Hey
Welcome back mile higher homies - mile higher podcast with Kendall and Josh. We are back guys. What is up?
We are here today with another very interesting episode
We are going to be talking about the shocking truth about our criminal justice system specifically here in the US
but we'll also be talking a little bit about
different prison systems around the world as well because you know
We have to compare our system to others to something so we are going to be diving into that
For the majority of the episode today, but we've also got some very interesting
Sort of sub topics today and that includes the Chris Watts
you know murder of
His wife and two daughters and just that whole situation mean because that hits close to home for us literally
So we'll be talking about that and then also be talking about some
World news actually with a strange Russian satellite, which oh, yeah. This shit's crazy. Dude could be a weapon
So, this is very interesting Sam. But before we get into things we just first want to mention
by illegal meds calm for your CBD products and
Pain relieving needs we use the cloud9 syrup quite a bit
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And also we love our monk personal oil diffuser pens as well somewhere on the table here, but they're all over here
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Well, yeah, if you just need to chill the CBD products are great and so are the monk diffuser pens
Which there's a link in the description for 10% off your order. So definitely check that out
We are big fans of both of those products and you definitely want to try CBD if you haven't tried it yet. It is just
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It's really really helped me to just be able to get through like I feel like I'd just be in bed without CBD
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It allows me to
to kind of get through my day better and get through the pain and
Tell me sleep stay asleep. If you like have trouble getting up in the middle
Yeah, it does. It has a lot of medicinal effects which we will cover in way more detail in an upcoming episode about
the hemp industry and
Specifically around CBD and the whole controversy with you know, marijuana and TV and all that kind of stuff
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Right. Anyway, let's get into it. We have like a ton did yes, we do
So we're gonna make the intro sort short and sweet today
Short short, but as always we want to just thank all of our supporters. Thanks for reviewing the podcast like seriously
It's it's awesome
you guys have been leaving ratings reviews on iTunes that really helps us out on the charts and it's all thanks to you and
I also wanted to just quickly shout out Britney F and Hannah F who are new stellar patrons this month
Thank you guys so much. Seriously, we really appreciate it
Which our patrons are literally funding our new podcast studio, which we're building which starts tomorrow
actually, I'm super pumped are breaking ground ready to get out of out of the
bedroom down here
you know into a little bit more space get rid of the green screen and
Have a really like good set up space and some guests. Hopefully coming. Yep soon. Definitely so
Today's question comes from Sandy and she says hey guys
do you think the government and or other organizations put additives or chemicals and
Or genetically modify our food as a way to control us or to make us slower mentally and physically
Yes
People ask these questions and then I'm always just like yup, that sounds about right
Yeah, that's that sounds like what's going on to me from things I've seen. Okay. Yeah. Sorry. I dropped a monk pendant
Oh, I can rescue with my foot. I got mad foot reading skills. Watch this. Oh
Alright, that's alright we have like 80 others here, so we're good
But yeah, so
My whole take on it is I think there is a lot more to you know, the genetically-modified
It's up
anything
Easy and I'd rather use my feet anything, huh? Okay good to know mental note on that. But uh
But yeah
so like we talked about this a little bit in our podcast episode about the
DuPont family because they have a lot to do with chemicals and additives and
GMOs and things like that, which
When you look at all everything as a whole and you know, you know what we know
There's a good chance that they are doing things to sort of influence our body the way our mind works
I mean a lot of this has scientific proof behind it as far as some of the additives that they use as well as
how they genetically modify things which it's you know, genetically modified is a
Very, you know loose loose term. Yeah exactly because like they genetically modify things for you know,
reasons that are totally legit and you know
They have to in order to make the crops grow better in a certain climate things like that, or you know
To be Hardy but they also do some things that are a bit a bit more sketchy. So to answer your question sandy
Yes, I do think that they have they are involved with some additives. I mean you look at fluoride and water things like that
Well, yeah, which should be another episode coming soon. I think the water episode
And everything
About how it affects your pineal gland and things like that. Not only that but just like the garbage. Yeah your health I mean
Like we need to talk about Flint how that yes. Yeah happened exactly
Absolutely
So the water episode, okay. Yeah for sure. We'll do that one soon
Yeah, let us know if you're excited for that. But that is a great question say anything so much
All right
first order of business is I want to talk about some news that came out this week that I
think maybe graced the headlines briefly, but then it was like lost in the Trumpster fire that they
So dude, I saw it on CNN
That's where I saw it. They were like they did. Yeah, it was wolf. He's like breaking news
The u.s. Is worried that Russian satellite is really a weapon
Yeah, so this is this is coming from this statement that was made is coming from a guy named Lee Mobley who's a top US?
diplomat on arms control issues and he suggested that American intelligence agencies have reason to believe that
a Russian satellite may be surveying US space assets or
practicing to
attack them in the future, so
That is a bit frightening. So there's a satellite. It's called the cosmos
25:19
Which was launched into space by Russia last year, and basically, I mean most of us don't know what's being launched into space
You know, like they launched a lot of shit in a space including our own government
and if you didn't know this there is actually a
Top-secret classified
Space plane called x-37b I think. Oh and it's works for the Air Force
nobody knows what it does up there, but they launched it on missions and
It flies around and orbits the planet and does whatever it does it orbits the whole planet. Yeah, it goes up into space. Yeah
Oh wow
yeah, so
We have little to no idea exactly what things are doing up there
But this it's interesting that they're specifically worried about this Russian satellite. I've never even thought of this happening
That's like really scary. Yeah, it is very scary. So
You know
Obviously when this you know, when they talk about this, they're like, oh it could be this could be that it could be something totally
just normal and
You know, it may not be a weapon
it may not be something that's used to attack our satellites or something like that and the Russians actually responded and they they said
Straight out that this is just slanderous and basically false
that this was some type of weapon or that they're doing some sketchy business with it, but it's interesting that the actual you know,
Like our intelligence agencies are saying we need to track this thing
We need to make sure we know what it's doing and try to figure out its mission
Well, how do we know we don't have that type of thing over another country? Oh, yeah
Well, that's well
That's why I brought up the x-37b because it's like we probably are doing
exactly what they're probably doing to us and what if they're not even doing it what if we're just saying that to
Continue like a narrative. I mean, I don't know obviously, but well, I think this all plays into this whole thing that
space is now becoming a
Possible. Yeah place for war. Yeah, you aren't noticing the big change in discussion around this type of stuff like yeah
It's really happening. They're talking about it everywhere. Yeah, exactly
I mean hearing, you know Trump wanting to create the space force and you know
We need to be the dominant force in space
and this is becoming a huge issue because China and Russia are are
Going to beat us in that space race
If you know, we don't really start taking it seriously like and I don't know
I mean, I don't want to be you know, living in a country where you know, we are defenseless, you know
We're being attacked from outer space or something. You know, I'm all for
Getting a space
You know military force going things like that, but you know, I want transparency and disclosure about things
But obviously we probably won't get that but it is something that is sort of looming over all of our heads. Yeah
Quite literally
That's freaky, so just like another thing for me to worry about great
yeah, just add that to your list of things to keep you up at night and think about
Will we be attacked from outer space by Russia or China?
but you can't sweat the small stuff all you guys use hitches and then
When you're feeling a little anxiety ridden
It just puffs that monk pen or they've got CBD vape pens now on uh, by legal meds, so all right
Here's something else that will make you a little cold. So I know I keep I need to get the cough button
Well, you're off button. I just know there's a cough button. I know I I could have used that many times
I haven't been able to have the
Complete set up that I wanted. Yeah, because that's just
Because I can't talk there's something in my throat choked it down
Suppress your cough. Don't cough. Alright. Well, I don't what I don't understand is even if I have a cough button
You're still gonna hear it through your mic. Well, right I
think it's worse in this room because there's kind of a little bit of an echo in here because it's like
one time I went over there in the corner and coughed and you could hear it crystal clear and I was like
six feet away from the mix
Well, then we're just fucked so yeah, seems were just fucked
but we also might be fucked because
Chinese bombers are training for possible US strikes. Yeah, and this is according to a new Pentagon report
that is also detailing how Beijing is transforming its ground forces to fight it win, which
China is a very large come our country. It is full of
People and there's like one point four billion people dude. There's one point four really it like
three to three fifty million
So their army could be literally like as many people's in our country like ground that's like really scary, isn't it?
Yeah, and that's why the would be like screwed
Don't ask me I don't know we might be screwed but
Hmm. I mean we have to I mean this all comes back to
You know, hopefully we can get some leadership in position. That's
Not gonna literally piss off everybody, you know
Cuz these guys are these guys are actually doing practice runs. So earlier this month six Chinese
H6k bombers flew through them Miyako straight in the southwest of the Japanese islands
and then for the first time turned north to fly east of Okinawa where
47,000 US troops are based
the People's Liberation Army
So China's Army
Has demonstrated the capability to strike us and Allied forces and military bases in the western Pacific Ocean including Guam
the report says and
China is engaged in the decades-long build-up and modernization of its once
Completely depleted, you know?
Backwards Armed Forces, but now military leaders have a set a goal of fielding a world-class military by 2050
So they are ramping up for what you know, like why is everybody ramping up their military? Why are we trying to you know?
prepare for like war
So, I mean here's the thing to then this was something I brought up
Yeah, alright. I'm sure some of you are freaking out and like oh my god, the world is ending well
Here, here's a little truth truth bomb for you. So there is also a possibility that this is sort of
propaganda
provided by the military-industrial complex
Which we've talked about on the podcast before which means that
There is a great possibility that they are trying to scarce trying to invoke this anxiety
in order for us to get behind
You know politicians who are pushing for more military more weapons all that sort of thing more military spending
So to me personally
I'm not that worried about it because I know that a lot of this has to do with the military industrial complex
they don't they want us to continue to kind of live in fear of a
world war 3
I mean
That's the term that's thrown around all the time is like we got to be ready for World War 3 when it happens like literally
Preparing for it. So it's it's like they want this to happen
But at the end of the day is it actually going to happen? I don't know but I don't actually because here's the thing now
Well, here's the thing, right?
If let's just say there was a world war 3 that happened or an incident happened where we attacked each other
Well if China or Russia attacks us we have bases all around the world
We have armed forces everywhere
We would hit them extremely hard very very quick. And honestly, it probably would go nuclear very quickly
Yes, it all comes back to this thing of like if somebody attacks somebody else. They're gonna get fucking attacked back
Yeah
it's kind of like we're all living in this weird limbo or you're like no one can like really attacks and I'd just be the
End of the world it's like a standoff everybody's just like pointing their guns at each other just like don't move stay back stay back
Yeah, exactly. Yeah, and that's what's happening here. So
again
We were all scared about North Korea. Look what happened with that
You know, it's just like you gotta take it with a little bit of like, you know
They are they trying to make me scared about this. Are they over exactly really?
