the whole thing. It was like I went to LA. They put us up in some hotel. You probably had the same hotel, I bet you that. Well, I did it out of San Diego. Oh, you did it out of San.
Speaker 1:Diego, yeah. So what was your mindset at that time, dude, because I was kind of fucking scared of leaving the nest, like exploring the world. What was your mentality?
Speaker 2:Mine was like, honestly, I was ready for it, like let's get this shit on and cracking. Yeah, because and you know what, I think it's good that I had that mentality, because I tell people like I don't know about their experience in basic training, my shit was like juvenile hall, it wasn't not like no.
Speaker 1:Oh, I bet.
Speaker 2:It wasn't like this friendly environment, Like I would say, my experience with the Army didn't get better till I got to my command, but going in there it was kind of good that I came from the background, that I came from, because it wasn't this like warm reception and not in the way of like, oh, they're just being hard on you to, like you know, be as more. I want to say borderline Like when I went to Georgia. I always tell people in California we stereotype people.
Speaker 1:When I went to Georgia it was borderline racism you know it wasn't borderline racism, it was, yeah, it was yeah, it was right, it was.
Speaker 2:It was weird. It was a weird atmosphere. Um, um, in the group that I was in, uh, what unit were you in? A basic, I don't even remember. It was like charlie, come like black hawk charlie company. We were on sand hill somewhere, like, but it was a um, it was weird because we were with all these guys from the south. So, like me, this guy Horn, I remember him, he was from Detroit and a guy from Cincinnati and a guy from San Diego. We all kicked it together because we were all from like kind of cities and these other guys were like I don't want to say they were hillbillies, but they were kind of Hazard Kentucky.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And so that was like one of the first things is like we just noticed like these guys didn't really like interact with us. I think I was like the first, you know, brown person that some of them saw and it was kind of so. It wasn't like they would say anything in particular they did one time. So that's what that's like. My I think, second week there I got in a fight with the dude from Texas and he was because he thought I was Puerto Rican, so Texas and he was because he thought I was Puerto Rican.
Speaker 2:So he's like, hey, you fucking Puerto Rican. Well, he white, yeah, he's a white dude. But actually me and him became cool after that. You know, after, I think, um, yeah, we got a little fight. I just hit him a few times. It wasn't really like a yeah, like a back and forth, it was more like I just punched him a few times and then, I think after that people knew I wasn't like afraid. And then the guy horn, from Detroit, I think he, he likes, he ended up getting in a fight too, rocking somebody. And I think after that, because we're all together, they kind of left us alone. Um, but yeah, it was not this, like, hey, we're all buddies and this and that, even though the guy Floyd, which was funny when we graduated um, me and him actually were cool, we took a picture together and we shook hands and everything, like I think I think me kind of not backing down from him because these are pretty pretty, you know, stocky white boy dude, like, but he was cool. I mean after that it was cool. But uh, but the experience there wasn't, I would say, fun.
Speaker 2:So was Oxnard predominantly Hispanic? Yeah, it's mostly Hispanic. Um, it's uh, I would say like 95 percent, right, um, you have not too many. Uh, you know black people there. Uh, white people. There is One of my friends growing up. His name was Robert Paisano, but to me sometimes, when they grow up with you, they're basically like they're Mexican, it don't matter what culture they're from.
Speaker 1:I'm telling you, our stories are identical bro Because as you go to Fort Benning, you're introduced to the white people from fucking Alabama, Kentucky, black people fromigan or new york and puerto ricans from puerto rico and you're like oh, whoa, yeah kind of like cultural overload.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's all these different people from different uh places and yeah, they're all it was funny. Was that a hard?
Speaker 1:time for you to adjust or to get to open up or like maneuver. Navigate through that not too much.
Speaker 2:I mean I I think my the way I was raised, probably a pretty personable for the most part, I always like talk with everyone. I don't know why, I think because I wasn't the youngest cousin but I wasn't the oldest, so I was kind of where I would say I was kind of the more reasonable of my cousins. Like my other cousins were extremes, you know what I mean like they were like homies and they're like you know they're, and I was kind of the dude like I was.
Speaker 2:One day I'd be with you know I remember this girl telling me she's all I like hanging out with you, but I don't like your friends like you know what I mean and she was a straight like preppy type of girl, yeah, and my friends and my cousins were like very much the complete opposite, so it was like I was intermingling these different crowds so maybe I just kind of knew how to like I don't know that. I feel like the same thing like being a cop, like I could one day I would be, you know, talking to dudes that you know committed felonies. The next day I'd be in a meeting with all these nerds that you know they never and I just meant the same person, but I just know how to, I guess.
Speaker 1:Uh, definitely, yeah, act different um, but how was the physical portion for you? I mean, you know it's not. I mean doing pushups all the fricking time getting smoked.
Speaker 2:It was hard for me at first, honestly, because one of the things cause I never worked out really before I mean I work out here, it was working out like here and there. You know, you think you're like I'm getting ready, but I didn't have anyone to tell me. You know I didn't do this and that my uncle would try to help me, um, with that, because you know he had been to the army. But he was uh, I don't remember what his exact job was, but he just was like, hey, you need to get running shoes and this, this and that. And so he got me some like a, um, I don't know, they're like some asics, so you know, like the lovely shoes they make you wear. And so I was kind of like, uh, um, I wasn't really trained up too much.
Speaker 2:So when I got there I I want to say I failed the first run, which is kind of goes into, like, I guess, my mentality, how I am now. I failed the first run, so they put me into a running group with one of the drill sergeants who was actually a pretty. He was pretty nice, he was like an older black guy, but he kind of reminded me of, I guess, if I like had like a black grandpa or something, yeah, like that, because the first when I out he didn't really yell at me, he just kind of was more like seemed like disappointed and for some reason for myself when I went back to the I keep wanting to call them the barracks, but I know we didn't call them barracks, it was like the dorm, I guess, or whatever. The fuck, the bay, the bay or whatever it is I remember going back and kind of like looking at myself and being like I ain't going to fall out of like any more runs and I didn't.
Speaker 2:In my entire career from that point to long for it, I've never fallen out of a run because of that Cause, because that feeling I didn't want. I was like, no, I'm not going to do that, I'm like I'd rather, you know, pass out. Oh, I know, dude for sure. So it was, it was, yeah, it was a player, I was a wrestler, I'd never done any of that shit. I just came straight from, you know, the streets of oxford to like to this and I so I didn't have any formal like training. I was like I don't know what the fuck these are talking bear crawling and bear crawling, monkey, monkey fuckers.
Speaker 2:Yeah, atomic squats.
Speaker 1:Yeah, dude. So at the end of it, man, you turn blue, you get your blue cord, you get your cross rifle. Did you feel proud, man, that you had accomplished that, you know?
Speaker 2:what's crazy about that experience. So this is where I tell where basic training wasn't. It taught me a lot of good things and bad things, right. It taught me a lot of good things and bad things, right. So one of the things was when we were doing the last I don't know if you guys, they made you guys do the same thing they were trying to copy, like the Marine Corps, the crucible.
Speaker 2:We called it the bayonet 25 mile road march yeah they didn't call it the bayonet, yeah, they just were like we want to do something like the crucible. It was a 25 mile road march and all that stuff like that. So, um, you know, like I said, the entire time in there was kind of like with this little group, um, and when we did that last, those last events, the drill sergeant, one of them, two of them were assholes, but they're kind of assholes to everybody. One of them was a kind of. He was the one I didn't really, uh, really like and when I was originally like the you know know, carrying the old M16, whatever. So when we're going to do the, we did the 15 mile out and then a 25 mile back. I don't know if it's the same way, right? So he's all like no, you're going to carry the 60. And I'm like okay, whatever you know what I mean Losey they lose it right.
Speaker 2:So he's all. Yeah, people can know they can trade out with you. Of course, only one dude ever traded out with me that entire the 15 and the 25, only one guy, um, I can't remember his name, but he maybe for a couple miles, maybe like two, three miles. Other than that I carried that bitch the whole time. Had they done that previously?
Speaker 1:another.
Speaker 2:No, they never did that they never did that before. So they never had done that before. So that's that's kind of the point I was getting to. So I carried it to 15 miles. In my mind I was like this motherfucker wants me to quit, bro, like he want you trying to break me or something, and so did the 15 mile.
Speaker 2:By the time we got to like our little combat town, like all my toenails fell off, every fucking one of them was off, fell off. The medic was like he's all you know, if you don't, you don't need to do the 25 mile back. You want? And I was in my mind I'm like fuck this dude. Like I know he wants me to like, not, that's what he wants. And so what was crazy about it?
Speaker 2:The guy that they picked to be the class leader, this fool didn't even do the 25 mile back. He fucking sat in the back of the thing, yeah, sat in back of the thing. Uh, the, the half ton or whatever fucking. And um, he didn't do it. And this is a dude they picked to be as a class leader. So when we got back and we got our fucking cross rifles the drill sergeant, when he gave one to me, he said I hope you don't make it in the army. Swear to god what the fuck. He said who the fuck was this guy? I don't even want to say his name, I know his. I know, like I don't know his first name, but I know who he was. Oh damn dude. Yeah, so I you know, it's one of those things I'm like. I don't know how I'd react if I see him. If I seen him, like later on, when I was growing up, I'd probably be like what the fuck bitch? You know.
Speaker 1:Dude.
Speaker 2:So it was one of those things, honestly like, where I was kind of like man, what the what the fuck is this? So it was kind of a weird experience in that and I remember the people next to me and the group actually, you know, because what they said and this is what I heard, just the murmurs right Of like of people were like they're like martinez did the whole fucking thing, and I can't remember the guy. They're like our class leader, that motherfucker didn't finish. So to me I was like you know, like you know, dude, you, I that kind of taught me early like there's always gonna be people trying to tear you down, it's never gonna be fair, it's never gonna be. That's why, like you know, I used to always bring that up honestly when I used to give like little speeches, not the the whole thing, but it'd be like this whole thing, like it's gonna be fair and it's always gonna someone's gonna always help you know where dude.
Speaker 2:No bro, you're gonna you're gonna need opposition and you gotta fucking go through it just everywhere, bro. So yeah, it was pretty crazy. That was kind of a weird experience having that kind of happen. So when I talk about basic, it's never really like this jolly oh yeah, it seems like a unique experience dude yeah, yeah, it was, it was different, it was definitely different.
Speaker 2:I learned a lot of good things and you know and saw I saw the bad side of people with that but and I still tell people, go to the military and I think sometimes you got to go in those situations and just fucking and in basic did you learn that you can push your body further than your uh, than what your mind can think it can push yeah, it's like I.
Speaker 2:I tell people now when I talk about it it's like leveling up in like a video game and I feel like once you know where you can go, it's very hard to to go back or relate.
Speaker 2:Or relate to people like even in the gym I tell people like, like my knee's been kind of bugging me a little bit lately because I was running a lot yeah but I don't know how to stop, like I'll tell people, like I don't know how to, I'll slow, maybe I'll alter my exercise, I'll do this, something like that, but I'm not gonna necessarily stop what I'm doing. And I can't really relate with someone's like oh, you know, I'm sore, I'm tired, like everyone's sore, they're tired. So like, go do it anyways, right, like push yourself. You know, I, I don't, I like that feeling of like, kind of like progressively getting better. So like, when I listen to dudes, like you know, david gog is like oh, yeah, yeah, I like, I like that mentality, I guess. Right, so then you land in fort lewis.
