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.
[00:00:53] Speaker B: I'm William McKnight. Everybody calls me Mac. I'm the lead instructor for night school. I train people in how to protect other people. I'm here today with Alex Stone with echelon. We're going to go on a ride along and talk about the changing emerging sector of private contract protection.
[00:01:12] Speaker A: Hey, this is Alex Stone. We're back at the ride along studios. Today's amazing guest, Mac McKnight. Mac, not only is he a Green Beret, right, he's also has done time in law enforcement. So prior to law enforcement and also an attorney. So if you're in any type of trouble, whether you're a hostage overseas, whether you need to be arrested or whether you've been arrested and you're looking for a good counsel, tonight's guest is the person who can handle all those situations and more. Mac, why don't you kind of introduce yourself to the audience?
[00:01:45] Speaker C: Sure.
[00:01:45] Speaker A: And give us a little bit about your backstory.
[00:01:48] Speaker B: The keyword is former. I'm former. All those things.
[00:01:51] Speaker A: Reformed.
[00:01:52] Speaker B: Yeah. I'm a reformed. Yeah. But I've done all those things in the past. What I do now is I teach. I train others in a variety of skill sets that were created by those experiences. Everything from hand fighting, pistol fighting, rifle fighting, to how to do so in a legally justifiable fashion.
How to engage people with verbal skills in an effort to deescalate or dissuade the necessity for using the hand fighting skills and the gunfighting skills and so forth. I'm a teacher now.
[00:02:28] Speaker A: Yeah. In fact, I would argue, and I think probably most would, in the industry, that you run the most professional program in the northwest part of America. Right? The Pacific Northwest.
[00:02:39] Speaker B: I'm humbled by that.
[00:02:40] Speaker A: It's humbling, but it's true. I've taken your courses and you're definitely above par, right?
[00:02:47] Speaker B: Well, I'm passionate about it. I think the key to success in anything is passion.
It's a holy calling. I mean, the ability it is to teach people how to protect others.
Wow.
What an opportunity. What an honor for people to come to me and seek out that knowledge. So I take it very, very seriously. And if that makes me ranked high, then so be it. But I do it. Honest to God, I do it because it's so necessary. Increasingly so in the world in which we live.
I was in Nova Scotia several years ago and somebody asked me what I did, and they said, you'd starve to death up here. He's right.
Our business, if you want to think of it in that fashion, is just off the charts. I can't keep up with the calling.
There are so many people in desperate need for protection, and therefore for people who have the skill set necessary to protect them, protect their loved ones, protect their businesses, their assets, frankly, just protect their ability to sleep at night, rest well knowing that the guard dog is on duty and sniffing the woodline.
The calling is just off the charts. Off the charts. And so it's keeping me very busy.
[00:04:09] Speaker A: I like that. So let's start there. Let's dive in. Today's topic is really about how the security industry has changed, right. And how we're adapting to that change. And so take us through the history of security going from the kind of where we're at now.
[00:04:25] Speaker B: Sure. Eighty s and ninety s. Security. The model was, as the name implies, secure to hold something fast to protect it, keep it secure. Typically gate guards at factories, checking in trucks as they come in, that sort of thing. That was the model upon which expectations of today are still built, upon which today's training modules are, unfortunately, still built. That security model, that began to change in 2001. With 911, we became what has many times been called a surveillance society, a security society, but it was predominantly against weapons of mass destruction, terror type terrorism spilled over a little bit into workplace violence, active shooter situations, but it was still very much a responsive and secure type mindset, reactive.
[00:05:24] Speaker A: Observe and report.
[00:05:25] Speaker B: Observe, report, react if there's an active shooter, that sort of thing. And then you put that in the context of a mental health crisis, which is symbiotic with a drug crisis. By symbiotic, what I mean is if you're not mentally ill when you start doing fentanyl three, four times a day, you soon will be.
[00:05:46] Speaker A: Yeah. And if you're mentally same token, mentally.
[00:05:49] Speaker B: Ill, unable to access mental health resources are, of course, self medicating. And for hundreds of years, we've been self medicating. Shouldn't say we in this context, but.
[00:06:01] Speaker A: We as a society, we as a.
[00:06:03] Speaker B: Society have been self medicating with alcohol. And then we've had. I passed my background, okay, I did too. But now it seems that the drug of choice is a combination of methamphetamine, fentanyl, and, of course, our old favorite, heroin variety of opioids. But that creates a symbiosis where it's very difficult to pull the layers back and determine, are we mentally ill first and then a drug addict? Are we a drug addict first and then mentally ill? And in some ways, it doesn't matter because the behavior seems to be.
[00:06:38] Speaker A: Yeah. So whether it's a drug induced psychose or true mental health psychosis, either way, as a guard, we're dealing with that behavior.
[00:06:46] Speaker B: Right?
[00:06:46] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:06:46] Speaker B: And unfortunately, as a guard, as you say, we're typically trying to deal with that behavior.
With mandated 14 hours of training.
[00:06:58] Speaker A: Yeah. Nothing.
[00:06:58] Speaker B: Right.
[00:06:59] Speaker A: Nothing. That's pretty standard industry wise.
[00:07:02] Speaker B: If they're armed, then we bump it all the way up to 38 hours of training.
And this crisis is partially occasioned by disfavor against the police in their greatest efforts to deal with the same problem with radically more training in all areas included, but not limited to crisis intervention.
[00:07:22] Speaker A: Yeah. CIT training.
[00:07:23] Speaker B: CIT training, absolutely. And that's not only not required, it's just not even on the plate. No.
[00:07:29] Speaker A: It's, like, for security. No, not even close.
I know that we engage in that. You do? There are some, I would say, upper level companies that have chosen to go that route, but no, for the regular guard out there, even for the regular police officer, you might go through a 25 to 40 hours program, but it's not regular. They're not training evolutions. You might go to training two weeks out of the year in some cases.
[00:07:57] Speaker B: Unfortunately, a lot of this depends on who the student is, I'm sure, and who the teacher is. But often it's one of those check the box things. Paige, you get your cit in.
[00:08:05] Speaker A: All right.
[00:08:08] Speaker B: I think, though, that those people that have been out there in whatever role, security, police, probation, parole, social worker, in any role, at some point, recognizes the need for training in how to handle these types of crises. But the rookies, no matter what flavor badge they're wearing, or if they're wearing a badge at all, the rookies, it takes them time to develop an appreciation, and many of them don't make it to that point. They just throw their hands up and say, whoa, I'm out of here.
[00:08:39] Speaker A: Right? Yeah. I think the last I saw, only 20% of people in law enforcement make it to retirement. Those are the numbers that I've seen last. And so we're losing four out of five, and it's a hard industry. The whole public safety industry itself. Right. I don't know any city that's actually staffed. According to FBI statistics, Portland staffed at 30%, roughly. And so this new emerging market for security is really filling the gaps of those missing emergency services. Right.
[00:09:14] Speaker B: In many ways.
[00:09:15] Speaker A: In many ways. So how do you envision the future of that? Looking for security guards? What do we have to do? What needs to change in the industry.
[00:09:23] Speaker B: To, I think first and foremost is expectations, a realignment of expectations.
If our expectation is that eighty s, ninety s model of security guard, then that's what we're going to be hiring. That's what companies are going to be contracting for. The training is going to fit that model. The equipment is going to fit that model.
So expectations have to change. And I think that can only come through exposure to reality, whether it's through a podcast such as this, scholarly articles, or frankly, in many cases, getting robbed, getting punched in the face. There's a variety of harder ways to gain exposure to reality, but the expectations have to change. And second, after that, I think has to be an alignment by the training institutions. With that amended expectation, I forget the exact number. There's several hundred hours of mandated state training to become a manicurist in the state of Washington.
