Speaker 1: Today we're going to talk to a sheriff who gave
Speaker 1: this epic response to reporter's question about gun control. They
Speaker 1: are individuals out there viewing and declude some of you
Speaker 1: media to want to blame the one thing that has
Speaker 1: no ability or the capacity to commit the crime itself,
Speaker 1: and that's the gun. These individuals committed the crime. And
Speaker 1: what's the solution. I wish I could give you that answer,
Speaker 1: because this world would be a whole lot better. But
Speaker 1: the fact is, society fails it. We do not hold
Speaker 1: our juveniles accountable. We minimize their actions. School districts across
Speaker 1: this state and across this nation need to quit minimizing
Speaker 1: the actions of their students. Hold them accountable. That's where
Speaker 1: the failure is. That was Marion County Sheriff Billy Woods,
Speaker 1: and it's star refreshing to hear someone a leader like
Speaker 1: him to speak the truth, to give it straight to
Speaker 1: the media. He was holding a press conference about the
Speaker 1: murder of three teens in Marion County and what's so
Speaker 1: disheartening and sad about it is they were also murdered
Speaker 1: by three teens, including a twelve year old who's being
Speaker 1: charged for murder. So what is driving teens in America
Speaker 1: to commit murder and what can we do about it?
Speaker 1: Marin County Sheriff Billy Woods joins me in the Truth
Speaker 1: of Lisa Booth and he's next well, Sheriff. It's so
Speaker 1: good to have you on the show. Obviously, like many people,
Speaker 1: I saw your response to the media that you know
Speaker 1: pretty much went viral. It was nice to just have
Speaker 1: some honesty for ones. We don't get that from our
Speaker 1: officials these days, so I appreciate it. Well, You're more
Speaker 1: than welcome, you know. It's disheartening as well. I think
Speaker 1: one of the most things that upsets me is when
Speaker 1: I do watch leaders in law enforcement get on camera.
Speaker 1: It's most of the time I know what they're thinking.
Speaker 1: I don't you know. They don't want to offend people.
Speaker 1: They don't want to cross that line. I don't know why.
Speaker 1: But in order to be a true leader, you got
Speaker 1: to take the step forward and say something. Why do
Speaker 1: you think people are so afraid these days to just
Speaker 1: speak the truth? That's a tough question. Do you even ask?
Speaker 1: I mean to answer to be frank, I don't know.
Speaker 1: You know, I watch a lot of chiefs get up
Speaker 1: and do a press conference and talk about a deputy
Speaker 1: or an officer that's been shot in the circumstances, but
Speaker 1: they don't get up there and just speak it. I
Speaker 1: don't know, but I do what I do know for sure,
Speaker 1: it's damning. It hurts. It hurts us as a society
Speaker 1: to hear the truth, not to tell the truth, not
Speaker 1: to hear the truth, but not to tell the truth
Speaker 1: out there. That's literally you know, the point of this
Speaker 1: podcast is to try to you know, talk about things
Speaker 1: that people don't want to talk about, say things that
Speaker 1: people don't want to say, and really try to find
Speaker 1: the truth in this uh day and age that we
Speaker 1: live in, which is an interesting time, an interesting period
Speaker 1: of American history. You know, I wanted to ask you, inevitably,
Speaker 1: after these things, you know, of course we're going to
Speaker 1: talk about the shooting of the three teens, buy three teens,
Speaker 1: But inevitably there's always these calls to blame guns, We
Speaker 1: need gun control, you know, it's pretty much, I mean,
Speaker 1: we just always know what's coming. Why do you think
Speaker 1: that's always the response? Why do you think that's always
Speaker 1: where you know, the media goes, you know, some of
Speaker 1: the left go, or politicians go. It's the it's the
Speaker 1: main focus. It's the it's the thing that gets everybody's attention.
Speaker 1: It's the biggest drive for political to say, hey, let's
Speaker 1: get rid of those guns. And I didn't think we
Speaker 1: don't talk about the real thing is the real root
Speaker 1: of the causes, the causes of the problems is not
Speaker 1: the gun. You heard me say it, and you've probably
Speaker 1: have heard me in all my other interviews say it.
Speaker 1: The gun doesn't have the capability of committing the crimes
Speaker 1: the p and they say, if the gun was never
Speaker 1: created in society and we only carried around sowords, they'd
Speaker 1: be going after the swords, getting rid of the swords.
Speaker 1: But what everybody has to remember, and this is what
Speaker 1: I find, it's truly disturbing as American, and as time
Speaker 1: goes by, time is our greatest enemy, by the way,
Speaker 1: because the further we get away from seventeen seventy six,
Speaker 1: we begin to forget the reason and the purposes of
Speaker 1: the Constitution and why those men gave everything they had.
