In this episode I interview LAPD Officer Chris Jay. Chris grew up in a rough neighborhood in LA and now patrols the same area. We talk about his struggle to get on the job, responding to gang shootings, and the stress that officers are exposed to on a daily basis. Chris also recalls living through the LA riots at the age of 12 years old.
Support Chris’s non-profit organization that honors fallen officers and their families.
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hey guys welcome to the podcast in thisepisode i chat with LAPD officer chris jchris has been on the job for about 15years now and he happens to police theexact same neighborhood that your weaponi found this to be super interestingit’s a it’s a pretty rough part of thecity with a lot of gang activityhappening he takes us along with him onhis first gang shooting in death hetalks about dealing with an insaneperson pulling human feces out andthreatening police with it he also talksabout the LA riots to the eyes of achild chris is only 12 years old whenthe riots happened and he witnessed abunch of crazy stuff just from therooftop of his apartment buildingchris has some great stories some reallyreally cool experiences and it’s just ait’s a very inspiring story kid growingup in the inner city and then overcomingall these hurdles in becoming a policeofficer chris is also the founder ofblue coat music incorporated this is anot-for-profit organization thatremembers and honors fallen policeofficers in their families through thepower of music and other events it’s agreat organization I really suggest youcheck them out it’s at blue coat musicorg you can go there you can contactwith Chris there and see what is not forprofits all about it’s really really agreat cause and I’ve been to one of hisevents they are fantastic so withoutfurther ado here’s episode number 20this is things police see first-handaccounts with your oast steve gold[Applause]Chris thank you for coming on thepodcast man was excited to have you onyou were you’re the first guest to berecommended by more than one person sono pressure you know really yeah your umI work with a friend of yours D inbackgrounds oh that’s right and then ofcourse Ken Roybal who was uh I believeyou were you started out as a LAPD was alake home explorer yeah it was prettycoolhe was my why so back in the early 90swhich stands for Youth Service Officer Iwas an LAPD explorer for many years soso you started you started young how oldare you when you start doing Explorerstuff uh well technically I started withthe program for even younger kids in1989 called the dapsthe deputy auxiliary police I think theycall him junior cadets now I was andfrom there went into the Explorers andthen and became a cop so I’ve beenaround police working specifically LAPDfor a very long time yeah it sounds likeit yeah I was I was excited to have youtoo because you you’re one of the rareinstances where you know LAPD getspeople from all over the countryapplying to be officers there not onlyjust LA area but you’re you’re one ofthe people that grew up in in the areathat you’re now patrolling right yeahthat’s right you know it was weirdbecause when I applied it happened Iplayed right after the whole rampartscandal thing I I wanted to get on rightat 21 but because of that they’re veryvery meticulous any little thing theysaw the red flag so it took me aboutfour years to my application process butbut I stuck to itWow yeah that’s that’s still the casesometimes with candidates being in theprocess for long to just take sosometimes takes a long time to get onit’s just part of the process yeah fouryears is extraordinary you know it’sthis gun what I really wanted itand I don’t know it’s it’s you know it’skind of a double-edged sword you wantpeople from the community but just theyou know being part of the community youyou know you went to elementary schoolwith people who are you know locked upnow or or or you know not good peopleand and that you know we know you’re agood person that that kind of brings upred flags sometimes so that reallydelayed my process but I was a good kidI was one of the good kids was therewere they afraid of gang affiliationsand stuff like that I think so yeah theykept bringing people up that you knowand I’m like well I remember that kid inelementary but when I was in junior highschool in high school you know I wouldcross the street when I saw him with hisfriends and hide mice watch watch I wasscared of the guy you know right I’m nothiding anything so it was interestingprocess but you know years later I getit yeah yeah the UM know what part ofthe city did you grow up in Koreatown Ohcame back when you were there was it waspretty roughyeah a lot different a lot differentlike what gangs were you avoiding thebig one was a messreally kinda I was kind of in the heartof it then they’re like ones thatvicious you know yeah back then it was alittle different they they dress downyou know they were their colors they’reon the corners in groups you don’t