Episode 48: Sheriff Mark Cage Pulls No Punches Fighting Crime - podcast episode cover

Episode 48: Sheriff Mark Cage Pulls No Punches Fighting Crime

Oct 30, 20231 hr 4 min
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Episode description

Can you imagine sitting down with a renowned sheriff from New Mexico and engaging in a lively discussion about movies, laws, and politics? That's exactly what we did when we welcomed our esteemed guest, Mark Cage Eddy County Sheriff, to share his perspectives on crime rates and the critical role of local sheriffs. 

Our conversation took us on a journey from the stunning landscapes of New Mexico to the complex political dynamics of the Middle East. We examined the pro-Palestinian demonstrations happening worldwide, dissecting the age-old Israel-Palestine conflict, and the rising anti-Israel and anti-Semitic sentiment. We navigated through the tricky terrain of Halloween etiquette, debating the appropriate age limit for trick-or-treating and the correct time to ring doorbells. Political topics like Gavin Newsom's recent trip to China, mainstream media's silence on Joe Biden's incoherence, and the implications of Donald Trump's comedy act were put under the microscope.

We tackled the tough subjects like US-Mexico border crime, drug trafficking, and the current state of immigration. We contemplated the role of media in shaping public perception and how local sheriffs protect constituents against state government overreach. Our discussions also spanned the crucial topics of responsible gun ownership and the importance of voting. Buckle up, because this episode is a rollercoaster ride of thought-provoking discussions, light-hearted banter, and invaluable insights.

#MarkRonchetti #Crime #backthblue #newmexico #eddycounty

Website: https://www.nodoubtaboutitpodcast.com/
Twitter: @nodoubtpodcast
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/NoDoubtAboutItPod/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/markronchettinm/?igshid=NTc4MTIwNjQ2YQ%3D%3D


Transcript

Movies and Stories in New Mexico

Speaker 1

You and I are told increasingly we have to choose between a left or right . Well , I'd like to suggest there is no such thing as a left or right . There's only an up or down . This is the no Doubt About it . Podcast .

Speaker 2

No doubt about it .

Speaker 1

Now your hosts Kristy and Mark Runcani .

Speaker 3

You don't have a rock star , right this second , you don't have a Red Bull . I feel like you need one .

Speaker 2

Well , I'm saving it up because we have one of the best sheriffs in New Mexico coming up with us on this episode , mark Cage from Eddie County , and I wanted to ramp it up for him for Cage , okay , and then I'll let you postpone for now , yeah yeah , yeah , I'll get it . I'll get it during the break . Okay , before we go to Cage .

Speaker 3

Okay , all right , sounds good . Yeah , so a couple of things that we wanted to talk about before we get into him .

Speaker 2

Yeah , we'll rip through some news stories for you , give you an idea of what's going on , and then we'll get to Sheriff Cage . He's going to talk a lot about what's happening across the state . You know where do we need to be heading to get a feel for crime . And if you don't know Sheriff Cage , he is right out of central casting for a sheriff .

For a sheriff Exactly what you're looking for . Yeah .

Speaker 3

Yeah , well , maybe that's what he does now after he's done yeah .

Speaker 2

Yeah because I mean we are a film industry here , yeah , so he could be like the next big sheriff . Oh my gosh , yeah , put him like .

Speaker 3

Kevin Costner and something . Oh yeah , yeah , because you were to film with Kevin Costner .

Speaker 2

I was .

Speaker 3

I don't think a lot of people know that .

Speaker 2

No , I wasn't .

Speaker 3

That's the story you should have shared . Yeah , on your Rando story last week .

Speaker 2

Yeah , we had it . We shared the screen together .

Speaker 3

Yeah , I mean it was so funny . Yeah , like I don't think we should find that clip because it's so fast . But yeah , Mark was a big Hollywood star there . For what two days , One day .

Speaker 2

Yeah , at least a couple of days .

Speaker 3

Yeah , I feel like you didn't make it very long , though . You were hired as an extra Right , also doing the weather at the same time . Right . You did the extra role and then you ran to work .

Speaker 2

CareQI did not appreciate that I was an extra in a movie .

Speaker 3

You were moonlighting as it was . Kevin Costner swing vote .

Speaker 2

Swing vote . Yeah , I was shocked , which is ironic now because this was years ago . Yes , and you played his security . Yeah , secret Service Agent , secret Service Agent or something . Yeah , yeah , and you never even seen the movie .

Speaker 3

I have my brother and I went and saw Justin and I went and saw in the theater when it came out because my brother happened to be out here in New Mexico . We came to see it and it was like this close-up of you , it was really fast .

Speaker 2

Right .

Speaker 3

And it's totally you , because you're in your suit , you look like you just got .

Speaker 2

I mean you literally was like it was my suit .

Speaker 3

It was one of my suits from work , yeah , and actually , and your black glasses that you wear all the time , like your custom Clark Kent outfit .

Speaker 2

Yeah , and they ended up the costume . People ended up keeping my suit , by the way .

Speaker 3

Yeah , I didn't know that .

Speaker 2

Yeah , yeah . So you lost a suit . Kevin probably wears it to this day . Oh , I bet he's got it on Yellowstone , you know he's definitely wearing your suit on .

Speaker 3

Yeah , no , it's a good point . I think we're going to find the clips , see if we can find it and maybe we can club , we can do that .

Speaker 2

Sneak it in here . He was a very nice guy though .

Speaker 3

Yeah , you guys can chat with him a little bit right . A little bit yeah , I remember you saying I never want to be an actor because of how monotonous . You said that you sat there the whole day . They did one scene and they did it over and over and over .

Speaker 2

We were in the trailer in his it was supposed to be his living room in a trailer and I was just standing there the whole day and it was craziness . I mean they go through . It just takes so much time and everybody in the movie industry in New Mexico knows this Like it's not news to them . But it was by the end of that first day .

I did two dates by the end of the first day . I was like I want no part of any of this . And the people that really that are regulars in this town , who regularly are the extras and stuff . Good for them . I love what they do and I love the movie industry in New Mexico in many ways . But that was just like craziness .

Speaker 3

It just wasn't your thing . No , just standing around and not .

Speaker 2

No , no , kevin , I mean , we hung out , you were tight , we got tight .

Speaker 3

I wonder if he needs you to be a secret service agent , because now he's the governor in Yellowstone .

Speaker 2

Yellowstone , yeah , so maybe you could reprise your role . You know the thing is , though , on Yellowstone , enough people end up taking a bullet that I don't know if I'm into that .

Speaker 3

It's kind of cool , though , like then you , you're on there for one scene and you take the bullet .

Speaker 2

Yeah , I take the bullet , yeah , the governor of Montana . Yeah , I think that's a good one .

Speaker 3

Fair enough , I'm going to shoot right into who's the guy Sheridan , the guy that writes that yeah , taylor Sheridan .

Speaker 2

Yeah , there we go , okay .

Speaker 3

See , All right , so we have a lot of great comments , which were great , and we always again , we always appreciate those folks that are taking the time to write in , watch the show rate , review all the fun things that that people are doing , which we really appreciate . I feel like we have such a great community where we are asking for your stories .