[00:10:31] Speaker C: Really?
[00:10:31] Speaker B: And I forget the exact number, but it's in the hundreds of hours. And yet to become a security guard. 8 hours.
[00:10:38] Speaker A: 8 hours. Yeah.
[00:10:39] Speaker B: Wow. Yeah, wow. And typically, your average manicurist isn't getting punched in the face, isn't having to deal with somebody who's in a mental health crisis and or drug crisis, isn't dealing with somebody who just been stabbed, shot, et cetera, and probably isn't getting shot at in terms of expectations. When I tell people that 741 security officers were shot last year somewhere in.
[00:11:01] Speaker A: The United States, that's amazing.
[00:11:03] Speaker B: Their expectation is so out of sync with reality that they demand. Where'd you get that number? That can't be right. That's not possible. I didn't hear about it on CNN. It can't be right. Yeah, but it is right. 741 security officers shot last year. And again, I doubt that too many manicurists were shot at. A couple, perhaps, but the expectations have to change. The training has to change, and it has to happen yesterday.
[00:11:31] Speaker A: Well, what I've noticed in the market is that people pay if you deliver results, the only way to deliver results is to offer the type of security that will achieve those results. Right. And so we train and we train well to deliver results.
[00:11:48] Speaker B: Yes, you do.
[00:11:49] Speaker A: Right. And so we are already trying to make that change you and I. I. But think we're kindred spirits in this.
[00:11:55] Speaker B: I think so.
[00:11:56] Speaker A: And so what it comes down to me for a company, is that what we realized was there was no model available. We did not have the actual model. And I think because of my background, both in the military, like yourself, and also law enforcement, like yourself, and with Reed, my business partner, we were able to identify within a six month period, there is not a current business model in the security industry that can deliver results specifically in an urban environment.
When you're asked, basically, essentially, you're asked to fill the gaps of emergency services. Right. And so what we did was, we took a playbook out of your playbook. We took a play out of your playbook.
We looked overseas and said, well, how do you secure.
Mean, how do you secure the you? And so we looked at that CIA Oda Ngo kind of triangle, right? And we realized that what, quote unquote bad guys don't like the most is high levels of community engagement. Right?
Bad guys, whether they're warlords in developing nations or whether they're criminal gang members and some type of criminal element here in old Town Portland, they want to move in the shadows. They want to operate without any barriers, because they want to make money. There's some amount of power or money that's being obtained through these actions. And so we wanted to engage in such a way that increased the level of engagement in the community that made that area too many eyeballs. Right. Too many witnesses to see the activity. And so what we did was we worked with an NGO, and now we have our own.
We rapidly increased our intelligence services, our PI, and you know our top PI guy?
[00:14:08] Speaker C: I do.
[00:14:08] Speaker A: He's freaking phenomenal. And he helps you train in your classes, actually does a lot of your training.
[00:14:14] Speaker B: Yes, he does.
[00:14:15] Speaker A: And so we use him and several other PiS for intelligence services. So we run a steady.
I don't want to say this the wrong way. We keep track of every person that we contact, and we know who that is, and we make sure we have backgrounds on them. And we know that if they have a violent history, if they have a gang history, our guards actually know that when they're patrolling, so they're not taken aback by certain things. Right.
[00:14:45] Speaker B: Heaven forbid there should be anything wrong with gathering information about a radically dangerous environment. No, heaven forbid there should be anything wrong with collecting information on people who need help in an effort to determine who best can meet that need. Heaven forbid that we should be chastised for gathering information that's going to keep us safe and keep the people we serve safe. Heaven forbid. There's nothing wrong with that. Again, as you pointed out, you have replicated a model that has been successfully used in Afghanistan, Iraq, Somalia, Kenya, and so many other places. And that model is very, very simple.
What we're trying to do is in a power vacuum that has happened historically thousands and thousands of times, power emerges. And typically, that's what you described as the warlords. That's the essence of feudalism. Feudal lords can only exist whether they're on the streets of Portland or in medieval Europe, if they have a peasantry that is completely dependent upon them for safety and protection, as well as, of course, food. And frankly, I would argue, opportunity, opportunity to escape that caste system.
And so by inserting teams into Afghanistan, Iraq, Somalia, et cetera, et cetera, so many countries that are capable not only of providing that muscle, of course, but capable of providing those bags of food relief, readily edible food, as well as those burlap bags full of hope and seed corn for the next year's crop, can be seen not only as edibles, but really as hope for the next year.
[00:16:35] Speaker A: That's right.
[00:16:36] Speaker B: And that hope is absolutely a critical piece of breaking that feudal order.
[00:16:44] Speaker A: So what we discovered was that the majority of the crimes occurring, especially property crimes, are occurring. The people that are engaging in those criminal activities are in some way almost slaves of the drug dealers. Right. The drug dealers will give someone a week or two weeks worth of drugs, and next thing you know, that person is essentially your employee, your indentured servant. What we said was, if we're going to put a dent in the drug dealer's business, we need to get these people into some type of recovery service. So I think, gosh, this Friday alone, we got eight people into detox programs.
[00:17:20] Speaker B: Wow.
[00:17:20] Speaker A: Just in one day. Wow.
[00:17:22] Speaker B: Nice.
[00:17:22] Speaker A: Right? And we housed another five. That was just on a Friday.
[00:17:27] Speaker B: I'm just shooting off the hip here. Do you have any idea how many state compelled transitions into recovery have been made, in other words, mandated by the courts?
[00:17:40] Speaker A: I'm so glad you asked this. So I don't. But what I do know is since the passage of measure 110 here in Oregon, which was essentially de facto decriminalization of narcotics, at least on a personal use, but makes drug dogs and every. It makes the interdiction efforts impossible. Right.
Since the passage of measure 110, these golden handcuffed programs have decreased more than 90%.
[00:18:05] Speaker B: It's not surprising.
[00:18:06] Speaker A: So if you're not arrested for drug use.
[00:18:09] Speaker B: Right. Why stop using drugs?
[00:18:11] Speaker A: Yeah. Then the de can't pressure you to take a reform deal versus a prison sentence. Right.
[00:18:16] Speaker B: I was a criminal defense lawyer at the height of the drug war in late 80s, early ninety s. I was a law enforcement officer in the early 90s. I'm sorry, early two thousand s. And I've seen firsthand how the stick and the carrot approach will work to transition someone off of drugs. At the end of the day, people use drugs because they want to, right.
[00:18:44] Speaker A: Yeah. They're escaping reality for some reason.
[00:18:46] Speaker B: Eventually it becomes a I have to, but initially it's an I want to. And so to change that paradigm, you have to change their priorities with that carrot and stick. And the stick is necessary to push them into the carrot. And without that, then it's not surprising that there's not a whole lot of state compelled transitions into.
[00:19:09] Speaker A: No, those programs have, they've actually lost funding now because you know how government funding depends upon last year's usage of funds. And as those funds have gone unused, those programs have gone unfunded.
[00:19:23] Speaker B: Wow. What a shame.
[00:19:24] Speaker A: Yeah. And several detox centers have actually closed because of it. So now when someone wants to voluntarily go to detox, we have issues just getting space, just getting a bed in a detox center because we're rapidly losing those beds. I know.
[00:19:40] Speaker B: Shocking.
[00:19:41] Speaker A: Yeah, that, and obviously I mentioned to talk about the mental health thing as well. I was going to go back to the loss of hope when you're kind of that indentured feudal servant, but I want to skip that for a second and talk about mental health. So we talked about the symbiosis between drug use and mental health. So let's kind of put aside that discussion of loss of hope for that indentured feudal servant and talk about mental health for a little bit.
[00:20:06] Speaker B: Sure.