Sorry, eating out part of the story ray are they knows what we've been doing to them what's on their news? We don't know
Yeah, exactly. So
To me. That's what I think is going on with all that so, you know, don't worry too much, you know plus
Maybe the aliens will save us so
Ended on a good note. Actually, there's probably a good chance because if you didn't know there's like all these
instances of
Strange things happening when they're like testing nuclear bombs and stuff
random like spacecraft
Yeah, seriously, it's wild even a laser being like like taking the top off the missiles and stuff. Yeah, so I
Like to think that there is some you know some other type of higher force energy
Aliens whatever you want to call it that is sort of making sure things keep going in the right direction
obviously that you know mother nature does what Mother Nature wants to do but as far as like
Humans destroying each other. I think you know we're good for now at least might be a little naive to say huh, but that's my
We're good
But yeah, so let's let's talk about this before we get into the criminal justice system
I wanted to start out with this because this has just been such a
crazy story and such a tragic event that happened and
for those that didn't haven't heard about this which
You know, you may not if you were in another country something. Well, let's start with Monday. It moves on Monday
We saw it on the news before anything was out just on our local news
We normally see the news sometimes before we watch Colbert. It's like
Recorded. Yeah, it's like the night local nightly news or whatever. Yeah, so I
Had a feeling that he did it like right away
Well, what happened for those that don't know what happened and who are we talking about? Yes. I'm sorry. I
Thought you had already said that no you didn't okay?
So Chris watts, he's 33 years old and he's married to a woman named Shannon. It's not Shannon
Everyone keeps saying it wrong Shannon Watts, and they had two little girls Bella and Celeste
She was also pregnant with a child who's rumored to be a boy
I think the family confirmed it was going to be a boy named, Nico and
basically
Earlier this week on Monday
So what she can't she was missing? She was the out of the out of town somewhere
She just had gotten home from a business trip. Mm-hmm. She works for this like thrive company that does like weight loss
Just like basically nutrients type stuff like it's like one of those companies though
That's like Mary Kay or I think it's called an MLM
They're like, I don't know where you have to like know someone to get the products and be part of a this tariff
So the people that make the most yeah, yeah
So, yeah, so she she went missing she went missing after getting home on Monday
Chris says he went to work that she came home around 2:00 a.m. And then he would work at 5:15, right?
And he said that she was there when he left
Right, and then he got home or whatever and called her
She didn't he said he called her three times and she didn't answer if that was me. I would have called you 50,000 times
I would have driven to wherever I think you were and find you like I have so much anxiety
I can't imagine just like not being like whatever
um
So, yeah, then he got on the news
You know made this big public plea to everyone which you should watch it
you haven't see I'm actually gonna play it because it's it's really telling just it's it's very
there's a lot of red flags that get raised when you hear it and when you watch it because
He literally to the cameras says like I don't know where they are. I don't know what happened to them
I just want them to come home, you know, I miss them and
Yeah, literally he ends up being the one responsible
Sorry, I'm having issues finding this um, but yeah, he finally confessed after he'd already like made this public thing and
Well that so the authorities like came and like started like searching his home at BK
It was like a missing-persons case and he was staying with a neighbor friend and they actually said they like started noticing some weird
Yeah, he just wasn't like that concern was earned about trying his hardest
Right. Yeah wasn't even interested in following up on like tips. They were getting and stuff. Yeah, um
Sorry, I'm just trying to get this video real fast
yeah, it's it's just the craziest thing because he doesn't look like the kind of guy who would do this and that's always like a
Thing in cases, you know
Like does this person look like they would commit this heinous crime and oftentimes killers don't look like that
so I think the whole community has just been really shocked but here is the video of him kind of making a plea to
people 20 20 seconds
I
Swapped them back. I
just want them to come back and
if
If they're not safe right now, that's what's that's what's tearing me apart because if they are safe they're coming back
But if they're not this this this has got to stop like somebody has to come forward
Weird issues that I think he probably saw his own video back and was like, oh god, I did a terrible job
I didn't become he did not sell that at all. Like he's he's literally like arms crossed rocking back and forth. Yeah
He laughs at the beginning
Yeah
that is so which is so creepy and weird and now you know now that you know that he literally
murdered his wife and his three kids essentially and he's saying that like I just want them to come home like it's like
We've got a pop probably a psychopath on our hands. Oh, yeah, I think so sociopath or whatever. Yeah and
So yeah, basically he told them I buried them and he used to work at a oil and gas. Yeah
Yeah, so they're like up north of Denver
they're kinda near Greeley like yeah, they're like at least an hour away from us north of us and
We yeah, we used to live up in that direction
So we're familiar with you know, the oil gas business is really big up there and he worked at an oil
on a like an oil drilling site for this oil company and
After he confessed he was like, yeah, I I murdered them and then I buried them
or told the investigators where he had hid the bodies and yeah, unfortunately, that's where they then went and they um, you know,
Recovered his wife Shannon's body in a shallow grave on the actual company land which he got fired
Obviously, yeah, he got that way. Yeah, which I wonder what happened with that exactly how that went down
Oh, I'm sure they just got contacted by police. Like hey, we have reason to believe there's three bodies on your yeah property
Yeah, that's right and it took a while to recover
the girls which is so sad because he left them in an oil tank and from
Updates that I've seen we're kind of waiting for information right now. There's supposed to be a lot coming out today
unfortunately, we can't wait that long but
We believe they believe that the girls were put in an oil tank and left there for even four days
Before she got home from her. Yeah, that's what they think. He killed the kids when she was gone
She got home freaked out. He killed her
God, that's just so I know this is so hard to wrap your head around like as a parent
like I mean
I'm not a parent, so I can't even possibly to a dog even and like we would never do that to our dogs
This is their child. Yeah
yeah, you know, yeah, the daughters were Bella who's four and Celeste was three years old and they were strangled and
Yeah, put in the oil tank for four days. So sad men so they are actually trying to
the defense are
requesting that the girls next be swab for DNA evidence and
They're trying to take samples from the nails as well and Shannon's nails but a judge denied these requests
So there I don't know what the what their play is gonna be here. They think that he strangled them
because
she also had a
Like he had scratch marks on his neck. You can see in the interview you can see them
There's like all these red marks on his neck. It looks like she fought back
Against him. So no, it's just terrible. Absolutely terrible. It's terrible
you know and I
Think I think if you want to talk about motive with this, yeah, there's you know, we don't know for sure
what investigators are thinking but they were
in bankruptcy
Yep, they were out of money. Mm-hmm, you know, and it sounds like there may have been infidelity or something
Yeah, we tried to confirm any of that right now
But there's like I said in the next week
I'm sure there'll be so much more but this is definitely I think a case to follow
Yeah, yeah, so if you're wondering though
It's one thing that was interesting about this case is he's not being charged for his unborn child, which is unique to, Colorado
There's like a special law that doesn't allow you to charge them and why they would want to charge him is because they're probably seeking
the death penalty is my guess and
three counts will work will help them more than our four counts will you know convince a jury more than three would
So that's kind of been this big debate and there's people doing petitions and stuff
So I was kind of curious about your guys's opinion on that
Should you be charged for an unborn child? Yeah, yeah
Well, I I think so
I
mean this is actually you know that the child is there and this was obviously premeditated like this is like
Murder and it's you know purest form evil in its purest form. So yeah
We'll see what happens with that. But obviously, you know thoughts and you know prayers go out to
the family of this horrible tragedy cuz I can't even imagine dealing with this or
Being anywhere involved with this, you know, whether he knew them or not. I mean, it's just it's very sad, so
definitely definitely keep keep them in mind, but
let's get into the criminal justice system, which you guys are gonna just be completely I
Think blown away by just how crazy
The the system is and it's interesting for us to talk about since we talk about criminals a lot you talk about jail, right?
So well, that's kind of interesting to look at from that perspective, you know? No absolutely
I mean that's why we wanted to do this episode is because we do talk about a lot of true crime and we've covered some
Cases where we're like, you know could go either way, but, you know, did he deserve to get locked up for that?
You know
I'm like
We're gonna talk going to more and depth on that today because I think it's important to actually look at the way
That is working, you know is justice actually being served like our people
Getting the justice. They deserve our people not getting justice or people
Literally getting locked up for no reason and you know, we're being put to death for no reason
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$20 off your first three boxes. So definitely check that out. Alright, let's fucking get into it. Alright, so
the criminal justice system today is literally like a bicycle stuck in one gear the prison gear and
something we're going to talk about today is
The
Prison industrial complex, essentially, there is a prison complex that exists today
Which has literally?
Created this prison culture in a way because the United States is the world's leader in in incarceration
Which is not that surprising
But today close to 2.3 million Americans are incarcerated
According to the nonpartisan prison policy initiative more than 1.3 million Americans are imprisoned in state correctional facilities
615,000 are in local jails
225,000 are in federal prisons or jails and this figure also includes
48,000 kids who are currently in juvenile detention facilities
this also means there's probably a lot of our viewers out there who have
Been to jail have someone they loved in jail or know someone somebody went to jail has experience writing letters with people
So this is probably like pretty emotional for people
Yeah, or just like I think all of us have probably at least had a taste of the criminal justice system
I mean just just getting pulled over by a police officer. I've been pulled over so many times
I don't know if I've ever told this on here have I no you should tell everyone just real fast
So basically when I was in high school
I
Drove a car that like I had like seniors written on the back and I know you think that this is why I don't why?
I don't know I was targeted so much
Anyway, I was not good at like doing the. We're all four wheels like jerk back
Which an who is yeah, like seriously, I slowed down I completely stopped look both ways. Like no, you know
Like five cops in a year for the same thing
With you. Yeah, you are with me with the last one where I really that's where I lost my license
But I've had all kinds of crazy things with the police
I mean, I think I deserved the to lose my license. I needed to learn to be more vigilant
Like I have ADHD, I wasn't you know, I was rushing to school every time that this happened
so I like needed it and I went to a really great like defensive driving course because of it and I learned a lot and
Everyone was in there for like duis and stuff and like this is what I don't want to be like dealing with that's stressful. Yeah
But yeah, and then like what like two years ago
I was driving down town and I put on my blinker to get in the right lane and I started going over and
Then I realized that there was a police officer kind of like that had pulled up right behind the other car
So I'd be sort of cutting them off. So I quickly corrected myself like didn't even get two wheels over the lane maybe one
corrected myself went back was like, oh shoot and then when I saw the police officer
she literally got behind me pulled me over and I was like
So what are you like giving me a ticket for I?
