Transcripts
The corruption comes when you start mixing gangsters with child molesters and purposely setting them up.
Speaker A:We were staged inside of the visiting with the 40 millimeters while we got 20 gangsters, 10 on this side, 10 on this side, and walked them into the building knowing that they were gonna all fight.
Speaker A:It erupted and I start shooting the dude.
Speaker A:Boom, boom, boom.
Speaker A:I hit a dude like five times up the leg.
Speaker A:Boom, boom.
Speaker B:You ready?
Speaker A:Straight dude.
Speaker B:All right, bro.
Speaker B:We Hector Bravo, welcome to the show.
Speaker A:Thank you.
Speaker B:We're gonna have some interesting conversations today for multiple reasons.
Speaker B:One, I want to dive into your service of joining the army.
Speaker A:Yes, sir.
Speaker B:And you got deployed for overseas for a little bit.
Speaker B:You did a pump over there where you guys were in some quite a bit.
Speaker B:And so you ended up losing, I think your corpsman and.
Speaker A:Yeah, or medic.
Speaker B:Your medic.
Speaker A:Sorry, same thing.
Speaker A:Corman.
Speaker A:Medic.
Speaker B:Army is the medics.
Speaker B:And then after that, after you're getting out, you kind of went through your life, kind of spiraled for a little bit with.
Speaker B:With substance abuse and kind of led you down some.
Speaker B:Some bad paths.
Speaker A:Yep.
Speaker B:Before becoming a correctional officer, which that's what I want to talk the most about today is because I feel our correctional facilities are some of the most corrupt establishments in this country as far as just what goes on in them.
Speaker B:The money and this, everything, what it's built around.
Speaker B:And you ended up building yourself through two different prison systems.
Speaker B:You ended up getting promoted to lieutenant, sir, which you were like the SWAT team commander.
Speaker B:You come very highly decorated and you've gone through all the phases of the correctional facility before making it pretty close to the top.
Speaker B:Next in line was Captain.
Speaker B:That's when you discovered the corruption inside of the California correctional facilities, where you ended up quitting, ended up leaving and walking away because you didn't want to be part of that corruption.
Speaker B:So we got a lot to unpack, and that's what I'm looking forward to because I've had some inmates on and they talk about what goes on inside as far as the correctional facility advise and how corrupt it is.
Speaker B:So to hear correctional officers agreeing with
Speaker A:inmates, that's what's going to trip you out.
Speaker A:We agree on a lot of things.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:So that's what I want to dig into.
Speaker B:So.
Speaker B:Okay, Hector.
Speaker B:Oh, before we get started, we're gonna send you home with a fresh baked loaf of sourdough.
Speaker B:We got some really cool flavors that we just dropped for the holidays.
Speaker B:So you get to go home and start it as a homeschool project for our kids.
Speaker B:Ended up Turning into a business.
Speaker B:And now with the support of everybody, you get a nice fresh loaf.
Speaker B:We ship all over the country.
Speaker B:It's from the Sour Bee.
Speaker B:Then I'm gonna send you home.
Speaker B:I got you a Linear.
Speaker B:I know you're a gym guy.
Speaker B:You hit the gym this morning.
Speaker B:Linear is an awesome veteran owned company.
Speaker B:He's here local.
Speaker B:They make some really great lifestyle fitness apparel.
Speaker B:And then I'm gonna send you home with a wild chaos tea.
Speaker A:Appreciate that, man.
Speaker A:Thank you.
Speaker B:Swag to rock down to San Diego when you get out of here.
Speaker B:So.
Speaker B:All right, Hector, let's dive into this.
Speaker B:Who the hell are you and where are you from?
Speaker A:Originally from Brawley, California.
Speaker B:Raleigh.
Speaker B:Where's that?
Speaker A:It's on the corner of Arizona and Mexico.
Speaker A:California side.
Speaker B:Got it.
Speaker B:Okay.
Speaker A:Like the south east, southeast corner.
Speaker A:Corner.
Speaker B:Interesting.
Speaker A:Literally a border town.
Speaker B:Okay.
Speaker A:From the Imperial Valley.
Speaker A:You got Glamis over there.
Speaker A:Nothing to do.
Speaker A:Small town.
Speaker A:That's what kind of drove me to join the military, was to get out.
Speaker A:Right?
Speaker A:Because I've always been adventurous and hyper and like adrenaline seeking.
Speaker B:Okay.
Speaker A:And I, when we were talking about this earlier, like, why didn't I join the Marine Corps?
Speaker B:So why'd you join the Army?
Speaker B:Not the Marine Corps.
Speaker A:So I had no idea about the military at all.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:Besides, back in the day, there would be those Marine commercials.
Speaker A:Dragon.
Speaker A:I remember the chessboard, but I remember watching that as a kid, but I didn't realize that that was a military service branch.
Speaker A:You know, it just looked like really cool.
Speaker A:It wasn't until junior year in high school, dude, a career day Marine came in dressed sharp, and just like the light bulb went off, bro.
Speaker A:He's like, hey, your college is going to be paid for.
Speaker A:You're going to travel, your food's going to be paid for.
Speaker A:You get to wear this nice uniform.
Speaker A:I'm like, oh, that's it.
Speaker A:I'm out of here.
Speaker A:That's.
Speaker A:That's it.
Speaker B:Sold.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:Then 911 happened.
Speaker A:We're actually the same age, bro.
Speaker A:We got to point that out, dude.
Speaker A:Our birthday is the same exact day, exact year, dude.
Speaker A:That's not a coincidence, man.
Speaker B:No.
Speaker A:So 911 happened.
Speaker A:I'm like, oh, I'm.
Speaker A:I'm definitely joining now.
Speaker A:Right?
Speaker A:Like, this is without, without a doubt.
Speaker B:Oh.
Speaker A:So I go to El Centro, which is a neighboring city, because probably does not have recruiting stations, and I walk right into the Marine Corps recruiter office and I'm like, I'm here to join the Marines.
Speaker A:Like, all right, sit down.
Speaker A:Take our practice ASVAB test.
Speaker A:Okay, so I take a practice ASVAB test, bro, and I fail.
Speaker A:And I'm like, what the heck?
Speaker A:I'm too dumb to be a Marine.
Speaker A:They're like, no one ever, bro.
Speaker A:Exactly.
Speaker A:He's like, dude, go try your luck next door with the Army.
Speaker A:Like, that's literally what happened.
Speaker A:So I go next door, I'm like, hey, guys, like, I just came from the Marine Corps recruiting station.
Speaker A:I failed to practice asbab.
Speaker A:He's like, oh, don't worry, man.
Speaker A:Sit down, take hours, and we'll see what happens.
Speaker A:I did.
Speaker A:And I.
Speaker A:And they're like, oh, you pass.
Speaker A:I'm like, well, there it is.
Speaker A:I guess I'm army.
Speaker A:I don't know if that was a thing.
Speaker A:I don't know.
Speaker A:They were trying to hook up the numbers for sure.
Speaker A:I probably failed the practice as that because my ASVAB score was not high at all.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker A:You know what I mean?
Speaker B:I've never heard anybody getting denied for the Marines.
Speaker A:But that.
Speaker A:That's exactly what happened.
Speaker A:That's exactly, exactly what happened, dude.
Speaker A:And you know, when you're 16, because I was 16, when I'm doing this, I don't know.
Speaker A:No difference.
Speaker A:But I don't even know what the ASVAB was, bro.
Speaker A:So then I knew what infantry was because I had already started doing my research, like, because that's what.
Speaker A:One thing I do is once I put my mind to something, I research the heck out of it, dude.
Speaker A:Whether it's reading reviews or an infantry.
Speaker A:I told my sister, like, hey, I'm gonna join the army.
Speaker A:I'm gonna join the infantry.
Speaker A:And she's like, oh, yeah?
Speaker A:Yeah, Cool.
Speaker A:Because my sister's three years younger than me, and she's always been my biggest cheerleader, bro.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker A:And yeah, told the recruiter, like, army, infantry.
Speaker A:Not like I had a choice.
Speaker A:Like I said, dude, my.
Speaker A:My ASVAB test was a score.
Speaker A:That's besides the point.
Speaker A:I might have failed three times, but it doesn't matter, bro.
Speaker A:We're not here for that minor details.
Speaker A:I'm not book smart, bro.
Speaker A:I'm street smart.
Speaker A:I'll tell you that much, man.
Speaker A:And I have high emotional intelligence.
Speaker A:That's a fact, dude.
Speaker A:So anyhow, anywho, I ended up joining the delayed entry program my whole entire senior year.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker A:I was 17 years old.
Speaker A:Both of my parents had to sign the permission slip waiver for me.
Speaker B:Oh, okay.
Speaker A:And they were like, my dad, dude.
Speaker A:I mean, God bless my parents.
Speaker A:Parents are parents, bro.
Speaker A:And, you know, we understand that.
Speaker A:My dad's like, I'll pay for your college.
Speaker A:I'll pay for a college.
Speaker A:Don't you want to?
Speaker A:And I like that.
Speaker A:I don't want to go to college.
Speaker B:I. Oh, they didn't want you to go?
Speaker A:No, they didn't want to go, bro.
Speaker B:Smart.
Speaker A:They didn't want me to go.
Speaker A:I would have been the first one from my family, like, like to do it like that or to go to college.
Speaker A:No, to go to the military.
Speaker A:Okay, Go to the military.
Speaker A:2001, 911 happened.
Speaker A:Boom.
Speaker A:Afghanistan, invasion of the United States forces.
Speaker A:The war kicked off.
Speaker A:And then the freaking war drums were beating on Iraq's door, bro.
Speaker A:So the propaganda machine, the.
Speaker A:The news, the newspaper, Saddam Hussein, evil dictator, weapons of mass destruction.
Speaker A:Like, bro, there was no doubt in my mind I was gonna end up in war.
Speaker A:Like, that was a.
Speaker A:You had.
Speaker A:You had.
Speaker A:You had Blackhawk Down.
Speaker A:You had.
Speaker A:We.
Speaker A:We were soldiers.
Speaker A:Like, all of these movies were coming out, bro.
Speaker A:Like, it was so.
Speaker A:My dad's like, go to college.
Speaker A:I don't want to go to college.
Speaker A:I don't even like high school.
Speaker A:Why would I go to college?
Speaker A:And barely made it through that.
Speaker A:Barely, bro.
Speaker A:Barely.
Speaker A:I'll say it on your podcast, like, for extra credit.
Speaker A:Since I had a below GPA, below a 2.0, they, they.
Speaker A:They gave me this incentive where I would go around with the girls volleyball team and record their games, bro, to earn extra credits to graduate.
Speaker A:I'm like, oh, this is cool, dude.
Speaker A:Like, I would go to San Diego in the bus with them.
Speaker A:Like, it's one of the girls.
Speaker B:This is the best extra credit ever before, bro.
Speaker B:Yeah,
Speaker A:I graduated June.
Speaker A:I fly out July to Fort Ben.
Speaker A:Yeah, bro.
Speaker A:So hot.
Speaker A:Humidity that I've never experienced.
Speaker B:Oh, because you're going from the southeast corner of California era desert.
Speaker A:Desert to the east.
Speaker A:Humidity, dude.
Speaker B:I was never.
Speaker A:Oh, well, I got.
Speaker A: ,: Speaker A:Like, and I have asthma too, bro.
Speaker A:Which I have asthma, too.
Speaker A:And I'm like, like, what is this, man?
Speaker A:I'm true.
Speaker A:Like, and then when it comes to the army, we have this thing called reception that I had no idea about.
Speaker A:30th ag reception.
Speaker A:So you don't get off and people don't immediately start yelling at you, which weirded me out big time, bro.
Speaker A:Like, I was expecting it.
Speaker A:I was waiting for it.
Speaker A:I was prepping for it.
Speaker A:And, like, where they parked the bus at the Fort Banning and like the drill sergeants come off and they're not saying anything.
Speaker A:They're like, get off the bus.
Speaker A:Come right here.
Speaker A:I'm like, what is this?
Speaker A:Like is this a Setup?
Speaker A:But it's 30th AG reception, so it doesn't matter how long you're there, cuz it varies.
Speaker B:Okay?
Speaker A:That's where they shave your head.
Speaker A:That's where they issue your BDUs.
Speaker A:That's where they issue your boots, your.
Speaker A:Your 12 shots, your vaccines.
Speaker B:And you're not getting screamed at this
Speaker A:whole entire time, bro.
Speaker B:What?
Speaker A:Yes, it was very eerie, weird, but.
Speaker A:And you realize soon you don't want to be there long where you don't want to be there at all.
Speaker A:Right?
Speaker A:You want to get it over with.
Speaker A:Okay.
Speaker A:To the basic training.
Speaker A:That's when you do your sgli.
Speaker A:Your.
Speaker A:Your what is life insurance if you get killed in action.
Speaker A:And so luckily, thankfully, I was only there for maybe a week, dude.
Speaker A:Maybe a week and a half.
Speaker A:And then the day came where they march you down to your training area, your battalion.
Speaker A:Mine was Alpha 254 Hell's Kitchen.
Speaker B:Okay.
Speaker A:And it was on and cracking, bro.
Speaker B:How long were you there before it popped off?
Speaker A:A week and a half.
Speaker B:Okay.
Speaker B:Damn.
Speaker A:In reception.
Speaker A:Reception?
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:Think of it like as in processing.
Speaker B:See we.
Speaker B:This.
Speaker B:You know, I'm a Paris Island Marine.
Speaker B:The second you cross that bridge, I
Speaker A:expected, bro, you're done.
Speaker A:I would assume.
Speaker A:Yeah, that did that.
Speaker A:It's a weird surprise that in the army that did not happen in O2.
Speaker B:Ours actually starts in the airport.
Speaker A:Ours did not.
Speaker B:See, I remember getting off the plane and I'm like this little idiot kid and I got my little vanilla or manila envelope.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:You just get snatched.
Speaker B:That's the first time I had to do nut to butt.
Speaker B:They're screaming and I'm some kid standing with my head on the back.
Speaker B:My nose on the back of a dude's face or head.
Speaker B:His head.
Speaker B:Nut to butt.
Speaker B:I got a guy on mine and I'm like, what the did I just sign myself up for?
Speaker A:But so you can see how it would be weird to not get that immediately.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker A:You're like, dude is.
Speaker A:Why aren't you yelling at me?
Speaker B:Like, okay, but.
Speaker A:But once we got to the area, yeah, they had the 5 ton or the deuce and a half with our.
Speaker B:The.
Speaker A:The.
Speaker A:Those bags, the sea bags.
Speaker A:I don't know what the guy.
Speaker A:I don't know.
Speaker A:The big green duffel bags.
Speaker B:Sea bags.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker A:Get them all out.
Speaker A:Get.
Speaker A:Okay.
Speaker A:And then that's when they Start giving you the unrealistic expectations.
Speaker A:Times which I've come to realize, bro, that makes you a superhuman.
Speaker A:That makes you superhuman, bro.
Speaker A:Because if you can't accomplish the impossible, then like that just sets the threshold for like perfection.
Speaker A:Okay, right.
Speaker A:Because they're like, hey, you have, you have 10 seconds to get all these duffel bags.
Speaker A:10, 3, 2, 1.
Speaker A:10, 3, 2, one.
Speaker A:Dude, skip like six numbers and right.
Speaker A:But when I was doing push ups in my head, I'm like, yes, yes.
Speaker A:I was scrawny, dude.
Speaker A:I was scrawny, bro.
Speaker A:I graduated weighing 121 pounds.
Speaker B:Yeah, that's little.
Speaker A:I was scrawny.
Speaker A:I had to eat a banana at the at MEPs to to make weight to get in 122.
Speaker A:So like what?
Speaker A:I needed discipline, bro.
Speaker A:I needed discipline.
Speaker A:I was okay.
Speaker A:I was already drinking alcohol at the age of 15.
Speaker A:I had already moved out of my parents home my whole entire senior year of high school.
Speaker A:I was living with my friend Jason and drinking alcohol and ditching and Okay.
Speaker A:I wasn't committing crimes.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:But I was just off.
Speaker A:Off.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:So in the military will straighten that out real quick.
Speaker A:Correct.
Speaker B:Yep.
Speaker B:So you get to your battalion and all just what.
Speaker B:Okay, so what's army boot camp like?
Speaker A:Okay, Basic training.
Speaker A:Yeah, yeah, it's called basic training for the army.
Speaker A:It is like, okay.
Speaker A:I love generations.
Speaker A:I love eras.
Speaker A:I love to be able to identify.
Speaker A:I. I think to me that was a unique time frame.
Speaker A:Our drill sergeants were Gulf War.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker A:Veteran combat veterans, Panama.
Speaker B:Okay.
Speaker A:And again, bro, if you're new to the military, you don't know what the CIB Combat infantry badge is.
Speaker A:You don't know what a combat patch is.
Speaker A:You probably don't even know what airborne wings are.
Speaker A:So I didn't know what any of that stuff was, bro.
Speaker A:I'm just from Brawley, dude.
Speaker A:17 year old skinny kid.
Speaker A:But I could tell that these men were of a different caliber, dude.
Speaker A:Like these men were no nonsense type of dude.
Speaker A:Drill sergeant Furbish, bro.
Speaker A:He looked like Popeye.
Speaker A:Probably like your size, dude.
Speaker A:Massive older, meaner looking guy with a big old dip, bro.
Speaker A:The dip the size of this sourdough.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker A:Just.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker A:Like there is no doubt, bro, that he would beat the out of you if you just did something wrong, dude.
Speaker A:And they were putting hands on you back in O2 for sure.
Speaker A:Like sure.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:Which is fine.
Speaker A:Which is welcomed in that community.
Speaker B:Wings them out.
Speaker A:Correct.
Speaker A:So like leadership.
Speaker A:Leadership.
Speaker A:They smoke the dog out of you.
Speaker A:And let's talk about.
Speaker A:Realistically people say brainwash right?
Speaker A:People go, oh, you go to the military, you get brainwashed.
Speaker A:Well, what it is, it is a breaking you down to the lowest form, like, like taking away your identity, stripping you of your identity.
Speaker A:That's why they shave your head, that's why you all wear the same uniform.
Speaker A:That's why you all march in cadence, attention to detail, the small things like a pen, right?
Speaker A:A pen.
Speaker A:And you don't know why you're learning all of this stuff then.
Speaker A:But it comes to make sense when you're in combat and people are getting killed left and right and, and it's like, why do I got to worry about this?
Speaker A:Why do I got to worry about that?
Speaker A:Talking back, right?
Speaker A:Questioning somebody.
Speaker A:You question somebody at the wrong time, bro, that can cost somebody their life, dude.
Speaker A:Like, this isn't a joke when it comes to the military, when it comes to life, when it comes to survival, when it comes to like trauma.
Speaker A:Like you asked me how army basic training was, that was already getting embedded in me.
Speaker A:As a matter of fact, 41 year old Hector right here is a result of 17 year old basic training is a result of good leaders in my unit for sure.
Speaker A:That, that's the only.
Speaker A:And my father, right, I don't give him enough credit for establishing that, that foundation and cultural like integrity and ethics and stuff like that.
Speaker A:But I'm talking about like what shapes you, machines you.
Speaker A:But then again, bro, they were telling you you're a killer.
Speaker A:Like, hey, you're a killer, you're a killer, you're a killer.
Speaker A:You're gonna go, you're gonna kill.
Speaker A:Like they were using those words and I had a hard time.
Speaker A:Like I was, I was a skater, bro.
Speaker A:Yeah, it was a hard time.
Speaker A:Like, ah, am I a killer?
Speaker A:I'm not really a killer.
Speaker B:Is that a weird transition then hearing that going from just being a skater kid?
Speaker A:Well, here's where I think mental, mental toughness comes in.
Speaker A:Or I should say adaptability.
Speaker A:Okay.
Speaker A:I was smart enough to understand in my own head, I better start liking this or pretending to like this because I'm going to have a hard time if I don't accept this.
Speaker B:See, I was the opposite.
Speaker A:Meaning what?
Speaker B:I fought everything.
Speaker A:You fought everything?
Speaker B:Everything?
Speaker A:Oh, hell no.
Speaker B:Everything.
Speaker B:I just, dude, wired.
Speaker A:But that was not.
Speaker A:I would have had a hard time.
Speaker B:I was miserable.
Speaker B:Miserable, bro.
Speaker B:Miserable?
Speaker B:Yeah, I just challenged everything from the start.
Speaker A:Oh no, I didn't.
Speaker B:Belligerent way where I knew I was gonna get away.
Speaker B:But like, like I just, I, I just stuck out by no way.
Speaker A:Absolutely.
Speaker B:Through my Whole.
Speaker B:My whole career, I challenged everything.
Speaker A:Not me.
Speaker A:And I think that's what separate.
Speaker A:I think that's why my story is so unique.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker A:Because I was such a good follower for 20 plus years.
Speaker A:Like, I mastered the pawn rank, bro.
Speaker A:Like, I'm a good pawn, dude.
Speaker A:Which is.
Speaker A:Makes me that much more dangerous than what I do now.
Speaker A:Like, speak freely in the truth.
Speaker A:Facts, for sure, but.
Speaker A:So it's physical training.
Speaker A:You're going to get smoked, bro.
Speaker A:All day, every day.
Speaker A:Especially if you screw up, which we were screwing up.
Speaker A:It's mass punishment.
Speaker A:It's flipping the bunk beds.
Speaker A:It's flipping, you know, over the wall lockers.
Speaker A:It's.
Speaker A:If somebody leaves an unsecured lock, everybody.
Speaker A:All the locks are getting locked now.
Speaker A:People might call this hazing.
Speaker A:It's definitely not hazing.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:It builds character.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker A:And discipline.
Speaker A:Which is why you should secure your.
Speaker A:And accountability.
Speaker A:Oh, God.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:Because, I mean, if we don't have accountability, then we might just leave behind humvees and helicopters for the Afghanistan Taliban to take over and like a couple years.
Speaker B:Huh.
Speaker A:So there was fights amongst the troops.
Speaker B:I was just gonna ask.
Speaker A:Yeah, for sure.
Speaker B:You guys check anybody?
Speaker B:So in Marine boot camp, you.
Speaker B:You screw up, like, you're gonna get
Speaker A:checked at night, blanket party.
Speaker B:Okay.
Speaker B:Do you guys do that in the army?
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:Well, back then.
Speaker A:Yes.
Speaker A:Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker A:People got up.
Speaker A:I never got up.
Speaker A:I probably should have gotten up.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:I think everybody's just trying to.
Speaker A:So many people from so many different places.
Speaker A:Chicago, Ken Hazard, Kentucky, New York, Florida.
Speaker A:Me from Cali's.
Speaker A:It's like, dude, we're young.
Speaker A:We're dumb.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:People stupid as like, yeah, you're gonna fight.
Speaker A:I've seen some stupid.
Speaker B:Like, basic training in boot camp are so fascinating to me.
Speaker B:I. I would like to watch them now, you know, being mature.
Speaker B:Because I feel like the social experiment that goes on because you just saying you, you.
Speaker B:Your rack mate.
Speaker B:Like, my rack mates from Orlando, Florida.
Speaker B:Here I am from upstate New York.
Speaker B:So you got guys over all different walks of life.
Speaker B:You got gang bangers, you got hillbillies, you got racist.
Speaker A:But they're cool.
Speaker A:Like, towards the end, they're like, dude, I never met a Mexican before.
Speaker A:Like, this is me, bro.
Speaker B:Yeah, everybody, bro.
Speaker B:Everybody.
Speaker B:All walks of life just thrown in the one platoon and expect to, like, just.
Speaker A:But I love brotherhood.
Speaker A:That's where I learned brotherhood.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:And you think back to, like, Spartans and 300, and you think about brotherhood and you think about us being primal.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker A:This is why I function the way I function Bro.
Speaker A:And like, you operate the same way.
Speaker A:It's a small, small, small core group of warriors, dude.
Speaker A:In reality now, with every that joins a military, a warrior.
Speaker A:Absolutely not, bro.
Speaker A:But that is like the, the beginning phases for sure.
Speaker B:So after boot camp, where do you go?
Speaker A:I go to Germany, dude.
Speaker A: ,: Speaker A:I have all these dates engraved in my brain, bro.
Speaker A:My mom's like, hector, take a sweater, take a jacket.
Speaker A:I'm like, I'm not taking a sweater.
Speaker A:I'm not taking a jacket.
Speaker A:It was freezing, bro.
Speaker B:So you go from southeast corner of California to Atlanta, Georgia for training, straight to Germany?
Speaker A:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker B:What was that transition?
Speaker A:It got real.
Speaker A:On the airplane ride to Germany, I got that lump in my throat, dude.
Speaker A:Like, we're going to war.
Speaker A:Like, I'm going to war.
Speaker A:Like, dude, is this what.
Speaker A:And this is me completing basic training?
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker A:I'm like, dude, what the heck did.
Speaker A:Am I doing right?
Speaker A:Like, right?
Speaker A:It's like.
Speaker A:And then my pop's eyes got kind of watery at the airport.
Speaker A:My sister was bawling, like hysterically.
Speaker A:My mom was crying hysterically.
Speaker A:Like back then there was no cell phones back then.
Speaker A:There was no FaceTime back then.
Speaker A:There was barely old school email.
Speaker A:Definitely calling cards.
Speaker A:You got to use the pay for the calling cards.
Speaker A:So.
Speaker A:So there wasn't this fast form of communication or letters, Snail mail, snail mail, handwritten letters.
Speaker A:Of course.
Speaker A:That's what, what it was.
Speaker A:So I touched down in Germany and I run straight from the airport, bro, across the parking lot to a PX and I buy like a 300 jacket, like a cold weather jacket, winter civilian.
Speaker A:And I remember being so proud of myself, bro, because like, I had earned money in boot camp.
Speaker A:Because you're saving money in basic training.
Speaker A:I earned money.
Speaker A:I, you know, I'm a. I'm a man in my head.
Speaker A:I'm making a living.
Speaker A:And I bought myself my first big expensive, like, purchase.
Speaker A:Put that on, dude.
Speaker A:And then they bus us to Ledward Barracks in Schwein for Germany.
Speaker A:Yeah, right.
Speaker A:So like, we look on the board, we see where we're going.
Speaker A:1st Infantry Division says my last name.
Speaker A:And as soon as they bust us into this classroom, dude, we get off.
Speaker A:There's dad, there's like school desk.
Speaker B:There's a.
Speaker A:There's probably a. I don't know if he was like a E4, like a E5 in the front.
Speaker A:He's like, hey, if you guys are going to 118 infantry or 126 infantry.
Speaker A:You're going to Iraq.
Speaker A:And everybody just put their head down, dude.
Speaker A:Like the, like, it just got like, oh, yeah.
Speaker A:It just got so real, dude.
Speaker A:Like, like you go in Iraq and we're like the heck.
Speaker A:Like kind of put our heads up.
Speaker A: ,: Speaker A: Iraq did not start till March: Speaker A:So then we get on a van.
Speaker A:I remember we drove by a Popeyes.
Speaker A:We go to Con barracks and there was two specialists.
Speaker A:Specialist Stuart, a white guy, and Specialist Allen, a black guy.
Speaker A:He would later on get killed in Iraq.
Speaker A:I got his name tattooed on my back.
Speaker A:Allen.
Speaker A:They were the first two soldiers of our unit to meet us.
Speaker B:Okay.
Speaker A:And we got there at midnight.
Speaker A:They said, hey, at zero 400 hours being PT closed, you got PT.
Speaker A:We're like, the four hours, bro.
Speaker A:We just flew like 16 hours.
Speaker A:We're like, dude, we got like a alarm.
Speaker A:One of the buddies, one of the dudes had an alarm, an alarm clock between the four of us.
Speaker A:Because the four of us went to the unit.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker A:We're like, dude, wake us up.
Speaker A:Wake us up at 4.
Speaker A:Cool, bro.
Speaker A:Dude, shorts, t shirt, negative 10, negative 15, bro.
Speaker A:Nipples are all hard, bro.
Speaker A:Chap, like freezing.
Speaker A:Like, dude.
Speaker A:And then we go on a 12 mile run.
Speaker A:Like, I'm not joking.
Speaker A:You know, people tell, like to tell war stories.
Speaker A:Like, oh, I ran uphill in, in like negative weather.
Speaker A:Like, dude, that.
Speaker A:The temple was hardcore.
Speaker A:Here's why.
Speaker A:There was a sergeant, I can't remember think of his name right now.
Speaker A:He was trying to go to Special Forces, like selection.
Speaker B:Okay.
Speaker A:Sergeant Long, white dude.
Speaker A:And this dude, since he was training to go to Special Forces, bro, he was like actually leading our pt.
Speaker A:So he was take us on these ridiculous runs.
Speaker A:Looking back in hindsight, yeah, these, those.
Speaker A:That temple was turned up, bro.
Speaker A:Our training was turned up, but it would pay off.
Speaker A:When.
Speaker A:Eventually when we go to Iraq for sure.
Speaker B:Which is hard to see at that time as a young kid.
Speaker A:Correct.
Speaker B:It's just pure chaos.
Speaker B:But the leadership knows the severity of it.
Speaker B:Hey, we got to get these troops combat effective immediately.
Speaker B:But they.
Speaker B:I don't feel the military usually does a good job of relaying that.
Speaker B:It's just.
Speaker A:I don't think it's their job to relay it that.
Speaker A:That portion of.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker B:You just admit.
Speaker B:Yeah, it's just.
Speaker B:Here's the tempo.
Speaker B:We gotta, we gotta spin these guys up now.
Speaker B:Which could be absolute hell for troops.
Speaker A:And bravado and machismo.
Speaker A:Like, you want.
Speaker A:You don't want to look like the.
Speaker A:Bro, you don't want to look, you don't want to be the weakest person in the platoon.
Speaker A:But I was going to say something right now about leadership, man.
Speaker A:I had the best freaking leaders, dude.
Speaker B:Did you?
Speaker A:The.
Speaker A:The freaking best.
Speaker B:What made them good leaders?
Speaker A:Oh, God, bro, the.
Speaker A:The fact that they would eventually go on and get killed in Iraq.
Speaker A:Like, like even if they had not gotten that, that just shows.
Speaker A:That just confirmed what I already knew.
Speaker A:Yeah, like these solid, like what made them good leaders, bro.
Speaker A:Like bait, like the 101, bro.
Speaker A:Like if you got in trouble, like, they'll take the hit for you, but then they'll like beat your ass on the side.
Speaker A:If you did something good, like he'll let you take the praise, right?
Speaker A:If you do something bad, they'll take the hit.
Speaker A:Just basic leadership, bro.
Speaker A:Like, like standing in front of the bus for your troops instead of throwing them under the bus.
Speaker A:Like teaching them, mentoring them, interacting with them.
Speaker A:Getting to know like, hey, like, like making you feel like a person.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker A:Not just like a number or not just like, like, bro, as a good leader, man, you'll go to the gates of hell with these dudes.
Speaker A:I don't give a. Bro, we'll outnumbered, out gunned.
Speaker A:Like that's a no brainer.
Speaker A:No brainer.
Speaker A:So there was Hector Leja, Staff Sergeant Hector Leha.
Speaker A:He would eventually get shot in the head.
Speaker A:I got him tattooed on my back.
Speaker A:It was like Douglas, Douglas.
Speaker A:Growth in.
Speaker A:He lived.
Speaker A:That dude's a badass mother, dude.
Speaker A:These dudes were badass, bro.
Speaker B:These were all your seniors?
Speaker A:Yes.
Speaker A:E5s E6 beckert.
Speaker A:Becker would eventually get killed in Iraq, dude, bro, there was so many good leaders, dude.
Speaker B:How long were you in Germany for?
Speaker A:It seemed like two years or a year and a half.
Speaker B:Okay.
Speaker A:So when I touched down in Germany to the time I deployed to Iraq, had to have been a year and a half.
Speaker A:Well, I'm not good at math, bro.
Speaker A:I'll just tell you the dates.
Speaker A: ,: Speaker A: deployed to Iraq in February: Speaker A:What is that, a year and a couple months?
Speaker B:Yeah, a year and year and two months or whatever.
Speaker A:Now that exact time frame, we were training 20 hour days, weapons.
