Best of The Program | Guest: Sheriff Chris Swanson | 6/1/20

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Coming up on the Glen Beck Podcast today with Pat filling in for Stu today, we discuss some of the violent riots across the country, including video from our very own Elijah Schaefer of a man in downtown Dallas being beaten for defending a shop.

Unbelievable video.

We see a lot of people who are still looting from big businesses like Nike, but is that really in support of George Floyd, or are they just using George's name for their own good?

Plus, the president has now declared Antifa a terrorist organization, and Glenn talks with Michigan Sheriff Chris Swanson

about the viral video of him talking to the protesters and letting them know that he and his department were there to walk with them.

And they did.

Here's the podcast.

You're listening to

the best of the Blenbeck program.

Hello, America.

I want you to...

I want you to just listen for a few minutes and

tell me what you're really concerned about.

Tell me what the solution is to our problems.

We're living in a time where

the president is very controversial.

He's up for re-election.

The Democrats are divided over their candidate.

There's a pandemic going on.

A film came out or video came out

that's resonated nationwide and started riots.

There's ongoing tension with North Korea.

There's mistrust of the government because of the way it's handling things.

We're a sharply divided nation, the student radicals versus the silent majority.

And the media is reporting the death toll that is rising every day.

Did I just describe today,

or did I describe 1968?

Because that's exactly what was happening in the summer of 1968.

Let me take you there for a second.

In January of 1968, Johnny Cash performed his concert at Folsom State Prison in California.

The Winter Olympics were about to be held in France, and they were to be fully broadcast in color on ABC for the first time.

The

reason why I bring this up

is because I want you to think about the technology that was happening in that year, the good and the bad that was happening in that year.

1968 was an important year because while that was happening here in America, cash and the Winter Olympics, the Prague Spring began.

The secretary of the Czechoslovakian Communist Party was

the winner, and he became the prime minister over the Stalinist.

candidate and that win brought a very short period of liberalization.

North Korea at the same time had captured the USS Pueblo.

It was a U.S.

Navy intelligence ship, captured it and its crew and held the 83 U.S.

service personnel in POW camps for 11 months.

Meanwhile, Viet Cong forced

the Viet Cong forces launched a the Tet Offensive, a coordinated series of attacks against the U.S.

targets in South Vietnam.

It surprised us, and 1,500 Americans died.

And that was the turning point of the Vietnam War.

Meanwhile, back at home, civil rights protests at South Carolina State University turned deadly after a police officer was struck with a heavy wooden banister.

That's when police opened fire, and an estimated 200 black students were there.

Three male students were shot and killed, 28 others wounded.

This is the Orangeburg massacre, but you don't really know much about it because the TED Offensive was sucking up all of the air and getting all of the news.

It's also the year the first 9-11 call happened, first 911 call was placed in the U.S.

in 1968.

Meanwhile, politically,

LBJ was in office and he had the Kerner Commission and

they did a report on the status in America and they condemned white racism as the primary cause of the recent riots in the U.S.

The report declared, our nation is moving towards two societies, one black, one white, separate and unequal.

It was then that Senator Robert F.

Kennedy announced that he was going to enter the presidential race.

On the same day, U.S.

forces killed over 500 Vietnamese civilians.

in the Mai Le massacre in South Vietnam.

It was just a few days after after that that LBJ announced he's not going to run for re-election.

And then Martin Luther King was murdered, and riots happen in over a hundred U.S.

cities.

These riots killed 46 people.

14,000 U.S.

troops, the federal troops, were called in to control the violence.

At the same time, the Hot Wheels car was

introduced.

Then on June 5th, Robert Kennedy was murdered by Sirhan Sirhan.

He later said he killed Kennedy out of concern for the Palestinian cause.

He had felt betrayed by the support of RFK for Israel during the Six-Day War in 1967.

By the way, just another parallel here.

I think you've seen the other parallels.

This weekend, I saw something on the Ayatollah Khomeini or Khamenis website, the Ayatollah of Iran.

Palestinian or Palestine will be free.

There's a picture that they put of the Palestinians celebrating their freedom at the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem.

But what struck me was Palestine will be free.

What says underneath, the final solution,

resistance until referendum.

