WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.120 This episode is sponsored by 5 .11 Tactical, 00:00:02.259 --> 00:00:04.339 a company who I've used for well over a decade 00:00:04.339 --> 00:00:06.559 now and who are reaching out to you guys, the 00:00:06.559 --> 00:00:10.740 audience, to offer you 15%, not only off one 00:00:10.740 --> 00:00:13.539 purchase, but an ongoing 15 % that will only 00:00:13.539 --> 00:00:16.100 ever be trumped if something is even for sale 00:00:16.100 --> 00:00:19.059 for a higher discount than that 15%. I'm gonna 00:00:19.059 --> 00:00:20.559 give you that discount code in just a moment, 00:00:20.600 --> 00:00:22.760 but I wanna talk about another product and showcase 00:00:22.760 --> 00:00:26.079 that, and that is the AMP, which is the All Missions 00:00:26.079 --> 00:00:28.230 Pack. 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So for me personally, I have 00:00:56.380 --> 00:00:59.060 the shove it kit, which allows me to put in brush 00:00:59.060 --> 00:01:01.159 gear and actually slide my helmet in there if 00:01:01.159 --> 00:01:03.820 I deploy on a brush fire. There is a med pouch, 00:01:03.939 --> 00:01:05.900 which I think doubles very well for a wash bag. 00:01:06.040 --> 00:01:08.400 Again, I snap it on if I go to the station and 00:01:08.400 --> 00:01:10.140 then I can remove it for the next two days when 00:01:10.140 --> 00:01:12.540 I don't need it. So it allows you to have one 00:01:12.540 --> 00:01:14.939 backpack that's extremely versatile. There's 00:01:14.939 --> 00:01:17.459 also an element where if you do have weapons, 00:01:17.480 --> 00:01:19.400 you go into the range, you can have a short barrel 00:01:19.400 --> 00:01:21.719 rifle in there. There's a concealed carry pocket. 00:01:22.060 --> 00:01:25.239 So extremely versatile all around one specific. 00:01:25.290 --> 00:01:28.769 So the discount code for this and anything else 00:01:28.769 --> 00:01:33.489 on their site is SHIELD15, S -H -I -E -L -D -1 00:01:33.489 --> 00:01:35.829 -5. And as I said, that will get you a discount 00:01:35.829 --> 00:01:41.150 over and over again if you go to www .511tactical 00:01:41.150 --> 00:01:45.510 .com. Welcome to episode 290 of Behind the Shield 00:01:45.510 --> 00:01:47.290 podcast. As always, my name is James Gearing, 00:01:47.310 --> 00:01:49.349 and this week I am extremely excited to welcome 00:01:49.349 --> 00:01:52.890 on the show Michael Lopez. Now, Michael has an 00:01:52.890 --> 00:01:54.890 incredibly powerful story that I was given a 00:01:54.890 --> 00:01:57.230 glimpse of through one of the videos that went 00:01:57.230 --> 00:02:00.689 viral on social media a few months ago. His story 00:02:00.689 --> 00:02:04.090 is that of a regular child who had some trials 00:02:04.090 --> 00:02:06.730 like many of us, but then found his way amongst 00:02:06.730 --> 00:02:09.610 the wrong crowd and taking some bad life decisions, 00:02:09.789 --> 00:02:12.870 which was followed by several years in crime, 00:02:12.990 --> 00:02:16.060 drugs, prison stays. And then he hit a point 00:02:16.060 --> 00:02:18.300 where he basically said enough is enough and 00:02:18.300 --> 00:02:20.740 started the journey to turning his life around. 00:02:21.139 --> 00:02:23.819 Now, he's not only an advocate for people under 00:02:23.819 --> 00:02:27.240 psychiatric hold, but he also spends much of 00:02:27.240 --> 00:02:30.240 his time on Skid Row feeding the homeless. So 00:02:30.240 --> 00:02:31.639 you're going to hear not only his incredible 00:02:31.639 --> 00:02:34.319 story, but how you can also be part of the solution 00:02:34.319 --> 00:02:37.530 in that area as well. So before we get to that 00:02:37.530 --> 00:02:39.310 interview, please just take a moment, go to whichever 00:02:39.310 --> 00:02:41.849 app that you listen to this on, subscribe to 00:02:41.849 --> 00:02:44.169 the show, leave feedback. I love reading the 00:02:44.169 --> 00:02:46.569 feedback and leave a rating. The five -star ratings 00:02:46.569 --> 00:02:48.889 really do make us more and more visible as we 00:02:48.889 --> 00:02:51.729 climb the virtual charts for people that are 00:02:51.729 --> 00:02:54.009 looking for a podcast like this. And then take 00:02:54.009 --> 00:02:56.229 whichever outlet you have, social media, word 00:02:56.229 --> 00:02:58.870 of mouth, carrier pigeon, and share these episodes. 00:02:59.469 --> 00:03:01.370 Each one of these men and women has come on this 00:03:01.370 --> 00:03:05.009 podcast to give their life story, their life's 00:03:05.009 --> 00:03:08.710 work to you for free. This is a 300 -person library 00:03:08.710 --> 00:03:11.710 almost now, and every single one of these episodes 00:03:11.710 --> 00:03:13.889 is free. So all I ask you, the audience member, 00:03:14.050 --> 00:03:17.210 is to help share these incredible stories because 00:03:17.210 --> 00:03:19.710 I know people all over planet Earth need to hear 00:03:19.710 --> 00:03:22.389 them. So with that being said, I introduce to 00:03:22.389 --> 00:03:43.770 you Michael Lopez. Enjoy. So Michael, I want 00:03:43.770 --> 00:03:45.409 to start by saying thank you so much for taking 00:03:45.409 --> 00:03:48.669 the time to come on the podcast. Thank you guys. 00:03:48.750 --> 00:03:50.889 Thank you for having me. Brilliant. Where are 00:03:50.889 --> 00:03:54.110 we finding you on planet Earth today? I'm in 00:03:54.110 --> 00:03:57.129 Los Angeles, California. It's warm. It's sunny. 00:03:57.270 --> 00:04:01.289 It's beautiful. I hate to brag, but it is. More 00:04:01.289 --> 00:04:04.090 specifically, I'm in the city of Bell. Bell. 00:04:04.129 --> 00:04:06.849 Okay. So going back to the very beginning, where 00:04:06.849 --> 00:04:10.680 were you actually born? I was born in Harbor 00:04:10.680 --> 00:04:13.979 City, California. It's the harbor area out near 00:04:13.979 --> 00:04:16.600 San Pedro and stuff. I was raised in the city 00:04:16.600 --> 00:04:19.839 of Huntington Park. Okay. So your parents, what 00:04:19.839 --> 00:04:23.939 did they do as a profession? Growing up, my dad 00:04:23.939 --> 00:04:25.839 always worked for General Motors. He retired 00:04:25.839 --> 00:04:28.740 from General Motors in Van Nuys after, I don't 00:04:28.740 --> 00:04:31.420 know, close to 30 years. And my mom has always 00:04:31.420 --> 00:04:35.500 worked as a waitress. And then her side, she 00:04:35.500 --> 00:04:37.800 had a lot of side jobs that she did. She sold 00:04:37.800 --> 00:04:42.240 lingerie and Princess House crystal and Tupperware. 00:04:43.980 --> 00:04:48.040 She combed wigs. I remember in the 70s, she had 00:04:48.040 --> 00:04:50.300 the living room was always full of wigs and people 00:04:50.300 --> 00:04:52.040 would come and drop off their wigs and my mom 00:04:52.040 --> 00:04:54.060 would comb them and people would come and pick 00:04:54.060 --> 00:04:57.000 them up. Brilliant. Now, you know, I just remembered, 00:04:57.379 --> 00:04:59.060 you know, we went to that place with your dad. 00:04:59.160 --> 00:05:01.180 So I'm going to salvage that. I think it was 00:05:01.180 --> 00:05:04.199 only the last few minutes that We had an issue. 00:05:04.680 --> 00:05:07.879 So in hindsight, rather than drag you through 00:05:07.879 --> 00:05:11.879 all those memories again, let me see. I think 00:05:11.879 --> 00:05:13.680 where it started going wrong was when I asked 00:05:13.680 --> 00:05:18.300 you about what you want to do as a career. So 00:05:18.300 --> 00:05:19.819 let me just jump into that question and what 00:05:19.819 --> 00:05:21.500 I'll do. I'll just splice those two together. 00:05:22.399 --> 00:05:25.060 Okay. All right. So when you were going through 00:05:25.060 --> 00:05:28.300 the school system, as it were, what was your 00:05:28.300 --> 00:05:34.810 career dream? I remember my very first dream, 00:05:34.990 --> 00:05:38.910 my very first career dream was to be a writer. 00:05:39.170 --> 00:05:41.990 I wanted to write. I've always liked, enjoyed 00:05:41.990 --> 00:05:47.329 writing. That was made more possible one day. 00:05:47.370 --> 00:05:50.329 I was going through a newspaper here in the state 00:05:50.329 --> 00:05:51.629 of Huntington Park. It was called the Huntington 00:05:51.629 --> 00:05:54.689 Park Bulletin. And I came across a very small 00:05:54.689 --> 00:05:57.920 article that said stringers wanted. It had a 00:05:57.920 --> 00:06:00.639 contact number and name. I had no idea what a 00:06:00.639 --> 00:06:04.920 stringer was. I was 11 years old, and I remember 00:06:04.920 --> 00:06:07.680 calling the number, and I spoke to a guy named 00:06:07.680 --> 00:06:10.920 Mertis Hayes, and he was a sports reporter for 00:06:10.920 --> 00:06:15.079 the Southgate Press. And he was interested. He 00:06:15.079 --> 00:06:17.839 was fascinated that I was only 11 years old, 00:06:17.879 --> 00:06:20.120 calling him with questions. So what he did was 00:06:20.120 --> 00:06:23.720 he set up a tour of the Southgate Press for me, 00:06:23.779 --> 00:06:27.540 and my mom dropped me off. And he gave me a tour 00:06:27.540 --> 00:06:29.779 of the entire building. It was all Southgate 00:06:29.779 --> 00:06:32.480 Press, a local newspaper. What a stringer ended 00:06:32.480 --> 00:06:34.879 up being as a reporter. He covered high school 00:06:34.879 --> 00:06:38.120 sports. And so he gave me the assignment of covering 00:06:38.120 --> 00:06:42.300 the Huntington Park High School girls varsity 00:06:42.300 --> 00:06:46.480 basketball team. And he gave me a season pass. 00:06:46.579 --> 00:06:49.339 And I thought I was cool to walk in free to the 00:06:49.339 --> 00:06:52.410 games at 11 years old. I remember writing my 00:06:52.410 --> 00:06:54.889 very first story covering the varsity basketball 00:06:54.889 --> 00:06:58.889 team. And I still remember the title was Spartan 00:06:58.889 --> 00:07:02.009 Girls Top Franklin 35 to 19 by Michael Lopez. 00:07:02.629 --> 00:07:05.569 And if I remember correctly, it was about two 00:07:05.569 --> 00:07:09.310 or three paragraphs long. And a few weeks after 00:07:09.310 --> 00:07:12.829 the story printed, actually, I got my first paycheck 00:07:12.829 --> 00:07:14.769 in the mail. And if I remember correctly, it 00:07:14.769 --> 00:07:17.250 was about eight bucks, nine bucks, somewhere 00:07:17.250 --> 00:07:19.649 around there. And I was pretty excited. So I 00:07:19.649 --> 00:07:24.000 was set on writing. I would sit on writing. My 00:07:24.000 --> 00:07:27.800 fifth grade teacher at the time was really proud 00:07:27.800 --> 00:07:32.319 of me, and we started a writer's club in my elementary 00:07:32.319 --> 00:07:35.959 school because of that. So I'd always been interested 00:07:35.959 --> 00:07:38.759 in journalism. Brilliant. Now you mentioned as 00:07:38.759 --> 00:07:41.399 well other accolades through school, and then 00:07:41.399 --> 00:07:45.480 one specific incident that stopped you getting 00:07:45.480 --> 00:07:48.980 that particular accolade. Yeah, so through junior 00:07:48.980 --> 00:07:51.850 high school, In high school, I was always interested 00:07:51.850 --> 00:07:55.870 in student body, student council, running for 00:07:55.870 --> 00:08:01.430 office. I was never the shy type. And I remember 00:08:01.430 --> 00:08:04.610 I won the election for seventh grade class president 00:08:04.610 --> 00:08:07.110 and then eighth grade class president. Once I 00:08:07.110 --> 00:08:09.029 got to high school, I went all the way up, freshman 00:08:09.029 --> 00:08:11.930 vice president, things like that. But once I 00:08:11.930 --> 00:08:15.209 hit my senior year in high school, I ran for 00:08:15.209 --> 00:08:18.899 student body president. And I won the election 00:08:18.899 --> 00:08:22.439 for student body president. However, on the same 00:08:22.439 --> 00:08:25.759 day as the election happened, I was involved 00:08:25.759 --> 00:08:29.079 in a really big gang fight in front of the school. 00:08:29.139 --> 00:08:31.980 I believe it was like a 20 on 20 type of deal. 00:08:31.980 --> 00:08:34.100 I don't remember the exact numbers, but it was 00:08:34.100 --> 00:08:36.840 pretty huge. People were arrested. People were 00:08:36.840 --> 00:08:40.080 hurt. And, you know, a lot of people got away 00:08:40.080 --> 00:08:43.529 unscathed. But when I came to school the next 00:08:43.529 --> 00:08:46.269 day, my office had been revoked. I had been taken 00:08:46.269 --> 00:08:48.629 out of student council because of the incident. 00:08:48.769 --> 00:08:51.789 And I remember being really disappointed, really 00:08:51.789 --> 00:08:55.610 mad because I didn't start the fight. But the 00:08:55.610 --> 00:08:57.370 fight was, you know, I mean, the fight involved 00:08:57.370 --> 00:09:02.070 me directly. And so it was supposed to be a one 00:09:02.070 --> 00:09:04.970 -on -one type of deal. And it just turned into 00:09:04.970 --> 00:09:08.820 a big gang fight. Right now, with you saying 00:09:08.820 --> 00:09:11.200 obviously that you had the influence of drugs 00:09:11.200 --> 00:09:16.919 growing up, at what point did you become somewhat 00:09:16.919 --> 00:09:20.240 of an affiliation with a certain group or gang? 00:09:22.379 --> 00:09:25.279 It was just after high school. Well, I mean, 00:09:25.320 --> 00:09:28.720 I started running. Well, let me try to go back 00:09:28.720 --> 00:09:30.379 a little bit. The guys that I hung around with 00:09:30.379 --> 00:09:32.720 in junior high school and high school, we weren't 00:09:32.720 --> 00:09:35.220 a gang yet. We were just a bunch of guys that 00:09:35.220 --> 00:09:38.019 hung out. Played football on the weekends. We'd 00:09:38.019 --> 00:09:40.779 play other football teams at the local parks. 00:09:41.039 --> 00:09:44.460 And the football team that I played with turned 00:09:44.460 --> 00:09:48.860 into a righteous street gang here in L .A. And 00:09:48.860 --> 00:09:51.460 so it turned into a gang. And it wasn't until 00:09:51.460 --> 00:09:53.860 well after high school, maybe a year or two after 00:09:53.860 --> 00:09:58.320 high school, that I really got heavily involved 00:09:58.320 --> 00:10:02.159 in the gang life and drugs. And that's when everything 00:10:02.159 --> 00:10:05.899 took a turn for the worse. Took my very first 00:10:05.899 --> 00:10:10.779 hit of crack probably at about 19, maybe 20. 00:10:11.559 --> 00:10:15.960 And I went on a 25 -year ride. Had no idea what 00:10:15.960 --> 00:10:20.879 was in store. And what do you think was the underlying 00:10:20.879 --> 00:10:25.179 factor that made you take that first hit? Well, 00:10:25.320 --> 00:10:28.120 that can go way, way back to, say, my freshman 00:10:28.120 --> 00:10:31.740 year of high school. My freshman year of high 00:10:31.740 --> 00:10:34.620 school, my career dreams changed. I wanted to 00:10:34.620 --> 00:10:38.220 be a police officer. So I wanted to start that 00:10:38.220 --> 00:10:42.559 path by joining the police explorers here in 00:10:42.559 --> 00:10:45.480 Huntington Park. And the couple of guys that 00:10:45.480 --> 00:10:48.960 I was hanging around with, we all wanted to be 00:10:48.960 --> 00:10:51.860 police explorers. So we went to go get our applications. 00:10:53.159 --> 00:10:56.539 And I remember taking my application home and 00:10:56.539 --> 00:10:59.440 asking my dad. It was at a dinner table. Hey, 00:10:59.480 --> 00:11:01.799 dad, you know, I've got this application. Can 00:11:01.799 --> 00:11:03.779 you sign it? I want to be a police explorer. 00:11:03.960 --> 00:11:06.200 You're going to have to buy uniforms and stuff 00:11:06.200 --> 00:11:08.980 like that. And I remember handing it to my dad 00:11:08.980 --> 00:11:11.460 and my dad called it up and he threw it in the 00:11:11.460 --> 00:11:14.340 trash can, you know, and in Spanish, he said, 00:11:14.379 --> 00:11:15.820 you know, I'm not going to sign that. You're 00:11:15.820 --> 00:11:18.879 a piece of shit. You're a liar. You're no good 00:11:18.879 --> 00:11:20.480 for anything. You know, how are you going to 00:11:20.480 --> 00:11:22.940 be an honest police officer if you're a liar? 00:11:23.240 --> 00:11:26.299 You know, I remember crying and stuff. And the 00:11:26.299 --> 00:11:29.279 reason my dad did that. was because two weeks 00:11:29.279 --> 00:11:32.379 prior, I found out or I caught my mom having 00:11:32.379 --> 00:11:35.059 an affair. She was cheating on my dad, and I 00:11:35.059 --> 00:11:38.299 told my dad about it. And for about two or three 00:11:38.299 --> 00:11:40.539 weeks, as you can imagine, the house was really 00:11:40.539 --> 00:11:43.159 dark. It was a sad place. It was a lot of animosity, 00:11:43.220 --> 00:11:47.179 a lot of fighting. And one day, my mom pulled 00:11:47.179 --> 00:11:49.779 me to the side and said, look, son. You have 00:11:49.779 --> 00:11:52.139 to convince your dad that you lied. You have 00:11:52.139 --> 00:11:54.299 to tell him that you lied, that it's not true. 00:11:54.419 --> 00:11:56.259 Because if you don't, we're going to end up getting 00:11:56.259 --> 00:11:58.240 divorced and your dad's world is going to fall 00:11:58.240 --> 00:12:01.340 apart. All my dad's family is in Mexico. My dad 00:12:01.340 --> 00:12:03.460 is the only one here. He's been in the United 00:12:03.460 --> 00:12:05.919 States since I believe he was like about 13 or 00:12:05.919 --> 00:12:09.620 14 years old on his own. And so I did that. I 00:12:09.620 --> 00:12:12.279 convinced my dad, hey, dad, I'm sorry I lied. 00:12:12.320 --> 00:12:15.779 I was mad with mom. And I'm sorry I lied to you. 00:12:16.360 --> 00:12:20.000 And so from that moment on. My dad thought he 00:12:20.000 --> 00:12:23.139 believed me. He thought that I lied and I almost 00:12:23.139 --> 00:12:25.019 wrecked their marriage. So there was no way he 00:12:25.019 --> 00:12:27.539 was going to let me be a police officer, let 00:12:27.539 --> 00:12:30.379 alone join the cadets. And so those guys that 00:12:30.379 --> 00:12:32.659 I was hanging around with at that time went on 00:12:32.659 --> 00:12:34.980 to be police explorers. And I stopped hanging 00:12:34.980 --> 00:12:37.500 around with them because they were doing police 00:12:37.500 --> 00:12:39.799 explorer things and talking police explorer stuff. 