Serving Those Who Serve w/ Lt. Randy Sutton

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There are few things that make people successful.

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Taking a step forward to change their lives is one successful trait, but it takes some time to get there.

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How do you move forward to greet the success that awaits you?

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Welcome to Next Steps Forward with host Chris Meek.

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Each week, Chris brings on another guest who has successfully taken the next steps forward.

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Now here is Chris Meek.

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Hello.

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Welcome to this week's episode of Next Steps Forward, and I'm your host, Chris Meek.

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As always, it's an honor to have you with us.

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Next Steps Forward is committed to helping others achieve more than ever while experiencing greater personal empowerment and wellbeing.

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Our guest today is Randy Sutton.

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Randy is a retired Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Lieutenant, a nationally known commentator on law enforcement issues, a sought after speaker, a television and movie actor, and the bestselling author of, yes, because he doesn't do enough, five, count them, five books, including The Power of Legacy, Three Books About Policing, and the most recent Rescuing 9-1-1, The Fight for America's Safety, which was an Amazon number one bestseller.

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He also founded the nonprofit The Wounded Blue to improve the lives of wounded and disabled law enforcement officers through support, education, assistance, and legislative advocacy.

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Thank you, Sutton.

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Welcome to Next Steps Forward.

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It is a pleasure to be here.

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You missed one thing.

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What'd I miss?

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The host of A Cop's Life, my podcast.

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Okay, Eric, my producer, I know you're listening, you're fired, so I apologize for that.

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We usually do pretty good on our homework, but we are human.

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I forgive you.

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I forgive you.

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And where can people find that podcast?

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On Spotify, all the regular avenues for podcasting.

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Beautiful.

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Before we start, Randy, right before the show, we're quickly chatting, and I like to brag that this is a show of firsts.

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And for those of you viewing, not watching, Randy is the first guest we've had on here smoking a cigar.

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So kick back, give me a fun 52 minutes for everybody.

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So grab a cup of coffee or a beer and a cigar, and let's have some fun.

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I do have a bottle of whiskey right behind me.

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We are broadcasting out of my cigar bar.

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Well, it's afternoon here on the East Coast, and it's six o'clock in London, so hey, five o'clock somewhere, we know that song.

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So Randy, like I always do, let's start at the beginning.

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You grew up in New Jersey.

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What inspired you to pursue a career in law enforcement?

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I consider myself very fortunate, Chris, because from a very young age, I knew what I was going to be.

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What are you going to be when you grow up?

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Well, I'm going to be a cop, and that's exactly what I had envisioned for myself.

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So having that direction early on, I just channeled my life to move forward in that direction and wound up becoming the youngest police officer in the state of New Jersey at the time, hired at the ripe old age of 19.

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Now when I look back on being a 19-year-old cop and some of the decisions I made as a 19-year-old cop, I got to tell you, I kind of shudder sometimes because the world was very black and white then.

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Not so much these days?

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Not so much.

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Not so much.

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I mean, I was, you know, as a 19-year-old cop, you're not even fully formed as a human being yet.

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And here I am, I'm making life and death decisions.

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I am, you know, going to domestic disputes with, and by the way, it was in Princeton, my hometown that I was a cop.

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And so I was arresting people I was in school with, their parents.

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I was writing tickets to moms and dads.

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I mean, I wasn't a very popular person in my own hometown, I can tell you that.

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But I did 10 years there, six as a patrol officer and four as a detective before I made the big move and came to Las Vegas.

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And we're going to get to that.

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You mentioned being 19 years old, right out of high school, wet behind the ears, still pretty green.

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Did they give you any reason to reconsider your decision?

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No.

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No, I was, I loved being a cop.

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I even loved being a cop in my small community.

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I was, the only problem there, I was bored.

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That was the issue.

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But I loved, I loved the work.

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I loved the, I loved being a protector.

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Even from an early age, I was a protector.

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I was the guy that stood up to the bullies on behalf of other kids in the class.

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I got my ass kicked a few times.

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And it's got a lesson taught to me every now and then, but no good deed goes unpunished.

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But still, it was innate in me.

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And service is, sometimes you got to go with what your calling is, what your nature is.

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And I'm a huge believer in service and giving back, and probably in the ensuing years from those till now, that's even been more pronounced.

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I'm a huge believer in service and patriotism and community.

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So that's just your DNA.

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It is.

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It is.

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Yeah.

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Not many more people like that.

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So before we get to Vegas, how'd your time in Princeton, New Jersey shape the kind of police officer and man that you became?

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So I was very fortunate, once again, in the fact that I had a fantastic family life.

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I literally had the beaver cleaver life.

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You know, Princeton's a pretty affluent community.

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My parents weren't rich, but they weren't poor.

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You know, we were middle class.

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And I was born in, you know, in a beautiful community.

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My parents, you know, raised me with love, you know, literally till the day they died, we had a very, very close relationship.

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And so I was, you know, I think we don't even realize how fortunate we are in our young years with the gifts that are given to us.

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But I actually was.

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I saw, and I was kind of a student of life, even as a kid.

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I saw, you know, disruptive families.

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I saw parents that didn't give a damn about their kids.

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I saw their kids, you know, how they grew up with, you know, parents that didn't give a damn.

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And I always realized how fortunate I was that I had parents that cared about me.

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And so I never went through that, you know, sometimes the teenage years are a little rough.

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I never went through that because I respected my parents and I just, I never had, I never had those issues.

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So that kind of base is critical for, you know, forming yourself as a human being.

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You know, my father was not the wise sage, you know, orator, but I do remember a couple of times.

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I remember one time when I was about 10 years old and I was very sickly as a child.

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I spent much of my young years in and out of hospitals and I couldn't play with the other kids a lot.

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I couldn't play sports because I was sick all the time and they couldn't figure out what was wrong with me.

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I spent like two months in Philadelphia Children's Hospital undergoing every test imaginable.

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And I was bedridden for much of my very young years, you know, seven, eight, nine.

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And my, you know, my parents of course were worried to death.

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And after not getting any satisfaction from going to all these, you know, modern doctors, they heard about a doctor, this, this, a naturopath who saved the life of one of their friends who was given a terminal cancer diagnosis.

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And after she went to this naturopath, she went on with a normal life.

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So out of desperation, my parents take me to this doctor.

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Now here's how crazy he was.

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He marched to the beat of his own drummer.

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He only had office appointments from 12 midnight till four in the morning because that's where his rhythm was, right?

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So my parents wake me up at midnight to take me to the doctor.

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And even as a 10 year old, I know that if my parents are taking me to the doctor at midnight, I am really screwed up, right?

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So they take me to this, to Trenton, New Jersey, and we knock on the door of this old brownstone house and this little bird like man opens the door, Dr.

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Samuel Gatlin.

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I'll never forget him.

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And he was, he was ancient, ancient.

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And he ushered us into his, into his waiting room.

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And now I'm used to, you know, the most modern hospital facilities.

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This is a cramped little office with national geographics from the forties and faded photographs of, I mean, it was, it was, uh, it was almost comical.

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And he said, I'm going to take a urine sample and a blood sample, and then I'm going to go back to my lab and I'll be right back with you.

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He's going back to his lab.

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So my parents and I are in the waiting room and I look at his, I look at his, his medical certificate is from the twenties, right?

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He's from the twenties.

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This guy is old, old, old.

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And my parents, I can see they're looking at each other going like, what are we doing here?

