The 2022 political field was intense, so don't get left behind in 2024. If you're running for political office, the first thing on your to-do list needs to be securing your name on the web with a yourname.votewebdomain from godaddy.com. Get yours now. Welcome to another episode of Breaking Battlegrounds with your host Chuck Warren. I'm Sam Stone.
As always, we're jumping right into the interviews today. And I think it's one of my favorite things is when we have the guest here in studio. 100%. Makes for a better conversation. So Blake Masters, friend of the program and a candidate for Congressional District 8 here in Arizona. Thank you once again for joining us and welcome in. Thanks for having me. Good to see you again. So Blake, as you've gone around the district and you've met with voters, what is a common theme or fear that you have?
And I think this election is a lot about fears. It's not a hope election, unfortunately, so far. It's about these are things that concern me, that cause me apprehension. What are messages you're hearing? What are stories you're hearing?
First thing far and away is the border, right? You mentioned fear. People are, I think, reasonably, unfortunately, given all Biden's open borders policies, they're reasonably fearful that what happened in Israel last October 7th is sort of the preview for the movie that's coming soon, you know, to a spot near you here in Arizona. We know there are hundreds, if not thousands of people
like on the known terror lists, right? Who are making it through what about all the people who have bad intentions that Biden's letting in that aren't on the known terror list, right? So people, um, have this low grade apprehension that we're going to get hit. It's a question of when, unfortunately, not if, um, it's kind of abstract, you know, most people don't experience that in their daily lives. Thank God right now, but everybody knows this is a ticking time bomb. Um, maybe the most concrete, you know, border story that I've heard, I did meet with, um,
with a couple, elderly couple whose grandson had died from fentanyl. And one suspect, I don't think it's too extreme to say if Joe Biden hadn't thrown the border open, right? Maybe that young man is a teenager. He would still be alive today. And, and I met when I was running, you know, for Senate two years ago, I met a lot of people around the state who really knew someone, whether it was a niece, nephew, uh,
daughter who had passed away from fentanyl. These kids think they're taken to Percocet and actually it's laced with fentanyl and that's it, right? Game over. And it's just heartbreaking, but I do think it's not just polemical to say that blood is on Joe Biden's hands because I think it is. With better policies, you'd have more American teenagers alive today. What you're in, your congressional district you're running for, I would term middle class. That's a middle class district, correct? Is that a very good way to prose it?
How has the price increases since 2020 affected them? It's staggering, right? People are not able to afford eggs. They used to buy eggs and now an egg costs three times more than it did two or three years ago. So now they have breakfast cereal, right? And even breakfast cereal, I think, is literally doubled in price since Trump was president. So this is all so crazy.
About two weeks ago, I met a woman, 65, 70-year-old woman. She was on one of those mobile walkers, you know, because I think she just had knee surgery. Right. And she was telling me about a hip surgery that she was going to have and then a back procedure, right? So, like, pray for her. She's, you know, she's got some medical problems. She's falling apart. She's falling apart there. But here's the thing, you know, old people,
older people, she worked hard her whole life. You know, she received social security. She's worried that it's not keeping up with inflation. And guess what? It's not keeping up with inflation. Not even close. Even with the increases they give every year. 100%, right? And so not only is she worried about the actual procedures that she's got to go, and like, she should just be focused on health and recuperation, right? But she's got to worry about, oh, is my Medicare actually going to cover all this? Is the social security going to be enough to cover my out-of-pocket, you know? And it's just crazy that we have people who've
put into the system for so long who are worried under Joe Biden's economy that they'll actually be able to make rent, that they'll actually be able to feed their families. They had to start prioritizing. That's right. That brings up another point because the cost of living adjustment for Social Security retirees, military veterans, military members, all these things are based on the official inflation rate data, which is kind of a cooked book at this point. Correct. Blake, you have a background in tech.
What do we need to do to try to make that number more accurate? Because right now it's underestimating the inflation that people are facing because there's lots of things you need that aren't on that list. Right. I mean, for example, OK, again, you're again, you're congressional district. There's a lot of families who children play club sports.
OK, those fees have probably doubled in the last three years. And a lot of those families make sacrifices for their kids or for extra school activities and things of that nature. So how could we start taking into account those other costs that real people spend?
Well, I think one problem is, you know, Biden caused this inflation and then government agencies under Joe Biden's authority are the ones who are in charge of measuring inflation. Oh, inflation is coming down. Isn't that great? Actually, inflation is not coming down. Every report gets revised after three months after it's out. We saw the Biden DOJ slightly different context yesterday. They said, oh, crime is down. That's like no crime reporting is down because all the big metros are like literally not telling the FBI about all the crimes being committed. Thirty three percent. It's.
It's I saw you say 33 percent are not reporting. And so if you don't measure it or if you measure something improperly, you're going to get a politically motivated result. And Biden can say, oh, this is a win. Meanwhile, people in Arizona's eighth congressional district, people all across the state are finding it harder and harder to make ends meet. And it's it's Joe Biden's fault. It really is that simple. It's it's.
All of these hits that people are taking, I mean, immigration, for instance, you talked about the potential, but we already have gangs that are working here throughout the Phoenix area, throughout this district that you're running for, that are doing home invasion robberies, that are doing organized commercial robberies. We've seen all this stuff exploding.
All of that's adding to the price increases. All of that's decreasing the quality of living, increasing the fear for these folks.
So when I mean, other than just getting rid of Joe Biden, how do we go after this border problem in a way that's really going to start addressing this? I think getting rid of Joe Biden is a good start, to be clear. Let's do that. And absolutely. Because, you know, President Trump, he had good border policies. He actually cared and he implemented good policies and it worked. And, you know, you can look back and say, was it perfect? OK, maybe it wasn't perfect, but it was pretty good. You know, you take the A minus, you take the A.
And we have too much. Let the perfect defeat the good. That's right. It's done. And, you know, you see this. You talk to Border Patrol agents. They you know, they actually say Obama, you know, we give him a seat. You know, he sort of tried. You sort of deported some people. He let us sort of do our jobs.
Trump, they give an A, you know, some give an A plus. They say we were empowered. We were paid well. Morale was good. Right. We could do our jobs. The policies made sense. Biden, they give an F. So you've got to get rid of Biden. An intentional F. It's not like he even tried. Oh, that's what makes it worse. It's intentional. That's right. And you've heard this. A lot of people compare Joe Biden to Jimmy Carter.
And it's like, I get it. You know, you had the oil shocks and inflation and general malaise and stuff. But no, that is so unfair to Jimmy Carter at this point. Jimmy Carter, man, God bless him. He tried hard. I mean, he failed because it was demented left-wing policies. But I think his heart was in the right place. He was trying to make life better for Americans. He just failed. Biden...
It's not even trying. Right. Biden willfully surrendered our sovereignty at the southern border. Well, Jimmy Carter, as a side note, is just a 100 percent better human being than Joe Biden could ever be. Jimmy Carter, very decent human. No question. You know, we could all agree. I think more Republicans agree on that. He was a decent human being. I am convinced Joe Biden is not a decent human being.
So, unfortunately, I think that's right. Or he's just not even there. Right. So let's talk about that, too. Let's talk about another Joe Biden fiasco. One thing I just want to mention, because when we had Russ Walker and some folks on recently, this is to me one of the biggest differences, Blake, that you just hit on between Trump and Biden. We heard this about Afghanistan and the military. We're hearing this about the border. Right.