00:12:39.899 --> 00:12:43.559 So I hung around with the other guys. And the 00:12:43.559 --> 00:12:47.919 rest is history. And that's so, so crazy. When 00:12:47.919 --> 00:12:50.399 we talked before and you told me this story the 00:12:50.399 --> 00:12:54.159 first time, I'm used to talking to some people, 00:12:54.299 --> 00:12:57.600 many people on the show who, again, many of whom 00:12:57.600 --> 00:13:00.100 found their way to the military, the police, 00:13:00.480 --> 00:13:05.980 the fire, but their home life when they were 00:13:05.980 --> 00:13:09.379 young. was awful you know like murder and drugs 00:13:09.379 --> 00:13:12.480 and all kinds of stuff um but with yours it shows 00:13:12.480 --> 00:13:16.100 the fragility of childhood where just a few bad 00:13:16.100 --> 00:13:18.940 decisions can send the child the wrong way and 00:13:18.940 --> 00:13:22.700 you know to you are by no means you know the 00:13:22.700 --> 00:13:25.240 only person i've heard who has been in that same 00:13:25.240 --> 00:13:28.440 situation who's caught um you know a mother or 00:13:28.440 --> 00:13:31.000 father cheating and it's basically being bribed 00:13:31.000 --> 00:13:34.429 or threatened or whatever it was not to to say 00:13:34.429 --> 00:13:36.230 and who'd have thought that that one moment that 00:13:36.230 --> 00:13:39.370 your your mom had no idea that particular decision 00:13:39.370 --> 00:13:42.629 to ask you to do that would have such a detrimental 00:13:42.629 --> 00:13:46.029 effect on your life for a couple of decades after 00:13:46.029 --> 00:13:49.889 that yeah for the rest of my life because you 00:13:49.889 --> 00:13:53.750 know it it set me on a different path and You 00:13:53.750 --> 00:13:55.850 know, I've experienced all the bad that I've 00:13:55.850 --> 00:13:57.690 experienced in my life, my drug addiction, the 00:13:57.690 --> 00:14:00.509 gang life, the prison life. I know a lot of it 00:14:00.509 --> 00:14:03.950 is self -inflicted, but the root to all of that 00:14:03.950 --> 00:14:07.470 was my mom asking me to, you know, to lie to 00:14:07.470 --> 00:14:11.230 my dad again. And I'm going to be honest, many 00:14:11.230 --> 00:14:13.629 times through my life, I've always wondered what 00:14:13.629 --> 00:14:15.950 would have happened if I would have just not 00:14:15.950 --> 00:14:18.730 said anything to my dad at all, ignored the problem. 00:14:18.789 --> 00:14:23.330 You know, my mom cheated on my dad for, I'm going 00:14:23.330 --> 00:14:27.350 to say at least 30 years. But the time came where 00:14:27.350 --> 00:14:31.389 my dad found out on his own that she was cheating. 00:14:31.570 --> 00:14:36.309 And so as life went on, my dad chose not to know, 00:14:36.429 --> 00:14:40.470 if that makes sense. Sadly, it does because it 00:14:40.470 --> 00:14:44.590 actually happened to my parents too. He chose 00:14:44.590 --> 00:14:48.289 not to know. There were several big fights that 00:14:48.289 --> 00:14:50.970 they had throughout these 30 years where he himself 00:14:50.970 --> 00:14:55.539 with his own eyes saw. Um, you know, but he chose 00:14:55.539 --> 00:14:58.740 not to know. And he stood by my mom's side to 00:14:58.740 --> 00:15:03.600 literally, Oh, here come the tears. He stood 00:15:03.600 --> 00:15:05.799 by her side, literally to her last, her last 00:15:05.799 --> 00:15:08.200 breath to when she passed away 10 years ago. 00:15:08.620 --> 00:15:13.100 Um, and I was in prison when she died. So I wasn't 00:15:13.100 --> 00:15:15.539 able to come home and mourn, but my dad loved 00:15:15.539 --> 00:15:19.679 her to her last dying breath. Yeah, it's both 00:15:19.679 --> 00:15:23.139 beautiful and tragic at the same time. He loved 00:15:23.139 --> 00:15:28.600 her that strongly and oversaw all the other things. 00:15:28.740 --> 00:15:32.179 And I'm sorry again for sending you down these 00:15:32.179 --> 00:15:35.059 emotional paths. Oh, no, no. It's no problem. 00:15:35.220 --> 00:15:37.019 It's life. It's what I'm here for, to tell my 00:15:37.019 --> 00:15:40.059 story. And I thank you for letting me tell it. 00:15:40.100 --> 00:15:42.799 Thank you very much. But it is what it is. It's 00:15:42.799 --> 00:15:47.039 part of my story. It's a big turning point. I 00:15:47.039 --> 00:15:49.659 was in prison when my mom passed away. I remember 00:15:49.659 --> 00:15:51.960 the prison guards coming up to the cell to let 00:15:51.960 --> 00:15:57.779 me know. It's hard to be incarcerated during 00:15:57.779 --> 00:16:01.620 a time like that because I'm in a place where 00:16:01.620 --> 00:16:04.419 I can't cry. I'm in a place where I have to be 00:16:04.419 --> 00:16:07.799 in a state of war readiness with a second's notice. 00:16:09.120 --> 00:16:13.000 I guess what made it worse was that I knew what 00:16:13.000 --> 00:16:14.639 time the services were going to be starting. 00:16:15.159 --> 00:16:17.519 So I can kind of guesstimate at what time she 00:16:17.519 --> 00:16:21.159 would probably be lowered into her resting place. 00:16:21.440 --> 00:16:24.639 And, you know, it killed me that day. It was 00:16:24.639 --> 00:16:26.860 just crazy. Just, you know, trying to get a glimpse 00:16:26.860 --> 00:16:29.539 of a clock, you know, trying to figure out, you 00:16:29.539 --> 00:16:32.299 know, what's going on. And it was just, you know, 00:16:32.299 --> 00:16:35.740 I wouldn't wish that upon my worst enemy. What 00:16:35.740 --> 00:16:38.740 made it worse was that my petition to come home 00:16:38.740 --> 00:16:41.299 to attend the services was denied. You know, 00:16:41.299 --> 00:16:43.519 some guys do get to come home for services and 00:16:43.519 --> 00:16:46.279 some don't. I wasn't allowed to, you know, even 00:16:46.279 --> 00:16:50.580 though my family had the cash bond ready to pay 00:16:50.580 --> 00:16:53.279 prison guards to escort me up and back to the 00:16:53.279 --> 00:16:56.500 services. I think they you have to pay guards 00:16:56.500 --> 00:16:59.440 24 hours around the clock to escort you all the 00:16:59.440 --> 00:17:02.120 way home. I think you get like a 30 minute visit 00:17:02.120 --> 00:17:04.339 at the service, just you alone, no family members, 00:17:04.420 --> 00:17:06.240 no friends around. And then they take you right 00:17:06.240 --> 00:17:08.500 back. But the judge wouldn't even give me that. 00:17:09.059 --> 00:17:12.599 So I never really had that closure. Yeah, I'm 00:17:12.599 --> 00:17:15.690 sorry. Well, then let's go back to the beginning 00:17:15.690 --> 00:17:19.069 then. So from, you know, graduating high school, 00:17:19.109 --> 00:17:20.890 finding yourself running with the wrong crowd 00:17:20.890 --> 00:17:22.829 now, which is crazy. I've never heard of a gang 00:17:22.829 --> 00:17:25.230 be started by a football team either. So that's 00:17:25.230 --> 00:17:29.049 a bizarre turn of events, a positive, you know, 00:17:29.069 --> 00:17:32.710 bonding experience with the sport that then kind 00:17:32.710 --> 00:17:37.190 of spills over into going the wrong route. Yeah, 00:17:37.289 --> 00:17:39.150 definitely. And that's exactly how it happened. 00:17:39.289 --> 00:17:41.390 You know, we play against all these other different 00:17:41.390 --> 00:17:44.069 football teams. And sometimes you end up fighting 00:17:44.069 --> 00:17:45.910 at one of these football games because someone 00:17:45.910 --> 00:17:49.109 hit someone too hard or whatever the case. And 00:17:49.109 --> 00:17:53.369 it just turned into a gang. For a while there 00:17:53.369 --> 00:17:55.349 in the 80s, some of these other football teams 00:17:55.349 --> 00:17:58.549 also turned into gangs. But with time, they faded 00:17:58.549 --> 00:18:02.150 away. Unfortunately, you know, the football team, 00:18:02.190 --> 00:18:04.269 the gang that I ran with is still around to today 00:18:04.269 --> 00:18:08.940 in 2020. You know, and it's just I'm not proud 00:18:08.940 --> 00:18:11.799 of it, but that's where I came from, you know. 00:18:12.099 --> 00:18:16.000 Yeah. So how did that initially lead you into, 00:18:16.079 --> 00:18:19.059 you know, a road of crime and ultimately your 00:18:19.059 --> 00:18:22.440 first arrest? Well, I started, you know, hanging 00:18:22.440 --> 00:18:25.140 around with guys who, you know, we were all doing 00:18:25.140 --> 00:18:29.420 drugs and some guys were doing different types 00:18:29.420 --> 00:18:31.380 of drugs. I remember hanging around. There was 00:18:31.380 --> 00:18:34.319 a set of brothers, one, two, three, I think there 00:18:34.319 --> 00:18:36.599 was three or four brothers. who they're the ones 00:18:36.599 --> 00:18:40.480 that introduced me to crack. And I remember I 00:18:40.480 --> 00:18:42.559 always had a car, so I would always take them 00:18:42.559 --> 00:18:44.279 and we would go by the dope. We'd go to Watts, 00:18:44.380 --> 00:18:47.339 to the projects in Watts and by the dope, by 00:18:47.339 --> 00:18:49.960 the crack. And the first three or four, I don't 00:18:49.960 --> 00:18:51.980 know, five, six, seven times that I was with 00:18:51.980 --> 00:18:54.200 them when they smoked it, when it was my turn 00:18:54.200 --> 00:18:57.299 to hit it, I would fake the hit because I'd never 00:18:57.299 --> 00:18:59.220 seen it. I wasn't sure what it was going to do 00:18:59.220 --> 00:19:00.660 to me. And I wanted to see what it was going 00:19:00.660 --> 00:19:04.430 to do to them first. And so. Like I said, the 00:19:04.430 --> 00:19:06.710 first few times that we went, I would fake a 00:19:06.710 --> 00:19:09.309 hit and just keep going until the day I said, 00:19:09.349 --> 00:19:11.710 OK, well, it looks OK. Let me go ahead and take 00:19:11.710 --> 00:19:15.109 this hit. And I took my first hit. I enjoyed 00:19:15.109 --> 00:19:18.789 the high. But boy, did I not enjoy what it did 00:19:18.789 --> 00:19:20.950 to me for the next 20 or so years. You know, 00:19:20.990 --> 00:19:22.970 I was not ready for the ride that it took me 00:19:22.970 --> 00:19:26.369 on. But it took me down some really dark roads. 00:19:26.589 --> 00:19:28.369 You know, I was robbing and stealing and mugging 00:19:28.369 --> 00:19:31.970 to get high. I was stealing from my wife, from 00:19:31.970 --> 00:19:34.230 my mom, my grandma, my brother, from everybody. 00:19:34.710 --> 00:19:36.930 You know, everybody that I could steal from, 00:19:36.970 --> 00:19:39.509 I was going to steal from, you know. And things 00:19:39.509 --> 00:19:41.890 got so bad, I was, you know, burglarizing houses 00:19:41.890 --> 00:19:46.390 and just, you know, to be able to get high. And 00:19:46.390 --> 00:19:48.809 then my prison career started, in and out of 00:19:48.809 --> 00:19:51.829 prison all the time. I couldn't stay clean. I 00:19:51.829 --> 00:19:53.990 was hooked. I was hooked on that. that crack 00:19:53.990 --> 00:19:57.950 cocaine now what about um the ability to get 00:19:57.950 --> 00:19:59.910 the drugs once you're in prison because again 00:19:59.910 --> 00:20:02.490 i'm i try and preface this every time we discuss 00:20:02.490 --> 00:20:04.569 prisons and and even the law enforcement side 00:20:04.569 --> 00:20:06.710 i'm a fireman and i've not been incarcerated 00:20:06.710 --> 00:20:10.990 before so um i don't pretend to to understand 00:20:10.990 --> 00:20:14.490 but at the same time um you hear that you know 00:20:14.490 --> 00:20:17.490 they're they're able to get the drugs in the 00:20:17.490 --> 00:20:19.470 prisons as well so what was your personal experience 00:20:19.470 --> 00:20:25.980 so believe it or not I did five prison terms. 00:20:26.460 --> 00:20:30.259 The only time during my criminal career that 00:20:30.259 --> 00:20:34.119 I was ever clean was when I was in prison. It 00:20:34.119 --> 00:20:37.059 sounds ironic, but I wouldn't touch any dope 00:20:37.059 --> 00:20:41.259 in prison because I'm trying to come home. I'm 00:20:41.259 --> 00:20:43.720 trying not to get into any more trouble. And 00:20:43.720 --> 00:20:46.660 on top of that, more than likely, I wasn't going 00:20:46.660 --> 00:20:49.059 to be able to afford prison prices. There was 00:20:49.059 --> 00:20:51.980 no way my family was going to pay my prison bill. 00:20:52.940 --> 00:20:54.940 And if you can't pay those prison bills, you 00:20:54.940 --> 00:20:57.359 can't pay that drug dealer, you're going to get 00:20:57.359 --> 00:21:02.059 holes poked in you. So again, I was cleaned while 00:21:02.059 --> 00:21:05.039 I was in prison. I was Michael Lopez, believe 00:21:05.039 --> 00:21:07.700 it or not, while I was in prison. And I was aiming 00:21:07.700 --> 00:21:13.559 to get out. I didn't want to lose any release 00:21:13.559 --> 00:21:16.240 dates. I was trying to get out and start all 00:21:16.240 --> 00:21:19.160 over again. Not the drug life, but to start life 00:21:19.160 --> 00:21:22.259 over again. And every time I got out, I just, 00:21:22.299 --> 00:21:24.259 you know, I fell after, you know, a certain amount 00:21:24.259 --> 00:21:26.220 of time, certain amount of time, just kept falling 00:21:26.220 --> 00:21:28.319 and going right back into prison because I kept 00:21:28.319 --> 00:21:30.720 coming home to my homeboys. You know, that's 00:21:30.720 --> 00:21:32.839 the thing that I didn't change. And that's what 00:21:32.839 --> 00:21:35.380 kept sending me right back. But, you know, there's 00:21:35.380 --> 00:21:37.660 any drug available in prison, you know, five 00:21:37.660 --> 00:21:40.380 times the price that you'd pay for on the street. 00:21:40.660 --> 00:21:42.880 But any drug is available in prison. You know, 00:21:42.900 --> 00:21:44.940 I hung out with the drug dealers and stuff like 00:21:44.940 --> 00:21:46.960 that. I mean, if I wanted something, it was there. 00:21:47.400 --> 00:21:49.880 Credit was good. You just better be able to pay 00:21:49.880 --> 00:21:52.579 it. And I wasn't ready to start that road. I've 00:21:52.579 --> 00:21:54.579 seen a lot of things happen to people in prison 00:21:54.579 --> 00:21:58.319 when they can't pay their drug debts. I saw a 00:21:58.319 --> 00:22:02.140 lot of people pick up charges for getting caught 00:22:02.140 --> 00:22:04.039 for possessions and stuff like that. It just 00:22:04.039 --> 00:22:07.119 didn't seem worth it to me in prison. I guess 00:22:07.119 --> 00:22:09.960 I was more of a gambler outside of prison. So 00:22:09.960 --> 00:22:11.700 that's such a fascinating perspective because 00:22:11.700 --> 00:22:14.279 that shows you intrinsically that you had the 00:22:14.279 --> 00:22:17.690 ability. to stop and that it was the environment 00:22:17.690 --> 00:22:19.869 ultimately that set you up for failure when you 00:22:19.869 --> 00:22:24.269 came back out of prison. Yeah, definitely. I 00:22:24.269 --> 00:22:26.869 always came back with the intention of doing 00:22:26.869 --> 00:22:29.589 good. But after, you know, a little shorter time, 00:22:29.690 --> 00:22:33.130 I fell right back to being, you know, who I used 00:22:33.130 --> 00:22:38.049 to be. Right. Now, we also talked before about... 00:22:38.519 --> 00:22:42.019 When you first entered jail, well, very poignant 00:22:42.019 --> 00:22:44.099 was the sign that you told me about reading. 00:22:44.299 --> 00:22:46.779 But then tell me about that, but how also that 00:22:46.779 --> 00:22:51.960 ties in with race as well. So we were talking, 00:22:52.079 --> 00:22:53.400 I remember what you're talking about. It's the 00:22:53.400 --> 00:22:55.839 prison system. There's a different system between 00:22:55.839 --> 00:22:58.440 the prison system and, say, the local county 00:22:58.440 --> 00:23:02.059 jail system. But in prison, my very first time, 00:23:02.079 --> 00:23:05.099 I remember stepping off the bus, shackled my 00:23:05.099 --> 00:23:08.240 wrist to my waist and shackled at the feet. And 00:23:08.240 --> 00:23:10.559 you step off the bus and, you know, you look 00:23:10.559 --> 00:23:12.740 up and the very first sign that's right in front 00:23:12.740 --> 00:23:15.019 of you painted on the wall, bright yellow, it 00:23:15.019 --> 00:23:19.519 says no warning shots, no warning shots. So it 00:23:19.519 --> 00:23:22.079 took a few minutes for that to sink into what 00:23:22.079 --> 00:23:25.259 that meant. I hadn't realized the world that 00:23:25.259 --> 00:23:29.400 I was now in. And once I put it together, it 00:23:29.400 --> 00:23:32.640 became very scary, especially when I walked onto 00:23:32.640 --> 00:23:34.960 that yard the first time and you look up and 00:23:34.960 --> 00:23:36.579 you see the guard towers and you see the prison 00:23:36.579 --> 00:23:39.269 guards. you know, up there with their rifles. 00:23:39.569 --> 00:23:41.849 You know, it's like, wow, you know, what did 00:23:41.849 --> 00:23:44.410 I get myself into? What the hell am I doing here? 00:23:45.150 --> 00:23:49.369 It was a very scary, eerie feeling. Another thing 00:23:49.369 --> 00:23:51.089 that I was talking about or that I mentioned 00:23:51.089 --> 00:23:53.970 is that the racism, the violence that the system 00:23:53.970 --> 00:23:57.289 itself promotes, the second you step off the 00:23:57.289 --> 00:24:00.170 bus, you see that sign and then you're being 00:24:00.170 --> 00:24:03.230 asked, who do you run with? Meaning, you know, 00:24:04.519 --> 00:24:06.900 Who do you run with? Are you running with Mexican 00:24:06.900 --> 00:24:09.420 gangs, black gangs, with the North, with the 00:24:09.420 --> 00:24:12.000 South, with the whites? Who are you? And then 00:24:12.000 --> 00:24:14.779 they segregate you according to who you run with. 00:24:15.339 --> 00:24:17.740 So now you're being separated in all these different 00:24:17.740 --> 00:24:21.380 cells. So now, you know, this cell is Northern 00:24:21.380 --> 00:24:24.099 Mexicans. One cell is Southern Mexicans. One 00:24:24.099 --> 00:24:26.980 cell has the Bloods. One cell has the Crips. 00:24:27.500 --> 00:24:31.859 And you're all just fighting from behind cell 00:24:31.859 --> 00:24:33.940 bars until you're let out into those prison yards. 00:24:34.319 --> 00:24:36.579 So it's like the system itself promotes that 00:24:36.579 --> 00:24:41.660 racism. They promote that violence. Instead of 00:24:41.660 --> 00:24:44.619 just mixing everyone together, they separate 00:24:44.619 --> 00:24:46.480 you and they let you run with who you run with. 00:24:47.680 --> 00:24:50.099 Yeah, and we've discussed prisons a few times 00:24:50.099 --> 00:24:53.599 on here. And again, my whole thing is obviously… 00:24:53.950 --> 00:24:56.150 looking at what we're doing and then asking the 00:24:56.150 --> 00:24:59.309 question, are we doing it the best way? And looking 00:24:59.309 --> 00:25:01.930 at other countries and the way they do the prison 00:25:01.930 --> 00:25:04.609 system. And two glaring things that we talked 00:25:04.609 --> 00:25:08.750 about earlier is firstly, the drug policy here. 00:25:09.230 --> 00:25:12.009 I wonder if you took out every single prisoner 00:25:12.009 --> 00:25:14.509 that had some sort of relationship with drugs, 00:25:14.569 --> 00:25:17.609 whether they were selling, smuggling, like you 00:25:17.609 --> 00:25:19.690 were doing, actually being an addict and turning 00:25:19.690 --> 00:25:22.670 the crime to feed your habit. what impact would 00:25:22.670 --> 00:25:25.430 that have on on the systems and the other thing 00:25:25.430 --> 00:25:28.809 is say for example the norway one that we spoke 00:25:28.809 --> 00:25:31.829 about i've talked about on this uh this podcast 00:25:31.829 --> 00:25:34.930 too instead of segregating and locking people 00:25:34.930 --> 00:25:38.150 away you know what if if it was some of these 00:25:38.150 --> 00:25:41.190 models where you are integrated and you do live 00:25:41.190 --> 00:25:42.650 together and you have to cook and you have to 00:25:42.650 --> 00:25:44.210 clean you have to go to work and you learn a 00:25:44.210 --> 00:25:47.279 new trade and you know so you're You're taught 00:25:47.279 --> 00:25:49.680 to be that member of the community that's going 00:25:49.680 --> 00:25:52.420 to go back and hopefully thrive the next time. 00:25:52.500 --> 00:25:55.779 And I don't see, from a completely layman's standpoint, 00:25:56.019 --> 00:25:59.250 just a regular citizen. the way that we're doing 00:25:59.250 --> 00:26:01.789 working and the prison population has exploded. 