Speaker 1: This is cut to It with Steve Smith Senior at
Speaker 1: production of The Black Effect and I Heart Radio. I'm
Speaker 1: Steve Smith Senior and I'm Little John, and this is
Speaker 1: cut to it. Good do it, Good do it. Let's
Speaker 1: getting down to do it. Good do it. We asked
Speaker 1: the questions you always want to know, but no one
Speaker 1: ever asked, Let's cut to it. You ain't heard am
Speaker 1: about it? Then we're about to let you know. It's
Speaker 1: all the very podcast. All right, j D, Chris, thanks
Speaker 1: for coming on to cut to a podcast on this
Speaker 1: special episode. WHOA whoa? Come on, and I old j
Speaker 1: D and Chris. J D Williams and Chris. I gotta
Speaker 1: bring up my notes now Walters, Chris Walters before five
Speaker 1: million episodes. That's the first time ever. So that's that's cool.
Speaker 1: Uh yeah. J D Williams Chris Walters from Charlotte Mecklenburg
Speaker 1: Police Department. We're happy to have you on and just
Speaker 1: have some good conversation today. So our first segment is
Speaker 1: called get iced Up. Go ahead and give them the
Speaker 1: first one. You two ready a ready? All right, officers,
Speaker 1: buckle up, bout the cups. I'm ready, all right, each
Speaker 1: of you and YouTube decide rock paper sisters on who
Speaker 1: goes first. What's the last book you've read? Two Nashi coats.
Speaker 1: It was the last book. Impressive what you got, Chris,
Speaker 1: the Bible? Read it every day. You should have said,
Speaker 1: you should have because I usually I know it's the truth,
Speaker 1: but it's the lazy truth. It's hard work being dedicated
Speaker 1: to the Lord nice before the lightning because he said
Speaker 1: it with a week to two points for the reversal.
Speaker 1: I've known you for almost twenty years. Curse hmm, I'm
Speaker 1: leaving footsteps all right, um j D. What did you
Speaker 1: want to be growing up as a kid? Growing up,
Speaker 1: I wanted to be uh okay, underwater photographer. Yeah yeah,
Speaker 1: where that stand from? Um? I used to love watching
Speaker 1: animal shows as a kid, and I swore out I
Speaker 1: was gonna be the next job Cousto or something like that. Wow, okay, yeah,
Speaker 1: what about you, Chris? You gotta think of a lie
Speaker 1: now because you can't talk that. You can't say I
Speaker 1: want to be a cartoon A lesson as cliche as
Speaker 1: it is as law enforcement. And uh. The reason that
Speaker 1: is is because I was seven years old at home,
Speaker 1: single mom and by myself. She was of work and
Speaker 1: I'm flipping through the channel's watching TV and the show
Speaker 1: Cops is on, so I stopped. I look at it,
Speaker 1: and it immediately enthralls me. So I immediately associated that
Speaker 1: to what a man was, fast, strong, authoritative, sheep dog protector.
Speaker 1: And my mom came home that day and I told
Speaker 1: her I was gonna be a man with shoe. You know,
Speaker 1: when I grew up, I've been alone. That's my goal
Speaker 1: the entire time being law voiceman. Now, how do you
Speaker 1: christ Now I'm forty two. If you're talking about the
Speaker 1: same cops, I'm talking about the fast people weren't in
Speaker 1: the uniform back in the day cops, Well, I'm just
Speaker 1: as a seven year old laughing like Steve got a
Speaker 1: point like the old like the new Cops, the old
Speaker 1: cop BacT when it first started, good Luck used to
Speaker 1: outrun You better pump up those d Browns. You're gonna
Speaker 1: need them all right, Chris? Do you prefer baths or showers?
Speaker 1: Is a LUFA involved, brother? I don't care what you do.
Speaker 1: I'm a shower. I'm a shower guy. Okay, cool bath
Speaker 1: ice bass ice bass Yeah, keeps my joints good. Okay,
Speaker 1: you one of those? Yeah, I knew that would come
Speaker 1: out smell like being gay pretty much icy hot. Now
Speaker 1: it's probably it's evolved. I gotta it was called cream
Speaker 1: of Jesus. That freeze only fix anything. My chicking out
Speaker 1: my neck puts bio freeze on. Chris. Favorite family vacation.
Speaker 1: You've had cruises A lottle cruisers, okay, j D. Cross
Speaker 1: country trips in my family? Um, grandmother, what do you
Speaker 1: consider cross country from Calia to New York? Okay? Cool?
Speaker 1: I just want to make sure I've met some folks.
Speaker 1: They left the county, but they considered traveler from It's
Speaker 1: a different trip, different strokes with different else. Yeah cool,
Speaker 1: all right, last one with having two cops here, I
Speaker 1: have to ask this question. So choices crossops, bagels or donuts? Donuts?
Speaker 1: Absolutely donuts? Now sign is on contractually obligated to have you.
Speaker 1: Have you ever eaten a doughnut? You get it from
Speaker 1: Alright cake or Chrispy Crane cake. That's the West Coast
Speaker 1: the world runs on, don't get ri Charlotte created from
Speaker 1: the Pauls Pauls. Wow, all right, let's moving on. Okay,
Speaker 1: So favorite sports scene growing up? What about you? Chris?
Speaker 1: I was a Vikings fan until the Panthers came. We
Speaker 1: didn't have a So you didn't like you didn't like
Speaker 1: Washington football team. Everybody here like the Washington or Dallas
Speaker 1: if you were if you were a Dallas fan, then
Speaker 1: you were a Laker fan, and you were a Yankee
Speaker 1: fans like everybody's as a whole bunch of those rings.
Speaker 1: So I'm already starting to see you the opposite. So
Speaker 1: it's like, no Washington, Karen shar let me go in Minnesota, Okay,
Speaker 1: just going against the grain. Well, you know, just what
Speaker 1: I like to eat, what I like to watch. Chris,
Speaker 1: Where are you from in the place you call your hometown? Um?
