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.
You, 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.
[00:00:50] Speaker B: Hello. For today, I'm going to go by cue. I'm glad to be here to let young people know that everything is a choice you can rise above. So thank you for having me here.
[00:01:02] Speaker A: Hey, I'm Alex Stone. Welcome back to the ride along. Today's guest will remain anonymous. This individual kind of comes out of that life street culture that kind of tends to drive people towards criminal activity for survival. We're going to talk a little bit about that. We're going to go on a ride along and we're going to see how those two worlds intersect.
Our guest today, we're going to go ahead and get in the nickname Q. I like that name.
Q, why don't you kind of introduce yourself?
[00:01:33] Speaker B: Hello there.
[00:01:35] Speaker A: Nice to meet you.
[00:01:35] Speaker B: It's a pleasure to be here. Yeah. Glad to be able to give my two cent on this life because it's maybe a tiny glimpse into a life that most people don't have any real sense of, what it looks like as a young person or an adult to come from there and then try to.
[00:02:01] Speaker A: Make a life after, that's great. So let's kind of start right where you said, just give us kind of an explanation of what you would say that life is for you.
[00:02:11] Speaker B: What does that mean, man? Well, growing up in impoverished neighborhoods, pimps and hustlers and drug dealers were the people that you look up to always.
[00:02:25] Speaker A: Or their family or both.
[00:02:27] Speaker B: Yeah, exactly.
So living in that life and then as you're trying to emulate these people, because those are the only people you see that have success, you don't know what success really is.
[00:02:47] Speaker A: No, but they got that nice ride. Yeah.
[00:02:48] Speaker B: It's a relative.
[00:02:49] Speaker A: They got cash in the hand.
[00:02:50] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:02:51] Speaker A: They got that fly grill.
[00:02:52] Speaker B: Yeah, exactly. They got all the boxes that you think that's right. Need to be checked.
[00:02:58] Speaker A: They got a gold chain. Yeah. They got a pager back in the day, cell phone. They got the block phone.
[00:03:04] Speaker B: They got the car phone carrying around a briefcase.
[00:03:10] Speaker A: That's right.
It sounds like we're not going to talk about where you were from, but in the city you grew up in that you kind of were introduced to that life at a young age. How did that introduction occur? Let's see, how were you in my history and the history of the people we talk about this with, there's usually that one person and for me it was an OG. And he came to me and he was like, hey, you're a smart kid. You're going to start boosting radios for me. He just told me straight up, you're in my crew now. I need five radios a week. I'm going to show you how to do it. And he actually took me out in his car and we did it several times. And then it was expected of me at the tender age of 910 eleven to get those radios and to have them on at his place by Friday. So what that looked like for you.
[00:04:03] Speaker B: Okay, so for me, my best friend's uncle got out of prison and we were already hungry and looking for a little hustle and this and that already.
And I think we were eight or nine. Yeah, something like that.
And we already knew everything.
Who was the players in the hood when you're that age, you know everything that's going on in a four or five block radius, at least we did in my neighborhood. And you knew when something was out of place too. Every time anything out of place, you notice.
And that's. Man, he got out of prison. I smoked my first weed at the party, at the coming home party, you know. And it was shortly after that that we were put to work because he.
[00:05:07] Speaker A: Couldn'T go back in. He needed to earn. He needed a crew to earn for him that he could manage.
[00:05:15] Speaker B: And what was crazy, it was like it was already set up before he was even out. He asked us who's the main player right here on this block? And we're like, oh, this dude. So he went over there immediately and then they were working for him. It was like, it happened seamlessly because.
[00:05:32] Speaker A: He'S a no g. Yeah, you can't say no. No. There's no, no.
[00:05:37] Speaker B: And then, you know, we'd just be given a little something. We'd go take this up the street.
[00:05:42] Speaker A: And so you're doing sales at this point?
[00:05:44] Speaker B: We were just running.
[00:05:45] Speaker A: Just running whatever.
[00:05:46] Speaker B: Sales didn't happen for another couple of years.
[00:05:48] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:05:49] Speaker B: We were eleven or twelve by the time sales started happening.
[00:05:54] Speaker A: Yeah, that's crazy, right?
So true. So you get to the age of 1213 where people look like they can ask you that question like, hey, I actually need this. So you're delivering something and then the question is say little man.
[00:06:11] Speaker B: Yeah, what's up.
[00:06:12] Speaker A: Well, no, I need this. And then that. Next thing you know, you're selling.
[00:06:16] Speaker B: Next thing you know, right?
[00:06:17] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:06:17] Speaker B: And it happens without even realizing.
[00:06:19] Speaker A: No. Next thing you know, you wake up, you're doing it, but you don't even know in your head you are. No, you're just doing.
[00:06:25] Speaker B: I remember realizing that one day.
[00:06:27] Speaker A: When was that? When was that?
[00:06:29] Speaker B: Oh, man. I might have been like 1413, something like that. Like, man, I'm a drug dealer.
I never knew I was a drug dealer.
[00:06:40] Speaker A: It's crazy, right? It is because you're still a kid. Yeah.
[00:06:45] Speaker B: Man. And I would look around at all these tweakers and crackheads and chicken heads and all that we used to. Cluckers and all that. We used to call them, but, man, they're just everywhere. And now suddenly they're coming, asking you like, what's up? And I remember seeing them around all the time. We'd throw somebody a little something to get a 40 because we couldn't buy it because, of course, 1011 years old.
Yeah. They're just there and you just get to know people and that's how business works, relationships.
[00:07:23] Speaker A: And they know that, you know, the OG, they don't want to go directly to the OG because that's heat for that person. So it's the systems built in to where the young kids, they are that market economy in the hood. I mean, they just are.
[00:07:39] Speaker B: Especially in summertime, man.
[00:07:41] Speaker A: Yeah, always.
[00:07:42] Speaker B: Yeah. Crazy.
[00:07:43] Speaker A: Everyone's out on the streets. Yeah.
So you get wrapped up pretty quick. I'm sure you're in the game, right? At some point, and we're going to be very delicate about your history because we want you to remain anonymous. But at some point there becomes a family obligation on your part where you have to commit a real felony in order.
[00:08:11] Speaker B: Always a choice.
[00:08:11] Speaker A: There's always a choice. But in that life it's an obligation. We'll call it that. And you're obligated because of honor and duty and family and these things, to commit a felony. This felony ends up.
You get arrested. We're not going to say you're guilty of anything, but you get arrested and charged with a crime, you go to court, you're found guilty in a court of law.
[00:08:39] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:08:39] Speaker A: Or you plead, we'll not get into the details, but you end up in prison. So explain the transition between being that hustler, that gang member hustler, part of that crew on the street versus. Okay, now I'm in the pin, I'm in prison. What's the difference with that?
[00:09:00] Speaker B: Very little.
[00:09:02] Speaker A: If you grow up in the game, you know the game. Yeah. You respect the game and you get it.
[00:09:07] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:09:07] Speaker A: So that's funny because a lot of people say, oh, my whole life changed, but if you grow up in it.
[00:09:12] Speaker B: You'Re like, this is the old, same old. Yeah.
[00:09:15] Speaker A: One block, it's just one big block. It's just another block.
[00:09:19] Speaker B: And you got to get to know new people, who are the players.
[00:09:22] Speaker A: So your first day in, how do you do that? How do you go through when you're in there? How do you determine, I mean, obviously, race plays a big part of that.
[00:09:31] Speaker B: It's huge. That's the biggest difference inside, is racial segregation is not only encouraged, but it's.
[00:09:42] Speaker A: Almost like it is encouraged. Right. By the system itself, isn't it? Yeah.
[00:09:46] Speaker B: No, they intentionally keep everybody segregated, which is weird.
[00:09:53] Speaker A: Right.
[00:09:54] Speaker B: It is very strange. That was one of the big.
[00:09:56] Speaker A: It gives power to the gangs.
[00:09:57] Speaker B: It does.
But the gangs, because they are actually keeping the population under control because everybody's got their heads.
[00:10:07] Speaker A: Correct.
They allow them to police themselves. And this is why when you're the shot caller, it's called holding the keys, because you're like holding the keys for the prison. Really? Yeah, you're really kind of running the prison.
[00:10:20] Speaker B: You could turn this place upside down if you wanted to.
[00:10:23] Speaker A: So we're not going to get into your racial ethnicity, but the reality is you have to join before we get there. On the street, I'm white, obviously. I speak Spanish. My mom, my family, there's a little bit of mixture there. My stepfather was Mexicano, so I grew up speaking Spanish, so I was able to blend very well. But I was never truly accepted by.
[00:10:50] Speaker B: Yeah, you still got to prove yourself.
[00:10:52] Speaker A: Yeah, I'm like one of them. Miklo doesn't exist. He doesn't exist. That's not a real character, guys. And so you're never really accepted because you're not you. But I was still accepted because I was an earner. Yeah, I was an earner.
[00:11:09] Speaker B: Your loyalty and all that.
[00:11:11] Speaker A: On the street, if you earn, you're accepted. And you can have friends that are. I had friends that were black, white, hispanic, asian. I clicked with everybody because the more people you know, the more business you do. Yeah. Right. You got options, but when you get in, those options go away quick.