Not a lot has changed.

Richard Nixon won the Republican nomination at the RNC in Miami.

Walter Headley, he was the police chief in Miami in 1968.

He said, when the looting starts, the shooting starts.

And he said that in response to the protests in the predominantly black neighborhoods of Liberty City during the Republican National Convention.

Late last week, this is what President Trump tweeted, the same phrase referring to the looters in Minneapolis.

It was at that time when America was busy with her own things that we forgot all about,

the Prague Spring in Czechoslovakia.

The Soviet Union came in with 200,000 troops and they ended the Prague Spring.

We've talked about the Prague Spring over and over again, what happened in Czechoslovakia

when the Soviets were coming into Prague and the people were begging them to come into Hungary and to Prague and to Czechoslovakia and please get some control in here.

Meanwhile, we were begging the same thing.

Please, is there any control?

The DNC had their convention in Chicago, and the Yippies and the Students for Democratic Society and the Black Panthers poured into the streets.

They were met by police forces rallied by Mayor Richard Daley.

Vice President Hubert Humphrey became the Democrats' nominee with the riots happening in the streets.

At the first,

also

in 1968, we were counting the numbers of the dead, not only in Vietnam, but the Hong Kong flu.

It was a pandemic in the U.S.

You don't read much about it because Americans did what Americans usually do, and that's just move on with their life.

At this point, there were 100,000 dead in the pandemic in 1968.

This year, there's 102

that are dead, 102,000.

The deaths back in 1968 affected those who were 65 or older.

I just saw a report this morning that this time the deaths

81

or older.

The Miss America pageant, Atlantic City, had a protest where people were

gathering around the freedom trash can where women could throw away all the manifestations of women's oppression like bras and girdles and curlers and false eyelashes and wigs and women's magazines.

This is what happened.

This is where where the phrase bra-burning came from and started in 1968, but no bras were actually burned.

The country was in a crisis, they didn't know who to trust.

CBS decided they would launch 60 minutes, so there would be an authoritative voice that people could rally around and trust.

Then, in the midst of all of this doubt,

Apollo 7

was launched and provided the first live TV broadcast from a spacecraft in orbit.

For the first time, we saw the astronauts strapped in the seats and we saw what they were seeing.

I was struck this weekend by the parallels of 1968, especially how complete they are as I was watching the launch of SpaceX and NASA's new rocket.

Do we have the launch of SpaceX here?

Let's start with the Socket Line and Crew Dragon.

Game NASA, Go SpaceX, God speeds, Bob and Doug.

We went from Commander so-and-so to Bob and Doug, but it was pretty much the same thing, just a little more casual.

It was still

It was the games of 1968, the Summer Olympics in Mexico City, where the black athletes, American black athletes, Tommy Smith and John Carlos, bowed their heads and raised their black glove fists in a salute to the black power movement during the Star-Spangled Banner.

Richard Nixon won.

By the way, he didn't win the South.

That was Alabama Governor George Wallace.

He won 13.5% of the popular vote in five southern states, but he won.

The Republican Party was still the party of Lincoln, I guess.

At that same election, the first black woman was elected to the U.S.

House of Representatives.

By the way, not the first black person, but the first black woman, the first black person that was elected was elected in 68 as well, but I think it was 1868.

So we had a.

It was a summer and a time of iconic movements.

Yellow Submarine was released.

The White album was released.

William Shatler and Nichelle Nichols shared the first interracial kiss in the Star Trek episode that year.

Aretha Franklin released her album Lady Soul.

Laugh-In debuted.

So did Mr.

Rogers' Neighborhood.

Imagine that.

Mr.

Rogers, how opposite to society.

NBC had a Motown-produced special called TCB.

That was Diana Ross, the Supremes, and the Temptations.

Chitty Chitty Bang Bang was released, the Love Bug was released.

All of these things that culturally were pouring good things into our society.

And yet, 1968 was also the year that Andy Griffith walked away from Mayberry.

I see so many similarities,

including the good things,

and the hope and the promise of tomorrow.

But there is one thing

that I think

I haven't seen the parallel yet.

And I think in the end, it's what saved us.