Speaker 1: From Charlotte. UH was raised on the East Side. Lived
Speaker 1: with my mother in a single, one bedroom apartment. She
Speaker 1: had a twin bed on one end of the bedroom
Speaker 1: and I had a twin bed on the other end
Speaker 1: of the bedroom. And um, you know, I lived there
Speaker 1: paycheck to paycheck until I was probably levin and we
Speaker 1: moved to uh two bedroom house off of Lawyer's Room
Speaker 1: right outside of Man Hill and I lived there until
Speaker 1: I graduated high school. Okay from Riverside, I e And
Speaker 1: I said I was there my whole life until I
Speaker 1: went to the Marine Corps of Special Ops and then, um,
Speaker 1: we're talking about earlier. I was on the All ring
Speaker 1: boxing team, moved to Vegas when I got out to
Speaker 1: go pro and uh realized real quickly, need to get
Speaker 1: a job at round. Did you realized, Oh, man, god
Speaker 1: is it's a whole long story. But tell me which
Speaker 1: round you got yours? I'd say probably when my tooth
Speaker 1: got broken that changed your mind. I mean other than that,
Speaker 1: the story was like you had the typical boxer story, right,
Speaker 1: you grow up in Cali, then you go to Vegas
Speaker 1: to train and then tooth broke. Yeah, that's what I said.
Speaker 1: I said, what ash? What? What round? Did you get
Speaker 1: your ass whooped? That made you change the entire It's
Speaker 1: like from from well I lost the tooth, I can't
Speaker 1: hear out of my right ear. From the side of
Speaker 1: being everybody got a plant, they get punched in the mouth. Yeah,
Speaker 1: if I gotta player to get punched in the face,
Speaker 1: and they too fall out. Swallowed it. I swallowed I
Speaker 1: thought it was a piece of my mouthpiece. Man, I
Speaker 1: swallowed it. That'll make cancer your plans. That's his name.
Speaker 1: I remember some nineteen year old Hispanic kids, straight straight
Speaker 1: out of Texas. Woe me out? How many rounds? It
Speaker 1: was an exhibition, so we were doing like force. You
Speaker 1: got your answer for press? Oh yeah yeah, finish Yeah yeah.
Speaker 1: That's how I knew my tooth was broken. Training was
Speaker 1: asked me questions. We're sorry, yeah yeah, but I was old.
Speaker 1: You know, that's what the problem is, you know, being
Speaker 1: a professional athlete year old yea for for boxing. I
Speaker 1: was in the Marine Corps first, and when I got out,
Speaker 1: I was trying to go pro boxing. Negative, you're behind
Speaker 1: the power curve, brother, I'm not sure how to follow up.
Speaker 1: I'm sorry, sorry, and exactly you're supposed Yeah, yeah, it's
Speaker 1: like beat up. It's like no so so growing up
Speaker 1: in in Cali for U j D. And in Charlotte,
Speaker 1: how did how did growing up in those places shape
Speaker 1: your outline or outlook on life today? Be honest with you.
Speaker 1: I never had, never, never had any aspirations to be
Speaker 1: in the police office, never had any aspiration to being
Speaker 1: a law enforcement In fact, I was one of those kids.
Speaker 1: Um and Steve, we're from the same spot. You know,
Speaker 1: if this was gangbanging, you know, it was a line.
Speaker 1: You know, it was kind of teetering. But I never
Speaker 1: got any trouble or anything like that. You know, I
Speaker 1: had a good head on my shoulders. Um. But I
Speaker 1: you know, to be honest with you as a kid,
Speaker 1: I you know I wouldn't. I wasn't pro police at all.
Speaker 1: Why um, I mean, you know you know how it
Speaker 1: was back then you had to uh you had the
Speaker 1: task Force, you know Sam Ridino County Sheriff's Apartment, Riverside
Speaker 1: County l A. How do you uh forty nine? So
Speaker 1: you were we were on the same time frame. Especially
Speaker 1: Riverside Semi Valley was not the police department in Los
Speaker 1: Angeles as well liked or well respected. Why because you
Speaker 1: had to Rodney King, and you know you had to
Speaker 1: Rodney King, which led to the Reginald Denny to red Ship,
Speaker 1: led to l A RDS YEA and before and before
Speaker 1: we got into a culture of policing where it was
Speaker 1: taboo it's taboo now to profile. Back then, profile and
Speaker 1: was how they did their work. You know, they're going
Speaker 1: to certain neighborhoods and look for people that fit the description,
Speaker 1: and they stopping and you know, harass you know, ask
Speaker 1: your questions where you're going, where you've been where you're
Speaker 1: coming from. Uh, my prom night I got proned out.
Speaker 1: We in tuxedos. You know, they were just doing it
Speaker 1: to be jerks. So but what changed my outlook? And
Speaker 1: as a single dad, Um, that was special ops in
Speaker 1: the Marine Corps. I got told you so when I
Speaker 1: got out, I was either gonna be a cop or fireman. Um.
Speaker 1: And there was a point where I realized that you
Speaker 1: gotta fight the battle from within. So so let me
Speaker 1: stop you right there. Because Chris, as you hear j
Speaker 1: D say that what do you not to put you
Speaker 1: on the spot, and putting you on the spot, what
Speaker 1: do you what do you feel? Or says because you
Speaker 1: are a white police officer. Hearing how how that impacted
Speaker 1: j D as a black man, but it didn't deter him. However,
Speaker 1: hearing a police officer say that back in the day,
Speaker 1: it's disturbing, Like I think we've found where the there's
Speaker 1: a disconnect in humanity right. Uh. When I grew up,
Speaker 1: I grew up on the East Side, low income housing. Um,
Speaker 1: I didn't see a difference in people any personally. That
Speaker 1: didn't all of my friends, you know, you say I've
Speaker 1: heard that though I hear people say that you. I
Speaker 1: don't see a difference in pol growing up. I didn't
Speaker 1: I was eight years old. That that is something to me.
Speaker 1: I believe it's taught, and that was not taught in
Speaker 1: my household. I was not taught. I was. I just
Speaker 1: I've never I've never had that opportunity to ask someone
Speaker 1: because I've heard you know you sometimes people don't see color,
Speaker 1: you can't use your color. But but I get where.
Speaker 1: I get where you come from from it to where
Speaker 1: when when you're in that neighborhood and you're surrounded by
Speaker 1: you don't know what this, but everybody isn't afforded this.