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Right.

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And he comes in and he ushers us into his, into his exam room.

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He doesn't ask me any of my symptoms.

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He tells me every single one of my symptoms.

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He says, you can't get out of bed.

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You're tired all the time.

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You, you, you gain weight, you lose weight, you're depressed.

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He went through everything that I was experiencing.

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And my parents were like, yeah, yeah.

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And then he looked at my parents and he said, well, first he said, I know what you're having.

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I know what you eat.

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You eat cheeseburgers.

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You have ice cream.

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You do this chocolate, you know, count Chocula, that kind of, yeah.

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And he turned to my parents and he said, you're starving your son to death.

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And they looked at him.

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He said, what?

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He says, your son is malnourished and he, and he has hypoglycemia, which I never had heard of.

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Of course, as a kid, it's the opposite of, uh, of diabetes.

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He said, you're, you are literally starving your, your child to death.

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He has no nutrients in his body.

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And there he says, from now on, there will be no sugar.

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There will be no white flour.

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There will be none of this.

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There'll be none of that.

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He changed.

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Now we, we were conscious of this, right?

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But back in the sixties, we weren't.

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And he gave me 72 vitamins a day to take.

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I'm 10 years old.

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I'm taking 72 vitamins a day, which I did for years.

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And it changed.

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He cured me.

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He cured me.

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Nutrition cured me.

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So today when I see what's going on in our world with, with nutrition, and finally we're actually addressing it, it is absolutely, to me, it saved my life.

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Literally saved my life.

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And then Dr.

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Samuel Gettlund was mugged and murdered shortly afterwards.

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The world lost a great gift to crime.

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Do you feel that that particular incident also helped you shape your, your path to being a police officer?

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I do.

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I do.

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I do.

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It was here, this kind, gentle soul who had the ability to help so many people was taken from us because of violence.

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Yeah.

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Yeah.

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It, it's to this day, I think about it all the time.

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And you remember every detail about it.

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So it clearly left a good end.

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Yeah.

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Yeah.

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So shifting gears a little bit, New York city where I've spent 25 years of my career is the city that never sleeps.

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But Las Vegas is unlike any other city, any other city.

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How does police work in Las Vegas different from other parts of the country?

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And even though you were a cop in Princeton for a decade, did it fully prepare you for Las Vegas offered?

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Great question.

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And it, it, it is I was not, I was not ready for, for, for this change.

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I thought I was now, like I said, I, you know, I was an experienced police officer, 10 years on the jobs a long time.

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In fact, when I made the decision to leave all my, my, you know, friends and compatriots and comrades were saying, Randy, you're almost halfway to retirement.

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Are you out of your mind?

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I was at the top of my pay scale and my family is there.

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It was a tough decision, but I just wasn't being challenged and I needed the challenge.

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So I actually researched different agencies and Las Vegas Metro PD had a fantastic stellar reputation in the law enforcement community.

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And so I came out here.

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I had to start all over again.

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I had to take the police test, had to get hired, had to go through the Academy, had to go through field training and literally become a rookie again.

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And uh, but, but here, here is the, here's the quintessential reminder of, of, of a change like this.

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So I was, you know, some people said, Randy, you gotta go to the Academy again.

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I'm glad I did because policing in Vegas, I'll illustrate it with this, with this story of the cop in New Jersey.

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If I even drew my gun, it was a highly unusual set of circumstances.

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I was still on probation when I was in my first shooting here.

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When a 15 year old gang member tried to kill me, I was, uh, I was chasing a stolen car.

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I was in a gang infested area.

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It's two 30 in the morning, the, uh, car full of gang bangers, they crashed.

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I ran after the driver.

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My partner ran after one of the passengers as two 30 in the morning, I go around the corner of a, of a building and he is, I was, I was pretty close to him, but when I came around the corner, he was waiting for me to shoot me.

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And I came around looking down the barrel of a weapon and I had my gun in my hand and I fired around and the round zipped right by his ear and hit the building behind him and a piece of stucco broke off and hit him in the head and he thought he was shot.

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He couldn't drop that gun fast enough.

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So thank God I didn't have to kill this 15 year old, but you're not in Kansas anymore, and, and that was, that was the reality moment for me that, um, you're in the big city now and it's a dangerous, dangerous place to be.

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And the police work is entirely, I mean, the basics are the same, but police work is entirely different.

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You have to, you have to act differently as a cop in a, in an urban environment than you do.

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We call her in Princeton, we called ourselves grin and wave cops.

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I, Mrs.

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Jones in Vegas, um, you better be a warrior.

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You better have that warrior spirit.

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Um, and it saved my life on more than one occasion.

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You just went through one memorable call.

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What's the most memorable call or case you responded to in your career?

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That's um, there's actually several, but I'm going to, I'm, I'm going to, I'm going to go to the positive one this time.

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Um, every cop goes through life changing moments, an incident that will alter their life.

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Um, whether you're, whether you're in a big city or a small town, I had some in Princeton too.

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Um, but, but one in particular that, uh, that to this day, um, is very much on the forefront of my mind is, uh, I was a patrol Sergeant and, um, I was in a semi right off the Las Vegas strip.

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And as I came around the corner, I saw a car up on the side of the road and, and it was people running around screaming.

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And so I radioed for a backup and I'd be out with an unknown trouble and it was Bedlam.

216
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I get out of the car and as I'm approaching this vehicle, there's people running around screaming and then I see bullet holes all over the car.

217
00:17:22,160 --> 00:17:25,360
And then somebody screamed, Oh my God, the baby's been shot.

218
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And I looked down and there in a little baby infancy is a one month old baby who'd been shot in the face.

219
00:17:34,000 --> 00:17:37,360
And it was a drive by shooting turned out to be a gang initiation.

220
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Mom and dad, innocent people, immigrants from El Salvador with their little baby in the back.

221
00:17:44,240 --> 00:17:48,240
I just pulled up alongside of them for no reason whatsoever and opened fire on the car.

222
00:17:49,440 --> 00:17:52,560
And the one of the bullets hit the baby in the face.

223
00:17:53,600 --> 00:18:00,480
And our protocol is this, you call for an ambulance and you turn them over to the medical people.

224
00:18:00,800 --> 00:18:00,880
Right.

225
00:18:01,360 --> 00:18:06,320
But when I checked this baby, I knew that if I didn't get into the hospital, she was going to die.

226
00:18:09,520 --> 00:18:10,720
Now just think of the scene.

227
00:18:10,880 --> 00:18:13,360
You got mom and dad there, their baby's been shot.

228
00:18:13,520 --> 00:18:15,840
It's a wild scene.

229
00:18:16,080 --> 00:18:17,680
There's people running around screaming.

230
00:18:17,840 --> 00:18:18,400
I don't know.

231
00:18:18,720 --> 00:18:20,320
I don't know what just happened.

232
00:18:20,400 --> 00:18:22,000
I don't know if the shooter's still there.

233
00:18:22,160 --> 00:18:23,360
So I'm looking all over.

234
00:18:23,680 --> 00:18:25,600
But then I focused on the baby.

235
00:18:26,560 --> 00:18:28,800
First patrol car that got there to back me up.

236
00:18:29,280 --> 00:18:32,800
I scooped the little baby up and I said, get to the hospital.

237
00:18:33,040 --> 00:18:46,960
And what had happened was when the bullet hit her face, she's just a little thing, you know, that her head is the size of a softball and the bullet took off a big chunk of her face and a bunch of the tissue and stuff went down her throat and choked her.

