Bonus Episode B3

In this bonus episode of the Removing Barriers podcast, I (MCG) will be recounting my police ride-along experience with Officer CigarBro. No, we did not chase bad guys to the end of his jurisdiction, nor did we have a shootout with bullets flying over our heads. Instead, what I saw was just good ol’ fashioned policing, where a police officer was known by his first name and children who weren’t afraid to greet him with smiles and hugs. I saw good ol’ fashioned policing that the major media outlets are not likely to report on. I saw good ol’ fashioned policing where the police serve and protect their community.

And like we had one traffic stop, we were driving behind him. I don’t think he realized they were police behind him, but he swerved in the road and went over the Yellow line. And as soon as I saw that Officer, cigar would say, look, what in the world? What are you doing? And I’m like he’s on his phone. And so he light him up and he pulled in the left lane. And then make a U-turn. And when he did that, I’m saying he’s going to run.

Thank you for tuning in to the Removing Barriers podcast. I’m Jay. And I’m in MCG. and we’re attempting to remove barriers so we can all have a clear view of the cross.

In this bonus episode of the removing various podcasts, we’ll be recounting my experience on a police ride, along with Officer CigarBro and his fellow officers. And as usual, we will not mention his jurisdiction, state or any where he is, but I had a pleasure to ride along. Him as he go about his normal beats.

Jay is with us, of course, as usual, but we also have Shen from Episode 117 when she shared her testimony. So Shen welcome.

Speaker 3

Thank you. It’s good to be back.

Great. All right.

Hi, this is Jay. MCG and I would like for you to help us remove barriers by going to removing barriers.net and subscribing to receive all things removing barriers. If you’d like to take your efforts a bit further and help us keep the mics on, consider donating at removing barriers.net/donate removing barriers. A clear view of the cross.

OK, MCG, so why don’t you start at the beginning, why did you want to do this ride-along? At all.

Well, I think it’s twofold. Firstly, the police have been in the news or been demonized in the news a lot. And I feel like we are on the outside looking in and we can point fingers, tell people how to do their job and all that stuff, but never really have the experience or understand. And what they do, why they do it? So that was one of the reasons, because I think police have been unfairly demonizing the community. Of course, some of them do deserve some demonizing, AKA the officers in Memphis. But I think for most part the police force is good and they’re doing a good job. And what we see on the news. Doesn’t tell the full story, so I wanted to do that because of that. And then secondly, just for the experience of it, just to be able to see what they do and understand and. Kinda get the inside look and I must say I felt like I was on the inside looking out rather than the outside looking in and that was kudos to the officers that I was with Officer Darbro. And there’s another officer. I’m going to refer to him as Officer S that actually to me, they didn’t even treat me like I was an officer. They treated me like I was a police officer with them for the 8 hours I was there, so I think they did a pretty good job and kind of bringing me in and showing me the ropes and all that stuff. But I think I’ve arrived there. About 2:45 PM and walk into their precinct, one guy with a very deep voice kind of say hello. How may I help you? And I kinda tell him why I’m there. Give him my name and everything. Tell him. Hey, I’m here for a ride along and he said OK. You ask me who I’m going to go with, told him the officer name. Cigar bro. Obviously not his real name. He told me to wait and then officer Cigar Bro came and got me and stuff like that. We kind of joke about a vest because they didn’t have a vest to give me and I told them hey, my wife said I should get a vest and kind of joke about that. But other than that you show me around the precinct and all that stuff and then show me around the car and everything. And then we got in the car and we head off to his area. One thing I didn’t know though, about police car, that is their police car. There’s no cushion in the back seat. It’s just a plastic shape of a seat. And I was like, why, you know, you know what the prisoners to have any cushion and what? But he said he was to prevent them from hiding drugs. Never thought. All that. But see, maybe if I’ve never done that, I will say look, they’re mistreating their criminals, giving them hard seats.

There’s actually a reason for it to their.

They’re the reason behind that, right?

So I find that very interesting that people even allowed to do a ride along. So how did you find out about this ride along that people could actually do it?

