Root Causes with Sheriff Billy Woods

our juveniles accountable. We minimize their actions. School districts across this state and across this nation need to quit minimizing the actions of their students. Hold them accountable. That's where the failure is. That was Marion County Sheriff Billy Woods, and it's star refreshing to hear someone a leader like him to speak the truth, to give it straight to

the media. He was holding a press conference about the murder of three teens in Marion County and what's so disheartening and sad about it is they were also murdered by three teens, including a twelve year old who's being charged for murder. So what is driving teens in America to commit murder and what can we do about it? Marin County Sheriff Billy Woods joins me in the Truth of Lisa Booth and he's next well, Sheriff. It's so

good to have you on the show. Obviously, like many people, I saw your response to the media that you know pretty much went viral. It was nice to just have some honesty for ones. We don't get that from our officials these days, so I appreciate it. Well, You're more than welcome, you know. It's disheartening as well. I think one of the most things that upsets me is when I do watch leaders in law enforcement get on camera. It's most of the time I know what they're thinking.

I don't you know. They don't want to offend people. They don't want to cross that line. I don't know why. But in order to be a true leader, you got to take the step forward and say something. Why do you think people are so afraid these days to just speak the truth? That's a tough question. Do you even ask? I mean to answer to be frank, I don't know. You know, I watch a lot of chiefs get up and do a press conference and talk about a deputy or an officer that's been shot in the circumstances, but

they don't get up there and just speak it. I don't know, but I do what I do know for sure, it's damning. It hurts. It hurts us as a society to hear the truth, not to tell the truth, not to hear the truth, but not to tell the truth

out there. That's literally you know, the point of this podcast is to try to you know, talk about things that people don't want to talk about, say things that people don't want to say, and really try to find the truth in this uh day and age that we live in, which is an interesting time, an interesting period

of American history. You know, I wanted to ask you, inevitably, after these things, you know, of course we're going to talk about the shooting of the three teens, buy three teens, But inevitably there's always these calls to blame guns, We need gun control, you know, it's pretty much, I mean, we just always know what's coming. Why do you think that's always the response? Why do you think that's always where you know, the media goes, you know, some of

the left go, or politicians go. It's the it's the main focus. It's the it's the thing that gets everybody's attention. It's the biggest drive for political to say, hey, let's get rid of those guns. And I didn't think we don't talk about the real thing is the real root of the causes, the causes of the problems is not the gun. You heard me say it, and you've probably have heard me in all my other interviews say it.

The gun doesn't have the capability of committing the crimes the p and they say, if the gun was never created in society and we only carried around sowords, they'd be going after the swords, getting rid of the swords.

But what everybody has to remember, and this is what I find, it's truly disturbing as American, and as time goes by, time is our greatest enemy, by the way, because the further we get away from seventeen seventy six, we begin to forget the reason and the purposes of the Constitution and why those men gave everything they had.

And there's reasons why they have each of those amendments, each of those bills in there to our Constitution, why they're specifically written, especially the Second Amendment and that's a line that we should never cross. You know, we can come up with laws to regulate how certain things done. I don't totally agree to, you know, say that there shouldn't be any form of law out there to regulate

in some shapeway or form. But the fact is, as we keep pushing that lineback, and I haven't done that, I'd be curious to know if anybody's ever done this history when we actually are it. How far back did we start pushing on this Second Amendment and creating our gun laws. We keep pushing that line back and back to a point that it's going to disappear. The gun's not the focus. I said it in that press ground. So the problem is this, our family and unit has

been destroyed over the decades. It is diminishing as time goes by. Our school districts throughout this nation, not just just here and Marion, not just here in the state of Florida, but across this nation. Our school districts are failing. What they do is they minimize the actions of their students. Okay, and along with our justice system, our justice said, we have these diversion programs. And now I'm not against diversion programs. Diversion programs are good when they're applied to the right

people that they need to be applied to. But the problem is that it's become the norm. It should be the exception, not the norm. And even in our juvenile justice and ours is stepping up to the plate and here in the state of Florida of changing the way they operate, changing the way they view the juveniles and their violations. You know, we have to hold them accountable.

That's the way I learned. I was held accountable, and I sure enough knew what the consequences were going to be if I took a certain action, But the kids today don't. I joked around on TV a couple of months back talking about how I stole yo yo in kindergarten from church and my parents made me take the yo yo back apologize to the pastor. Of course, he sat me down, told me why stealing was wrong, and I had an impact on me because I was like, okay,

stealings back. You know, I got it registered. And it's a dear point. You know, when we live in this society without consequences, of course, people are going to behave badly, and it seems like we're increasingly living in a society without consequences. Yep. Well, but you know, you asked me just before I just went on for a long period there on you is you ask me why they focused on the guns. It's the easiest thing to focus on. They don't want to admit to the problems of which

they're doing and causing. They don't want to admit that there's a problem in the family unit. They don't want to admit to there's a problem that the judicial system unless their kid gets arrested, and there's always a problem with the judicial system. But it's all of those factors. They just want to ignore it. They want to focus on the one thing that they see as the problem, and it's the easiest one to get other people's attention,

