TPS is back!! Thank you for all the messages and support over the past year!!
In this episode I chat with Tennessee Officer Kyler Cline. Kyler’s got some great on the job stories from one of my favorite states!
www.thingspolicesee.com
steve@thingspolicesee.com
hey guys it’s Steve thank you for tuninginto the podcast I took quite a breakthere over a year I’ve been gone I wasgonna pull the plug in the whole thingand then I said let me just keep payingthat you know I get to pay like 20 bucksa month to Lipson to keep your podcastactive and I said I’m gonna keep payingit and because I kept getting messageskept getting emails from people how muchthey like the podcast and I felt likeman I did all this work to make thisthing it got kind of difficult to getpeople to interview I got busy I changedjobs we moved things just kind of thingsjust got busy life got busy so I kind ofput it down but I kept it going and I’mreally glad I did because over thecourse of the year I’ve received moreemails than I could then I can countmore messages more encouragement so Ifired this thing back up I put it outthere in social media I went to uh Ithink sheepdog nation and I went todrinking Bros Public Safety group and Ijust kind of put it out there and saidguys I’d love to start doing the podcastagain but it’s just it’s just becomedifficult to get guests so if you guyswant to keep hearing the stories pleaselet me know if you want to come on andshare and I’ll fire it up and you know Igot uh the next week I got sixinterviews coming up and I’m gonna I’mjust gonna start putting them out againso awesome awesome support it’s reallyhappy to be back at it and this is thefirst one in a long timeinterview Kyler Klein he’s a cop inTennessee one of my favorite States andhe’s got some great stories so thank youfor joining us and enjoy this is thingspolice see first an account with youroast Steve goldTyler Klein thank you for coming on thepodcast my man yes sir I appreciate aSteve how are you I’m doing very well soyou are I’m excited to interview your inTennessee right correct yep you’re in asuburb of Nashville which is one of myfavorite cities in the country my wifeand I drove cross-country and we spentthree or four days there and it is it’sit’s totally awesome there it’s awesomeTennessee’s blown up the department Imet I like it the city of the minute Ilike itCounty County wise it’s pretty good soit keeps us busy when I was there I wentto give us lift a place to grow up ohabsolutely and I see the property’sstill relatively affordable but it’sclimbing oh yeah when we were there wewent to a place near the new Grand OldOpry and it was like is like an indoortown it was like an atrium way up housesright it was insane its Nationals like Isaid he’s blowing up just I heard therewas a study or something littlepublished a while back that apparentlythere’s a hundred people per day movingto Nashville which I believe oh Ibelieve it absolutely man especially I’min California it’s like I just movedwithin California like 30 miles and themoving companies were like it’s a goodthing you called this early because Icall it come on thing happen to answerlike because there’s so many peoplemoving out of California right we don’thave any pods available everyone’sgetting out yeah it’s not good here sotell me how long you been a copper overthere in Tennessee so I have I’ve been acop now for four years and some changefour years that’s plenty of time toaccrue some some good experiences it isit is it seems and I still feel like hiswide eyed and bushy tailed as like justleft the Academy yesterday and I’m stillyou know learning new stuff every dayand seeing seeing everything that youknow positive stuff to negatives so Imean it’s every day’s a new and awesomeday absolutely man I remember that whenI was um when I the first five years Iworked patrol I was like it’s thelearning curve is huge because there’slike so many different things can comeupin police work that it’s like right doliterally learn something new almostevery week all right brotherlet’s let’s get down to brass tacks heretell me tell us about the first time youresponded to a hot call and how youreacted to it and just just in generalthe your first adrenaline dump okaywalk you through all that all right so Igotta think way back you know for yearsyou don’t know which one you know whichwhich which event should I say but butanyways I think my very first or one ofmy early early hectic calls on my own Iwas on third I’m actually on secondshift now but I was on third shift atthe timeand we worked from 10:00 at night to8:00 in the morning so the call came outat about between 2:00 and 3:00 it waspretty late and me and my partner wewere actually just sitting in a parkinglot just passing time and dispatch putsout a twenty seven which is a burglaryin progress and I’m sure you know youknow most most of your burglary callstend to be false alarms or you know notwhat they are over the radio when youget there right so so of course we dothe typical response you know we we golicensed irons initially and dispatchgets on the radio again and says just beadvised there’s you know three suspectsblack male ski masks all with handgunsso you know at this point like oh crapthis is uh this is serious so that justmade the that made the the pucker factorgo up even more when it turns out to belegit with with handguns involved so weget we get closer to the address wherewe’re going to and actually the businessit’s actually a warehouse that was beingburglarized surprisingly and so we getthere as we’re getting as we’reapproaching the building in our in ourcar still we drive solo cars so I’m bymyself and my partner’s behind me anddispatch just you know putting outdetails and details and they advise thisthat the suspects were in some kind ofwhite minivanso as I’m I’m the lead car pulling up tothe businessand sure enough I see a white u-haul vanleaving the business at a high rate ofspeed with no headlights on so you knowmy first initial thing well hey that’s aclue that probably is the van I’mlooking for so I’ll let dispatch knowwhat I see and I give them the tag comesback it’s an Arizona terrain it’s fromu-haul place so I get behind it and I’mlike hey I’ll light it up and we’llwe’ll see if this van is connected orwrong place wrong time so I get behinditLima sure enough they take off theydon’t they don’t pull over so andsurprisingly we didn’t really go thatfar we probably went maybe a mile and ahalf so we have our lights and oursirens on and they’re only going about45 the entire way and so we’re followingthem I’m the lead car in the pursuit sowe get to another cross street down theroad and they pull off to the side and Iguess the driver had you know a momentof clarity and he realized oh hey thisisn’t for me so he pulled over and so atthis point you know we had you know fiveor five or six of us on scene rightthere giving you know commands for afelony stop so we stopped them you knowwe’re you know everyone’s heart ratesthrough the roof at this point and we’recalling them out the driver he actuallycomplies we get him all the way back youknow we’re cut from the driver at thesame time while