Hector Bravo UNHINGED
Official Hector Bravo Podcast
Hector Bravo UNHINGED
What Happens When Good Cops Leave?
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Former Mendocino County Sheriff's Deputy Trent James shares raw, unfiltered stories from his time policing one of California's most remote and challenging regions as a resident deputy with backup an hour away.
• Growing up rebellious in Mendocino County before becoming a probation officer and later a deputy
• Life as a resident deputy in an isolated community with limited resources and communication
• Policing Native American reservations with complex jurisdictional considerations
• Developing relationships with community members, including those with criminal backgrounds
• The reality of working death investigations, homicides, and decomposing bodies alone
• Mental health struggles and the lack of support within law enforcement culture
• Leadership problems and corruption within rural police agencies
• The difficult transition from law enforcement to civilian life
• Finding fulfillment in the entertainment industry after leaving policing
If you're struggling with mental health issues in law enforcement or any field, don't be afraid to seek help. Your life and wellbeing matter more than what others might think.
Former Mendocino Cop Introduction
Speaker 1Hector Bravo unhinged.
Speaker 2Chaos is now in session.
Speaker 1Welcome back to our channel Warriors. We are still growing Today. Another banger for you guys. Man, I have a former Mendocino cop turned actor. I have none other than Trent. What up, trent? How's it going, dude?
Speaker 2It's good man, Glad to finally meet you in person.
Speaker 1Definitely bro, as fuck. Man six, three, yeah, no big deal makes me look short, man 5, 11, mexican you know it's all good, bro, with the hair. It's like salt six foot, though, you know, true, yeah, yeah so, uh, I know you're in la now, but prior to that, where did you grow up?
Speaker 2I grew up in ukiah, which is in mendocino county in northern california. It's like three hours north of san francisco, out in the fucking woods in the middle of nowhere. It's part of the emerald triangle. It was like us trinity county and humboldt county um, it's where all the weeds at how close is humboldt county to there?
Speaker 1it's just the next county up. Okay, because I'm familiar with humboldt county with the netflix series the Wii.
Speaker 2Yeah, yeah. So Alder Point, where they did what the hell was that show called? Yeah, I forgot, but it was that show. Yeah, people Disappear and Shit. People Murder and Shit, yeah. So when I watched that shit, I was still on the street and I was working in a very similar area, but it was way more hardcore and I was just laughing and I was at my shitty resident deputy house um, watching it on netflix and I'm like bro, they, they fucking should have came down here and did that.
Speaker 2bro, that was like a standard tuesday, you know where I was at so really, oh yeah, yeah, it was fucking chaotic why do you think it is a humble that?
Speaker 1why do you think that area got the limelight as opposed to the other one?
Speaker 2just I don't know and I'm not taking anything away from that story whatsoever. Right, it was fucking crazy shit, but I'm just saying, like all three of those county, including ours, it was just nothing but homicides and kidnappings, all weed and money related, not these days, but back then. Yeah, great man, this is going to be interesting conversation.
Speaker 1I mean, people love true crime. Yeah, I'm fucking infatuated by it, bro. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, I know. So growing up I'm assuming you weren't privy and I'm talking about, like adolescent age Were you privy to crime, of what was transpiring in the area.
Speaker 2Oh dude, growing up I was a hellion man. I was always in trouble. I was flipping off cops. Tell me to fuck off. Oh yeah, yeah, I hated cops bro.
Speaker 1Is it a small town or a larger town?
Speaker 2city. Yeah, it's really small. Um, where I grew up in, yucay is probably well, uh shit, I don't know 15 000 something like that pretty small. Yeah, yeah, very rural.
Speaker 1If you're flipping off cops, don't you know who the cops are?
Speaker 2yeah. Yeah, it was like a really small, you know, local, local pd, local police department. Um, they hated me. I didn't like them. You know I'm talking like you know, 16, 17, when I was starting to drive and all that, so yeah. But they were looking back though, bro, like once I became a cop. I still maintained that mindset. Those guys were just straight fucking assholes. Not that I was cool.
Speaker 1I get you. Yeah, we'll elaborate into that, but I get where you're. Did you have a problem with authority?
Speaker 2Yeah, that's probably a big part of that.
Speaker 1Yeah, yeah, that's probably a big part of that. Yeah, were you rebellious? Yeah, in general, because I'm rebellious as well, but I don't like dumb authority. Are you willing to listen to certain things that make sense?
Speaker 2Yeah, Logic and common sense resonates very well with me. For sure I'm able to take criticism, but especially during my time in law enforcement you can definitely attest to this pretty much everybody we worked for knows less than we did facts.
Speaker 1so oh, this is gonna be a juicy fucking interview, bro, because we're talking the same language, man. Yeah, a lot of the people understand. Yeah, yeah, it's just, you know. Very few people have come out and spoken on on this. Yeah, I don't, I don't give a fuck. So I'll say whatever Right. So, I myself also like common sense, you know, and logic. So how the hell did you go from flipping off cops to wanting to even become a cop?
Speaker 2Um, long story short. So when I was 17, I got into some major shenanigans and my parents at the time made me move to Utah where I had relatives there, thinking that it was going to pull me out of that environment, it would save me from jail or whatever. I later came back. Long story short, I got really into fitness and working out and that's when I stopped partying a lot because I was seeing progress doing that shit and I was feeling good partying a lot because I was seeing progress doing that shit and I was feeling good.
Speaker 2And then I moved away to Sonoma County, which is an hour south, started going to college and graduated from college and then I went to an administrative of justice class when I was at college and just the subject material was so fascinating, interesting to me and I hated everything else and I was like, holy fuck, this is kind of interesting. Then I went on a ride along when I was like 20, nice did like a code three run and shit with the lights and sirens and I was like, is this what you fucking dudes do all day? And of course that's not true at all. He's like oh yeah, dude, it's sick as fuck. You should apply.
Speaker 1Um, and then I just kind of fell in love with that so your parents moved you away, uh, to get you out of trouble or to save you? Yeah, did that work? Was it an effective move?
Speaker 2no, because I ended up moving back when I was like 18, gotten even more shit. And then, um, I've been arrested twice, once when I was 17, once when I was 18, nothing big. When I was 18, I like walked into a store and stole a 30 pack of beer, walked out the cop that got me was the one that hated me growing up. He showed up. I was like suck my dick, took me in. But then, like I said, once I started getting into fitness and shit like that, I realized that I was drinking a lot and partying and smoking a lot of weed and I was like, well, this is affecting the gains, bro. You know what I'm saying? Definitely so. Gains, bro, you know what I'm saying, definitely so. That really helped me mature a little bit more. And then, like I said, I started going to school and then I kind of got out of that, those bad habits.
Speaker 1Now did you have a criminal record that would eventually come up during your hiring process?
Speaker 2Yeah, yeah, for sure I had bad. You know I had a street bike too when I was 16, 17, had my license suspended, driving like a dick. But it's all about time, right? So they look at the background investigators what you've done since you stopped that behavior. So I went to college. I got a bachelor's degree. My driving history was clean by the time I graduated the academy. Like what have you done to show us that you're maturing and becoming more responsible, right? So I didn't have any major hiccups that like prevented me once I finally did get hired for obviously to to get in the job no felonies or crazy shit is it?
Speaker 1uh? Did you know anybody in the department for like word of mouth purposes or references?
From Rebellious Teen to Law Enforcement
Speaker 2no, um, I didn't. But when I graduated the academy I got hired right away as a probation officer in mendocino county, so I just took that as an in. Then I got to kind of know some people and then they just picked me up.
Speaker 1Was that a peace officer position? The probation yeah, it was. So what do you get? You get a gun and a badge.
Speaker 2Yeah, so uh, yeah, basically I had a caseload of just random nonsense. You know, drug offenders, domestic violence guys, um, and you know, go out and search their search theirings, have them come in p test them, and it was such a small town. It was so awkward, bro, because two of these dudes on my caseload when I was brand new were like two of my best friends growing up. Yeah, one of them was a fucking straight tweaker and the other one was on probation for beating up his his, uh, girlfriend, and I'm like this is really fucking awkward, but sounds about white yeah, sounds about right straight up.
Speaker 1Yeah, yeah, yeah, pun intended, yeah, pun intended, bro. Yeah, so what kind of drugs were prevalent up there? Was it the methamphetamines? What else was in that area?
Speaker 2yeah, so when I was growing up it was just weed. Everyone was smoking weed, but uh, yeah, these days a lot of meth then it was probably like the old school weed huh.
Speaker 1Yeah, as opposed to what's now. Yeah, it was shit.
Speaker 2Yeah, it was shit, but yeah, now it's straight. Just meth, fentanyl, all the good shit. Yeah, standard issue.
Speaker 1So how was it doing the probation gig? Was it fulfilling for you, or were you like nah, I'm missing something else. Or was that always part of your plan to go to become a cop?
Speaker 2No, dude, it was just. They offered me a job and I just took it while I was still in the process, with a couple of places, um, but no, it wasn't fulfilling at all. I wanted the fun, dude, I wanted the chases, I wanted the crazy shit and to be an actual cop. But the main reason is I did as cliche and kind of cringe as it sounded I did want to help people and I wanted to. I had reflected back on cops that I interacted with growing up and I wanted to make sure that I was not going to be like those guys Nice, they couldn't develop rapport to save their lives with anybody in the community, couldn't talk to people like they were humans, and so I kind of wanted to go a different route. With that have you?
Speaker 1always been a risk taker. Yeah, Every time or since you've since the beginning, since you've known. Yeah, how do you feel about? How do you feel about taking risks, cause a lot of people are risk adverse and don't even want to try for, for various reasons fear of failure, man, you miss a hundred percent of the shots you don't take.
Speaker 2Dude, you know what I'm saying. Like I always had that mindset where what's the worst that's going to happen someone's going to tell me, no, I'm not going to get that job or I'm not going to get this. You know, when I moved out to la, to to pursue acting, and I'm like what's the worst that's going to happen? I've already been through the worst facts. That's how. That's how I looked at it. I'm like this is fucking Disneyland, bro, all of it. You know what I'm saying, yeah, so no, I agree, man, I agree.
Speaker 1So how long were you a probation officer before you became? What was the next step after that?
Speaker 2Yeah, so the timeline I graduated college in like 2012. And then, shortly after that, I put myself through the Academy, got hired as a PO and then it wasn't very long dude. It was like less than a year where I got picked up as a deputy with the sheriff's office and the vast majority of that time I spent as a resident deputy. So I policed an entire town alone in the national forest and the nearest backup was like an hour away. When I first lived out there, there was like one X on the cell phones. We didn't have internet, yeah, and it was predominantly native American reservation. Then you had the cartel dudes from Mexico up there paying the natives to grow on tribal land, and that was just battle after battle, after homicide, after whatever. I had a canine too, so I was a canine handler. And then, um, I did that for a long time, got majorly burnt out up here, and then I was kind of burnout coming from just cumulative fucking trauma, bro.