[00:11:27] Speaker B: Right.
[00:11:27] Speaker A: Because it's about race. So how did it make you feel? Because I don't know you very well, but I know that you're a good guy. I know that you're not a guy who's a tied to his race kind of guy.
[00:11:38] Speaker B: No, definitely not.
Like you were saying, that was part of what made it easier for me, because I talked to black people, white people, Mexicans, it was easy for me to blend.
[00:11:58] Speaker A: And that's actually part of your job as a salesman.
[00:12:00] Speaker B: Yeah.
You got to find that place where somebody can relate.
[00:12:06] Speaker A: That's right.
[00:12:07] Speaker B: And that's its own skill.
And so inside, it's like you're immediately pigeonholed into one place or another. And they say, oh, you got to go over here. And I was like, whoa, I'm not going over there.
And then all of a sudden, it's like the music stops, you know? And. And so I had to. I had to learn that. I had to find a place, otherwise it was going to be really difficult for me. So I had to choose at some point who I wanted to be labeled as.
That was a choice that I actually had to make, because otherwise it was already. I wasn't there that long, and there was already problems because people naturally gravitate toward me.
[00:13:09] Speaker A: You're very charismatic.
You are. And you always have people around you all the time. People want to take, people respect you. It's very natural.
[00:13:19] Speaker B: Yeah, I feel blessed that people want to just get to know me a little bit. Most people at this point, not always, I didn't have a friendly look about.
[00:13:32] Speaker A: It, but at this point, you grew up doing jiu jitsu and fighting, and I think you did other fighting styles. You were a fighter as well. I mean, I don't want to get into your specific background, but I know people.
I know that you can handle yourself. That's something that grappling and all that. Yeah. You're a good fighter. You're not afraid of a fight.
[00:13:55] Speaker B: No. And that was part of it, is like knowing that just having that confidence, people can see the confidence. If you've been in a lot of altercations.
[00:14:08] Speaker A: That's right.
[00:14:09] Speaker B: Other people who've been in a lot of altercations can tell, and they're not going to test you. And that was part of the fortunate thing for me is when I went inside, there's some lifers and all that. There was one time when I was able to talk about what was happening on the UFC fight, and I knew exactly what was happening before he did.
[00:14:36] Speaker A: The move.
[00:14:38] Speaker B: And I was like, ooh, check him out. He's going to pull this, he's going to pull that.
And that actually saved me from having to actually get into it with my celly at the time.
[00:14:53] Speaker A: He's like, this dude can fight.
[00:14:54] Speaker B: He actually knows what he's talking about here because it's happening. He could see it.
[00:14:59] Speaker A: He's going for the kimora.
[00:15:00] Speaker B: Yeah.
Now you watch him spin on that.
[00:15:04] Speaker A: Exactly. You're like, oh, damn.
[00:15:06] Speaker B: It was like, oh, wait a minute, maybe.
And that's the thing. Choose easier, pray. And so they move on.
[00:15:12] Speaker A: Choose easier prey. Yeah, that's kind of like the motto, right? I would imagine eventually, I wouldn't say forced into it, but just as part of the system, you click with the race that you identify as. Yeah, we'll just say it that way. Right. Do you feel comfortable staying with that race? You don't have to.
[00:15:37] Speaker B: I don't mind.
[00:15:39] Speaker A: Native american.
[00:15:40] Speaker B: Yeah.
We had the circle there, and you.
[00:15:45] Speaker A: Come from a state that.
And the state of your origin and that region of America, there are a lot of.
So this isn't like, I don't know. I've never been to Connecticut, but I can't imagine the Connecticut prison system has.
[00:16:00] Speaker B: A lot of Mexican, too, so that's.
[00:16:02] Speaker A: You are. Yeah. You know, you had a real choice to make.
[00:16:04] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:16:04] Speaker A: You're half mehicano.
[00:16:06] Speaker B: My dad is mostly white, so they were trying to stick me in the wood pile first.
[00:16:11] Speaker A: Oh, so the wood pile is another term for peckerwoods or the white gang.
And we won't mention those. There's a whole bunch of those names. So the wood pile would be the whites. And you were like, hey, homie, I ain't white.
[00:16:26] Speaker B: And they're like, well.
And then all of a sudden, I get pushback from the white people.
So you have to stand your ground. I was like, I'm flying solo.
[00:16:38] Speaker A: Oh, you flew solo?
[00:16:39] Speaker B: I'm flying solo for a minute.
[00:16:41] Speaker A: Yeah, for a minute, until all of.
[00:16:43] Speaker B: A sudden, that's what I was talking about. But people start gravitating toward you.
I've been an athlete. I'm out there on the weight pile, and people see that I know what I'm doing.
[00:16:55] Speaker A: So you're lifting in the yard?
[00:16:56] Speaker B: Yeah. Lifting in the yard.
[00:16:58] Speaker A: Lifting weights, yeah.
[00:17:01] Speaker B: And people start just, oh, what are you doing there? What does this do? And next thing you know, I got two or three guys working out with me every day. And then one of those guys gets into it with somebody, and now it's suddenly my problem.
[00:17:15] Speaker A: Of course. Yeah, because he's in your crew.
[00:17:17] Speaker B: I'm driving the car.
[00:17:19] Speaker A: So when you went in, did you have long hair?
You were native? Yeah. We won't talk about the res, and if you grew up in that, we'll just stay out of that, but I'm just curious, did they make you cut your hair because natives. Don't natives have a special exemption? That's right, yeah.
[00:17:37] Speaker B: So I didn't have to cut my.
[00:17:38] Speaker A: Hair and that probably right away. I mean, you coming in with long hair.
[00:17:42] Speaker B: Yeah, they knew.
[00:17:43] Speaker A: They know that this dude's native. He's a native in the state you're in. Right. In that state, there's a larger contingency of natives.
[00:17:55] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:17:56] Speaker A: So did they invite you in or how did that.
[00:18:00] Speaker B: Basically, yeah.
I was fortunate enough to have a couple of really good guys that I was on the block with, and he just came right up to me. He was like, so you flying solo?
And I was like, well, yeah.
And I just gotten moved.
And where I was at before, it was very political and there was a lot of stuff going on with.
[00:18:32] Speaker A: So there's different units within a larger prison, different floors, different factions of the same race. So they put you in a unit that was more better for you or worse for you?
[00:18:44] Speaker B: No, I didn't want any part of the new unit. Yeah.
[00:18:50] Speaker A: Got you.
[00:18:50] Speaker B: When I eventually moved out of that prison and got to a new unit and I was feeling it out, and this became somebody who I enjoyed his company.
[00:19:03] Speaker A: And this guy, did he hold the keys? He was the leader. Was he?
[00:19:06] Speaker B: He was on the unit. He was who people come to talk to.
[00:19:11] Speaker A: So he's the entry level guy. He's the guy.
[00:19:13] Speaker B: He's on that unit.
[00:19:14] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:19:15] Speaker B: There's always whoever's on the block or got you.
[00:19:17] Speaker A: So he's running that block for the natives.
[00:19:21] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:19:21] Speaker A: Okay. This was the guy that he was known. If you're going to make.
[00:19:25] Speaker B: He was respected.
[00:19:25] Speaker A: If you're going to make the conversation.
[00:19:27] Speaker B: You go to that guy.
[00:19:29] Speaker A: He pushes it up.
He did the introduction.
[00:19:32] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:19:33] Speaker A: And how did that go down? Was it easy? Was it?
[00:19:36] Speaker B: Yeah, it was easy. I mean, I'm just who I am.
[00:19:40] Speaker A: Blood in, blood out. You're native. It is what it is.
[00:19:42] Speaker B: It's like. Okay, well, they asked me a few questions. What tribe?
That kind of thing.
[00:19:49] Speaker A: The natives are very like, they'll take care of you. They take care of you. And people don't realize this? Well, maybe some people in other states, but they are a legit organization.
And just from my background, I've dealt with major narcotics organizations where we had in the police world, we called res hopping, where there were natives that would subsume or take over the identity of other native tribal members of other tribes if they got caught up on some issues in one region of America, they could transition and come up with a brand new identity. And this was very lucrative.
The drug flow to and from the reservations all the way from Alaska all the way down, really is a pipeline. That is their pipeline.
We're not going to talk about that.
I'm not going to talk about. Know some people talk about, oh, that this white gang or that black gang, and sometimes you don't hear about, but the natives are know the term I like to say is the quiet professionals. It's the term the Green Berets use. They're not out there bragging about what they do. And you never hear anyone in the native gangs bragging about their business or putting it out there on the street. It's very closed down. It's probably the most secretive and the most closed off because they really do stick to themselves. Yeah, there's a reason.
Yeah.
[00:21:20] Speaker B: Natives are the fewest population percentage of any race in the world in their own country.
[00:21:34] Speaker A: Really?
[00:21:34] Speaker B: Yeah. That's the lowest percentage of population for native people in their own home country. It's right here.
[00:21:42] Speaker A: That's really sad.