[00:20:07] Speaker A: Right. And the reason I want to talk to you about it, number one, because I know that you know what you're talking about, but I also know the audience doesn't have a lot of understanding as to how we got to where we're at right now. And so in 1972, the Supreme Court, O'Connor v. Donaldson, effectively took the ability away to house someone for long periods of time against their will. Right. And that effectively with the sunset clause. During the beginning of the Reagan administration, that Supreme Court decision led to the closing of almost every state institution for mental health nationwide. Nationwide. So we effectively now, so let's say that was roughly in the early 80s that Suntech Clause happened. So now we're at a point in our history where we have an entire nation of underserved individuals with no mental access to no mental health, specifically the poorer classes. Always, right?
[00:21:11] Speaker B: Always.
[00:21:12] Speaker A: And so doesn't it make sense that we have all this dramatic increase in school shootings? I mean, we have all these undiagnosed individuals. Of course, going back to the Batman shooting in Colorado, right? All the way to the Parkland shooting. I think the parkland shooting. The cop said as a juvenile, they had, like, almost 40 or 50 contacts with that individual, but none of them made mental health referrals.
[00:21:35] Speaker B: Right. There's typically warning signs, mental health warning signs. But if there's no one there to catch that until it's too late, then it's going to manifest itself in a violent way.
[00:21:48] Speaker A: Almost always.
[00:21:49] Speaker B: Almost always.
[00:21:50] Speaker A: So my concern is when the fire departments realized that these great commercial suppression systems were going to effectively stop schools and large factories from burning down, they had a crisis within fire, within the fire departments, and they said, we need to bring the EMTs into the firehouse, bring them closer to the neighborhoods. So they saw the future, and they were able to change their entire profession. They all became EMTs overnight. Right. And that's the majority of the work that they perform now. So when will law enforcement realize that this 1972 Supreme Court decision effectively made everyone that's in law enforcement a mental health professional?
[00:22:39] Speaker B: Great question. Great question. And there's two possible answers, and I'm not sure I know which is correct. On the one hand, one might suggest that it's the old salts, the old cops that have been around for a long time. They've seen the progression. They have the maturity and the wisdom to say, you know what? We need to recalibrate our institutional training, our institutional approach.
That's a possibility. On the other hand, one might argue that the old salts keep fighting the last war, right?
[00:23:13] Speaker A: Yeah. Right. Terrorism.
[00:23:14] Speaker B: And we see that again and again and again.
[00:23:16] Speaker A: Terrorism is the last war.
[00:23:17] Speaker B: So therefore, our hope would be to the younger generation, if you will.
The other problem we're seeing is the old salts.
The retirement statistics for normal, retiring out of law enforcement have spiked. A lot of early retirements these days. They just don't want to be a part of this anymore. And so increasingly, rookies are coming in, and that cadre of old salt FTO, it's not there anymore. And so we've got rookies training rookies in many, many cases. So as we turn to the younger generation with the hope that they're going to devise a new solution, I think that's a greater possibility. But they're going to have to recognize what the problem is they're going to have to stick with it long enough to recognize it for what it is. And in many cases they're not, they're backing away.
The other problem with the younger generation of law enforcement, we can extrapolate this into security, probation, parole, et cetera. But the problem with the younger generation identifying a problem and seeking institutional change is they don't know how to make an institution listen to them.
And so if you take an institution like the Department of Public Safety standards and Training, which we lovingly call DPSST.
[00:24:45] Speaker A: Which I'm on the board of, and you've been on the board.
[00:24:47] Speaker B: I've been on the board.
[00:24:49] Speaker A: So we love the institutions.
[00:24:51] Speaker B: We love the institution. The idea of the institution has done a lot for the public, for the state. Having said that, like many institutions, it is resistant to change, and there's many, many reasons why that is so, but it is so to push change through an institution like that is a several year process, and even then it doesn't sometimes come to fruition.
And I know that because I've been around a long time. I've been part of DPSST since 1990, 619 97, something like that. Really long time.
And so I can see that these young people who are recognizing the need for change, they are probably still naive enough to think that they can shoot a quick memo and some changes are going to happen.
[00:25:42] Speaker A: And that's not the case.
[00:25:44] Speaker B: That's not true.
[00:25:45] Speaker A: It's not going to happen.
[00:25:46] Speaker B: It's not going to happen.
[00:25:47] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:25:48] Speaker B: Not at the institutional level, no.
[00:25:50] Speaker A: So what needs to happen?
[00:25:53] Speaker B: Well, the institution that one and others seem to be relatively responsive to legislative reform.
Having said that, there's a symbiosis, there's a connection there between the institutions and the legislature that has to be interdicted in some fashion. But they are responsive to legislative reform. So it's possible to come from the legislature. I'm not optimistic for the reason I've just suggested and also because legislatures typically don't listen to the people that we're talking about pushing that change.
More likely it's going to come from within law enforcement or within, more likely, frankly, private contract security work, because security is not beholden to the institutions in the same way that every agency or department is. And so they can affect change.
[00:26:56] Speaker A: Yeah. When you're in law enforcement, I think I learned this from you. You're ex officio, you're an agent of the king. You're one of the king's men, and you're an agent of the government. You represent the ability to violate someone's rights legally, ethically, and morally to keep the rest of us safe. Right. But when you're in private security, you're more like a civil rights agent. You're actually out there trying to protect people's civil rights. Hey, you're a church that wants to worship. Hey, we'll protect you. So you can do that. You want free speech? You want to go to this establishment? We're going to protect that establishment. So you can go there.
[00:27:35] Speaker B: Yeah. Security is literally the agent of the principal. Whomever hires them, whether it's a person on, like, a bodyguard contract, a factory that needs the factory secured, and everything in between, security becomes the agent of that principal or master and derives their authority from that. And as a consequence, the likelihood of change is probably more likely in that context than in institutions. And I'm seeing that from my platform.
[00:28:11] Speaker A: I agree with you, by the way.
[00:28:12] Speaker B: Yeah, it's hard not to.
[00:28:15] Speaker A: I think both with the introduction of technology and also with innovative services, such as what we're doing at echelon, the.
[00:28:25] Speaker B: Innovation of service, the innovation of renewed expectations, because the expectation of security is sort of Paul Bart mall cop and to introduce a new expectation. Wow, talk about that seed of hope. Wow. How fast could that spread? It could become quite contagious. Really.
[00:28:49] Speaker C: Pretty.
[00:28:51] Speaker B: Where I recall a time when I knew by name literally every security company in the state of Oregon.
In many cases, I knew who owned them and so forth.
I have no idea.
Every week I hear of new companies, and what's happening is they're fractionalizing.
They're breaking and forming something new. And typically, the reason they're forming something new is because it's not for money or the guarantee of profit or anything like that. It's not because we don't like the color of your uniform. We want a different color. In almost every case, it's because they have an idea about how to present protection that's different from the way their former master has given them, and they want to try that. And so we're seeing at an explosive level the creation of multiple smaller companies, each filling its own niche.
[00:29:56] Speaker A: That's right.
[00:29:57] Speaker B: Right. And doing it their own way. And I can't help but believe that at the end of whatever that process is, some will rise to the top, some will certainly collapse, fall apart, break away, die, merge with others. But through that process, that normal sort of laissez fare of ideas type process, a new paradigm will emerge, and we're going to see some change.
[00:30:24] Speaker A: Yeah. And I think that once that new paradigm, I think it is emerging. And once it starts to coalesce, inform itself, law enforcement, these Boek 911 centers, they're all going to look at this from that public safety government standpoint and they're going to say, wow, that's innovative. We need that.
[00:30:46] Speaker B: They do.
[00:30:49] Speaker A: And that should drive the change. Right.