238
00:18:47,360 --> 00:18:51,760
Well, I was able to scoop that out of her mouth and give her mouth, bring her back.

239
00:18:52,560 --> 00:18:56,800
And because I was there within minutes, there was no brain damage.

240
00:18:57,920 --> 00:18:59,200
We got to the hospital.

241
00:18:59,280 --> 00:19:03,280
I handed the little baby off and she's my goddaughter now.

242
00:19:06,080 --> 00:19:07,360
That is amazing.

243
00:19:09,360 --> 00:19:13,840
So that story, that story changed my life.

244
00:19:14,880 --> 00:19:22,400
And I'll tell you how that night was was so vivid to me.

245
00:19:22,800 --> 00:19:27,200
I went home that night and I lived up in the mountains outside of Vegas at the time.

246
00:19:27,440 --> 00:19:33,040
And me and a bottle of Johnny Walker wrote the story about that called Her Name Was Jackie.

247
00:19:35,280 --> 00:19:36,560
I didn't have anything to do with it.

248
00:19:36,720 --> 00:19:38,160
I didn't have any plans for it.

249
00:19:38,640 --> 00:19:40,720
I just felt like I needed to write it.

250
00:19:41,440 --> 00:19:50,960
So I got the yellow pad out, you know, the way we used to do in the old days and my ballpoint pen and I wrote the story and it, and it just felt cathartic to do.

251
00:19:51,840 --> 00:19:58,880
And I put it in a drawer and it sat there for years and it literally sat there until the world trade center was attacked.

252
00:19:59,920 --> 00:20:03,040
And of course that was the deadliest day in law enforcement history.

253
00:20:04,240 --> 00:20:06,880
And I was so frustrated at not being able to help.

254
00:20:08,000 --> 00:20:10,000
And I thought, wait a minute, hold on a second.

255
00:20:10,240 --> 00:20:16,320
I've got that story sitting in that drawer and every cop I know has a story like that.

256
00:20:17,040 --> 00:20:26,800
I'm going to ask them to write that story and I'm going to put it in a book and I'm going to donate all of the royalties to the families of those police officers who died.

257
00:20:27,120 --> 00:20:28,560
And that's exactly what I did.

258
00:20:28,720 --> 00:20:33,040
And that was my first book called True Blue, police stories by those who have lived them.

259
00:20:33,440 --> 00:20:34,560
And it sold very well.

260
00:20:34,720 --> 00:20:38,880
It was published by a major publisher and started my writing career.

261
00:20:39,680 --> 00:20:41,040
The editor in chief in St.

262
00:20:41,040 --> 00:20:44,160
Martin said, Randy, I like your, I like your style.

263
00:20:44,320 --> 00:20:45,280
I like the way you write.

264
00:20:45,840 --> 00:20:48,560
I want your next book to be all of your own stories.

265
00:20:49,280 --> 00:20:59,120
And that book is called a cop slice and that's still available to this day on Amazon and probably is my best book about, but it's very dark too.

266
00:21:00,080 --> 00:21:00,720
Very dark.

267
00:21:01,760 --> 00:21:14,080
At the time I was writing it, my father was dying and I was by his bedside a lot of that time and I was writing, you know, I was dredging up my memories to write the book.

268
00:21:14,480 --> 00:21:21,680
And because of the, I was in a dark place anyway, it seemed that most of the stories were pretty, pretty dark.

269
00:21:22,160 --> 00:21:24,800
And it's a very, it's an emotional book.

270
00:21:26,320 --> 00:21:42,640
But I, I'm, I'm really glad I wrote it and I'll tell you why it, I started getting letters from people from cops that read it and they said, thank you for writing this book because I thought I was alone in my feelings.

271
00:21:43,200 --> 00:21:56,320
And that was the first time I understood, which later became really consequential to what I do now, that all of these men and women self isolated and felt alone.

272
00:22:00,560 --> 00:22:06,160
Really was, that was a huge moment for me to understand that.

273
00:22:06,720 --> 00:22:15,200
And that's why it was, it was really important that that book came out and still to this day I still get letters from cops from all over the nation.

274
00:22:17,120 --> 00:22:21,360
Well, as someone who was at Ground Zero 9-11, I want to thank you for that.

275
00:22:22,000 --> 00:22:29,760
And I understand in terms of the proceeds, I'm also working with some spouses of victims who've been underpaid from the Victim's Compensation Fund.

276
00:22:30,160 --> 00:22:30,240
Yeah.

277
00:22:30,640 --> 00:22:32,400
So I'm working to try and rectify that.

278
00:22:33,280 --> 00:22:40,160
Apologies to all the lawyers out there, but they're using it for their own annuity and it's not going to those people who, who need it and certainly deserve it.

279
00:22:41,040 --> 00:22:43,360
And Randy, again, being a show first.

280
00:22:44,160 --> 00:22:45,920
So thank you for that story about your goddaughter.

281
00:22:46,000 --> 00:22:47,120
That is an unbelievable story.

282
00:22:47,120 --> 00:22:48,240
So I appreciate you sharing that.

283
00:22:49,040 --> 00:22:54,160
I'm going to go way off script here, which I normally don't do and Eric's going to get mad at me, but sorry, I already fight him early in the show.

284
00:22:54,160 --> 00:22:54,720
So it's okay.

285
00:22:54,720 --> 00:22:55,680
It doesn't matter anymore.

286
00:22:56,240 --> 00:23:03,200
You know, I got my doctorate about a year or so ago and it was focused on the barriers for police officers seeking mental health treatment.

287
00:23:04,160 --> 00:23:11,040
And you talked about your book in terms of writing your dark story and then inviting other police officers to write their stories.

288
00:23:11,680 --> 00:23:15,360
And you said, quote, I thought I was alone in my feelings.

289
00:23:15,680 --> 00:23:22,000
You had dozens and dozens and dozens of police officers tell you that, but I'm not gonna say it's the same job, but you're all police officers.

290
00:23:22,160 --> 00:23:23,200
You all face the same risks.

291
00:23:23,280 --> 00:23:25,520
Obviously Princeton's going to be different than Las Vegas.

292
00:23:25,520 --> 00:23:27,920
Stanford's going to be different than Los Angeles.

293
00:23:28,800 --> 00:23:39,040
Why is it you think that police officers will just bury that stuff versus going and seeking help and finding treatment is a big, I mean, the word I always heard was stigma, right?

294
00:23:39,040 --> 00:23:39,840
In my dissertation.

295
00:23:40,240 --> 00:23:46,400
Are we still at that point today or have things changed in this newer, more open society and generation?

296
00:23:47,520 --> 00:23:48,880
We are seeing changes.

297
00:23:49,440 --> 00:23:50,640
We are seeing changes.

298
00:23:50,720 --> 00:23:52,560
Now, remember, this is my world now.

299
00:23:52,720 --> 00:23:57,840
I, you know, as the founder of the Wounded Blue, I live and breathe this every single day.

300
00:23:58,400 --> 00:24:01,040
I, I work seven days a week, 24 seven.

301
00:24:01,760 --> 00:24:05,840
I am on call all the time if needed by officers.

302
00:24:06,720 --> 00:24:08,000
It is changing for the better.

303
00:24:09,840 --> 00:24:11,280
There is still stigma.