we’re cuffing the driverwe see that the in the van there’s twoother people because we weren’t reallysure how many people are in the van atfirst you know that’s the worst rightand so and the vein it was the like Isaid they’re in at u-haul thing so ithad like the two big bay doors that openup and then had the ones sliding door onthe side and so they had the back twodoors had the little windows you canstill see through to the front of thecab and so we can see some movement andso we can see like it it appears thatmaybe someone’s trying to hop out sowe’re giving them commands to stay inthe car show us your hands things likethat so sure enough they disobey ourcommands and two males jump out and theytake our front end so I actually Iprefer you know if anytime there’s aweapon involvedI always go from from a patrol rifle soI had my I had my patrol rifle out youknow giving these guys commands as soonas they take off I didn’t have time toput my rifleso I’m you know I’m I’m running with myrifle chasing this guy telling you knowwith all the other gear that we have ontell them to you know stop running youknow all that stuff so we had woncustody so lo and behold we’re chasingthis guy me and my partner were on abeeline kitchens judging it for this guyand luckily he sleep and fell so wecaught one we caught the second guy sowe got him in custody take him back tothe patrols car put him in there allright so we got one more outstanding sothe way third-shift works we reallydon’t have you know this guy that yougot was he armed actually he was notarmed but later after we had capturedall three of them they they had theydenied any type of firearm being usedbut we did find a handgun probably likea hundred yards back from where they hadturned off the street they had came fromI think they they right they through Ididn’t see them throw the weapon out butwe found you know isn’t the busheshundred feet from where they were at andso but anyways for the third guy like Isaid the way the way our shift works orway our department is third shiftdoesn’t have access to a k-9 they theycanines go off off-duty at about twoo’clock so from any time after – to therest of the shift if you need to k9 youjust hope that we don’t need a k-9 oryou call in another agency to comeassist so we had to call in our ouron-call k9 so they show up but you knowit’s kind of at that points kind ofpointless cos like thirty minutes haspassed and so we do a track and lo andbehold just some passing motorists thatwas going to work that morning he calleddispatch and said hey there’s asuspicious suspicious person walking youknow on this road and it was prettyclose to where the felony stop hadstopped where we had caught the othertwo guys and so of course we wentchecked it out and sure enough it wasthe last suspect so we took him intocustody no no officers got hurt theydidn’t get hurt and you know thebusinesswe’ve got burglarized and there wasactually a guard that was on duty thathe you know he got robbed as well so hedidn’t get hurt he got all his thingsback you know it was a good it wasgood win for the good guys but but likeI said I remember that just being theyou know that that that was a prettyintense call dealing with multiplepeople and weapons and pursuit and afoot pursuit on top of that at night ohhell yes so especially in this time youcan’t see anybody’s hands who knows wecould be from the shadows that’s crazyright right and so it mean it was in theand the guys we were all chasing werepretty tallI think the second suspect we caught waslike six foot like a hundred and sixtypounds so this guy could fly on foot andso you know just people that are gonnabe naturally faster than you plus we’reall the gear we have on you know itmakes makes it tough as well to keep upI don’t think people understand whatit’s like to chase somebody with likemodern police gear on like thirty poundsaround your waist and then like you didyou had a rifle it is it is I mean afteryou chase someone don’t you feel likeyou need to take everything off and putit back on because you’re just like it’slike when you put an undershirt on itgets twisted up because it’s too tightright because everything is disheveledand screwed up and right and then youknow and god forbid you hope that yourmic stays connected to your uniform youdon’t fly off and it’s flight becauseI’ve had that you know it’s you’rechasing someone in the end the mic isflying around you flying around you hitme in the face you know you’re trying tograb the mic while you’re trying tochase the suspect and then you know hopehopefully your crepes don’t fall outwhen you get to where you’re going oryou don’t slip you know so there’s allthere’s all kinds of things that peopledon’t account for that make it harderfor us to do our job but it still getsdone yeah it’s messy I was talking to acop that was like a cop in the 70s andhe had one of those like pancakeholsters you know like are longer but along one on a swinging like deal likereally bizarre not secure at all he saidyeah he was in a pursuit and his heelhit it and then his gun like went up andwas about to hit the back of the guy hewas chasing so then he was you know he’sbumbling his gun trying to tackle theguy so I guess yeah doesn’t matter whenit’s there’s always something but I wellI could ask you what were these uh theseguys stealing so like I said I mean youand you know well as I do sometimes whenpeople do some stuff you wonder whywhy in the hell did they do that becausethe risk was not worth a reward butbasically the one of the suspects heused he was a temp a temp worker forthis company and they recycled likemetal from cellphones like the batteriesand just other like augment metal thingsthat they could use they recycle forother products and I I get like ofcourse they didn’t they didn’t give usanything to go off so you know we’rekind of assuming that since he used towork there he knew the layout and hethought maybe he could go in there andget some some of these old recycled cellphones and oh my turn around sell thembut like that’s just that’s just a Iguess we we I still to this day don’tknow why they did what they did but itwould definitely was not worth the thereward was not worth the riskyeah I’m curious what your you saidyou’re pursuing but only for a mile whatare the pursuit rules like they’re inyour department is that we used to haveto if it reached 70 or something 65 wejust had to call it off is it same thingpretty much nationally you guys samething Tennessee Department we have Iwould say we’re on this we’re on thesmaller end of the spectrum becausewe’re between Metro Nashville and thenanother agency so we’re kind oflandlocked so we only have maybe alltogether maybe on patrol we had maybe 40to 50 just just throwing numbers out outthere and so our pursuit policy I wouldsay is actually a little more on theblack stand right at the moment I knowthey’re they’re looking to tighten it upbut they’re there the lettuce chase foryou know assuming conditions are rightyou know you have good weather ortraffic’s not there and it depending onthe severity of the crime obviously butyou know I’ve chased people all the wayfrom tag lights all