Police Officers J.D. Williams and Chris Walters

special episode. WHOA whoa? Come on, and I old j D and Chris. J D Williams and Chris. I gotta bring up my notes now Walters, Chris Walters before five million episodes. That's the first time ever. So that's that's cool. Uh yeah. J D Williams Chris Walters from Charlotte Mecklenburg Police Department. We're happy to have you on and just have some good conversation today. So our first segment is called get iced Up. Go ahead and give them the first one. You two ready a ready? All right, officers,

buckle up, bout the cups. I'm ready, all right, each of you and YouTube decide rock paper sisters on who goes first. What's the last book you've read? Two Nashi coats. It was the last book. Impressive what you got, Chris, the Bible? Read it every day. You should have said, you should have because I usually I know it's the truth, but it's the lazy truth. It's hard work being dedicated to the Lord nice before the lightning because he said it with a week to two points for the reversal.

I've known you for almost twenty years. Curse hmm, I'm leaving footsteps all right, um j D. What did you want to be growing up as a kid? Growing up, I wanted to be uh okay, underwater photographer. Yeah yeah, where that stand from? Um? I used to love watching animal shows as a kid, and I swore out I was gonna be the next job Cousto or something like that. Wow, okay, yeah, what about you, Chris? You gotta think of a lie

now because you can't talk that. You can't say I want to be a cartoon A lesson as cliche as it is as law enforcement. And uh. The reason that is is because I was seven years old at home, single mom and by myself. She was of work and I'm flipping through the channel's watching TV and the show Cops is on, so I stopped. I look at it, and it immediately enthralls me. So I immediately associated that to what a man was, fast, strong, authoritative, sheep dog protector.

And my mom came home that day and I told her I was gonna be a man with shoe. You know, when I grew up, I've been alone. That's my goal the entire time being law voiceman. Now, how do you christ Now I'm forty two. If you're talking about the same cops, I'm talking about the fast people weren't in the uniform back in the day cops, Well, I'm just as a seven year old laughing like Steve got a point like the old like the new Cops, the old cop BacT when it first started, good Luck used to

outrun You better pump up those d Browns. You're gonna need them all right, Chris? Do you prefer baths or showers? Is a LUFA involved, brother? I don't care what you do. I'm a shower. I'm a shower guy. Okay, cool bath ice bass ice bass Yeah, keeps my joints good. Okay, you one of those? Yeah, I knew that would come out smell like being gay pretty much icy hot. Now it's probably it's evolved. I gotta it was called cream of Jesus. That freeze only fix anything. My chicking out

my neck puts bio freeze on. Chris. Favorite family vacation. You've had cruises A lottle cruisers, okay, j D. Cross country trips in my family? Um, grandmother, what do you consider cross country from Calia to New York? Okay? Cool? I just want to make sure I've met some folks. They left the county, but they considered traveler from It's a different trip, different strokes with different else. Yeah cool, all right, last one with having two cops here, I

have to ask this question. So choices crossops, bagels or donuts? Donuts? Absolutely donuts? Now sign is on contractually obligated to have you. Have you ever eaten a doughnut? You get it from Alright cake or Chrispy Crane cake. That's the West Coast the world runs on, don't get ri Charlotte created from the Pauls Pauls. Wow, all right, let's moving on. Okay, So favorite sports scene growing up? What about you? Chris?

I was a Vikings fan until the Panthers came. We didn't have a So you didn't like you didn't like Washington football team. Everybody here like the Washington or Dallas if you were if you were a Dallas fan, then you were a Laker fan, and you were a Yankee fans like everybody's as a whole bunch of those rings. So I'm already starting to see you the opposite. So it's like, no Washington, Karen shar let me go in Minnesota, Okay, just going against the grain. Well, you know, just what

I like to eat, what I like to watch. Chris, Where are you from in the place you call your hometown? Um? From Charlotte. UH was raised on the East Side. Lived with my mother in a single, one bedroom apartment. She had a twin bed on one end of the bedroom and I had a twin bed on the other end of the bedroom. And um, you know, I lived there paycheck to paycheck until I was probably levin and we moved to uh two bedroom house off of Lawyer's Room right outside of Man Hill and I lived there until