00:26:02.069 --> 00:26:04.710 I mean, I told you the statistics, the seventies, 00:26:04.750 --> 00:26:08.470 we had 350 ,000 prisoners. Now we have 2 .3 million 00:26:08.470 --> 00:26:11.269 prisoners. So that's definitely not, not working. 00:26:11.970 --> 00:26:14.170 Yeah. Something's not working. No. And, and that's 00:26:14.170 --> 00:26:16.029 the thing. And my goal is as a first responder, 00:26:16.210 --> 00:26:18.430 you know, I, I want to obviously the part of 00:26:18.430 --> 00:26:21.329 me as, as a human being wants to, to minimize 00:26:21.329 --> 00:26:23.170 the amount of people that go to jail and just 00:26:23.170 --> 00:26:25.869 lock away the ones that are truly sociopaths 00:26:25.869 --> 00:26:28.410 that are, you know, to have no morals and an 00:26:28.410 --> 00:26:32.009 absolute dangerous society. And then, you know, 00:26:32.009 --> 00:26:34.710 have the other people all integrated and thrive 00:26:34.710 --> 00:26:37.450 and be great members of society. But also, you 00:26:37.450 --> 00:26:40.130 know, the prison guards, the men and women of 00:26:40.130 --> 00:26:42.390 law enforcement that are in the prisons, you 00:26:42.390 --> 00:26:44.950 know, their safety. I mean, they have to be in 00:26:44.950 --> 00:26:47.910 these rooms with no windows and not see daylight 00:26:47.910 --> 00:26:50.529 and not see trees and grass and fear for their 00:26:50.529 --> 00:26:54.230 lives. So, you know, it's not about damning the 00:26:54.230 --> 00:26:56.029 prison system. It's just asking the question, 00:26:56.759 --> 00:27:01.220 Can we not do it better? Yeah, definitely. You 00:27:01.220 --> 00:27:03.500 know, a lot of the change, I mean, if you took 00:27:03.500 --> 00:27:07.180 away everyone who was in prison for a drug -related 00:27:07.180 --> 00:27:10.240 offense, whether it's sales, the use, or the 00:27:10.240 --> 00:27:13.460 smugglers, you know, and you put them in a different 00:27:13.460 --> 00:27:17.339 prison, the violence and stuff would still be 00:27:17.339 --> 00:27:20.140 there. Because as you're talking to me and I'm 00:27:20.140 --> 00:27:22.380 listening, I'm trying to picture a model, you 00:27:22.380 --> 00:27:26.559 know, the change has to come from within. It's 00:27:26.559 --> 00:27:29.619 us inmates, us prisoners that decide when we're 00:27:29.619 --> 00:27:32.420 going to riot, when we're going to stop rioting, 00:27:32.440 --> 00:27:35.240 when we're going to allow the prison system to 00:27:35.240 --> 00:27:38.839 run smoothly. The same way I told you that when 00:27:38.839 --> 00:27:41.359 I go to prison, I decided to stop using drugs 00:27:41.359 --> 00:27:44.640 while I was in prison. I mean, if everybody had 00:27:44.640 --> 00:27:47.980 that mentality, you probably wouldn't end up 00:27:47.980 --> 00:27:50.630 going back to prison. At the same time, you have 00:27:50.630 --> 00:27:52.769 to think about the aftercare. Once we're released 00:27:52.769 --> 00:27:57.549 back into the community, what resources are available 00:27:57.549 --> 00:28:01.490 to us? But going back into the prisons, I mean, 00:28:01.529 --> 00:28:04.750 if I can do it, and I was a true righteous addict 00:28:04.750 --> 00:28:08.150 going into prison, but it's just as soon as I 00:28:08.150 --> 00:28:12.869 hit those cells, I was clean. So if I can do 00:28:12.869 --> 00:28:14.730 it, that's proof to me that it's change that 00:28:14.730 --> 00:28:17.619 has to come from within. Why couldn't everybody 00:28:17.619 --> 00:28:21.019 just think that way? You know, even though I 00:28:21.019 --> 00:28:23.400 was on those prison yards running and doing the 00:28:23.400 --> 00:28:26.900 stuff that I had to do to survive, I knew in 00:28:26.900 --> 00:28:31.519 the back of my mind that one day I'm going to 00:28:31.519 --> 00:28:35.500 be clean. But there were those times, you know, 00:28:35.500 --> 00:28:37.720 especially after having picked up my second strike 00:28:37.720 --> 00:28:43.140 here in California, then my mind. My way of thinking 00:28:43.140 --> 00:28:45.579 changed, and then I started thinking, what's 00:28:45.579 --> 00:28:47.559 going to be my third strike? I was no longer 00:28:47.559 --> 00:28:49.779 thinking, oh, I'm going to be good one day. I 00:28:49.779 --> 00:28:52.859 had already given up on that hope of changing 00:28:52.859 --> 00:28:54.759 because once I picked up that second strike, 00:28:54.859 --> 00:28:56.980 I was just waiting. What is my third strike going 00:28:56.980 --> 00:29:01.240 to be? And I had already given up. Even though 00:29:01.240 --> 00:29:05.779 I gave up on myself, the only person that didn't 00:29:05.779 --> 00:29:07.700 give up on me was God because even my parents 00:29:07.700 --> 00:29:11.319 gave up on me. They locked the doors, they changed 00:29:11.319 --> 00:29:13.680 the locks, they kicked me out. My first wife 00:29:13.680 --> 00:29:16.279 left me, neighbors were afraid of me. You know, 00:29:16.279 --> 00:29:18.619 if I got in a two block radius from where my 00:29:18.619 --> 00:29:20.339 parents live, you know, people were calling my 00:29:20.339 --> 00:29:23.259 dad, hey, I just seen him walking down the street. 00:29:23.319 --> 00:29:27.440 You know, I was bad, but it has to come from 00:29:27.440 --> 00:29:30.359 the person because, you know, and I have to speak 00:29:30.359 --> 00:29:32.779 for myself. It came from me. I was able to do 00:29:32.779 --> 00:29:35.619 it. So why can't everybody do it? If you have 00:29:35.619 --> 00:29:38.880 an environment where it's set up for people to 00:29:38.880 --> 00:29:41.599 succeed, And then you have someone that's motivated. 00:29:41.640 --> 00:29:43.380 Obviously, the end result is going to be that 00:29:43.380 --> 00:29:45.839 they're going to do well. But if you have someone 00:29:45.839 --> 00:29:48.380 that's motivated in an environment where they're 00:29:48.380 --> 00:29:50.880 not set up to succeed, that creates more problems. 00:29:51.000 --> 00:29:53.960 So we have to look at both. We have to motivate 00:29:53.960 --> 00:29:56.279 the individuals to believe that they can kick 00:29:56.279 --> 00:29:58.299 addiction or get out of a life of violence. But 00:29:58.299 --> 00:30:01.119 also, we have to look at the system because is 00:30:01.119 --> 00:30:03.259 that setting people up for success or failure? 00:30:04.659 --> 00:30:06.619 Yeah, the system has a lot to do with it because 00:30:06.619 --> 00:30:08.660 I know I shared with you yesterday my story of 00:30:08.660 --> 00:30:11.119 what happened to me after I went to school and 00:30:11.119 --> 00:30:13.759 got a truck driver's license. So I came home 00:30:13.759 --> 00:30:16.599 from prison and it was a friend of mine who had 00:30:16.599 --> 00:30:19.220 also been out on parole who told me about the 00:30:19.220 --> 00:30:22.400 California Department of Vocational Rehab. And 00:30:22.400 --> 00:30:24.240 I went there to get interviewed to see what they 00:30:24.240 --> 00:30:26.799 can help me out with. I wanted to go to truck 00:30:26.799 --> 00:30:29.839 driving school. So I qualified. I met the criteria 00:30:29.839 --> 00:30:33.019 of being currently on parole. And they were able 00:30:33.019 --> 00:30:35.220 to pay for my truck driving school. I got my 00:30:35.220 --> 00:30:39.140 license. I got my CDL. And I found a job immediately 00:30:39.140 --> 00:30:43.400 driving a big rig. And the company that I was 00:30:43.400 --> 00:30:48.000 employed by went all over California. It was 00:30:48.000 --> 00:30:51.099 Golden State Trucking, I think it was. And they 00:30:51.099 --> 00:30:54.480 had contracts with Eggside Battery. And so I 00:30:54.480 --> 00:30:56.339 was driving from Northern California to Southern 00:30:56.339 --> 00:31:01.750 California all week long. Part of my parole condition 00:31:01.750 --> 00:31:06.250 was to be able to drug test weekly. And not being 00:31:06.250 --> 00:31:09.430 in Los Angeles County for most of the time because 00:31:09.430 --> 00:31:12.509 I was driving around up north, I was able to 00:31:12.509 --> 00:31:15.750 get the drug testing done in a parole office 00:31:15.750 --> 00:31:19.690 up in Stockton, I believe. But then the people 00:31:19.690 --> 00:31:22.390 at the Stockton parole office began to question, 00:31:22.569 --> 00:31:25.250 well, who's getting paid to supervise Michael 00:31:25.250 --> 00:31:28.799 Lopez? Is Stockton getting the money or is LA 00:31:28.799 --> 00:31:32.019 County getting the money? And so that became 00:31:32.019 --> 00:31:36.859 a big deal to the state. And ultimately, my parole 00:31:36.859 --> 00:31:40.279 office here in Los Angeles decided to have me 00:31:40.279 --> 00:31:43.079 terminate my job because there was a matter of 00:31:43.079 --> 00:31:45.759 who's going to get the credit for drug testing 00:31:45.759 --> 00:31:49.720 me. And so I was really upset because, hey, I 00:31:49.720 --> 00:31:52.000 went to school. I did what I needed to do to 00:31:52.000 --> 00:31:54.119 get my license. I did what I needed to do to 00:31:54.119 --> 00:31:57.230 get a job. I've been drug testing for, what, 00:31:57.250 --> 00:31:59.890 I don't know, six months clean. I'm working. 00:31:59.970 --> 00:32:02.130 I'm sending my money home to my wife, you know, 00:32:02.150 --> 00:32:04.349 while I'm out on the road. And now I have to 00:32:04.349 --> 00:32:06.470 quit because you guys are fighting over who's 00:32:06.470 --> 00:32:08.230 going to get the credit for drug testing me. 00:32:08.730 --> 00:32:11.930 So I remember calling my local representative 00:32:11.930 --> 00:32:15.109 at the time. Her name was Martha Escutia. And 00:32:15.109 --> 00:32:19.150 I presented my case to her. And within a couple 00:32:19.150 --> 00:32:21.829 of days, I guess she contacted the parole office. 00:32:21.970 --> 00:32:24.589 And I don't know what she told them. But they 00:32:24.589 --> 00:32:28.190 called me back and said, OK, go ahead and get 00:32:28.190 --> 00:32:31.029 your job back. So I'm assuming she said, hey, 00:32:31.109 --> 00:32:32.890 you better give this guy's job back. I mean, 00:32:32.910 --> 00:32:35.809 he's on parole. He's doing great. Why would you 00:32:35.809 --> 00:32:39.210 interfere? So the system there, you know, over 00:32:39.210 --> 00:32:43.309 fighting over money was willing to let me fall 00:32:43.309 --> 00:32:46.410 again. You know, so the system that's designed 00:32:46.410 --> 00:32:48.859 to help me, I mean, they. call themselves the 00:32:48.859 --> 00:32:51.240 California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation. 00:32:51.400 --> 00:32:53.319 But they weren't rehabilitating me. They were 00:32:53.319 --> 00:32:56.180 trying to make sure I failed again. But I did 00:32:56.180 --> 00:32:58.019 what I needed to do at that time. I made the 00:32:58.019 --> 00:33:00.500 calls to the right people and was able to get 00:33:00.500 --> 00:33:03.380 my job back. Even though it didn't work out for 00:33:03.380 --> 00:33:07.160 me in the end, ultimately, ultimately, I did 00:33:07.160 --> 00:33:10.779 end up falling again, going back to drugs. And 00:33:10.779 --> 00:33:16.279 I myself let my... My CDL expired because I knew 00:33:16.279 --> 00:33:18.259 that wasn't the profession for me any longer. 00:33:18.339 --> 00:33:22.859 I was now back on dope. And, you know, to have 00:33:22.859 --> 00:33:25.400 me high on crack, driving a big rig over these 00:33:25.400 --> 00:33:28.420 highways was not safe for me or anyone. So I 00:33:28.420 --> 00:33:31.400 on my own let that expire. But just the fact 00:33:31.400 --> 00:33:35.759 that I did, I gave it an honest try. And the 00:33:35.759 --> 00:33:37.880 system was the first to try to drag me down. 00:33:38.480 --> 00:33:41.119 I know. And I'm sure there's some great, great 00:33:41.119 --> 00:33:44.599 people in prisons that are really bending over 00:33:44.599 --> 00:33:46.440 backwards to try and do good things. And I know 00:33:46.440 --> 00:33:48.599 everyone listening that's a member of a police 00:33:48.599 --> 00:33:51.440 department or a fire department is probably banging 00:33:51.440 --> 00:33:53.220 their head against a brick wall trying to implement 00:33:53.220 --> 00:33:55.299 things to make their departments better. I know 00:33:55.299 --> 00:33:59.900 I did in my last place. But fundamentally, if 00:33:59.900 --> 00:34:02.180 we have a prison system that's profit -based, 00:34:02.400 --> 00:34:05.680 that people make money from having more prisoners. 00:34:06.369 --> 00:34:08.750 That inherently seems like it's setting up for 00:34:08.750 --> 00:34:10.730 failure. The same way as the country I come from, 00:34:10.769 --> 00:34:14.090 we had national health. And, you know, where 00:34:14.090 --> 00:34:16.590 we are now in the States, it's a profit -based 00:34:16.590 --> 00:34:19.070 healthcare system. So people make money off sick 00:34:19.070 --> 00:34:22.289 Americans, you know. Yeah, that's all it is. 00:34:22.349 --> 00:34:23.969 It's all about the money. I mean, in the California 00:34:23.969 --> 00:34:27.030 prison system, you know, nowadays, my last prison 00:34:27.030 --> 00:34:33.679 stint was 10 years ago. They now have something 00:34:33.679 --> 00:34:37.219 new to where back in the day, my family can go 00:34:37.219 --> 00:34:40.619 to the market and put me together a quarterly 00:34:40.619 --> 00:34:43.400 package of canned goods, of clothing, anything 00:34:43.400 --> 00:34:45.860 they wanted to send me, but that had a 30 -pound 00:34:45.860 --> 00:34:48.059 weight limit. They can send me anything they 00:34:48.059 --> 00:34:52.119 wanted. Now they can no longer do that. Families 00:34:52.119 --> 00:34:56.280 are forced to buy from a certain catalog that 00:34:56.280 --> 00:34:59.840 I understand is prison guard -owned. It's a prison 00:34:59.840 --> 00:35:04.150 guard -owned company. to where you have to buy 00:35:04.150 --> 00:35:07.849 the packages from them. So it's all about the 00:35:07.849 --> 00:35:11.570 money. Yeah. And I think, like I said, just to 00:35:11.570 --> 00:35:15.690 be clear, my goal is for us to make people's 00:35:15.690 --> 00:35:18.590 lives better, to be safer for the guards, to 00:35:18.590 --> 00:35:20.489 be in an environment where you're not worried 00:35:20.489 --> 00:35:24.710 about being shanked. And we have to reverse engineer 00:35:24.710 --> 00:35:26.590 some of the ways that we've done these things. 00:35:27.339 --> 00:35:30.239 Because, again, I mean, if you look, you don't 00:35:30.239 --> 00:35:33.360 have to be a genius statistician to see the trend, 00:35:33.420 --> 00:35:35.880 for example, in the prison population here to 00:35:35.880 --> 00:35:39.409 ask the question. this is not working. What can 00:35:39.409 --> 00:35:41.230 we do that's different? I know that some prisons 00:35:41.230 --> 00:35:43.929 in America have already been to places like Norway 00:35:43.929 --> 00:35:47.230 and are starting to take elements of their system 00:35:47.230 --> 00:35:49.650 back. I think, was it Attica, I think was one 00:35:49.650 --> 00:35:52.590 of them. But yeah, I mean, good for them. You 00:35:52.590 --> 00:35:54.670 know, that's what we need is innovators in these 00:35:54.670 --> 00:35:57.389 fields because we don't, you know, all we do 00:35:57.389 --> 00:35:59.570 when we lock up people and create the system 00:35:59.570 --> 00:36:02.260 is it make it more dangerous for... the people 00:36:02.260 --> 00:36:04.940 in the cities and towns, the first responders. 00:36:05.179 --> 00:36:07.659 I mean, I've had paramedics that have been stabbed 00:36:07.659 --> 00:36:09.699 on this show, police officers that have been 00:36:09.699 --> 00:36:13.340 attempted executions on, I mean, all kinds of 00:36:13.340 --> 00:36:17.139 things. So it's making the nation safer. And 00:36:17.139 --> 00:36:20.039 then taking these little boys and girls that 00:36:20.039 --> 00:36:22.699 find their way through these paths, especially 00:36:22.699 --> 00:36:24.440 if they were set up kind of for failure with 00:36:24.440 --> 00:36:27.590 some pretty shitty childhoods. and steering them 00:36:27.590 --> 00:36:30.449 back. So they become doctors, lawyers, paramedics, 00:36:30.449 --> 00:36:33.449 police officers, whatever. So this isn't a demonizing 00:36:33.449 --> 00:36:37.869 of prisons or saying that all prisoners grew 00:36:37.869 --> 00:36:40.389 up this way and should be forgiven, but it's 00:36:40.389 --> 00:36:42.760 just... how can we do it better? And when I talk 00:36:42.760 --> 00:36:45.119 to people like you and all the other guests that 00:36:45.119 --> 00:36:47.960 we've discussed this particular topic, as a regular 00:36:47.960 --> 00:36:51.579 member of society, it seems like there are elements 00:36:51.579 --> 00:36:54.460 we could do to reduce the number of people that 00:36:54.460 --> 00:36:57.920 even go to prison through marijuana, prostitution, 00:36:57.980 --> 00:37:01.079 things like that, use models that are legalizing 00:37:01.079 --> 00:37:02.900 them. So all of a sudden these are just addicts 00:37:02.900 --> 00:37:05.980 or prostitutes are actually in a brothel that's 00:37:05.980 --> 00:37:08.500 clean and they're not getting murdered like I've 00:37:08.500 --> 00:37:12.630 seen in my career. And then, you know, use that 00:37:12.630 --> 00:37:15.369 money in psychological counseling and addiction 00:37:15.369 --> 00:37:18.469 counseling and job creation so then we can steer 00:37:18.469 --> 00:37:21.090 this giant ship that's going the wrong way back 00:37:21.090 --> 00:37:24.030 to the way it should be going. Yes, definitely. 00:37:24.289 --> 00:37:28.130 I mean, you can't find a drug rehabilitation 00:37:28.130 --> 00:37:30.949 center here in L .A. that has room because there's 00:37:30.949 --> 00:37:32.929 no funding for them. There's no space. There's 00:37:32.929 --> 00:37:35.170 no bed space available. But there's a lot of 00:37:35.170 --> 00:37:39.320 money available to keep building prisons. I don't 00:37:39.320 --> 00:37:42.920 understand that. I mean, people need help. Yes, 00:37:44.519 --> 00:37:47.159 people are going to keep falling in their addiction, 00:37:47.340 --> 00:37:51.460 but it's part of recovery. You're not going to 00:37:51.460 --> 00:37:54.099 get it right the first time. Look at me. It took 00:37:54.099 --> 00:37:55.960 me 10 times to get it. I don't know how many 00:37:55.960 --> 00:37:59.440 times, but I got it. It took me to actually run 00:37:59.440 --> 00:38:02.039 out of gas to get tired of the lifestyle. But 00:38:02.039 --> 00:38:05.940 more resources need to be available to people, 00:38:06.000 --> 00:38:08.590 to addicts. You know, to addicts, you know, there's 00:38:08.590 --> 00:38:12.269 not enough drug rehabs. Yeah. Well, let's steer 00:38:12.269 --> 00:38:14.190 you out of the prison system. So tell me about 00:38:14.190 --> 00:38:17.510 that. Tell me about that moment where you made 00:38:17.510 --> 00:38:20.769 the decision to finally, you know, not only get 00:38:20.769 --> 00:38:23.929 off the path of crime, but also addiction as 00:38:23.929 --> 00:38:30.570 well. So one day, let's see, 2006, I'm going 00:38:30.570 --> 00:38:33.969 to say somewhere maybe 2007, somewhere around 00:38:33.969 --> 00:38:37.050 there. I was in my living room watching television 00:38:37.050 --> 00:38:40.889 and a commercial came on the TV. And this is 00:38:40.889 --> 00:38:43.449 the honest to God truth. And a lot of people 00:38:43.449 --> 00:38:46.570 laugh when I say this story, but it was my turning 00:38:46.570 --> 00:38:49.030 point. A commercial came on where the guy is 00:38:49.030 --> 00:38:50.989 on the TV and says, hey, you, yeah, you just 00:38:50.989 --> 00:38:53.090 sitting right there. What are you going to do 00:38:53.090 --> 00:38:54.650 about your future? You know, time to go back 00:38:54.650 --> 00:38:57.389 to school, something like that. And so it caught 00:38:57.389 --> 00:39:00.559 my attention. And as I was reading the programs 00:39:00.559 --> 00:39:03.619 that were available at this certain school, youth 00:39:03.619 --> 00:39:06.300 advocate popped up and I was curious, youth advocate, 00:39:06.460 --> 00:39:09.820 what is that? And after doing the research, I 00:39:09.820 --> 00:39:12.800 pretty much translated it into being a gang counselor. 