Trump trusted people to do their jobs. He said, here, here's your objective. Go do your job. Yeah, don't call me. Just go get your job done. Whereas Biden is micromanaging and in the worst way possible.
Yeah. No. That's right. Businessmen know you got to delegate and trust your people and who you hire. Right. Who you let into the country. Maybe that really matters with with Biden. It's all all upside down, all the opposite. And Border Patrol agents do not feel empowered. They want to be empowered. They want to stop people. They want to detain people. They don't want to be helping people break into this country, which is what Biden is sort of requiring that they do. And it's they signed up to be to
securing our border. And instead, they're serving as travel agents for people who are being trafficked by the cartels. They're like a host at a Las Vegas casino. Yeah. Welcome. Go this way. I mean, that's what they're doing. All right. So this week, stunning. We're having military recruitment problems. I'm shocked. I'm shocked. The world is a dangerous place under Joe Biden's watch. It was not four years ago. I mean, it's always dangerous, but right now it seems to be gasoline on it.
The White House this week poses a 19.5% pay hike for junior enlisted troops. And by the way, this 19.5% pay hike had bipartisan support. It wasn't just willy-nilly Republican thing. This is bipartisan support hoping to not only help recruitment,
but keep people in the military, right? Our Jenna here's brother just graduated the Naval Academy. I mean, we need these people sort of stick around for a while, right? It costs a lot to train them. They're good people. What's your comment? Tell me about it. What do we do on this? Obviously, I think the pay raise is deserved and they should get it. You know, in general, I want the government to spend less money, but the government's going to spend some money and where it really needs to be spending money is taking care of our troops. I think this
19.5% proposed pay increase, right? We're talking E1s through E4s. I think that's budgeted or that's expected to cost $25 billion, right? Non-trivial amount of money, $25 billion. But when you're facing troops that can't make rent because Biden's economy is so crazy, when you're facing troops that already have low morale because of all the DEI initiatives, Biden's
Biden is putting on the military. No, you've got to pay them. Maybe that's a lot more important and productive than sending the money overseas to Ukraine, for instance, right? So like we have that money and we need to be taking better care of our troops. It's unconscionable to me that the Biden administration doesn't want this pay raise to go through. Especially when they gave $100 billion loan forgiveness for people who actually signed a document.
to take out a loan to go to school. You take out student loan debt to get an underwater basket weaving degree from some fake college and Biden wants to pay that off for you so that you could become a reliable Democrat voter, right? But he doesn't want to take care of you if you were a junior enlisted in the military.
As we're talking, can you look up what – if there's been inflation and judgment to military pay increases? My answer for the college student loans, by the way, has always been to put the colleges on the hook and make them – Correct. Great idea. Correct. It's the best way to handle this. I mean because then you're looking at a return on investment. Then they're not going to be charging $150,000 for a degree that makes $24,000 a year because –
They can't afford to take those hits.
It's just so unfair to take this privileged group of people, people with college degrees, and take taxpayer money and bail them out. But Biden can't find the money to pay our junior enlisted. Incredible. That's absolutely insane. We have just about a minute before we go to break. We're going to be coming back with more from Blake Masters here in just a moment. And folks, also make sure you tune in to the podcast segment from this one if you're not signed up. You're going to want to download that. There's been big news here in Phoenix.
As the Department of Justice Civil Rights Division has come in and through an investigation of the Phoenix Police Department, demanded a consent decree that would essentially amount to a federal takeover of Phoenix Police, as we've seen with departments across the country. We're going to have the head of the Phoenix Police Sergeants and Lieutenants Association coming in to discuss that with us.
We also have some amazing data that was compiled by some former law enforcement officers and given to us by Phoenix Councilman Sal DeCiccio. So make sure you're going to want to tune in for that one. Breaking Battlegrounds will be back here with more in just a moment.
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Folks, this is Sam Stone for Breaking Battlegrounds. Discover true freedom today with 4Freedom Mobile. Their SIM automatically switches to the best network, guaranteeing no missed calls. You can enjoy browsing social media and the internet without compromising your privacy. Plus, make secure mobile payments worldwide with no fees or monitoring. Visit 4FreedomMobile.com today for top-notch coverage.
Welcome back to Breaking Battlegrounds. Folks, we were just talking with Blank Masters on the air about the college debt problem. Well, we're
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So we're with Blake Masters. He's running for Congress and currently leading in the polls. And early ballots come out when? July 3rd? July 3rd. July 3rd. Election day is August? July 30th. July 30th this year. All right. So one thing interesting about the show, we've been able to have some great reporters on, and they usually are overseas reporters. They're usually, for The Wall Street Journal, even The New York Times international reporters are quite good. I mean, they actually care about their job. Here's the facts.
And Thomas Grove, who covers Eastern Europe, was living in Russia when they invaded Ukraine. We were asking about, so what happens with Ukraine or Russia? And he made a comment that has really stuck with Sam and I. And he said, someone has to win. I mean, until that's done, until someone wins, this really never ends. That was his whole theory on it. So I bring that up because there's a new poll out of Palestinians, and it is this, 67% of
of Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank. Sixty-seven percent supported the October 7th attack, despite the consequences. Sixty-one percent prefer Hamas to govern Gaza over any other option. I mean, okay, so let's go back to Thomas Grove's opinion. To me, those numbers tell me we just have to let Israel win. I don't want a bunch of children and women to die, but
This doesn't seem like this ends well ever unless something's done with decisiveness. What are your thoughts on that? Well, I tend to agree, and I think Israel is thinking that same way, right? I think October 7th was a big wake-up call, obviously, to many people in America, but, man, especially to people in Israel, especially to Israeli government officials.
And, you know, there probably is no solution, no compromise. I wish there were, and I think Israel would be down for it. I grew up, you know, my dad would always tell me, Blake, if the Palestinians just laid down their arms, there would be peace in the Middle East, right? Israel would want that. If the Israelis, if the Jews laid down their arms, there would be millions of dead Jews, right? This is a one-sided thing. The October 7th was a terrorist attack, and so for the
that polling, right? What you said about two thirds of civilians in Gaza support that October 7th massacre. Like that's just really crazy. Obviously we pray for an end to conflict. We don't want any non-combatant to get injured. But of course in Gaza, the line is very blurred. Remember this heroic rescue operation the other day, right? IDF goes in, great intelligence, great planning. They freed those hostages. And unfortunately, you know, a lot of people died. But
But I just remember reading the New York Times and they were just gaslighting. It said, oh, well, when the IDF soldiers were escaping with the hostages, they came under fire from civilians. Right. And I'm sorry. It's like if you come under fire –
They're not civilians. You're no longer civilian. You're no longer civilian. So I'm sorry, but I think we absolutely need to give Israel the time and space to solve their problem. And I think that's where Biden has been failing. Again, he's been trying to micromanage everything. Trump knew better. Trump knows that Israel knows what it needs to do. Yeah, we're going to support them and let them take care of business. Otherwise, you're going to have a lot of death and destruction in that region for decades and decades and decades. I have an uncle that was a Marine pilot for 20 years. And when...
Trump took over and ISIS was growing under Obama. And then Trump does not get enough credit for this. He dumped ISIS. He was talking to a commander in Iraq and goes, what's the difference? He goes,
Trump doesn't need to call for us to fire back. Yep. He just lets us do our job. It goes back to the Border Patrol thing. And I feel like with this saying, like, look, we need you to use caution when you can. But your job to go win this and because there's no peace until this ends. But the one thing the U.S. should be doing and obviously the Biden administration is not going to do this. We've got to get Trump in there. We've got to get people like Blake and good Republicans into Congress and the Senate to do this.