Well, we have had officer cigar bro on our podcast to watch with times and he told me about ride alongs. I’ve heard about ride alongs to other police officers I’ve known, but I’ve never really thought about going on one because usually a lot of police force only allow folks to go. So if they’re interested in joining the police, you know, like teenagers or stuff like that or their family members and officers, Garber actually told me that a lot of officers don’t want to do ride alongs because a lot of folks that come and ride alongs kind of come to tell the officer how to do their job. You know, they are critical of the officer and stuff like that. But because of our friendship that we build up through the podcast, he was comfortable doing it with me and I told him playing blind. I’m not here to try to tell you how to do your job because I’m not a police officer. I basically for the 8 hours I was there with him. I observe and ask question afterwards and stuff like that. I didn’t try to tell him this is how we speak now. I observe I cannot stay back in the shadows a little bit. I stay within earshot of whatever is going on. I make sure I can see, but I can stay back and let him do his job. Because I wasn’t the detail model, the job I think he appreciated that. And I’m grateful for the fact how we did it and like we had one. Traffic stop, we. Were driving behind him. I don’t think he realized they were police. Behind him, but. He swerved in the road and went over the Yellow Line. And as soon as I saw that Officer, cigar would say, look, what in the world? What are you doing? And I’m like he’s on his phone. And so he light him up and. He pull in the left lane and then make a U-turn. And when he did that, I’m saying he’s going to run, but then he just pulls to the other side and pull over. But that’s was the only time, he said, you know, wait and let me go up first and then after that, then I can come out and watch what’s going on. Just want to make sure everything is safe because of course, as I said that whether we’re in a vest, obviously you’re not allowed to take weapons with you because of liability issues and stuff like that. So that was the only time I really had to stay back a little bit first. But other than that, every call I follow him wherever he’s going. They did a good job explaining their codes to me, so if they said something about ready, they’ll tell me what it is in plain English, show me the computers and everything. As I said, I felt like I was at least a police officer for that point of time because they didn’t treat me like I was just an observer, which I was just an observer. But they treated me like, you know, so.

So in between the time that Pauls came in. And did you have downtimes like, what did you do during the downtimes?

Yeah, that’s a good question. So I got there about an hour in his shift and when I got there, the very first call I went on was a disturbance teenagers at the McDonald’s not buying anything and refusing to leave. But by time we got to the McDonald’s, they already gone. And when we got there, there were two other police officers there and they were talking to a former police officer. We just kind of stand around and talk whatever the case may be. Then when we left there, immediately we went to. This was a young lady she called because she wanted to report a scam that was happening. And this was the most bizarre of the evening of the afternoon into the evening, because if someone had related this story to me, I would probably tell them they’re lying. But apparently this young lady, a mother of two, saw an ad on Instagram that asked her to send money to them and they will double the money back to her. So she Apple paid. Money over a course of like 2 weeks. Up to about almost $1400 to this person random person, Instagram think you should make an investment. And then when she asked for her money back, she couldn’t get her money back. And I’m like, I’m trying to be nice to this young lady, and she said she was out of a job. And she’s a mother of two. But you see something on Instagram and you send money to a stranger expecting it to double within a week. No, I’m going to refrain from using in the description, but I asked the officer afterward how do you keep a straight face on that? Because to be honest, I had to. Bite my lip while I was listening there because I didn’t, really. To laugh because I think that would have looked nice, but it came across to me as like.

Let’s say naive.

Yes, naive. The better word. But I don’t get it that someone would see something on Instagram and to send me money. And you send them money and an expert. I don’t know. The officer and I were talking afterwards. I said, like, I wonder if she maybe thought that if she said this, maybe she’s lying and maybe if she said it’s the state or the county or whatever. I give her back her money because the officer told her we’re going to file a report or whatever the case may be, but there’s no guarantee gonna get that money. And she was a little bit sad about that. I can understand being a single mother with two kids and out of a job that you gave him money and he didn’t get it back. But I don’t know. I don’t understand how people fall for stuff like that, you know. But I don’t want to be mean to this young lady because she did lose a lot of money. But that was the 2nd call. That we went on and. Then after that we went. On to domestic disturbance kind of thing, there was this young lady who had rented an apartment and moved her mother in. But it seemed like a mother had some sort of mental disorder. So her mother trashed the place, stole her money and also she had reported that she had stole her laptop. But by time we got to the house, she said. She found the laptop, so the mother didn’t take the laptop. But the mother took cash and checks of hers, and she worked at IHOP. The daughter, the daughter, did the think the daughter was 23.

The mother does or.

When the mother was about. 40 so but she took her daughter’s money and whatever, and kind of went there, file a report and stuff like that kind of look around the place and figure out what’s going on there. But yeah, those were the first couple of calls that we went on.

For that last one you just mentioned after responding to that call, did you ask the officers what they think about? The progressives in this country that say, oh, well, you know, when you’re dealing with mental health issues, why do we need to send police officers? Why don’t we send social workers instead? Or psychologists or people in mental crisis? Let’s send those professionals instead. Did that topic ever come up in terms of what they think of that, and whether that’s a viable option for the country?