We are getting people that are writing in saying that they have a story . So if you've done that , that's great . Drop us an email . At least bullet out what your story is , or film yourself on your iPhone or your Android . Make it less than like what I mean .

Speaker 2

I mean for people that didn't hear the last episode . We're asking for your best story , like if you've got a cocktail party , you're trying to entertain people . It's your one best story .

Speaker 3

Well , it has to be a story about yourself . Like you don't . You're not telling a joke . I know I'd say no , I don't need your best story . I said your best story .

Speaker 2

But , yeah , what you've been through is like hey , you're not going to believe what happened to me . I ended up , you know , I was in Whole Foods and all of a sudden , you know , I was next to Madonna . I don't know , you know , and all of a sudden I have had some stars at our Whole Foods . Yeah , that's true , you have .

Speaker 3

I've run into a few of them at the Whole Foods .

Speaker 2

I will save that story for another day , but yeah , something like that , whatever it is or just something fun that you want to share .

Speaker 3

So either we're just trying to collect them and we're going to pop them on throughout the shows . So if you want to go ahead and film yourself , it's going to be hard for people to . What would be best is if you can send us a link .

Speaker 2

Okay , so we'll get them to send it in any way they can .

Speaker 3

Yeah , I mean , I think either a link if you got a link , send it into info at no doubt about it , podcastcom and just put in the subject line my story , or something like that Okay . Or bullet it out for us and we'll give you a shout , something like that , okay . One comment , though , I did want to clarify really fast .

Somebody was concerned that when they went to our YouTube channel this last week's episode a couple episodes do this they inform you that you have to click on it and you have to confirm that you're okay , because there might be material or content on the show that's not appropriate for younger age people .

Typically for us , it's that we're showing video and right now it happens to be Israel video or things that are happening with the riots and things of that nature . It becomes too mature and so they get YouTube puts that up there just to make sure that you guys are okay .

Seeing that , I promise you we're not going to try to show anything that's super violent or anything like that , so you go ahead and hit confirm on that . But anyway , I just want to share that . Now let's get into this , because I wanted to start off with something kind of uplifting for everybody , because it's good .

I know we're going to get into some more serious content and we got Halloween tomorrow .

Speaker 5

We do .

Speaker 3

Halloween . I thought this was such a cool story . There's a guy named Reese Davis and his dad , lon .

Reese , was born with a cancer and he automatically put him into a wheelchair when he was three years old and he really wanted a Halloween costume , and so his dad went way out of the box and made him this costume from the Wally cartoon back in the day and he said it was like the first icebreaker where kids didn't look at him differently .

Speaker 1

They thought it was really cool .

Speaker 3

So if you scroll through some of these pictures , Ava , it's basically they're a nonprofit organization and they're called Walkin' and Rollin' and basically they'll make a costume . They make up to like 35 or 40 costumes a year .

Speaker 2

They got like a Buzz Lightyear here that got frozen it's really cool . It's frozen and then there's this one .

Speaker 3

I don't know if we put it in the show , but it's Cinderella carriage and it lights up , and anyway they're nonprofit . They ask for donations .

They also ask if there's certain people who want to make a costume in a certain part of the country , because they can't ship all of them , and so they've even gotten high school engineering classes involved and things like that . They did some Star Wars

Halloween Age Limits & Pro-Palestinian Demonstrations

. I don't know all the Star Wars stuff , but whatever the Darth Vader drives , rides , whatever he drives .

Speaker 2

What does he drive ?

Speaker 3

Well , there's like the Millennial Falcon .

Speaker 2

That was here before . Well , that's Han Solo .

Speaker 3

Oh yeah .

Speaker 2

Yeah , that's not the Millennial Falcon , it's the Millennium Falcon , guy that was not a Star Wars version . There's just millennials driving that thing around .

Speaker 3

Maybe , maybe it's a bunch of millennials that drive around it . What does he drive ? The Darth .

Speaker 2

Vader . Thing . What does he drive ? The Death Star , oh , okay .

Speaker 3

I thought the Death Star was like the planet they lived on .

Speaker 2

Well , yeah , that could be too . Okay , well , that's Cinderella , so that's not it . Yeah , that's very cool , it's just so cool .

Speaker 1

I just thought we should you know , and then that's great .

Speaker 3

So okay , so our kids are , you know , asking us right now to get ready for the whole Halloween thing , right ? I mean , how old is too old to go trick or treating ? You guys Like , is there an age bracket ? I mean , oh gosh , yes , I think it is .

Speaker 2

Well , ava , I'll ask you what do you think it is ?

Speaker 5

My personal opinion is that , as long as you're putting effort into the outfit and you actually really dress up , you're not just putting on a pair of cat ears and like lingerie and you're 26 . Yeah , I think , as long as you are genuinely like I love Halloween , you put a lot of effort into your costume and you're not over the age of 20 .

I think it's fine .

Speaker 1

20 and more .

Speaker 5

I think if you're 17 and you spend a ton of money on a costume or something . Are you like , really love , like ? I love Halloween and I'm 16 and I still go trick or treating . I love Halloween and put a lot of effort into my costume .

Speaker 3

Okay , I kind of agree that if they're , if they're polite kids , whether they're teenagers or not , they have a costume on . They do have to have a costume on and they're super polite , I'm okay given . I'm like that's good , you're still out here making it happen .

Speaker 2

Right .

Speaker 5

As long as you're going because you like Halloween , don't just go because you want candy . And you're with seven other people who are dressed up .

Speaker 2

Yeah , ava , I get it . I'm okay . Initially listening to that , I initially was thinking you know no way . But I see what you're saying the better your costume is , the more leeway you get on age Right , there's no doubt . I agree with that part . But eighth grade , is it ?

Speaker 3

I'm sorry .

Speaker 2

Eighth grade , you're beyond eighth grade you show up as a freshman and you're just like who .

Speaker 3

You've got a freshman daughter and she is planning to trick or treat this shirt , so watch what you say no .

Speaker 5

I'm a junior in high school and I still go trick or treat .

Speaker 2

I know it's crazy .

Speaker 5

Okay , I'm going to spend $120 on a costume in this economy . I better get some Reese's Cups out of it .

Speaker 3

You know what I'm saying ? Well , I'm not . You better be using your money for that too . Okay , last question on Halloween when is it too late to ring that bell ?

Speaker 2

Nine o'clock .

Speaker 3

Nine , yeah , nine o'clock .

Speaker 2

Nine .

Speaker 3

Oh , I'm old then , because I'm like dude if my porch light is out at eight .

Speaker 2

Well , of course , if your porch light is out , you don't go up there Like that's the old . That's a universal signal for don't come near me .

Speaker 3

But who reads the doorbell at nine ? I start trick or treating it like 530 .

Speaker 2

Yeah , okay .

Speaker 3

I'm just saying nine o'clock .

Speaker 2

The latest of the latest , nine .

Speaker 3

Oh my gosh , I disagree . That's too late .

Speaker 5

I feel like , I feel like 945 . There we go , maybe , maybe it's because I'm never the one passing out candy . And I've also never been out trick or treating past 930 , but I think the latest is 945 . And then it's like okay .