you know. And I do think you had mentioned the Second Amendment and the fact that we keep getting closer to the line of losing it, and I think that's probably the point. And then the intention behind a lot of that is that's where they want us to be where you know, we can't own guns, where we lose the Second Amendment, or you know, you look at some things that are happening, and unfortunately we live in the

great state of Florida. But you know, you look at some of these liberal counties in Texas, for instance, and you've got the sergeant Perry found guilty, I mean basically all he did with self defense. You know, there also seems to be an effort making self defense illegal as well, leaving us essentially defenseless. You know, I guarantee if you talk to our founding fathers, that kind of would sound

familiar to them. That's kind of probably what they dealt with when the reason the Second Amendment was put in because you had a king that said you couldn't have a gun, and that's what we're about to revert back to. And that's what you know, the majority of US citizens fear is by getting rid of that Second Amendment, what they're going to take away from it, and which is truly alarming. Truly, it's certainly scary. You know, we have definitely seen a massive loss of liberty, particularly after a

COVID it really expedited a lot of it. Sadly, it seems like not everyone has taken notice. But I hope they don't start to notice before it's too late. In the instance of the murders of these three teens in Marion County. One of the teenagers who is facing charges is twelve years old. I think a lot of people are asking themselves what drives a twelve year old to

commit murder? Well, like us when we kid, you want to fit in with the click, You want to do what the big boys are doing when you're that long young in a group. Think about it for a minute, except it's been taken to a whole new level. They want to be part of something. Here's what's disturbed, truly disturbing. I might get yelled at by my staff and that's all right. But what is truly disturbing is I watched the interview of the twelve year old. Okay, there, he

had no how do I put this? He couldn't realize the decision in which he made and what effect that it had. It was I want to say callous, because it wasn't callous. He just it was nothing. There, absolutely nothing from a twelve year old. Now, people out like yourself and what you just mentioned, outside of this world is just astonished that a twelve year old could do this. To be frank, it's really not surprising to us in law enforcement. Do you know how many juveniles we come

in contact on a regular basis committing crimes. That's what's alarming. And because all their crimes that they keep committing is eventually lead them to what his actions was. He's in a group with six people that are going out there to commit armed robberies. Okay, they didn't have the guns for self defense. They had the guns because they were going to commit armed robberies, armed burglaries, whatever else they've got, the criminal activity we're going to do. It was inevitable

for them to go to this level. And the problem with at twelve year old, whether it be a home school or do judicial sympton, that kid was never held accountable for his actions. Let's take a quick commercial break more with Sheriff Billy Woods. You had mentioned that this may be, you know, sort of surprising to people of you know, of those of us who are outside of law enforcement. You know, you've been a law enforced for a long time. You've been serving your community, serving the

state of Florida. Are we seeing more of sort of like this increased youth violence than when you first started working in law fulforcement or what kind of trends are you seeing as someone who has served your community for a long time. Oh, it is definitely increased since that thirty three years ago, since the first day. No, no, don't get me wrong. We had juveniles back then to commit in crime, but what you mostly saw was them stealing from the Jeffy store, stealing candy, bubble gum and

something like that. Not to this level. And over the last three decades of my career it has just alarmingly increased. But also, and the reason I said it when I said it on camera, I've already said it and I'll repeat it again. I've also seen the family unit destroyed. I've seen the diversion programs come in not only through the schools holding them accountable, but also in the judicial system in the courts. And that's why no one's ever

noticed is because it gradually occurred. And that applies when I talk about juveniles and the decisions we make in the consequences of the result of our decisions. Guess what decisions of our family unit, The decision in the courts and the decision of the diversion programs is beginning to catch up to us now. And what are those diversion plans or programs look like for people who are sort of unfamiliar with that. Well, I'll give you an example

we have and which is ineffective. Don't get me wrong, I don't want people to think that I hate these type of just totally disregard these program We have what's called a willow work in lieu of arrest for our juveniles and they get and there's only certain things that crimes that they'll commit, whether it be possession of marijuana, a fight, the minor misdemeanor crimes that we can divert

them through this program. They agree along with their parents that they go and do work out like picking up trash on the side of the road, or go to a park where they got to clean up or do certain work there, and they work with the county. Those are the diversion programs I talk about. But the problem is not the diversion necessarily. The diversion problem in and of itself. It's as you put everybody into that and you keep giving them our diversion programs and we give

them like one or two chances. If this is your second time, you're not in this program anymore, you get to go to the next level. You know, are we becoming desensitized to the loss of life as a society. Now, all that depends on who you are. I think the kids are. Yeah, you know how you know why? You know, as much as I love video games, but think about the video games that they put out in the last three decades, and they become desensitized to that degree of knowing.

