Behind the Wall: Where Officer Safety is Life or Death

Today’s guest is Hector Bravo from the podcast "Hector Bravo Unhinged" he brings a rare combination of frontline experience, leadership under pressure, and unfiltered perspective.

He’s a former U.S. Army infantry soldier who served in Iraq, where the stakes were life and death decisions had real-time consequences. After his military service, he continued serving on another demanding front—as a Lieutenant with the California Department of Corrections—working across multiple institutions and gaining firsthand insight into one of the most complex and often misunderstood systems in the country.

He’s also an accomplished author, known for powerful works like "Operation: Yard Recall", where he pulls back the curtain on the realities of prison culture, leadership, and survival behind the walls.

Beyond the uniform and the books, he’s a dedicated girl dad, grounding everything he does in purpose and perspective. And now, he’s the voice behind the Hector Bravo Unhinged podcast, where raw truth, real stories, and unapologetic conversations take center stage.

Get ready for an unfiltered conversation about officer safety behind and outside of the prison walls.

🎯 Whether you're a first responder, military, or someone interested in becoming a law enforcement officer—this conversation will move you, challenge you, and inspire you.

👇 Drop a comment with your favorite takeaway, and remember to subscribe if you want more real conversations like this.

#podcast #resilient ##cops #policeofficer #motivation #lawenforcement #deputy #police #lawenforcementofficer #policechief #policewoman #gangs #prison #mexicanmafia 

Contact Information:
phitpd22@gmail.com

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Are you bringing your kids for your six? Let's talk to hard cards. You did like oh you think it's 23rd or your third person. You're 17-year-old kids, 18-year-old kids. You think it's 20 minutes, right? The line between living and time and the line is so small, bro. I'd rather the eagle get rude than them get shot in the face or stepped in the neck when I think. Welcome everyone. My name is Juan Stefans from FitPD, and this is lineup with Fit PD. After nearly 30 years in law enforcement, I retired as a sergeant, and I have seen just about every angle of this job. Now I want to share the stories that are the type of stories that people don't really hear. In this podcast, what I want to do is make sure that we humanize the badge and talk about the sacrifice that peace officers make working behind that badge. For 20 nearly 25 years, I've been teaching police recruits at the police academy, and I've trained hundreds, if not thousands, of recruits. Not ones that I ever see or think that someone joined law enforcement because they wanted to hurt people. What I have seen is that we have inadequate training. Training that doesn't prepare recruits for being peace officers and encountering some of the chaos they see out in the streets. This podcast is about truth, perspective, and pulling the curtain back. Today's guest has got a great mixture of leadership under stress, under pressure. He also um has an unfiltered perspective on the profession of law enforcement. He uh was an army soldier, served in Iraq, where decision making under pressure is critical. If you don't make the right decisions or you don't make them in a timely um process, it can cost people their lives. But he wasn't done serving there. He spent 16 years in a California departments of corrections where he worked in a couple of different institutions, he reached the rank of lieutenant, and he understands more so than anybody what it really is to work behind a correctional facility. Something that many people misunderstand. But he's not just a leader, he also is an author. He's written sip uh several different books. One of them we're gonna be talking about, we're gonna talk about a little bit uh later on today, is Operation Yard Recall. It's geared up for people that are interested in becoming correctional officers, and it's a guide for them to work in a facility. He's also a has his own podcast, Hector Bravo Unhinged. Lots of raw, raw conversations with uh people in law enforcement. If you get a chance, check out his channel and subscribe. I'm very happy that uh Hector Bravo is here to join us. Please help me welcome him. Hector, thank you for being here. Thanks for having me, dude. Appreciate you, brother. Likewise, bro. Yeah, hey, listen, man. When we um we just kind of met by chance. By Starbucks, dude. By Starbucks. If you recognized the mustache. I recognized your mustache, I was like, hey, I know that dude from somewhere. And I was like, oh, you know what? That's Hector Bravo. I think I just yelled out something like, Hey, Bravo. And uh, you know what? I figured, you know, we just talked for a couple of minutes, and within the first two minutes, I knew that I wanted you on the show. Emotional intelligence. I guess so, man. Yeah, you read people. You read people. I mean, I you know what? That's being in law enforcement, you and I both know that um not everybody's got that skill. They should, though, but you're correct. They should. Now, you know what? Thank you for being here. I read your book, and it has a lot of great things in it. Um, and one of the most important aspects of being in law enforcement is having good officer safety. And you can talk about so many different topics, but that's one of the topics I want I want to touch up on today. And you know, but I want to start out um a little bit further back in your life. Um, I want to start out in boot camp. Okay. Because boot camp, in my opinion, and that's one of the things we had in common, is uh both being in the army, is that um in boot camp, there are some lessons that you learn that have to do with officer safety. 100%. You want to share some of that uh those lessons, please? Attention to detail. Attention to detail. Attention to detail. You learn that in basic training, boot camp. Uh paying attention to what is being told to you to the down to the minor minor um minor detail. That can cost you your life, like you stated earlier in the introduction. Uh, but these are the early stages. Attention to detail. Can you and I do this with my softball uh eight-year-old girls, say with your left hand, with your left hand, raise your left hand, right? You see a little girl raise her right hand, right? Left hand, attention to detail, and they're eight years old, right? That is what uh, and then if you want to fast forward for your viewers, well, what does that look like? You are a police officer out on the streets, right? You're driving a car, you have to unbuckle your seatbelt, you have to possibly engage in a foot pursuit or shootout. Same thing in the prison, you gotta know where is your equipment on your belt. Can you reach it without looking? Are you looking, you know what I mean? Paying attention to the cues, so attention to detail. There was tons more, but that was just the one that popped off. Yeah, absolutely. You know what? I mean, like sometimes people think um, you know, like somebody's walking around looking like a soup sandwich, right? And for the viewers that don't know what a soup sandwich is, is just not um don't have their stuff together, like a football bet. A football bet. But you have people walking around like soldiers walking around with their with their um shoelaces undone, yeah, uh pants unbloused. Yeah, it's it's the simple things that matter. And people think, well, what does that have to do with anything? Everything, everything. If you're screwed up, I'm gonna refrain from cussing because I got a warning from the softball, bro. I'm trying to be a better man. Yeah, they said I cussed. You know what I mean? Yeah, so if you're screwed up from the beginning, you're gonna be screwed up all the way, right? It's like the foundation. Foundation. Now, you know, as as a soldier, you know, you're in boot camp and then you uh for yourself you ended up going to Iraq. So if you're not paying attention to detail, what does that look like? Oh, you're not gonna make I'm not saying you're not gonna make it because you know it's it's fate and it's luck sometimes that you get caught, but your your keenness, your sense of awareness, hypervigilance will keep you alive. Definitely. I mean, looking for trash on the side of the road, it kind of sucks because to this day, 20 plus years later, if I see a cardboard box on the side of the 125 freeway, my instant thought is IED. And this is 20 years later, knowing that I'm in Chula Vista, knowing it's just that instant, you know, embedded in my brain. Because that's where the the threats threats, and we're talking about peace officer safety threats, is it probably behoove you to understand what are your threats and what are not. Well, you gotta have that awareness that you're talking about. Correct. I mean, there's a video going around in social media where there's a um some people are complaining that in New York cops uh on horses um struck a man that crossed a police line with a backpack. You know, and as you know, with a backpack, you can have explosives in a backpack, and then nowadays, you know, people do all kinds of crazy stuff. You're crossing into right now, like a gray area of public perception. But if we keep it strictly on public safety and survival, it you know as well as I know, as long as you know the law, the policy, and you trust your instinct, you're gonna survive. Right. Public perception to me, probably to you, is irrelevant. Should you keep it, you know, a small part of your performance. Yeah, because that's where professional comes in. Right. But officer safety, I could care less what Karen thinks I'm about to do right now. Exactly. I gotta win, I gotta survive. We gotta go home, man. Correct. We got kids a hundred percent. But it's important that you know I say that because this new generation, wow, this new generation is a is something else, man. They're a doozy. Let me tell you. I agree. And as my former employer, CDCR, you have the majority of cops, new ones, that are afraid to act within policy and the law because they're more afraid of getting fired than surviving. Now, you know what? You bring up a couple of great points, and you know what? I I think about um, you know, how the army taught me a lot of great lessons, right? Beyond attention to detail. 100%. And nowadays, I don't want to talk bad about people, but you know, people have limited experience. They're getting hired to do work either in the prison or work in the jails or work on the streets. And some people have um, you know, there were pizza delivery before they got hired. Yeah, and we're not knocking pizza delivery, man. But we're saying is hey, have an open mind and listen to the people that have been there done that. That's what you need. Correct. The problem is that they some of the young people they don't listen. Yeah, correct. You know, ego, the ego gets in the way, man. I mean, but you know, you you get people that are like um really they really, really want to be a cop. Okay, that's true. They really, really want to be a cop, but then they don't want to listen to your constructive criticism. 100%. How do we get them there? We don't. We don't. I've been trying for three years. We don't. What we do is we talk about, you know, the tips and the reality for those that do want to listen, those that do want to excel, those that do want to survive and do want to promote, we do it for them. Now I've just had this epiphany not too long ago. Okay, yeah, I was trying to lead horse to the water, horse to the water for the last three years, man. They don't want to sip. They're gonna find out the hard way. You were in the military, you were a police officer. Law enforcement and military is an unforgiving environment. Absolutely. Lessons are learned in blood. You know that. I don't even got to tell you that. You know that. Right. They don't know that. Yeah, they have no idea what's coming. Correct. And and my drill sergeants, man. You want to go back to basic training, you took it back old school. Drill sergeant furbish, Popeye looking, big old dip of Copenhagen, big old arms, mean looking dude. He'd be like, Oh, you you think it's funny, third. We were third platoon. We were all 17-year-old kids, 18-year-old kids. You think it's funny, right? We're just we're kids. Wait till your buddy's bleeding out in your arms. Wait till he had a uh combat infantry badge, he had a uh 82nd airborne patch from the Gulf War. Wait till your buddy's bleeding out in your arms and he dies. But even then it was going right over our head, dude. Yeah. So it was a dude standing right in front of us that has been there, done it, it's going right over our heads, bro. Until a year and a half later, we would find ourselves in Iraq with our friends dying.