[00:21:43] Speaker B: It's crazy. And what's an even sadder thing is that the prison population is double the percentage.
Those numbers are skewed wildly. That is a symptom of a broken system, in my opinion.
[00:22:07] Speaker A: That's so sad, man. What you did, you did for honor and family and duty.
[00:22:11] Speaker B: Yeah, I had my reasons, of course, for doing what I did. And I felt like something had to be done and I made a choice, and then I had to make the choice how I was going to handle it afterward and got my affairs in order and walked in because it was time.
[00:22:30] Speaker A: Damn. That's what's up. So you're in.
At what point do you begin taking on leadership roles with inside?
[00:22:41] Speaker B: It was an interesting thing because all of a sudden it was just kind of like people noticing that I had a different focus.
[00:22:51] Speaker A: Yeah, you're a natural born leader. Well, you got character. You build things, you think quickly. You're a good fighter. Obviously you're going to climb up the ranks, right?
[00:23:03] Speaker B: Yeah, it was just kind of a natural progression for me that way.
And I didn't anticipate anything I didn't expect. I was actually trying to just kind of sit in the background and do my time.
And there was a couple of situations where things came up. And the nice thing about the circle is, before any action is taken, circle up, everybody takes a consensus. Get it?
[00:23:34] Speaker A: Really? Of everybody?
[00:23:35] Speaker B: Oh, yeah. They agree what action should be taken.
[00:23:38] Speaker A: So it's really a real council yeah, that's interesting. That's unlike other organizations out of that.
[00:23:45] Speaker B: It depends on what circle. Like I said, there's different factions and this and that. But where we were at, it was a healing circle. And it was for, the focus was to get people focused on a mindset that was to better themselves and to change their frame of mind that got them in there. And so not to continue those same patterns while you're in there, because you know where that ended you up.
Change that pattern, what's it going to.
[00:24:21] Speaker A: When you were in that group was not on a war footing.
[00:24:25] Speaker B: No. At all.
[00:24:26] Speaker A: It was on a healing. That's great. Wow.
[00:24:28] Speaker B: Yeah. For everybody. And I think we had a very positive influence and they kept that going, as far as I know. Like, the people that were there before me and when I left, that's how it was. And I hope that it has continued.
[00:24:47] Speaker A: Yeah, that's awesome. That way.
So you do run into conflicts, though.
[00:24:52] Speaker B: Always.
[00:24:52] Speaker A: And you've told a story before. Well, where there's a wreck area. Right. And you have pool tables.
[00:24:58] Speaker B: Oh, yeah.
[00:25:01] Speaker A: And obviously the blacks have the area, the whites have the area. Everything's sectioned off according to race. And you have your sentinels, you have your lower level guys that are supposed to make sure that all those spaces are squared away for your folks every time because you're there for the preservation of your group. You're here to make sure that no natives are abused, taken advantage of. Yeah.
There's this incident that happens in the pool area, the rec area. Can you talk about that?
[00:25:30] Speaker B: Okay, so nobody had been out there in a while.
And we get there and there's a mark on the wall that shows whose space that is. And I get there because I felt like playing a game of pool that night. And I see the sign xed out and something else put over.
[00:25:59] Speaker A: So they leave your.
[00:26:01] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. Left it.
[00:26:03] Speaker A: They just xed it out. This is like, it's falls Road in Northern Ireland, it's Belfast, and they're like xing out names. That's crazy. Yeah. So they actually. They wanted to show that they took it over.
[00:26:13] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:26:14] Speaker A: It's a power play.
[00:26:15] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:26:15] Speaker A: Okay, so it's not intentional. It's not like a guard came and erased the thing.
[00:26:20] Speaker B: No, it wasn't like that. It was somebody. And they were right there. I could see them. I was like, oh, okay.
So I just told them. I was like, feel free to finish your game, but I'll be playing here next.
And they blew me off. And there was three of them, and it was just me.
So I just kind of stood there and let them say what they were going to say.
And I said, okay, we'll tell you what.
You can go ahead and have it for today.
I'll let you guys enjoy yourselves. As a matter of fact. Yeah, enjoy yourself. No problem for today.
I will be back tomorrow because this is native table, and we will be playing here tomorrow.
[00:27:16] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:27:17] Speaker B: And they whatever, old man.
I'm like, okay.
And so I just went back and told the people, certain people that let everybody know that they needed to go play some pool.
That's all I said. And then they were like, wait a minute. If I'm saying this, there's a reason why I'm saying it. And so I told them, I was like, yeah, they think that they have the table now, and we just got to let them know that that's not the case.
[00:27:54] Speaker A: Now, this could go really bad.
[00:27:55] Speaker B: It could have went south really quickly. Yeah. I made sure to let everybody know this is not violence, but don't be ready to defend yourself because you never know how somebody's going to react.
[00:28:07] Speaker A: People get down quick.
[00:28:08] Speaker B: Yeah. Real quick in there, it can happen for nothing.
And it was an interesting thing for me because suddenly I get out there and I made sure to be the last one in so that I could make sure that everybody who needed to be present was there and everybody showed up.
[00:28:29] Speaker A: Of course.
[00:28:33] Speaker B: I came in, and by that time, man, I was so glad that I came in there when I did because it was like, I thought these guys were going to crap their pets, like, for real.
And I thought that it might have turned violent.
[00:28:47] Speaker A: Not your guys, but to pecker woods.
[00:28:49] Speaker B: Yeah. No, they were all up against the wall already.
[00:28:53] Speaker A: And how many? There were just those four guys.
[00:28:56] Speaker B: Yeah. But then there was like 60 they're surrounded by.
[00:29:02] Speaker A: Because the majority of the population is white and black. Right. In most prisons, I would imagine.
[00:29:05] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:29:07] Speaker A: So you're outnumbered. The wood pile outnumbers the natives by two to one, three to one. Yeah. But you stood up anyways.
[00:29:16] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:29:17] Speaker A: Because you have to. Because you can't give away territory. There has to be respect. Well.
[00:29:21] Speaker B: And the reality is everybody knows that. Well, we crazy natives get down, and when it's time, they get down, it's like, who's ready to die?
[00:29:30] Speaker A: It's a war party.
[00:29:31] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:29:32] Speaker A: And you put on your war.
[00:29:32] Speaker B: Yeah. Are you ready to die today? Because I am.
And if you're not playing at that level, you better leave now.
[00:29:42] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:29:44] Speaker B: That's how it goes.
[00:29:45] Speaker A: And so no crimes were committed that day.
[00:29:47] Speaker B: No, there was no bloodshed, no crimes, and nobody got extra time on their set.
And it was a very strong presentation of the unity and the fact that there was no violence. And everybody else knows that. Guess what?
This is what you're up against.
If you have an issue, it's a war party. Yeah, everybody's.
[00:30:20] Speaker A: I have a feeling those younger guys didn't get permission to take over that table, though.
There are some young bucks just got in. They got clicked in within the past couple of months.
[00:30:31] Speaker B: They wouldn't.
[00:30:34] Speaker A: Yeah. And they were like, they probably got in trouble with their people.
[00:30:39] Speaker B: Well, they were basically like, man, if you're lucky, nothing worse happened to you.
Then you got scared crazy and get in line, and get yourself in line.
[00:30:51] Speaker A: So let's shift focus a little bit.
You're inside.
From the people I've spoken with, I've never done time. Obviously, I was on the other side of that equation, but there's always a countdown clock in your head, right?
[00:31:12] Speaker B: Oh, yeah.
[00:31:12] Speaker A: And you know you're going to get out. I mean, if you don't have time, put on your set.
[00:31:17] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:31:18] Speaker A: Right. Yeah. As long as everything's. We'll use the word kosher. Everything's kosher.
So your time is approaching. Right.
What happened inside to prepare you to leave there and not be a criminal?
[00:31:39] Speaker B: As far as the system goes, nothing.
It was the exact opposite.
Put all these blocks in front of you and you're like, man, I got to jump through all these hoops, but the reality is I'm set up for failure. The people in there are the ones like my boys, my brothers in the circle. They're the ones that are like, man, here's a phone number. If you need help, give this person a call. Give that person.
It's family.
We'll help you make sure that you got someplace to stay.
Not always.
It depends. You got to be real choosy because sometimes some of those places, you can't actually be at those places because it's against your role and all that.
[00:32:28] Speaker A: I'm sure you had a long time on parole because the shorter time.
[00:32:32] Speaker B: Yeah. It was the exact same amount of time.
[00:32:36] Speaker A: You're on paper for a while, a long time. So you get out, you're a felon.
[00:32:43] Speaker B: You'Re on parole, and you can't actually go to the places that would help you because then you're back in because it's a violation.
[00:32:52] Speaker A: You're consorting with other felons, which is a parole violation. And then you go back and you do your full time, your full bid, which is another three to five years. Right.
The community you're a part of.
Right. You can't be a part of anymore.
[00:33:10] Speaker B: Right.
[00:33:11] Speaker A: So you have to put away your native identity a little bit because you're like, yeah, well, damn, I don't want to violate parole. And so you grew up in the hood.
A lot of felons in the hood.
