Episode Transcript
[00:00:02] Speaker A: I'm Alex Stone, former military service member and law enforcement officer, now CEO of Echelon Protected Services, one of the fastest growing private security firms on the west coast. And this is ride along, where our guests and I witness firsthand the issues affecting our community.
It I believe our proven method of enacting meaningful change through compassion and understanding is the best way to make our streets a safer place and truly achieve security through the community.
[00:00:56] Speaker B: Hey, guys. I'm Juan Adams, MMA professional fighter, UFC vet. Fury vet, former champion, also an 8th grade science teacher and social emotional learning instructor as well. So today I'm super excited to go check out a ride along with Echelon. We're going to see what's happening in the streets of Portland and see if I can be of any service.
[00:01:23] Speaker A: Hey, welcome back to the ride along, Alex Stone, where we check out the streets of Portland and see what's really going on.
[00:01:29] Speaker C: Today's guest is Juan Adams.
[00:01:31] Speaker A: Juan, why don't you introduce yourself to the folks?
[00:01:34] Speaker B: I'm Juan Adams, professional mixed martial artist, fought in the UFC Fury PfL. I've been pretty much everywhere. Also an 8th grade science teacher and a social emotional learning instructor. Awesome.
[00:01:49] Speaker A: Yeah, great. Man, that's a lot of titles to have. I love it. So here on the right along, and we've been hanging out for the past couple days, having a good time right here in Portland.
We're really focused on community transformation. We want to do things differently and have better results.
[00:02:06] Speaker D: Right.
[00:02:07] Speaker A: That's kind of the motto of our company. And also Opsec Media Group, the company that produces the show. We're trying to give an insight into what's really going on in the streets. And we're actually friends through a mutual.
And so we have kind of a similar background as well. When I was in college, I was a bouncer for about five years in Houston, Texas.
I'm a smaller bouncer. I'm six foot.
[00:02:33] Speaker C: I was bigger back then, but usually.
[00:02:36] Speaker A: They would put me on the door because I'm at six foot five. Right, right, exactly. But that's a very unique job within the security industry. And I think a lot of people watching here, they've been bouncers. They've done that type of work. And to see someone such as yourself, that's gone from being a bouncer, an athlete, basically your entire school career, an athlete, and then working on the side as a bouncer, and then going from that type of work into being a professional athlete and a professional fighter, I know a lot of people out there have a lot of questions. I do when you have a skill set that is a professional skill set, and, you know, because of your size, you're a heavyweight, right.
How do you de escalate? How do you use that skill set, knowing that you could pretty much handle anything that came your way?
How do you handle that skill set in a situation at a club or a bar when someone wants to fight you, when you know that you really don't want to fight them? Because when I was a bouncer, I didn't really want to fight.
[00:03:42] Speaker D: Right.
[00:03:43] Speaker A: You don't want to, really. How do you handle that? How do you deescalate that situation?
[00:03:47] Speaker B: Well, I mean, there's a lot of different ways we go about it.
Once I made it to the pro fighting, I wasn't really doing bouncing work anymore. But when I was a bouncer in the nightclubs, I was always the roamer. And then I was, as head of security, I had to just kind of watch all the bouncers. Right.
The best way to de escalate is really just preventing it before it ever gets to that point.
My thing was always, every bouncer is like, look, if there's an issue, offer to buy the guy a drink first or offer to do something like that, or try and separate the two. If you see two people kind of.
[00:04:24] Speaker A: You can see it.
[00:04:25] Speaker B: You can see it happening before you can feel the tension rising. So at the club I worked at, there were three floors. I was like, hey, man, that's a big job. Yeah. Normally we charge to get people up on the second floor, but want you and your girl, go check that out real quick. It's on me. I'll buy you guys vip pass.
So I get them stamped up, get them up there, and normally that'll de escalate a lot of it. The other thing is like, hey, making sure you're all right. Everything good tonight? Everything going on. My girl is tripping. You know what? I want you all to get a couple of drinks, go take it to the patio. You all talk it out, do something else. But we're not really trying to have any problems here tonight.
[00:05:07] Speaker A: That's really great. So you're building more self worth. You're making them feel appreciated, special, because you're giving them privileges.
[00:05:14] Speaker D: Exactly.
[00:05:14] Speaker A: So you're building agency and worth into those individuals kind of feeding the ego a little bit.
[00:05:20] Speaker D: Right.
[00:05:20] Speaker A: But at the same time, their ego is not getting out of control because you're also putting them in check.
[00:05:25] Speaker B: Right. Because you're letting them know we know. Yeah, we know what's going on here. I'm not trying to have.
[00:05:30] Speaker A: So you're keeping them humble, but you're building their worth at the same time. And that's that power dynamic, right?
[00:05:37] Speaker B: Exactly.
[00:05:37] Speaker A: Yeah. When issues do occur and you have to use force, how do you measure what force to use?
I've seen a lot of guys, especially even in fighting. Right. You can't overthrow, you cannot overextend.
You have to know how much force to use with the movements that you're choosing, whether it's a counter, whether you're striking, whether it's a takedown. And so how did you come to develop that skill set?
[00:06:08] Speaker B: Knowing how to use force, knowing when and where and how much force something would use. I mean, I teach science. I know a lot of physics. But the biggest thing is looking at someone, I can tell one if they really want to fight or if they're just doing it for ego, and if they're just doing it for ego, nine times out of ten, I can de escalate it by just showing them that I can overpower you whenever I want to. The biggest thing, my favorite thing to do, I'll pick people up under the arms like you do a baby, just like lift them and then shake them a little bit and put them down. Like, look, all right, no harm, no foul. You can stop now or just keep going. And then the worst thing I would do usually is just like an open hand slap. Because in an open hand slap, it's like you're either going to go home or we're going to fight. And most people, it's pretty embarrassing, don't want to fight, so they're just going to go home anyway.
[00:07:02] Speaker A: Or if someone's in shock, you can bring it back to their senses.
[00:07:05] Speaker B: Right, exactly. And that's another thing. So many people are in a heightened state of arousal, not like sexual, but we use the term arousal. It's like any type of heightened emotional state. And you can just kind of calm them down. Or sometimes some as little as reassuring. Like, I can calm you down by putting my hand on your shoulder and just squeezing tightly, like letting you know, hey, you're not going anywhere. And if they respond to that negatively, then, you know, you have to elevate the force. But I always started lower and would amp up, but that's because I'm large. A smaller guy has to kind of start higher and bring it down. And sometimes that's just guiding them out, grabbing them around the waist, like walking them outside, and then from there if it gets violent. Now, I've done two things. I've removed you from other people so they can't get hurt.
[00:07:54] Speaker A: You're in time out.
[00:07:55] Speaker B: And two, you're already outside. So now it's like, hey, man, if you want to go back in, I'm going to need you to calm down out here for a few minutes. Just relax. We're not kicking you out just yet. But if you don't calm down, if you can't get back to your senses, I'm not going to let you back in here. And they're already outside at that point.
[00:08:13] Speaker A: So I'm asking these questions because when we're doing security, when we're engaged in our job out on the street, it's important in law enforcement, I'm prior law enforcement, but also in security to be able to know how to use force.
[00:08:29] Speaker D: Right.
[00:08:30] Speaker A: And it's just amazing how basically what you described and the choices that you make in how to use force and the skill set that you have, basically you're saying, hey, I'm the authority, but here's a privilege.
Here's a couple of things to make you feel better, make you feel special. These negotiating tactics is really great at deescalation and something that we try to do in our company and something that we try to train our employees on is this skill set. And it's really a skill set that I actually learned as a bouncer that I brought into law enforcement with me. I would see a lot of cops in law enforcement when I worked in law enforcement. They would lose their temper very easily, get upset because someone wouldn't follow their commands. And I thought, well, you haven't built any trust yet.
You're expecting someone to listen to you because you have a uniform on, but they don't respect you.
[00:09:29] Speaker B: Exactly.
[00:09:29] Speaker A: And you're acting, you're not acting in a respectful way either.
[00:09:33] Speaker D: Yeah, exactly.
[00:09:34] Speaker B: And it's a two way street.
[00:09:35] Speaker C: It is a two way street.
[00:09:36] Speaker B: A lot of people don't understand.
[00:09:39] Speaker A: It actually works better when it's a two way street.
[00:09:42] Speaker D: Right.
[00:09:42] Speaker B: Because you take it from being combative to correspondent at that point.
[00:09:45] Speaker D: Exactly.