the way to you knowaggravated assault or burglary so niceit just it just depends if you know likethird shift you know allowed a lot ofpursuits we got in started off with youknow just moving violations or you knowtag light a burnt tag light you knowwe’ve chased people for burnt tag lightsand caught them andyou know like I said it all it’s justit’s a very fluid situation anddepending on the conditions of theweather the the crime and the traffic onthe road right but I mean like you saidyou’ve it seems it seems now more todaythat departments are going to morestrict strict stricter policy obviouslyfor safety reasons for the public so butyeah a lot of pursuit sound and when Iused to work they ended with endingpursuit pursue the vehicle crashed rightup weird or and then sometimes we’llhave we’ve had some folks I know likeyou know you you the supervisors willsay terminate edit or you know you’reyourself terminated and they’ll say ohI’m still eight adhere at such-and-suchbut I’m gonna I’m gonna you knowcontinue normal operations but see ifthey crashed out further per se you knowright do you have a strange or bizarremoment strange or bizarre moment so likeI said all these questions you could sayyou could just have hours and hours ofstrange stories but yeah I’m sorry letme interrupt you I meant to ask you howthis hot first I’ll call you went on howhow long were you on the job when thatcame in I think maybe at that pointmaybe almost a year on the road bymyself okay so you know it was it’s ayears a long time but you know you’re inpolice work you store you know you’rethe dang minnow in the pondabsolutely but anyways back to mystrange and bizarre now this one thisone is it’s funny because you don’treally come across it that often butwhen you do like I’m sure you’ve youfound the things I’m about to describebut you know you they’re funny becauseyou don’t come across from Austin butanyways we had a one of our kingdom guyshe conducted a traffic stop for whateverreason and we got a we got consent tosearch from their vehicle and so wehopped them out it’s actually too stupidso we have him out you know get him backto the canines car and he had me he hadme go ahead and search the vehicle whilehe was doing his normal checks speakingto both of them and so we’re goingthrough the car and you know it’s a heour k9 guys suspected that there mightbe some narcotics in the car so sureenough we we go through and look and ofcourse of course we find we find what wesuspected so at that point it was Ithink we’ve had found I don’t know if itwas it was a good look at meth I forgethow much it was but it was a felonyamount so they have it hidden wellbecause the allowed they allowed thesearch or anythingand yeah they allowed the concert’ theconsent for the search but it wasn’thidden well they had a lot of I thinkthe tactic they were trying to use wasif our car is so dirty maybe if we getpulled over they’ll just realize thathey there’s a lot of stuff that theyhave to go through so maybe they won’tgo through all of our stuff and find youknow what we’ve what we’ve got hidden onthe bottom in the bottom bag underneathyou know five or six bags and clutterand paper and all that stuff so you knowI think a little gamble yeah so belowbehold you know we found the stuff so hesaid that they were under arrest so atthat point we were going to inventorythe vehicle because it was going to needto be towed and so mean another officerare going through the car and we keepfinding we keep finding like you knowlike like six six toys and things likethat so you know we we go on through allthese bags and we’re found in like youknow like dildos and penis pumps andjust out of the world things that youdon’t see in a regular basis and youknow like you know grown grown men oryou know we’re all like chuckling likewe’re twelve-year-old boys like look youknow like of course you know I’m sayinglike yeah see something like that oh mygosh I can you know it was funny becauselike I said you don’t run across thatstuff and it’s kind of private and youknow you know something weird that youdon’t ever you would think to find insomeone’s car but you know alone buildhere it is right here in staring at youin the face so that was that was that’sprobably been one of the one of thefunnier things that effectsI guess strange or bizarre another now Idon’t know if this you could considerthis an office you would consider thisstory strange or bizarre but it is kindof the coincidentalI had another call while I was on thirdshift I was actually getting gas I justwe just left briefing and I was gettinggas at the speed play and so I’m pullinginto the pumps you know I do my thingget my gas and I’m getting ready toleave and as I’m about to pull off Ihear some kind of commotion like a womanor a man arguing and then I hear likesome I hear like a glass bottle breakand then so you know of course obviouslyI’ve you know I Drive around the pump tosee what it was and I see a broken beerbottle on the ground and I see the carthat was at that pump pulling off so Iyou know I let dispatch know whathappened and I said how do aninvestigative stop to determine what thewhat the issue is and so this this wasat about about 10 o’clock at night andso you know of course I stopped the carand I make contact with the it’s a maleand a female and they wereboyfriend/girlfriend and they were insome kind of argument you know it’s somekind of argument and that’s why the beerbottle was broken but but they left andyou know didn’t pick it up to bother topick it up noctus knocked his roadsonoda-sanyeah so we you know I’m speaking to himthe girl had no ID on her nothing thatwould identify it no tangible objectsthat would show who this is Who I am soI just had to go I didn’t have acomputer at the time with me so I had tojust go with what she said her name youknow date of birth social everything shegave me everything to a tee so she wasactually suspended so you know I wroteher a site for driving on suspended andthen that was it so I left I left him dotheir thing no no no domestic arrest ofall offense for that so I left and thenabout two o’clock that night this iswhat this is where it takes a while tocrazy turn we get a call for aa call for service for a basically arequest an investigation in regards to apossible stolen car and of course it wasin my zone as usual so I so me so me andAmy my partner it’s time she gets therebefore I do and I show right after herand so we’re talking to this girl likewe knock on the doorthis girl comes out with a neck brace onand she’s like oh yeah I want to reportmy cars from my car stolen and so we’relike okay well what’s you know what’syour nameyou know she gives me the name and thisis like this is where it became a littlebizarre was she gave me the name but thename that she gave me was the name thatI was given on the on the traffic stopfrom the gas station like four hoursearlier and so I pull my partner to theside and I said this I said this chickeither she’s lying who she is becausethis name that she just gave me was thesame name that I got you know four hoursearlier so something’s off here and soyou know we’re like oh you know we were-interview