No, that didn’t come up, but I think his state and county already have things in place to handle mental and stuff like that. And I think also the daughter already gotten. Some kind of order against her mother. She took the money and stuff like that and the checks and the daughter believed she went to a different jurisdiction. So the officer told her she would have to counter the other jurisdiction and maybe they can go and execute the order. And if they go execute the order, then by law they would have to take it to the hospital to get the mental evaluation. But they can’t go and execute it anymore because she’s no longer in their jurisdiction, even though they were in the. State so that discussion kind of come up. You kind of asked about that stuff, but I think she came from court that same day or from the police precinct or whatever to get the order to have her be mentally evaluated. But by time she got back, the mother took the money and everything and left and she said OK. I believe I know where she is. What I guess she is. And he said, OK, that’s in out of my jurisdiction. So this is what you have to do if you want to execute it and you only have 5 days to do it or else you have going have to go back to the process again to get them to give another order for her to get the mental eval. But we didn’t get into the politics of it, of stuff like that. So those are the first three calls.

Well, and so when you don’t have a call, you didn’t have a call, what would the police officers doing with they like riding through the community and kind of just driving through to see how things were going or? Where they just park somewhere waiting for the next call.

Yeah, both of those are true. When we didn’t have a call, we were driving through his area and he was kind of showing me around his area and stuff like that. And then after that, what they do, at least for these two officers that I was with the most, they will go to a church parking lot and park. They also have to write their report, but these calls will go on. They have to write the report on what happened and all that stuff. So when they’re down time, he’s always on his computer typing out his stuff because they have like 72 hours to get it done. And they want to get it done. So on the time off or the day off or whatever they want to do it. So on the down time, they will be doing that, but the first four hours or so was pretty busy. We moved from one call to the next to the next because even before. Oh, we were done with the daughter and the mother with a mental issue. We got another call that came in and that was with kids again and. This was a predominantly black area, but it wasn’t all black, so we went to guess it was apartment complex where we heard that children were fighting or something like that. Again, by time we got there, they were gone. So we kind of drove around a little bit, then we saw some of the kids and the officer was asking them questions and they were they basically cursed the officer at that point at least that set of kids, the cursed, the officer. Then we kind of drove to an alley and saw some other kids, and we were talking to them for a little bit. And then another call. Came in that was related to the same kid stuff. So we went to. To whom I recognize one of the girl because I saw her running earlier. And I guess they got in some other kind of confrontation again or something like that. But then, when her mother was talking to Officer S, by the time we got there, and I think she worked at the Juvenile detention center, so she was, you know, these mothers. And then she was saying, oh, I hope that my daughter get an experience of being locked up because she doesn’t listen and all that stuff. Again, my heart goes out to single mothers, but it was a situation where she have a 13 year old daughter and guess she can’t control her daughter. I don’t know, but it was a yeah, it was a situation like that.

13 But what time was this? What, 13 year old to be?

He was about 5 between 5:00 and 6:00, but there was a lot of children around him.

OK.

It was our condominium apartment areas where a lot of kids playing, but one thing that stood out to me because these kids stood out to me the most. One thing that stood out to me is that when he went there and we got out of the car, a bunch of kids run up and gave the officer the hug and these were predominantly black kids. I think he had treated. To maybe Starbucks wants or whatever, so they were acting them for stuff and but anyway, we left there after we just talked about it, we left there and we went to. I don’t want to call it a stakeout. There were one officer that was waiting for someone to come out of the apartment complex because they’re going to pull him over. Because there was something out on him, I don’t know exactly what it was because there was a lot of police talk that they didn’t. Then, but anyway, one officer will.

Something out of him, like some type of warrant or some type of.

It wasn’t, it wasn’t there wrong.

Like quite a warrant.