Speaker A: put the weapons away like at: Speaker A: ock at night and weapons draw: Speaker A:And we, it was just like combat drills.
Speaker A:I mean the, the basic move to contact reaction, ambush, live fire, ranges, mount training.
Speaker A:Because mount training.
Speaker A:We were transitioning from that time frame when I went to basic training in.
Speaker A:In Georgia we were learning how to fight in the woods.
Speaker A:Like Vietnam.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker A:We had a small training of mount training military urban terrain, cqb.
Speaker A:Germany had a little bit more CQB training then you start to realize, dude, we're going into an urban environment.
Speaker A:This is again, you're young so you don't know.
Speaker A:But that's why it's a young man's game, bro.
Speaker A:Because when you're dumb and 18 years old, fall for anything, you could sleep in the snow with no problem.
Speaker A:You can like have 22 hour day training days, no problem.
Speaker A:Like get punched in your nose by your platoon sergeant.
Speaker A:He punched me on the nose on the range, bro.
Speaker B:You get punched.
Speaker A:We got a brand new platoon sergeant prior to deploying.
Speaker B:Okay.
Speaker A:Sergeant Gullick.
Speaker A:He's a good dude, right?
Speaker A:Psychotic.
Speaker A:Like he's a psychopath.
Speaker B:Okay.
Speaker A:For sure.
Speaker A:German descent.
Speaker A:Okay.
Speaker A:Psychopath, bro.
Speaker A:He had just came from being a drill sergeant at Fort Benny, Georgia.
Speaker B:Worse.
Speaker A:Exactly.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:Anybody off the drill field is the worst.
Speaker A:Exactly, bro.
Speaker A:So we're in graphenville training in Germany and he's like, hey, what's the hand and arm signal for file?
Speaker A:So I go like this right middle finger.
Speaker A:That was the fucking hand in arm signal for file.
Speaker A:He walks up to me, boom.
Speaker A:Oh fuck, dude.
Speaker A:My eyes fucking watered.
Speaker A:Like, dude, I was crying.
Speaker A:I'm not gonna lie, bro.
Speaker A:I'm not gonna lie.
Speaker A:I was crying like a.
Speaker A:Not weeping, not bawling, but I was pissed, bro.
Speaker A:Fucking bleeding and everybody was kind of in shock.
Speaker A:Like, dude, what the did you just do that for to him, right?
Speaker B:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker A:And he's like, I think he realized that he had up, right?
Speaker A:And he's like, no, that's not.
Speaker A:No.
Speaker A:How can we see that at night?
Speaker A:We gotta change it.
Speaker B:Oh yeah.
Speaker B:He starts backpedaling.
Speaker A:Yeah, we gotta change it.
Speaker A:So I think it went to like this and I'm like, how the does that alleviate the fact that you just punched me in the nose for no good reason, bro?
Speaker B:It doesn't change justify any of this, right?
Speaker A:So like.
Speaker A:But I'm not a rat, bro.
Speaker A:Hands down, I'm not a rat and I'm not a.
Speaker A:So of course I would.
Speaker A:Telling was not even an option.
Speaker A:It wasn't even.
Speaker A:Didn't even.
Speaker B:You going to tell.
Speaker A:Plus yeah, who are you going to tell Wasn't an option.
Speaker A:That's what they train you in the military.
Speaker A:You just take, you just eat your pie and you say thank you and ask for seconds.
Speaker B:Thank you, man.
Speaker A:But I think looking back in hindsight, I think he felt bad cuz he invited me to his house for Thanksgiving with his family.
Speaker A:You're the only one with his family.
Speaker A:Well, me and Maldonado from Puerto Rico.
Speaker B:Okay.
Speaker A:I don't know if you like those Hispanics or what, bro.
Speaker A:But then he made me his driver in Germany, in Iraq, he made me his driver for a period of time.
Speaker A:I'm like, oh, this dude.
Speaker A:I see what he's doing.
Speaker A:He's buttering me up.
Speaker B:Yeah, exactly.
Speaker B:I've had to do that a few times.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:So then we go to Kuwait prior to going to.
Speaker A:To Iraq.
Speaker A:And we stayed in Kuwait for a month training.
Speaker B:What time of year was it in Kuwait?
Speaker B:Do you remember?
Speaker A:February.
Speaker A:But I don't remember the weather being bad.
Speaker A:It was just.
Speaker A:It is what it was.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker A:Sand, bro.
Speaker A:I bicked my head for the first time.
Speaker A:I shaved my head with a razor for the first time.
Speaker A:Horrible mistake.
Speaker B:Why?
Speaker A:Because I got razor burn and sunburn.
Speaker A:And then my.
Speaker A:My sling from my rifle kept like rubbing it.
Speaker A:They're like, bro, you look like Jason Voorheest from.
Speaker A:From Friday the 13th.
Speaker B:Oh, God.
Speaker A:Yeah, bro.
Speaker A:Shit's like lit up, inflamed.
Speaker A:Yeah, bro.
Speaker B:Kuwait's an interesting place.
Speaker B:When we were there, it.
Speaker B:Only way I could describe Kuwait is like a blow living in a blow dryer.
Speaker B:It was just the hottest air 24 7.
Speaker B:And how bright it was every time you'd walk out, dude, it would just.
Speaker B:It was blinding.
Speaker B:Of how bright.
Speaker A:I remember the sunset or sunrise were beautiful, like to a whole level I had never seen before.
Speaker B:Same with Afghan.
Speaker B:Afghan had some of the most beautiful sunrises and sunsets.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:So you guys get to Kuwait.
Speaker B:You remember where you were in Kuwait?
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:Camp New York, which is.
Speaker A:Which is in the fucking middle of nowhere.
Speaker B:Okay.
Speaker A:And then we went to Camp Udari with the Marines.
Speaker B:Okay.
Speaker A:To train in their, like high tech urban.
Speaker A:It had cameras.
Speaker A:It was like a little urban terrain thingy.
Speaker A:We had like little paint sim rounds.
Speaker A:They were sim rounds, but we were shooting at plastic silhouettes.
Speaker B:Oh, okay.
Speaker A:That would pop out like around the corner like that.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:So after Kuwait.
Speaker B:So you guys are already 100?
Speaker B:No.
Speaker B:You're going to Iraq.
Speaker B:Like, it's been.
Speaker A:We're there.
Speaker B:You're.
Speaker B:So you're in Kuwait.
Speaker B:How long were you in kuwait?
Speaker A: So in: Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker A:Me and my best man, Garcia, were drunk as in the barracks in Germany, dude.
Speaker A:We were drunk.
Speaker A:And we see on the news of the.
Speaker A:Saddam Hussein is on the news and we're pissed we missed our chance to go to war.
Speaker A:The war's over.
Speaker A:We signed up for the infantry.
Speaker A:I remember I got, like, my infantry blue cord, threw it at the screen.
Speaker A:There's actually a picture of me yelling at the television screen, bro, like, dude, we lost.
Speaker A:Right?
Speaker A:Because, like, that's what every kid wants.
Speaker A:They want war because they're stupid.
Speaker A:Stupid.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:And that's what every kid thinks they want.
Speaker A:And, like, until you get it, correct it, and I gotta.
Speaker A:When we get to the end of this story, I'm gonna reflect back on this moment where I'm throwing the.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:The blue cord of the TV and wishing that I was.
Speaker A:We thought we missed it.
Speaker A:We thought we missed it.
Speaker A: Come to find out,: Speaker A:We're in a classroom, and they're showing us a projector video.
Speaker A:And the projector video is of a Russian convoy.
Speaker A:And I don't know if it was Chechnya or I don't know if it was Afghanistan, but they hit an id, they hit a mine, and the whole thing exploded.
Speaker A:People go flying everywhere.
Speaker A:And I remember looking at that, like, oh, my God, dude.
Speaker A:How do I protect myself?
Speaker A:Like, I'm going up against that.
Speaker A:Like, how do you defend yourself against that?
Speaker A:I was scared, dude.
Speaker A:Like, that put a little bit of fear in me.
Speaker A:Like, what the fuck are we about to get into, dude?
Speaker A:Because just seeing it.
Speaker A:Seeing that video footage, because we had trained, like, fake IDs in Germany, but it wasn't that, like, seeing the bodies fly.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:And then, bro, we crossed the berm north.
Speaker A:It took us three days to get to Balar, which is 50 miles north of Baghdad.
Speaker B:Oh, so you guys pushed from Kuwait into.
Speaker A:Yeah, you know how I got the initial push?
Speaker B:Huh?
Speaker A:No, it wasn't the initial.
Speaker A:Yeah, we just.
Speaker A:We pushed up on the MSR Tampa.
Speaker A:I was on a hit, which is a flatbed.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker A:But on an M1.
Speaker A:Abrams, you're.
Speaker B:You're.
Speaker B:Okay, so we did the same.
Speaker B:They put our vehicles on flatbeds, on the.
Speaker B:On the lowboys.
Speaker B:But we sat in our vehicles.
Speaker A:Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker B:So you did the same.
Speaker A:Yeah, but, dude, I'm not a tanker.
Speaker A:I don't know anything about tanks at all.
Speaker A:But I.
Speaker A:That's how I got up north on a hit on a EV1 Abram.
Speaker A:And, like, we.
Speaker A:We took turns alternating.
Speaker A:I don't even know who I rode up with, to be honest.
Speaker A:We took turns alternating from the driver's seat, like, just sitting there like that, to the gun, to the gunner and yeah, bro, immediately I realized that the Iraqi people didn't want us there by like flipping us off and giving us these evil looks.
Speaker A:Immediately.
Speaker A:Immediately.
Speaker A:And we can dive into like not, not just, not just politics, but like propaganda and what they told us we were going to be there for sure.
Speaker A:They told us that the Iraqi people wanted us, Wanted us to liberate them.
Speaker A:It was very apparent from the start that they did not want us there from what I observed.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:So from Kuwait you push into Iraq, how many days did you guys drive for?
Speaker B:Because that's not just like an overnight day.
Speaker A:No, no.
Speaker A:So I said it took us three days to push up north.
Speaker A:So I think we, it was either two days or three days for sure.
Speaker A:We stopped one time at a camp.
Speaker A:It was a National Guard camp, bro.
Speaker A:Like, I don't know where it was.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:And I know there was girls there because there was no girls in my unit whatsoever.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker A:And then they were saying like, oh, you, they said, you should have been here last night.
Speaker A:The girls had a oil wrestling contest in this inflatable pool.
Speaker A:And I'm just like, right.
Speaker A:Because we didn't, I didn't know anything about it.
Speaker B:This is army checks.
Speaker A:Armies, Army.
Speaker B:We had different experiences in the military.
Speaker A:But what I'm saying is like, that wasn't.
Speaker A:We were just.
Speaker A:We spent the night there and then we pushed.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker A:So I don't know what they were doing there for sure, but.
Speaker A:And then we get.
Speaker A:Okay, so that's how it went.
Speaker A:It went one night there, then we get to Camp Anaconda.
Speaker A:So I didn't realize it, but we actually pushed up north past Palo, our original fob.
Speaker A:So like that, now it makes sense.
Speaker A:We spent the night, the second night in Camp Anaconda sleeping on the tanks.
Speaker A:And that's when I encountered indirect fire the first time.
Speaker A:Im.
Speaker A:The first night.
Speaker A:The second night in Iraq, you guys get mortared.
Speaker A:Well, but it's a big camp, so sure, it was nothing serious.
Speaker A:Nowhere near me, but you could hear the boom for sure.
Speaker A:And then I look over and I asked like one of the most veteran looking guys, like, what the was that?
Speaker B:Oh.
Speaker A:And then you could see a helicopter in the distance.
Speaker A:This is the first night, bro.
Speaker A:And then you see the, the tracers from the helicopter and they're like, oh, I guess that was incoming.
Speaker A:They sent the choppers out there to go.
Speaker A:I'm like, okay.
Speaker A:And then the following morning we went to our FOB, where we would remain for 13 months.
Speaker A:And then, and then it was on and cracking, dude.
Speaker A:It was on and cracking.
Speaker B:How long were you in Iraq before you guys got your first firefight there?
Speaker A:There wasn't like sustained firefights in my area at my time, bro.
Speaker A:It was.
Speaker A:Dude, it was a lot of IEDs, roadside bombs, 155 artillery rounds.
Speaker A:Two 155 artillery rounds.
Speaker A:It was shoot RPG at you and run.
Speaker A:Fire at you and run.
Speaker A:That's what was pissing us off, Rose.
Speaker A:These wouldn't stay and fight rockets, mortars, every single day.
Speaker A:And those were accurate.
Speaker A:Like some.
Speaker A:They would eventually get accurate.
Speaker A:Okay.
Speaker A:And then.
Speaker A:And then towards.
Speaker A:And then the V bits.
Speaker A:Vehicle born.
Speaker A:IEDs, bro.
Speaker A:So I could.
Speaker A:I watched the escalation of the insurgents as they progressed.
Speaker A:And they kept countering, they kept hitting us with secondaries.
Speaker A:I watched the whole.
Speaker A:I was there for OIF2.
Speaker A:So the beginning of the insurgency, what
Speaker B:was the rules of engagement for you guys then?
Speaker A:Like on paper, I mean.
Speaker B:Because.
Speaker A:Okay, I'll be honest with you, bro.
Speaker A:I'm gonna be honest with you.
Speaker A:I'm gonna be honest with you.
Speaker A: It was: Speaker A:The rules were there.
Speaker A:The rules were there.
Speaker A:One rule for sure was if you get hit by an IED, the SOP was you.
Speaker A:Everybody opens up in 360 degree fire.
Speaker A:Like that was the SOP really 100, bro.
Speaker A:So, yeah, so, like, not that we ever killed anybody indiscretionally or like probably people that didn't have it coming, but did people die?
Speaker A:People got killed, bro.
Speaker A:For sure.
Speaker A:Like, did people get up?
Speaker A:People got up.
Speaker A:Did.
Speaker A:Was it the people that were responsible for attacking us?
Speaker A:I have no idea, bro.
Speaker A:That place was.
Speaker A:They weren't fighting us heads up.
Speaker A:Were they investigating into, like there was a process, right?
Speaker A:If you shoot somebody, there was a process for that.
Speaker A:You gotta do the.
Speaker A:Whatever that form was, like the whole.
Speaker B:The after action for it.
Speaker A:Yeah, well, you got.
Speaker A:It's like a record thing.
Speaker A:Like,
Speaker B:So if you guys.
Speaker B:If you guys are getting hit with IEDs, mortars, all the.
Speaker B:So that was kind of your guys's scenario.
Speaker B:Did you ever have any close calls?
Speaker B:Did you almost get blown up?
Speaker A: ,: Speaker A:Bomb blew up like right next to me.
Speaker A:It was two 155 artillery rounds.
Speaker B:Really?
Speaker A:100%.
Speaker A:And I was in a 998 vehicle, which is a supply Humvee.
Speaker A:Not the up armored 114 vehicles.
Speaker A:The supply one, you know, it looks like a truck and then it has the back.
Speaker A:Yeah, I was driving that boom detonates.
Speaker A:Since I was inside the blast, it.
Speaker A:I always describe it as this.
Speaker A:It was so loud that it wasn't loud.
Speaker A:Like that's how I describe.
Speaker A:It was so loud that it wasn't loud.
Speaker A:And it like it screwed up my hearing because of right now I can't hear out of my right ear.
Speaker A:And I say it's my right ear because I had Sergeant Zaragoza, former Marine, as my TC and I had my MP3 or MP3 player in my left ear listening to music, listening to Sugar Cult.
Speaker A:Pretty girl.
Speaker A:I remember, bro.
Speaker A:Like, pretty girl.
Speaker A:I'm like, look, I'm like, what the was that?
Speaker A:I said, did we get a flat tire?
Speaker A:That's what I said, did we get a flat tire?
Speaker A:And then, and then the whole cab starts filling up with like black smoke dust.
Speaker A:And then it's like.
Speaker A:And then, and then it's like slow motion and it's like, dude, we just got here, bro.
Speaker A:Cuz we had just gotten.
Speaker A:February, March, April, May.
Speaker A:I've been in country for two months, okay?
Speaker A:The day prior my platoon got hit.
Speaker A:Same exact spot.
Speaker A:Same exact spot.
Speaker A:Checkpoint 27.
Speaker B:Okay?
Speaker A:So we were out on patrol.
Speaker A:I say, Sergeant Z, tell me where the, where the platoon, where, where they got hit yesterday.
Speaker A:Boom.
Speaker A:Soon as he said that blue, I look to the back because Waylon, he's from, from Oregon.
Speaker A:He was on the 240.
Speaker A:I don't see Waylon.
Speaker A:I'm like, waylon, Waylon, I'm coasting, bro.
Speaker A:Because I'm driving Sergeant Z's.
Speaker A:I put it in park, park, park, park.
Speaker A:But I'm like just out of it, dude.
Speaker A:Like throw the in park.
Speaker A:And then I hear the 240 open up.
Speaker A:I'm like, yeah, like Waylon's alive, right?
Speaker A:Because that took the Whalen would eventually get hit probably by like 10 plus IEDs directly, bro.
Speaker A:Like he just had.
Speaker A:He survived all of them.
Speaker A:Like the was just a beast.
Speaker A:It was just pure luck.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:100, bro.
Speaker A:He was a magnet.
Speaker A:We ended up killing a fat dude in front of his kids on that event.
Speaker A:And it was a up thing about it was this kids, they were like, they were two boys.
Speaker A:One was like seven, the other one was like nine.
Speaker A:They watched their dad bleed out like this dude had got shot in the back in the man dress, okay?
Speaker A:No exit wound, no blood.
Speaker A:So we know this dude is shot, cuz he's acting like he's shot.
Speaker A:Like he's like ah, saying some stuff in Arabic and then go back out unconscious, wake up, tell his kids something in Arabic, go back out unconscious.
Speaker A:And like he just had a little slit in his skin like the 5, 5, 6, we think it was.
Speaker A:We hit him with a tracer from the saw, we think.
Speaker A:And like, it cauterized the wound or something.
Speaker A:The kids were flipping out, dude.
Speaker A:Flipping out, flipping out.
Speaker A:And I'm like, that's when I told myself, there can't be a God, I thought.
Speaker A:I grew up religious, foundation structure, Catholic.
Speaker A:And I was starting to rebel against God, whatever it may be, bro.
Speaker A:I fell out of graces with my God.
Speaker B:I feel you.
Speaker A:And I said, there can't be a God.
Speaker A:Like, if he's.
Speaker A:If we just.
Speaker A:If I just got hit by an ID right now.
Speaker A:This brought his kids to blow me up.
Speaker A:And we killed him in front of his kid.
Speaker A:What the is this, right?
Speaker A:This is like a gray area, like a.
Speaker A:Like this isn't how I had pictured war to be.
Speaker A:So the dude was barefooted.
Speaker A:The fat guy, the dead fat guy was barefooted.
Speaker A:We go chase the copper wire.
Speaker A:We trace it, because back then they were hitting us with command and remote dated IDs.
Speaker A:They were string the copper wire.
Speaker A:We go out, there's a pair of sandals where the copper wire was at the end in the field.
Speaker A:My sergeant comes, puts the sandal on the dead man's foot.
Speaker A:And like, oh, this fit?
Speaker A:Yeah, 100.
Speaker A:They fit.
Speaker A:He brought his kids to blow us up, dude.
Speaker A:And it's like one of those things, like, why would you do that, bro?
Speaker A:I remember I smoked a cigarette and I remember feeling my grandmother's presence.
Speaker A:Like she has passed away.
Speaker A:I just went like, dude, was that like a guardian angel?
Speaker A:Like, what was that?
Speaker A:Right?
Speaker A:And you asked, like, have I ever come close to getting blown up?
Speaker A:The crazy thing is, is I don't even consider that one a close one.
Speaker A:Even though it was like, right there.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker A:What I was going to tell you about, there was two sketchy ones.
Speaker A:We were on FOB Palo, which is a small little fob, and on one, we slept on one side.
Speaker A:And on the other side of the little fob was the Internet cafe where you get on the computers and get an email back home.
Speaker A:It was me, Sergeant Dino, my best man Garcia, and my friend Maze, who was like 18 years old, young kid, bro, the recruiter screwed him, got him for six years in the infantry.
Speaker A:Right off the bat, and we're walking us four across in the wide open, dude, and we hear an explosion.
Speaker A:Trust me, bro, we had been in country long enough to know the difference between incoming and outgoing.
Speaker B:Oh, for sure, for sure.
Speaker A:I'm like.
Speaker A:I'm like, incoming, right?
Speaker A:It was, it was.
Speaker A:It Was there, bro.
Speaker A:It was there.
Speaker A:And, like, I'm like, incoming.
Speaker A:And then my best man goes, nah, it's outgoing.
Speaker A:I'm like, outgoing, bro.
Speaker A:There's nothing there.
Speaker A:Like, there's no paladin.
Speaker A:There's no 155.
Speaker A:There's no 120.
Speaker A:And then, like, another one and it's closer.
Speaker A:And the guys working on the browser.
Speaker A:Run, run.
Speaker A:I'm like, dude, we take off running to nowhere.
Speaker A:We're just running, dude, I you not.
Speaker A:I. I'm making that sound because that's what it sounded like to me.
Speaker A:Like, the ground splashing, the hard structure splashing, dude.
Speaker A:We're like, oh, I don't know.
Speaker A:They're bracketing us.
Speaker A:I don't know.
Speaker A:They're watching, bro.
Speaker A:But those, like, dude, we find those, those.
Speaker A:Those concrete walls that keep car bombs out that are around the green zone.
Speaker A:Yeah, but they're stacked.
Speaker A:Laying down, they're stacked.
Speaker A:They're not like, upright.
Speaker A:Somehow, some way, like this little tiny hole right here, Four big ass men cram into there, dude, that's when it started.
Speaker A:Like, that's when it started.
Speaker A:Like, honest, bro, on us.
Speaker A:Like, these are.
Speaker A:What were they?
Speaker A:120 rockets, bro.
Speaker A:These were 120.
Speaker A:And, dude, oh, man, you could smell the black smoke.
Speaker A:Like, dude, I, I.
Speaker A:It's not that I felt like I was gonna die at that point.
Speaker A:Nobody gave a.
Speaker A:Whether they lived or they died, they didn't give a, bro.
Speaker A:Trust me.
Speaker A:And that was hard to trick your mind into accepting death.
Speaker A:And we start laughing, dude, we're laughing, bro, like, and it's just like.
Speaker A:And we're like, dude, eventually it stopped.
Speaker B:Yep.
Speaker A:Like, after.
Speaker A:I don't know.
Speaker A:I don't know.
Speaker A:In that barrage, there was probably between, like, between like seven and between nine.
Speaker A:And then they started there and it.
Speaker A:And then we waited.
Speaker A:And we waited, like, like, two, three minutes.
Speaker A:And like, let's go back.
Speaker A:Like, let's go back.
Speaker A:We think it stopped.
Speaker A:Take off, running back.
Speaker A:My boy hinks from Minnesota, he's like, bro, did you guys get caught in that?
Speaker A:We're like, yeah, dude.
Speaker A:It was right on top of us.
Speaker A:Like, I knew it, bro.
Speaker A:Was like, that timing, dude, that was.
Speaker A:That was sketchy as for sure, that was that time.
Speaker A:That was probably one of the times I should have got killed.
Speaker A:Then there was another time where, like, every time we come back from patrol, we have to top off the humvees.
Speaker A:Y Every time.
Speaker A:Mandatory with the fuelers.
Speaker A:Y well, we had those hesco baskets that surrounded the fuelers in like, a u We come back from patrol, I'm outside of the Humvee, gassing up my Humvee, and I just hear, dude, I dropped the.
Speaker A:The nozzle.
Speaker A:I get in the driver's seat, and I just drive again.
Speaker A:There's nowhere to drive, bro.
Speaker A:It's an open fob with nowhere to go.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker A:And I just drive forward, right?
Speaker A:And I'm like, the.
Speaker A:Dude, a. Incoming.
Speaker A:Like, the.
Speaker A:Bro, we parked the Humvee, and I.
Speaker A:Look, dude, there was a rocket sticking out of the ground on the other side of the Hesco basket.
Speaker B:No.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:I swear to God, bro.
Speaker A:Like, had that rocket went forward four more feet, like, had that rocket just went over the Hesco basket, it would have detonated that fuel truck, dude, for sure.
Speaker A:It was sticking out of the ground, like, the back half of it, right?
Speaker A:Like, oh, dude, those are what I.
Speaker A:Those are the ones that I call, like, the close calls.
Speaker A:Because they were just those.
Speaker A:They were blowing up, bro.
Speaker A:For sure.
Speaker B:For sure.
Speaker A:But there was other events, you know?
Speaker A:But, yeah, dude, me, bro.
Speaker B:So that's got.
Speaker B:That's the terrifying thing is when you're like, you're not fighting a military, you're not fighting militia.
Speaker B:You just.
Speaker B:You're just dealing with IEDs, indirect, just.
Speaker B:I mean, so you don't even know where it is when it's gonna happen.
Speaker B:And you guys are out just patrolling every day.
Speaker A:Basically.
Speaker A:You drive around till you get hit.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:Oh, that's what they just.
Speaker B:That was it, huh?
Speaker A:One of the stupid.
Speaker A:We did a lot of stupid again, man.
Speaker A:You had to have been young to be able to get away with them doing this to us.
Speaker B:Oh, 100%.
Speaker A:One of the stupid things they had us do was us walk, dismounted, walk on the side of the road looking for IDs, while the Humvees trailed us.
Speaker A:And we.
Speaker A:We did that.
Speaker A:We did that.
Speaker B:You look at it now and you're like.
Speaker A:You look back and you're like, why?
Speaker A:Why would you do that?
Speaker B:Don't put us on the ground.
Speaker A:Why would you do that?
Speaker A:Another stupid thing they had us do was the other engineer platoon, Red Platoon.
Speaker A:They kept getting hit, like, three nights in a row.
Speaker A:They got hit at the same place at the same time on the route.
Speaker A:Yeah, they got ambushed.
Speaker A:Straight ambushed.
Speaker A:Like how you were talking about, like, a sustained fire.
Speaker A:They got ambushed.
Speaker A:Small armed fires and rpg.
Speaker A:So they told us we were white platoon.
Speaker A:Hey, you guys are going to go drive that route, and you're going to drive with your white lights on at night.
Speaker A:We always drove the whole night.
Speaker A:The whole year.
Speaker A:We drove with our nods and blacked out for sure.
Speaker A:But they told us, you're going to drive with your lights on and when you get hit, you're going to kill them.
Speaker A:So my sergeant's like, hey, frell, that's my last name.
Speaker A:The one that was a Marine.
Speaker A:Sergeant Daragosa.
Speaker A:What would your parents say if they thought if they knew they were using you as bait right now?
Speaker A:I'm like, ah, dude, when you put it that way, that kind of sucks.
Speaker A:So I'm driving the Humvee like this, bro.
Speaker A:Like scared as cuz they just.
Speaker A:Dude, that was like dumb as like, yeah, I don't like side mission.
Speaker A:I don't like the idea that we had to drive with the lights on, bro.
Speaker A:We could have just did the same thing with the lights off, bro.
Speaker A:Like, you know what I mean?
Speaker A:But I guess we were trying.
Speaker A:Thank God they didn't hit us, but that was just dumb that we were doing.
Speaker A:Yeah, bro, dumb.
Speaker B:You look back, it's like, why?
Speaker B:Why?
Speaker B:Like what would be the point of that?
Speaker A:They weren't.
Speaker A:Our leadership was good, bro.
Speaker A:They weren't.
Speaker A:Those dumb decisions were coming from the top.
Speaker B:Top.
Speaker A:But even then we're.
Speaker A:Dude, let me see, what would be a good one to tell you?
Speaker A:One time we drove from Balar, the middle of Iraq, all the way up to Mosul, Camp Spiker, all the way up north.
Speaker A:And I did not have a windshield in my front of my Humvee because it had already gotten blown out by an iv and I was driving with the first sergeant of the tankers.
Speaker A:I forgot to mention that as prior to deploying to Iraq, they pulled my infantry platoon and attached us to a whole entire tanker unit.
Speaker B:Interesting.
Speaker A:Okay, so what they did was they made up a unit of a platoon of infantry, a platoon of combat engineers, a platoon of National Guard, and a platoon of tankers to make up a company.
Speaker B:Okay?
Speaker A:So we were being used like the redheaded stepchild, us and the engineers.
Speaker A:And then they would eventually lose a soldier the first month we were in country.
Speaker A:And then they would.
Speaker A:We would lose their platoon sergeant, Sergeant First Class Joselito Villanueva, who I also have tattooed on my back.
Speaker A:Who was there when my friend got killed, Edgar Daklon.
Speaker A:So like things started to get real fast, right?
Speaker A:Like, like it sucked when, when the Americans, when we started to die, like other motherfuckers were getting up too.
Speaker A:But the way we looked at it, they're Iraqis, so it doesn't fucking matter.
Speaker B:Yeah, until you guys get hit.
Speaker A:And then it became real, bro.
Speaker A:I Mean, we could talk about that incident.
Speaker B:Oh, yeah.
Speaker B:You're cool with it?
Speaker A:You were.
Speaker A:My friend got killed because it's important and because that shaped me.
Speaker A:Who I am today, dude.
Speaker A:It changed me as a man.
Speaker B:So walk me through the day that your boy got killed.
Speaker A: ,: Speaker B:Okay.
Speaker A:Happens to fall on my mom's birthday.
Speaker B:Oh.
Speaker A: ,: Speaker A:Edgar Declan, Filipino from Torrance, was our medic that morning.
Speaker A:We were qrf, right?
Speaker A:Because we had discussed.
Speaker A:You're either patrolling, you're either qrf, or you're either pulling guard on the can.
Speaker A:It rotates every.
Speaker A:So every other day.
Speaker A:Every day it rotates.
Speaker A:We were qrf, so they wake up, they're like, hey, get up, get up.
Speaker A:We got incoming.
Speaker A:We got to go to the point of origin, the poo.
Speaker A:We had a.
Speaker A:We had a satellite that would track the trajectory of the incoming mortar around and give us the exact grid coordinates
Speaker B:for where they launched it.
Speaker A:Where they launched it.
Speaker A:We knew this was gonna happen, bro.
Speaker A:We knew it was just a matter of time before they set us up, because it was.
Speaker A:We.
Speaker A:We did the same every time.
Speaker B:Oh, so you guys are building a pattern.
Speaker A:The.
Speaker A:The pattern was built.
Speaker B:Oh, okay.
Speaker A:Pattern was built, bro.
Speaker A:So we.
Speaker A:It was.
Speaker A:This was going to be inevitable.
Speaker A:The weird thing about it is when I woke up, when they woke me up for qrf, is that I didn't hear the incoming at all.
Speaker A:And I'm like, that's weird.
Speaker A:I didn't hear at all.
Speaker A:Usually you'll hear it.
Speaker A:Not that we're gonna jump out of bed.
Speaker A:It's just like, oh, you can.
Speaker A:You can hear it, right?
Speaker A:That was the first weird thing that I.
Speaker A:It was like, six in the morning.
Speaker A:My friend Maldonado from Puerto Rico was pulling the front gate guard.
Speaker A:And normally, like you said, we're like, hey, what's up?
Speaker A:Hey.
Speaker B:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker A:See you when I get back, dude.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker A:But it was eerie.
Speaker A:It was.
Speaker A:It was not normal.
Speaker A:He just looked at me.
Speaker A:We looked at him.
Speaker A:Nobody said nothing, which was abnormal, bro.
Speaker A:So we rol out four.
Speaker A:Four vehicles, two hum, three humvees, and a M113 armor personnel carrier.
Speaker B:Okay.
Speaker A:Vietnam style.
Speaker B:Yep.
Speaker A:Our area of operation runs against the Tigris river, and we get to a T intersection, the Hardball T intersection.
Speaker A:It's regular street.
Speaker A:I'm the third vehicle in line.
Speaker A:Comes over the radio, hey, we're the fourth vehicle.
Speaker A:We broke down down here, back a mile.
Speaker A:We're like, what the.
Speaker A:How did we not notice this vehicle broke down?