00:39:13.480 --> 00:39:17.139 Hey, I can do that. I know gangs, you know, and 00:39:17.139 --> 00:39:19.599 so I did the footwork to get enrolled in school. 00:39:20.579 --> 00:39:24.199 I went back to school and I did earn my bachelor's 00:39:24.199 --> 00:39:27.460 degree, ironically, in criminal justice. Because 00:39:27.460 --> 00:39:31.019 I set out to be a gang counselor. But through 00:39:31.019 --> 00:39:33.920 all the people that I met going to school, the 00:39:33.920 --> 00:39:36.980 idea of what I wanted to do changed so many times. 00:39:37.300 --> 00:39:39.920 And after graduating with a bachelor's degree 00:39:39.920 --> 00:39:43.639 in criminal justice, I enrolled to Argosy University 00:39:43.639 --> 00:39:47.179 in the city of Orange. And I earned a master's 00:39:47.179 --> 00:39:50.619 degree in 2014, a master's in forensic psychology. 00:39:51.579 --> 00:39:55.960 How I ended up in the psychology field. I have 00:39:55.960 --> 00:39:58.179 no idea. I guess it was God's plan. But that's 00:39:58.179 --> 00:40:00.360 what I'm doing now with my bachelor's or I'm 00:40:00.360 --> 00:40:02.599 sorry, my master's degree. I was able to land 00:40:02.599 --> 00:40:05.000 a spot with the Mental Health Association of 00:40:05.000 --> 00:40:09.000 Orange County. I am a supervisor now. I supervise 00:40:09.000 --> 00:40:12.719 three advocates. And what we do is we advocate 00:40:12.719 --> 00:40:16.260 for patients who are on an involuntary hold on 00:40:16.260 --> 00:40:19.860 psychiatric units throughout Orange County. And 00:40:19.860 --> 00:40:23.639 there it is. You know, I'm back in the workforce. 00:40:25.239 --> 00:40:28.900 I'm a supervisor at that. After having been through 00:40:28.900 --> 00:40:30.760 everything I've been through, I'm now the guy 00:40:30.760 --> 00:40:32.960 that people fax their resumes to trying to get 00:40:32.960 --> 00:40:37.880 a job. It amazes me. I wish I can keep going 00:40:37.880 --> 00:40:40.579 to school. I can't afford to keep going to school. 00:40:40.659 --> 00:40:43.579 I'd like to earn a doctorate and maybe a social 00:40:43.579 --> 00:40:48.159 work or criminal justice. But I went back to 00:40:48.159 --> 00:40:51.820 school and I was amazed at the fact that I'm 00:40:51.820 --> 00:40:55.139 still teachable. After everything I've been through, 00:40:55.159 --> 00:40:57.079 after everything I've done, everything I've seen, 00:40:57.340 --> 00:41:02.079 I'm still teachable. And I give all my thanks 00:41:02.079 --> 00:41:05.900 to God for having that master plan for me, even 00:41:05.900 --> 00:41:08.900 though I was blind all those years. But I'm still 00:41:08.900 --> 00:41:13.079 teachable. And so I'm going to be 52. I've had 00:41:13.079 --> 00:41:16.860 this current job for going on six years. As an 00:41:16.860 --> 00:41:20.949 adult, I've never had a job over 90 days. And 00:41:20.949 --> 00:41:23.110 that's the honest to goodness truth. I've always 00:41:23.110 --> 00:41:25.989 had a job, but I always lost them because I got 00:41:25.989 --> 00:41:28.329 caught stealing from my job or I got arrested 00:41:28.329 --> 00:41:30.510 somewhere down the line and lost those jobs. 00:41:31.309 --> 00:41:34.170 But when I made up my mind to go back to school 00:41:34.170 --> 00:41:39.449 to stop that life, my mind was made up. I was 00:41:39.449 --> 00:41:42.190 tired. I ran out of gas. People say, what was 00:41:42.190 --> 00:41:45.329 your turning point? I probably missed a whole 00:41:45.329 --> 00:41:48.019 bunch of turning points. But it took me to running 00:41:48.019 --> 00:41:50.579 out of gas. I got tired of the lifestyle, man. 00:41:50.659 --> 00:41:53.280 I just, I threw in the towel. I'm good. I'm not 00:41:53.280 --> 00:41:55.360 going to beat the system. You know, and I lost 00:41:55.360 --> 00:41:57.880 a lot in my fire, you know, being in prison when 00:41:57.880 --> 00:42:00.159 my mom died and all that kind of stuff, losing 00:42:00.159 --> 00:42:02.820 my first wife. I now have a relationship with 00:42:02.820 --> 00:42:05.260 my two older daughters. I get to go see my grandkids. 00:42:05.400 --> 00:42:09.280 But, you know, I'm living life now. I do a lot 00:42:09.280 --> 00:42:11.579 of public speaking at, you know, local universities 00:42:11.579 --> 00:42:14.539 and colleges. You know, I tell these kids that 00:42:14.539 --> 00:42:16.380 are in these classrooms, these students, you 00:42:16.380 --> 00:42:18.059 know, even though they're adults, I still call 00:42:18.059 --> 00:42:21.860 them kids. Something that's big for me is in 00:42:21.860 --> 00:42:24.340 my back pocket, I have a debit card with my name 00:42:24.340 --> 00:42:28.360 on it, with a pin number that I set. I didn't 00:42:28.360 --> 00:42:31.219 hack it. I didn't steal it. It's my debit card. 00:42:31.320 --> 00:42:33.760 And even though I've only had it for six years, 00:42:34.000 --> 00:42:37.260 it's brand new to me, brother. It's brand new 00:42:37.260 --> 00:42:41.860 to me. And it's amazing. You know, I have a checkbook 00:42:41.860 --> 00:42:43.880 with my name and there's money in the bank account. 00:42:43.980 --> 00:42:46.860 My bills are paid. I'm not running from the law. 00:42:47.059 --> 00:42:50.239 I'm providing for my family. I care about the 00:42:50.239 --> 00:42:52.260 population that I serve. I've even started a 00:42:52.260 --> 00:42:56.460 nonprofit called Mission Echo, a legitimate nonprofit 00:42:56.460 --> 00:42:59.159 where we feed the homeless on Skid Row. And I 00:42:59.159 --> 00:43:02.340 have the backing of the lowrider community nationwide. 00:43:02.840 --> 00:43:05.800 Many of us, many of us are convicted felons. 00:43:07.119 --> 00:43:09.619 They see my cause. They see my mission. I've 00:43:09.619 --> 00:43:13.179 been loyal to it. And we have grown in six years 00:43:13.179 --> 00:43:15.159 feeding the homeless on Skid Row in downtown 00:43:15.159 --> 00:43:17.179 LA. As a matter of fact, I think that's how you 00:43:17.179 --> 00:43:20.119 came across me. You saw the news segment that 00:43:20.119 --> 00:43:39.300 Channel 7 here in LA did. realize that a lot 00:43:39.300 --> 00:43:41.739 of this addiction, a lot of the crime, even violence, 00:43:41.980 --> 00:43:47.099 you know, is attributed to a lot of mental health 00:43:47.099 --> 00:43:50.820 issues. Because, I mean, from my perspective, 00:43:50.940 --> 00:43:52.900 you know, these drugs are basically filling voids 00:43:52.900 --> 00:43:57.000 in people's souls. Yes, and they're, I mean, 00:43:57.079 --> 00:43:59.480 they're even taking people's souls. You know, 00:43:59.519 --> 00:44:02.099 the stuff that I see is so heartbreaking, you 00:44:02.099 --> 00:44:04.800 know, driving up and down Skid Row. feeding homeless 00:44:04.800 --> 00:44:07.840 people, advocating for these patients on these 00:44:07.840 --> 00:44:13.119 psychiatric units. It's a very sad thing. And 00:44:13.119 --> 00:44:15.760 a lot of it is drug -induced, and some of it 00:44:15.760 --> 00:44:19.739 is hereditary. But to know that the drug -induced 00:44:19.739 --> 00:44:22.679 ones can still be saved, you can be helped, and 00:44:22.679 --> 00:44:25.739 there's no help for them, or not enough help, 00:44:25.800 --> 00:44:30.820 not enough resources. It's just a sad thing to 00:44:30.820 --> 00:44:34.039 see how I ended up in forensic psychology. I 00:44:34.039 --> 00:44:36.940 have no idea. I still ask myself today, Lord, 00:44:37.280 --> 00:44:41.559 what were you thinking? I never, ever in a million 00:44:41.559 --> 00:44:44.300 years thought I'd be doing what I'm doing right 00:44:44.300 --> 00:44:46.260 now. If you'd have told me in the 90s that, hey, 00:44:46.340 --> 00:44:48.719 in 2020, man, you're going to be clean, you're 00:44:48.719 --> 00:44:51.300 going to come across 10 years clean and sober, 00:44:51.420 --> 00:44:53.000 and you're going to be a supervisor, and you're 00:44:53.000 --> 00:44:55.539 going to be remarried and kids, I would have 00:44:55.539 --> 00:44:58.380 laughed at you because in the 90s, I was ready 00:44:58.380 --> 00:45:00.079 to throw in the towel waiting for that third 00:45:00.079 --> 00:45:04.460 strike to hit. But my day came and I was just 00:45:04.460 --> 00:45:08.059 tired, brother. I was just tired, man. It's amazing. 00:45:08.360 --> 00:45:10.579 Well, you mentioned the involuntary hold. So 00:45:10.579 --> 00:45:14.039 a few weeks ago, I think it was the beginning 00:45:14.039 --> 00:45:18.940 of December, my son actually got sent to a psych 00:45:18.940 --> 00:45:23.539 ward. Very long story short, he had been going 00:45:23.539 --> 00:45:28.019 through some depression and had... basically 00:45:28.019 --> 00:45:30.300 been led through a visualization exercise by 00:45:30.300 --> 00:45:32.820 a teacher totally innocently and he started getting 00:45:32.820 --> 00:45:35.019 upset and basically he was triggered he was thinking 00:45:35.019 --> 00:45:37.699 about the beach and he'd had a kind of like a 00:45:37.699 --> 00:45:39.659 near drowning experience at the beach a while 00:45:39.659 --> 00:45:42.820 ago um he didn't actually nearly drown but he 00:45:42.820 --> 00:45:44.559 got pulled out by riptides and it scared the 00:45:44.559 --> 00:45:47.559 shit out of him um but so he starts tearing up 00:45:47.559 --> 00:45:49.239 he starts seeing some of these you know images 00:45:49.239 --> 00:45:53.059 of death and things he tells the counselor he 00:45:53.059 --> 00:45:56.159 sent to, and they bakeracked him, which is in 00:45:56.159 --> 00:45:58.539 Florida when you send it to an involuntary hold 00:45:58.539 --> 00:46:01.119 for a child. Didn't fit any of the protocols 00:46:01.119 --> 00:46:04.739 for the school. And I mean, it was one of the 00:46:04.739 --> 00:46:07.380 worst two days. No, absolutely the worst two 00:46:07.380 --> 00:46:08.800 days of my life. But just like you said, you 00:46:08.800 --> 00:46:11.280 couldn't get to your mother. It was averse. I 00:46:11.280 --> 00:46:13.119 couldn't get to my son. I couldn't get my son 00:46:13.119 --> 00:46:17.639 out of this place. And it was awful. And so after 00:46:17.639 --> 00:46:20.360 this whole thing, and I got him out, I started 00:46:20.360 --> 00:46:24.780 researching. And I mean, not just in this county, 00:46:24.820 --> 00:46:27.800 in the state of Florida, there's a complete abuse 00:46:27.800 --> 00:46:31.300 of this in the school systems. And it's a kind 00:46:31.300 --> 00:46:34.199 of knee jerk from, I think, from the Parkland 00:46:34.199 --> 00:46:36.239 shooting that we had in South Florida in 2015. 00:46:37.150 --> 00:46:39.889 And these schools, and it was nauseating because 00:46:39.889 --> 00:46:41.869 I went all the way up the chain on both sides. 00:46:42.010 --> 00:46:43.730 The schools blamed the sheriff's department. 00:46:43.730 --> 00:46:45.170 The sheriff's department blamed the schools. 00:46:45.449 --> 00:46:48.469 And it was disgusting because no one took ownership 00:46:48.469 --> 00:46:51.789 of this. And no one was held accountable. You 00:46:51.789 --> 00:46:54.070 could just make up the rules, send a child to 00:46:54.070 --> 00:46:57.849 a holding facility, and no one would come after 00:46:57.849 --> 00:47:01.070 you. It was awful. And as I pulled the stats, 00:47:01.269 --> 00:47:04.630 I mean, not only were there... exponentially 00:47:04.630 --> 00:47:07.289 more kids sent to these facilities but my son's 00:47:07.289 --> 00:47:09.449 school was was reappearing over and over and 00:47:09.449 --> 00:47:11.909 over again and i'm not done with pursuing that 00:47:11.909 --> 00:47:15.369 for everyone listening um but so that i got to 00:47:15.369 --> 00:47:18.969 witness that very very recently through a child's 00:47:18.969 --> 00:47:20.969 eyes so when you said that that was what you 00:47:20.969 --> 00:47:23.429 kind of specialized in at the moment what is 00:47:23.429 --> 00:47:27.170 your um uh you know what have you witnessed with 00:47:27.170 --> 00:47:30.150 those holds children and adults through through 00:47:30.150 --> 00:47:35.619 your experience Well, first of all, I come across 00:47:35.619 --> 00:47:40.659 a lot of patients who are homeless, and so many 00:47:40.659 --> 00:47:43.960 of these holds are written for patients who don't 00:47:43.960 --> 00:47:47.860 really need to be on an involuntary hold. I've 00:47:47.860 --> 00:47:50.579 come to find out that doctors don't always follow 00:47:50.579 --> 00:47:53.719 the protocol of offering the patient voluntary 00:47:53.719 --> 00:47:56.719 treatment. They just automatically write them 00:47:56.719 --> 00:47:59.739 up on these 5250s and place them on involuntary 00:47:59.739 --> 00:48:04.179 holds. I've also come across certain hospitals 00:48:04.179 --> 00:48:08.500 in Orange County where certain police departments 00:48:08.500 --> 00:48:14.219 are often putting people on 5150s just because 00:48:14.219 --> 00:48:18.280 they recognize them on the street. It's like 00:48:18.280 --> 00:48:20.380 a gang member. I can be walking down the street 00:48:20.380 --> 00:48:23.360 and a cop who's arrested me five times will stop 00:48:23.360 --> 00:48:25.599 me and arrest me for something. Well, a lot of 00:48:25.599 --> 00:48:28.190 these police officers. are doing the same thing 00:48:28.190 --> 00:48:31.610 in a certain city in Orange County where they 00:48:31.610 --> 00:48:34.030 recognize, hey, that's so -and -so. We put her 00:48:34.030 --> 00:48:36.989 on a 5150. She's out already. They'll pull over 00:48:36.989 --> 00:48:41.030 and put her on another bogus 5150, and then the 00:48:41.030 --> 00:48:44.170 doctor will automatically put it on a 5250. So 00:48:44.170 --> 00:48:47.710 it's the abuse of power that I'm seeing with 00:48:47.710 --> 00:48:52.130 my own eyes, both by law enforcement and by hospital 00:48:52.130 --> 00:48:57.940 staff. I do work on adolescent units on Mondays 00:48:57.940 --> 00:49:01.199 and Thursdays with kids who are in group homes, 00:49:01.340 --> 00:49:05.000 foster homes with a lot of issues. And I mean, 00:49:05.059 --> 00:49:09.440 sad, sad issues, sad, sad problems going on at 00:49:09.440 --> 00:49:13.940 home. A lot of these kids just automatically 00:49:13.940 --> 00:49:16.679 being, you know, put on involuntary holds as 00:49:16.679 --> 00:49:19.460 well to where if you're already in a group home 00:49:19.460 --> 00:49:21.440 and there's therapeutic help there for you and, 00:49:21.440 --> 00:49:24.340 you know, you have all these counselors. Why 00:49:24.340 --> 00:49:27.420 would they put you on an involuntary hold? Use 00:49:27.420 --> 00:49:30.820 the resources that are out there. I had a patient 00:49:30.820 --> 00:49:33.480 a few weeks back on an adolescent unit, a seven 00:49:33.480 --> 00:49:36.219 -year -old who was placed on an involuntary hold. 00:49:36.320 --> 00:49:38.960 Now, how am I supposed to walk into a hospital 00:49:38.960 --> 00:49:42.900 room and explain criteria of an involuntary hold 00:49:42.900 --> 00:49:45.969 to a seven -year -old? And you hear that age 00:49:45.969 --> 00:49:48.949 over and over again. You Google that in anyone's 00:49:48.949 --> 00:49:51.570 county, there will be those stories. And the 00:49:51.570 --> 00:49:55.309 thing is, let me be very clear, that the 5150, 00:49:55.409 --> 00:49:58.929 the Baker Act, absolutely has a place for someone 00:49:58.929 --> 00:50:02.610 who is an immediate danger to themselves or others. 00:50:03.130 --> 00:50:06.170 But that's being interpreted, especially in the 00:50:06.170 --> 00:50:09.969 schools, as you even say the word kill or death 00:50:09.969 --> 00:50:12.400 or whatever, and they're just, you know. literally 00:50:12.400 --> 00:50:14.360 locking these kids up and like hold on time out 00:50:14.360 --> 00:50:17.099 i mean it says in their protocols very clearly 00:50:17.099 --> 00:50:20.320 like you need to separate between a kid talking 00:50:20.320 --> 00:50:24.739 imagination you know lip service and a threat 00:50:24.739 --> 00:50:27.900 like a substantive threat and that's not the 00:50:27.900 --> 00:50:29.940 case and what was sad is when my little boy was 00:50:29.940 --> 00:50:32.199 in there when i went to visit him there were 00:50:32.199 --> 00:50:36.420 two other kids from the same fucking school from 00:50:36.420 --> 00:50:38.860 the same school at the same time in this facility 00:50:39.530 --> 00:50:43.429 And again, I didn't obviously get to talk to 00:50:43.429 --> 00:50:44.489 them. They were someone else's children. But 00:50:44.489 --> 00:50:46.750 you could tell that they were not in crisis. 00:50:46.889 --> 00:50:49.829 I've been a medic for 15 years. I know what someone 00:50:49.829 --> 00:50:53.269 in crisis looks like. These kids were quiet and 00:50:53.269 --> 00:50:54.610 reading. And then when their parents, they were 00:50:54.610 --> 00:50:56.309 teary -eyed when their parents came to visit. 00:50:56.530 --> 00:50:58.989 And that's the thing is just like I said, making 00:50:58.989 --> 00:51:02.590 this country better is I think I get the knee 00:51:02.590 --> 00:51:06.630 jerk after these shootings and the violence that 00:51:06.630 --> 00:51:11.079 we see. The pendulum seems to have swung the 00:51:11.079 --> 00:51:13.719 complete other way. And the sad thing is the 00:51:13.719 --> 00:51:16.719 people that need to be there, now we're diluting 00:51:16.719 --> 00:51:19.320 the services in these facilities because they're 00:51:19.320 --> 00:51:20.940 sending everyone there. And the people that are 00:51:20.940 --> 00:51:24.340 truly in crisis that are suicidal or, you know, 00:51:24.360 --> 00:51:27.420 homicidal, not getting the attention they need 00:51:27.420 --> 00:51:31.059 now. No, not at all. Because especially in schools, 00:51:31.179 --> 00:51:33.199 I mean, everyone's worried about, you know, being 00:51:33.199 --> 00:51:36.590 sued. for not recognizing something ahead of 00:51:36.590 --> 00:51:40.269 time. It's a liability. So everyone's running 00:51:40.269 --> 00:51:44.449 to the use of the 5150 to cover it up and to 00:51:44.449 --> 00:51:47.789 hopefully let someone else figure it out. But 00:51:47.789 --> 00:51:49.429 at the same time, you're hurting the people you're 00:51:49.429 --> 00:51:53.690 supposed to be trying to help. 5150 is pretty 00:51:53.690 --> 00:51:56.690 deep. It's pretty deep to be put on a 5150, let 00:51:56.690 --> 00:51:59.070 alone a 5250, because you're scarring that child. 