304
00:24:11,760 --> 00:24:19,920
There is still a reluctance to talk about the things that are bothering you.

305
00:24:20,560 --> 00:24:23,600
There's still isolation, but it's getting a whole lot better.

306
00:24:26,160 --> 00:24:32,640
It was, it was almost impossible to go ask for help 20 years ago.

307
00:24:33,440 --> 00:24:39,360
Now, that's really changed a lot because there is a much greater understanding of mental health.

308
00:24:39,920 --> 00:24:48,960
And so I'm, we're, we're definitely not where we need to be, but we're traveling the road to get there.

309
00:24:50,240 --> 00:24:57,760
What I, you know, what I do now is with the Wounded Blue is we help injured and disabled officers across the country.

310
00:24:58,400 --> 00:24:59,840
We're a nationwide charity.

311
00:25:00,320 --> 00:25:06,800
And I started it because of what happened to me because I, I became disabled in the line of duty.

312
00:25:07,600 --> 00:25:13,520
I suffered a stroke in my police car and it was the most frightening moment of my life.

313
00:25:13,920 --> 00:25:32,880
And I've had some frightening moments as you might well imagine, but laying there on the, on the pavement, right in front of a lot of a Bally's hotel, unable to speak, unable to move completely helpless as tourists walked by and took my picture.

314
00:25:35,200 --> 00:25:45,920
It's a memory that I'll live with forever, but what had, and, and once again, my, my guardian angel, that angel has been on my shoulder my entire career was with me again.

315
00:25:46,720 --> 00:25:50,960
And I survived it and the clot went through my brain, but it ended my police career.

316
00:25:52,000 --> 00:25:54,240
And um, and I loved being a cop.

317
00:25:54,480 --> 00:25:56,640
I did not expect that this was going to be my end.

318
00:25:57,680 --> 00:26:01,600
And then what happened next was truly life-changing as well.

319
00:26:01,760 --> 00:26:03,920
And that's my own department turned its back on me.

320
00:26:04,560 --> 00:26:06,560
It said, we're not paying your medical bills.

321
00:26:06,640 --> 00:26:08,720
We're not giving you your benefits, have a nice life.

322
00:26:09,840 --> 00:26:11,120
And I go, wait a minute.

323
00:26:11,520 --> 00:26:13,120
You can't, you can't do that to me.

324
00:26:14,880 --> 00:26:15,440
It's the law.

325
00:26:15,840 --> 00:26:17,680
You have to pay my medical bills.

326
00:26:17,760 --> 00:26:19,840
It's a worker's compensation injury.

327
00:26:20,400 --> 00:26:22,000
It's very clear in the, in the law.

328
00:26:22,640 --> 00:26:26,000
I said, yeah, well, uh, make us.

329
00:26:28,080 --> 00:26:30,640
And it was such a betrayal.

330
00:26:31,440 --> 00:26:32,960
It was so shocking to me.

331
00:26:34,080 --> 00:26:37,440
I go to, I went to go see the sheriff who I'd served with for 24 years.

332
00:26:37,840 --> 00:26:39,680
And I said, how do you treat me like this?

333
00:26:40,240 --> 00:26:42,880
And he said, Randy, this isn't personal, man.

334
00:26:43,440 --> 00:26:44,160
It's just business.

335
00:26:46,000 --> 00:26:47,600
I'll never forget those words.

336
00:26:48,240 --> 00:26:49,520
He was telling me the truth.

337
00:26:49,760 --> 00:26:52,320
See I was no longer an asset to my department.

338
00:26:53,040 --> 00:26:56,080
I was now a liability, a financial liability.

339
00:26:57,840 --> 00:27:01,760
Now they knew they were legally obligated to pay for my, my treatment.

340
00:27:02,080 --> 00:27:11,760
They knew they were legally obligated to giving my benefits, but they also knew that the process would take a year and a half going through the court system, et cetera, and so forth.

341
00:27:11,840 --> 00:27:12,880
I had to get an attorney.

342
00:27:12,960 --> 00:27:14,800
I had to fight them every step of the way.

343
00:27:15,040 --> 00:27:19,120
They spent tens of thousands of dollars of taxpayers' money to fight me.

344
00:27:19,280 --> 00:27:20,880
And I'm trying to figure out why.

345
00:27:22,400 --> 00:27:26,320
And talk about feeling isolated, feeling betrayed.

346
00:27:28,160 --> 00:27:38,640
Well, you see, they were betting that I, they were hoping that I would die in the meantime and they wouldn't have to pay.

347
00:27:39,520 --> 00:27:44,000
That's a very, very bitter pill to swallow, especially as a cop.

348
00:27:44,240 --> 00:27:52,160
When you think that the blue family is there for you, like you hear at the beginning of your career, we're one big family.

349
00:27:52,720 --> 00:27:54,720
Yeah, well, we're a dysfunctional family.

350
00:27:56,720 --> 00:27:57,920
So I won.

351
00:27:59,360 --> 00:28:13,200
And then because of being so visible in the law enforcement community, you know, from being on the TV show Cops and being in movies and writing books and being a police trainer, cops started reaching out to me.

352
00:28:13,600 --> 00:28:18,880
Not because I could do anything, but only because I was visible in the law enforcement community.

353
00:28:19,520 --> 00:28:29,760
They reached out and I kept on getting these messages, Randy, I know you don't know me, but I was shot in the line of duty and my chief never even visited me in the hospital and they're not paying my medical bills.

354
00:28:29,920 --> 00:28:33,040
Randy, I was paralyzed when a drunk hit my police car.

355
00:28:33,360 --> 00:28:38,240
They thrown me away from all over the country, all ending the same way.

356
00:28:38,480 --> 00:28:39,520
I feel betrayed.

357
00:28:39,680 --> 00:28:40,560
I feel isolated.

358
00:28:40,880 --> 00:28:41,840
I feel alone.

359
00:28:42,240 --> 00:28:45,120
And then the worst ones were I wish I'd never survived.

360
00:28:47,120 --> 00:28:53,120
And I realized that there, this is a national need and there's no resource for these men and women.

361
00:28:53,840 --> 00:29:01,360
So I created it and we are the Wounded Blue and we have helped more than 15,000 police officers in the last six years.

362
00:29:02,320 --> 00:29:10,960
And we recognize injuries as either being physical or emotional and psychological, but we probably deal with more PTS issues than I do even physical injuries.

363
00:29:12,560 --> 00:29:18,880
But it is an incredible journey, one that I never thought I would be on.

364
00:29:20,000 --> 00:29:35,680
But there's a philosophical phrase that I created and I live by this phrase, and that is that you cannot choose your destiny, but you can create your legacy.

365
00:29:37,520 --> 00:29:51,360
And I choose to create the legacy of the Wounded Blue and dedicating my life to the service of these men and women who are so deeply in need.

366
00:29:51,920 --> 00:30:16,400
And man, we've got some great success stories, some terrible, terrible, believe me, I can tell you heartbreaking story after heartbreaking story, but I can also tell you some absolutely amazing heartwarming stories that we've had success in giving lives back to officers who had no hope.

367
00:30:18,240 --> 00:30:18,640
No hope.

368
00:30:20,160 --> 00:30:24,480
Would you be willing to share a story with us so our listeners know the great work the Wounded Blue does?

369
00:30:24,800 --> 00:30:25,520
Absolutely.