[00:33:26] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:33:26] Speaker A: Right.
[00:33:27] Speaker B: I can't be around any of them.
[00:33:28] Speaker A: Can't go there. So what happens? Where do you go?
[00:33:31] Speaker B: So I. Fortunately, man, I have really good extended family that love me a lot that I've known since I was a young teenager. My mom got remarried, and so a really good guy. I'm grateful that he was a positive influence in my life when he was. I was already kind of off the deep end by the time he came in, but at least he showed me something different, and I'm grateful for it. And he was there and his family. So I went and stayed with my uncle, his brother, when I got out, because I literally had no other place to go.
Yeah. That was one of the things that was important was for me to try to be near my children, of course. And so that was my uncle's house was right where they went.
[00:34:24] Speaker A: Oh, that's good.
[00:34:25] Speaker B: Yeah. Right near where they went to school.
[00:34:26] Speaker A: And so where do you work? Where do you get a job at? Don't say the name. But what type of work were you able to get into?
Not good work.
[00:34:36] Speaker B: No, you couldn't.
[00:34:38] Speaker A: No one wants to hire a felon.
[00:34:40] Speaker B: No. Especially person crime. Yeah, depending on the.
[00:34:48] Speaker A: It wasn't like you were, like, violent criminal. Raffle tickets.
[00:34:52] Speaker B: No, it wasn't a blue collar.
[00:34:58] Speaker A: It wasn't even, like, a Rico thing. No, it's violent.
[00:35:02] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:35:03] Speaker A: Right.
[00:35:03] Speaker B: Anybody with a violent crime is like, you're already.
[00:35:09] Speaker A: You kind of treat you like trash, I think.
[00:35:11] Speaker B: Yeah. You don't have many options, but you're.
[00:35:15] Speaker A: Doing very well now. You're successful now. So what did you accredit to your ability to turn your life around from growing up where you grew up, man, going to prison, coming out as a felon. I mean, you're still a felon. Yeah. That don't go away.
[00:35:29] Speaker B: No, man, faith, community, love.
Yeah.
Good people around you. And, man, determination.
Because you got to fight yourself.
[00:35:52] Speaker A: Yeah. Because the person who's sitting in front of me seems very mature, self differentiated, stoic, in charge, in command, taking ownership of every aspect of their life. Right. I mean, obviously, you're married, you're doing all the right things in life, and something must have put you on that.
[00:36:16] Speaker B: Like, there's a lot of pieces to that puzzle. There was one of the things that I really appreciated.
[00:36:23] Speaker A: Was it mushrooms? I know Joe Rogan would probably ask that right now.
[00:36:27] Speaker B: Played a role. Medicine definitely played a role. Opened my mind. So vision quest to be able to see myself more clearly.
[00:36:35] Speaker A: Oh, wow.
[00:36:36] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:36:36] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:36:37] Speaker B: And then also going to counseling and rehabilitation. You have to go to a certain amount of things like that. Go through the programs when you.
[00:36:49] Speaker A: Of course.
[00:36:50] Speaker B: Especially with violent criminals.
[00:36:52] Speaker A: That's all. Yeah, once a week you're in therapy. Once a week for years.
[00:36:55] Speaker B: And at first, of course, I was really just like, man, these people are full of shit.
[00:37:04] Speaker A: Maybe I am.
[00:37:05] Speaker B: A lot of it is a bunch of bs. But then seeing these things, like, noticing that I have these same tendencies, and it might not be ultimate. Most people are, like, substance abuse and mental health issues.
Not that I've never had issues with substances or whatever, but that's never been my focus. It's always been kind of like, been.
[00:37:32] Speaker A: So you never been drug addicted?
[00:37:33] Speaker B: No, not really.
Played with lots of things.
[00:37:36] Speaker A: You were in charge of the drugs?
[00:37:38] Speaker B: For the most part.
[00:37:39] Speaker A: The drugs put money in your pocket.
[00:37:41] Speaker B: Yeah.
There's a balance to be had if it's going to make money for you.
So for me, it was more like an adrenaline junkie kind of getting out there.
[00:37:52] Speaker A: And the thrill of the crime.
[00:37:54] Speaker B: Yeah, the thrill.
[00:37:56] Speaker A: The police, all of that.
Stealing a car. Yeah, for sure.
[00:38:02] Speaker B: For sure.
[00:38:03] Speaker A: So much fun. Yeah, definitely.
[00:38:05] Speaker B: Not so much when you're young.
I wouldn't encourage that, by the way, to any young people.
[00:38:13] Speaker A: Don't do it again. We always shifting here, but I want to respect your time, and you've given us a lot to think about.
I want to hit the streets. I want to take you out on the street and do a ride along, and I want to expose you to what we're doing as a company and then what the nonprofit is doing, because coming from law enforcement, I realize that there's a lot of things when you're in law enforcement, you have a duty to act, a duty to make an arrest. Right.
If you want to get a homeless person into a shelter and they're packing their supplies and a gun falls out of the tent, man, everything s. Now.
[00:38:53] Speaker B: You have to use your. Yeah, you have to do your job at that point.
[00:38:56] Speaker A: Yeah. Right.
You're beholden to the public to do what you've been hired to do. Right. There's that duty, the duty to act in the security world and in the nonprofit world, there's more freedom there. There's freedom to really dive into someone's life and to be a daily resource for them in the community.
And obviously, I never even asked if you were. Were you homeless at one point ever in your life? I was, yeah. But like, on couches. Couch surfing.
[00:39:28] Speaker B: Exactly.
[00:39:29] Speaker A: So what we deal with, we don't really deal with. That's. I would say that's more transient. We're dealing with quantically unhoused people who live on the street, got nowhere to go, substance abuse, mental health, gang affiliated or trafficked.
[00:39:47] Speaker B: Right.
[00:39:48] Speaker A: And so we try to establish relationships with them on a daily basis so that when they are ready to transition to housing or on that better path, that we can get them there. Right. And we're contacting them three, four, five times a day. I want to take you out, show you what we're doing, and then get your feedback about what that looks like. Right.
We're going to possibly be in areas that might look like places you might have sold dope at. Yeah. And I want to get your take on, hey, that dude looks like he's selling dope. And I want to ask you, how do we approach that guy and say, hey, man.
[00:40:29] Speaker B: Yeah, we're not a cop.
[00:40:31] Speaker A: How do I get you on a better path? How do we approach these drug dealers, these young people that get pulled in?
[00:40:37] Speaker B: That's a difficult thing.
[00:40:39] Speaker A: It's very difficult. That's why you're here today, to help, because I think that we're trying to figure this out, and I think you're a key piece to that.
[00:40:46] Speaker B: Okay, well, I will give you my two cent for sure. I can tell you right off the bat that if those people are making a living, what they consider being successful for themselves, they're going to be really hard to help at that point in their life because they're hustling. They're doing it, and that's what they know how to do.
It's going to be difficult.
[00:41:16] Speaker A: What I hear you saying is when someone's in that life, right.
And these are the tools you have, it almost blinds you to a possible future. A different future.
[00:41:31] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:41:31] Speaker A: Because it's blinding.
[00:41:33] Speaker B: Yeah.
Not only do you not see that there is a possible future, like, you might hear that there's other possibilities out there, but that's not a possibility for you.
[00:41:44] Speaker A: Yeah.
Okay.
That's hard to hear, you know what I mean?
[00:41:50] Speaker B: Because it's for the addicts and the people that are on the other side. Those are the people that I would feel like you would. Might have more success.
[00:42:01] Speaker A: Yeah. In the areas that we're at, unfortunately, I feel like a lot of the drug addicts, they are purposely put behind on payments.
[00:42:10] Speaker B: Oh, for sure.
[00:42:11] Speaker A: Right. And then they're now kind of enslaved to the drug dealer. At least just a week. Yeah, a week.
We were talking $2 for whites, $3 for blues. The Chinese fake fentanyl pills.
[00:42:25] Speaker B: You smoke.
[00:42:26] Speaker A: Right. You crush up and smoke on foil. And so you get ten to 20 on those behind, and you're down fifty dollars to one hundred dollars. And all of a sudden now you're expected to go steal or sell something to pay. Work it. Yeah, you got to work it. Right. And so the resistance is, they're like, if I do this, they're going to kill me. That's the pushback we get.
[00:42:50] Speaker B: That's a genuine fear, because if we just take you to a shelter, a possible legitimate fear.
[00:42:56] Speaker A: They know people in the shelters. The drug dealers know. Oh, you just went to this shelter over there.
[00:43:01] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:43:02] Speaker A: Well, yeah, we sell dope in that shelter. Yeah.
[00:43:04] Speaker B: So do that in there.
[00:43:06] Speaker A: Yeah.
How do we navigate that?
[00:43:11] Speaker B: That's a tough spot, man.
[00:43:12] Speaker A: All right, we're going to hit the road with Q. We're going to go look at some dirt, talk around, maybe interview some folks. We'll see you in a little bit. Hey, man. So we're in the car. We're gonna do it. We're gonna ride around for a bit, gonna hook up with Eric Prindall, and then do some little patrol work.