Speaker 1: I think it's a social economic placement issue that I
Speaker 1: found myself in. I was an under educated mom who
Speaker 1: didn't even graduate high school, working paycheck to paycheck. I
Speaker 1: distinctly remember going over to my neighbor's house with a
Speaker 1: five gallon bucket to fill the water up because our
Speaker 1: water was turned off to flush the toilet. Right, But
Speaker 1: it's it's what we lived with. I mean that that
Speaker 1: you that was my norm, right, Like that is what
Speaker 1: my best friend Terrence grow went up, my other best
Speaker 1: friend Taiwan growing up like that is what we experience
Speaker 1: growing up and we never I thought we were different
Speaker 1: from one another. That was how we connected and related
Speaker 1: to one another. I think that's interesting you say that,
Speaker 1: and I love that comparison. It's damn there impossible to
Speaker 1: feel like you're different when the stuff you don't have
Speaker 1: your neighbors don't have, right, Yeah, Like I mean what
Speaker 1: you're saying is growing up my grandparents and in their place, man,
Speaker 1: we had to We had the bowl in the sint,
Speaker 1: you wash your hands and unless you did number two,
Speaker 1: you use the you use the water when it got
Speaker 1: high enough to dump the pa to make it flush. Yep,
Speaker 1: you know, because you that's just how it was that,
Speaker 1: you know. So for me that that was that was
Speaker 1: my our standard. That's what that was what we had
Speaker 1: to the point of where when I went back home
Speaker 1: with my kids, when they pulled up to uh to
Speaker 1: Grandma and Grandpa Betty and Frank's house on a three
Speaker 1: forty nine Eastern ut, they look like, what is this
Speaker 1: one of my book? My boy, my oldest now tree.
Speaker 1: We've traveled across We've traveled around the world. And I
Speaker 1: mean to say that not in bragging contact. Years before
Speaker 1: we went to Italy, but he says we've been in Mexico.
Speaker 1: He says, those just look like the homes in Mexico,
Speaker 1: daddy shanties. H m hm. Where did you get that?
Speaker 1: He got? That is bikes where we traveled on vacation.
Speaker 1: He saw that similarity is where I grew up because
Speaker 1: that was his reality. That j D mentioned what his
Speaker 1: interaction was with the police when he was younger, Chris,
Speaker 1: what was yours? I never really had much. I remember
Speaker 1: them in the neighborhood, driving through, but I never physically
Speaker 1: saw any kind of interaction with law enforcement and community
Speaker 1: members like I just never saw it. But my mom
Speaker 1: also kept a tight leash on me because again working
Speaker 1: paycheck to paycheck, I wasn't allowed to be outside. Uh,
Speaker 1: she wasn't home and so that gave me roughly, on average,
Speaker 1: about forty five minute window to be outside from the
Speaker 1: time that she was home and then the lights came
Speaker 1: on and I had to come home. You know, you're
Speaker 1: a latch key, kidd, and I but the string break
Speaker 1: your mom put on the on the I D Dog
Speaker 1: tag when no dog. That just the key. You get
Speaker 1: those done at Walmart? Remember you lose that key? I mean,
Speaker 1: I asked that was that was I was not afraid of, Hey,
Speaker 1: my key is going. I was afraid of the look
Speaker 1: and the reaction I was gonna get from my mom
Speaker 1: when I got you know, she got home. Don't let
Speaker 1: me be sitting on the porch still when she pulls up.
Speaker 1: At what point for both of you, guys, I guess,
Speaker 1: at what point did you realize that becoming a police
Speaker 1: officer was okay? What was the reception from your friends, family,
Speaker 1: and and people you you interacted with and you also
Speaker 1: respected their opinion? Ah, for me, it was a split. Um.
Speaker 1: Of course, your parents always gonna be proud of you.
Speaker 1: My grandparents were real proud, but a lot of the
Speaker 1: younger generation my age and younger in my family, Um,
Speaker 1: they were cool. But it was you know, you could
Speaker 1: always tell you know, j D here, you know the
Speaker 1: cop here, you know Popo here, you know? And I
Speaker 1: think it. You learn to be able to conduct conversations
Speaker 1: with your family and your friends real fast, because anytime
Speaker 1: something happens, you're the sounding board, right as a black man,
Speaker 1: as a cop, you're the sounding board. Why y'all do this?
Speaker 1: Why do pl you know, police do that? Why they
Speaker 1: do this? You know? And to have those conversations and
Speaker 1: walk away with your family and still have respect, respect
Speaker 1: and and maybe hopefully give somebody understanding. Like I get
Speaker 1: a quick example, I got a homeboy back home. This
Speaker 1: dude been shot twice. Uh, he got shot in high school.
Speaker 1: He got shot pie about ten years ago, and his
Speaker 1: mom's house got shot up twice. But then he'll call
Speaker 1: me like, like, please keep shooting people? Like is that
Speaker 1: you know? But you you've been shot twice by people
Speaker 1: that probably looked like you. UM. So to be able
Speaker 1: to sit down with him and have that conversation, um,
Speaker 1: I think it's empowering at times, but it's also draining.
Speaker 1: Draining is exhausting, Yes, sir, what about you? Chris? For me,
Speaker 1: um family side, it was just like I said, just
Speaker 1: me and my mom. She's passed. Uh. She always said
Speaker 1: that she was going to support me and whatever I
Speaker 1: did right, and she knew that was my goal. But
Speaker 1: she instilled in me if that's something you want to do,
Speaker 1: you have to get out of this cycle. And that's
Speaker 1: what I was talking about earlier about the social economic cycle. Right,
Speaker 1: you have to get out of the cycle. And the
Speaker 1: way you get out of that cycle is education. You
Speaker 1: have to graduate high school. You have to. And so
Speaker 1: as I got older, I did my research and realized
Speaker 1: that I have to have a high school diploma. I
Speaker 1: don't have to have a college degree, because in my mind,
Speaker 1: I'm waiting for a local church to come and bring
Speaker 1: me food from their food pantry. I certainly cannot afford
Speaker 1: to go to college. My mom didn't know that I
Speaker 1: was a prime candidate to get, you know, free money
Speaker 1: to pay for me to go to college based on
Speaker 1: our social economic status. But she had not even graduated
Speaker 1: high school herself. And so that's where the I just
Speaker 1: knew I had to I had to make it to
Speaker 1: graduation of high school, and that was the focus that
Speaker 1: I had. I got my first job when I was
Speaker 1: thirteen to help pay bills because I got tired of
Speaker 1: the water being cut off, the power being cut off
Speaker 1: until pay day. I remember how excited Friday's came. When
Speaker 1: she got paid. She went and got her check cashed
Speaker 1: and we went to Pizza Hut. I mean that was
Speaker 1: like I was getting a hot meal. I was free
Speaker 1: reduced lunch. I got. That was my hot meal the week.
Speaker 1: I remember how excited I was with that. So she
Speaker 1: said to get out of the cycle. You have to
Speaker 1: get an education. And so that's where I stayed in.