I graduated high school. Okay from Riverside, I e And I said I was there my whole life until I went to the Marine Corps of Special Ops and then, um, we're talking about earlier. I was on the All ring boxing team, moved to Vegas when I got out to go pro and uh realized real quickly, need to get a job at round. Did you realized, Oh, man, god is it's a whole long story. But tell me which round you got yours? I'd say probably when my tooth

got broken that changed your mind. I mean other than that, the story was like you had the typical boxer story, right, you grow up in Cali, then you go to Vegas to train and then tooth broke. Yeah, that's what I said. I said, what ash? What? What round? Did you get your ass whooped? That made you change the entire It's like from from well I lost the tooth, I can't hear out of my right ear. From the side of

being everybody got a plant, they get punched in the mouth. Yeah, if I gotta player to get punched in the face, and they too fall out. Swallowed it. I swallowed I thought it was a piece of my mouthpiece. Man, I swallowed it. That'll make cancer your plans. That's his name. I remember some nineteen year old Hispanic kids, straight straight out of Texas. Woe me out? How many rounds? It was an exhibition, so we were doing like force. You got your answer for press? Oh yeah yeah, finish Yeah yeah.

That's how I knew my tooth was broken. Training was asked me questions. We're sorry, yeah yeah, but I was old. You know, that's what the problem is, you know, being a professional athlete year old yea for for boxing. I was in the Marine Corps first, and when I got out, I was trying to go pro boxing. Negative, you're behind the power curve, brother, I'm not sure how to follow up. I'm sorry, sorry, and exactly you're supposed Yeah, yeah, it's

like beat up. It's like no so so growing up in in Cali for U j D. And in Charlotte, how did how did growing up in those places shape your outline or outlook on life today? Be honest with you. I never had, never, never had any aspirations to be in the police office, never had any aspiration to being a law enforcement In fact, I was one of those kids. Um and Steve, we're from the same spot. You know, if this was gangbanging, you know, it was a line. You know, it was kind of teetering. But I never

got any trouble or anything like that. You know, I had a good head on my shoulders. Um. But I you know, to be honest with you as a kid, I you know I wouldn't. I wasn't pro police at all. Why um, I mean, you know you know how it was back then you had to uh you had the task Force, you know Sam Ridino County Sheriff's Apartment, Riverside County l A. How do you uh forty nine? So you were we were on the same time frame. Especially Riverside Semi Valley was not the police department in Los

Angeles as well liked or well respected. Why because you had to Rodney King, and you know you had to Rodney King, which led to the Reginald Denny to red Ship, led to l A RDS YEA and before and before we got into a culture of policing where it was taboo it's taboo now to profile. Back then, profile and

was how they did their work. You know, they're going to certain neighborhoods and look for people that fit the description, and they stopping and you know, harass you know, ask your questions where you're going, where you've been where you're coming from. Uh, my prom night I got proned out. We in tuxedos. You know, they were just doing it to be jerks. So but what changed my outlook? And as a single dad, Um, that was special ops in the Marine Corps. I got told you so when I

got out, I was either gonna be a cop or fireman. Um. And there was a point where I realized that you gotta fight the battle from within. So so let me stop you right there. Because Chris, as you hear j D say that what do you not to put you on the spot, and putting you on the spot, what do you what do you feel? Or says because you are a white police officer. Hearing how how that impacted

j D as a black man, but it didn't deter him. However, hearing a police officer say that back in the day, it's disturbing, Like I think we've found where the there's a disconnect in humanity right. Uh. When I grew up, I grew up on the East Side, low income housing. Um, I didn't see a difference in people any personally. That didn't all of my friends, you know, you say I've heard that though I hear people say that you. I don't see a difference in pol growing up. I didn't

I was eight years old. That that is something to me. I believe it's taught, and that was not taught in my household. I was not taught. I was. I just I've never I've never had that opportunity to ask someone because I've heard you know you sometimes people don't see color, you can't use your color. But but I get where. I get where you come from from it to where when when you're in that neighborhood and you're surrounded by you don't know what this, but everybody isn't afforded this.

I think it's a social economic placement issue that I found myself in. I was an under educated mom who didn't even graduate high school, working paycheck to paycheck. I distinctly remember going over to my neighbor's house with a five gallon bucket to fill the water up because our water was turned off to flush the toilet. Right, But

it's it's what we lived with. I mean that that you that was my norm, right, Like that is what my best friend Terrence grow went up, my other best friend Taiwan growing up like that is what we experience growing up and we never I thought we were different from one another. That was how we connected and related to one another. I think that's interesting you say that,

and I love that comparison. It's damn there impossible to feel like you're different when the stuff you don't have your neighbors don't have, right, Yeah, Like I mean what you're saying is growing up my grandparents and in their place, man, we had to We had the bowl in the sint, you wash your hands and unless you did number two, you use the you use the water when it got high enough to dump the pa to make it flush. Yep, you know, because you that's just how it was that,

you know. So for me that that was that was my our standard. That's what that was what we had to the point of where when I went back home with my kids, when they pulled up to uh to Grandma and Grandpa Betty and Frank's house on a three forty nine Eastern ut, they look like, what is this one of my book? My boy, my oldest now tree. We've traveled across We've traveled around the world. And I mean to say that not in bragging contact. Years before we went to Italy, but he says we've been in Mexico.