But it is time to hold the UN to account for their role in fomenting the ongoing hatred in Gaza and the West Bank. UNRWA's teachings, the books that they're paying for with world taxpayer dollars teach hate. We should be leading the fight to stop that permanently. Couldn't agree more. So Father's Day is tomorrow.
What has a father, what has being a father taught you that you didn't know before you had children? You have four boys now? Four boys. Your poor wife. She's outnumbered. But she's the queen, though. I have a feeling there's a monarchy in that house. I feel far less bad for her than I do for my guy, for my friend, Travis, who has five daughters. Five daughters. Yeah, that's pretty crazy. But what has it taught you?
Man, so much. It's like a really hard question because it's all encompassing. Like I try to think back to before I had kids, right? And obviously in some sense, you know, technically you're still the same person, but man, functionally it's just very different. Even the way I thought about everything, right? When I was thinking about a career move or an investment or something, you're like, well, how can I do this for me? How can I make this money? And there's nothing wrong with that, right? Making money is good. But now that I have kids, you know, it's like, well, I'm going to make money.
is this investment going to perform well such that, you know, the kids could use this proceeds to start a business in the future, right? Or it changes your, I guess the economic term is time horizon. You don't think about yourself in the now or tomorrow. You think about your kids and your grandkids, you know, 10, 20, 50 years from now. And I think that time horizon, that shift in orientation where it's about the future, it's not about you anymore.
I think that's just a natural process of maturing and realizing, hey, when you have a kid, you're responsible for them. And you take things a lot more seriously and you become a lot less selfish, or at least that was my perspective. I suspect a lot of parents share it. How has it changed your personality? Have you learned to become more patient? Have you learned to become a better teacher? I mean, how has it changed Blake Masters, I would have known at Stanford Law School, versus Blake Masters in our studio today? Yeah.
I think a lot more patient. Look, I'm still a work in progress. Very much so. You count to 10 a lot. You count to 10 a lot during the day, English and Spanish. And I think a lot more humble, too. Like if you knew me in college, I would have been hotheaded. I would have been intemperate. I would have been arrogant. Yeah. And look, some people still say I'm those things, right? I'm working on it. But yeah.
But but having kids and just needing to, you know, get down on your knees at their level and look them in the eye and you're their guide. Right. And we're trying to find the right balance of look, you've got to be stern. Sometimes you've got to be serious. Not everything is play. Right. Sometimes, though, you've got to get on the floor and wrestle with your boys and you teach them about play. But it's this balance. And we feel like we're their coach. We're their guide. You know, we're not their friends.
That's the wrong way to look at it. I agree. But it's not drill sergeant either, right? We have fun and we kind of bring them up and teach them our values. It's just the most rewarding thing in the world. Is it learning more when to be forceful and when not to be in a certain sense? I think so. Yeah. Look, and, you know, sometimes I shout at the kids and afterwards I'm like, you know, hey, I shouldn't have shouted at you. I was right to be upset. But-
But I'm sorry for that. Sometimes you got to shout at them. If a car is coming fast and they're playing in the front yard, you shout. Right. But but usually I try to just remember in that moment, hey, be stern, but be loving. Right. I'm not trying to push him away, but neither am I trying to be some open heart. We only have about 30 seconds left. Blake, what is the final word? Why should people be voting for you in this race and how do they follow and support you?
You know, I'm a family man. I'm a businessman. I'm putting my business career on hold because I'm really worried about what kind of country these four boys are growing up in. My wish for our country is in 30 years when my four boys are my age, my kids and your kids and grandkids, too, will be living in an America that we recognize. That's not happening right now. I want to deport illegal aliens, secure the border, do all I can to make this country great again.
Let's get back to a future where people believe this country will be better tomorrow than it is today. It is possible. It is possible. Blake Masters, thank you so much for joining us. We really appreciate having you. Stay tuned, folks. We have Brad Wilcox coming up talking about his new book, Get Married. Perfect segue.
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Chuck, our next guest up today is Brad Wilcox, professor of sociology and director of the National Marriage Project at the University of Virginia, future of freedom fellow at the Institute for Family Studies and a non-resident senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute and the author of Get Married, Why Americans Should Defy the Elites, Forge Strong Families and Save Civilization Studies.
That book is out now. You can get it on Amazon and all your favorite places. Brad, welcome to the program. Great to be here, Sam. So, Brad, in your book, you had in the headline, obviously, Why Americans Must Defy the Elites. Why are the elites so opposed to marriage when most of them are in marriage?
Yeah, that's one of the big paradoxes that I explore in the book. A lot of our elites kind of talk left when it comes to marriage and family and then walk right in their own personal lives, thinking of school superintendents, you know, Hollywood moguls, politicians and everything else. And I think the issue is that practically I think there's a there's kind of a recognition that the best thing for them,
their spouse, their kids, you know, in terms of their finances, their ability for their kids to thrive in school and life, etc., is to get and stay married. But because marriage has become coded as a more conservative institution in our public life, and because progressives tend to want to embrace what I call family diversity theory,
there's just kind of like this temptation when they're speaking in public to either kind of denigrate marriage or to kind of minimize its importance. So that's kind of the dynamic that explains why, again, a lot of our leads talk left but walk right when it comes to marriage and family. So, um,
Jason Kelsey, Super Bowl champion of the Eagles when he retired, said the following. I think one of the best things a person can be in this world is a father, a father who is present, devoted and loving is the greatest gift a child could ask for in our society. Is he wrong?
No, he's completely right. And I think we're often hearing the message in our culture today from people like Andrew Tatum, the Red Pill Right, and people I talk about in my book who are on the left, you know, writing the news like the New York Times, that marriage and parenthood are kind of like a recipe for misery and even a miscarriage in some context. And what they don't, you know,
understand is that the average American, that Kelsey Common is right on the money. But we see for guys, it's about twice as likely to be very happy, for instance, when they're married with kids compared to their single and childless peers. And women, it's not quite as powerful. It's almost twice as likely. But again, women who are married mothers are markedly happier than their peers who are single and childless. So just to kind of cross the board, you know, Americans who are investing in marriage, investing in
Having kids and raising their kids are more likely today to have meaningful lives and happy lives. The old adage remains true that somebody, you know, if you want to avoid poverty, get married, stay married, you know, don't have kids until you have, you know, a job and are married. That's a pretty straightforward formula, and yet...
The left continues to dismiss it. And now we're seeing more and more data that shows that having a father figure makes the biggest difference in the potential outcome of a child. How do we start turning this around culturally and get this message that's in your book out there?
Yeah, I mean, it is striking that, you know, we just did a report for family studies yesterday showing that boys who are raised outside of an intact married family with their dad in the home are more likely to go to prison or jail than they are to graduate from college. By contrast, it's, you know, the case that young men who are raised in intact married families are much, much more likely to graduate from college than they are to be inside of a jail cell. So, you know,
that's just one example of kind of the research out there. So I think the challenge is to do kind of more in terms of the kind of work you guys are doing with alternative media platforms, kind of communicating just the truth, the factual truth about marriage and family, but also to kind of have our churches and other religious institutions do a better job of, you know, communicating the truth to young adults and to just the general congregations, have a better social media game, and then also, again,
you know, start to take back our schools and primary schools, you know, middle schools, high schools, and our universities. And as you probably know, there are efforts that are unfolding in a lot of red states right now to do these new schools of civic life that are, you know, I think more fair and balanced when it comes to their approach to education. So that's one example where we kind of could use those new platforms
in higher education, for instance, to communicate the value to college students of marriage and family as well. Absolutely. We're going to be coming back with more here in just a moment from Brad Wilcox. You definitely want to check out his new book. You can purchase it on Amazon or ifstudios.org. You can follow him on X at Brad Wilcox IFS. Breaking Battlegrounds will be back in just a moment.