00:51:59.839 --> 00:52:02.300 You know, you're exposing that child to a righteous 00:52:02.300 --> 00:52:04.980 psychiatric unit to where they're mixed with 00:52:04.980 --> 00:52:07.559 kids who really, really need to be there. But 00:52:07.559 --> 00:52:09.480 now you've scarred these kids who didn't really 00:52:09.480 --> 00:52:11.280 need to be there. So you're putting them on that 00:52:11.280 --> 00:52:14.119 path. Absolutely. And then, like you said, with 00:52:14.119 --> 00:52:17.000 the foster system, you know, and again, there 00:52:17.000 --> 00:52:19.239 are some amazing facilities out there. I'm just 00:52:19.239 --> 00:52:21.980 picking on the ones that aren't, you know, but 00:52:21.980 --> 00:52:24.599 we've got to take a step back and remember that 00:52:24.599 --> 00:52:26.960 when you and I went to school and I've spoken 00:52:26.960 --> 00:52:29.559 about this a few times. All we had to worry about 00:52:29.559 --> 00:52:31.239 at school was the fire alarm. And I don't know 00:52:31.239 --> 00:52:32.699 about you, but that never triggered me. I never 00:52:32.699 --> 00:52:34.840 had visions of me burning to death in a school. 00:52:34.960 --> 00:52:36.599 It was just a fun way of getting out of class 00:52:36.599 --> 00:52:41.480 for 30 minutes. Yes. And I will admit, I pulled 00:52:41.480 --> 00:52:45.079 a few of those fire alarms. I did. I'm not going 00:52:45.079 --> 00:52:47.780 to lie. But yeah, that's all we had to worry 00:52:47.780 --> 00:52:50.880 about. Yeah. Now they have drills where they 00:52:50.880 --> 00:52:52.719 have to pretend someone's coming in to murder 00:52:52.719 --> 00:52:55.500 them. And my little boy's been through two actual 00:52:55.500 --> 00:52:58.599 code reds where they... genuinely thought someone 00:52:58.599 --> 00:53:01.159 was in the school coming to the school and you 00:53:01.159 --> 00:53:03.019 telling me that that's not sending these kids 00:53:03.019 --> 00:53:05.500 on edge so you've got them you know going through 00:53:05.500 --> 00:53:07.539 that then you you literally are shipping them 00:53:07.539 --> 00:53:10.239 off in police cars every time they even show 00:53:10.239 --> 00:53:13.880 any emotion whatsoever and and it's it's terrible 00:53:13.880 --> 00:53:16.260 we need to pull the reins back on some of these 00:53:16.260 --> 00:53:19.460 you know these knee jerk um holds because like 00:53:19.460 --> 00:53:23.139 you said it is damaging the kids and it's also 00:53:23.139 --> 00:53:26.250 you know uh clogging up these facilities for 00:53:26.250 --> 00:53:28.329 the people that absolutely need them so and what's 00:53:28.329 --> 00:53:30.590 sad is when i talked about this you mentioned 00:53:30.590 --> 00:53:33.030 the foster homes that's what i was told i had 00:53:33.030 --> 00:53:35.730 either one of two things parents told me oh it 00:53:35.730 --> 00:53:37.329 happened to my child so i pulled them out of 00:53:37.329 --> 00:53:39.409 school and i say well did you do anything about 00:53:39.409 --> 00:53:42.269 it no i just moved schools or other people told 00:53:42.269 --> 00:53:44.789 me so many kids that it happens to are like you 00:53:44.789 --> 00:53:46.650 said from foster systems and things where they 00:53:46.650 --> 00:53:50.800 don't have anyone to advocate for them So it's 00:53:50.800 --> 00:53:52.599 time that, you know, I mean, you're already doing 00:53:52.599 --> 00:53:55.539 it and that's amazing. But in this area that 00:53:55.539 --> 00:53:57.420 someone needs to stand up and be like, what the 00:53:57.420 --> 00:54:00.139 hell are we doing here? You know, because they're 00:54:00.139 --> 00:54:01.820 just getting away with it. And I know it's not 00:54:01.820 --> 00:54:03.539 malicious. I know these teachers aren't waking 00:54:03.539 --> 00:54:07.659 up, you know, just planning to mess up some child's 00:54:07.659 --> 00:54:10.400 mind. But at the same time, until someone calls 00:54:10.400 --> 00:54:13.000 them on it, it's not going to change. Yeah, no 00:54:13.000 --> 00:54:15.300 one's being held accountable for what they're 00:54:15.300 --> 00:54:18.400 doing. They're just passing the buck and locking 00:54:18.400 --> 00:54:21.659 the kids up. Yeah, yeah, exactly. All right. 00:54:21.659 --> 00:54:23.559 Well, you mentioned Mission Echo. So let's transition 00:54:23.559 --> 00:54:27.139 to that. I love the story of how that first started 00:54:27.139 --> 00:54:31.539 with the donuts. And then lead me through where 00:54:31.539 --> 00:54:35.460 you are now. The donuts. So what happened was 00:54:35.460 --> 00:54:38.519 six years ago when I first started working the 00:54:38.519 --> 00:54:41.199 job that I'm currently doing, I was really exposed 00:54:41.199 --> 00:54:44.900 to the homeless population in Orange County. 00:54:46.719 --> 00:54:48.699 I dabbed a little bit because my addiction took 00:54:48.699 --> 00:54:52.639 me to being homeless, not for very long, but 00:54:52.639 --> 00:54:55.019 long enough to say, wait a minute, what the hell 00:54:55.019 --> 00:54:58.139 am I doing here? And so when I started working 00:54:58.139 --> 00:55:00.420 for the Mental Health Association of Orange County, 00:55:00.500 --> 00:55:03.219 being exposed big time to skid rows in Orange 00:55:03.219 --> 00:55:07.039 County and the population, one Saturday I talked 00:55:07.039 --> 00:55:09.460 to my wife and I said, hey, let's go out and 00:55:09.460 --> 00:55:11.840 buy some coffee and donuts and pizza and let's 00:55:11.840 --> 00:55:14.440 go out to Civic Center in Orange County. And 00:55:14.440 --> 00:55:18.260 so that's what we did. Bought 15 pizzas and I 00:55:18.260 --> 00:55:20.019 think like 10 dozen donuts, something like that. 00:55:20.059 --> 00:55:23.159 I bought myself my own industrial coffee maker 00:55:23.159 --> 00:55:25.300 and we bought an egg glue and we filled it up 00:55:25.300 --> 00:55:28.599 with coffee. And my wife and I and my seven -year 00:55:28.599 --> 00:55:30.820 -old daughter at the time and my five -year -old 00:55:30.820 --> 00:55:32.599 son at the time, we went out to Civic Center 00:55:32.599 --> 00:55:35.059 in Orange County and gave out all this coffee, 00:55:35.119 --> 00:55:39.440 pizza and donuts. And what I did was I posted 00:55:39.440 --> 00:55:41.619 a couple of pictures of what we were doing for 00:55:41.619 --> 00:55:46.000 the day on Instagram. And, you know, I also told 00:55:46.000 --> 00:55:48.420 you that I DJ on the weekends for low rider car 00:55:48.420 --> 00:55:52.760 shows. So a lot of my Instagram followers who 00:55:52.760 --> 00:55:55.900 are car club members, they started chiming in 00:55:55.900 --> 00:55:57.780 with, hey, Mike, the next time you go out, let 00:55:57.780 --> 00:56:00.000 me know. And our car club will donate 10 pizzas. 00:56:00.420 --> 00:56:03.059 Our car club will buy the coffee and the creamer 00:56:03.059 --> 00:56:05.539 and the cups. Our car club will do this and this. 00:56:05.820 --> 00:56:10.769 And that baby just took off. It's grown so big. 00:56:10.869 --> 00:56:13.530 I've received so much support from the lowrider 00:56:13.530 --> 00:56:17.849 community nationwide to where we are now feeding 00:56:17.849 --> 00:56:21.329 1 ,200 people twice a year. I hold a big event 00:56:21.329 --> 00:56:24.369 once in June and once in December. We're going 00:56:24.369 --> 00:56:27.690 into our sixth year of feeding the homeless people 00:56:27.690 --> 00:56:30.250 on Skid Row in L .A. because I live in L .A. 00:56:30.809 --> 00:56:34.909 And 100 % of my funding comes from donors, from 00:56:34.909 --> 00:56:37.309 lowrider car clubs, from ex -felons, from ex 00:56:37.309 --> 00:56:40.559 -gang members. Um, from, you know, people like 00:56:40.559 --> 00:56:43.340 you who saw my story, who are now follow following 00:56:43.340 --> 00:56:46.739 our mission, echo Instagram, who PayPal a donation, 00:56:46.860 --> 00:56:51.059 Zen, uh, Zell Venmo and stuff like that. And, 00:56:51.119 --> 00:56:52.860 you know, it was one of those deals like you 00:56:52.860 --> 00:56:54.880 heard in my story. I, you know, I asked God, 00:56:54.920 --> 00:56:57.179 man, clean me up and I'll do whatever you want 00:56:57.179 --> 00:57:00.920 me to do. And so he was faithful to his, he cleaned 00:57:00.920 --> 00:57:03.880 me, cleaned me up. But he sent me back to Skid 00:57:03.880 --> 00:57:07.500 Row, you know, different capacity. I'm doing 00:57:07.500 --> 00:57:09.599 something different. But that's the job that 00:57:09.599 --> 00:57:11.860 he had for me. And let me tell you, when it comes 00:57:11.860 --> 00:57:15.780 to serving these homeless people, I do it wholeheartedly. 00:57:15.880 --> 00:57:20.440 I do it with a joy. And here I go tearing up 00:57:20.440 --> 00:57:24.420 again. I love these people. I mean, they're people. 00:57:24.679 --> 00:57:26.619 It's none of our business why they're homeless. 00:57:26.760 --> 00:57:30.039 We all know why they're there. I know why I was 00:57:30.039 --> 00:57:33.449 there. Some people are drug addicted. Some people 00:57:33.449 --> 00:57:35.750 are lazy and just want to be there. Some people 00:57:35.750 --> 00:57:38.829 are mentally ill. It doesn't matter, man. It's 00:57:38.829 --> 00:57:43.329 only food. And so I thank God that I'm no longer 00:57:43.329 --> 00:57:46.570 there. And I thank God for those people who were 00:57:46.570 --> 00:57:51.050 out feeding us. And so now I'm part of a group 00:57:51.050 --> 00:57:53.429 of people who I won't forget those people in 00:57:53.429 --> 00:57:55.630 the struggle. As an addict, I know what it's 00:57:55.630 --> 00:58:00.289 like. To want to be clean so bad, you just can't 00:58:00.289 --> 00:58:03.010 fucking get it. But you're a hair away. Don't 00:58:03.010 --> 00:58:06.590 stop trying. And, you know, like my day finally 00:58:06.590 --> 00:58:08.929 came. I know those people's days are going to 00:58:08.929 --> 00:58:12.869 come for some, you know, but we started. I've 00:58:12.869 --> 00:58:15.369 been feeding the people with the help from my 00:58:15.369 --> 00:58:17.849 Instagram followers for six years. But in June 00:58:17.849 --> 00:58:22.079 of 2019. I finally went nonprofit. We filed for 00:58:22.079 --> 00:58:25.179 a nonprofit organization. It's called Mission 00:58:25.179 --> 00:58:29.780 Echo, and Echo stands for X Cholo Helping Others. 00:58:30.639 --> 00:58:33.920 Now, the story behind that, my friend, is in 00:58:33.920 --> 00:58:37.079 1995, I was in a prison cell, and I had just 00:58:37.079 --> 00:58:39.679 come back from, and I don't remember if I came 00:58:39.679 --> 00:58:41.900 back from church or one of these self -help group 00:58:41.900 --> 00:58:45.570 motivational speakers. But I remember going back 00:58:45.570 --> 00:58:48.409 to my cell, being fired up, thinking, one day, 00:58:48.449 --> 00:58:50.550 man, one day I'm going to be good. I'm going 00:58:50.550 --> 00:58:53.510 to get this thing called life, and I want to 00:58:53.510 --> 00:58:57.150 come back and help people. The way these tattooed 00:58:57.150 --> 00:58:59.550 convicted felons just came into this prison to 00:58:59.550 --> 00:59:02.349 help us, and then they get to go home tonight, 00:59:02.550 --> 00:59:06.889 I want to do that same thing. And so what do 00:59:06.889 --> 00:59:09.610 we have to do in our prison cells other than 00:59:09.610 --> 00:59:12.280 think? Nothing. So I'm thinking and thinking 00:59:12.280 --> 00:59:14.320 and thinking. And, you know, what would I call 00:59:14.320 --> 00:59:18.739 my program? And I came up with Echo. X Cholo 00:59:18.739 --> 00:59:21.059 helping others. But at the same time, I want 00:59:21.059 --> 00:59:23.960 the example that we're setting to echo on and 00:59:23.960 --> 00:59:26.960 on and on. And for everyone to do a little tiny 00:59:26.960 --> 00:59:30.880 part. And it has caught on, my friend. You know, 00:59:30.920 --> 00:59:33.139 we're going to be having a Feed the Homeless 00:59:33.139 --> 00:59:36.130 event in Las Vegas. We're working on a Feed the 00:59:36.130 --> 00:59:39.630 Homeless event in Northern California. People, 00:59:39.750 --> 00:59:41.530 my Instagram followers are reaching out. Hey, 00:59:41.550 --> 00:59:44.369 Mike, we want to branch off to what you've started 00:59:44.369 --> 00:59:49.110 in L .A. And that's the point of Echo. And everybody's 00:59:49.110 --> 00:59:52.090 in because everybody sees that I've been true. 00:59:52.369 --> 00:59:55.349 Everybody sees that when I ask you to PayPal 00:59:55.349 --> 00:59:57.710 a donation, they know exactly where their money 00:59:57.710 --> 01:00:00.289 is going because I've had volunteers come from 01:00:00.289 --> 01:00:03.909 Vegas. From Stockton, from Phoenix, from all 01:00:03.909 --> 01:00:07.829 over California to come and volunteer their day 01:00:07.829 --> 01:00:09.769 to feed the homeless. And then they go back and 01:00:09.769 --> 01:00:12.429 tell their people, wow, man, Mike's feeding a 01:00:12.429 --> 01:00:15.469 whole bunch of people. It's not me. It's everybody 01:00:15.469 --> 01:00:19.030 together. And so this thing that started out 01:00:19.030 --> 01:00:21.690 with coffee, pizza, and donuts has just gone 01:00:21.690 --> 01:00:25.670 viral pretty much. You know what I mean? Yeah. 01:00:25.730 --> 01:00:27.829 No, I think it's amazing. And I think what's 01:00:27.829 --> 01:00:31.710 inspiring is… Where you came from as well. And 01:00:31.710 --> 01:00:34.289 I think that is a beacon of hope to, like you 01:00:34.289 --> 01:00:35.670 said, people that are struggling, whether it's 01:00:35.670 --> 01:00:38.130 addiction, whether it's being on a road of crime, 01:00:38.230 --> 01:00:41.449 whatever it is. Whatever it is. Yeah. Like you 01:00:41.449 --> 01:00:43.590 said, the men that came into your prison that 01:00:43.590 --> 01:00:46.449 talked to you. And then now you're that guy. 01:00:46.630 --> 01:00:48.610 And I think that not only are you feeding them, 01:00:48.650 --> 01:00:51.369 but you're also showing people, well, look, this 01:00:51.369 --> 01:00:53.530 doesn't define you. Just because this is where 01:00:53.530 --> 01:00:55.190 you are today doesn't mean that's going to be 01:00:55.190 --> 01:00:57.769 who you are in five years from now. Exactly. 01:00:58.300 --> 01:00:59.860 Who would have thought that I was going to have 01:00:59.860 --> 01:01:04.480 a master's degree? I wish my mom could have seen 01:01:04.480 --> 01:01:09.380 me walk that stage with my master's degree. Who 01:01:09.380 --> 01:01:11.000 would have thought that I'd have it? But I have 01:01:11.000 --> 01:01:15.099 it. And now I'm using it. And not only that, 01:01:15.219 --> 01:01:21.079 I'm just so grateful at a new life that I'm not 01:01:21.079 --> 01:01:22.780 going to forget the people in the struggle. I 01:01:22.780 --> 01:01:24.420 mean, there's people out there barefooted. There's 01:01:24.420 --> 01:01:27.079 people out there with only a pair of shorts on. 01:01:27.719 --> 01:01:30.059 You know, I mean, you were in Orange County. 01:01:30.079 --> 01:01:32.219 You know exactly what I'm talking about. And 01:01:32.219 --> 01:01:35.139 that shouldn't be happening. Those are people 01:01:35.139 --> 01:01:38.320 that somebody's mom, somebody's dad. OK, so they've 01:01:38.320 --> 01:01:41.400 made the wrong decision. Who hasn't? It doesn't 01:01:41.400 --> 01:01:44.440 matter the magnitude, but there you know, there's 01:01:44.440 --> 01:01:46.820 people suffering and we should be out there. 01:01:47.199 --> 01:01:51.880 Those of us who can be out there helping, you 01:01:51.880 --> 01:01:55.420 know. sacrifice a 12 -pack or sacrifice a drink 01:01:55.420 --> 01:01:58.440 at Starbucks and donate those five bucks to our 01:01:58.440 --> 01:02:00.559 nonprofit, and I will take your money and go 01:02:00.559 --> 01:02:02.599 out and feed the homeless people. If you don't 01:02:02.599 --> 01:02:04.860 have the time to do it, I will do it for you. 01:02:05.719 --> 01:02:10.559 Again, I've had so much support with this nonprofit 01:02:10.559 --> 01:02:13.800 and our mission, and God's blessed it, and it's 01:02:13.800 --> 01:02:15.980 caught on. Look, it reached you all the way in 01:02:15.980 --> 01:02:20.690 Florida. Yep, it did indeed. Now, how many when 01:02:20.690 --> 01:02:22.670 you when you're meeting all these homeless men 01:02:22.670 --> 01:02:26.550 and women, are you seeing a large portion of 01:02:26.550 --> 01:02:32.610 them as veterans as well? To be honest, I'm sure 01:02:32.610 --> 01:02:34.789 there are a lot of veterans out there. I'm sure 01:02:34.789 --> 01:02:37.550 there are. I don't know if they're veterans unless 01:02:37.550 --> 01:02:39.710 they share their story with me. And I will say 01:02:39.710 --> 01:02:42.710 that I have come across a lot of story of veterans, 01:02:43.130 --> 01:02:46.380 veterans out on Skid Row. Yeah, because I mean, 01:02:46.400 --> 01:02:51.380 again, the knee jerk of the, let's say, less 01:02:51.380 --> 01:02:54.940 altruistic people out there is, you know, the 01:02:54.940 --> 01:02:57.500 get a job using the word bum and all these things, 01:02:57.539 --> 01:03:01.360 which I fucking hate that word. But and again, 01:03:01.480 --> 01:03:03.659 you have to take a step back and look at these 01:03:03.659 --> 01:03:05.760 men and women. And I use this example all the 01:03:05.760 --> 01:03:08.539 time. Go go way back. Go to when they were toddlers. 01:03:08.900 --> 01:03:11.760 You honestly think that their dreams were one 01:03:11.760 --> 01:03:14.079 day to live under a bridge. You know, to beg 01:03:14.079 --> 01:03:15.659 for money, you know, and people like, oh, they're 01:03:15.659 --> 01:03:17.619 probably going to use it on drugs. Do you, I 01:03:17.619 --> 01:03:20.380 mean, even if they did, would you think they 01:03:20.380 --> 01:03:23.539 chose to stand next to a red light, you know, 01:03:23.539 --> 01:03:25.320 hoping that you might roll down your window and, 01:03:25.340 --> 01:03:27.400 you know, throw a core at them? No, of course 01:03:27.400 --> 01:03:29.400 they didn't. No. And then you're right. And you 01:03:29.400 --> 01:03:31.280 have to be part of the solution. How do you cure 01:03:31.280 --> 01:03:33.340 homelessness in this country? You give a shit. 01:03:33.679 --> 01:03:36.039 You start, you know, dealing with the mental 01:03:36.039 --> 01:03:38.599 health issues, the addiction issues. You know, 01:03:38.599 --> 01:03:40.159 and then, you know, that way they're not going 01:03:40.159 --> 01:03:42.079 to be on the street. They're going to be paying 01:03:42.079 --> 01:03:44.760 taxes and, you know, working alongside you. So 01:03:44.760 --> 01:03:48.320 I hate it when you hear of, you know, oh, they 01:03:48.320 --> 01:03:50.739 drove the homeless out of their town to the other 01:03:50.739 --> 01:03:53.260 town. Or, you know, we see this a lot in our 01:03:53.260 --> 01:03:54.780 community, you know, the law enforcement and 01:03:54.780 --> 01:03:57.300 not picking on them. It's a systemic problem. 