What saved us in the end was

we did look to the moon and the stars, and we saw a bright future While Woodstock was happening, while Martin Luther King was killed, we looked forward, we looked up.

Thanks to the men and women of NASA, we had something to aspire to.

We have it again.

We have all of these promises that are just over the horizon.

Last time, we decided we're not with the rioters.

We're with justice,

fairness for all.

We're not with the rioters.

But the thing we're missing is something that happened on Christmas Eve of 1968.

I take you back to the moon launch and the commander, Jim Lovell.

Listen.

We're now going over

14 one of our future landing sites selected in this smooth region

to evolve a sea of tranquility,

smooth in order to make it easy for the initial landing attempt

in order to preclude having to dodge mountains.

Here we were doing something.

Long shadows of the lunar sunrise.

Here we're seeing for the very first time the surface of the moon.

It's really scratchy video, and he's talking about the lunar sunrise and the sunrise for mankind that was just around the corner as we would land a few years later on the sea of tranquility.

In the beginning, God created the heaven and the earth,

and the earth was without form, and void, and darkness was upon the face of the deep.

And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.

And God said,

Let there be light.

And there was light.

And God saw the light.

Then it was good.

That, I think, is what we're missing.

We're focusing on the darkness and the

deep.

We're forgetting that we were created and that we are very similar to our Creator

in the way that we can too create.

We will

create our own future, but we have to decide what's good, what's bad.

We have to separate the light from the darkness.

Can you do that?

All right, I know what you're thinking.

People ask me all the time, Glenn, how on earth do you maintain that unbelievably handsome figure?

Well, it's not easy to have a body like this.

I start at 4 a.m.

by running two miles, then I bike back, do, I don't know, 750 crunches, finish the morning with hours of hot yoga.

Okay, obviously, I don't do any of that.

What I usually do is sit my fat butt down on the couch at night and I eat a bowl of ice cream because I really have a sweet tooth.

And my wife has been saying to me for a while, you gotta try these Built Bars.

It's like you're eating a candy bar.

And I'm like, no, it's not.

Are they protein bars?

Yeah.

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Well, that's like eating the doormat.

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I went into her stash and I actually had one.

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So I don't think I have ever seen

such a severe contrast of actions surrounding an alleged abuse by a police officer and a black person.

Whether it was Rodney King or Trayvon Martin or Michael Brown, there was a lot of violence in the streets, but there were also questions that were happening at that time.

There were questions on what led up to the confrontation between the LAPD and Rodney King.

There were questions about King's behavior just before the camera clicked on.

There were questions that were similar for Trayvon Martin and Michael Brown.

The cases clearly were not as cut and dry as some of the street activists had wanted them to be because there were questions out there about it.

and it made some of the violence even get worse when you started to ask the questions.

But let me look at the case here of George Floyd.

What's missing from what's different from the others?

I think it's the lack of questions.

There has been near unanimous consent that the officer was in the wrong.

This case crosses the political and ideological divide.

The officer almost immediately was arrested and charged with murder.

At the federal level, the Justice Department, President Trump's Justice Department, President Trump's Attorney General, announced a federal rights investigation into Floyd's death.

So there will be not only a federal prosecution for murder, but also a civil rights investigation.

Those happened without any protests.

Why?

Because this one's cut and dry.

This one's really pretty easy.

And this is the flashpoint.

Now, forget all of the ridiculousness of the kneeling at an NFL football game.

This case was primed to be the flashpoint that would have given those that think police action deserves more scrutiny and an actual legitimate

platform.

And they're right.

There are bad cops out there.

There might even be bad precincts or, you know, bad, a whole city of bad cops.

I don't believe that.

But I'm willing to listen to the case because I want to believe in our police officers.

I need to believe.

We need as a society to believe in our police force.

It's why I'm so upset with what's going on in Washington, D.C.

If you don't trust the FBI, if you don't trust the Justice Department, we don't have a civil society.

But in this case, everyone, and I mean everyone, was in lockstep that this was a horrible, unjustified act.

Now, here's the contrast between Floyd and all the others.

None of it mattered to any of the rioters.

Mutual agreement, swift action against the officer, a federal investigation.

But where are we now as a weekend?