Speaker 2:Yeah, second, id, yep, second, I was only one that went there actually out of my whole thing, because it was in my contract, because I was, because I was the in my. When I signed my contract, um, I was trying to get as close as I could to californ, but the army has shitty bases. You know what I mean? All the bases are like and fucking, I don't know, for some reason, like the Navy. I'll give them that they had the up and down the coast.
Speaker 2:You know, what I mean. For me it was like I think they gave me the choice of Fort Lewis or I think that was it steward or something it was like. So I was like, well, I guess I'll go to washington. I don't know, I don't know. So I was like I didn't really to me. I was like kind of just like whatever about it. I just like let me go check it out, so yeah. So then I uh, front front, went there. I actually came home for a little bit because they made me do, um, hometown recruiting.
Speaker 2:I don't know if you remember that you come yeah, so I would come and I would, uh, I did hometown recruiting and it was. It was pretty and it was pretty funny. It was funny because I pulled over a guy, probably like it had to be like five years, six years ago it was a while ago and I pulled over this guy and he's like do you remember me? And I was like no, he's like. You came to my class and told us about joining the Army. He's like you're the reason I joined the Army. That's what he told me. I was like, I was like what he's like, yeah, the way you were talking about it and this. And that I was like oh, yeah, yeah, because I never even having that experience it being bad, I didn't come back and talk bad about it, I just was like right, I just came back and was like like okay, like yeah, this and that.
Speaker 2:And you know, but in group, but especially in, I guess, the environment from oxn, because sometimes they call Oxnard Boxnard for being like, because all the boxers, like Fernando Vargas, I think, like Victor Ortiz is not from there, as far as I know, but he trains in Ventura. There's a couple of boxers that are out of there. Oxnard is just known for having a strong boxing community. So a lot of the guys were not like, oh yeah, there's fighting, I don't want to go. They're like oh yeah, like that's cool.
Speaker 1:So it was funny. Let's go back to the basic training, because I thought of a question real quick how did you feel living with lack of privileges? Because you're right, you don't have a TV, you don't have radio. You sure the fuck didn't have a cell phone? Oh yeah, how did?
Speaker 2:it fit. It was kind of a went from I don't know because. Also, I think because we didn't have cell phones like they do now, it wasn't like all like I was used to having a cell phone, I think. I don't know if you remember the first time they let you call home from your parents. Yeah, I remember like not really feeling any way about any of it, until I remember hearing my parents' voice and being like, oh, you know, like I don't know I I felt like, but I felt like that was common with everybody. You know, right, I think you don't really realize it impacts you until it does.
Speaker 2:And the only other time I remember feeling some like oh shit, this feels crazy is, uh, we were on one of the range buses you know the white buses to go to the range and some country music started playing and I hadn't heard music in like four weeks, yeah, and for some reason that shit made me like emotional. I was like it was weird. It was like the weirdest thing. I don't. I don't know if anyone's ever I mean, I'm pretty sure guys have in the military but it's like this weird, I guess, once you're deprived of something and you and you hear it or it's, it's like that's a different, whole different feeling oh, it's like it's brand new again, like you're hearing it for the fucking first time, dude, especially music yeah, I remember that everyone being on the bus and I remember everyone be getting quiet.
Speaker 2:I do remember that, like this country song came on, everyone got quiet and it was just like this weird thing where I think everyone was kind of like innerly like reflecting on why they were there, missing their family.
Speaker 1:Whatever they're missing, that's what they're probably so I would actually have my mom print out lyrics to songs and mail them to me so I can be reading and pretending I'm listening to the song. You know what I mean?
Speaker 2:yeah, I actually think kids nowadays would actually benefit from getting away from all that shit bro, like that's one of the things I like, that there's technology and things like that, but I think when you, when you take away something and then you you get it back, you appreciate it more it makes it different yeah.
Speaker 2:So yeah, it was. It was definitely different. Um, I was trying to think of what else was kind of um, the washing the clothes. I remember when we first got there they were like they would make us wake up in the middle of the night and we had to go wash our own clothes and for some reason, I think the ceo of the um heard about this and then all of a sudden we had to pay like 10, 15 bucks for someone we would throw our clothes into like a white bag and then they would wash it for us. But before that we were getting up in the middle of the night randomly and you go downstairs, you wash clothes, and then so they were like, hey, these guys aren't getting enough sleep. So they kind of took that out. They kind of did little things like that. So it was weird little things.
Speaker 2:I never ate as much as I did when I was in basic training. I went in and I weighed 150, and I came out and I weighed 175. And that was not touching weights, that was just doing push-ups, getting smoked, just all that stuff. I did meet a lot of good, even though there was that guy who was a bad drill sergeant. There was a guy whose last name was Junior. I just remembered that he was a staff sergeant. Um, he was actually. You know, like you don't start your class yet. They're like that weird in between thing where it doesn't count.
Speaker 1:Reception is fucking horrible yeah, you're just getting smoked for no fucking reason, like you're.
Speaker 2:It wasn't even reception. They took us out of reception. They sent us to um, to our company, and the drill sergeants weren't back yet from their break so they had this dude named uh junior that was watching us, a shorter black dude. Um, actually he was cool, he was mean to us, like he was like, but he would smoke us. He had a thing called the tree of woe, so there'd be like this tree and he'd be like uh, tree of woe go, and then we just run over there.
Speaker 2:I guess he's trying to break in our boots. That's what he told us, you know. You know, you know sometimes they're trying to like, they tell you crazy shit, like you don't know why they're doing it, like they throw your boots in the shower and then they turn the water on. So, um, yeah, it was, it was. But talking to him, you know he was, it was a good experience, actually I. That's why I still remember him, us, but he was tough on us but fair with us, and then he would sit us down and talk to us and and tell us to stay motivated and, uh, totally different. I think having him kept me motivated when I was dealing with the other dudes. You know what I mean. Absolutely. I think having that experience was like okay, well, not everyone's an asshole, right?
Speaker 1:so you get you fort lewis. Um how was that touching down in your unit? Um did your leaders approach you right away with a specialist?
Speaker 2:sergeants. It was crazy because you know, um, the first guy I met there was staff sergeant price. He's the guy I told you about who ended up later getting um killed in afghanistan first guy I met there. So when you know I'm a private, eat nothing. He picks me up and you know, like, at that point you're like terrified out of basic training, of dealing with like NCOs, right, you're like, yeah, so he picks me up and he's all chilling Shit, does bumping music, but he tells me, you know, hey, what's up, I'm, my name's a Sergeant price and and this honestly, he was from the military to law enforcement, best leader that I want to ever uh met.
Speaker 2:Just because his um demeanor very the way he used to explain it to us was just like, hey, you know, if I ask you to do something, do it, and when it's time to handle business, we'll take care of it, and when it's time to like have fun, we'll have fun. And that was it. I mean him like uh, so mean him click from day one, even though he was my staff sergeant, things like that. I was always respectful to him, but I would say he was more like almost like, uh, like kind of like a older brother type of figure kind of thing like that.
Speaker 1:I get it dude. So do you start training right away?
Speaker 2:I mean, you got to do your equipment draw so when I got there, my unit was in the field. So when I walk in, I walk in the company in the back and shit and there's like three fucking staff sergeants right there, and you know. So I'm like. I'm like, oh yeah, I'm checking in so immediately, like I like immediately, within five minutes. They're like we're doing piss tests right now, start drinking water and doing jumping jacks.
Speaker 2:So I'm like the fuck hell yeah, so I'm just doing jumping jacks, fucking, you know, doing that fucking immediately, do a piss test. Yeah, it was pretty much um, running and gunning right from the beginning of with that company. Uh, they were to me. They were a good company. They're always um, we're always kind of pushing and doing things. We did the um they had like real quick the piss test.
Speaker 1:Were they staring at your dick? Because I know in germany, bro, they were just like fucking right there, like a fucking foot away from your dick, dude yeah, I think, if I remember.
Speaker 2:Yeah, they were kind of there, I think. But you know, there's a dude I want to say his name was a skyler, sergeant sky. I want to say they were kind of clowning him about that, so I don't think he was going too hard we called the dude a meat gazer bro.
Speaker 1:I got punched in the chest for that because, oh yeah, because I was still.
Speaker 2:I was still, you know, young, so I was still kind of like, uh, not really saying too much, you know what I mean. I was more because, coming from that basic training environment, I was more, I would say, a little bit more weary, like I wasn't like really bullshitting with anyone. I was kind of more, just kind of like. That's why, when I met, you know, my squad leader, you know threw me off because he was so friendly that I was like the motherfucker's trying trying to trick me, bro, yeah he's trying to trick me and shit.
Speaker 2:But no, they weren't. They were all cool with it. But yeah, the piss test was fucking. Yeah, they're always crazy about that. I think the funny thing with the piss test was I don't know if they did this to you guys, but they're waking us up at like 2, 3 in the morning to do piss tests. And it wasn't like hair, it wasn't like hey, um, get dresses. Like. Come out, however you like you are, come on your shorts. Dude's sitting there with no shirts on like, because I guess they just thought someone was gonna piss hot, so they didn't even want you to like, have any chance to like. Weird. Yeah, it was. I think this is before. There was things like you know that's considered like hazing or right or thing. Yeah, they would just pull us out like early in the morning. It was before pt, so it was like before five. It went and we're just standing out in the hallway and they're just like pp and then you know like it was fucking yeah, I just remember that was being cut a little bit like what the fuck?
Speaker 1:what, uh, second id? What was that dude? Mechanized or what?
Speaker 2:was that it was mechanized, but then they went to being 11 bravo. So when I got there they had the, the bradley still and they, but they were I don't know what they're called decommissioning them or something. So that was like that dude, charles Price, I mean it was crazy because he had a CIB. He was like the only dude in our entire unit that had a CIB. He came from Desert Storm and so watching him was kind of that's what was crazy about. It was I'm like what's that rifle he has on his? You know, because a lot of dudes there had the EIB, yeah, and then he had the or airborne wings, yeah, and he had that. Well, actually none of them really had too many airbornes because they were like it was weird.
Speaker 2:In our unit they were very big on sending us to any school, like any. Basically you could go to any school except airborne. That's weird. Yeah, because we were the ones that um, uh, went from the, the 11th for the bradley's to the strikers, like we were the ones that were all um, like kind of breaking them in and telling them things we didn't like and this didn't work and like at first those would always get like stuck in the mud and things like that. So it was weird. So when I started, as soon as I got there, we would go to the um, what do they call it, what is it? The yard or whatever. They had the fucking Motor pool, the motor pool. So we go to the motor pool and they were basically putting all the Bradleys onto the rail system and we did that for maybe a month or two. It was like we're just getting all the Bradleys and then they got rid of them. That was it.
Speaker 2:No-transcript I learned how to drive them, drove them in this because it was like what was it? Basic training, then infantry school rolled right in the basic training. That was the 16 weeks, and then I went right to bradley school from there, which was like another week or two, I want to say another week or two, I think. I was in total I'm there for like 21 to 22 weeks. I was there for a minute like I went. I was there from like july 26th. I don't think I came back. Holy shit, dude, I was there july 23rd yeah, hot as fuck.