It's very common to say private sector drives change because there's less rules involved. Right, right. I mean, if you change, if you say, hey, this is how we operate as law enforcement in 2023, these are standard patrol procedures, and all of a sudden that all changes and a cop ends up losing his life, sure, those could end up in lawsuits. You could have all kinds of issues.
[00:31:15] Speaker B: Private sector is always faster at rebirth than institutions.
In Iraq, I was with military, I was with police, I was with civilian contractors. And when the military wanted to change something, say the equipment they're using, oh, my goodness, what a long process. Draft proposals, send it up the chain, it would go to Tradeok and then push down. And a year later, maybe you'd get a change.
The people who didn't have to do that, the SEAL teams, the ODAs, the civilian contractors, they would just change equipment next day. Yeah, they'd go on Amazon and say, I want ten of those and four of those.
[00:31:59] Speaker A: If they wanted a new vehicle, they would just go commandeer the vehicle.
[00:32:02] Speaker B: Absolutely.
The same is true with SOP changes. An SOP is a standard operating procedure, the way we do things. And in the military, if you want to change an SOP, as you know, good luck. Right. That ever happening before you retire? Because it has to go through so many different channels and it's likely to be disapproved. But again, in the context of ODAs, SEAL teams, civilian contractors, we could watch and see how the insurgents were setting their bombs up based on our tactics, our Sops. And as soon as we realize it, we just change. Right? And then we watch the same tactic employed by the military. Getting them killed. Getting them killed. Getting them killed.
[00:32:48] Speaker A: Those training evolutions aren't coming fast enough.
[00:32:50] Speaker B: Because they couldn't change with the authority allowed to change.
[00:32:54] Speaker A: Sad.
[00:32:55] Speaker B: So it is sad. And so, yes, the private sector is likely always to be ahead of the game relative to any kind of an institution.
[00:33:05] Speaker A: So that being the case, we should be leaders in this change nationwide, really, the security industry, we should expect to be introducing the next form of public safety. And what that looks like and what.
[00:33:20] Speaker B: That feels like, that's huge.
[00:33:22] Speaker A: It's huge.
I can't imagine that on my shoulders, but maybe on the shoulders of 10,000 security companies all at one time, maybe. And I think that if we become innovative in these areas that you mentioned, and we run to it and we go quickly to it, this will help out law enforcement. This will help out, I hate, say, even TSA in America, we're still using TSA, which basically is a 20 year old program now.
[00:33:51] Speaker B: Right.
[00:33:52] Speaker A: And nothing's changed in 20 years. You go to the airport, you do the thing, you do whatever this and that, and it's like, what's the next attack going to look like? Because it's obviously not going to be what it was.
[00:34:02] Speaker B: It will circumvent currently.
[00:34:03] Speaker A: It'll circumvent, yeah, exactly. And so we need more training evolutions. We need the public sector to learn faster and quicker. Right. So we kind of know where the future of public safety is going. What's the future of McAvick Knight? What does that look like?
[00:34:22] Speaker B: Well, someday I hope to retire in Texas with a good book, but I've still got some years left in me.
I'm at a place in my career as an instructor, as a trainer, where I have sort of a new mission, and that is to create the new generation of masters.
And I want the masters that are my apprentices now to have not only the skill set to perform, but also the skill set necessary to impart that knowledge to others. And it could be their wife, their girlfriend, their neighbor. In the case of a calamity, they have to be able to impart those skills to others. And then, importantly, is the ethic, or the ethos.
We call it night school for a reason. We don't just teach a skill set. We try to teach the ethic of the night. Protect the weak, serve the poor.
I want to impart that on the next generation of teachers. And it's my hope that when I'm down there in Texas drinking my retirement whiskey, that I can see that I've created these seeds of masters who are going out and teaching the next generation not only in the skill set, an ever changing skill set, but with that ethic, that ethos.
[00:35:43] Speaker A: That's great. I love that. And I consider myself your pupil. I consider yourself a mentor. You're the first person in this industry that I've been able to say, wow, this guy knows what's going on.
I walked into your class, and you're teaching regular guards security, quote unquote security guards, wound packing, gunshot wound packing. You're packing slabs of pork with gauze.
You're explaining what an israeli bandage is. You're going through everything and I think that's something that it's necessary and it's definitely needed.
Tell everyone again the name of your school and where they can find you.
[00:36:23] Speaker B: It's night school, like knights in shining armor type school as opposed to nighttime. And we're on the web. It's pretty easy to find us.
[00:36:32] Speaker A: Okay. Mack McKnight, night school. Check him out on the web. If you're in the Pacific Northwest and you're looking for serious training, executive protection programs, his training academy is phenomenal. It's what I would go through if I was looking for something. I know that there are tier one operators that come up here to do security work, and when they do, they go through night school. And that's who you want to use. I think we should find Bach and hit the road and actually get some patrol work in because Mack and I, we're not comfortable in an office setting. We need to unfurl ourselves and kind of loosen up and get out there and patrol. What do you think about that?
[00:37:14] Speaker B: I'm all a Twitter with anticipation. Let's do it.
[00:37:17] Speaker A: Okay, let's hit it.
Cool.
All right, so box done at the HQ. We'll go and hook up with him. So obviously, we're in the parole district now.
We're headed into Old Town. We have increase of cyclical crime and then we also have the decriminalization of narcotics. And then to add on top of that, we had COVID, which really took away people's third place. Their emotional investment in space or location outside of their home or work. Right?
[00:37:51] Speaker B: Sure. If you can't come downtown for dinner and drinks for an extended period of time, by the time you get back, it's been taken over.
[00:38:02] Speaker A: Broken windows?
[00:38:03] Speaker B: Yes, broken windows.
[00:38:05] Speaker A: And so when you don't have that level of engagement to take care, because people are no longer emotionally or financially invested in areas, other parties, criminal parties, become invested in those areas.
[00:38:17] Speaker B: Ain't nature abhors a vacuum?
[00:38:19] Speaker A: Yes, it does. We're going to jump out here and we're going to go into the office. We're going to grab Paul.
[00:38:25] Speaker C: Okay.
[00:38:32] Speaker A: No traffic laws were broken right during the ride along. Maybe a little jaywalking, but no traffic.
[00:38:43] Speaker C: Howdy. Hey. Hey.
[00:38:44] Speaker A: You know Mac. I do. Good to see long time LC checking reports.
[00:38:50] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:38:51] Speaker A: Awesome. Well, this is our team room here. Got that lodge feel, lodge feel. We want people to feel welcome and like it's their space. And we always keep water on ICE for the houseless community. We have like five caches throughout all of our neighborhoods. Of businesses that allow us to put refrigerators in there. So we always have cold water.
[00:39:11] Speaker B: Nice. Like an island boom cachet.
[00:39:14] Speaker A: As you can imagine, it's always hectic.
[00:39:16] Speaker B: Lots of hand sanitizer.
[00:39:17] Speaker A: Hand sanitizer everywhere.
[00:39:20] Speaker C: It's super.
[00:39:23] Speaker B: Let me grab one of these. Come to think of it, yeah.
[00:39:27] Speaker C: It isn't just COVID we're worried about, so it's super, super important.
[00:39:31] Speaker A: Are we good?
[00:39:31] Speaker C: I'm ready.
[00:39:32] Speaker A: Oh, let's go on, you guys.
[00:39:33] Speaker C: Let's do it.
[00:39:33] Speaker A: Awesome.
[00:39:34] Speaker C: Oh, wait, let's grab some water.
[00:39:36] Speaker A: That's a good idea. Let's get a case.
You want to come see the dispatch room? Yeah, might as well. This is shy. She's working dispatch today. Mac.
[00:39:45] Speaker B: Hello again. How are you?
[00:39:46] Speaker D: I'm good, how are you?
[00:39:47] Speaker C: Good.