Didn't do anything it almost made a mistake and then I didn't make the mistake
so like are you getting me for like almost making a mistake and
Yeah, they it was some bullshit. I had to go to court. Oh my god. Yeah, I hate driving like Josh drives us everywhere
I literally avoid driving at all cost. We only have one car for that reason. I hate driving cuz of that. Yeah, yeah
Yeah
I haven't had always the best experience, but I also have had some great experience with police officers
And I think we need to make sure that we we understand that in this episode. We are not attacking
Polina or anybody in the criminal justice system for that matter because it's a much bigger problem right any one individual, right?
I just want people to know like we do anything against the police
We actually both know a lot of police officers that we really care about it
well, yeah, and I think I think we might have mentioned this before but
both of us like just you know from a very young age have been fascinated with crime and you know,
Criminal justice and things like that so much so that for me personally
I that was like the major in high school that I was I was like, I'm gonna go get my criminal justice degree
I'm gonna go into law enforcement
I was obsessed with like the FBI and you know
I wanted to be like a secret agent or you know work for the Secret Service or something and
So I was really into it
I actually was in a program called the Explorer program and was actually the Aurora Police Explorer program
Which is basically it's a great program. Actually, they have it for firefighters to for kids that want to
Explore a career and see what it's really like and get a really good taste for you know
What being a cop is all about things like that?
so I actually did that for a few years and you know, I had to go to a like
Training I thought it was really hot when I met you
Man in uniform. Yeah, you did have a little uniform in it. I did I did that's pretty cool
but yeah, I mean I literally went to like a mini version of
You know what cops go through before they hit the streets and start patrolling and stuff
And yeah, I learned all sorts of things investigative things
So we both have a lot of respect for police off we do and I've known a lot of great ones
I've also seen a lot of shitty ones as well
Well, you have to be able to call out the shitty ones why there shouldn't be this weird thing where you can't say anything can't
Like point out flaws in the system without like seeming like you hate the police like that's so overdramatic
Most of us understand that police keep us safe. We need them
We respect them, but there's some issues just like in any field. That's just how that's the thing, right?
I mean, it's a job at the end of the day. It's how they're paying their bills
Just like we all have jobs that pay our bills
So it should be treated, you know, we shouldn't have been great attacked for criticizing, you know
People that you shouldíve job where they're essentially, you know, we pay our taxes so we should have a say in what happens. Um,
Dude, I just remembered one other time I got pulled over. This is funny one time
I got pulled over for looking at a quarter. Oh
Yeah, oh my god. I couldn't believe this I was driving home from class
And as I was walking out of class
I had my phone in my
backpack and I even remember thinking like I'm not gonna get it on my phone until I get home because I just like I don't
Know wanted to kind of like disconnect for a second. I do this kind of stuff all the time
Put it in my bag. Put it in the back seat
So I didn't have my phone with me and I'm driving and in my cup holder. There was a bunch of quarters
And I'm sitting at a red light and I was just bored so I picked up a quarter and I'm looking at this quarter
It's like a new you know, one of the state orders
So I was checking it out and this cop turned on his fucking lights behind me pulled me over and he's like hey
Are you texting and driving? I saw you texting and driving and I was like, uh, are you talking like I have a quarter
That's all I can think of. My phone's in the back. I
Was like what I was like, okay. Sorry. Bye
Just like dude. I'm sitting at a red light. I'm allowed to look at a quarter like
Here's the thing like I mean that's just like you've had a lot of
experiences with police where
You you know, obviously like you've just dealt with some like a not-so-great police officers. Like can I tell this last door?
Yeah, I really want to share this because this was so fucking disappointing to me. Probably the worst thing I've ever experienced with police
So when I was a senior in college, I went to this party
Anyway, I got trashed at this party like me and my friend split a bottle of vodka and I never went out I don't drink
Much at all. So I was just super nervous to be around all these frat guys. I didn't know and Josh wasn't there
so I got super drunk and then we were going to this other frat party and
When we came up to the party, he was already being busted or people were like running out of it
I don't even know police weren't there yet?
but people were running clearing the party and there was this girl that was unconscious on the
Sidewalk of this fraternity house and me and all my friends pull up and I'm like, okay
I'm the only one who's 21 here. Everyone else like get out of here go and
I helped this girl. So I was literally alone with this girl drunk as hell
Let me tell you and she her eyes were rolling back in her head
She was having like a full-on she could barely talk
And so I had this girl in my arms and the president fraternity was just standing on the porch
Morning, so does this fucking watching me. So anyway, I called 9-1-1
Police come there AMS come there and I came up to them and I talked to him
I was like, yeah, she's like really struggling whatever and they're like, okay
Well, you need to have someone come pick you up right now or we're gonna take you to detox
They weren't nice to me at all. Like No, thank you for being the one that stayed behind out of
Probably 75 people. Yeah and help this girl. Yeah, and I got they were mean to me
They were so mean to me. I'd have someone come pick me up. I was so disappointed like try to do the right thing
I mean you were very very lit for sure
I was sobbing after yeah, I mean you were super emotional you literally thought this girl died
I thought she did die in my arms. I really did
I've never seen you so hysterically like
Just beside yourself, like literally like I would I have believed I was like, yeah
This girl like really died cuz you seemed like yeah, so upset. You're so worried. Like you're you just kept saying like
Xocai xocai like it bothered you so much and I was like damn this girl must have been in really tough, dude
You have no idea her eyes were completely rolled back in her head. She was a freshman
It was like first couple weeks of school. I felt so sorry for
attorneys are just
they like
Weird hot like in sororities what I was taught about
Values and personal growth and like I would never carry like your brothers and sisters. Yes. I didn't even know this girl
I never even met her I've never talked to her
Actually, she doesn't even probably doesn't even know this happen and that she was in my arms at one point
But it was yeah, it was very disappointing the way the police handle it in the fraternities. Yeah
Man, am I glad to be out of college? That's all I gotta say
Yeah, but yeah, I've had like at least what like eight bad run-ins with police
Yeah, seems like you have I know it
Was so straight-laced in my all of high school. And yeah
Yeah, no, your your encounters have been not great for sure. No, no nice to them
Like just hoping they'll just be nice to me back. No
No, like one look at her records are like, nope, not to mention. Sorry guys
I'm just kind of going off but like I
Also went on a police ride-along when I was in high school and the dudes were totally racist
I'm sorry, the
Policemen I was with we're saying like fucked up things and I was a senior in high school and I even knew how bad it
Was like they were saying such nasty nasty things. We went to the projects. They were making fun of people in the projects
I was like, dude
Way to ruin this experience for me. Like I was so excited
I've always been in fest, you know interested in this kind of stuff. So taking a law class and doing the ride-along
Yeah, which is surprising
Honestly that they had that weren't on their best behavior for it was crazy right along because that's terrible
they were calling Obama the n-word in front of me Wow Wow, and I'm like a little girl from high school like
Yeah, so that like ruined my not really better
But I've also had good ones. I had a dude lived across street from you as a police officer
It was like the nice guy in the world and there's also been you know, we know some other great cops. So yeah
Anyway anyway
America makes up 4 percent of the world's population total
but it also makes up 25% of the world's incarcerated and
on top of the 2.3 million Americans who are incarcerated
3.7 million are on probation in eight hundred forty seven thousand eight hundred forty thousand. Sorry are on parole
It has since 1970. The inmate population has risen seven hundred percent and growing
So basically
Since the 70s like
Thousands like thousands and thousands and thousands of people have been locked up in
America's prison system
Which there's a lot of you know, there's a lot of different things that can influence this there's changes in long policy
That could explain most of the increase there's and the results of this are overcrowding in prisons
Fiscal burdens on states despite increasing evidence that large-scale incarceration is not an effective means of achieving public safety
The prison system in the u.s. Costs 75 billion a year Wow Wow
That's crazy. Say it's a seventy five billion dollar industry
Maybe people wouldn't want people to be locked up as much if they knew how much they're paying for their, you know, tax dollars. Yeah
Well, we'll get into the heads some more here
Not only that but there's actually two roughly two million prisoners currently behind bars who have never even had a trial yet
That's sick. That's that's like so
Unconstitutional and wrong it is I mean literally the six amendment states in
All criminal prosecutions the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial by an impartial
Jury of the state and district wherein the crime shall have been committed
Which district shall have been previously a certain by law and to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation?
to be confronted with the witnesses against him to have a compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor and
to have the assistance of counsel for his defense that
Sounds pretty good. But when you look at the reality of things, this is not what happens in MO
I'm gonna say most because it really feels like most
it really feels like it's it's the the criminal justice system meaning the
prosecution the state and
All of its resources in the prison system behind them against little old you you know
even if you have a good defense team as we've seen with the
Staircase and Michael Peterson. Look at you. Look at AJ, you look at all these different cases where?
actually OJ was a rare example of a success when it comes to a you know a
defense being able to actually defend you from the state, but when you clearly did it, right, but
It just goes to show that
Something is seriously wrong here. If literally our you know, a sixth amendment is not even happening most of the time
so do you think that like maybe that these two million people the reason that they haven't had a trial is because
they don't think they can win a trial like they think there's not enough evidence that they did whatever they're in there for and they
Make sure you would like let them go
Could be here let me let me read this because this plays into that and this is interesting
So this is from an award-winning journalist named Chris Hedges
And he said the reality is that almost no one who is in prison in America has gotten a trial
there is rarely an impartial investigation a staggering ninety seven percent of all federal cases and
95 percent of all state felony cases are resolved through plea bargaining
Of those millions who are bargained away their right to a trial by accepting plea deals significant percentages of them are innocent
Right because that that happens a lot
Yeah
I think it happens more than people even like to believe like it is hard to get a trial
It takes a long time to go to trial. So a lot of people go the the plea bargain route and
the plea bargaining route
Doesn't all it does usually doesn't end up well for you because you literally have to plea plead guilty
To the crime for a lesser sentence or lesser punishment, but you end up in the prison system and you might even be innocent
like we've seen that so many times to where people are literally locked in prison for years because
that the state was like we have enough evidence to take this trial we and we think we can you know, basically convict you and
you may not even have did the crime but you're like
What do I do? Should I should I take that chance go to trial go in front of the jury works. And then yeah
Possibly get a worse sentence worst punishment, or do I take the plea?