Speaker 1: You know, I made sure I did what I was
Speaker 1: supposed to do and finished out high school. Friends some
Speaker 1: have come and gone, which is natural. That happens with
Speaker 1: no matter what, right that that that happens. Um you
Speaker 1: can see and like I when I was in recruiting,
Speaker 1: I used to tell people also that you'll see the
Speaker 1: difference of who your true friends are, right because regardless
Speaker 1: of what you're doing as a career, if we're we're boys,
Speaker 1: you're gonna be my boy, right because at the end
Speaker 1: of the day, you define the uniform. You don't let
Speaker 1: the uniform define you. Right. So I'm Chris Walters in uniform,
Speaker 1: I'm Chris Walters out of uniform. That's just who I am, right,
Speaker 1: And so you can see when people start to distance themselves.
Speaker 1: It's like, where you really my boy? To begin with,
Speaker 1: we have to take a break and morning thing. We
Speaker 1: gotta pay some bills. You got checks. I love cut
Speaker 1: to It and I love it even more when you
Speaker 1: download us and subscribe and you can follow us on
Speaker 1: social media too. Smithie, where where at that's at? Cut
Speaker 1: to It on Instagram? What about Twitter at cut to It, Facebook,
Speaker 1: cut to It featuring Steve Smith singr what about online?
Speaker 1: And you can follow us at cut to It podcast
Speaker 1: dot com where you can buy merch and you can
Speaker 1: subscribe to us wherever you listen to podcasts. I got
Speaker 1: all my answers questions. UM, yeah, I got all my
Speaker 1: questions answered. That's what I'm here for, a brother cut
Speaker 1: to a podcast dot com. Well, let's get into the
Speaker 1: career stuff. You know, what's what's what's the best part
Speaker 1: of the job working with kids, um, especially when you
Speaker 1: have an opportunity to show up in the neighborhood or
Speaker 1: uh particular community in uniform and have a positive interaction
Speaker 1: with young kids because a lot of these kids they
Speaker 1: only see officers responding to negative situations, people getting arrested,
Speaker 1: you know, chaos. UM. And I understand that because of
Speaker 1: you know, to Chris's point, socio economic situations. You have
Speaker 1: a lot of children that live in areas where they're
Speaker 1: exposed to trauma daily at a young age, and it's normalizing.
Speaker 1: It's normalized, like someone so shooting at each other on
Speaker 1: the corner. It's normal for them, and that's not normal.
Speaker 1: And then the police responding and having all kinds of
Speaker 1: chaos in their in their neighborhood. That's not normals. Now
Speaker 1: how a kid is supposed to grow up. So you know,
Speaker 1: when I have those opportunities there to coach and work
Speaker 1: with pal and and just have those kind of and
Speaker 1: I try to be in uniform or some kind of uniform.
Speaker 1: Um intentionally, that's intentional. And I went to one of
Speaker 1: your camps, uh, I think you had at Artcael ago
Speaker 1: years ago, and I would show up and I would
Speaker 1: always have something because I have volunteered, and I would
Speaker 1: have something that represented me being a cop, so that
Speaker 1: we can open up conversations and then these kids can
Speaker 1: walk away and be like, yeah, you know Officer j D.
Speaker 1: He helped me, you know, run my routes or he
Speaker 1: helped me do whatever. Um. I played football for the
Speaker 1: Cobra's the Charlotte Police and Fire team. UM. And any
Speaker 1: chance we had, you know, to interact with those kids
Speaker 1: so that way they can be exposed to police officers
Speaker 1: on a positive level. If you don't mind, let's talk.
Speaker 1: Can we talk about those stigmas, because I think there's
Speaker 1: a stigma as a I'm a law body citizen. There's
Speaker 1: this stigma with the police, and I think to some
Speaker 1: degree some police officers, there's a stigma that not everybody
Speaker 1: is a law body and citizen right for various reasons,
Speaker 1: because of maybe what they experienced as a kid or adult,
Speaker 1: or a teenager or a college student and vice versa.
Speaker 1: So I want to run through some scenarios that me
Speaker 1: and Gerard have been through, and I want you to
Speaker 1: walk me through and my off base with this, okay,
Speaker 1: and you can tell me, Steve, that was BS or
Speaker 1: you know, even what did you do? What you know
Speaker 1: were you just to really just to walk through it,
Speaker 1: almost like you know, talking about football. A couple of
Speaker 1: years ago, I'm back home coming visited family. We were
Speaker 1: down to UH, down to Santa Monica Pier right at
Speaker 1: my own stomping grounds. I used to actually work at
Speaker 1: the UH at the Ferrisville and Settlement at the State
Speaker 1: Monica Pier. Right. So we're we're staying in Orange County.
Speaker 1: I'm driving all the way back now it's about West
Speaker 1: Coast time. I I'm in the car full of family.
Speaker 1: I got my beautiful wife in the front seat, I
Speaker 1: got my my three Deuce wasn't even born, so I
Speaker 1: had my three kids in the back at that time. Um,
Speaker 1: so it's just six years ago. Um, six and alfe
Speaker 1: years ago, he'd be seven. Uh this shot. So so
Speaker 1: I'm starting, you know, I'm looking around. I can't turn
Speaker 1: the radio up any you know anymore, because then I
Speaker 1: wake up, the wake up the kids. And so I'm
Speaker 1: going and I'm driving, and I can feel myself now,
Speaker 1: I can feel myself kind of like, hey, we need
Speaker 1: to get back. So I do what any other dad
Speaker 1: does when he's in the car with a family sleep,
Speaker 1: What does he do? Speed up a little bit. So
Speaker 1: I'm speeding up and I'm driving, and you know, I'm
Speaker 1: I'm going a little bit beyond the speed limit. I
Speaker 1: admit that. He pulls me over. Damn, got me right,
Speaker 1: So pulls me over. I had my idea already pulled out.
Speaker 1: He comes up of the car, asked me, is this
Speaker 1: your vehicle? Okay? The first of all, I already know now,
Speaker 1: and then that if the officer has enough time and
Speaker 1: tell me if this is correct or if you know
Speaker 1: this is a mistake. That if you have enough time,
Speaker 1: you run my run those places of that vehicle. It
Speaker 1: tells you if that's your vehicle. Generally, my picture of
Speaker 1: my I d pops up. It has my address, my face,
Speaker 1: even my social Security number security. Okay, no, thank you.
Speaker 1: That's that's good because I have some good credit. Um
Speaker 1: no used to credit? Continue Hollywood, Hogan um. And it
Speaker 1: will say possibly if you have concealed and carry attached
Speaker 1: to that is that correct? Well other than the photograph
Speaker 1: like it pulls up showing name address on so I
Speaker 1: know you personally when I walk up to the car,
Speaker 1: I don't know who that is. Okay, but I think
Speaker 1: that it's all about the delivery. But perfect. So first question,
Speaker 1: he asked me, whose vehicle is this? Well, in my head,
Speaker 1: I'm going my fucker's the same vehicle. You know it's
Speaker 1: popped up. Hurts, I said, Nissa Rental. He says, okay,
Speaker 1: do you know why I stopped you? Now, this is
Speaker 1: my answer all the time. If you pull me over
Speaker 1: and I'm going three a million miles per hour? You
Speaker 1: know what, I'm always saying, I have no idea why
Speaker 1: he pulled me off. No, I don't. I say I
Speaker 1: have no idea. My wife would be my lovely wife.