He says, those just look like the homes in Mexico, daddy shanties. H m hm. Where did you get that? He got? That is bikes where we traveled on vacation. He saw that similarity is where I grew up because that was his reality. That j D mentioned what his interaction was with the police when he was younger, Chris, what was yours? I never really had much. I remember them in the neighborhood, driving through, but I never physically saw any kind of interaction with law enforcement and community

members like I just never saw it. But my mom also kept a tight leash on me because again working paycheck to paycheck, I wasn't allowed to be outside. Uh, she wasn't home and so that gave me roughly, on average, about forty five minute window to be outside from the time that she was home and then the lights came on and I had to come home. You know, you're a latch key, kidd, and I but the string break your mom put on the on the I D Dog tag when no dog. That just the key. You get

those done at Walmart? Remember you lose that key? I mean, I asked that was that was I was not afraid of, Hey, my key is going. I was afraid of the look and the reaction I was gonna get from my mom when I got you know, she got home. Don't let me be sitting on the porch still when she pulls up. At what point for both of you, guys, I guess, at what point did you realize that becoming a police

officer was okay? What was the reception from your friends, family, and and people you you interacted with and you also respected their opinion? Ah, for me, it was a split. Um. Of course, your parents always gonna be proud of you. My grandparents were real proud, but a lot of the younger generation my age and younger in my family, Um, they were cool. But it was you know, you could always tell you know, j D here, you know the cop here, you know Popo here, you know? And I

think it. You learn to be able to conduct conversations with your family and your friends real fast, because anytime something happens, you're the sounding board, right as a black man, as a cop, you're the sounding board. Why y'all do this? Why do pl you know, police do that? Why they do this? You know? And to have those conversations and walk away with your family and still have respect, respect and and maybe hopefully give somebody understanding. Like I get

a quick example, I got a homeboy back home. This dude been shot twice. Uh, he got shot in high school. He got shot pie about ten years ago, and his mom's house got shot up twice. But then he'll call me like, like, please keep shooting people? Like is that you know? But you you've been shot twice by people that probably looked like you. UM. So to be able to sit down with him and have that conversation, um, I think it's empowering at times, but it's also draining.

Draining is exhausting, Yes, sir, what about you? Chris? For me, um family side, it was just like I said, just me and my mom. She's passed. Uh. She always said that she was going to support me and whatever I did right, and she knew that was my goal. But she instilled in me if that's something you want to do, you have to get out of this cycle. And that's what I was talking about earlier about the social economic cycle. Right, you have to get out of the cycle. And the

way you get out of that cycle is education. You have to graduate high school. You have to. And so as I got older, I did my research and realized that I have to have a high school diploma. I don't have to have a college degree, because in my mind, I'm waiting for a local church to come and bring me food from their food pantry. I certainly cannot afford to go to college. My mom didn't know that I was a prime candidate to get, you know, free money to pay for me to go to college based on

our social economic status. But she had not even graduated high school herself. And so that's where the I just knew I had to I had to make it to graduation of high school, and that was the focus that I had. I got my first job when I was thirteen to help pay bills because I got tired of the water being cut off, the power being cut off until pay day. I remember how excited Friday's came. When she got paid. She went and got her check cashed and we went to Pizza Hut. I mean that was

like I was getting a hot meal. I was free reduced lunch. I got. That was my hot meal the week. I remember how excited I was with that. So she said to get out of the cycle. You have to get an education. And so that's where I stayed in. You know, I made sure I did what I was supposed to do and finished out high school. Friends some have come and gone, which is natural. That happens with

no matter what, right that that that happens. Um you can see and like I when I was in recruiting, I used to tell people also that you'll see the difference of who your true friends are, right because regardless of what you're doing as a career, if we're we're boys, you're gonna be my boy, right because at the end of the day, you define the uniform. You don't let the uniform define you. Right. So I'm Chris Walters in uniform,