Speaker A:Yeah, the lieutenant.
Speaker A:Good lieutenant he also from Puerto Rico.
Speaker A:He says, hey Pharaoh, take your Humvee, go link up with the last vehicle.
Speaker A:That's what he says.
Speaker A:So the hardball, if you go to the right, that's where the point of origin was.
Speaker A:And we knew it, right, because we knew our area of operation, bro, so we knew that like, hey, we're gonna make a ride.
Speaker A:It's right there.
Speaker A:I didn't give it any thought, dude.
Speaker A:The two vehicles stayed there at the T. I go back with Sergeant Dean, I can't remember who else.
Speaker A:And then there's some Iraqis, I think they were ing tagging along in that last vehicle.
Speaker A:And as we're talking to this broken down vehicle on these, our friends, we hear.
Speaker A:Like a explosion with that eck that rumbled long.
Speaker A:We kind of just stop and we're like, what the was that?
Speaker A:And then kind of to me sounded like AK fire, but I don't think it was a fire because I wouldn't know.
Speaker A:Like, and then, and then you hear the.
Speaker A:Our weapon system.
Speaker A:Oh, hey, they got hit, they got hit.
Speaker A:They went forward.
Speaker A:Let's go.
Speaker A:Like, this is me saying it too.
Speaker A:I was the E4, bro.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker A:Telling the sergeant like, dang, let's go, let's go.
Speaker A:Dude, they went right?
Speaker A:Because I didn't.
Speaker A:They went ahead.
Speaker A:Let's go, let's go.
Speaker A:So like it seemed like forever, bro, but it's probably only like 20, 10 seconds.
Speaker A:Like, okay, let's load on the Humvee.
Speaker A:Let's go.
Speaker A:I know a shortcut through a canal road, through a dirt to get exactly to where they're at, which I take.
Speaker A:And I see the Humvee parked and I put my in park and I jump out.
Speaker A:And as soon as I jump out, bro, Sergeant Eggert, he comes up straight to me.
Speaker A:They killed Doc.
Speaker A:And I'm like, what?
Speaker A:What do you mean they killed Doc?
Speaker A:He's like, look, he's right over there, look.
Speaker A:He's like, he's killed Doc.
Speaker A:And I look, dude, to my right.
Speaker A:And yeah, my friend Edgar Daklon was on his back laying there and dude, I remember my world, bro.
Speaker A:And this, this changed me forever, dude.
Speaker A:Like, people probably wondering, why am I such a grumpy son of a.
Speaker A:Or why do I my no nonsense type of guy.
Speaker A:It's cuz like I run over there, like my first of all, my world went bro, like tunnel vision.
Speaker A:And I run over there and I stand over the body, I got my rifle and I'm looking at him and I like start at his face and I'm like going down, I see he has dry specks of blood on his face.
Speaker A:And I'm looking at.
Speaker A:And it doesn't look like Doc, bro.
Speaker A:Like, I'm looking at his face and it doesn't.
Speaker A:It doesn't look like him.
Speaker A:And like I.
Speaker A:And not that he was disfigured, it just didn't look like Doc.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:And it looked like somebody else.
Speaker A:And then I look at his right shin and his shin bone was exposed.
Speaker A:And.
Speaker A:And then I'm like.
Speaker A:And there's two ways.
Speaker A:There's, There's a street, there's.
Speaker A:So there's traffic and cars start coming down.
Speaker A:Both things.
Speaker A:So I'm like, I don't want these cars to come and see my dead friend here.
Speaker A:My lieutenant Torres was sitting in the passenger seat of the Humvee like this.
Speaker A:And I remember because I ran by him and the bottom of his boot was chewed up, bro.
Speaker A:It was gone.
Speaker A:Like, the bottom of his boot, the sole was gone.
Speaker A:And you could see his bottom of his feet look like ground beef.
Speaker A:So he took shrapnel directly to the bottom of his feet.
Speaker A:Like, I don't know if the blast knocked his ass over and just his shit up.
Speaker A:And then Hinks is bandaging up o'.
Speaker A:Neill.
Speaker A:O' Neill had his back to the ied.
Speaker A:It was surface leveled.
Speaker A:Ied.
Speaker A:So they just put a mound of dirt over it.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker A:And o' Neill took a gnarly piece of fucking shrapnel to the back of the Kevlar which pierced his skull.
Speaker B:Went through the Kevlar into his skull,
Speaker A:pushed the Kevlar so it made like a cone, you know?
Speaker A:Yeah, yeah, it pushed the Kevlar in it.
Speaker A:That pierced his skull.
Speaker B:Damn, that dude had a headache.
Speaker A:Oh, he.
Speaker A:He vomited.
Speaker A:Because I would.
Speaker A:Eventually I went to his wedding in Florida years later, and I saw vomit on the floor.
Speaker A:And I remember thinking, who the threw up?
Speaker A:Right as we're loading the bodies into the medevac.
Speaker A:And then at the wedding, o' Neill says, I think it was me that threw up because I was so out of it.
Speaker A:So at the time you had Daclon dead.
Speaker A:The lieutenant, which is so up, bro, because that's our medic.
Speaker A:That's our medic.
Speaker B:Was he in the vehicle or is he ground mount?
Speaker A:So I'm gonna tell you what happened.
Speaker A:They went forward, they parked the Humvee right next to the ied.
Speaker A:Hinks was driving.
Speaker A:Hink said something told him to keep the window up.
Speaker A:He said normally he would cruise with the window down and I know normally he would cruise.
Speaker A:He's like, dude, something told me, keep the window up.
Speaker A:Like, I think it was God talking to me.
Speaker A:He had his window up.
Speaker A:Daclon opens the door.
Speaker A:Because he was a leader, bro.
Speaker A:To us, he was a grunt.
Speaker A:And you had a haji.
Speaker A:You had an insurgent in the canal, watching, watching directly.
Speaker A:He's.
Speaker A:He's watching, bro, with the copper wire and with the battery.
Speaker A:He's watching.
Speaker A:He's waiting.
Speaker A:And as soon as Daclon got out and stepped in front of the Humvee, he detonated it.
Speaker A:So that caused Daclon to fly across the road, o' Neill to get up, and then for the lieutenant to get up in the foot.
Speaker A:That's when we showed up.
Speaker B:Damn.
Speaker A:Like, we showed up.
Speaker A:Like, that's the explosion that we had heard, bro.
Speaker A:And I've never said it like this.
Speaker A:Like, I've never said it like sequence of events.
Speaker A:That's what everything had transpired.
Speaker A:And then I would talk with my friends, like, hey, what the happened, bro?
Speaker A:Right?
Speaker A:So I see the cars, dude.
Speaker A:I don't want them to come.
Speaker A:I'm pissed.
Speaker A:And I start shooting warning shots at one of the cars.
Speaker A:One of the cars turns around immediately and does a U turn of the Opal, turns around and drives away.
Speaker A:Then I see a white truck.
Speaker A:I shoot the same exact warning shots over the truck.
Speaker A:Truck still coming.
Speaker A:What the fuck?
Speaker A:I shoot at the ground.
Speaker B:Crap.
Speaker A:Truck is still coming.
Speaker A:And I'm thinking, I have to kill this motherfucker.
Speaker A:The thing is, I had already shot somebody a couple months back, and that was kind of weighing on me, okay.
Speaker A:Like, mentally, right?
Speaker A:And I'm like, I don't want to have to kill this motherfucker.
Speaker A:Like, I don't even know.
Speaker A:So I shoot the.
Speaker A:The hood of the.
Speaker A:I shoot the engine block with 556 not and nothing.
Speaker A:And I'm like, I'm gonna have to kill this dude.
Speaker A:I'm gonna fucking have to kill this dude, bro.
Speaker A:This is all happening in seconds, less than seconds.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:And the truck's moving forward.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker A:And I could see, as it's more approaching, I could see there's a driver, but no passenger.
Speaker A:So I start lighting up the passenger side window, putting holes in the fucking passenger side window.
Speaker A:The stupid asshole keeps coming.
Speaker A:And I could see he's kind of an older gentleman, an old man.
Speaker A:So I'm trying to process.
Speaker A:But at the same time, this is when they were hitting us with car bombs, too.
Speaker A:Like, the car bombs were already getting integrated.
Speaker A:That's what I was assuming.
Speaker A:Right?
Speaker B:For sure.
Speaker A:Before you know it, the fucking truck is on me.
Speaker A:I didn't shoot the guy.
Speaker A:Thank God it was not a car bomb.
Speaker A:We're pissed off.
Speaker A:We break the dude's fucking window.
Speaker A:He's like an 80 or 90 year old old man.
Speaker A:We drag him out of the fucking window and to be real with you, we beat the shit out of him, dude.
Speaker A:And like, this is the first time I'm saying it.
Speaker A:We beat the fuck out of him, dude.
Speaker A:And we put him back in the fucking truck and he turned around and he left.
Speaker A:Like the dude was blind, deaf and dumb.
Speaker A:Literally all three.
Speaker A:And he fucking goes on his merry way.
Speaker A:Meanwhile, you still have my friend dead on the fucking road.
Speaker A:O' Neal getting bandaged.
Speaker A:And bro, like, like, like, it seemed like we were just like out there and somehow some way, Weeks shows up fast.
Speaker A:Like, I don't know, Weeks was probably already there.
Speaker A:But Weeks links up with me and I say, like, weeks, let's go follow the wire, right?
Speaker A:Because like, literally this is all we have right here, right now.
Speaker A:Like, all right, let's go follow the wire.
Speaker A:So we follow the copper wire to the motherfucking end of the thing, right on the Tigris.
Speaker A:We look, the dude detonated it and he ran down the Tigris into the village.
Speaker A:We would later the.
Speaker A:We would drop two 500 pound bombs on that village like the following day, bro, just.
Speaker A:Just to fucking like, you know what I mean?
Speaker A:Like, say, fuck you for killing our friend.
Speaker A:Yeah, well, the Air Force did it, but we called it in.
Speaker A:Yeah, well, the Air Force handled all that shit.
Speaker A:I don't think we were calling in bombs like that.
Speaker A:So by then, me and Weeks are walking back.
Speaker A:The reinforcements came, dude, like I father fucking.
Speaker A:Because we were only 3 miles from the F.O.B.
Speaker A:2 miles from the F.O.b.
Speaker A:the tankers showed up, like the higher ranking, like, tankers.
Speaker A:And this is a up part, bro.
Speaker A:This is where Joselito vianueva, the Filipino E7 sergeant first class, the platoon sergeant for the 9E.
Speaker A:He was a very nice man, bro, we went to R R together, okay?
Speaker A:We went to R and R together.
Speaker A:We were in Kuwait together.
Speaker A:We did our laundry together.
Speaker A:He was older than me, but again, I looked at all these dudes like father figures.
Speaker A:Yeah, he went to Los Angeles, I went to San Diego.
Speaker A:When we drank a beer together at the airport, I was only 18, bro.
Speaker A:I was 19.
Speaker A:And somebody bought me a beer and I drank it.
Speaker A:I asked him if I could drink, he's like, yeah, of course.
Speaker A:We were in dcu Uniform because that's what they made us fly in.
Speaker A:The weird thing is, is that when we got back to Texas to fly back to Iraq, he straight up tells me, like, I don't want to go back.
Speaker A:And I looked at him, I'm like, I mean, you don't want to go back.
Speaker A:We have to go back.
Speaker A:He's like, yeah, I know.
Speaker A:So he had taken shrapnel in his neck when his soldier got killed in the beginning of the deployment.
Speaker A:Yeah, he was a Gulf War veteran.
Speaker A:I think this dude had, like, a sixth sense, like, something was going to happen.
Speaker A:He meets me in the field after I pop smoke for the helicopter.
Speaker A:We're waiting for the medevacs now.
Speaker A:We got the reinforcements.
Speaker A:Everybody's there.
Speaker A:And I'm standing straight up in shock, bro.
Speaker A:Like.
Speaker A:And I know what shock is now, looking back in hindsight.
Speaker A:And he grabs me, he's like, hey, take a knife.
Speaker A:You're doing good.
Speaker A:Take a knee, dude.
Speaker A:You're doing real good, like.
Speaker A:And the helicopter's coming down.
Speaker A:Like, I didn't even realize I was standing straight up, dude.
Speaker A:And, like, I take a knee.
Speaker A:And he calmed me, and he played that role, you know, mentor, like, just an amazing leader.
Speaker A:And we go and we start loading bodies into the medevac.
Speaker A:And I look at the pilot, and I just give him this look like.
Speaker A:Like, thank you.
Speaker A:Like, thank you.
Speaker A:Like, take care of them, like.
Speaker A:And then they fly away.
Speaker A: ,: Speaker A:We go back to the FOB and I'm like, oh, it's my mom's birthday.
Speaker A:I better use the phones before they shut them down.
Speaker A:Because they.
Speaker A:Every time an American soldier gets killed, they shut down the phones.
Speaker A:Two hours.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker A:They want to be the first to notify the family.
Speaker A:I call my mom.
Speaker A:Like, hey, mom, happy birthday.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:Everything's cool.
Speaker A:Like, yeah, don't worry.
Speaker A:Like, I just wanted to wish you a happy birthday.
Speaker A:Hope everything's okay.
Speaker A:I love you.
Speaker B:Was that a tough call?
Speaker A:Yeah, dude, because everything was not.
Speaker A:Everything was not okay.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:But I wasn't about to up her birthday, you know?
Speaker A:And, like, I was like.
Speaker A:And I wonder if that part with me, like, I don't know what they.
Speaker A:What you call that part, Right?
Speaker A:What is that?
Speaker A:Guilt?
Speaker A:Shame.
Speaker A:I don't know.
Speaker A:That whole incident with me.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:Clearly.
Speaker A:Loss, grief.
Speaker A:17 days later.
Speaker A:No, August 10th.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker A:17 days later.
Speaker A:August.
Speaker A:17 days later.
Speaker A:September 27th.
Speaker A:I'm QRF again.
Speaker A:The first time, I think, again, Red Platoon is out, which is the engineers.
Speaker A:We hear over the radio.
Speaker A:Red Platoon is In contact, they're requesting qrf.
Speaker A:Hey, let's load up.
Speaker A:Let's go.
Speaker B:Right?
Speaker A:We knew what time it was.
Speaker A:We always have our gear ready.
Speaker A:Let's go, let's go, let's go.
Speaker A:I.
Speaker A:For some reason, I would always get impatient, right?
Speaker A:Like, let's go.
Speaker A:Like, they need us.
Speaker A:We go.
Speaker A:Finally leave the gate or down the route, and there's that field.
Speaker A:Like I told you, it's like a field.
Speaker A:I see Americans.
Speaker A:It was kind of at a.
Speaker A:At a distance, but not at a distance.
Speaker A:I see Americans loading a body, picking a body bag, picking a body, putting it into a body bag.
Speaker A:And I'm like, oh, please let that be Iraqi National Guard.
Speaker A:Please let that be ing.
Speaker A:Right?
Speaker A:And then you hear it over the radio, dude, be advised, Red 7 is Kia.
Speaker A:I was like, what the.
Speaker A:Dude, that was Jose.
Speaker A:Jose Lito Villanueva, who I went to R R with, who was there with me when Doc got killed.
Speaker A:He was the platoon sergeant for the engineers, dude.
Speaker A:Like, that was two major initial blows for me as a, As a man.
Speaker A:Yeah, As a young man, as a human, you know, they would talk about sacrifice.
Speaker A:I talk about sacrifice.
Speaker A:You know, I get so pissed off, and this is what I struggle with, dude.
Speaker A:I get so pissed off that I feel Americans are cowards and lack courage and spine and backbone and are afraid to say the bad wrong thing to their boss because they don't want to lose their job.
Speaker A:And I'm like, you, dude, you.
Speaker A:I knew men that would gladly give up their life for us, right?
Speaker A:But it's kind of a double edged sword.
Speaker A:Like, I don't want to, like, put the blame on them for them not serving.
Speaker A:But at the same time as, dude, I recognize what sacrifice is for sure, and I recognize what cowardice is.
Speaker A:You know what I mean?
Speaker A:So I'm that with me.
Speaker A:The crazy thing is, I mean, this whole thing is all up, right?
Speaker A:But September 10th, Daklon gets killed.
Speaker A:September 27, Joselito Viano gets killed.
Speaker A:October 1st, we take over the city of Samara.
Speaker A:Operation Baton Rouge.
Speaker A:So basically for you Marines, you guys took over Fallujah.
Speaker A:This was our version of Fallujah, smaller scale, but the city of Samara.
Speaker A:Samara had been taken over by insurgents.
Speaker A:It had definitely been taken over by insurgents.
Speaker A:And we had to go in there.
Speaker A:And that was cool as why?
Speaker A:Because we were on the offense.
Speaker A:And for the first time in our deployment, we were on the offense.
Speaker A:We, we went, we pushed on the edge of the city every American firepower, bro, that you had.
Speaker A:The AC130 gun chips that lit that up all night.
Speaker A:And probably the best fireworks show I've ever seen.
Speaker A:Dude, for sure one everything we had, we gave it to him, bro.
Speaker A:Artillery, 120 tank rounds, the whole nine, bro.
Speaker A:That was prior to us entering the city.
Speaker A:And then it was three days of clearing house to house, kicking in, doors smashing.
Speaker A:Like, dude, we knew which house the engineers had hit because they would all be on fire after we left.
Speaker A:They were so pissed, right, because their platoon sergeant had just gotten killed three days prior.
Speaker A:They.
Speaker A:We hit that city with a vengeance, bro.
Speaker A:With a vengeance.
Speaker A:So the briefing before we went, we were in a conference room with a table and I asked the lieutenant, hey sir, is there going to be people going about their daily business like grocery shopping, putting in gas?
Speaker A:He's like, hey, the lieutenant colonel says he wants to start this city from the ground up.
Speaker A:We have zero percent collateral damage.
Speaker A:They've been giving enough warning to get the out, all right.
Speaker A:He said, every car that you see, blow it up.
Speaker A:It could be a vbid.
Speaker A:He's like, I don't give a fuck.
Speaker A:At 4, 203, grenade.
Speaker A:And we're like, roger that, sir.
Speaker B:How fun was this, bro?
Speaker A:Bro, it's like being the best.
Speaker A:It's like a little boy's fucking best dream.
Speaker A:Yeah, yeah, you get a whole city to yourself now.
Speaker B:Run amok.
Speaker A:Now, I told you we were not indiscriminately killing people, right?
Speaker A:We weren't and I don't know anybody of us American troops that were, that were.
Speaker A:But we had a taken over a school.
Speaker A:Like we're operating initially and they're like, hey Pharaoh, did you kill a fucking lady yesterday?
Speaker A:I'm like, what?
Speaker A:No.
Speaker A:Like they asked me and I fucking kind of felt disrespected, but they would have like, no.
Speaker B:Why?
Speaker A:They're like, cuz there's a fucking dead lady over the wall.
Speaker A:Like there is like, I guess, I guess on the other side of the wall there was a fucking dead person.
Speaker A:Yeah, I didn't bother to go look.
Speaker A:Nor do I.
Speaker A:Nor did I give a fuck.
Speaker A:Right?
Speaker A:Like at that point there's nothing like, dude, it was it just.
Speaker A:Different time frame.
Speaker B:Sure.
Speaker A:Cars were on fire, houses were on fire, things were getting broken, people were getting up and we were finding weapon caches, we were finding bad guys.
Speaker A:We were, we were finding daisy chained IEDs, bro.
Speaker A:Which is scary because they had rigged that whole place.
Speaker A:That whole place was like an insurance playground.
Speaker A:They had like, on the rooftops, they had like special RPG stashes where they can run and shoot.
Speaker A:They had the daisy chain ids, I think, were the gnarly.
Speaker A:Where you'll find multiple IEDs linked together on a, like, dirt road on a narrow way.
Speaker A:We found artillery round that had that serine gas, urine serum, serum gas.
Speaker A:It's like that yellow gas or whatever.
Speaker A:Because they had started hitting us with those IEDs, but the chemical wasn't working.
Speaker A:Because in order for the chemicals to work, that.
Speaker A:That shit, that artillery round needs to rotate to activate the chemicals.
Speaker A:At least that's what they told us.
Speaker A:So the fact that it was just detonating and putting a cloud of chemicals, like it wasn't being effective.
Speaker B:Interesting.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:And then we took over a mansion.
Speaker A:So we operated out of a school, we operated out of the mansion, and we stayed there for a month, and then we went back to Balad.
Speaker A:But that was that offense.
Speaker A:So.
Speaker A: Yeah, like: Speaker B:For sure.
Speaker A:I don't think that shit's ever gonna happen again.
Speaker A:Not like that.
Speaker B:Who knows?
Speaker B:I never thought we'd be in trench warfare, and here we are in Ukraine.
Speaker A:True.
Speaker B:So you're.
Speaker B:How many guys did you end up losing in your.
Speaker B:On that deployment?
Speaker A:So on that deployment, we lost one guy kia, with a few guys wounded.
Speaker A:Purple Hearts.
Speaker A:Joselito Villanueva from the next platoon over.
Speaker A:And then when I got out of the army, my friends kept dying.
Speaker A:They kept deploying.
Speaker A:My friends from my platoon were PCSing to other units and getting killed.
Speaker A:In Hector Leha, I think he went to the 25th ID, he got shot in the head by a sniper.
Speaker A:And that's actually on YouTube, bro.
Speaker A:When he got shot in the head, like, I seen that.
Speaker A:Like, I seen how he got killed.
Speaker A:And I'm like, I was at the academy to be.
Speaker A: ,: Speaker A:Ellen, that black dude that greeted us, he went to the 10th Mountain.
Speaker A:He got killed.
Speaker A:My friend Soto, he got out of the army, reenlisted, then went back and got killed.
Speaker B:Oh, God.
Speaker A:Becker.
Speaker A:Michael Becker, he was my initial team leader.
Speaker A:He got hit by an id, caught on fire, flown to Texas, where he would eventually die of his wounds a few days later.
Speaker A:You had Ryan Wood, who I went to basic training with.
Speaker A:He went to 126.
Speaker A:He died.
Speaker A:And by an IED.
Speaker A:Joseph Herndon, who I went to basic training with, he went with a 25th ID.
Speaker A:Jeffrey King, who got wounded by an RPG, then he would come home and commit suicide.
Speaker A:Like, it was a lot, bro.
Speaker A:And it was with me.
Speaker A:So I started drugs and alcohol for sure.
Speaker B:So when you got back from Iraq, how long did you have before you were out of the.
Speaker B:Of the army?
Speaker A:Three months.
Speaker B:Three months.
Speaker B:So in that three months, it was a blur.
Speaker B:Yeah, because now you're doing everything.
Speaker B:You're getting your.
Speaker B:You're doing all your checkout paperwork.
Speaker B:You're just distracted.
Speaker B:So you never.
Speaker A:Drinking and drinking.
Speaker A:A fifth of vodka a night plus a 12 pack of Coronas during that period is when I started that much consumption.
Speaker B:You guys never had any decompression coming back.
Speaker B:You went straight into checking out to get out of the military.
Speaker A:Well, yeah, there was that three months.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:But during that three months, I mean, there's a process to get out, so it's not like you guys are even.
Speaker A:It was a process.
Speaker A:I was out processing.
Speaker B:Yeah, you're out processing.
Speaker B:So you never even processed any of the trauma that you dealt with overseas.
Speaker B:You came back and went straight into getting out mode.
Speaker A: But then again,: Speaker B:Hell no.
Speaker A:It was you.
Speaker A:You stay quiet, Nobody's suffering.
Speaker A:Everybody's cool.
Speaker B:Everybody's good.
Speaker B:Good.
Speaker B:Check.
Speaker B:All right.
Speaker A:In reality, that was not the case for me, for sure.
Speaker A:Meeting a lot of men later in life, that was not the case for them, for sure.
Speaker B:100.
Speaker B:That's why I'm asking, because in your era, in my early era was like, hey, you guys are all good.
Speaker B:Don't.
Speaker B:Don't say.
Speaker B:Because I remember.
Speaker B:We got.
Speaker A:I'm gonna tell you something.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker A:Before we left Iraq, there was a nurse.
Speaker A:Our sergeants came in, said, hey, these nurses gonna ask you a series of questions as soon as you say no, the sooner we can get out of here.
Speaker A:Cool.
Speaker B:Same speech.
Speaker A:These are what she asked.
Speaker A:Have you ever killed anybody?
Speaker A:No.
Speaker A:Have you ever seen any Americans die?
Speaker A:No.
Speaker A:Have you ever seen any enemy die?
Speaker A:No.
Speaker A:Have you ever seen any civilians die?
Speaker A:No, bro.
Speaker A:I don't even tell you about the car bomb.
Speaker A:But it doesn't matter.
Speaker A:I don't have to tell you about the car bomb, Right?
Speaker A:Like, it killed 22 motherfuckers.
Speaker A:It was a.
Speaker A:It was a mess.
Speaker A:So we answered no when all the shit was true.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:Before we move on forward, you remember when I told you that I had threw the stupid fucking blue cord at the tv and my best man.
Speaker A:We saw.
Speaker A:We thought I missed our war.
Speaker A:Well, this was a year of bullshit that we had dealt with, Right?
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker A:The last month we were in Iraq, bro.
Speaker A:What was that?
Speaker A:Major car bomb that killed 22 people.
Speaker A:There was just pieces of meat all over the place, floor, bro.
Speaker A:Steaming.
Speaker A:Steaming.
Speaker A:Because it was January.
Speaker A:So just charred, steaming meat.
Speaker A:22 people who were people.
Speaker A:There was not one complete corpse.
Speaker A:They were all charred.
Speaker A:They were all pieces.
Speaker B:Are these military or these?
Speaker A:Oh, these were ING, bro.
Speaker A:This was a bus full of ING 22.
Speaker A:They were a bus full of Iraqi National Guard.
Speaker A:They blew that up right in front of our fob.
Speaker A:A little way down the street, but right in front of our fob.
Speaker B:So you guys are first there.
Speaker A:We were qrf.
Speaker A:Yeah, we were the.
Speaker A:We were there, bro.
Speaker A:Like we were picking up the pieces.
Speaker A:How was that a nightmare?
Speaker A:A living nightmare.
Speaker A:A hell on earth, like a nightmare.
Speaker A:Like if you probably.
Speaker A:If you were having a nightmare and you were to see that, you would probably want to shake yourself awake and be like, oh God, thank God.
Speaker A:That was a nightmare.
Speaker A:But I remember specifically thinking, oh God, this is real, dude.
Speaker A:And there is no shaking away.
Speaker A:And I'm staring at everything.
Speaker B:It.
Speaker A:And I've said this story part before where I see this corpse, bro, and the corpse is mangled like this.
Speaker A:And there's a hole where the face is supposed to be.
Speaker A:And I see two Iraqis grab the body and move the body and it's just slush red just comes out.
Speaker A:And I remember going like, oh.
Speaker A:And then I hear Sergeant Dean.
Speaker A:Like, the sergeant, he was my team leader, bro.
Speaker A:So he was everywhere with me.
Speaker A:He's like, hey, Pharaoh, get the out of the Humvee and start picking up pieces right now.
Speaker A:Body, pieces, pieces, pieces, body pieces.
Speaker A:Chunks.
Speaker A:They were chunks, bro.
Speaker A:They were boots with feet still in them.
Speaker A:It was Kevlar's that were flat, like paper, flat.
Speaker A:Cab.
Speaker A:It was a car bomb, bro.
Speaker A:It was a.
Speaker A:It was a SUV that pulled up next to a bus and detonated and it just poof, blew everybody away.
Speaker A:I didn't want to get out of the Humvee, bro.
Speaker A:I didn't want to get my boots dirty.
Speaker A:That was January fucking a month before we were getting the fuck about to leave.
Speaker A:I was so tired.
Speaker A:I was over that place.
Speaker A:Yeah, I was over that place.
Speaker A:Sergeant Golson.
Speaker A:Solid, solid ass.
Speaker A:Big, muscular black dude.
Speaker A:A beast, bro.
Speaker A:Squared away, perfect leader.
Speaker A:He's like, he was in the invasion.
Speaker A:He was in the invasion of Iraq in 03, okay?
Speaker A:With the first armored division, the push.
Speaker A:And he's like, I've seen too much.
Speaker A:This is what he tells me, see, because I was seeing a lot of weird that it wasn't adding up in my head.
Speaker A:He tells me, like, I've seen too much.
Speaker A:And I'm like, what do you mean you've seen too much, right?
Speaker A:Like, you're an E7, bro.
Speaker A:He's like, I've seen too much.
Speaker A:I think I'm going to need to get help when I get back.
Speaker A:And I bro, I think to myself, and what the does this mean for me, right?
Speaker A:Like, what the am I.
Speaker A:So the thing about trauma, and this is for the viewers, is that when you're in the middle of the bro, you have no idea what transformation your mind, your soul, your heart, your gut, your body has already endured.
Speaker A:You have no clue, bro.
Speaker A:You're just changing.
Speaker A:You're just in the belly of the beast, dude.
Speaker A:So that was the car bomb.
Speaker A:Couple weeks later, we're QRF again.
Speaker A:We get a call, hey, a car got shot up.
Speaker A:An Iraqi car got shot up by another set of Iraqis.
Speaker A:A tribal war.
Speaker A:Go to this location.
Speaker A:The car's there.
Speaker A:There's dead people there.
Speaker A:Okay?
Speaker A:It's a canal with no water.
Speaker A:There's a car.
Speaker A:I mean, I got the pictures.
Speaker A:I got the videos, bro.
Speaker A:And I look, and there's a dude, driver's seat with a good, clean bullet hole right here.
Speaker A:His brains are on his shoulder.
Speaker A:Fingers are all shot up.
Speaker A:They're like bullet holes everywhere.
Speaker A:And it.
Speaker A:We.
Speaker A:We walk, me and my best man, we walk, and we're looking at the body, and we're like, dude, oh, man.
Speaker A:Tired of this.
Speaker A:And then we get a call on the radio.
Speaker A:It's my friend Weeks.
Speaker A:Hey, frell.
Speaker A:I have the dude's family here right now.
Speaker A:Should I let him go through?
Speaker A:I say, no, Weeks, don't let him go through.
Speaker A:Don't let him go through.
Speaker A:He's like, too late.
Speaker A:They're going through.
Speaker B:Oh, God.
Speaker A:Oh, they're walking.
Speaker A:Like, the dude.
Speaker A:The.
Speaker A:The son had to have been, like, probably 20 years old.
Speaker A:He looks in the car, he sees his dad with his brains all, like.
Speaker A:On the.
Speaker A:The kid, the.
Speaker B:The.
Speaker A:The son goes, like.
Speaker A:He starts screaming and crying, right?
Speaker A:My best man starts laughing.
Speaker A:He.
Speaker A:Which.
Speaker A:Another form that I found.
Speaker A:I.
Speaker A:People think we're crazy, right?
Speaker A:But I found that it's like a coping skill, coping mechanism.
Speaker A:They call it, like a sympathetic laugh.
Speaker A:Like, you're doing it right now, bro.
Speaker B:Yeah, 100.
Speaker A:You're doing it right now.
Speaker B:That's just kind of funny, though.
Speaker B:Like, it's just.
Speaker B:That's the only way you think you could do is laugh or cry.
Speaker A:No.
Speaker A:Excellently put.
Speaker A:So he starts laughing, and I'm like, oh, bro, stop, Stop.
Speaker A:Because then I want to laugh too, right?
Speaker A:I'm like, bro, you're such a bro.
Speaker A:Stop.
Speaker A:Because the dude's dead, his son's screaming, they're looking at us, the brains are on the shoulder.
Speaker A:Then the son says, do we take him to the hospital?
Speaker A:I said, take him to the hospital.
Speaker A:I said, let me know if, you know, hospital is going to bring him back because I got a couple friends I want to bring back.
Speaker A:He like, look, right, because we're bro, we're like callous, hardened.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:So basically what we end up doing is we end up throwing the dude a body bag here.
Speaker A:Put your dad in there and do whatever you want with him.
Speaker A:Take them away.
Speaker A:I don't give a.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker B:Like that was always awkward, like watching how you just got like a dead Iraqi.