Speaker 3

All right , Anyway , go move on .

Speaker 2

That was you know , no , I get it . Happy Halloween everybody , yeah .

Speaker 3

I hope you have a good one .

Speaker 2

Oh , halloween's fun , and if ?

Speaker 3

Mark comes to your house , make sure you give him like a bit of honey . Those are his favorite . He loves a good bit of honey , yeah .

Speaker 2

Half my teeth on the ground . Okay , a couple of things here . We want to hit four get the share of cage . Number one the demonstrations continue across the globe . The , you know , pro-palestinian demonstrations that , to me , are just show that we are headed , I think , into a really , really rough place .

And in a lot of these pro-Palestinian demonstrations are turned out to be very much anti-Israel , anti-zionist and anti-Semitic in many cases . Now here's the one from Albuquerque where they talk about free Palestine . They did this on on Saturday . Stop bombing Gaza with our tax dollars . They come through here and all aid to Israel , which is ludicrous , right ?

Okay , there is one democracy in the Middle East . Right , it's Israel . There's one country in the Middle East that welcomes people of all backgrounds , all sexual orientations . That is Israel , right ? I mean , and you look at where this is and what we're seeing here , this is a shot from London , if you're watching us .

There were literally hundreds of thousands of people here coming out and a lot of us was very , very anti-Israel .

Speaker 3

Right .

Speaker 2

This is scary .

Speaker 3

Well , yeah , I mean , like , do do half these people really even understand the dynamics of what's happening ? Like you know , it's not like again I've talked about this at Nazism , but like there's not an occupation going on . This isn't like Israel's trying to occupy the Palestinian people .

That's not what's happening at all , and I think that you know they want , they want . What's kind of driving me crazy now , too , is there are even even our local , our state leaders are talking about they want to have like a pause in the war to bring aid to , uh , palestin , the Palestinian folks .

Right , really , is Hamas going to give the aid to the people ? No , they're using them and they're using their own people .

Speaker 2

Yeah , and remember in 2005 . This is just I don't know what , I don't want facts to get in the way of a good march , but in 2005 the Israelis literally came in , told their own people in the Gaza Strip you got to get out , you have a house here , you got to leave , you're leaving , it's going to them 2007 . They elect Hamas .

Since then , hamas is regularly been bombing Israel . Israel will push them back , calm them down . They'll bomb them again and bomb them again and then they finally go out and slaughter 1400 Israelis . And Israel knows now this cannot continue .

If you pause now , a Basically a ceasefire is basically telling Hamas you get to do it again , you get to slaughter more Israelis once things calm down . That's not acceptable . You can't ask Israel to do that . The United States of America would never do that .

So wake up and realize that the Gaza Strip could have been a prosperous place for Palestinians for more than a decade , but they've chosen a leadership that won't let that happen . And now they hide behind women and children , saying don't bomb us anymore , after they just finished killing women and children Can't stay this way . It has to be finished .

Israel has to get to a point where they can be safe with hopefully without a wider war . But seeing everything that's happening here , you're seeing more and more Jewish kids being told hey , back off and don't say you're Jewish , mm-hmm , don't say you're . I mean , this is unbelievable From the Cooper Union College . Check this out .

These Jewish kids are in the library and they're hiding . And they're hiding yeah , you can bring up the audio a little bit . Avon , this too , and and they're literally hiding college , when you've got people that are out there . Basically , they said was going to be a peaceful protest where it wasn't going to go inside the building .

Turns out it's inside the building now . Turn up the volume a and they were pounding on the doors . To get in as pro-Palestinian students rallied outside of the library and they start pounding on the doors of the library . So it's just getting to the point .

Speaker 3

When you have a librarian having to protect you . I mean , watch out , that's not exactly what anybody's looking for . Yeah , you know , and I kind of do hope .

I mean , I know this is a very scary situation to even say this , but I am hearing more and more Folks speak up and say , hey , it's time to push back , and I know what that looks like because you say it's time to push back as a Jewish American , jewish person push back , don't take this anymore .

The scary part is , as I understand , they're fearful and you know you see a young man Push back into a two lane during one of these and he got beat up with a . They were going to burn his Israeli flag and he stood up for it and said he was chasing the guys and saying don't do this , and they beat him with a flagpole .

So we're not gonna obviously show that video , but it is very there . You know . It's kind of like we just can't let these bullies win and they are bullies . That's what this is Happening now is in the light .

I mean , I don't think they started out as bullies , maybe , but I think years and years and years of being told this kind of garbage from a young age or whatever it is , and that's what we're still trying to figure out is how are so many of these college university students coming out now with leaders at the schools Perpetuating this ?

Speaker 2

promoting it . It's a good question and the pushback that you talk about , that has to happen . It is happening in New York City . There's a guy going and tearing down signs and then a bunch of guys in New York City started following them , and we do want to hear the audio on this . A let's go to clip 8 , so yeah , turn down signs .

You want , but we can put a . Okay , so that so , but that shows you that started the , that's the start of this pushback Right , and you're starting to see it now and you're starting to see .

I just hope this doesn't head down a road that really gets Very , very nasty , and one other portion of that road is is some of what we're gonna start seeing completely and totally fake oh yeah , show this .

Speaker 3

I mean , if you are not watching us on YouTube , go back and look at this .

Speaker 2

Yeah , if you can't go ahead and just focus in a little more on this picture . This picture shows purported Palestinian man carrying four of his kids on his shoulders and then holding the hand of a fifth walking through the rubble right , okay . And in just his face is covered in soot from a Assuming an Israeli bomb , right , okay .

The problem it's all fake , it's an AI generated picture , it did not happen , and so . But this sort of thing can engender anger . And it's just like the hospital bombing that never happened , that Hamas that happened it never did . Mm-hmm .

Right , and it's pictures like this that go around and this thing makes its way around the world twice Before the truth ever comes out .

You realize that's a totally fake picture and that just scares me too , because you start to see where we are , is a Society and even as a world right now and we talked about this in our last episode then , more and more , you're seeing this fake stuff that gets out there and you think , oh , oh , my gosh , this is really happening .

Well , that picture never happened . And if you go and put that into the middle of a powder keg , where people are already looking for a reason to go after Jewish people , it gets even worse . This is a scary time for that right , we I mean a total sidebar .

Speaker 3

But even I were looking at photos yesterday that we were like , oh wow , this is really cool because Eva's really into fashion and so she was looking all these pictures . She's like how they make this dress ?

Because the dress looks like it's on fire and I'm zooming in and I'm like I don't know if set a material , whatever anyway turns out , it's all AI right , it's all fake , fake photos .

Speaker 5

It's from this verified account . It's supposed to be from the last leg of Paris fashion week , right , and it's these beautiful dresses and everything looks super , super good . And then you're looking at it a little closer and you're like wait a minute , and it doesn't . There's nothing like like with this photo , where there's obvious imperfections and like extra limbs .

That's not happening in these pictures , so it's incredibly difficult right now , when you're not gonna get extra limbs anymore .

Speaker 3

I Don't know . I just hope people are gonna have to be a lot more aware of what's going on and how people will go out of their way to you know , persuade you yeah , I know , I know it's just .