I'm Chris Walters out of uniform. That's just who I am, right, And so you can see when people start to distance themselves. It's like, where you really my boy? To begin with, we have to take a break and morning thing. We gotta pay some bills. You got checks. I love cut to It and I love it even more when you download us and subscribe and you can follow us on social media too. Smithie, where where at that's at? Cut

to It on Instagram? What about Twitter at cut to It, Facebook, cut to It featuring Steve Smith singr what about online? And you can follow us at cut to It podcast dot com where you can buy merch and you can subscribe to us wherever you listen to podcasts. I got all my answers questions. UM, yeah, I got all my questions answered. That's what I'm here for, a brother cut to a podcast dot com. Well, let's get into the

career stuff. You know, what's what's what's the best part of the job working with kids, um, especially when you have an opportunity to show up in the neighborhood or uh particular community in uniform and have a positive interaction with young kids because a lot of these kids they only see officers responding to negative situations, people getting arrested, you know, chaos. UM. And I understand that because of

you know, to Chris's point, socio economic situations. You have a lot of children that live in areas where they're exposed to trauma daily at a young age, and it's normalizing. It's normalized, like someone so shooting at each other on the corner. It's normal for them, and that's not normal. And then the police responding and having all kinds of chaos in their in their neighborhood. That's not normals. Now

how a kid is supposed to grow up. So you know, when I have those opportunities there to coach and work with pal and and just have those kind of and I try to be in uniform or some kind of uniform.

Um intentionally, that's intentional. And I went to one of your camps, uh, I think you had at Artcael ago years ago, and I would show up and I would always have something because I have volunteered, and I would have something that represented me being a cop, so that we can open up conversations and then these kids can walk away and be like, yeah, you know Officer j D. He helped me, you know, run my routes or he helped me do whatever. Um. I played football for the

Cobra's the Charlotte Police and Fire team. UM. And any chance we had, you know, to interact with those kids so that way they can be exposed to police officers on a positive level. If you don't mind, let's talk. Can we talk about those stigmas, because I think there's

a stigma as a I'm a law body citizen. There's this stigma with the police, and I think to some degree some police officers, there's a stigma that not everybody is a law body and citizen right for various reasons, because of maybe what they experienced as a kid or adult, or a teenager or a college student and vice versa.

So I want to run through some scenarios that me and Gerard have been through, and I want you to walk me through and my off base with this, okay, and you can tell me, Steve, that was BS or you know, even what did you do? What you know were you just to really just to walk through it, almost like you know, talking about football. A couple of years ago, I'm back home coming visited family. We were down to UH, down to Santa Monica Pier right at

my own stomping grounds. I used to actually work at the UH at the Ferrisville and Settlement at the State Monica Pier. Right. So we're we're staying in Orange County. I'm driving all the way back now it's about West Coast time. I I'm in the car full of family. I got my beautiful wife in the front seat, I got my my three Deuce wasn't even born, so I had my three kids in the back at that time. Um, so it's just six years ago. Um, six and alfe years ago, he'd be seven. Uh this shot. So so

I'm starting, you know, I'm looking around. I can't turn the radio up any you know anymore, because then I wake up, the wake up the kids. And so I'm going and I'm driving, and I can feel myself now, I can feel myself kind of like, hey, we need to get back. So I do what any other dad does when he's in the car with a family sleep, What does he do? Speed up a little bit. So I'm speeding up and I'm driving, and you know, I'm I'm going a little bit beyond the speed limit. I

admit that. He pulls me over. Damn, got me right, So pulls me over. I had my idea already pulled out. He comes up of the car, asked me, is this your vehicle? Okay? The first of all, I already know now, and then that if the officer has enough time and tell me if this is correct or if you know this is a mistake. That if you have enough time, you run my run those places of that vehicle. It tells you if that's your vehicle. Generally, my picture of my I d pops up. It has my address, my face,

even my social Security number security. Okay, no, thank you. That's that's good because I have some good credit. Um no used to credit? Continue Hollywood, Hogan um. And it will say possibly if you have concealed and carry attached to that is that correct? Well other than the photograph like it pulls up showing name address on so I know you personally when I walk up to the car, I don't know who that is. Okay, but I think that it's all about the delivery. But perfect. So first question,

he asked me, whose vehicle is this? Well, in my head, I'm going my fucker's the same vehicle. You know it's popped up. Hurts, I said, Nissa Rental. He says, okay, do you know why I stopped you? Now, this is my answer all the time. If you pull me over and I'm going three a million miles per hour? You know what, I'm always saying, I have no idea why he pulled me off. No, I don't. I say I have no idea. My wife would be my lovely wife. And you should be like, yeah, you don't know why not?