Speaker 2You know what I'm saying. Like, just you know, cause, cause that that post. Well, first of all, it's the most dangerous place in the entire County, like we had a cop get smoked up there. We had a couple of dudes that lived out there before me, both shot themselves, died and um it, you know, just for the safety element, right? So, uh, working at an assignment like that for that long it's just very stressful and taxing.
Speaker 1Dude, let me do it Like I was just about to ask you, like how sketchy is that? You're up there with Native Americans. You're by yourself, fucking zero phone coverage, zero comms, probably with a dispatcher of any sort. Your nearest help is probably how far away, is it?
Speaker 2If someone's hauling ass 45 minutes, well, so I'd get dude. I was getting in pursuits weekly out there, bro, by yourself. Oh yeah, fuck yeah, dude, like four to and I'm not trying to sound cool, bro, no no, say it bro.
Speaker 2Yeah, this is just facts. Everyone's like, oh, the guy's trying to sound like he's a badass. No, no, no, I'm just, I'll just stay in the facts, all right, there's a lot of better cops than I was, for sure, okay, yeah, so I'd get in a pursuit, you know, and dispatch would be like, or you know, those things lasted like five, ten minutes max and go to calls that realistically, I needed four other dudes with me. Right, you go to a loan. You go to a domestic violence call. You know one of the like the male half's like beating down the door with a fucking axe Chicks inside, and you got to go to that and deal with that. You know what I'm saying Alone. And you know I would just cancel. I'm like we're going to see another unit and I'm like there's no point Because if anything bad is going to happen, it's going to be within the first 20 fucking seconds. I get there. You know what I'm saying, you don't strike me as a dummy man.
Speaker 1You're very smart and privy. How much do you have to use your mind in situations? It's your best weapon bro so what were some things you would look for? Like you just said, man, you're like, hey, if something bad's gonna happen, it's gonna happen within the first 20 seconds. Yeah, what kind of shit would you see where, like, oh fuck, where your spidey senses would go off, or what kind of approach is oh fuck, everything, bro, like it was.
Speaker 2I think that part of the burnout too is my adrenaline was jacked 24 7 and it never came down. So everyone had guns out there. It was all the indian pride dudes, the nortenio shot callers with the xiv across the fucking throat, um, and those guys were my best snitches too, were they? Oh yeah, but you, dude, that took years, bro, to get in with those prison guys like that, yeah, but they're all make manufacturing their own shitty Res, aks and ARs and all that bullshit.
Speaker 2Nobody has a driver's license, and so you had to police it way differently. First of all, I can't be out there pulling over people and writing them little dorky-ass, fucking sir. You don't have a front license plate and it's some dude with like face tattoos that just got out of prison after 20 fucking years. Right, because they know where I live, because I live in town after 20 fucking years. Right, cause they know where I live, cause I live in town, and it was in a little shitty shack, basically, with no insulation and froze my ass off, and they would, if we had prior cops out there, do? They would get like drive-bys on their crib, dude, you know what I'm saying oh yeah, uh, one guy in particular.
Speaker 2So and, like I said, one got smoked out there. So you have to treat you do this anyway Everybody with fucking respect, you know that like in the prison system. So I had to handle shit differently. So I pull them over for a little bullshit, even if they're on parole, they're driving on a suspended license, I don't fucking care, I'm not doing shit with that. I'm going to say I'll see you later. You know what I'm saying? Or that you owe me one Strategy, oh, oh yeah, and spirit of the law.
Speaker 2But and there was like two houses right on the res and the call was there was like a 415, so a verbal disturbance between two families there. And I show up and there's like 10 family members at one another same shit, like big monster, motherfuckers. You know some of these dudes. And I show up like hey, how's it going? Everyone you know like brand new rookie cop and they're all like fuck you white, you, white boy, what the fuck are you doing on the res? This is tribal, you see, you got to deal with that. Oh, you got to deal with that. That's one of the things. Yeah, because people get it twisted too.
Speaker 2So California is a public law 280 state meaning that the sheriff's office has ultimate jurisdiction over reservation land. It's not like Wyoming, the Dakotas, montana, so we had the ultimate jurisdiction, meaning that, like the tribal police, there were basically just security guards. They didn't have powers of arrest, so we dealt with literally every crime. Good information on the res. Yeah, I didn't even know that. Yeah, cause a lot of other places like Wyoming, um, they have their own tribal cops that have like kind of peace officer power, so to speak, and the only time an outside law enforcement entity will come in is for major crimes like homicide, kidnapping, shit like that. That's generally going to be the fbi bro your life.
Speaker 1This experience reminds me of grand theft auto bro it was literally grand theft auto you got fucking crazy native americans on that fire water. You got nortenual, fucking nf members. You got fucking white meth addicts. Oh yeah, bro, was it like that?
Speaker 2yeah, hey, don't get me wrong. There was like a lot of good people out there, including um dude.
Speaker 1I was cool as fuck with the guys I was arresting bro, but as a cop, you're as a cop, I would imagine you're not dealing with the best of humanity in general. I'm assuming you deal with you know you get those calls where you have to show up um enforce the law yeah, no 100, bro.
Resident Deputy Life in Rural Mendocino
Speaker 2So how I, how I worked it out, there is I wasn't just letting shit go left and right, it was, and especially when um bag of shit gavin newsom started decriminalizing everything, bro, and so I really had to. You have to alter your tactics, right. Right, but I was just going after, but even before that, what was a major quality of life issue or like major crimes and shit like that? You know, definitely handling business, and people knew that I would right and because I gave respect and they knew that I was going to do my job when it came down to it, I generally got that in return and I was pretty cool with fucking everybody.
Speaker 1Now, at this point in time, are you still maintaining your physical fitness level?
Speaker 2Oh fuck, yeah, You're fucking killing it. Oh yeah, dude, like there was no excuse. I hated that shit, dude. I worked with a couple of fat motherfuckers and they'd drive me nuts because they were just like an officer safety issue, bro. And yeah, there was no. So I was working, you know, 12 to 16 hour days and shit, and sometimes it's on duty. Sometimes I'm waking up at 3 am and I'm fucking, even if it's a 30 minute workout, but I always eat really healthy too. These guys are like one of my partners like his lunch would be like a fucking gas station, fucking you know thing of donuts and a Red Bull. And I'm like, dude, you're literally going to have a heart attack Absolutely, while we're going to have a heart attack while we're going to the most basic call and we're going to run into an issue Absolutely. Um. So yeah, you have to. But working out also helped me stay in the game longer, like mentally. You know what I mean.
Speaker 1Yeah, dude, it sounds taxing, man. I mean just, I was never there, but just hearing these stories. Like I said, I'm hearing this for the first time. Dude, I didn't realize it was like that up there.
Speaker 2Yeah, bro, you know, time dude, I didn't realize it was like that up there. Yeah, bro, you know. And so what's hard, though, is that, like there's no days off, dude, like, if I want to take a day off, the nearest town was an hour away, that's 4 000 population. The next actual bigger town is an hour and a half away, and then if I want to go to somewhere where there's like shit to do, that's like two hours out. So right, so I'm really there and I'm on call. So you know you get called out at like two in out. So right, so I'm really there and I'm on call. So you know you get called out at like two in the morning. Hey, trent, so-and-so, just got shot in the head on the res. Go deal with it. Suspect's outstanding. So I got to go figure that out Now.
Speaker 1during that period of time, was your leadership decent, good?
Speaker 2or was it a problem, Bro? Leadership's a problem at 99.9% of agencies in America. It was horrible.
Speaker 1Even your leadership was bad during those times. Leadership Correct, yeah, oh fuck. Yeah, see, I didn't. I was as you're telling me the story. I'm thinking well fuck, maybe they gave him some slack, maybe they gave him some leash.
Speaker 2That is the only reason I probably stayed with that agency as long as I did, so probably stayed with that agency as long as I did. So I chose to quit that place. By the way, I gave a month and a half notice, but, um, because I was so effective out there, I mean, I got deputy of the year in 2018, the community. You were the only deputy bro for the whole department, bro, but I mean, like, in the whole County, I got deputy of the year for that year, yeah, but like, uh, I would go to all the town meetings and do all this shit. I was going to the high schools, the middle schools, talking to the kids, the principals, going to the businesses.
Speaker 2Well, yeah, a place like that, it's only 1500 people. You got a community police, the shit out of a place like that to get to know everybody, and everyone out there has fucking nicknames, especially the prison guys, right, so you got to learn those, yeah, but um, those yeah, but um, no, the leadership sucked, dude, but they, uh, they left me alone because, before I moved out there, that was a major problem area and I had a direct impact on the crime stats and the community wasn't complaining as much to the sheriff. So they just like turns out there he'll figure it out. He's nobody, he knows what he's doing so cool man, but that's that to me.
Speaker 1That's not like a good case scenario it helped. Yeah, wow yeah, when the ultimately. Well, I know you mentioned dwellings. Could you describe what a dwelling looks like out in the middle of fucking nowhere man with like a mud hut? Are there drug paraphernalia? Is there a mess like?
Speaker 2hoarders. Yeah, so they had housing on the res, bro, where the housing authority would rent those places out. But yeah, a lot of places people were living no electricity, no running water, there's fucking holes in the floor, there's human shit all over the place. You got to watch where you're walking Just piles of trash in the front yard broken down, cars everywhere, dogs, lots of res dogs, bro, like just running around aimlessly. You got to make sure you don't get bit by those motherfuckers. I always had like nine cans of OC. I had like a one time like a crazy goose. Dude, those things are nasty dude. I try to me and my partner, try to go to this house to fucking see if this dude was there. He had a warrant. They hiss at you and I, dude, it wouldn't get out of the way. So I was like you know, and then it fucked off. But yeah, all kinds of crazy shit bro.
Speaker 1So like uh, dude, this is a good opportunity. So like are you in the essence like a detective as well?
Speaker 2like there's a homicide and you got to solve that fucking case um, yeah, so because we were so rural and we only had like 65 sworn officers you wear a lot of hats yeah, a lot of bigger agencies, like lapd or, you know, new york, whatever you have your own separate units for a lot of things, right, property crimes, domestic violence units which sounds really cool and fancy even corners units.
Speaker 2So us on the street yeah, you're a detective, we were the own corner. So when somebody died, dipshit, trent james, as a regular street guy, you do the entire death investigation, from the very start to the end, next to ken notification. Wow, and you do that for years. It sucks, wow, um, homicides and shit. You show up up front. You take the initial, but the detective unit will come in and take those over. But everything else, yeah, dude, like a lot of the sex crime stuff and because they're short too you know the detective unit's really small they're inundated with a whole bunch of nonsense as well, so kind of everyone just has to to share the case case work did you ever have to go to like a suicide call or anything?
Speaker 2yo, yeah, I lost count on that, yeah really oh, fuck, yeah, yeah, every way. Uh, overdoses, hangings um a million different ways people. Somebody shot themselves, one of which I went to. The guy was still fucking alive doing the snoring thing. You know well. Yeah, you shoot yourself in the head, man. A lot of times it doesn't go the way you planned, correct, so you shut up like and then you know, he died too. But, um, oh yeah, yeah, a lot, a lot of those, for sure, jumping off of whatever things and what about?