Speaker 2

This is where it is scary time , because this , this whole thing could blow up . I just never thought we'd see the day where we'd see this much anti-Israel sentiment right out and right out , right out in the front .

Speaker 3

Right , right out , just saying it .

Speaker 2

So a couple other quick things

Gavin Newsom's Actions and Presidential Race

. Our friend Gavin Newsom , who we continue to maintain is running for president , personal friend right Gavin Newsom , and that is said completely tongue-in-cheek . Awful , by the way . I had to deal with the fact that , in the year 2022 , 817,000 people left the state of California . Almost a million people moved out of his state . I'm a bike . Well , you know .

You know he also tried Texas .

Speaker 3

He also was foolish enough to think that he could maybe potentially pass a tax on people trying to leave you remember that right ? Yeah , I mean , that's classic California like oh , we're gonna tax you if you need this .

Speaker 2

Okay , but then and then so . So he not only has people flooding out of his state , what was he doing this past week ? He was in China , mm-hmm , helping the Chinese sell cars , and I kid you not look here , there it is right here . He's driving around a hundred and sixty thousand dollar Chinese SUV and EV one of their EVs .

So then even you bring up the sound when you see Gavin Newsom pop up . So he goes in and it's , it's a rather impressive car . Look at him , him driving it , he's loving it , he's like , oh , this is fantastic , great , then listen .

Speaker 7

This car can be driven in water . Who needs a car when you can have a car and ?

Speaker 2

look at him . Look at him . He's like he's out pushing . He looks like a car salesman . China from China is this are we the same China that helps Iran Continue to perpetrate terror across the world ? The same China that helps Russia in the Ukraine ?

And he shows up to China , as he's quote not running for president , or maybe he is and Republicans see this and Basically they hammer him for being a tone-deaf trader who shows up to China and then he's just loving it . This guy's loving it . It's craziness .

Speaker 3

Well , they're buying up . I mean the Chinese are buying up land in the US , are doing all kinds of crazy things were run to Sanchez is saying in Florida Especially . He was like no , you will not buy up any farmland in in Florida . You know he's shutting the Chinese down .

Meanwhile , gavin Newsom , it's put on his used car salesman attire and he's decided to go over there and push the automobiles . Just yeah , I don't know for fun , I'll tell you .

Speaker 2

And , speaking of the presidential race , starting to get a little Chippy again , donnie's getting chippy again .

Speaker 3

Oh well , of course he is like that's what he's gonna do . Yeah , he's gonna be the guy that's gonna make fun of Joe Biden forever .

Speaker 2

Well , in the part . Of this is then when he .

Speaker 3

If he doesn't win , president , let's just say he doesn't win . He's got a full-time job on SNL , just just mocking Joe . Well , I don't think they'll put him on SNL , but but , but , but .

Speaker 2

The part of this issue , too , is that the mainstream media won't address the fact that Biden can't function right , and so that Trump will , and so he did it this week in clip 16 nuclear warfare ?

Speaker 4

Oh my no . But three days ago he got off the thing and you know , I see a stairway there . I see a stairway there . If I had to , I jumped right off this front of the thing . We could make it . It's about four feet . I think I could make it . I mean , it's better than looking around driving in circles . I'd rather do that than do that .

You just jump off and you pretend it was like just normal , because did you ever see him down ? Finish his , and by that time all the stuff is worn off . So he's totally incoherent and he goes . Oh , thank , thank .

Speaker 2

Now Trump's just walking off the back of the stage into the back of the , the backdrop behind him . But Trump can do this because he can put on the Trump comedy act , because so few in the mainstream media have actually even addressed this right , yeah , they just won't talk about it .

Speaker 3

They won't talk about it .

Speaker 2

So Trump's like wait a minute , this is nuts , right and it's . It's crazy . And now the thought is an NBC has come out with a story saying Joe's not gonna decide whether he runs or not .

Speaker 3

I've always said it was Jill . Jill's the one that's going to make the decision . Jill's always , you know Jill's been in charge here for a while on this situation . I don't know how anybody doesn't know that .

I think all of our listeners know that that's not some news flash to them , but of course she's the one that's going to ultimately probably make that decision .

Speaker 2

And that many believe she's the one who wants to stay in power , and so if he does stay in which he's not going to , but if he was going to do that , it'd be Jill pushing the way , so we'll see what happens .

Speaker 3

Well , there's other people now that are jumping in the race . There's the congressman I can't remember what state . He's from Indiana , jumping in .

Speaker 2

Yeah , I don't know who he is .

Speaker 3

I know you think you're like it doesn't matter , he's not going to matter , it doesn't matter , it doesn't matter , but who knows , right ?

Speaker 2

I mean , yeah , I think , if it's going to be anybody else that come from the back here . A couple other stories Canada the swim race in Canada . 13 year old girls , 14 year old girls compete against a 50 year old dude . Yeah , who comes in and says says he's running , I'm sorry , says he's running , says he's swimming . Right , take a look at rebel news .

They go and question the race organizer . They're like hey , what's going ?

Speaker 8

on here . Nine out of the 10 participants were female and either 13 or 14 , and the 10th participant was a male .

Speaker 6

50 years of age . So , as I said , don't talk about gender for me because I do not know .

Speaker 3

Oh , okay , registration whatever , I don't talk about gender . I don't know if the male female thing really confuses this guy . So the registration in Canada .

Speaker 6

as I say when the entries comes in , we're validating . We only have a girl and male . So what happened is that , whatever the registration in swimming Canada for that swimmer , whatever gender it goes into , whichever event , oh girl .

Speaker 8

Yeah , so I could , I could come to an event like this . I could say I identify as a 13 year old girl and I swim with the 13 year old girls . We based on swimming Canada registration . Yeah . So they're going to do that registration .

Speaker 2

Yeah , whatever you want , so send in whatever you'd like , to swimming Canada and you're good to go . You're good so it's in . It's not madness , just based in Canada . So Kelly Corman is a candidate for school board , okay , and she's making the picture . She is actually on the school board , it looks like to me , and she is in Wisconsin .

She's making the pitch that we don't have a problem here . So the Bloomington Minnesota , she's Minnesota , excuse me , and she says we don't have a problem here . Listen to Kelly .

Speaker 3

Sports . We are now seeing all students joining all different types of sports , so there's no really that big of a difference . We have have girls , even if our in our football team in they're just as strong as the other kids are . This is strong . I love to see this really strong football female players out there that are just as strong as the guys .

Speaker 2

I'm sorry . The ignorance and stupidity of some of these statements is flabbergasting . What are you doing ? What are you talking about ? You can't look at things like this and say things that are so stupid that oh no , these girls are just as strong as boys . You're going to eliminate girls in sports if you keep doing this .

Speaker 3

And I think we go back to the same thing . We talked to Riley Gaines on two separate episodes and she really pointed out this is women that are trying to remove women from competing in sports .

Speaker 5

Right .

Speaker 3

She's like this is being led . This whole movement is being led by other women , which makes no sense because then you're anti woman . Basically You're anti female . If you're going to promote a guy coming in , I mean I'm sorry the 50 year old , swim in with a 13 year old . What a creeper . I would be questioning more than just his age bracket and his gender .