[00:43:31] Speaker C: So we're just driving around, and we.
[00:43:33] Speaker A: Were talking earlier off camera, we're gonna bring it up again. But a lot of the drugs that are being sold right now, they're actually being produced in China.
And so they're being produced in China.
The Chinese give them to the cartels. The cartels will bring them across the border, and then they get cash, american money.
That cash is then shipped back to China.
They launder it, some of Macau, and then they sell them the chemicals, the precursors, and the drugs to then ship back to manufacturer and then ship back up to the states. And so a lot of these drugs that are resistant to Narcan, the new stuff on the street called trek, you get them in different color pills. So they'll say, I got whites, I got blues.
It's kind of a trick, right? Because it is. It's a whole new game. Whole new game. International economy.
[00:44:31] Speaker B: Yeah. Actually get people off drugs, they might have some kind of willpower to want something different.
[00:44:40] Speaker A: This has been the number one goal when it comes to any type of enforcement on our part is rather than taking direct interdiction or some type of interdiction that gets the drug dealer, we try to get the drug addicts into housing or into shelters. So just this last month alone, we've gotten more than 100 people to transition from living on the street in a tent to either a tiny home detox or some type of shelter or another type of living situation. Right.
And so that's kind of our aim is to take the user away from the drug dealer. Right. And to push those drug dealers into different areas or hopefully making a change.
[00:45:29] Speaker B: That is for positive is going to take work no matter what.
[00:45:36] Speaker A: So today we're not in the van. People know my van, and I thought that that would be a bad look for you.
[00:45:44] Speaker B: Thank you.
[00:45:45] Speaker A: Since we're blurring your face out and changing your voice, because I really want you to be anonymous, you know?
And so, yeah, we just have a randomly rented vehicle here that no one knows.
Nondescript plates. They're going to be burned out.
[00:46:06] Speaker B: Yeah, I appreciate that because you never know. I might run into somebody I know. And if I step out of a.
[00:46:12] Speaker A: Cop vehicle, you can't step out.
[00:46:15] Speaker B: I wouldn't be able to.
[00:46:16] Speaker A: We roll in sprinter vans because we want to have the look that we're like.
We're not trying to impersonate law enforcement, but we want to have the look as if we're a professional organization.
A lot of people mistake our vehicles for federal vehicles.
And this is not necessarily a bad thing.
[00:46:36] Speaker B: No, for me it would be.
[00:46:42] Speaker D: Yeah.
[00:46:43] Speaker B: Because you don't want the soldier. That's nickel and diamond anyway. That's not who you want to arrest.
[00:46:50] Speaker A: Well, we don't want to arrest anybody. Well, right, yeah, because we're not cops.
[00:46:53] Speaker B: Because you're not cussed.
[00:46:55] Speaker A: We want to increase the level of community engagement to bring about security.
[00:47:02] Speaker B: Safe community.
[00:47:03] Speaker A: Safe community. By being engaged. Yes. It's just like the civil rights movement. Right? You get on the street, you own the streets, then the hatred stops.
[00:47:15] Speaker B: Right.
[00:47:16] Speaker A: You can also counter or interdict or counteract criminal, even gang criminal violence and activity by being present, by owning the streets. Because there's eyeballs, right? People don't like eyeballs. Dudes selling dope. If there's people walking around having a time they don't want to see, they want a nice, quiet spot, they got.
[00:47:40] Speaker B: To go somewhere else.
[00:47:41] Speaker A: Yeah, because they're going to have 100 people stop by today.
On a slow day. On a slow day, bro. On a slow day. Exactly.
All right, we're going to head over. We're going to talk to Eric. Eric Prindall. He was for a larger security company, the number one executive protective asset in this whole region of America. He came to work for us because he believes in the mission. He really wants to make a difference, and he makes a huge difference. All about community engagement. So we're going to walk across over here and talk to him. All right. You'll see him from afar. He's a giant.
He's like six four.
[00:48:29] Speaker B: Got a presence.
[00:48:30] Speaker A: There he is right there.
[00:48:31] Speaker B: Oh, yeah.
Hard to.
[00:48:37] Speaker A: It's good to see you, bro. Good. This is my budy, Q.
[00:48:41] Speaker B: Pleasure to meet you.
[00:48:42] Speaker A: How's it going? Hey, let's step around the corner. Q was a shot caller in the prison, so we're just going to call him Q today. He's out here to give us his perspective of drug dealing, street life, street culture.
[00:48:53] Speaker C: What's going on?
[00:48:55] Speaker A: You want to tell them just a little bit about yourself?
[00:48:57] Speaker C: I was in the military for a while, did some pretty cool stuff. Got out, started doing mma cage fighting. Used some of that experience from the military and started doing security. Did ep pretty much around the world.
[00:49:11] Speaker A: And got into this. Okay, and why are you working for us?
[00:49:17] Speaker C: Because of him right here.
The things he's done is something you can really trust. You know what I mean? He's amazing guy.
[00:49:33] Speaker A: You checked out fortn, Washington today?
[00:49:35] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:49:35] Speaker A: How's it looking? Okay.
[00:49:39] Speaker C: Good for here.
[00:49:40] Speaker A: Good for here.
[00:49:40] Speaker C: Right now we're making a difference, though.
[00:49:43] Speaker A: So just a couple of weeks ago, we had an average of 100 people selling fentanyl at that location. Really open air fentanyl market. And so it's probably down to, what, 1015? Probably.
[00:49:58] Speaker B: That's a good thing.
[00:50:00] Speaker A: All right, well, we're here to ride with you. You're the talent.
[00:50:04] Speaker C: Let's just walk around the building and then go back to the vehicle that way, in case I don't want to be too far away.
[00:50:10] Speaker A: Yeah.
So the idea with the community patrol is we patrol the vehicles. We don't drive cars that they'll notice because with the security vehicle, they'll just stop selling dope.
[00:50:20] Speaker B: Right.
[00:50:21] Speaker A: We want to be able to kind of arrive on scene, sneak up and get there without being noticed. Right.
[00:50:26] Speaker B: What's your goal for that? Just to see how everything is normally interacting.
[00:50:31] Speaker A: Exactly.
[00:50:31] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:50:32] Speaker A: You get it?
[00:50:33] Speaker C: The baseline of the location.
[00:50:36] Speaker B: Yeah. So what is the goal for when you get there?
Say you see somebody that is selling drugs. What would the next move be for you and your people?
[00:50:52] Speaker C: For me?
[00:50:53] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:50:54] Speaker C: Mine would be to see if I can get them to do it in a different location, away from our properties, especially if kids are involved in the area.
[00:51:05] Speaker A: We're not the police.
[00:51:07] Speaker B: Right.
[00:51:07] Speaker A: That's not our job. Our job is to increase community engagement. When drug dealers see us, we want to get to know them, maybe even give them a cigarette. Hey, man, I know you're trying to make a living, but please don't do this on my property.
[00:51:20] Speaker B: Yeah. What would it take for you to relocate?
That's a good question to ask.
[00:51:25] Speaker C: I try to build respect and rapport with the individuals. That way you get more with sugar than you do vinegar.
[00:51:32] Speaker B: Hey, there you go.
[00:51:33] Speaker C: So I've always found that works better. Plus, you don't want to be making too many enemies down here. You'll end up.
[00:51:40] Speaker B: You are outnumbered.
[00:51:41] Speaker A: Yeah, very true.
Very true. There are a lot of shootings here. That's very true. Yeah.
[00:51:48] Speaker C: You can only be so vigilant.
[00:51:51] Speaker B: Right.
[00:51:51] Speaker C: And complacency kills.
[00:51:54] Speaker A: Yeah.
You used to sell dope on the block. Yeah. What do you want to be told, man?
[00:52:02] Speaker B: The unfortunate reality is if it was me and somebody say, you got to move.
I'm not moving. You're going to move before I move.
[00:52:11] Speaker C: That's kind of how you say it, right? You can say pretty much anything, but how you say what's really important.
[00:52:17] Speaker A: You don't want to give ultimatums.
[00:52:19] Speaker B: No, definitely.
[00:52:20] Speaker A: You want it to make it like it's their idea.
[00:52:24] Speaker B: Yeah. There's got to be some kind of option available that might seem attractive somehow, and so you got to present some kind of option that way that would be in their best interest and not anything violent or whatever. Like, they're going to be some kind of repercussion because that's going to, of course, give a pushback because, man, that's what they're waiting for.
[00:52:50] Speaker A: That's right.
[00:52:51] Speaker B: But if you actually are able to find that angle, one thing that works every circumstance.
[00:52:59] Speaker A: We get a lot of the drug addicts into shelters.
[00:53:02] Speaker B: That's a big business.
[00:53:04] Speaker A: Yeah, we kind of do that through a nonprofit, but a lot of security guards will usually make that first contact and say, hey, you want to get into a shelter? And so if someone has 10, 20, 30 regulars that are all living within.
[00:53:19] Speaker B: A couple of blocks, they're going to keep coming.
[00:53:21] Speaker A: Yeah, they're going to keep coming. But if you move ten or 20 of those into a shelter, they're going to be like, what happened to all my business?