Speaker 1um, you know because I watched the first 48 hours from time to time or shows where the fucking there'll be a dead body for days, weeks, months. You ever go to that shit Dude.
Speaker 2yeah, those sucked bro, especially when it's like the middle of summer, over 100 degrees out Bro, I know this is fucked up, but go ahead and walk us through an experience like that man I'm talking about.
Speaker 1before you enter a house, you start smelling shit outside.
Speaker 2Yeah, like a telltale sign when you show up. So generally it'll be like hey, I haven't heard from my uncle in months and he lives alone. Can you go check on him? He lives in your county. Sure, you go there. It's 100 degrees outside. You see like the windows are closed, doors closed, and there's fucking flies on the outside of the window. That's usually a sign someone's super dead inside, right. So you go in and someone's been cooking. Yeah, a in there, dude, it is horrendous the smell in there and they get all bloated and fat and black. A lot of times you have like maggots and insects eating, you know, in their eyes and their mouths and their nose. Sometimes their pets are eat, have been eating their limbs because they're stuck inside and there's nothing to eat. Um, and then, yeah, then the mortuary guys show up and you have to help. Uh, put them in the red bag and and then ship them off.
Speaker 1It's dope do you think that would affect anybody working that line of work?
Speaker 2it affected me, right, right I just wasn't affecting me as well. I wasn't a pussy, and I can admit it correct?
Speaker 1no, that's fucking brave of you, man. I'm glad you're. This is why we're having this conversation.
Speaker 2Yeah, yeah, that shit drives me nuts, bro, the the macho boomer dudes that I used to work for to be like oh, just suck it up, because, uh, one of my friends dude um, it was like one of my close friends at the time, deputy as well when I was working, my shitty resident deputy post bro um, I got a work email and it said that he was suspended from duty. I was like what the fuck? And it turns out he had. Um, he came home from duty and I was like what the fuck? And it turns out he had. Um, he came home from dinner with his girlfriend, went in the bathroom and just slammed a fucking thing of heroin into his arm and he almost died. Um, they showed up in our kingdom back to life but he was just fucked Like. He went to a bunch of fucked up shit and lost his marbles and he was trying to kill himself.
Speaker 2But all the older dudes that I worked for at the time like I'd hear them be like oh, he's a pussy, what's he crying about? What the fuck? That wouldn't have affected me and I'm like here's my whole thing. We all are brought up differently Genetics, different environments, different socioeconomic statuses and just different walks of life, religion, all those kinds of things, and our brain chemistry because we're not fucking robots is all different, since we're humans. Therefore, it is literally just because something affects somebody, it's stupid to say that it wouldn't affect that other person. Facts it doesn't even make any sense, facts. So it's like yeah, bro, you sound really cool and macho saying that. But those guys that would say that they were the biggest alcoholics right, usually beating their wives divorced, divorced two or three times right, paying 12 1300 a month in child support.
Speaker 1Facts um, it was just a giant hypocritical joke no, you're right, so you're talking about like yeah, I see you, man the ogs playing the tough guy. Yeah, talking shit about the new cop that couldn't handle the trauma.
Speaker 2However, their life is shit bro they're self-medicating in their own way, bro. A lot of them are doing pills too, behind closed doors, drinking, getting blacked out drunk six, seven days a week. Some dudes I worked with were come to work drunk as fuck. You know what I'm saying. I get it.
Speaker 1Sometimes I'd have to double up with them that day to drive them to calls hey, guys, consider becoming a patron, where you will get first exclusive dibs on the video before it airs to the public and you'll get to ask the guests special questions that you have in mind. So that's also another way to support the channel. Thank, thank you, guys. Appreciate all of you. Keep pushing forward. Make sure you hit that link in description below, cause I know that, um, in law enforcement there's a high suicide rate, just as well as the military. Do you believe in the law enforcement side, that that is a result of all those accumulated trauma? Yes, really, oh yeah.
Speaker 2Yeah, dude, yes, really, oh yeah, yeah, dude, it's um, yeah, it's tough, bro, because not all, but a lot of cops I work, like I know when I worked with like their personal lives are a train wreck, dumpster fire, bro. So there you know, we're going to these calls. Not that mine was perfect, but you're going to these calls and trying to educate adults on how to be adults, but then you go home and your shit's fucked up. It's even worse, and so it's like how can you really lecture people on anything? But, yeah, so you go to the shift work where, dude, we were so short-staffed always.
Speaker 2Most agencies are Six, seven days a week for me and a lot of guys I worked with 12-plus hour days, no days off, no time for anything. Yeah, and a lot of guys I worked with 12 plus hour days, no days off, no time for anything. You have shitty supervisors on top of that that don't know shit, that are on your ass threatening to write you up for everything. Going to these calls, that the calls you go to, it's like most of these people that are calling 911. It's literally the worst day that they're ever going to have in their entire life and your dumb ass is there to deal with it. So you have to see and hear and smell the worst things that, like most people, only dream about in their nightmares.
Speaker 2You know what I'm saying, so you do that for years and years and years. Your home life falls apart because you come home from a 13-hour day you had to deal with like a dead kid, and your girlfriend's like you know oh hey, how was your day, oh hey, how was your day, and you're like you go in the room and close the door, then she leaves you eventually.
Speaker 2I'm just saying in general, that's how usually a lot of this shit happens and then you start drinking a lot and that leads to just bad shit and, yeah, sometimes dudes just smoke themselves Just alone with your pistol in the fucking house.
Speaker 2I worked a couple operations with an FBI guy in the town that I work because we were always having other outside agencies come in the DEA task force guys and stuff just running major ops out there that I would get attached to as well, like a lot of the weed shit, and he was on there a couple times and, yeah, he just nasty divorce and too much stuff and he just smoked himself in his county whip dude or his federal car. The FBI agent, yeah, yeah, and I think about that stuff differently, bro. Like I don't. I understand it. I understand it when you go to so many suicides and you talk to so many families and friends and you see it like that. And then you see the law enforcement side of the military dudes. Obviously that's really prevalent as well. I fully understand and I do not judge that at all correct.
Speaker 1I'm in the same boat and I once heard a psychologist speak to us and tell us that, like we, we're all like a bucket and if it gets too full, eventually that bucket's gonna overflow. Yeah, that's when you know people make those drastic decisions yeah, it happened to me too, bro.
Speaker 2I just I didn't.
Speaker 1You know, I'm still here so you mentioned all this overtime hours, all these extra shifts. Did you also have to show up in court?
Speaker 2oh yeah, that too. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And dude court for me was an hour and a half away for my no way yeah bro, it was nuts yeah so you arrest somebody?
Speaker 1holy shit, bro. What did your jail look like? Small tiny. Yeah, was there a jail cell in that motherfucker?
Speaker 2yeah, they got cells in that bitch, yeah, yeah. Yeah, it was small small and shitty.
Speaker 1Is the jail the same place you book somebody into?
Speaker 2yeah, it is yeah, yeah, so we would. Yeah, take them. Yeah, we don't. We didn't take them to the station. Yeah, we would. I didn't even have a station, I just I guess that's what I was asking. You guys didn't have a station no, I mean, we had stations, but we didn't take anybody there for any reason it was just straight to county jail straight to county, straight to fucking jail, bro, okay yeah, and what do you do, man?
Speaker 1you? Do you just drop them off to the deputies in there, or do you have to like, do you have to start doing anything?
Speaker 2just not. Maybe just fill out the booking sheet.
Speaker 1Uh, hopefully you search their ass before you fucking get there and there's like not knives and shit and drugs, you know do you watch these videos on youtube of weird shit happening with these cops, meaning like they didn't do a correct pat down?
Speaker 2yeah, I worked with some guys that had that happen Really. Yeah, this one guy that he worked at a neighboring agency but same county. He missed a whole ass bottle of alcohol in this fool's pant leg. Bro booked him in, so he's a street cop. Arrested some guy, the COs, the correctional officers, once they took custody of him in the jail were searching him and he had a big ass bottle right here that the cop just missed and obviously you just get a bunch of shit for that. He got in trouble, but you know it's it's it's.
Speaker 1It's a fine line because somebody could get killed. If it's a gun, a knife, yeah, it seems like in 2025, maybe 2024, a lot of these cops are inexperienced. Um, do you watch that on the YouTube or anything like that? Or you don't really watch those types of videos dude I a little bit. I don't really watch cop stuff to be honest with you, kind of had your fucking, you lived it already.
Speaker 2Yeah, yeah, like my girlfriend, she likes to watch, uh like the body cam videos and shit you don't like watching them.
Speaker 1Did you guys have body cameras in your area? No, that's a good thing, right? Or or would you not have minded them?
Speaker 2um, I didn't have. I didn't dude, in all the years I was a cop I didn't generate one complaint from a member of the public, right, just because how I treated everybody right. But uh, we just didn't have a man. They just recently got him, within the last couple years, I think, up there. I don't know if it was a money issue.
Speaker 2I know the sheriff was very adamant, the new one that works there now I'm in Decino County. He's a piece of shit and he came out publicly and said I don't want my deputies to have body cams. I'm like why? Why is that? When I lateral to a PD, when I was a patrol Sergeant, we had them, um, at that department, but for us, yeah, I wouldn't have minded them. I mean, there was a lot of shit, like a lot of conversations that you just it doesn't matter to me, um, but like when I'm talking to my informants and doing shit like that, like I don't want to film that bro, I'm trying to protect their privacy, dude Cause, like if I were to dime them out, that could get them killed.
Speaker 1Yeah, it's an ethical thing. Yeah, yeah, exactly. There's some cops or there's some agencies that don't give a fuck about the informants and they don't give a fuck, careless, if they get them killed, bro, like that is like one of the most crucial assets I had, because out there there wasn't a lot of like there was no security cameras.
Speaker 2There was. If somebody gets stabbed on Hollywood Boulevard, like where I live now, there's going to be 400 people that see it. There's fucking cameras everywhere, right, but out there there's no light pollution, so you could see a full sky of stars and there's not. It's so rural and just woods, right. It's so rural and just woods, right. So there's nobody around. And there was a lot of shit that nobody was around to see. So I had to rely on those dudes like hey, did you hear about this? Yeah, okay, what happened? I was this guy and then, so I had to solve all those crimes like that oh damn dude, so you were like doing old school policing straight up.
Speaker 2yeah, it was. It was like, for example, like on a night shift, two of my partners uh, uh, we're out in the town I worked with called Covolo, also known as round Valley, so they had someone broke into a local Napa auto thing, stole a generator it's like a couple thousand dollars, cameras didn't work, no one saw shit. They show up and take the report. I come on shift and they're like dude, we don't even know how to to begin to do this. And an hour and a half later I arrested the guy that did it and I got the generator back. Hell yeah, with no information. But that's just because you have to know the game exactly.
Speaker 2You're like the fucking training day bro yeah, well, again, lots of guys can do that and lots of guys did do that before my time. I'm just saying that's what that takes to be successful oh, I get it.
Speaker 1Yeah, I get it. 100. Now, since we're talking about your style, was there people that didn't have your style, like maybe squares, or yeah, I will write you that ticket or didn't know how to communicate effectively with people?