Speaker 1: And you should be like, yeah, you don't know why not?
Speaker 1: I don't know why. Here the teeth, So and so says.
Speaker 1: He says, whose vehicles? As I said, it's it's a
Speaker 1: rental car. He says, license of registration. Well, I don't
Speaker 1: have registration because it's a rental car. So I give
Speaker 1: him my rental agreement right thet He goes, I don't
Speaker 1: need it all right, I see what this ship is today.
Speaker 1: Being honest, I give him my O the state license.
Speaker 1: Do you want to know? What he says before when
Speaker 1: I give him my license, before he goes back to
Speaker 1: his car. And this is where me personally, I think
Speaker 1: this is where the bullshit happens. He says, do you
Speaker 1: have any warrants? Okay? I looked at him and said,
Speaker 1: not that I know of, but I'm pretty sure you
Speaker 1: will let me know when you come back. That's what
Speaker 1: he asked me. What I have? I've been pulled over
Speaker 1: because I've sometimes I've been a yeah, I gotta speed,
Speaker 1: I've been called speedy, but I have never I've been
Speaker 1: asking a few things, but do you have any warrants?
Speaker 1: I've never been asked that. Why would a police officer
Speaker 1: asked me? Do I have any warrants out for my rest? Well?
Speaker 1: Going back, um and to what Chris was saying a
Speaker 1: minute ago, a lot of times, and I don't know
Speaker 1: what the officers demeanor was. I don't know, but a
Speaker 1: lot of times, you know, just like they talked about
Speaker 1: doctors and having bedside manners. Um, I think a lot
Speaker 1: of times there's some officers out there that don't have
Speaker 1: good bedside manners. Right, so uh, both of us being supervisors. Um,
Speaker 1: that's one thing that I expand upon when I'm when
Speaker 1: I'm working with my troops, is your delivery. Um. The
Speaker 1: reason why he asked you if you had any warrants.
Speaker 1: I could not answer why he would ask you that,
Speaker 1: because all he had to do is run your name,
Speaker 1: and any local or national warrants would have come up,
Speaker 1: um in the system. And what person in the right
Speaker 1: mind is gonna say, yeah, yeah, yeah, I got I've
Speaker 1: got a couple of murder warrants out for me. Not
Speaker 1: a fact to myself, but I mean, so go back,
Speaker 1: who's in the car with me, your wife and my wife.
Speaker 1: Now my family is completely upright because we don't know
Speaker 1: they spoo, We don't know what this dude it's gonna do. Right.
Speaker 1: I started thinking, it's like when you take a test,
Speaker 1: like I've taken a COVID test, and you start thinking about, well,
Speaker 1: whatever the result was, now I gotta start back contact Tracy, right,
Speaker 1: and so I'm going like, what payment? I don't think
Speaker 1: I'm good. I hope. And then you come back and
Speaker 1: then you start thinking like, ship, what if I do?
Speaker 1: If I don't know how I'm gonna work this? Do
Speaker 1: I leave my fami? Do I do I run for it?
Speaker 1: You know? And just that really just was very odd questioning.
Speaker 1: And I felt with anything, I had my paperwork ready,
Speaker 1: I was in hostile. I was doing what he asked,
Speaker 1: and he came. He came from the first question. I
Speaker 1: really felt the questioning was let me get him mm hmmm.
Speaker 1: Or because he's black, he probably has ones, yes, mhm mhm.
Speaker 1: And I've had similar as a as a cop um
Speaker 1: some years ago. UM, I was driving to go see
Speaker 1: my son and stationed down in the Florida and I
Speaker 1: was coming through I think I was. I was in
Speaker 1: South Carolina, was coming through South Carolina and I get stopped. UM.
Speaker 1: I had a little little um tank top and short
Speaker 1: song guns out guns out. Yeah. So you know, so
Speaker 1: this this is before we had any you know, the
Speaker 1: guy's talking to me, and he's like, yeah, that stops you. Um,
Speaker 1: I had made a a lane change. I didn't realize
Speaker 1: that I made the lane change, that that was lane
Speaker 1: So you know, it's a little a little backwards in
Speaker 1: South Korea. So I crossed the white that the solid
Speaker 1: white line. And he walks up and he says to me,
Speaker 1: you know it gets my registration and he says, so
Speaker 1: what do you do time? At? Wow? That was his
Speaker 1: first question. It was you know, that wasn't the first question,
Speaker 1: but of registrations. Yeah, oh yeah, yeah, so what do
Speaker 1: you do time? Mat? And I says, I've I've never
Speaker 1: done time, sir, Oh, you're kind of jacked up, you know,
Speaker 1: you know lucky, you know that you know, might you
Speaker 1: might have done some time someplace. Wait a minute, So
Speaker 1: because you swow bones, he thinks you he asked me. Clearly,
Speaker 1: I've never been asked that. He asked me. Won't go.
Speaker 1: But the guy, the higher patrolman asked me if I
Speaker 1: had ever done time anywhere? Where'd you do time? Man?
Speaker 1: So I didn't say anything to him because I didn't
Speaker 1: want to hit him with what do you want to?
Speaker 1: You want to? I want to? I didn't want to
Speaker 1: hit him with the fact that I was a cop man.
Speaker 1: Yeah I was. I said, I'm gonna sit on him,
Speaker 1: sitting on but old on, hold, I'm gonna tell you
Speaker 1: what j D was thinking. This motherucker right, you don't
Speaker 1: even know, he said, just asked some muscles not But
Speaker 1: that made me the same the same way that Steve
Speaker 1: felt like, did you ask would you have asked any
Speaker 1: other citizen that no, no, no, don't don't sugar coote, Yeah,
Speaker 1: just call it what it is. Would you have asked
Speaker 1: if I was white? Yes? And Jack, would you ask
Speaker 1: me the same question? So to to bring a conclusion
Speaker 1: to that, um, I waited until he ran all my
Speaker 1: stuff and then um, you know, he's giving me the
Speaker 1: whole rundown about the the HV lane and he says, uh,
Speaker 1: so where you headed? I said, I'm just going to
Speaker 1: see my son is in the Air Force. H He was, Oh,
Speaker 1: he's a serviceman, to say it, so on my marine.