I'm like what is wrong with you ? You know I mean that's so creepy , you know I that's . I would be more investigating him , just on what's his background look like .

Speaker 2

Right , right .

Speaker 3

But I leave it to Canada , to you know , make sure that they start that .

Speaker 2

Hey , there we go . Ok , last thing , real quickly before we get to Mark Cage . Video of the day Trail cam . Video of a mountain lion walking by the trail camp video . Ok , right behind the mountain lions , a deer .

Speaker 3

They're buddies , I mean it's like their friends .

Speaker 2

It is . It's like they're out on a night together like , hey man , what do you want to do ? Let's go walk by the trail camp .

Speaker 3

Well , maybe , yeah , maybe these guys think the mountain lion has to know . The opposite . The deer now is tracking the deer like super quiet .

Speaker 2

The mountain lion Like I wish I could find a deer to eat . And then he's like right behind them .

Speaker 3

No , I think this is like that . I've told you this since day one . When we walk the dogs in the park , yeah , it always reminds me of the secret life of pets .

The old movie that like what showed the dogs all having like this party when all the humans leave and they all communicate and they pretend they hate each other when the humans are there , but they're all secretly really good friends . That's what the deer and the mountain lion are doing .

Speaker 2

OK .

Speaker 3

Yeah , they're palling around .

Speaker 2

I like it .

Speaker 3

I guess , or it's a deaf mountain lion .

Speaker 2

It doesn't realize there's a deer right on his tail , you wouldn't smell it ? I don't know , I'm not the mountain lion , I have no interest there . Ok , coming up right after this we will sit down with Eddie County Sheriff Mark Cage .

Speaker 1

This is the no Doubt About it . Podcast .

Speaker 2

No doubt about it Now your hosts .

Speaker 1

Christie and Mark Runcani .

Speaker 3

You're going to need another rock star because I think we're having so many technical difficulties this morning . Yeah , We've been trying to record this show now for what a half an hour .

Speaker 2

Yeah .

Speaker 3

We're going to get to it now , though , because now we have no time to waste , because we have a great guest .

Speaker 2

We do we do ?

If you want to know what's going on in the state of New Mexico with law enforcement , if you want to know what's going on with the drug trade , what's happening with illegal immigration , you go to the front lines and the people who are fighting those battles every day and no one does that better than our county sheriffs across the state of New Mexico and no one

fits that description and does the job better than Mark Cage from down in Eddie County home to Carlsbad Arteja . It's kind of the energy center of the country and Sheriff Cage has done Speaking of energy . Yeah , sheriff Cage is finally on with us now . Sheriff , thanks very much for taking the time to talk .

Speaker 7

Yay , yay , hopefully we're going to be good now . There's no more , hopefully no more technology . Well , knock on wood . Yeah , exactly , exactly , I'm sure we will .

Speaker 2

But we want to talk to you a little bit about . First of all , for people who don't know , you know , how did you get involved and how did you end up as Eddie County Sheriff ? It's an elected position . It's the top law enforcement position in each county of the state . You guys have a lot of purview over your counties and you do a very important job .

So how did you end up getting in the middle of this and what was it like running and winning an election to do it ?

Challenges and Opposition to Legislation

Speaker 7

Well , I originally wanted to be a police chief . I had no desire to run for office for any office , but I got hired as under sheriff and I came from Portalis to Eddie County and after three years as under sheriff , the sheriff then , scott Lundman , said I'm only doing one term , so if you want to do this , you better do it .

So I ran for office after living here only three years , which is almost unheard of , and I had a great , great political machine behind me . I had a lot of folks supporting me . So one really tough primary , and I want a really tough general election against some local folks and I just hit the ground running because I was already under sheriff .

So I knew what was going on , I knew what we needed to do and I knew the direction I wanted to go in . So , yeah , being sheriff is the best job in the world . I don't answer to anyone but the people , and that's what may . I don't have to ask permission for anything as long as I'm within the law , and so that's why it's so cool .

And if you know what it is to be a sheriff and you are a sheriff you can be a great sheriff . You just have to know how to use this amazing amount of power within the limits . I mean , you can't get too carried away .

Speaker 2

We've seen that happen , yeah Well , and it's funny , guys like you , and it's interesting because people don't always realize when we talk about and we'll talk about red flag laws , we'll talk about a bunch of different stuff with you , but oftentimes when the governor runs up against a wall , the wall she runs up against are the county sheriffs , because you guys end

up being that first line of defense to be able to say to Santa Fe and it's not even just the governor , a lot of times it's legislators to be able to say wait a minute , you guys , what you're trying to do right now is not going to work . We're the ones who have to enforce it . Do you see that a lot , that you're kind of that last line of defense ?

Speaker 7

I see that so much and there's , so I don't want to say uneducated , because that's not the case . There are a lot of smart people in Santa Fe they really are , but I think a lot of them are misguided . I don't think they have the proper information . They don't listen outside of their little bubbles and you know the governor and the sheriffs .

We started off on the wrong foot from day one . And I mean , she called us names , she tried to make fun of us and it's like well , we're an elected official , just like you , lady . It had been better to work together . It really would have .

I'm not sure we ever could have , but it sure would have been better to at least try instead of trying to hammer us and put us down . We're elected officials , we're sheriffs , we're the top law enforcement officials in our counties . I do , I have respect for that office . I have respect for ours , yeah .

Speaker 3

Well , and I mean so where , like what are the big roadblocks you guys are facing with legislation ? Like , talk to us a little bit about that process . What is it that you guys are trying to get support and help and funding for , and what are some of those roadblocks that tend to happen to you guys , Because the rest of us don't really understand ?

Speaker 7

Well , let's see , there's a liberal progressive Senate , a liberal progressive House and a liberal progressive executive office . We have no chance . And we have folks that want to listen to us . We've got some , but we've lost so many of the centrist Democrats the middle of the road , Democrats who we could actually talk to . I mean , get this week .

You want to talk about gun , gun control , all this business . We're complete , us sheriffs , and I can speak for a lot of us . I'm on the National Sheriffs Association Executive Board . I can , I can , I can speak across the country . We do not want firearms in the hands of criminals or mentally ill people , people who shouldn't have them .

But you want to talk about our legislature , the problems we have . There was a bill that was introduced that was supposed to enhance sentencing for drug dealers who used a weapon , a gun , in the commission of their crime and by by when they're dealing drugs .

It was said on the floor in our roundhouse well , dealing drugs is an inherently dangerous activity and we certainly wouldn't want anybody not to be able to defend themselves in that situation when they're dealing with .

That's ludicrous , that's insanity , that that could even be uttered and brought into consideration when you're talking about a bill to put criminals away for longer because they use a firearm .

Speaker 2

And do you ? And when you see this and you see the number of bills that get put up , that not only do they never get voted on , sheriff , they don't ever get out of committee , you just watch them die . So as you go up there to each legislative session , are you just hoping that they don't do anything even worse ? And are we finally seeing now ?

Do you finally think that the tide of violence in this state is such that in the state of New Mexico now the legislature's going to have to come along and give you guys some help on that front ?