But used to either way you still end up in the fucking system. Mm-hmm and
Specially and if you're innocent, the system will completely destroy you physically mentally
Spiritually in every way I mean Kendall and I have been you know
We've watched a lot of true crime documentaries that a lot of true crime shows
some of our you know top ones and ones that have been most eye-opening for me by far has been
60 days in on a knee
Mm-hmm where ordinary people who've never been in prison or jail get locked up in jail for 60 days
It's basically like they sign up to be undercover in a prison and kind of let them know who's bringing in drugs
who's you know the
problems
Yeah
Warden's is that even in there's one warden? Okay, I
Don't know why that sounds like country. Well, like the warden it is kind of kind of stuff from that I think
But yeah, like the correctional officers things like that
but they're just normal people that do it's it's wild what they go through to like it's very eye-opening to how prison is
Because we all so much orange is the new black and we love that show
But it's like very unrealistic for how most prisons are like, that's probably a pretty good prison. Oh, yeah, and I mean there are
That's the thing too is there are better prisons and others for sure like there's better situations
Yes, but like most county jails are a complete shit show literally a shit show. Yep, just like
Degrading it's horrible. It's it's equating to
Animals animals and cages, you know, like we, you know, all of us want animals to build a room free and stuff
obviously
These are criminals but it's like when does it become in Maine is?
solitary confinement a form of torture like is that is that of
Something that should even be used today still. Well, I know what it does. I think some people need to be in solitary confinement
But there's way too many people that write
Non-violence in four years people are in solitary confinement for years. Yeah, that's crazy
You might meet some of them those like killed inmates fellow inmates or like a time, right?
So it's all right other choice they have what other choice do you have?
Yeah, so like some of them need paint this we're talking about the majority, right?
That doesn't wasn't even on violent criminals - right? Yeah
Well, that's the whole thing. Right like Chris Watts like he deserves justice
He deserves a harsh sentence and punishment because he's fine with him sitting in solitary
No, we're gonna find him guilty of this horrific crime that he committed, right
but like you just said
Nonviolent offenders get treated the same as violent offenders most of the time and they get they live together
it's not like they separate the violent people all the time from the nonviolent like you could be a drug dealer and
You know, you're with somebody that's literally like murdered a bunch of people or assaulted a bunch of people
So that's the problem with the system here and that's what we're gonna talk about. So
if you look at the incarceration rates internationally United States just leads it by a
long shot really fire six hundred seventy
Per 100,000 when it comes to people being incarcerated
second is actually North Korea, which that number is very high -
Because we don't actually know for sure
but when we go look at you know, where a lot of you guys are from across the world look at like Australia they're
167 vs. 670 way way less Canada even less
114 go all the way down to you know
Sweden at 57. Yeah, that's crazy. So very very low so we are like
seven hundred percent more likely to lock somebody up than
people and you know
India is the lowest that's interesting and they would have been higher but maybe not
So why did this happen? Why did we have this huge increase from the 70s to now of people being incarcerated and
there's a lot of different theories - this one is a series of law enforcement in sentencing policy changes of
The tough-on-crime error resulted in a dramatic growth in incarceration, which is true. It was brub
I think Nixon was probably one of them and
Also because the war on drugs which started in 1982 and the number of people incarcerated for drug offenses in the u.s
skyrocketed from forty thousand nine hundred and nineteen eighty to four hundred fifty thousand three hundred forty five and
2016 it was Nixon that started the war on drugs. Yep
He was such a fuckin sorry and for me
This is my biggest issue with the whole system is
drug-related
Offenses, me, too. I
Drug-related offense me. Personally, I don't think we should be throwing people that are addicted to drugs into prison because as
many of us know
It ain't drug free imprisoned
There's drugs in prison
There's tons and tons of drugs some of you and said like in one of the 60 days in episodes in the Atlanta jail
They're like there's more drugs in here than there is on the streets like yeah
They're literally like doing cocaine and doing all these different types of hardcore drugs
so it makes it really hard cuz a lot of people are like
Get addicts off the street get them in jails or that they don't have their drugs and they while they're in jail
That's not reality at all
Like if anything, it makes their addictions worse because that's all they have to do and you know when you're trying to get off of
especially opioids or you know heroin or something really strong like that and we met we both like have had
Like a very close up experience with someone going through this with people going through this
So like we're very familiar with what it's like to have addiction how hard it is. It is a real disease
It has to be treated as such right and you don't get the treatment that you need in prison
You just don't it's not rehabilitating people at all. No, absolutely not
There's actually more people behind bars for drug offenses than the number of people who were in prison or jail for any crime in
1980 so
Sanity of mass majority of the people in this overall number of incarcerated is drug-related offenses
So is there a possibility for major reform when it comes to dealing with?
drug-related offenses, obviously a
Huge one is marijuana, which we'll talk more about than specific numbers
Later is like people are getting locked up for years for life for a plant. It's pretty ridiculous. That doesn't kill anybody
Just and it doesn't and don't try to come and say oh it does cuz it doesn't it doesn't
As there's no he's from like overdose. No, it doesn't
There's no proof that smoke yourself to death no you came and overdose on it. Yeah without extreme else. Yeah
You can overdose on some plants though kind of it's crazy than choil
So not only did we, you know start locking people up for drug offenses
But we also started sending people to prison for much longer terms
And this all happened during that 1980 time period till now
Harsh sentencing laws like mandatory minimums combined with cutbacks and parole release
Keep people in prison for longer periods of time than ever before
The National Research Council reported that half of the 222 percent growth in the state prison population
between 1980 and 2010 was due to an increase of time served in prison for all offenses and
There has also been a historic rise in the use of life sentences
One in nine people in prison is now serving a life sentence nearly a third of whom are sentenced to life without parole
Nino and Josh and I were talking about two is like
obviously some people deserve to be locked up for their whole life and need to be
But how it's just thrown out so easily to people who maybe don't deserve that
it's so....
Alarming how easily we take away everything someone's has all you have when you're born into this world is your life and your freedom
That's it to take that away from someone for their entire life and not even give them the ability to work towards right better
Right. It's really really sad to me
What are we locking you up and throwing the key away and then?
Taking you out when you die
Like once you're dead and there's plenty of people who who are not killers that are in this situation, you know
And there's innocent people that are literally on death row. Yeah that have been convicted for crimes
It did not convict commit that
I mean if when you look back and you just think about all the people that have likely been
Executed because or, you know due to being wrongly convicted and sentenced to death
It's like crazy when they're innocent like it's brought it would probably blow our minds if we even knew what that number was
Yeah, and that's interesting because I'm actually about to record a video today on Laci Peterson
Mm-hmm. Oh, yeah, that's a good example. Yeah, and uh
It's pretty crazy. Just thinking about it because I'm like, I'm pretty fucking sure Scott Peterson killed Laci Peterson
but he's on death row and there's a slight there's like 10% of me that thinks he may not have done it because there's a
Pretty good alternative scenario that does make sense and there's some evidence for and it's like yeah, how do you describe life?
like
We're probably right but we could be wrong. Well, it's almost makes you thing is like
Maybe they should only be able to give you know, give the death penalty if there is
100% proof without a you know without a reason but like
That they did it and only then but then again, it's big it opens a whole other debate
Like should we even be executing people still in the first place? Like this is something that we shouldn't be doing
Well, I don't know that see that's the thing is like I've never been able to form a full opinion on the death penalty
I'm completely mixed on it because I study some crazy crimes dude, and there's some people that I I
Wanted them to fucking die because of what they did
Is so heinous - like little girls or Scheldt. Like I just can't picture anything else happening with them
But at the same time I've now learned that people on death row actually get treated a lot better
Yeah, it takes a very long time if it even happens before you just die naturally
So it's almost like is that worse or is it almost better for them?
Like is it worse to sit in a prison cell for your whole life and just think about what you did like
That would be the worst if it was me
I'd probably rather just die instead of just sitting there thinking about how shitty I am for the rest of my life
all right, but it's interesting how I
don't know cuz then you also think about
It's expensive to keep them in there. I think of the amount that works. Hey, very expensive. So is it under the pants?
Just let me go
Right. So what do you do with them right social?
Circle where I can can't figure out exactly where I stand on that it's hot
It's just it's so complex and like there's a lot of people that are like, well they don't you know
They don't even execute people humanely, like they they're they still haven't even figured out
What's the right drug you inject? You know, that's my injection like tell us about that. You told me about that
so they just started doing fentanyl using fentanyl to
Essentially kill you with it because it actually does work very quickly at high dosages. So
They are starting to do that. But in the past there's like literally people that have been like
injected with you know concoctions of different drugs and things like that that end up surviving the execution and
Don't actually die. But undergo like horrific pain like basically torture by the state, so
Looking at it from that perspective. It's like
They're literally like torturing people. So is that okay to like because that person you know, cuz like here's the thing
Right it all comes back to like us as humans and as a human being we all make mistakes
We all fuckup we all you know
we all have a bad day or in a you know in the wrong place at the wrong time and
You know and that, you know, if you're somebody that's a you know
innocent and on death row I
Wouldn't want that want that to happen to me Plus?
Do you believe in Redemption do you think people no matter how?
Messed up you are what crimes you commit do you think everybody has that ability to come back?
like I think I rehabilitate if it was you the system reaction had a
rehabilitation process
Would you be open to taking the death penalty off the table in order to enter them into like a serious rehabilitation program?