SPEAKER_02 12:34

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 12:35

And in that day forward, September 10, 2004, changed the trajectory of my life and my perception of life and danger. Those are tough, tough lessons that you're not prepared for if you're delivering pizzas. Prepared to in a degree. Correct, correct. Yeah, that's like you're right. We'll even break it down then. But the going from a pizza delivery to a hardcore environment of working in the streets as a police officer or a California level four institution. The criminals never got a EEO class or DEI class or a gender equality class. They've been keeping a gangster since the beginning of time. Right. And they're more wild than ever before, and armed to the teeth with AK-47s, AR-15s. So the gangsters never stopped being violent and one-sided. Right. It's the generation of the peace officers that were, you know, coddled, pandered, lessened, or almost, almost um brainwashed. Because there was a lot of stuff, if you look back in hindsight, a lot of propaganda, a lot of agenda that was pushed. Yeah. That would later on to be proven a big old sham money laundering scheme, but that's a whole nother realm. That that's a whole nother conversation. Correct. Yeah, but nevertheless, true. Yeah. So it all depends. Mindset. We'll talk about mindset. I mean, you got the extreme ownership book right there with Jocko. Yeah. Mindset. What is mindset? Do they teach you that in basic training? Pretty sure the mindset is hey, you are a part of a unit. Yeah. There is no individualism. Here's the mindset. You're gonna follow orders, you're not gonna talk back, you're not gonna question anybody, you're gonna do as I say immediately, and you're gonna live to fight another day. I think that's the answer. I mean, that's it makes sense. It makes sense, but now where are we in 2026? You have captains that are politicians, you have lieutenants that were barely ever even sergeants, you have sergeants that are two-year officers, and then you have fish cops that are blind. So you have the blind leading the blind leading the blind. Absolutely. But if they're smart enough, they have OGs like me and you sitting at a table putting out free information that's gonna save their life. You know, that free information because of our our uh blunt delivery sometimes is not appreciated. Oh, they could carry because of their ego. No, yeah, I could care less either. But the thing is that their ego gets bruised and now they um ignore it. Let me tell you something, and let me tell the viewers I'd rather their ego get bruised than them get shot in the face or stabbed in the neck by a shank. Because I've seen officers get stabbed, I've been involved in situations, so like, trust me, man, heck your bra was sitting here hurting your little feelings online is a way better option than you getting you getting dealing with the severe consequences of your job. Your job, your job, your job, right? I walked away because I had enough. Your job. You signed up, swore an oath to keep the wolf away from the door. And are you doing a good job, yes or no? Only you could answer that. Now, Hector, you bring up the fact that um gangsters never changed. Never, but our community softened, has softened. And when I say community, the law enforcement community it was by design, though. It was like Rome, the fall of Rome. Oh yes. Okay, so now um, you know, I've heard of uh gladiator school. Okay, like in the uh prison system, DBI, is it DBI? Dual Vocational Institute Gladiator School. So now why does EDI have that uh that nickname of gladiator? In the in like the 50s and the 60s and the 70s and the 80s. They was they was violent. Violent. Off the hook. So we're talking uh inmate on inmate or inmate on step? Absolutely both. Everything. Yeah. So we have that kind of mentality, that kind of people that were incarcerated, and they teach lessons to the next generation of inmates. Yeah, though the the reality of current generation, inmates, is that they don't even listen to the OGs, man. They're wild, they're a wild bunch. They're impulsive, they're just like what you see on the streets. Well, even worse. Yeah, it's just wild. The whole right now, the whole generation is wild. And I don't think I'm saying that from an old man's perspective, saying that every generation after them is wild. I'm pretty sure things are extremely wild, man. If you turn on the news and you see things. Well, you just looking at uh what's happening on the streets. I mean, in the last uh couple of days, there's been four officers shot. I believe at least one has uh died. Um I didn't even hear about that, but I'm not surprised, and that's sad news. I didn't hear about that. Yeah, you know what? I I even though I'm retired, I still keep up with uh what's happening. And you know, the thing is is that in the last couple of years, there's been almost an officer shot almost every single day. I see or shot at. That's why I'm surprised I didn't hear about these last four. Oh, it's churnt up, man. It's churnt up. You know what I see the difference is lack of respect. I'm 41 years old. I was born in 1984. I always had that respect for uh law enforcement authority. Now, growing up in Brawley, I had a dislike for the Brawley PD. Sure. Still do, because small town cops are way different than cool ass cops up in San Diego. They actually like have to work up here. Down there, they just sweat up small stuff and harass people. But I still respected that authority. Yeah, that's gone. It is gone, it is gone. That small percentage of people actually still respect. Oh, I have a seven-year-old daughter. Of course, I teach her to respect and to respect authority, right? Well, those are, you know, that's our job as parents. Government to a degree is good, man. And law enforcement is government work. It's, you know, it's like at the same time, I wouldn't let now this is going, I better refrain from that. I'm just saying, uh being realistic, you see somebody with some authority, they've been put through an academy, they're getting paid to do their job. If they mess up in their performance of their duties, then as a civilian, you can sue them, right? You can file a complaint against the department. What you're not gonna do is resist arrest, start punching back, reaching for guns, running. That's how you get killed. That's how you get killed. Um as a matter of fact, there there are sections in the penal code that say that a citizen may not use force to resist arrest. Well, that would be battery on a peace office by the penal code definition in itself. Right? But people don't know that. About officer safety, I don't know why, because I feel like we're going somewhere here. Uh, the understanding of the understanding of the law. How important is that for officer safety? Sure. Super important, right? It's like the quarterback and the NFL players knowing the play beforehand. You there's no hiccups, right? Everything's fluid. You're bigger. Your actions are smooth, right? So you're not second guessing yourself, oh, should I do this? That that's all the that's all the seconds that the bad guy needs to get a drop on you. And the bad guys, they're looking for the opportunity. They're predators, bro. Well, they can identify who doesn't pay attention to the detail. Just like the suspects on the street will go after a soft target versus a hard target. Make yourself a hard target. Now, how are people a soft target in the prison system? Oh god, bro. Looking like overweight. Overweight. Belt, their gut hanging over their belt, wearing Air Jordans, which I just saw a picture of a CO wearing Air Jordans. They wear tennis shoes, man, black. They don't no longer wear the lack the black leather boots. Like we were steel toe boots? Polish. Well, you can't wear a steel toe in prison. Okay, all right. But we were taught to polish boots in basic. Right. Man, they wear those hookahs, hokas now. They did it. It's far out, bro. It's back to uh you know professionalism and uniformity. But what was the question again? How can you how what is a soft target? Looking down, looking down, not looking up at you in your eyes, right? Uh looking away, um, body language like this. Right now I'm kind of hunched because I'm comfortable. Yeah, comfortable. We're conversing, right? But there's no but I don't think I would be conversing with an inmate like this. You know what I mean? I would be as a matter of fact, I'd probably be standing in a bladed stance, right? Not to look superior, not to look uh intimidating, right? But to establish my uh command presence. So, dude, there's so many telltale signs that a person's gonna get eaten alive by the sharks, man. Well, and you know what? Sometimes there are no telltale signs, so you should be expecting the unexpected. 100%. If you're in law enforcement, you should be expecting the worst and preparing for that situation, for that day to come. You know, um. Sometimes I see people that are in law enforcement, and you just mentioned that some are very much overweight. But they don't even you can be uh you can be heavy, and I'm okay with that. You know, it's not for myself, but you know what, you should at least be training something. I think us talking to law enforcement officers in 2026 would be different than us talking to law enforcement officers in 1999.

SPEAKER_02 22:28

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 22:29

Because I believe maybe in 1999 people had the right mindset going into it and the willingness to um listen. Now, and maybe by then they weeded out the employees that should not have been cops. Sure. Prior to being cops, right? They probably had a standard. Right. So now it's like, hey, this is 2026. Some of you guys are just straight up not cut out for the job. You manage to just pass every test to get in. You're in there now, and and more than likely, the way you're conducting yourself, if you're not up to par, you're gonna cost somebody their life or your life. That's the reality of 2026 law enforcement. Hey, there was a massive push to just let everybody in, lower the standards, equality. Here you go. Hey, some of you guys made it in, but a lot of you guys need to leave. Well, you gotta be an asset to the organization. Yeah, because it's not, it's not to me, it's not a job, it's a career. Right. And a lot of these youngsters don't understand that they treat it as a job, not a career, right? It's putting food on the table. Absolutely. Um, furthermore, if you're doing it for the wrong reasons, you want to post videos on TikTok, you want to take a picture like this of selfie. I didn't start posting CDCR pictures until I quit and went doing this full-time as a civilian. As a matter of fact, nobody knew I was a correctional officer because I was tight-lipped about it. It was nothing. You know what I mean? Right. My ex-wife, we would be at parties and they'd be like, Oh, hey, so what do you do for a living? Well, I'm a prison guard. That's that's what my word. I'm a prison guard. We'd go home. My ex would be like, hey, why don't you why do you tell people you're a prison guard when you're a lieutenant? Like you made it. Oh, I'm right. It doesn't matter to me, right? Because that's just a title. Sure. It's just a title. So mindset of hey, what and what attracts people to join law enforcement? I would say the adrenaline to keep it real. Is it an adrenaline-packed job? 100%, bro. Yeah. It simulates that sympathetic nerve system, fight or flight. Right. Uh wanting to help people. And you stated on your introduction. I rarely met people, if ever met anybody that wanted to hurt people in law enforcement. Um wanting to serve, serve, serve, right. Not only help, but serve. Right. How may I be of service? Right. Um, are there perks that come with the job? Yeah, there's perks, man. Especially in California. You get to buy non-compliant uh guns off of that roster, right? But that should be should be toward the end of what you're signing up for the perks. The perks. The perks. Yeah. Now, um working in the jails, and uh excuse me, in the prisons. Yeah, um, you know, they are inmates that are like some like like let's say for instance, uh prison gang members. Okay. In your experience, how does a high-level prisoner like that affect officer safety in a facility? It varies. It varies because they're more level-headed. Okay, they're more reasonable. They got you where they're at because they're the bad guy versions of me and you. They're not gonna do dumb shit. Yeah, right. They know better. They've they've they've made mistakes along the way. So it's a it's a twofer, man, because yeah, while they still know better, they're still capable, they're still capable of violence, right? Right. Also, they have the power, they have that reach of utilizing their soldiers to make things happen. Right. So that's where the danger comes in. The danger comes in is if you up, if you I was gonna say upset, but it's not a matter of upsetting. If you go heads up with one of these characters, these individuals, then you better understand all the possibilities, and the cards are stacked against you. There could be many consequences. Yeah, you can get jumped by 200 inmates, southern Hispanics, Sureños. Yeah, right. You get one from Mexican mafia member, you do something that is he takes as disrespect, right, or they, whatever reason, they just get upset for whatever reason, they have the potential to just wreck your world. Now, when you talk about wrecking your world, and we're talking about um Mexican mafia, you know, or any prison gang, um, one of the rules in the um charter for a prison gang is that if one member is getting down, everybody else jumps in. So that's what I was alluding to. And I'm glad you I'm glad you've pointed out to the viewers. That's exactly if you work in California. Um, I believe even in out of state, if you're dealing with this type of inmate, right? Uh uh Southern Hispanic faction, Sureños, Sureños, Mexican mafia, it is in their rules, their reglass. Now I go like this because it used to be written on paper. I'm sure it's not written on paper anymore, right? Because we're in the days of digital era.