Or do you think we're going to be looking at another round in the legislature where they are more interested in protecting criminals than they are the people of this state ?

Speaker 7

I don't see anything changing . I really don't . We just saw a horrific constitutional and unconstitutional overreach by our governor to bastardize a health order to say , oh , we're going to take some guns away , we don't want people to be able to defend themselves .

And then to change it after you get your teeth kicked in with that , to go and say , oh well , we just won't let you carry them around children . Oh , ok , well , that's a great idea . You can't go around children . You can't go to places where children congregate , where you might be able to protect them from . Because what do these guys do , the criminals ?

Do they care about a $5,000 civil fine ? No , they don't care , they're going to do what they're going to do . So I mean , this is what we deal with every day , and all it did was prove all of the conspiracy theorists . It proved them all right , because they've been saying all along look , you're going to eventually do this , You're eventually going to .

And guess what ? We get to prove it here in New Mexico we get to be the poster child .

Speaker 3

Well , and one of those laws that you were pretty adamantly opposed to was this red flag law . Talk to us a little bit about that . I know that this red flag law became kind of the hot topic button a couple of years ago and you were opposed to that . My understanding is we as a state have used it very seldomly , so talk to us a little bit about that .

Speaker 7

Right . And you know what ? We never opposed the idea of it , because the whole idea is to take guns out of bad people's hands or people who shouldn't have

US-Mexico Border Crime and Drug Trafficking

one . At the time , the only thing that we said was there needs to be due process involved in it . That's all we said . But no , we can't do that . Good grief . The federal government even has been looking with a task force for a national red flag protection order law . And they looked at New Mexico and said no , yours doesn't pass our bus .

That's too radical even for us . So we're lost . We are lost here . And nobody wanted to hear it . They just wanted to say that we're radicals and that we're this or that . We've got Democrat sheriffs , we've got independent sheriffs , we've got Republican sheriffs , we've got a great in New Mexico , we've got a cross section . We just want what's right .

We're constitutional officers . That's what we , and we swore , we swear to defend and uphold the Constitution of the United States and of New Mexico , which New Mexico has a second amendment in it all I mean a second amendment guarantees in it also .

Speaker 2

Which is actually stronger than the federal guarantees . If you look at it yes , you actually look at the numbers on it or the wording on it . So , sheriff , let's talk about where we are with crime right now . No one's been closer to this than you .

You guys are not a border county , but you're close to it , obviously , and you're part of a lot of the drug task force that happened down across the southern portion of the state . So let's talk broadly . First of all , where are we with crime ? What are you seeing right now and what do you think we need to be doing here to get this under control ?

Speaker 7

Meth is not gone away . Meth is still extremely popular . The down in Mexico . They are just you know that breaking bad thing . That's gone . There's no war being produced in the United States hardly . I mean just minuscule amounts , because the Mexicans are making it .

They're making it out so pure and so cheap and in such great quantities that we can't mess with it . Americans can't even come close . So we're seeing meth come across . Heroin has dropped down . I wish I could share it . If I could use the computer , I'd be using my phone to show you some of these slides I have .

But heroin usage has gone down because of take a while guess fentanyl , fentanyl yeah , so we've got a lot of fentanyl . Cocaine is still . It's still out there . Folks still like cocaine , but it's expensive . Fentanyl is cheap , meth is cheap and we're still seeing weed .

Not that we really mess with it a whole lot , because it's legal , but there's still a huge black market . That was a lie . That was told to everybody too . Yeah , no doubt , no doubt .

Speaker 3

Well , you know , there's a lot of Republican GOP candidates out there , presidential candidates that are saying , listen , we need to get the military involved , we need to go into Mexico and we need to go after those drug production facilities down there in Mexico . Do you happen to agree with that philosophy ?

Speaker 7

Well , I do , and I can tell you how effective it would be . Look at the Sinaloa cartel . What they just did , the Sinaloans , I mean , this is the El Chapitos , this is El Chapo's organization . They're ruthless and they made a statement . Now , do I believe it ? I don't know , but they made a statement .

They said we are not dealing in fentanyl anymore and if anybody in our organization deals in fentanyl we're going to kill you . And they killed a few people , just to make a point . Because it was basically them and the new generation Jalisco , new generation cartels those are the two main ones for fentanyl . They've got a lockdown on it .

The Chapitos , they are not going to just turn it over to a rival gang , a rival cartel , to reap all the rewards of this . They're just trying to take some heat off of it . So I guess the point I'm making is yes , the threat of it is very effective .

Speaker 2

Obviously , if the Sinaloans are going oh , we're not dealing that anymore , we're being good boys now Imagine if we went down there and did a strike on them Right Because , as you mentioned , sheriff , we're talking about and you mentioned it with meth , the purity levels on the meth , and these are all coming out of super production facilities .

Basically , so is the fentanyl Right , and so therefore , there are . You know , if you were going to strike it , you could get in there and take a real shot at it quickly . It's an interesting point . So when you and I had talked in the years before this , in the few years past , you were seeing fentanyl just rise up and rise up .

Are you still seeing that ?

Speaker 7

We see 3,000 pills of fentanyl , ok 3,000 fentanyl pills In 2021 , we seized 33,000 . In 22 , 91,000 . In 23 , we're already up to 133,000 pills that have been seized . So why is that happening ? Look at the dates that are , or think about the dates I'm just talking about . When did our border open up ? Yeah , you tied that .

Speaker 3

I was going to say this is our border issue . We look at things like now we're seeing the Texas governor saying , hey , listen , we're seeing so many folks crossing into New Mexico because that border is so open that and then they come in to El Paso this way . So we're done with that .

We're going to put a barrier , a wall , between , basically , new Mexico and Texas to see if we can lower these crossings that are coming into our state . I mean , obviously you've got data there , just in your one county that is supporting the fact that these drugs are flooding in .

You already talked about the fact that they're not being produced in the US , they're coming out of Mexico . So what are your thoughts about the Texas governor saying , listen , new Mexico is not taking their border very seriously , so we will .

Speaker 7

They're absolutely right . We're not doing anything here . I mean here , look , you want to mess . 2019 , 40 pounds . 2020 , 124 pounds and went down in 21 , 59 , but we're already up to 118 pounds of methamphetamine in 23 .

2019 , back when Trump was in office , the bad man , the guy that everybody loved to hate 40 pounds because we had some border security back then . It wasn't what we needed , but at least it was something .

Speaker 2

So sorry . Can I ask you then , because a lot of times we don't put this together , and that is not only do we have people flowing into this country at a staggering rate where we're going to be ? We're now at 8 million since Biden took office , right ? So you've got that .

You've got the fact , exactly what you're pointing out the drug numbers , which are terrifying . And then now , Sheriff , knowing that this also bleeds into your line of work , that is , we don't know who's in the country now .

How much does that concern you with what we've seen happening in the Middle East and how that problem could be brought to our shores as well ?

Speaker 7

Terrorists are coming across our border just like everybody else . We have there's pictures , there's video that is out there of our border that's wide open . There are military aged men , unaccompanied men except by other ones like them dressed head to toe in camo , carrying weapons , coming across our border .