We are a country that is in a literal war zone.

The headline that I saw that was the most frightening was: The World Worries.

Why?

Because one of the things that we have going for us, one of the reasons why we are the richest nation in the world, why we are poor, have a flat-screen TV,

is because we are stable.

We have a stable set of laws, a stable, the longest running Constitution in world history,

and people know they can count on Americans to not go crazy.

That's why the world is worried.

3,000 arrests in over two dozen cities.

More than two dozen cities have also enacted strict curfews.

5,000 National Guard troops have been called up in 15 different states.

In my home city of Dallas, it erupted over the weekend.

ATM machines were smashed.

Well, that'll show the police.

Store windows were broken in as looters scrambled inside, stealing everything they could get their hands on.

Neiman Marcus.

What does Neiman Marcus have to do with the oppression of the blacks by the police force?

People were violently beaten unconscious.

I haven't seen anything like this in my lifetime.

And it can be seen all over the country.

There are no questions as per the conduct of the officer, but now there are questions.

Who's fanning the flames here?

They will tell you that it is Donald Trump.

They have no credibility anymore.

I'll tell you who's fanning the flames.

The radical left movement in the late 1980s and 90s and up until about a decade ago was all but dead.

But they were still out there.

But their arguments had been proven wrong time and time again.

They had no ideological ground to stand on.

They were frauds.

And the majority of those who

tried to persuade knew it.

But that's not the case anymore.

President Trump has now designated Antifa as a terror group.

Oh, that means all kinds of things can be

looked into now, which leads me to all kinds of new questions on who do you trust.

Attorney General Barr also announced they're looking into some of these groups for their culpability in the Floyd riots.

Can you imagine what's about to happen if this hopefully goes through?

Antifa would be a major target for anti-terror investigations.

That means the wiretaps and a whole lot of doors that were previously locked.

That means looking into these mayors that have been playing footsie, like Portland, with Antifa.

How many people at the DNC will be caught speaking to local Antifa chapters?

How many organizations, such as possibly the Democratic Socialist Americas of America, can be caught up in this web?

How many local and state-elected officials?

How many media personalities?

Oh boy, if you've been on the side of Antifa, you might be in trouble.

See, this is why

you don't want to be living in a country where you could have these terrorist designations

easily put through

because if you're on the wrong side,

you're toast.

Elon O'Marr is now peddling a conspiracy theory looking for outside agitators.

Yeah, there are outside agitators.

There are people that are rioting in Minneapolis that have no place in Minneapolis or in Minnesota for that matter.

And there are outside agitators, like China is taking advantage of something that is homegrown.

They're terrified.

Now, nearly every single riot that has broken out over the past few days, they all are very, very similar.

Peaceful protest begins, and then something happens.

Something spirals out of control, and the whole city is on fire.

Now, is it a conspiracy?

Is it a theory of conspiracy to claim that far-left radicals and groups such as Antifa are stoking the violent flames?

The governor of Minnesota said this weekend that 80% of the arrests were made on people outside the state.

This number has gone back and forth, but there were clear, clear outside agitators.

Now, I want you to listen to this quote from USA Today.

Drifting out of the shadows in small groups, dressed in black, carrying shields and wearing knee pads, they head toward the front lines of the protest.

Helmets and gas masks protect and obscure faces, and they carry bottles of milk to counteract tear gas and pepper spray.

Most of them appear to be white.

They carry no signs, and they don't want to speak to reporters.

Trailed by designated medics with red crosses taped to their clothes, these groups head straight to the front lines of the conflict.

Now, so here we have these white students.

And I will agree with some of the people that said this is mainly caused by white supremacists, but just not the way they think.

These white supremacists are these people that think they know better than everyone else.

These whites that just have to go in and protect the poor black man because the black man can't defend himself.

And so these whites defending the black man go into the cities and burn down the black man's neighborhood.

that doesn't sound very helpful.

Night after night, USA Today continues.

In this ravaged city, these small groups do battle with police and National Guard, kicking away tear gas canisters and throwing back rubber foam

objects fired at them.

Around them, fires break out, windows are smashed, parked cars destroyed.

USA Today reporters have witnessed the groups on multiple nights in multiple locations.