seethat very much today yeah I mean thatthat was the big gang that you know feelmy friends got into and and you know acouple of them are no longer with ussome of them are in prison for a verylong time and and that was really thethe big gang where I grew up and it wasreally bad back then for sure differentI’d say yeah and they I mean ms-13 isbased from El Salvador is that rightthey were actually formed in Los Angelesokay were they like El Salvadordescendant sir well there was a civilwar in El Salvador and people werefleeing el salva-dork they came to LAthey kind of grouped together and youknow for texturing or whatnot and whenthey did they pretty much formed thisgang and they brought with them you knowthese gruesome tactics they use in civilwar in El Salvador so that’s why theyhave this reputation for for theirviolence and that’s why it became sofeared so it pretty much started herewith people that were fleeing from thecivil war in El Salvador and and andpart of what kind of spread themthroughout the globally is or back intoCentral America was the fact that youknow what we did here was we shippedthem all back at that time and they justthey flourishedyou know we injected them back into ElSalvador in our Central America sothat’s kind of the the birth of ms asfar as I know okayno that’s that’s a good backstory and toget into a gang like that did they theycare if you had did you have to haveties El Salvador were if you wereHispanic could you be white what wouldthey do take not at all I knew just asacquaintances or friends from elementarythey had a handful of male blacks whogot in it and it’s funny they kind ofadopted the the what do you call it thethe lingo and accent of somebody from asoffit or but no it was it was it wasnot strictly from a Salvadoran eswebegan it was any were primarily kind ofyou know Central America but they didhave a new people were Mexican who arein it like I said blacks and things likethat so interesting no they are yeahthey’re obviously still an active gangin Los Angeles and right are they dothey play nice with the Mexican Mafia orthey at odds with them the way it worksis you know in prison they they prettymuch pay taxes to the Mexican market sothey’re all part of it whenever you seea gang that has an attached 13 behindtheir name ms-13 anything like that 13symbolizes that thereletter of the alphabet which is M forMexican Mafia and pretty much that’s youknow Mexican mafias running to prisonthey pretty much kind of run things outon the streets to where they tax them inorder to attach that 13 and what happensis when gangs from any Hispanic gangwhen they go to prison you know whenthey pay those taxes they are protectedyou know by the Mexican Mafia whenthey’re busy and that’s kind of how theway it works so as far as them being apart of them yeah they you know theypretty much offer yeah okay yeah Ifigured thatI mean gangs out here so they’re soprevalent there’s so many there’s somany different gangs imir I remembergoogling how many gangs and it was likeyou know 180 in LA County or somethingsomething crazy you know right there’s alot and they’re there you know as thelaws change in order to be stricter onthem so do their tactics which isinteresting you know you don’t see themdressed down anymoreor hanging out in groups anything thatcould clump them into this definition ofa gang that we’re where they getadditional filing for you knowpossession of a gun or whatnot so soit’s really uh it’s a funny cat andmouse game where with the laws and andtheir culture how its evolved yeah it’skind of spooky cuz it’s like me growingup as kidney ATS I remember in moviesand stuff about gangs a they’d alwayswear their colors or they’d be veryidentifiable to people right but nowI’ve been my jobs taking me throughevery single part of LA and you can’ttell you know I mean you can’t you thenaked I can’t can’t really tell he’s agang member right you need littleexpertise or or you know or stop andtalk to them and and you know most ofthem are not they’re not hiding it onceyou talk to them as a police officer butbut you really takes a lot more workgetting out getting out of your policecar you know talking to the people wholive around there just you know stayingin the neighborhoods really frequentreally so does that give you more workdoes it give you some credibility whenyou’re dealing with them the fact thatyou’re from the neighborhood or is itmaking more of a target you know I don’tever say it okayIgnazio or anything yeah no no theydon’tI’ve ran into older gang members fromfrom this gang who I remember as kidsbut they were older than me and they’rereally washed out and I’ve spoken tothem and I’ve kind of threw out a fewnames before and to kind of look at melike whoa how do you know that yeah yeahbut but no I don’t I don’t know I don’twork the gang units I work patrol so youknow the gangs is not my focus thereason why I know little more justbecause where I come from but yeah Idon’t there’s no street cred being fromthe area you try