Speaker A:They're like, they were dead or there all the time.
Speaker A:He just, what do you do with it?
Speaker A:Correct?
Speaker A:Yeah, it was one time we put one on the Humvee because of my psychotic, psychotic platoon sergeant.
Speaker A:He said, put them on the Humvee, put them on the hood like a deer.
Speaker A:And we drove him back too far.
Speaker B:Like, God, oh God.
Speaker A:Not a good look.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker A:Back to this story, dude.
Speaker A:Me and my best man were sitting on that canal bank, tired as, right?
Speaker A:Exhausted.
Speaker A:And he tells as the.
Speaker A:The son is loading the dad's body into the body bag.
Speaker A:Me, your best man.
Speaker A:This is like, this is like seven in the morning, bro.
Speaker A:He says, hey, bro, do you think that when we go back to the United States we're gonna have issues like, like the Vietnam veterans, like the Gulf War syndrome?
Speaker A:And I'm like, nah, bro.
Speaker A:I said, I think we're good, man.
Speaker A:Like, we're, we're here sitting next to some brains and all I can think about right now is going back to the chow hall and I hope the chow hall is open so that we can eat some breakfast.
Speaker A:He's like, oh, yeah, for sure, bro.
Speaker A:I'm hungry.
Speaker A:We're like, yeah, but if you think about it, dude, that's, that's not.
Speaker B:It was a fuse.
Speaker B:It was lighting a fuse inside here.
Speaker A:If you look at it, dude, that's not normal.
Speaker B:No, no.
Speaker A:So like.
Speaker B:But at the time, we didn't.
Speaker A:It had already began, dude.
Speaker A:Yeah, it had already began.
Speaker A:So you come back to Germany, you lie to the mental health physician.
Speaker A:You come back to Germany, you start coping with alcohol, self medicating because it numbs you, because it makes you pass out, because you don't have to think, you don't have to feel, dude.
Speaker A:It, it was a time I was a time bomb, bro.
Speaker A:I was a. I was.
Speaker A:I'm so passionate about helping people now because how bad I got, dude.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker A:In 05.
Speaker A:Yeah, in 05.
Speaker A: And then: Speaker A:Right?
Speaker A: But: Speaker B:You're still in the military during this time?
Speaker A:No, I ETS okay.
Speaker B:Okay.
Speaker A:I. I waited till I ETS to do all that other stupid.
Speaker B:And so you're just chasing it?
Speaker A:Chasing.
Speaker A:Chasing something that didn't exist.
Speaker B:Or running, I should say.
Speaker A:Oh, I was chasing.
Speaker A:I was chasing the high over chasing.
Speaker A:And I was running and chasing at the same time.
Speaker A:Hiding.
Speaker A:Like what I was doing was chasing the adrenaline that I would never feel it from combat ever again.
Speaker A:No matter how many women, how much alcohol, how much, how fast.
Speaker A:I was driving on the highway, 120 miles per hour.
Speaker A:105.
Speaker A:Getting in fights, challenging people to fight me, I never even came close to the adrenaline of combat.
Speaker A:I'm keeping it 100% real.
Speaker A:I never came.
Speaker A:I never even touched it.
Speaker A:No way.
Speaker A:Nothing would ever replicate.
Speaker A:Has replicated that.
Speaker A:But at the same time, I'm self medicating.
Speaker A:I'm drowning my trauma.
Speaker A:And by trauma, I mean.
Speaker A:What do I mean?
Speaker A:I mean sadness.
Speaker A:I mean fear.
Speaker A:I mean guilt.
Speaker A:I mean shame.
Speaker B:Loneliness.
Speaker A:Yeah, loneliness.
Speaker A:Because I was alone without my friends from the military.
Speaker A:I didn't have a weapon.
Speaker A:You know, yesterday we were talking about identity.
Speaker A:Technically, that was my identity.
Speaker A:I. I consumed it, bro.
Speaker A:Being a young soldier in the barracks, overseas in.
Speaker A:And then going to war like that.
Speaker A:That's you, bro.
Speaker A:You're.
Speaker A:I said it very clearly.
Speaker A:We were training 22 hours a day.
Speaker A:There were no days off.
Speaker A:There was no off time.
Speaker A:Like now you're off and now it's.
Speaker B:They have nothing.
Speaker A:$20,000 saved up from, from the, from the $20,000 from the deployment.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker A:And then like eight of my friends joined the Marine Corps and like one or two to the air Force.
Speaker A:We all came back to Brawley with $20,000 in our bank accounts, which we were all 20 years old, bro.
Speaker A:What do you think that looked like?
Speaker A:Raging, party raging.
Speaker A:We, we.
Speaker A: ard for the whole entire year: Speaker A: runk the whole entire year of: Speaker A:My parents were done with me, bro.
Speaker A:They would kick me out of the house.
Speaker B:So that's when.
Speaker B:So, okay, so after you go through everything that you went through in the military, you get back from deployment, three months later, you're out.
Speaker A:Yep.
Speaker B:So no decompression, no help and especially during that time, there was.
Speaker B:There was not like the.
Speaker B:We have now had nothing, early days.
Speaker B:It was just like, hey, you're good.
Speaker B:Okay, cool.
Speaker A:Even Internet was MySpace.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:Yes.
Speaker B:Okay, you're right.
Speaker B:So you come back, no help, no support, and now you're just on your own.
Speaker B:So this is when life starts to spiral bad.
Speaker B:Well, you said you got in the drugs.
Speaker B:What are you doing for drugs?
Speaker A:Okay, but this might sound stupid as.
Speaker A:But I fucking tried methamphetamine before.
Speaker A:I tried cocaine.
Speaker A:Really?
Speaker A:100% fact.
Speaker B:How do you just try meth?
Speaker A:Because where I'm from, there's drugs everywhere.
Speaker A:And the person, the people that were there at my party, who were my friends as well, they.
Speaker A:I said, all I said was, I want something.
Speaker A:That's all I said, I want something.
Speaker A:He said, okay.
Speaker A:He said, do you want to stay up for days or do you want to stay up for hours?
Speaker A:I said, I don't give a, bro.
Speaker A:Days, right?
Speaker A:That's what I said.
Speaker A:And he comes back with something which happened to be meh.
Speaker A:And I want to say that I snorted at that time, right?
Speaker A:Because I've snorted, I've smoked it.
Speaker A:But that, that, like, yeah, it sucks.
Speaker A:Whoever has ever snorted meth knows that it sucks to snort it.
Speaker A:It burns and it like, you're up.
Speaker A:You're up for days.
Speaker A:You.
Speaker B:You.
Speaker A:You don't eat, you don't sleep.
Speaker B:You're.
Speaker A:You're paranoid.
Speaker A:Eventually you do it so many times, you're paranoid.
Speaker A:Anxiety.
Speaker A:You want to know the crazy thing about me is, like, I probably naturally have anxiety as is.
Speaker A:I'm act hyper as is.
Speaker A:I don't need methamphetamine in my system, bro.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker A:Do you realize how bad that was?
Speaker A:I was living in hell.
Speaker A:And then the coke, right?
Speaker A:Because who gives a about trying coke if you've already tried meth?
Speaker B:For sure.
Speaker A:And then the roller coaster from hell is what I called it.
Speaker A:This is what every day looked like for me.
Speaker A:I would wake up at the nighttime to get ready to go party.
Speaker A:I would start consuming alcohol.
Speaker A:I would want to stay up more.
Speaker A:So I would do some cocaine.
Speaker A:It wouldn't put me as high as I wanted it to.
Speaker A:So then I would smoke meth, but then it will put me too high.
Speaker A:So then I would smoke weed and it would bring me down.
Speaker A:And I just fucking did this.
Speaker A:I did this.
Speaker A:I did this for a year, dude.
Speaker A:And then my parents were watching me.
Speaker A:They were probably thinking I was crazy.
Speaker A:They probably thinking like, my son, my son is no longer my son, right?
Speaker A:Like, he lost his damn mind.
Speaker A:My sister was, like, probably heartbroken.
Speaker A:Like, damn.
Speaker A:Like, my brother.
Speaker A:Look at my brother.
Speaker A:Like, what.
Speaker A:How can.
Speaker A:How can we help more?
Speaker A:What's going on here?
Speaker A:And I didn't know what the was happening, bro.
Speaker A:I had no idea.
Speaker A:And I think it's very important for me to tell the public.
Speaker A:Like, not knowing what was happening probably contributed it to a lot of it and made matters that much worse.
Speaker A:I think if somebody would have said, like, hey, Hector.
Speaker A:Like, hey, bro, Relax.
Speaker A:Stop.
Speaker A:You went overseas, you saw all this trauma, like, but also another thing that kept me from seeking help with the machismo.
Speaker A:Bravado, man.
Speaker A:I don't need help.
Speaker A:I don't need help.
Speaker A:My own ego.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:I was so stubborn, I almost died
Speaker B:over it for sure.
Speaker A:So.
Speaker A: hen I had totaled my truck in: Speaker B:So what was.
Speaker B:What was your rock bottom?
Speaker A:Depends on what you want to call rock bottom, bro.
Speaker A:Because my.
Speaker A:My rock bottom was a psych ward, bro.
Speaker A:I'm not gonna lie.
Speaker A:I don't think you get any more slower.
Speaker B:Ended up in a psych ward.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:How'd you end up in a psych ward?
Speaker A:Because I totaled my truck, dude.
Speaker A:And my dad said, I'm done with you.
Speaker A:You're not my son.
Speaker A:You're dead to me.
Speaker A:Don't call me.
Speaker A:Don't call this family ever again.
Speaker A:Damn.
Speaker A:I'm dropping you off at the VA In La Jolla.
Speaker A:We're not hearing from you again.
Speaker A:I was done, dude.
Speaker A:I was done, bro.
Speaker B:That was it.
Speaker A:I was like, he was not around, bro.
Speaker A:My dad was not around, bro.
Speaker A:For he me to hear my dad say that.
Speaker A:My dad's a very quiet, honorable, respectful man.
Speaker A:My fiance at the time had invited me to her friend's wedding, and I said, no, I have to work.
Speaker A:But I had called out sick from work, and I went to go party instead.
Speaker A:So when I totaled my truck, I had to explain to her why I didn't go to work, why I didn't go to the party, and how the.
Speaker A:I totaled my truck.
Speaker A:She was about to leave me.
Speaker A:My job was about to fire me.
Speaker A: onal officer at this point in: Speaker A:So I stopped.
Speaker A:Stopped doing drugs when I got accepted into the CEO.
Speaker B:Okay.
Speaker B:Which was what year?
Speaker A:2006.
Speaker B:Oh, so you were running hard.
Speaker B:So you get hard, hard.
Speaker B:So that first year out of the army, that's when you're doing everything with drugs, you get ended up.
Speaker B: Yeah,: Speaker B:Get hired as a CEO.
Speaker B:But the drug stop.
Speaker B:And the alcohol continued.
Speaker A:What's kind of crazy is that I have the common self respect and dignity to not do drugs when I'm in the military.
Speaker A:And I have the common self disrespect dignity not to do drugs in law enforcement.
Speaker A:Like I have that much common sense and like ability to not do that.
Speaker B:Yeah, but the drinking is what alcohol is.
Speaker A:What did your boy in, bro?
Speaker B:So you.
Speaker B:So before the truck accident, were there other incidents?
Speaker B:Because that's a long stretch to be that into alcohol without getting interested.
Speaker A:Here's a funny story.
Speaker A:It's not actually funny.
Speaker A:2006, me and my friends are smoking meth, drinking beer and we run out of beer.
Speaker A:So we say let's go do a beer run.
Speaker A:Let's go to the fucking 7 11.
Speaker A:Let's go steal some beer and run out of the store, not pay for it.
Speaker A:Okay.
Speaker A:I think we had did it earlier that night and we got what we wanted, like 18 pack.
Speaker A:Stole 18 pack, went back to the pad.
Speaker A:Drink that.
Speaker A:So we were going to do the second beer night, beer run of the night.
Speaker A:My friend is driving, I'm in the backseat of the truck, my other friend, there's three of us, goes out, goes in there, runs.
Speaker A:Fucking takes forever.
Speaker A:He's fucking up.
Speaker A:And then when he runs out of the store with a case of beer, a CHP officer, California Highway Patrol is driving and sees the entire thing.
Speaker A:He sees, he saw everything.
Speaker A:And he turns around and flips a U immediately and pulls us over.
Speaker A:Pulled us over immediately, got caught and like I was a smart ass bro.
Speaker A:And he.
Speaker A:They realized like these dudes just did a beer run, then they book us into jail.
Speaker B:Oh, they arrested all you and you're a CEO at this point?
Speaker A:No, no.
Speaker A:So you're saying like what built up.
Speaker A:So this, this, this incident that I'm telling you right here was the first legal incident.
Speaker A:Oh.
Speaker A:As a result of my drinking prior to being a CEO.
Speaker B:Okay.
Speaker A:Prior to being a CEO.
Speaker A:Now I had the aspirations to be a CEO.
Speaker A:I had the goal to be a CEO.
Speaker A:But my own, I was, I was getting in my own way, like my trauma.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:Not to make an excuse, but the, that was what it was.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker A:They.
Speaker A:I'm thinking I'm not going to do.
Speaker A:I'm thinking they're going to release us.
Speaker A:It's a 18 pack of beer, dude.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker A:They take us to Brawley Police Department.
Speaker A:They do the little.
Speaker A:They take us to Imperial County Jail.
Speaker A:And I'm just like, oh yeah, like anytime now.
Speaker A:Like anytime.
Speaker A:They're just Gonna open the door.
Speaker A:I'm gonna get the out of here, right?
Speaker A:This was like on a Thursday or like on a Friday, bro.
Speaker A:And I'm like, yeah, no big deal, right?
Speaker A:Whatever.
Speaker A:I'm homeless at this time.
Speaker A:I'm homeless.
Speaker A:I was not living at my parents house.
Speaker A:I was living at my cousin's house.
Speaker A:That's all I'm gonna say.
Speaker A:There's a lot of drugs around.
Speaker B:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker A:And then they put us in this damn dress out room, bro.
Speaker A:And they take my personal property and give me some sorry ass jail clothing, man.
Speaker B:Sink in, you knew you weren't gonna go anywhere.
Speaker A:Yeah, I was not a happy camper, bro.
Speaker A:Yeah, I was like, oh, what is this?
Speaker A:You're gonna.
Speaker A:You're getting booked.
Speaker A:Book the 18 pack of beer, dude.
Speaker A:You guys are tripping, right?
Speaker A:Again, not accepting accountability, being immature, young.
Speaker A:And then, bro, they opened the dorm.
Speaker A:Straight gang members, dude.
Speaker A:This is active.
Speaker A:Active gp, like, because there was no reason for me to be in protective custody, right?
Speaker A:But I'm not a gang member.
Speaker A:I'm not a gang member, bro.
Speaker A:This is a regular.
Speaker A:And as soon as we go in, me, my friend Jaime, the shot caller of that dorm, thankfully, was Jaime's cousin.
Speaker A:So he goes, I mean, what up, bro?
Speaker B:What are you doing here?
Speaker A:Hey.
Speaker A:Tells his friends, hey, this is my.
Speaker A:So we got lucky.
Speaker A:Well, he got lucky.
Speaker A:I just happened to be lucky with him.
Speaker B:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker A:And then he looks over at me.
Speaker A:Oh, he's with me.
Speaker A:All right, guys.
Speaker A:So they like take my.
Speaker A:These gangsters, like real gangsters, bro, With a tattoo in their face and their heads.
Speaker A:I'm not that, mind you.
Speaker A:I just got out of the military, dude.
Speaker A:I'm trying to be a co, bro.
Speaker B:Now you're in jail.
Speaker A:But I also know how to adapt to my environment.
Speaker A:Sure.
Speaker A:So this first thing I do, as dumb as it sounds and as dumb as it is, I took off my shirt and started doing push ups on the floor, bro.
Speaker A:Instantly, my friend looked at me like, what are you doing, bro?
Speaker A:Get up.
Speaker B:You're all trying to show everybody how tough or whatever, you didn't know what to do.
Speaker A:Correct.
Speaker B:Okay.
Speaker A:Correct.
Speaker B:Okay.
Speaker B:So how long did you end up spending in the week for a case of beer?
Speaker A:It was horrible.
Speaker B:Before you guys got to see a judge or something.
Speaker A:We did not know that the third guy bailed himself out the first night.
Speaker A:We didn't know that.
Speaker B:Okay.
Speaker A:We.
Speaker A:What we got was time served.
Speaker A:Well, we got was time served.
Speaker A:There was no judge.
Speaker A:And if you look at my record, that like, it's on the Record, but it was, like, dismissed.
Speaker A:The d. A.
Speaker A:Never picked it up.
Speaker A:Okay, so, like, dude, I mean, I don't want to talk too much about the jail stuff, but there was.
Speaker A:There was.
Speaker A:There was drugs in the jail, right?
Speaker A:Sure.
Speaker A:Weed.
Speaker A:I mean, I'm for sure there was weed.
Speaker A:I know that much for a fact.
Speaker A:And, like, I just followed along, like, to not create any waves.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:Okay.
Speaker B:So you get out of there.
Speaker A:So while I'm in jail, bro, because this is what you were asking.
Speaker A:There was a payphone on the wall, and I called my dad on the payphone.
Speaker A:I remember I was not living at home.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker A:And he's like, hey, you got your letter from CDCR to go take your written examination.
Speaker A:He's like, I don't even think you can get in now with what situation you're in.
Speaker A:And I got out of jail on the.
Speaker A:On the.
Speaker A:Monday, I drove to Rancho Cucamonga on Tuesday, when I got out of jail to go take the written exam, and I passed to become a CO When I passed that written exam is when I stopped, like, all drugs, is when I tried to stop drinking.
Speaker A:I don't even think I tried.
Speaker A:When I got to my medical examination, my liver enzymes were high.
Speaker A:And the doctor asked me, like, hey, how much you drink?
Speaker A:And of course, I lied.
Speaker A:I'm like, I don't know.
Speaker A:Three beers a weekend.
Speaker A:Oh, well, you need to stop.
Speaker A:Like, your.
Speaker A:But before that was a background investing investigator, bro.
Speaker A:He's like, wait a minute, man.
Speaker A:It says here that you were in jail three months ago.
Speaker A:What's up with that?
Speaker A:I said, sir, I could explain everything.
Speaker A:He goes, please do.
Speaker A:Please do.
Speaker A:I said, hey, sir, I got out of the army.
Speaker A:Like, I was hanging out with some friends who I thought were my friends, and, like, they got me caught.
Speaker A:I kind of said, like, I didn't really throw them under the bus.
Speaker A:I'm just like, you know, I was hanging out with friends, and we got arrested, and I no longer hang out with those friends.
Speaker A:And he's like, all right, I believe you.
Speaker A:You look like a good kid.
Speaker A:I'll give you a chance.
Speaker A:Like, that's what the dude told me, and he let me in.
Speaker A:Okay, so then.
Speaker A:Then I become a CEO And I had stopped drinking alcohol on my own because I knew that it was a problem for me.
Speaker A:But when I was at the academy, I failed my first examination, and I drank at the strip club, and.
Speaker A:But when I drank.
Speaker A:I'm an alcoholic, bro.
Speaker A:Like, I said, like, for the viewers that understand what being an alcoholic is, there is no, just having one beer for me.
Speaker A:There's a chemical imbalance, like, in my brain.
Speaker A:I was.
Speaker A:I was back at it, dude.
Speaker A:Back at it.
Speaker A:Drinking, reckless behavior, untreated post traumatic stress disorder.
Speaker A:And for three years, I was a young CO indulging in alcohol.
Speaker A:I had a girlfriend, quote unquote fiance, who would eventually be my wife.
Speaker A:And I put her through hell those three years, bro, but she stuck through it.
Speaker A: In: Speaker A:And I went to the VA hospital and I went to the emergency room.
Speaker A:My dad was there.
Speaker A:Luckily, my dad didn't just drop me off and leave like he said he would.
Speaker A:He.
Speaker A:He got off the car, he waited right next.
Speaker A:I was so scared, bro.
Speaker A:I was.
Speaker A:I was done.
Speaker A:I was.
Speaker A:That was my bottom.
Speaker A:I would.
Speaker A:I had never asked for help before.
Speaker A:I adamantly refused to ask for help.
Speaker A:I didn't know how to ask for help.
Speaker A:I didn't even know that was like.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker A:And there was a lady behind the counter, and I said, hey, ma', am, I need help.
Speaker A:She's like, what's wrong, hun?
Speaker A:I'm like, I don't know.
Speaker A:I don't know.
Speaker A:Every time I drink, bad things happen.
Speaker A:I have these thoughts, like, it's a.
Speaker A:It.
Speaker A:There's something wrong with me.
Speaker A:And she's like, oh, don't worry.
Speaker A:Like, she was very calming and like, normal, bro.
Speaker A:Like, soothing.
Speaker A:She's like, have a seat.
Speaker A:We'll see you right now.
Speaker A:Then we go into this office.
Speaker A:They start asking me questions.
Speaker A:I said, man, I have this anxiety because the CHP were looking for me.
Speaker A:I. I total my truck and I fled the scene.
Speaker A:So they called my job site.
Speaker A:They said, have you seen this correctional officer?
Speaker A:We're looking for him.
Speaker A:We found his truck.
Speaker A:His truck is totaled.
Speaker A:Like, is he okay?
Speaker A:Like, we have no idea where this dude is.
Speaker A:I was at the va, asked, begging for help.
Speaker A:Right?
Speaker A:Like,
Speaker B:so you total your truck and
Speaker A:fled at the scene.
Speaker B:Then the cops track you down and you're a correctional officer, so they call your prison.
Speaker B:And you meanwhile, you checked yourself into the VA 100%.
Speaker B:Holy shit.
Speaker B:Is this where they put you in a psych ward?
Speaker A:Yep.
Speaker B:You had no idea what was coming up?
Speaker A:It's not that they put me in the psych ward.
Speaker A:It's that I'm telling the lady what's wrong with me.
Speaker A:Right?
Speaker A:Or like, these are what happened.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker A:And she's like, oh, hon, it sounds like you would be a great candidate to go upstairs.
Speaker B:And I'm like, here's this for the loony Bin.
Speaker B:Huh?
Speaker B:You had no idea?
Speaker A:No idea, bro.
Speaker A:Bro, you had.
Speaker A:I'm a gullible.
Speaker A:I'm there to get help.
Speaker A:You're telling me I'm gonna get help, right?
Speaker A:I'm all for it at this point.
Speaker A:She's like, you seem like you would be a great candidate to go upstairs.
Speaker A:Like, there's people like you there, and we.
Speaker A:We help them.
Speaker A:And I'm like, oh, yeah, that's why I'm here.
Speaker B:Sign me up.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:So they're like, okay.
Speaker A:And they put me in a hospital gown, bro.
Speaker A:And they put me in a wheelchair.
Speaker A:Like, looking back now, you want to ask me what my bottom is, bro?
Speaker A:There's no reason why I should be in a hospital gown and a wheelchair getting wheeled into a psych ward, bro.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker A:Like, I'm perfectly sane.
Speaker A:You know what I mean?
Speaker B:Ish.
Speaker A:But with untreated post traumatic stress disorder and alcoholism.
Speaker B:Yeah, but that's not sane.
Speaker A:Correct.
Speaker A:I'm saying right now, I'm perfectly sane.
Speaker B:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker B:But at the time, I mean, you're obviously probably also thinking that you're saying, but you don't realize what you're battling and what you're.
Speaker B:What's going on.
Speaker A:I didn't think I was saying back then, bro.
Speaker A:I didn't know what the.
Speaker A:Was going on, bro.
Speaker A:I thought I was a alien.
Speaker A:Like, I just.
Speaker B:What is.
Speaker A:Why.
Speaker A:Why am I so stupid?
Speaker A:Why can't I. I thought it was immaturity.
Speaker A:I thought, like, I'll grow out of this.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker A:There is no growing out of that, bro.
Speaker A:You got to treat whatever's going on.
Speaker A:So they put me.
Speaker A:They will me, and as soon as they.
Speaker A:And now, mind you, this was voluntarily, right.
Speaker A:I was not involuntary put into a psych ward.
Speaker A: For the record, that's a: Speaker A:And I get there and I'm like, oh, no, right.
Speaker A:There's.
Speaker A:There's talking to themselves or schizophrenia.
Speaker A:There's like, how long were you in
Speaker B:there before you realized it was a psych ward?
Speaker B:Immediately.
Speaker A:I don't know if I've seen it from movies.
Speaker B:Oh, so it looked the part.
Speaker A:Well, yeah, bro.
Speaker A:I mean, instantly, as soon as the door shut, it made you look back.
Speaker A:You're like, why did they just lock that door from the outside?
Speaker B:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker B:You're like, I can't get out of here.
Speaker A:Correct.
Speaker B:Okay.
Speaker A:I'm not a dumb.
Speaker A:I'm very observant.
Speaker A:I'm noticing that the door just shut and the motherfucker talking to himself in the corner.
Speaker A:The homeless looking right There.
Speaker A:And then a marine comes up to me, and he's like, around my age, and he says, bro, don't get on the pills.
Speaker A:Don't get on the pills.
Speaker A:Don't get on the pills.
Speaker A:And then he walks away.
Speaker A:And I'm like, don't get on the pills.
Speaker B:Right?
Speaker A:That's what he tells me.
Speaker A:Oh, I'm like, dude, I sit on my bed.
Speaker A:There's a, like a, a sketchy homeless dude doing some inappropriate things on his bed.
Speaker A:And I'm like, that's when I say, this is my bottom.
Speaker A:That's when I realize, this is where alcohol has led me.
Speaker A:This is where alcohol has led me.
Speaker A:This is, this is, this is a problem.
Speaker A:This is a severe problem.
Speaker A:There's something wrong.
Speaker A:This.
Speaker A:What the.
Speaker A:What's next?
Speaker A:Right?
Speaker A:So, like, bro, like.
Speaker A:And mind you, I'm also trying not to get fired from my job.
Speaker A:I'm also trying not to lose my fiance.
Speaker A:So I was a very selfish person.
Speaker A:And out of alcoholism.
Speaker A:And again, I don't, I'm not making excuses, bro.
Speaker A:I'm just telling you exactly how it was.
Speaker A:When I'm under the influence of alcohol, I become a very selfish person.
Speaker A:Manipulative, like, liar, cheater, and the thief.
Speaker A:Like, what can you do for me?
Speaker A:Right?
Speaker A:I hate it that way.
Speaker A:That's not, that's not me, who I am as a person, right?
Speaker A:So I'm, I'm sitting there thinking, I gotta save my job.
Speaker A:I gotta.
Speaker A:And this is gonna get out of this.
Speaker A:How do I get out of this?
Speaker A:How do I keep my wife?
Speaker A:And my dad kept telling me, like, don't worry about your job.
Speaker A:Don't worry about your job.
Speaker A:I, I, I'm taking care of it.
Speaker A:Because he was also a correctional officer at the same exact prison.
Speaker B:You had some poll.
Speaker A:He spoke to the warden on my behalf.
Speaker B:Okay.
Speaker A:God.
Speaker B:Okay.
Speaker A:That warden, at the time, gave me a chance.
Speaker B:Okay?
Speaker A:But for the people that are trying to, like, get better now, I totally understand of why you want to fix everything first and foremost instead of yourself.
Speaker A:It's almost like a design that you're trying to distract yourself.
Speaker A:But the reality was that I needed to work on myself.
Speaker A:I needed to look inward, and I had never in my freaking life had done that.
Speaker B:So what help did you get?
Speaker A:So they give you this card, and on the card it says, while you're in here, it's called two south, bro.
Speaker A:Two South.
Speaker A:In the VA in La Jolla, there's two north, which is the medic, the mental health wing, there's two south, which is A psych ward.
Speaker A:There's Two west, which was the rehab for alcohol, which I would eventually go to.2 West.
Speaker A:So basically it's the second floor of the VA with the hallways, and each one is designated for.
Speaker A:I wasn't too south, bro.
Speaker A:I'll never forget that.
Speaker A:So they give you a slip of paper, says, what do you want to take advantage of while you're in here?
Speaker A:And one of the little boxes said, meetings of Alcoholics Anonymous.
Speaker A:And I was so broken, I'm like, well, I might have a problem with alcohol.
Speaker B:Oh, you still didn't even realize it.
Speaker A:I still didn't even realize it, bro.
Speaker A:But I figured, like, I'm here, I'm not going anywhere.
Speaker A:Just check the block.
Speaker A:And I checked the block, dude.
Speaker A:Next day they say, hey, Hector, come over here, right?
Speaker A:They separate in the groups and I fucking go in.
Speaker A:The group is a meeting of Alcoholics Anonymous, bro.
Speaker A:My first one ever.
Speaker A: It was: Speaker A:There's a table, there's a man speaking.
Speaker A:He has 12 years of sobriety.
Speaker A:I didn't even think 12 years sobriety was a fucking possible, bro.
Speaker A:Because I couldn't even string along.
Speaker A:Definitely not 12 days, bro.
Speaker A:Like, I couldn't keep sobriety.
Speaker A:Like, I wouldn't even.
Speaker A:And he shares the story.
Speaker A:He says, hey, my name is so and so.
Speaker A:You know, when I used to drink, I used to get in fights.
Speaker A:When I used to, I used to be destructive.
Speaker A:I used to self sabotage.
Speaker A:And I'm like, bro, like, I used to crash cars, I used to go to jail, I used to disappoint my family.
Speaker A:And I'm like, yup, me, that's me, right?
Speaker A:Like, that's me.
Speaker A:And like, he's like, and Now I have 12 years of riot, like, and I'm like, whatever this is, I need it, I want it.
Speaker A:This is for me, like.
Speaker A:And I.
Speaker A:And I just been with the program for 15 years now, bro.
Speaker A:Like, currently sitting here, I have 15 years of sobriety.
Speaker B:Good for you.
Speaker B:And you got to keep your job.
Speaker A:I got to keep my job at.
Speaker A:I got to keep my wife, even though we're currently separated.
Speaker A:You have a beautiful seven year old daughter.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker A:And I repaired the relationship with my family through what is called what I call a living amends.
Speaker A:Meaning, like, because I would, you know, I would just want to apologize all the time for saying I'm sorry.
Speaker B:I'm sorry.
Speaker A:I was a piece of, like, I'm sorry.
Speaker A:Like, because I also, right after rehab, right after the psych ward, I went into a 20 day inpatient rehab, okay?
Speaker A:For substance abuse and mental illness.
Speaker A:Okay.
Speaker A:So I learned about alcoholism and I learned about post traumatic stress disorder.
Speaker A: king on myself since the year: Speaker A: We're now in: Speaker A:I learned all about trauma, loss, grief, the brain, how it rewires, dopamine, cortisol.
Speaker A:Everything is scientific, bro.
Speaker A:Spiritual wound.
Speaker A:I got to keep my job.
Speaker A:And when I got sober, things started getting better, bro.
Speaker A:I promoted a sergeant.
Speaker B:Let's get into the corrections because we got.
Speaker B:We're two hours in.
Speaker B:I want to cover some correctional, so get to keep a job.
Speaker B:Everything's great there.
Speaker B:You clean up, you clean up sobriety, you get clean, get off alcohol, Things start looking better.
Speaker B:I want to get into the depths of correctional facility.
Speaker B:So you've worked at two different.
Speaker B:1.
Speaker B:What was the first one based around?
Speaker A:Sentinel, a state prison that was based around gangsters, Gang members.
Speaker B:Let's talk about that.
Speaker B:What's it like working in a prison just full of gang members?
Speaker A:Oh, it's great.
Speaker A:Why structure how they police their own, or they should police their own, or for the most part, they police their own.
Speaker B:Really?
Speaker A:Meaning that everybody should, should, quote, unquote, be acting like an adult?
Speaker A:Yes.
Speaker A: Now, that was back in: Speaker B:Okay.
Speaker A:Of course, generational changes.
Speaker A:But you're asking me what was it like to work in a prison full of gangsters?
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker A:Oh, did the dream come true really?
Speaker A:Well, young like me, who loves adrenaline.