I don't know why. Here the teeth, So and so says. He says, whose vehicles? As I said, it's it's a rental car. He says, license of registration. Well, I don't have registration because it's a rental car. So I give him my rental agreement right thet He goes, I don't need it all right, I see what this ship is today. Being honest, I give him my O the state license. Do you want to know? What he says before when I give him my license, before he goes back to

his car. And this is where me personally, I think this is where the bullshit happens. He says, do you have any warrants? Okay? I looked at him and said, not that I know of, but I'm pretty sure you will let me know when you come back. That's what he asked me. What I have? I've been pulled over because I've sometimes I've been a yeah, I gotta speed, I've been called speedy, but I have never I've been asking a few things, but do you have any warrants?

I've never been asked that. Why would a police officer asked me? Do I have any warrants out for my rest? Well? Going back, um and to what Chris was saying a minute ago, a lot of times, and I don't know what the officers demeanor was. I don't know, but a lot of times, you know, just like they talked about doctors and having bedside manners. Um, I think a lot of times there's some officers out there that don't have

good bedside manners. Right, so uh, both of us being supervisors. Um, that's one thing that I expand upon when I'm when I'm working with my troops, is your delivery. Um. The reason why he asked you if you had any warrants. I could not answer why he would ask you that, because all he had to do is run your name, and any local or national warrants would have come up, um in the system. And what person in the right mind is gonna say, yeah, yeah, yeah, I got I've

got a couple of murder warrants out for me. Not a fact to myself, but I mean, so go back, who's in the car with me, your wife and my wife. Now my family is completely upright because we don't know they spoo, We don't know what this dude it's gonna do. Right. I started thinking, it's like when you take a test, like I've taken a COVID test, and you start thinking about, well, whatever the result was, now I gotta start back contact Tracy, right, and so I'm going like, what payment? I don't think

I'm good. I hope. And then you come back and then you start thinking like, ship, what if I do? If I don't know how I'm gonna work this? Do I leave my fami? Do I do I run for it? You know? And just that really just was very odd questioning. And I felt with anything, I had my paperwork ready, I was in hostile. I was doing what he asked, and he came. He came from the first question. I really felt the questioning was let me get him mm hmmm. Or because he's black, he probably has ones, yes, mhm mhm.

And I've had similar as a as a cop um some years ago. UM, I was driving to go see my son and stationed down in the Florida and I was coming through I think I was. I was in South Carolina, was coming through South Carolina and I get stopped. UM. I had a little little um tank top and short song guns out guns out. Yeah. So you know, so this this is before we had any you know, the guy's talking to me, and he's like, yeah, that stops you. Um,

I had made a a lane change. I didn't realize that I made the lane change, that that was lane So you know, it's a little a little backwards in South Korea. So I crossed the white that the solid white line. And he walks up and he says to me, you know it gets my registration and he says, so what do you do time? At? Wow? That was his first question. It was you know, that wasn't the first question, but of registrations. Yeah, oh yeah, yeah, so what do

you do time? Mat? And I says, I've I've never done time, sir, Oh, you're kind of jacked up, you know, you know lucky, you know that you know, might you might have done some time someplace. Wait a minute, So because you swow bones, he thinks you he asked me. Clearly, I've never been asked that. He asked me. Won't go. But the guy, the higher patrolman asked me if I had ever done time anywhere? Where'd you do time? Man?

So I didn't say anything to him because I didn't want to hit him with what do you want to? You want to? I want to? I didn't want to hit him with the fact that I was a cop man. Yeah I was. I said, I'm gonna sit on him, sitting on but old on, hold, I'm gonna tell you

what j D was thinking. This motherucker right, you don't even know, he said, just asked some muscles not But that made me the same the same way that Steve felt like, did you ask would you have asked any other citizen that no, no, no, don't don't sugar coote, Yeah, just call it what it is. Would you have asked if I was white? Yes? And Jack, would you ask

me the same question? So to to bring a conclusion to that, um, I waited until he ran all my stuff and then um, you know, he's giving me the whole rundown about the the HV lane and he says, uh, so where you headed? I said, I'm just going to see my son is in the Air Force. H He was, Oh, he's a serviceman, to say it, so on my marine. And then he goes, okay. So then I showed my badge and just the he was you could see, like you know, and then suddenly everything the conversation completely changed.