Speaker 2:Huh yeah, it was hot as fucking black flag, weather, people passing out all over the place, and yeah, that was, it was funny. Um, yeah, but as soon as I rolled up there, yeah, they, they were getting rid of the bradley's like super quick. And this was prior to 9-11, and that's what I'm saying. Like seeing, see, my squad leader with the cib was like that was, it was unique. At that time it was like, oh shit, what is that? No, and then he, and then he told us about it. He was like he said that he was in desert storm. Um, he was telling us how, when the tank rounds would hit the, the bradley's, like it would go through the shit and suck you could. I don't know if it really would suck you through, but that's what he told you. The sable rounds, yeah, he said, yeah, it would fuck you up. And so he was. He said he got it his cib as a private e1 oh, bro, like.
Speaker 2:So that's what I mean, but the way this dude conducted himself, bro, was like you wouldn't even think that, and this was a time before. It was like oh, and this fool could have been walking around, this dick, you know anyone you know, because.
Speaker 2:But he wasn't. He wasn't like that. So it was crazy hearing about that from him and he was like, yeah, when they sent me there, I was a private and it was like, came back. So, yeah, they got rid of them and then they came, uh, they brought the the strikers real quick.
Speaker 2:After that, dude, our unit was pretty hooked up in that sense. We got the strikers, we got all the new molly gear, a lot of that shit. You guys got molly gear. We had a lot of that shit before. I think this is what I heard, this and I don't know how true it is, because at that time I'm just fucking eat whatever, so I don't really know what's all the going on. Um, but we got all the strikers, we got all the molly gear. Our fucking uh, we got m4s, we got acogs, we got red dot sights, we got everything. We got everything. I think the only ones that had more shit than us was probably the ranger bat, which was right across the airfield from us and we were shooting rounds down range like all the time. They said that we shot half a million rounds in probably like six months between the four companies live fire ranges live fire ranges.
Speaker 2:Dude, we were doing the tire houses, clearing rooms with life, with live fire ammo. Before that shit was like when I see, dude, oh, like you know doing it, like we were doing that shit, this was in what? 2000, 2000, 2001, yeah, and we would go and they would, uh, they had the tires and then you would have the you and we'd be shooting saws and fours next to each other shooting. Now when I think about it, I'm like we never did that shit in like law enforcement. We weren't doing really.
Speaker 1:Well, I don't really blame why we don't do it in law enforcement, bro. Some motherfuckers are just dummies with guns.
Speaker 2:Yeah, but that's what I'm saying Like a lot of um training in the wood line, oh. And then, all of a sudden, they said we're gonna start doing mount, that's what they called it. They said missions on urban terrain, yeah, and this is before 9-11. So we went to the strikers, we got the molly gear, we got all the high speed shit, um, and then we were just training like all the time, training, training, training, like to to the point of where, when I was in the um army, I had got married and there was no point even moving my wife there because I was never there. Like we were literally going out to the field for like a month, two months, come back, being there, being the back, and you know, uh, for like maybe a week, two, three weeks, and then, bam, back again. Our CEO told us he was like I want us to get the point, this is what he used to tell us all the time. He was like praying for it for some reason. Yeah, he was all about it. He was a PT stud.
Speaker 2:I used to think this is, I guess, where you see, like in maturity levels. I used to think this is, I guess, where you see, like in maturity levels. I used to think he was kind of like we used to clown, like you know. Behind the scenes we'd be laughing and joking. He used to say the same this too shall pass, and we used to always laugh and make fun of it. We used to be like, oh, as I got older in life, I kind of knew what. I kind of realized all this food. Like we were, we weren't smart enough to know what he was really telling us. Right, so it was a yeah, it was a um. Yeah, we just basically were training a lot and um I don't know if you wanted me to get into the whole like 9-11 thing or real quick.
Speaker 1:Yeah, before we do that. Um, you mentioned that you guys were not old enough to understand what he was telling you. Now, did uh staff sergeant price that good leader? Was he ever trying to drop knowledge or hints of what combat would be like?
Speaker 2:yeah, he was always he was real big on um camaraderie. He was real big on hey, if I ask you to do something, I need you to do it without question, like I need you to trust me. And you know, when you think about it now, right, like I'm and my squad leaders at that time because it was, you know, price, mccombie, um, ryan and adams they were like our, our primary ones, and they were all what, mid-20s for us, mid-20s, bro, mid-20s, and I think about that now, like man, imagine mid-20, you have the responsibility of training. You know 18 year olds, 19 year olds, that don't know shit, right, you know. So, yeah, he would tell us he would. That's why he told us about the cib. He told us, um, he made sure we all got our eibs, our whole squad, like our whole platoon. We all had our eibs, like we were. We were training boom, boom, boom all the time.
Speaker 2:The funny thing about price was, um, he was just very, uh, nonchalant, but, like you, better know your shit too. I can't describe it. It's almost like a dude. Just like hey, like um, he'll be joking around. Hey, take this, take it, take your weapon apart, show me this real quick. And it was a weird mix because he was very nonchalant like that. The other dude, um adams was, uh, came from the ranger battalion so he was a fucking a monster, end up going. He ended up becoming a green beret. Sergeant mccombie was from the honor guard, ended up becoming a green beret. Damn, they all be. Yeah, they're fucking studs. Yeah, and it was. It was crazy and it's how different sometimes I think in my life could have been different. So when I actually got out of the military, like my last day in the military, I spent the night at sergeant adams house and he was going to um start his process for the green berets and was like, bro, you need to stay, we need to go to the green berets this.
Speaker 2:And I was like, oh no, I want to go, like I'm stupid bro like, and when I think about that now, I'm like like how far, uh, you know, but he was a monster. Like these dudes were pt studs, road marching every like. They're monsters like I can't even describe it how I how I ended up with all them as my squad leader. I don't even know. It's good dude, it's a blessing.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so 9-11 happens. Man, you said you were on the field when you guys how did that go down?
Speaker 2:so we're on the field, like we're like I said, we're always, always training, so we're there. And then one of the um, one of our squad leaders from the from. He wasn't from our squad, he was from one of the other. He was our number two, but he was one of the other squad leaders. He was kind of like a techie nerdy dude. I can't remember his name. Um, he had a. He was like had a cell phone, for whatever reason. You know, like uh actually had one, because he was one of those guys you know always up on like he's all, he's all. Hey, some planes crashed into a building, I swear that's how he said it. And we're like like what do you mean? Some planes crashed into a building, we don't even know. We're like we're like what? So we're just training, doing whatever.
Speaker 2:And then so the dude captain, um, I want to say captain glick, that was his name, captain uh, for some reason I always associate him with you ever seen band of brothers? Yeah, with the captain, uh, sobel sobels. He wasn't like dumb, like that, he, but he would just like pushed us like that dude, like hard. He was hard, like that um. So he was like hey, I want to meet with you guys and we're gonna have a meeting. So he uh came out and they brought like this is like this how it tells you how old it was. They brought like a tv with a vcr and shit in the field. Yeah, to the field. The fuck did they plug it into, I don't fucking generator or something.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it was a generator something, um, and they played us the video and they're like america's under attack, we're going to war. And right then, and there they made us sign our papers. For you know, like our wills I want to say it's deployment paper they made us sign a bunch of shit. We signed it, they said and we're like, are we going back in? And they're like, fuck, no, we're going to keep training. Swear to God, this is so.
Speaker 2:9-11 happens. Right, we don't even go back in from the field, we're just keep training. We just kept training, training, training. We come back and our like you know, at that we don't I was going to say our cell phones, but our answering machines are just full of calls. People are like no one could get a hold of you guys. Our parents thought we were all. I thought you were fucking bagged that already, because I I don't know if it's still the goal of the strike we hate, but our goal for where we told was to be deployable anywhere in the world within, I think, 72 to 96 hours, something like that. It was some kind of. That was the overall goal of the strikers and everything.
Speaker 2:Because, uh, I don't, um, they had us mixed with. Uh, I don't know if you guys had them too, was like tankers and we had some guys right I don't know they had us mixed with. I don't know if you guys had them too was like tankers and we had some guys I don't know if they were mortars, we had tankers with us. We had tankers in our company Like tankers and we had a sniper component. That's why I ended up going to school to be a squad designated marksman.
Speaker 2:You did, yeah, I went to school because I was actually supposed to go to. This is where I was stupid as a kid, right like I actually um had my slot to go to sniper school, but they waited to send me until like a month out from when I was supposed to get out of the army. So they basically were like, if you want to go, you're gonna have to um, not re-enlist but extend. And I was like, fuck. I was like man, I want to go. But I was like but they've been telling me this shit forever. I've've been waiting around for like a year to go. So my roommate Adams, he took it.
Speaker 2:That fool looks like Frodo from Lord of the Rings, like Bilbo Baggins. Did he have to extend? No, he was just there. I don't know how my roommate got it out. I think me and him actually both went.
Speaker 2:I think we both went to no, maybe we didn't go to the SDM together, but I went to that Squad Disney and Marksman. I know he went to Pre-Ranger and I think he went to Squad Disney and Marksman. They ended up sending him. That's why I said, like it was weird, we were offered every school, every school you could think of, except Airborne, because they said they didn't make, because they said we weren't going to jump out of planes. They're like he isn't jumping out of planes, but as far as like I, um, uh, like we got some guys that did some demo stuff, I went to a squad that's named uh marksman. Uh, we had guys, any.
Speaker 2:They wanted every team leader, every team leader and every squad leader need to go to a minimum pre-ranger and they wanted you to go to a ranger. Did you go to pre-ranger? No, I didn't go to pre-ranger. They went to, uh, they called it at that time. They didn't call it pre-ranger, they called it, uh, tomahawk trials. But then they actually went to pre-ranger. Like my roommate went to pre-ranger, I should have went with them actually, because he wanted me to go with them, yeah, and he came back all fucked up yeah, bro, that's why I didn't opt to go.
Speaker 2:Man, just go get your ass kicked but I learned how to get. I learned how to do land nav from him, which helped me get my EIB, and he went. So I actually wish I would have went like cause you know, back then I was like I think I just have a different mentality now. I think back then I wasn't like so much, like oh yeah, I want to challenge myself.
Speaker 1:Hearing your stories, man, and I've told you, it's like because I think the fact that you already had the idea you wanted to be a cop, that was your goal. Yeah, and same for me, because they did offer me to extend for air assault. But I'm thinking to myself, what do I need air assault for? As a civilian, I don't need air assault, yeah, and plus, you guys are gonna stop loss me if I fucking extend.
Speaker 2:That's exactly what I thought like. And it was, and I had to kind of, you know, make the decision to get out of the military because I had was married at the time you know a little bit over a year and I was never home and I felt bad. I felt like I was like, man, I'll end up like one of these divorce the fucking military dudes in here because I'm never home. I said I can't move her here Cause I'm never here either. She's going to end up in Washington by herself, and and so I just kind of made that decision to get out. That's kind of led me to it and it was even something to I want to say to this day. But when I found out that some of the guys from my unit passed away at different times, it made me feel guilty. I don't know how to describe it.