[00:09:46] Speaker B: It's a cooperative exercise instead of something combative.
[00:09:48] Speaker A: Oh, I love that.
[00:09:49] Speaker D: It is.
[00:09:49] Speaker A: It's a cooperative exercise. It's almost like a sparring session.
[00:09:52] Speaker B: Exactly.
[00:09:54] Speaker A: This is to better and develop everybody.
We're not really trying to be combative here.
[00:09:59] Speaker D: Exactly. Right.
[00:10:01] Speaker A: Getting that cooperation on a street level, it takes this type of skill set. And so I'm just interested in your insights. So it's not very common that you get to talk to a professional fighter.
[00:10:13] Speaker D: Right.
[00:10:14] Speaker A: That has this background, just jumping a little bit forward into your career.
So you're in the ring and now you're in a situation where you can't de escalate.
[00:10:26] Speaker B: Right.
[00:10:26] Speaker A: There is no deescalation, but there's still mind games when it comes to a fight strategy. When you're going into a ring, when you know you have an opponent that you have to fight and you're developing a fight strategy, what part of that is knowing how to control your behavior in order to get your opponent to present a weakness?
[00:10:48] Speaker B: The biggest thing with that is my coaches watch most of the film. In terms of the psychological aspect of it, there's a certain way you carry yourself and things like that to always emanate confidence. You want to make it be known that you're not worried about anything. This fight is about what I'm going to do to you, not necessarily what you're going to do to me. And obviously, as soon as the fight starts, a lot of that goes out.
[00:11:16] Speaker A: Yeah, of course.
[00:11:17] Speaker B: But in a fight, my goal, it's funny, at different points in my career, my goal was different. When I first started fighting, it was just a release for me. I was dealing with so much. That was the only time I got to feel something, so I didn't care about.
[00:11:32] Speaker A: And this is in what, middle school? High school?
[00:11:35] Speaker B: No, this was all my amateur fights, and I was even up until my first three or four pro fights, I was just trying to go vent everything out there.
[00:11:46] Speaker A: So you were bringing your emotions into the ring.
[00:11:49] Speaker B: Right. And then that started to have a detrimental effect later on. But in terms of fight strategy, I know what my strengths are, so I want to do everything I can to maximize my strengths. And then once I'm in a dominant position, I want to assert that this guy can't do anything there, right. So that's going to do one of two things. He's either going to amp him up to force that panic, and he's going to tire himself out in the next round. I'll end it or he'll give up. And you can feel when someone gives.
[00:12:21] Speaker A: Up, you can see it in their eyes, right.
[00:12:23] Speaker B: Their body, like, their whole body just kind of relaxes a little bit, and that's kind of when you know it's over. And me, once I know it's over, I'm not really trying to hit you too hard, so I'm just going to keep tapping till the ref stops it.
Now, my manager and coach is like, no, you need to be violent the entire way through.
[00:12:43] Speaker D: Oh, really?
[00:12:44] Speaker B: Make it stop. That'll make it stop fast. Yeah, but you also have to understand, the way they broke it down to me is that that guy's coming in there trying to give you brain damage. Right. You have to incapacitate him any way you can. So that's kind of the mindset that goes.
[00:13:02] Speaker A: That's a legit mindset. And I would say that's the majority of the people. That's the majority. That attack mindset is the majority mindset for people that are in the kind of protective trades, these law enforcement trades. Security, industry executive protection trades.
[00:13:17] Speaker D: Exactly.
[00:13:17] Speaker A: Because if someone's attacking you, they're a clear and present threat.
[00:13:22] Speaker B: Exactly.
[00:13:22] Speaker A: They're a legit and something else.
And it ties back into you sometimes when you were younger, you're coming out of college, you've wrestled, and that's your background.
[00:13:37] Speaker B: Right.
[00:13:39] Speaker A: Virginia Military institute, VMI. And you're starting to do amateur fights, professional fights. Your emotions are getting a little, making you a little clouded.
[00:13:49] Speaker D: Right.
[00:13:49] Speaker A: At what point are you able to put your ego in check? And when you keep your ego in check, how clear minded are you? How does that translate to being able to fight better in the octagon or the ring?
[00:14:02] Speaker B: It's different because when your ego is in check, you're kind of more so in a flow state. Right. When you're fighting now, sometimes that can come off as too passive and you're not allowing emotional too. Then, yeah, you're not allowing any emotional content. And that's happened in some fights where I just couldn't go, I know all the moves. I'm telling, I'm thinking, but I'm more in the problem solving state as opposed to the flow state at that point.
[00:14:29] Speaker A: Got you.
[00:14:29] Speaker B: I'm just thinking about what I'm trying to do. And there's an inherent delay when you do that.
[00:14:33] Speaker A: Yeah, of course. Even if it's a subsecond.
[00:14:36] Speaker B: Right.
When you're in that ego mindset, that's the times where you get punched in the face, you get rocked, and game plan goes out the window and you're just reverting back to like, all right, I'm going to go back. And that's really hard to manage because for me, I've never really been out. I've never been knocked out out. I've had a flash ko in the ring or in the cage before, but even when I'm going down or slowed or injured, I still want to just keep going. And that's my ego right there saying like, no, we're going to keep going. We're not dead yet. Keep going, keep going, keep going. And that's why the refs are there, to protect us from ourselves sometimes. Right.
[00:15:21] Speaker A: Interesting. So on the streets, I've been in several altercations in law enforcement and security, and there is no ref.
[00:15:31] Speaker B: Right.
[00:15:32] Speaker A: And so what I've noticed is, in my life, in the lives of people that I work with, ego will almost always lose you the fight. Oh, yeah, 100%, almost always. And for me, it was something personal. There was two or three things that really pricked my ego really bad. Right, the mom joke thing.
[00:15:56] Speaker D: Yeah. Right.
[00:15:58] Speaker A: But there's always a couple of little things. And so whenever I was able to control that, I was able to control how I feel, like I would approach.
I'll say it this way, with less ego, I noticed people's weaknesses more.
[00:16:15] Speaker B: Right.
[00:16:16] Speaker A: And I was more aware of my strategy developed because I could see the weakness in my opponent.
[00:16:25] Speaker B: Ego wasn't taking over.
[00:16:27] Speaker D: Yeah.
[00:16:27] Speaker B: When your ego takes over, a lot of people don't realize your ego is there to protect you. Right. Psychologically and physically. And when you're in that ego mode, you're in survival mode. You're perceiving everything as a threat. So you're not necessarily in an observer mindset when you check your ego and remove it. One, you've done something called awareness, and you're self observant, which automatically puts you in an observant frame of mind, and you can start to notice and perceive things around you a little bit better. And that's why it's easier to pick up strategies and things like that. I know when I go out in the street now, in my mind, the ego talking is like, nobody's going to step to me in the right state of mind. So that threat is gone. And so when I go, I'm not looking for threats, but I also notice people. I notice their mannerism, their behavior.
[00:17:25] Speaker A: You're cluing in on the behaviors more easily.
[00:17:27] Speaker B: And so if people come in or try something, they're like, I already know what I'm going to do to you if we fight. But I don't want it to get to that point now. But I'm always extremely observant. And now, before, when I would get into street fights, before, I was as trained as it was just wrestling. I'm taking you down. I'm smashing you. I was breaking people's jaws and stuff out in the street. Whereas now, like, two or three movements and I can completely incapacitate you, make you think if this is something you really want to do. And if you want to continue it, I'm glad to oblige, but more often than not, people don't want to continue it at that point.
[00:18:06] Speaker D: Yeah.
[00:18:07] Speaker A: So kind of back to this ego thing. I don't know why I'm stuck on this, but I've just always seen when the ego is hurt too much force is used.
[00:18:18] Speaker D: Yeah.
[00:18:18] Speaker A: Especially in art trades, when you're not in a ring, when you're not competing professionally, you have to use a legal amount of force.
[00:18:29] Speaker D: Right.
[00:18:30] Speaker A: And this is what we were talking. I'm going back to the conversation earlier where you said, I like to start at a certain level and then choose from there and kind of go up or down or to choose different tactics based on the dynamic and as the dynamic changes. And so what would you give as advice to people that are in the field that unfortunately have to protect themselves? Because we deal with dangerous people, we're dealing with criminal gangs, people that are involved in criminal activities that are willing to use force to protect those activities.
[00:19:03] Speaker D: Right.