her hey you know what’syour name this and that do you have anylike do you have a sister obviouslybecause you know someone someone wasusing your ID right on a traffic stopand so she’s like well I have a sisterand all this and all that you know andthat’s at this point we still hadn’tfigured out that I had been lied toearlier but so we’re asking we’re askingher at this point we’ve gone past the IDin part like all right what’s what’s theissue with your car and she’s like wellI want to report my car stolen and we’relike ok well you know who’s got your carwhere they at give us the details andshe said that her sister’s boyfriend hadtaken the car and left and then just youknow basically said I’m out of hereand so at that point dispatched you knowwe had the we have the mics reading putthe earpiece in your ear so you can onlyhear in the public can’t hear rightwhat’s coming over the radio so we thissame exact time she you know she saysI’m a boy my sister’s boyfriend took ittook the car the dispatch gets on theline to us and says hey just be advisedthe car that’s in question just arrivedat the local hospital with a male thathad a slit throat mmm yeah so at thispoint we’re like oh wow this isdefinitely taking a bizarre turn so weyou know we kind of played on with itlike who cares you know why would hetake your car this and that and thenfinally we just you know we told herlike look hey we know where your car isand we know who’s got your car and weknow why he has his car because he hadhis throat slit so now we’re now we’renot we’ve gone past the stolen car likewe’re into a whole different differentballgame so you can be a little moretruthful because you’re obviously lyingand so lo and behold you know we had wehad to make entry and we found the cystwe found the sister that I wouldoriginally spoke to initially four hoursago she was inside and she was insidenaked and like unconscious and you knowlike in the founder in the floor and youknow there was there was some kind ofother argument after the initialargument and he somehow got his throatslit by her and you know it was a big itwas a big ordeal we had to call itdetectives in and all that and you knowI think they ended up I ended upcharging her with like attemptedfirst-degree murder or second somethingsomething pretty heavy so and then ofcourse no she hadn’t so sorry I wasgonna say just add insult to injury youknow I have like a week after that I waslike well you know I’m gonna go take outmore charges on her for the you know thecriminal impersonation and driving onsuspended because you know she she gladon the initial get go but yeah yeah it’sfunny how you see people in thebeginning of their night and then youcatch up with them later oh yeah it wascrazy just now she was not naked inthere passed out she was just fromalcohol and drugs or was she like did hedid he knock her out – uh what I thinkwas is that she had yeah she got drunkor she took something or or because wedidn’t we didn’t find anything like anyshe didn’t have any physical injuries onor anything like that she and she reallywasn’t making much sense so she didn’tshe couldn’t really give us any detailson to what happened and why she wasnaked and why she’s on the floor and Ibelieve later on she had to beinterviewed afterthe fact cuz she was just so inebriatedon seeing at that time was she a bigwoman she was a bit hefty yet because Iremember we had to help carry her outfrom the literature from the bedroom tothe living room and she was naked youknow which adds a whole nother likegross factor to it no you go oh my god Igot to pick this I gotta help pick thisnaked person up and move on yeah so butshe don’t ever and make sure you gotyour gloves with you yeah absolutelyso and that like I said that was that’sI thought that was a pretty blackbizarre coincidental story for for thathow did she get him on the throat was itlike her did she get him like apparentlyshe got him pretty good but not wellenough to like cause permanent damageI believe he ended up being he ended upI think having to have a little bit ofsome minor surgery and then he was finefrom from what I was toldsurprisingly see that I mean he shouldhave left right after she knocked rightfor foreshadowing into the end of thelater of the night all right brother canyou tell me the most intense and orterrifying call you’ve been on the mostintense call I had we had a I believe itor not we had a suspicious we had a itwas the call came out as a suspiciousperson at a at a gas station like rightoff the interstate because we have wehave I 24 that runs through ourjurisdiction okayand so the call came out as an uberdriver had called 9-1-1 to report that apassenger that he had just dropped offat the gas station was threatening himwith a hammerlater after everything was said and donewe found out that the suspect in thisincident he I guess had been on a myth amyth binge for a few days so he’d beenup for some time and that he hadapparently he had called an uber to takehim somewhere in Nashvillebut he was so paranoid that he thoughthis uber driver was an undercover copand the undercover cop was taking him tojail because because surprisingly airquotations he had warrants so the uberdriver unluckily her unfortunately forme got off at the last exit before theyentered Davison County except the lastexit before you get to Metro Nashvilleis in Rutherford County and it happenedto be in our jurisdiction so we were theones that had to do it so he got calledas a as a suspicious person at the pilotgas station so three of us me and twoothers checking route 2 to deal with theguy and at this point it’s like fourit’s like four o’clock so it’s nothingyou know it’s not it’s nothing it’s nota crazy time of the day to think thatmaybe this is actually a suspiciousperson so we get thereme and my two other partners get thereand they they got there before I did soI was the last patrol officer to arriveon scene and there was probably like atwo or three minute delay from when theygot on scene to when I showed up andpartook in the in the in the incidentand so they parked at the front this islike a truck stop gas station so theyhave like a big trucking parking areafor all the trucks out at the back endand so I told them how if you go to thefront I’ll go to the back so forwhatever reason if this guy tries to runor if it becomes something serious thenhe we got him trapped on the inside souh so I you know I get out I’m walkingup to the building so I walk inside andthe the manager is standing right thereat their register and so I look at herand but and she doesn’t say a word shejust looks right at me and she’spointing at a guy that’s standing rightin front of her who who is drinking adang like a red apple or some kind ofalcoholic beverage like a pop top like a24-ounce pop top right and he’s drinkingit in the store nice and so and wedidn’t we didn’t get many descriptors ofwhat this guy looked like except thathe was armed with a hammer and he waswhite so you know go inside and there’sa ton of white people inside someonehits the floor yeah so I go inside andthe managers pointing at this at thisguy and so I look at him and he looks atme and