Speaker 2:Survivors, absolutely bro that's the only way I could. I was like man and because my plan was always, if you ask my mom, go in 18, get out 21, join law enforcement. That was always my plan. And when I found out years later that they all had died, I still felt guilty. I was like fuck, like I don't know. It kind of was something that I had to like kind of think about a lot. So I don't know, it was just different.
Speaker 1:Oh, you end up ETSing Yep. And then what did you say? You got into right away.
Speaker 2:When I first got out I was just working kind of like regular jobs because I didn't really know the process of how to get into the police because I didn't know anyone in law enforcement. That was the crazy part. I was like, besides my uncles that were in the Army, I didn't know anyone in law enforcement not one person. So I didn't even know where law enforcement not one person. So I didn't even know like where to start. So I guess this is I.
Speaker 2:How I got led back onto the path of law enforcement is, I think, how it shows, like how you meet certain people when they can like alter your, like your path, good or bad. You know what I mean. So I came out, I was working this regular job. I got offered a job like in a lumber yard, I worked at a fucking paper mill for a little bit and then, but I was like man, I still want to be a cop. So I go to this uh uh interview for this job and the guy who interviews me I think it was like retired um sheriff, retired for Turk County sheriff deputy, and he's interviewing me and he's just like, bro, like I could hire you right now, but you need to go be a cop, bro. Like this is not for you. Literally, that's what he tells me. He just like this is not for you. Like you need to be um, he's all looking at like your resume and the you know the way you're talking to me and this he's all you need to go be a cop.
Speaker 2:And I ended up working there, damn dude, just off of like a five-minute because I guess maybe I needed someone to tell me like hey, go do it. Because I didn't know the process, I didn't know the, and I actually think the first time I went to take the written test I failed it. It was a weird. Even law enforcement was a weird experience for me, because I had no one really guiding me and this was a time not this is not law enforcement now where you know they're like hey, you know what, you're welcome with open arms. It wasn't like that it was. It's probably the same way it was for you, where it was like very almost I don't say unwelcoming, but almost like until you prove yourself yeah till you gain their trust yeah, that's what it was.
Speaker 2:They used to tell us this thing in a college course. You know, you're like we, that was like a the funniest thing to say in the college course. You know we'd ask you to be here Like type of, and I think because I, you know Oxnard already had a certain type of reputation. And even when I was doing you know, polygraphs and stuff, my friends which I didn't know because my friend was kind of a knucklehead His, his dad, was a retired sheriff deputy. I didn't even know until I wanted to go take the polygraph and he's there and I'm thinking like you know, your son's like the motherfucker always getting in trouble, right. So he says, uh, he told me he was like, hey, you know, make sure that you, uh, um, present yourself well, he's all because they are gonna judge you, that's. He told me. He's all you have tattoos, you're mexican, you're from oxford, he told me. He's like you have tattoos, you're Mexican, you're from Oxnard, he's like they're going to judge you.
Speaker 2:That wasn't the first time I got told that, honestly, like I got told that probably one other time by one of the captains. It wasn't anything bad, he just told me it was good advice. He basically said you know, joining the department and things like that. And he said that when he wanted to, I think, be I think he wanted to be cadre or something at the academy that they wouldn't let him.
Speaker 2:And he said something to the effect of like, you know, when I went back, when I was running that motherfucker, that's what he told me he literally pulled me aside to have this conversation with me about it and that always kind of like made me like oh, okay, you know, sometimes you have to. You know, sometimes you have to like step back to go forward or you have to kind of oh, definitely, you know, you You're going to meet certain things. That's not going to go your way, you have to kind of maneuver around, and things like that. So it was always good conversations like that. I don't know why I had these people have these conversations with me. Maybe they just like saw how I was and they thought you know, I needed I don't know it was I always felt kind of like blessed, like having those conversations that kind of kept pushing me the right way.
Speaker 1:Well, you were a captain Eventually. Eventually you would make your way to captain. So I'm sure I mean you had subordinates under you. I'm sure you could look at subordinates and see which ones had it and which ones didn't oh yeah which ones were eager to learn which ones you were willing.
Speaker 2:I probably saw that in you, dude yeah, I literally like, honestly, I never forgot that, forgot uh, any of that stuff. I think that's why it was the way it was and I would kind of like, look for the guys. Like, one of the last guys I promoted was, um, he's a sergeant right now at the department I was at. He was, uh, he was not well liked by guys in the department, not because he didn't do his job, it's because he was just kind of an asshole. You know that kind of asshole personality. I'm pretty sure you know those type of guys right. So he would always, like you know, voice his opinions during training and voices up here. So finally, you know, when I pulled him to the uh, to the side, um, I told the mayor you can apply for the sergeant's position and he was like I don't know. I said because you, you know, basically you're talking a lot of shit, but if you want to make change, you need to also be part of you. You know, like, help out and make change. And so and I told him, and people are going to want you to fail. I want you to understand that people want because you kind of, you know, are the way you are. You know people are going to want you to fail. And not only that, they're going to ask me why that. I think that you should be a sergeant, you know, when it comes down to to having input into it and things like that.
Speaker 2:And he ended up becoming the sergeant and became one of the best sergeants that we had in our department. And I used to tell him all the time, like you know, if you don't do good, it's not only making you look bad, it makes me look bad. You know, and so I'm kind of counting on you to you know to handle business. And I said but you said you got to. I'm not telling you to be different, but you got to learn to know your audience and conduct yourself a little bit. Different Facts yeah, so that's kind of so.
Speaker 2:I was. I don't know every lesson that I learned along the way. I kind of brought that into different, my different interactions with people and different things, every part of it, like from the just the being. I was never, I would say, like this, throwing my rank around or anything like that. I was always interacting with everyone.
Speaker 2:I made sure a good part of my day where I would make sure to interact with everyone who was in the department. Obviously you can't. There's not enough time in the data, like I can't be at every shift, and things like that. And that was kind of something I had to learn too as moving up in the ranks was that there's no way for me to you know touch bases with every person on four. You know four sections for us, like all day long.
Speaker 2:So what I would do was try to go in during the first part of the day, do, um, you know my administrative stuff, and then go out and walk around the building, talk to anyone who was in there, go on, uh, I would have literally the watch commander, someone pick me up and take me out. And hey, take me over here, let me talk to this dude. And I would just go in there and bullshit with them, because I wanted to be able to know a little bit about every person that I worked with. That's leadership dude. Yeah, and that was, honestly, I think, one of the reasons why I was able to have such a good rapport, I guess, with a lot of people in the department. Obviously, you can't please everyone. That's what. The other thing, you know, there's some people, it doesn't matter what you do, they're going to, and so it was. It was good, it was a, it was a good, a good experience, to kind of grow.
Speaker 2:Have all these good leaders in my on my way up and then to actually have to put the things into practice and actually they molded you, bro.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it was, it was good, it was a good experience. That's actually in the book Gates of Fire, the Spartan book about Spartans yeah, leonidas, about going along and knowing everything about your men, their family life and stuff like that.
Speaker 2:What motivates them, what are their desires? Because I feel like if you don't know what they're doing, it it for, then you can't really help them. Because you meet some guys that they were just happy being patrol officers right, they don't never want to move up the ranks.
Speaker 1:You know they don't want to, and that's cool too, because we need patrol officers we need grunts at the bottom yeah and then.
Speaker 2:So then I would know that, okay, this guy won't do it. But if guys were like more, I felt like had something more to offer, then, lucia, I would talk to them and say, hey, you know, if you want to make, don't be a complainer. Like, if you want something to be different, then make the change Like be. You know, I had this kind of I don't want to say a saying, but I used to tell people you know, if you don't have a seat at the table, then you can't complain about what they're serving. So when people, when I used to tell them that they're like, like, well, what does that mean?
Speaker 2:Like I said, I said I go to every meeting, I'm involved in every um, special, you know little project or bullshit that we're doing, even if it was inconvenient to me, I said because I'm there representing us, and if I'm not, that means that decisions are going to be made without us and I didn't want that to happen. So I was always involved, I wanted to know what's going on. I wanted, wanted to know who was, uh, what was being, you know said or anything, how it was going to affect us, and I always trying to represent, like, our department in that kind of that way, in a positive kind of way, and have some input.
Speaker 1:So when you first became a supervisor in the police department. Um, was that a struggle for you to accept the role of being in charge of people, or did you, like, fall into it right away?
Speaker 2:um, I think I kind of was kind of not groomed for it but kind of already had been doing it in a certain way. Uh, so when, uh, when I was, even when I was a patrolman, one of my old lieutenants actually just passed away. He passed away in november. Um, he, it was funny, like kind of I guess how the world's kind of like small, when I met him, he I guess he knew my, my dad, he kind of grew up with my dad and my uncles, they kind of knew him.
Speaker 2:So he, when I was a patrolman for him, you know he was uh, I don't want to say he, let me uh like not mentored me, but he kind of would give me advice about you know little things here and there, like, hey, you know, this is why I do this and this is why I do that, and so that kind of would give me advice about you know little things here and there, like, hey, you know, this is why I do this and this is why I do that, and so that kind of helped me understand that position more so by the time I got there, because I went from being the patrolman and then I was an FTO, then I was a sergeant and then I went to the training department and I was training the guys and then I went up to captain. So I like the lieutenant thing. And then I went up to captain. So, like the lieutenant thing, I never stood as lieutenant but as a sergeant you could be basically depending on who's your lieutenant. You were the lieutenant.
Speaker 1:You know what I mean.
Speaker 2:So I kind of was already kind of doing that stuff. I think, honestly, it was more. For me, more of the struggle was the administrative and just seeing how retarded shit is Like, how retarded like the meetings upon meetings, upon meetings. To go to another meeting to talk about another meeting, like the waste of time. That's what I kind of started seeing was like I was confused about why we wouldn't get things that we needed to. That's what I think was becoming like it was becoming annoying to me where I'm like we're not asking, we're not over here asking you to give us, you know, helicopters to fly in, and we're asking for basic necessities of things. You know, um, you know we used to do some like, uh, you know big special event things and I'd be like I need food for my guys, we need fencing, we need little simple things like that, and it would be you usually would have thought I was asking for fucking gold and you know unicorns like why?
Speaker 2:because there's so much of the red tape and and protocol um, I just think that they uh didn't know, I don't, I don't know, or they weren't decision makers and were afraid to make a decision.
Speaker 2:They weren't decision makers. There was also just too many people that had a lot to say. They were more concerned about, I think, their image and money. Like when we used to bring up we had a big special event and it was like they weren't bringing up like fencing to control all the people, because when everyone came in it was like I think that weekend it was at least 150 000 people a day for the special event we were doing and, um, and I was the one in like in the event, like you know, coordinating everything and they were they didn't want it to, I don't know look intimidating, I'm not sure what it, what, what their all the public perception yeah, public all the like the public, and then at the you know and not understanding, like, okay, you know we're gonna.