Oh he flew up to the script her. So I walked away from that. You want to be friends now friends? Yeah I would Ran, I was a toll on his ass. But but again, but again, you know the emotional side. I had to check that because I had to take that situation and bring it back to my department and use that as a tool to better us um our professional accountability one of our core for you know, the UH. But we have our strategic strategic priorities that our chief

puts out, employee wellness, professional accountability. Um we have it laid out. And that reminded me of the professional accountability side of it, and the employee well on the side of it, and the community collaboration side of it. That me coming back instead of being bitter about that situation

because I know that stuff happens. But now when I have conversations with officers, in particular white officers that may not understand why black people feel with what they do when they get pulled over, why people of color might act a certain way when they get stopped by the police, why there's an immediate fight or flight response. It's usually stemming from simple situations like that you're you're on high alert, so frustrating to being on the other side and hearing

stuff like that, it just it's disgusting. Yeah, and it makes it hard for my white counterparts that you got Chris, here's a great guy. I've known it for twenty years and um, he's a great officer, he's a great friend. But I know that when he's looked at in his uniform, you know, it's automatically assumed that he's a white police officer. He's out there harm black people. He's profile too. Yeah,

So broad brush that, regardless of how it comes from anywhere? Right, is that broad brush that you're painting that perpetuates the same prejudice that you claim to be against. Right, you can't broad brush anything. It's you know, it's but it's difficult to combat that. I think it's about that time, just so take a little breathing. Good do it, Good, do it. Let's getting down to do it. Hey, Gerard, why did you get that T shirt? Oh? Yes, I got it from cut to a podcast dot com where

we have exclusive merchandise. Shout out to our guys at seven or four shot. But yeah, you can go on, buy you a T shirt, subscribe to us wherever you listen to podcasts. What I love about this conversation is sometimes we lie so hard about race is not involved that we start to believe, no, that can't be. And the fact of the matter is it is people get

pulled over because they're black. There's some white folks that get pulled over and late at night looking for drugs and a drug infastin area being white because they're looking for drugs. That's that's just a narrative that well, whether we like to say it or not, that's that's, that's what it is. And sometimes we want so hard to not believe the fact that I was in Monroe. I was deep in the sticks album are North Carolina, and I did a California rolling stuff. Police officers pulled me

over and say, do you know why I stopped you? No, sir, I do not remember. I have no idea either. One I still don't know. He goes, what you're doing around here, That's what he asked me. I said, what I was playing golf in in the event. His next question was, where's your clubs? Then, well, they're in the trunk. Pop the trunk. I popped the trunk, he looked at it, closed it. You know. The next thing he said, he said, gonna get from around here. That's what he said. M

how do I not take that? You're supposed to take it exactly how it was because and I wrote this down unfortunately, and I'm glad you brought it up. Um. You know, as we try to everybody body wants to glaze over the race issue. UM, and as cops, unfortunately, the history of policing is ugly. Policing was initially brought into place to keep certain people in line. UM, and it's obviously evolved from that, and we we we would like to say that we are we've moved on from it.

But just like you got stopped and you had your interaction, he got stopped, he had this interaction. I got stopped and was automatically assumed because I've worked out that I must have done prison time. Um. Those things still exist. UM. You know, being a black police officer, you know you have conversations with people and even within the department, and they said, oh, systemic racism is no such thing of that. And I can give you perfect examples of what systemic

racism is and what that looks like. UM. As a kid, we played in the park to Bayside Park and one day, uh three cop cars. We're playing basketball. They stopped. They talked to us, asked us, you know, questions and just like, uh, my man said, you know, he didn't know his rights. So we're answering questions. Oh yeah, I live over here. This is my name? Is somebody to birth blah blah blah la dada, and cops leave. I was eighteen years old.

I think I was seventeen or eighteen. Ten years later, I'm applying for the police department and my application got stopped because a negative police contact came up in my background. And when we researched it, it said that I had been detained and interviewed m and by Gang in Addiction unit. And it was handwritten. I never forget looking at it. It said gang affiliation cryp slash blood and it said

reason and it said frequents Uh known gang area. Because the park that we played in, which is in our community, the only available park happening every so often. You had crips come through there. You have bloods come through there, and you also had the essays come through. You had the Hispanic games yeah and California Yeah man, west Side, so um, you had you know, we had that situation. But the reason. I don't mean to be long winded, but this is this is systemic racism, looks like so