SPEAKER_02 27:53

Right.

SPEAKER_01 27:54

The rule is um once gets involved, they all get involved. Have I seen that throughout my 16-year career? Oh god, dude. Yeah, yeah, yeah. They hold down, they hold it. They they they honor that rule, man. They honor that rule. They honor that rule. Now, let me ask you, do you what do you know what would happen if a one of the members did not participate or refused to participate? In what? In getting down when something's going down. It would vary. It's case by case. Case by case. They get a little bit more leniency, they get a little bit more wiggle room. Well, and I and the reason why I'm asking you is because I don't know what happens inside the uh prisons, but I'm trying to compare it to sometimes we see on social media, we see peace officers on the street that are just watching their partner. Oh, I didn't want to throw up. I want to throw up. All right, no, I don't want you to throw up because they you're right, you do. I was a lieutenant. There's a reason why I resigned, right? It's not because I couldn't, it's not because I couldn't hack the job. I did the job. It's because the things that I was seeing and seeing and seeing to include officers getting their ass kicked while their partners are standing right next to them watching. And no matter how many times I told them, dude, what are you doing? Get involved. What they they they it just never registered. So in my head, this is why one of the reasons why I resigned. Hey, I'm gonna resign. I'm gonna spread some information on the internet to try to help you, but then that's where the ego came in, and I faced a wall of eagoness, right? Right. But is there a problem plaguing and law? I would say plaguing for sure, from my just little two prisons and my experience as a lieutenant supervisor with access to audio video surveillance system and body worn camera footage, right? Yeah, dude. I cannot tell you two handfuls, uh officers fighting inmates with other officers observing and not getting involved, dude. Bro, now, you know what, that sounds ridiculous, but I've seen it, I've experienced it personally. Oh no. And um, oh no, you know, I won't go into details on that, but um seeing it on social media frequently, um bro. Did any of the correctional officers give you an explanation as to why they did that? I don't even want to hear their explanation. I don't would there is no explanation. There absolutely is no explanation. I'm with you 100%. Yeah, unless unless God paralyzed their legs at that exact moment and seized up their spine and bound their hands, there is no reason. That's your only job. That's your only job. That's it. There's nothing else to do. You're not doing a bed check right now. We can simplify law enforcement, bro. Make sure you do not get killed. Priority, right? Make priority, make sure no other people get killed unnecessarily, and make sure your ass doesn't get fired. Law enforcement in three easy steps in that order. Now you cover that in your book, that uh Operation Yard Recall, those three rules. It's so easy, bro. Which you know what? I mean, it sounds easy, 100%, but it needs to be written down because people don't do it. But again, dude, I'm at the point in my stage now, and I believe timing is everything, right? There's a reason why me and you met at the Starbucks at that time, right? And while we're sitting here on this platform sharing this information, right? I'm not telling PU about my war stories of Iraq or this, I'm telling you there is a severe problem in 2026 in law enforcement, internally, externally, and at the leadership level. 100%. Yeah. Facts. Um, I want to talk about leadership and officer safety in a minute, but yeah. Um I I I still feel like he keep it at the officer safety, bro. Let's say yeah, any other angle. Yeah, well, you know what, with the officer safety, I I feel like, you know, there should be some repercussions for people that that are just standing there watching their partners get their ass kicked. Technically, what what would have probably happened in the 80s? In the well, in the when I I don't, you know what? I was I came on in 1993. Okay, in 1993, what would happen if a partner was fighting and somebody else didn't get involved? All right, so people I remember people meeting each other at the back of the station, and and there'd be a small crowd of cops watching them get down. 100%. You settle it. So we're no longer in 1993, right? Right. Um we're now in 2026. We've gotten away from that, but that was effective. It was effective, it was effective, right? Yes, and we're in a much softer, kindler, gentler society now. Correct. Where do they say strong times make hard men, hard make make easy times, easy time makes weak men? Where the right now, bro. This is where we're at. That's where we're at. Like uh, so could you, as a supervisor, write up an officer for failing to perform their duties? You could, you could. I never did it, and the reason why I never did that is because in the army I wasn't raised on paperwork either. Oh, right, yes, right. So it's just different tactics. So if I never I never wrote up anybody, anybody ever, right? Because I was old school verbally, hey, dude, this is what you're fucking up on, right? This is what you're not exactly. Doing good here, you're not doing good here. So maybe uh uh to answer your question, that's a maybe a happy median. Maybe I don't gotta put hands on you in the in the back, but uh I think a conversation needs to be had. Like definitely, a a just so you know, maybe, and then there's EEO complaints, right? Of course, there's there's policies. You gotta be cautious. You let me let me be real, bro, because I'm not gonna come up here and just throw fake stuff on the wall. You gotta be cautious, bro. You can't call somebody a name into your public work area, you're gonna get in trouble for oh, yeah, hostile work environment, right? Right? So it's one of those things like, dude, maybe a silent, a silent like protest, like hey, don't talk to that dude over there, right? Because it's not cool. And we're we're not talking about one-offs. Sure, there's a difference between freezing, and that's totally normal. It's normal to fruit, yeah. The initial shock of something's gonna shock anybody, even the most seasoned cop. Fight or flight, yeah, and or freeze, but we're talking about those that we knew like oh frequently frequent flyer, like, yeah, bro. That's not good. That's dangerous. That's extremely dangerous for everybody, including the citizens, prisoners, yeah, public safety. Absolutely. You familiar with the Cesar Hernandez case of the inmate that wrecked level four GP 180 inmate that escaped the Delano courthouse, went to Tijuana and killed a female cop? No, I'm not. I you know what? You want to tell us a little bit about that? It was a high-risk transport, or I shouldn't even say high-risk transport. It was a transportation run to a courthouse, which is normal routine. Okay. Level four general population inmate, which is the most max of the max. Worst of the worst, he had an 80-year-to-life sentence. He waits, he sees these two out-of-shape cops, and I say he waits because you know people choose opportunities. Right. Yes. And he just took off running. Dude, this on tape. He took off running, picked his locks, right? Because how easy is it for suspects to defeat their mechanical restraints? It's super easy. It's easy. It's not even hard. They trained. So he defeated him. He runs away. Now we're talking about the use of deadly force policy in the penal code, has changed. It has changed. It has changed, right? It has changed. It has changed. But that doesn't alleviate the fact that he could have chased them and tackled them down and hit them with a baton or utilized uh less lethal force. Force options, yes. Correct. Uh, which is why being in shape is paramount. But uh that not only endangered public safety, you had a convicted felon on the run.