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Folks, this is Sam Stone for Breaking Battlegrounds. Discover true freedom today with 4Freedom Mobile. Their SIM automatically switches to the best network, guaranteeing no missed calls. You can enjoy browsing social media and the internet without compromising your privacy. Plus, make secure mobile payments worldwide with no fees or monitoring. Visit 4FreedomMobile.com today for top-notch coverage.
digital security, and total freedom. And if you use the code BATTLEGROUND at checkout, you get your first month of service for just $9 and save $10 a month for every month of service after that. Again, that's code BATTLEGROUND at checkout. Visit 4freedommobile.com to learn more.
Welcome back to Breaking Battlegrounds. Here's Chuck Borin. I'm Sam Stone. Folks, check out our friends at investwirefy.com and learn how you can earn up to a 10.25% fixed rate of return on a secure collateralized portfolio. You have total control over your investment and you can get your money back at any time 100% of your principal.
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Why does having a dad make a difference in a child's life? I mean, we've seen the statistics, you know, there's better income, so forth. But what are the characteristics you think make a difference, a father being in the household?
Sure. So it's really a bunch of different things. And, you know, kind of the old school wisdom that money matters is still true. And it's still the case in most married homes today with kids. The dads still, you know, play a leading role when it comes to providing financially for their kids. Moms are doing more of that today, but it's still the case that dads, you know, lead out. And, you know, money matters in terms of just the quality of
home schooling, you know, sports nowadays, all that kind of stuff. So that's part of it. Money. The second thing that I would say is that dads often play a distinctive role when it comes to playing with their kids at a young age. And there's just something about father's kind of rough and tumble play. They're just more kind of likely that, you know,
engage their kids physically in surprising and important and powerful ways, whether it's kind of wrestling on the family room floor or throwing a football in the backyard. We know that dad's play is linked to a lot of good outcomes for our kids. When it comes to discipline, it's actually the case that moms do more of the day-in and day-out discipline because they still spend
spend more time with their kids, but dad's discipline tends to be more firm, more kind of rule-based, and it's actually good for our kids to have experience with kind of the more flexible disciplines that mom tends to give out and the more, you know, inflexible, more rule-based. This is our family standard, you know, approach to discipline that dads, you know, offer, especially for teenagers, teenage boys especially. There are boundaries you can push and boundaries you can't.
Exactly. And that, you know, there's a recognition that some things are just not acceptable. And that's, you know, helpful to have for all kids, but especially our teenage sons. And then I think the other thing that really is very clear in the research is the way in which dads are more likely to push kids out of the nest to, you know, have them embrace life's challenges and difficulties and opportunities, you know, often more so than moms.
One example of this is very concrete. There was a study looking at toddlers learning how to swim. And what they found in this research was that moms tended to kind of hold the toddler eye to eye in the pool. By contrast,
Dads tended to turn the toddler around and have the toddler face out into the deep. Duke and Alton was what they say in Latin about this. So that's just kind of a great example, I think, of the way in which dads are distinctive. And we've got to recognize and appreciate that, no, they're not moms. And they bring something different to the parenting enterprise that's important and needed for our kids on average. That's fantastic. What role...
Can churches play in making sure fathers uphold their responsibility as a father? I think churches aren't doing what they quite need to be doing in this aspect.
So I think, you know, that it's important for pastors and priests and lay leaders just to be kind of, you know, more courageous in talking about marriage and fatherhood and family life and, you know, recognize there's kind of a hunger out there, I think, oftentimes in the pulpit, in the congregation, just to get more real talk on this, you know, on this issue. So I think, you know, encouraging men to think more about how they spend their free time in terms of, you know, are they doing—
sufficient, you know, spending enough time, you know, playing with their kids, like I just mentioned? Are they kind of planning that, you know, once a year, cool outdoor camping trip? You know, kind of recognize that they have a distinctive role in all this. Are they playing a leadership role when it comes to the spiritual formation of their kids? Are they, you know, trying to think about ways that they can kind of
make space in the family schedule for their wife to go on a retreat for the weekend. So these are all things that I think are kind of helpful and important in encouraging and equipping men to, you know, take on a leading role when it comes to both kind of a spiritual and then the moral and emotional kind of health of their families as well. How does being a father work?
affect a man and his career and his role in the community? I mean, there's also a benefit for men, right? I mean, if we don't have fathers who take the role responsibly, how do we have a good civic life, I guess is my theory in question to you.
So when it comes to work, what we do see is that on average, you know, married dads who are living with their kids actually earn the most money. I mean, controlling for things like, you know, education, race and age. And so it just kind of signals to me, I think, that there's a way in which for the average guy, having that responsibility is a motivation to be, you know, more strategic about
in your job search process, you know, more likely to, you know, look for better opportunities to, you know, support your family. And I talk about that at great length in my book. But I also want to be careful to kind of underline this idea that there can be, you know, I think tension between work, obviously, and family. And so men have to kind of navigate that tension with an eye towards, you know,
you know their long-term financial welfare but also their family's immediate needs and i spoke to for instance a guy who had served in the army as an officer and um and his wife and they mentioned there are a number of times when he kind of turned down opportunities to
deploy somewhere else. And he can always do that, but sometimes he could. And a lot of his fellow officers were like, what are you doing? Like, you know, like, cause that was just not the norm in his, you know, in his peer group in the, in the army. And he was just very clear, like the most important thing for him was his family and he wasn't going to put them through needless moves unless they had to kind of go on to the next assignment, you know? So that's just an example of where, you know, here you had a dad who was kind of really putting his family first and,
over and above his army career. So that has to happen. In civil society, I think generally married dads are more likely to attend church than other men, that's certainly clear. For other forms of civil society, it's not always as clear a relationship, but certainly when it comes to plugging into your local religious community, there's a very clear connection between marriage, fatherhood, and being more involved in your local church, for instance.
We're talking with Brad Wilcox. He is the author of Get Married, Why Americans Should Defy the Elites, Forge Strong Families and Save Civilization, available from HarperCollins. You can get it at Amazon or also from his website, ifstudies.org. Brad, one of the big shifts in society in the last 20 years has been the depiction of the American family on television and popular programs.
Where obviously traditionally there was, you know, most families were nuclear families. There has been this sort of celebration of non-nuclear families. But at the same time, that depiction is not a depiction that matches reality. The reality is that, as you've been talking about, nuclear families tend to be the strongest type of families and create the best outcomes.
How do we start pushing back culturally and in various entertainment forms against the sort of bias that's come in against the nuclear family?