ten years later I'm applying and that comes up. I had no idea was on my record, and it wasn't like I was arrested or anything. But you know, when you run my name, it said that I was detained along with these other young men. If it wasn't for the fact that my mom's educated. I went to the Marine Corps and I had the resources to go back and find that. I had to write a letter to the judge, Riverside County Judge to have that take it

off my record. Okay, you know, because you know he was like, okay, this that shouldn't have been been in there. But at that time, that's what they were doing because there was a high gang problem. So being a cop now I can see what the reason was. But the systemic racism part comes in. Would they have done that in a white community? Would they have pulled over some white kids and just randomly profile were shooting basketball and

and put in a system? And so I'll take it a step further, and I feel like the races, the systemic racism is by doing that, they also know, or they should know as a police officer. Now that you have earmarked this individual for their future, that's support I was getting that. If I didn't have what I had, you had, you wouldn't have got off your record. I wouldn't have got this job, and that job would have changed my silkie. This having this job changed my socio

economic status. It gave me an opportunity to provide my keys with a different lifestyle. And that one Mark could have taken it all the way and I had no idea what was on there. So then you think about how many countless other don't have don't have the resources, or don't even have the are not afforded the opportunity to see their background to go. That's not right, but that but that's what that's what systemic racism looks like.

That's just a small example, But that small example leads to a bigger issue because again the one out of ten thousand, but actually it was three mm hm that week, right, we don't know what he did the day before, the days after, years after. So you add, let's just do a little quick math, would y'all? Entertainment with a little quick man. As long as you're doing it, three a week, four weeks, twelve months, ten years, thousands, thousands, that's what

it looks like. Yeah, that's a lot of people. That's a lot. That's a lot of young men and women of all racests and and and this is not original statement for me, but from our former chief Kurt Putney, he said that, um verbatim, I'm fighting that battle on the side of the street at that moment is not

the time to fight that battle. Know your resources. So if you are pulled over, and this goes to any citizen that's listening, if you are pulled over and you feel like you've been wrongly violated, or your rights have been violated, or you know, you were talked to disrespectfully or whatever foul complaint UM, our department is very very

very open for that UM. And that goes back to the professional accountability in our core for is if we get a complaint, no matter how simple it is, our it gets vetted and its statement I think some people is like you take some some things that have happened, and then things come out later and you realize, like this person had so many years of complaints and nothing ever happened, right, and then this last complaint resulted in whatever is resulted, our department is very uh account had

they hold people accountable. They hope people. Yeah, so it's not like it was where Yeah, yeah, we know. You know Officer Joe soon So has a bad habit of you know, cussing out little old ladies every time, you know, and it's just been swept in. That has evolved to the point now where you know, with the body want cameras, we do audits, we do they keep track of all that stuff and they see what they consider a pattern. Um,

it's it's dealt with. Yeah, thanks for sharing that. Yeah. Yeah, oh, I guess for me, it's it's just one of those where, um,

I try not to. I don't really mouth off. I just kind of like like I was in I remember when I first retired my daughters playing volleyball, and so I was in Tennessee and I was driving and there's a police officer in Tennessee at sitting in the in the media in and I was making a left turn and uh, I had my windows cracked and my daughter in the front seat, and he was like, you know that that that those that tent is a little dark goes where are you from? You're from Tennessee. He said, nope,

I'm I am. I reside and registered in North Carolina. He goes, well, here in Tennessee, that's illegal. I said, okay, well, well I'm in North Carolina. I'm good. And so he started to like want to continue to banter and talk, and he was like, well, you know you're here in Tennessee right now, and then that light turned green. I said, well, sir, I gotta go. Well, you know, okay, and I pulled off like he was a white officer. I know, I wasn't the only car in that in that lane. You know,

tent is all over. But instances like that and the interaction that I've received where the conversation starts about tent or busted tell like, but eventually goes in the direction that ultimately requires the interaction that sometimes I don't want to have or that yeah, it's unnecessary, but it's utilized as if I'm being honest, as an excuse to go down another path that like, come on, man, this is a great opportunity for the listeners, but also for myself

because what happens is you have listeners that that's what we do. You sit around and do the what if, what if this, what if that? But you don't actually have a cop sit in front of you bounce that stuff off, right, so I know we get ready to come up on time, and we've been we've been having an amazing conversation. Again, thank you all for the transparency. The question I had for y'all. You mentioned you had two sons, j D and Chris. I know your father

as well. What you passing on to your kids as police officers and what are you passing on to your kids as men. That's a good question. Jo My mind are a little older than Chris is. I got a twenty six year old and a four year old UM, and I've always always uh spoke to them about being respectful. UM, even if the cop that you come across as a jerk, you maintain what I've taught you, and then you bring it home to me and let me fight that battle.