SPEAKER_02 36:18

Right.

SPEAKER_01 36:18

He eventually murdered a female law enforcement officer by the name of Abigail Reyes in Tijuana as a result of escaping. So he fled to Mexico, was in Tijuana, and somehow ended up encountering. Got a shurrently captured by Mexican authorities. Okay. And in Mexican custody. But imagine that. California inmate. You're a correctional officer. Not only did you fail here, here, here, here, and here, right, but you allowed somebody to get killed. And of course, I'm gonna be a realist. The problem starts at the leadership level. Always. Any problem, you have to look at leadership. 100%. And I know where the problem started, but I'm just saying, dude, like, are you bringing your best for your situation? Are you the last line of defense? That's right. Are you bringing your best version of yourself? Or do you have a drinking problem? Do you have a gambling problem? Do you cheat on women left and right? Are you mentally distraught? Let's be real. The job is taxing, dude. It is mentally taxing. Right. And we're not many people are not okay. Correct. Yeah. Correct. We're just now seeing wellness programs. Which is good, bro. It's good not that they're not okay, that with the awareness is there. That's right. And that they're human. Yeah. It's good now that the public sees as awful as it is. Is it maybe I maybe before the misconception was like, hey, they're like soldiers, like Nazis, like they're machines. Nah, dude, they're humans, man. God put humans on earth. Right. Yeah. To do different things. Yes. So they're humans, man. They got problems. Now my message is that I preach daily is wellness. Yes. And why do I preach wellness? Because I did everything wrong the first time around. Been there, done that. That's right. Bro. Yes. Yeah. You have to walk in those shoes to know that journey. And preferably, though, I would appreciate it if they would just listen to the advice instead of finding out the hard way, bro. Because the hard way, again, is what does it end up in? Jail, divorce, uh, all of the above. And I know severing away from public safety, but it's all but it is related. It's all related. Yeah. You have to bring the best version of yourself. And I'm not saying you have to say stone cold sober and go to church every Sunday. That's not what I'm saying. I'm saying is, hey, dude, are you in a good headspace? Right. Are you getting enough sleep? How's your diet? How's your communication with your children? How's your communication with your spouse? Dude, and I hate the fact that I'm going through a divorce right now, bro. Not that if I would have known anything different prior, that would have changed the outcome. Sure. Maybe that's what this reason is here. Hopefully, like, hey, dude, that communication, I I failed on that communication because I didn't know.