I look at her and so this the theguy at which later was a suspect he’slooking at both the manager and me buthe’s just standing there drinking he’sbeing cool and so I asked the manaddress I did and I look at the guy saidis this is this the guy that we’re herefor or where’s the person I need to talkto and she’s like well I don’t know ifthis is the guy that you’re looking forbut this guy needs to be dealt withbecause he’s drinking beer inside andI’ve told him he needs to not do that hehasn’t even paid for it you can’t dothat in Tennessee not in Tennessee stillso you have to keep it inside but uh soso I’m like okay well maybe this is theguy I’ll just go talk to this guy seewhat what intell’s what happens so sureenough as he sees the conversationbetween me and the manager subsideI then refocused my attention back tohim to talk to him so he sees that I’vedone I’m done speaking with her so heattempts a hey I’m gonna try to justcasually slide out the front and I’lljust walk off so he starts to walk awayand I’m like hey sir I need to talk toyou stop you know police you knowobviously I’m in full uniform so he knewwho was trying to talk to him so rightso he just continued to walk through thefront and drinking that beer so he’swalking and I’m like again police youneed to stop so it still didn’t stop sothis time I started to kind of you knowspeed walked towards him and then so I’mlike maybe you know a foot away from himI’m like you need to stop and I grabbedhim I grabbed him my left arm with hisleft arm and he’s drinking his beer andthe right and his right on so as I as Igo to grab him he decides to try to runpast back where I came in so he he triesto run past me and as he runs past me Igrab him I’m able to get a better grabon him and so you know I throw him tothe ground or escort him to the groundguide and direct him to yeah and so sowe both we basically just bowfall on the ground and he wasn’t hewasn’t I’m I’m about five I’m five tenabout you know I fluctuate between 200and 200 and 500 I’m a decent sized guyand I was a lot bigger than this guy hewas probably like five seven maybe fiveeight five six like 100 like a buck 50but something like that so I had so wefall to the ground and just it justworked out in his favor that when wefell that he he had fell on top of me sohe had me like in half don’t know ifyou’re familiar with jiu-jitsu terms buthe had me in half guard and I don’t knowwhat does half guard is that like a HalfNelson or something so like so let’s sayif you’re on the ground and I’mbasically I’m sitting on your chest withone leg on each side of your body thatwould be like full guard if I have oneleg basically between your legs and oneleg on the other side trapping you’reone of your legs that’s like half guardokay or half mount whatever you call ithe would be mounting me but I would askhim in half guard so he’s on top of mebasically mounting me in half half mountand so at this point he had no hammerbut soon as we fell and he was on top ofme I thought hey I’ll just trap his I’lltrap with my left leg I’ll trap hisright foot so he can’t stand up becausehe kept trying to posture up right andso I figured I’ll just I’ll just grabhim in a like a bear hug type squeezeand others I’ll just hold him I’ll justput him in a clinch clinch hold so hecan’t get you know get some space outbecause at this point you know we’rerolling around and were fighting hepulls that he pulls a hammer out out ofhis hand he had like a thick jacket onit the Jackie didn’t match thetemperature for today so Jackie – ohyeah I mean he’s kind of like he was ananimal he’s growling like you know justbitten and just something he was justgoing berserk and so like I said he’strying to posture up and this time hepulls this hammer out and he has it andhe has in his right hand and as he pullsit out I look and I can see the guy sitsright next to my face but he has hedoesn’t have enough you know strength tosit up to to like swing itcuz I had control of his arm a littlebit so it was he was kind of likeflailing his arm with the hammer but hecouldn’t really get a good hit with itbecause he was trying to hit me with itwhile we’re rollingwhat kind of hammers like a traditionallike contractors like yeah just likelike just the two claw hammer just thenormal contractor hammer okay and so sowe’re sitting there rolling around and Isee the hammer and we’re right next tothe register and so thankfully like I’msurprised that this this still happensjust a good Samaritan a truck driver hewas standing right there watching itwatching it all happened he looked downand he saw that he had a hammer and heyelled at me it’s like he’s got a hammerand then so I yelled back at the truck Iwas like well if he’s got a hammer grabit like don’t stand there help help mehe’s hitting you with the hammers godyeah so so I ain’t like I couldn’t Ididn’t want to let go of the guy cuz Ijust wanted to keep him as close as Icould to my body just so he you know hecouldn’t get sure good whack good whackwith that hammer yeah so at the sametime I’m still wondering where the hellis my where my partners at like yeahlike I’ve been rolling on the ground formaybe like you know 30 seconds but itseemed a lot you know it seems like alifetime for 30 seconds oh you getguests and and I’m like where that I’mlike where the hell are they at and soI’m looking around still holding thisguy and then like I said thankfully thetruck driver he comes in and he rips thehammer out of the guy’s hand so at thispoint I felt a little a little more youknow I felt better about the situationthat Haley she doesn’t have her hammernail now we can just go one on one righthand pans and so sure enough right afterthe hammer got taken out my partner’sthat they had thought that the suspecthad went to the bathroom so they wereactually in the bathroom waiting forpeople to leave the stall because theythought he was in the bathroom hiding inthe stall and so they come out and theysee us on the ground like just going atit know what you know what though and sothey show up and you know he didn’t wantto give him his hands and all that sothey had had to tase him on top of allthat and so they tased him and they theygot him into custody and and you knowthe scary thing about itis that you know after they after theyread in Miranda and all that and saidhey you’re under arrest obviously hetold the officer he said that he said mywhole intention was to kill was to killthat cop like he said it was gonna andhe he later like I said he said that hehe kind of had like a suicide-by-cop onhis mind because he said that he wantedto kill a cop so that he would have tobe shot in return Wowand so and it was like I said it wascrazy like he was completely wrong hewasn’t it he thought he was in Nashvillewhich he wasn’t in Nashville and youknow he had he had two other warrantsfor like aggravated assault with adeadly weapon so you know this wasn’this his first rodeo with not playingnice with weapons involved and so it’spretty easy and you didn’t he’s luckythat you didn’t kill him you know likeyou’re totally justified and and smokinghim but and on the flip side I guess Iwas but I honestly had never