My son went to Malla Creek High School. He was on the UM the teams that that that won the championships, and you played with Marquez North and some of the other boys, Jalen, Samuel's all them boys. He was on that team, and I just I remember just being even though I'm a cop, but the dad, you know, them boys riding around, you know, and I had let my son use my back and a little a little or runner.

They be riding around. And these are scholars. Marquez North was a four point o g p A student and my son was at three point eight g p A student, And all these boys are all Americans. But I can look at that vehicle as they're pulling out of my driveway with these big black athletic boys riding around in their car, and none of them are gang bangers. None

of them are dope dealers that you know. A couple of boys end up going to the league, and I could cringe sometimes thinking about if they have that one negative encounter. So what I've what I've always instilled on my sons is do what I've taught you. Be respectful and be true to your character, because your character, no matter what somebody puts in front of you, no matter what kind of narrative they might have in their mind of you, your character is always going to outshine that.

So as long as your character is intact, will be intact. For me to say, it's I want to have my children to be defined by the content of their character, right, not because just on the flip side, then being looked at, perceived and judged because they have a father who is a police officer and it's a white male. Just because he's a police officer and he's a white male doesn't

mean that he's out here targeting minorities. Right. It's it's this narrative and this brush that I said earlier that we're painting this brush a prejudice, right, It's it's the flip side also, right. I I am a police officer. I've done this because this is all I've ever wanted to know. I associated a law enforcement officer to what a man was, right, That's what I told my mom. I was going to grow up to be a man.

That's what I wanted to do. And so now seventeen years into it and the turmoil of society today, my children have to go a school and everybody knows that their father is a police officer. Right, So I want you to always represent yourself well, and you know, because I want my kids to know that I'm Chris Walters. I am not Officer Walters. I'm not Sergeant Walters. To their friends people that know them, I am Chris Walters. I define, I define the uniform. I don't let the

uniform define me. I don't take on the narrative of what the uniform brings. I want to create a new narrative to what the uniform could mean and what it should mean. That's really good. My grandfather was a policeman, but he passed away when I was thirteen, so I didn't get a chance to have that conversation with him about gar here's what you need to do when you get put over, he said. I didn't have that, and I didn't have anyone else to give me that conversation.

So as I think about me being a father now and I have a I have a daughter, I have a son, and what am I going to tell them when when it's time to have that conversation. And I don't want to have that conversation based off of negative experiences or how I've previously viewed police officers. I wanted to be genuine. I wanted to be rich, And that's

really good. At what you gave us, right, And I want to tell my children the same way that you act on that traffic stop, it's the same way I expect you to act when you're at the self checkout, inherit teat or food line. You know, it's it's human decency. I want you treating everybody that you interact with the the same because it's a genuine nous of who you are. And that's what I want my children to be, genuinely good people and that no matter who they're dealing with. Well,

this has been awesome. It's been a it's been a privilege just to be able to talk and get get answered that I think people want to have. In hell, if they didn't like it, I learned something, you know, And I also want to thank you all just for the transparent I mean, I think y'all you know just some of the things you guys were able to hit on and just whether it's from your backgrounds, how you how you grew up your previous views. I think it

helps normalize a lot of stuff. And I think that's what's happening right now, is we haven't normalized a lot of thoughts or histories or tendencies. So you guys helped to normalize it. And I pray that this is going to be a conversation that's going to go out and and a lot of people. One is going to continue. But two, this is gonna hitting. People are at least

gonna shift perspective. Well appreciate it, Thank you much. I'll come back and hang out any You are a unique person, you are well worth it, you are competent, and most of all, your lovable. I'm Steve Smith Singer, I'm Gerard Little John and this has cut to It. Cut to It with Steve Smith singor That Is Me is a production of Cut to It LLC, Balto Creative Media, The

Black Effect and I Heart Radio. For more podcast from I Heart Radio, visit the I Heart Radio Apple Apple Podcast, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows from Cut to It. Executive producer Steve Smith, Singer, co host Gerard Little John, talent in booking manager Joe Fusci, Social media team Wesley Robinson and John Show from Balto Creative Media. Cut to It is produced by Brian Baltaschevic and Meredith Carter,

with production assistance by Alex Lebrec. Production Coordinator Taylor Robinson. Theme music by Alex Johnson, lyrics and vocals by Anthony Hamilton. You ain't heard am about it, then we're about to let you know. It's all