I think if you're sentenced to death row you should be able to work towards
Being taken off
death row and back into life in prison to prove that you could be a
Helpful person in the prison or that you've changed, of course, I believe in Redemption and forgiveness
I believe I mean there's many victims out there who've even you know
forgiven though craziest killers because it's but it's better to forgive right but not forget and
I don't think that they should be let out, you know, like if you take someone's life
Especially if you tortured someone or did something like that? I think you deserve to be in life in prison. Absolutely. Sure. Sure
If not the death penalty
Like that's where I'm just like I've seen some shit where I think people should be given the death penalty
So it's so hard for me to fully
Decide like Fred Andros West
Did they did they ever get the death penalty or anything? I think they both just died in jail. Oh, yeah, like them sickos. Yeah
Well that I mean that's the thing here and and the death penalty has been around since like the beginning of human civilization
I mean, we've been executing right, you know criminals for years
So it's like maybe that's like literally necessary in order to sort of keep this balance between good and evil and yeah
You know the criminals versus the the rest of society like you have to like you've got to have a harsh
punishment in place in order to help deter people from because like
What if criminals knew that the worse they're gonna get is like a rehabilitation program. So they just go fucking like yes, you know
yeah, go do a bunch of horrible heinous shit and
They're like, you know, that's why it's hard right and easy. So it's like it's very it's very tough. It's very tough
So it really just seems like a case-to-case thing when it comes down to it
So this it shouldn't be the system doesn't work right for every case is the thing
No, it doesn't it doesn't at all and it especially doesn't work very well for people of different
Ethnicities and different racial backgrounds. It does not touch all communities equally
Sentencing policies implicit racial bias and socio-economic
Inequity contribute to racial disparities at every level of the criminal justice system
Today people of color make up 37% of the u.s. Population
But 67 percent of the prison population
67 percent
is not white that's insanity it is it is very
Lopsided yeah it is
Overall african-americans are more likely than white Americans to be arrested once arrested
They are more likely to be convicted and once convicted they are more likely to face stiff sentences. This is fat guys
It's not this is not just like opinions of you know, it's modern-day slavery
in other ways
I mean literally I mean black men are six times as likely to be incarcerated as white men and
Hispanic men are more than twice as likely to be incarcerated as
Non-hispanic white men. That is very alarming. Yes
And I mean this this whole problem is far deeper rooted than just the criminal justice system being fucked up
I mean this goes back to
Racism in America it goes way way back and this is a major cultural problem that we've got on our hands
But the criminal justice system definitely does not work in the favor of all all people by any means not even close
So what does mass incarceration and Public Safety have to do together so
Crime rates have declined substantially since the early 1990s
But studies suggest that rising imprisonment has not played a major role in this trend the National Research Council
concluded that while prison growth was a factor in reducing crime the
Magnitude of the crime reduction remains highly uncertain and the evidence suggests. It was unlikely to have been large
Several factors explain why this impact was relatively modest
First incarceration is particularly ineffective at reducing certain kinds of crimes in
Particular youth crimes many of which are committed in groups and drug crimes when people get locked up for these types of offenses
They're easily replaced on the streets by other seeking and income are struggling with addiction
second people tend to age out of crime
Research shows that crime starts to peak in the mid to late teenage years and begins to decline when individuals are in their mid 20s
After that the crime drops
sharply as adults research and 40s
Which is interesting that it's like this window of like your teenage years to around like the 30s that you're most susceptible
You see most of the crime
the National Research Council also are that their recent study concludes that because recidivism which is
reoffending rates
decline with age lengthy prison sentences
Unless specifically target very high rate or extreme danger offenders are an inefficient approach to preventing crime
The recidivism rate for American prisoners is 77% within five years of being released according to the Bureau of Justice Statistics
Roughly thirty nine percent of these rare rests were for drug offenses
Thirty eight percent were for property offenses in twenty nine four were for violent offenses
so basically, this is just saying that is
incarceration even a
Good, like does it actually deter crime does it actually keep people from Murray committing crimes?
No
No clearly, it doesn't I mean especially I mean especially for the drug related stuff. Yeah. Yeah you here's the thing
I mean if you're addicted to drugs you're gonna you know, even when you get released from prison, you're you know
You might relapse and go
You know strict continue to struggle
Or the only people that they really know in their life their friends and family are using drugs or they're going right back into it
Yeah, or I don't know any other means to support themselves
They just immerse they don't fall back in or they come out of jail completely addicted still
Oh, you're not worse for people who went in there without being addicted came out addicted, you know, exactly no that happens too. It's wild
cuz
Here's a reality. The reality is is like if you go to prison and you spend any amount of time in prison
Especially if you spend years in prison you come out
It is not and you have nothing it is very very hard to get going again. You can't get a job
Most of the time you can't get a job if you get a job. It's a very low paying
You know job
But you have no access to government benefits can't get welfare you
Can't get food stamps and that's why so many inmates
After being released end up homeless
Yeah
There's a homeless or they just want to go back in or they just want to go back in and it actually makes them want
To commit more crimes or they feel like they have to in order to survive
Yeah
There's no help for that transition now or preparation as we see in the shows like it's chaos
It's absolutely yeah. Hey us yet to the point where like the whole jail is flooding with water. There's inmates everywhere
There's girls nobody's watching anybody
It's literally just a free-for-all
People are pissed off
They don't they get to see the light of day like two hours three hours a day
If they got nothing to do that's like lucky if you see it two or three hours a day
I feel like most of them it's like maybe an hour if that that's like people that are like solitary confinement stuff
They have to like I think by law they have to like get you outside and well, that's good
But but it's still it's not that good. I mean the bad thing is like they got nothing to do
So all they got to do is think about what they did. Yeah, start shit with other inmates. Yep, or like, you know do drugs
exactly, so
What is it doing? Nothing? It's not
Rehabilitation band-aid it's like taking a person that's bothering us and putting it in a little drawer a box. Yeah, stay in this box
Yep, can't come out. Mm-hmm
and what's crazy to me is like so many people that are in prison have no idea like
About their case or what's going on or when they're gonna be released or anything? They can't get any answers no information CEOs
don't help with something as serious as
Incarcerated someone taking away everything they have
you would think the system would work a little better as far as answering their fucking questions and like treating them with respect and
Giving them their constitutional rights. Yeah, I would think
You would think
You would think
But things really haven't got that much better
unfortunately
And I mean there has been some reform at the state level actually
California voters passed a ballot measure
Proposition 47 in 2000 14 which reclassified certain low-level property and drug crimes from felonies to misdemeanors
Well and will reinvest some of the fiscal savings into prevention programs
New York policymakers reform the Rockefeller drug laws in 2009 which imposed harsh mandatory minimum sentences for low-level drug offenses
So they're so well, that's the thing. There's a lot of laws and things still in place from the war on drugs
That are locking up people for like literally just having possessing like a small amount of of weed or NY
Drugs or substances? Why are they doing this though?
It's because they are afraid people like the Rockefellers are afraid of people using natural sources of medication
You know marijuana
Mushrooms whatever things that come out of the ground
That natural run. Yes. Yeah because it competes with them being able to hook us on prescription drugs
It's just yeah, I mean it all comes back to money at the end of the day in the government
Let's not forget. The government is very involved in the drug trade secretly. It's really crazy
Like Josh might have seen some stuff on that. That's just wild. Yeah, it is. It's like a total conspiracy
It is it really is though?
it is a real conspiracy and it is a real thing and there's a lot of real evidence to suggest that there's a lot of
Drug trafficking quite frankly that goes on with government agencies and entities
So it's it's I don't know
It's very disheartening and I knew this episode was gonna get me
Just feeling like pretty down about the system because it feels like it's like how do we change it?
What can we do it seems like it's so set in stone
it seems like that's how it is with most of the things that we want to change like they feel it feels so hard to
Even know where to start and you end up feeling so like helpless
You know, does it take completely?
it's gonna take
like a takeover
like a revolution a
Complete
Revamp of the system from ground, you know ground zero just literally
redo the whole thing, because
you not only you do have the you know racism issues and
People of color being locked up unfairly and being literally
Targeted by police
I mean
there's the stop and frisk in New York things like that - I've been on literal ride alongs where
I've literally witnessed the
Police officer I was with racially profiled somebody
Literally just straight-up tell me he's like anybody that looks like they're probably dealing drugs probably doing drugs
Things like that and that's their excuse to pull them over and obviously their actual excuses like you made an improper lane change
That's all they gotta do. They only have to provide like some
little thing in order to pull you over and then as you see time and time again order they just
Abuse their power and abuse their ability to make people do especially people of color do what they want them to do
And yeah, pull them out of the car when they don't have a right to do it, you know
Question them and beat them and just do all sorts of crazy or shoot them and kill them
Exactly. God, I mean how many times we're not?
Really? There's a problem
Unarmed good
God, that's the thing in what pressing I love when it from the training that I took the only time you should ever ever ever
Discharge your service weapon is if you feel you fear that your life is literally
Hanging in you know, it's a life or death situation only if you just yeah right be good fucking reason
But there's got to be a reason there's got to be a weapon there that could hurt you
They got to be coming at you aggressively. They got to be. Well, here's the thing
It's still very loose about what that means and so people
Cops do this on you know
every month or it seems like we hear about a story like this where a cop ends up shooting somebody and
They're like I feared for my life because he was coming at me aggressively, but then he technically by law right by law though
That's the thing
the laws have to be rewritten around this like they have to create new policies around when a cop should be able to
Use, you know force like that deadly force. So for instance, I can't remember his name
There's so many of them that it's sad, but the one he was running away from the officer. Yeah
We've gone into straight murder. That's my question is
It when you're training
did did they tell you anything about like you shoot once and you don't aim it at deer you're supposed to like make sure you
Aim to kill are you supposed to aim at like their foot or how many times are you supposed to shoot?
Well, are you ever supposed to unload your weapon into someone unless they are literally coming at you with another with a weapon?
Absolutely, not. Absolutely not
That's the problem though is like they do teach you that if you are gonna use your weapon
you're gonna you're gonna shoot to kill not to in like it's never to you're not gonna shoot to maim or try to
Injure somebody it's shoot to kill
That's what they teach police officers
but it's gotta be in a situation where you could be killed you could be severely injured and
that's where you have the right to do it, but that's what what's happened is is that
cops think that, you know, I
Mean the bad apples out there think that they can get away with it with this kind of loose loose
you know policy there is around this because there's not anything really defining like what is a
situation that falls under this right to use deadly force, you know, it's very, you know,
And that's the thing is cops work for the government the government works for the state and that's the court system
So they've got their backs. They're gonna protect their officers
They're gonna protect, you know, they're always gonna choose that side over the victim. Unfortunately, that's just the reality of things
Most of the time obviously we have seen some justice be served for cops that have been literally
you know removed from their positions fired and even put in prison for
Charges of murder and things like that. They shouldn't be treated any different
No, but the sad reality is is that they are like, you know, they are and as we've seen in so many of these cases
Where police have fucked up or have done a horrible job not following protocol breaking the law lura leave staging like all these different things
Often times there's no repercussions for them. No, there's no accountability
So and that just makes it worse because then people are just gonna do it because they see other people get away with it
If you crack down less people would fire their weapons
Well, that's the thing exactly. If a cop knew that he has a very good ance of being tried and
Getting charges put on him for going to prison. That's what I always thought
I always thought it was a very I was like, you know when I was thinking about being a cop I was like
I'm never gonna I'm never gonna you know
Even think remotely about firing my weapon unless somebody is firing a weapon at me
cuz here's the thing right you have other tools you have mace you have tasers you have other non-lethal ways of
Controlling somebody but cops, but I think I think the problem too just comes back to like the people that are being
Accepted into these police officer programs and things like that and they're not yet being trained properly
They like all cops should be like mixed martial artists. They should all be required to be like jiu-jitsu
Yeah, it's like they should know how to disable. Somebody takes me to the ground properly
You know
with these types of mixed martial arts because it's you know,
You're not gonna kill the person but you're gonna be able to deal with that situation
so the fact that that you know
They do teach you some of that stuff. They do teach you no problem, Krav Maga to self-defense things like that way
yeah, great and more cops should be trained that way but
Let's let's what's the reality here? The reality is? There's
police departments are underfunded a lot of the times they don't have the resources or the money to provide this training and
You know every cops got a gun
So they're like, you know use that as your your tool so to speak and you know
We're all human. So cops. Could you know you could make a mistake?