01:03:57.420 --> 01:04:01.570 But we have to view these people as. human beings 01:04:01.570 --> 01:04:04.090 as men and women and just like you said there 01:04:04.090 --> 01:04:06.730 but by the grace of god go i if i had made a 01:04:06.730 --> 01:04:09.030 shitty decision it could be me you know covered 01:04:09.030 --> 01:04:11.710 in dirt wearing you know like you said barefoot 01:04:11.710 --> 01:04:16.250 begging for food yeah you know um we have to 01:04:16.250 --> 01:04:17.949 care like you said that's how we're going to 01:04:17.949 --> 01:04:20.110 fix this problem we can't wait for the politicians 01:04:20.110 --> 01:04:21.969 to do it because they only care during election 01:04:21.969 --> 01:04:25.289 time we are out there you can go to skid row 01:04:25.289 --> 01:04:27.809 in downtown la at any time of the day any day 01:04:27.809 --> 01:04:29.469 of the weekend there's a non -profit out there 01:04:29.949 --> 01:04:32.630 giving church or feeding the homeless or providing 01:04:32.630 --> 01:04:36.630 help, providing help. But there's not enough 01:04:36.630 --> 01:04:38.969 people giving help. There's not enough, there 01:04:38.969 --> 01:04:42.429 aren't enough resources out there for mental 01:04:42.429 --> 01:04:44.670 health issues. There's not enough resources out 01:04:44.670 --> 01:04:48.809 there for education or housing, you know, stuff 01:04:48.809 --> 01:04:50.769 like that. There's just not enough. Yeah, you 01:04:50.769 --> 01:04:52.369 know, you see on the news that these companies 01:04:52.369 --> 01:04:55.210 are providing these little mini homes that they're 01:04:55.210 --> 01:04:57.250 going to be putting under, you know, the overpass 01:04:57.250 --> 01:05:00.320 of a freeway. But just because you get them off 01:05:00.320 --> 01:05:02.420 the sidewalk doesn't mean the problem is gone. 01:05:02.679 --> 01:05:05.739 That person needs drug rehab or mental health 01:05:05.739 --> 01:05:08.980 rehab or a job or whatever it is. Just getting 01:05:08.980 --> 01:05:11.380 them off the sidewalk isn't fixing the problem. 01:05:11.719 --> 01:05:15.679 No. More has to be done. Exactly. It's give a 01:05:15.679 --> 01:05:18.400 man a fish versus teach a man a fish. Exactly. 01:05:18.880 --> 01:05:21.039 You just give them a meal and that's it. Then 01:05:21.039 --> 01:05:23.019 it's not solving anything. But like you said, 01:05:23.079 --> 01:05:26.039 if you're able to then direct them into… counseling 01:05:26.039 --> 01:05:28.380 and i know the tiny homes that i told you about 01:05:28.380 --> 01:05:31.500 was a um a group of veterans that are doing it 01:05:31.500 --> 01:05:35.179 in the midwest and they they do that they they 01:05:35.179 --> 01:05:37.739 help kind of filter them into counseling they 01:05:37.739 --> 01:05:40.300 they you know get them job creation they help 01:05:40.300 --> 01:05:42.239 buy a suit so they can go to their interview 01:05:42.239 --> 01:05:44.159 and then that house is their address which is 01:05:44.159 --> 01:05:46.460 another vicious circle i know a lot of people 01:05:46.460 --> 01:05:48.820 that are homeless get into like it's hard to 01:05:48.820 --> 01:05:51.320 get to be to have all the paperwork in place 01:05:51.320 --> 01:05:54.000 to be employable when you don't even have an 01:05:54.000 --> 01:06:00.420 address Exactly. Even a cell phone. I know it's 01:06:00.420 --> 01:06:04.400 hard because so many people abuse the resources 01:06:04.400 --> 01:06:06.800 that are given to them, and there's nothing we 01:06:06.800 --> 01:06:10.179 can do about that. What I mean by is that these 01:06:10.179 --> 01:06:13.679 phones, people here in LA or California call 01:06:13.679 --> 01:06:16.320 them Obama phones, but the phones that are given 01:06:16.320 --> 01:06:19.579 out to the homeless people, yes, a lot of people 01:06:19.579 --> 01:06:22.199 do use them to continue their drug dealing business. 01:06:23.019 --> 01:06:25.460 And yes, a lot of people do use them to keep 01:06:25.460 --> 01:06:29.099 contact with family. But what are you supposed 01:06:29.099 --> 01:06:32.559 to do? You can't not help the people that are 01:06:32.559 --> 01:06:34.639 accepting the help just because there's someone 01:06:34.639 --> 01:06:37.639 abusing it, if that makes sense. Oh, it makes 01:06:37.639 --> 01:06:40.260 perfect sense. Karma. Karma will come in and 01:06:40.260 --> 01:06:42.619 take care of whoever's supposed to be taken care 01:06:42.619 --> 01:06:47.260 of. But I don't know. It's really sad to see 01:06:47.260 --> 01:06:50.460 people suffering, truly suffering, whether it 01:06:50.460 --> 01:06:53.230 was a decision they made or not. They're suffering. 01:06:53.489 --> 01:06:56.150 So, you know, again, I say to the people, if 01:06:56.150 --> 01:06:59.150 you can help, please help. You know, every once 01:06:59.150 --> 01:07:01.130 in a while on my Instagram, like once, twice 01:07:01.130 --> 01:07:04.070 a week, I'll post up, hey, can you buy a cheeseburger 01:07:04.070 --> 01:07:07.230 for a homeless person today? And so many people 01:07:07.230 --> 01:07:10.789 will take a picture of it and hashtag it's only 01:07:10.789 --> 01:07:13.449 food or hashtag everybody's got to eat, which 01:07:13.449 --> 01:07:15.550 is one of our hashtags, you know, to show, hey, 01:07:15.610 --> 01:07:17.909 we did it. We're helping. It's not that, you 01:07:17.909 --> 01:07:19.789 know, then you got the people who say, well, 01:07:19.829 --> 01:07:21.170 if you're going to help the homeless, leave the 01:07:21.170 --> 01:07:23.900 cameras at home. No, no, it's not about that. 01:07:24.500 --> 01:07:28.800 It's about, you know, I grew by posting pictures 01:07:28.800 --> 01:07:32.300 of what I did and look what happened. You're 01:07:32.300 --> 01:07:34.179 going to get negative comments from the people 01:07:34.179 --> 01:07:36.480 who aren't donating a penny. You're going to 01:07:36.480 --> 01:07:38.599 get comments from the people who aren't lifting 01:07:38.599 --> 01:07:41.820 a finger to help. You know, so again, you're 01:07:41.820 --> 01:07:43.320 not going to be part of the solution. Don't be 01:07:43.320 --> 01:07:45.699 part of the problem because it's through pictures 01:07:45.699 --> 01:07:49.519 that Mission Echo exists today. It's through 01:07:49.519 --> 01:07:53.269 pictures that you found me. Yep, exactly. And 01:07:53.269 --> 01:07:57.190 I think that's just it. I make this point as 01:07:57.190 --> 01:08:00.130 well. You see some of these horrendous videos 01:08:00.130 --> 01:08:02.489 of bullying or something, they'll get watched 01:08:02.489 --> 01:08:05.789 a lot. But then when you see these acts of kindness... 01:08:06.059 --> 01:08:08.400 usually it's someone you know filming there was 01:08:08.400 --> 01:08:10.420 the one in new york recently where they lifted 01:08:10.420 --> 01:08:12.519 the suv off the pedestrian that was run over 01:08:12.519 --> 01:08:14.980 yes you know that goes viral because people want 01:08:14.980 --> 01:08:17.460 to see good things now if you're the only person 01:08:17.460 --> 01:08:19.899 there filming well this person's bleeding to 01:08:19.899 --> 01:08:21.140 death you should probably put your damn phone 01:08:21.140 --> 01:08:22.960 down and help but you know in that situation 01:08:22.960 --> 01:08:24.939 people were like oh why didn't they help and 01:08:24.939 --> 01:08:27.479 the reality was this person was across the street 01:08:28.079 --> 01:08:29.720 And there were so many people on that car, there 01:08:29.720 --> 01:08:31.380 wouldn't have been space to help anyway. You 01:08:31.380 --> 01:08:33.720 know what I mean? So, but yeah, I mean, I think 01:08:33.720 --> 01:08:35.560 that people need to see that. And of course, 01:08:35.560 --> 01:08:38.119 we're aware of the guys that want to be YouTube 01:08:38.119 --> 01:08:40.100 famous, that film themselves giving a homeless 01:08:40.100 --> 01:08:42.239 person a dollar. And then the whole video is 01:08:42.239 --> 01:08:44.439 about the person, not the, not the, not the, 01:08:44.439 --> 01:08:47.920 but that doesn't matter. No, it's those kinds 01:08:47.920 --> 01:08:51.829 of people that hurt what we're doing. Yeah. But 01:08:51.829 --> 01:08:55.630 I don't know if I can say hurting because my 01:08:55.630 --> 01:08:58.670 nonprofit has been able to grow support -wise. 01:08:59.350 --> 01:09:01.670 But those people, before you know it, they'll 01:09:01.670 --> 01:09:04.970 get tired of taking their little selfie, helping 01:09:04.970 --> 01:09:06.229 the person that they're helping, and then it'll 01:09:06.229 --> 01:09:09.590 stop. But again, my mission has gone on for six 01:09:09.590 --> 01:09:12.270 years because I've been true to it. And everyone 01:09:12.270 --> 01:09:15.409 gets involved. Little League baseball teams come 01:09:15.409 --> 01:09:18.489 out to volunteer. Schools come out to volunteer. 01:09:19.229 --> 01:09:21.189 You know, just so many people. I've had doctors 01:09:21.189 --> 01:09:24.090 from Kaiser on my front lawn helping roll breakfast 01:09:24.090 --> 01:09:27.170 burritos. I think that's the ultimate, man. You 01:09:27.170 --> 01:09:30.649 know, hey, one of the students that was in a 01:09:30.649 --> 01:09:32.649 crowd at East L .A. College where I was speaking 01:09:32.649 --> 01:09:35.770 was an RN at a Kaiser. She, you know, latched 01:09:35.770 --> 01:09:39.090 on to my nonprofit and she pulled some doctors 01:09:39.090 --> 01:09:40.930 from Kaiser to come on out and help us feed the 01:09:40.930 --> 01:09:43.270 homeless. And they were like, wow, this is great. 01:09:43.909 --> 01:09:46.090 You know, look what an ex -cholo did. Look what 01:09:46.090 --> 01:09:49.660 an ex -crack addict is doing now, you know. People, 01:09:49.660 --> 01:09:52.140 I mean, everything is transparent. You know, 01:09:52.180 --> 01:09:54.880 I let people know how much money was raised at 01:09:54.880 --> 01:09:57.560 a certain event. You know, if you PayPal me or 01:09:57.560 --> 01:10:02.760 Venmo me a $20 donation or a $400 donation, your 01:10:02.760 --> 01:10:05.380 receipt is going up on our Instagram, you know. 01:10:07.659 --> 01:10:10.279 It's grown because it's real, man. You know, 01:10:10.279 --> 01:10:13.560 it's great. I wake up in the morning, you know, 01:10:13.560 --> 01:10:16.119 how can I, you know, fundraise today? How much 01:10:16.119 --> 01:10:19.359 can I raise today, you know? It's like a challenge 01:10:19.359 --> 01:10:21.260 to me. What else can I do? Because we started 01:10:21.260 --> 01:10:24.180 out with coffee, pizza, and donuts. Now we're 01:10:24.180 --> 01:10:26.979 doing coffee, pizza, donuts, burritos, chicken, 01:10:27.220 --> 01:10:30.300 soda, water, toilet tissue, beanies, gloves, 01:10:30.520 --> 01:10:35.439 socks, bananas, pastries. It has grown because 01:10:35.439 --> 01:10:39.880 of pictures. And the people benefiting are the 01:10:39.880 --> 01:10:42.899 people on Skid Row. Absolutely. And you mentioned 01:10:42.899 --> 01:10:44.560 as well about the abuse. I wanted to make sure 01:10:44.560 --> 01:10:46.930 we talk about this as well. You hear that a lot. 01:10:47.010 --> 01:10:49.409 Oh, as I said before, if I give it to them, they're 01:10:49.409 --> 01:10:52.250 just going to buy alcohol, whatever. And we have 01:10:52.250 --> 01:10:54.649 a habit for some reason of focusing on that. 01:10:55.689 --> 01:10:58.550 When you think about government assistance, oh, 01:10:58.789 --> 01:11:00.609 there's these people that, you know, it happens 01:11:00.609 --> 01:11:02.949 in England. There are cases where, yes, there 01:11:02.949 --> 01:11:06.409 are people that get these free houses and all 01:11:06.409 --> 01:11:09.729 this stuff while other people are getting nothing. 01:11:09.770 --> 01:11:11.949 But the reality is those are the exceptions to 01:11:11.949 --> 01:11:15.439 the rules. And those shitbags exist. All the 01:11:15.439 --> 01:11:17.159 way up the chain. And you look in the business 01:11:17.159 --> 01:11:20.479 world, how many cases are there of people stealing 01:11:20.479 --> 01:11:23.340 people's pension funds and not paying taxes? 01:11:24.399 --> 01:11:28.520 But it's always aimed at the poor. And it's like, 01:11:28.539 --> 01:11:32.079 no, that type of human element is all the way 01:11:32.079 --> 01:11:33.819 up. So if you're going to start saying that, 01:11:33.920 --> 01:11:36.020 well, then you better start chatting about these 01:11:36.020 --> 01:11:39.319 big companies too. Yeah, definitely. So you have 01:11:39.319 --> 01:11:41.220 to lead by example. And like you said, be the 01:11:41.220 --> 01:11:45.930 change and not be put off. helping because of 01:11:45.930 --> 01:11:47.689 the off chance that you might be helping the 01:11:47.689 --> 01:11:51.010 one person who's a turd because the reality is 01:11:51.010 --> 01:11:53.149 much greater chance that you're going to help 01:11:53.149 --> 01:11:55.850 someone in that moment of kindness may even be 01:11:55.850 --> 01:12:00.109 may even be that moment where they go that was 01:12:00.109 --> 01:12:02.750 it i'm going to change today you never know exactly 01:12:02.750 --> 01:12:07.329 you know you have no idea you might be someone's 01:12:07.329 --> 01:12:10.029 answer to what they've been praying for but if 01:12:10.029 --> 01:12:12.069 you're afraid of losing that dollar you just 01:12:12.069 --> 01:12:14.949 killed someone's blessing You know, so what I 01:12:14.949 --> 01:12:17.850 tell people, you know, and my wife knows and, 01:12:17.850 --> 01:12:20.090 you know, close friends that know me, I won't 01:12:20.090 --> 01:12:22.310 give you a nickel. I won't give you a quarter. 01:12:23.010 --> 01:12:25.989 But come on in. Let's go inside. I will buy you 01:12:25.989 --> 01:12:28.909 10 Big Macs. Eat two now and you have eight for 01:12:28.909 --> 01:12:32.630 later. If that makes sense. Yeah, it does. Absolutely. 01:12:32.850 --> 01:12:35.010 If you're walking into, you know, someplace to 01:12:35.010 --> 01:12:37.010 eat and someone, hey, can I get a buck? No, I 01:12:37.010 --> 01:12:39.390 don't have a dollar. Stop lying. You have a dollar. 01:12:39.510 --> 01:12:41.850 But why don't you offer a breakfast instead? 01:12:42.890 --> 01:12:45.770 And you'll feel really good about yourself. You 01:12:45.770 --> 01:12:48.649 also help someone else. And like you just said, 01:12:48.770 --> 01:12:51.569 that might be that person's last time ever asking 01:12:51.569 --> 01:12:53.729 for help because now you've inspired them to 01:12:53.729 --> 01:12:56.750 get up and go. Because it happens. That's how 01:12:56.750 --> 01:12:59.829 it happens. That's how it happens, my friend. 01:13:00.069 --> 01:13:02.350 Exactly. And then going back to your example 01:13:02.350 --> 01:13:04.270 with the football team. If you guys had just 01:13:04.270 --> 01:13:08.170 gone down a different route and played as a team 01:13:08.170 --> 01:13:10.189 and then come together and done something positive, 01:13:10.250 --> 01:13:12.619 imagine. The effects that would have on the world. 01:13:12.720 --> 01:13:15.039 So, yeah, it's kindness versus unkindness at 01:13:15.039 --> 01:13:17.680 the end of the day. Yeah, definitely. And, you 01:13:17.680 --> 01:13:20.199 know, now that we're back to the football team, 01:13:20.260 --> 01:13:22.659 I want to point out on the days of our big events 01:13:22.659 --> 01:13:25.100 when we feed the 1 ,200 people, 1 ,100 people, 01:13:25.199 --> 01:13:27.939 somewhere around there, we meet at my house in 01:13:27.939 --> 01:13:30.300 the morning starting at 5 a .m. cooking a whole 01:13:30.300 --> 01:13:32.520 bunch of chopped hot dogs and scrambled eggs 01:13:32.520 --> 01:13:34.800 and make about 1 ,100 breakfast burritos. But 01:13:34.800 --> 01:13:37.539 one of the guys that volunteers to come to help 01:13:37.539 --> 01:13:40.550 grill. The weenies and the eggs is a rival gang 01:13:40.550 --> 01:13:42.869 member of ours. I have three guys that show up 01:13:42.869 --> 01:13:45.710 to help cook. One of them is my homeboys, which 01:13:45.710 --> 01:13:47.470 is, you know, I've grown up with them since elementary, 01:13:47.729 --> 01:13:50.869 who was from my gang, who is now a successful 01:13:50.869 --> 01:13:55.390 caterer. One guy is a truck driver who answered 01:13:55.390 --> 01:13:57.170 the call when I said, hey, I need someone to 01:13:57.170 --> 01:13:59.409 volunteer their time with a grill. He showed 01:13:59.409 --> 01:14:02.050 up. And then my buddy Julio, who, you know, we've 01:14:02.050 --> 01:14:03.710 known each other since elementary, but technically 01:14:03.710 --> 01:14:06.310 he is a rival gang member. You know, he's an 01:14:06.310 --> 01:14:09.479 army veteran now. But we talk and laugh about 01:14:09.479 --> 01:14:12.500 old times. Hey, remember when we chased you this 01:14:12.500 --> 01:14:16.279 way and remember when we did that. But we're 01:14:16.279 --> 01:14:19.279 doing different things now. We're both – both 01:14:19.279 --> 01:14:22.520 of us help in the community. People change. Hashtag 01:14:22.520 --> 01:14:26.159 people change. And it's a beautiful thing to 01:14:26.159 --> 01:14:29.460 see. It's a beautiful thing to see 80 people 01:14:29.460 --> 01:14:31.899 show up at my house, people that only saw a video 01:14:31.899 --> 01:14:34.720 on Instagram to where I was asking for volunteers 01:14:34.720 --> 01:14:37.180 to come and help make 1 ,100 breakfast burritos. 01:14:37.600 --> 01:14:41.680 And they come, they come in flux. An ex Cholo 01:14:41.680 --> 01:14:44.460 did that, you know, an ex crack addict is organizing 01:14:44.460 --> 01:14:46.840 all of this, you know, and, and people love, 01:14:46.939 --> 01:14:49.680 I mean, there's good in everybody. They just 01:14:49.680 --> 01:14:52.539 need to be inspired to, to release that goodness. 01:14:53.460 --> 01:14:56.439 Absolutely. It just happens to be me, the ex 01:14:56.439 --> 01:14:58.420 Cholo, the ex crack addict, the ex, you know, 01:14:58.420 --> 01:15:01.579 con, you know, call me what you will. Just don't 01:15:01.579 --> 01:15:03.670 call me late for dinner. But come and help us. 01:15:04.270 --> 01:15:08.289 Come and help us, man. Sure, bring everybody. 01:15:09.189 --> 01:15:11.970 We're having another event Saturday, March 28th 01:15:11.970 --> 01:15:14.409 on Skid Row. We're going to be feeding the homeless 01:15:14.409 --> 01:15:18.109 potluck style. So everybody that's coming out 01:15:18.109 --> 01:15:21.109 truly wants to be there because they've all offered 01:15:21.109 --> 01:15:23.670 to cook a meal. And so we're preparing to feed 01:15:23.670 --> 01:15:26.710 anywhere between 200 and 300 people potluck style, 01:15:26.850 --> 01:15:29.460 my friend. I'm not going to buy any of the food 01:15:29.460 --> 01:15:31.880 this time. It's all being donated by people who 01:15:31.880 --> 01:15:35.279 want to be there. And that's even more beautiful 01:15:35.279 --> 01:15:39.659 that people are getting up to cook for 50 people. 01:15:40.000 --> 01:15:42.520 And that's all going to add up to about 300 people 01:15:42.520 --> 01:15:45.899 being served. But it's by people who want to 01:15:45.899 --> 01:15:49.810 come on out. Amazing. All right. Well, then let 01:15:49.810 --> 01:15:51.689 me get to this part, too. If people listening 01:15:51.689 --> 01:15:54.069 now are inspired and want to donate, want to 01:15:54.069 --> 01:15:58.510 help, want to show up on March 28th, how do they 01:15:58.510 --> 01:16:00.729 find you on social media or on the Internet? 