370
00:30:25,600 --> 00:30:28,320
I'm going to tell you, I'm going to tell you a success story.

371
00:30:28,960 --> 00:30:33,760
I'm going to tell you, I got so many on the opposite side of the track, but I've got some great ones.

372
00:30:34,000 --> 00:30:41,360
And, and, and I got, so I'm going to tell you, I'm going to tell you the backstory first because this is incredible.

373
00:30:44,080 --> 00:30:48,640
I fully believe that most Americans believe in and trust their police.

374
00:30:50,960 --> 00:31:01,840
Despite what a lot of the media says, despite what we went through under the George Floyd insanity, defunding, demoralizing, dehumanizing, most Americans believe in their police.

375
00:31:03,520 --> 00:31:20,800
And I was, I was on Fox news during the height of that insanity talking about injured officers, as a matter of fact, and I got a phone call, Randy, I just saw you on Fox news.

376
00:31:22,640 --> 00:31:24,000
I support law enforcement.

377
00:31:24,080 --> 00:31:25,600
I want to know more about your charity.

378
00:31:26,640 --> 00:31:31,920
And it was very clear that this man was very savvy in the charity space.

379
00:31:33,120 --> 00:31:42,640
And when he asked me for my nine nineties, which are my tax shows how you spend your money for a charity, I knew this guy, you know, was, was, he was in that charity world.

380
00:31:43,040 --> 00:31:46,800
So I sent him my nine nineties and he called me back and he says, I'm going to make it a happy.

381
00:31:47,120 --> 00:31:48,480
It was just right at Christmas time.

382
00:31:48,640 --> 00:31:50,560
So I'm going to make it a happy new year for you.

383
00:31:50,800 --> 00:31:53,920
He sent me a hundred thousand dollars.

384
00:31:55,520 --> 00:31:58,160
I've never received anything like that ever.

385
00:31:59,040 --> 00:32:11,200
And I spent that money visiting police officers who'd been shot or severely injured, giving their families some money for babysitting and things like that.

386
00:32:12,080 --> 00:32:15,120
That began a relationship that continues to this day.

387
00:32:17,440 --> 00:32:18,880
And I don't know who this man is.

388
00:32:21,120 --> 00:32:32,560
And as of today, we've in the last year and a half, I've given out more than a million dollars to save police officers lives.

389
00:32:34,320 --> 00:32:38,320
He is literally the voice on the phone, an angel.

390
00:32:39,840 --> 00:32:44,080
So he and I were having a conversation.

391
00:32:44,640 --> 00:33:04,800
I have, there's a police officer I know who's actually part of my team, who, when he was 35 years old, this is six years ago, was severely injured in the line of duty, guys in the best shape of his life, young father, triathlete gets in a fight with a 16 year old meth head.

392
00:33:05,520 --> 00:33:12,880
During the fight, they fall, his spine hits the curb and he loses all sensation from the waist down.

393
00:33:13,840 --> 00:33:15,680
He's literally in a fight for his life.

394
00:33:16,080 --> 00:33:18,960
Luckily his backup got there, got the guy in custody.

395
00:33:19,120 --> 00:33:26,560
They get him to the hospital and they say, you need spinal surgery, but we don't have a surgeon that has the capability here.

396
00:33:27,200 --> 00:33:39,280
So instead of putting him in an ambulance and taking them to Dallas, which was two and a half hours away, they told him to go home, go home, find your own doctor.

397
00:33:40,880 --> 00:33:44,960
And that began the nightmare.

398
00:33:45,200 --> 00:33:48,320
Workers comp said, well, if they sent you home, you don't need surgery.

399
00:33:48,960 --> 00:33:56,560
And for the next six years, he has declined to the point where six months ago he was in a wheelchair.

400
00:33:57,840 --> 00:34:00,480
He couldn't come back to work full duty, so they fired him.

401
00:34:02,640 --> 00:34:04,800
No pension, no benefits.

402
00:34:05,200 --> 00:34:06,400
Oh, you can't come back to work?

403
00:34:07,040 --> 00:34:08,320
See ya, have a nice life.

404
00:34:08,800 --> 00:34:14,000
Luckily, the sheriff in the county knew he was a talented investigator on human trafficking.

405
00:34:14,160 --> 00:34:20,640
And so brought him on to the sheriff's department, where he is to this day and supports him.

406
00:34:21,360 --> 00:34:28,160
Because that police chief in his first department, I wouldn't urinate on him if he was on fire.

407
00:34:29,040 --> 00:34:38,480
The sheriff that he's working for now, we gave him a leadership award because he is compassionate and empathetic and the kind of police leader we need in this country.

408
00:34:39,760 --> 00:34:46,720
So this officer has now undergone 11 surgeries that they have botched.

409
00:34:48,800 --> 00:34:53,840
They gave him surgeons that didn't have the skill level to fix him, budget surgeons.

410
00:34:56,320 --> 00:35:02,880
He's literally in so much pain that he can't do anything.

411
00:35:04,400 --> 00:35:06,640
He can only walk very short periods of time.

412
00:35:06,800 --> 00:35:08,160
We bought him a wheelchair.

413
00:35:08,960 --> 00:35:11,840
So this is the backdrop.

414
00:35:14,000 --> 00:35:18,800
Several months ago, I'm having a conversation with the voice on the phone.

415
00:35:21,680 --> 00:35:28,080
He's telling me about a Green Beret who was told he would never walk again.

416
00:35:29,920 --> 00:35:43,360
After 20 years of service to his country, his back was so badly injured that he was in chronic pain, addicted to painkillers, suicidal.

417
00:35:43,760 --> 00:35:45,600
And this guy was a warrior.

418
00:35:46,560 --> 00:36:00,160
Well, the voice on the phone knew one of the greatest spinal surgeons in this nation and sent this Green Beret to him.

419
00:36:00,960 --> 00:36:06,080
And today he's walking five miles a day and he's telling me this story.

420
00:36:06,640 --> 00:36:07,920
And I said, wait a minute.

421
00:36:09,280 --> 00:36:15,040
I have a guy and I said, it sounds like he said, OK, tell you what?

422
00:36:16,320 --> 00:36:17,920
Send me all his medical records.

423
00:36:18,000 --> 00:36:19,520
I'm going to send him to this doctor.

424
00:36:21,040 --> 00:36:28,560
Now, this officer lives in Texas, his doctor's in right outside of D.C. We send him all the medical records.

425
00:36:29,120 --> 00:36:32,480
And he says, I need to see this man.

426
00:36:33,760 --> 00:36:34,640
Send him to me.

427
00:36:35,280 --> 00:36:43,680
So we sent this officer and his wife to this doctor for a week of intensive testing.

428
00:36:44,080 --> 00:36:47,520
And this doctor said, I can significantly help him.

429
00:36:48,160 --> 00:36:50,960
Now, workers' comp said, we're not paying anything.

430
00:36:52,000 --> 00:36:52,960
We're not paying for this.

431
00:36:57,280 --> 00:37:02,000
We paid close to three hundred thousand dollars in medical care.

432
00:37:03,920 --> 00:37:10,480
And this officer is walking and will be dancing with his daughter at her wedding in September.

433
00:37:14,080 --> 00:37:15,520
This is the Wounded Blue.

434
00:37:16,480 --> 00:37:25,440
And this is this is and the and the message is, we're not paying for this, we're not paying and this is this is and the and the message from my voice on the phone was to tell him that Americans care about him.