unknown 39:09

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 39:09

I didn't know the communication was an option. Well, you know what? Um we as human beings, we don't know what you don't know. Yeah, and we don't really practice communication, bro. I mean, like, we're communicating right now. Now, how effective is communication in officer safety? Massive, bro. Because verbally, I can tell you to do something or not do something, and judging on your reaction, I'm gonna know what to do next or what not to do next. Well, you know what? Not only that, but also in the way I communicate it to you. Yes, uh firm, direct, concise, loud, professional, yeah. But how about when we're unprofessional? Sometimes you gotta be unprof. This is a this is a catch one too. Sometimes you have to be unprofessional in a prison setting. Sure, because you have to cuss, you have to they respond a lot better to do the like get your effing hands out of your pockets right now, as opposed to, hey sir, can you please get your hand out of your pocket? They they understand that, right? But with the body worn cameras being introduced, a lot of officers were getting written up as a result of using foul language and calling it unprofessional. I believe they slowed their role a little bit now, but it was that whole introduction of body worn cameras in the prison system. Wow, yeah, dude. That was a that was a learning curve. So it almost forces some correctional officers to be hands-off. It a hundred percent. It's hands-off, yeah. That's what they that's what the administration wants. The same stuff that you guys were seeing on the streets is what is happening inside the prisons. Okay, we want you to be hands-off. We don't want you to use force. If you use force, we're gonna put you under investigation, you're gonna go through it. We might even possibly fire you to make an example out of you. Yeah, you'll get your job back, but the the job was already done. That's what they're facing. Wow. I'm a realist, yeah, and I want the public to know, right? So the perception of the higher-ups never deterred me from doing my job as an officer, sergeant, or lieutenants. And it shouldn't. 100% it should not. I'm there to follow the law, I'm there to follow the law and the policy, bro. Not uh not the ridiculousness. Well, you know, um, you gotta go home at the end of the day. Yeah, yeah. You gotta go home at the end of the day, but you also gotta retain the job. So I'm feel I feel for these cops, bro. I I understand the position that they were in because I and I when I say cops, I mean the COs, that's what we refer to them as correct monsters, so we say cops, but okay, in there. But yeah, I I I get it. I get it. What about when CEOs um develop unprofessional relationships with inmates? You know, and I'm thinking about like um there was a case where a uh captain uh developed a friendship with uh somebody from the Mexican mafia. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. That was uh that was overfamiliarity. Over. There's actually a policy of over-familiarity. Um like fraternizing almost. That's the same concept. Fraternizing, overfamiliarity, right? Because there should be a hard line in the sand. There should be. Now there's some weird stuff going on where they're trying to mix the line. The policy now is they're trying to mix the line. Yes. But this was be this example you're talking about was before. And you're talking about borderline criminal activity. Borderline criminal activity. And you know, that's what I uh trying to get at is sometimes when you develop these unprofessional relationships, there's an officer safety aspect involved. It involved that that the the situation you're talking about in resulted in two officers getting stabbed brutally, one almost getting murdered, and a couple other officers getting beat up. And I responded to that. I responded to that incident in August of 2020 as the public information officer. Okay. And the crisis response team commander, I was wearing dual hats, both important roles. And I actually took down the public safety statement for the for the observation gunner that fired the warning shot with the mini-14. He was a good officer. He I worked with him at the previous prison. Um Centinella, he fired the mini-14. It stopped the threat. Um, yeah, as a result of the captain's over-familiar acts with that Mexican Mafia member, it emboldened that Mexican Mafia member to think he had power of the whole entire yard, to include having power of the officers. Wow. Which there was a verbal disagreement between him and the officers. He was under the influence, and it resulted in an attempted murder on two cops. They took the Officers' batons away, they smashed the officer's face, stabbed them in the bottom lip, broken his teeth, smashed his face in, took the pepper spray away from the officers, spread, pepper sprayed all the officers. We were talking about cowardly officers earlier. Um, in that incident, I just told you right now that two cops were getting stabbed with shanks, beat up with their own batons, pepper sprayed, stomped out. You had one officer observe that entire incident and run all the way across the yard to the clinic away from the incident and locked himself in the clinic with his girlfriend. With his girlfriend? Well, he was dating the he was dating the nurse. The officer dating the nurse. But, anyways, then you had another officer who I knew for 15 years, he would eventually get caught bringing in grills to the inmates after this incident. He the door opens, he sees his partner getting stabbed, and then he goes back into the building. Well, you got surenos rushing past him. Because the Surenos, they were like you said, once one gets involved, they all they were rushing from the yard and rushing from the buildings. Wow. They just rushed right past him. That's the reality of prison. One would think the captain would get held accountable for creating an environment that almost resulted in the death of two correctional officers. But now that is the sole reason why I resigned. Because they covered that up. Accountability, lack thereof. Yeah, that's that's corruption. The definition of the city. 100%. 100%. And now you're not gonna have me work for an agency that covers up the attempted murders of CEOs, man. Ain't gonna happen. And the crazy thing is that it, you know, it starts out with little things that are covered up. Well, now they're covering up murders, but yeah, yeah, it starts off with little things. It and you know, um CDC is not the only agency that's covered up murders. I mean That's wild to me though. Of course, because I want to be naive, dude. I wish I was naive. You know, I think I was naive when I came on to the San Diego Police Department, and I thought that this was a that the profession was a professional profession. And then I, you know, early, early on, I started to identify little stuff like people making false arrests. It's it's a moral conflict, moral conflict. Right, ethics, morals. That's something that they that I mean, they do have an ethics class in in law enforcement, but in reality, that's like book, that's book ethics, right? Yeah, we're talking about real morals, real ethics, right? What is right and what is wrong? Something that I would love to embed in my seven-year-old daughter. 100%. We need good citizens, we don't need people that are have ethics that are flexible. Yeah, you can be flexible. There's not to me, there's no such thing as a flexible moral ethics. No, you how you gonna what are you gonna do? Put it in your favor when it's in your favor and throw it out the window when it's not? That's what a lot of people do. Bro, no way, hell no. Then if you would say that, then the whole thing is unethical. Yeah, it's kind of a trip, bro, because I didn't come out here thinking I was gonna talk about ethics, bro, but I believe the world needs to hear about ethics. Oh, a hundred percent. You know, it it drives me crazy. I teach ethics at the uh police academy. I do, I do. Um I used to be in charge of the ethics program before I retired. Okay. And um it and you know what? Sometimes in some of my classes, the conversations that we have, I'm like, how did you get hired? I just had an epiphany when you said that though. I believe law enforcement agencies are all about checking blocks, they are in the public system. So yeah, we're we gotta cover ethics here. One hour block of ethics. We have to cover this here. Yes, it's it's machined, right, as opposed to authentic. Maybe that could be a change in the future. But it is a public system. Well, and you know what? One of the problems is that um it's one thing what's written down in a book. Correct. But then when you look around and you have leaders that are not following anything that's written down in a book, then why how do you expect the rest of the rank to follow ethics? You can, but I want to tell the newer if you're a newer newer officer in any law enforcement capacity, right? And you're listening, you've actually sat through this whole podcast, man. First of all, thank you. But also, hey, you may need to be the one to make tough decisions that are above your pay grade. Right. And nobody ever told me that. Like, hey, Hector's your sergeants might mislead you, your lieutenants might mislead