[00:19:05] Speaker A: If you were going to tell someone in this industry how to protect themselves and to be aware, what are the two or three things that you think they need to know?
[00:19:16] Speaker B: I think first and foremost, what you guys need to know is there's a way to kind of have a mental checklist, right? And I don't like to use the word triggers, but when somebody checks certain boxes in this mental checklist, that's the first way to remove ego from it, because from there, by shifting that into having the checklist, you're already shifting into an observer state of mind.
[00:19:42] Speaker A: So you have to have awareness to have a checklist.
[00:19:46] Speaker D: Right.
[00:19:46] Speaker A: So have the awareness. Have a checklist of your own triggers.
[00:19:50] Speaker B: Right. Your own triggers.
[00:19:52] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:19:52] Speaker B: And on top of that, that's really good looking out. So once you remove your triggers from it, you're in a regulated state at that point. So then as you move forward, you're looking at the situation and you can say, okay, this person's done this behavior, this behavior, this behavior. You're starting to get an idea of the amount of force that you would need to use if they're coming forward. It's like, okay, they appear to have this weapon, that weapon, or whatever.
There are certain things you can do, and there's a way, within reason, there are some things where you can always reel the force back as opposed. And then there's other ways where you can only amp it up. Right. So if something was, like, coming forward to me or something like that, and I have a weapon on me, I know I've got the ultimate Trump guard. I can shoot you in this right now if I've got a taser or some other type of disarming thing and they're coming forward and they don't appear to be menacing or they don't appear anything, but something might be off. I don't know if they have this, if they're already committing something illegal and they're coming for me, that can be viewed as an aggressive act. Okay, well, I'm going to tase you first and ask questions later, right? That's not lethal. It's obviously probably more force than you probably needed to do.
[00:21:10] Speaker A: And cops get in trouble all the time.
[00:21:12] Speaker B: They get in trouble, too much force. So now it's in a line like that. You have to really make the decision and go in there with the intention of, like, I don't want to take a life right now.
[00:21:25] Speaker D: Correct. Right.
[00:21:27] Speaker B: So if you're going in with that intention and you tell yourself beforehand, I'm not trying to take a life. I don't want to use force. If you go in with that mentality, you're going to do everything in your power to not use any force. And then when you do use force, you're already kind of putting a limiter on it. So I think that one having an awareness of that checklist before anything. I know when I was working in the clubs, it's a much smaller scale. I would say, okay, before I would go in, I was like, I'm not going to hit anybody tonight. That's what I would tell myself. I'm not going to hit anyone tonight. So literally, that point, it becomes like a challenge to myself to avoid any type of situation. And it taught me how to problem solve in other ways. Now there's days more like anyone else. I'm human. I'm having a bad mood. I'm like, all right, shit pumps off tonight. Like, first thing I'm doing, I'm clocking somebody. I'm not dealing with any of this BS tonight. But through that, people could sense, like, when I would walk in, I'm not social, I'm not talking anymore. Yeah, of course my mouth's closed. I'm looking at you, I'm walking up and down the stairs.
[00:22:35] Speaker A: No smiles.
[00:22:36] Speaker B: Yeah, but at that point, we like.
[00:22:38] Speaker A: The one that smiles.
[00:22:39] Speaker E: Yeah, but at that point, people are.
[00:22:41] Speaker B: Like, oh, well, if that's what's going around and that's what's coming towards me, if I mess up, I'm less inclined to screw up now. So there's different ways to do it, everything. And you can read energy and stuff like that. But back to your question. If I were a police officer or interacting with potentially dangerous people, I would have a mental checklist and trying revert back to that checklist every time to prevent that. Now obviously these are happening in a split second. It's hard. So I think it starts with.
[00:23:13] Speaker D: It's very difficult.
[00:23:14] Speaker B: I think it starts with training with social emotional work. I think everyone should have to know themselves before they're going out to interact with other people.
[00:23:23] Speaker A: It's really hard to know.
Unfortunately, a lot of people in this industry don't make a lot of money.
[00:23:31] Speaker B: Right.
[00:23:32] Speaker A: And you really have to know your own emotional state and if you can actually handle going on patrol.
[00:23:39] Speaker B: Right.
[00:23:41] Speaker A: And you really have to know when to take a mental health day. It's probably one of those industries where you really need to know when you need to do that.
Getting a fight with your girlfriend or spouse or something like this.
[00:23:51] Speaker D: Right.
[00:23:52] Speaker B: Well, even with teaching, it's hard sometimes because those kids, they really look up to you and sometimes you're the most consistent thing in their life.
[00:24:01] Speaker A: And you teach high school science grade, 8th grade science, eigth grade science.
[00:24:06] Speaker D: Yeah.
[00:24:06] Speaker B: So knowing that I might be the most consistent thing in this kid's life, if I show up here and I allow external things to affect me and I take it out on this person, one, I'm teaching them to take it out on people that they are in a position of power over then. Two, I'm teaching them dysregulation in everyday life.
[00:24:27] Speaker A: That's right. Which is really the main problem in classrooms is dysregulation and power dynamics bullying.
[00:24:33] Speaker D: Exactly.
[00:24:34] Speaker A: And so if that teacher or educator comes in with that mindset just once or twice a week, not even the majority of the time, I could imagine that that would be very difficult to maintain a trusting relationship with that classroom.
[00:24:50] Speaker D: Right? Yeah.
[00:24:51] Speaker A: I mean, that's almost impossible.
[00:24:52] Speaker B: Yeah.
For me, there were times at work, even when on my worst days, I would have to use my little three minute break between classes to just do some breathing exercises, regulate everything, use my 1 hour off class to go take a walk, process everything, write it out, do all this stuff and being highly aware of it. Because I don't want to allow something like a bad fight, a fight with whoever I'm seeing at the time. I don't want to allow that to impact the children that I work with because they're not responsible for it. That's on me. And because I was being irresponsible of my emotions. Now other people are suffering and that's not something I can live with.
[00:25:38] Speaker A: Of course.
[00:25:38] Speaker D: Yeah.
[00:25:39] Speaker A: And so that's on the checklist, right?
[00:25:42] Speaker D: Yeah.
[00:25:42] Speaker A: Your emotional state, your triggers, knowing those things. So we're going to go on patrol here in a little bit, and before we do that, we're going to do a training session.
[00:25:53] Speaker B: Yeah, for sure.
[00:25:54] Speaker A: I got a couple of guys that work for me, big jujitsu guys. One is a former MMA guy, and they're really excited to hit the mats with you and do a little bit of demonstrative training to some of the employees at the company.
Again, I want to stress that the point isn't to use force. Right. It's never to use force. Force is a tool that we use to stop other people from being injured. So when we're out in the field, force is used to stop someone from attacking somebody else, almost always.
[00:26:30] Speaker B: Right.
[00:26:31] Speaker A: And so what are some techniques that you think you'll be focusing on in that teaching environment?
[00:26:37] Speaker B: I think I'll be focusing a lot more on mobility restriction, various forms to restrict mobility.
[00:26:44] Speaker A: Like escorts?
[00:26:46] Speaker B: Yeah, different escorts, things like that.
[00:26:48] Speaker A: Huge in a bouncing.
[00:26:50] Speaker B: Yeah, escorts are really big in bouncing. And then obviously protective movements. Right.
Shielding different parts of your body and there's ways to protect yourself that actually will harm whoever's trying to strike you. So we'll go a little bit over that.
[00:27:05] Speaker D: Oh, nice.
[00:27:06] Speaker B: And just do a little things like that. Knowing how to use the harder parts of your body to protect yourself from other things. And then also, where are safe places to attack somebody that will incapacitate them without causing serious energy.
[00:27:20] Speaker A: I love it. That's exciting. So I'm really interested in this teaching job you have. So you're a professional fighter. You've been fighting, and you talked about this a lot, even when we'd just been hanging out.
[00:27:34] Speaker D: Right.
[00:27:35] Speaker A: The past couple of days. You're really passionate about teaching and youth. So what was the drive? What brought you there? What was the drive to get you to that point?
[00:27:45] Speaker B: Well, what really drew me to teaching is I've been working with kids since I was a kid myself. Even at 16, I was babysitting my coaches kids. I was running youth camps in college. I was really involved with the youth opportunities. I did character count stuff out in the community.
[00:28:04] Speaker A: This is in Houston?
[00:28:06] Speaker B: No, this is at VMI.
[00:28:08] Speaker D: Right.
[00:28:09] Speaker B: And then when I moved back to Houston after college, I was right into coaching. Right.