Speaker 1: And there's reasons why they have each of those amendments,
Speaker 1: each of those bills in there to our Constitution, why
Speaker 1: they're specifically written, especially the Second Amendment and that's a
Speaker 1: line that we should never cross. You know, we can
Speaker 1: come up with laws to regulate how certain things done.
Speaker 1: I don't totally agree to, you know, say that there
Speaker 1: shouldn't be any form of law out there to regulate
Speaker 1: in some shapeway or form. But the fact is, as
Speaker 1: we keep pushing that lineback, and I haven't done that,
Speaker 1: I'd be curious to know if anybody's ever done this
Speaker 1: history when we actually are it. How far back did
Speaker 1: we start pushing on this Second Amendment and creating our
Speaker 1: gun laws. We keep pushing that line back and back
Speaker 1: to a point that it's going to disappear. The gun's
Speaker 1: not the focus. I said it in that press ground.
Speaker 1: So the problem is this, our family and unit has
Speaker 1: been destroyed over the decades. It is diminishing as time
Speaker 1: goes by. Our school districts throughout this nation, not just
Speaker 1: just here and Marion, not just here in the state
Speaker 1: of Florida, but across this nation. Our school districts are failing.
Speaker 1: What they do is they minimize the actions of their students. Okay,
Speaker 1: and along with our justice system, our justice said, we
Speaker 1: have these diversion programs. And now I'm not against diversion programs.
Speaker 1: Diversion programs are good when they're applied to the right
Speaker 1: people that they need to be applied to. But the
Speaker 1: problem is that it's become the norm. It should be
Speaker 1: the exception, not the norm. And even in our juvenile
Speaker 1: justice and ours is stepping up to the plate and
Speaker 1: here in the state of Florida of changing the way
Speaker 1: they operate, changing the way they view the juveniles and
Speaker 1: their violations. You know, we have to hold them accountable.
Speaker 1: That's the way I learned. I was held accountable, and
Speaker 1: I sure enough knew what the consequences were going to
Speaker 1: be if I took a certain action, But the kids
Speaker 1: today don't. I joked around on TV a couple of
Speaker 1: months back talking about how I stole yo yo in
Speaker 1: kindergarten from church and my parents made me take the
Speaker 1: yo yo back apologize to the pastor. Of course, he
Speaker 1: sat me down, told me why stealing was wrong, and
Speaker 1: I had an impact on me because I was like, okay,
Speaker 1: stealings back. You know, I got it registered. And it's
Speaker 1: a dear point. You know, when we live in this
Speaker 1: society without consequences, of course, people are going to behave badly,
Speaker 1: and it seems like we're increasingly living in a society
Speaker 1: without consequences. Yep. Well, but you know, you asked me
Speaker 1: just before I just went on for a long period
Speaker 1: there on you is you ask me why they focused
Speaker 1: on the guns. It's the easiest thing to focus on.
Speaker 1: They don't want to admit to the problems of which
Speaker 1: they're doing and causing. They don't want to admit that
Speaker 1: there's a problem in the family unit. They don't want
Speaker 1: to admit to there's a problem that the judicial system
Speaker 1: unless their kid gets arrested, and there's always a problem
Speaker 1: with the judicial system. But it's all of those factors.
Speaker 1: They just want to ignore it. They want to focus
Speaker 1: on the one thing that they see as the problem,
Speaker 1: and it's the easiest one to get other people's attention,
Speaker 1: you know. And I do think you had mentioned the
Speaker 1: Second Amendment and the fact that we keep getting closer
Speaker 1: to the line of losing it, and I think that's
Speaker 1: probably the point. And then the intention behind a lot
Speaker 1: of that is that's where they want us to be
Speaker 1: where you know, we can't own guns, where we lose
Speaker 1: the Second Amendment, or you know, you look at some
Speaker 1: things that are happening, and unfortunately we live in the
Speaker 1: great state of Florida. But you know, you look at
Speaker 1: some of these liberal counties in Texas, for instance, and
Speaker 1: you've got the sergeant Perry found guilty, I mean basically
Speaker 1: all he did with self defense. You know, there also
Speaker 1: seems to be an effort making self defense illegal as well,
Speaker 1: leaving us essentially defenseless. You know, I guarantee if you
Speaker 1: talk to our founding fathers, that kind of would sound
Speaker 1: familiar to them. That's kind of probably what they dealt
Speaker 1: with when the reason the Second Amendment was put in
Speaker 1: because you had a king that said you couldn't have
Speaker 1: a gun, and that's what we're about to revert back to.