435
00:37:28,800 --> 00:37:31,520
That's the opposite side of the spectrum from what you hear.

436
00:37:32,880 --> 00:37:33,440
But because.

437
00:37:35,840 --> 00:37:44,560
This man is such a believer in in empathy and compassion, and he is my angel, he is my angel on the phone.

438
00:37:46,080 --> 00:37:48,000
So that's a hell of a story, isn't it?

439
00:37:48,160 --> 00:37:49,600
That's beyond the hell of a story.

440
00:37:50,320 --> 00:37:51,440
Thank you for sharing that.

441
00:37:51,840 --> 00:37:54,240
And let's see if we can get you another angel on the phone.

442
00:37:54,560 --> 00:37:56,640
Where can people learn more about the Wounded Blue?

443
00:37:58,000 --> 00:38:00,640
The Wounded Blue dot org is our website.

444
00:38:01,440 --> 00:38:06,640
People can contact me directly, Randy at the Wounded Blue dot org.

445
00:38:06,720 --> 00:38:08,720
It's Randy at the Wounded Blue dot org.

446
00:38:09,600 --> 00:38:15,760
And and we've just instituted something, you know, raising money is a real problem for every charity.

447
00:38:16,080 --> 00:38:16,160
Right.

448
00:38:16,560 --> 00:38:21,120
There's just, you know, everybody is got their hand out and it sucks, man.

449
00:38:22,240 --> 00:38:23,840
I hate asking people for money.

450
00:38:24,240 --> 00:38:25,040
It's it is.

451
00:38:25,600 --> 00:38:28,880
But I I have no choice if I'm going to help others.

452
00:38:29,360 --> 00:38:30,640
I have to ask for help.

453
00:38:31,200 --> 00:38:33,680
And while it goes against my inner being.

454
00:38:35,440 --> 00:38:38,160
This is the nature of what I have to do.

455
00:38:38,640 --> 00:38:40,720
Well, we recently.

456
00:38:43,120 --> 00:38:56,240
We recently came across a really novel way of raising money through a a company that that does credit card processing company, credit card processing.

457
00:38:56,320 --> 00:38:59,520
But what they do, they have a charitable foundation attached to them.

458
00:39:00,000 --> 00:39:01,200
And this is amazing.

459
00:39:03,440 --> 00:39:08,160
Any anybody that takes credit cards, that is a business that takes credit cards.

460
00:39:08,560 --> 00:39:19,600
If you give me 10 minutes of your time, I can explain how you can support the Wounded Blue, save your company money, and you get a tax deduction as a result of it.

461
00:39:20,080 --> 00:39:22,320
We now have a couple of companies.

462
00:39:22,640 --> 00:39:23,840
This just happened recently.

463
00:39:24,160 --> 00:39:32,080
I know in this last week have two companies that have that have signed on to this program where they're saving money for their company.

464
00:39:32,800 --> 00:39:40,800
They get a tax deduction and they are supporting the Wounded Blue through credit card processing fees that this company donates to the Wounded Blue.

465
00:39:41,520 --> 00:39:54,400
So any of your listeners that have businesses where they take credit cards, if you want to support the Wounded Blue, I can show you a way that will take any money out of your pocket and you can change the life of a police officer.

466
00:39:54,640 --> 00:39:59,760
You may save the life of a police officer simply by giving me 10 minutes of your time.

467
00:40:00,800 --> 00:40:02,400
And again, what's your website address?

468
00:40:03,280 --> 00:40:09,360
The website is thewoundedblue.org, and I am randyatthewoundedblue.org.

469
00:40:09,600 --> 00:40:11,040
Got to give you the plugs when I can.

470
00:40:12,480 --> 00:40:13,360
I appreciate it, man.

471
00:40:13,760 --> 00:40:16,640
Listen, it is through podcasts.

472
00:40:16,800 --> 00:40:23,040
It is through media that people understand and learn about my organization.

473
00:40:23,440 --> 00:40:31,760
Without having a forum like this, no one will know about the plight of these men and women.

474
00:40:32,240 --> 00:40:34,880
No one will give a damn because they don't know.

475
00:40:35,600 --> 00:40:46,320
So that's why I am absolutely thankful to you for giving me the opportunity to be on your show, which, by the way, is a fantastic show.

476
00:40:46,880 --> 00:40:50,320
You do a great job with what you do.

477
00:40:50,800 --> 00:40:53,120
And believe me, I've been on hundreds.

478
00:40:54,320 --> 00:40:58,160
I'm probably approaching over 1,000 podcasts that I've been on.

479
00:40:58,720 --> 00:41:05,520
And being on with a consummate professional like yourself is really something that I enjoy.

480
00:41:06,240 --> 00:41:07,200
No, I appreciate that.

481
00:41:07,520 --> 00:41:12,560
And I should be thanking you for your service and your sacrifice and all that you've done for us.

482
00:41:13,440 --> 00:41:16,480
And again, being a chauffeur, I've completely blown up my script.

483
00:41:16,480 --> 00:41:18,560
And so we're going to go off script today.

484
00:41:19,360 --> 00:41:20,800
You know, I'm just looking at my notes.

485
00:41:20,880 --> 00:41:23,680
You know, you mentioned a few minutes ago about the Blue Family.

486
00:41:23,840 --> 00:41:25,520
You know, we're there to the end.

487
00:41:25,920 --> 00:41:26,880
We've got your back.

488
00:41:27,600 --> 00:41:33,360
You know, you hear that about police, fire, EMT, military slash veterans.

489
00:41:33,920 --> 00:41:36,640
These stories you're telling me are shocking.

490
00:41:38,160 --> 00:41:39,040
They're disturbing.

491
00:41:39,360 --> 00:41:40,560
They're troublesome.

492
00:41:41,600 --> 00:41:44,640
And, you know, I've got a bunch of friends that are cops.

493
00:41:44,720 --> 00:41:46,640
And they say, you know, there used to be a talent pool.

494
00:41:46,880 --> 00:41:48,320
Now it's a talent puddle.

495
00:41:49,440 --> 00:41:53,120
And if you hear stories like that, well, who the hell's going to want to be a cop?

496
00:41:54,080 --> 00:41:56,560
You know, and I'm glad you brought that up.

497
00:41:56,720 --> 00:42:04,000
I mean, the reason I wrote my latest book, Rescuing 911, The Fight for America's Safety, is to address these issues.

498
00:42:04,240 --> 00:42:05,600
We are in a crisis.

499
00:42:07,120 --> 00:42:09,360
We are in a law enforcement crisis right now.

500
00:42:10,080 --> 00:42:11,360
We're in the midst of it.

501
00:42:11,840 --> 00:42:17,200
And it began years ago, but it was exacerbated by the George Floyd madness.

502
00:42:17,760 --> 00:42:25,920
It really started in Ferguson with the greatest lie and misinformation campaign ever told about police.

503
00:42:26,480 --> 00:42:27,680
Hands up, don't shoot.

504
00:42:31,760 --> 00:42:36,000
We now are facing a crisis of cops.

505
00:42:36,400 --> 00:42:37,520
There's not enough of us.

506
00:42:38,160 --> 00:42:39,360
Not enough cops in America.

507
00:42:40,080 --> 00:42:43,280
You have chronic shortages in the biggest cities in this nation.

508
00:42:45,280 --> 00:42:49,680
Add to that, you just asked the question, who the hell would want to be a cop?