Speaker 2yeah, not really that. I worked with bro. I found that each agency has its own personality. Like police department guys are different than deputies and different than highway guys are they?
Speaker 2in my opinion. Yeah, it's just a different, a different breed, bro, like chp guys, a lot of those dudes. I got pulled over a couple times while I was still in law enforcement and those guys cannot not all of them, because I got a couple close friends that are chp but they cannot talk to people properly to save their fucking life, bro, bro, like when I was a cop, I always had nice cars, dude, and I was mobbing down the road one day, um, in my Range Rover, and I had a white tank top on. I know what I look like. I look like I'm selling Coke. Yeah, all right, but I was still a deputy at the time.
Speaker 2So I get pulled over by a highway guy in the middle of the day. I had crossed over a line a second. So when he comes up to my vehicle, I had already rolled everything down because my shit's tented. He approaches and he's like so what was all that about? Back there I don't even get a hello or anything.
Speaker 2What the fuck just started the interaction? Like that younger dude, clearly a fucking rookie, and I was like you have no fucking clue who you're talking to, bro. But I was like what are you talking about? And he's like, oh, you crossed the yellow line. And I'm like, oh, sorry about that, I was texting. And he's like, okay. He's like, well, what's up? All of this tent on your car, see what I mean? And I'm like, what the fuck? Just straight up and I can say that because I this point Right.
Speaker 2He's like did you pay to have that put on, or was it like that when you bought it, thinking I'm going to lie? I'm like, no, I paid to have this shit put on. I know it's illegal. And he was so confused because somebody is telling him the truth, absolutely. And I was like, hey bro, I don't know where the fuck this is going, but I havean brotherhood dude he code for a code for them and he took off and then it was like a normal interaction and then he let me go.
Speaker 2But if I had not been a cop he would have definitely written me up for everything. And that's my point, man, I'm like why do you got to be a right out the gate? Yeah, cause of my parents. Another dude pulled me over CHP Same car that I was driving at the time and he ran me and he found out I was a cop later. He was a lot nicer. But when he looked at me at the conclusion of the stop he was like oh, you're really looking the part today. That's why I pulled you over. I'm like I know why you pulled me over.
Speaker 1What the fuck You're really looking the part today.
Speaker 2Yeah, because he profiled me, Because my plates came back to that town I lived in, which is known for, you know, rapscallions and prison dudes and shit, and I'm all tatted out in a nice-ass car. He thought I was fucking moving weight, probably right Damn so. But yeah, and they tell you that you know when the interaction's done so in that area are there people driving nice cars pushing mad weight?
Speaker 2Oh, fuck. Yeah, there is 150 000 trucks, the big ass ones jacked up, with those fat fucking wheels on them. It's all weed money now are they like?
Speaker 1a lot of the mexican dudes but is it one of those things where they just leave them alone until they do commit an infraction?
Speaker 2well, so those dudes don't mob around with like pounds and pounds in their whip.
Speaker 1They're the ones that are overseeing a lot of the operations but every but it's a well-known fact that those guys are connected. Yes, yeah, um, it depends. What do their homes look like? Mansions, ranches?
Speaker 2no, a lot of times they were just living in regular houses, dude. So so they spent all their their dough on like cars and motorcycles and random shit, I don't know. Um, some of them were pretty big balling, but the dudes that were they, you know they'd get other people to do that for them.
Speaker 1Now this timeframe that you worked in that area around the weed, what was the federal laws with marijuana it had? They had already been. It was still illegal illegal.
Speaker 2Yeah, illegal it still is. It's just that, um yeah. So when I first started, weed was a felony in the state of California, like to cultivate, to have over a certain weight in your, in your vehicle and all this sort of thing. And then, you know, at the tail end of my time it became basically legal or a very shitty little misdemeanor. Right, and the only time it would turn into a felony is if you had prior convictions for sales. You were a sex registrant or something like that. Like if you were caught with sales for weed. But, dude, I was pulling over U-Hauls with like undocumented Mexicans that were just driving out of town with like just pounds and pounds and pounds, and a lot of times you're just letting them go. What, yeah, toward the tail end.
Speaker 2Because it's like that's still technically a misdemeanor, right, they could have a thousand pounds in that thing, unless they have something else going on. And, like, what am I going to do? Am I going to go book that shit in? I can't even fit it in my car. Tow the U-Haul and all that.
Speaker 2Now, encouraging factors for you to want to leave the department seeing the crimes change. Yeah, it got toward the end. I mean, I mostly was mental, but, um, that was a large component of it because I stopped, I realized I wasn't able to really do my job anymore. Right, we're going to calls and people are getting mad at me because I'm the face they see, and I totally understand that. Like, hey, why did this guy break into my house? You couldn't even arrest him, or you did arrest him and he got out the same day back when there was no bail. Thanks, newsome. Um, fucking asshole dude. Fuck that guy anyway. Uh, but I saw that real time on the street, bro, all those laws that were ceasing to exist, all the guys that were coming out of prison for the nonviolent offenses yeah, it was AB 109, Prop 57, it was 47.
Speaker 2Yeah, and I'm like what people don't understand is the vast majority of the crimes on the street that affects your day-to-day are quality of life issues. They are not violent crimes. The homicides and all that crazy shit. Those are usually person-specific. It's a very personal situation People breaking into houses, stealing cars, getting super high and squirrely on meth and doing a bunch of random shenanigans that affects, like, the regular citizen. Those aren't going to be the violent offenses. So just letting all those people out we all saw it on the street just go through.
Speaker 1What did you see? What was the difference?
Speaker 2All crime increased and I was arresting guys. They like, bro trent, like I'm gonna be out. This one guy fucking he's like I'm gonna be out by the time before you even finish your fucking report. Homie, I'm like facts, I agree, I don't even know what the fuck I'm doing anymore, bro, I don't even know what I'm doing.
Speaker 1And that dude was a bad motherfucker dude.
Speaker 2Right when he got out he went back out and did a drive-by same day ak-47 dude just up some dude's house, got him again, went back in. Do this one. This one girl on the res, bro, uh, this was my case. She. She's in prison now because, uh, for another double homicide out there. But, um, she stabbed this girl on the res seven times in the back with a fucking kitchen knife. Dude Like da da da had it on video. She went into prison, chowchilla, for 18 months and she was on parole when she did that. Comes back out. Some time goes by and I heard a few of her homies all of which I knew was part of that case too killed two people with a fucking axe to the face, one of which was one of my partner's brothers and his girlfriend. Really, yeah, were they involved in? No, no, no, no, he didn't really talk to his brother like that because he was involved in like some weed shit, but it's like, yeah, good, call on that, you know I mean, we've seen it yeah but it's like's.
Speaker 2Like, yeah, I'm just like I'm putting my life on the line now, but I can't even help people really, because they're getting out right away or in some circumstances, you can't even arrest them. So people that had like misdemeanor warrants, you know, I contact somebody on the street, I run them out. Dispatch is like oh, they have a misdemeanor warrant for their arrest. No sight Meaning, they have a misdemeanor warrant for their arrest. No sight Meaning. A judge signed an order saying you cannot cite and release that person. They want to be seen.
Speaker 2Wow, but when all that shit changed, our administration said no, we're still not taking them, just leave them or cite them on the no site. It was wild, bro, it was wild. It's almost like they wanted America to fail, yeah, but but all the criminals most of them are not insanely stupid, so they know that. Right, they're like dude, I can pretty much do it or the fuck I want. Now, like, the consequences are way less. Let me ask you this like what is the incentive for them not to do the same shit? Right, they don't have one correct.
Speaker 1Yeah, now I know you mentioned coming across drugs, like in in houses and in stops, but what about fields? Or, like the growing part, the agricultural? Were you coming?
Speaker 2across that shit. I was always in grows, bro. Yeah, everyone had grows out there. Are they armed? Do they have armed security?
Speaker 1Armed security, Well you know what I mean. I can imagine like a bicep with an AK-47 or something.
Speaker 2Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, you got a lot of dudes like that man. Yeah, so where I live, bro, like because it was so quiet at night, right, and I was kind of in the middle of town, so at nighttime it sounded like a war zone. It's like do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do it just fire off fully auto guns into there, a cause. They were all high on fucking goof crystals like meth and shit, but also letting people warning them don't come over here and fuck with our crop, Right, so, but that was every. I lived right next door to a fat grow. Really, yeah, it's like you really couldn't avoid it. You know what I'm saying. And those dudes were cool, Like you know I. Yeah, there wasn't any problems at that one.
Speaker 1But yeah, dude right behind my house on a dirt road some dude got smoked in the fucking head broad daylight over just some weed nonsense. You know what I mean. Was there ever any multi agency like takedowns of those groves that you're talking about?
Speaker 2Yeah, yeah, they would come in, yeah, we would get Would it be the DEA? Dea deputies from outside, counties, fbi, yeah, just a lot of outside. And yeah, we would come together out there. And then, you know, I would go with them as well, because I knew the area. Like a lot of those roads, bro, didn't even have names, like I had to make them up and tell dispatch hey, this is what this is gonna be called. Yeah, bro, you just have to know, just like you know like hey, uh, like this one guy's nickname was fucking poop. It's like, hey, bro, like poop committed like some dude, I'd go to a call, right, I'd be like, okay, who did this? Oh, poop did it. And I'm like, who the fuck is poop when I'm a rookie, right, they're like, uh, I actually don't know his real name. And I'm like, well, I gotta go find this motherfucker poop right now, bro. And so there's a lot of. You just have to figure all that out too.
Speaker 1So, as you're kicking ass and taking names and living the fucking life of Grand Theft Auto, bro, and Far Cry, the video game Far Cry, I play video games, man. This is reminding me of almost like the hills have eyes, in a way, with gangs and, and yeah, drugs and violence, yeah, and cops. Uh, are you expected to remain proficient in your training and weapons qualification?
Speaker 2you're expected to yeah that answered your question yeah, I mean, I just dry fired every day. Um, I, I trained, uh, mixed martial arts for you like during college and shit for years, so I knew how to handle myself and you know this too. But, um, you're getting sized up by those, those, the real ones, like this dude. So if you're a shit sloppy or uniform, um, you look like you're out of shape, you don't have any command presence. You're going to get eaten alive in a matter of seconds, right? So they, they know that they can get that over you. So, maintaining a certain level of fitness, command presence, being clean-shaven, looking like you take care of yourself, that goes miles. You know what I mean.
Speaker 1Could you elaborate for the crowd, especially these new law enforcement officers, what command presence is and what it's not meaning? What it's not is like hey, you don't have to act fucking tough or pretend there's somebody.
Speaker 2You're not yeah, and I think that that's where a lot of people get it twisted. Man, you don't need to walk up to somebody and be like, hey, what's up, bitch, sit the fuck down, right. No, you're not going to get anywhere like that, bro. I will say, some people need to get talked to like that and that's the only language they understand. You know what I mean. Correct, but command presence is. You know pretty much just what I said.