to avoid that at allcosts actually okay I understandChris could you tell us about the thefirst time you went on a hot call wereyou patrol first time first time yeahfirst time you really like an adrenalinedump there there’s a bunch but probationwas was intense and really fast and veryviolent the very first call I went onwas actually a the second call wasactually a shooting where it was broaddaylight I was working day watch soright away you’re just immediately goingto shootings right the first call I wentto was a domestic violence call and Iwas around it was a house full of a lotof people who are on drugs and Iremember it was nothing like thescenarios of practice in the Academy andeverybody just smelled the brand-newleather on me I was bald and and I feltthat very out of place you felt me verynew very new for sure they knew I wasnew I mean my leather was squeaking andyeah I weighed nothing but uh mmediatelyfrom there we got a coat recall whichwas an emergency call where you go likethe sirens and when we got there I wasthere was a young kid he was shot uponly on his legs done by automaticgunfire guess he was a drug dealer I waskind of amazed at how it kind of wasn’ta big deal withthe officers that showed up and withthis kind of business as usual for themyeah that with the community so you knowmy training officers like you know jumpin there jump in the in the ambulancethat’s with him in case he gives a dyingdeclaration of who shot him so on therights of the hospital he pretty muchdied on the way to the hospitalWow um and he displays from all therounds in his legs pretty much prettymuch there were just all of his legs tooand like you know this is my first daysaw this kid you know I didn’t know itwas his last breath but until later howold was he quiet did he guess I say lateteens early 20s okay yeah he was youngfor sure he looked very very youthfulcould probably even be you know you knowmid-teens but that was really just kindof like you know my first day and I’mlike okay this is real these arescenarios you know yeah yeah that thatuh forget what the exact question was hegave me but that was one of the firstyou know slaps in the face of realityall right yeah you’re in it let’s go youknow yeah yeah I’m sure I’m sure when umsomeone shot I looked in the back memoans I’m sure the blood is just goingeverywhere and or maybe blood out bymost of it by that time you know wasinteresting there was there was not muchblood on that onewow that’s much blood yeah but you knowthat first month though definitely gotmy fair share of blood there’s a lot ofshootingsyou know it’s unavoidable you’re gonnastep on part of the blood that firstmonth of probation it was intense yeahand these are I’m guessing mostlygang-related yeah what gang would wouldum is it like different factions ofms-13 with a few doors just like theKris shooting up to ms-13 in vice-versayou know when I did probation there wasa lot of black gangsI did my probation a 77th divisionthat’s something layering right thatsouth south central south delay so whatwas going on there was a lot ofinfighting between one specific gang onthe year I was there informationso whatever feud was happening I wasn’ttoo privy about or at least I don’tremember was happening I was too worriedabout making probation but pretty muchevery day or every other day there was ashooting and and lots and lots of yeahlots of homicides pretty much Wow lotsof lots of gore yeah yeah a lot of itand you see it was interesting to seehow the community responded to us beingthere especially when the person who waskilled was not transported right awaywhen we had to do an on-sceneinvestigation a lot of anger towards thepolice even though we weren’t doingthose shootings right and you know thatthat was part of my adjustment also youknow when I came on you know being fromLos Angeles my big thing was you knowyou know there are good cops I’m gonnago save the world and I quickly foundout that you know I’m not gonna save theworld and everybody hates the cops evenif you’re not if you’re there just to doan investigation of somebody that waskilled so yeah it was it was interestingto see how much a distrust er was I knewthere was but putting on the uniform andbeing at these at the at the end ofthese violent scenes or even right atthe end of them it’s just you know I Idon’t blame anybody but uh thefrustrations and the anger is definitelywhether direct or transferred but a lotof it goes through the police that scenefor sure when you were a kid witnessingyou know maybe nesting like that’s goingon what was your thought about how didyou feel about the police you obviouslyliked them right yeah no you know werethe good guys you know like I said mybrothers and I were we’re all good kidsso well that wasn’t an issue with us atall and we had all good experiences forsure so there is yeah I miss okay yeah Ican imagine there um there’s got to belike you and your brothers who just gotto be fans if you spread thin in thecommunity maybe yeah I mean but you