01:16:01.310 --> 01:16:05.510 So our Instagram is mission underscore echo. 01:16:06.510 --> 01:16:09.590 That's where they can find me on Instagram. You 01:16:09.590 --> 01:16:13.090 can contact me through there. If you want to 01:16:13.090 --> 01:16:16.050 make a donation, a financial money donation. 01:16:16.729 --> 01:16:21.229 Our Venmo account is Mission Echo, and Echo is 01:16:21.229 --> 01:16:25.609 all capitalized. The PayPal is the same thing, 01:16:25.710 --> 01:16:29.310 Mission Echo, and it's all capitalized. Just 01:16:29.310 --> 01:16:31.710 the Echo part is capitalized. Currently working 01:16:31.710 --> 01:16:34.869 on a Zelle. Like I told you, I'm not very tech 01:16:34.869 --> 01:16:37.510 savvy, my brother, and so it's taken so many 01:16:37.510 --> 01:16:39.770 people to help me try to figure this damn thing 01:16:39.770 --> 01:16:42.850 out to where the donations now get linked to 01:16:42.850 --> 01:16:45.090 those accounts, and those accounts are now linked. 01:16:45.579 --> 01:16:47.539 to the direct bank account for Mission Echo. 01:16:48.060 --> 01:16:50.779 And it's taken me forever to try to figure this 01:16:50.779 --> 01:16:53.739 out. You know, you saw, you freaked me out this 01:16:53.739 --> 01:16:56.100 morning when you said, you know, you need headphones. 01:16:56.239 --> 01:16:58.979 Like, oh my God, where do I plug them into? I'm 01:16:58.979 --> 01:17:01.380 not a tech savvy guy, man. But, you know, so 01:17:01.380 --> 01:17:03.220 many volunteers, so many people have reached 01:17:03.220 --> 01:17:05.560 out. Hey, Mike, I can help you, you know, set 01:17:05.560 --> 01:17:07.460 this up account, you know, set that account up 01:17:07.460 --> 01:17:10.539 and link it and this and that. Our website is 01:17:10.539 --> 01:17:12.939 being built as I speak. My uncle is a web designer 01:17:12.939 --> 01:17:15.899 in San Francisco. So we do have a website. It's 01:17:15.899 --> 01:17:23.520 missionecho .org. It's being designed as we speak. 01:17:24.020 --> 01:17:26.479 But if people who are listening in the L .A. 01:17:26.520 --> 01:17:28.340 area, Orange County Riverside, if you want to 01:17:28.340 --> 01:17:30.920 get involved, I can give out my phone number 01:17:30.920 --> 01:17:34.119 here, correct? Yeah, if you'd like. Okay, so 01:17:34.119 --> 01:17:36.500 my phone number, praying callers are invited 01:17:36.500 --> 01:17:39.659 to come on out too. My phone number is area code 01:17:39.659 --> 01:17:43.739 three, two, three, five, five, seven, two, eight, 01:17:43.779 --> 01:17:46.199 five, four. My name is Michael Lopez. And if 01:17:46.199 --> 01:17:48.520 you'd like to come on out, please call me. Let 01:17:48.520 --> 01:17:50.420 me know what your family can put together. That 01:17:50.420 --> 01:17:53.140 way I don't have, you know, 20 families all bringing 01:17:53.140 --> 01:17:56.340 spaghetti. You know, give me a call. Let me know 01:17:56.340 --> 01:17:58.739 what you want to do. We're aiming to feed two 01:17:58.739 --> 01:18:02.300 to 300 people. But if more food shows up, hey, 01:18:02.359 --> 01:18:05.380 we'll feed a thousand if we can. You know, everybody's 01:18:05.380 --> 01:18:08.020 got to eat. That's our that's our. Our mission 01:18:08.020 --> 01:18:10.420 statement, everybody's got to eat. You know, 01:18:10.439 --> 01:18:12.039 it's none of our business why they're homeless. 01:18:12.380 --> 01:18:15.760 It's only food. You know, please help me. Please 01:18:15.760 --> 01:18:17.739 help me feed the homeless. And if you make a 01:18:17.739 --> 01:18:21.380 donation, I promise you your money is going to 01:18:21.380 --> 01:18:24.479 Skid Row. You can see the pictures up on my Instagram. 01:18:25.060 --> 01:18:27.979 We're currently working on a Facebook, a Mission 01:18:27.979 --> 01:18:31.529 Echo Facebook. We have hats available for a $35 01:18:31.529 --> 01:18:34.550 donation. People love our hats. It has our logo 01:18:34.550 --> 01:18:37.369 on the front of the cap and then on the side 01:18:37.369 --> 01:18:39.930 of the cap. It's got embroidered. It says everybody's 01:18:39.930 --> 01:18:44.829 got to eat. That's our hashtag. And thank you, 01:18:44.829 --> 01:18:46.729 everybody, who is going to be able to reach out 01:18:46.729 --> 01:18:49.989 to us for March 28th. If not, our big event is 01:18:49.989 --> 01:18:52.829 coming Saturday, June 20th. That's one of the 01:18:52.829 --> 01:18:54.810 two big ones that we do throughout the year where 01:18:54.810 --> 01:18:57.670 we feed close to 1 ,200 people. And if I get 01:18:57.670 --> 01:19:01.090 so much, you know, if I get a whole lot more 01:19:01.090 --> 01:19:03.149 support this time around and we feed fifteen 01:19:03.149 --> 01:19:05.189 hundred, then it's fifteen hundred. You know, 01:19:05.189 --> 01:19:08.050 but I want your donors or your followers to know 01:19:08.050 --> 01:19:11.729 that if you send money, it's going exactly to 01:19:11.729 --> 01:19:13.829 where I'm telling you it's going. You know, and 01:19:13.829 --> 01:19:16.529 it's such an honor to be trusted with people's 01:19:16.529 --> 01:19:19.250 money nowadays. You know, it's I wasn't that 01:19:19.250 --> 01:19:22.859 guy back, you know, back 20 years ago. I wasn't 01:19:22.859 --> 01:19:25.039 either. I'll tell you, I was a little thief myself 01:19:25.039 --> 01:19:27.779 when I was in my late teens. I mean, from my 01:19:27.779 --> 01:19:30.000 parents, not anyone else, but even so, same thing. 01:19:30.779 --> 01:19:34.140 All right, so I want to go to some closing questions, 01:19:34.180 --> 01:19:36.880 but one more element you reminded me. So you 01:19:36.880 --> 01:19:39.000 mentioned the uncle helping design the webpage. 01:19:39.399 --> 01:19:42.279 You had an uncle with Long Beach Fire as well. 01:19:42.960 --> 01:19:45.100 Yeah, my uncle Harold, he lives in Long Beach. 01:19:45.119 --> 01:19:47.119 He's a retired Long Beach Fire Department captain. 01:19:48.920 --> 01:19:51.220 My favorite uncle, he's always been my friend. 01:19:51.300 --> 01:19:53.079 Oh, I hope my web designer uncle didn't hear 01:19:53.079 --> 01:19:58.279 that. I just realized, oops. But the uncle that's 01:19:58.279 --> 01:20:00.340 helping me design the webpage, he's my age. So 01:20:00.340 --> 01:20:02.420 I consider him more of a brother. I'm 20 days 01:20:02.420 --> 01:20:04.979 older than he is. But my uncle Harold has always 01:20:04.979 --> 01:20:07.699 been there for me through thick and thin, no 01:20:07.699 --> 01:20:13.590 matter how bad I did. unconditionally, you know, 01:20:13.590 --> 01:20:16.489 continue to love me and guide me. And now that 01:20:16.489 --> 01:20:18.590 my mom is gone, she's been gone for 10 years. 01:20:18.689 --> 01:20:21.810 He's like my last official link to my mom because 01:20:21.810 --> 01:20:24.609 my grandma just passed away. We just celebrated 01:20:24.609 --> 01:20:28.050 a year of her passing. And so my uncle Harold 01:20:28.050 --> 01:20:29.890 in Long Beach want to say, I love you. I wonder 01:20:29.890 --> 01:20:32.470 if he's listening. I'll turn him on to it. He 01:20:32.470 --> 01:20:34.630 might already be listening. Who knows? He's retired 01:20:34.630 --> 01:20:37.289 from the Long Beach fire department. Harold Bassler. 01:20:37.609 --> 01:20:38.989 Brilliant. Yeah. Well, I mean, there's, there's 01:20:38.989 --> 01:20:42.619 a lot of, a lot of good. Guests on here for retirees, 01:20:42.619 --> 01:20:44.779 too. So hopefully if he isn't listening already, 01:20:44.979 --> 01:20:47.439 there'll be some other episodes besides this 01:20:47.439 --> 01:20:50.439 one that he'll be interested in. Sounds good. 01:20:50.640 --> 01:20:53.500 Brilliant. All right. So first of the closing 01:20:53.500 --> 01:20:57.100 questions, is there a book that you love to recommend? 01:20:57.140 --> 01:20:59.119 It can be about what we've discussed today or 01:20:59.119 --> 01:21:02.920 something completely different. I'm going to 01:21:02.920 --> 01:21:07.579 be honest. I don't read much. I try to read now 01:21:07.579 --> 01:21:10.319 that. As I'm speaking, you have me looking over 01:21:10.319 --> 01:21:13.180 at my desk, and there's four books that are all 01:21:13.180 --> 01:21:20.319 half red. There is a book that stands out. Let 01:21:20.319 --> 01:21:22.340 me walk over to it. There is a book that stands 01:21:22.340 --> 01:21:26.140 out, and it's – well, I don't know if it's appropriate 01:21:26.140 --> 01:21:28.020 for this one, but it's called The Black Hand. 01:21:28.960 --> 01:21:31.880 It's about the Mexican mafia. There's just something 01:21:31.880 --> 01:21:34.760 about that book. I won't say any more about that 01:21:34.760 --> 01:21:39.250 one, but it's – It truly exposes it. It's written 01:21:39.250 --> 01:21:41.489 by Chris Blatchford, who was a Channel 11 reporter, 01:21:41.670 --> 01:21:47.069 and it talks about Rene Enriquez, who at one 01:21:47.069 --> 01:21:49.909 time was the top of the Mexican mafia, but why 01:21:49.909 --> 01:21:53.090 he made the change. Another book that stands 01:21:53.090 --> 01:21:55.550 out is called Always Running. It's by Luis Rodriguez, 01:21:55.770 --> 01:22:00.069 who has a similar story to mine, and he's still 01:22:00.069 --> 01:22:04.180 out helping people. So those are two books that 01:22:04.180 --> 01:22:07.479 I would recommend that I like. One that's a story 01:22:07.479 --> 01:22:12.500 a lot more wild and detailed than mine. And then 01:22:12.500 --> 01:22:16.100 you have the one by Luis, Always Running, which 01:22:16.100 --> 01:22:17.760 is a pretty good book. And I haven't heard either 01:22:17.760 --> 01:22:19.319 of those two recommended, so thank you. That's 01:22:19.319 --> 01:22:21.699 two new ones for me. I will put them on my list. 01:22:22.659 --> 01:22:25.380 And I'll read the other half, then we can compare 01:22:25.380 --> 01:22:28.680 notes. How about that? That sounds good. That 01:22:28.680 --> 01:22:30.800 sounds good. I was recently given a book actually 01:22:30.800 --> 01:22:32.739 by Father Greg Boyle. I don't know if you've 01:22:32.739 --> 01:22:34.439 ever heard of Father Greg Boyle. I think I've 01:22:34.439 --> 01:22:36.560 reached out to him. He's the one that – Yeah, 01:22:36.560 --> 01:22:39.020 he's the founder of Homeboy Industries. Yes. 01:22:39.060 --> 01:22:40.560 Yeah, he's someone I'd love to get on actually. 01:22:41.079 --> 01:22:43.819 Yeah, so someone gave me a book, his first book 01:22:43.819 --> 01:22:46.180 actually. I think it's called Tattoos on the 01:22:46.180 --> 01:22:48.560 Heart, something like that. I haven't started 01:22:48.560 --> 01:22:51.680 reading it yet, but it was given to me by a lady 01:22:51.680 --> 01:22:53.640 who owns a Mexican restaurant here in Huntington 01:22:53.640 --> 01:22:57.560 Park called El Ranchito. And their whole staff 01:22:57.560 --> 01:22:59.939 as well saw me on the news. And I've been going 01:22:59.939 --> 01:23:02.800 to that restaurant since I was a baby. I was 01:23:02.800 --> 01:23:04.479 brought up in that restaurant. And so when I 01:23:04.479 --> 01:23:06.460 walked in one day, it's like the whole staff 01:23:06.460 --> 01:23:09.619 applauded me when I was walking in because they 01:23:09.619 --> 01:23:11.659 didn't know what I was doing now. You know what 01:23:11.659 --> 01:23:13.279 I mean? They were unaware of what I was doing 01:23:13.279 --> 01:23:15.340 now. And so she was really happy. The owners 01:23:15.340 --> 01:23:17.340 were really happy for me. So that was pretty 01:23:17.340 --> 01:23:20.020 cool. Brilliant. Yeah, like I said, I've seen 01:23:20.020 --> 01:23:22.140 some of the stuff that he did. And that seems 01:23:22.140 --> 01:23:24.220 like another person that would be an interesting 01:23:24.220 --> 01:23:27.140 interview. Definitely. If you can get a hold 01:23:27.140 --> 01:23:28.960 of him, because I hear he's booked. There's a 01:23:28.960 --> 01:23:31.640 waiting line to book Father Greg Boyle to talk 01:23:31.640 --> 01:23:34.380 about homeboy industries. Yeah, yeah. We will 01:23:34.380 --> 01:23:38.220 see. We will see. Okay, so then the next question. 01:23:38.359 --> 01:23:41.800 Is there a movie that you love? My favorite movie 01:23:41.800 --> 01:23:46.159 of all time, I have to say, is probably Last 01:23:46.159 --> 01:23:48.880 of the Mohicans. There's just something about 01:23:48.880 --> 01:23:50.720 that last scene where they battle on the edge 01:23:50.720 --> 01:23:54.079 of the mountain. Yeah, Chimney Rock in North 01:23:54.079 --> 01:23:58.520 Carolina. There you go. Dad comes to avenge his 01:23:58.520 --> 01:24:01.359 son. There's just something about that scene, 01:24:01.520 --> 01:24:07.079 about the music, the violins. Now I'm looking 01:24:07.079 --> 01:24:10.220 at my DVD stack. I have that movie in my DVD 01:24:10.220 --> 01:24:13.739 stack. I guess probably my second best would 01:24:13.739 --> 01:24:17.560 be a tie between Apocalypto and Gladiator. And 01:24:17.560 --> 01:24:19.939 then Tombstone is right there. I'm your huckleberry. 01:24:21.159 --> 01:24:25.609 And then is there a documentary? A documentary, 01:24:25.869 --> 01:24:30.710 no, nothing at the top of my head. Although I 01:24:30.710 --> 01:24:34.270 did mention to my wife last night, 13th, which 01:24:34.270 --> 01:24:36.510 was, you know, you recommended that one to me 01:24:36.510 --> 01:24:38.649 yesterday. And I've had so many people tell me 01:24:38.649 --> 01:24:40.430 about that. Like I told you, my Uber riders, 01:24:40.550 --> 01:24:42.649 I've had several Uber riders because I do part 01:24:42.649 --> 01:24:45.909 -time Uber. They've recommended that documentary. 01:24:46.310 --> 01:24:49.550 I just, you know, I haven't made the time to, 01:24:49.569 --> 01:24:53.060 you know, to sit down. If I'm watching TV, it's 01:24:53.060 --> 01:24:55.880 usually the news because I'm busy all the time. 01:24:55.960 --> 01:24:58.899 I volunteer at the Long Beach Shortstop Program. 01:24:59.039 --> 01:25:02.520 It's a diversion program for juveniles. Plus, 01:25:02.600 --> 01:25:05.079 I public speak. Plus, I have my regular job. 01:25:05.159 --> 01:25:07.380 Plus, I Uber. Plus, I DJ on the weekends. And 01:25:07.380 --> 01:25:11.930 so I'm a very busy guy. I don't have too much 01:25:11.930 --> 01:25:13.590 time for television, but I'm going to try to 01:25:13.590 --> 01:25:16.310 find the time to watch 13th, and then I'll let 01:25:16.310 --> 01:25:18.090 you know what I thought about it. Yeah, I would 01:25:18.090 --> 01:25:20.170 say, I mean, it's definitely 90 minutes well 01:25:20.170 --> 01:25:21.729 spent. There's a lot of crap out there, but I 01:25:21.729 --> 01:25:23.630 think that's very, very well done. And it just 01:25:23.630 --> 01:25:26.210 plants some seeds in your mind, plants some questions. 01:25:26.329 --> 01:25:29.930 Like I said, can we do this better? With some 01:25:29.930 --> 01:25:35.350 of these systems founded on less than altruistic 01:25:35.350 --> 01:25:37.109 principles, and I think the answer is going to 01:25:37.109 --> 01:25:40.539 be no on some of those. All right. Then next 01:25:40.539 --> 01:25:43.479 question. Is there a guest or is there a person 01:25:43.479 --> 01:25:45.520 that you recommend to come on this podcast as 01:25:45.520 --> 01:25:48.140 a guest to speak to the first responders, military 01:25:48.140 --> 01:25:50.939 and every other human being on planet Earth? 01:25:52.199 --> 01:25:57.340 A guest that I would. Sure, I got one for you. 01:25:57.359 --> 01:26:02.100 There it is. My friend, Tony Argot, who is a 01:26:02.100 --> 01:26:05.500 retired L .A. County Sheriff's Department captain. 01:26:07.099 --> 01:26:10.340 who I met Tony Argott. He was the program director 01:26:10.340 --> 01:26:12.579 at Westwood College when I was working on my 01:26:12.579 --> 01:26:16.119 bachelor's degree. And him and I, we didn't hit 01:26:16.119 --> 01:26:19.279 it off very well when we first met because I 01:26:19.279 --> 01:26:21.479 didn't like the way he interrupted class. And 01:26:21.479 --> 01:26:23.579 he jokes about that now, and it's really funny. 01:26:23.960 --> 01:26:27.760 But we have become friends, and I mean true friends. 01:26:28.560 --> 01:26:31.020 Ten years ago when I paroled from prison for 01:26:31.020 --> 01:26:36.060 my last time, I needed help. gathering a deposit 01:26:36.060 --> 01:26:38.800 to be able to rent a place for my wife and my 01:26:38.800 --> 01:26:43.300 kids so I can get up on my feet. My family wasn't 01:26:43.300 --> 01:26:46.100 quite on board with me yet 10 years ago. And 01:26:46.100 --> 01:26:49.699 my friend Tony Argot, retired Sheriff's Department 01:26:49.699 --> 01:26:54.520 captain, loaned me the money to rent the house 01:26:54.520 --> 01:26:58.479 that I currently still rent in the city of Bell. 01:26:58.619 --> 01:27:02.100 And we have lunch once every two months or so. 01:27:02.729 --> 01:27:06.430 We maintain contact by phone. He's always checking 01:27:06.430 --> 01:27:09.890 up on me. He was an instructor at East LA College. 01:27:10.130 --> 01:27:13.470 So I used to go guest speak at his classes. And 01:27:13.470 --> 01:27:16.729 I'm sure he'll have some wild stories to tell 01:27:16.729 --> 01:27:19.449 you. And I'm sure he'll use me as an example 01:27:19.449 --> 01:27:22.590 of people can change if they put their mind to 01:27:22.590 --> 01:27:26.289 it. I will talk to him probably sometime this 01:27:26.289 --> 01:27:29.270 week because we're due for lunch. I will mention 01:27:29.270 --> 01:27:31.699 you. And if I can, I'll pass on his information 01:27:31.699 --> 01:27:33.920 if he's interested. Please. Yeah, absolutely. 01:27:34.239 --> 01:27:35.800 Yeah, I mean, to have, obviously, law enforcement 01:27:35.800 --> 01:27:37.239 background. Anyway, I've had a lot of people 01:27:37.239 --> 01:27:40.100 from police and sheriff's departments on here. 01:27:40.260 --> 01:27:43.819 But, yeah, the crossover of seeing people that 01:27:43.819 --> 01:27:46.039 have, you know, you were cuffing one day and 01:27:46.039 --> 01:27:48.260 then you're helping feed the homeless the next. 01:27:48.739 --> 01:27:50.859 Yeah, there you go. You're loading them with 01:27:50.859 --> 01:27:53.520 money. Yeah, exactly. And I paid them back. I 01:27:53.520 --> 01:27:56.550 paid them back. I mean, it's an honor to call 01:27:56.550 --> 01:27:58.189 him friend, you know, because first of all, who 01:27:58.189 --> 01:28:01.010 he is and what he used to do. And, you know, 01:28:01.010 --> 01:28:03.550 the fact that I was able to earn favor, you know, 01:28:03.550 --> 01:28:06.109 from someone like that. And like I'm saying, 01:28:06.149 --> 01:28:08.329 he does on his own maintenance checkups on me. 01:28:08.369 --> 01:28:09.630 You know, he'll call, hey, what's up, local? 01:28:09.729 --> 01:28:11.470 How you doing, man? What's going on? You know, 01:28:11.470 --> 01:28:13.489 what's the update? You know, he's enjoying his 01:28:13.489 --> 01:28:17.489 first grandbaby. So he's pretty wrapped up. But 01:28:17.489 --> 01:28:20.470 yeah, I would definitely recommend Tony Argonne. 