Speaker 1: And that's what you know, the majority of US citizens
Speaker 1: fear is by getting rid of that Second Amendment, what
Speaker 1: they're going to take away from it, and which is
Speaker 1: truly alarming. Truly, it's certainly scary. You know, we have
Speaker 1: definitely seen a massive loss of liberty, particularly after a
Speaker 1: COVID it really expedited a lot of it. Sadly, it
Speaker 1: seems like not everyone has taken notice. But I hope
Speaker 1: they don't start to notice before it's too late. In
Speaker 1: the instance of the murders of these three teens in
Speaker 1: Marion County. One of the teenagers who is facing charges
Speaker 1: is twelve years old. I think a lot of people
Speaker 1: are asking themselves what drives a twelve year old to
Speaker 1: commit murder? Well, like us when we kid, you want
Speaker 1: to fit in with the click, You want to do
Speaker 1: what the big boys are doing when you're that long
Speaker 1: young in a group. Think about it for a minute,
Speaker 1: except it's been taken to a whole new level. They
Speaker 1: want to be part of something. Here's what's disturbed, truly disturbing.
Speaker 1: I might get yelled at by my staff and that's
Speaker 1: all right. But what is truly disturbing is I watched
Speaker 1: the interview of the twelve year old. Okay, there, he
Speaker 1: had no how do I put this? He couldn't realize
Speaker 1: the decision in which he made and what effect that
Speaker 1: it had. It was I want to say callous, because
Speaker 1: it wasn't callous. He just it was nothing. There, absolutely
Speaker 1: nothing from a twelve year old. Now, people out like
Speaker 1: yourself and what you just mentioned, outside of this world
Speaker 1: is just astonished that a twelve year old could do this.
Speaker 1: To be frank, it's really not surprising to us in
Speaker 1: law enforcement. Do you know how many juveniles we come
Speaker 1: in contact on a regular basis committing crimes. That's what's alarming.
Speaker 1: And because all their crimes that they keep committing is
Speaker 1: eventually lead them to what his actions was. He's in
Speaker 1: a group with six people that are going out there
Speaker 1: to commit armed robberies. Okay, they didn't have the guns
Speaker 1: for self defense. They had the guns because they were
Speaker 1: going to commit armed robberies, armed burglaries, whatever else they've got,
Speaker 1: the criminal activity we're going to do. It was inevitable
Speaker 1: for them to go to this level. And the problem
Speaker 1: with at twelve year old, whether it be a home
Speaker 1: school or do judicial sympton, that kid was never held
Speaker 1: accountable for his actions. Let's take a quick commercial break
Speaker 1: more with Sheriff Billy Woods. You had mentioned that this
Speaker 1: may be, you know, sort of surprising to people of
Speaker 1: you know, of those of us who are outside of
Speaker 1: law enforcement. You know, you've been a law enforced for
Speaker 1: a long time. You've been serving your community, serving the
Speaker 1: state of Florida. Are we seeing more of sort of
Speaker 1: like this increased youth violence than when you first started
Speaker 1: working in law fulforcement or what kind of trends are
Speaker 1: you seeing as someone who has served your community for
Speaker 1: a long time. Oh, it is definitely increased since that
Speaker 1: thirty three years ago, since the first day. No, no,
Speaker 1: don't get me wrong. We had juveniles back then to
Speaker 1: commit in crime, but what you mostly saw was them
Speaker 1: stealing from the Jeffy store, stealing candy, bubble gum and
Speaker 1: something like that. Not to this level. And over the
Speaker 1: last three decades of my career it has just alarmingly increased.
Speaker 1: But also, and the reason I said it when I
Speaker 1: said it on camera, I've already said it and I'll
Speaker 1: repeat it again. I've also seen the family unit destroyed.