Yeah, I think there's a good illustration that I use in my book about Reed Hastings, who's the co-founder of Netflix. And in his autobiography, he talks about how he and his wife were having some difficulties in their marriage because he was traveling a lot for work early on. And so they went to a counselor and kind of figured out how they were going to deal with this, whatever it was.
you know, norm or, you know, situation that they figured it out, you know, and they, you know, they've been happily married. I would guess they'd be married, you know, since more than 30 years of marriage to your kids. And obviously they're,
you know, enjoying a fortune that's in the neighborhood of several billion dollars. So, you know, here's an example of, you know, someone in, you know, in the sort of cultural world who has forged a strong civil marriage. And yet when Netflix did kind of a signature movie around marriage, it was called Marriage Story. It was kind of a story of a very messy marriage of, you know, an elite couple moving from New York to LA and how they get divorced and their son's miserable and all this kind of stuff. It was just striking to me that
you know, the contrast between real life and, you know, Netflix life was so apparent here. And what they didn't really kind of acknowledge or appreciate is that today, this is part of the good news about today, most college educated married couples make it. And yet, unfortunately, Netflix didn't give us, you know, a portrait of what that looks like, you know, on both the little screen and the big screen. So we've got to, you know, challenge people
people like Reed Hastings to do more of, you know, that I'm not looking for kind of like rose colored, you know, Hallmark movies and TV shows, just kind of like, look, I mean, marriage is incredibly tough sometimes. Family life is incredibly tough sometimes, but you know, the point is, is that for, for most of us and even, you know, most marriages now actually go the distance as well. And just to kind of like,
kind of show us, you know, that reality in a creative and a narrative and a dramatic, you know, way would be much appreciated. But then also there are new platforms as well. I mean, I think Daily Wire has been launching some movies and shows, and hopefully we'll see, and there are other, obviously, platforms doing that as well. So, you know, hopefully, like Angel Studios is another example. We can kind of see more alternative platforms, you know, giving people
Americans, you know, a more realistic, I mean that in the best sense of the word, portrait of what, you know, happens in families today and why, you know, for most people, you know, marriage is the best foundation for family life. The Bundys weren't a perfect family, but they were actually a pretty good one. They were together. They were together. Brad, so while marriage is really important, there's still a lot of people that get divorced, right?
What should a divorced father be doing to stay involved with their child and their life? Because, you know, we would love everybody to stay married and these families grow together. But what are the divorced fathers? What should their responsibilities be?
That's a great question. And so I think for divorced dads, you know, one sort of crucial lesson that the research tells us is it's important not to be the kind of Disney dad where you just kind of show up every now and then and, you know, kind of treat your kids to some kind of fun activity or whatever else. And that's about it. Right. Don't be the grandparent.
That's their job. Exactly. Right. No, so I think that for divorced dads, I think that the challenge is to try to like, you know, get as much custody as you can and, you know, have your kids do their homework, have your kids do chores at your house, your apartment, you know, do, you know,
fun things with them, but do hard things with them as well. And also, I think, really try to be a regular presence in their lives. And when you promise your kids you're going to do something, you make every effort to kind of, you know, live out that promise. So, you know, I think just the key is to maintain a regular presence in your kids' lives, be affectionate, but also have high standards with your
with your kids and just make sure that when your kids are with you, you know, they know that dad is, you know, really expects,
a fair bit of them when it comes to, again, things like schoolwork, but also chores in and outside of the household. So be a dad, not a best friend. Yeah, be a dad, not a best friend or a father figure, so to speak. What should stepfathers do? I have some friends who are stepfathers, and they merge with teenage families, and boy, that's a burden. How should they handle their role?
Yeah, that's a great question, too. I mean, I would say much of the same advice that I just gave to you, but I think it is more challenging for stepdads and for stepkids because there isn't the same kind of, you know, biological connection. There isn't often the same kind of history. You know, they don't know the child often from, you know, infancy. And so you've got to kind of, I think, have a little bit lighter touch on the authority side
And, you know, I think recognition to the biz is often going to be more drama when it comes to behavior and emotions because the kids don't, you know, see you as 100 percent like, you know, typically, you know, their father. So I think.
being a bit more flexible and patient and just being a steady, you know, kind of affectionate presence, but not expecting maybe as much, especially early on in the relationship from, you know,
from that. You got to build it up. You have to build it up. Brad Wilcox, thank you so much for joining us today. We really appreciate having you on the program. Folks, check him out on X at Brad Wilcox IFS. You can get his book at Amazon. The book is called Get Married, Why Americans Should Defy the Elites, Forge Strong Families, and Save Civilization.
Make sure you turn in today for the podcast segment. We have a very important segment with the head of the Phoenix Police Sergeants and Lieutenants Association coming up regarding what the DOJ is doing here with the Phoenix Police. You won't want to miss that one. Breaking Battlegrounds will be back on the air next week.
Get yours now. Thank you.
Welcome to the podcast segment of Breaking Battlegrounds with your host Chuck Morin. I'm Sam Stone. We have a special guest in studio for this segment, Ben Leshner, president of the Phoenix Police Sergeants and Lieutenants Association. Thank you so much for joining us this morning, Ben. Thank you for having me. Pretty momentous news coming down here in Phoenix yesterday from the Department of Justice regarding an investigation that they have had ongoing for several years now regarding
And the conclusions seem to me to be fairly predetermined. But I want to go into and kind of get your – if you would lay out for folks what this is, what they're saying now, and then we want to discuss that a little bit. Sure. Sure.
So first and foremost, what these are are allegations. And we want to stress that to everyone is that this is not a foregone conclusion when the Department of Justice says in their report all these terrible things about the Phoenix Police Department. So what we are hoping is as we move forward that the DOJ is actually collaborative with us as they say they want to be.
And they share information. Unfortunately, they haven't. So we're at their mercy right now because they're saying lots of terrible things about the Phoenix Police Department, which just absolutely are not true. I read through. They put out a giant report yesterday. I think it was 142 pages. I read through it. There was a lot of allegations, innuendo, and question marks to me. But there wasn't a lot that they were pointing to that was really very solid.
Correct. At least from what I read. Correct. And those things that we have been able to identify just because we know the circumstances of a lot of these cases, we are looking forward to them trying to support their allegations because the majority of our shootings, for example, as you know, they get reviewed at multiple levels, not just within the Phoenix Police Department, but also by the county attorney's office. We're subject to litigation on many of those shootings.
They have been reviewed thoroughly by courts. And yet the DOJ decides years later to cherry pick cases without identifying them and then just simply saying things about, for example, uses of force that actually have no basis in fact. And so now the DOJ is pushing for what they call a consent decree. Right.
Which is – I don't like the word consent because it's not consent in the way most people think of it in this situation. It's pretty hard, strong-armed in there. What would a consent decree mean?
The city of Phoenix would actually have to enter into a consent decree. They would have to approve, the council would have to approve that. And it would involve a monitor that works for the federal government and also a court through the federal courts, of course, that would have to review every policy and procedure of the Phoenix Police Department. And they would, based on historical precedents, probably be here for up to 10 years.
By the way, the federal government would not pay for this. It would be the residents of Phoenix. And historically with these large cities, what we've seen is costs in the tens of millions of dollars at the very minimum. Per year in a lot of cases. To pay for this. Yeah.
So not only do the residents pay. I mean, Maricopa County, their sheriff's department's been under one of these. I think it's cost them like $200 million. Three. It was $300. Yeah, Galvin said $300 million. Well, and even Paul Penzone obviously cited that in his retirement from the agency, the frustration that he felt. Not being able to run his own agency. And even with that.
doing the things that the DOJ is asking for, and yet they still won't leave. And you have bureaucrats from Washington, D.C., ultimately having control over local governments. Right down to, like, who you hire. Yeah. I mean, they really, it's every aspect of how your local policing runs. I know you wouldn't quite characterize it this way, but I've characterized it repeatedly as kind of a concerted effort to nationalize policing. Yeah.
in many, many aspects, right? I mean, this is kind of taking away your local control. I would actually characterize it that way myself based on what I've been seeing. And you know what? I'm almost retired, so I get to say more things now. But yeah, we've seen it with our peers across the country. Obviously, we've spoken to other members of other departments that have gone through this. And yeah, they feel the same way. They feel like it's a federal control over local law enforcement, which is...