Sometimes they threaten those journalists who photograph them destroying property.

So what does this sound like to you?

Does this sound like something spontaneous that we haven't seen before?

Or does this sound exactly like Antifa we've seen on the streets of Washington and Washington State and Oregon and New York City?

It is Antifa.

A security consultant investigating the riots told USA Today that they found a majority of the hardcore rioters are far-left and anarchist radicals.

Again, antifaw.

A peaceful protest in Charlotte was criticized by their own organizers after other groups moved in and hijacked their event.

They implied it was an attempt to support the movement, but was co-opted by anarchists and others who were there only to start fights.

Elijah Schaefer, who works for Blaze TV, was on the ground in Dallas.

He said

the riots didn't have anything to do with black versus white or police brutality.

He said it was simple class warfare against the rich and shop owners.

He said organizers showed up with pallets of bricks and said to them, Go in this direction towards Victory Park because that's where the rich people live.

End quote.

Now, I want you to listen to this from

the riot in Los Angeles.

It's a black woman who came to attend a peaceful protest calling out a group of black-clad antifa white girls for causing problems and vandalizing.

Listen, this is not

don't police people's graphs.

Let me tell you

this is not

a black woman who's putting Black Lives Matter.

I just want you to know

that when

right, but y'all, y'all doing that for us.

So here are these.

Don't, don't, don't.

Here is a peaceful protester,

a black woman

saying, don't you write Black Lives Matter on that building in graffiti?

Don't do it.

You're going to get the black community blamed for this.

You're two white girls from Antifa.

There is no conspiracy theory.

This is as open and shut as the actual killing

of George Floyd.

The evidence is out in the open and it's spreading all over the country and anyone claiming otherwise is either not paying attention or mad because it goes against their narrative or scared that their culpability with the far left is about to be on the front page of every newspaper in the country.

There are three actors in every case such as this.

The first, the peaceful activists exercising their right to peacefully protest.

Whether you agree with them or not, they're operating under the law.

The second are the troublemakers that want to benefit off the chaos, the rioters, the looters, etc.

They need to be held accountable under the same law that is protecting the protesters.

There's a difference between protesters and looters and thugs.

They aren't protesting, they're committing crimes.

But the third, the third,

they're the ideological agitators, and chaos is their ladder.

They don't care about anybody's color.

They don't care about justice.

They don't care about police brutality.

In fact, they actually want it because it brings more chaos.

Now that movement is gaining in strength.

But we have allies all over the country and they run all the way up to Washington, D.C., and we surround them.

This is classic strategy, top-down, bottom-up.

But the bottom is coming up in a different sort of way.

The best of the Glenbeck program.

So Chris Swanson is

a guy who's done a lot of work for an organization that you are well aware of.

You actually helped start Operation Underground Railroad, where we go and we rescue slaves all around the world.

Chris was with me in Mexico, and I had time to spend with him, and I just, I love this guy.

He's the sheriff in Genesee County, Michigan.

He put down his baton and took off his helmet, and he said, I'm with you, and so are all these cops.

And we're nothing, we're nothing like the guy who murdered,

murdered a man.

This is actually what he said to the crowd.

I want you to listen to it.

The only reason we're here is to make sure that you got a voice.

That's it.

Don't think for a second.

Don't think for a second that he represents who these cops are from all over the county and around this nation.

We go out there to help people, not do that nonsense.

We want to be with y'all for real.

So I took my helmet off and laid the batons down.

I want to make this a parade, not a protest.

You got 41s here, you got dogs.

So what's up?

So listen, I'm just telling you.

these cops love you.

That cop over there hugs people, so you tell us what you need to do.

They start chanting, walk with us.

And he says, Let's walk where you want to go.

Well, walk all night long.

This is a different story than we're seeing all over the country.

With us now is that sheriff, Chris Swanson.

Hi, Chris.

How are you?

Great to talk to you again, my friend.

Thank you.

So

I saw this this morning when I got up around 5 o'clock, and I'm like, I know Chris, and I was so proud.

I was so proud of you, Chris.

Thank you.

First of all, tell me how this happened.

Was this spontaneous?

Did you plan that?

Were there risks?