Speaker 2Do like having a nice tailored uniform. Don't look sloppy, don't have fucking shit all over your boots. Look like you are in some sort of decent shape. You know, like I said, if you have hair which I you know, obviously don't make sure it's like nice and tidy and neat. Uh, some departments allow beards, but if you do have one, make sure just like. Look like you take care of yourself and you know what the fuck you're doing. And when you talk, just treat people with respect. Act like you know what you're talking about. Dude, some calls. I had no fucking clue what I was doing, but you better act like you know what you're doing. You know what I'm saying, but it's just like. Uh, it's more of an attitude too, man, just, you're in charge of that situation and people have to listen to you and don't be.
Speaker 2You know, when someone's talking to you, like those guys, like dude, like when I was a rookie, this dude, middle of the night, riding his shitty little BMX bicycle down the middle of the road, he was like 45. I didn't know who he was. I'm like, oh, I'll stop that guy. He's committing a crime. Tattoos, big native guy tattoos everywhere. So, right, so I pulled him over in my crown Vic, may she rest in peace.
Death, Trauma, and Mental Health
Speaker 2And um, right, when he gets off his BMX bike, he's like what the fuck do you want, motherfucker? Right, when I step out of the car and I'm like, all right, well, you better sit the fuck down, bitch, I'm going to fuck you up. So that's how you have to talk to that guy. Right, right, when I did, he sat on the ground, crossed his ankles and muscle memory, yeah, right. Then I walk over and I'm like yo, so what's up, man? Like what's the issue? And I take it down, right, and I start talking to him, calm. And then he comes down and he's like, oh, my bad, bro, you know my bad, you're. You seem cool, but if you waver, you know what I mean, or you flinch in a second. They're going to see that you know what I mean and you're going to get fucked up.
Speaker 1I'm really surprised you were able to pick that up like working in the streets man, because I've heard a lot of people that worked inside of jails or prisons say hey, I'm glad I started there because I learned how to maneuver like that.
Speaker 2Dude, where I worked, you get like 80 years experience in a week. So you just it's not. You know, I do it a lot of trial and error, bro. Yeah, I fucked up a lot of calls, so, but I also, just from my upbringing, I had that mentality anyway and I wasn't gonna let somebody talk to me like that. You know what I mean, okay, so it's kind of like my natural instinct, right. And then, you know, I did have some decent um, ftos, field training officers, that kind of one in particular. He's dead now, but he had worked in that area before me and he had told me like hey, this is kind of how this shit works out here.
Speaker 2Dude, you're not in fucking Kansas anymore. You has its own rules on the res, you are in charge, but you have to abide by that. You have to understand Right, and it's not mean like they don't tell me what to do. I'm not letting shit go, that I don't want to, but it's just a different world. Oh, I get it, yeah, yeah, just like inside is too. You have a different rule, right, rules of operation in there, correct, yeah, and then they have their own rules. Exactly that's what I mean.
Speaker 1Yeah, yeah, yeah so what would you tell a new police officer that said like hey, trent, I'm new to the job, man, I have fucking zero experience, but I have this fear. I have this fear of I don't even know how to establish command presence. Don't be a cop. I'm glad you said that man. Don't be a cop.
Speaker 2I'm glad you said that when something that kind of drives me nuts is these nerd reddit keyboard warrior trolls. That's the. That's what you signed up for. They're fucking just fat as fuck eating cheetos in their mom's basement and shit. Yeah, I didn't sign up for a lot of things that I had to see, bro, right, because you don't know, and no academy, no training can prepare you enough mentally for what you're going to undertake. It didn't for me, um, because there's every call is different. You know what I'm saying, but what I will say is I went into it with the mentality Like I'm going to just deal with this shit Whatever's going to come my way. So if you don't have that, you shouldn't be a fucking cop because you're going to get killed or hurt, or you're going to get somebody else killed or your partner, yeah, or an innocent person, yeah.
Speaker 1Do you think that?
Speaker 2bad guys can sense that in somebody. 100, that's what I mean, bro, those ones that are that have been in and out of the system their whole life they sniff that shit out in two fucking seconds. Man, I'm telling you they're fucking pros, dude. Yeah, because once I got cool with a lot of those guys, um, especially my, my informants, bro. Um, because that's how you learn. You ask questions, facts. Every meth addict I came across, even the thousands, you know, know in my in my time, hey, bro, how long you been smoking meth? How often do you smoke meth? How much does it cost you to buy it every time? Cause that's how you develop your training and experience, right? So the other dudes, I'd be like yo. So you know, you have those conversations and they would admit to the fact like dude, yeah, we, these fucking rookie guys, we can tell in two seconds that they're gonna fucking make it out here. You know what I mean.
Speaker 1You know what sucks man is that, with the current culture or climate that was going on, it pushed all the good cops out, man. Yeah, bro, because I can tell you were fucking great at your job, dude, just from having this conversation. It's like those are the people that got pushed out, bro, because they can no longer stomach it.
Speaker 2Yeah uh, dude, most of my my, my homies I worked with that were barn burners dude, like, just kind of like me, um, just goons. We were goons. We're street goons, bro, right, so it just was. It is what it is like. We didn't like the command staff. We did our own thing and we arrested the actual bad guys. We protected the fucking innocent people when we could and we did our jobs and we're all gone, most of us.
Speaker 2A couple of my other homies their brain doesn't work right anymore either that I worked with their medical retired out for psych, um, some injury. But, yeah, they're, they did, bro, and a lot of it is administrative base to guys that leave. But the current climate yeah, I had people when I was still running my podcast they'd hit me up that I didn't even know, right, they'd be like hey, trent, I'm thinking about getting into law enforcement. Don't do it, bro, right, and they'll do it. I'm telling you you missed the shit. Those times are gone. You know what I mean? That's a good way of putting it, dude. Yeah, sorry, like it just is what it is facts.
Speaker 1Do something else yeah, and there ain't no shame in that either man. It's not that we're like you're putting anybody down, you're just keeping it real, like, hey, dude, probably go do something else, you're gonna be better off, you're gonna better quality of life.
Speaker 2Yeah, I'm like, if you want to do it, go do it. I'm just you asked my opinion, right, go work at costco, bro.
Speaker 1I mean. So earlier in this segment we talked about common sense. How you love some common sense. Well, while you're working for you went over the sheriff's, or during your law enforcement career, were you watching the administration lack the common sense?
Speaker 2Yeah, bro, because none of those people had the qualifications. They shouldn't have been in those positions Then how did they get there? They shouldn't have been in those positions, then how did they get there? So the longer I worked there and this is part of the reason I left at the Mendocino County Sheriff's Office, the more I found out. So all of my lieutenants were undocumented felons, all right.
Speaker 2One of them got fired before he got hired at my agency for sexually assaulting a woman on duty. So he got fired later, through his daddy and his mommy, who were supervisors at my agency, hired him. This was back in like 99, right. These guys are all in their mid forties, early fifties, right. Another one got fired from his first agency for having sex with a I think she was 14 or 15 year old girl while he was a cop. Sex with a I think she was 14 or 15 year old girl while he was a cop, terminated or, I'm sorry, got to quit in lieu of never went to court.
Speaker 2Another one was a prior Norteno fucking kind of wannabe Norteno gang member. Used to sell a lot of meth in his 20s, got hooked up. So, like a lot of guys, that got. And another one, he was running our IAs, bro, and he had gotten fired from his prior agency for hitting somebody with his patrol car. Their vehicle lied about it in his IA and got fired because his dad-in-law was the captain at my agency the father-in-law. He later got a job there.
Speaker 2But it's like you're a Brady issue already, homie, you fucking lied in your own IA but you're putting guys in is so it was just like the more I learned, you know, but that I felt that the, the, the undersheriff and the sheriff, they wanted guys that they could control, guys that they have dirt on. It's better to have that. Yes, men, company men, guys that couldn't get hired anywhere else, and this was very. That was all my, all my supervisors. I had a one-on-one talk with my captain before I left because he was okay and I'm like, bro, I'm dipping out, you're fucked, cause that town out there is going to go to shit. I'm lateraling to the PD and, um, he, he understood and he agreed with me about his lieutenants, but nothing changed.
Speaker 1You know, what's crazy is that as you lifted off all these LTs and it's like one, I'm pretty sure they're facts, which you just said, but also I'm not really surprised, which is a scary thing.
Speaker 2It's nationwide. It's a nationwide issue, dude. I've talked to cops in multiple States, especially during my time doing the podcast, and we all have the same complaints about our admin facts. And these dudes you look in their careers never did anything substantial on the fucking street, bro, facts and and they're they're just bitches at the end of the day, and I think a lot of it like shit that I would get, especially from one of my lieutenants, andrew Porter just a pile of shit.
Speaker 2He would try to take credit for a lot of things that I did and detectives did, cause he used to run that unit too, and those guys would tell me that in there just to make himself look better, but they just didn't know what they were doing, absolutely. And he would try to tell me how to do my job in a town that he visited maybe twice. And I'm like, bro, I'm living here full time and I have for years like you don't know what the fuck you're talking about. And I had to tell him that I'm like I'm not going to do whatever you tell me to do because it's going to have a negative impact on that community and those people and you're doing it wrong. So it's like, when it comes down to common sense and people knowing less. You know what I mean. Just because somebody has stripes or whatever, dude, that doesn't mean that they know more than you. Very often, even in the middle, especially in the military too, same thing. That's not the case, right? Did these superiors have big egos? Oh yeah, dude, that, like that one guy was telling you about. Like, all they do is worship fucking jocko and they talk facts, dude, I'm not even joking.
Speaker 2When I lateraled out, dude, uh, I went to a coroner's case because it was in the same county as a patrol sergeant. One of my old b partners showed up. It's still with that same sheriff's office. We did the coroner's case. He had his door open and I heard him listening to something in his patrol car. I'm like is that fucking Jocko, bro? I've never listened to Jocko in my life. And he's like yeah, I didn't pass my sergeant test and they told me that they the fuck did you just say to me. He's like I don't know. And I'm like you should fucking kill yourself, bro, like in your patrol car. I'm just joking.
Speaker 1Well, you should fucking. Yeah, you get it, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2Like I'm like what the fuck? He was so defeated to really cool guy. But that that's what they do. Like you have to be this leader and emulate Jocko. But the thing is like first of all, I'm my own man, I don't need to fucking look up to anybody. Number two like they don't even do you know, they don't even, uh, like put forth any of those things that he preaches.
Speaker 1Are those superiors, those types of superiors? Are they receptive to feedback or constructive criticism? No, no, no, no, no.
Speaker 2No, you don't ask why, bro, and I always did that, trying to ask why too much. I'm like because it doesn't make sense. Bitch, what the fuck Right? Like you guys that out of touch? And it's because you're in your office on your little computer watching Jocko fucking YouTube videos when I'm in the fucking trenches in the hills chasing down hard motherfuckers alone and I have to hold my fucking radio up here to get some service. That's wild dude. You don't know what you're talking. You know what I mean.