Speaker A:And when you see a 200 man riot, race riot, the way California is set up is they the inmates, they separate themselves by race.
Speaker A:So you'll have the whites, you'll have the blacks, you'll have the Mexicans, which are the surenos, where I was at at the time, down south, and then the paisas, but then you have the others, which are native.
Speaker A:The others are Samoans, Asians, etc.
Speaker A:Okay.
Speaker A:So when the rule is when one gets involved in an altercation with another race, that everybody has to get involved.
Speaker A:So it'll just explode.
Speaker A:So you.
Speaker A:You'll see like chaos erupt.
Speaker B:Do you know, as a correctional officer, do you know when something's about to pop off?
Speaker A:It can happen, various reasons.
Speaker B:Okay.
Speaker A:There can definitely be where you know about it.
Speaker A:And the way it can be is like, you understand as a correctional, you, you, you should know what is, what is happening, who is who.
Speaker A:And once you learn how to read the environment.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker A:Where you can feel it with your sixth sense, you can observe what are you looking for?
Speaker A:Okay, so if you're looking for like if I just.
Speaker A:Common sense to me now, it's common sense.
Speaker A:If I see two men, I can distinguish whether the two men are having a casual conversation or whether they're in a disagreement or whether they're in a heated disagreement or whether they're about to go to blows.
Speaker A:Right?
Speaker A:That's just a small example of how I can read.
Speaker A:How a person could read.
Speaker A:Yeah, reading something.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:But you also got to know about like their internal drug trade.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:And you're going to find out information various ways.
Speaker A:You might have inmates that tell you, or you might have inmates that have a rapport with another officer.
Speaker A:They might tell them.
Speaker A:Here's an example.
Speaker A:People aco, like the blacks owe the Mexicans money and the Mexicans are pissed that the blacks won't pay.
Speaker A:That's enough to let us know, oh, dude, they're gonna collect.
Speaker A:And by collect they're gonna like stab, stab, kill, riot, you know what I mean?
Speaker A:Like at that time.
Speaker A:At that time.
Speaker A:So he's like, yeah, you got to put piece, put together the pieces.
Speaker A:They're not going to straight up tell you.
Speaker A:Sometimes they will, sometimes they'll be like, hey, there's a fucking green light on cops.
Speaker A:Like they're gonna hit you guys.
Speaker B:No shit.
Speaker A:But we already know.
Speaker A:Let's say I'm patting a Mexican inmate down and I slam him on his fucking face for no apparent reason.
Speaker A:It's not.
Speaker A:Doesn't take a rocket scientist to know that the rest of the inmates are gonna be pissed off and are gonna retaliate.
Speaker A:You know what I mean?
Speaker A:So some things are kind of self explanatory.
Speaker B:How often is there retaliation on correctional officers in the prison?
Speaker A:It's an excellent freaking question.
Speaker A:More often than not, I'll just say that.
Speaker A: n I say that, I'm saying from: Speaker A:Okay, yeah.
Speaker A:Basically, if something doesn't go their way, we're gonna know about it.
Speaker A:Yeah, because they're inmates, right?
Speaker A:Like they don't also don't have the coping skills there.
Speaker A:And again I'm making excuses for them and they're all in there for various crimes.
Speaker A:But I've learned a lot about gangsters, man.
Speaker A:I've learned a lot about gang members.
Speaker A:They just went a different trajectory.
Speaker A:They've also experienced trauma.
Speaker A:Right, for sure.
Speaker A:So their coping skills are to act out to violence, to steal, to engage in reckless behavior, to feel like they're part of a brotherhood by joining the gang.
Speaker A:So bro, when you're dealing with these young or impulsive that don't give a.
Speaker A:At that point in time, the laws in California were if you had life in prison, you were not gonna parole no matter what.
Speaker A:And everybody knew it, bro.
Speaker A:Like everybody knew.
Speaker B:Are those the scariest dudes or the guys that are in prison with no pro.
Speaker B:Are they the scariest ones or like because they have nothing to lose, the young ones at that time, the young lifers or just.
Speaker A:Oh really young lifers.
Speaker B:They're just in there just trying to prove a name or something.
Speaker A:Yeah, we call them torpedoes.
Speaker A:They're a torpedo, bro.
Speaker A:Like you're a young lifer.
Speaker A:What do you have?
Speaker A:You have, you think about it, you're young, you're impulsive, your mind hasn't fully developed yet.
Speaker A:They haven't reached the age of 26.
Speaker A:I'm talking about these dudes were 18 year old, 19 year old, 20 year old killers, 21 year old killers, which was perfect for me because I was a 22 year old killer from the army.
Speaker A:So I like that environment when it's structured and controlled, okay.
Speaker A:And contained and secured and safe for the most part.
Speaker A:The older lifers, no, they're pleasant to be around with.
Speaker A:You know why they're pleasant?
Speaker A:Because they've already realized this is my home.
Speaker B:And are they more of the shock collars?
Speaker A:At the time when I first started the department, the shock callers were all locked away in Pelican Bay State Prison and in Corcoran prison for 23 hours a day.
Speaker A:One, one hour they would get yard.
Speaker B:No shit.
Speaker A:It was a unique time frame that I was in.
Speaker A:Ccr.
Speaker A:Excuse me.
Speaker A:They were sending little notes from the main print from Pelican Bay to all the prisons throughout the state of California.
Speaker A:In their buttholes in their cheek they would do, they would write tiny kite letters like micro letters.
Speaker A:They get real.
Speaker A:So just how the Iraqi people were not dumb.
Speaker A:They were very intelligent in what they did.
Speaker A:Creating bombs.
Speaker A:These inmates are not dumb, bro.
Speaker A:They're very intuitive.
Speaker A:And if they put their mind to the right thing, they can accomplish a lot.
Speaker B:Yeah, they got nothing but time.
Speaker A:Exactly.
Speaker A:So small writing.
Speaker A:Now this is before the self, the cell phone trend, right?
Speaker B:Okay.
Speaker A:Word of mouth letters, three way letters.
Speaker A:So let's say you're a shot caller and you want to relay a message to me and I'm your soldier for a different prison in a different prison.
Speaker B:Okay.
Speaker A:With you're going to do is you're going to tell your wife, hey, get my homie, get my homie smiley.
Speaker A:I'll tell him I want this done.
Speaker A:Encoded word Cool.
Speaker A:Write him a letter.
Speaker A:You send the letter, but it's actually coming from you.
Speaker A:So the.
Speaker A:The smile.
Speaker A:I'll get the letter.
Speaker A:Says, hey, hey, nephew.
Speaker A:Because that's what the terms they use, nephew or Theo, uncle.
Speaker A:Hey, nephew.
Speaker A:I hope you're doing okay.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:Just so you know, you do have my approval to drive my car.
Speaker A:They use terminologies like approval to drive the car or driver's license, that you have their authority, you have their blessing to conduct business on their behalf.
Speaker A:On behalf of the Mexican Mafia.
Speaker A:This is the example that we're using, the Mexican Mafia with a shot collar in Pelican Bay.
Speaker A:So phones, visits, coded letters, coded words.
Speaker A:They had at the time what was called a MESA system, which was your shot caller.
Speaker A:There was a.
Speaker A:A blockero.
Speaker A:So a shot caller for the building.
Speaker A:It was a.
Speaker A:Pretty much a My friend Renee Boxer, ad hoc committee of.
Speaker A:The thing is, let me tell you how crazy it was.
Speaker A: ,: Speaker B:Okay?
Speaker A:You had a committee of five inmates per yard running the yard.
Speaker A:Lifers were not going home.
Speaker A:So the violence was awful, bro.
Speaker A:The violence was like.
Speaker A:Yeah, nobody was playing around.
Speaker A:It was big boy rules.
Speaker B:Okay, so when a race war breaks out, what is protocol for you guys as a crush offer?
Speaker B:Are you letting it?
Speaker B:I mean, what do you guys do when a race war breaks out on the yard?
Speaker A:So we have a thing called like alarm response, okay.
Speaker A:It's a procedure.
Speaker A:Okay.
Speaker A:And we have a lot of.
Speaker A:A lot of tools in the California Department of Corrections, all right?
Speaker A:At our disposal, we have OC pepper spray.
Speaker A:We even have a super Soaker looking pepper spray that can shoot extremely far.
Speaker A:It's like a canister, you know, we have 40 millimeter less lethal, which is the size of a 203 round, but it's a hard nerf sponge, which will kill you because I've seen it kill an inmate.
Speaker B:Really?
Speaker A:Yes.
Speaker A:Hit him in the head, hit him in the temple.
Speaker A:The inmate was running across the yard, running from the officers, ran in front of the observation, observation, hit him.
Speaker A:Boom.
Speaker A:Started flopping like a fish.
Speaker A:Got put on life support.
Speaker A:They pulled the life support, he died.
Speaker A:That's a fact.
Speaker A:No, I mean that shit's coming out, bro, like a.
Speaker A:Faster than a basement hit with a baseball for sure.
Speaker A:But there's also the wooden baton rounds where it's a cylinder and there's like these little wooden cylinders.
Speaker A:Wooden blocks, dude.
Speaker A:I can't remember whether there's three or five, but you're you're supposed to, quote, unquote, skip them off the ground so that if I skip it in front of you, they all, like, hit you.
Speaker A:Nah, we weren't skipping them, bro.
Speaker A:We weren't skipping them, bro.
Speaker A:So.
Speaker B:Hell no.
Speaker A:We also have an expandable baton, okay?
Speaker A:Physical force if you want to grab somebody and throw them on the ground.
Speaker A:Oh, grenades.
Speaker A:These were newer, though.
Speaker A:Like, all this came like.
Speaker A:Like the grenades.
Speaker A:It's.
Speaker A:It's OC blast.
Speaker A:So it's pepper sprayed in the powder form.
Speaker A:So when you, like, pop it, it's like poof, like talcum powder.
Speaker A:It's OC.
Speaker A:We also had, like, the gas one.
Speaker A:CN gas.
Speaker A:I mean, you know the difference between CN and CS?
Speaker A:We had the CN and just right before I resigned, we got Cs on the line, bro, which is amazing.
Speaker A:I mean, because, dude, we know how bad C's sucks, bro.
Speaker A:I feel like you're dying, huh?
Speaker A:So one time I was in a dorm up in the gym, gun up in the catwalk with a.
Speaker A:With a.
Speaker A:With a mini 14 rifle and the 40 millimeter Les Lethal.
Speaker A:And there was a hundred inmates on bunk beds, and I had four officers partners on the floor with them on a podium, and I had a partner up at the top.
Speaker A:We had double the amount of staff at that moment because they were attacking staff during that whole entire month.
Speaker B:Okay?
Speaker A:So I'm not gonna lie, bro.
Speaker A:I was taking a little cat nap.
Speaker A:I was shutting my eyes, bro, taking a little siesta.
Speaker A:And all of a sudden I hear like, oh, shit, this is like 5pm, bro.
Speaker A:And I hear banging.
Speaker A:I jump up, I grabbed the 40 mil because it was resting against the thing, and I looked down.
Speaker A:Oh, dude, the whole place erupted.
Speaker A:It was a black versus Mexican riot.
Speaker A:A hundred, bro, going at it, 50 on 50.
Speaker A:Fighting everywhere.
Speaker A:By the latrine area, in between the bunks in the.
Speaker A:It fell a dude, I just started shooting bad is picking groups.
Speaker A:I'm not skipping, bro.
Speaker A:I'm shooting both races.
Speaker A:Because the blacks inmates would eventually file a complaint saying that I was only shooting black inmates.
Speaker B:Of course.
Speaker B:Of course.
Speaker A:Glad you said of course, bro.
Speaker A:I'm glad you said of course.
Speaker A:I'm not crazy, right?
Speaker B:Yeah, of course.
Speaker B:They started gang war.
Speaker B:There's wars going on.
Speaker B:And then you're singling them out.
Speaker B:Like, how do you single somebody out in a giant riot?
Speaker A:But for a fact, I know I was shooting Mexicans, bro.
Speaker A:I know that for a fact, dude, because I saw 100, bro.
Speaker A:Because there was one in the corner.
Speaker A:Because I was on one bro, like I said, if I see your eyes, I'm gonna shoot you.
Speaker A:I better not see your eyes.
Speaker A:And the stupid looked up, bro.
Speaker A:Yeah, dude, I was young and stupid, bro.
Speaker A:This is why I try to give advice to young correctional officers.
Speaker A:Like, hey, bro, try.
Speaker A:Don't try to be cool.
Speaker A:Like, don't knock off the dumb, bro.
Speaker A:Because I've done dumb, bro.
Speaker A:Yeah, I mean, was I within policy?
Speaker A:I would say I was within policy.
Speaker A:I gave him a direct order.
Speaker A:And, yeah, I thought he was gonna pop back up because they do pop up during riots.
Speaker A:Anyways, I shot the dude in the back, bro, with a 40 millimeter.
Speaker A:Leslie, there was that one.
Speaker A:And I've been involved in probably, like, four or five what are called code three riots.
Speaker A:So to answer your question, the job of the correctional officer is to quell the violence through means of use of force or verbal de escalation, if possible.
Speaker A:Secure the area, bring in first aid, medical.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:Because they're not going to come in until the scene is secured.
Speaker A:And what you're going to have is you're going to have individuals that have either been shot with a mini 14 Ruger rifle, if needed.
Speaker A:Stab wounds, numerous stab wounds, lacerations.
Speaker A:Because they'll put lock.
Speaker A:The inmates will put locks and socks or batteries.
Speaker A:And just like David and Goliath, pick up, like, bunk beds and just throw broomsticks, broom handles.
Speaker A:It's like, probably as closest to like.
Speaker A:Like, what do they call that?
Speaker A:What do they call that?
Speaker A:Like, barbaric.
Speaker A:Yeah, it's probably as close to, like, barbarism or barbaric back then.
Speaker A:Back then.
Speaker A:We're on a vi.
Speaker A:California is out of control and violent right now, but it's a whole different level of violence right now.
Speaker B:Okay, okay.
Speaker B:So these guys have nothing but time.
Speaker A:Who.
Speaker B:I feel that talking to correctional officers, like, these inmates have a.
Speaker B:We want to look at inmates is that they're just these people that have.
Speaker B:They're criminals and all this other.
Speaker B:But they have nothing but time on their hands.
Speaker B:Do you see, like, a shift in an inmate versus a correctional officer as far as, like, learning and trying to better themselves?
Speaker B:Because you're in there as a job, they're in there as their life.
Speaker B:Or do some of these guys, like, start trying to educate themselves and learning things and, like, as far as structure and.
Speaker B:And not as far as, like, bettering themselves, but learning better?
Speaker A:No, they better themselves, bro.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:Now, like, what I'm about to say is probably going to shock the world and probably piss off some of my former co workers.
Speaker B:Okay?
Speaker A:But you got to understand, dude, I'm at a level of enlightenment now and understanding and psychological understanding.
Speaker A:Being three years away from that filth, okay?
Speaker A:From that corrupt system and machine.
Speaker A:Because that's exactly what it is.
Speaker A:It's a machine that warehouses men.
Speaker A:Takes advantage of the justice system, mind you.
Speaker A:These men committed crimes.
Speaker A:Ain't nobody denying that, not even them.
Speaker A:They'll rightfully raise their hand and say, I committed a crime.
Speaker A:But the way the system is designed is designed to screw everybody over at the bottom and make the ones at the top rich.
Speaker A:With that being said, I think I know what I'm talking about.
Speaker B:Yeah,
Speaker A:you have the.
Speaker A:Now, I don't want to say any blanket statements or stereotypes, but this is.
Speaker A:Yeah, this is my experience.
Speaker A:If you look at the group, the group of correctional officers and the group of inmates, inmates are way more educated in philosophy, in history, in education, in knowledge.
Speaker A:As far as like, oh, dude, any, any spirituality, Buddhism.
Speaker A:Oh, that will read the Quran.
Speaker A:You have a Mexican dude read the Quran just so that he can know what the Quran is like.
Speaker A:And you say they have nothing but time.
Speaker A:So it's not really knocking the cos.
Speaker A:In a way it is because it's like, hey, dude, you are a correctional officer.
Speaker A:You make $150,000 a year.
Speaker A:You can go to any gym in the world, yet you refuse to work out.
Speaker A:This guy has nothing and he's over here doing handstand push ups in his cell.
Speaker A:Tell me, which one has more discipline?
Speaker A:Okay, so let's talk about discipline.
Speaker A:Let's talk about knowledge, let's talk about education and wisdom.
Speaker B:So those dudes are just on it?
Speaker A:They're on it, bro.
Speaker A:The up thing.
Speaker A:And again, this is not the stereotype because of course you have some dudes that are, yes, scumbags and up to no good, for sure.
Speaker A:But you also have correctional scumbags and up to no good.
Speaker A:I need the world to see.
Speaker A:And again, I'm very spiritual.
Speaker A:I think God sent me here to show the people the truth.
Speaker A:It doesn't matter if you're a correctional officer or you're an inmate.
Speaker A:If you're a good person, you're a good person.
Speaker A:If you're a bad person, you're a bad person.
Speaker A:And I think, like, the world needs to know that.
Speaker A:I think people get caught up in titles.
Speaker A:Oh, for sure.
Speaker A:Ego, perceived power positions.
Speaker A:You already know, bro.
Speaker A:You already know.
Speaker A:I feel that I've been given the voice to speak up on behalf of the, the righteous, the people that need it.
Speaker A:I host my own podcast.
Speaker A:I'VE spoken to numerous former lifers.
Speaker A:Do you understand the level of gratitude that those men have?
Speaker A:They were put away in a box for 25 years, 30 years, with no hope of ever getting out.
Speaker A:And now they're out here, bro, eating ice cream with me at the beach.
Speaker A:Like that's a thing, bro, eating ice cream, chilling, posted up, feeling the fresh air right now.
Speaker B:I'm not animal for 20 years now.
Speaker A:I'm not a dummy, right?
Speaker A:I'm not gonna allow myself to be manipulated.
Speaker A:But the.
Speaker A:My interaction that I've had with these men has been authentic, bro, and 100%, like, on the up and up.
Speaker A:That's just the reality of it.
Speaker A:And I just need the world.
Speaker A:And it's.
Speaker A:It's interesting that we're talking about this, because what does the media like to do?
Speaker A:They like.
Speaker A:They like to create chaos.
Speaker A:They like to create division.
Speaker A:They like to create division between the left and the right.
Speaker A:They like to fuel the flames.
Speaker B:So as a correctional officer dealing with gang members that are in there for life, did you ever come across dudes that were just genuinely good dudes?
Speaker B:It just made one bad decision and threw their whole life away.
Speaker A:When you say one bad decision, we're talking murder, bro.
Speaker A:Yeah, we're talking murder.
Speaker A:Yeah, but we're talking murder, right?
Speaker A:And I know, and I'm not God to be able to judge people, and I sure wouldn't hell like one of my family members to be the victim of a murder.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker A:And then me.
Speaker A:So I don't have that experience.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:But there are men that have committed the act of murder that were entirely respectful the entire duration of my employment.
Speaker A:And then they got out, and they're thriving out here in society.
Speaker B:The reason I ask that question is because you know how women are.
Speaker B:They're all in, like, murder mysteries and all that, and you watch the news and you just obviously pay attention to whatever is going on out there.
Speaker B:The reason I asked that question is because there are, like, acts of passion.
Speaker B:There's a dude that.
Speaker B:Okay, there's things that happen where you end up murdering somebody.
Speaker B:But it's not like you're a.
Speaker A:Okay, if.
Speaker A:If I'm a man and I go and I murder somebody that didn't have it coming, that would be kind of a scumbag thing to do, right?
Speaker B:Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker A:But in.
Speaker A:In.
Speaker A:In a lot of the majority or the cases that I'm speaking about, you have a guy from one gang, you have another guy from an opposing gang.
Speaker A:They live in Los Angeles.
Speaker A:They live on two separate blocks.
Speaker A:They indoctrinated into their own beliefs of gang system.
Speaker A:They cross paths, have to do something.
Speaker A:One of them is quicker on the trigger, and he blasts them out of his socks.
Speaker A:Dead.
Speaker A:Boom, gone.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker A:How the is that any different than George Bush sending me to Iraq and pinning me against the Iraqi people who had nothing against me?
Speaker A:It's the same, bro.
Speaker A:We were both victims of a giant organization.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:Now, that's not to say now I use the word victim, right?
Speaker A:People can say, hector, nobody has the right to kill another person.
Speaker A:What I'm saying is young men do.
Speaker A:Dumb.
Speaker A:Young men are driven by testosterone, Right.
Speaker A:They're like little torpedoes, bro.
Speaker A:You got to guide them.
Speaker A:That's how I feel about that.
Speaker B:Is there.
Speaker B:Was there ever.
Speaker B:Okay, so as a correctional officer, contraband's a big thing.
Speaker B:What?
Speaker B:These guys, they do crazy things.
Speaker B:There's all kinds of stuff going on in these prisons.
Speaker B:So as a correctional officer, what was something that you turned a blind eye to?
Speaker A:For the record, I didn't turn a blind eye to shit.
Speaker A:For the record.
Speaker A:For the record.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker A:Inmates tattooing.
Speaker B:Okay.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:I come across it, I was like, hey, dude, what are you doing?
Speaker A:Like, they should have the common respect not to do it in front of you.
Speaker A:Okay.
Speaker A:Possibly if I smell the aroma of marijuana, it's kind of like, really?
Speaker A:You know what I mean?
Speaker A:Like, I'm not gonna go and like, turn.
Speaker A:I'm gonna go and turn the whole building upside down if I smell some marijuana.
Speaker A:And now it all depends, bro.
Speaker A:It all depends on how I feel that day.
Speaker A:If they've been right.
Speaker A:It's, it's.
Speaker A:And we talked about this.
Speaker A:It's pros versus cons.
Speaker A:If you, if the building is acting up and these guys are out of control, oh, you gotta crack the whip, bro.
Speaker A:You got to be big daddy.
Speaker A:You know what I mean?
Speaker A:It's like parenting.
Speaker A:It's extremely like parenting.
Speaker A:I have a seven year old daughter.
Speaker A:Yeah, but they understand that.
Speaker A:They understand that.
Speaker A:I think they welcome security because right now they're living in a time where it's not.
Speaker A:Nobody is safe.
Speaker A:Not the COs, not them.
Speaker A:Okay, so it's pretty common knowledge that, like, if they leave you alone, you could leave them alone.
Speaker B:It's a respect thing.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:I mean, you got to be there for 8, 16 hours.
Speaker A:They got to be there forever.
Speaker B:Okay, So I ask.
Speaker B:A lot of correctional officers do it.
Speaker B:Who runs the prisons Administration?
Speaker A:That's a fact.
Speaker A:Because you have three.
Speaker A:Two part.
Speaker A:You have three parts.
Speaker A:You have the administration that wear the suit and ties in Sacramento.
Speaker A:You have the COs, the correctional officers aligned, and then you have the inmates.
Speaker A: Right now, in: Speaker A:Okay, so they're funding their own demise.
Speaker A:Now, I bet what you're asking is, like, who runs the facilities?
Speaker A:Like, who's more dangerous or who has the last say.
Speaker A:So right now is a real peculiar time because you have all the gang leaders from Mexican Mafia, from Nuestra Familia, from Aryan Brotherhood, from the Black Guerrilla Family, on all the main lines, meaning at all the prisons.
Speaker A: In: Speaker A:They won a lawsuit to release them from the lockdown.
Speaker A:So they're all on every prison, bro.
Speaker A:They're walking, they have an entourage.
Speaker A:They have six gangsters, armed security.
Speaker A:And I say armed because they got knives up their butt.
Speaker A:That's a fact.
Speaker A:Everywhere they go, they go, the.
Speaker A:The Mexican mafia takes a shower, you'll have a dude posted up right there, hands him his towel, hands him his shower bag, hands him his sandals.
Speaker A:That's a thing, bro.
Speaker A:The thing is that everybody knows that when it kicks off, it's going to kick off with everybody.
Speaker B:So how is that?
Speaker A:They have power.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:Okay, so the inmates.
Speaker A:I don't want to sound like a dick, bro, but I don't give a.
Speaker A:Because I know There's a mini 14 up in the tower.
Speaker A: day long, but again, we're in: Speaker B:They.
Speaker A:They refuse to use a mini 14.
Speaker A:That's a whole nother subject.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker A:So what were you gonna say about these?
Speaker B:Well, because I feel if you have these Mexican cartel, you got the blacks, the whites, and they're able to just, I don't want to say move freely,
Speaker A:but, I mean, they move freely.
Speaker B:They move freely.
Speaker B:So then the CEOs are just, hey, hey, we have this respect.
Speaker B:Don't cross our line.
Speaker B:We don't cross your line.
Speaker B:How are these guys?
Speaker B:I mean, because they're.
Speaker B:They're obviously getting weapons into the prisons.
Speaker B:They're getting drugs into the prison.
Speaker B:They're getting phones into the prisons.
Speaker B:They're.
Speaker B:They're getting everything that they want from the outside in anyways.
Speaker B:How are they not like.
Speaker B:How do you not look at it?
Speaker B:Is that they're not calling shots inside of a prison just because you got admin up here.
Speaker B:They're like, you guys need to crack down or not.
Speaker B:Then you got the CEOs.
Speaker B:But if these dudes are.
Speaker A:Have gang, okay, it would be Fair to your viewers to give them a current view and standpoint.
Speaker A:Okay, answering your question, let's look at the police on the streets.
Speaker A:You had the whole George Floyd riots.
Speaker A:You had protests.
Speaker A:You had police chiefs throwing their police officers under the bus.
Speaker A:You had mayors of cities throwing their police officers in the bus.
Speaker A:We knew there was crime going on, but what happened?
Speaker A:The police were not responding to crime.
Speaker A:Remember, they said defund the police.
Speaker A:It's the same.
Speaker A:We can use CDCR as a microcosm.
Speaker A:We can use corrections in the microcosm for the big world.
Speaker A:Okay, Think about the border.
Speaker A:You have a border in southern border Mexico.
Speaker A:You have a wall.
Speaker A:Well, when the previous president was there, mother.
Speaker A:We're waltzing right across with backpacks by the hundreds, by the thousands, by the millions.
Speaker A:We get a new president.
Speaker A:We stopped the border.
Speaker A:That didn't change anything, right?
Speaker A:There's still the law, there's still crime.
Speaker A:So they're in a fucked up position, the COs, but they refuse to help themselves.
Speaker A:They're in a fucked up position because they.
Speaker A:Of course there's drugs.
Speaker A:People are overdosing every single day, dude.
Speaker A:Dying of overdoses in the prison.
Speaker A:In the prison.
Speaker A:There is so much fentanyl in prisons.
Speaker B:How are they getting it in?
Speaker A:There is unlimited amount of fentanyl in prisons.
Speaker A:And bath salts and spice.
Speaker A:This is the way contraband comes in through prisons.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:How are they bringing stuff in?
Speaker A:Dirty staff members, whether it's correctional officers, medical staff, volunteers, visits.
Speaker A:You know, like in the movies.
Speaker A:Like, the lady visitor can come in, she'll bring dope, smuggle it in her butt.
Speaker A:She goes to the restroom, she takes it out.
Speaker A:He puts it in his butt, he goes back to the yard.
Speaker A:That's how it comes in.
Speaker A: Drones in: Speaker A:So, like, you saw Ukraine, right?
Speaker A:Like, they drop grenades?
Speaker A:Yeah, They'll.
Speaker A:They'll make a bundle.
Speaker A:They'll make like this loaf of bread right here, dude.
Speaker A:They'll drop that in the middle of the yard.
Speaker A:But inside it's cell phones to bat tobacco, fentanyl, phone chargers, lighters.
Speaker A:You want to know what the scary thing is?
Speaker A:You don't think you could fit a fucking Glock 26 in that thing?
Speaker B:Oh, no shit.
Speaker B:Has there ever been a gun smuggled in the prison?
Speaker A:There was an attempt at Pelican Bay, but, dude, it's just a fucking matter of time before all hell breaks loose, bro.
Speaker B:What was the scariest part about being a correctional officer in the.
Speaker B:In the.
Speaker B:In a gang unit?
Speaker A:I think since you frame that question that way, I think it would have to be the rules of the Southern Hispanic Mexicans, the function under the Mexican mafia.
Speaker B:Okay.
Speaker A:Their set of rules dictates that if one of them gets involved in an altercation with a co, they're all mandated to get involved.
Speaker A:So that's a scary fact, knowing that if I fight one of them, I'm gonna have to fight a hundred of them.
Speaker B:Oh, okay.
Speaker A:They have a saying.
Speaker A:You mess with one bean, you get the whole burrito.
Speaker A:That's their saying, bro.
Speaker A:So it's a scary feeling.
Speaker A:You know you can't win against 100, bro.
Speaker A:No, but that's why verbal communication and de escalation and using your brain is best tool you could have.
Speaker B:I feel you don't last very long as a young hot head correctional.
Speaker A:You won't get your.
Speaker A:You'll get stomped the out or you'll get your partner stomped out.
Speaker A:Hothead doesn't work, bro.
Speaker A:How are you gonna tell me hothead?
Speaker A:Now, are there CEOs that are hothead?
Speaker A:Yes.
Speaker B:They get checked though.
Speaker A:Hopefully and preferably right.
Speaker A:Hopefully your your own people, other CEOs will check you, or sometimes the inmates will check you.
Speaker A:But let me be realistic.
Speaker A:How can you be a hot head correctional officer in a prison when you have 3,000 hothead killers?
Speaker A:Who the are you?
Speaker A:Just because you have a cloth badge, bro?
Speaker A:Knock it off.
Speaker A:Who the are you fooling, dude?
Speaker A:And we talked about this.
Speaker A:The pretend fake guys, God forbid you go to prison, work in a prison being a pretend fake guy.
Speaker B:Oh, like a pretend tough guy.
Speaker A:You're going to get exposed.
Speaker A:You know what I mean?
Speaker B:Okay.
Speaker A:You can't pretend to be something you're not in prison.
Speaker A:You're gonna get exposed.
Speaker A:You got to know how to navigate that environment, dude.
Speaker A:It's a mixture of discipline, structure, respect, little bit of give and take, within reason, within the law.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:Because ultimately you're operating from the law and from an oath.
Speaker B:What's the most bizarre thing that you saw in there?
Speaker A:Probably like men with breast implants.
Speaker B:Really?
Speaker A:Yeah, bro.
Speaker A:Double.
Speaker B:Did they get them done in prison?
Speaker A:Sometimes.
Speaker A:Now they do.
Speaker A:Taxpayer money.
Speaker A:Thank you.
Speaker B:Taxpayer money is getting these dudes breast augmentations.
Speaker A:So I think it's important for your viewers to know that California has lost their damn minds years ago and taxpayer money has been going to sex realignment surgery for inmates, facelifts, nose jobs, breast implants.
Speaker A:And taxpayers are paying for this taxpayer money, bro.
Speaker A:You want to hear something amazing?
Speaker A:I'll tell you something amazing right now.
Speaker A:If I'm a woman identifying as a Man, an inmate, right?
Speaker A:I'm going to get testosterone paid for by the taxpayers of California.
Speaker A:And when I asked a current co, a current officer, hey, bro, he's like, not only that, they inject once and they throw away the whole vial.
Speaker A:They get a new vial for every shot.
Speaker A:Oh, you got to be kidding me.
Speaker A:Dude.
Speaker A:The males get hormone shots on taxpayer money.
Speaker B:This is.
Speaker B:This is when I hear like this, Especially in California, when people are like, our state, you vote for this.
Speaker B:Like, these people vote for this, and they vote these leaders into these states, and now they're tax paying.
Speaker B:This is why.
Speaker B:I don't understand why people, why we pay taxes.
Speaker A:Because it comes from the.
Speaker A:I need you to know that all this corruption comes from the governor level, but even above him, right?
Speaker A:Because he's being told they're making money.
Speaker A:And then they get the puppet in charge of the correctional department, and then he enforces the.
Speaker B:Bro, I'm over here thinking like, I.
Speaker B:We had a correctional CEO on and he, he was talking about how they all get iPads and that.
Speaker A:Oh, yeah, they all get iPads.
Speaker B:That to me was mind boggling that we're paying for iPads.