knowmy a lot of friends and their parentswere very you know wary of the policefor sure right you know they would sayOh Chris’s and it’s Explorer whoa okaywell yeah that’s a good thing you knowthey wouldn’t automatically say ohthat’s greatright I remember a lot of that so sureChris can you tell us about thestrangest or most bizarre thing youdealt with how much time do we havestories as much as you need brotherthere was one which is kind ofdisgusting okay lay it on us all rightthis crowd they can hang yeah if youguys are eating you might lower thevolume or up so we get a call and itcomes out co3 emergency call and it saysthe comments say somebody with a machinegun is trying to kill the president orsomething like that so we respond it’sat a McDonald’s parking lot and it’s ahomeless lady and she has handcuffed toher her briefcase a big heavy briefcaseand we’re telling her all right ma’amyou know trying to you know calm herdownshe’s really wired looking around reallyparanoid and no one has their guns out Idon’t think you know it’s pretty obviousyou know she didn’t have anythingnot on her person nobody Newell’s knowin the briefcase but no you know itwasn’t an obvious machine than pointingat us so after talking to her she turnsaround and put your hands in her frontwaistband and now all the guns come outright and she like what you’re doingwhat you’re reaching now people areofficers are yelling officers yelling atpeople behind her to move out the wayin case where they’re shooting shestarts kind of like vigorouslymoving her hands back and forth now herher back is facing us so we can’t seeher front waistband but her hands are infront of her waistband she startsvigorously vigorously rubbing back andforth just looking back at us lookingback at us and then when she brings herhands out of her waistband she has twofull handfuls of human yes she startstaking it on her face and on her headand on her chestum goes back down she grabs more I guessshe still had some in there brings itback out and starts taking it all overthe place I mean it was it was bad atthis point I’m thinking okay what if sheruns towards us you can’t can’t I shoother what you’re gonna have is because Iturn around and it’s daytime and there’sat least 30 cell phone cameras up rightso I’m gonna handle this um if she runstowards us there’s gonna be a lot ofcops running away from a suspect ohrightluckily she she couldn’t take the smellherself and she started gagging and sheshe followed orders and went down to theground there was a lot of uh a lot ofprobationers there so perfectluckily thank you know and just I don’tknow I don’t know how if they’re waitingbut just instant flies all over her Idon’t know where they came from buttherethey’re around so that was maybe I don’tknow if you asked for the mostdisgusting oh you said bizarre story atthe that’s up there I’d say yeah that isthat’s intense manthat’s everybody’s scary someone who’sabout to charge you with a knifethat’s just that’s so disgustingobviously insane person and when youwhen you take someone like that like ina big department like you work for wouldyou just take her to the hospital and door 50 what do you guys come 5150 somelike that yeah like you’re not gonnatake her back to the jail right no thatthere was no crime there but you knowshe’s a danger to herself you know we wehave the ability to put on a holdagainst your willso do you at when you guys do that doyou have to have officer transport likewith in the back of the amulet sir canthe a Moses taker uh or do you guys takeit depends on the situationit could be the ambulance it could be usit all depends firefighter sir the EMTsare super happy to take that over foryou yeah they were pretty calm Iremember they’re just placing blanketsover her and somebody had to row withher in the back of that ambulance thatwas I I left it wasn’t my call goodthat’s a good call yeah Chris can youtell us the most intense or um orterrifying call that you’ve been facedwith you know I was trying to think ofsome specific ones I there’s been a fewwhere where I put you know I’ve pulled aslack out of the trigger or in my mind Iwas I was gonna shoot you know we had ahelp call where my old partner and Iwere this this guy would feel no pain hehad no shirt on he ripped the taserdarts out of his chest but on strikesjust nothing he even got shot with aless lethal beanbag a handful of timesand he just stared at his stomachwhile he was getting hit by them MMH butyou know but you know it some of themore intense ones are when you hear apolice officer especially one that youknow on the radioasking for help I think I think thatthat’s when you’re most aware of theterror inside you at the moment it’shappening and you have to really controlthat chaos within you as you respond andyou have to respond safely so I kind ofunanswered question more as the generalI think it’s when I hear those helpcalls or even if they say backup whichis a step lower than a help officerneeds help call but you know it’s helpcall