Speaker 1: And then he goes, okay. So then I showed my
Speaker 1: badge and just the he was you could see, like
Speaker 1: you know, and then suddenly everything the conversation completely changed.
Speaker 1: Oh he flew up to the script her. So I
Speaker 1: walked away from that. You want to be friends now friends?
Speaker 1: Yeah I would Ran, I was a toll on his ass.
Speaker 1: But but again, but again, you know the emotional side.
Speaker 1: I had to check that because I had to take
Speaker 1: that situation and bring it back to my department and
Speaker 1: use that as a tool to better us um our
Speaker 1: professional accountability one of our core for you know, the UH.
Speaker 1: But we have our strategic strategic priorities that our chief
Speaker 1: puts out, employee wellness, professional accountability. Um we have it
Speaker 1: laid out. And that reminded me of the professional accountability
Speaker 1: side of it, and the employee well on the side
Speaker 1: of it, and the community collaboration side of it. That
Speaker 1: me coming back instead of being bitter about that situation
Speaker 1: because I know that stuff happens. But now when I
Speaker 1: have conversations with officers, in particular white officers that may
Speaker 1: not understand why black people feel with what they do
Speaker 1: when they get pulled over, why people of color might
Speaker 1: act a certain way when they get stopped by the police,
Speaker 1: why there's an immediate fight or flight response. It's usually
Speaker 1: stemming from simple situations like that you're you're on high alert,
Speaker 1: so frustrating to being on the other side and hearing
Speaker 1: stuff like that, it just it's disgusting. Yeah, and it
Speaker 1: makes it hard for my white counterparts that you got Chris,
Speaker 1: here's a great guy. I've known it for twenty years
Speaker 1: and um, he's a great officer, he's a great friend.
Speaker 1: But I know that when he's looked at in his uniform,
Speaker 1: you know, it's automatically assumed that he's a white police officer.
Speaker 1: He's out there harm black people. He's profile too. Yeah,
Speaker 1: So broad brush that, regardless of how it comes from anywhere? Right,
Speaker 1: is that broad brush that you're painting that perpetuates the
Speaker 1: same prejudice that you claim to be against. Right, you
Speaker 1: can't broad brush anything. It's you know, it's but it's
Speaker 1: difficult to combat that. I think it's about that time,
Speaker 1: just so take a little breathing. Good do it, Good,
Speaker 1: do it. Let's getting down to do it. Hey, Gerard,
Speaker 1: why did you get that T shirt? Oh? Yes, I
Speaker 1: got it from cut to a podcast dot com where
Speaker 1: we have exclusive merchandise. Shout out to our guys at
Speaker 1: seven or four shot. But yeah, you can go on,
Speaker 1: buy you a T shirt, subscribe to us wherever you
Speaker 1: listen to podcasts. What I love about this conversation is
Speaker 1: sometimes we lie so hard about race is not involved
Speaker 1: that we start to believe, no, that can't be. And
Speaker 1: the fact of the matter is it is people get
Speaker 1: pulled over because they're black. There's some white folks that
Speaker 1: get pulled over and late at night looking for drugs
Speaker 1: and a drug infastin area being white because they're looking
Speaker 1: for drugs. That's that's just a narrative that well, whether
Speaker 1: we like to say it or not, that's that's, that's
Speaker 1: what it is. And sometimes we want so hard to
Speaker 1: not believe the fact that I was in Monroe. I
Speaker 1: was deep in the sticks album are North Carolina, and
Speaker 1: I did a California rolling stuff. Police officers pulled me
Speaker 1: over and say, do you know why I stopped you? No, sir,
Speaker 1: I do not remember. I have no idea either. One
Speaker 1: I still don't know. He goes, what you're doing around here,
Speaker 1: That's what he asked me. I said, what I was
Speaker 1: playing golf in in the event. His next question was,
Speaker 1: where's your clubs? Then, well, they're in the trunk. Pop
Speaker 1: the trunk. I popped the trunk, he looked at it,
Speaker 1: closed it. You know. The next thing he said, he said,
Speaker 1: gonna get from around here. That's what he said. M
Speaker 1: how do I not take that? You're supposed to take
Speaker 1: it exactly how it was because and I wrote this
Speaker 1: down unfortunately, and I'm glad you brought it up. Um.
Speaker 1: You know, as we try to everybody body wants to
Speaker 1: glaze over the race issue. UM, and as cops, unfortunately,
Speaker 1: the history of policing is ugly. Policing was initially brought
Speaker 1: into place to keep certain people in line. UM, and
Speaker 1: it's obviously evolved from that, and we we we would
Speaker 1: like to say that we are we've moved on from it.
Speaker 1: But just like you got stopped and you had your interaction,
Speaker 1: he got stopped, he had this interaction. I got stopped
Speaker 1: and was automatically assumed because I've worked out that I
Speaker 1: must have done prison time. Um. Those things still exist. UM.
Speaker 1: You know, being a black police officer, you know you
Speaker 1: have conversations with people and even within the department, and
Speaker 1: they said, oh, systemic racism is no such thing of that.
Speaker 1: And I can give you perfect examples of what systemic
Speaker 1: racism is and what that looks like. UM. As a kid,
Speaker 1: we played in the park to Bayside Park and one day,
Speaker 1: uh three cop cars. We're playing basketball. They stopped. They
Speaker 1: talked to us, asked us, you know, questions and just like, uh,
Speaker 1: my man said, you know, he didn't know his rights.
Speaker 1: So we're answering questions. Oh yeah, I live over here.
Speaker 1: This is my name? Is somebody to birth blah blah
Speaker 1: blah la dada, and cops leave. I was eighteen years old.
Speaker 1: I think I was seventeen or eighteen. Ten years later,
Speaker 1: I'm applying for the police department and my application got
Speaker 1: stopped because a negative police contact came up in my background.
Speaker 1: And when we researched it, it said that I had
Speaker 1: been detained and interviewed m and by Gang in Addiction unit.
Speaker 1: And it was handwritten. I never forget looking at it.
Speaker 1: It said gang affiliation cryp slash blood and it said
Speaker 1: reason and it said frequents Uh known gang area. Because
Speaker 1: the park that we played in, which is in our community,
Speaker 1: the only available park happening every so often. You had
Speaker 1: crips come through there. You have bloods come through there,
Speaker 1: and you also had the essays come through. You had
Speaker 1: the Hispanic games yeah and California Yeah man, west Side,
Speaker 1: so um, you had you know, we had that situation.