Speaker B:And you're telling me these are getting sex changes in prison.
Speaker A:So you and I first started this correction topic talking about gangsters and riots, right?
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker A:We've come a long way, my friend.
Speaker A:We've come a long way.
Speaker A:These guys have iPads, taxpayer money.
Speaker A:Wind up radios, they have TVs.
Speaker A:They don't even go to the hole no more.
Speaker A:Remember, isolation was a thing.
Speaker A:If you mess up, you go to the hole.
Speaker A:They don't go to the hole no more, bro.
Speaker A:They change the rules completely.
Speaker B:Where do they go?
Speaker A:They stay put.
Speaker A:They stay put.
Speaker B:So if they do something they don't,
Speaker A:they get caught with a knife, they stay put.
Speaker A:When in the past they would go to the hole.
Speaker A:Do you know what that encourages?
Speaker A:Escalation of bad behavior.
Speaker A:Do you realize how many times an inmate has gotten caught with a knife?
Speaker A:Nothing happened to him, so the next day he murdered somebody.
Speaker A:I have documentation on all of that.
Speaker B:How does that help?
Speaker B:So, okay, so not everybody in this prison is doing life, Correct?
Speaker A:Correct.
Speaker B:So how are we rehabilitating?
Speaker A:It's a facade.
Speaker B:How are we helping these inmates become a better person to be able to find function in society?
Speaker A:I'm going to help.
Speaker A:I'm going to.
Speaker A:I'm going to blow your mind right now.
Speaker A:Rehabilitation in California prison is being sold as a facade and a guise for money laundering.
Speaker B:How?
Speaker A:Oh, easy.
Speaker A:My name is Bri.
Speaker A:Williams, I'm the director.
Speaker A:I'm the CEO of amend.
Speaker A:Okay?
Speaker A:In my dumb head, I come up with a bright idea that I want to emulate the Norwegian, California, Norwegian correctional setting, and I want to implement it in California.
Speaker A:I'm gonna give a lot of money to Governor Newsom to make it happen.
Speaker A:Governor Newsom's gonna tell Jeff McCumber, the secretary, hey, make this happen.
Speaker A:I got you, boss.
Speaker A:Now, what did that consist of?
Speaker A:Everything we just spoke about.
Speaker A:Giving them iPads, giving them radios, not letting them go to AdSec.
Speaker A:When I resigned, I saw this coming.
Speaker A:They were encouraging correctional officers to play sports with the inmates, to be the inmates friends, to play soccer with them, to play dominoes with them.
Speaker A:Okay.
Speaker B:I mean, could it.
Speaker B:Does that make a better work environment for you guys in a better environment for the inmates?
Speaker B:Like, everybody's happy now until they slash
Speaker A:you in the throat.
Speaker B:I mean, that's where my mind would go to it.
Speaker B:But, like, what's the psychology behind it?
Speaker B:What's.
Speaker B:What's the motive?
Speaker B:Like, how does that help intermingling COs and inmates?
Speaker A:I just told you it was rehabilitation.
Speaker A:It was money laundering sold as rehabilitation.
Speaker B:So do they.
Speaker B:Are these guys, like, implementing these programs in these California prisons, and then they.
Speaker B:Then they get funding for it, but they're not actually doing anything, and they're funding.
Speaker A:Now think about this.
Speaker A:If it wasn't for me, then who the fuck would have known about it?
Speaker A:Nobody, because this has been going on for a long time.
Speaker A:So how is corruption able to get away with?
Speaker A:Because nobody fucking speaks up.
Speaker A:Nobody's a machine.
Speaker B:Okay, so in California, how are we actually helping inmates be.
Speaker B:We're not a better person?
Speaker A:Now, I don't want to sound like a negative Nancy and be all, they have a program that.
Speaker A:They have a dog program, it's called a pooch program, where they bring in dogs to the prison, the inmates train the dogs, and they would eventually get given as service dogs to, like, people with post traumatic stress disorder, ptsd, or like seizures.
Speaker B:Okay.
Speaker A:Which I think that program is amazing.
Speaker A:And.
Speaker A:And it's effective.
Speaker A:And I know former lifers that have been in the program.
Speaker A:So that.
Speaker A:But that's its own separate program.
Speaker A:Right?
Speaker A:And that's that.
Speaker A:Like, that's what I'm saying.
Speaker A:It's like the corruption is what got out of control with the bulk of the bs.
Speaker B:Where's the corruption in the correctional facility coming from?
Speaker B:Clearly the top.
Speaker B:How is it.
Speaker B:Because how my mind works is like just a civilian looking at the correctional facilities as a scam.
Speaker B:It's a numbers game.
Speaker B:The more people they have in beds, the more federal funding they're getting.
Speaker B:So it's just.
Speaker A:But one more thing.
Speaker A:If I allow fentanyl to come in and they are all overdosing, then, my friend.
Speaker A:No, I should say this.
Speaker A:My Uncle Billy, who created Narcan, I can now sell Narcan to the California Department of Corrections and give the inmates Narcan.
Speaker A:Now, I'm Governor Newsom.
Speaker A:That happens to be my Uncle Billy.
Speaker A:Funny how everything they say follows the money, right?
Speaker A:Everything's tied, bro.
Speaker A:All this homelessness.
Speaker A:Everything they're sell, they're manufacturing.
Speaker A:Now, I probably sound like a conspiracy theorist, too, a lot, but it's the reality of it.
Speaker A:You said if they wanted to stop the drugs, they could slow it down.
Speaker A:Why?
Speaker A:Why, when they can make money off of the Narcan?
Speaker A:Inmates are on.
Speaker A:What is that called?
Speaker A:Suboxone.
Speaker A:They're also on, like, that methadone, where they.
Speaker A:Where they kind of scale them off of the dope.
Speaker A:Mm.
Speaker A:All of these are all programs within the California Department of Corrections.
Speaker B:They're all getting funding.
Speaker A:Funding at the expense of what, taxpayers?
Speaker A:But at the real expense of taxpayer money.
Speaker A:But at the lives of the inmates.
Speaker A:Oh, yeah.
Speaker A:Safety of the officers, huh?
Speaker A:So, just recently, last week, at the California Institute for Women in chino, you had 13 correctional officers over a span of one week, come in contact with an unknown substance that made them pass out and go get taken out by an ambulance.
Speaker A:And administration did nothing about it.
Speaker B:They're inmates or CEOs.
Speaker A:CEOs.
Speaker A:They don't know if it was fentanyl.
Speaker A:They don't know what it was.
Speaker A:But there was something going around that prison that was making these officers, like, pass out.
Speaker A:But the inmates were also overdosing, too.
Speaker A:So the inmates were overdosing.
Speaker A:The officers would respond, and then they.
Speaker B:What the fuck would that have been?
Speaker B:Okay, speaking of female officers, did you ever work with a bunch?
Speaker A:Yes.
Speaker B:What's that?
Speaker B:Like, me, personally, I don't think women should be in a male prison.
Speaker B:There's no.
Speaker B:This is just my.
Speaker B:I guess you could say ignorant mind behind it, because that's no place.
Speaker B:Like, how's a woman going to help anything that's going on physical between two dudes?
Speaker B:I feel like that's just more of a liability, especially if that's your partner.
Speaker B:Say you're getting jumped by two gang members.
Speaker B:What does a female officer.
Speaker B:I guess she could spray you down.
Speaker B:I don't.
Speaker B:I don't get it.
Speaker B:Right.
Speaker B:That's just.
Speaker B:That's just my Opinion.
Speaker B:I feel the same with cops.
Speaker B:I talk about it.
Speaker A:Oh, cops 100.
Speaker B:I don't think women should be on the road.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:So that's where a lot of that leads to.
Speaker B:Okay.
Speaker B:So now you have this guy that's captured how.
Speaker B:Doing a cell extraction.
Speaker B:How is a woman going to get me out of a cell?
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker B:How are.
Speaker B:How are 15 women going to get me out of a cell?
Speaker B:Unless they're tasing, pepper spraying and using every legitimate escalation of force to get me out of there.
Speaker B:Working with women.
Speaker B:What.
Speaker B:What was that like dealing with female CEOs?
Speaker A:It was.
Speaker A:It wasn't as bad as you're making the scene.
Speaker B:Okay.
Speaker B:That's why I'm asking.
Speaker A:Yeah, it wasn't as bad.
Speaker B:Comparing it to female cops on the road, we see.
Speaker A:No, but also like my experience being in the army.
Speaker A:Infantry.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker A:Zero women.
Speaker B:Same.
Speaker A:And I love the fact that it was zero women.
Speaker B:No drama.
Speaker A:They don't need to be there.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker A:At all.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:No drama for nobody.
Speaker A:No drama for the men, no drama for the women.
Speaker A:You focus on killing the enemy, period.
Speaker A:When it comes to the prison, bro.
Speaker A:Especially me being a lieutenant, it's almost like the politically correct version of me wants to speak even though I'm not a politically correct person.
Speaker A:At all.
Speaker A:At all.
Speaker A:Yeah, at all.
Speaker A:But I had this theory in my head one time and I told myself, we can't all be hard headed like.
Speaker A:Like hitters.
Speaker A:We can't all be alpha male CEOs, because that.
Speaker A:That will be too much conflict between the inmate population and between the cos.
Speaker B:Okay.
Speaker A:And I told myself, sometimes I think we need the lame CEOs.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:I'm not saying that the women are lame.
Speaker A:I'm just saying I think we need
Speaker B:a more gentle approach.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:Like females, I think, because maybe they can calm a situation.
Speaker A:Maybe.
Speaker A:Maybe just they're like pheromones up in the air.
Speaker A:We're gonna like diffuse the situation.
Speaker A:Possibly.
Speaker B:I feel like pheromones in the air can also increase the situation.
Speaker B:If you got some chick walking around, perfume on.
Speaker A:That happens that, bro.
Speaker A:They dress.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:The hell was overseas, bro?
Speaker B:You'd smell a chick after being.
Speaker A:Again, I don't do stereotypes and I don't do blanket statements.
Speaker A:I've worked with some solid females, but I've also worked with some worthless females.
Speaker A:Same about the man.
Speaker A:I work with some solid men.
Speaker A:I've also worked with some worthless men.
Speaker A:Do I feel that fear?
Speaker A:Females is such.
Speaker A:I'll tell you what, I do not agree with this whole 30 by 30.
Speaker A:Law enforcement push by recruiters to hire more women for the sake of politically looking good.
Speaker A:Like all law enforcement agencies in the United States, they're pushing to hire more females to be gender equality.
Speaker A:That is what I don't agree with.
Speaker A:I'm a realist, bro.
Speaker A:Again, how many videos have we seen on YouTube of the female cop with her pink fingernails letting the suspect have his way, taking the car, taking.
Speaker A:Stealing the police car, slapping her around, taking her gun, manhandling these women?
Speaker A:Happens all the time.
Speaker A:We see it all the time.
Speaker B:Did you ever have any eye?
Speaker B:Exactly.
Speaker B:Well, now that hopefully that's all gone.
Speaker B:Did you ever have any female correctional officers get caught hooking up with inmates?
Speaker A:Yeah, in.
Speaker A:In a span of 16 years.
Speaker A:Two hands.
Speaker A:Two hands.
Speaker B:What happens to them when they get caught?
Speaker A:It all varies on their level of.
Speaker A:If they're bringing in drugs, that's illegal.
Speaker A:Right?
Speaker A:Technically, having sexual affairs with a male inmate is also illegal because there is.
Speaker A:There is nothing consensual in prison.
Speaker A:There's no.
Speaker A:There's no.
Speaker A:Nothing consensual.
Speaker A:Okay.
Speaker A:So ultimately is like, they build a case against them, and then they get caught up, and then they'll either quit or they'll get fired.
Speaker B:They don't get, like, arrested.
Speaker B:Really.
Speaker B:What would happen if a dude was working in a female prison and got caught having.
Speaker A:You just got one sentence to.
Speaker A:What's the dude, 100 years.
Speaker A:A California male correctional officer just got sentenced to 100 years in prison within this past year for allegations of having his way with female inmates.
Speaker A:That's a fact.
Speaker B:But females get a chance to retire.
Speaker A:You already know what time it is, bro.
Speaker A:You already.
Speaker A:I'm not here.
Speaker A:You don't want me, though.
Speaker A:You don't want this version of Hector.
Speaker A:People already think I hate women, but that's not the case.
Speaker A:I'm.
Speaker A:I'm a realistic type of guy.
Speaker B:Well, that's why I'm asking, bro.
Speaker B:I mean, people have listened to the show long enough.
Speaker B:Like, I am very.
Speaker B:I. I speak my voice.
Speaker B:I mean, I'm a girl dad, right?
Speaker B:So are you too?
Speaker B:Me too girl dad.
Speaker B:It's not like I'm not over here being some, like, male chauvinistic.
Speaker A:You're not.
Speaker B:I'm just very passionate.
Speaker B:Not passionate, but I stand on that hill of, like, there's roles and there's positions for men and women.
Speaker A:Like, yeah, the Kitchen, I think.
Speaker B:Well, I wasn't gonna go that far, but, like, I think females would probably be a better detective because they could dig up that.
Speaker B:That dudes Would overlook when it comes to.
Speaker A:You know what pisses me off?
Speaker B:Huh?
Speaker A:The favoritism when it comes to women in law enforcement.
Speaker B:Military.
Speaker A:Bro, you can have that email.
Speaker A:Oh bro, I've seen some, man.
Speaker A:Yeah, you can have a female with four months in the department get put in an investigative unit like, like gangs and stuff.
Speaker A:And she will get picked over a solid, solid go getter.
Speaker A:Dude.
Speaker A:That's what's frowned upon.
Speaker A:Yeah, that and you have all these lame supervisors that like, they don't know how to get women in real life.
Speaker A:So they use that as a flex.
Speaker B:Uses their power to try to hook them up.
Speaker B:Did you see it every day?
Speaker A:I don't like.
Speaker A:That's what I don't agree with the marines do.
Speaker B:When I left my job and went up to the division, like, you know, went to super pogland, that's when I started working with women.
Speaker B:And dude, it was.
Speaker B:I got snatched up for snatching these young right.
Speaker B:Female.
Speaker B:They'd walk and be like, hey, hey sergeant.
Speaker B:I've never had one of my troops ever hate me in my life.
Speaker A:Like they said like, hey.
Speaker A:Like oh cool.
Speaker B:And then one of them can walk into my office one day and she's like hey.
Speaker B:And I.
Speaker B:It was like, like the fuse.
Speaker A:What happens if a male says hey?
Speaker B:Oh, you're get.
Speaker B:We're going out back, we're gonna have rounds.
Speaker B:This chick walks in my office.
Speaker B:It was hate me.
Speaker B:And I, dude, I went like straight drill instructor on this chick.
Speaker B:Her sergeant came down and was like, we need to have a conversation.
Speaker B:I was like, about what?
Speaker B:She's like, well, I don't like how you address my.
Speaker B:Oh, dude.
Speaker B:Then I let her have it and she got Hurst and it just, it just escalated.
Speaker B:So every time someone would come back down, it just went.
Speaker B:I just went.
Speaker B:Anyways, that's where like I noticed, like I was like, holy.
Speaker B:These chicks get that to say whatever they want.
Speaker B:Because it was these weak ass dudes.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:These little simps that thought this little female marine was hot.
Speaker B:Gets to work with her.
Speaker B:So they would allow it.
Speaker B:And I would look at these dudes like, did you let your male do you let your PFCs do say the same or what?
Speaker B:Why does she get to get away with it?
Speaker B:So I've noticed that through all careers in all fields that they get.
Speaker B:There is a huge favoritism that come with.
Speaker A:You need confirmation as that's transpiring within the California Park Corrections.
Speaker A:100 oh, 100.
Speaker A:Yeah, it's part of the problem, bro.
Speaker A:Part of the problem.
Speaker A:You can't put incompetent people in, like, important spots.
Speaker A:But I mean, look at the secretary.
Speaker A:Look at the head person of cdcr.
Speaker A:He's a male.
Speaker A:Dude's dumb as rocks, spineless again.
Speaker A:It doesn't matter if you're male or female.
Speaker A:It's just whether you're a good person or evil person.
Speaker B:What was one of the most violent things that you saw in prison
Speaker A:was
Speaker B:one of those things that just you were like, holy.
Speaker A:I think, because I've seen murders in prison.
Speaker A:Right, okay.
Speaker A:But I think the one.
Speaker A:It was not a murder.
Speaker A:It was an attempted murder on two dudes.
Speaker A:And that one was more to me like, more like, oh, damn, they.
Speaker A:They did some damage.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker A: time, it was around the year: Speaker A:I told you all the leaders were in the shoe in Pelican Bay.
Speaker A:So with the white gangs, you have the Aryan Brotherhood.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker A:They had sent down orders to all the whites that there was a new group trying to establish themselves.
Speaker A:Usas, United Skins Aryan association or United Skin, something like that.
Speaker A:USAs pretty much.
Speaker A:They were a new white gang that was going to try to assert themselves.
Speaker A:Or let me tell you right now, it did not fare well for them at all, bro.
Speaker A:And the whites do not play in prison at do when a white winner.
Speaker A:When you get hit by the whites, you're gonna be done, dude.
Speaker A:And the weapons are perfect that they make.
Speaker A:They make, like legit knives, bro.
Speaker B:No.
Speaker A:So I was eating my lasagna, right?
Speaker A:And this one just stands out to me because it probably one of the first times I seen, like, violence on this level in a prison setting.
Speaker A:And I hear Code 2, Code 2, Charlie Vogue, which is behind the wall.
Speaker A:Here's a prison yard.
Speaker A:There's a big wall.
Speaker A:And behind is where they have the vocational trades where they can do welding or whatever, stuff like that.
Speaker A:Okay?
Speaker A:So I'm like, what the hell?
Speaker A:Like, why is there something happening behind the wall?
Speaker A:Usually people are just chill back there
Speaker B:because it's a luxury.
Speaker A:It's like kind of like a privilege in a way.
Speaker A:And I would go to the gate, and when I go, there's like, there's two white inmates bloodied, bro.
Speaker A:To a pulp.
Speaker A:Broken fate.
Speaker A:Bloodied.
Speaker A:Oh, they were up, dude.
Speaker A:So what it was, it was four white inmates attacked.
Speaker A:Two white inmates with ice pick type weapons made out of screws.
Speaker A:When I say ice pick, I mean, like, they look like.
Speaker A:Like they're cylinder and long screws, bro.
Speaker A:Dude, the knives they had have been probably like eight inches.
Speaker A:Like, maybe Nine inches.
Speaker A:Like, oh, they stabbed them up, they stomped their face in, they broke their backs, they kicked, they.
Speaker A:Dude, I don't know how the these guys didn't die.
Speaker A:And like, I run up to one, he's like blood gurgling, right?
Speaker A:And I'm like, hey, dude, what's your name?
Speaker A:And he's like.
Speaker A:And I were thinking like, damn, dude.
Speaker A:I remember thinking like that.
Speaker A:That was stupid as for me to ask him, right?
Speaker A:But I wasn't thinking like, yeah.
Speaker A:And I kind of get his, his id.
Speaker A:And then you start looking around, you see the knives, bro, you see the shanks like in the grass.
Speaker A:And you're like, oh.
Speaker A:And then you see the white inmates.
Speaker A:That was that one.
Speaker A:You just reminded me of another white one that I saw on video surveillance camera because I was a lieutenant.
Speaker A:So I had access to the videos right before I resigned.
Speaker A:Yeah, it was another white inmate.
Speaker A:He was a somebody.
Speaker A:He.
Speaker A:I think he was an Aryan Brother associate at one point in his time, but now he was on a protective custody yard because he had like debriefed or whatever, right?
Speaker A:He went from being a gangster to not being a gangster.
Speaker A:Where the child molesters are, where the rapists are, where the dropouts are.
Speaker A:There's a child molester sitting in, in a.
Speaker A:He was sitting in a wheelchair like this.
Speaker A:His buddy was sitting in a wheelchair like that, the old man.
Speaker A:And he was old, bro.
Speaker A:He was like, he was like 65, dude, which gave me hope.
Speaker A:You see him walk, you see him pull out the knife.
Speaker A:He had a knife like within his shorts.
Speaker A:The old man did the old man, okay, so the old man was a former ab.
Speaker A:The guy in the wheelchair with a child molester.
Speaker A:The guy in the other wheelchair with a child molester.
Speaker A:I think they pissed him off is what I think happened.
Speaker A:He comes up, he hits the dude in the throat.
Speaker A:Boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom.
Speaker A:How the guys didn't die, I don't know.
Speaker A:Hit him.
Speaker A:Boom, boom, boom, boom, boom.
Speaker A:The whole time this dude's looking at him, the guy, what comes up, hits him in the chest.
Speaker A:How he didn't kill him, I don't know either, bro.
Speaker A:Like, this is lucky.
Speaker A:Hits him in the chest, he goes over and then he hits him right here, right under the eye, bro, because it like popped like the blood squirted like, boom.
Speaker A:So you have, you have the dude bleeding out, you have two dudes bleeding out.
Speaker A:And then that OG gangster, like 65 year old man gets a knife, throws it, looking straight at the correctional officers and just gets down on the stomach.
Speaker A:Puts his hands behind his back, like, straight gangster, bro.
Speaker A:Like, I'm done.
Speaker A:You can just put me in handcuffs.
Speaker A:Send me the hole.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:Don't spray me.
Speaker A:Yeah, it's straight up, right?
Speaker A:Like, respectful to me is respect.
Speaker A:So the following day, I hear about this hit, right?
Speaker A:And I'm like, oh, I seen.
Speaker A:I'm like, damn, bro.
Speaker A:I said, who is that dude?
Speaker A:Because I'm a lieutenant, bro.
Speaker A:I'm seasoned.
Speaker A:I don't give a anymore.
Speaker A:I'm over my job.
Speaker A:I'm just there to have fun at this point.
Speaker A:And I'm in the hole.
Speaker A:I'm an adseg.
Speaker A:And he's.
Speaker A:He's on the upper tier.
Speaker A:On the lower, he's on the tier.
Speaker A:I tell the young cop, like, hey, dude.
Speaker B:What?
Speaker B:What?
Speaker A:Sally, is that one white dude in?
Speaker A:Oh, he's over here.
Speaker A:Okay, cool.
Speaker A:Hey, what's up, OG?
Speaker A:I knock.
Speaker A:I go over there, like, looks at me, gets up.
Speaker A:He has a cane.
Speaker A:No, he has a cane, bro.
Speaker B:Dude stabbing people.
Speaker B:Yes.
Speaker A:Yes, bro.
Speaker A:What a gangster, bro.
Speaker A:Yeah, so, like, Chos.
Speaker A:He's like.
Speaker A:Like, frail.
Speaker A:Well, he looks.
Speaker A:He's just old, right?
Speaker A:He's looking at me.
Speaker A:I said, hey, man, you still got it, OG you still got it.
Speaker A:That's what I tell him.
Speaker A:And he's like.
Speaker A:Looked at me.
Speaker A:He's like, yeah.
Speaker A:And then he's like, you know, lieutenant, every time I try to get out, they keep bringing me back in.
Speaker A:I said, bro, you're like scarface.
Speaker A:That's what Scarface said.
Speaker A:I told him.
Speaker A:I said, you gave me hope, man.
Speaker A:He's like, why is that?
Speaker A:I said, because you're 65 years old, dude.
Speaker A:I thought that when I got old, I was not going to be dangerous anymore.
Speaker A:You shattered that?
Speaker A:He goes alt.
Speaker A:Like he was tripping out that I was talking to him like this.
Speaker A:He goes, can I get, like a.
Speaker A:A book and a little pencil?
Speaker A:I'm like, yeah, bro.
Speaker A:I'll get you anything you need, man.
Speaker A:You're doing the Lord's work over here.
Speaker A:Stab two child molesters, bro.
Speaker B:Okay, so I've talked to guys before on the whole chomo thing.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:One of my good boys now, Vic, he was a guest.
Speaker B:He's done a bunch of time.
Speaker B:But he said something on when we talked that it sucks that society only looks at these hardcore criminals as heroes when they're killing or they're taking care of chomos in prison.
Speaker B:He's like, we're monsters until we're doing that right as a correctional.
Speaker B:Okay, so this is.
Speaker B:I guess this Is like.
Speaker B:I'll just be honest question.
Speaker B:Whenever you saw a child molester get taken care of, did you.
Speaker B:Were you over, like.
Speaker B:Like, is it always a.
Speaker A:Ecstatic inside?
Speaker A:Yeah, ecstatic.
Speaker B:Okay.
Speaker A:100.
Speaker A:I felt.
Speaker A:Thank God.
Speaker A:I felt.
Speaker A:Yes.
Speaker A:You know, like.
Speaker A:Like, rightfully so.
Speaker A:That's different though.
Speaker A:I never set it up.
Speaker A:People have said it.
Speaker B:Okay, that was my next question.
Speaker B:Have you ever known the guys.
Speaker A:Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker A:People have set it up.
Speaker B:How do they set it up?
Speaker A:By aiding the inmates into like.
Speaker A:Like giving them paperwork, showing them, hey, look at this.
Speaker A:Look what this guy's in here for.
Speaker A:And then, of course, he's gonna go kill him.
Speaker B:That's how I feel.
Speaker B:I would be as a CEO 100 if I legal.
Speaker A:As though.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:I wouldn't care if I knew there was.
Speaker B:This is.
Speaker B:This is.
Speaker B:This is why I.
Speaker B:There's no way.
Speaker B:I could never be a border patrol agent.
Speaker B:I could never be a cop.
Speaker B:I can never be a CEO.
Speaker B:Because I would.
Speaker B:Dude, I'd be crooked 100 I just know myself not.
Speaker B:Yeah, like, taking advantage.
Speaker A:But no, I hear what you're saying.
Speaker B:I would be.
Speaker B:Dude.
Speaker B:I'd be dropping papers on dudes.
Speaker B:Like, if I knew that some guy came in and, like, ruined a bunch of children's lives, I would.
Speaker B:I would 100 be that CEO.
Speaker A:I.
Speaker A:Check this out.
Speaker A:I don't.
Speaker A:I'm not.
Speaker A:I'm not.
Speaker A:I'm not gonna knock somebody for doing that.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker A:But I'm not gonna do that for sure.
Speaker A:You hear what I'm saying?
Speaker B:100 would.
Speaker A:But it does get done.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:I would bet you.
Speaker A:But when these.
Speaker A:Oh, 100.
Speaker A:Man, I will think I would thank these because I was.
Speaker A:By the time I got introduced to the child molesters, I was a sergeant.
Speaker A:I was a lieutenant.
Speaker A:So by then, I already had 10 years in the department.
Speaker A:I knew how to flow.
Speaker A:My communication skills were immaculate.
Speaker B:Okay?
Speaker A:I had.
Speaker A:I had mastered my environment.
Speaker A:Right?
Speaker A:Okay?
Speaker A:So I had no problem telling these.
Speaker A:These inmates exactly how I felt.
Speaker A:I was a lieutenant on Delta yard at Donovan.
Speaker A:And it was late at night, bro.
Speaker A:I was supposed to get off work in an hour.
Speaker A:And things matter like this, right?
Speaker A:Because, you know, you don't want to stay late to do stupid things.
Speaker A:Paperwork.
Speaker A:Yeah, that's.
Speaker A:That's a pet peeve, right?
Speaker A:You expect to go home at a certain time.
Speaker A:So we hear after you're pissed.
Speaker A:Yeah, you're so pissed, bro.
Speaker A:So, like, I hear the alarm in housing units.
Speaker A:16 officers call me up.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:We had an inmate assault another inmate, like, beat the out Of.
Speaker A:And I said, well, I was pissed, bro.
Speaker A:I was pissed.
Speaker A:I said, bring that over here, right?
Speaker A:Like, bring him, bring him to my office.
Speaker A:Which they got to come this way anyways because this is where the medical is at.
Speaker A:They got to walk all the way across the yard.
Speaker A:And I was pissed, bro.
Speaker A:And it was a little Southsider, but it was an sny yard, meaning it was a no good yard.
Speaker A:He California started mixing inmates in the wrong yards.
Speaker A:So I tell this dude, hey, what the are you thinking?
Speaker A:Right?
Speaker A:Like, why would you do that, dude?
Speaker A:Like, look at the time, bro.
Speaker A:Like, I don't.
Speaker A:And he's like.
Speaker A:I said, why did you do that?
Speaker A:And he's like, because I can't be here.
Speaker A:I can't be on this yard.
Speaker A:Because the higher ups would, would endorse an inmate on a yard.
Speaker A:They can't be it because then they would be victimized by their gang.
Speaker A:That makes sense to you?
Speaker B:Kind of.
Speaker A:So they're putting guys on yards they're not supposed to be on.
Speaker B:The correctional officers or the gangs administrations
Speaker A:are putting inmates on yards they're not supposed to be on.
Speaker B:Because there's rival gangs or what?
Speaker A:Because of the California model, Because of that.
Speaker B:What makes it a yard they're not supposed to be on, though?
Speaker A:Having child molesters on the yard would be a yard that gangsters cannot be on.
Speaker B:Oh, okay.
Speaker B:I'm tracking.
Speaker A:So they're, they're putting gangsters on PC yards, protective custody yards.
Speaker B:Yeah, but I, I, I agree with that.
Speaker B:I don't think there should be separate yards, though.
Speaker B:Shouldn't everybody just.
Speaker B:So why, okay, off of this, they don't separate gangs in the different yards.
Speaker B:They got whites, blacks, Samoans, Mexicans, everything else in a yard.
Speaker B:Why do the chomos get their own yard?
Speaker B:Why aren't they out there?
Speaker B:So if it's a, why is that a bad thing?
Speaker B:Because it's going to be violence for you guys.
Speaker A:I guess it all depends on how you, how you, how honest and transparent you are to the public.
Speaker A:I think, I think the major concern that I have with the corruption is that you have a secretary that's lying to the public saying they're not doing things that they are doing.
Speaker B:Like what?
Speaker B:Putting people on the yard.
Speaker A:People in the yard.
Speaker B:They're putting gang members on chomo yards.
Speaker A:Yes, yes, yes.
Speaker A:And putting tromos and putting chomos on gang members yards.
Speaker B:Okay.
Speaker A:On purpose.
Speaker B:See, I, I think that's how it should be.
Speaker B:I don't think they should have any segregation.
Speaker B:I think Jomo should go into Genp.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:How do you feel about that?
Speaker A:I'm not disagreeing.
Speaker B:Okay.
Speaker A:I'm not disagreeing.
Speaker A:But you have to see the.
Speaker A:The big gigantic picture.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:Okay.
Speaker B:Paint it.
Speaker A:I think if tomorrow I came out and I said on the news to the public, right?
Speaker A:Because it's public safety, bro.
Speaker A:CDCR is operating as if there's some private entity like surprise secret organization.
Speaker A:No, your public safety, the we, the American people, the taxpayer need to know what the fuck is happening in there.
Speaker A:Especially when you're lying.
Speaker A:If I said, hey, check this out, I'm the fucking secretary tomorrow.
Speaker A:All motherfuckers are getting mixed.
Speaker A:Figure it out.
Speaker A:Right?
Speaker A:Figure it out.
Speaker A:Here's the rules.
Speaker A:This is my name.
Speaker A:Put me on the lawsuits.
Speaker A:I don't give a fuck.
Speaker A:You guys up the department then.
Speaker A:That what that is?
Speaker A:That's transparency.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:Now the inmates know where.
Speaker B:Who we.
Speaker A:Where we stand.
Speaker A:The staff know where we stand.
Speaker A:The problem lie is when you're lying to everybody.
Speaker B:So that's happening, but they're not.
Speaker B:They're saying it's not happening.
Speaker A:Correct.
Speaker B:Oh, no.
Speaker A:Tricking people.
Speaker A:So if I'm a gangster, okay.
Speaker A:No, better yet, if I'm a child molester, you're saying, what's the harm, Hector?
Speaker A:If I'm a child molester and I know that tomorrow they're going to put me on a yard full of gangsters, you know what I'm going to.
Speaker A:Well, first of all, I will never be a Tom Lister.
Speaker A:But you know what is happening or what has happened?