Speaker 1: I've seen the diversion programs come in not only through
Speaker 1: the schools holding them accountable, but also in the judicial
Speaker 1: system in the courts. And that's why no one's ever
Speaker 1: noticed is because it gradually occurred. And that applies when
Speaker 1: I talk about juveniles and the decisions we make in
Speaker 1: the consequences of the result of our decisions. Guess what
Speaker 1: decisions of our family unit, The decision in the courts
Speaker 1: and the decision of the diversion programs is beginning to
Speaker 1: catch up to us now. And what are those diversion
Speaker 1: plans or programs look like for people who are sort
Speaker 1: of unfamiliar with that. Well, I'll give you an example
Speaker 1: we have and which is ineffective. Don't get me wrong,
Speaker 1: I don't want people to think that I hate these
Speaker 1: type of just totally disregard these program We have what's
Speaker 1: called a willow work in lieu of arrest for our
Speaker 1: juveniles and they get and there's only certain things that
Speaker 1: crimes that they'll commit, whether it be possession of marijuana,
Speaker 1: a fight, the minor misdemeanor crimes that we can divert
Speaker 1: them through this program. They agree along with their parents
Speaker 1: that they go and do work out like picking up
Speaker 1: trash on the side of the road, or go to
Speaker 1: a park where they got to clean up or do
Speaker 1: certain work there, and they work with the county. Those
Speaker 1: are the diversion programs I talk about. But the problem
Speaker 1: is not the diversion necessarily. The diversion problem in and
Speaker 1: of itself. It's as you put everybody into that and
Speaker 1: you keep giving them our diversion programs and we give
Speaker 1: them like one or two chances. If this is your
Speaker 1: second time, you're not in this program anymore, you get
Speaker 1: to go to the next level. You know, are we
Speaker 1: becoming desensitized to the loss of life as a society. Now,
Speaker 1: all that depends on who you are. I think the
Speaker 1: kids are. Yeah, you know how you know why? You know,
Speaker 1: as much as I love video games, but think about
Speaker 1: the video games that they put out in the last
Speaker 1: three decades, and they become desensitized to that degree of knowing.
Speaker 1: You know, when I was growing up, the gun was
Speaker 1: putting in my hand. The first time I was shown
Speaker 1: by my parents and by my grandfather that if you shoot,
Speaker 1: this is what happens. Okay, I don't think that occurs.
Speaker 1: They desensitize them through the games in which they play.
Speaker 1: They make it it's a game, So it's a game
Speaker 1: to them. If they kill somebody on the computer, Well,
Speaker 1: why can't I do that out here in the world.
Speaker 1: I've I just started. Uh you know, I got my
Speaker 1: first gun not too long ago, and you know, I
Speaker 1: went through courses. I took it very seriously because to
Speaker 1: your point, it can't do a lot of damage, and
Speaker 1: so it's something that you know, should be taken seriously.
Speaker 1: And to these kids, they were able to get the gun,
Speaker 1: it was through robbery, is that correct? Robberies? Thefts they
Speaker 1: got they actually got them through theft a burglary, basically
Speaker 1: stealing it from a vehicle. There's also the one being
Speaker 1: sold through a snapchat. I'm not snapchat TikTok no, maybe
Speaker 1: it was that snapchat off of my head and please
Speaker 1: forgive me out for anyways, it was sold between there. Now,
Speaker 1: just because the transaction with a juvenile doesn't mean the
Speaker 1: person on the other end didn't steal it for somebody.
Speaker 1: Because here's the other thing. People with guns, they don't
Speaker 1: always record their serial numbers somewhere right, so it may
Speaker 1: get stolen and we don't even know it, or they
Speaker 1: made a report, we just don't have a serial number.
Speaker 1: So the gun in which a person may have obtained
Speaker 1: could be a stolen gun without them even knowing it.
Speaker 1: I think one of the challenges we face as people
Speaker 1: who believe in the Second Amendment is a lot of
Speaker 1: people in the media, and you know a lot of
Speaker 1: politicians are just uninformed about things, you know, like they
Speaker 1: don't they don't know what an air of fifteen really
Speaker 1: stands for, you know, they don't know that it was
Speaker 1: actually developed for civilian use, you know. So it's like
Speaker 1: the challenge and a lot of this is that the
Speaker 1: people who are calling for gun control the most are
Speaker 1: actually the least informed about guns. Oh absolutely, they're totally
Speaker 1: ignorant to the guns themselves. I can I can show
Speaker 1: you an expert it can take a revolver okay and
Speaker 1: fire it. And if I took out the video right,
Speaker 1: he can fire a revolver that when you hear it,
Speaker 1: you think it's a fully automatic weapon. So people like
Speaker 1: people in this world of crime, Dad, it's a fully
Speaker 1: automatic They ain't got a clue. They're ignorant to everything
Speaker 1: that's occurring here. Listen, that person that entered the schools
Speaker 1: to do these shootings could use a black powder gun
Speaker 1: just as much as an are AAR fifteen and get
Speaker 1: the same result. What are your thoughts on social media
Speaker 1: and its role in some of the violence we're saying,
Speaker 1: or you know, mental health issues among young people. You know,
Speaker 1: I worry that it has sort of created a social
Speaker 1: contagion of sorts. I totally agree. I think social media
Speaker 1: is probably the big it's one of our biggest problems
Speaker 1: in law enforcement because like the last year, last two years,
Speaker 1: what prompted our great governor to push the riot bill
Speaker 1: in which he did, was people will claim that there's
Speaker 1: like downtown city of OCALI here is my county seat,
Speaker 1: and we'll get social media people. We will start posting, Hey,
Speaker 1: I'm coming with a gun, and then the people start
Speaker 1: posting it will be gun. So you divert all your
Speaker 1: resources that you have to address this threat that's supposedly
Speaker 1: out there. And then when we get down deep into
Speaker 1: the dive, we find out that it's it's a false allegation.