reallyliked I never got it in my head it nevergot to that point where I thought youknow I’m gonna have to shoot him becauseI can’t win right so but like I said I Ido Jiu Jitsu once or twice a week I’mstill like belt so I’m not out herebragging but definitely Jiu Jitsu yeahwe helped do it at all you got me beatin Fulbright oh hey I told you that I’mno I’m no badass on the Jiu Jitsu metbut I’ve trained weakly and it helps soif you don’t do it you need to startbecause like I said it helps me in thissituation specifically because once Ifell to the ground you know I wasn’tlike you know you have all thesethoughts and emotions of panic goingthrough your head and I wasn’t panickedyeah you’ve been there you know yeah andpeople are like were you scared and likehonestly I mean it was scary but youmean I’m sure you’ve been in situationswhere you don’t have time to be scaredyou don’t have time to just you don’thave time to feel you just react youjust to and then you know all that allthat emotion of feeling and this andthat can you know happens after thesituation’s calm downso I mean like I said it was crazy thatis crazy that’s a crazy calm and that’sum that you Jitsu that’s a great pointthat I mean they say most fights 90fights end up on the ground and that’sjiu-jitsu is all about wrestling so youknow like you said you’re confident youyou know you know how to move your bodyyou know how to use leverage and you didyeah yeah you didn’t paint it becausesome people especially now on some somebecause I used to do backgrounds forLAPD and a lot of a lot of guys havenever even been in a fight you know likethey’re even even an academy they’re notthey’re not fighting as much or likethey used to you know so right oh yeahyou get um you get the wrong guy it getsthrough Academy and you need and he’snot familiar with that’s having hisbeing pumped up and having to wrestlesomeone he could he could overreact withuse of force you know yeah right oh yeahyeah and like I said it’s if you don’tdo it like I said I’m that’s I learnedsomething every new every day when I gothere so I go for an hour and a halftwice a week usually and it’s it’sbasically three hours of getting my buttwhooped when I go so oh I’d rather I’drather I always tell people how I’drather get my butt whipped in there thenyou get my butt whooped out on thestreet so I’m gonna let me ask you aquestion my buddy back home does it andhe’s do my buddy’s actually do it thosegeese that they wear I mean I would haveto tape my nipples man those things arelike a burlap bag you got it you gotlike the guy I have it’s actually got onthe inside it’s got silk like it’s silksbeen stitched onto the inside oh yeahthey’d be good for selves yeah hey andso that silk is it’s perfect now I dohave another geet that has nothingstitch on the inside and it is it’s likelike you said it’s like a wool sex soitchy and yeah like terribly my wife sheacts you know you because you’re notsupposed to put keys in the you know inthe wash machine and let him dry you’renot in the dryer and well sheaccidentally put it in the dryer so ofcourse this key you know it’s a like onesize too small so I look like you knowI’m wearing like a child’s ghee I wentup with this key on but have you everseen like a movie the fist foot way atthe fifth no I have not I’ll have to gois it on Netflix I don’t know where itis but it’s um it’s the guy fromeastbound and down DannyOh Danny McBride yeahhe’s the star of it and it’s before hewas famous but he’s a he’s a sensei at alocal dojo and you can just imagine howwhere he takes that role but uh uhawesome I like I like all his stuff soif you say he’s in it then it’s probablysomething that’s pretty funny prettygood to watch no it’s it’s fantastic oneother question about did you do to mybuddy got a belt I don’t know what colorit was but and then they all whipped himon the back is that is that just hisdojo or is that traditionlaughter I’ve heard other places Ibelieve this the gym that I met I don’tI don’t think they do that I’m I don’tquote me I’ve never I’ve never beenthere when someone’s get promoted toanother belt so I’ve never seen itpersonally but I have heard of othergyms not here specifically but justother gyms in general that you know theydo that I dunno lux yeah right thatmakes you not want to like move up onyour dos but well I dunno for our forthe gym that I go to I think what theydo part of the like tradition orwhatever like if you get promoted thenyou have to roll with everybody in theclass for like a certain time like twominutes or what you know so if there’slike ten people in the class you have toroll like ten times straight for twominutes at a time you know without abreak push that you know for example didyou do wrestling before you did that ordid you do that jum note it it was thewhole reason I dude you just see thisbecause I’m a police officer so I meanit’s definitely smart to do right andyet to get past that like I mean it’sit’s really intimate like you’re reallyon top about the other like so is itkind of weird to break that like whenyou’re new kind of like alright this iskind of weird but I’m going to do itit’s definitely like the first time Iwent it’s definitely out of your ifyou’ve never done it is definitely goingto be out of your comfort zone you knowyou’re dealing with people that younever dealt with or never spoke to andyou know it’s it’s part of part of theyou know part of growing up you got todo things that that uh you’re notcomfortable with and but I mean now it’syou know now it’s like second nature butat first it was yeah I mean cuz I meanwe’re uncomfortable it’s just weirdlike we’d to wrestle in high school andit was like I remember thinking like itwhen you get tired wrestling someone youdon’t care but their ass could be inyour face and like you just thoughtyou’re just struggling oh yeah to makeit through like you would do you wouldgrab anything twit and pull whatever youcould ever you can do to yeah and thenthat there’s nothing more exhausting Imean yeah it’s definitely uh it’sdefinitely like my hat’s off to you it’sa it’s definitely like a frigging manlyass sport I got two buddies back homeand one of them actually competed for awhile you did fights and stuff and uhyeah yeah I don’t I don’t do anycompetitions now I wouldn’t mind maybedoing them maybe later but uh III don’tgo enough to do that I go probably maybeonce or twice a week for you know that’sthree hours to an hour and a half a weekwhich which isn’t enough in itself thatI’m like I said like you said I’m goingso had like I said it’s I’ve definitelylearned from from when I’ve been goingfrom when I’ve started to where I’m atnow I’ve definitely learned a lot ofthings that are helpful for for everydaylife and for police police work so ifit’s a high Rick I recommend itabsolutely alright brother you got uhyou got time for a couple more no yeahyeah keep them comingalright positive situationheartwarming Gary say is there anythingyou can think of that uh like a positiveencounter with the community right rightpositive now specifically there isn’tone outcome that comes to my head butI’ve you know I’ve I try to make it partof my routine when I’m on