It goes against every belief as an American of why – It's a federalism thing. Right. Is there any evidence – I'm going to go over some numbers here in a moment. But is there any evidence that this actually – when the DOJ comes in and takes over oversight of a local department, is there any evidence that it improves either the quality of life for residents there, that it improves relationships between the police? Yeah.
The question I keep asking is, what is the positive effect of this if there is any? We haven't identified any. The cities that we've studied, because we've looked at places like Seattle and Los Angeles and other places that have gone through this, their crime rates go up. Their staffing numbers go down. The quality of life issues in those cities don't get addressed because the federal government does not care about, you know, for example, if you have a problem with
loitering around your neighborhood or your schools, they're not concerned about that and they won't address it. Whereas obviously local control, local councils, people listen. You know this. Quality of life remains a major issue with local policing when you have local control, but it's not a concern of the DOJ. To get into some of these numbers, Chuck and Ben, Albuquerque entered into a consent decree in 2012 saying
Violent crime there is up 80 percent since that time. Staffing is down 10 percent. Baltimore, 2015 to the present, violent crime up 7.86 percent, although they've reached the point where they're largely not policing large portions of their city. So a lot of their numbers get skewed that way. Staffing there down 14 percent. Calls for service up 61 percent. New Orleans.
2010 to the present, violent crime up 97.45%, staffing down 35.81%. And these numbers keep going. I could go through a lot of these departments. But in the period in which Phoenix is being investigated for this, so 2021 to the present, our violent crime rate here has gone down by 1%. Our other types of crime have gone down 7%. Our calls for service are down 2.37%.
That's while our staffing is down 11%. So we have been having better policing in these last three, four years with fewer officers because of the changes that have been made and the work of our officers here. Why would we want to trade our trends for their trends?
We don't. That's the whole point. I'm sure that's a rhetorical question, but I was teeing you up for a softball. It's a slap in the face reality question, right? Yeah. And, you know, it's an insult when you see the report coming out and then you see the work being done by our officers right now. You know, you have men and women going out there every day working their butts off.
working an enormous amount of overtime because of our staffing deficits right now. And they go out every day helping the victims of our community, whether that's South Phoenix, Maryvale, North Phoenix, you name it. And to now be called all kinds of names, for lack of better words, it's infuriating to my members and demoralizing. So my question is on this report, and Sam, you've read it. I was going to read through it this weekend.
For these incidences that they, you know, quote, do they explain the background of who the individual was that this supposedly happened again? So, for example, I am sure there's some in there where they say deadly force was used, but the individual, there's a reason the cops were there. It's not like they willy-nilly pulled up and saw some guy and said, you know what, let's shoot him. Yeah. So the report itself, all you have to do is look at it, and if you have any kind of background in research or research,
statistics or anything else, you'll see right away that it's an incomplete report at best, and I'm being kind.
Because what they leave out is exactly what you're talking about. We're dealing with some of the most violent felons out on the street. They'll take those cases. They'll exclude all of the other information about what's going on in context. And they'll say really inflammatory things in the report if you've read it. And I get it, what they're doing. They're calling, for example, they call the people that we're dealing with children.
Which in your mind evokes this thought of, oh, there's these 10-year-olds and things like that. Well, no. I mean we all know looking at statistics, 16-, 17-year-old males in general can commit very violent crimes. We see it. They are not children. And sometimes they're very large children, right?
I mean, sometimes they're kids and sometimes they're not at that age. It's, you know, but just to be clear, we're not talking about 10, 12 year old. Right. Right. You know, children. We're talking about juveniles. The photo that goes up in the media after one of these incidents is of the 10 or 12 year old version of these folks. Exactly. And what they ignore is the actions they were taking at the time that we encountered them.
And by leaving that out, you have a very incomplete picture of what actually occurred. And they do that repeatedly in their report. Sam, you had gave me an example this morning. What was it again? Well, you had I mean, so there's a woman running for the Phoenix City Council now. She is a member or currently a member of the Arizona State House. Her brother was shot in a critical incident.
when he was making terroristic threats and then took a replica weapon, which there's no way to tell with some of these like airsoft type weapons, right? They have video of it on the local media of that rifle he was holding. And there's no way to tell. It looks like a real rifle. Right. And so and then he was shot and killed. After pointing it several times. After pointing it several times, despite their orders.
To put it down. All he had to do to end that incident was put down the weapon, surrender peacefully, and he's alive today. Period. As what happens probably in 100 percent of these situations if they just put the women down, weapon down, and follow orders. Well, you know, the one thing we haven't been talking about for the last few years is just compliance, right? There's a place and time to contest your arrest. Right.
Correct. And it's in court. Yeah. And what they're leaving out is that the times that we have to use force is a decimal point in all the contacts that we have with people, including the arrests of people. So it's like at home, you know, you get the YouTube algorithm that gives you your suggested videos. For some reason, they want to show me car accidents. Right.
Right. Right. So if you watch that. You only have yourself to blame for that. Apparently. And, you know, they have all these videos of car accidents. And if you watch that all the time, you think the streets are dangerous. I'm never going to get in a car again. Oh, my God. When all of us know, how often have you actually seen seen a car accident occur?
It happens, but it's so rare. Every time you drive, most of the time, everything's fine. That's police work. We do our jobs every day. We do it professionally, and no one gets hurt, and we make arrests.
But every now and then we have to use force. It doesn't look pretty. We had Joe Lombardo, who is now the governor of Nevada and at the time was sheriff on the program. He said something really important, I thought, when we were talking about some of these type of incidences a couple of years ago. But he said, look, we hire from the human population. People will make mistakes. People will act inappropriately under stress and pressure at times. That's going to happen. It's called human nature. Human nature. Human nature.
I've always said, and Ben, you obviously have a lot more experience with this than I do, but I've always said, look, it's actually more important. We have to discipline. We have to take care of those situations. We need to enforce policy and code and conduct. But at the same time, you cannot have officers in a critical situation thinking about whether they might be politically persecuted for trying to take a dramatic action that they don't want to be taking, that they've been put in a terrible position for.
But that hesitation gets officers killed and it gets civilians killed. It does. And remember, we're normally harder on our own than the general public. And remember who I represent. I represent the supervisors of the police department.
That's our job. We do it, and we do it on a regular basis what people don't see. It's a daily thing. We actually kind of sometimes look at the civilian review, for example, and civilians sometimes have more sympathy once they know all the facts. Like I said, we're harder on our own.
And again, I just want to stress that the majority of time we are doing our jobs well. So when they talk about patterns and practices, the pattern and practice of the Phoenix Police Department is we do our jobs very well professionally. We try to address the issues that do come up because we're all human. We all make mistakes. And I think we're pretty good about actually addressing misconduct. We do it on a regular basis. Let me ask you a question. So how, for example, in a typical year,
How many arrests does Phoenix make? It's been a while since I last looked, but we typically arrest about 100 people per day. It's a lot. It's a lot, yeah. And of those arrests, how often do they actually have to pull their weapon? It's very rare, in fact.