[00:28:14] Speaker A: You've always been an overperformer in your life.
[00:28:16] Speaker B: Right.
[00:28:17] Speaker A: You went to probably you got a scholarship to go to. Probably the best high school in Houston, straight Jesuit. We're both from H. From H. Yeah, we're both from Houston.
And then you went to a very prestigious.
You're. And this just speaks to the lack of ego that you like. You're outperforming all your peers, but you're still taking time to mentor and help children.
[00:28:45] Speaker D: Yeah.
[00:28:46] Speaker A: That's pretty impressive, right?
That's not a common thing.
[00:28:51] Speaker D: Yeah.
[00:28:52] Speaker B: And I've always just loved helping people. Even Strike's motto was be a man for have to.
[00:29:01] Speaker A: You're an Eagle scout.
[00:29:02] Speaker D: Yeah.
[00:29:02] Speaker B: We have community service.
[00:29:04] Speaker A: And you're not married yet. I don't know who's put a ring on that.
[00:29:09] Speaker D: Okay. Wow.
[00:29:09] Speaker A: It's impressive.
[00:29:10] Speaker B: But during all this stuff, when I took a break from fighting, when I was released from the UFC, I started working in behavioral health, which is trauma informed care, various jobs in that. And then from there, I kind of felt like, well, if teaching is an option, I'd like to go see what I can do. And there's a way you can get a provisional license to teach for two years and then finish it up and transfer it into a real license. And what I realized is that a lot of people think that my athletic ability is what got me to where I am. But that would have never had a chance to shine if it wasn't for the educational opportunity that I was granted.
[00:29:55] Speaker A: You can't just be a great athlete of strict Jesuit.
[00:29:57] Speaker B: Right.
[00:29:57] Speaker A: That doesn't fly there.
[00:29:58] Speaker B: And so I had some really amazing teachers throughout my life. Really just foster a curiosity for learning. They weren't so concerned with telling me what to think, but more so how to think and guiding my thought process and helping me really mold me into who I am today.
[00:30:17] Speaker A: Creating an idea of exploration.
[00:30:20] Speaker B: Exactly.
[00:30:20] Speaker A: That you can just explore your surroundings and have a sense of wonderment.
[00:30:24] Speaker B: Right, right. And looking back, science is really what really just sparked everything for me.
[00:30:32] Speaker A: Your degree is in computer science?
[00:30:34] Speaker B: Yeah, my degree is in computer science, and my minor was in exercise science.
Now, going back when I started teaching, I knew I wanted to really teach science. I was really passionate about that. I knew that because I can apply science to almost anything. And working with that, seeing the difference that it's made in just the short time I've been doing and some of the kids that I've worked with, even in behavioral health, I always really implemented more of a teaching and guidance strategy towards my interactions with clients and later on, students. So I just showing them that somebody cares, somebody's here in my classroom, you're safe. I'm not going to let anyone get away with bullying you in here. That's awesome.
I just really provide a very safe environment.
[00:31:24] Speaker A: I'm sure they really look up to you as well.
[00:31:26] Speaker D: Yeah.
[00:31:26] Speaker B: And when you get kids out of survival mode, man, when they're not thinking about all the extra stuff, all the social dynamics and things like that in class, it really allows them to focus on the subject matter and some of them will realize, wow, I'm really far behind. And then they want to get better. And then some of them, you have to have a few real conversations with them about the consequences of the decisions they're making now.
And being able to mentor kids in that way and help guide them towards seeing more for their future than they see currently has really been huge for me. And it also amazing. New Mexico. I don't know if anyone knows, but they're dead last in the country this last year.
[00:32:11] Speaker A: Like 40 eigth maybe, or 45th.
[00:32:13] Speaker B: We were 50th last year. It's Mississippi, Alabama.
[00:32:18] Speaker A: So this is for state testing scores.
[00:32:20] Speaker B: Right? State testing scores.
[00:32:22] Speaker A: And you chose to teach there in albuquerque.
[00:32:25] Speaker B: I just felt kind of.
[00:32:26] Speaker D: We have an office.
[00:32:28] Speaker A: My company operates in like six states and we're in New Mexico.
[00:32:31] Speaker B: Oh, awesome.
[00:32:32] Speaker D: Yeah.
[00:32:32] Speaker A: And it's a tough environment. It is, especially for kids. There's a lot of gang recruitment going on.
[00:32:40] Speaker B: Right.
[00:32:41] Speaker A: And so keeping kids on the straight and narrow as a parent, a single parent, I'm sure, is very difficult in that city.
[00:32:48] Speaker B: It can be. And it's weird. I didn't know it was as bad the education system was in the state. It was when I started doing it. But I felt that it's something that I can do my best to help impact in a positive way. And this past year, shout out to my eigth graders. They got 60% of them passed the state. Good job.
[00:33:11] Speaker A: And where is that in comparison to normal levels?
[00:33:14] Speaker B: I believe in New Mexico.
Last time I checked, the numbers for the state were between 30 and 40%.
[00:33:22] Speaker A: Almost like an 80% increase. Almost double.
[00:33:25] Speaker B: Yeah. For my students.
[00:33:27] Speaker A: Well, good job, man. Yeah, that just shows your character and your ability is to teach.
[00:33:31] Speaker B: Yeah, I was pretty happy about it.
[00:33:33] Speaker A: I know you got a lot going on. What's going on? I'm really happy to hear about all your future stuff, but with teaching, what's going on in your life right now, you're still taking fights.
[00:33:42] Speaker D: Yeah.
[00:33:42] Speaker A: You're still training hard.
You're walking around roughly at a fight weight, right?
[00:33:50] Speaker B: 20 pounds above fight weight.
[00:33:52] Speaker A: I can tell that you're training.
[00:33:54] Speaker B: What's the future of Juan Adams right now? The future for Juan Adams? I'm finishing up my social emotional learning certification, so I'll be offering coaching and training in that. I've got my YouTube channel, cracking cares. Kraken's my fight name.
[00:34:10] Speaker A: K-R-A-K-E-N. Cares. Kraken cares.
[00:34:13] Speaker B: Kraken cares. And the Kraken on top of that. Just finishing up my teaching certification.
Looking for sponsorship opportunities and really just trying to help the gym that I train at really grow our.
[00:34:24] Speaker A: You want to give them a shout out. Where's this?
[00:34:26] Speaker D: Oh, yeah.
[00:34:26] Speaker B: Jackson wink MMA in Albuquerque, New Mexico. We just launched an app and everything. Things are growing.
[00:34:33] Speaker A: Can anyone come there and it's a fight gym, or can anyone go in there and train?
[00:34:38] Speaker B: It's really more geared towards fighting. But there are classes that anyone can.
[00:34:42] Speaker A: Take, entry level classes.
[00:34:43] Speaker B: Right.
[00:34:44] Speaker A: So if you're in Albuquerque and you want to learn how to fight with professionals, they should check this place.
[00:34:49] Speaker B: Definitely.
And I'm also partnered with impact IO. It's an app where I do personalized coaching. So it's a really cool app. People can send in a video of them training. I'll evaluate it.
[00:35:02] Speaker A: I love that.
[00:35:02] Speaker B: I'll find someone that emulates their style or something.
[00:35:06] Speaker A: So ground grappling, striking. Really?
[00:35:09] Speaker D: Yeah.
[00:35:09] Speaker B: We have a panel of coach, you go on there, you pick your coach, you send a video, we give you video feedback, athletes to watch and drills that we think will help you.
Yeah. Guys that work with me, they get some life coaching in there, too.
[00:35:26] Speaker A: Of course, man. I can tell that that's what your passion is.
[00:35:29] Speaker D: Great, man.
[00:35:29] Speaker B: So, yeah, that's it for me.
[00:35:31] Speaker A: Awesome. Well, thanks for coming into the studio today.
[00:35:34] Speaker B: For sure.
[00:35:35] Speaker A: The work has just begun.
[00:35:37] Speaker B: Oh, yeah. I'm excited.
[00:35:39] Speaker A: We're going to go train on some mats, and then we're going to hit the ride along. We're going to go right along and we're going to go see, we're going to ask you to put your skills to the test on the streets of Portland, Oregon. You ready for this?
[00:35:52] Speaker B: Yeah, dude.
[00:35:53] Speaker D: Let's go.
[00:35:53] Speaker B: Let's go.