you, your captains might mislead you. Unfortunately, that's where we're at in 2026. You know, and I have those conversations with recruits. Do you? I do. I don't know if other ethics instructors have those conversations, but I do, just based on, and I will go into it, but my history of encountering misconduct, criminal, unethical. The thing is, is that um most people won't step up. Correct. They will they will not step up for various reasons. It's a groupthink mentality, yeah. Or afraid of retaliation. Retaliation is real. Retaliation is huge, and yes, they are whistleblower laws. You found the humor in that oh man, we should write a book together. We should, we should. I mean, you know what? I yeah, killing the whistleblower, bro. It's like uh like a unicorn, the whistleblower. Nobody cares about it's nobody's seen one. No one's seen one come out unscathed, bro. Man, nobody's seen a whistleblower come out unscathed, bro. There is retaliation, and that retaliation is ugly. But let me keep it real though, let's be realistic. We've talked about a lot of topics. Yes, what's worse, bro? Living in a in a toxic cesspool of negativity and corruption or blowing the whistle and doing the right thing. Blow the whistle. That's that's better, bro. That's better overall. That's true. I know that for a fact. Uh me too. You know what? Uh, at the end of the day, you gotta be able to uh get some good sleep. I I resigned from my career December 1st, 2022, uh, three and a half years ago. Since I resigned, yeah, I don't have the badge, I don't have the title. But I've walked my daughter to school every day, bro. I've picked her up after school every day. I've coached her softball for the last three years. That's priceless. That's what I gained from blowing the whistle and doing the right ethical thing. And you can walk with your head up high. People hate it when I walk. They say I walk like a peacock sometimes. Well, maybe people uh misunderstand it. They think uh you're walking like you're walking in the yard. Yeah, yeah, because I'm I'm easygoing, bro. I'm so easy going, dude. I mean, you know I met you over there at Starbucks. Yes, low-key, bro. Low key. You know what? Um, I know we're uh running a little bit low on time, so I just want to cover some of the things in your book. Let's do it that some of which we kind of already touch up on, but I I still want to cover a couple of things. Um you mentioned in your book that nothing really prepares you for walking the yard. Correct. Give us some examples. What do you mean by that? What would what would you tell a new officer, new uh about that? You have to get smart real fast. Okay. Pick and choose your battles real fast. Now, doesn't mean cower down to everything. No, it just means be smart real fast. You're gonna be outnumbered. I don't know, dude. I don't know the numbers, but there's like a thousand inmates out in the yard. There's like five partners right here. Right. You have gun towers now, these good these newer officers refuse to use lethal force, which is a whole nother problem that we didn't even cover. Um, so you're on a yard, you're observing lots of inmates. Is everything a threat? To me, to me, everything's a threat, right? That's how I survive. Should you act? It's kind of like walking to the zoo, bro. You're not gonna go and go kick, start kicking the fucking bear, start kicking the lion. You're not gonna go like jump on the lion's back for no good reason, right? Right? You're gonna like, hey, what's up, man? Ease into it. You're the you're the you're the zoo keeper. What's up, man? Okay, everything's cool, everything's fine, right? Everything's cool. You then you start to learn to develop what the normal is. So when you can learn what the unnormal is, and you can start feeling the tension in the air. You can start feeling the hostility, you can start seeing people impaired and under the influence of a controlled substance, basalt, spice, because that's extremely dangerous. Sure. Um, so you have what do you have? You have a baton, expandable baton, you have an MK9 pepper spray, you have grenades, OC, instantaneous blast, distance equals safety, right? So utilize your common sense, you're gonna keep them at bay as much as possible. You're not gonna let an in-made A walk up on you in your face. Hey, what's up, CO? How's your day going? Hey, dude, back up, right? Not because you're an asshole, but because you that's just your safety, bro. That's your personal zone, right? I wouldn't let a little old lady walk up to me at Walmart, right? Let alone that inmate in the prison system. But that's a lot of these youngsters are missing that concept of understand your environment. These dudes are not your friends, right? They're not your friends. I have a podcast and I've spoken to numerous former Lifer inmates, right? Maybe now we're friends because I'm no longer a prison guard and he's no longer an inmate. And we're both civilians, we're both eating tacos, we're both laughing, we're both reminiscing. That's a different environment than prison. Sure, way different. Think of it as army soldiers and Vietnam soldiers meeting years down the rap down the road and conversing about the old days. That's similar. Um, but while you're in there, prison operates on its own system, bro. And the language of prison is violence, regardless of how many good foundations they want to go in there and change the kumbaya. Are there man inmates in there getting rehabilitated? Yes, there is, sure, right? But that's also case by case. There absolutely is. But at the same time, if you're a Sureeno GP and you're in a self-help group and you're doing better, once your homie starts attacking that cop, you gotta attack that cop. And these CEOs need to know that. It's all business. Back when I first started in 2006, and I don't consider myself an OG by any means, everybody it was well understood. This is all business, nothing's personal, right? We it would get exchanged numerous times, it's all business, it's all business, right? Right, and that at the end of the day, in the beginning of the day, yeah, dude, you're there to do a job, they're there to live. Right. There are certain rules in place, laws in place. We were we are taught spirit of the law, letter of the law at the academy. Use it at your discretion. Now you bring up discretion. You cannot, I'm thinking it's kind of like on the streets. You could not chicken shit people on every single little violation. You're gonna have a hard time. I mean, could that result in getting attacked? Yeah, yeah. Well, anything can result in getting attacked, but that could definitely result in getting attacked. Okay, right? Because it's so easy, man. It's if you're a lifer and you got this is before the lifers were going home. Now they actually have a chance with the new laws, POP 57, sure, AB 109, and all that good stuff. But yeah, dude, you you you you start sweating the small stuff, and and I've seen officers sweat the small stuff. Hell, I was even sweating the small stuff as a new employee because I didn't know no better. Right. I remember one time I was in the gym gun. So it was a dorm setting, observation post with a gun, and I had two officers on the floor, 100 inmates, bunk beds. I see the inmates smoking in what we called crack alley because it's a last aisle. Okay. And I call the officer on the floor. I said, Hey man, they're smoking in crack alley. He's like, and I was like, But hang up the phone, right? Because I know how to, I'm not an idiot. Yeah, I'm gonna go with the flow. Right, yeah. The phone, I think they were talking, probably laughing at me. He called me back and he's like, Hey, dude, like if I walk over there, by the time I get over there, they're gonna stop smoking. And I had already accepted it, right? I'm like, hey, I get it. Okay, get it, bro. It's alert, but it's learning. You gotta learn that. You got you do gotta learn it because you don't want to go in there. This is what I learned. I actually learned stuff at the academy, believe it or not. Well, we're supposed to be firm, fair, and consistent. Number one, right? And then they always said, dude, it is way easier in your career to go into a new place hard and then back it off a little, as opposed to going into a new place soft and then trying to get hard. The people are gonna look at you like, hey, dude, what's up with you? You were cool in the beginning. Now you're trying to enforce rules. Right. That's what my program always was. In okay, when I walked to a new location, I established myself. As as realistic and as fair and as firm as one man surrounded by 200 inmates could establish himself. Right. But they also knew I'm gonna go all the way. I'm gonna go all the way, right? Because not that I was reckless, well, yeah, I was reckless, not that I enjoy adrenaline, but I do enjoy adrenaline. It's just like, hey, dude, I I understood what a dude, what duty is. They teach duty in the military, right? Selfless service and duty. That was my duty to be a CEO. When you talk about the you know, our duty and the potential for violence, um, you know, something that some people in law enforcement don't understand is that we have to be more violent than the people that are committing violence. I have never directly got on the internet and said what I'm about to say next.