The Canadian thing about the Canadian Canadians love everybody , right ? Every Canadian . That's all you ever hear , right ? Canadians love everybody . They don't let people come across like that . They don't .

Speaker 2

No , no country , you can't just walk across .

Speaker 7

No , we're the only country in the world that is crazy enough stupid enough to let this stuff go on .

Border Crisis, Crime, and Gun Control

So what does Governor Abbott do ? He says you're not taking care of business , which we're not . He goes I'm going to have to do something here . And of course he's the bad man too . He's the devil . He's sending people to New York . And what's the New York governor saying ? We can't handle it . New York governor oh yeah , we'll take everybody in .

We love everybody . Bring them to us . Oh , wait , wait , yeah . And he's calling them illegals , oh , using that term , and he's getting away with it .

Speaker 2

Oh , absolutely , and it was . It did just such phonies , because once you actually start to bring the problem to their doorstep , it's unbelievable . And the numbers came out . I believe September , sheriff , was the highest single month of people coming into the country , and this goes back to 2020 . And you mentioned Donald Trump and the election with Trump in 2020 .

Don't forget that the Democrats all stood up on a debate stage and were asked will those who get into the country illegally , will you give them free healthcare ? Every single one of them raised their hands and I'll tell you what . They knew that .

And if you go , spend some time on the border we spent some time in El Paso and down in Juarez and you start talking to them . They all talk to each other , they all have cell phones , they all know what's going on and they know now is the time . So , because of that , what have you seen crime-wise in Eddie County ?

Have you seen an increase in crime because of this ? How has that worked out for you ? Obviously , as you've mentioned to us , you've seen more drugs .

Speaker 7

Yeah , obviously the drug thing is the drug component . That's our biggest issue here and you won't look at 90% they've got down to now . 90% of all thefts can be traced back to illegal drugs . 90% of all crime can be traced back . 90% of all stolen vehicles that are recovered have traces of methamphetamine in them .

That doesn't mean the people that were driving them had it . That means that the criminals had it . So we're seeing , you know .

Another terrifying part of this is and I think we might have missed the vote on this Well , I know we missed the vote on it as conservatives and Republicans early on is we jumped up and down about oh , oh , the illegals are coming over and we really hurt ourselves with that narrative because we didn't explain ourselves well .

We didn't talk about what was coming with those people , what they're bringing across . We didn't talk about the people who were being victimized by these coyotes and by the people that are . It's a whole industry for these cartels . It is an industry and they're making money .

And not only are they making enormous amounts of money off this human trafficking , but they are , they're destroying people's lives . Do you really think about what ? A little child , an unaccompanied child that shows up at the border . Oh , how wonderful we can give this child . What has that child been through to get there ?

How many times has that child been raped and molested and tortured ? No , we don't wanna look at that part , because we're doing something great by welcoming Well . When you welcome people to do this , you open up an avenue for the cartels to exploit .

Speaker 3

If you could somehow wave a magic wand , sheriff . What do you think ? I mean , are we just too far gone ? Do you think that there is a way for us to recuperate the situation at the border ? What would you do differently If we could just let you be in charge for a brief while ? What do you think the answer might be ? Cause we've talked about it at length .

Mark and I have and obviously Mark had some campaign ideas when he was running on what he would do to secure that border . What do you think has to be done ?

Speaker 7

Well , first off and I know it's an unpopular thing , but the wall needs to be finished . There needs to be a physical barrier and everybody goes oh , that's not gonna do it . No , that's not gonna do it . That is a component , that is a piece of the puzzle . People are leaving the Border Patrol .

Eight Border Patrol agents are leaving in droves because they're not allowed to do their jobs . They're doing babysitting , they're having to process people and do health . They're doing everything except for what they signed up for . So we've lost control there or we're losing control .

God bless the ones who have stayed , and I have a lot of good friends who are Border Patrol agents . But the Border Patrol needs to be beefed back up and these governors in these states like ours there needs to be some pressure nationally put on them to look , y'all gonna have to do something . You can't .

Just , when was the last time you heard our governor talk about the border ? When was the last time she don't talk about ?

Speaker 3

it .

Speaker 2

She won't talk about it ?

Speaker 3

When was the last time she went to the border ?

Speaker 2

Well , now , that's true , now you're right . You know what's funny too , sheriff , and we talk about this all the time , and Ava , it's clip one .

One thing that's really interesting is the way the media covers this , and when we hit the media and obviously I spent a lot of time in that world and Christie did too , and this is what makes it infuriating infuriating , rather . Take a look at this Two different ways to cover the same story . Check this out . Kob4 sends out a tweet .

As migrants cross into the US in search of a better home , albuquerque is preparing to welcome them to New Mexico . Okay , and then it's crazy , right . And then KRQE , to their credit , says wait a minute . Hundreds smuggled in illegally into the US through Albuquerque's stash houses . I mean , you can't make this stuff up , these guys .

They frame an issue in a way that is so damaging , because the people that they're talking to and , sheriff , the people that you have to protect don't always know the real story .

Speaker 7

Their narrative is wrong because they're missing the point of everything else that's coming across the porous , open border and coming in backpacks and inside human bodies and inside of everything else . You talk about the getaways at the border , the folks that are making it through without any contact . Well , think about all the getaways of the drugs .

Yeah , absolutely , the fentanyl , the poisoning Americans .

Speaker 3

Yeah , okay , and so I wanna jump back in a little bit to some of the gun issues that we're seeing . Right , so we have this mass murder that took place in Maine . I think it's fair to say that guns are in America , regardless of how we feel about it . However , what do we do here ?

When you hear something like this and I know this happened in Maine when you have a shooter that goes in , takes out 18 people , injures several others , goes into a youth night bowling alley , but we find out he was released earlier this year from a mental institution , what goes through your head is a law enforcement officer .

What do you think we need to be doing ? Is it tougher gun restrictions ? Is it something to do with mental health facilities ? Where do we land on this ?

Speaker 7

Well , we get so caught up in protecting everybody's little rights to privacy of oh my , we might hurt their feelings Look , if you're mentally ill , you should not be able to purchase a firearm that our system failed right there . The system failed . The NIC check it failed . It didn't work . And it doesn't work because we're not able to share information .

We're not able to talk about this stuff as law enforcement , because we're the Neanderthals out there right . You know , good grief , we can't trust y'all with this information . You'd abuse it . Well , no , that's not the truth . We want bad guys to go to jail . That's where they need to be . They shouldn't be allowed to purchase firearms .

They shouldn't be allowed to carry firearms Once you . We need we don't need tougher laws against guns and against law abiding citizens . We need tougher laws against criminals . You use a gun in the commission of a felony . You are going to prison for a long time period and judges shouldn't have the option . It's like nope , sorry , that's how it is , you're done .

Speaker 2

That's where we need help from the legislature . Right , Sheriff , and that's where you're not getting yes .

Speaker 7

No , no , because we got to let drug dealers have guns on them because they might get hurt . Oh well , gee whiz , sorry .

Speaker 2

People now want someone to blame . People want to know where do we turn , and the problem you run into with this is they play this little game of you know .

The judges will point at the prosecutor , the prosecutor will point at the legislature , the legislature will point at the courts and all of the sudden they act like they don't have a role in this , when in fact they make it all possible .