It was some sort of public cause they had on him anyway. One officer was sitting on one entrance. Then we went at the opposite entrance, and then once he came over the radio that they got him, we kind of went to that traffic stop and they were searching his car and every. Thing and he had a paintball gone, but at the end of the day he was free to go on his way. And then we went back to the same community for the kids again, because something else was going on with the kids. So actually what came over the way was there were children riding on the hood of a car. So we went back to the same community again, saw the same set of kids. Of course, they were making fun of their officers or stuff like that. I asked one of them how old she was and she said she was nine. And her older girl said she was 11. The officer told me she was. Even so, they were preteen early teen kids, but they weren’t saying who was driving the car. They was like telling the officer. They tell us not to talk to the police and stuff like that, but in any case, maybe they start asking officer Donuts. So I said, you know what? Let’s go buy them some doughnuts and come back. So if you’re OK with it, I’ll buy the doughnuts for them and come back because they were acting for stuff and whatever. Maybe so. We went back to the precinct. We yeah, like use the batching. Whatever Penner refresh and then came back and when we came back, we got the doughnuts and then when we got back in the community, there was a boy with like a rebar or something. And she was saying, oh, he’s threatening to hit me with it and all that stuff. So the officer took the rebar from him, put it in the back of the police car. And then we gave them the Donuts. And by that time, it was. Probably 6:30 or so. So you seem like you second down after that. We didn’t go back to the community after that, but. Yeah, it was.

Isn’t that crazy? The officers have to be officers and in some cases they have to be parents. And they gotta be I don’t mean saviors in the sense of like Christ. But like, if there’s, like a shootout or some type of mental breakdown, they gotta do that too. And all of it different from call to call isn’t. That crazy and.

At the fact that the kids are asking them for food, you wonder why what was happening in their homes, where they have to be asking these officers. And obviously they know the officers.

If they’re running up to them and hugging.

To them and hug them and stuff, so they must at least respect them in some way.

Yeah, this was a low income possibly Section 8 area so you can take that with a grain of salt or. Whatever how we want to take it.

Because when you initially said the kids were asking the officers for the doughnuts, I thought they were insulting them, cause you know the stereotype of officers and doughnuts.

Right.

But they were legitimately asking for food.

Well, I think he was more that they believe because he’s officer, he has. Donors and I believe because.

So it was a little bit of. An insulting too. Oh boy.

I think it was more also that he had treated them before, so they figure.

Oh, I see.

Act for a cheat or whatever. So, but I volunteered to buy the doughnuts. For them, my heart goes out to them because you can see that they lack direction. I don’t think that’s very that they are quote UN quote bad kids. They just lack that adult supervision. Of course. I’m not African American in that sense. So I. Don’t know what? Their communities are like, and I’ve never really been in the community and in the grew up in the community. So I don’t know if it’s a typical thing to be living in an apartment condominium tunnel. Area and everybody just kind of playing Rome as far as away.

Yeah, I think that’s quite common. Yeah, I think that’s quite common.

And so the officer used was Rascal. They’re little rascals, but they’re not necessarily bad in that sense. So they will do some dumb thing and someone call the police and you have to go and say, hey, stop doing that. And he said that he do his best not to ever have. To arrest them, of course, if he have to, he would. But he said he tried to do his best not to let them get any kind of record. He seemed like he does a lot of talking rather than like he said. He went on a call where three boys climb up on the roof of a. You know, for what he told him to come down. That’s yeah.

Some kid stuff.

It’s much more like that. You know, kids playing and fighting and kind of stuff. It wasn’t like gunshots or anything, but interacting with the kids, talking to them and stuff like that. They actually thought I was a police officer. Might tell them no, and the officer told them that I’m a software engineer. Police officer. Don’t make enough money for me. Kinda jokey, but. Interacting with them, the 11 year old told me that your dad was an engineer as well, I said. What kind of engineer is your dad? She said well, he works on trucks and cars and said, oh, he’s a mechanical engineer. Other than that, what I saw was it. Seemed like it was a lot of single mothers. Raising kids and they’re playing in the community, doing crazy stuff, and he even said it that he felt like sometimes he’s being a parent. He’s a young officer, he’s mid to late 20s, so.

When you were on any one of your calls, did any scene or did anything from the movie courageous come to mind?

Well, I asked him about that, he said. He has seen the movie courageous. Because as you were showing in the computer, stuff like that, and of course every officer have kind of a area, they have a term for it, which I don’t remember, but they have kind of area that that’s the area. So I guess after time they can learn the streets. But remember that seeing encourages where the sheriff got lost.

Oh yeah. Because he didn’t know the streets.

So I said to him, you guys have GPS on that computer, right? And he said and he said yes because it’s like I can understand someone you. Then you know 14 and G14 and G or whatever and. The officers searching for 14 because they don’t know where it is. The political GPS, I guess, rather than drive around the Seattle, yeah, they do have all kind of stuff on their computer in terms of when we pull over the guy that went over the yellow line, you know, once he put his drivers light information in and stuff like that, his picture come up and all the information about him. You could tell if he had records or whatever the officer gave him a warning. They’d give him a ticket and they gave him. And if they call it repeat and notice, but his tail light was out, so he gave him a repair and he had 10 days to repair it and come back to the priest and have them sign off on it. To show that he did the repair. When the police officer.