you know you hear it in their voicethat’s when you’re presently aware ofyou have some worry or concern even fearthat everyone’s gonna be ok those arethe most intense moments for me I thinkeverything else there are twice where Ialmost shot somebodymaybe looking back and analyzed maybe Ishould have even though everythingturned out right the time that guydidn’t feel any pain there’s been a lotof intense moments but honestly I don’tknow if it’s just the way we train or orthe necessity to deal with the situationbut there’s no real fear at the momentthat things are happening you know aftereverything settles down is how I usuallyexperience the the adrenalin dumps likeyou know it’s all overBrian person say hey persons thehandcuffs you sit down on your computerto run their ID and next you know you’reyou know your knees are shaking and likewhy are my knees shaking yeah your majoryou start twitching yeah or you know oryou get back home and you know you senda couch you’re calm but you’re you knowyour brain is still spinning right youknow and then you start thinking aboutstuff like whoa thatthat wasn’t a good thing you know whatit means so it’s that aftermath that Ithink is really the most intense as faras my experience absolutely and that’ssuch a great point about you made aboutum here the help calls that come outthat just out hearing someone you knowand someone you know can handlethemselves hearing the stress in theirvoice or maybe fear in their voice likethe urgency right and no you can’t bethere right away you have to drive keepyourself composed and that is that is aterrible terrible and scary time yeahyeah for surewell can you think of just just uh justa plain old intense call you’d like toshare played on the tips call there’s alot of them a lot of times I get askedthis question my friends and stuff andand I’ll give a few stories here andthere and they are blown away but thenyou think about it this like that’s thathappens every day right so I don’t knowhow healthy that is that these intensethings are just so normal ordinary foryou right it’s definitely not not ahealthy thing for the long-term so muchcareer especially someone who’s whochooses to be on patrol most of theircareer but that there’s there’s thingsevery day Steve you know every day it’slike thatI’d say even you know you knock on adoor and you hear things in there andyou can’t get in you know there’s no waygetting in things like that you knowjust it’s really their everyday thingsthat we see that are pretty intenseyeah not really a crazy one particularcrazy whacked-out story even thoughthere are a few a lot of them but it’sthe everyday things that that you know Igo a month a bunch of these incidentsand you don’t even think about itbutyou know it’s it’s pretty intense stillyou know it’s it’s still there yeah Imean where I worked not as intense asworking for LAPD and but that I meananywhere you’re a police officer in thecountry or anywhere you’re gonna hateyou’re gonna have your calls and intensecalls and you know cops in any communityalways see the worst and worst thingsthat happen in that community they’realways there for it but um where Iworked it was more like you could have aevent that would Jack you up happen andthen you get a little time to like kindof recover naturally between calls likeyou get a few days maybe a week beforesomething else happened you know rightwhich which felt okay it was kind of anice pace to cycle through and when Iwhen I talked with you guys and I seehow fast pace it can be here and howmuch trauma you guys can see in oneshift it’s kind of Bob it’s kind ofmind-boggling and I think you you’re Ithink you have no choice but for that tobecome just ordinary to you because ifyou were just all the time you knowshocked in like with your jaw open likeoh my gosh oh my gosh you’d be like acrazy person you know yeah I mean I takenothing away from let’s say a slowerdepartment or more small-towndepartments because let’s say nothinghappens all day but we’ll respond to youknow three domestic calls we’re golights and sirens if you think about ifyou break down one domestic violencecall if you think about all the multitasking they’re doing so thumb drivingwe’re driving lights and sirens we’repassing red lights we’re clearingintersections clearly pedestrians at thesame time we my partner if I’m drivingmy partner’s reading me the descriptionand the location of what we’re going toas he’s doing that the dispatcher istalking to us on one frequency giving usupdates as we’re doing that thehelicopter comes over and we got to talkto him on a different frequency as we’redoing that you’re thinking about yourapproach how you gonna approach whereyou in the park so you don’t getblushed you know we always park a fewhouses away if you apartments awaywhatnot you know as we walk up we’relooking into cars we’re looking up atthe balconies once we find a way to getin we have to make sure we have the doorpropped open in case we need help wenever take the elevatoryou know we walk