There had to be real risks involved in doing this.

Well, Well, I can tell you that

I would love to say that it was planned and we had a strategy, but that's not the case.

And I can tell you throughout the whole week, you could feel the tensions build.

You felt it.

The nation felt it.

Over the weekend, it went buck wild.

You felt that there was such a level of frustration that's never been seen before.

And on Saturday, when we had gotten word they were doing a demonstration, you know, as the sheriff of the county, the chief law enforcement officer, we work with other agencies.

Our local Flint Township precinct was kind of taking the lead as blackened traffic.

And everything was calm at 5 o'clock.

Crowds met at a target, which ironically was the first big store torched in Minneapolis.

And then you could just feel the tension continue.

They marched up and down, east and west.

And I'm going to tell you, when the crowd grew to hundreds and they marched towards the local police department,

We saw what happened in Oregon.

We saw what happened in Minneapolis to the police departments.

And the temperature changed, Glenn.

The temperature changed.

And

I saw officers.

We battle geared up.

And now it's more of a response to what could happen.

I have an 11-second video I just recorded.

I don't know why I did it as I walked towards the crowd and where our line was.

And the tension

was so intense.

I thought to myself, how did we get here?

Like, how did we lose?

In eight minutes and 46 seconds, we lost years of inroads to our communities.

And

I will tell you, that line that was formed is a line that you've seen across the nation with cops on one side and protesters on the other.

And

it was just by the grace of God.

I saw a Flint Township Officer Miller.

He did a fist pump.

I don't know who instigated it.

I saw it out of the corner of my eye.

I saw a short little attempt of a hug, and I thought, that's it.

I got to speak to these people.

So they dropped their batons.

I took my helmet off.

I walked in the middle of the crowd and picked out a shot caller and gave him a big old fat man hug and said, brother, that guy is not who we are.

And he said, you need to tell the people that.

And then I said, you get them to listen to me.

And he turned and the whole crowd, they were just hungry for an ear to listen.

And I'm going to tell you, that was the first question, but the second one really is what changed history and made Flint

the beacon of light across our nation that you can protest just like the individual you're going to have on your show that says basic rights and Imani, that's what they're fighting for.

We want a peaceful demonstration.

That guy is a rock star because the protesters, they're protesting for the right reasons.

And when I said, did you notice on your audio,

I've heard that just a couple times, even though it's gone pretty insane.

They didn't have to think about what they wanted.

I said, what do I need to do next?

Immediately walk with us.

That's what they want.

They want to show unity.

They want the cops to listen and to react and not just give lip service.

So, Chris,

did you fear that, because there's a difference between the protesters and then those agitators that are joining in, many of them antifa and have nothing to do with

the black community even.

Did you fear that those people were involved?

Were they there?

Yes, they were.

Now, the group that you mentioned, we did not have intel that they were there, but we had a clear direction that we had people bringing bottles and gasoline and rocks, and that was always a threat.

But I'm going to tell you, I'm not trying to be a superhero.

I'm not trying to be macho.

But that was the least of my concerns.

27 years on the job, tomorrow's my anniversary.

I started June 2nd, 1993.

Through years of experience and training, and we started in the jail.

And in the jail of a sheriff's office, you learn how to deal with 120 convicted felons and people that are in waiting prison for life offenses.

And it just treats it trains you to be very comfortable in those situations.

But I know you are a I know your heart, Glenn, and I know that you understand the Spirit of God came over and anointed that situation.

And I walked into it as David did, and I felt that peace, and I saw the entire crowd move.

So to say that I wasn't scared, I'm sure I was, but the action and

the movement of vulnerability, that sent the message more than my words could.

So now talk to the police officers all around the country.

And well, no, first, let me start with this.

For those who are listening who are protesting, tell me who the, tell them who the police are.

Yeah.

There's 800,000 police officers in the nation that go to work every single day because they love their community.

And if you go to Officer Don Memorial page, you'll see people every day giving their life.

Those are the real hearts of

the people's guardians.

You know, your moms and dads and brothers and sisters that are out there and 24-7 and everybody in the country, no matter if you hate the police, when you're in trouble, you call three numbers, 911, and we risk our lives to get there.