Speaker 1: But the reason. I don't mean to be long winded,
Speaker 1: but this is this is systemic racism, looks like so
Speaker 1: ten years later I'm applying and that comes up. I
Speaker 1: had no idea was on my record, and it wasn't
Speaker 1: like I was arrested or anything. But you know, when
Speaker 1: you run my name, it said that I was detained
Speaker 1: along with these other young men. If it wasn't for
Speaker 1: the fact that my mom's educated. I went to the
Speaker 1: Marine Corps and I had the resources to go back
Speaker 1: and find that. I had to write a letter to
Speaker 1: the judge, Riverside County Judge to have that take it
Speaker 1: off my record. Okay, you know, because you know he
Speaker 1: was like, okay, this that shouldn't have been been in there.
Speaker 1: But at that time, that's what they were doing because
Speaker 1: there was a high gang problem. So being a cop
Speaker 1: now I can see what the reason was. But the
Speaker 1: systemic racism part comes in. Would they have done that
Speaker 1: in a white community? Would they have pulled over some
Speaker 1: white kids and just randomly profile were shooting basketball and
Speaker 1: and put in a system? And so I'll take it
Speaker 1: a step further, and I feel like the races, the
Speaker 1: systemic racism is by doing that, they also know, or
Speaker 1: they should know as a police officer. Now that you
Speaker 1: have earmarked this individual for their future, that's support I
Speaker 1: was getting that. If I didn't have what I had,
Speaker 1: you had, you wouldn't have got off your record. I
Speaker 1: wouldn't have got this job, and that job would have
Speaker 1: changed my silkie. This having this job changed my socio
Speaker 1: economic status. It gave me an opportunity to provide my
Speaker 1: keys with a different lifestyle. And that one Mark could
Speaker 1: have taken it all the way and I had no
Speaker 1: idea what was on there. So then you think about
Speaker 1: how many countless other don't have don't have the resources,
Speaker 1: or don't even have the are not afforded the opportunity
Speaker 1: to see their background to go. That's not right, but
Speaker 1: that but that's what that's what systemic racism looks like.
Speaker 1: That's just a small example, But that small example leads
Speaker 1: to a bigger issue because again the one out of
Speaker 1: ten thousand, but actually it was three mm hm that week, right,
Speaker 1: we don't know what he did the day before, the
Speaker 1: days after, years after. So you add, let's just do
Speaker 1: a little quick math, would y'all? Entertainment with a little
Speaker 1: quick man. As long as you're doing it, three a week,
Speaker 1: four weeks, twelve months, ten years, thousands, thousands, that's what
Speaker 1: it looks like. Yeah, that's a lot of people. That's
Speaker 1: a lot. That's a lot of young men and women
Speaker 1: of all racests and and and this is not original
Speaker 1: statement for me, but from our former chief Kurt Putney,
Speaker 1: he said that, um verbatim, I'm fighting that battle on
Speaker 1: the side of the street at that moment is not
Speaker 1: the time to fight that battle. Know your resources. So
Speaker 1: if you are pulled over, and this goes to any
Speaker 1: citizen that's listening, if you are pulled over and you
Speaker 1: feel like you've been wrongly violated, or your rights have
Speaker 1: been violated, or you know, you were talked to disrespectfully
Speaker 1: or whatever foul complaint UM, our department is very very
Speaker 1: very open for that UM. And that goes back to
Speaker 1: the professional accountability in our core for is if we
Speaker 1: get a complaint, no matter how simple it is, our
Speaker 1: it gets vetted and its statement I think some people
Speaker 1: is like you take some some things that have happened,
Speaker 1: and then things come out later and you realize, like
Speaker 1: this person had so many years of complaints and nothing
Speaker 1: ever happened, right, and then this last complaint resulted in
Speaker 1: whatever is resulted, our department is very uh account had
Speaker 1: they hold people accountable. They hope people. Yeah, so it's
Speaker 1: not like it was where Yeah, yeah, we know. You
Speaker 1: know Officer Joe soon So has a bad habit of
Speaker 1: you know, cussing out little old ladies every time, you know,
Speaker 1: and it's just been swept in. That has evolved to
Speaker 1: the point now where you know, with the body want cameras,
Speaker 1: we do audits, we do they keep track of all
Speaker 1: that stuff and they see what they consider a pattern. Um,
Speaker 1: it's it's dealt with. Yeah, thanks for sharing that. Yeah. Yeah, oh,
Speaker 1: I guess for me, it's it's just one of those where, um,
Speaker 1: I try not to. I don't really mouth off. I
Speaker 1: just kind of like like I was in I remember
Speaker 1: when I first retired my daughters playing volleyball, and so
Speaker 1: I was in Tennessee and I was driving and there's
Speaker 1: a police officer in Tennessee at sitting in the in
Speaker 1: the media in and I was making a left turn
Speaker 1: and uh, I had my windows cracked and my daughter
Speaker 1: in the front seat, and he was like, you know
Speaker 1: that that that those that tent is a little dark
Speaker 1: goes where are you from? You're from Tennessee. He said, nope,
Speaker 1: I'm I am. I reside and registered in North Carolina.
Speaker 1: He goes, well, here in Tennessee, that's illegal. I said, okay, well,
Speaker 1: well I'm in North Carolina. I'm good. And so he
Speaker 1: started to like want to continue to banter and talk,
Speaker 1: and he was like, well, you know you're here in
Speaker 1: Tennessee right now, and then that light turned green. I said, well, sir,
Speaker 1: I gotta go. Well, you know, okay, and I pulled
Speaker 1: off like he was a white officer. I know, I
Speaker 1: wasn't the only car in that in that lane. You know,
Speaker 1: tent is all over. But instances like that and the
Speaker 1: interaction that I've received where the conversation starts about tent
Speaker 1: or busted tell like, but eventually goes in the direction
Speaker 1: that ultimately requires the interaction that sometimes I don't want
Speaker 1: to have or that yeah, it's unnecessary, but it's utilized
Speaker 1: as if I'm being honest, as an excuse to go
Speaker 1: down another path that like, come on, man, this is
Speaker 1: a great opportunity for the listeners, but also for myself
Speaker 1: because what happens is you have listeners that that's what
Speaker 1: we do. You sit around and do the what if,
Speaker 1: what if this, what if that? But you don't actually
Speaker 1: have a cop sit in front of you bounce that
Speaker 1: stuff off, right, so I know we get ready to
Speaker 1: come up on time, and we've been we've been having
Speaker 1: an amazing conversation. Again, thank you all for the transparency.