Speaker A:You're going to make a knife in your cell.
Speaker A:You're going to stick that knife in your ass.
Speaker A:When they move you, when the officers move you to that bad yard, guess what you're going to do?
Speaker A:Do you know what you're going to do?
Speaker B:Attack the co.
Speaker A:Exactly.
Speaker A:I didn't even tell you that.
Speaker A:Your mind told you that.
Speaker A:That's survival.
Speaker A:You're going to take out that knife and you're going to hit the co. Why?
Speaker A:Because it's much easier to kill a correctional officer than for you to get killed by fucking gang members, bro.
Speaker A:It's survival.
Speaker B:Okay?
Speaker A:That's why it's a problem.
Speaker A:And I was a lieutenant.
Speaker A:So now administration is putting my troops in danger, immediate fucking danger.
Speaker A:And these young fucking officers were too dumb to see the big fucking picture because they had been embedded into this.
Speaker A:Oh, it's us versus the inmate mentality.
Speaker A:I'm like, no, motherfucker.
Speaker B:Us versus them.
Speaker A:Correct.
Speaker B:Us versus the top.
Speaker A:Correct.
Speaker B:Because they're putting your life in danger with Their dumbass rules.
Speaker B:While they're sitting at Capitol Hill, they're
Speaker A:putting everybody's lives in danger.
Speaker A:The inmates and the staff and playing and saying that we're both fucking each other up, up when we're not.
Speaker A:You know what I mean?
Speaker A:So, yeah, so I'm glad I was able to, in, like, a minute, break that down, because it's confusing, dude.
Speaker A:It's a lot.
Speaker A:So that one inmate.
Speaker A:Why the.
Speaker A:Why'd you do that?
Speaker A:He said, because I can't be on this yard.
Speaker A:I said, okay, well, why'd you pick that dude?
Speaker A:He's like, because he's a child molester.
Speaker A:I laughed, bro.
Speaker A:I said, you.
Speaker A:I said, all right, man.
Speaker A:I told the officer, get this guy an extra lunch, dude.
Speaker A:That was it.
Speaker A:I said, thank you.
Speaker A:You're doing the Lord's work.
Speaker A:Every that hit a child molester, I told him, you're doing the Lord's work.
Speaker A:It was funny.
Speaker A:They laughed.
Speaker A:Everybody laughed.
Speaker A:You're doing the Lord's work.
Speaker B:See, that's why I couldn't be a CEO.
Speaker B:I'd be popping doors.
Speaker B:I'd just be like, oops.
Speaker A:Like, here's the thing, bro.
Speaker A:Like, realistically, they're gonna get hit.
Speaker A:Like, you personally don't have to pop a door for a motherfucker to get stabbed.
Speaker A:They're gonna get stabbed, bro.
Speaker A:Does that make sense?
Speaker B:Eventually, yeah.
Speaker A:You don't have to be a part of it.
Speaker A:I think that's when I try to, like nature.
Speaker B:Nature takes his course in there.
Speaker A:Nature.
Speaker A:And I'm a firm believer in karma.
Speaker A:There was a child.
Speaker A:Speaking of.
Speaker A:Speaking of karma and child molesters, same housing unit 16.
Speaker A:An officer calls me on the phone.
Speaker A:You know, this is a weird thing you asked me about, a weird scenario.
Speaker A:He says, an inmate just got his finger chopped off.
Speaker A:What the, man?
Speaker A:This is the stupid I'm dealing with as a lieutenant, right?
Speaker B:Yeah, for sure.
Speaker A:You mean his finger got chopped off?
Speaker A:Well, I had the video surveillance system, which was a newer thing, which is cool, man, because you can see, like, 10, 80, 4K everything on the yard.
Speaker A:Everything.
Speaker A:Okay?
Speaker A:What you see is a bisa.
Speaker A:Like a Mexican national child molester exiting his cell.
Speaker A:The control booth officer controls whether the cell door open, closes.
Speaker A:Right?
Speaker A:Well, this dumb bastard thought it'd be a good idea to stick his fingers in last minute, into the cell.
Speaker A:He was trying to get his laundry bag out, and it cut off his finger, bro.
Speaker A:His finger got cut off.
Speaker A:Clean seared off, right?
Speaker A:So he's like, ah.
Speaker A:It's funny because you could see him, like, his Movements in the camera.
Speaker B:He's like, like freaking out as his head stuck in there.
Speaker A:Because believe it or not, like, pro lieutenant's perspective.
Speaker A:That's kind of a big incident, bro.
Speaker A:And lost a finger, bro.
Speaker B:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker A:Serious bodily injury.
Speaker B:Okay.
Speaker A:Goes to his friend, Go to the all.
Speaker A:He goes to the officer.
Speaker A:He shows the officer.
Speaker A:Officer's like, dumb, bro.
Speaker A:This is a clown show, bro.
Speaker A:All three get up.
Speaker A:The cops, the COs, the inmate with missing finger, they're.
Speaker A:They tell the control booth office to open the door.
Speaker A:We're missing a finger.
Speaker A:They're like, looking on the floor.
Speaker A:Goes, look, his dude's looking for his finger.
Speaker A:And then finally he looks on the wall, stuck to the wall.
Speaker B:Just pinched it off and stuck it to the wall.
Speaker A:His finger was stuck to the wall, right?
Speaker A:And I interviewed him and I said, like, dude, why did you do that for?
Speaker A:Right?
Speaker A:Why did you do that for?
Speaker A:And he said, oh, I was trying to put my laundry bag into the thingy, and I cut my finger off.
Speaker A:They had to go to the hospital,
Speaker B:so they sew it back on.
Speaker A:I think he lost it.
Speaker A:Okay.
Speaker A:The next day, this files a complaint against the officers.
Speaker A:He's a child molester, mind you.
Speaker A:Spanish speaking.
Speaker A:He files a complaint against the officers that the officers purposely cut off his finger and he had somebody assist him in the writing of the appeal.
Speaker A:And I was pissed, bro.
Speaker A:I called my office, I said, hey, and Thomas Spanish, didn't I ask you yesterday?
Speaker A:I said, why you.
Speaker A:You told me you put your finger in there, you're trying to get your laundry bag, and you chopped off.
Speaker A:Yeah, well, I said, well, what the is this, right?
Speaker A:The appeal, this comeback?
Speaker A:Well, you know, the other.
Speaker A:I said, no, dude, no.
Speaker A:You touch kids with your fingers and God punished you.
Speaker A:That's what happened.
Speaker A:Get the out of my office.
Speaker B:No.
Speaker A:Yeah, bro.
Speaker B:You shred that form.
Speaker A:I didn't shred it because it has to go.
Speaker A:You have to go through the motions.
Speaker A:Okay, Right.
Speaker A:But I was documented on the report.
Speaker A:Like, hey, dude, I interviewed you yesterday.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker A:You specifically told me you tried.
Speaker A:It's on camera, bro.
Speaker A:You try to put your laundry bag in there and you chopped off your finger.
Speaker A:They try to make it look like it was a malicious thing by the officer, which it was not.
Speaker B:What's it like dealing with the mental health in prison?
Speaker A:You familiar with skid row?
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker A:You familiar with skid row in Los Angeles?
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:Where you look at any homeless encampment like that, dude, straight up.
Speaker A:Straight up.
Speaker B:How?
Speaker A:Just imagine you trying to go to a tent and skid hit and in skid row and be like, hey, dude, come here, man.
Speaker A:I need you to go back to your ropes out there.
Speaker A:You're gonna get in the mother, he's gonna nut up.
Speaker A:They're high on spice, they're high on, on basalt.
Speaker A:They're high on fentanyl in prison, high on meth.
Speaker A:They're chemically imbalanced.
Speaker A:They're mentally unstable.
Speaker A:They have schizophrenia, some of them.
Speaker A:Schizophrenia.
Speaker A:They have.
Speaker A:What do you have when they have.
Speaker A:When they see things and they hear things.
Speaker A:Hallucinations.
Speaker A:Oh, dude, it's a disaster.
Speaker A:I hated it, bro.
Speaker B:Just a nightmare.
Speaker A:Self mutilation.
Speaker B:I've heard this.
Speaker B:I heard.
Speaker B:We had a.
Speaker B:See the guy said that he, he cut his whole nut sack open with a pair of us.
Speaker A:Listen to me.
Speaker B:Nail clippers.
Speaker A:Yes, dude.
Speaker B:You ever see some like that?
Speaker A:I was used to dealing with the gangsters, right?
Speaker A:And then you go to this other prison and yeah, there was a guy they called like Paperclip Johnson.
Speaker A:He would stick a paperclip like all the time.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:Another guy with green beans.
Speaker A:They would just mutilate.
Speaker A:Mutilate, bro, mutilate.
Speaker A:There was a what with green beans?
Speaker A:He's putting in his pee hole.
Speaker B:He's putting it in the tip of his dick.
Speaker A:He just go out to the hospital.
Speaker A:This, these.
Speaker A:They're sick people, bro.
Speaker A:Like sick.
Speaker A:They go to the hospital, have a nurse touch them, pull it out.
Speaker A:They're into some weird.
Speaker A:It's sick, bro.
Speaker A:It's sick.
Speaker A:I don't like that kind of.
Speaker A:Yeah, bro.
Speaker B:Themselves.
Speaker A:What are they chop off their genitals, right?
Speaker A:They'll like a lady gouged her eyeballs out at the woman's institution.
Speaker A:Now I didn't see it, but I know that the a fact like she got, she got high on meth and gouged both of her eyeballs out.
Speaker B:And this is happening in our prison.
Speaker A:It's easy for me to believe because I've seen similar stuff where.
Speaker A:Of course, bro, it would happen.
Speaker A:Inmates that have get.
Speaker A:Will get razor blades because we give them razor blades to shave, right?
Speaker A:And they will, they will start in the wrist and go all the way up their front arm.
Speaker A:Fillet their arm wide open and you be bleeding out.
Speaker A:And we see it and there's a blood everywhere and you have to save that, dude.
Speaker A:They may have hepatitis C. They may have aids.
Speaker A:They may have everything that you can think of.
Speaker A:They probably do.
Speaker A:And you have to save that.
Speaker B:And they're trying to fight you at the same time.
Speaker A:It varies.
Speaker A:Sometimes.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:I mean Fighting bloody inmates is not abnormal.
Speaker A:Fighting inmates covered in feces is not abnormal.
Speaker A:Fighting naked inmates is not abnormal in a, in a, in a mental health institution like that, right?
Speaker A:Because these are all wild, bro.
Speaker A:It's horrible.
Speaker A:I don't like it, dude.
Speaker A:There was barbed concertina wire, which is a razor wire.
Speaker A:When I first got to Donovan State Prison, an in one of those crazy dudes, for some reason, he started jumping the fences.
Speaker A:Like, I don't, like, I don't even think he was trying to escape because he was jumping like interior fences, not even like exterior fences, okay?
Speaker A:I mean, he was trying to make his way to the exterior fences.
Speaker A:But you have to understand, he jumped over two fences topped with concertina.
Speaker A:Do you realize what that did to him, bro?
Speaker A:When they brought him into the clinic, they had trash bags on all of his limbs because this dude was leaking out, gushing out blood.
Speaker A:They said that they drove that dude to the hospital and like they had like four emergency like surgeons on him, like sit suturing him at the same time, dude, because how much he was cut up.
Speaker A:Like, I don't understand what's wrong with these people.
Speaker A:They don't feel pain or some.
Speaker B:I've heard this, like, they'll dislocate an arm.
Speaker B:My buddy Austin was on, he's like, they'll use it as a club, their own arm.
Speaker A:They don't feel.
Speaker A:It's.
Speaker A:It's scary, bro.
Speaker A:It's scary because, like, I know what it takes to be a violent person.
Speaker A:You have to be more violent than them.
Speaker A:I think that's what scares me, now that I think of it.
Speaker A:How the fuck.
Speaker A:When they're, when they're, when they're here, that means you got to bring it that much more.
Speaker A:And that's a scary place to be.
Speaker B:And then you just go home and act like nothing happened.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:It's like Frederick Nietzsche said, those that fight monsters ought to be aware, they don't become a monster themselves.
Speaker A:Be aware of the abyss, because when you stare at the abyss, the abyss will stare back at you.
Speaker A:Which is one of the reasons I resigned too, bro.
Speaker A:I had a four year old daughter.
Speaker A:I was becoming a very dark person.
Speaker A:Meaning, like I was done.
Speaker B:You're surrounded by it.
Speaker A:Yeah, I was jaded.
Speaker A:I was through corruption.
Speaker A:I think the corruption grossed me out more than any of the blood or inmates for sure before.
Speaker B:I want to touch more on the corruption, but I got one.
Speaker B:Another question for you, especially with dealing with the mental health.
Speaker B:Did you ever have them throw feces on you?
Speaker A:Thank God.
Speaker A:Nothing.
Speaker A:No.
Speaker B:Really, bro?
Speaker A:For the record, this is like, the sixth time I've ever said it.
Speaker A:I never got assaulted.
Speaker B:Really?
Speaker A:Never?
Speaker B:20 years.
Speaker A:16.
Speaker B:16.
Speaker A:Never got assaulted.
Speaker B:That's impressive.
Speaker A:I've been in a lot of bullshit.
Speaker A:I've been in staff assault, meaning that my partners got assaulted, and I was right there, right then.
Speaker A:And then we.
Speaker A:We.
Speaker A:We.
Speaker A:We.
Speaker A:We handled it.
Speaker B:You've never squared up with an inmate, though?
Speaker A:Oh, I didn't say that.
Speaker B:Okay.
Speaker A:There was two.
Speaker A:There was two times.
Speaker A:I'll say there was a couple.
Speaker A:Two or three or four times, maybe five in my career where I pulled inmates aside, isolated them, and challenged them to fight.
Speaker A:And you should not be doing that.
Speaker A:I should not have done it then.
Speaker A:But at the time, I felt that it needed to be done.
Speaker A:At the time, if I would have.
Speaker A:I could have got away with it.
Speaker A:Meaning if would have went south, I think we would have been all right.
Speaker A:But that's the thing of the past, right?
Speaker A:It should.
Speaker A:I shouldn't have done that.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker A:Did it help me out in my career?
Speaker A:I think so, bro, because inmates talk.
Speaker B:Because I just recently saw a video of an inmate and a correctional officer, and they squared off.
Speaker A:And that was so weird, though, because that was like.
Speaker A:In the East Coast.
Speaker A:You see a lot of weird shit in the East Coast.
Speaker B:Why?
Speaker A:I could be, like, low pay.
Speaker A:It could be, like, low training.
Speaker A:It could be demographics there.
Speaker A:You're not gonna fucking.
Speaker A:In California, you're not gonna score off, square off with the emu like that, especially not on camera.
Speaker A:That's not gonna.
Speaker A:That's what's not gonna happen.
Speaker B:But that's more common on the East Coast.
Speaker B:I feel correctional officers on the east coast versus west coast are two different worlds.
Speaker A:Let me tell you something.
Speaker A:Well, they are two different worlds just by how they're.
Speaker A:I think in California, we're smarter to the degree, so you got to be calculated.
Speaker A:In my head, I could be calculated.
Speaker A:I could beat you in my head before I beat you in real life.
Speaker A:I'm gonna make it look fast.
Speaker A:You see that video of the east coast correctional officer in the ema?
Speaker A:They're both taking their time saying, what's up?
Speaker A:Let's get it.
Speaker A:Let's get it.
Speaker A:Yeah, I'm gonna show you to me.
Speaker A:You're.
Speaker A:You've already showed your hand.
Speaker A:I think if you guys are going to crack it off, both you need to crack it off immediately.
Speaker A:Does that make sense?
Speaker A:Because if the higher ups are looking, watching you, provoke, watching you, they're like, dude, what the are you guys doing?
Speaker B:You had Plenty of time.
Speaker A:What are you guys escalated the out you guys planned?
Speaker A:You guys, what the hell?
Speaker A:Both of you were fired.
Speaker A:One in me.
Speaker A:Get out of here.
Speaker A:You know what I mean?
Speaker A:But if you kick it off, you could both say, like, hey, well, we bumped into each other, and it turned into something that it shouldn't have turned into.
Speaker A:The inmate's gonna get disciplined, but so will the staff.
Speaker A:But it's not gonna look like a stage fight.
Speaker A:You know what I mean?
Speaker B:Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker A:Again, I don't recommend that.
Speaker A:That's.
Speaker A:Those days.
Speaker A:Those days are over for sure.
Speaker B:So when it comes to the corruption, I mean, we've talked about it.
Speaker B:What was when you made it to lieutenant, and you're in this correctional facility now, you have a leadership supervisor role and position.
Speaker B:What did you start to notice that was corrupt inside the prison, Covid?
Speaker B:That's when it hit.
Speaker A:What.
Speaker B:What was corrupt about during.
Speaker B:What was so bad during that time?
Speaker A:So covet.
Speaker A:Common sense would tell you that if you have an inmate that's in positive with COVID you leave them and you leave them alone, right?
Speaker A:You leave them in the cell, you isolate them, you quarantine, correct the higher ups.
Speaker A:And you have to understand, incompetence has a lot to do with this corruption, for sure.
Speaker A:It's evil.
Speaker A:There's different layers to it.
Speaker A:Incompetence.
Speaker A:So the evil people get the incompetent booger eaters to do all their dirty work, and they gladly do it.
Speaker A:So they were mixing all the inmates, mixing COVID positive inmates with non COVID positive inmates, and just the inmates spreading through the prison system, spreading like wildfire.
Speaker A:The inmates were freaking out, bro.
Speaker A:The inmates were terrified of COVID They were not happy.
Speaker A:And imagine that we have to go over there as officers, sergeants, lieutenants, like, hey, you have to move.
Speaker A:Well, why am I moving over here?
Speaker A:You have to move into this gym that looks like Area 54 because everybody's contaminated you.
Speaker A:I'm not moving over there.
Speaker A:Then they'll fight you.
Speaker A:You see how all this can turn into safety issues?
Speaker A:So when me as a lieutenant, I bring it up to my higher ups, like, the concerns, hey, what are we doing here?
Speaker A:Like, respectfully, right?
Speaker A:Because at the time, I still had the military bearing.
Speaker A:Hey, like, what are we doing here, sir?
Speaker A:Like, is it not a good idea to.
Speaker A:To not mix these guys?
Speaker A:One's positive, one's not.
Speaker A:The way that they look at you, bro, is that you just insulted their intelligence.
Speaker A:Their egos are so inflated that how dare you speak to me?
Speaker A:How dare you Question my authority.
Speaker A:Now, that in itself is not corruption, right?
Speaker A:That is poor leadership or their lack of horrible management.
Speaker A:But the corruption comes when you start mixing gangsters with child molesters and purposely setting them up.
Speaker A:And I was part of the crisis response team, the SWAT team, okay.
Speaker A:For the prison, we were staged inside of the visiting with the 40 millimeters.
Speaker A:While we got 20 gangsters, 10 on this side, 10 on this side, and walked them into the building, knowing that they were going to all fight each other, or the chomos, the people inside the buildings already.
Speaker A:So they weren't all chomos.
Speaker A:Right there.
Speaker A:It's a mixture of people that can live with these 20.
Speaker B:You said there was 10 on each side.
Speaker B:So you knew these 20 dudes, bringing them in there they were.
Speaker B:You're just going to turn them loose.
Speaker B:And it was immediately going to be riot, riot.
Speaker B:And it was 100%.
Speaker A:It was.
Speaker A:And there was two buildings, two lines, two buildings.
Speaker A:They both went in there.
Speaker A:It erupted in violence.
Speaker A:We respond.
Speaker A:I personally respond with a 40 millimeter Les lethal as a lieutenant, and I start shooting the dudes.
Speaker A:Boom, boom, boom.
Speaker A:I'm a lieutenant, bro.
Speaker A:Like, what am I doing shooting?
Speaker A:You know?
Speaker A:But I was part of the Crest's response.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:I hit a dude, like, five times up the leg.
Speaker A:Boom, boom.
Speaker A:We put the dudes in flex cuffs, which I've done in every single riot.
Speaker A:We escort them out, and the lieutenant at the time told the inmates, we're gonna escort you back into this building.
Speaker A:We're gonna cut off your restraints, and you guys are gonna keep fighting all night long until you get tired.
Speaker A:Me and my friend gave each other that look that you just gave me right now.
Speaker A:What the did he just say?
Speaker A:Because that was the beginning of that type of corruption.
Speaker B:So they're just running like a gladiator
Speaker A:ring inside of here and blaming the officers?
Speaker B:No.
Speaker A:Yes.
Speaker B:But that wasn't kind of fun to watch.
Speaker B:Or was it scary because you guys are getting pulled into it.
Speaker A:I get no honor in that, bro.
Speaker B:Okay.
Speaker A:I get no honor in pitting people that should not be together.
Speaker B:Well.
Speaker B:Because a lot of them probably don't even want to be involved in it, but they have.
Speaker A:They don't want.
Speaker A:Because they have to be because of their.
Speaker A:Because of their own rules.
Speaker B:Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker A:There's no honor in that.
Speaker A:There's no wonder in that.
Speaker A:And for the correctional officers that say, who give the.
Speaker A:They're just inmates.
Speaker A:Let them fight.
Speaker A:I gave you that scenario earlier.
Speaker A:It's all fun and games to an enemy pull the knife out of his ass and stabs you in the throat.
Speaker A:Yeah, yeah, I've seen that.
Speaker B:So you're everything.
Speaker A:I'm telling you, I've seen firsthand.
Speaker B:So you're saying that during the COVID time, that this.
Speaker B:The leadership of the correctional facilities were pretty much running these gladiator fights by mixing chomos with gangsters.
Speaker A: And it was Covid: Speaker A: Yeah, the mixing happened in: Speaker B:Okay.
Speaker A: And I resigned in: Speaker A:That's the timeline.
Speaker B:And then they're.
Speaker A:They're.
Speaker B:I mean, so how are they portraying this to the.
Speaker B:The public?
Speaker A:This is how they're.
Speaker A:This is how they're portraying it to the inmates.
Speaker A:Hey, guys, when you guys parole to the streets, you don't get to choose who your neighbor is.
Speaker A:You're expected to get along with your neighbor out there.
Speaker A:We're expecting you to get along in here.
Speaker A:But that's not.
Speaker B:That's not how prison work.
Speaker B:That's like.
Speaker A:You know why that's not ideal?
Speaker A:Because prison is a controlled setting, bro.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker A:You can't just leave whenever you want.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker A:You don't have a stuck.
Speaker A:You got to follow the rules.
Speaker A:There's a count time, there's a child, time to get away.
Speaker A:You don't get exactly in the.
Speaker A:In the freed.
Speaker A:In the free world, you could do whatever the you want.
Speaker A:You can kick back in the house all day, watch tv.
Speaker A:In.
Speaker A:In prison, bro, You're.
Speaker A:You're being controlled by the man, by the system.
Speaker A:That's why that doesn't work.
Speaker A:It's fucking corruption, bro.
Speaker A:And we didn't even, like, dive right into it.
Speaker A:But I'm pretty sure people got the gist of California as fuck, dude.
Speaker B:So these dudes are just.
Speaker B:I mean, it was just a cockfight in there.
Speaker B:I mean, they're just setting this shit up.
Speaker A:This has been going on bad, bro, for fucking years.
Speaker A:It's still going on, dude.
Speaker A:I've helped in litigation where inmates have reached out to me and asked me to assist in documentation writing about these gladiator fights, like, these mixing.
Speaker A:Is it real?
Speaker A:I was 100.
Speaker A:It's real, dude.
Speaker A:I have documentation.
Speaker B:See?
Speaker B:And the reason I believe this is because I had Austin on, and he was talking about one of the prisons out here, down.
Speaker B:Out down the road here.
Speaker B:They actually named it.
Speaker B:All the CEOs named it Gladiator.
Speaker B:And they.
Speaker B:They had.
Speaker B:They were like, doing, like.
Speaker B:They were, like, setting up fights and with all the prisoners, and it got.
Speaker B:I guess it got pretty wild.
Speaker A:So nobody's happy right now, bro.
Speaker A:The correctional officers are miserable.
Speaker A:The inmates are not happy.
Speaker A:The inmates as a whole, because they see the corruption for what it is.
Speaker A:They're being put in a bad predicaments.
Speaker A:But the administration is putting out fake, fake propaganda on their website saying, look, we're such a rehabilitative prison for the funding you already know, bro.
Speaker A:For the, for the, for the false image.
Speaker B:So meanwhile these dudes are in there
Speaker A:stabbing each other, murdering each other, bro.
Speaker A:Because I have a website too where I show videos of carnage butchering.
Speaker A:Oh my God, bro.
Speaker A:Murders.
Speaker A: murders since December: Speaker A:And the, that current secretary has been the secretary.
Speaker A:103 homicides in a three year span.
Speaker A:You're probably thinking like, oh, that's not a lot, dude.
Speaker B:That's just your prisons that you were at that he runs that you came
Speaker A:from California or California prisons.
Speaker A:Okay, yeah, yeah.
Speaker A:Which is supposedly working fine because of this new model and safety or whatever the.
Speaker B:Something I don't understand about prisons, that's
Speaker A:not even including suicide.
Speaker A:Suicides and overdoses.
Speaker A:Suicides are rampant, bro.
Speaker A:I've come across a lot of inmates suicide.
Speaker B:How are they killing themselves in prison?
Speaker A:They tie a bed sheet to the light fixture or the vent in the air thingy or the bunk and they fucking hang themselves.
Speaker A:I saw a dude hang himself on his knees, an Asian guy, he tied a noose to his neck, tied the fucking end to the bunk, got on his knees, leaned forward, killed himself.
Speaker A:Inmate Eric Cocky.
Speaker A:That's a fact.
Speaker A:I was on a swap that day, bro.
Speaker A:It was 6:01am and I heard.
Speaker A:I'm like, I haven't even had my coffee yet.
Speaker A:You hear on the radio.
Speaker A:Central control, be advised, unresponsive inmate sell whatever the.
Speaker A:I'm like, oh, he's dead.
Speaker A:He's dead because he did it right, you know, he did it at night time and the morning shift caught him.
Speaker A:He did it.
Speaker A:He did it right.
Speaker B:Okay, so my ignorant mind, right, my little finite mind of inside prison, I look at these gangs is like an ant hill, right?
Speaker B:Like all these little ant hills.
Speaker B:And when you take a scoop of one ant hill and you throw it on another, you immediately, it is 100% fight for their life.
Speaker B:Why don't we build these prisons to where these blocks are all just that specific gang and gangs never cross paths.
Speaker A:No.
Speaker A:Why that would be bad for the COs.
Speaker A:When you have all of one race in one area, they turn all their attention on the COs.
Speaker B:Okay, that makes.
Speaker A:And I've.
Speaker A:I've encountered that I've experienced.
Speaker B:That makes sense to me because they
Speaker A:don't have that tension from the other race to kind of like.
Speaker B:But if we're giving these dudes iPads, they got radios, TVs, they got commissary.
Speaker B:It's.
Speaker B:I get there's a lot of them in there.
Speaker B:And that's the reason they're in there because their mind is just not normal.
Speaker B:So they're looking for violence 24 7.
Speaker B:But like, as an outsider, I'm like, okay, why don't we just take all the blacks and stick them in block.
Speaker B:All the whites are in B.
Speaker B:And then they just never cry.
Speaker B:They're going to.
Speaker A:I think the questions you're asking, you got to understand the.
Speaker A:In the.
Speaker A:Which you're framing them.
Speaker B:Okay.
Speaker A:If you right now went up to the director of the cdcr, the secretary, and you're like, hey, sir, like, I have a really good.
Speaker A:I think I have a good idea of like, how to fix your problem.
Speaker A:He's going to look at you, he's going to scoff and laugh at you.
Speaker A:That's the type of people that are in charge.
Speaker B:100.
Speaker A:Which is foul, bro.
Speaker A:Like, so we can have the best idea in the world.
Speaker A:Doesn't matter if the people are not implementing it correctly.
Speaker A:You can have the best idea in the world, execute it, but with poor execution could turn into a complete and utter failure.
Speaker B:100%, absolutely.
Speaker B:So I guess my next question to you would be, would you did 16 years and you made it to lieutenant, you're.
Speaker B:You've seen from the trenches to the leadership position.
Speaker B:How would you change the California.
Speaker B:How would you just change prison systems in general to make them more rehabilitating for prisoners?
Speaker A:Easy.
Speaker A:How easy?
Speaker A:I know which inmates want to rehabilitate.
Speaker A:I know which inmates want to go home and I know which inmates want to around and give the staff a hard time.
Speaker B:So should they be segregated?
Speaker B:Should that be separated?
Speaker A:Yes.
Speaker A:And the incentives should be distributed correctly.
Speaker B:What type of incentives?
Speaker A:So right now they are punishing all.
Speaker A:They are rewarding all bad behavior.
Speaker B:How?
Speaker A:Oh, bro, if you're a piece of.
Speaker A:If you're masturbating to female officers, we're going to give you a car show.
Speaker A:We're going to give you a circus.
Speaker A:We're gonna bring in food vendors.
Speaker A:They're rewarding the bad behavior.
Speaker B:They're bringing food vendors into.
Speaker A:Vendors into prison.
Speaker A:Car shows into prison.
Speaker B:What?
Speaker A:The BMX skateboarding shows with ramps.
Speaker B:There's no way.
Speaker A:One hundred.
Speaker A:A hundred percent.
Speaker A:Oh, my goodness.
Speaker A:I just Saw I just posted on Instagram, man, they brought in these females.
Speaker A:They were twerking on the.
Speaker A:In me.
Speaker A:They were dancing, having a good old time.
Speaker A:Maybe they were twerking.
Speaker A:That probably.
Speaker A:Who knows?
Speaker A:Why twerk?
Speaker A:Why.
Speaker A:Why go dance with inmates?
Speaker A:You know what I mean?
Speaker A:I'm a realist, bro.
Speaker A:They're selling a.
Speaker A:What they're selling is a circus is what it is.
Speaker A:It's a circus.
Speaker B:Uhhuh.
Speaker A:It's a circus.
Speaker B:So.
Speaker A:Okay, so I guess so the behave
Speaker B:should be then their own.
Speaker B:Their own block.
Speaker A:What I'm saying is they're not getting those type of incentives, bro.
Speaker A:I know this for a fact.
Speaker A:If you're a general population in me, you're not getting any other cool and stuff that the other guys are getting, which is backwards.
Speaker A:You need to reward the good behavior and punish the bad behavior just like a parent.
Speaker A:It's that easy, bro.
Speaker A:That's fix half of your problem.
Speaker B:That doesn't make any sense to me that these guys are getting food carts and car shows.
Speaker A:I don't mind the food sales because the inmates will pay like, let's just say $25 for a pizza.
Speaker A:But that money gets fundraiser to like children's radio radies, children hospital.
Speaker B:Okay, so that's actually going somewhere they
Speaker A:donate the money to.
Speaker B:It's not going to the admin and.
Speaker A:Correct, correct, correct.
Speaker A:So I don't mind the food sales.
Speaker A:They get to eat whatever.
Speaker B:Food sales.
Speaker B:As far as commissary.
Speaker B:But they're.
Speaker B:You're talking.
Speaker A:They're bringing outside.
Speaker A:Not commissary, commissary, Pizza Hut, Costco Pizza chicken, Kentucky Fried Chicken.
Speaker A:And again, I don't mind it because the money's going to a good place.
Speaker A:That's the only reason why I don't mind it.
Speaker A:And who.
Speaker A:I mean, if they.
Speaker B:Okay, so let's say you did.
Speaker B:You had guys.
Speaker B:Because if we're rehabilitating these.
Speaker B:These people.
Speaker A:We're not, bro.
Speaker A:You keep.
Speaker A:You do really.
Speaker A:We're not rehabilitating nobody.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker B:For sure.
Speaker A:Okay, cool.
Speaker B:I just keep.
Speaker B:That's why I do air quotes every time.
Speaker B:Every time I say rehabilitate, I do
Speaker A:air quotes because for the case of viewers, look at.
Speaker B:I have buddies that have been in the system and they said that the worst shit they've ever dealt with was way harder in there trying to keep.