shift that youknow I try to change the perceptionenough of how how people the public youknow view the you know view the policeso you know if I’m dealing with a childor some teenagers you know I try to letthem know hey look I’m not all you knowif you usually my first question is youknow usually they’ll pop something offwith something in the news about copsand all this and although yeah yeah youknow like and you know I’ll tell themhey look well you know that’s your firstproblem because you’re watching the newslike you don’t need to be watching thenews because I would say the news isgoing to havetheir own perspective of it regardlessof if it’s sexual or not and so like Isaid I just try to I tell everybody whenI’m at work especially if I arrest youI tell you straight up look hey I knowyou’re under arrest I’m not here to berude to your belittle you I’m a grownman or you know I’m an adult just likeyou so if you don’t give me any problemsI won’t give you any problems we’ll makethis you know as polite and cordial andprofessional as it needs to be and we gofrom there but you know with like withthe kids you know I like working withthe kids just to show them you know cuzyou know you got the media and you knowrap music and just all this all theseother influences video games and TV andmusic all these influences that sure youknow are depicting lifestyles of famouspeople you know doing this or doing youknow you know like Takashi’s dick nowyou know doing all that stuff with gunsand drugs and gangs and you know likethey make that seem like that’s a lavishlifestyle which I mean I’m sure some ofthat’s out there for a few people butthat’s not your everyday you know that’snot happening to everybody who’s in agang or who’s you know doing stuff theyshouldn’t be doing so I you know like Isaid I just try to tell the kids hey Itry to be a positive role model to y’alllook ya’ll can still do your thing havefun with your friends but you know doingthe legal things ain’t the way to do itall been young we’ve all donemischievious things that you know weknew we shouldn’t be a shouldn’t bedoing but we know whatever you gotcaught or you got away with itregardless of what it is but like I saidI just try to let them know like hey Itry to connect with them that justbecause I’m a police officerand I have a badge and a gun and auniform doesn’t mean that you know I’mgonna my life perspective is anydifferent than yoursyou know like I’m gonna treat you withrespect and you know I hope that outsidethe uniform you know you can be a rolemodel to me and I can teach yousomething you know what I’m saying likehey I’m no different than you justbecause I must you know my skin’sdifferent or my my lifestyle isdifferentabsolutely yeah well that’s good you dothat because it is um my dad always saidthat when I he was a police officer for30 years and when I became a cop he waslike just you know in the booking roomyou arrest someone just treat him like agentleman until it’s time until it’stime not to because you’re gonna seethis person you’ll be grocery shoppingwith your kids’ll you’ll be you’ll besomewhere in a you’ll be in a you knowvulnerable position and who will walk upbut this guy you know you know rightwith respect so that’s smart all rightman you got some advice for new officerspeople boots coming on the job now thatyou got those four years well I wouldsay my advice for people that thataren’t police officers at the momentlike maybe going through the process ofit my advice to you all is that you needto have you need to have a realcome-to-jesus talk with yourself heylike you’re gonna see things that nohuman should have to see you know you’regonna hear things that you shouldn’thave to hear and you know that stuff’sgoing to change you so you need to youknow you get a front-row seat to life soyou need to really sit down and thinkhey is this something that I want todeal with you know for the for a curryif I make a career out of it or finallydo it for a year you have to decide isthis what I want to do you know do Iwant to do I want to maybe go to workand possibly die for a stranger to helpyou know save some wife from getting herbutt kicked by her husband but you knowget killed in the same time or you knowyou on the flip side you can be apositive role model to some kids or justsome adolescents or even adults and likeI said I’ve seen a lot of people thathave like specific at our departmentthat have got on and got hired and havewent through the Academy and you knowI’ve had tons of money pumped into themand then a year down the road they’relike this isn’t for me you know like I’mlike they hang it up they quit and youknow so it kind of it’s kind offrustratingyeah but sometimes even sometimes it’sthe best thing they can do and so yeahand so but like that’s my advice forpeople that are still trying to get intoit if you want if this is what you wantand what if you’ve said hey this is whatI’mdo then go into it 120 percent don’tdon’t half-ass it give it all you gotcuz you know you know the in the clichethat you know people say cops or youknow they they take it too serious youknow like the same blue line and allthat but I mean in my opinion being acop and all that is it’s not like beingit’s not your normal job you know it’sit it it will become a part of you thechallenge is you for sure challenges youto the core you know I mean it changesyou because you see I mean you deal withpeople every day that lie to you youdeal with people every day that dothings that try to run from you don’twant to face you know you you deal witha lot of negative things and then youhave to get off duty and you got to putall that in the back of your head andyou still got to go home and you knowfunction dude you know deal with yourwife or your children or you know dothis or do that off duty as well so it’sand like I said it it’ll become a partof you regardless if you want to or notbecause you know we have this you knowI’ve got guys that I work with that youknow I’m not you know I’m not a fullstrung you know that the whole they’renot vitalizing the whole cop thing youknow they but I mean like I said it’sjust it’ll become a part of you and youcan either make it a positive one or youcan let it you know self-destruct withinyeah there’s definitely what would yousuggest for um like like you were sayinglike it’s just you’re gonna see thingsthat are crazy I’m curious what yousuggest how people can cope with that Imean when I went on my first the firstcall I went on that really it reallymade me question you know I was like along story short I went to a call acommunity member that I knew died on thecall and there’s his body I know I’mhe’s you know eyes open the whole thingdude shook me to the core like huh rightevery morning I woke up I thought abouthis body looking like that right yeahand I really thought to myself I wasbrand new and I’m like whoo I don’t knowman I don’t know if I if I’m gonna go toa lot of calls like that I don’t think Ireally did not know and of course I did10 years after that but I had a momentwhere I was like I don’t know man thisjob is like it just catches you off yourarmyeah it’s like wow this is life anddeath stuff