Yeah, I mean shit you're in situations where you can't you know, like the kid the kid
He was just trying to get into his mom his grandma's house or his mom's house
Oh
he got shot at the door and the cop thought he had a gun or like Reese offered but
He had a cell phone. They thought it was a gun and that's the thing is like fuck dot. I?
Don't know. I I feel like something's got to change with that
cuz that's the thing is they do tell you that if somebody reaches if somebody reaches for a weapon or
Looks like even looks like the reaching for a weapon. You have a right as a police officer to shoot them
Mm-hmm, so I don't know maybe it's time we change them be like
You know what?
You became a cop because it's a dangerous job and if there's risk involved with it
So you're not allowed to shoot at somebody unless you see actually see a weapon and they have a what been confirmed on them
Mm-hmm. I think it's like it's just like such a tough situation. Like what do you how do you
how do you deal with that in every situation like you can't and if you're if you're a cop and you're like
You know cops Adrenaline's pumping. Yeah, I can see how they get scared. I
Don't know though, man
But it's like it just happens too much. I felt yeah, and it happens to black people mainly, right
Like is that part of the reason they're scared like it's just stereotype. Yeah. Yeah. That's the sad reality of it for sure
I think they have to be crackdown on because we've just like
It's very scary. How many?
Women of color feel the need to tell their children
what to do and like how to deal with police because they're afraid of them being shot
Like this is not a world for them to be growing up in it's fucked up. It's so bad
So we have like we have to start cracking down on this stuff
even if we feel like oh, well he was confused or he was you know,
It doesn't work for this resort regardless though. Every single incident needs to be you know
reviewed reviewed by an outside independent
investigation and
Everything needs to be reviewed all of Evans seems to be reviewed and ends
I feel like sometimes that doesn't happen and you know people get a you know police get away with very very questionable
Action, you know actions and officer-involved shootings and things like that. So, I don't know it's so complicated
that's the thing about this is like we're just like
Given opinions and thoughts on this but this can go a lot of different ways. There's a lot of reasons
There's a lot of things that you know, we probably haven't you mentioned that go into all this
It's just such a complicated system and you know because there's so many unique
Situations like the sacramental justice system needs to reflect that
Just like a bicycle works best when it uses different gears based on the train that you're on
We need a justice system that has different responses for different situations
Shifting gears to treatment prevention and long-term public safety solutions as appropriate
Also by taking a practical approach to criminal justice reform. We can decrease crime enhance public safety and make more responsible use of our resources
Because that's the thing is the system the way that it is right now is just like
So like, you know you do this equals this and in every situation
It doesn't you know, it doesn't always align with what you're being charged with they have to put charges on you
But the charges may not even fit the crime. They may not even know what to do with you
So they put something on you that's completely unrelated to what you did it
Just seems like there's a lot of guessing a lot of guessing going on
Yeah, there is and that we can't guess when it comes to people's life
No, well, that's especially people's lives. We can't guess we need to have a system that
works for all types of situation but also differs
Drug-related offenses should have their own court system with their own, you know their own type of punishment treatment
Involved process. It shouldn't be the same as somebody that you know
Murders their family. It shouldn't be the same thing
So, let's see one, uh something else I want. Um, so let's talk about
the rest of the world in
Comparison to the US. So other countries have vastly different criminal justice systems, obviously from the US
Following disease outbreaks and overcrowding in its prisons in the late
1990s the Russian government took deliberate steps to lower its inmate population
Today the country incarcerate Sri flee six hundred eighty one thousand inmates about the same per capita as the state of, New Jersey
According to the New York Times Germany and the Netherlands incarcerate citizens at a rate roughly
one-tenth the rate of the US and sentenced prisoners to jails that focus on
rehabilitation and re-entering society and
Many Latin American countries from Brazil to Costa Rica to Mexico have banned life imprisonment altogether
Haitian
So we are like one of the only countries that still
hands out life sentences on
The regular like ends but they've eliminated it completely. Yeah, like some of them have no life imprisonment. What's wrong though?
that's like
what they have rehabilitator
Right, but hot but they don't deserve that chance. Like who are you to just say that they can't
well based upon a lot of people out there, who are
Psychopaths who aren't gonna change and they know how to make it look like they have and that's very frightening
Especially people have killed multiple people in these times
Well, no. No they do but I'm saying like they have different dirt. They don't just like release them back into the wall necessarily they
Literally, but they like put them in a you know, put them in a psych facility
Like they have to they move from a prison cell to like a psychiatric facility where they're under watch things like that. Okay, okay
Well, then in that case
Yeah, I guess but I don't think they should be let out
Okay
Depending on what they did though
There are some people that deserve to be in prison for the whole life. Okay, I think so
I think when you take a life for multiple people knowingly
You might deserve that
But I don't know I mean it's such a hard such a hard situation
Because it's like how could that person ever possibly?
You know repay that debt
that they did but at the same time it's like
You're just you're a life for a life as your your stance on
It's like no not necessarily depending on the situation
But if they killed multiple people it for fun or tortured them
But what it but when you look at but that's the thing though
Right you look at these people that do these types of crimes. There's ought. There's always an underlying thing. It seems there's always an underlying
Condition and experience a traumatic event a childhood something that fucked them up
Yeah, Fred Andros West even their parents were off
Like do you blame cuz like here's the thing, right all killers serial killers included or children?
once they were all we were all just innocent children once
Nobody's born evil. Do you believe people are born evil and like wanting to murder people?
Yeah, you do really out of the womb their fuckin life
There are people that are serial killers that their parents were completely normal that they had perfectly good lives went to college
so there might be some just people some people are just psychopathic dude, or they have this like evil people have
These conditions these mental conditions maybe
So they're uh, you're right. I will be open-minded and say maybe there is just like an evil gene
That's just like you got this gene. You're just a fucking evil person and there's no hope for you basically
There's no case to look at this
Dang, what's this? Hang on? I need to look this up for a second Derrick Robbie. Who was his killer Eric something terrified me
Because I talked to Eric Smith
Okay, this is an interesting case because I talked about this on my channel and basically this kid committed this crime
He killed another four year little boy at age 13, and it was really brutal
He like beat him with rocks is really bad. And now he's an adult and he's every two years they give him another
probation hearing Perl hunting whatever and he's trying to get out and in my video I said
that I feel sympathy for him because he was
Abused he went through a ton of shit and he was 13 when he did this. Yeah, he's changed a lot since then
He's very remorseful. He feels you know, and I I said I started questioning my audience
do you think someone like this should be able to get out like he was 13 should his whole life be in prison and
I kind of lean towards he should be able to get out especially if they're able to prove that so
I don't know
it's kind of hard and a lot of people got really mad at me for saying that it's like one of my videos that there's
a lot of controversy on because I said I
Mean it's hard. I have more passion for more compassion for kids who made mistakes
I
Definitely don't think if you're a child when you commit a crime he was 13 and was tried as an adult for what reason yeah
That's not that's not fair at all sentenced to life in prison at 13. I mean I
Just that's where I have a problem. So in the case of kids committing crimes, which there's plenty kids that killed their parents
all types of weird stuff but that's the thing though right is I get like
Emotions are heavily involved with this and I get that I could never possibly know that feeling of loss and just utter
destruction
you know of having somebody do something horrific to me or my loved ones that I couldn't possibly understand how it feels and I
I'm not gonna I'm not gonna you know fight that at all cuz I don't know. I don't know
I might feel differently. I might feel like they should die or, you know be locked up in prison forever
I think that how are you that's the hard thing. It's emotional. It's so emotional and you know, you're so tied in with that
That's hard to look at it rationally and logically because here's the thing. It's like
Everybody's getting tried under the same system
So this might be beneficial for you personally because you had something done against you but then again somebody else who's completely innocent
Possibly is getting completely fucked on the other side of things
Like that's the problem with this is the blanket system as it exists now is just yeah
They work sometimes it's not yeah, there's no there's no real justice happening
I mean you look at cases like this this kids spending his whole life in jail or whatever and
Then you look at Casey Anthony who's free who clearly killed her little girl
She is free
That's the problem with the criminal justice
System Oh Jay Simpson being free
Shows us a problem with the criminal justice system that it comes down so hard on some people and then like look back on others
Yeah, just a little slap on the wrist. Go back to your life. It's very true
Well, it comes back to like we talked about in a previous episode about like maybe we need like a professional jury system
That's like professionals that are knowledgeable that
Understand the way to be so I don't know. How would you pay?
You know, how would you you know fund that cuz it would create jobs though
it would create jobs, but the problem is is that our prison that our prisons are horrible like they're
Here's that here's a statistic for you
so
In 2004 more than 40 state prison systems have been under some form of court order whether it be for brutality
Overcrowding poor food or lack of medical care and that's in 2004
so I bet you that number is doubled at least if not tripled and
As we've seen literally on TV, like these jails are absolutely awful. People are getting sick people there's feces
I mean, it's really really bad
Overcrowding is the biggest thing right?
There's too many people locked up that really don't need to be locked up in cages with along with all these other
very violent offenders
Why can't we?
Figure out a different solution. Why do all like, why does everybody get locked into the same bucket?
You know, why isn't there any?