[00:36:04] Speaker C: Hey, thanks for coming out. We're going to be training today with Eric Prindall. Obviously, Eric's been in and out of the MMA game. He's a, you know, army Ranger, very highly skilled individual. We also have Juan Adams here today.
[00:36:18] Speaker A: He's a professional fighter.
[00:36:19] Speaker C: And we're just going to go over very simple defensive tactics that you can use in the field.
[00:36:24] Speaker D: Sounds good. All right.
[00:36:25] Speaker F: Sounds good.
[00:36:26] Speaker D: To me. Let's see what you got.
Box.
[00:36:41] Speaker E: I know naturally, you might want to reach out with your hand. If you're going to reach, point your elbow towards it, if anything. But you want to keep it here. You want to keep a strong base, like the ideal when you watch a boxer, you're always defending. Keep that in mind. Squeezing that. Anytime you squeeze, you're squeezing from here. Don't curl this and don't reach out. You want to keep this flat, elbows.
[00:37:04] Speaker C: Together, and if anything, reach that way.
Do you mind if I say something?
[00:37:10] Speaker D: Yeah.
[00:37:11] Speaker C: So defending a punch is sometimes enough to make your attacker stop punching you. So what you're really doing is you're just letting them waste all their energy on you, right. And as they're wasting their energy on you, they're going to realize what they're doing is not effective. And so that alone will often make them not attack you. Or because you represent authority, they might just run away.
Oh, that's awesome.
[00:37:44] Speaker D: Yeah.
[00:37:45] Speaker C: Good job, Linda.
[00:37:47] Speaker E: And also, your hips is typically your point of.
So your hips, you know, your hips.
[00:37:53] Speaker B: Go down, you're going down, your hips go up.
[00:37:55] Speaker E: You're more off balance and easier to move. So if I'm grabbing his hip right here, right, even if he's got me, if I'm on his hip right here, I can lift and make him follow me more or I can lower it and make him follow me.
[00:38:09] Speaker D: Right.
[00:38:10] Speaker E: It's just easier to guide someone when you have control of that hip. So if he's coming towards me and he puts his hand out, I'm just coming, grabbing this, I'm pushing it across. And most people think you're pulling this in. No, I'm guiding it. His bicep toward this hand can grab, and I'm not grabbing up in here because he's strong. He's a strong dude. You want to grab right above the elbow, right. And as he does that, I'm stepping out. Now, my next step, I'm bringing forward right now, I'm right here, and all I have to do is turn and grab his hip.
[00:38:45] Speaker D: Okay.
[00:38:45] Speaker E: Now, no matter how he fights that, I'm going to keep trying to cut this angle and stay behind him. Right now, if he buckles down right here, I'm just going to push in, keep my hips. Now, if he stands up right, I'm staying in right here, but I'm keeping my hips, I want my hips below his at all times.
Your base, get up right.
You're going to plant with this.
Protect yourself forward. You're going to raise up a little bit. And if someone's in here, they always teach us, you kick first and then step and raise up.
[00:39:38] Speaker D: Right?
[00:39:39] Speaker E: Pretty simple. The real key to this is this motion right here.
[00:39:45] Speaker D: Right.
[00:39:45] Speaker E: A lot of people try and do this without getting that hip lift. The best way I can tell you to do it. I don't know how many of you break dance or anything in here, but you need just total body tension right here. I'm straightening this leg. This is the leg that I have to flex. I can't leave it limp and just raise that up. I'm lifting this, I'm keeping it at one angle. This is locked out. I'm blocking here, and then I'm pushing with this leg and stepping out.
[00:40:16] Speaker C: And why is this bad?
If I'm right here, right, and I just want to roll up and get up like this, what's going to happen to me?
[00:40:23] Speaker E: Take your back.
[00:40:24] Speaker B: Boom.
[00:40:25] Speaker C: And you can push my hips any way you want. I'm literally giving you the center of my mass, right. So he could take me, he could roll me.
[00:40:34] Speaker D: Boom.
[00:40:34] Speaker C: And then he's going to pin me and I'm down.
Right.
That's when you got to learn to.
[00:40:40] Speaker A: Shrimp and do all that stuff.
[00:40:41] Speaker C: But what he did was you're getting up in a way where you can defend yourself as you're getting up and you're not giving your center of gravity. You're keeping your center of gravity low so that your enemy can't take it.
[00:40:55] Speaker E: They always teach us, you want three points of contact, right? So if I'm down like this, whatever leg I'm doing, I'm going to do it with the other leg this time. This is zero one.
This is zero two.
And then I'm pushing here, and then I'm trying to get this to become the third point as quickly as possible. So right now I have three points with my butt, a foot in my hand. I'm blocking here. Now I raise up and I have to elevate this to become the third point as quickly as possible.
I'm right back here.
If Alex is on mute, right here.
[00:41:31] Speaker B: Right?
[00:41:32] Speaker C: And I'm here, I'm actually going to push him up.
[00:41:35] Speaker D: Yeah.
[00:41:35] Speaker E: So he's going to actually put. As soon as I elevate here, I'm.
[00:41:37] Speaker C: Going to go for.
[00:41:41] Speaker E: Right there.
[00:41:42] Speaker C: And so with that stiff arm, you're gaining the opponent's momentum and using it to push you up.
[00:41:49] Speaker E: Don't, like, cower behind it and just know I'm here. And then once I'm up, I'm in a stand, right?
[00:41:57] Speaker D: Getting up.
[00:41:58] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:41:59] Speaker E: Once someone's on top of you, the biggest thing is you got to free your hips, man. If your hips are locked out, you don't ever want to be locked out on the ground, right? In jiu jitsu, they teach you, like, that's where all the submissions happen. Their whole point, your opponent's point, is to lock something out and lock that joint out. So you want to be compact and able to move at any time. So when I'm on the ground, even if I can't do the stand up we just did, I'm trying to keep my knees bent so I can rotate onto something to explode out, but I can't explode stiff leg from anywhere, right? So you want your hips to be mobile, you got to free your hips first. Keep your legs bent so you can explode, so you can move on the bottom. Because the second you're locked out, you're screwed. My better brother. When someone has side control on me, the first thing I'm doing, I'm framing on the neck, right, because that's going to stop him from being able to.
[00:42:54] Speaker B: Pressure me as much as he can.
[00:42:56] Speaker E: The next thing, I need to get my elbow inside of his knee over here. So now as he's trying to close or create distance, right, my elbow is inside of his knee. Now that he's fighting that, so now that he's fighting that, I'm pushing on this frame and shrimping. So my knee is inside of his right. Now as he tries to put pressure on me, right now I'm going underneath. I've got this underhook, right? So I'm blocking this knee so we can't close distance. I've done enough to create space, and I'm bent. I can explode now. So now as he pushes into me, all right, now I'm up on my elbow, I've got my head pressure, and I'm out.
[00:43:41] Speaker D: Right there. Right.
[00:43:42] Speaker E: Now you're going to rotate onto this elbow, onto that elbow. Now swim it all the way through and pull, right.
[00:43:53] Speaker C: You used your hand and you pushed off of here. But here, let me get underneath you real quick.
[00:43:57] Speaker E: Your idea is you want to pull.
[00:43:59] Speaker C: So you're here, right?
[00:44:00] Speaker A: You're here, right?
[00:44:02] Speaker C: And you're going to push up, and then you're going to take your arm like this. And then you're going to actually use your lat right here to push like that. You don't want to push off of them. You actually want to rotate like that.
You'll get a lot more. You got two, three times more energy to do that. So you're going like that.
[00:44:25] Speaker D: Does that make sense?
[00:44:27] Speaker F: Just get a couple of movements and learn them over and over and over to where now you got it in your head. If something happens, you're half knocked out, you can still do it. And that's how, from my experience, people are going to stay alive and keep surviving. Because if not, what happens a lot of times is someone will start learning stuff and then they'll try to learn so many things that now, when the situation happens, they're kind of deer in the headlights. You think about it with anything. Like when you first started fighting, right?
[00:45:05] Speaker E: What combination did you throw?
[00:45:07] Speaker B: Jab cross.
[00:45:08] Speaker E: Right. How many times did you throw a.
[00:45:10] Speaker F: Jab cross before you felt comfortable throwing like that? Thousand, right? When I was wrestling, I wrestled with division one at the collegiate level.
[00:45:20] Speaker E: Top 20 in the country.
I did the same takedown all through high school. It was one type of throw I.
[00:45:28] Speaker F: Always did over under a trip. If that didn't work, then in college, I learned how to expand on that.