If you think about the contacts we make, right, we show now that, you know, we point guns at people, as we call it. I think it's like 5,000, 6,000 times or something like that since we started reporting it, which sounds like a lot, right? But not when you compare it to the amount of contacts we have with people and who we're contacting because we're getting calls from people about –
Hey, this guy's running around with a bat. Right. I mean – Well, you're doing 36,000 plus arrests a year. A year. And you're saying over a period of time you've done 5,000 of these. Yes. And then that doesn't include contacts because a lot of contacts are not arrested. Correct. So, I mean, every time an officer – We do a building search, right? Yeah. If we do a building search because you want us to check your house, for example, yeah, we're going to have our guns drawn. Right. I mean –
You know, we've seen... That's the purpose of a building search. Exactly. I literally watched an officer yesterday morning. There was an alarm tripped at a store near my house. It was before opening. The front door was broken.
So, you know, she pulls her service weapon and goes in to investigate. Right. I don't know. I didn't stick around. But if there was somebody in there, that would be one of those incidents. She wasn't pulling the weapon in response to the individual. She was pulling it in response to the situation. Right. Which she had to do. We respond to this situation. We don't create it ourselves. So how does this action by the DOJ that lacks a lot of context.
that lacks the full story in each of these episodes. And I think we all agree here, every organization has their pills, right? We all have these jerks in every organization. It doesn't matter. Families have them, right? Churches, everybody has them, right? How does this type of action by the DOJ affect the morale of the men and women in blue?
Oh, it's terrible. You know, you feel, you know, I can just express to you what the reaction is from the members talking to me. You feel like you're not valued. And this is why we stress to people, like, please contact your council people, contact the leadership of the city so that they have the support to also support us. Because what we're seeing is we're seeing this exodus of officers leaving large cities, going to smaller agencies. We know why.
It's not the money. Phoenix actually just gave a very generous market adjustment. We're the highest paid in the state of Arizona now, yet we still have people leaving, going to smaller agencies. It's because of the support they feel. They feel valued as employees. They feel valued in doing their jobs because, look, we all took this job because we want to – we actually do want to serve. We want to help.
But then if you're being beat up by people, activist groups, I call them, afterwards, it is—and then when you don't get the support on top of it from leadership—
That combination is what drives people away. The activist groups are one thing, but it's the intransigence of leadership that creates this fundamental problem because we know – I mean there's been polling done that shows that every single community in the city of Phoenix, every demographic, every regional area in the city of Phoenix supports our police department, thinks they're doing an excellent job and wants to see more police on our streets here. Correct. I mean that's just a fact.
So generally, the Phoenix police has a very good relationship with the vast majority of our community. It is these coordinated activist groups that are paid to do what they're doing. Correct. And I'll stress what you just said. That includes our neighborhoods of color. Right. I don't remember exactly how many times, but it was almost like on a weekly basis I would get approached when I was working South Phoenix, Maryvale,
by minorities thanking me for being out there. They want us there too. That's the part that I think people get distorted. They think that, well, if you're a minority, you must feel like you're persecuted. That's not what we experience from these communities. One thing, Chuck, is we're talking about this, but let's look at these cities that have entered into consent decrees, Baltimore, New Orleans, Seattle, Chicago, Minneapolis, Albuquerque.
Does it seem to anybody like there is a better relationship between the police and minority communities there after this than before it? There's no evidence to support that. It stokes division, actually. Yeah. Because it makes an us versus them paradigm, which just gets reinforced by that kind of consent decree. It doesn't bring communities together at all.
So as we wrap up here, what are the next steps in this DOJ process? So the next steps are the DOJ will start to communicate more with the city of Phoenix about
negotiating as they call it I've already gotten a call from Kristen Clark from the DOJ in fact we're meeting with the DOJ later today where they want to talk to the unions right it's a strategy they use in all the cities and they talk about collaboration and and respectfully we just come come back with yeah we we collaborate too we do and this is what we call it we we share information and
They do not share information. I would be pleasantly surprised if they actually suddenly said we'll give you our information. Well, they don't. I hope you give them the one-finger salute. I want to address one thing before we wrap up, though, because people have been focusing on the homelessness stuff. Now, my understanding of that, a lot of that comes down to dealing with their possessions. Ben is nodding for those of you who aren't getting this on video. But if any of you have seen a homeless encampment and you've seen what it looks like,
What kind of process are they suggesting for dealing with the mounds of garbage that infest these tents and camps? So they want individual property impounding of those items, which would literally take, I mean, just days. And here's another misperception, or we'll call it what you want in the report, but we actually don't take their property anymore. That's the streets department. Human services comes out.
They take care of the property and they actually put it in lockers for them if they want it. So it's not the police department doing it in the first place. That's something we want to make clear. Appreciate that. Thank you so much, Ben Leshner. We really appreciate having you. Folks, stay tuned and follow this. This affects your city too. This isn't just Phoenix. I know we're on in a number of markets. I have zero doubt the Biden administration will do this in every city in the country. If they can. No, they would. This is absolutely what they want to do.
And for folks here in the Phoenix area, call your council members. Even if you don't live in the city of Phoenix, pick a council member and call them or email them and say, hey, we support the Phoenix police. We like what they do. We do not want to see this consent decree because cities are able to fight this off if they try.
And the city of Phoenix has made positive steps now. We are seeing a marked change in how the city council is reacting to this, which is interesting. So I would encourage people to follow this because it's the first time it's been done by a large city. So they have been supportive. They need your support, though, and we encourage everyone to contact their city council person to stress that.
Absolutely. Thank you so much, Ben Leshner. Thank you. President of the Phoenix Police Sergeants and Lieutenants Association. You got some interesting times coming up. Yes, we do. All right. This is Breaking Battlegrounds. We're going to take a quick break. We'll be back with Kylie's Corner. We'll be right back. Welcome back from the break to the podcast portion of Breaking Battlegrounds. We're rolling on here. Very good interview with Ben Leshner of the Phoenix Police Sergeants and Lieutenants Association. And now, as always...
We are moving into the other crime part of our report for the day. Kylie's Corner, the murder and mayhem capital of the interwebs. Kylie, take it away. I feel like today needs to be called courtroom chaos because I have two cases where it's just the courtrooms are, I don't know what's going on in them. They seem, it seems like TV, like TV.
Um, but anyway, so I have an update on the Karen Reed case. I have a video clip for you, um, because I feel like this just perfectly explains what's been going on in the courtroom, but a little recap before we get into it. So you know what you're about to listen to the Karen Reed. Karen Reed is accused of killing her Boston police officer boyfriend. They say that she backed up into him and left him in the snow to die. This happened at the home of another police officer. He was a police officer in Canton, which is the town, a town part of Boston. Um,
The officers of Canton had to remove themselves because of the conflict of interest. So we now have Trooper Proctor. He's from the Massachusetts Police Department, and he oversaw the investigation. And these are his text messages. This video we're about to play. These are his text messages with his other coworkers and the higher ups. So go ahead, Jeremy. Cunt. Yeah, she's a babe. We had Fall River accent, though. Though, no ass.
I respond again, not bad, as Chief would say. I also respond with, she's got a leaky balloon knot, leaks poo. Who's the retarded client? I was referring to Ms. Freed. Karen Reed, the woman sitting to my left. Yes, sir. The subject of your investigation, as a professional, correct? Yes, sir. As an unbiased, objective investigator, the person that you were investigating, you referred to, to your bosses, as retarded.