01:28:20.649 --> 01:28:22.770 Excellent. Well, thank you. All right. So then 01:28:22.770 --> 01:28:25.170 the last question before I let you go, what do 01:28:25.170 --> 01:28:27.170 you do to decompress when you're not doing all 01:28:27.170 --> 01:28:29.770 these jobs and all these altruistic projects? 01:28:30.489 --> 01:28:33.930 You know, that's a good question. And that's 01:28:33.930 --> 01:28:37.369 an easy one. I don't decompress as often as I 01:28:37.369 --> 01:28:43.229 need to. It's caused some conditions with me. 01:28:44.829 --> 01:28:47.470 If I did decompress, it would just be sitting 01:28:47.470 --> 01:28:50.069 down listening to music. I listen to different 01:28:50.069 --> 01:28:55.789 types of music, but I have to learn the fact 01:28:55.789 --> 01:28:59.109 that I need to decompress sometimes because I'm 01:28:59.109 --> 01:29:01.210 going, going, going, going, going all the time. 01:29:01.590 --> 01:29:06.390 My mind doesn't stop. I'm either in my head planning 01:29:06.390 --> 01:29:09.210 something for the homeless or planning the next 01:29:09.210 --> 01:29:13.189 fundraiser or flashing back on prison. or flashing 01:29:13.189 --> 01:29:16.510 back on gang violence, or flashing back on a 01:29:16.510 --> 01:29:22.050 day in school, my mind doesn't stop. And so I'm 01:29:22.050 --> 01:29:26.229 trying to figure out how to balance that. Because 01:29:26.229 --> 01:29:29.090 I can see sometimes it's just overwhelming to 01:29:29.090 --> 01:29:31.850 me. I don't know how to decompress. There you 01:29:31.850 --> 01:29:34.470 go. That's my perfect answer. And I need to learn 01:29:34.470 --> 01:29:37.270 how. I need to learn how. Yeah. Yeah. And I think 01:29:37.270 --> 01:29:39.880 that's, you know. a struggle for a lot of people. 01:29:39.960 --> 01:29:43.060 One of my real buy -ins was an app you can get 01:29:43.060 --> 01:29:46.319 on your phone called Headspace. Headspace. It's 01:29:46.319 --> 01:29:50.039 literally a 10 -minute meditation. And there's 01:29:50.039 --> 01:29:52.479 a guy talking. So you're not sitting cross -legged 01:29:52.479 --> 01:29:54.560 humming. You can just sit on a chair or lie on 01:29:54.560 --> 01:29:57.420 the bed. And I think you can try it, I believe, 01:29:57.560 --> 01:30:00.399 for 10 days for free as well. But that was it. 01:30:00.479 --> 01:30:03.819 I'm going to check that out. Yeah. I'm at a point. 01:30:03.920 --> 01:30:05.899 I mean, I'm going to be 52. And I know it's not 01:30:05.899 --> 01:30:08.659 old. Probably, you know, To a lot of your listeners 01:30:08.659 --> 01:30:10.760 saying, oh, you're a youngster, you know, but 01:30:10.760 --> 01:30:14.560 I'm getting to that age to where I need to learn 01:30:14.560 --> 01:30:19.100 how to create my peace of mind. Because I feel 01:30:19.100 --> 01:30:21.199 that if I'm not doing something for somebody, 01:30:21.399 --> 01:30:24.659 I'm not doing anything at all. But at the same 01:30:24.659 --> 01:30:27.239 time, I need to learn that I do need some me 01:30:27.239 --> 01:30:30.640 time, you know, some family time. And I'm learning, 01:30:30.699 --> 01:30:32.420 you know, last weekend I was in Vegas with my 01:30:32.420 --> 01:30:34.840 three -year -old granddaughter and I loved it. 01:30:35.810 --> 01:30:38.109 And I'm thinking, wow, that would be nice to 01:30:38.109 --> 01:30:40.149 be able to get more time like that. How do I 01:30:40.149 --> 01:30:44.029 do it? How do I, you know, make time for me to 01:30:44.029 --> 01:30:47.449 decompress? And so I need to learn how. And I 01:30:47.449 --> 01:30:50.369 thank you for bringing that up to me. No problem. 01:30:50.510 --> 01:30:52.550 Yeah, it definitely helped me. And what I found 01:30:52.550 --> 01:30:55.270 as well is fascinating is that there are a lot 01:30:55.270 --> 01:30:58.550 of us when, you know, when they're in a mental. 01:30:59.300 --> 01:31:01.260 or challenges or stress, whatever you want to 01:31:01.260 --> 01:31:04.220 call it, that void, again, that mental health 01:31:04.220 --> 01:31:08.199 void, we fill with work. And I know many, many 01:31:08.199 --> 01:31:10.079 firefighters that do that. They take up extra 01:31:10.079 --> 01:31:12.119 shifts. I think it's so they don't have to be 01:31:12.119 --> 01:31:13.699 present and address the things that are going 01:31:13.699 --> 01:31:17.819 on. So I think it's very healthy to do that, 01:31:17.880 --> 01:31:19.579 to take time for yourself. And I think it makes 01:31:19.579 --> 01:31:21.859 you more efficient too. When your mind is clearer, 01:31:22.100 --> 01:31:24.640 you're able to get more done in less time. So 01:31:24.640 --> 01:31:26.600 you don't need as many hours. So you can be present 01:31:26.600 --> 01:31:29.909 with your grandchildren, for example. Yeah. Yeah. 01:31:30.369 --> 01:31:32.930 Looking forward to that. Brilliant. All right. 01:31:32.949 --> 01:31:35.189 So I was about to let you go. There's one more 01:31:35.189 --> 01:31:36.770 thing that I forgot that we need to talk about. 01:31:37.170 --> 01:31:39.869 Gastric bypass. I have plenty of time. Oh, my 01:31:39.869 --> 01:31:42.630 gastric bypass. So actually what I had was a 01:31:42.630 --> 01:31:46.449 gastric sleeve. Right. My doctor recommended 01:31:46.449 --> 01:31:48.689 the gastric bypass, but I asked him, you know, 01:31:48.710 --> 01:31:51.510 how much more beneficial would that be to me? 01:31:52.109 --> 01:31:54.890 Not much more beneficial, but the risk factors 01:31:54.890 --> 01:31:58.760 as far as, you know, healing. were a little more 01:31:58.760 --> 01:32:02.699 serious. So I chose the gastric sleeve. I've 01:32:02.699 --> 01:32:05.479 had the gastric sleeve, I think it's been about 01:32:05.479 --> 01:32:11.100 two years. And I'm down about 115 pounds. I still 01:32:11.100 --> 01:32:16.880 have probably another 100 to go. But I love it. 01:32:17.000 --> 01:32:21.159 I know where we're going with this. I told you 01:32:21.159 --> 01:32:23.960 yesterday, I'm probably the only Mexican in LA 01:32:23.960 --> 01:32:27.750 that doesn't eat tortillas. That was it. That's, 01:32:27.750 --> 01:32:30.310 I remember it. And you got a big kick out of 01:32:30.310 --> 01:32:32.510 that yesterday. Yeah. I don't, you know, I don't 01:32:32.510 --> 01:32:36.569 eat tortillas. I can, if I want to, the doctor 01:32:36.569 --> 01:32:39.409 says, but I've learned how not to, you know? 01:32:39.470 --> 01:32:42.850 And so I have one occasionally, you know, my 01:32:42.850 --> 01:32:44.689 wife will look at me like, damn, that's it. Just 01:32:44.689 --> 01:32:47.050 one. Yeah. I'm cool with just one. I don't need 01:32:47.050 --> 01:32:50.449 five or six anymore, you know? But I've lost 01:32:50.449 --> 01:32:54.210 a lot of weight. I feel a whole lot better. I 01:32:54.210 --> 01:32:56.390 have more energy to play with my 10 year old 01:32:56.390 --> 01:33:00.000 son. You know, I had to do it. I had a heart 01:33:00.000 --> 01:33:03.060 attack about five years ago. And by the grace 01:33:03.060 --> 01:33:05.279 of God, I'm here. You know, I had a friend pass 01:33:05.279 --> 01:33:10.039 away probably five or six days ago, 41 years 01:33:10.039 --> 01:33:11.960 old, his first heart attack. And every time I 01:33:11.960 --> 01:33:14.199 have a friend that, you know, passes away from 01:33:14.199 --> 01:33:16.420 a heart attack, I like, Lord, you know, why? 01:33:16.539 --> 01:33:19.680 Why did you save me? You know why? I mean, I 01:33:19.680 --> 01:33:22.380 was a drug addict. I was the criminal. But you 01:33:22.380 --> 01:33:25.069 saved me, you know. Sometimes it answers myself. 01:33:25.149 --> 01:33:27.350 Well, because he still needs me. Who would be 01:33:27.350 --> 01:33:29.510 feeding the people on Skid Row if I was gone, 01:33:29.590 --> 01:33:34.869 you know? But yeah, this gastric sleeve surgery, 01:33:34.930 --> 01:33:38.170 it was life changing. I was afraid. I was afraid 01:33:38.170 --> 01:33:39.869 to do it because, you know, Kaiser sends you 01:33:39.869 --> 01:33:42.810 to classes first. They educate you first. And 01:33:42.810 --> 01:33:44.890 one of the very first things that the doctor 01:33:44.890 --> 01:33:48.369 on the very first night of class said was that 01:33:48.369 --> 01:33:50.850 1 % of the people don't get up from the table. 01:33:51.279 --> 01:33:53.859 I said, oh, that was me right there. That's been 01:33:53.859 --> 01:33:56.520 the story of my life. I got up and walked out 01:33:56.520 --> 01:33:59.119 of class and I never went back. A year later, 01:33:59.159 --> 01:34:02.000 I had a heart attack. Uh -oh, I better try to 01:34:02.000 --> 01:34:03.600 have that surgery. I'm either going to die on 01:34:03.600 --> 01:34:06.819 the table or die of a heart attack. So I didn't 01:34:06.819 --> 01:34:10.359 die on the table and here I am. Yeah. And it's 01:34:10.359 --> 01:34:11.979 so good to hear. The reason I wanted to ask you 01:34:11.979 --> 01:34:14.159 about that is obviously with this project, I 01:34:14.159 --> 01:34:16.220 talk a lot about exercise and nutrition and all 01:34:16.220 --> 01:34:19.640 these things. But my wife's best friend, she 01:34:19.640 --> 01:34:22.899 had – I think she did she have a bypass? She 01:34:22.899 --> 01:34:25.779 might have had some sort of sleeve as well. And, 01:34:25.939 --> 01:34:28.319 you know, she lost the weight and is loving it. 01:34:28.399 --> 01:34:31.899 And I think through that process, she found herself 01:34:31.899 --> 01:34:33.739 eating better because she didn't want to, you 01:34:33.739 --> 01:34:37.100 know, stick a whole bag of tortilla chips in 01:34:37.100 --> 01:34:39.199 her mouth anymore. You know, whatever that she 01:34:39.199 --> 01:34:41.859 was eating before. Well, don't get it. Don't 01:34:41.859 --> 01:34:44.000 get us wrong. We do want to stick a whole bag 01:34:44.000 --> 01:34:48.739 of tortilla chips. We just can't. We just can't, 01:34:48.739 --> 01:34:52.079 man. You know. And another thing that I found 01:34:52.079 --> 01:34:53.420 about it is that, like I told you yesterday, 01:34:53.600 --> 01:34:56.899 my whole life is on Instagram. And so I was shocked 01:34:56.899 --> 01:34:59.579 at the amount of people who saw me have the surgery, 01:34:59.699 --> 01:35:02.180 who reached out with questions, who were considering 01:35:02.180 --> 01:35:05.659 it, who were afraid of it, who ended up having 01:35:05.659 --> 01:35:08.819 surgery because I had mine and shared my story. 01:35:09.180 --> 01:35:11.359 And so there was another way that God used me. 01:35:11.439 --> 01:35:13.260 You know, so many people. Well, I'm going to 01:35:13.260 --> 01:35:15.720 say I can name at least five or six people. I 01:35:15.720 --> 01:35:18.100 keep saying so many, but. At least five or six 01:35:18.100 --> 01:35:21.020 people did have a surgery because I posted my 01:35:21.020 --> 01:35:23.680 entire journey on my Instagram. Yeah, that's 01:35:23.680 --> 01:35:25.199 amazing. And that's why I wanted to talk about 01:35:25.199 --> 01:35:27.659 this because it's not the go -to. And actually, 01:35:27.699 --> 01:35:29.680 one of my friends I went to fire school with 01:35:29.680 --> 01:35:33.699 had, I think it was bypassed specifically, and 01:35:33.699 --> 01:35:36.159 he ended up getting necrotic and passed away 01:35:36.159 --> 01:35:38.159 at a very, very young age. So, of course, there's 01:35:38.159 --> 01:35:41.859 that risk. But, you know, I know a lot of people 01:35:41.859 --> 01:35:43.800 that have done very well on it. So, it's something 01:35:43.800 --> 01:35:46.140 that also needs to be... talked about especially 01:35:46.140 --> 01:35:48.640 like you said when you get people that are getting 01:35:48.640 --> 01:35:52.079 dangerously overweight you know that that that 01:35:52.079 --> 01:35:56.760 might be the the the first step to then being 01:35:56.760 --> 01:35:59.319 able to exercise more eat better you know so 01:35:59.319 --> 01:36:03.359 if it's if it's a bridge to improving other elements 01:36:03.359 --> 01:36:06.199 of your life then then why not so it's so good 01:36:06.199 --> 01:36:08.359 that you found you know great results from it 01:36:08.359 --> 01:36:10.739 yeah definitely and i'm so you know thankful 01:36:10.739 --> 01:36:13.500 to kaiser because i know other you know medical 01:36:13.500 --> 01:36:16.460 programs that They will just schedule you for 01:36:16.460 --> 01:36:18.539 your surgery, but Kaiser educated you first. 01:36:19.079 --> 01:36:21.060 They wanted you to attend these classes. You 01:36:21.060 --> 01:36:23.640 can't have the surgery without going to these 01:36:23.640 --> 01:36:27.020 classes first. They want you to understand it's 01:36:27.020 --> 01:36:29.420 a life -changing, it's not just a cure, it's 01:36:29.420 --> 01:36:33.439 a life -changing journey. I know so many people 01:36:33.439 --> 01:36:35.899 in our culture, the Mexican culture, Chicano 01:36:35.899 --> 01:36:39.670 culture, we want to get things cheap. I know 01:36:39.670 --> 01:36:42.010 a lot of people that run to Mexico just to have 01:36:42.010 --> 01:36:44.430 a, you know, this gastric sleeve surgery who 01:36:44.430 --> 01:36:47.390 pay 25 % of the cost of what it costs here. But, 01:36:47.390 --> 01:36:49.569 you know, now you're back in the United States 01:36:49.569 --> 01:36:51.850 sick because you didn't get educated on, you 01:36:51.850 --> 01:36:53.989 know, how to do it, how to treat it, you know, 01:36:53.989 --> 01:36:56.409 and stuff like that. I know one person who didn't 01:36:56.409 --> 01:36:58.930 get up from the table because she ran to Mexico 01:36:58.930 --> 01:37:02.449 to go have a surgery, you know. And so I'm thankful 01:37:02.449 --> 01:37:04.689 to Kaiser in many, many, many ways to making 01:37:04.689 --> 01:37:08.289 sure that we were educated before we had. uh 01:37:08.289 --> 01:37:11.449 surgery brilliant well that's great to hear and 01:37:11.449 --> 01:37:13.289 you know kudos to kaiser for doing that because 01:37:13.289 --> 01:37:16.529 i mean again common sense that seems like a pretty 01:37:16.529 --> 01:37:19.069 invasive procedure that you should be well versed 01:37:19.069 --> 01:37:22.270 in before you make a decision definitely definitely 01:37:22.270 --> 01:37:25.109 all right well mike i just want to say thank 01:37:25.109 --> 01:37:27.630 you so much it's been you know a great episode 01:37:27.630 --> 01:37:30.529 and you know i tell this to people a lot to have 01:37:30.529 --> 01:37:32.529 the courage to tell your story especially you 01:37:32.529 --> 01:37:36.520 know if it's a story where um you know You were 01:37:36.520 --> 01:37:38.520 down a dark path before and you were doing things 01:37:38.520 --> 01:37:40.340 that, you know, you weren't proud of when you 01:37:40.340 --> 01:37:42.460 look back. But I mean, again, like I said, I 01:37:42.460 --> 01:37:44.859 stole when I was young. You know, there's things 01:37:44.859 --> 01:37:47.199 that I could have been arrested for. I think 01:37:47.199 --> 01:37:50.119 a lot of us are, if we're honest and look back, 01:37:50.279 --> 01:37:52.439 you know, none of us are perfect. I haven't met 01:37:52.439 --> 01:37:55.520 a perfect person yet. But to tell, to be down 01:37:55.520 --> 01:37:58.640 that path and then be where you are today. um 01:37:58.640 --> 01:38:01.399 i think is is what we need to hear you know i 01:38:01.399 --> 01:38:04.439 think we're sold the facade on tv on instagram 01:38:04.439 --> 01:38:07.239 that everyone else is is just fine and you know 01:38:07.239 --> 01:38:09.239 they they don't struggle with any addiction don't 01:38:09.239 --> 01:38:11.899 struggle with breaking the law um but the reality 01:38:11.899 --> 01:38:14.859 is that you know this is a human story and and 01:38:14.859 --> 01:38:18.180 to to do what you're doing now is is inspirational 01:38:18.180 --> 01:38:20.300 so thank you so much for taking the time to come 01:38:20.300 --> 01:38:23.600 on the podcast No problem. Anytime. And I thank 01:38:23.600 --> 01:38:26.479 you again for allowing me to get my story out 01:38:26.479 --> 01:38:29.500 there that people can change. And one thing I'd 01:38:29.500 --> 01:38:32.600 like to mention, you kind of touched on it a 01:38:32.600 --> 01:38:35.300 few seconds ago. I came across 10 Years Clean 01:38:35.300 --> 01:38:40.520 on October 1st, 2019. I didn't do it with NA 01:38:40.520 --> 01:38:45.800 or with AA or with CA. I did. I just ran out 01:38:45.800 --> 01:38:48.760 of gas. Now, I'm not saying that that's for everybody. 01:38:49.359 --> 01:38:54.880 If you need NA, please use NA or AA or CA or 01:38:54.880 --> 01:38:56.920 any of those organizations that help you stay 01:38:56.920 --> 01:39:01.960 clean. I truly ran out of gas, my brother. And 01:39:01.960 --> 01:39:04.460 that's how I came across my 10 years clean. Now, 01:39:04.479 --> 01:39:07.079 don't get me wrong. Every time that I accomplish 01:39:07.079 --> 01:39:11.000 something, I reach a new goal. I have that angel 01:39:11.000 --> 01:39:13.079 or that angel of death on one shoulder saying, 01:39:13.300 --> 01:39:15.739 hey, man, you got 10 years clean. Let's go have 01:39:15.739 --> 01:39:18.869 a hit. Then the angel on the other side says, 01:39:18.949 --> 01:39:20.670 no way, man, you're going to lose everything 01:39:20.670 --> 01:39:24.029 you have. So I battle cravings, even though it's 01:39:24.029 --> 01:39:27.069 been 10 years. I still battle cravings today, 01:39:27.210 --> 01:39:31.569 but I no longer entertain them. And within seconds, 01:39:31.670 --> 01:39:37.649 they're gone. And so every time, like I'm saying, 01:39:37.689 --> 01:39:39.869 I accomplish something new in life, I reach a 01:39:39.869 --> 01:39:42.409 short -term goal, the first thing that attacks 01:39:42.409 --> 01:39:45.600 me is let's go celebrate. Let's go get a $10 01:39:45.600 --> 01:39:47.939 hit. Let's go get a $5 hit. You can handle it 01:39:47.939 --> 01:39:51.500 now. And no way. No, no, no way. So I don't want 01:39:51.500 --> 01:39:53.840 everyone to think that, oh, he's done. He's fixed. 01:39:53.960 --> 01:39:56.890 He's good to go. No, sir. I battle it. When we're 01:39:56.890 --> 01:39:59.329 out on Skid Row and I smell those crack pipes 01:39:59.329 --> 01:40:02.569 burning and that crack smoke is in the air and 01:40:02.569 --> 01:40:04.989 I'm seeing these people push their pipes and 01:40:04.989 --> 01:40:07.789 seeing the drug dealers drop off all this dope, 01:40:07.949 --> 01:40:12.949 I get that euphoric feeling. But I'm no longer 01:40:12.949 --> 01:40:15.850 entertaining those thoughts because I've worked 01:40:15.850 --> 01:40:20.149 way too hard to be where I'm at today. And on 01:40:20.149 --> 01:40:22.310 top of that, I have a 10 -year -old little man 01:40:22.310 --> 01:40:25.920 here at my house who carries my name. who expects 01:40:25.920 --> 01:40:30.359 to see me come home from work every night. And 01:40:30.359 --> 01:40:33.960 so I cannot fail that little man. I can't. I 01:40:33.960 --> 01:40:36.039 do have a 13 -year -old daughter. I love her 01:40:36.039 --> 01:40:39.560 to death. But it's my job to teach this little 01:40:39.560 --> 01:40:43.300 man how to be a little man. And I cannot put 01:40:43.300 --> 01:40:46.600 my two kids through what I put my two oldest 01:40:46.600 --> 01:40:48.859 daughters through. I couldn't do it again.