Why isn't there any differences between crimes like why is everybody punished the same like that's stupid. That doesn't make any sense
That's so antiquated and dumb like there should be different court systems for different things
it it needs to be redone because this is this is kind of mind-boggling especially if you've never even known about this, but
Norway
Nor in Norway less than 4,000 of the country's 5 million people were behind bars as of August 2014 and
When criminals leave prison they actually stay out the country is the lowest recidivism rates in the world at 20%
The majority of crimes reported to police in Norway are theft related with violent crimes typically linked to drug trafficking and gang problems
Too to reiterate in the u.s. Seventy six point six percent of prisoners are
Reinforced so that's our rate almost eighty percent of people are
Really in prison because the prison system eats you up and then spits you back out and then you just come right back
Because you don't know what the hell to do
Norway takes advantage of a concept called
Restorations to repair the harm caused by crime rather than punish people
Something the US should consider don't you think? Yes, especially for nonviolent offenders
because as
You're seeing if you're watching this on YouTube
prison cells in Norway are
Pretty humane and not that like something like it's not great
It's still like a small room
but at least you have like your own room and you have like a bathroom in a decent place to
To be it where your know that we saw on that one documentary I'm talking about
I believe it was noir. It was you know, it was madhavan Sweden. They're very similar though. There's a documentary called
What is it called? We're talking more. So more really interesting and eye-opening just the world
and
They toured a prison. I think it was Sweden could have been Norway, but they literally had full access to kitchens with knives
These were like killers that they were rehabbing. It kind of looks like a college dorm. It does like it doesn't look bad
It's better conditions than like a lot of people in the world though. Oh, yeah. It's way better. I
Mean, we'll talk about the the flip side to it, but I wanted to read this for you. This is from a
Reporter
With the huffington post's who went to the prison in norway and she found herself interacting with two
deckhands on the ferry to bastoy island
We are criminals one of the men told her really we are criminals
Are you afraid she said no and was then offered a handshake and an introduction I am widow
He told her he was serving a 21 year sentence, which is the maximum in Norway, though
He'll likely be out next year
We worked the 6:00 to noon shift Kaito the other deckhand and prisoner said then we go back to prison and relax her exercise
Come you want to meet the captain. He is not a prisoner. The only one who isn't on this boat
when many picture prisoners serving time in the US, they certainly don't envision them working on a boat, but Norway is different as
The boat sets sail I spied bestow a cluster of gangly pine trees in a gray sea stretching toward a gray sky
Inside the both small seating area Kaito sat down next to me and turned on the TV flipping to the History Channel
Widow says that people think the stoy is a summer camp but being a prisoner he knows all too. Well the difference
Wigga was right. It did look like a summer camp model leaves fell on cyclers
Yes cycling prisoners and a horse and carriage centered by or cantered by
Gingerbread houses dotted the landscape they were dull yellow green trim and red roofs. I spied sheep and cows but no fence or barbed wire
Bestow is an open prison, which means prisoners can sometimes keep their jobs on the outside while serving time
Of Norway's prisons 30 percent are open and bestow is considered one of the best
More prisons should be open almost all should be we take as many as we can here
But there isn't room for everyone explained bestows governor or the warden named Tom
The island houses about 115 men overseen by more than 70 staff members
There's a perception that oh, this is a lightweight prison
you just take the nice guys for the summer camp prison, but in fact
No
our guys are into pardon my french some heavy shit drugs and violence and the truth is
Some have been problematic in other prisons
But then they come here and we find them easy we say is that the same guy you call difficult
It's really very simple treat people like dirt and they will be dirt treat them like human
Beings and they will act like human beings Tom explained
Basically goes on to say that this system is simply humane, and it sounds like a prehistoric
An actually go and buy ingredients to cook meals for themself they have unlimited
use of the phone Wow and
They're there for years one guy spent 18 years in the prison is now living in a neighborhood. He got rereleased
He's a normal old guy. No, one cares and you find this a lot of many friends who've been to prison
Norwegians are very forgiving people
Interesting so that is the reality in other countries and I mean obviously that's a very like
Pristine example of what prison could be like and maybe that wouldn't work here, but we've never tried it
We've never even remotely tried because here's the thing right on every prison show that you see locked up whatever it is
You always hear the prisoners say I just want respect. I just want some respect
because
They don't feel like human beings in there cuz how could you right you get treated like an animal or works to get treated like?
just crap like just shit like you get you don't get treated like anything which again some people might deserve that but
nonviolent people that committed a theft or grand theft auto or well, some of them are like
I mean some of the guards are brutal on them, too. Yeah talk like women who get raped in prison
Well, yeah, that's the whole other thing is like some nonviolent people
who didn't you know did something fairly petty and then go to prison end up getting assaulted and
Crimes committed against them while being in prison because prison is not a safe place as we all know in the u.s. At least
know where as Norway they've taken a different approach to the criminal justice system and provided a
rehabilitative approach for people that have murdered people people that have done really heinous things and they are able to rehab
rehabilitate these people
so
Could that ever happen here?
Absolutely
Absolutely, but it would take a lot not as long as the prison industrial complex existence
I
Just want to go through this because this this is what it's all about
So prison is a big business and working prisoners are a corporation's dream
prisoners are caught being contracted for work right now on a massive scale and
Despite the alarming and unsustainable growth of inmate numbers in the United States
Incentive to lock up people is only increasing
prison labor base in private prisons which yes people there are private prisons, which are for-profit is a
multi-million dollar industry with its own trade
Expeditions conventions websites and mail order internet catalogs. If you didn't know that you can literally order product from a prison
The industry also has direct advertising campaigns architecture companies construction companies investment houses on wall street
plumbing supply companies food supply arm security and many more
Furthermore private prisoners at the state level produce a variety of goods and services from clothing to toys to telemarketing and customer service
The private federal prison industry also produces nearly all military goods
From uniformed helmets to ammunition along with durable goods ranging from pain to office furniture
so the corporate stockholders profit from
This exploitation of of prisoners which are not again. I'm not against like prisoners working
I think giving them a job to do and giving them something to work on is is
Absolutely a good thing. But yeah, I don't think I think the exploitation of of prisoners so that
Corporate entities and and rich people can get richer. Yeah. Is there something wrong with that, right?
So let's I wanted to talk about this because I think you'll find this very eye-opening there's actually a surprising number of well-known corporations
Who are making a killing off of the prison industrial complex?
Here are just a few you might have heard of
number one Whole Foods the
State allows inmates to work for the profit of a private corporation. Whole Foods is one of the many companies that takes advantage
Buying fish and cheese produced by slaves and inmates and paying them a rate of 74 cents a day
Which again like Wow whether or not you want to pay the minimum wage?
But to pay them literally like cents is just pure wrong Lavery like what if these guys are really working hard?
They're nonviolent offenders and they're trying to like save up some money
So they have a little bit of money when they get out that they can like survive and actually make it but instead scary
Fucked over if they were being paid. Well, they'd probably do a better job. Yeah
Yeah, and this is where we're buying her food from
Yeah
And then what they do with this cheap labor Whole Foods then increases the price of the product astronomically
Toll tilapia raised by inmates for example sells for $11.99 a pound at Whole Foods Wow
And then basically they just reap all the profits. Yeah, and they're paid 74 cents a day a day
Oh my gosh
I
Think that I can get him ramen noodles in prison
For a whole day's work that came get a cup of cup of noodles
That's insanity because they only made 74 cents
McDonald's
Which it's no secret that McDonald's is suffering right now in a world where people are steadily waking up and moving towards a healthier lifestyle
There is no place for such heavily processed and unethical food yet. Despite being the world's most successful
Fast-food chain. They still source many of their goods from prisons including
Containers uniforms and cutlery the inmates who sew the uniforms hardly make anything
Wow, these corporations are literally just using like read free labor
Well, a lot of these corporations tie back to those families and you know, it's pretty obvious that they set this up
See like this. It's absolute like it. Absolutely modern slavery. Literally
Walmart, I mean that's my surprised by that purchased products from prison farms
that's where they're where they have to work in difficult conditions without sunscreen water food and
basically working for free Victoria's Secret
Undergarments and casual wear are sewn by female inmates for a Victoria Secret
In fact in the late 1990s two prisoners were placed in solitary confinement for telling journalists
They were hired to replace made in Honduras garment tags made in USA tags. Oh
Wow
Crazy crazy and they were placed in solitary can find. Yeah that's fucked up
Wow, so, that's Victoria's Secret, British Petroleum
AT&T and
Aramark which is a company that provides food to hospitals schools and colleges. They have a monopoly on food serves in approximately 600 prisons
They have a history of poor food service a problem, which led to a prison riot in Kentucky in 2009
So these are just some of the corporations that benefit
hugely off of inmate labor and
exploitation of basically
modern human slavery, it seems like I
mean
If you're gonna do that
like
that's the thing like even in they they talk about a lot of this and orange is the new black a lot of these like
Issues with prison and stuff like working and not getting paid like they won't the prison won't even provide them with jobs
So they have no way to make money. They have no way to get money and like nobody's giving them money on the outside
So they can't get commissary
Cuz that's like how you get a lot of your essential goods like remember in like we just saw an orange to the new black
Like the women could even get like maxi pads or like tampons or you know essential items
That females need like they could even get that which that's like a reality - that's like obviously based off some a real-life situation
yeah, like that's just fucked up like you're now I'm gonna provide basic necessities that
You know that's you know, like humanizing sick it is
so
Susur Lee makes you feel it does it makes you feel hopeless cause like what do we do? What do we do?
Oh, yeah
I was just saying make sure you like appreciate your life and freedom
It does and it makes you never want to commit a crime. That's not sure
Cuz you know once the system is not fair. It's not just
You're you know, you're not guaranteed anything as soon as you're arrested. You're not you know, you're you're not guaranteed anything
The best legal advice is shut your mouth and get your get a lawyer get a lawyer involved if you're ever involved
Because you know, some people are just like what about people are literally just in the wrong place at the wrong time, right?
like Stanley Yelnats
In the right time because it was all supposed to have the knowing strands are on the end it did but taking
That movie that's why I like remember it so well, that's a great movie
I just well, I watched the whole thing, like really recently. I love that movie, but it's exactly it's an example of
China booth
but if you like
Weren't work all humans were not prone to make you know, we're not prone to not making mistakes
So like what if you make a mistake or you're just driving you accidentally like hit somebody you kill them?