Speaker 2:I only have so many people we can't control. You know, all of this we were able to, but there's a lot of I can, especially now, you know, when I see the news and see certain oh, how did that happen? I I tell people all the time. I say you know how to happen. I said someone who's not a cop made a lot of bad decisions and the and the, but the cops are. It's easy to blame law enforcement. It's easy to say, oh, you know, the cops didn't do this and that we're the scapegoat for everybody. You know what I mean. So that's kind of how I and that's how I started seeing it was like saw a lot of the upper leadership that were. I told them I said you're there, you'll take credit. You'll take credit when something goes good. You know you'll take the photo op and you'll take the good rapport, the razor, whatever it gets you, but when shit would go bad, you're not there.
Speaker 1:They throw you under the bus with a quickness.
Speaker 2:So, yeah, that was the hard part to me about moving into that position and also seeing they're kind of in company, a lot of them. I used to think a lot that I guess, as you I don't know if you ever felt this way, Like you know you see people like, oh man, they must be so smart or they must be. How did they get to that position? And once I started getting to those that level, I realized like they're human, just like you.
Speaker 1:Yeah, bro, lieutenant at the prison. Yeah, yeah, yeah they're.
Speaker 2:They're human, just like you, and you realize that they some of the people. You don't know how they got there, you don't know what?
Speaker 1:in straight dumb bro, fucking booger eaters, crayon eaters, dude motherfucking, illiterate bastards. Yeah, I'm gonna rant bro.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and that's what I tripped out on the most. So, like a lot of the stuff you know happening like you know, I mean if you, I told people I said if it was happening in the, you know, the white house with the political stuff it is happening at the white house, bro. Yeah so then it's like every, every place is you know can, can be, what is it susceptible?
Speaker 1:to it.
Speaker 2:Susceptible to fucking trash man. Yeah because it's like you know that was actually the?
Speaker 2:that's what I told people To me. I don't know. I feel like law enforcement is not something. Having a degree will not make you a good cop. Having going to some kind of leadership. I feel like it's something that's either you have to evolve, you have to keep evolving. I feel like it's something that's either you have to evolve, you have to keep evolving Like that's how you end up becoming like a good cop and a good leader within law enforcement is like it's that constant evolution, and I feel like the cops that don't do that, they're the ones that are always like I'm pretty sure you got like salty dudes, you know, oh fuck, I hate that. And you're like because you don't do nothing, bro, you don't challenge yourself. You fucking don't do nothing, bro, you don't challenge yourself, you fucking don't work out, you don't.
Speaker 1:You don't do anything, but you're mad all the time about what, and then they try to pass that attitude on to other people. Oh, toxic dude. Yeah, I hated that shit. It's like cancer, bro it'll spread.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and the thing is this is what I used to say under, uh, you know an art department to be like you can't have half cancer. What person says, oh, I only have cancer on my leg. Like, once you have that cancer in your department, it infects everything and you have to get rid of it. But it's hard to because there's so much I've seen it myself Like there's so much you know. Well, give this guy you know, 55 chances and you know this and that, and were you really mean to him? And it's ridiculous the amount of time, like there was so much time spent on just like why should I have to?
Speaker 2:That was kind of my, even with new, you know new hires to have to explain sometimes so age, or like this dude can't you know he's not passing a test and he's saying we're, you know we're picking on him because of you know he's, you know he's saying he's egyptian and I don't even know he's egyptian, right, how's this becoming? How is this a factor? I'm like I've been I said at that I was like I've been a cop for 15 years. He's been a cop for two months and I'm having to explain why he's not meeting our standard like that what about like field training?
Speaker 1:didn't there? Like, can't you fail somebody probation?
Speaker 2:well, this was even this. Not even them going to the academy. This is just. Are this them waiting to go to the academy?
Speaker 1:and they're already filing grievances on eeo yeah, because you have again.
Speaker 2:That's where you have those guys.
Speaker 1:What are they teaching this crap at man? Elementary school.
Speaker 2:But those are the guys that are learning from guys in the department. You know what I mean, because they're trying to gather, they're trying to game the system, yeah, and I feel like, just like light reflects light, people that are trying to do bad shit, they're also looking for other people to go along with their game. So that was one of the things I didn't really like. You know, I, I it was weird, it was just a weird time and I don't really think that was a thing, at least for us. Um, the lot for the last five years, the first, I feel like the it was just something I started noticing more and more and I think, because of the current climate of like everything, of being like feelings and and this, this, and that it was becoming more prevalent. I mean, there was a time where we had a lot of. We would get talked to by, not HR, but I don't know what they're called. They would call us victim blamers. You know the people that come in and say what's going on, what's the culture?
Speaker 1:And that's what we get told that we're victim blamers, that we're insensitive.
Speaker 2:Did they push the transgender agenda in your department? They didn't push it, but it was something like. I think, overall as a whole it was like for us to just be tolerant of anybody that you know that came around, but it was tolerant Like you couldn't. So if a guy's failing his PT test, you can't tell him to work out or get in shape, because now you're fat shaming him. It's like. But then you see all these videos of you know cops out of shape getting their ass kicked tons of them, yeah. And you see, I saw a video today where a guy was uh, reaching over to um, uh, I don't know what he's doing. I don't know he's trying to tie the mhu or whatever.
Speaker 2:He looked like a deputy, look like a county jail, though bending over and trying to bend over in front of an inmate yeah, yeah so, but he was so big that the inmates in a wheelchair this motherfucker's in a wheelchair, right, so he's in a wheelchair starts fighting for his gun. How out of shape does a deputy have to be for a dude in a wheelchair to fucking be like I can take him, let's talk about that man, now that we're on this juicy subject here, which is my specialty, bro, you have the experience of going to fucking Fort Benning, georgia, infantry.
Speaker 1:uh, you went to fort lewis, you were a cop for a long time and now you're in this administrative role as a manager, supervisor and you're seeing these changes. Dude, what is that doing to you internally, your mindset?
Speaker 2:uh, me personally, I I didn't like it. I already knew law enforcement was. I knew law enforcement was going in a brad direction. That's what I said like five years ago. I could already see it, because I I don't want to, I don't I'm not trying to toot my own horn, but I think I'm very good at like looking at the overall something and seeing the direction is going.
Speaker 2:Like even prior to the election, I told everyone, I said oh, we're gonna's going to sweep it. And I said not only that, I think California is going to go red pretty soon. They're like what? And I said why? I said because if you actually get down and put your you know your ear to the ground and listen to what people are saying, not what the news is telling you, like shit is jacked up and you know, and law enforcement already kind of knew, and some of it was also on us as a as, as a cult, as a culture, a little bit right. And I think that was because at some point, you know I it's funny because this guy said it as a joke. I think you were on, I want to say maybe you were on his podcast or like with them, but he said at a thing like firefighters will support each other's businesses and cops won't support each other, and that's what I think was hurting us is that? You know, I to me I don't know if this experience or have you I felt like sometimes I would go to training with different cops from different agencies and everyone's just kind of like yeah, and you're like like I'm almost starting to think that that's a defense mechanism, bro, to become like egotistical, yeah, and build a fucking wall yeah, and I'm like
Speaker 2:and like bro, like we're, we should all be like, and I mean you would meet people here and there. But it was very it was weird to me where I'm like. I told people. I was always honest about it. I said 50% of the cops I know are guys that are doing it for the right reason and the other 50% are assholes Like they're. I don't know. I don't know if they got bullied or whatever they, just their mind and their heart is not in the right place. Because you can't be doing it for money. We know this is not a job like you can't. Doing it for money is not the right motivation because you're just under so much scrutiny. There's too many factors playing in that. That shouldn't even be a factor. It has to be in your heart. It's like a fighter. You have to want to do it. That's how I personally feel.
Speaker 2:It has to be part of your, almost like your dna to be able to be like, um, you know, one minute you're talking to someone and then killing somebody. Yeah, and I said, I said it's, it's crazy and if you're hard in your mind or not in the right place, it's gonna, it's gonna mess you up. So, um, yeah, the the culture it. Just I, five years ago, I would say to me that's when I noticed where I felt like there was starting to be a change and I think it's because they were. I felt like bringing in um, not that it's like the best candidates. I even think that to me, this is my. I feel like guys like.
Speaker 2:I think I think I've heard like a lot of with your story, like the um kind of similar backgrounds and you know and similar struggles. One of my friends used to tell me that he's all the best cops are not perfect cops. The best they've they had their own struggles. They're not. They can think like a, like a criminal things. They could think like what they would be like. I can understand, dude, why you would want to knock that dude out. Because I would like, because if I was, I would too, and that makes you relatable, that makes people to you. I think this whole thing is that I can't relate to a dude that you never been in a fight in high school. You ain't you. You've never struggled. You don't understand what it is to be poor. Your, your cousins are your family. You've never been around gang members outside of you know, I said you're, you're not going to have understanding. Just like when I used to tell guys that were on domestics, like if you ain't never been married, how are you going to go to a domestic and give advice to a guy who's been married when you ain't never been married? You know, not that it's a bad thing, but it's just more like how do you de-escalate something that you don't even know what you're talking about? True, and so I used to kind of be like the more experience you have life experience, the loser it was better. So the lousy it was, it was better. Um, so it was weird with I.
Speaker 2:I felt like they were just bringing in a lot of people to just to like fill in bodies, but at the same time the leadership above was getting weaker. I mean, you might as well have bidens just across the fucking elite. I don't know. That's why they they seem like they were just there to to collect money, to to nod their head, push an agenda, push an agenda and Push an agenda, and I think they stopped caring about their guys or stopped caring about the troops.
Speaker 2:I used to like to say this thing Like I said, you can't be a slave to two masters. You can't be a slave to. You can't do what you know. Necessarily, I guess the mayor or someone wants you to do and also take care of your guys. You have to choose one, or the wants you to do and also take care of your guys. You have to choose one or the other sometimes and I feel like if you take care of your guys, everything else should fall in line. But if the people above you are not taking care of you, then now you're kind of caught in the middle.
Speaker 1:You know what I mean because you look, I think, in every if you take care of your troops on the ground, the people above will throw a wrench in your fucking program and attempt to fuck off your shit.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and I think you self-sabotage or sabotage you, oh yeah, and I think that at every level, I mean you saw with, uh, I don't know, and I don't know their department. I mean you look at the one of the biggest departments in the nation, lapd right, like their whole shit was weird with their, with the chief right. One chief is supposed to go for chief. All of a sudden they're like, oh, he's throwing apple air tags into this and all of a sudden it's another chief, me, I guess from, and I maybe you probably thought the same thing. It just looks weird like all of a sudden, like, oh, it kind of makes it feel like, so all of a sudden, this dude's supposed to get promoted is not getting promoted, this other guy's getting promoted, and then they would be in hueva, I think, the sheriff. They're like, oh, you're banned from getting the job.
Speaker 2:And to me what that told me was I said people probably don't like these guys for whatever reason, and it doesn't really matter if they're the best candidate or not. And maybe they did do this up there, I don't know. But also, sometimes we know how the game is played when you want to get someone out of their position. You just look for something you can't have nothing to do with the job. You find a way. They make something up. They make something up.
Speaker 1:And they get pushed out of the way.
Speaker 2:And then you get other people like, oh, this guy will play ball. And I don't know that's necessarily the case for you know LAPD, because I'm not there. Oh bro, I don't know LAPD, but I can assume it's like LAPD, it seems it's. It's cancer, it's gonna fall everything downhill, is gonna get poisoned because now a weak leader is gonna put another weak leader in charge, is gonna put another weak leader and just gonna keep funneling off and and that's and that kind of is is what happens we laugh now because we're sitting in a cozy chair in san diego, bro, away from that.