[00:53:27] Speaker B: Yeah. So then they got to find.
[00:53:30] Speaker A: Exactly.
[00:53:30] Speaker B: No, that's the way to clean it up for sure. You got to start. If you remove the value for them from a place, they're going to try to find it better value somewhere else.
[00:53:44] Speaker A: Back to the car.
So when we're taking calls, we always want to be close to our vehicle because we want to be able to jump in the vehicle, get to the call as quick as possible.
[00:53:53] Speaker B: Yeah. People get to know you, they're going to know that you're not dangerous and you're not a threat. You're actually here to help.
That's a big deal.
[00:54:04] Speaker A: So do me a favor. Just take a quick look over your right shoulder and, you know, see how he put his hands behind his back on the street. You never point.
You never point. I like it.
Take a look at that group and just give me your assessment on this group. Right.
I thought the guy on the bike was a spotter at first, but he's not, right?
[00:54:28] Speaker B: Hard to say.
I mean, it could just be people.
[00:54:34] Speaker A: I'm across over here. That way it's less conspicuous. Right.
[00:54:38] Speaker B: So we're just talking, having a gorgeous conversation.
[00:54:42] Speaker A: Thank you for your service.
[00:54:46] Speaker B: Yeah, I mean, this seems like a lot of people on dog.
[00:54:49] Speaker A: Yeah, I guess he's crippled. He only uses front legs.
[00:54:54] Speaker B: Oh, interesting.
[00:54:55] Speaker A: So they walk together. That's cool. Pretty cool. Wow.
[00:55:02] Speaker B: Yeah. Looks like a lot of attics.
Some low level distribution happening. Yeah, that would be my guess.
[00:55:12] Speaker A: And so that's on our property. But if that was on our property, how would Eric go and talk to them?
What's the best way to engage that group? Your idea is to keep the property safe. You don't want drug dealing on your property. How do you do that? In a compassionate way that offers hope, but says, hey, I need you to work with me here. Though.
[00:55:37] Speaker B: Honesty is the best policy to be perfectly, crystal clear. Like, hey, first of all, how is everybody doing?
[00:55:46] Speaker A: That's right.
[00:55:47] Speaker B: Is everybody okay? Yeah. Is everybody okay?
Like, on a hot day, have some bottled waters, treat them like human beings.
[00:55:59] Speaker A: And we pass out a lot of water. That's right.
[00:56:02] Speaker B: Yeah, that's a good thing. Just be like, okay, if you see somebody that you know. Because if you walk down here, eventually you're going to know who it is, man. That would be. The thing is just to just go straight up to him. Like, I know you have business to handle.
[00:56:25] Speaker C: On your right.
[00:56:29] Speaker A: He's out here doing business.
[00:56:30] Speaker B: Right here.
[00:56:31] Speaker A: Yeah, he's out here doing business.
[00:56:32] Speaker B: Yeah, riding it on the Bike, for sure.
And that's fine.
Everybody got to handle their business.
[00:56:41] Speaker A: He's posted up on a corner. He just posted up.
[00:56:46] Speaker B: And I would just be totally honest with you if they let you even talk to them, because most of the time they'll probably just see if you get too close and they know you're going to come talk to them, they're going to walk away and you're never going to speak to them face to face.
[00:57:03] Speaker C: I don't usually have that problem. No, usually go up to them. Hey, my name's Eric. I work for the property.
Is there anything I could do to help you? They say, hey, do you have any cigarettes? I don't normally like giving them out. I have water. I have a couple of cigarettes, hook them up and then say, hey, can you do me a favor? I work for this property, and the people are calling and complaining all the time. Could you guys move along somewhere else? And usually nine times out of ten, they book because I give them respect.
[00:57:34] Speaker B: Well, and just tell them if you got business to handle, because you know that it's one thing to meet up somewhere, but keep looking and make it happen, because I know you got to make it happen. We all have to answer to somebody.
Whatever you're doing, go ahead and do it, but keep it moving and as respectfully as possible.
[00:58:02] Speaker A: A lot of activity, though, right?
[00:58:04] Speaker B: Oh, yeah.
[00:58:04] Speaker A: It's almost shocking, isn't it? I mean, there's more people on the street right now that are homeless, drug addicts, drug dealers than people just working, right?
[00:58:15] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:58:16] Speaker A: And this is every day.
[00:58:17] Speaker B: Everybody's.
[00:58:17] Speaker A: I mean, two to one or three to one.
[00:58:19] Speaker B: Everybody's hustling.
[00:58:20] Speaker A: The ratio is high, bro.
It's high.
[00:58:24] Speaker C: They have to hit that rock bottom till they want to get back out. That's a sad thing.
[00:58:30] Speaker B: That's the normal tale. Yeah.
[00:58:35] Speaker A: Just our presence with these cameras has cut that crowd down by what, half? Probably.
[00:58:39] Speaker C: Oh, yeah.
[00:58:42] Speaker A: Crazy.
We can keep walking. We'll finish the block. I don't want to. You know what I mean?
[00:58:52] Speaker B: Yeah, you don't want to post up too long.
[00:59:01] Speaker A: Yeah. That dude on the bike, the dark shirt, you saw him? He washed us until we turned the corner.
So that's his block.
[00:59:10] Speaker B: That makes sense.
[00:59:11] Speaker A: Making a movie documentary about houseless.
Are you homeless?
[00:59:17] Speaker D: Yeah, he knows me.
[00:59:19] Speaker C: How's it going, man?
[00:59:21] Speaker A: How's it going, bro?
[00:59:22] Speaker C: How are you doing today?
[00:59:23] Speaker A: Good. We're filming some of the documentary about the houseless population. Helping. Helping out the.
[00:59:28] Speaker C: What are you struggling?
[00:59:33] Speaker D: I'm not even sure not having any.
[00:59:47] Speaker C: Let me grab you some food, bro.
[00:59:49] Speaker A: I'm Alex, by the way.
[00:59:50] Speaker D: Hey, I'm Eric Murray. My friends call me Irish.
[00:59:52] Speaker A: Irish. Nice to meet you, Irish.
[00:59:54] Speaker D: I'm kind of planted into the sidewalk over here in etown.
[00:59:59] Speaker A: What brought you to Portland?
[01:00:01] Speaker D: I come from a way smaller town with a lot more judgmental, like the class four here between the higher class and the way more condensed over there. Oh, yeah, Washington.
Thank you.
I'm a lot more free down here, and there's a lot more help and a lot more programs for people who are on the street. So that's what brought me here.
[01:00:36] Speaker A: It doesn't look like you've been using.
[01:00:38] Speaker D: I've been using for ten years.
I take care of myself very much, though.
[01:00:44] Speaker A: Man. Like, you don't have any sores, right? What's stopping you from getting into a shelter and getting off the streets?
[01:00:50] Speaker D: I've been in this free step square dance to get my id and birth certificate card for a few years now, and for some reason, most of the programs that help with that down here haven't been able to successfully help me get my stuff.
I'm about to go sign up for counselor and see if I can get a case worker to help me with over a TPI. No, I was going to do join.
[01:01:15] Speaker A: Join. Oh, case program. Yeah, you can go.
[01:01:19] Speaker B: Definitely need a case worker.
[01:01:20] Speaker A: You need a case worker. You can go to TPI and get an id in a day if you already have a referral in.
[01:01:26] Speaker D: Yeah, I've tried that, but I brought the paper to go get it, and they still wouldn't give it to me. They told me that I needed an address or something. I was like, well, I have TPI as my address for mailing address, and they still wouldn't do it for me. It's weird.
[01:01:44] Speaker A: Damn it. Okay.
[01:01:45] Speaker B: Yeah, there is a dance that happens where in order to get id, you have to have an address, and then in order to get even an email or whatever.
[01:01:57] Speaker D: Exactly. It's all stuff that requires a phone and stuff.
[01:02:00] Speaker B: Right.
[01:02:01] Speaker D: I haven't been able to get a phone at all.
[01:02:05] Speaker B: You got to have the address before you get.
So then you're always stuck in a circle.
[01:02:10] Speaker A: Do you ever eat at Blanche house? Yeah, sometimes blanche during lunchtime. There's a lady there giving phones away. The phones are already activated.
[01:02:19] Speaker D: I've tried people that go up to.
[01:02:22] Speaker A: The park locks and do it. Yes. Same lady in the new minivan.
[01:02:25] Speaker D: You see, I tried to do that, like, a couple of years ago, and my phone got stolen and they won't.
[01:02:31] Speaker A: Give me a new one.
[01:02:32] Speaker D: I tried to let them know and see if I could talk to customer service, but I need a phone to do that.
[01:02:37] Speaker A: So you don't have a phone on you either right now? No. Damn, bro. That is rough, bro.
[01:02:41] Speaker D: I've been trying, actually, the past couple of days to fly a sign to fucking make, like, the $30 to buy one from target.
[01:02:47] Speaker A: Have you been to city team ever? Have you ever?
[01:02:49] Speaker D: I haven't yet, no. That's the resource I've been reserving for when I can. Actually, I'm trying to check into a detox here soon so I can get my head right. And then I was going to do city team so I can get a job for them.