[00:39:47] Speaker A: How's the shift going? Good.
[00:39:48] Speaker D: It's all right? Yeah, pretty busy.
[00:39:50] Speaker A: Any major calls going on?
[00:39:51] Speaker D: Right now we have two people on an EOS, so one at Pearl place and one urban renaissance.
[00:39:56] Speaker A: Okay. And the EOS is echelon Overwatch service.
[00:39:59] Speaker D: So it's like a little camera system to make sure things. All right.
[00:40:01] Speaker A: So we had a camera system that had overlay analytics. The analytics pinged and said, hey, we have a possible intrusion, a loitering. Sometimes that analytic was tripped. And so the guard is always just a couple of minutes away to deal with the situation, and then she's checking up on them, checking up on the analytics, checking up on the calls, making sure everything's squared away. Perfect.
Thanks, Shai. See you later.
[00:40:25] Speaker C: Have a good night.
[00:40:26] Speaker A: You too.
All right, so we're leaving the office. We're all piled in the van. We're going to patrol for a little bit. At the beginning of patrol, it's good to hit your district, hit your neighborhood. That way you can kind of see what's going on, get a feel, get a vibe of who's out there working, who's not, who's out in the tent, and then kind of go from there. So we had an embedded New York Times reporter with us, with Bach and a couple of other team members. They're going to be writing an article about us. The guy's Pulitzer Prize winner. He did the ride along as well.
[00:41:07] Speaker B: I'm genuinely looking forward to seeing that article.
[00:41:10] Speaker A: He is a national reporter. He only does, like, ten articles a year, and he's choosing to do one article on how we're affecting the community here in Portland.
[00:41:19] Speaker B: Fascinating.
[00:41:20] Speaker C: Mac, that video of the gal getting stabbed in the neck is straight ahead and left at the brick.
I've narcanned I don't know how many people right here at this intersection.
[00:41:29] Speaker A: So we had a fatal stabbing, and Bach was.
I saw the body cam fell right into his arms.
[00:41:34] Speaker C: I mean, I would honestly go down almost to this pioneer courthouse square and then turn around and come back up.
[00:41:41] Speaker B: I'll tell you, the state of this city just takes one's breath away.
[00:41:45] Speaker C: Yeah, I want to check on that guy right there to the right, right now. This guy.
Public domain.
[00:41:51] Speaker A: Yeah, check tin four.
Let me park and we'll catch up with you all.
I'm a park. We'll catch up with them.
[00:42:06] Speaker C: You okay, buddy?
[00:42:07] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:42:08] Speaker C: You look like you weren't breathing very good.
[00:42:15] Speaker B: There you go. Now you're not stuck.
You should know that, man. It's an old cop trek.
[00:42:21] Speaker A: I know, right?
[00:42:23] Speaker C: Essentially, when we're running around like this, you can find people that are asleep, which would be, like, on your side in the recovery position, that kind of thing. Technical term. Or you'll find people in a position where it doesn't look like they're breathing at all. Right. So they'll overdose, and they will fall forward in a manner that crushes their abdomen and their lungs.
[00:42:41] Speaker A: So we were driving. That guy was forward.
[00:42:43] Speaker C: He was forward, had his hands down. There was evidence of narcotics used around him. There's tinfoil torches, and there was a.
[00:42:48] Speaker A: So you saw the narcotics use. You saw possible his lungs were not in a place where he can inhale.
[00:42:55] Speaker C: It was that he was hunched so far forward that his shoulders were at the same level of between his knees.
[00:43:01] Speaker A: That makes sense.
[00:43:02] Speaker C: So he was really crushed down. And it's because of that. It's like, you need to check on people like that, make sure they're doing okay. So I walked up, tapped him on the shoulder, said, hey, is everything okay? He sat up, and his eyes were pinpoint. His pupils were just completely constricted, which, again, is another sign of opioid use.
[00:43:18] Speaker A: So you saw constricted pupils?
[00:43:20] Speaker C: Yes.
[00:43:21] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:43:21] Speaker C: Yeah, like pencil tips.
[00:43:24] Speaker A: He was coherent. He could have a conversation.
[00:43:26] Speaker C: He was. I offered him a cigarette. He said, no. Offered him other resources in connection to that, and he basically just said, no, thanks, I'm good.
[00:43:32] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:43:32] Speaker C: But essentially just community checking on him, making sure he's good, and here we are. Can't help him any more than that if he's not willing to.
[00:43:40] Speaker A: Yeah, that's all you can do, bro. All right, well, let's roll back, jump back in and patrol.
[00:43:45] Speaker C: I'm going to say hi to this crew here because they're always getting complaints about it. How you doing, fellas? Hey, I got a favor to ask of you. If I toss a couple of cigarettes your way, can you guys, like, maybe find a new spot?
I appreciate that. That's very gentlemanly of you. Would you guys like a cigarette?
[00:44:01] Speaker B: Toast.
[00:44:02] Speaker C: All right. Sounds good, man. I get it.
There you go. Got one for him. Thanks for being cool, fellas.
[00:44:11] Speaker A: Yeah, thanks, bro.
[00:44:11] Speaker C: I appreciate it.
[00:44:16] Speaker A: Oh, she wants a cigarette. Yeah.
Can you pass the cigarette up? Of course. Yes, you can.
[00:44:28] Speaker D: I appreciate you.
[00:44:29] Speaker A: Oh, anytime. We're here for you.
My name's Alex.
I work with loving one another.
[00:44:41] Speaker D: I've been told that there's a place for people I can talk to who will refer me to the shelter.
[00:44:46] Speaker A: That's right. That's us.
[00:44:47] Speaker D: Okay. I really don't want to be out here anymore.
[00:44:50] Speaker A: What's your name?
[00:44:51] Speaker E: My name is Shantay.
[00:44:52] Speaker A: Talk to this man right here.
[00:44:54] Speaker C: Howdy.
[00:44:55] Speaker B: Hi.
[00:44:55] Speaker C: Hey, honey.
[00:44:57] Speaker D: Really, I'm tired of being outside.
[00:44:58] Speaker C: I don't blame you.
[00:45:00] Speaker D: Yeah, I got raped out of a year ago.
[00:45:06] Speaker C: Where have you been staying lately?
[00:45:07] Speaker D: I'm just outside and I stay awake at night.
[00:45:10] Speaker A: Okay, you got a tent or you?
[00:45:13] Speaker D: I've had a tent. Someone stole it.
[00:45:15] Speaker C: Okay.
[00:45:16] Speaker D: And so I sometimes couch surf, but most of the time I just walk around at night and stay awake. And then during the day, I go to the shelter and try and sleep for a few hours there and then back out here.
[00:45:27] Speaker C: Okay, so it's 05:00 right? Now. At 03:00 there's typically a cut off of when we can get people into a shelter. Okay.
What I can do is I can get your name and information right now. I can give that to the right contact person. Do you have a cell phone?
[00:45:44] Speaker D: My mom said that I gave him her number and she said that if.
[00:45:48] Speaker C: They tell you what, let's have you cross the street and we'll go talk out there.
[00:45:52] Speaker D: Okay?
[00:45:52] Speaker C: Yeah.
That way you're not standing in the street.
Okay. I'm Michael.
What I can do for you is if you want, I can put you in touch with the housing coordinator for us. Okay. What we can do is in tomorrow morning, you'd have to make it one more night. Okay. But tomorrow morning I can say, hey, follow up with our housing people for the city and see if we can't get you into shelter that day. Okay? Now, you said you were a victim of crime, right? When did that happen?
[00:46:26] Speaker D: It was about this time last year. I was raped from the corner of Broadway and Burnside and sleeping in a tent with someone who invited me and stayed there and then raped me on my sleep.
[00:46:37] Speaker C: How long ago?