Speaker 1:We laugh, right, but how dangerous is it for brand new cops that are out there dealing with criminals, dude, that sometimes have guns, sometimes have knives and their mind is not in the right place because of the bad leadership?
Speaker 2:oh yeah, it's, it's super, it's. It's one of those things that, especially if they're not being told beforehand to like, hey, this is what you should expect, or be ready for this, this and that, and I think that's why they're catching I don't want to say cops slipping so much, but now you have these guys more brazen with cops, right, and I've seen it. You know, like even before I left, there was times where you know guys not understanding that when you put that, you know the badge and the gun on. You know guys not understanding that when you put that, you know the badge and and the gun on. You know you're this guy. It wasn't, it wasn't me that said. It was a guy forced, all that I used to work with. He said he's all.
Speaker 2:You're basically saying I'm a gunfighter and you're telling other guys that are gunfighters, I'm a gunfighter. So if a dude, criminal, cop, whatever, you're basically saying, hey, we're all gunfighters and what's gonna happen sooner or later? Someone wants to have a gunfight, you know what I mean? That was golden bro. Yes, so he, he's the one that told me that and that's what makes sense. So I used to tell the guys all the time when you throw on that uniform, you put that badge on your chest and you have that gun on your hip. You're saying you want to fight. I said whether you're the friendliest dude, whether you're the fattest dude, whether you're the whatever you, you're basically saying I'm about the business, I'm about that life, I'm about that life, and so people are going to eventually want to challenge you.
Speaker 1:They're going to want to test your gangster, bro.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and I used to tell guys, if this isn't for you, I said there's other jobs, there's other things that you could do to, because if your heart and I'm like I'm trying to help you out, bro, and you worked corrections too, right, yeah, you worked the jails, yeah, for about two, I would say two and a half, three years. It was somewhere around that time.
Speaker 1:So how does that relate to? And again, I want you to speak as if you're speaking to the younger crowd out there how would you be able to tell them, like hey, understand your environment. Like these dudes are fucking predators, Like these dudes will fucking kill you.
Speaker 2:Well, you know, one of the things I used to tell them all the time was that to me, I think every cop should work in either the jails, I don't. You know the prison, I know is different than the jails because they're a little bit, I guess, more what settled in. I guess they're more that's what they used to at least say at the county jails, and you know the inmates or whatever. Um, I think it teaches you a lot of things. One is like like respect. It's like respect goes a long way because you know in there it's like you don't got a gun, you don't got a, you know. It's like you know you got your hands. You got a little fucking beeper maybe. Hey, help me, something like our pepper spray or something.
Speaker 2:I said there's a lot more respect and you're always outnumbered and so all the I used to, because maybe this happens more in departments on the street level. Right, there are more petty disagreements. To me I felt like in the jail environment. I said there's only three or four of you, you know, at least for us in the housing section I said you have to have each other's back. Who cares if you fucking got offended about this and that you put that shit to the side because you know you got to have each other's back in that thing and I felt like that kind of squashed a lot of that and I felt like it was a good experience for me, for myself, to be able to see that and then also understand like hey, you have dudes in here working out every day, fucking training day, and people think I'm like, no, I'm like these dudes should have been in the military, bro, oh dude, I'm like you know, machines, yeah Fucking machines Across the board board.
Speaker 2:I tell people this. I said from growing up in oxnard to the military, to working in jails of patrol, I said the commonality is purpose to me. For men, right, if every man wants a purpose and if you don't give them a good purpose, they're going to find a bad purpose. So I used to see guys in the jails where I'm like man if these dudes would have actually been told to go to the military because they need structure. One of the things my big thing was that some people work better under their own vision and some people work better under someone else's vision. Some people just don't have that vision for themselves, right, they just they want to be part of something and like this is our mission. It's like I said, why do guys join the motorcycle clubs? Because they want to belong to an organization and at a certain point they don't care what the mission is because they felt belonging. But if you would have actually took that person and I'm not saying all motorcycle clubs are bad or anything like that, it's just as a purpose type thing. They want that feeling and that's what I saw on the jail site. People want to belong Because you saw guys in there that are not dumb. You know what I mean. Right right, right right. They're not, they're privy, yeah, they're like, like, if you take them away from the drugs or the elements, like whatever they're, I guess their achilles heel is whatever is pushing, like most of these dudes had, um, you know, seem to have like, you know, good, have a strong mind.
Speaker 2:The guy you just did a podcast with, I saw his uh, his uh debrief. Uh, a boxer, yeah, when I went to the training up in Redding California, the dude, his name was like Marquez something. He was the guy that was in charge of the ad seg in Pelican Bay. Okay, okay. So we went to this class and he I don't know if he taught it or someone that he knew taught it. So we saw all these things with it and it was that we saw the conversation with him. He kind of went into all of that, uh, showing us crazy pictures and things, of things that people probably don't know from the prison. They're like, oh, you think these guys are like, you know, it shows some crazy, some crazy things. So it was kind of, and then you would hear him talk and it was totally different than I would thought they would talk.
Speaker 2:I remember the first time hearing him talking like this was like a fucking professor, yeah yeah, I was like the way they were saying just even even learning the um, whatever they call it, uh splashing or signing, I'm like I don't know how to, like I'm not, I don't know how to do that shit. I'm not learning how to read, uh mayan languages yeah, no, that's true, dude.
Speaker 1:I know fucking white boys that learn spanish sitting the shoe man Reading books, fluent German Spanish. 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 guest 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 2:Make sure you hit that link in the description below. So do you think you have to be a good follower first in order to be a good leader? Yeah, I think that's. One of the concepts I took from the military was the what did they say? They basically said well, be a good.
Speaker 2:When I was a captain, there's guys that know more than me in certain areas, there's guys that are more tactical, things like that. So if they were good at being the lead in something with that, I wasn't afraid to be like, hey, bro, you got this. Let me know what I need to do to support you, but could you take lead on this? You know what I mean, know what I need to do to support you Right, but you know, could you take lead on this? You know what I mean and I'll take I'll still be assuming my role, but I had no problem, you know doing that and I think because I knew how it was both sides to have. You know, leadership that support you and leadership that didn't.
Speaker 2:You know one of the things, like I said, good and bad experiences I guess how they can kind of um leave an impression on you. I remember what I'm going to a domestic and everything. You know. We ended up working everything out. Cps had to come, they had a um. They didn't have to take the kid but it was pretty close the lady was working with and I had he was helping the lady from cps and she ended up writing me like this nice, like letter, like how to help her and stuff. And I remember my lieutenant at the time. He gives me the letter and says I don't know what she gave it to you for, you're just doing your job broken hater bro so I was just kind of like whatever you know, fuck you dude.
Speaker 2:And so when, when I, when I was, you know, um, in that position and guys did good, I would bring them up in front of everyone, I would give them all their props, you know, on emails, on everything, because on everything, cause I want, cause I knew how it felt to not be given that credit, and so that it does it like how you, um, you know, being in that position, you learning, hey, this is what's good to do and what's not. You know, like the Lieutenant I said that had just passed away in November, um, me and him were very close. He's the one that taught me about, like choir practice, going out to eat after shift and being close with your guys, and you know he was one of those guys. You know even me and my leadership style, um, one situation that was funny was I got called to um some guy violating his restraining order.
Speaker 2:And you know, my lieutenant was small little little stocky, little fucker filipino dude, but he was known for being like a brawler. Even my dad told me. My dad, actually my dad and my uncle both kind of told me the same story. They said that when they're in high school together, like this dude had a punch two guys in the face at the same time, like he just walked up to him. He was like he did like karate, and so he said he walked up, punched these dudes. Like it sounds make-believe but they told me like yeah, that he like he did it, like he was like kind of known for that. You would think he was more a biker than a cop. That was like the way he kind of kind of carried himself. And I remember going to this call for the guy violating his restraining order. So I go in and I'm coming out, walking out with the guy and then he's there and I'm like like I'll tell you what he's doing here. He's all I heard you on the radio.
Speaker 2:But he wasn't there like Like you know, you would think a lieutenant like oh, report, more like like I was making sure everything was good, like I'm going to fuck this dude up. So it kind of taught me that kind of like that guys know when you care about them. So that made me be like that. So when I would hear something on there, oh shit, let me go, let me go check it out, even if it was something you know, because I felt like I knew that that feeling and it kind of it helped me in a lot of different cases.
Speaker 2:I remember we had a guy who we knew from the department, kind of like in a reserve officer type of role, and so we ended up having to remove him from the department because his spouse was always causing issues, like always getting we're always getting calls for this chick, and so we end up getting a call where they're saying that she's hurting herself, she's like slamming her head into the refrigerator, and this is, I guess, goes back to the unsafe officer kind of thing.
Speaker 2:So we had a female officer, so this ladies, inside the passenger seat of a car, like kind of sitting, like I guess how I would be sitting like this, and she has a knife. And for some reason the female officer decided like hey, this is the time to go up and try to like counsel her, for whatever reason. So me and this other guy, sanchez, walk up and we see it, and I'm just like so in my mind, I already know what I gotta do. I'm like okay, I can't let this shit stay like that, because either one is like we can't, we can't, even even though she has a knife, we can't pull our guns because you know she's there trying to give her a, you know, a hug or whatever she's trying to do. And I said, but I got to get this situation kind of handled, so I literally like just walk up, grab her out the car, we put her on the floor to get the knife out around real quick, like you know, grab the lady out of the car.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, you're almost like when something's like I don't know how to describe it like it's quick. You're like more. I got to do this quick because that's the only way it's gonna work. Right, I can't really, oh yeah, yeah so I'm also you.
Speaker 1:I was gonna say that's a pretty dangerous and bold move. But you're right, you must engage the whole totality of the circumstances and be like I'm gonna snatch, well the situation was the dad, the husband's right here holding two babies.
Speaker 2:Okay, like the babies are in his arm, like this. She's like I'm here, like if this is the lady sitting the, the female is right here and the girl's holding a knife right here. It wasn't a knife or a pair of scissors, it was something like that. So, very like there's no you know standoff distance between them. So me and the other guy kind of walk up like around the car and I see them. I'm like what the? Because I think it was a starting time. I'm the fuck is going on, and I think it was this guy, sanchez, and I swear I don't know if I looked at him or maybe he just knew what I was gonna do, because you know, sometimes you can feel what someone's gonna do, right. So I just like walked up, like I don't even think I really stopped other than a split second to think about it and I'm like I gotta kind of I don't know how to describe it, I guess for maybe for other cops, maybe they describe the feeling.
Speaker 2:Sometimes things are just like it's like a flow, like you hit that kind of flow state, right, you just know what you have to do and it just kind of starts so, um, we pull her out the car, put her on the ground, fucking, we're handcuffing her. She, you know, she's kind of like fucked up. Um, she's trying to piss on us. I remember that she's like I'm gonna fucking pee on you guys. That was like her, for for some reason that was like her thing. She always tried to pee on us every time she got arrested for that the what she was known for, that yeah, she tried to pee on you.