509
00:42:49,920 --> 00:42:51,040
That's what we're facing.

510
00:42:51,920 --> 00:43:00,000
So the pool of police, of potential police officers, has diminished demonstrably.

511
00:43:01,200 --> 00:43:06,880
Because of what we, of what society has done to policing.

512
00:43:08,800 --> 00:43:20,000
The politicians, the media, have demonized law enforcement for years, creating an environment of distrust, of hate, of discontent.

513
00:43:20,560 --> 00:43:22,800
And now we're reaping the rewards of that.

514
00:43:23,040 --> 00:43:24,240
And it is startling.

515
00:43:25,200 --> 00:43:30,640
And this is a generational issue that you don't even hear talked about.

516
00:43:31,600 --> 00:43:34,240
Well, I talk about it in my book, because I talk about how we're going to get through this.

517
00:43:34,240 --> 00:43:38,320
Because I talk about how we got here and what we need to do to get out of it.

518
00:43:38,480 --> 00:43:40,400
And that is to unify as a country.

519
00:43:41,040 --> 00:43:43,840
That is for unity between the people and the police.

520
00:43:44,320 --> 00:43:51,440
You know, the father of modern policing, Sir Robert Peel, created the London Metropolitan Police Department.

521
00:43:52,560 --> 00:43:54,240
The father of modern policing.

522
00:43:55,200 --> 00:44:00,800
He spoke these, I'm going to paraphrase, the people are the police and the police are the people.

523
00:44:02,880 --> 00:44:08,960
Those are truer words have never been spoken, and yet we've gotten away from that concept.

524
00:44:09,760 --> 00:44:10,560
But that is true.

525
00:44:11,760 --> 00:44:14,240
Your cops are the people that live in your community.

526
00:44:14,640 --> 00:44:15,680
They're your neighbors.

527
00:44:15,840 --> 00:44:16,800
They're your friends.

528
00:44:17,520 --> 00:44:18,560
They're people that care.

529
00:44:21,760 --> 00:44:28,480
Right now, I was asked about this, about how do we get out of this crisis?

530
00:44:28,960 --> 00:44:31,280
And here's one of the ways that we need to do it.

531
00:44:32,160 --> 00:44:42,400
You know, when the United States military became an all-volunteer military, they couldn't fill the ranks, right?

532
00:44:42,640 --> 00:44:44,240
So they started incentives.

533
00:44:44,480 --> 00:44:45,760
We're going to pay for your college.

534
00:44:45,840 --> 00:44:46,640
We're going to give you this.

535
00:44:46,800 --> 00:44:47,760
We're going to give you that.

536
00:44:47,920 --> 00:44:48,800
We're going to, you know.

537
00:44:49,440 --> 00:44:57,200
Well, they still couldn't fill their ranks except for one branch, the United States Marine Corps.

538
00:44:57,760 --> 00:45:03,200
Because what they said was the few, the proud, the Marines.

539
00:45:04,880 --> 00:45:07,360
Law enforcement needs to take a page out of that book.

540
00:45:08,240 --> 00:45:09,520
Because the reality is this.

541
00:45:09,920 --> 00:45:17,520
There is no more noble profession than to be a police officer in the United States of America.

542
00:45:18,560 --> 00:45:20,720
And we need to celebrate those men and women.

543
00:45:21,120 --> 00:45:22,960
We need to encourage those men and women.

544
00:45:23,600 --> 00:45:31,760
We need to shout from the mountaintops that to be a cop in America is to be a hero.

545
00:45:33,680 --> 00:45:35,600
And that is where we have fallen.

546
00:45:36,640 --> 00:45:41,840
And this is why I hear stories of heroism every single day.

547
00:45:42,960 --> 00:45:43,680
Every single day.

548
00:45:45,120 --> 00:45:49,760
I can tell you stories that would just blow your mind.

549
00:45:50,480 --> 00:45:53,440
But nobody hears about them because they don't make the news.

550
00:45:54,000 --> 00:45:56,720
You know, we only hear the garbage.

551
00:45:57,360 --> 00:46:02,240
And yet, policing in America is still the most noble profession in this country.

552
00:46:03,280 --> 00:46:05,600
So we're in a crisis.

553
00:46:06,080 --> 00:46:09,360
It's going to take a generation to get out of it.

554
00:46:09,520 --> 00:46:11,600
And I don't know that policing will ever be the same.

555
00:46:12,800 --> 00:46:19,040
But there will always be what we call the sheepdogs, the protectors of the flock.

556
00:46:20,640 --> 00:46:24,000
And that's a call to action.

557
00:46:27,120 --> 00:46:48,800
If you are looking for a career, I'm talking to young men and young women who are listening to this right now, if you want a career that can provide you with some of the most incredible moments of your life, where you can be of service, where you can play a role in the lives of others, you can save the lives of others.

558
00:46:49,760 --> 00:46:51,520
Don't listen to the garbage.

559
00:46:54,000 --> 00:47:00,880
Find yourself a home in a police agency that you can be proud of and join us.

560
00:47:02,560 --> 00:47:03,600
Those are my words.

561
00:47:05,280 --> 00:47:06,720
Those are great and powerful words.

562
00:47:06,720 --> 00:47:07,760
So thank you for sharing those.

563
00:47:09,280 --> 00:47:14,800
You know, if you play your cards right, you can smoke a cigar and drink a whiskey with me someday.

564
00:47:15,920 --> 00:47:17,360
I'm going to take you up on that one.

565
00:47:19,200 --> 00:47:23,840
You know, we talked about 9-11 briefly a little bit here.

566
00:47:24,240 --> 00:47:28,640
And, you know, I'm doing some work for the 25th commemoration next year.

567
00:47:29,040 --> 00:47:34,800
And everyone I'm talking to as part of the project talks about how unified the country was right after that.

568
00:47:35,520 --> 00:47:47,600
You know, you walk through New York City where I was working and living at the time, and instead of the neighborhoods having their heritage flags, whether it be, you know, Mexico, Venezuela, whatever it may be, there was nothing but American flags.

569
00:47:47,760 --> 00:47:51,200
We were never more unified than that moment in time.

570
00:47:52,160 --> 00:47:56,320
We are now 24 years later, and we've forgotten what that was like.

571
00:47:56,400 --> 00:47:59,040
It's a full generation or two on that.

572
00:47:59,280 --> 00:48:04,400
And you just mentioned, I wrote down, media and politics have demonized law enforcement.

573
00:48:04,560 --> 00:48:05,600
It's a generational issue.

574
00:48:06,800 --> 00:48:08,240
How do we become unified again?

575
00:48:08,480 --> 00:48:09,280
Or can't we?

576
00:48:09,440 --> 00:48:19,760
Because the people on the far left and the far right have the bullhorn, and they're the ones screaming from the top of the mountain, and the rest of us are putting our head down and just trying not to listen, but it's hard not to.

577
00:48:21,600 --> 00:48:26,800
And that's why we have to do, we have to look at this in the long perspective.

578
00:48:27,200 --> 00:48:30,400
We have to look at this that it is not going to change overnight.

579
00:48:30,640 --> 00:48:33,360
The media is not going to suddenly become our friend.

580
00:48:35,280 --> 00:48:52,000
We have to stay the course and persevere through honor, through integrity, through compassion, through empathy, and by continuing on the course, sometime it will change.

581
00:48:53,120 --> 00:48:58,160
You know, it's like, it's the old starfish analogy.