That's who police are.

They're soccer coaches and soccer moms and they're people who love their families and they're singles and marrieds and

that's who the police are.

They're the fabric of protection and but we can't forget that we need to serve.

And to those that are protesting, there's righteous anger.

And that righteous anger can be met with a police force that can hear the voice of the people.

And when those two work together, you see what happened on May 30th here in Flint, Michigan.

But if the protesters, like was said in your show, are rioters, those are folks that are taking and what

your next guest was probably going to talk about is they're stealing the message from the people who want change.

Now, those folks are hard to negotiate with.

I'm talking to the people who have righteous anger.

And for the law enforcement, it's got to start from the top, Glenn.

People need to come out from their conference rooms, their podiums, their intelligent briefing rooms, and get with the mix.

Start serving people.

You know, you don't need to be, the higher you go, more removed from your community.

You need to be more in tune with your community.

You need to serve water and food and go to the same events without any strings attached, just like you do with OUR.

You serve with nothing in return.

You know, and when people see that, they see the heart of people.

And I'm going to tell you this, that group, they're street savvy.

If they felt for a second that my words were empty, we wouldn't be having this conversation.

But they saw the heart.

It started with a fist bump, went to a hug, and the whole thing was turned.

Chris,

we're facing a time now.

I mean,

you're in Michigan,

which has been

quite an interesting.

I didn't think I would be coming back from vacation talking about riots in the streets on something entirely different than COVID.

But here we are.

So you're in Michigan, and I know that there are good cops and bad cops, and

we see them

every day.

But the average American now is losing faith in their police force and in some of the sheriffs, et cetera, et cetera, in our FBI and justice system.

What has to be done

to be able to

regain that trust?

from some of your biggest supporters.

I mean, I see things that are happening with COVID up up in Michigan, and

I'm stunned by it.

I'm stunned by it.

Well, to answer a lot of that question to your first point, the burden falls on the police.

We have to take the first step.

And there should be no such thing as a bad cop.

Because if you've got a bad cop, they shouldn't be a cop.

Get them out.

Fire and charge.

Nobody's fired more police officers than our office in the last 15 years.

I've arrested my own people.

I arrested people.

There's a guy in jail in the next county charged with life offenses for committing a sexual assault on duty.

We are held to a higher standard.

And when it falls on us, that standard means that we need to act swiftly and not make a wrong a right.

Call it what it is.

To your second point, I don't want people to lose faith in the very people that will give their life to protect them.

They're there 24-7, and they are great people.

Do not paint all law enforcement with the same brush.

Number three, it starts from police leadership.

Set the tone, set set the standard, expect what the people want, and that is a professional police officer that is willing to protect and serve.

And when it comes to Michigan, you're right, especially Flint.

Crime, the automotive industry shut down.

You have poverty.

The water crisis from 2015, 2016.

I mean, you got people, my parents live in the city.

But, you know, this agency, we delivered cases of water to people on the front door.

We took care of their basic Maslow needs.

During this COVID case on March 17th, I swore in 40 faith-based leaders as deputy sheriffs to deliver a million pounds of food because the system had shut down.

We delivered a million pounds of food to people over the last six weeks.

We have a jail that has, in the county, fourth highest in deaths of the in Michigan.

We have a jail of inmates, the most violent people.

We have zero COVID cases in the jail, zero inmate cases from this entire pandemic because it's not one person, it's not one protocol, it's an entirety.

And the community in Flint showed rock star behavior on May 30th.

They set the tone for what Flint can do in spite of all the challenges they've had and that we've had as a city to say we can protest, we can do it with righteousness, and we don't want to burn our city down.

But you're right, we're getting smacked every which way to Sunday, but the nation needs healing, and it needs people to step up in leadership positions to say, listen, I'm going to do it because it's the right thing.

It ain't the political thing, it ain't the faith, it's the right thing.

And if you do the right thing, people respect that.

They don't want words, they want action.

Chris Watson,

good to talk to you again, my friend.

Thank you so much.

Chris Watson, he's sheriff of Genesee County in Michigan.

He is the sheriff that you're seeing everywhere put down his baton and listen to the protesters and changed things dramatically in Flynn, Michigan.