[00:46:38] Speaker D: It's been about seven months.
[00:46:42] Speaker C: Six or seven months.
Okay. Have you been safe since then?
[00:46:46] Speaker D: No.
Fight myself out of situations where men will say, you can come stay, and then I get there and then the same situation where they're trying to have me have sex with him.
[00:46:58] Speaker C: Oh, goodness.
Where did you stay last night?
[00:47:03] Speaker D: Last night I stayed outside.
I was out just walking around and they find a group of people that are out, too, and awake and just kind of all hang out together.
[00:47:13] Speaker C: Okay, so let's do this. What I can do is I can get your name and information, so we can get your name on the list and then coordinate how to pick you up.
[00:47:22] Speaker D: Okay.
[00:47:23] Speaker C: The next thing is to figure out how we can have somebody meet you tomorrow to follow up with that, because that's a huge gap. If I get you a bed and can't find you, what are we going to do?
[00:47:32] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:47:32] Speaker D: If they call my mom, I can check in with her and she's available all the time.
[00:47:38] Speaker C: What do you need? What would help you best?
[00:47:40] Speaker D: I would find somewhere to stay tonight.
I've been out here. I can be out here. So I can really get out here one more night if I know there's something coming.
[00:47:48] Speaker C: Okay. So you can make it one more night and be okay?
[00:47:52] Speaker D: Yeah.
[00:47:52] Speaker C: Okay. All right, sweetie, what's your name?
[00:47:54] Speaker D: Shantay. It's B h a.
[00:47:56] Speaker C: Okay, hang on a second here. Where do you get food? You get food at Blanchet?
[00:47:59] Speaker D: I get food at Rose Haven. In Blanchet?
[00:48:01] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:48:01] Speaker C: Okay. Can you make a plan to meet us at Blanchet tomorrow morning? Yes, we work at Blanchet.
[00:48:06] Speaker D: Okay.
[00:48:07] Speaker C: We'll be at Blanchet. Be somebody wearing one of these patches. Okay. Kind of dressed like me. Might be a little bit different. Okay. But I'll give you my name and you tell them. Hey, I talked to Michael. Michael said we're going to try and get you into a shelter tomorrow morning. Okay? Now, you can get there breakfast and I need to move.
[00:48:29] Speaker D: What time breakfast starts?
[00:48:30] Speaker C: Breakfast starts at 630. Now, we got to make sure that we don't lose you here. Okay?
[00:48:36] Speaker D: I am so tired of being out here.
[00:48:39] Speaker C: It's not a safe spot.
[00:48:40] Speaker D: No.
[00:48:41] Speaker C: Okay.
[00:48:41] Speaker D: Had my thing stolen from me so many times. I just got assaulted about a week ago. I punched in the I eye, had to make police report.
[00:48:48] Speaker C: Okay, so you can be at Blanche tomorrow at 630. Okay. All right. So I will put this information in. We're going to try and get you a shelter. Okay? But the city shelters are essentially there's no luck right now. Can you be there at five or. No? At 630 in the morning. Okay. All right, sounds good. Then what I will do is I will make sure that we pass this on. And you also said Rose Haven, right?
All right, sounds good. All right, sweetheart. You're welcome. Do you want another cigarette for the road? Okay.
All right. There you go. My name is Michael. Okay.
Yeah, we got to make the dots come together for you. Okay. All right.
[00:49:39] Speaker A: So we can kind of hear what was going on.
[00:49:41] Speaker C: Yeah. Did you guys hear at all what was happening here? Yeah.
[00:49:43] Speaker A: You want to give a recap real quick?
[00:49:44] Speaker C: Yeah, sure. So essentially the shelters are closed? Oh, yeah. They're not taking new people in. She's vulnerable. I talked to her about some other options. She said she was going to connect with her mother, but she said that she can make it one more night. She's just absolutely sick of being out here.
[00:50:01] Speaker A: And so she's agreed to go to Blanche House.
[00:50:03] Speaker C: Blanche house. Tomorrow morning, first meal service. Connect with us there. I'll have the information already passed along to the right people so that they can get started on it already.
[00:50:12] Speaker A: Okay, good.
[00:50:13] Speaker C: At that point.
[00:50:14] Speaker A: What's her name?
[00:50:15] Speaker C: Shanti. Very nice lady. Yeah.
[00:50:18] Speaker A: Awesome. Good job, man. Good work.
[00:50:20] Speaker B: Really excellent work, Mike.
[00:50:21] Speaker C: Okay.
[00:50:23] Speaker A: Shelter for her will be easy tomorrow.
[00:50:27] Speaker C: She was very confident about her ability to stay the night overnight. She's also a veteran out here.
[00:50:33] Speaker A: I was going to almost suggest putting up her hotel, but.
[00:50:36] Speaker B: Oh, my.
[00:50:37] Speaker C: Yeah, she's not brand new out here. We can take this right up into old town and that'll give me a good lap.
It is a touch on the docile side tonight. Right now.
[00:50:51] Speaker A: You want to check on that guy?
[00:50:52] Speaker C: Yeah, I do, my man.
[00:51:02] Speaker A: Yes, sir.
[00:51:03] Speaker C: You doing okay, buddy? Hey, buddy, you doing all right? I just worked security, brother. Do you want a cigarette?
What's going on out here?
Oh, you know what that is? That's a protest.
Yeah. Here you go, boss.
[00:51:20] Speaker A: Really?
[00:51:21] Speaker C: Yeah, that's going to be a protest. Happens this protest season.
It might be PETA, but there was an animal activist organization coming down to protest the selling of.
[00:51:34] Speaker A: Activists or some type of activity. Direct action. Protest, right. Animal rights activity going on.
[00:51:42] Speaker C: Yeah, they had a post come out of it a while ago. That's not law enforcement.
[00:51:49] Speaker A: We just stopped real quick. A guy was nodded off. We didn't know if he was overdosing. We woke him up pretty easily and then kind of did a little looking down the street. That's a protest going on.
Go straight into ultra?
[00:52:03] Speaker C: Yeah, sure.
[00:52:06] Speaker A: So you want to talk to these folks?
[00:52:07] Speaker C: Yeah, sure.
It looks like they've been posted already. You see the notice on the building over there?
[00:52:15] Speaker A: Alex.
[00:52:19] Speaker C: What'S up, man? Hello.
How are you guys doing?
[00:52:27] Speaker A: It's hot as hell today. It's going to get hot next week, too.
[00:52:30] Speaker C: Doing the same. Doing the same.
[00:52:32] Speaker A: You all need some water?
[00:52:34] Speaker C: You guys need water?
[00:52:35] Speaker A: Get some water.
[00:52:37] Speaker C: Yeah, we can get you some.
Yeah.
[00:52:40] Speaker F: How about some housing, man? Some tricks and the treats, man of the trade, man. Give out eulogy and everybody get a grade.
Hey, man, what's your name? Everybody got a good place.
[00:52:53] Speaker C: It would be nice, wouldn't it? Yeah, I know the city has shelters. A lot of them are largely full.
[00:52:59] Speaker F: I'm an outside guy.
[00:53:00] Speaker C: What? Really?
[00:53:01] Speaker F: Hell, yeah, man. If I get any type of rash.
[00:53:03] Speaker D: Or anything, a man.
[00:53:07] Speaker F: I can't stop itching, man. So I'd rather be outside in the elements, right. To be inside in the combined area like that. Right to where that's like radical control.
[00:53:18] Speaker C: Yeah, no problem, man. You want a cigarette?
[00:53:22] Speaker F: Yeah, I do.
[00:53:23] Speaker A: So when we're out on the streets, we also do documentaries about being homeless.
[00:53:27] Speaker C: We roll our own.
[00:53:34] Speaker A: Right?
Yeah, we're good.