[00:45:35] Speaker E: You look at guys wrestling in the.
[00:45:37] Speaker F: Olympics, the most common takedown score is.
[00:45:40] Speaker E: A single leg takedown.
[00:45:42] Speaker F: The first move everyone learns that's at the Olympic level. They break down the division one college matches.
[00:45:48] Speaker E: Your most common takedowns aren't head on throws. Lad drops any of that, it's single leg, double leg, that's it.
[00:45:56] Speaker C: Did you take that training evolution with you into the UFC?
[00:46:00] Speaker E: Yeah, when I started fighting, man, my first few fights, I wasn't getting crazy knockouts with elbows and knees or anything. I'm hitting you a hundred times with a one, two, and if you can make it five minutes of that reserve. But I'm 121212. And then it went back to my background wrestling. They get tired of getting hit, so they want to close with me. Okay, now I'm going to take you for a ride. I'm going to go over the same positions every time. My highlight reel isn't a bunch of different finishes. It's usually either top control, ground and pound, or the rough stopping devices. It's the same thing all the time. I don't do a lot of fancy stuff. I don't go trying to learn. I don't reinvent the wheel every fight.
[00:46:42] Speaker F: Usually those fancy things don't work, especially.
[00:46:45] Speaker C: If the other person's trained.
[00:46:47] Speaker F: Those fancy things don't work. So the key to all this stuff is learn a couple of moves over and over and over and over. Because it's not like you guys are training for your life right now, as far as training to get in that MMA cage, you're training for your LiFE out of here.
[00:47:05] Speaker A: That's right.
[00:47:05] Speaker F: So if you know a couple of moves, like, say, that white EsCape to the underhook, now you can get up and you can create that space to have time to go. Whatever weapon you need to defend yourself.
[00:47:18] Speaker C: Can everyone put their hands together for Eric and Juan? Appreciate Them CominG out.
These two. You know, Eric spent time as a sparring partner for Brock LesnaR. Several other heavyweights Juan's fought in the UFC.
[00:47:35] Speaker A: I mean, these are.
[00:47:37] Speaker C: This type of training is very rare to be able to get. And we're going to continue this type of training. Eric's going to beat the hell out of all of us. We're done. Right, cool. So this is the west end area. And, like, you know, you check out this car on the RigHt Hand Side. This dude's been in and out of the backseat, what, like, 16 times? It's obviously a wrecked vehicle. Probably stolen, abandoned.
[00:48:13] Speaker D: Right.
[00:48:14] Speaker C: No one's checking it out. No one REALLY cares. At the end of the day, this business district is prime for retail theft or actually petty theft, like smashing grabs, breaking windows, retail break ins, and there's no eyes on the street. So we got to be that district guard that's engaging everyone around, talking to people, getting names, saying, hi, we're about to meet up with Chase. Chase is our asset on the ground right now. Who's going to be patrolling tonight. Really squared away guy. Former marine, been deployed. HoPEFUlLY he'll be HERE in a second.
What's up, chase? Everything good?
What's up, bro?
[00:48:52] Speaker D: Yeah. What did they sAy?
[00:48:53] Speaker G: I think Loa's already been out here.
[00:48:55] Speaker C: Spencer hit him up, like, four or five times.
[00:48:56] Speaker G: Yeah, I said that they brought water to him and everything, so I just wanted to see if there's anything else they needed.
[00:49:01] Speaker A: Yeah, they're doing good, though.
[00:49:03] Speaker D: Okay, cool. Yep.
[00:49:04] Speaker G: Not interested in moving right now.
[00:49:06] Speaker D: Awesome.
[00:49:06] Speaker C: So we got a guy up here, obviously mental health or meth psychosis. He's in some type of drug induced state.
[00:49:13] Speaker D: Right.
[00:49:13] Speaker B: Gotcha.
[00:49:15] Speaker E: So, Chase, what exactly is it that.
[00:49:18] Speaker B: You'Re looking for when you're on patrol?
[00:49:22] Speaker G: Initially, at least for me, throughout the beginning of the shift, whenever it's still light out, is more of, like, the blatant, obvious things, people in doorways, things like that. As it sets, I start looking for more of, like, actual terminal activity. People breaking either doors, windows, throwing stuff against building. You have it a lot down here where people get mad, they'll throw something against the window and shatter it or break into a building like that? Yeah, there's a lot of. Just like that. There's a lot of storefronts down here, especially on the other side of this big building. It's like the Moltenoma whiskey library and a couple other stores. And a lot of those get broken into, unfortunately.
So mainly that throughout the night. But we're also in this district. It's called the Weston district, so it's a part of our downtown two district, but people pay in specifically to basically guarantee that they're going to get hands on on their property.
[00:50:14] Speaker B: Got you.
[00:50:15] Speaker G: So we photographed every single one of the property entrances guaranteed, every single night for those property owners. So it's a little bit different than some of the other districts where they're signing, basically for like, hey, we're going to do our best. We'll make it out there if we can, but there's no guarantee we can, at least for most of the consortium districts. But this one is like a, hey, we're going to get you every single night.
[00:50:35] Speaker B: This is like a priority area.
[00:50:37] Speaker G: Yeah, more or less.
[00:50:38] Speaker B: Got you.
[00:50:39] Speaker G: Not that they're more important or someone else is less important, but they just pay in to make sure that they get hit every single night, guaranteed.
[00:50:45] Speaker B: Got you.
[00:50:45] Speaker G: Every single time, at least hands on throughout the night. I'll check every single one of their doors, make sure it's secured. Typically I start doing that later in the night once everything's closed, because it's hard to keep up with every single business that's open. Some close at nine, some close. So I typically start that later. The biggest concerns down here are vandalism and a lot of doorway loitering, where people will stay in the little picnic areas outside of restaurants hold up, especially later in the night. That's the biggest concern is people want to get either in shade or out of the weather, depending on if it's raining. Those are a super big hotspot. Obviously it's raining, so they want to be dry.
[00:51:28] Speaker B: Right. And so what is your approach typically? I know it's going to be different for loitering versus vandalism, obviously. Or how do you approach them to either make them stop?
[00:51:41] Speaker G: So each one is going to be a little bit different. Obviously you kind of feel out who you're talking to. Right. If someone's already being sporadic, then you'll give them a few attempts, like, hey, bro, I just can't have you here. Can I give you, like, ten minutes maybe, and then come back in a little bit? Right. Maybe they've calmed down. If it's someone who's just, like, sleeping, try to wake them up. Hey, man, is there anything you need to maybe not be here? These property owners aren't a big fan of people hanging out here. You need some water? You need any clothing? Depending on the climate, like, during winter, it's a lot. It's a lot easier to be like, hey, bro, we have some blankets. Is there any way I can give you a blanket? Like, do you need a blanket? It's super cold out. Or do you need a jacket? Like, you'll see people walking around without shoes on and there's snow on the ground. It's like, hey, man, can I give you some shoes? And in turn, can you just not hang out on this building for me? Right, because they just don't like it here. And I can hook you up, make sure that everyone's happy, basically, and you get what you need. The property owner is happy, and then, worst case, we do most of the buildings down here, so I'll probably end up seeing them again.
[00:52:34] Speaker D: Right.
[00:52:35] Speaker G: So you build the relationship, and it makes it a lot easier because we're seeing the same people every night. It's not like you're moving five different people every night. So you have to build the relationship and make it easier to approach that person the next day. If you're hostile, then hostility, misconduct. In theory.
[00:52:52] Speaker D: Well said.
[00:52:53] Speaker G: In theory.
[00:52:53] Speaker D: In theory, yeah. Which.
[00:52:55] Speaker G: It works.
[00:52:55] Speaker C: I mean, there's always. People could be drug induced. There could be another things going on and behavior changes.
[00:53:03] Speaker G: I mean, you'll talk to a guy one day who's, like, super respectful, super nice, and the next day he's calling you every belligerent name he can think of. It's the way the cookie crumbles. And then the next time you see him, he won't even remember you. From the first two contacts, you're just another new guy, and he's saying, hey, so it really depends.
Some of our contacts will remember us very much so. Specifically for forever. I mean, since we've started, people are like, hey, it's echelon. We've known you guys since you came to the city, and then other people will talk to every day, and they'll never remember us day to day.
[00:53:34] Speaker B: So do you find that simply, since you guys have been here a while and there are some repeat people that you run into all the time that you have built that rapport with, does it make it easier in a sense, when there's new people, do they kind.