Speaker 2So it's like one of my other buddies, jeremy Mason. He came on our podcast a bunch of times, hard motherfucker dude. He was a canine guy too. Same thing. He'd just be out there fucking off the grid running around chasing guys and he had those same beefs with these guys. Like it's the best cops do generally do not get along with their administration because the admin is weak. They don't know how to be leaders. They think that because they test well to get promoted which is all fake anyway they pick who they want, correct? Um, that that makes them qualified. It's like it doesn't.
Speaker 1Does a poor leadership in a police agency? Can it lead to loss of life or?
Speaker 2dangerous situations, dangerous situations. For sure, man, it can lead to dangerous situations. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, like dude, I've had I had sergeants at the time, lieutenants that yeah, they try to tell you, like, what to do on certain situations, and I'm like, dude, you don't know that's what I mean. I'm like, are you even a cop? You know what I mean? Like they're, they're, they're desk jockeys, dude, like they're not even doing shit and they got promoted so fast. You know what I mean? Um, that they, they never did that. Like none of them ever held my resident deputy post alone. And I'm like you don't know this. Just for me, specifically, I'm like you don't know this town, you don't know these people. This isn't you know, we're not doing it that way.
Speaker 1So yeah, so did you ever get in any trouble as a result of them retaliating against you or targeting you?
Speaker 2No, because they didn't have shit on me. I did my job. I did it very well. I had the support of the community and I later ran for sheriff actually that's how much support I had because I wanted to fire everybody. Yeah, but no, dude. I think the one write-up I had was I totaled my car off the side of a highway one time. They wrote me up for that, and then I had a Mohawk one time I got in trouble, but no, nothing substantial. That's why I quit. I'm leaving in a month and a half. I'm going to go be a patrol sergeant at a PD, and that was its own fucking nightmare.
Speaker 1Talk to me about the patrol sergeant position. Did you lateral into that position, mm-hmm? Were you ever a police officer or you went straight to a supervisor?
Speaker 2rank Because of my training and experience. I just automatically qualified. I had a bachelor's degree Sweet. And my homie well, not anymore. He's now a fucking major enemy. But my friend at the time. He was the lieutenant there and I had worked with him at the sheriff's office too. So years prior he had gone over and he's like I want to hire you as a patrol sergeant. Get these fools in check. But yeah, I hated it, bro, it was. It was dumb, it. We had quotas.
Speaker 2Ticket quotas are a real fucking thing. I'm tired of people saying that they don't. So when you get reprimanded verbally, written right up your lieutenant. If you don't go tell your guy, if your guys aren't writing tickets, trent, the city manager is on the chief's ass, the chief is on my ass, so I'm going to be on your ass. Go tell your guys to write more tickets and if they don't, people are going to start getting written up. We call that a fucking quota and I'm tired of hearing that there's not one. So you don't have to have the word quota, right? Is that to generate money for the county? 100% Generated money for the city? Highway Patrol has the same thing. They had a whiteboard in their fucking offices, bro with who had the most seatbelt tickets, speeding tickets, little tally marks, and they would get bitched at by their sergeants If they fail. Your two perform. It's in your policy okay. If it's in your policy okay. If you're not doing your job function which for highway guys is issuing citations, duis and shit you're going to get written up or counseled.
Leadership Problems in Law Enforcement
Speaker 2So I didn't like quotas, because I wasn't a nerd, I was a deputy. So I didn't like giving tickets for shit that I did myself. I didn't have a front plate, I had window tint on my cars. I'm not going to get people in trouble for doing the same shit that I'm doing. I'm talking on my phone, right, but we were basically forced to do it and I told him I'm not doing that, bro, and at the time he was my friend.
Speaker 2And then that's when I really bro, when I came back and you could probably talk about this too, like in the military, when I came back out of my assignment and I went to the PD, which was like a pretty normal town in comparison, it was so slow and I just stopped. I felt like I hit a brick wall, just like boom, and because I wasn't busy all the time, my adrenaline was gone, my body didn't know what to do with itself and all of a sudden, I'm alone with my fucking thoughts, which is never good. That's the bad part, right. And I just, I was like just, I just sat there and I'm like, whoa, what the fuck? What do I do now? And then that's when all the memories and you know Were you living alone.
Speaker 1Yeah, yeah, were you drinking at that time?
Speaker 2I've never no, I've never been like that?
Speaker 1What were you doing to process those memories?
Speaker 2Nothing, bro. I fucking was having like panic I don't even give a fuck I've said this too like I was having panic attacks on the street, dude, and it's a major liability because, um, I was a supervisor while employed, you were having panic attacks, yeah. So I, yeah, I was like, uh, well, I was. I was like suicidal for a while, dude, like when I was living out where I lived. Yeah, especially during 2020. That was a grim time. I'm glad you said that.
Speaker 1I'm glad you said that, because I recently had an LAPD guy, youngster too, and he's like dude. I was having panic attacks at work where I would have to undo my vest. It gives me chills, bro, because that's unfortunate man.
Speaker 2Yeah, it is what it is. And so I was like well, this is a major liability because I have to, not only in charge of myself, and I have a badge and a gun and a patrol car, but I have to look after my guys, right, and I can't be tripping so. But you have to mask it because in law enforcement, in the military, anything it is very taboo. It is a huge no-no to have any mental issues. You are a pussy. Verbatim from some of my lieutenants, including that stupid re, that fuck I just said right, so you can't do anything about it, you have to suck it up.
Speaker 2But it got so bad that I walked into my lieutenants office one day who again was my friend at the time, and I was like bro, I, I need to fucking take some time. And he's like why I'm like I'm all fucked up? And he's like, he's like what the fuck are you talking about? And I'm like bro, I'm probably gonna kill myself straight to his face. And he's just like Trent, you know what this is going to do to your fucking career, everything you fucking worked for. Are you serious? What do you have to bitch about?
Speaker 2And I was like and he was around that whole all those years I was like you know what the fuck I've done, bro? My assignment, shit, are you kidding me? And he's just like are you fucking serious? Blah, blah, blah. And then he wasn't having it and I was like you can keep this job, bitch, like I'm fucking going home. And so I went home and after that it was, you know, we just battled and battled, bro, because I ended up coming back to work when I wasn't ready, because, as a cop, when you go off you don't get any help. Workers' comp wasn't ready because, as a cop, when you go off I didn't, you don't get any help. Workers comp wasn't covering my shit. I had to burn through my vacation time, my sick time and I had a mortgage, car payments and stuff for same time.
Speaker 1Yeah.
Speaker 2I'm trying to battle upstairs and then I have HR Her name's Karen hit me up. Hey, we need a doctor's note for your dog to say that you're mentally able to still give him food and water, otherwise we're going to come take him. And I had brought him over from the sheriff's office and I was like dude, I will fucking don't even think about coming to my house. So I have to text my, my, my lieutenants like dude, don't, don't come up here and fuck with my dog, bro. So, and he's harassing me too.
Speaker 2And then it got to a point where I ran out of money. So I had to go get psyched up to go back to work. So I texted my Lieutenant I'm all, I'm all better, bro. It's been like a month and a half, I'm straight, fuck it. No counseling, no, nothing. So I went to see a psychiatrist who actually was a prior cop. That happens sometimes. He was a cop for like 20 years, went and got his fucking PhD and shit. And I lied. It's easy to do. I know a lot of guys I worked with that lied on those things after they got in shootings to come back to work.
Speaker 2I've lied Exactly, yeah, and it's really easy to get away with. And I was like, oh no, dude, I was just, I'm all good, I'm just, I was just tired and shit, you know. And then go back, the problems don't go away. And yeah, it was just downhill from there, man, and then he was telling my subordinates behind my back I was a pussy, he's like he's out for fucking psych, he's being a bitch Because they would tell me, because they liked me, right, yeah, yeah, it was crazy, it was crazy. But then karma bit his ass because he's been fired, he's had his house searched by fucking cops with a warrant. He's investigating, being investigated by the feds right now.
Speaker 1Really, yeah, everyone up there's a fucking criminal, bro. Everyone I worked for telling you from the da the sheriff would you classify that as corruption?
Speaker 2it's the one of the most correct. People think that cities are corrupt, which they are la is horrendous. But did you get into the rural fucking departments, especially where it's all fucking weed Dude? It's horrible. The good old boys club is fucking thriving up there.
Speaker 1How did that make you feel? You took pride in having a badge and understanding penal code. You said you went to college and learned administrative justice. How did that make you feel in knowing that your own people were fucking criminals?
Speaker 2It was very eye opening man. It was shocking. That's why I said, the longer I worked there, the more that I found out I'm like no fucking way, no fucking way. And when I used to tell people that they would, they wouldn't believe me. Because people in general you want to believe that cops are all boy scouts and I'm like you guys don't know what you're talking about. Man, like I know a lot of people in a lot of agencies. Um, like most of the street guys I worked with were all legit, right, but it's when you get to the brass is where you run into the fucking problems.
Speaker 2Absolutely so when I first started working there on training, the older boomer dudes were like hey, trent, do you know about the DA? His name's Dave Eister. Do you know about the DA here and his pay to play scheme? And I'm like what does that mean? So what he does and this is common knowledge back when weed was still a felony, we'd have the task force guys go hit a crop of marijuana felony level shit. Then the DA would have talked to the suspect hey bro, do you want to buy the fucking misdemeanor or do you want to go? And I'm going to charge you. You're going to catch a felony in court and I could send you to prison.
Speaker 2So you buy a misdemeanor, so that dope grower would give cash money to the da 50 g's, 100 g's. So you're buying a lesser fucking crime. Where did that money go? Nobody fucking knows man. Holy shit, dude, it's just by a misdemeanor. Yeah, there's been like articles and shit written about it. Nobody does anything. When I was doing my would be like dude, why does the AG not get involved in all this shit? I'm like you think it stops at that level, oh bro.
Speaker 1Dude, you already know. Office of Inspector General, bro. Yeah, I'm like I've seen it. It goes to the top homie with it for so long, because they controlled the narrative for so long. Yeah, recently social media, people like me and you can pick up a cell phone and say, hey, this is happening. But when enough, when enough, people are saying, hey, this is happening over here too, they're happening in new york, they're happening in florida, yep, it's like holy shit, we have a fucking problem here yeah, they've lost a lot of their power and weed's not worth shit anymore.
Speaker 2Um, and those guys are on their way. A lot have been fired since my time there arrested. Sometimes everything I ever put out on the internet before came to fruition. And then it did.
Speaker 1Yeah, yeah, fuck yeah um, when you left, you know, I'm fucking sorry to hear that you went through all that fucking shit, bro, because that's not easy, it's not easy yeah, no, dude, he uh.
Speaker 2So what ultimately happened, though, bro, is um, I had actually applied to go back to the sheriff's office because it was. I was so miserable at the pd. I'm like, bro, I don't want, I can't do this anymore. I'm writing tickets like a nerd. I hate my lieutenant, and this is when I just come back from ptsd leave. Yeah, so I had applied to go back. He found out about it and he stopped talking. Well, he stopped talking to me for two weeks, even though we worked the same shift. He was telling my subordinates to come tell me what to do. Go tell your sergeant. I said to do this, right, and so one day because probation, there was 18 months I get called into the chief's office, and it was the chief, and him. The chief's also been fired.