up the stairs everylanding we look left and rightokay these are everyday normal thingsfor us we’re not doing this and and inthe company fear someone’s gonna bethere suppose it’d be there we’re notdoing that like that we’re just therejust normal things we’ve trained to doas soon as we go up there we knock onthe door you know starts opening andthis is the moment of truth where thereare guns are out depending on thecomments or not and let’s say it opensthey said no nothing’s wrongOh nothing’s wrong okay so we just wentfrom very top of stress to the nextthing cuz it’s normal for us quoteunquote normal we’ll say hey what’s forlunch bottom and then another call laterboom to the top dropping right back tothe bottom so even a small department orwhatever that’s not as fast they stillexperience this a patrol officer on theday-to-day basis and and you knowlong-term you know this becomes an issueyou know not everybody has you know theresources or or knows how to how to youknow develop these coping mechanisms youknow we’re told from day one in Academya you know talk to somebody about thesethings it’s not realistic even though itshould be I mean I think Department ourwork forged in a lot a way better jobthese days however it’s a lot of that’snot realistic you’re not gonna come hometo your wife or husband and say you knowhey I saw a year old shot ahead todayyou know that’s a true story hey youknow today I some you know my partneryou know she got bit and and you knowhis part of forearm was was on my neckwhile we’re wrestling on the ground theyhappen to me happen while back but youknow oh you’re not gonna sit down andtell these stories or tell the storiesabout you know how much a decomposedbody stinknow it how the body looked like it wassmiling at you you’re not gonna comehome to dinner and say all these thingsyou know so that’s why it becomes veryimportant not just the fast departmentlike I like you know LAPD but even inthe small departments it’s reallyimportant to to to know how to deal withit you know the long-term anxiety PTSDis a real thingand I don’t think there’s enough or ifanything out there that really focuseson that so you know and that that was Idon’t know when you were ready to moveon to the next thing but that was kindof my motivation also for for thenonprofit that uh that I started oh theUH it’s um right hereblue coat music incorporated right yeahfounded that correct okay yeah nowthat’s where that’s where I met you atone of your events it was inked in Inkedand honor in Pasadena inked and order inBurr and Burbank Oh what do I know I’mnot from here no let’s talk about that alittle bit what um I mean obviously Iknow you do you do benefits but they’rethere primarily for fallen officersfamilies so the way kind of it all beganit all began was in 2014 we had threethree officers from our department diedand and you know I didn’t know I knewone of them a long time ago like sixyears prior hasn’t haven’t seen himsince but you know I did it wasn’treally close to him and I didn’t knowthe other two but everybody around medidn’t know them we’re really fast youknow Department of ten thousand officersgets real you know gets really smallwhen when something like this happensright and and and I saw a lot of peoplearound me hurt so I felt really reallyhelpless I said I need to do something Idon’t know what to do so you know whatI’m gonna I’m gonna ride the policeUnity Tour and that’s a bikeright give or take 300 miles that endsup in a Washington DC during Police weekand when I did that in order to raisemoney I I made a kind of a mini concertso kind of my background I play musicI’ve been in bands before and I alwaysdo events just for funso what kind of put that together that’skind of a your outlet for maybe lettingoff some of the stress from the job andall that I’d say yeah for sureit’s kerscher so when I did that eventsto raise money so I could ride this bikeride it was a great eventI had a few officers who had lost herpartners reach out to me and and tell mehow how much has affected them so that’swhen it kind of done let me you know Icouldn’t make this a non-profit so whatwe do is we will make will raise moneyreally to remember officers years afteryears later not necessarily when anofficer dies but years later when thefamily is ready to remember them whenthe friends are and we like to do soprimarily through music but notnecessarily so so that’s what I’ve beendoing for the past couple years to twoand a half years really just doing smallevents building the reputation anddonating directly to families and it’sbeen great you know that feeling ofhelplessness is it’s just talking a lotof people it’s a lot of people feel thatwayyears later they feel guilt and you knowif I do a small event I had a venue areal small event and people could comein and give twenty dollars ten dollarsand then collectively were able todonate to the children of a fallenofficer and we put on her social mediathat you know they took these danceclasses and and now now kind