Speaker 2:She'd say I'm gonna fucking pee on you and you know, um, and after arrest her, I went up to her husband, who had worked with us before, and I told him, said, hey, bro, I'm sorry I had to do that, I heard, because I know that's your, your spouse, regardless of what we think, you know. Oh, we could just be like. This is where I think cops sometimes don't. I think not that they do it on purpose, I think it's because you see so much shit and you're fucking desensitized. Because I know that I get like that sometimes. I just was like, regardless of what we're thinking, like this crazy lady, I'm like that's his wife. So when everyone was kind of clearing, I went up to him and was like, hey, bro, you know, I'm sorry, I know that was your wife, I don't know. Hope you don't take it like personal that, like as a person that I needed to do that. You know what I mean. So it was a, but it was a situation created by someone being unsafe and I don't know.
Speaker 1:Now that female cop. Is that something you would have a conversation with afterwards?
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, we were. It was a, it was more, it was a. If it was up to me I would have been like you're going back to like fucking field training, like you fuck training like you thought. Not even it was, it was more, it was a. That wasn't her. She wasn't a good, um, a good cop to me and that hurt.
Speaker 2:I think sometimes people were in that situation and they just don't. They weren't really ready for it because they. So what could have happened? She could have got stabbed, basically stabbed, bled out. You know if? I think if you had less experienced officers that the guy sanchez, he was squared away. You know, I was squared away. I think if you had less experienced officers, like the guy sanchez, he was squared away. You know, I was squared away. I think if you, if you were to play it out with the say, inexperienced officers, right, not knowing, like, okay, she's in the way of our bullets, you know what I mean in the line of fire, right, like weapons, weapon safety thing, right, pull out their guns. Next thing, you know they're. That's how you end up on fucking a tiktok. Hey, look at this cop shooting his partner.
Speaker 1:Absolutely, you know what I mean no, dude, you're seeing a lot of that shit now. It's fucking going viral, it's because they're to me.
Speaker 2:This is, it's panicking, right? I don't, I don't know. I don't know if it's the right way or this. I just tell people, when I used to put on the uniform not that I used to be an unemotional monster, but I used to mentally tell myself to turn off- my emotions.
Speaker 1:We were unemotional monsters, bro. Yeah, but you have to be.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you have to make logical decisions, not emotional. So even I would never want it to ever feel a way like I would never let anyone get me riled up. I never wanted to act out emotionally. Even if a dude was like I used to like what dude was trying to talk shit I used to always say the same thing do what you got to do, we'll do what we have to do, and whoever wins wins. That's why I used to always say the same thing Do what you got to do, we'll do what we have to do, and whoever wins wins. That's why I used to be like and I said not in the middle, I said I don't want to fight you, bro, but if you're going to do something, then do it.
Speaker 2:I remember I specifically remember a Marine guy. He was like this dude was always the last one was he had side swiped some cars and he would just like and he was you know, and obviously he had ptsd because he was, he was telling us about some of his stuff and he was. But he kept saying I'm gonna break, I'm gonna break my cuffs, I'm gonna break my cuffs and I'm gonna fuck you guys up.
Speaker 2:And I told that's exactly what I told him do what you got to do and we'll do what we got to do. And I said it's not. And I said you said you were a marine, what would you do? And he was like, and after that he just kind of like stopped, like it's a man thing, like you know what I mean. Like I'm not trying to fight you, I'm not trying to do anything to you, it just it, just um. But but if you make us have to do something, that we will, and I think it's a lot of. Even going back to the, the officers. Now, it's just sometimes how you word things.
Speaker 2:For me, me personally, when I used to have to pat people down, I used to say hey, I'm searching you for mine and your safety. I wasn't just a dick, like oh, let me make sure you don't got no shit on you, bro. Like I don't know why, for some reason I try to treat people the same way I'd want to be treated. And I had a family member they had went to county for like a argument. It wasn't like a domestic, like they had, it wasn't just an argument. I think they had pushed. They're pushing and shoving.
Speaker 2:But I remember him telling me like man, I was getting fingerprinted. And the deputy told me, like shut the fuck up. And I remember kind of it kind of upset me because I was kind of like, because I knew him personally, right, like I knew, like I knew the person I was getting, and I was like that's not you know, like there's a time and a place for it, not right, yeah, no, you know what I mean. So I just kind of always carried that with me when I was always on. But for like to treat people like in a certain way I don't good or bad, even when it was like you know, hey, if we have to put hands on you, hey, you know, if I can pick you up, and it ain't personal bro, it's business. That's the way I always treated everything, even when I I don't know why I just I always kept that mentality about doing things.
Speaker 1:So you had mentioned becoming an emotionless monster and being exposed to a lot of things working the field. Do you believe that affected your personal life?
Speaker 2:I think that I just I think it affected my personal life in the sense of where I value life more. I think I value things that other people take for granted, right. Like we had talked about earlier with the Army thing, half of the guys from my squad had died at different times. My lieutenant passed away in November. My other friend, robert, who is also 11 Bravo military, he passed away a couple years back, had a brain aneurysm out of nowhere, fucking passed away.
Speaker 2:For I want to say unlucky and lucky. You know, I've met all these good people but a lot of them have died and I think that it kind of taught me more what's important, what's not important. I don't like to get upset about things that aren't worth getting upset about. I try to look at like everyone is a human, everyone is imperfect. So a lot of times when I see kind of things like, especially when they're being very judgmental of cops or things like that, it's like bro, you never been in that position, like you've never. I said so to me. Not even like saying, oh, all cops are right all the time. That's not what I'm saying. I'm just saying I say when you're, when you never been in the arena, it's easy to say, oh, I would have fucking done this.
Speaker 2:And it's just the same thing as like when you hear, guys, I would have went to monday morning quarterback, and yeah so you know, yeah, it affected me in that way where I think I I feel like I train a lot harder than other people and when it comes to like physical fitness, I don't drink. I'm not a big. I mean I'll have a. If it's like a wedding or celebration, maybe I'll have a drink. I'm not a smoker. I'm very mindful of what I look and listen to. Just because I don't like any like negative shit. Really it just made me like that. And then anytime I feel like something like oh man, this like honestly, like this week for me has been like pretty busy. I remember I saw something you're saying the same thing too, like hey, so, like you know, on Monday this week, you know, I had to went up to, I went up north to the Paso Robles area, then I was in to Larry, then I went back to Paso, then I was in you know where I'm from, in Cameroon, ventura County, out there, and then I was coming here and then I'm going back on Monday and I remember I don't really never where I'm like. You know, some people are like oh, I'm just so busy. I guess when I start thinking about all these things it makes me more like well, at least I'm alive doing this shit. That's honestly how I think.
Speaker 2:Every time I think something that's hard, I don't know why, but like I think of all the people I know that passed away and it just makes me be like I don't got shit to complain about and I literally, just like I I was, I was talking to someone about they're like, they're like I never like, they were like I never thought of it. Like I said, dude, whether it's good or bad, I just look at it. Like I said, um, someone like you know, with um, the guys I know that were young, that passed away, I said I bet they wish I had the problems that I fucking had, but they're dead. So I said so to me, yeah, so to me. I feel like I got to represent them by not being a fucking like, oh, like I just I don't know. I just kind of look at everything like fuck it, you got to go through it.
Speaker 1:Absolutely. Yeah, no dude, even. How do you look at failure and mistakes? What's the prism that you look through it as?
Speaker 2:I think it's something that can I evolve, can I fix it. I think I give myself like the grace and the sense of like hey, I'm human, I'm not perfect. I've never, you know, claimed to be like a perfect person and also just kind of, but also kind of trying to do more, um, more good than bad. It was something funny that I learned in the the academy when they were like I don't know if they would ever tell you guys this, like whether I'm like mark on your calendars like green days are good days and red days are bad days.
Speaker 2:It'd be all fucking red and donovan bro so yeah, so I used to kind of think of of it like that, like I'm trying to have more good days than bad days.
Speaker 2:So if something doesn't go my way. I I maybe just uh, having that I don't want to say like the, the mindset from um, kind of a strategic standpoint. I just think of how can I approach it different, how can I win? That's all I'm thinking about. Like all the time I never think about, oh my, am I gonna lose? I like I never think about that or this is not going my way. I really just try to think of, like how can I win? Like how can I win this, how can I, what can I do to different, even if it means like, hey, maybe I have to. What are they? You know tactical, you know, you know not retreat, what do they used to call because they want to be fall back you know what I mean?
Speaker 2:yeah, yeah, improvise, overcome, and yeah, and so it was one of those things. That's, you know, when something, if I have a shortcoming on something, I really try to look at it and think about it and then kind of like, okay, how can I do this better? And then try not to make the same mistake. And sometimes you have to take losses, like you have to. I feel like you don't appreciate the wins unless you take the losses Absolutely, unless you take the losses absolutely.
Speaker 2:And I feel, like the guys that if and it's not to shit on them, but if you look at people like you know, um, say, ronda rousey, for example, or mike tyson, or you see, or even conor mcgregor, these guys that super talented monsters, right, that swept up against, annihilated the competition, but then eventually they run into something that the someone or someone that are that won and lost, that doesn't give a fuck about what their reputation is, and eventually they get humbled and if they can't adapt, then they never come back.
Speaker 2:They never. If you think they never come back to that same, like that same type of I don't know what it is, how to say they're not that same person, no more. And I think that people that have took wins and losses, you can come back. If you, when you think, when people think of muhammad ali, or they think of, uh, I'm trying to think of, like even canelo took a loss, you're not like, oh, this guy's undefeated, he's never lost. You're like, no, he's a fighter, you know what I mean? Like it makes you a fighter, like when it's something I think it's good to take those losses because you can kind of now become a better version of yourself, where you, if you were just winning, you're just like, fuck, I'm doing it, what am I going to change?
Speaker 2:yeah, you haven't experienced adversity yeah, so and so I that's the way I kind of look at those things, like okay, well, this, this is something, or this is a weak point for me and I gotta address it and you know, and fix it. And also just having good, you know good habits of you know um, I always you know the gym, I I go to you know church every sunday. It's not the same. Oh, that's what's up, dude. Yeah, I just started too, like like two months ago. Yeah, I go to um, I go to um shepherd church and simi valley, and it's one of those things where I don't know I I feel like that's another thing.
Speaker 2:I think in law, law enforcement, that it always confused me. Maybe other departments have it. They don't like we not that we need to have like therapy sessions or things like that. There's, there's a not of understanding of how do you, how, what you're not getting fed the things you are to make you a better cop? Right, it's just a lot of. It is just you know training here, read your you know, read your penal codes. That will will make you like, like.
Speaker 1:So ultimately in your department, bro, you were up for a promotion to chief, and then some things happen and it didn't pan out. You want to maybe skin the surface on?
Speaker 2:I think with that it's just something like yeah, I would just say, you kind of see, you know, for myself I just saw it as you kind of see a little bit of the politics, you see a little bit of the maneuvering. If people have some kind of I want to say tactical advantage over you, they're going to try to take it and you just have to decide what you're going to do with that. Either you're going to me I never want to be a negative person or anything like about it um, but I also was already at the point where I was kind of not over being a cop, but I was where. I was already not feeling that same fire enthusiasm for wanting to be, to be there. You know, I had a conversation with my mom about it, because this was it wasn't like a one like oh, oh, it just happened and I just left it was an accumulation of almost, I would say like two and a half years.