Speaker B:Keep clean than it was on the streets.
Speaker A:Oh, 100%.
Speaker B:They say there's more drugs in prison, there's more crime in prison, there's more violence in prison.
Speaker B:And that's where I have such a hard time knowing that.
Speaker B:Let's say some kid gets caught up with a bunch of weed or coke, whatever, right?
Speaker B:Gets a DUI and gets put into these situations.
Speaker B:They immediately get pulled into a gang to survive to like how.
Speaker B:Okay, is it possible to go to prison and not get pulled into a group?
Speaker A:2026 is.
Speaker A:Is unpredictable.
Speaker A:I never told you that.
Speaker A:There's condom dispensers inside the housing units.
Speaker A:You know when you go to the shopping mall and you go to the bathroom, you can buy the cologne in the restroom or a condom sometimes.
Speaker A:They used to have them.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker A:Every prison building in California has a dispenser on the wall that all inmates have access to and free condoms.
Speaker A:That's a fact, bro.
Speaker A:That happened years ago.
Speaker A:Free condoms, free Narcan, free Suboxone, free.
Speaker A:It's all funded, bro.
Speaker B:I.
Speaker B:People like Californians, I don't even think.
Speaker A:But now you got to talk about generations, right?
Speaker A:Let's.
Speaker A:Let's keep it real on your podcast.
Speaker A:We're doing a good job.
Speaker A:Let's talk about generations in society.
Speaker A:What are these 18 year old, 19 year old, 20 year old, 21 year olds like?
Speaker A:23 year old demeanors?
Speaker A:They're different than our age, right?
Speaker B:Well, they're growing up.
Speaker B:Most of them are growing up without fathers now.
Speaker A:That's the same type of inmates that are going in, okay?
Speaker A:They lack the virtues of the old, old values that we got taught, right?
Speaker A:So they're out of fucking control.
Speaker A:They're out of control.
Speaker A:They're wild.
Speaker A:They lack respect.
Speaker A:Not even the OG convicts, not even the old school inmates can't fucking stand these little bastards.
Speaker A:They don't.
Speaker A:They're like, they like, dude, we can't.
Speaker A:We don't know how to get through to them.
Speaker A:They don't listen.
Speaker A:They don't listen.
Speaker A:Couple that in with who is your new batch of correctional officers.
Speaker A:21 year olds, 22 year olds, 23 year olds.
Speaker A:So it's.
Speaker A:The system is freaking screwed right now currently in California, what you have is you have the new generation that have taken over and ruined everything, okay?
Speaker A:And you have the old inmates that want out, you have the old staff that want out, and they're just hanging out over.
Speaker B:Going on right now.
Speaker A:The turnover has been happening for the last five, six, seven, eight, nine years.
Speaker B:How's that going?
Speaker A:You ever see the movie Titanic?
Speaker A:It's a sinking, bro.
Speaker A:Me and somebody else is the only ones calling it for what it is.
Speaker A:It's a sinking shit, bro.
Speaker A:We have not even seen the ultimate Let me tell you something, man.
Speaker A:For your viewers to Google, type in the name Cesar Hernandez.
Speaker A:Kern Valley State Prison.
Speaker A:Two years ago, a level four, 180 hp killer inmate escaped from Kern Valley State Prison.
Speaker A:Ran away from the correctional officers during a transportation run to the courthouse.
Speaker A:He managed to make it to Tijuana.
Speaker A:He got in a shootout with the Tijuana police and killed a female police officer.
Speaker A:You never heard about that in the news, bro.
Speaker A:That just shows the corruption.
Speaker B:No, that's kind of.
Speaker A:You're seeing shit in California that you've never fucking seen shit before on a whole nother level that.
Speaker A:That's completely out of control.
Speaker A:There's no more control.
Speaker A:The officers have lost control,
Speaker B:but they still control the prisons.
Speaker B:That's why I asked earlier.
Speaker A:Let me give you an example.
Speaker A:If it's an example, I guess it's like being a fucking zookeeper, okay?
Speaker A:You're like, do you really control the zoo?
Speaker A:Like, I mean, if you're just wearing a silly hat, are you really controlling
Speaker B:all the monkeys that are can just jump this wall and rip your lines?
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:Are you really doing much?
Speaker A:No.
Speaker A:Are you holding?
Speaker A:Are you crossing your fingers every day there?
Speaker A:And I was one.
Speaker A: ing a Correctional Officer In: Speaker A:Nothing happens on your shift.
Speaker B:Are everything that you know about the correctional facilities, the 16 years in, are you just waiting to it, like a full blown riot takeover in one of these prisons?
Speaker B:Like, are we close to that in California?
Speaker B:Since the admin.
Speaker A:This is what I think is gonna happen.
Speaker A:This is what I think is gonna happen.
Speaker A:And somebody's wrote on my Instagram, it sounds like you're wanting this to happen.
Speaker A:Hector.
Speaker A:I'm like, no, dude, I'm a fucking realist and I see what it is.
Speaker A:Yeah, this is what's gonna happen.
Speaker A:A correctional officer is gonna get killed in the line of duty in California.
Speaker A:But also I'm thinking on a stage of like Attica.
Speaker A:Attica or New Mexico, prison riot takeover and.
Speaker A:Or with a gun in a hostage situation.
Speaker A:Situation.
Speaker A:So for putting it on the record book and hoping that it does not happen, praying to God that it does not happen.
Speaker A:But with my experience, one or all of those four things are inevitable.
Speaker A:Inevitable.
Speaker A:And I'm not just saying this to like try to collect views or I'm not like the mainstream media that just want to.
Speaker A:You, like make the emotion in the trenches.
Speaker B:And you, you've seen all this.
Speaker B:I mean, you walked away from your job because you see where this is
Speaker A:going with a four year old daughter and I wanted no part of it.
Speaker B:Yeah, and that's.
Speaker B:And that's where.
Speaker B:That's why I asked 100 bro.
Speaker A:I'm glad you see it that way.
Speaker B:Where's the future of California?
Speaker B:Correction.
Speaker A:Something horrible is going to happen.
Speaker A:A cop's going to get killed.
Speaker A:There's going to be massive riot, takeover, a hostage situation.
Speaker A:But let me, here's the kicker.
Speaker A:And then what?
Speaker A:And then what?
Speaker B:How do they change it?
Speaker A:No but.
Speaker A:And then what?
Speaker A:Then that becomes a new norm.
Speaker A:Then the correctional officers pretend they're upset, do absolutely nothing or retaliate.
Speaker B:Which amplifies.
Speaker B:You don't think so?
Speaker A:No.
Speaker A:They don't have it in them.
Speaker B:Is there?
Speaker B:Okay, so coming from the army and being in such a tight unit to corrections, is there pride in there or are you on your own?
Speaker A:They say it's paramilitary.
Speaker A:It's not paramilitary.
Speaker A:In, in 16 years and in two prisons.
Speaker A:Two hands.
Speaker A:Solid, solid people that I can trust.
Speaker A:Trust.
Speaker A:And by trust you mean like, you know, like we can get into some dirt together.
Speaker A:Like we all trust you muff.
Speaker A:We're gonna go down together.
Speaker A:Trust.
Speaker A:And that's out of a thousand and a thousand?
Speaker A:10 out of 5,000 employees.
Speaker A:It's a small select few, bro.
Speaker A:And it's not that I'm knocking them, I'm just being a realist dude.
Speaker A:But in life, what have I told you ever since I've been meeting you, since I met you, I said I'm glad I met you bro.
Speaker A:I don't have people like this I can talk to.
Speaker A:There are very small few percentage of solid humans in this world.
Speaker A:I appreciate that.
Speaker A:That is, that is, that isn't society.
Speaker A:Because I refuse to lower my standards or my values.
Speaker B:You can't ever lower your standards.
Speaker B:And you're just a right.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:100.
Speaker B:There's no lowering standards ever.
Speaker A:So damn dude.
Speaker A:I'm glad you let me get that truth out and like let me express it the way that it is the truth, bro.
Speaker B:Feel better?
Speaker B:Yeah, dude.
Speaker A:Because I thought it was going to be confusing or hard for you to understand or for the people to understand.
Speaker A:But I'm just being straight up bro.
Speaker A:And it's not nothing new under the sun.
Speaker A:Look at Rome.
Speaker A:How did corruption, how did the fall of Rome look at the FBI?
Speaker B:Do you look at our correctional facilities?
Speaker B:And look, I don't know how to word this but you take our state of the government right now and how it's looking.
Speaker B:Is it just copy paste to corrections?
Speaker B:How that's Run with the corruption.
Speaker A:Evil.
Speaker A:Evil.
Speaker A:Corruption.
Speaker A:Copy paste.
Speaker A:Doesn't matter, I guess.
Speaker A:Call it cdcr.
Speaker A:Call it FBI.
Speaker B:CDCR stand for again.
Speaker A:California Department of Corrections Rehabilitation.
Speaker A:Call it the Ukraine.
Speaker A:Hunter Biden.
Speaker A:Funding the proxy wars with Russia.
Speaker B:Money, though.
Speaker B:Who, the staff or the.
Speaker B:The leadership?
Speaker A:They're not.
Speaker A:They're selling out for power.
Speaker A:Okay, Power.
Speaker A:Okay, Power.
Speaker B:Which.
Speaker B:That's a huge thing.
Speaker A:Position.
Speaker B:People can understand.
Speaker B:Yeah, people.
Speaker B:Ego.
Speaker A:Statistical.
Speaker B:Okay, so they're.
Speaker B:They're just bowing the knee to news scum.
Speaker B:And then that gets them promoted.
Speaker B:That makes it.
Speaker B:Then they're working the ranks up the.
Speaker B:Into the California system.
Speaker A:I was on a podcast, bro, and they asked me like, well, I don't understand.
Speaker A:Oh, it was the ironclad or something.
Speaker A:He's like, I don't understand.
Speaker A:What do you mean corruption, bro?
Speaker A:Like, what do you mean?
Speaker A:They're selling out for, like, a power?
Speaker A:I'm like, bro, they're.
Speaker A:They're content with just for a title.
Speaker A:They'll sell out their own mother for a title.
Speaker B:And if people can't understand that, you're ignorant.
Speaker B:Look at our politicians.
Speaker B:You see the list of people that are taking money from APAC, and it's like $24,000.
Speaker B:I'm like, you sold your soul to Israel for 24 grand.
Speaker B:You can't make that on a side hustle.
Speaker B:You're selling yourself out for, dude.
Speaker B:The fact people will do anything for power.
Speaker A:Anything.
Speaker A:Power.
Speaker A:Okay, so like you said, Hector, do you see cdcr?
Speaker A:You see politics, do you see corruption?
Speaker A:Copy paste?
Speaker A:Yes, but in one side of the spectrum, you have the corrupt entities.
Speaker A:On the other side, you have the public sheep unwilling to act or.
Speaker A:Which.
Speaker A:Which encourages this behavior, which is culpability by definition.
Speaker B:Well, at the same time, you have this fortified fortress, this building that has layers of fences of all.
Speaker B:Where.
Speaker B:How the.
Speaker B:How the.
Speaker B:Is civilians going to look at and be like, we need to dig into that?
Speaker A:No, but my reference was in reference to the current correctional officers refusing to stand up to the corruption it takes.
Speaker A:What did they say?
Speaker A:The only thing necessary for.
Speaker A:For evil to prevail is for good men to do nothing.
Speaker A:Who said that?
Speaker A:Well, Thomas Jefferson.
Speaker A:Somebody said it.
Speaker A:Somebody important, right?
Speaker A:That is, from what I've seen, Nazi Germany, Hitler.
Speaker A:How many German nationals saw and understood what was happening, was wrong, but said nothing, did nothing because they were afraid of retaliation?
Speaker B:We'll say with cops.
Speaker B:Same with the military.
Speaker B:Correct.
Speaker B:Vaccines.
Speaker A:Vaccine.
Speaker A:God, don't even get me started on the vaccine.
Speaker A:But it's the same shit.
Speaker A:You see what we're up against.
Speaker A:But it's important for the American people to identify who's who and what's what.
Speaker A:My thing is when shit hits the fucking fan, pick.
Speaker A:Be careful who you pick.
Speaker A:The right people pick the right side to be on.
Speaker A:And they're not the loudest in the room, I'll tell you that right now.
Speaker A:And don't think you're gonna be jumping ship because I remember you over here playing this game over here for so long.
Speaker A:Now you want to come and join the winning team?
Speaker A:Ain't gonna happen.
Speaker B:Yeah, it's.
Speaker B:It's interesting to me because I'm just like every.
Speaker B:Everything that our government touches is corrupt.
Speaker A:Yeah, everything.
Speaker A:Yes.
Speaker B:The money, the, the hookups, the, the grants, the funding, the so and so.
Speaker B:Dude, I when I was working in just the like the utility world during.
Speaker B:Under the Obama administration, bro, the whole go green when we were everybody was going green.
Speaker B:Would have a company and his wife was the environmentalist and her sister in law would ran the traffic dude.
Speaker B:And all these people would be all connected and then we'd get these government gigs and then as soon as you got the bid then you had your whole entire family bid everything that all owned these companies.
Speaker B:And then now it's like bro, you have a family and brother in law, sister in law's dad, you got a 17 year old daughter that's like running the flagging all this crazy.
Speaker B:And everybody was making bank.
Speaker B:It's the same thing.
Speaker B:I feel like in all of these entities of the government that oh if we could get this funding, we're going to allow transgenders to get breast augmentations that's going to give us more funding.
Speaker A:And then the guys at the top are Somali daycare.
Speaker A:Sham.
Speaker A:The Somali daycare.
Speaker B:It's in our.
Speaker B:It's the same thing as our correctional facilities.
Speaker A:100.
Speaker A:It's corruption bro.
Speaker B:It's like okay, you got evil.
Speaker A:It's evil it bottom line evil bro.
Speaker A:Because people are selling out for dollar, for money, for power, for titles, positions.
Speaker B:For sure.
Speaker B:For sure.
Speaker B:People have a.
Speaker B:Have a hard time grasping that concept still.
Speaker B:And it's like you just look at what people people will sell their soul for anything.
Speaker A:Let's be realistic.
Speaker A:How did we go from.
Speaker A:You and I have the same birthday, bro.
Speaker A:Same birthday.
Speaker A:How did we go from that year we were born to now?
Speaker A:Easy.
Speaker A:We got away from our primitive state.
Speaker A:They attacked us with toxic masculinity.
Speaker A:They said female gender equality.
Speaker A:They removed the pledge of allegiance from school.
Speaker A:They removed religion.
Speaker A:They got rid of God.
Speaker A:They every traditional Christian family Value virtue was attempted to be destroyed by evil.
Speaker A:Call it what you want, George Soros, whoever it may be.
Speaker A:And all we have to do as a nation is just go back to where we were.
Speaker A:We don't have to reinvent the wheel.
Speaker A:We just go back to where we were.
Speaker A:Why fix it if it's not broken?
Speaker A: in the world was around part: Speaker A:2000.
Speaker A:Like, things were legit there.
Speaker A:We had Internet, we had boys restrooms, girls restrooms.
Speaker B:Things were nice.
Speaker B:Nobody was not.
Speaker B:The whole world wasn't at each other's throats.
Speaker A:Correct.
Speaker B:Look how angry we are now.
Speaker A:That's by design 100 and dopamine.
Speaker A:Right?
Speaker A:Because you on my Instagram, I'm always talking to these people like, oh, you spend all your time scrolling and laughing at dopamine.
Speaker A:Weak people chase dopamine hits, bro.
Speaker A:The same exact way I used to chase dopamine when I was chasing women, chasing drugs and shaking, chasing alcohol.
Speaker A:The only reason I'm able to speak confidently as I am, because I'm experienced in doing the wrong thing first.
Speaker A:All right?
Speaker A:I'm not here sitting on a pedestal saying, I am Almighty.
Speaker A:I am God.
Speaker A:I am perfect.
Speaker A:I'm straight up.
Speaker A:Told you.
Speaker A:I used to smoke meth, I used to drink alcohol.
Speaker A:I ended up in a psych ward.
Speaker A:But I know what corruption is, and I've witnessed it, and I wanted no part in it.
Speaker A:So am I really that psych?
Speaker A:Am I really that crazy?
Speaker A:I don't think so, bro.
Speaker A:I'm perfectly sane.
Speaker B:And you didn't ever lower your morals or values for it.
Speaker A:Thank you.
Speaker A:And then.
Speaker A:And you know what?
Speaker B:That's what a true man is.
Speaker A:And you know what's attached to that?
Speaker A:My last name and my last name.
Speaker A:My daughter's last name, my father's last name.
Speaker B:Facts.
Speaker B:That's why I look at these dudes.
Speaker B:I mean, like, that sell out for.
Speaker B:I'm like, God, you're such a bro.
Speaker A:You just on your whole family lineage
Speaker B:for money or power.
Speaker A:Disgusting.
Speaker B:I've been.
Speaker B:I've had opportunities where I could have stepped into place.
Speaker B:I knew what it was going to take.
Speaker A:And 100.
Speaker B:And it felt so good.
Speaker B:I'm good.
Speaker A:We sleep good at night, bro.
Speaker A:That's fucking priceless.
Speaker A:Me and you can walk down Me and you can walk down the street and know that, like, nobody can shut down on us or spit on our name.
Speaker B:Know how I live that my daughters could look at their dad every single day and be like, he Is not a.
Speaker B:He's never sold out.
Speaker B:He's not going to do anything for money or power, bro.
Speaker B:I mean, don't get me wrong, I have a sellout number that if somebody came to me, if Israel's losing, it's going to be probably 200 million.
Speaker A:200 million.
Speaker A:I think my sellout number would be a little bit higher than 200.
Speaker B:Honestly, I never, I've thought about it, but I've never come up with a number.
Speaker A:Maybe if they pay off my mortgage, I might, you know, I would have to know what.
Speaker B:I would have to see the contract first of what I'm have to do before I come.
Speaker A:I want a car in the contract, though, dude.
Speaker A:Pay off my house and give me a car.
Speaker A:Was straight, bro.
Speaker A:See, my daughter's too young to understand any of this, right?
Speaker A:But I, as she grows older, know she'll.
Speaker A:If she, if and when she sees what happened, then she'll know what happened and you'll.
Speaker B:She's not going to probably respect it for a while, but you know, when she's old enough and mature enough to understand it.
Speaker B:But like, my biggest thing is as a man and as a father, I want my daughters to be able to look at me like my dad stood on business for anything.
Speaker B:If he was wrong, he took it on the chin.
Speaker B:If he was right, he died on that hill.
Speaker B:And there was no bending the knee to anybody.
Speaker B:But Jesus Christ, that.
Speaker B:That's in mom occasionally when she wins a fight, but that's it.
Speaker B:And that to me is as like a dad and a man.
Speaker B:Like, that's where my pride is.
Speaker B:Like, I could never.
Speaker B:I couldn't go to bed.
Speaker B:And I knowing my daughters know that I sold out for something.
Speaker A:But I could assure you that me and you are raising our daughters better than most, quote, unquote, men are raising their sons in 20, 26%.
Speaker B:Dude, I have to deal with the sons.
Speaker B:I got daughters.
Speaker A:I had to deal with the sons right at work, working in a prison.
Speaker A:Yeah, 100%.
Speaker A:And that's the fucking problem.
Speaker A:Let's talk about that real quick.
Speaker A:I don't think me and you would give a if people were scumbags and pieces of.
Speaker A:But when we have to deal with it and it becomes our problem, then that's a problem.
Speaker A:When I have to carry your dead weight.
Speaker A:You were a Marine, bro.
Speaker A:You know what happens if somebody doesn't pull their weight on a road march or a hike?
Speaker A:It's like, hey, yours, you get up here, get up here with us, right?
Speaker A:You want to wear this Uniform.
Speaker A:You want to wear this badge, you want to wear this patch.
Speaker A:Get up here, toe the line, do the rest.
Speaker A:Because it's exhausting, bro.
Speaker A:I'm.
Speaker A:I'm glad I got a vent, bro.
Speaker A:This is like a little venting session for Lighter now or what was going through it, dude, I'm like, dude, I'm.
Speaker A:I'm, like, putting on the rucksack and, like, doing the work for these mother.
Speaker A:Ungrateful.
Speaker A:But I've calmed down now, bro.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:Because then it just festers.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:And it's the past, and I don't really hate them.
Speaker A:Let's talk about this.
Speaker A:Do you think your drill instructors wanted the worst for you?
Speaker B:One of them, possibly.
Speaker A:One of them.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:There's always that psychopath.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:But as a whole, they were getting.
Speaker B: I mean, dude, it was: Speaker B:They had to get us on track.
Speaker A:Exactly.
Speaker B:I get it.
Speaker A:So I.
Speaker A:Whenever I try to help the world, I'm 41.
Speaker A:I feel old.
Speaker A:I look at it from a father perspective, a leadership perspective, like, hey, dude, I'm telling you for your own good, kid, don't do it this way.
Speaker A:Do it, preferably, look into doing it this way.
Speaker B:I said it earlier, there's certain jobs that I could just never be, especially younger now.
Speaker B:It's way.
Speaker B:I'm.
Speaker B:I got a way different mindset and completely different person.
Speaker B:But, like, dude, being border patrol, I.
Speaker B:No way.
Speaker B:Like, there's a certain positions I never could have done.
Speaker B:But there comes to, like, this point where it's like when you.
Speaker B:When you get tested and you have that crossroad where you're like, all right, I can go with these guys because they're all getting away with it, or you're, man, it ain't for me.
Speaker B:And you take that path and you go home at night and you can sleep knowing that you didn't do some shit or cross a line.
Speaker B:You're.
Speaker B:It's.
Speaker B:It's.
Speaker B:You just.
Speaker B:You don't have that weight, you know, the stress.
Speaker B:You.
Speaker B:Then you're not like, oh, fuck, is anybody going to find out?
Speaker B:Because I've.
Speaker B:We've all been young.
Speaker B:We've all made mistakes, but that's because
Speaker A:you're looking at it through the beauty of hindsight and that what you just described was groupthink.
Speaker A:Because we've been in positions where we've been forced to make a choice.
Speaker A:We haven't always made the right choice, but we have made the right choice, and we noticed that it makes us feel better.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker A:So groupthink, it's important.
Speaker A:I highlight groupthink on your podcast as well.
Speaker A:Because I was also a certified hostage negotiator, okay.
Speaker A:So I went to like, the FBI version of like, the they.
Speaker A:Their training school for a hostage negotiator.
Speaker A:10 day course, bro.
Speaker B:Did you ever.
Speaker B:Did you ever have to.
Speaker B:Did you ever have to, like, talk anybody off the ledge or whatever?
Speaker B:Did you ever use your negotiation skills?
Speaker A:You're not going to believe this.
Speaker A:If I told you I went to the 10 day hostage negotiation course, I come back, the prison I worked at was in Donovan.
Speaker A:There's a bridge on the 125 Freeway.
Speaker A:The toll road.
Speaker A:You have to pay a toll.
Speaker A:There's a big ass fucking bridge where down is a drop.
Speaker A:Drop.
Speaker A:I'm driving to work one week after I come back from the hostile negotiation course, dude, and there's a lady sitting on the bridge.
Speaker A:And I'm like, what the hell, right?
Speaker A:Because I'm driving.
Speaker A:I'm driving to work, and then I see the lady and I think in my head, nah, no way.
Speaker A:But I can't flip a yet because there's a whole entire meeting on the bridge.
Speaker A:So I.
Speaker A:Something told me, dude, what the.
Speaker A:Go flip a. Flip a. I park directly across from her, four lanes over, and I hear her weeping, like, hands on my.
Speaker A:Like, what the.
Speaker A:Hey, ma', am, Ma'.
Speaker A:Am.
Speaker A:We had a scenario at the hostage negotiation course of a person on the bridge, and you got to talk them off the ledge, quote, unquote, literally.
Speaker A:And then another car starts parking, and it was a border patrol.
Speaker A:Like, this really happened, dude.
Speaker A:I'm like, ma', am, can I speak with you?
Speaker A:I would like to hear you out, ma'.
Speaker A:Am.
Speaker A:I just start going into my mode of hostage negotiation, right?
Speaker A:Because you're not problem solving.
Speaker A:You're actually trying to listen to what the person's crisis that they're in.
Speaker A:They're in crisis mode, okay?
Speaker A:They're in the.
Speaker A:You know, they're.
Speaker A:They're not.
Speaker A:You got to bring them back to their baseline.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker A:Hey, ma', am, I don't know you, but I'm willing to listen to you.
Speaker A:Like, please, please let me hear you out, please.
Speaker A:She, like, looked up.
Speaker A:I said, but can.
Speaker A:Can I please take you off that?
Speaker A:Can you please give me your hand?
Speaker A:Dude, she was on the ledge, like, to the drop of the bottom, and then she just put out her hand like that, and I grabbed it and I, like, helped her off because it was elevated, pretty.
Speaker A:And I like.
Speaker A:And I walked her back.
Speaker A:And this other like border patrol agent, like, off duty.
Speaker A:You could tell by his pants.
Speaker A:Like, hey, man.
Speaker A:She's like, she starts crying, talking about her children got taken away from her, starts talking.
Speaker A:I'm like, dude, we call chp.
Speaker A:CHP never came, bro.
Speaker A:But the point of the story was that, like, her, I think God put me in the perfect place at the perfect time.
Speaker A:Her dad ended up showing up, and her dad was like, he was kind of a dick, bro.
Speaker A:He's like, this is a second time you've done this this week.
Speaker A:Blah, blah, blah.
Speaker A:Like, oh.
Speaker A:We were like, we told him like, hey, take her to go get help.
Speaker A:And he was like, I'm taking her home.
Speaker A:And I went to work.
Speaker A:But it was a, that was a real bro.
Speaker B:That's not a coincidence.
Speaker A:That was that.
Speaker A:That really happened, bro.
Speaker A:That really happened.
Speaker B:Damn, dude.
Speaker B:This has been a great conversation.
Speaker A:It's real conversation.
Speaker B:That's what we do here.
Speaker B:Wild chaos.
Speaker B:You never know where it's gonna go.
Speaker A:You're killing it, bro.
Speaker A:I'm happy, dude.
Speaker A:Happy for you.
Speaker B:Thank you, dude.
Speaker B:That's why, I mean, I, I appreciate that.
Speaker B:I mean, we've been chatting for a little bit, and when I came across you, I was like, oh, man, you're good.
Speaker A:You're a great human, bro.
Speaker B:Thank you, bro.
Speaker A:Human, dude.
Speaker B:Depends.
Speaker B:I appreciate that.
Speaker B:Depends on who you ask.
Speaker A:Hey, don't worry about that, bro.
Speaker A:People have some mean things to say about me, man.
Speaker B:Hey, they do.
Speaker B:That's what people were like.
Speaker B:I heard somebody, I'm like, what era was this?
Speaker B:Like, what chapter of my life was it in?
Speaker B:I, I, I appreciate that, man.
Speaker B:I've come a long way, that's for sure.
Speaker B:Especially the early days.
Speaker B:It was wild and out of control.
Speaker B:But I appreciate you coming out here, dude, and having this conversation.
Speaker B:It's crazy to me, especially the California system of what's going on and like, just the corruption and what these taxpayers are paying for blows my, that's, that's,
Speaker A:hey, they're cool with it.
Speaker A:Apparently.
Speaker A:I'm a taxpayer.
Speaker B:I mean, even when the corruption that you're, you're talking how, you know.
Speaker B:And I could see your point where they're mixing inmates with chomos and it's creating fights, which creates a worse environment for the, the correctional officer, for the CEO.
Speaker B:So I understand that.
Speaker B:But for me, what's even crazier is what these people of California are paying every state.
Speaker B:I guess I thought taxes paying for iPads blew my mind.
Speaker B:Knowing that tax money is going to testosterone, to estrogen, to sex.
Speaker B:Are they paying for dudes to get sex changes.
Speaker A:100%.
Speaker B:They're cutting.
Speaker B:They're the prisoner.
Speaker B:They're letting prisoners cut their dicks off.
Speaker A:100% taxpayer money.
Speaker A:One one was bragging about how much money they're going to make when they get back to the yard with that new thing.
Speaker B:And they're selling themselves out.
Speaker A:Yes.
Speaker A:Then the surgery went wrong.
Speaker A:This actually happened.
Speaker A:And then they sued the California Department of Corrections, saying, you purposely gave me a wrong surgery, and now I'm suing you for this.
Speaker B:How much money does that cost California taxpayers?
Speaker A:I quit, bro.
Speaker A:I couldn't stomach any of that shit.
Speaker B:I don't blame you, dude.
Speaker A:That is.
Speaker B:That is literally insanity to me.
Speaker A:I'd rather.
Speaker A:I'd rather live at a fucking park than to deal with that shenanigan, bro.
Speaker A:That fucking circus.
Speaker B:I.
Speaker B:No, I don't even.
Speaker B:Not one thing about any of that would ever make sense to me.
Speaker B:And then these people are just like, yeah, I'm gonna keep voting.
Speaker B:Yeah, I'm gonna vote him in again.
Speaker B:But meanwhile, you're bitching about taxes.
Speaker B:You're moving here.
Speaker B:There are states.
Speaker B:And you're like, california, you voted for this.
Speaker A:They're spreading the filth, bro.
Speaker B:That's.
Speaker A:That's what I feel, you guys.
Speaker A:I don't think you guys are wrong.
Speaker A:When you guys are tired of California moving to Texas and everybody's tired of California, I don't.
Speaker A:I don't blame you guys.
Speaker A:I see it.
Speaker A:I see.
Speaker B:They're just.
Speaker B:It's a different mindset.
Speaker B:It's not the people.
Speaker B:That they're bad people.
Speaker B:Right.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker B:I. Dude, I was stationed in California.
Speaker B:I was.
Speaker B:Spent years in Cali because the Marine Corps and everything else.
Speaker B:What I think it truly comes down to of California, why nobody likes Californians is the mindset.
Speaker B:Because you go to these other towns, they're moving to these small communities and little cities and stuff like that where things vibe.
Speaker B:Like people get along.
Speaker B:Everybody knows their neighbors, bro.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:No, you guys don't vibe.
Speaker B:Like there's vibing in California.
Speaker B:You guys think you vibe, but then they bring that mindset of just like my neighbors, and everything's so fast.
Speaker B:They're irritated and all just because they're just living in such a environment.
Speaker B:And then they're like, I'm gonna better my life and move to Idaho.
Speaker B:Then.
Speaker B:Then they.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:Even though they're.
Speaker B:They're conservative.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:Or they're not gonna vote the way that they used to vote it.
Speaker B:That.
Speaker B:None of that matters when you're an.
Speaker B:Right.
Speaker B:Like, if you're just a shitty person because you've lived your whole life in a state like California.
Speaker B:I get California could be the greatest state out of everywhere.
Speaker B:You have everything.
Speaker B:The resources, the amount of just activities.
Speaker B:You can go surfing, snowboarding, dirt biking, all on the same day if you wanted to.
Speaker B:Greatest state we could have.
Speaker B:But it's the mindset and how these people just keep repeating the same damn problems and they keep voting the same retards in and they're like, oh, this is horrible.
Speaker B:And then they leave here, then they vote for the same.
Speaker B:You know, you're just like, bro, what are you.
Speaker A:You have a lot of good solid people in California, bro.
Speaker B:For sure.
Speaker A:We're kind of like any behind enemy lines, you guys.
Speaker B:Yeah, they all.
Speaker B:But that's what they all talk.
Speaker B:Oh, well, our vote doesn't matter.
Speaker A:It's crazy.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:Anyways, well, dude, I appreciate the conversation.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:Getting out here and spending some time and getting to see a little bit of what we have to offer here in Idaho.
Speaker B:Maybe we can get you out of that hole.
Speaker A:Hopefully.
Speaker A:We'll see, man.
Speaker B:Hey, all love for my California listeners.
Speaker B:I love you all, but you gotta start doing something that's.
Speaker B:That's that state everybody does with taxes, everything.
Speaker B:Anyways, dude, I appreciate you.
Speaker A:Thank you, man.
Speaker B:Thanks, bro.
Speaker B:This is great.
Speaker B:That was a real conversation.
Speaker A:Absolutely.