of empowerseverybody everybody was able to to be apart of thatand that that’s really where mymotivation was and I think it’s beenvery important for the handful of eventsI’ve done so far and I hope to have togrow it yeah absolutely man it was um Iwas really taking it back when the onewe went to amber in Burbank it wasreally really cool venue you’d reallygreat live music there was tattooinggoing on right in a bar I’d never seenbefore right and then there was vendorsthere you know with all kinds of umthere was a cool memorial wall for LAPDand I don’t know what what do you callit that that movable remembrance ohthat’s the windows of the begotten blueokay yeah so Rebecca Escobar is cousinsof Phil cuesta as LAPD officer who waswas killed and through through buildingblue coal music we connected and sheinitially just had a few a handful ofboxesI don’t know how to call it where shewas focused on on the idiosyncrasies ofpeople’s lives like if somebody did if afallen officer I know one of the fallenofficers did a great Scoobies impressionso in his little memorial box there’d bea little Scooby or his favorite beer orhobbies things like that things werethat are very intricate in someone’slifeand she’s kind of been drawing thatmemorial she does everything handcraftedit’s awesome it’s really intense to seein person for sure yeah it’s beautifulI’m it was really get choked up lookingat it and uh you know totally completelyeverybody’s little story everybody’sthere people you know they had lives andall these people loving them and missingthem and yeah man it was cool I uh Ireally I really dug it big time and Ithink I knew of another one that you didtoo I heard about Oh actually I actuallyhad planned to go to it but then Icouldn’t because of a family obligationbut I think was a cigar in beer event ordoes that sound right yeah it was acigar day that one was down into Harborfor Robert Sanchezthat was pretty much you know it’s justlive music cigarsyou know just everybody come andcelebrate you know his life you know itwas a couple of years later so so hispartner was was ready to do such anevent and we were able to you know raisesome funds for for the officers parentsand Widow and you know that was a greatfeelingso that that was a good event yeah Iheard it was great um that’s so awesomeand cuz you’re you’re I mean what agreat cause and their events people wantto go to because they’re they’re a lotof fun too you know yeah for sureI hope to do the inked and honor it’sthe second year I did it and for thosewho don’t know we donate fallen officerthemed tattoos to the families partnersand friends of fallen officers you knowwe’re we’re pretty pretty new low fundedso we rely a lot on donations so forthese two events you know all the tattooartists donated their time they donatedthis for our session and I would prettymuch you know reach out and see whowanted this kind of tattoo and what itstood for and you know bring it alltogether bring everybody at the sameplace and it works out really welltrying to grow it do it every year thecool thing is especially through socialmedia they’ve reached out to us from NewYork Mississippi a couple of otherstates wanting us to take this eventover there you know it’s awesomeyeah I got to grow it first and drawsome funds we’re working people godo you have something where people cango and donate or go check out the is itNam blue coat music org pretty much yeahblue coat music dot orgy and if theywant to have any questions or want toreach out to you it’s Chris at thekote music done orgy right and all thewebsite there’s a link also that’llconnect you to us to me directly soawesome that’s a great thing you’redoing man thanks so Chris before we gocan you can you give some words ofwisdom to people who are looking tobecome police officers or maybe youngofficers who just got on the job suredon’t do it I think don’t how can I sayit the what I spoke about before thePTSD and anxiety that comes with thejobs that more you’re on there and moreyou’re on the streetsreally be aware of that early on in thecareer there’s a reason why alcoholismand suicide is so high in our professionand that’s a big part of it you can havea great career to a whole lot a wholelot of things you know you could workundercover you can work on a horse youcould k-9 there’s so much to do here youcould do detective work which is anotherAvenue and you can have a great careerwhere you’re not you know negativelyimpacted in this way especially thesedays but just as you’re having fun beaware of of yourself and how things arechanging you things you see at work andallow that to to let yourself grow in apositive way rather than holding thingsin or never talking about it that that’sreally my biggest advice for thelong-term of somebody’s career savetruth so there you go yeah I grew to100% and that’s probably the the bestthing young officers can do forthemselves is just just be careful withhow things are affecting you and makesure you just just take care of it ifyou got a