Speaker 1:Damn dude, that's a long time, so for a while it was just like whatever.
Speaker 2:I just kind of looked at it like, oh, this is just what comes along with the game, but they're relentless huh.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's what it was. And so at a certain point I had a conversation with my mom and she said sometimes you know God's putting, sometimes you know you're putting battles in front of you so you can, you know, go through things, and sometimes he's putting it in front of you to tell you you're in the wrong space. You know what I mean. And so to me, I started, I guess, looking at it different. I'm like, you know, maybe this is not my, maybe I've done all I can at this point and and from where I'm at and I need to, like step back, and that's kind of what I ended up just doing, like I just I'm not a very like where I'm just like undecisive person I'm just more when I think about doing something, I just kind of do it trigger puller yeah
Speaker 2:um, yeah, like that's what, this is what I'm gonna do. Um, you know, obviously I didn't do it like stupidly or I was just like not didn't have, like you know, things planned or saving, and things just worked out in a certain way, like the job that I'm working at now I had already got offered, you know, offered the job. I was having a conversation again Like I guess that's where I tell sometimes people the weird, the way things work out, literally, before this all kind of was playing out, when I was already feeling that way, I had a conversation with someone and was telling them about what I did. They had a position where they needed someone with kind of my skill set to do things and they offered me the position and I was like cool, so it just worked out in that way and, honestly, the company that I worked for is fucking awesome, nice. So it's been cool, it's been a very good experience, um, and it kind of taught me.
Speaker 2:I think cops, we kind of sell ourselves short in law enforcement about what we can. Actually, you know, do I think we can do a lot of shit. You know what I mean watching, watching you do, the podcast stuff, like I've been watching your stuff for probably a good year or so. Like I said, um made me more like oh shit, I want to. You know, I want to make me more about going on social media. So I hate social media. Like, honestly, I do not.
Speaker 1:Like I don't like it either, bro. Yeah, I don't like it.
Speaker 2:I don't really like, and and not because I don't, I'm just not an attention person like, oh, like, like you know I. But I also feel like I have, um, these different experiences and if they help other people, then you know, then I'm willing to like, hey, point people in the right direction to to do that stuff. But yeah, the way it kind of played out with that was just, yeah, just a lot of little politicking and catching people with their hand in the, the cookie jar somewhat and then realizing I don't want to work with these people. That's what it felt like to me. You know, I don't. I.
Speaker 2:I think I saw your interview with dj. It was. I think it was a dj, vlad, he's all I think. He said something about cops being snitches and vlad was like they can't be snitches. I'm like, yeah, they can like. I remember hearing that kind of was like there. I say to me it's like you can be if you're part of an organization and you're trying to do things, that if someone's doing something, it's not criminal stuff, it's not anything like that, but you're just trying to actively get people in trouble, right, yeah, bro, that's what you are you're a snitch bro. Like it has nothing to do with law enforcement.
Speaker 1:Has nothing to do with no it's people going out of their way to fucking get you in a wreck yeah, and that's all it is.
Speaker 2:And so to me and I and you know one of those I wasn't afraid to you know at different times I had to tell some of those guys I'm like, I'm like I see all the reports, I see all the things. You don't do shit as a cop.
Speaker 2:You might as well you know, you might as well be a professional fucking snitch. You know like, let me just you know, like that and people, I'm pretty sure they didn't like that. They didn't like that, wasn't it? But to me, that's the way I saw it, because I felt like for me as a being, you know, being a cop for such a long time is like if you're not actively helping people or trying to put criminals where, whatever it is, then what the fuck you doing, bro? Have you spent all your time trying to fuck over other cops like what are you like? Well, you're not even a cop. You're like somewhere. You're like, uh, you're somewhere in some weird in between of like you're.
Speaker 2:you're too cowardly to almost like a traitor treasonous yeah, you're, yeah, you're, like you're a snake, you're not a double agent of some sort yeah, and so that that's kind of way I looked at it and I didn't like that. And to me, I felt myself surrounded by too many people that I deemed to be like that From, not just like this is what I think they are from their actions, from things being privy to these meetings. I was in seeing how they were unfair to other officers and I've seen it. I've seen it firsthand with other officers when it was a guy that they didn't like and all of a sudden it's like they took special interest in what their you know their punishment was going to be, and I didn't like that. I told them. I said I don't if, even if I don't like you as a person or as a cop, if you, if you're a squared away cop, if I don't personally like you, I was not going to just punish you. To punish you, there was dudes that I could, that I personally thought didn't like them. We know this, that.
Speaker 2:But my first thing that I did when I became captain, I told people I said I don't care what history we have, what if we ever had bad bug between us? Um, to me I have. I'm not holding anything to get that against you. So if you continue to want to have something against me for whatever reason, that's on you, but as far as myself, I'm not going to do that and that's the way I kind of conducted myself.
Speaker 2:So, um, I gave everyone I think, uh, even my friend, even the you know, one of the guys that's still there that kind of end up back for my spot. He even told me that he was like he's all you, um, you gave a lot of guys grace and and chances that other people would never have gave them, and it wasn't because, um, I didn't remember what they did, it's just because I saw. I, you know, to me, I still saw value in them as as a person, as a cop like you can still be, um, have value to people. There's a book uh, I don't know if you've read it called resilience.
Speaker 1:I don't think I read that one there's a.
Speaker 2:It's this book from a navy seal guy. He wrote it and the thing he talks about in there is there's a story where it says, uh, this guy was like a great warrior for some kingdom or I can't remember the exact story, just kind of outline of it. And um, so he goes to this, some land, hence it's a being like this land that's cursed. So then he gets cursed, he gets kind of he's like, he's uh kind of where he's. I guess they say he kind of like smells like shit. No one wants to be around them, basically. So they abandon them, they just leave, they just leave this fool there like, hey, fuck you, we're out.
Speaker 2:And so, as they're going along conquering these other lands, they eventually meet another kingdom and they can't beat him and they're about to lose. And then I guess one of the gods comes down and tells them you're not going to win this war without this guy that you guys abandoned. So when they go back to him, they talk to him and they say, hey, you know, come with us. And of course he's like fuck you guys, you guys did me wrong. But then, you know, the god or whatever, comes to him and says you know their wrongs don't obligate, they don't free you from your obligation of doing right. Damn dude. Yeah, so that to me that's the way I looked at it like like, absolutely it's like. It's like because there's a lot of dudes. To me it's like I could have smashed them on when I didn't.
Speaker 2:Even now, even even now in this world if I wanted to like in my mind I know there's dudes I could smash on, put on blast or everything, but then to me I'm like they're cowards, bro like, and I don't do, to me I'm just, that's not me, that's not me, and to me six.
Speaker 1:You know, success is the best revenge bro, I respect the shit out of you dude for saying that and for and I admire you dude.
Speaker 2:That's not an easy task, man and and I think is, and you know, I just like I said, I was just lucky because of the guys that brought me up. You know, um, even like I talked about earlier with the dude sergeant price, when I met him the first time I think about that like he could have smashed on me. I was at, eat nothing, he could have smoked me, talk shit to me, embarrass me, whatever, and I wouldn't know different. And but because that other guy did it, you know, giving me the cross rifles, don't make it this and that, but I think that kind of um, him showing me that kind of like that grace, and that kind of kind of made me be a different person. You know what I mean. It's like the path, like what path you're gonna choose your staff sergeant.
Speaker 1:Price is my staff sergeant leja dude, who would eventually get killed in baghdad. But same thing, man e6 e6s yeah, dude, when I got to country.
Speaker 2:So I don't know if I heard this. Uh, I gotta look at listen to more. You talk about that stuff. I know you, I've. I I listened to a lot of the stuff you had talked about on the vlad interview. I like that. You were actually um, very like, more honest about it, wasn't like this? You made it very, not like, oh, it was this cool shit that I like, even when you described like I think it was like, you said it. Um, I think you said you had fallen in the mud and then oh, yeah, yeah, the fucking blood in my hands yeah, like to me, that was real.
Speaker 2:It's not like, hey, you know I, yeah, I dropped this fool, like you know, I mean some guys try to make it like, very like, and I'm like to me, you know I've never, you know, had to kill anyone or do anything like that or shoot them. But I, you know, but being in enough of um, you know, violent, like hands-on confrontations, you know that's not in everybody, it isn't. It isn't, bro, like it's, it's not even growing up in, you know, oxnard. And fighting, growing know, fighting, that's one of the first things I started learning about.
Speaker 2:Being around other men, like everyone, is not mentally like that and it's like, not like they're not capable of defending himself, but like they literally would have to. I've seen dudes get slapped, punched in the face and not do shit and just stand there like, oh, you know what I mean. So you have to be, I feel like guys like you have to. So you have to be I feel like guys like you have to. You have to be a certain type of a person to be able to do that. It's not an easy thing and it can, you know, change you good and bad, you know cool dude.
Speaker 1:So, uh, you said you're on social media bro, you want to throw your out your ig handle so people can tap in um, yeah, good, leader 805.
Speaker 2:And then I have my, um, my brand or where I sell stuff as good leadershop and I basically just sell like a lot of like merch type of shirt, like shirts, kind of things. I don't know, it's random things that I think about. That I think are, I don't say not like inspirational, kind of funny things like that. I kind of more. I kind of like to represent my county a lot Ventura County and I do a lot of things like, you know, locals only and things like that more, because, um, we're so next to la that I try to put a little bit more spotlight on us and, um, I cop sayings.
Speaker 2:Uh, one of the I get one of the shirts a lot of guys like is like eat your shit sandwich shirt. I have a have a guy eating like a shit, like a fucking skeleton, you know, and so things like that. Like little terminology you know that we may have used in and you know, in cop lingo or military lingo, and I kind of try to bring that into it. But, yeah, it's Good Leader 805. I'm always posting up a lot of this motivational stuff. I post up things about my brand, a lot of just designs and things that I'm working on. Anything I'm working on, I'm usually posting up on there, oh yeah dude, that's a way to do it, man.
Speaker 1:So, again, dude. Thank you for coming on the show, john. That's the way to do it, man. So again, dude. Thank you for coming on the show, john.
Speaker 2:Thank you. That was an amazing, freaking story, bro. No, I appreciate it. I appreciate you letting me on your show To me. I don't feel like I'm some kind of big person on Instagram and I don't have that status or anything like that To me. I really respect that. You guys gave me even the platform to do it because that's kind of funny in the social media space. Platform to do it because that's gonna be kind of funny in the social media space everyone's. I've met a couple people that are on social. They're very different than they are in person. You know what I mean.
Speaker 1:So I was like you get used to it, man. You get used to social media, but like I'm pretty much the same person on and off camera, so it's like yeah, and I appreciate it great it's greatly appreciated.
Speaker 1:Cool, thank you, dude. So there you guys have it. Folks, another banger sure to tap in. I'll put his links in the bottom below. If you haven't already subscribed to the channel, make sure you hit the subscription button. Love, you Keep pushing forward. Unhinged line Hector's legend engraved, living life raw, never been tamed From the hood to the pen. Truth entails pen. Hector Bravo, unhinged story never ends you, thank you.