[00:53:38] Speaker C: We don't need to do anything anybody don't want.
[00:53:40] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:53:40] Speaker C: Here. You want a cigarette, chance?
[00:53:43] Speaker A: Or sticking your old lady catch you flipping or what?
[00:53:50] Speaker C: Public business. I like to have my face.
[00:53:52] Speaker A: Yeah, bro.
[00:53:53] Speaker C: Yeah. I don't blame you.
[00:53:59] Speaker A: All right.
[00:54:02] Speaker C: In the shadows. I'm better in shadows.
[00:54:04] Speaker A: I agree, homie.
[00:54:05] Speaker C: To be in the light. Because God will tell, once you get out of the shadows, you can't come back.
[00:54:09] Speaker B: That's what I said.
[00:54:11] Speaker C: Everything online is printed, bro.
All right.
Hey, how are you doing?
[00:54:20] Speaker A: Where's your road dog, man? Where's your buddy, your homeboy with the other bike?
[00:54:24] Speaker C: How's day treating?
[00:54:25] Speaker B: How are you doing, bro?
[00:54:28] Speaker C: All right. If you guys are good, man, I'm going to motor on. Okay?
[00:54:31] Speaker A: Do you all have a plan on moving somewhere? Are you all going to need help?
You all know Spencer, right? Big Spencer. He comes by with the black truck. He'll help you move if y'all need a.
[00:54:46] Speaker C: It's all good, bro.
[00:54:48] Speaker D: Can you write his number down?
[00:54:51] Speaker A: Yeah, too easy.
[00:54:54] Speaker C: You got it. You guys got enough food and water and all that, right?
[00:54:57] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:54:58] Speaker C: Okay, sounds good. Looks like you guys just went through some narcan. You guys need some more?
[00:55:02] Speaker A: So every building you see is a client?
Every building?
[00:55:07] Speaker C: What's that?
You guys don't have any more? Okay. How long are you guys going to be here? You're going to be here for the rest of the night, just kind of like hanging out. What if I bring you guys a box later tonight? Okay. All right. Thank you.
[00:55:22] Speaker A: I'll tell Spencer to come by tomorrow with the truck.
[00:55:26] Speaker C: Wow, dude.
[00:55:27] Speaker B: Tell you what, I've always respected both of you guys, but.
[00:55:31] Speaker C: Yeah, man, come on in.
[00:55:32] Speaker A: We're now.
[00:55:33] Speaker B: Yeah, you're doing the Lord's work.
[00:55:36] Speaker A: Thanks, brother. Trying, man.
[00:55:38] Speaker B: Absolutely.
[00:55:42] Speaker A: All right, so we just rolled up. Obviously there were a couple of dudes selling dope, right in alcove of one of our properties. And we were able to make contact.
And it's that self contact. Handing out some water bottles, trying to get some names, using street language. They're probably looking at Mac, thinking he's a detective.
Plays in our favor. Looking at the film crew, thinking, what's going on here? Is that even a real film crew? Right? They're looking at him thinking, is he really a security guard? All these things will always go through people's minds that are on the street, that are engaged in criminal activities. And so within a two, three minute period, they had all ended. Right. And then they're going to be forced to move. He doesn't have a tent. He just has a cart with all of his stuff on it. But he's been posted and so we're going to try to get him into a shelter. So I'll have Spencer come by tomorrow. Maybe he'll be ready to go. Right.
[00:56:37] Speaker B: And posted means given notice.
[00:56:39] Speaker C: So the green sign on the building to your left, back over your hard left shoulder is a notice from the city. The city comes by and says, hey, this is an illegal campsite. We're going to clear it out. And you've got this many days to do so. And so one of the obstacles that people who are out here are facing is the fact that that sign being posted is the notice that the city gives. But there's nothing saying that a fellow homeless person who's angry won't tear it down. And then the day comes and let's say you're out getting breakfast or lunch at the Blanche house. You come back, the whole sidewalk is completely clean, and you had no idea, and all of your stuff is gone.
[00:57:18] Speaker B: And when you say all their stuff is gone, this is probably their most precious survival items. And, like, family heirloom type stuff.
Refugees in Iraq would grab a suitcase.
[00:57:31] Speaker A: That's right.
[00:57:32] Speaker B: But it's like their marriage records. The last known photograph of their parents'wedding, that extra set of false teeth, stuff like that. And that's what they would grab on their way know, become refugees.
[00:57:46] Speaker A: I'm just coming down here so he can see the pit from the higher elevation. So this is an urban refugee site, right?
[00:57:53] Speaker C: Mac, I've seen rifles coming out of this encampment. I watched a. I think it was a Honda Accord and a gal exit the vehicle, remove a rifle from it, and take it to a tent here. I showed it to law enforcement, and I got little interest, but that is what happened.
[00:58:14] Speaker A: Do you have any water?
[00:58:15] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:58:17] Speaker A: Y'all need some water?
What's up, Jazzy? Hey, what's going on? How you good folk? You? Good. I can't complain. Need a water? Thank you. Always appreciate what you do for it. Hey, man, I'm just trying to make the world a better place.
Doing great job, man.
[00:58:35] Speaker C: Awesome. Carry on, bro.
[00:58:37] Speaker A: We'll be back through tomorrow.
[00:58:38] Speaker C: See how clean.
[00:58:39] Speaker A: Love you all.
[00:58:40] Speaker C: This is not used to be this clean. This was a highly populated encampment right here to the left, but apparently it just got cleaned out. Now we've got a new visitor who was swept from some other location and is now here.
[00:58:55] Speaker A: You all need some water?
[00:58:56] Speaker E: Yes.
[00:59:02] Speaker A: How you been, sister? Remember I talked to you, like, a month ago under the 405? Is your husband still in jail?
[00:59:08] Speaker E: Yeah.
How do I get a hold of you? Because right now I'm in an RV.
[00:59:16] Speaker A: Do you have a phone?
[00:59:18] Speaker E: Kind of, yeah.
[00:59:19] Speaker A: I'm on the streets every day. This is what I do.
[00:59:23] Speaker E: Do you know where 60th and Halsey is?
[00:59:24] Speaker A: I do, yes.
[00:59:25] Speaker E: I'm the only RV that.
[00:59:27] Speaker C: What RV?
[00:59:28] Speaker A: What does it look like? White.
[00:59:29] Speaker E: It's the only one there.
[00:59:30] Speaker A: 60Th in Halsey. Okay.
[00:59:32] Speaker E: Not 60th. 71st in Halsey.
[00:59:35] Speaker A: Okay. That's out there. All right. 71st in Halsey. Yeah.
[00:59:37] Speaker E: That's where I'm at right now.
[00:59:39] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:59:39] Speaker E: Because when you saw me about. It's been actually almost two months.
[00:59:44] Speaker A: Yeah, it's been a while.
[00:59:49] Speaker E: I stopped seeing down here because fucking every day I was being peeled left and right.
[00:59:54] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:59:55] Speaker E: At least now it's only once a week.
[01:00:00] Speaker A: That's hard.
[01:00:01] Speaker E: This last time was the biggest blow. I've taken my whole entire purse.
[01:00:09] Speaker A: Yeah.
[01:00:10] Speaker E: My money, my everything.
[01:00:14] Speaker A: Yeah.
[01:00:16] Speaker E: Where are you going to be tomorrow?
[01:00:17] Speaker A: Same place. Blanche house right here.
[01:00:19] Speaker C: Breakfast.
[01:00:20] Speaker A: 06:30 a.m. We'll be here for breakfast at Blanche. Right here.
[01:00:24] Speaker E: I'm not down here that early. Do you do referrals?
[01:00:27] Speaker A: Yes.
Spencer will be here in the morning to get people referrals into a shelter tomorrow.