Speaker 2Now, by the way, damn, yeah, that's what I mean. They're all fucking crooks, bro. The chief's actually from LA, he was from LA, but they're like yeah, it's not working out, we're going to let you go. And I'm like oh, really, for what? We don't have to give you a reason. You're on probation. Oh, so I didn't do anything wrong. You know what? I all your shit.
Speaker 2And I'm like all right, it was a hundred percent retaliatory for trying to go back to the PD, to the SO, but my plan? I hated the SO, but I was just going to go back shortly until I could figure out my next move, cause at that point I was so checked out of law enforcement but I needed to pay shit still, right, right. So I had just done like 20,000, $25,000 worth of work on my home, so I didn't have a lot of money in the bank. I had like five G's. So they fired me, took my dog right away, didn't even let me say goodbye to him. I had him for years and I was like they're like, yeah, we're keeping your dog and your partner's, giving you right home. And so I had no money and I had to. I sold my house, thankfully within like 30 days, because I found someone that wanted it. So I lost my fucking career and my house dog, everything in like a month. It was crazy, bro, but like I said, karma fucked those guys up absolutely.
Speaker 1Yeah, now was that the end of your law enforcement career yeah, there was nothing prohibiting me from going back.
Speaker 2Uh, I didn't have any policy violations, no complaints from the public. No, anything, bro, I was just straight. Did you have a?
Speaker 1backup plan, or did you kind of have to just start figuring shit out on your own?
Speaker 2No, dude, it's one of those things where people get very comfortable in law enforcement. Most guys I worked with wanted to leave, but the common narrative is but what the fuck would I do? I'm not good at anything else and I wanted to leave for a long time but I was in that same boat. I'm like fuck, dude, I worked so hard, I'm getting paid a lot of fucking money. You know, I was making like up there, cost of living was super cheap and I was like I'm making 150 K a year. God damn.
Speaker 2Yeah, I had a Corvette, a Range Rover, a sick ass crib by myself, because you could buy a dope house up there at the time for like 350 g's, bro. I was on a half an acre and a nice ass, yeah so, but it was like different cost of living, but you still make good money, right and um, but yeah, it was just. I was like fuck, because then you get comfortable with that too, a certain way of lifestyle. But I'm glad that it happened to me, because had that not happened, I would still either be dead or I would still be stuck at a miserable, miserable, hating it. And I found that everything that's happened to me since 2021 like it happened for a reason, otherwise I wouldn't be here. Facts and I'm very I dude. I I thank all those guys, man, because they're all fat, worthless and suck and they're still in that shitty ass job that they fucking hate themselves. You know, it's crazy man because we have similar man, because they're all fat, worthless and suck and they're still in that shitty-ass job that they fucking hate themselves.
Speaker 1You know it's crazy, man, because we have similar experience. Dude, it's a very similar experience, along with a lot of other people too, and you said there's people still working that do not know how to leave. It's like you're stuck, you're a hamster on a hamster wheel.
Speaker 2Yeah, dude, like a lot of guys, one of my homies up there, he's a Sergeant now, but he's like, dude, I can't. I have a wife and kids and a house. You're like what the fuck am I going to do? Fortunately for me, I didn't have all that, so I could just. I just dipped out, I threw clothes in my trunk and I was dating a girl in Florida at the time and I drove straight to Orlando and that didn't work out. And then I was living out in Houston the last two and a half years and then I became a private investigator and opened my own business doing that shit.
Speaker 1So how long after you leaving law enforcement did you get on that podcast? Or did you create a podcast, Bro? I chilled for like a year and, initially, what type of content were you putting out on your social media platforms?
Speaker 2Oh well, right when I got out of law enforcement I started my YouTube channel. That I don't really fuck around with that much, it's more of like a hobby. Yeah, Blasting all my admin dude. All the dirty laundry came out, bro, and then, um, real quick?
Speaker 1did you receive feedback while you were blasting the admin?
Speaker 2Yeah, a lot of people that were local said I was full of shit. I was a disgruntled ex-employee. I was like how was I disgruntled, bro? I quit. Yeah, I didn't get fired from the, so I fucking quit that bitch. I was like I had no terminations, even at the PD. They just they, they. They had no reason to fire me. So I was like I didn't do shit. But I was like someone needs to say it. But ever since they said I was full of shit that's not really happening died off because, like I said, people started getting fired.
Speaker 2Another police chief there in that county he got fired while he was on duty. He went to some chick's house and made her basically give him oral sex caught a case on that. We had another one that broke into some hookers hotel room sexually assaulted her. He got arrested and fired. So there's been like a lot of crazy shit that's gone on in a small ass County and now that everyone's seen all of it like everyone shut the fuck up on that. Now they're like what else is going on? And I'm like, well, that's why I don't upload anymore. I don't have the time. I'm like I had to move on. I have to live my life at some point.
Speaker 1Will a Google search pull up those fucking arrests of those?
Speaker 2Dude, mendocino County cops, or just type in fucking Trent James, mendocino County, bro, like I'm all over that bitch, especially because I ran for sheriff. So when I moved to Orlando, it was the 2022 election you know what I'm saying, right? And I was doing YouTube a little bit and I had hell of people hit me up Dude, come back and run for sheriff, yeah. And I was like like all right, fuck it. But because it was so last minute, bro, I had to run as a write-in candidate. Yeah, so you had to write my name on the ballot. Know that I was running.
Speaker 2I only got to campaign for six days, so thousands of people had already voted and I still got 20 of the vote, holy shit. So if I would have done it months prior, yeah, it'd have been close man. I tried to debate the sheriff. He wouldn't do it because he is just an inarticulate redneck that just talks like he has peanut butter in his mouth and shit, so he wouldn't debate me, acted like it wasn't real. But I did all the interviews with, like, the media, people and all that shit. Went around, met with the public.
Speaker 1You said, acted like it wasn't real. Yeah, do you believe that those types of leaders, so-called leaders are disconnected from reality?
Speaker 2A hundred percent, man. I think that they know in the back of their mind what's really going on, but the egos are so inflated and they like to just know what they just know. Oh, my way is the best way. We've always done it this way before. Dude, those words will kill your ass, man. It's incompetence, incompetence. But they're so full of themselves. They don't like criticism, like you know. You try to say like hey, man, I have a better idea. They'd be like what the fuck did you just say better, take your idea, shove it up your ass and get the fuck out of my office. Don't come around here with ideas. We're sticking with shit we've been doing since 1937, bitch, yeah, you know. So you got?
Speaker 1did you? Um, you said you got kind of tired talking about it on your YouTube. Did you experience like a burnout about that content?
Speaker 2Yeah, yeah, Uh yeah, dude Cause I was just living that same life over and over and over man and I wasn't even living in the same state at the time and I had so many people hitting me up all the time with questions or needing stuff and I helped so many people for free and did so much shit. But at a certain point in time, for once in my life, when I was in Texas, I'm like I need to just take a step back and become selfish for once. It's not even selfish.
Speaker 1I remember I think you made a video saying that, hey, I got gotta fucking become you know work on myself, and I totally understood it when you put that out.
Speaker 2Yeah, man, exactly, and like I, I just I I had to fucking move on, dude, and I'm like I came out. And then I came out here to do to pursue, you know shit in the entertainment industry and, um, I'm like I can't. I do it every once in a while because it's still fun for me, but, uh, I like to go on, let them know what's up, talk a little shit and then dip out, but I don't do it like full-time like that anymore. How did you get your foot into the entertainment industry, dude? It was like weird as fuck.
Speaker 2So I've always wanted to be an actor, but I grew up in the woods no opportunities, right. And then I did what everyone told me to do hey, go to college and buy a house, it's gonna be sick. And then I did what everyone told me to do hey, go to college and buy a house, it's going to be sick. And then I did all that and I was like this is it, this is fucking trash, dude. And I, so I did all that, right, and I was like sitting around, I'm like 30 years old with two cars, a fat house by myself, a career, retirement? You ever been married? No?
Speaker 2People say that's also a good idea, but uh, it's funny All my partners said they always tell me Trent don't ever get married, Right, but so I did everything and I'm like, damn, this, still, this is whack, dude, what the fuck. And I'm like this, this sucks. But um, so, anyway, I always wanted to do it. But when I was in Houston in 2023, very long story short, this guy in 2017 got pulled over in my County and he got robbed on the side of the road by two off-duty cops, one of which I used to work with because they were just doing highway robberies up there like in the movies, jacking people's weed, jacking their money, sending them on their way. He used to be a cop back in the day in San Antonio, so he knew what that was. Long story short, the ATF got involved, the feds got involved. Those two like a lot of cops got wrapped up in that. They all got arrested. There's still a federal RICO case going right now in San Francisco. Yeah, it was a huge deal, but anyway, when I got out of cop world in 2021, I started putting out videos. He saw it hit me up.
Speaker 2We became friends. He was also like a lower level film producer, mostly based out of Atlanta at the time, but in 2023, fast forward a couple years. We're really close. We're like best friends. Now he's like, hey, I have some modeling thing with Bam Margera, so his now ex-wife they were still married at the time, Nikki. He's like she's starting her own clothing line, blah, blah, blah. And we also had another mutual friend that owns a clothing company. I was posting some pictures of myself on Instagram. She saw them, she hit me up and she's like hey, I'm doing this clothing thing with your friend, Zeke. Do you want to come out to LA and be the guy model for it? And I was like, fuck yeah.
Speaker 1Where were you living at?
Speaker 2at the time, houston, okay. So I came out here, did that and I've kind of just fell in love with the Hollywood shit. I'm like, dude, I need to fucking be out here. And then I talked to a bunch of people when I was out here and they're like you should probably move out here, bro, you're missing an opportunity.
Speaker 2And I hated private PI shit, bro, being a private investigator like it was insane. Money, dude, like the most money I've ever made in my life without really ever leaving my house, if you know what you're doing, right, but I wasn't happy doing it. Another baller ass house I was living in and out there I had a brand new like Durango SRT and shit like, but I wasn't passionate about any of it and it was still investigation, investigation, still dealing with law enforcement, sometimes attorneys, um. And also while I was out here, he introduced me to another guy who was in the middle of filming, starting to film a movie, and he saw me and he's like, hey, do you want to part in this? And so that's when I really just said fuck it. I sold all my shit in like two months and drove out here and restarted again for the second time.
Speaker 1I think I was talking to you during that period of time also, when you're like, hey, I just moved to fucking hollywood. Yeah, like cool, we gotta meet up, dude and that's when I realized nothing matters.
Speaker 2Dude, like your furniture, your fucking cars, your houses, like it, it it's all just nonsense, man. I mean, it's so easy. It's just you can't take any of it with you to the fucking great beyond. You know what I mean. So I always tell guys cause I got hit up a lot like bro, like I'm so miserable, I'm depressed as a cop what do I do? And I'm like we're all different. Man, I would just say try to find something you're passionate about and try to get creative and see if you can make money off of doing that. Yeah. Doing that, yeah, because life is what you know. This way too damn short, it'll get snatched away from you in a blink of an eye. To be miserable, doing what you're doing, if it's not fulfilling your soul, you know what I mean, absolutely.