SPEAKER_02 58:46

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 58:49

I mastered violence, dude. I mastered violence, I mastered dominating my situation. They they meet you here, you meet them here, and you shut them down. Right. Because you're not gonna be wrestling for 15 minutes and possibly get killed when you could just smash them within policy and end it like that. Right. And if you know the use of force policy, I can punch you right in the foot in the mouth, knock your ass out, and put handcuffs on you and be well within policy. 100%. So if that's what it means to end this immediately, that's what I'm gonna do. That's a no-brainer. That's that's so easy to me, bro. But some people it's like Chinese arithmetic, they're like, I don't get it. What don't you get? I see uh in training, I see a lot of hesitation. Hesitation will get you killed. You're getting a role player slapping you in your face. I don't mean one time, numerous times, and you're thinking about what's my next move. So I have a seven-year-old daughter. You're gonna hear me revert back to my seven-year-old daughter because I'm embedding these lessons of life in her already. Not like a drill sergeant, but like as a father. I was at the gas station down the street last week, and there was a father there, and he had a young son, approximately the same age as mine. And he'd tell them, make a decision, make a decision. Tell the father, tell the son that. And I start laughing. I turn around and I tell my the dude, hey, bro, I tell my daughter the same thing, man, make a decision. He's like, Yeah, these kids, man, they're afraid to make a decision. That's what it boils down to. Yeah, make a decision, right or wrong, make a decision. Right. Because from learning in basic training, learning in the military, and in law enforcement, I seen more bad happen if you don't make a decision versus making the bad decision and and and capitalizing. I'm not talking about like a far out bad decision, right? Right, I'm saying make a decision and then pivot from there. And yeah, bro, if you hesitate, lights out, game over, you're gonna die. Yes, and those are extremes, but they're not extremes. They're not, they're not extremes. It's uh the the line between living and dying, that line is so small, bro. Hairline. Well, you know what? In this profession, 100%. Hairline. You if you work at McDonald's and you burn the buns, you're not gonna die. You're not gonna die. You're not gonna die. It maybe set off the smoke detector, maybe, maybe, maybe but it's probably a super industrial one to tolerate that. You're gonna be a profession of law enforcement. You're gonna die, dude. You're gonna die, bro. I've I've been in correction, I've been in corrections long enough to see people get hurt. Blue side, I say blue because that's what the inmates wear. Green side, that's what the COs. I've been in worked in corrections long enough to understand people get hurt, bro. Bad. You mean I make it home. What do you do? Or you can make it home, you're gonna have holes in your body that you can wake up with. Right. That you didn't go to work with. Yeah. You know, I tell my recruits that there are three things that you need to know to be able to handle yourself in the street. First of all, knowledge of your policies and procedures, the law, and once you have that knowledge, nobody can take it away from you. Number two, you gotta be strong, physically strong, mentally strong. Not the strong, I you're you're absolutely right. You have to have the physical and mental, right? Spiritual, even. 100%. You need that strength. And the third one, you've got to be proficient at some kind of martial arts. If you have those three, you should be able to handle the majority of the things that are thrown at you. If you don't, that hesitation because you lack one of those, is gonna be there. And it can cost you your partner's life or a citizen's life. I think martial arts should be an should be a no-brainer. Right. I I did I did partake in Muay Thai for a limited period of time as a correctional officer. I did partake in boxing for a longer duration of time, um, even to almost present time, right? Just because I enjoy it and it's useful. Yeah.