Okay.
[01:00:38] Speaker C: Yeah.
[01:00:38] Speaker A: Be here, Blanche, for lunch. If I'm not here, someone will be here. Okay, y'all take care.
Always a lot going.
Know there's not enough help as you can see.
[01:00:53] Speaker C: Roll North Park Fox, would you maybe hang a right and then go out to the North park walks?
[01:00:56] Speaker A: North park walks?
[01:00:57] Speaker C: Yeah, hang a right. I want to go check on that guy behind us.
He did not look great.
[01:01:06] Speaker A: This is when we were getting to a shootout with these people.
[01:01:09] Speaker C: We don't want that. Howdy. I'm Michael.
Yes, please. I work for the property. Would you like the cigarette?
Cool. You doing okay?
[01:01:19] Speaker F: Yeah, I got to go back to the detox probably to get in fast track.
[01:01:22] Speaker C: Are you interested in treatment?
[01:01:24] Speaker F: Yeah, I went to treatment last summer and it helped me out pretty good, actually.
[01:01:27] Speaker C: Okay.
[01:01:28] Speaker F: Yeah, I'm probably going to go back to detox and give him the treatment.
[01:01:30] Speaker C: Okay. Yeah, well, that would be really encouraging, man. It'd be pretty solid if you could. You said it's Paul, right?
[01:01:35] Speaker B: Yeah.
[01:01:35] Speaker C: I'm Michael. Good to meet you, man. Are you getting all your needs met in terms of food and stuff?
You know you can get food at Blanche house, right?
Do you? No judgment for me, but are you interested in having me help you get into treatment?
[01:01:51] Speaker F: Yeah, that'd be cool.
I know where to go to get into detox.
[01:01:54] Speaker C: You do? Can I tell you something a friend would tell you? Yeah, that looks like a way out.
[01:02:00] Speaker F: Yeah, totally.
[01:02:01] Speaker C: And a friend would tell you that that's going to be really tough and it's going to hurt, but a way out is a good option. You know what I mean?
[01:02:08] Speaker A: Yeah.
[01:02:08] Speaker C: And I mean, it's going to require work.
[01:02:10] Speaker F: I realized I don't have any friends out here on the street, so it's not like there's nothing holding me out here. Oh, that's cool.
[01:02:17] Speaker C: They're handrolled, bro.
Yeah, they're handrolled.
[01:02:22] Speaker F: I'm not getting any younger, so turnpoint. I got to try to get myself up out of here.
[01:02:27] Speaker C: Well, your whole life's ahead of you, man.
[01:02:28] Speaker F: Yeah.
[01:02:30] Speaker C: You've got what's in front of you, right? You don't have what's behind you. So if you focus on that, man, maybe you can find some motivation to move out. Move on?
[01:02:37] Speaker F: Yeah, really? I want to get a job again. And I did really well. When I had my apartment, I had a job.
[01:02:42] Speaker A: I was doing really good.
[01:02:45] Speaker F: So I want to try and get back to that.
[01:02:47] Speaker C: Well, look, hang in there, okay?
[01:02:48] Speaker F: Sorry to fucking.
[01:02:51] Speaker C: Bro. Look, man, look, I'm more interested in seeing you move on in life, okay? You got a fight ahead of you. You have a fight ahead of you, right? And I mean, I'll be rooting for you, right? I don't know you, you don't know me. But the reality of it is being out here isn't helping you a bit. It isn't doing you a bit of good. Nobody's your friend out here and you don't have any self identity in terms of what you've accomplished. Right? Like, it's really tearing up your heart. Good to meet you, man. All right. Good luck indeed. Take care.
[01:03:29] Speaker B: Yeah, I really want to help you guys any way I can.
[01:03:33] Speaker C: Your mission is just, we're literally saving lives out here. Absolutely, literally. And we're neck deep in it and we're not looking around and find a whole lot of friends.
[01:03:42] Speaker A: Two weeks ago, one of our guards was driving, looking right outside the window. Guy gets shot, face blown off not.
[01:03:48] Speaker C: Far from where we were. I knew him, the homeless guy, I knew him. A lot of us did. We were shocked. We were like, oh, my gosh, he died. But these are people we have relationships with, right? Look, man, we ain't shellfish. There's plenty of work to do.
[01:04:01] Speaker A: Yeah.
[01:04:02] Speaker B: And the crazy thing is, I've heard a million people, million guys like us, stand around and say, you know what?
What am I going to do when the zombie apocalypse happens?
[01:04:12] Speaker C: Right?
[01:04:13] Speaker B: Yeah, motherfucker. This is the zombie apocalypse. It is happening. And what are you doing?
[01:04:19] Speaker C: What are you doing? Right, but all we did just now was self initiated. Everything we did. No, absolutely everything we did.
[01:04:25] Speaker B: And I've been watching your rap, man. You got a great rap. I mean, a great rap.
[01:04:30] Speaker C: Well, I mean, it's not scripted.
[01:04:32] Speaker B: No, it's obvious that you're passionate about it. I mean, you are a believer. You are a true believer and you are exactly where you need to be right now.
[01:04:40] Speaker C: We can do so much damage out here for good. We can really help people. We really can.
[01:04:47] Speaker A: So you came on the ride along.
I always like to take people into the studio because that's where we could throw around ideas.
We could talk about, oh, we're transforming communities.
Oh, we're engaged in personal transformation.
[01:05:02] Speaker C: Right.
[01:05:03] Speaker A: But this is where the rubber beats the road. We're on patrol in an urban environment where we have thousands of people engaged in smoking Sentinel.
You can get high for five days for the entire day for $5.
Whites are one dollars, blues are two. Right now, you crush them up and.
[01:05:22] Speaker C: It'S like getting, or less than that, actually.
[01:05:24] Speaker A: And that's a better hide than $20 of heroin three years ago.
[01:05:26] Speaker C: I've heard it. Fifty cents. Fifty cents. It's getting dirt cheap.
[01:05:29] Speaker A: So this is a major crisis.
[01:05:32] Speaker B: Today.
[01:05:32] Speaker A: We saw one police officer going on a break. I'm not trying to hit the police. I was the police. They're understaffed. Yeah, why don't you?
[01:05:40] Speaker B: I'm impressed.
[01:05:41] Speaker A: Tell us your thoughts.
[01:05:42] Speaker B: Radically.
[01:05:43] Speaker A: Give us an after action review.
[01:05:45] Speaker B: After action review. What you're doing is impossible. It can't be done, but you're doing it.
[01:05:50] Speaker C: But you're doing it.
[01:05:52] Speaker B: And I'm a smart guy, business wise, law wise, all kinds of smart. And I'm telling you it can't be done, but you're doing it.
[01:05:58] Speaker A: We're doing it.
[01:06:00] Speaker B: That's number one. Number two, what you're doing is, in my opinion, it's God's work and it's dirty work, and nobody wants to do God's work. Nobody wants to get dirty. Right. So you're doing what nobody wants to do and it has to be done.
[01:06:14] Speaker A: Well, I appreciate you coming out today.
[01:06:15] Speaker B: I appreciate you.
[01:06:16] Speaker A: I know you're saying all these great things about us, but I know Bach and I know myself. We look up to you.
[01:06:21] Speaker C: Exactly. Respect you and thank you.
[01:06:23] Speaker A: You're the person that you've been leading this movement before there was a movement. And I want to thank you for humbling yourself, coming on the show, talking to us about your career. And I'm going to take your feedback to the team, and I'm going to try to make this better than it already is.
[01:06:44] Speaker B: Well, I'm on board.
[01:06:46] Speaker C: Awesome.
[01:06:46] Speaker B: Whatever you need, any place, anytime, anything.
[01:06:50] Speaker C: Okay. Always nice to see you.