Pulled over the young man. Was he very compliant, you know? Was there an attitude? Did he give the police officer an attitude or anything like that, or he just obeyed, you know, respectfully.

Yeah, he obeyed. It was nothing to it. He admitted to being on his phone, being distracted and stuff like that, and the officer was nice enough not to give him a ticket. Just gave him a warning and say, hey, your tail light is out. I’m going to give you. A repair notice on that you need to go and fix that, but other than that he was good to. Go on his way, but.

Yeah, but it sounds like. You had a good time.

Yeah, it was good. And I think what I saw was old fashioned neighborhood policing. And I think that the media don’t show you that you don’t show you the officers interacting with kids and the officers interacting with people who have lost money, but they’re foolishly and not officer interacting with people who having domestic dispute with their mother. And to me, that might be just a normal everyday life of the officers. You go and you talk to this person and talk to the person interacting old school neighborhood policing the children, know the officer by his first name, you know. And I said they ran up and gave him a hug and they didn’t do that for all the officers, but they did it for him. So that tells me that. He’s doing something in that community that they appreciate. So it was good.

And that’s not something you can fake, right? Because they are doing it of their own volition. So, like you saying, come on, kids. They obviously knew him and I think you were being nice when you said the media doesn’t show you that. I think that’s a very nice way to put it, because I think the media is straight up lying to people. About the police, now I’m tougher on the police than you are because the pandemic and everything, the policing that I saw in some areas, it kind of put a little bit of a sour taste in my mouth when it comes to policing. But even I’ll give you an example. I read an article where an officer in New York gave a woman a ticket because she was stuck in traffic with her, like three-week old. Baby and the baby screaming her head off and obviously hungry so she pulls off to the side of the road to breastfeed the child, but she’s in a no parking commercial time zone and she’s in the backseat breastfeeding her child. The officer comes and sees that there’s no one in the front seat. Didn’t bother to look to see if there was anyone in there started writing a ticket, you know? And she had to, like, expose herself trying to get people to see. Hey, I’m back here and you know, but because he had already written the ticket, by law, he can’t retract it. He has to issue it because he doesn’t have the I don’t know if it’s called jurisdiction or authority to withdraw that ticket. He wasn’t gonna give it to her, but because he had already. Knit and only after she wrote it did she make herself known that she was there anyway. That’s what actually happened, right when I read the article. The article bent over backward, the journalist writing the article bent over backward to make it look like the officer knew she was in the car, didn’t care, gave her a ticket anyway, just tried to make the officer look as evil as possible. I thought you’d low down dirty people like people are trusting you to tell them what’s happening in the world to give us a perspective of. News or what’s happening and you’re deliberately trying to make this officer look like some type of monster, and that’s not actually what happened. Even when the lady was interviewed, even, she said, that’s not quite what happened. She did, of course, say that she wished that the officer was more understanding, or maybe tried to look further to see if she was in there. But even she said, you know, they can’t take the ticket. So why would you deliberately portray officers like that? So I think you’re being nice when you said, oh, the media doesn’t show. I think the media straight up lies and on. Purpose the media is the enemy for sure.

What I saw as I said. Was good neighborhood policing where at least officer Darbro thank you for having me. I was impressed at the fact that these kids were running up hugging him. They thought I was a police officer, that they weren’t doing it. To impress me because they didn’t. Know I was just an observer so.

Right.

This looked real to me.

So the like the reaction was genuine.

Right.

They weren’t putting on.

You look real to me and. My two biggest take away was the kids. My heart goes out to them because, you know, the Bible says they like sheep without a shepherd. That’s what come to my mind with them.

Or my people lie die for lack of vision or lack of. Yeah, for sure.

Yeah, I was talking to 11 year old, actually. What she wanted to be, she had a whole long list from a nurse to a lawyer to all that stuff. And like, it’s possible but. Looking at where she lives and everything. Like she’s 11 and 5-6 years.

And that time flies, and it’s not even like a question of where she lives necessarily. It’s the lack of, I don’t know, her parents. Obviously we’re just hearing about this, but you surprised me when you said that you recognized one of the girls because she was one of the girls that ran away from the police, called before and I thought where are pants? She running around the street like this. We’re her parents.

Well, she was dressed.

Same thing.

Pretty uniquely, that’s why I recognized her cause she had on her jeans, pants, everything from just above the knee. Going down with rip open.

Right, that’s a style, apparently.

I can’t recognize her because of that.