[01:03:04] Speaker A: All right, well, if you see this guy Eric, you tell him you need city team. And Eric will call me or Spencer or one of the guys, and we'll get you into city team or detox right away. Okay? That's not a problem, bro. So if you see him, and when you're ready to make that decision, we will make that happen, 100%.
[01:03:22] Speaker B: Yeah, man.
[01:03:23] Speaker A: Irish. I'll remember you, bro. I remember you.
[01:03:26] Speaker D: My name is Eric, too.
[01:03:27] Speaker A: I got your name tattooed on mine.
Thank you for the food.
[01:03:31] Speaker C: Oh, no. Anytime, bro.
[01:03:33] Speaker D: Anything else you guys want to know, man, at least in the non incriminating.
[01:03:36] Speaker C: Scale, what's the hardest thing stopping someone right now from being homeless to getting the ball rolling? What do you think it is?
[01:03:47] Speaker D: I'd say the addiction and the fentanyl in the streets right now, like, the way it's got people roped, is probably the main thing holding everybody back, because it basically takes the spotlight for all the fucking. Every bit of what you were able to do in the day.
It basically just eats it all up.
It's hard. It's like how crack was in the. Know what I'm saying? It's like crack for heroin almost looking bad.
[01:04:13] Speaker C: If you have any advice for someone that's trying to get off or trying to help someone, what would you say?
[01:04:21] Speaker D: Go to your family, man. Just go find your family and the people that love you and surrender in the sense that you can, and just try to.
Just try to ask your family for help or ask the people you love for help or the people that love you for help. Stick with it. Don't run away.
[01:04:39] Speaker A: Yeah.
[01:04:40] Speaker C: Well, I appreciate your time, man.
[01:04:41] Speaker A: Thank you very much.
[01:04:43] Speaker C: Thank you, man.
[01:04:44] Speaker A: Appreciate it, man. Nice to meet you.
[01:04:45] Speaker D: Nice to meet you.
[01:04:45] Speaker A: Seriously. You find Eric and we'll get you into city team.
[01:04:50] Speaker C: Here's your stuff. Whatever you need, man. Let me know.
[01:04:52] Speaker D: I appreciate you.
[01:04:53] Speaker C: All right, brother.
[01:04:54] Speaker B: Take care of yourself.
[01:04:57] Speaker C: You too, man.
Be safe out there.
[01:05:06] Speaker A: Rough, bro? Yeah, how often do you see him?
[01:05:10] Speaker C: Probably once a week.
[01:05:12] Speaker A: Once a week?
I mean, he looks sober. He could get into a place right now. He could get into Bibi lakes right now.
[01:05:19] Speaker C: Last time I saw him, he could barely even stand.
Every time I see. Yeah, it kind of kills me.
[01:05:27] Speaker A: Completely sober right now, though.
[01:05:28] Speaker C: Yeah.
[01:05:29] Speaker A: He must have just woken up from last night, right?
[01:05:32] Speaker B: I'm thinking something, or it's coming down from his morning.
[01:05:36] Speaker A: Those two dudes, they both had four leafs, or they had clovers. You saw the clover?
[01:05:41] Speaker B: Yeah, they were affiliated.
[01:05:43] Speaker A: Wood pile. Yeah, for sure. So we just had some G's walk through. David did not like us anyway. I'd never seen those dudes either.
It looked like they just got out, too. That's the vibe I got possibly right. All right, we can keep walking. Let's stand in the shade.
[01:06:05] Speaker C: I find myself caring too much, and sometimes I got to stop that, because when I'm seeing kids young. The other day, I saw, like, a kid, maybe eight years old, smoking fentanyl with his mom. And it literally. I went in the car, and I had to take a minute for myself.
[01:06:29] Speaker A: We had a call. And this isn't all law enforcement. This is just shit that happens on the street, right? We had a call. A property owner lady called and says, hey, there's a kid over here in a tent. Kid's only, like, two years old, maybe not even two. Toddler. And the cops came, and they took. The sergeant, actually took the tent and just moved it two blocks over on another property and let the kid in there. And then the lady came out, was like. She called me. She was crying. She's like, I can't believe this. She had photographs of the tent. There were needles, open needles with heroin in the tent. Wow. Right? And foil and fentanyl. And she had a picture of the kid. The kid could have been two years old. And the cop just left the kid. She called the cop, and I think she recorded the conversation. She called the cop. What are you doing? You didn't call cps? And she goes. He goes, well, there's no crime.
There's no crime.
[01:07:26] Speaker C: Child endangerment.
[01:07:27] Speaker A: It's like, child endangerment. She's like, I have pictures of syringes and foil, and he's like, hey, let me do my job.
That was the conversation.
[01:07:35] Speaker B: That's the unfortunate reality.
They want them to kill themselves, and.
[01:07:40] Speaker A: They figure it's really unfortunate.
[01:07:42] Speaker C: I hope it's not that. I really do, because if it's that good.
[01:07:51] Speaker A: So that dude on the bike posted up, now watching us on that block. He watched us turn the block, and now he's watching us. See him with the dark shirt on?
That's his block.
[01:08:01] Speaker B: Yeah, that's his block.
[01:08:04] Speaker A: Well, should we go somewhere else? I mean, we can chill and wait for a call, but I know you have rounds to do.
[01:08:09] Speaker C: You want to go around JK grill? Yeah, I think we should move our vehicles over there, because if not.
[01:08:19] Speaker A: Okay, so we had to leave the last location because it was a little dicey. They kept looking at us, and I was concerned they were going to roll up and start getting license plates. So we're rolling to another area known for drug dealing.
Always got to check my background here.
[01:08:35] Speaker B: Yeah, well, that's the thing, is that.
[01:08:38] Speaker A: Eric's going to beat us up. He's already patrolling.
[01:08:40] Speaker B: They don't know who you are. You're just establishing your presence. That's when it can be dangerous.
[01:08:45] Speaker A: Because they don't know. That's right.
[01:08:47] Speaker B: For real.
[01:08:50] Speaker A: What's up, brother?
Good to see, man. You good?
[01:08:54] Speaker C: Yeah. All right, I'm going to probably see if this guy wants some water.
[01:09:00] Speaker A: What's up, big time?
Somebody eat the. Huh?
He's kind of famous.
[01:09:14] Speaker C: Hey, man. Hey, my name's Eric. I work for the property. I was wondering if you want any water.
Would you like any water?
Okay.
[01:09:25] Speaker A: What's up, bro? Remember me?
How you been, bro?
He works for me, man.
Yeah, bro, long time ago. Been here for a while. You still go by Juve? What's your name? Juice, right? Or juvenile juice. Everything good?
You need to get off the streets, homie. You need to get into a shelter, bro, because I'm going to tell you straight up, you're one of the smartest dudes I've come across on the streets, and I know that you know that.
For real, man. You're going to get caught up in some stupid shit out here, bro.
[01:10:05] Speaker C: You want all three? You gonna drink them?
[01:10:08] Speaker A: All right. Hey, man, watch yourself, bro. For real. This is Eric. Eric and I work together. When you're ready, bro. When you're ready. I know, juice, for, like, years. When you're ready to get off the streets, man, you find Eric, and I will find you a legit home, a legit shelter that can help you out and get you, like, real work, bro. Yes, I know. He's good people.
Yeah.
All right. We're shooting a documentary, so we're going to leave you alone. But for real, though, that go by stone. You can call me Stone, but Eric can help you out anytime. All right, brother.
[01:10:59] Speaker C: All right, man. Be safe, brother, please.
I'm going to head this way, see.
[01:11:03] Speaker A: If anybody's one love.
You know, I got no cash on me. That's what happens when you get married. Don't get married.
So I've known juice almost five years.
[01:11:20] Speaker B: Oh, really?
[01:11:21] Speaker A: And we took over a multifamily residential property here in the central district, which is like. There's like, I think three precincts for law enforcement. Central District is basically the side of the river. And so. Well, he was one of the big drug dealers, and at that time, he was not homeless.
Right. He was living with his mom, actually. This is like, five years ago, and he was only like 19 or 20 then.
[01:11:47] Speaker B: That's the thing.
[01:11:48] Speaker A: Yeah.
[01:11:48] Speaker B: Mom eventually kick you out because your stuff gets too hot, right?
[01:11:51] Speaker A: That's right. And he was selling dope there all the time. Selling dope all the time. We had actually boxed, like, twice. That's why he knows me, bro. We had actually boxed. I think I arrested him, and one time he tried to fight me.
Yeah. And so he's like, oh, shit. So I got mad respect for him. He's a good dude. He's just a drug addict, man.
[01:12:11] Speaker B: Yeah. That's the unfortunate reality that we see so much of down here.
[01:12:15] Speaker A: It is sad, man.
[01:12:16] Speaker B: Yeah. There's so many people with mental disabilities or on substance abuse. It's like, wow, there has to be.
[01:12:28] Speaker C: A piggyback and put a bunch of water in it.
[01:12:31] Speaker A: I know, right?