[00:53:47] Speaker E: Of spread the word about you?
[00:53:48] Speaker D: Guys.
[00:53:49] Speaker G: Yeah. Most people have been like, oh, I've heard about you via being in larger encampments or just making friends on the street, whatever it may be, where they're like, hey, you guys are the ones that can offer resources. You have water. We've heard a lot of things about you.
Even they were like, oh, echelon. I've heard of you guys. You guys are super nice. And I don't know who's contacted them outside of Loa as far as actual just security, but that's my first time talking to them already. Like, oh, well, we know you guys. So most of the time, especially in the downtown region in old town, they're very familiar.
[00:54:25] Speaker B: Gosh.
[00:54:26] Speaker G: And at least most of the people are like, hey, here's the companies to watch out for. Here's the companies to not worry about or not to be too concerned about as far as being aggressive like that. So it really does work out in our favor to take things in a different way.
[00:54:42] Speaker D: Right?
[00:54:42] Speaker B: You guys kind of lead with compassion.
[00:54:44] Speaker G: Yeah, humanity, man. Humanity. Like, at the end of the day, most people that do any job are a few paychecks away from being there to themselves, if you don't think about it that way.
[00:54:54] Speaker C: That's right.
[00:54:55] Speaker G: That's reality. I make good bit of money. I'm the disabled veteran, so I have multiple incomes coming in. I go to school, and still it's like two, three months without pay. I could be right there in a tent myself.
It's really just breaking it down and just humbling yourself and realizing that at the end of the day, I don't know their struggles. I know the struggles I've went through, and I could have been there via those struggles or new struggles that may come down the road.
[00:55:20] Speaker D: Right.
[00:55:21] Speaker G: That's at least the way I take it.
[00:55:24] Speaker D: Yeah.
[00:55:24] Speaker C: Most of our practices, I'd say, are trauma informed.
I've been homeless as a child and an adult, and being homeless causes PTSD. It causes mental illness short term and long term, depending on how long you're homeless.
And so you have to take that approach. There is no other approach.
If we were to get angry and get someone upset on a property, they would just come back and retaliate. They'd break the window. They throw a rock through the window, and that's going to upset the client.
[00:56:03] Speaker D: Right.
[00:56:03] Speaker C: And so you have to really have that relationship.
[00:56:06] Speaker G: And that is how even earlier, a guy passed me was like, I hate this city. Because there's two people sitting at our building that you guys were doing the training at. There were two guys sitting on the edge of the building, and someone in a vehicle drove by and was like, I fucking hate this city. And it's like, are you doing anything to get better? You just through and say, I hate this fucking city. Because people are down and out. Stop kicking people while they're down and maybe give them a fucking hand in theory, but that's how it's looked at a lot, unfortunately, is like, oh, they're pests, right? They're less than us. They're human beings who went through shit and are now where they are. And the only way they get better is by giving shit and trying.
[00:56:43] Speaker B: Exactly.
[00:56:43] Speaker G: Not by throwing your ass in the air and saying like, oh, well, they do drugs. They can't get better. I know plenty of people who've been clean and sober after doing, that's right, methamphetamines, heroin for years. Yeah, 15 years. And then all of a sudden, they're like, fuck this. I want something different. But that's some form of encouragement happened, support.
[00:56:59] Speaker C: Do you know Hannah in old town?
[00:57:01] Speaker G: Heard the name?
[00:57:01] Speaker C: Yeah, we took her to Hoover detox this morning. We got her paperwork done yesterday, got her a bed yesterday, and then took her today. So when you check into detox, you got to have your bed squared away, or they'll just kick you out and you'll be back on the streets. And she's been in old town for two years, using every day.
[00:57:19] Speaker A: Two years.
[00:57:21] Speaker G: All it takes is a little bit of someone giving a shit, supporting a little bit, and you can overcome anything. It's a mindset. But if you don't have a reason to have that mindset, that's right, you're not going to make that mindset.
[00:57:32] Speaker D: That's right.
[00:57:33] Speaker G: At least that's how I see it and go about it. Very rarely do I have poor contacts. Typically, it's on whoever I'm contacting. If they're already being sporadic or radical behavior, then I'm just like, all right, bro, I'll see you later.
[00:57:47] Speaker D: Right.
[00:57:47] Speaker G: If I show up to a door and some dude's like, I'll fucking kill you. Stop talking to me. Cool, I'm just going to walk away. If you're just sitting in a doorway, you're not breaking in, you're not doing anything. Like, hey, I'm just going to walk away. I'll come back in 30 minutes and be like, hey, bro, you good now? No, you're still going to kill me.
[00:57:59] Speaker D: Cool.
[00:57:59] Speaker G: And then I'll just walk away. Worst case, I'll give him a few attempts. If he doesn't calm down, then we'll get an additional out and we'll have to get him to move eventually. But it's not really a rush thing. A lot of companies have the ego of, like, you can't tell me, no, you're going to move right now.
[00:58:14] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:58:14] Speaker G: And I mean, that's seen throughout law enforcement worldwide of like, no, you're going to do what you're told now. But we're not really telling. It's more like, hey, bro mind, is there a way that we can have some rapport here, some friendliness and make.
[00:58:29] Speaker B: Yellow shifting you more so from compliance to coordination? That's a really big deal.
[00:58:34] Speaker C: We like to tell people we were doing this in training earlier, know what you know and understand when you don't know something.
[00:58:42] Speaker D: Yes.
[00:58:43] Speaker C: Number two, it's okay to walk away because you don't have a duty to act. I mean, if someone's getting beat up.
[00:58:49] Speaker A: There'S a person's crime.
[00:58:50] Speaker D: Right.
[00:58:50] Speaker C: But it's okay to walk away.
[00:58:53] Speaker A: We're not law enforcement.
[00:58:55] Speaker C: We don't have a duty to act angry.
[00:58:56] Speaker G: Walk away.
[00:58:57] Speaker C: And the third thing is, every person that works at Echelon is more important than echelon.
Chase and his family, they're more important than my company, and they know that I want him to be safe, because if we believe about safety, his safety should come first. And so when he needs to walk away, he needs to walk away at.
[00:59:19] Speaker G: The end of the day. And you can always put in the report, like, due to the individual's hostility and aggressive nature, I could not get him to move and decided to walk away for safety purposes. And if a client has a problem with that, then that's something above my pay grade. But it's also like, most of the time, they're going to be like, that's fair. We don't think you should get stabbed because someone was in our doorway either. At the end of the day, it's just how it works.
[00:59:43] Speaker C: So lead on, bro.
[00:59:46] Speaker D: Awesome.
[00:59:50] Speaker G: Typically, at least later throughout the night, we have a few parking lots and things that we have to go to. And that's where you'll see more of, like, the organized crime, if you will. For this district, we used to have the fifth and Taylor parking garage, which I believe is still ours.
We'll have to go over there at some point this night. Four times we go there. They have a lot of automotive break ins. And most people are like, oh, well, it's transient activity. It's never actual criminals, but they'll hit, like eight cars in 40 seconds.
[01:00:24] Speaker D: Yeah.
[01:00:24] Speaker C: It's their professional.
[01:00:25] Speaker D: Yeah.
[01:00:25] Speaker G: And drive out in a $70,000 car. That's like actual criminal activity. It's not just like, oh, some guy on a bike rode in, broke a window, stole a coat, rode out. Does that happen? Yes. Typically, you'll find one broken window if that happens. Right. They went in, they saw something, they like, they grabbed it, they left. I've had my vehicle broken into while living down here. I used to live at twelveth in Jefferson, and they stole a hoodie in July. Yeah, the little things do happen.
[01:00:54] Speaker B: Just a nice hoodie, man.
[01:00:56] Speaker G: However, the biggest things that I would say we notice, especially one of our places, the river place Marina. There's parking garages there that get hit super hard in the summer because the garages are packed full, everyone's drinking out, having a good time. No one's paying attention to what's going on in the garages. And it's normally they have music playing, it's super loud. So you can go in and hit eight cars and be out in a minute or two and steal. All of these people who are staying down at the river place, they have a couple of hotels down there, a couple of condos, and people just steal everything out of their car.
That's probably one of the most upsetting things. Like, you'll see, like, two car seats in the back and, like, a bunch of kids full of strung everywhere, and you're like, come on, don't hit the family car.
[01:01:43] Speaker B: Right.
[01:01:44] Speaker G: But I've seen a car getting broken into for a maggots hockey.