Speaker 1What's your take on the American dream? As far as you already said some of it, people employ you to go to college, get a job, get married, get a house shut up and be miserable.
Leaving Law Enforcement Behind
Speaker 2What's your take on that? I think that's a very old school, tired like. It's just not practical anymore. Man, we're in a new time. That doesn't even work. First of all, this isn't the 1950s, where it's all like the housewife situation, right, like, a lot of women are way more successful than men. They have their own careers. People, a lot of people these days don't even want kids, whereas they but I think it was such a uh, a social norm for so long that you were looked at as you're ostracized or looked at as some weirdo.
Speaker 2If that's not the path that you were taking, what do you mean? You don't want to go to college, a house and get married and have four kids? What are you talking about? What the fuck's wrong with you? But that works for a lot of people and that's great. I would say if that's what you want to do, do it. If you don't want to do it, don't fucking do it. Your decision doesn't affect me and vice versa. Right, but for me, when, um, it wasn't fulfilling and I don't know, but I had a lot of other mental shit going on too, bro, I still do but it was way worse then.
Speaker 1but it's like, yeah, I was just battling fucking demons, man, I couldn't even enjoy anything. How important is internal peace, internal mental health, as opposed to outside things like oh, if I get this car, it's going to make me feel better.
Speaker 2It's. It's momentary dopamine hits man and that's why a lot of cops I'm not going to say this guy's name, but I'm still best friends with him. He works in A-Law enforcement capacity, but he is a fucking deviant. A lot of those dudes like us because we're so addicted to the adrenaline I'm sure you can talk about this too. You need like a lot of those guys are like sex addicts driving around drunk, fucking, going and doing all kinds of crazy shit because you have to. Your brain is so wired to live every moment as if it's your last and if you're not always living on the edge, you're sitting alone with the fucking monsters in your brain and dude, that's. You know, I've been there and but yeah, some of these guys that are still carrying a gun, dude that I know that a lot of them, a lot of them that are that nobody knows man.
Speaker 2The public does not understand what this is. Not all cops, we know, we know, we know, but you don't understand, they don't understand and that's why it's hard to talk to people. That's why, like one of my exes when I was still a cop man, it's like the how's your day thing. It's like I can't. You're trying to be a nice, you know, loving girlfriend.
Speaker 1I can't what am I gonna say? Yeah, and it's not that we're trying to put a blanket statement or a stereotype on all law enforcement. No, it's not the case. What we're saying is there's there's motherfuckers that have some demons in in law enforcement.
Speaker 2There's motherfuckers that are criminals in law enforcement yeah, there's a lot of good dudes that are, that are cops, that are doing it the right way, that aren't mentally fucked. I'm just saying myself and a lot of dudes I worked with, a lot of guys I've talked to yeah, it's common are blasted out, bro, and most of us, even if do have problems, you'll never know it because, again, it's so taboo. You, you hide that as best you can.
Speaker 1It's almost like the ones that cared the most got fucked over the most.
Speaker 2Yeah, oh yeah, oh, dude, I gave like my heart and soul to fucking everybody in that community, dude, for years and years, and years and I'll never get it back and I don't want it back. Right, I was happy to do it and it made me feel good to help somebody with a problem that they needed help with that they couldn't get. Dude, I was doing all kinds of shit. Man Like hey Trent, my kid's not going to school. I think he's going down the wrong path. Can you come over and talk to him, Because it was such a small community? Fuck, yeah, I can.
Speaker 1That's what's up, dude into people's houses eating dinner and shit on duty. You get a call, you leave, but I believe in god, bro, I'm a believer in god, but I see things like. That's how I see things. Yeah, you know that they put that. You were put in certain positions like that to help others. Yeah, I mean, yeah, I, yeah, yeah, I guess. So you know what I mean. Because there's only certain people that can reach out to a certain fucking people, man, certain individuals that can reach out to people that do not listen or are on the wrong path.
Speaker 2Yeah, you know, at the time, you know I didn't drink the law enforcement Kool-Aid, so I wasn't like I actually didn't even hang out with cops off duty bro, I didn't really care, I had my own friends, yeah. But it wasn't until recently. You know, really, when I came out to LA, that I really looked back and reflected and kind of I wasn't always a believer in like everything happens for a reason kind of a thing. It always seemed kind of cringe and corny to me. But looking back at how my life has worked out, I definitely feel that way now.
Speaker 1Oh, bro, like I mean, this is the first time I met you in person and I can clearly see your path was paved for you, bro. Yeah, your path was fucking paved for you to include all that bullshit you went through in the PD.
Speaker 2Well, like dude, for about a year and a half before I moved to California, when I was still in Texas and shit, looking back, I had little nudges from different places about coming to fucking LA. Yeah, for the entertainment industry, like somebody mentioning something, I was in a post office in Houston. The guy's like you look like an actor. When I was out here doing a documentary when I was still in Houston. This lady, she's like you belong in Hollywood, you know. So it was like little different points of time spread out. And then I finally had that opportunity come up and I'm like dude, what the fuck am I doing? You know, maybe nothing will come out of it, but at least I can say I tried to do something. Oh, you're killing it bro.
Speaker 1You're killing it, You're just starting out. So just imagine, you know you know things take time, dude. Nothing happened overnight.
Speaker 2No man, people like back to like people back home. Some of them think like, oh, you just go out to Hollywood and you start starting and shit with fucking Johnny Depp and Tom Cruise. I'm like that's not how it works, bro. Very fortunate because all of 2024, the entertainment industry it's still kind of fucked, but it was horrible with the strikes and everything. But I've been very fortunate to network, which I love to do, and that's what you have to do, and I've been grateful and fortunate to get into a lot of projects that I shouldn't be.
Speaker 1I shouldn't have what role do they always have you casting for man?
Speaker 2because I see your instagram clips obviously the fucking stay-at-home dad with the minivan driving the kids to soccer practice. What are you fucking asking crazy questions? No, it's like yeah, you know the, the fucking motorcycle dude, the gang guy, the fucking white supremacist guy, the fucking um, you know, uh, mercenary dude, contractor, fucking prior military dude sometimes. I just shot a film called last hit and I was pretty much that you know yeah, I always see you putting thug number one, or that's a joke yeah, yeah, yeah, but yeah, a lot of those.
Speaker 2But that's awesome because I wasn't that in real life. Who wants to fucking play themselves? What's funny is I've never once been cast as a fucking cop and I'll tell my bro, I have a lot of fucking experience because a lot of these actors I'm on sets with them that play cops and I'm like, dude, what do you? Your gun doesn't go behind your back, bro like they ask you for advice.
Speaker 2Yeah, yeah, I'm like let me, let me unfuck your whole fucking duty belt here for you, homie, yeah this is how you hold the gun, you know.
Speaker 2so it's like some mild technical advising shit. But they don't cast you because what people don't understand? I make fun of myself for the thug roles, but everyone, for the vast majority of them, are typecast in this industry. What does that mean? Like you go, you're, they're going to see you. You look like a fucking insurance salesman or whatever. Right, yeah, you're going to get cast in a lot of those roles, bro, like a lot of dudes aren't going to get my roles that you know have the Abercrombie and Fitch fucking polo and fucking the full head of hair and they're like huh, I'm super white guy. They're not going to get my roles right. They're getting the fucking ones that I'm not getting. So people based on certain looks like.
Speaker 2When I first moved here, I got a scholarship um at the Stella Adler acting school and one of our exercises we did our teacher had us do is we had to write down and judge every single person in our class and we did. This chick looks like a bitch. This guy looks like an asshole. Were you guys allowed to be honest like that? Yeah, this guy looks like a psychopath, me and it's like. But none of them are like that. It's just off of physical appearance. It's like profiling as a cop. Right, you're going to get more often than not into those roles based on your look If you're right for it.
Speaker 2Like I know a lady that was casting for a commercial. She's like Trent, I saw you put in for this homeowner commercial for some lawn care company and I was casting for it and I saw your profile and I was like, yeah, sometimes I do that just to be a silly goose, cause it's funny to me because I know I'm not going to get it. She's like, yeah, I saw it and I couldn't put you in it because you do not match that look whatsoever. Yeah, they're looking for the you know ron swanson type guy with the fucking, you know a little cardigan and the fucking hair and you know, just like regular old average joe guy bro, I was thinking if we ever did a prison movie, bro, I could be the lieutenant.
Speaker 1You could be like the ab fucking shot caller man. Dude, there's so much shit I'm trying.
Speaker 2People say that too, like, oh, dude, go do a movie about your time in law enforcement. Yeah, like, didn't you know how hard it is? One of my really close friends right now was the executive producer on law and order, swat, chicago PD, big time showrunner guy and even though I have that connect, I can't do shit still with anything. Man, there's like a certain it's really complicated and I'll probably, you know we'll do some shit in the future. But he even knows about my history. He's like fuck, that sounds awesome Because he likes to. He's a writer, he's written and sold 13 movie pilot or sorry, tv pilots Very successful. But yeah, that's the whole process bro.
Speaker 1But that'd be sick, definitely yeah.
Speaker 2What advice do you have for people out there that are tired of where they're at but don't know how to change their circumstance? If I can do it, literally anyone can. Man and my other homies that got fucked over, if they got fired too, lost their jobs, broke their brains, they're all doing all right. You know what I mean, definitely, so it's within your power. It's a mental block, man. It's a comfortability aspect, like I said, a complacency, where you get accustomed to a lifestyle, the consistent paychecks, try to have a plan, but if you're not happy, like I said, life's too short to be living like that man. You're right, dude, because it affects everything. It affects your relationships with your family, your friends. You're just a nobody wants to be around you because you're miserable all the time. Facts, dude. Yeah, yeah, and not that I'm all better now, like I'm still fucked up, but I'm much better off than I was. I mean, you're pleasant to be around bro Thanks, man, energy wise, yeah.
Speaker 2Yeah, I'm sure when you're a cop it probably different feel. I mean, you know we put different energy out into the world it is. I still have a lot of intensity that I don't know that I have, because I go into a lot of these sets and a lot of people tell me like whoa, like they're scared or they like you're really intense and I'm like I'm, I'm just actually chilling, bro, you know. You see, I'm scanning still. You know what I mean and who's plotting against me in this fucking, you know room.
Speaker 1But yeah, definitely so, uh, is there any last words you want to say to the crowd, maybe, where they what could reach out to you if you're on social media or anything like that another time?
Speaker 2oh, yeah, yeah, uh. I just, I mean, I have youtube, whatever. It's just the trent james on there, my channel, but it's not even big and I don't really fuck around with it. But I have instagram, it's just trent james, one thing and that's pretty much it. Cool man, I'm the bald guy on there. You see my shit right away, so yeah hey, well, thank you for coming, bro.
Speaker 1I fucking appreciated this one. It was a good one, yeah thanks for having me, man, yeah thanks. Well, there you guys have it, folks. Another banger for you guys. Man, if you guys like what you saw, make sure you hit that subscribe button. Love you guys, keep pushing forward.
Speaker 2Unhinged 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, thank you.
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