Speaker 1: And social media for people to be able to just
Speaker 1: talk between each other without here, especially kids, that's part
Speaker 1: of the problem. Parents give them phones out here to
Speaker 1: just car blanche, use it however they want, so they
Speaker 1: could connect with people that they shouldn't be connected with.
Speaker 1: It comes back to the parents and not paying attention
Speaker 1: to their kids. But the social media is a huge
Speaker 1: problem in our society right now. Yes, it's an easy communication.
Speaker 1: I won't deny it. The fastest way I can correct
Speaker 1: a rumor in the fastest way I can get information
Speaker 1: out is my social media. That's the good side of it.
Speaker 1: Seeing over the year sort of a hostility towards our
Speaker 1: police officers, you know, what impact have you seen that?
Speaker 1: How of on you know, your colleagues. You know, it's
Speaker 1: a lot more reluctant for people to come into the profession.
Speaker 1: You know, thirty years ago, when I started application, you
Speaker 1: put your application on, you were on a list, even
Speaker 1: with a small department, of a list of two to
Speaker 1: three hundred people wanting to be into law enforcement. I
Speaker 1: struggle now after all the background checks. Is I struggle
Speaker 1: even having a list of ten to fifteen people. And
Speaker 1: that's going high on my scale right now. And people
Speaker 1: don't want to enter the law enforcement career because of
Speaker 1: what's in And here's what's alarming, I'll tell you, and
Speaker 1: I'm pretty sure any share for chief to get something
Speaker 1: to every day on my desk, every single day on
Speaker 1: my desk, I get a teletype message from some agency
Speaker 1: or some office in the United States where an officer
Speaker 1: has died in the line of duty. Now that ranges
Speaker 1: from a car accident all the way to being shot
Speaker 1: in the back and the head while their writing a
Speaker 1: report sitting in their vehicle, And that is truly alarming.
Speaker 1: When society has gone to the degree that we've got
Speaker 1: people out here who will just walk up to law
Speaker 1: enforcement and just basically execute them. And it's unacceptable, it
Speaker 1: absolutely is, and it's unacceptable even in the rhetoric that
Speaker 1: I think some of society uses towards a police officer,
Speaker 1: because you guys put on a badge to go out
Speaker 1: and keep our communities safe and keep us safe, so
Speaker 1: you deserve or respect, you know, sir, is there anything
Speaker 1: you'd like to leave us with before we go, any
Speaker 1: messages you'd like to leave parents with or or anyone listening.
Speaker 1: I would tell parents quit being trying to be their
Speaker 1: best friend and be a parent, because you're only You're
Speaker 1: not only doing your child to disservice, but you're doing
Speaker 1: a society as a disservice. Be a parent. I think
Speaker 1: that's a good message to send. Sir. Well, we appreciate
Speaker 1: your voice. I really do appreciate you speaking out and
Speaker 1: just being honest. I really think that we need more
Speaker 1: leaders like you who just tell it how it is
Speaker 1: and speak the truth. So Sheriff Woods, I appreciate what
Speaker 1: you do. Thank you for serving the state of Florida.
Speaker 1: And thanks for coming on the show. I really appreciate it.
Speaker 1: Thank you for having me. It was Mariann County Sheriff
Speaker 1: Bildy Woods from the Great State of Florida. I appreciate
Speaker 1: him joining the show and appreciate just the honesty, right.
Speaker 1: I mean, imagine if everyone just told the truth and
Speaker 1: was honest, we probably wouldn't be in as crazy as
Speaker 1: a society as we are today. I want to thank
Speaker 1: you guys at home for listening every Monday and Thursday,
Speaker 1: but of course you can listen throughout the week. I
Speaker 1: want to thank John Cassio, my producer. If we're working
Speaker 1: so hard to put the show together, please leave us
Speaker 1: a review, give us a rating on Apple Podcasts. Until
Speaker 1: next time,