unknown 1:03:16

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:03:17

Especially in that environment. Right. Now are we training to become the next Mike Tyson of the world? Absolutely not, bro. We're training to just have that little bit of an edge or um not look, skill, skill set in our corner. You need it, you absolutely need it. I mean, you mentioned Muay Thai. I mean, Muay Thai teaches you teaches you that clinch in a correctional facility, you don't have a lot of room sometimes. So you need to be able to clinch and escape or hurt somebody before you move away. But let's go back to mindset. If a perfect officer goes to church every Sunday, honors his wife and his children, eats a healthy diet, drinks water, does not drink alcohol, that's a perfect officer. Then what's the other opposite end? Watching porn, partying late, spending money, consuming alcohol, sleeping around with coworkers, right? You can see the differences between cops. And I've been both, which is why I'm trying to tell people one will serve you better than the other. 100%. You know what I mean? Like, yeah, and but that goes back to being a good human being. Bro, lately I've shifted from trying to teach people how to be a good correction, good correctional officer to teaching people how to be a good human being. Well, that's the fundamental. Absolutely. If you can master that, you can master anything. You can be the best plumber, you can be the best janitor, you could be the best teacher. You won't burn the buns at McDonald's. You could be the best cop. 100%. You're the best correctional officer. Yeah. Now, Hector, um, you know what? I I knew this was gonna happen because officer safety. We talked about officer safety, but there's so many other topics that we could talk about. It's just crazy. But you know what? Um time's not on our side, but I do want to give you the opportunity to tell the uh listeners uh something else that we didn't cover that has to do with officer safety. Just officer safety, man. There's it's simplify it. Simplify it. It's not hard. There's no secret, there's no Houdini, there's no magic. There's a person who's a criminal, quote, I criminal, quote unquote, bad guy, quote unquote, gang member, quote unquote. There's a suspect on the other side of the law. Do I have it? Do I have all the tools necessary to include the thinking, the strength, the stamina, the endurance to subdue? This suspect. Yes or no? Right? Also, if the suspect kicks it up a few notches and presents a deadly force situation, am I well enough grounded, well enough prepared, well enough trained, well enough informed to immediately respond to that threat. Do I have it in my heart to kill somebody? Right? That may be a possibility in your line of work. And in law enforcement, it is in your line of work. A lot of people have mentally made the decision, they're not gonna kill anybody. Right. And that's working in CDCR. A lot of officers have already made the decision. I'm not gonna use that minu 14. You know how dangerous that is, dude? Yeah. It's fostering this environment of violence. It's um I don't even want to think about it. I left. I left. Juices. I'm eight years away from retiring on the books, bro. The books, I'm eight years away. All right. We gotta hang in there, man. Man, it's just it's just uh amazing. Amazing that uh we have people that want to do this job and yet they're not prepared. They don't take the initiative, even after they arrive and they see the conditions under which they have to work. You know what, man? Me and you, we might have left the career field, but we didn't leave the passion for teaching the new, the new recruits. Yeah. So hopefully, as long as that's always what we can tell these new cops to have the right head on their shoulders, repay it forward. When you become that experienced, salty OG, disgruntled, angry man, pull these youngsters under your arm and under your wing, like our military uh drill sergeants did, and like the people before us did in law enforcement. They schooled us. This the OGs schooled me. I don't if I didn't say it at all during this whole entire podcast, the OGs of Sentinel State Prison schooled me. That's how I learned. That's how you learn anything.

unknown 1:08:02

Correct.

SPEAKER_01 1:08:03

Because, you know, even in your family, credit to them. In your family, grandpas, grand uh fathers, mothers, yes, tribal. That's their OGs are the ones that teach you the way. Correct. Well, Hector, once again, I want to thank you for being on the show. Thank you. Definitely gonna have to bring you back to uh have a conversation about something else, brother. Absolutely, dude. Yeah, thank you for being here. Thank you for having me, bro. All right, and thank you for watching. You know, if um you're thinking about joining law enforcement, please, please find out what the job entails and figure out if you have it in you to do the job and do it right. Uh, you owe it to yourself, you uh owe it to your loved ones, and you owe it to the community to make sure that you do it right and you get yourself home at the end of your shift. For those of you already on the job, if you're struggling with anything, cop link has people 24-7 that are there to help you. Reach out and make sure that you're mentally okay for doing this job. I want to finish off by having our brother in law enforcement and our brother in Christ, Greg Adminson, give a little prayer to ensure that everybody makes it home at the end of their shift. Thank you for watching.

SPEAKER_00 1:09:40

We come before you with gratitude for the brave men and women who have answered the sacred call to protect and serve. You said in Romans 13, verse 4, that the one in authority is God's servant for your good. Lord, we thank you for every officer who stands the line. We thank you for every officer who runs toward the sound of danger when others run away. We thank you, God, for every officer who brings order out of chaos, and who seeks justice with compassion. Father, as warriors in a fallen world, we draw our strength from you. Your word declares in Psalm 144, verse 1, Blessed be the Lord, my rock, who trains my hands for war, my fingers for every battle. Train our hands, Lord, not only for the battles of the street, but for the battles within. Give us courage when fear whispers, give us patience when tempers rise. Grant us wisdom when decisions must be made in an instant. Lord, we ask for your divine protection over every officer in the field. Surround them with your angels as a shield, as you promised in Psalm 91, and let your peace guard their heart and mind in Christ Jesus. When they grow weary, remind them that those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength, they will soar on wings like eagles. Almighty God, you are our strength, you are our shield, you are our ever-present help in times of trouble. Father, when the day's work is done, bring them home safely. Restore their spirit, renew their joy, and remind them that they do not fight this battle alone. For you go before them, you go beside them, you are with them. In the mighty name of Jesus Christ, our commander and king. Amen.