Anywhere specific you want to head?
[01:01:52] Speaker D: Oh, man.
[01:01:52] Speaker C: We're on your patrol.
[01:01:53] Speaker G: That works? That works? Yeah, we'll run back this way.
[01:01:55] Speaker B: All right, cool.
[01:01:59] Speaker G: The 511 garage, which is down a couple of blocks and then over to the right. A couple of blocks. It's probably our biggest hotspot.
There was somebody who had, like, multiple guns in their vehicle. It got broken into, and they left the guns and ammo.
[01:02:12] Speaker D: That's crazy.
[01:02:13] Speaker G: So that was super weird to me.
You look in, there's just, like, handguns in their bags just sitting in there, and it's like, why are you. One, leaving them out and two, leaving them?
[01:02:23] Speaker D: Right.
[01:02:23] Speaker G: Because people see cameras in the garage and they assume cameras mean no one's going to break into it. But you can put anything on your face and then the camera can't tell who you are. And I feel like that's kind of missed a little bit, is people don't understand that that is missed.
[01:02:38] Speaker D: A lot. Yeah.
[01:02:39] Speaker G: And it's not like Portland doesn't have the capabilities to prosecute everyone that breaks into a car.
And that's the thing is you would see them walking down the street and be like, oh, they're transients, but they're literally coordinating the whole auto break in and auto theft at that point. It's not even just a break in.
[01:02:56] Speaker B: At that point you're going something like that. You would apprehend them and hold them.
[01:03:01] Speaker E: Until the cops got there.
[01:03:02] Speaker G: So apprehend, weird word, arrest. So security can't detain, like law enforcement can detain you for questioning. We cannot. It's illegal because the detain is literally, you have to have a law enforcement license in order to detain somebody. So even, like, for citizens arrested, which is what we make, but even for you, right. If you just had cuffs on you and you saw someone breaking into a vehicle, you would citizens arrest them, which is basically just, hey, you're under arrest. And then going through the motions of cuffing them, and then you would just call law enforcement and say, hey, I have one in custody. I arrested them for this. Are you all going to send an officer out to take over? And then at that point, the officers would come put on their own cuffs, give you yours back. Or sometimes depending on what it is, where you're at and how busy law enforcement are, sometimes they'll just tell you to cut them loose. So, yeah, you'll just pop off the cuff.
[01:03:49] Speaker D: Yeah.
[01:03:49] Speaker C: That means a lot. Wow.
[01:03:53] Speaker G: Which typically you catch someone breaking into a car and you arrest them and they're dealing with four homicides. They're just going to tell you to let them go. Right. Because it happens in summer, you'll hear a lot of gunshots and the cops are way too busy to deal with someone breaking into a car, which is unfortunate for whoever's car it was. But it is just the reality of lack of law enforcement, people wanting to do the job in general and just the raised amount of crime that is in the area. So it's not directly on the work ethic of the officers or anything. We've called for domestic disputes. We're like, yeah, we can't make it out. Like, we're too short on officers and we have too much going on. We just had an armed robbery that we're on our way to, so we can't make it to a domestic dispute. And that's a big issue at some of the apartment complexes that we have, right.
Is you'll try to do your best and then explaining that to the tenant of like, hey, there's not anything I can do. Or even to the person that calls. Right. The neighbor above or below them, and being like, hey, I'm sorry that you're going to have to hear that happening. There's nothing I can do about it. So that's one of the unfortunate aspects, is you can't handle every situation. Sometimes you just got to let it go.
[01:05:07] Speaker C: Private citizens, when they don't do the right thing, can sometimes commit a crime, but it's not like a civil rights violation.
[01:05:13] Speaker D: Yeah.
[01:05:14] Speaker B: So when you're operating under law enforcement, things, you can violate civil rights, but you guys can.
[01:05:22] Speaker D: Exactly.
[01:05:23] Speaker E: That means you guys have to be pretty knowledgeable on what you can and can't do.
[01:05:27] Speaker C: Yeah, very much so.
[01:05:28] Speaker D: Yeah.
[01:05:29] Speaker C: There's a lot of knowledge required, which.
[01:05:31] Speaker G: We cover a lot throughout our training scenarios that we do. Our most recent training scenario was based off of a tent resident who goes to grab their gun whenever you ask them, hey, is there any way you can move the tent? It's on private property. They're like, yeah, no worries. I didn't know it was private property. And then they're going to grab their gun to just waistband it to get out so they can drag their tent.
[01:05:50] Speaker D: Right.
[01:05:51] Speaker G: Perfectly acceptable. I'm not going to freak out, he has a gun. I have a gun. Right. He's not grabbing it and being aggressive. He's grabbing it, waistbanding it, and that's 100% his constitutional right to have a firearm and defend himself. And I'm not going to be like, hey, no, put that down. Right.
And we kind of let people operate on their own. There's never a right answer, if you will, as long as the job gets done adequately, we're never going to be like, hey, bro, why'd you do it this way? You could do it this way.
The end goal is all the same. How you get there isn't necessarily that important as long as you're following the biggest things at Echelon, which is just not breaking laws, being ethical, being moral. It's super simple, honestly. Like, at the end of the day, it's a very easy job if you just actually care about people.
[01:06:39] Speaker D: That's right.
[01:06:39] Speaker G: I know people bring their families down here. People live here. I would like to see change because I don't want to bring my seven month old daughter down here and have fentanyl smoke blown in her mouth. You know what I mean? But I also think she should be able to experience Portland because it is a great city overall. It just has rough edges.
[01:06:57] Speaker E: You can be the change you want.
[01:06:58] Speaker B: To see in the world.
[01:06:59] Speaker D: Yeah.
[01:06:59] Speaker G: You can at least try, right?
[01:07:01] Speaker E: Worst case, you try be able to improve whatever. That's my thing is I always try to improve whatever community I'm a part of.
[01:07:08] Speaker G: Absolutely.
[01:07:08] Speaker B: Moved to Albuquerque from Houston. I didn't even know the education system was bad as it is out there.
[01:07:15] Speaker G: And Albuquerque is a place too.
[01:07:16] Speaker D: Yeah.
[01:07:17] Speaker E: So I ended up.
I ended up working in behavioral health for a little bit. Switched over to teaching.
[01:07:23] Speaker B: As I'm teaching, all I'm hearing is how bad education is out there.
[01:07:27] Speaker E: Okay, well, we can change it.
[01:07:29] Speaker B: So let's go change it.
[01:07:31] Speaker C: Exactly.
[01:07:33] Speaker B: That's all you can do. As long as you're applying your best.
[01:07:35] Speaker E: Effort towards the improvement of whatever community.
[01:07:38] Speaker B: You'Re a part of, it's going to have an effect.
[01:07:41] Speaker G: Yeah. Even at a small level. I mean, if you affect 1% of the houseless population in a positive manner, that's 1% that weren't affected before you got there. That's the one thing I've noticed.
A lot of transients, houseless, don't have a lot of support in any aspect. Right. From government to friends to anything.
[01:08:05] Speaker F: Family.
[01:08:06] Speaker G: Yeah, family. A lot of them are like, all my family is dead or abandoned me or said they'll be family when I cut my habit. But it's like, that's how you cut a habit or an addiction, is by having support from family, friends, so on and so forth. You're not going to just do that shit on your own. Most people are a few paychecks away, especially in Portland. Rent is like two grand average, and most people are making 25 ish dollars an hour. You're not living comfortably. Genuinely, some people are busting your butt to come home, maybe paycheck to paycheck.
[01:08:35] Speaker E: Maybe enjoy for 2 hours each day.
[01:08:37] Speaker B: Before you pass out, get ready to go bust your ass again.
[01:08:41] Speaker G: And to have the mentality of, like, that could never be me. I could never be homeless and on drugs.
You can become homeless and then end up on drugs because more shit happens when you're homeless. Yeah, you may be safe in your little castle somewhere, but when you're on the street and much more like, vulnerable to things that are happening, it's a lot easier to have problems that lead to an addiction.
There's a lot of unfortunate things that happen to individuals on the street.
[01:09:08] Speaker C: Well, we got to roll. I appreciate us letting you ride or.
[01:09:11] Speaker A: Letting us ride with you, man.
[01:09:12] Speaker C: Seriously, man, good time.
[01:09:18] Speaker G: What's the next plan?
[01:09:22] Speaker C: We're pretty much done.
[01:09:23] Speaker G: We got to walk this way, though.