Speaker 7

Right ? Well , look at what our legislature is made up of predominantly trial lawyers and guess what they're doing ? They're lining their pockets afterwards . Look at the New Mexico Civil Rights Act . Oh , how is that working out for everybody ? You know , everybody can be sued now for anything in state court .

You don't have the burden that you had to go to the federal court now . You can just bring it up and it's gonna break . We're gonna see some municipalities and some lesser fortunate municipalities and counties that are gonna go broke with this One lawsuit , two lawsuits . It's gonna devastate them .

Speaker 2

No , it's true . And what they gave up is they said , okay , fine , we won't allow individual officers to be sued , but what we will do is allow the deep pockets which is all the lawyers wanted . They wanted the deep pockets of the municipalities to go , take the money from them , which is taking the money from taxpayers and lining the lawyers pockets .

And that's what you get out of Santa Fe , and you mentioned it very clearly . We have so many of these lawyers and , again , there's no accountability . But we do see a difference , and I wanna talk a little bit about you guys and the difference from where you are , because here in Albuquerque we see the crime problem here it is out of control .

It's different down in Eddie County , but Christy often asks this question all the time . When we have law enforcement people on , she asks the question of hey , what should we do to be safer ? And we talked to some people here in Albuquerque and some law enforcement people here that say you know what ? Get a gun and learn how to use it .

Do you agree with that , sheriff ? Do you think the answer for a lot of New Mexicans , especially those of us who live in Albuquerque , is to get a gun and learn how to defend ourselves ?

Speaker 7

I absolutely believe that I can't encourage that anymore

Gun Safety, Concealed Carry, and Voting

. But here's the difference , though this isn't just crazy gun fanatics . Learn how to use it properly , learn the fundamentals of firearm safety , train . You can't just pull a gun out and hope it's gonna work sometime . You can't just hope that you're gonna hit the target . You need to be trained properly , and I just I can't emphasize that enough .

But God bless y'all in Albuquerque I have good friends that live in Albuquerque besides y'all , and I just I'm astounded by what's going on there and what is being allowed to go on there . And now you wanna say , oh well , you can't carry a legal firearm concealed , which I advocate for concealed carry .

Open carry is , I think concealed carry is more tactically sound . But you can't carry around our most precious resource , children , who you might actually be able to protect . And that one got upheld by the court . That one is still allowed . Well , I'm sorry , but I don't encourage breaking . Well , it's not a law .

It's not a law , it's a directive from the governor . I'd be like I'm not doing it , I'm carrying anyway . So what ? And I got a face of $5,000 , a potential $5,000 fine . Do you really think state police is gonna enjoy writing that ticket ? I don't think they will .

I have too many good friends who are in state police and they're caught up just like everybody else . They're stuck .

Speaker 3

What we've said from the beginning on that one is you're not gonna find a lot of the concealed carry license people , the people that have gone through the effort to be trained . They're not the ones that are out there committing the crimes that were she's trying to stop . So it just was not the right solution . It didn't fit the crime , it didn't fit .

No , no .

Speaker 2

No , does it ever right . Everything they suggest always ends up in an area where it doesn't solve the problem . Because that and that's the infuriating part , sheriff is that when we watch this , we say , okay , they're not serious people , because effectively , what they're doing now is they're trying to check a box and get reelected versus actually dealing with crime .

And the people who pay the price , of the people that live in Albuquerque and live across the state of New Mexico , who see that we're now the second most violent state in the country , Well , it's the same old mantra oh , I had to do something .

Speaker 7

What if I said that ? And I walk and I do whatever I do , and I go out there and say , well , I had to do something . I know it wasn't constitutionally sound , but I had to do something . I would be crucified for that . Yet she's held up as oh well , she did something . God bless her .

And you know what , if I thought that her heart was in the right place , I might say the same thing . I might say , well , all right , at least you're trying . But I don't think that's the case , because she's smarter than that . Our governor is a smart lady . I will never take that away from her , but I don't think her heart's in the right place .

And then they say , well , if it saved just one life , okay . Well , that's the wrong narrative too , because if it saved just one life , what if it costs 10 lives ? What if it costs 100 lives ? No , I don't buy that narrative . I don't buy that narrative . I never will .

Speaker 2

So I guess we'll get you out of here on this one , and that is , I guess , if you had one thing to tell people the state of New Mexico .

You see what's going on with the border , you see what's going on with drugs , you see what's going on with families trying to protect their own , what's the best piece of advice you could give , and maybe kind of take us out on a piece of advice that you think everybody would benefit from ?

Speaker 7

Get out and vote , Vote , take people to vote , Encourage people to vote . You could have won , governor , if people would have voted . Mark Voted , Mark that Harold would have won . She would have kept her seat if people would have voted .

We have low voter turnout by Republicans in the state , in the country , and we've doomed ourselves again with the wrong narrative oh well , your vote doesn't matter because everything's rigged and it's cheating and all that Not all of it is , but we're sure they don't have to cheat in New Mexico , Mark .

They don't have to cheat because we don't vote as a collective , as a whole . So that's the best advice I can give . And in the meantime , like we're just talking about , arm yourself . If you got to , especially if you live in Albuquerque , I wouldn't . I don't go there unarmed . Well , of course I'm going anywhere unarmed , but shoot that , it's frightening .

It is frightening , but vote , vote , vote , vote , vote . You would have won if every Republican would have pulled together and voted for you . You'd be our governor right now and we'd be having a whole lot , a lot less problems than we're having right now .

Speaker 3

Well , I appreciate that Amen I agree with him 100% , and it's funny too .

Speaker 2

Just on a technical note , sheriff . What's interesting is how the parties have flipped right , because Republicans used to be the country club party and they would always turn out off your elections . Republicans would always turn out and there'd be higher engagement and everything else .

Now we are the party that is becoming the party of the broader electorate right Of the working class that doesn't turn out unless it's a presidential year . We can't do that . You know , if I had gotten the amount of votes I got in the Senate race and the governor's race , we'd have won by 30,000 votes . I mean to exactly your point .

So that's where we have to start getting everybody engaged and saying wait a minute , you can't just turn out in a presidential year . You got to turn out in a sheriff's election , you got to turn out city council election and you got to turn out in those two year and those off your elections as well .

Speaker 7

I preach it every day . Every time I talk to anybody , I turn , I bring it around to voting , because that's where we're killing ourselves .

Speaker 2

Yeah very true . All right , Sheriff Mark Cage . Best in the business , Sheriff , we always enjoy it . Thank you so much for coming on and we'll catch up with you again soon .

Speaker 7

All right , buddy , good to talk to y'all , see ya .

Speaker 3

Thank you .

Speaker 1

You've been listening to the no Doubt About it podcast . We hope you've enjoyed the show . We know we had a blast . Make sure to like , rate and review . We'll be back soon , but in the meantime you can find us on Instagram and Facebook at no Doubt About it podcast .

Speaker 2

No .

Speaker 1

Doubt About it . The no Doubt About it podcast is a Choose Adventure media production . See you next time on no Doubt About it .

Speaker 2

There is no doubt about it .

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