problem talk to someone not abig deal yeah for sureChris before we go is there is there onelast one last story you want to throwout there the guys the people listeninghave been telling me that they like theylike the longer podcast so I’m justgiving another opportunity if anythingfell into your mind well you know it wasreally interesting because I heard KenRoy balls podcast and he spoke a lotabout about the riots about what he sawwas going out there going home to hisfamily coming back out here thelawlessness of it and I was how was Itwelve or thirteen during the riots andI was in the thick of it also from adifferent perspectivewhile I was on I was on moat wall whenit began I had a friend over and his momand his brothers and we were watching onTV and it was Florence and Normandie andmy buddy was like hey mom that’s ourliquor store so the next morning we wereup on the rooftop of our apartment justwatching booms of smoke fire peoplebreaking into the electronic stores oneighth Street there was there wasfamilies the business owners on top ofthe roofs begging people to you knowpointing guns at them begging them notto break in and you know mobs would winyep you just see people up and downfights people going up and down thestreet where I grew up on just takingeverything it was kind of weird I didn’tthink it was surreal at the time when Iwas twelve twelve thirteen could youleave the house at all like if you hadto go get some get anything or it’s noteven worth leaving no there was no waythere’s no cops out and people you knownow my mom would not let us leave youdid so you just hope you had enough foodin there and waited out yeah I mean Idon’t remember I don’t remember what theplan was I just remember seeing a lot ofpeople smiling and laughing as theystole and broke windows down and and alot of people like the people who workthere all these businesses were cryingor bleeding and I didn’t understandwhat was really happening does that makesense that’s well that’s a crazy crazymessage for a young brain to absorbbecause it’s like it’s like it’s like umlike you know end of times whereeverything’s reversed like people arelaughing and other people are crying andbloodied and you know I mean it’s it’slike end of the end of the world rightyeah I mean I saw the there’s a John’smarket that’s around the corner or weused to go to and the managers a niceguy I remember seeing him walking downmy street bloodied up kind of shakinghis head and people who I know would goto that market all the time running pastin with shopping carts with a bunch offood and stuff in it they honestly mighteven worry about the food but I’mtalking about TVs and things they don’tneed to survive you know they’d be rightnext to each other one smiling ones likehis faces messed up that that was Ididn’t I didn’t get it and honestly likeI kind of still don’t get ityou know yeah but that he so it was thatwas crazy and as the time progressed youknow you had to curfew what I thoughtwere tanks at the time where I got kindof set straight by a couple of friendsbut you know they had these big OhHumvees out at me the military was outhere on on my little block you couldhear the raids in the middle of thenight you know and being on that side ofit there’s so many other stories I couldbring up I mean I want to run into oneof my friends a Korean kid who he toldme I can’t talk to you right nowlike what do you mean he’s like I can’ttalk to you you know the Koreans have tostay together I’ll see you at school ohgeezhe told me later that you know he hisdad gave him two pistols and he wasrunning around two pistols he was my ageso it was it was an interesting time and- so when I heard Ken Roy balls podcaststhat I was intrigued by that side of itthat was awesomeyeah that umimagery he gave about you know goinghome to his family being so thankful tolay his head down with his wife and kidsand then the next you know just quickturnaround headed back into the city andjust you’re just heading into thismultiple smoke plume he said look thatthe place has been bombed you know ohyeah craziness Chris thank you so muchfor coming on the podcast man yeah letme um let me plug your blue coat musicone more time if you want to go toChris’s website check out theorganization it’s blue coat music orgyand if you want to reach out it’s Chrisat blue coat music dot o RG perfect allright brotheralright take care sir see you bud thankshey guys thanks for checking out thepodcast if you want to show some supportfor the show if you’ve been enjoying theinterviews go to iTunes and click onsubscribe and rate and review the showthat would be much appreciated if youwant to reach out have any questions forme or maybe you’d like to be a guest onthe show you could reach me at thingsplease see at gmail.com and one moretime Chris’s company is blue coat musicincorporated and you can find him atblue coat music org alright guys thanksfor thanks for joining us and I will seeyou next time
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