582
00:48:59,120 --> 00:49:02,960
You know, well, you know, look at all those hundreds and thousands of starfishes.

583
00:49:03,120 --> 00:49:04,080
Can't save them all.

584
00:49:04,240 --> 00:49:05,840
Yeah, well, you can save that one.

585
00:49:06,720 --> 00:49:08,560
And I fully believe in that concept.

586
00:49:08,960 --> 00:49:10,720
We cannot be demoralized.

587
00:49:11,520 --> 00:49:13,600
And it's easy to become demoralized.

588
00:49:13,760 --> 00:49:16,880
It's easy to take that road and say, well, screw them.

589
00:49:18,400 --> 00:49:20,640
Yeah, they're not going to, they're not going to appreciate me.

590
00:49:21,520 --> 00:49:22,000
Hell with them.

591
00:49:22,800 --> 00:49:23,760
And I've seen it.

592
00:49:24,000 --> 00:49:25,440
I felt it myself.

593
00:49:26,960 --> 00:49:30,080
And until I talked to myself and said, hey, you know what?

594
00:49:30,400 --> 00:49:32,560
This is exactly what the left wants.

595
00:49:33,120 --> 00:49:34,880
They want to demoralize us.

596
00:49:35,760 --> 00:49:48,880
Instead, we need to keep our head down, see where we're going, be proud of who we are, be proud of the people around us.

597
00:49:50,160 --> 00:49:53,280
There are heroes among us, heroes.

598
00:49:54,640 --> 00:49:57,680
And realize that this too shall pass.

599
00:50:00,560 --> 00:50:04,560
I mean, like Reagan said, we need to be that bright, shining light on a hill.

600
00:50:05,200 --> 00:50:05,840
Mm-hmm.

601
00:50:06,480 --> 00:50:07,440
And we're not.

602
00:50:10,400 --> 00:50:11,200
Well, you know what?

603
00:50:12,400 --> 00:50:13,520
In reality, we are.

604
00:50:14,080 --> 00:50:15,440
We are that bright, shining light.

605
00:50:15,680 --> 00:50:19,840
When I say we are, I'm talking about the law enforcement profession.

606
00:50:20,400 --> 00:50:22,480
We are that, we are that bright, shining light.

607
00:50:22,800 --> 00:50:27,040
We are, you know, I, I always, I love Joe Wambaugh.

608
00:50:27,040 --> 00:50:28,640
Do you remember Joe Wambaugh, the writer?

609
00:50:28,800 --> 00:50:29,040
Yep.

610
00:50:29,040 --> 00:50:30,000
He was an LA cop.

611
00:50:30,320 --> 00:50:33,280
He wrote, he wrote a book called The Blue Night.

612
00:50:34,720 --> 00:50:38,080
And it was a movie and it was, I believe, a TV show as well.

613
00:50:38,560 --> 00:50:42,720
And, and I always, I always think about that.

614
00:50:43,520 --> 00:50:45,280
You know, what does a knight represent?

615
00:50:45,760 --> 00:50:53,120
They represent honesty, integrity, courage, all of the good things, the protectors.

616
00:50:54,080 --> 00:50:56,080
And that's what police officers are.

617
00:50:56,400 --> 00:51:05,280
And it's really important for cops to understand that, to understand that you are the protector.

618
00:51:05,680 --> 00:51:09,440
You are doing, you're doing God's work.

619
00:51:11,120 --> 00:51:13,120
And, and it's easy to get demoralized.

620
00:51:13,200 --> 00:51:15,040
It's easy to become disillusioned.

621
00:51:16,720 --> 00:51:25,200
And, um, keeping your eye on the realities of, of the heroics of the job.

622
00:51:25,520 --> 00:51:31,280
And I don't mean heroics in the sense of, Hey, you got to run into a burning building every day, right?

623
00:51:32,000 --> 00:51:33,920
The heroics are going to work every day.

624
00:51:34,400 --> 00:51:59,360
The heroics are doing this job compassionately of, of not allowing the negativity to erase what you joined the job for maintaining your own integrity, maintaining your own sense of empathy and compassion that brought you to this job to begin with.

625
00:51:59,600 --> 00:52:06,480
There's nobody gets on this job to get rich, you know, salaries now are a lot better than they used to be.

626
00:52:06,720 --> 00:52:10,000
Well, I say that I'm dealing with a police officer right now.

627
00:52:10,720 --> 00:52:15,040
This is one of the not so happy endings yet, but we're working on it.

628
00:52:15,760 --> 00:52:24,560
Female police officer ambushed, walking up on a, on a domestic dispute was hit with a rifle bullet in the hip.

629
00:52:25,520 --> 00:52:28,960
It bounced into her abdomen, did terrible, terrible damage.

630
00:52:32,800 --> 00:52:35,760
She is now paralyzed in one of her legs.

631
00:52:37,600 --> 00:52:40,320
She is fighting to get the treatment that she needs.

632
00:52:40,880 --> 00:52:42,000
We're helping her with that.

633
00:52:44,880 --> 00:52:49,920
You know what her pay is, but her pay is $2,200 a month.

634
00:52:50,320 --> 00:52:51,520
That's what they're paying her $2,200 a month.

635
00:52:51,760 --> 00:52:54,480
That's what they're paying her $2,200 a month.

636
00:52:54,960 --> 00:53:00,880
That is a salary for a police officer in certain communities.

637
00:53:01,680 --> 00:53:05,600
That's an outrage, an absolute outrage.

638
00:53:07,760 --> 00:53:18,080
So we are working with this officer doing everything we can to get her medically taken care of whether she'll ever get the use of that leg back.

639
00:53:18,320 --> 00:53:24,560
We don't know, but we're dealing with the traumas that she's been dealing with and getting her the help that she needs.

640
00:53:26,000 --> 00:53:28,880
Randy Sutton, the founder of the wounded blue.org.

641
00:53:28,960 --> 00:53:30,560
Again, it's the wounded blue.org.

642
00:53:30,880 --> 00:53:34,640
Thank you so much for being with us today and sharing your story and the great, great work you do.

643
00:53:34,960 --> 00:53:35,360
Thank you.

644
00:53:35,600 --> 00:53:36,080
It's an honor.

645
00:53:36,080 --> 00:53:36,640
I appreciate it.

646
00:53:36,720 --> 00:53:37,600
Thank you, Chris.

647
00:53:37,600 --> 00:53:38,400
Thanks for having me.

648
00:53:38,640 --> 00:53:39,120
No, of course.

649
00:53:39,200 --> 00:53:40,320
And thanks to our listeners.

650
00:53:40,400 --> 00:53:41,440
I'm Chris Meek.

651
00:53:41,440 --> 00:53:41,840
We're out of time.

652
00:53:41,920 --> 00:53:42,720
We'll see you next week.

653
00:53:42,960 --> 00:53:43,760
Same time, same place.

654
00:53:44,000 --> 00:53:47,200
Until then, stay safe and keep taking your next steps forward.

655
00:53:51,760 --> 00:53:54,640
Thanks for tuning in to Next Steps Forward.

656
00:53:54,880 --> 00:54:04,720
Be sure to join Chris Meek for another great show next Tuesday at 10 a.m. Pacific time and 1 p.m. Eastern time on the Voice America Empowerment Channel.

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00:54:04,960 --> 00:54:07,840
This week, make things happen in your life.