[01:12:31] Speaker B: Yeah.
[01:12:35] Speaker A: I need to bring my camel back.
[01:12:39] Speaker C: That's a good idea. Want water?
[01:12:44] Speaker A: So how do you get supplies?
[01:12:48] Speaker C: They get donated.
[01:12:49] Speaker A: Everything we have is donated to us. It's pretty rare. We spend maybe less than 200, $300 on supplies a month. Everything's donated from other nonprofits to our nonprofits. And then a nonprofit we work with gives us the supplies because they know what we work directly with. The helpless. Same thing with the narcan. We get all our narcan for free.
How's it going, guys, anyway? Long story short, doing okay, man.
[01:13:16] Speaker D: Best security company in town.
[01:13:18] Speaker A: Thank you. Love you.
You all need some water? He's got a couple left.
[01:13:26] Speaker C: I need to get resupplied.
[01:13:31] Speaker A: We also tap dance.
That's awesome.
I'm Alex.
[01:13:44] Speaker C: Thank you, guys. You guys stay safe.
This is a part of the job that I love.
[01:13:54] Speaker A: Oh, yeah.
[01:13:55] Speaker C: The outreach, helping people.
[01:13:57] Speaker A: It's making a difference, man.
[01:13:59] Speaker C: Seriously, man, sometimes when they're on the edge and they're feeling like shit, they're coming down and you give them some food or whatever.
[01:14:08] Speaker B: Yeah, that's the thing.
Well, I think it's good that you're establishing a presence in a positive way where people are not afraid of you. They're going to be more and more happy to see you.
[01:14:20] Speaker C: Oh, yeah. I appreciate that.
[01:14:22] Speaker A: We're going to post up here.
Yeah, man, this is excellent, man. Just a couple of months ago, there are 100 people around here. Wow.
Big difference.
[01:14:35] Speaker C: Well, I better get out here. I need.
[01:14:37] Speaker A: Hi, brother.
[01:14:37] Speaker C: We got hits real quick.
[01:14:38] Speaker A: Yeah, we're going to.
[01:14:39] Speaker C: Nice meet you, man. You be safe.
[01:14:41] Speaker A: Thank you.
[01:14:41] Speaker B: You do the same.
[01:14:41] Speaker A: God bless you, brother. If you need me, let me know. Right on.
We're going to split up and we'll go to the resource center, see what's.
[01:14:50] Speaker C: Going on over there.
[01:14:51] Speaker A: Okay. All right. We just wrapped up with Eric.
Really good stuff, right? I mean, we really helped some people out today, made some good connections. Hopefully that translates into something positive for their individual lives. We just put up here at the resource center. We're going to hang out with the loa folks, spend some. Terrence, we got some Jordans and some t shirts. Jordans? Street gold. You can do a lot with some Jordans on the street. Brand new in the box. So we're going to jump out and introduce you to them. Your cue.
I'm Alex. All right, cool.
Yeah, thanks for having my back, bro.
[01:15:32] Speaker B: Yeah, man, you already know.
[01:15:42] Speaker A: What up, gents? What's up? What's up, big tune, brother. Big doll. Big doll. Good to see you, bro. Sup, sir? How you doing, brother? Q. Nice to meet you, sir. Pleasure. Cool, man. We got some Jordans. Just street gold. This is brand new in the box, bro. Oh, yeah?
Nice. I know you. Street gold. That is street gold. Absolutely.
And then these are new lower shirts. We just stopped by for a little bit. I need one of them. So check out your shirts and I'll take what y'all don't want. Well, we can't fit the same size anyway. That's true.
[01:16:16] Speaker B: Yeah, for sure.
[01:16:17] Speaker A: Regular. Yeah, you take that because I can't fit which ones you all right? I guess so.
[01:16:23] Speaker B: Spencer's like, hey, man, this is two x right here.
[01:16:25] Speaker A: Hey, man. Oh, perfect. He talks to me. Hey, man. Hey, man, these shirts, man, they too thick. They're too thick. I can't wear them.
Practice. Listen, he had collars on our shirts. I'm like, how am I going to go on the street? Have a collared on my shirt? Come on, man. I have street cred. There ain't no way to have that. So now we got nice and stretchy athletic tees. Yeah. Dry fit. Dry fit. Beautiful.
That's right, man. All right. Cool.
How's it going today, bro? Ospin? Good, man. We've had a busy day. How many people we get in a shelter today? Only got two in today because they're full. They're full. I got two in early and then they're full. We got two families on a Friday because then you can't get anybody until Monday. Yeah, city team on the weekends. City team on the weekends. Actually, I didn't take that, so I gave out two city team vouchers. That's four. Okay. That's legit. So that's four, I guess you know Irish right here. So we had a good conversation with him and Prindall. He might be ready. He said he'll reach out in the next couple of days. He wasn't. Is he going to get a hold of Prindall? When he's ready, yeah. Okay. Where's he staying at? Over Washington? Okay. That's where we just. Yeah, we were just saying we stayed at Kane's over there. Oh, I wish you would have hit me up, bro. Canes chicken. They're not a sponsor, but they got good chicken.
Yes, they do. No, it's been good. So we've been able to help a few people. People have been a little edgy today. Yeah, it's the heat. It's hot. Everybody getting around, moving. It's getting a little edgy down there. Yeah, it's getting a little edgy, but other than that, they're cool with us. There's a little bit of tension in the air, for sure. I think everybody's kind of nervous with this new tent, this new camping band. They're not sure how that's going to be enforced, what they're going to be doing and what's happening. I'm like, hey, man, it'll be fine. It'll be fine.
Yeah, that's been good. I love you, bro. It's Friday. Love you, too, man. I got to go to Seattle for a basketball. Oh, yeah? Your boys got basketball? No, just my one son. Oh, nice. Trey's in Montana. Fishing. Yeah. That's hard life. Tough life. Yeah. What about you? What are your plans?
[01:18:23] Speaker B: I'm probably just going.
[01:18:24] Speaker A: I don't know, actually. I'm going to go to the gym.
[01:18:26] Speaker B: And probably work out.
[01:18:27] Speaker A: Okay.
[01:18:27] Speaker B: Yeah, that's probably about it, man.
[01:18:29] Speaker A: Which lady are you with this weekend?
Yeah, we'll get it. Thank you. All right, man. Okay. Appreciate it. Seriously, hook up with them. Let me know. I'll make it happen quick. All right. I'll get them out here the next day. All right. Good call on that, by the way. I appreciate you both. I couldn't do your job. Couldn't do your job, bro.
Every day. All right, man, we're going to head out. Sounds good. Love you, bro.
[01:18:54] Speaker C: All right.
[01:18:56] Speaker A: Nice meeting you once again, brother. Appreciate it.
So it's the wrap up, bro. Yeah, it's a lot, man. It is. You got 62 year old grandmas out here, right? You know what I mean? Next to people. Hardcore drug dealers, bro. Yeah. It's just crazy, right?
[01:19:21] Speaker B: It's nuts.
Definitely something going on.
[01:19:25] Speaker A: I mean, she probably had a little mental health thing going on, but she shouldn't be on the streets, right? Well, she should be on the streets.
[01:19:31] Speaker B: That's part of the broken system. That's why the problem is so complex.
You got mental health issues smashed right in together with substance abuse.
There's only so many resources and so many programs.
[01:19:49] Speaker A: It's crazy.
[01:19:50] Speaker D: It's insane.
[01:19:55] Speaker B: It's insane. Like how there's, like, the pyramid.
Holy crap.
[01:20:08] Speaker A: Let's roll. Okay, good. All right, cute. Appreciate you doing the ride along today.
I think I've learned a lot. Hopefully, maybe you picked up a little bit, too. I like to have you back, man, when you're ready.
It's awesome, bro. I know it's hard. We've been doing this for years down here and coming out of life, coming back in the day, being around it. How does that make you feel, man?
[01:20:37] Speaker B: I was surprised how I felt emotions when I used to feel so at home.
[01:20:46] Speaker A: It was just a place.
[01:20:47] Speaker B: I felt very strangely out of place.
It was really strange. I had different feelings coming up. Like vulnerability, man. When I used to feel like I walked into. This is where I was supposed to be.
[01:21:04] Speaker A: That's right. I was the one who people were.
[01:21:09] Speaker B: Going to take notice of and start asking me things.
[01:21:12] Speaker C: And here I am.
[01:21:13] Speaker B: Yeah, it was a totally different feeling.
[01:21:16] Speaker A: I wasn't quite prepared.
[01:21:19] Speaker B: A strange thing to step back in, even just for a glimpse.
This is still life out here.
[01:21:30] Speaker A: Still life, bro. It hasn't changed, man.
[01:21:32] Speaker B: No, it's increased even more. It was shocking to me to see how many people. And it's more blatant. It used to be more like clandestine people would put more effort into.
[01:21:49] Speaker A: It's out in the open, man.
[01:21:50] Speaker B: Yeah, completely.
[01:21:52] Speaker A: It's a new game, bro.
I appreciate you rolling out today.
Thanks for coming. Thanks for watching the ride along. We appreciate all you out there. More episodes coming close.