Speaker 1: The question I had for y'all. You mentioned you had
Speaker 1: two sons, j D and Chris. I know your father
Speaker 1: as well. What you passing on to your kids as
Speaker 1: police officers and what are you passing on to your
Speaker 1: kids as men. That's a good question. Jo My mind
Speaker 1: are a little older than Chris is. I got a
Speaker 1: twenty six year old and a four year old UM,
Speaker 1: and I've always always uh spoke to them about being respectful. UM,
Speaker 1: even if the cop that you come across as a jerk,
Speaker 1: you maintain what I've taught you, and then you bring
Speaker 1: it home to me and let me fight that battle.
Speaker 1: My son went to Malla Creek High School. He was
Speaker 1: on the UM the teams that that that won the championships,
Speaker 1: and you played with Marquez North and some of the
Speaker 1: other boys, Jalen, Samuel's all them boys. He was on
Speaker 1: that team, and I just I remember just being even
Speaker 1: though I'm a cop, but the dad, you know, them
Speaker 1: boys riding around, you know, and I had let my
Speaker 1: son use my back and a little a little or runner.
Speaker 1: They be riding around. And these are scholars. Marquez North
Speaker 1: was a four point o g p A student and
Speaker 1: my son was at three point eight g p A student,
Speaker 1: And all these boys are all Americans. But I can
Speaker 1: look at that vehicle as they're pulling out of my
Speaker 1: driveway with these big black athletic boys riding around in
Speaker 1: their car, and none of them are gang bangers. None
Speaker 1: of them are dope dealers that you know. A couple
Speaker 1: of boys end up going to the league, and I
Speaker 1: could cringe sometimes thinking about if they have that one
Speaker 1: negative encounter. So what I've what I've always instilled on
Speaker 1: my sons is do what I've taught you. Be respectful
Speaker 1: and be true to your character, because your character, no
Speaker 1: matter what somebody puts in front of you, no matter
Speaker 1: what kind of narrative they might have in their mind
Speaker 1: of you, your character is always going to outshine that.
Speaker 1: So as long as your character is intact, will be intact.
Speaker 1: For me to say, it's I want to have my
Speaker 1: children to be defined by the content of their character, right,
Speaker 1: not because just on the flip side, then being looked at,
Speaker 1: perceived and judged because they have a father who is
Speaker 1: a police officer and it's a white male. Just because
Speaker 1: he's a police officer and he's a white male doesn't
Speaker 1: mean that he's out here targeting minorities. Right. It's it's
Speaker 1: this narrative and this brush that I said earlier that
Speaker 1: we're painting this brush a prejudice, right, It's it's the
Speaker 1: flip side also, right. I I am a police officer.
Speaker 1: I've done this because this is all I've ever wanted
Speaker 1: to know. I associated a law enforcement officer to what
Speaker 1: a man was, right, That's what I told my mom.
Speaker 1: I was going to grow up to be a man.
Speaker 1: That's what I wanted to do. And so now seventeen
Speaker 1: years into it and the turmoil of society today, my
Speaker 1: children have to go a school and everybody knows that
Speaker 1: their father is a police officer. Right, So I want
Speaker 1: you to always represent yourself well, and you know, because
Speaker 1: I want my kids to know that I'm Chris Walters.
Speaker 1: I am not Officer Walters. I'm not Sergeant Walters. To
Speaker 1: their friends people that know them, I am Chris Walters.
Speaker 1: I define, I define the uniform. I don't let the
Speaker 1: uniform define me. I don't take on the narrative of
Speaker 1: what the uniform brings. I want to create a new
Speaker 1: narrative to what the uniform could mean and what it
Speaker 1: should mean. That's really good. My grandfather was a policeman,
Speaker 1: but he passed away when I was thirteen, so I
Speaker 1: didn't get a chance to have that conversation with him
Speaker 1: about gar here's what you need to do when you
Speaker 1: get put over, he said. I didn't have that, and
Speaker 1: I didn't have anyone else to give me that conversation.
Speaker 1: So as I think about me being a father now
Speaker 1: and I have a I have a daughter, I have
Speaker 1: a son, and what am I going to tell them
Speaker 1: when when it's time to have that conversation. And I
Speaker 1: don't want to have that conversation based off of negative
Speaker 1: experiences or how I've previously viewed police officers. I wanted
Speaker 1: to be genuine. I wanted to be rich, And that's
Speaker 1: really good. At what you gave us, right, And I
Speaker 1: want to tell my children the same way that you
Speaker 1: act on that traffic stop, it's the same way I
Speaker 1: expect you to act when you're at the self checkout,
Speaker 1: inherit teat or food line. You know, it's it's human decency.
Speaker 1: I want you treating everybody that you interact with the
Speaker 1: the same because it's a genuine nous of who you are.
Speaker 1: And that's what I want my children to be, genuinely
Speaker 1: good people and that no matter who they're dealing with. Well,
Speaker 1: this has been awesome. It's been a it's been a
Speaker 1: privilege just to be able to talk and get get
Speaker 1: answered that I think people want to have. In hell,
Speaker 1: if they didn't like it, I learned something, you know,
Speaker 1: And I also want to thank you all just for
Speaker 1: the transparent I mean, I think y'all you know just
Speaker 1: some of the things you guys were able to hit
Speaker 1: on and just whether it's from your backgrounds, how you
Speaker 1: how you grew up your previous views. I think it
Speaker 1: helps normalize a lot of stuff. And I think that's
Speaker 1: what's happening right now, is we haven't normalized a lot
Speaker 1: of thoughts or histories or tendencies. So you guys helped
Speaker 1: to normalize it. And I pray that this is going
Speaker 1: to be a conversation that's going to go out and
Speaker 1: and a lot of people. One is going to continue.
Speaker 1: But two, this is gonna hitting. People are at least
Speaker 1: gonna shift perspective. Well appreciate it, Thank you much. I'll
Speaker 1: come back and hang out any You are a unique person,
Speaker 1: you are well worth it, you are competent, and most
Speaker 1: of all, your lovable. I'm Steve Smith Singer, I'm Gerard
Speaker 1: Little John and this has cut to It. Cut to
Speaker 1: It with Steve Smith singor That Is Me is a
Speaker 1: production of Cut to It LLC, Balto Creative Media, The
Speaker 1: Black Effect and I Heart Radio. For more podcast from
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Speaker 1: to It. Executive producer Steve Smith, Singer, co host Gerard
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Speaker 1: Cut to It is produced by Brian Baltaschevic and Meredith Carter,
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Speaker 1: Theme music by Alex Johnson, lyrics and vocals by Anthony Hamilton.
Speaker 1: You ain't heard am about it, then we're about to
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