Like what happens like you're not a bad person. You're not like a criminal at heart
it was just a shitty thing that happened a good example of this is I actually
Like just know of someone from my community didn't ever meet them personally
but they got in a drunk driving accident and killed two women two older women like they were
selling mary kay or something and
He hit them and I don't even know what his sentence ended up being but like he felt so bad
But he was drinking in like the middle of the day. Yeah, and it's to women's life
So what do you do? Like, it's it's hard because clearly he's not an evil person
Right. That's that's the thing that I have more sympathy for is understanding when people just like have fucked up
Versus when they're evil some of the best people out there have fucked up and like literally gone to prison
Yeah
Literally like some of the best people out there have literally about a locked up situation and they ended up in Prison
Where they report they literally got fucked up even more
So that's that's reality. So like to wrap things up like what do we do?
what are some ideas to improve the system because it needs improving and
It seems like no matter how much we talk about this or how much the media talks about this especially the lamestream media
Nothing ever seems to come up come of it, you know, no matter what politicians get elected that say
We're gonna change and everything else, you know change the system. We're gonna do prison reform and everything else. Nothing ever happens because
the corporation's are so heavily entrenched into the prison system is my
my theory, yeah
But here's some ideas for one when talking about the police return to community policing. I think this is basic
I can't believe it doesn't happen yet. Well, some people are doing it. Yeah, there are some great officers officer Daniels
Oh my gosh. I always forget the name of this one police officer. I fall on Instagram
That's just such he's so involved with his community. He's a great example. Yeah, there's a lossing there is actually a lot. Mm-hmm
There's a lot of you know
Like as we've seen on like Instagram cops were like showing up to public events and like interacting with people
versus just being like, you know
All alone in their cars driving around all day, you know. Yeah, they're in the community. They're visiting people
they know their communities names they like meet the locals and
it's a totally different thing and
It's a shame that like it's not for that. That kind of stuff is not mandatory
yeah, like you should I think you should be I
Think you should live in the community and what you pay
Yes agreed if your place officer you should live in the community that you please because hey
that'll help you do your job far better because that's the thing like most cops do not work where they live and
they're the reasoning for that is because of the safety issue with it, which I kind of do understand cuz it's like
You know
You don't want some bad dude showing up at your house because that's the thing is people are like crazy these days
So like there have been cops that have been murdered at their house by gang members and things like especially if you like
Patrolling like a really gang infested area like it can be very dangerous, but it's time. It's like I think that
if you were to look at the statistics that how often that happens versus how much good it would do it would be
Are you talking about the one that's on live PD? No, oh
Trying to find this guy that I follow that's just so great. Oh,
His name is Tommy Norman T Norman 23. He's doing
He's a hundred and ten percent committed to making a difference inspiring world. He's all about community police work and
showing how a
Police should exist in their community and he highlights community like citizen. He's just so good
See, that's great. That's yeah, that's what should be the standard for great officers
Right, and that's why people can't bunch them all into a group and running things like fuck the police that's offensive
Yeah, and I see how that bothers people and I see why people are angry at police
There's obviously so much that needs to be done
But like there's people like him out there
That are really really gonna change the system if anyone's gonna change it's gonna be people on the inside
So I think it's so cool. I think he's really cool. His department allows them to kind of be this
Well, it's great to see that
We are seeing the culture with these police departments
change bit and letting them be more open like
They've been doing like lip-sync challenges little things to kind of make themselves more visible make them human that you know humanize themselves
So that's the thing is that yes, they need like cops just need to humanize themselves to the rest of us
Cuz a lot of us just like live
I mean how many of you out there literally like if you see a cop behind you while you're driving?
Kind of get like a little nervous or your heart drops and your stomach. You're like even though you are doing nothing wrong
Everybody gets that like feeling of like, oh shit. I'm a police officer and think to yourself. I'm safe not I'm tired
I'm war. I don't want it. I don't want to run into this guy. It's like yeah, it's like you have like a
killer behind yourself
we all act like or some of them that just stand there like with their arms crossed and like glaring a
Million everybody like you're here to protect me. Why are you acting like you're like against us?
Yeah, like we're in the military in you're right. That's the thing too is like there is a lot of like
militarization of the police and the police departments and you know, they say because of these new wrists and you know,
all these different things that have come about in this modern era, but I
Think that we we need to go the other way the this way of community policing and being visible
Humanizing themselves. That's why there's an organization called humanizing the badge which officer Daniels is involved with yes
It was actually uh, if you've ever heard of officer Daniels has anyone it's kind of crazy he is
Actually a used to be a security guard at my high school. Josh was like a good buddy of mine
Actually, we I went on a ride-along with him before he's just a really great guy
He's he's he's had a vine
He was a vine star and did a bunch of like really funny, please. You've probably seen his vine
So I'll link his stuff but he's also a great example of community stuff
And yeah, his nonprofit is humanizing the badge his is officer Daniels underscore one. He is almost five hundred thousand followers
So that's that's great. And I hope more police fall after that and I think
well, if we kind of rebuild this police culture and
Humanize them and met you know, cuz that's the thing, right?
They're just a human being like you or I there's nothing different about them from like human perspective. They're not. Yeah, you know, they're not
There it's not like they're never gonna make a mistake either like you have to be understanding of when they do mess up
but at the same time it's like
People shouldn't be like dying at the hands of police as much as they do and they shouldn't be just like getting to go back
To work we can get right people, right?
You're done. Yeah, like that's it. Yeah, I agree
Seems like one of the biggest things that could be done is people within the system trying to make changes going outward
Yep, exactly. I mean there's a lot of different things we could stop the use of solitary confinement in prisons
particularly for juveniles and detention facilities because
Solitary confinement just it messes with your messes with your head. It really fucks you up long term and that's that's like a psychological
Proven, you know issue. Mm-hmm
obviously there needs to be way more prison accountability and leadership to reduce violence in prison because there's tons of people that get assaulted and
Even killed in prison when it should be a safe place it should be
It's not but you know support for alternatives to arrest incarceration programs
There should be more mental health centers drug treatment options
You know, I think the biggest thing is like that once the war on drugs officially gets
ended and
you
know
Things like marijuana and different types of very, you know, non
Dangerous substances that have shown, you know, people can't get addicted to things like that are may legal across the nation
It's legal in Canada. It's gonna be legal across the u.s. Pretty soon
I think we're gonna see, you know inmate population go down, hopefully
Unless they just find something else to you know
Feed this prison industrial complex. That's the thing. It's just such a
Such a complex thing
But I think sent I think this whole minimum sentence thing for the you know for every crime kind of like a one
One-size-fits-all thing when it comes to sentencing is ridiculous
Yeah, you know just because you you know
There shouldn't be like a mandatory minimum sentence of like 20 years for selling selling drugs or something. Like that's craziness
Yeah, that is especially marital, especially marijuana exactly
Ending the death penalty because it cost millions
millions to to to even keep people to do that plus other countries that were
Here's an interesting fact Europe and most of them of the Americas have abolished it
Leaving the United States in the company of China North Korean Pakistan on the list of countries who retain the punishment, so that's pretty interesting
China North Korea and Pakistan and us are the only ones that still have a death penalty
Wow everyone else is kind of like moved on
Yeah, or it's kind of whine about how it used to be though. Like well right up
Just no trial execute. We're talking about like the Wild West days like if you
Rob somebody and like murdered somebody you'd be like hung in the Town Square like the next day. Mm-hmm, but here's the thing
Does that actually deter crime at the end of the day did it was like well I think back then like people are like fuck
I don't want that to happen to me. I'm gonna lay low and but I think people I don't think it's heard
That's the thing about is does it deter people?
Does the idea of being like excuse maybe there weren't as many executions back then
Maybe there was less crime there probably was but there was also less people, right?
Compared to now porn desperate times back then too. There wasn't like, I don't know people are in desperate times now, that's worse
That's true. It's actually worse now. I just feel like that would be really scary like as a criminal
I'd be like I'm good, you know like seeing someone get hung or burned. Yeah
Well, yeah, you would think but some people just like doesn't faze them death doesn't faze them at all like norwich trials. I
Guess they did have a trial dog Sam. Well Carl's
Like a completely ridiculous unfair trial based on bullshit. I
Mean this this shit goes back. So long ever since humanity's been around we've been
Dealing with these issues
the question of
What should the punishment be where we crossed the line? Mm-hmm?
It's interesting stuff, and there's not a simple solution to any of this. I mean just none of
you know looking at everything as a whole that we talked about today and like
Trying to figure out like what's the way forward? I mean, I don't know
I don't I don't know if the current system can even be fixed. I don't I I personally don't even think it's
Possible. Like I think we can definitely improve it and if we
You know are smart and stick together and come together as as people in
Order to effect change in the system. I think we can do a lot of good
but at the end of the day
I mean as long as the corporation's have the power that they do and the hold over the government and the
Various systems that are in place we're screwed like the truth
Try to just fix this we can work on community policing we can try to get whatever you want petition
It's not gonna fix this. No, we need complete revolution pretty much together away from the
Corporations as long as these corporations are run and shit. We're fucked
That's how I feel like and it's very it's very scary cuz like Howard any of us deal with taking them down
You can't you can't
So it definitely leaves you in a place where you're just hmm
What do I definitely I have so many times where I just leave things feeling. So helpless and so frustrated I
mean, I guess I
Guess our hope would be that the more people that that's the thing is a lot of people just aren't informed
They're not woke they don't know what's going on
They don't have any idea that this kind of injustice is happening. And that things are as bad as they actually are
So many people are asleep to all of it because they're just living in their own little worlds going through life
and they don't think about anybody else but themself and
in reality like a
lot of people are being
you know in
Oh, I came to think of the word. It's like just
unfairly tried and and
you know put into this system of ours that
Literally chews you up and spits you out only to eat you back up again
until you're a
shell of a human
I mean
I think a lot of people that are in prison right now have a
Possibility of being rehabilitated and and brought back into society as productive citizens. I mean
and like why can't we like have them at least do things that like maybe
The rest of us don't want to do why aren't we having them clean up the trash everywhere like yeah
like if they're you know, what are they all just kind of like you can't do that like why I feel like they've
The good ones do you know I've never seen it in actual in person. I seen it like movies. Yeah, like they shouldn't like
They shouldn't be as separated from society as they are. It's like banned from reality
Like literally just like exiled it's like the old days where they used to exile
Exile you to an island and then it's like so long
Good luck. Wow that used to happen like and so people I
think people lose their humanity and loose who they are as a human being because they're literally being treated like scum and and
You know, some people are scum
but it's like I think everybody's got a chance to redeem himself specially if you have
Done something that hasn't harmed another human being
I think you especially have a shot to come back and who knows do something great, you know
So, I don't know we want to know what you guys think about all this
So very interesting because there's just so much
I mean we couldn't even like cover everything and I'd love to hear if you
Personally have someone in prison or you've been to prison, you know, no judgement here
We'd love to hear your story your experiences and just your ideas on things your thoughts. What can we do to change things?
Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. Yeah, I mean
Maybe maybe you know one day we can have somebody on
That's actually been been there done that and yeah can really give us a first-hand account of what is really like
What they went through. Was it rehabilitating or was it just deep?
ability or whatever that word is so
Yeah, I don't know guys. We definitely want to what you guys think if you enjoyed this podcast and you're watching it
Please give it a huge thumbs up subscribe on iTunes and YouTube for future episodes
From the mile higher podcast. We've got so much good stuff coming
So much good stuff is coming down the road. So definitely want to stick around for that
but yeah that is it for us today and
Thank you for joining us for episode 31. Yes of the Malheur podcast. We will catch you guys next