What did you write after you talked about going through the quote "retarded client's phone"? No news so far. No news so far. So this is a citizen, she's a woman. You were supposed to be objectively investigating. Does your text message to your colleagues and master's of safety weeks reflect an objective investigation of a citizen? I believe poor jokes have, in unprofessional language, have no bearing on the integrity and the facts and physical evidence of this case.
Is that not crazy? That is insane.
I know. This is like a really bad Saturday Night Live skit, this trial. It really does not feel real. And I feel so bad for John O'Keefe and his family. Yeah. Yeah. There's just no way you'll ever, even if she did do it or didn't do it, there's no way at this point, based on this investigation, you'll ever know.
It's just incredible. That's a great clip, Kylie. Yeah. I just feel like that just shows everything that has been happening. So this week also two jurors have been dismissed. So earlier in the week, one was just on personal reasons. And then this morning, a juror had brought something to the attention of the judge. So she walked...
It was a female. She walked to the judge and was caught on a camera. And so she, by the courtroom TV, so courtroom TV got her kicked off the, as a juror because she was caught on camera. By the way, how many alternates are there generally on a jury? Six. Six alternates? Okay. Okay. I want to make sure we don't run out here. Yeah, no, we're good right now. The current makeup of the jury too, because, you know, he did use the C word. He used,
Said he was looking for nudes of Karen Reid.
10 of the jurors are women. And apparently all of their reactions were just like in disbelief. They were looking at each other. They were just like, I'm sure. Jaws on the floor, basically. You know, you can say, look, despite what the left thinks, you don't need, you don't need to tiptoe around most women. They can handle a little bit of off color language, but the C word is not one of the words. I don't even like it. It makes me squirm. I know. So he spilt it out at first and then they're like, these are your words. You can say it.
All right. Okay, so anyways, I have not been following the Young Thug trial. Have you guys? No. A little bit, yes, because of the prosecutor...
The judge's misconduct came to my attention. Potential misconduct, I guess. Young Thug is on trial for gang-related activities, rocketeering conspiracy, homicide, drug conspiracy. There are 25 other co-defendants a part of this whole case as well. He seems like a wonderful human being. Exactly. So apparently it took 10 months to pick this jury. This is happening in Atlanta right now. But, okay, so on Tuesday, the judge,
judge the prosecution and one of the witnesses had a secret meeting they did not tell any of the defendants any of the they didn't disclose it to the the defense attorneys so it's an ex parte communication with the judge that is not legal under court proceedings yes and the reason for this meeting was because one of the witnesses was refusing to testify
you know, snitches get stitches type of situation, I'm assuming over there. So they have a secret meeting. Young thugs lawyer learns about this secret meeting and brings it to the attention. And there's basically a standoff between the judge and the lawyer. And the lawyer is saying, you know, this is wrong. And the judge is saying, how did you figure out this information? He said, well, this is this is client, you know, attorney privilege. I don't need to tell you that information. Yeah. I mean, they're they're alleging the judge did something wrong. You don't need to
There's no requirement to disclose how you receive that information, correct? Yeah. So there's basically a standoff. Then the judge says, I'm going to give you a five minute recess for you to decide if you're going to tell me who told like who your source is basically. And he's like, OK. Then at this moment, the bailiff came at the attorney and tried to steal his notes from him. And it's like caught on camera of him saying, don't steal my notes. Don't take my notes.
So then they go on this little break and then they come back and the judge is like, have you decided if you're going to tell me who your, who, you know, your sources. And he said, no, I'm not telling you this. This is private information. You did something wrong. So they arrested the lawyer.
So he's now arrested. He's being held in contempt of court. And so he said – so he has 20 days in jail, which are weekends only. And he asked if he could be put in Young Thug's jail cell so that they could work on the case. Well, so I did see late yesterday they appealed that to the Georgia Supreme Court, and the Georgia Supreme Court overturned that and released him, I mean, immediately. Okay, so he doesn't have to go to jail anymore.
This is a really, really bad indictment of this judge. Seems like it. And the prosecution in this case. And, you know, I get that they were upset that a witness had backed out of testifying. But that happens.
Yeah. You have to you have to abide by the rules. Yeah. So in the secret meeting, apparently they had threatened to lock him up for the remaining part of this trial and the 25 other defendants trials. Otherwise. So they said, you either testify or we're going to keep you locked up. Well, keep an eye on this one, Kylie. This sounds as enjoyable as our trial in Boston.
It's chaos. Chaos in the courtroom. Well, thank you for that update today. It's been a little bit depressing here the last 40 minutes. Here, crime and law and order. Pretty bad. Jenna, do you have some sunshine for us? We need it. Then we're going to close on some Father Day comments. You are my sunshine.
My only sunshine. Yeah, so our sunshine moment kind of ties to what we were talking about with Blake in the beginning of the podcast and the whole show. And it also ties to Father's Day. So it's a story about a high school biology teacher who has some really cool summer plans this summer.
he is going to be playing in the U.S. Open this summer. So if I were his student, I would think that was pretty cool. I agree. Yeah, winning some points there. But so, yeah, he teaches biology at Cheyenne Mountain High School in Colorado Springs. But he...
had always had interest in golf. And so this year, 9,522 players attempted to qualify for the U.S. Open. Only 44 managed to play their way into an invitation to the Open. So he was a really accomplished amateur athlete back in college. He was Division II All-American at University of Colorado, Colorado Springs.
And he won the Colorado Amateur in 2016 and 2020. And he loved golf and he was working hard at it during college. But he...
He says that, so I'm reading this, I'm quoting an article here, but he said that it was a grind, particularly for a young family, and he realized his destiny lay in a different direction. So he said, I just kind of realized that it wasn't about me anymore. He had a young family at that time, and so he said there were other people who thought, you know,
There were other people in my life, and my decisions affected others. So my wife and I, we came to the conclusion together that we wanted to stay in Colorado Springs, and he really loves teaching and coaching, so he chose his life there. Yeah. But even despite...
He now has a one-and-a-half-year-old child and another baby on the way. And with that, he's able to inspire his students every year and work on being a teacher, which he loves, coach in the evenings. And then now he gets to go play in the U.S. Open. He set his goals to shake Tiger's hand. And he said that was cool because he was his idol growing up. That's great. What's his name again? His name is Colin Prater.
So to all the Colin Praters out there who sacrificed their dreams to a degree to be with their family, I think everybody here in this room today, and Kylie included, we've all been blessed with attentive, caring fathers. And I think we've talked about this among ourselves, that that makes us rare. Yeah. And to all the fathers out there this weekend that have given and sacrificed for your family, um,
Thank you. And if I can say something, my father is 97. He's had a number of health issues recently, but he was very recently now diagnosed with rapid onset Alzheimer's also. And so I just want to pass the message. Dad, I love you. And I know this is a really hard time for him and so many other families out there going through this type of thing.
Take these moments. And we're all going, you know, everyone's visiting as much as we can. And we're trying to get all his friends in town to be able to see him before he doesn't have the ability to process those visits. But time is limited. Correct. Your time is limited. Your time with your family, with your father is limited. Take advantage of every minute of it.
Thanks for sharing this, Sam. On behalf of Breaking Battlegrounds, you can visit, as always, at BreakingBattlegrounds.vote and anywhere you get your podcasts. Take your time spending it with your fathers, your grandfathers this weekend. And happy Father's Day to everyone. Have a good weekend.