yeah I mean it cuz I couldlike forjust for instance I won’t get off toffeebut we like you know recently I had todeal with the shooting and there was afatality in the shooting and I was thefirst one there and you know it was itwas a juvenile and not you know I waslike I said the first one there so Imean it was you know there was nothingwhen you’re there and there was nothingI could do like he was gone on you knowhe was gone before I even got there youknow it’s just like you know your mindjust replays it and you know just like Isaid the things that we shouldn’t haveto see just is it’s there you know theydon’t ever it’ll never go awayregardless of how how much you try notto think about it it’s it’s still gonnabe there so the way the my advice forthat if you know like I said if you’regonna get into this and you see thingslike I said you’re you’re going tothere’s not a question if you’re ifyou’re not it’s a win not if but thatdoesn’t matter if you’re to permanencefive guys you’re gonna sell you worsethings that have you in that area yepit affects from the smallest departmentto the biggest and like I said we’re notthe biggest and I’ve seen things in fouryears that no one should have to see butsome of the things that gets me throughthrough all that is to have a goodsupport system I have a wife she sheloves it I’m a cop she has no problemswith me being one she understands therisks we were together before I became apolice officer so she you know she sawme on that side before I was and she’sseen me now and especially when I comehome if she’s awake you know and andit’s been a crazy night or something’sjust you know something crazy happen nowI’ll tell her you know the things I cantell her right and then and in my familythere my mom and dad they’re stillmarried and they they’re real supportiveof me they’re they’re proud that youknow their sons a police officer and youknow I’ll let them I’ll fill them in oncertain things as well you know I lookwith them I’m a little more guarded justbecause I want my mom to worry or my dadto worry because yeah of course you knowbefore I before I became a cop Iactually I actually graduated with adegree in teaching to be a teacher but Irealized hey I don’t want to be ateacher and I remember my uh I remembermy dad told me one time he said he saidI’m proud of youif you’re a teacher or if you’re a copbut I’ll tell you if you’re a cop when Ithe nights I go to bed I’ll worry aboutyou all night compared to if you wereyou know if you were a teacher sure onthe flip side so like I said have havesome other activities outside of copwork that you like to do hang out withwith your friends that aren’t copsbecause those you know that’ll that’llkind of normalize you put you back intoyour normal you know like you want tosimulate to one group of type of youknow a type of group but you know and wefound us versus them mentality yeahright yeah don’t have that like have youhad your cop friends as well like yourcop friends are good I have I have allmy cop buddies that I like to hang outwith and that’s nice cuz they they knowthey’ve been through the sameexperiences that I have and theyunderstand that as well but like I saidI’m not gonna make my whole life 24/7you know hanging out with just strictlycops I have my friends that aren’t copsthat I hung out with before I was a copand like I said you just got to findthat that that blend of you know hangingout with your cop buddies are hangingout with non cops and just trying to youknow have healthy avenues to decompresswhen you’re off-duty you know comparedto you know the statistics with copsuicide and alcoholism and you know allthose things so like I said that’s justand don’t be afraid to talk to anybodyabsolutely yeah I know if you know thisthis profession everyone’s like machomacho you know can’t show expression youknow you can’t cry and things like thatbut I mean definitely I went to thiswhen I saw that guy died I I went andtalked to a guy twice and it was likeI’m ten bucks like a copay yeah and Ifelt real weird about it and luckilythere was a sergeant on the job that wasuh I could kind of confide in he he waslike yeah that’s a couple dis Argent’slike yeah it’s good yeah and I went yeahI’m telling you it only took for meanyways it was kind of a minor thing butyou saw him a couple times and it justthat’s all it took I felt I felt so muchbetter right and and like i said i 100%agree with you if you need to talk tosomebody it doesn’t mean you’re weakdoesn’t mean you’re you know doesn’tmean you’re a you know a girly girlwhatever you know whatever your yourdepartment or whoever calls you I mean Imean three if you are that way it’sbecause you’re you know you’re goodperson you have feelings it like like Isaid well not when I had to do thatshooting you know there’s there was alot of things going on but honestlyreally the first the first reaction thatI wanted to do once we got the sceneshere I wanted to go get my car and justsit there and cry you know I was bymyself I just stared it’s um you knowdead kids face you know who didn’t evenget to enjoy life and you know I have tosit here and do all these things to youknow put on the front that it doesn’taffect me but you know it it’s gonnaaffect you no matter what regardless ifit’s big or small so and like I said Igot through that you know I talked to mywife and you know my parents andeverything about that and I mean to metalking is just the is the best outletto absolute your nerves yeah geteverything out normalizes everything youknow just yeah get it out there I meanwe’re like you said we’re all we’re allhumans and we have feelings and does itif you feeling something doesn’t meanthat makes you you know any less lesserthan you or me or him or her or whateverthe case might beabsolutely so yeah friends family don’tdon’t get into the us-versus-themmentality keep yourself around childhoodfriends that’s it’s all salted advice myman right don’t and don’t use don’t usealcohol as a coping thing either as partof my you know what I’m saying likethat’s easy to say and that goes backthat goes back to the talking because Iyou know I’ve heard people say you knowwhere if the Academy guys was talkingabout you knowchoir practice was quote for you knowthey sure and I got off they got offshift you know they go to the bar andyou know pound as many beers as they canyou know so I mean there’s a time andplace to do that but I mean if that’s ifyou’re doing that to resolve some issuethat you have from work or you knowsomething that’s going on in your headthat’s not a that’s not a healthy it’snot a healthy Avenue to help helpwhatever situation you got going onabsolutely man words of wisdom rightthere well how about wisdom but I don’tknow I’m so happy for you to come on thepodcast brother I appreciate it like Isaid I I was ecstatic when I saw that Isaw that you were needing some morepeople interview and I thought hey whynot let’s see if let’s see if I can belucky to be on the show so and here weare so like I said I appreciate it andI’ll continue to listen I’m glad to haveyou brother thank you alright no problemthanks take care
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