The fact that she was in multiple places where the police were being called to.

Well, we actually went to her home.

Oh wow.

A call came in, went to her home and before we could get there, the kids ran up to the office and hugged. The officer I see. Wanting the officer to me that the kids. He asked me if I heard when they said that they told them not to speak to police, but they’re telling the police that they told us not to speak to the police. So even though they told the kids still talk to the police, they will.

Right.

They will tell the police stuff what they saw or whatever the case may be. And I don’t know how much of that the officer can actually use. But if the officer come into an area. They actually talking to the police, which I think is a healthy thing. I guess that’s my opinion. I have no problem talking to the police. I don’t have a problem helping the police if that’s the case, but obviously I’m pro police so and. Again, is a predominantly black area and 95% of the calls we went to were black people or a person of color.

Sure, but that makes sense because that’s what. The demographics of the area are right.

Right, right. This is the removing barriers podcast. We will be right back.

Hey, thanks so much for listening to the Removing Barriers podcast. Did you know that you could find us on Twitter, Gab Parlor, Facebook and Reddit, go to removingbarriers.net/contact and like and follow us on social media, removing barriers? A clear view of the cross.

But I guess we can end with this. But The funny thing was that when it was about an hour left, we went and got dinner. I told Officer S and the officer was with hey, I would buy you guys something to eat because they normally don’t eat. Actually didn’t notice they don’t get. Did they break on lunch breaks?

So just eat on the go.

Well, you know, during down time they can go and buy something and eat, but usually not like they get off the clock and go and sit in the precinct and decide. I guess if they’re on desk duty, they do, but if they’re on the streets, you know? So when a little bit of downtime, we went and we bought some bought lunch dinner for them or whatever, and then Officer S left. So we had to go and find him, give him the stuff he. Ordered and then we went back to the church and we were sitting in the church and the officer was saying to me, man, I was hoping that you got to see something more than just, you know, the normal call. And while you were saying that a call came over, I didn’t understand what was going on. Because again, if you don’t have the ear for the radio, you really don’t understand what was saying. And then officer. Roberts said. I don’t think that’s in our area. And then obviously, after listening and listening and say forget that I’m going to go to here. So officer S. Left and then OK we go in with him and we. Go in philippar.

Well, they’re not in the same car. They don’t share.

No, no, we don’t.

Oh, they’re in their own.

Everybody have their own.

Vehicles. Oh, I see. OK.

Ohh yeah, I thought OK when the same car.

I didn’t realize that I thought all three of you were In vehicle.

Yeah, alright.

No, no, no, sorry about that. No, they’re ride alone. Unless they’re training somebody or like me, they have observed everybody right alone. So he left in his car. Then we left him. I think we’re going above the. Speed limit. But we’re not going to fight. We’re still. Stopping that stop lights and stuff like that. So we came at a four way intersection and we were going to go. Right then we saw another officer coming from the left, coming straight and he had his light and sirens. Come on. So the officer, Garber said. Why do you have a lighter spring on? And I kind of joke with him and said, I’m sure he’s just to get to the intersection. So when he got to the intersection, he turned his light off. But then there’s something that’s come over the radio content in the same situation that we head into, and then all of them turn their like the siren on. And we were like speeding down the road, and it was kind of weird to see people coming out of the way for a car that I’m in. So we kind of speeding down for even mile or two. We had all lights and siren on what happened. We went to actually a really nice area, single family homes. What happened the call. Came over saying that there was someone who. Tied up, get tied up with bed sheet and someone put in a pillow over the head or something like that. We went down there until it was like 1012 plus police cars down there. Even one officer was saying that the entire precinct is down there. So we went down there, there were two victims sitting on the front step and then we started going house to house. To folks that have cameras trying to figure out if they got any footage, they were one person, one home that had a glimpse of a car speeding out of the community and they transferred that to the officers. But again, even in that situation it was high stress. Whatever the case may be, the police officer didn’t even cheated me like I was an outsider. They didn’t try to whisper around me. Someone explained to me what was going on. Everything was going on. He decided using codes they were someone would tell me what is going on. One lady that came in like she was the boss. She came in with a loud voice. I whisper to F. Is she the supervisor? Said no. She’s a canine. They use the canine and went to a home search a home because apparently the back door was open and the front door was open and they believed something came from there or whatever. So they searched the home with the canine, but nothing came out of it. So that was the last call. And I guess officer CigarBro actually got to show me something more than just going to house and pulling over. But I did get to see a traffic stop and they get to go to homes and stuff like that and then they get to go on there. I’ll call it a high stress lights and siren situation where we were heading to someone that had an emergency. And you know, fire trucks, ambulance, the whole 9 yards was dear heading down into that community. But overall I think it it was good. I was impressed by the officers. And they press and I think they’re doing a good job. Thank you.