You know, when I was growing up, the gun was putting in my hand. The first time I was shown by my parents and by my grandfather that if you shoot, this is what happens. Okay, I don't think that occurs. They desensitize them through the games in which they play. They make it it's a game, So it's a game to them. If they kill somebody on the computer, Well, why can't I do that out here in the world. I've I just started. Uh you know, I got my first gun not too long ago, and you know, I

went through courses. I took it very seriously because to your point, it can't do a lot of damage, and so it's something that you know, should be taken seriously. And to these kids, they were able to get the gun, it was through robbery, is that correct? Robberies? Thefts they got they actually got them through theft a burglary, basically stealing it from a vehicle. There's also the one being sold through a snapchat. I'm not snapchat TikTok no, maybe it was that snapchat off of my head and please

forgive me out for anyways, it was sold between there. Now, just because the transaction with a juvenile doesn't mean the person on the other end didn't steal it for somebody. Because here's the other thing. People with guns, they don't always record their serial numbers somewhere right, so it may get stolen and we don't even know it, or they made a report, we just don't have a serial number. So the gun in which a person may have obtained could be a stolen gun without them even knowing it.

I think one of the challenges we face as people who believe in the Second Amendment is a lot of people in the media, and you know a lot of politicians are just uninformed about things, you know, like they don't they don't know what an air of fifteen really stands for, you know, they don't know that it was actually developed for civilian use, you know. So it's like the challenge and a lot of this is that the people who are calling for gun control the most are

actually the least informed about guns. Oh absolutely, they're totally ignorant to the guns themselves. I can I can show you an expert it can take a revolver okay and fire it. And if I took out the video right, he can fire a revolver that when you hear it, you think it's a fully automatic weapon. So people like people in this world of crime, Dad, it's a fully automatic They ain't got a clue. They're ignorant to everything

that's occurring here. Listen, that person that entered the schools to do these shootings could use a black powder gun just as much as an are AAR fifteen and get the same result. What are your thoughts on social media and its role in some of the violence we're saying, or you know, mental health issues among young people. You know, I worry that it has sort of created a social

contagion of sorts. I totally agree. I think social media is probably the big it's one of our biggest problems in law enforcement because like the last year, last two years, what prompted our great governor to push the riot bill in which he did, was people will claim that there's like downtown city of OCALI here is my county seat, and we'll get social media people. We will start posting, Hey, I'm coming with a gun, and then the people start

posting it will be gun. So you divert all your resources that you have to address this threat that's supposedly out there. And then when we get down deep into the dive, we find out that it's it's a false allegation. And social media for people to be able to just talk between each other without here, especially kids, that's part of the problem. Parents give them phones out here to just car blanche, use it however they want, so they could connect with people that they shouldn't be connected with.

It comes back to the parents and not paying attention to their kids. But the social media is a huge problem in our society right now. Yes, it's an easy communication. I won't deny it. The fastest way I can correct a rumor in the fastest way I can get information out is my social media. That's the good side of it. Seeing over the year sort of a hostility towards our police officers, you know, what impact have you seen that?

How of on you know, your colleagues. You know, it's a lot more reluctant for people to come into the profession. You know, thirty years ago, when I started application, you put your application on, you were on a list, even with a small department, of a list of two to three hundred people wanting to be into law enforcement. I struggle now after all the background checks. Is I struggle even having a list of ten to fifteen people. And

that's going high on my scale right now. And people don't want to enter the law enforcement career because of what's in And here's what's alarming, I'll tell you, and I'm pretty sure any share for chief to get something to every day on my desk, every single day on my desk, I get a teletype message from some agency or some office in the United States where an officer

has died in the line of duty. Now that ranges from a car accident all the way to being shot in the back and the head while their writing a report sitting in their vehicle, And that is truly alarming. When society has gone to the degree that we've got people out here who will just walk up to law

enforcement and just basically execute them. And it's unacceptable, it absolutely is, and it's unacceptable even in the rhetoric that I think some of society uses towards a police officer, because you guys put on a badge to go out and keep our communities safe and keep us safe, so you deserve or respect, you know, sir, is there anything you'd like to leave us with before we go, any messages you'd like to leave parents with or or anyone listening.

I would tell parents quit being trying to be their best friend and be a parent, because you're only You're not only doing your child to disservice, but you're doing a society as a disservice. Be a parent. I think that's a good message to send. Sir. Well, we appreciate your voice. I really do appreciate you speaking out and just being honest. I really think that we need more leaders like you who just tell it how it is and speak the truth. So Sheriff Woods, I appreciate what

you do. Thank you for serving the state of Florida. And thanks for coming on the show. I really appreciate it. Thank you for having me. It was Mariann County Sheriff Bildy Woods from the Great State of Florida. I appreciate him joining the show and appreciate just the honesty, right. I mean, imagine if everyone just told the truth and was honest, we probably wouldn't be in as crazy as a society as we are today. I want to thank you guys at home for listening every Monday and Thursday,

but of course you can listen throughout the week. I want to thank John Cassio, my producer. If we're working so hard to put the show together, please leave us a review, give us a rating on Apple Podcasts. Until next time,