For having me, do you think that other people should probably try to get an experience like this?

Yeah, I would encourage folks to do it. If you, I assume because of officer CigarBro, I may have a little bit of in with him. I don’t know if he did anything to get my application approved, but of course you have to get your background check. You have to tell them why you want to go on a police ride and stuff like that, and then they will approve it. If your media it’s a little bit more. A scrutiny because if you get to be recording stuff and stuff like that, but if you’re a teenager and want to see how the police works, interested in being a police, they will take you. If you are a family member. They will take you and. Of course, being a friend, I’m sure you can put an application without knowing anybody in the police, but as I said, some of the police officers don’t want to do it because people come in with their critical mind, critical voice, trying to tell the officers what they should and should not be doing, which I think is the height of arrogance going to someone job telling how to do it. But far as I know, at least for the prefin and for the. Jurisdiction that I was in is just filling out the application form, turning it in and I kind of emailed mine back to Officer CigarBro and he turned it in for me. So I’m a student. If you live in that area, you can turn it in and then they will call you back and let you know if you approve or not. And I guess they would have to find somebody who’s willing to take you as a stranger. But other than that, it wasn’t complicated situation. To get to go do it, they give you, of course a lanyard or something to identify you as you’re with the police. Of course, you don’t have arrest powers and stuff like that. I’m also keep my mouth shut and those kind of ask questions afterwards. Kind of steer out of the way, they said of the officer. Try not to be too much on foot. I enjoyed it. The two things the kids break my heart just to see what I saw and the interaction with the police and this mother of two that gave over her money that might not get it back is the two things that kind of stand up for me. And of course the very last one, the high stress situation. And we’re like, the siren was interesting, but it was not as impacting as the kids were for me.

So when I affected my heart, Bible says.

So so as I say, officers keep only good job officer job where we gotta have your own some time again. But thank you for the time.

Well, I’m glad that you. Had a good time, you enjoyed it and that you were safe throughout the process. That you were able to witness for yourself what the officers do, because sometimes if you don’t actually go and see, you really don’t know, you just do. You just believing what you’re told and you don’t get to see it for yourself.

Right.

And so I’m glad that you had that experience, that you were able to share and also even for those children that they’ll remember this young man that bought them the doughnuts and. You never know how things can affect children, and I’m pretty sure that this officer has spent his money on these children.

As well, shem. Could you talk to that a little bit more because you’re in full time, Christian ministry, you work with people and I know that you do things for children on a regular basis. Could you tell the audience everyone listening? What does that mean to a child? Do you think to have an adult, whether it’s in this case, an officer or pastors wife or whatever, to take interest in the child? Do you think it can change their trajectory? Do you think it can really transform them and put them on the right path, even though they’re rascals, as it were?

I think children know when you love them and when you care genuinely. And we just never know what impact you can have on a child just by something simple. We may think it’s simple, but you don’t know what was happening in children’s mind or particular child’s mind prior to this happening. Maybe your child was really hungry, you know, and the child realizing that a complete stranger bought me something. Eat, you know, and I have done. Girls Club. And oftentimes I would, you know, take stuff for them and teach little lessons. You know how to, you know, care for yourself how to be kind and and stuff like that. Sometimes children will meet as a matter of fact, I remember. Her meeting a young lady and her brother in a supermarket with her mother and the two children were kind of arguing, but the sister’s older than the little boy, and I remember saying to her. And they were strangers, you know, I said, this is your brother, she. Said yes and. She said. So annoying. And I said, you know, you should love your brother and treat him well. And so I told the little boy I said the next. Time I see you. You’re gonna tell me how your sister behaved towards you. And do you know? That I saw that little boy sometime after that and he remembered me. Oh, wow. And his sister said, yeah, every time something happens, he said, I’m gonna find that Lady and tell her you know, so sometimes, you know, you can actually make a difference in small ways with children and children, as I say. Children grow up and they remember. So whatever you do, however you treat them, they will remember, you know, so you have to decide what kind of person you’re going to be remembered as when it comes to children.

OK.

So I’m sure these children will remember you. And if you go back to that area, they’ll probably come up and give you a hug like they do to the officer as well.

Yeah, yeah.

So, McG, one last question for you. You’ve seen what officers do first hand. You know what the media says about them. You know what the reality is? We’re raising four sons. How would you feel? Would you be approving or consenting if they grew up wanting to become police officers?

Yeah, I wouldn’t have a problem with that. I would probably have a bigger problem if they wanted to join the military. But if.

You’re trying to say, man.

But if they were to be police officers and they said what I saw was just good community policing where police know the people that they’re dealing with and the people know, the police officers, I didn’t see anything that there was a man. I can see why knuckleheads are drawn to be. Police, though people that have the authoritative attitude I could see why?

Oh, the ones with chips on their shoulders or authority complex.

Right there. Or the ones that turn out to be bad officers. I can see why people with that kind of personality, but honestly have a lot of power in your hand as a police officer there because you can stop somebody, say you’re late for work or something, you can pull somebody over, you have a lot of power in your hand. If you not checked. Either by the spirit of God or by maybe your personality after the God, where it’s pretty easy going and stuff like that. He even told me doesn’t necessarily like to give tickets, so he normally or on this side of giving a warm. But you know how many times have you been driving down the road and see so much more in the road? You don’t have the power to stop them and tell them, hey, straighten out. But a police officer could be swerving the road kind of went over their yellow line. Of course could have caused the accident if another car was coming, but if I was driving behind of him by myself, I was like. OK, what in the world are you doing? But I don’t have any power to do anything. About it you. Know after the guard will light him up, put him over, give him a warning. You know, so you have a lot of power in your hand and I could see why people that have this personality that I want to be in charge and kind of thing gravitate to law enforcement and all that stuff because of that. But if you concentrate on that, I think you overlook the good men and women who are doing it because of they love their job. Have to kiss me at end of day just sitting down and talking to them and stuff like that. They’re doing their job. They couldn’t wait to go home. Like I remember. This was about maybe 8:00 PM at this point and a call came over the radio asking for two officers to stay back until midnight. Now these two officers, officer S and officer cigar will get off of. 10 and the call came over saying, hey, we need two officers to stay back to midnight.

Because they were short staffed or there.

Their short staff, their short staff and they’re listening and listening and listening.

Was something happening OK?

And then one officer trying and upset and then other officers tried and they were so happy that they didn’t fall back and then they want to go home and office. And I was married. They want to go home. It’s not like, you know, they don’t have a authoritative even officer. S, I Think he he’s like 21 or something like that. This is his first.

These are very young men.

Yeah, this is the first. Month actually on his own.

Oh wow.

So he just came off of field training or whatever it is where you had to ride along with someone else. So these are young people and they’re not trying to, well, power and all this, at least the impression I got. And again, this is just my experience, but they’re not trying to, well, power and all that stuff. They try to do their job, do it well and go home and just like. When I go to my job, I try to do it well and go home, just that I don’t. You know, I have the power that they have to pull people over what I kiss. Again, I felt like I was inside looking out. It was a definitely a different experience, a different feeling. Of course, when we had a lighter siren ongoing, there was a little bit of adrenaline there as well, but other than that I just saw men and women who wanted to do their job. Do it well, go home and follow the law, whatever case might be, I do not see. Who wouldn’t care about whatever the media portrays? I saw the very opposite of that.

OK. You said you felt like when you went, you were on the inside looking out. Now that you’ve had this perspective, has your view on the whole defund the police thing change? Do these people who want to quote defund the police, do they seem even more deranged to you now that you’ve seen hence?

Of course, of course, because I know we have officer CigarBro were on and he said he did what hundreds of officers under. You know what they should be, you know, so of course, you know, there was one funny story that I forget to me.

Right.

But the guy that greeted me when I came in, he was in civilian clothing, so I thought he was just like a civilian working at the police force. So when we came back to the precinct, you know, he was showing me around that area, showing me the cells that they will keep people. They don’t keep people there anyway because the building is kind of old, so they take them to a donor precinct when they don’t need to book someone. So I was going to ask him. Why is this person in uniform and this person is not, but because you show me your kind of stuff, I forget the acting. So when we’re walking out away from him, I said, why is he in civil include? He said. Suspended I. Said OK, I’m so glad I didn’t ask. Him in front of. Him so, but good experience. I have nothing negative to say these guys that this guy is doing their job.

Wow, that’s great. That’s a wrap. So are you going to be doing this again?

Who knows?

Maybe in a different area perhaps.

Maybe I don’t know. Thank you for listening. To get ahold of us to support this podcast or to learn more about removing barriers. Go to removingbarriers.net. This has been the removing barriers podcast. We attempted to remove barriers so that we all can have a clear view of the cross.