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Blue Grit Podcast: The Voice of Texas Law Enforcement
2024: Ranked #1 Law Podcast
Host: Tyler Owen and Clint McNear discussing topics, issues, and stories within the law enforcement community. TMPA is the voice of Texas Law Enforcement, focused on protecting those who serve. Since 1950, we have been defending the rights and interests of Texas Peace Officers by providing the best legal assistance in the country, effective lobbying at state and local levels, affordable training, and exemplary member support. As the largest law enforcement association in Texas, TMPA is proud to represent 33,000 local, county and state law enforcement officers.
Blue Grit Podcast: The Voice of Texas Law Enforcement
#085- "Island Policing" with Anthony Rogers Part 2
In this continuation of our deep dive into the unique challenges of policing a tourist-heavy island community, we are again joined by Anthony Rogers, President of the Galveston Municipal Police Association.
Throughout this episode, we discuss the importance of building political capital and fostering an active, engaged membership base in police associations, critical for navigating both public perception and legal challenges. You don't want to miss it!
email us at- bluegrit@tmpa.org
We've really, really tried to build relationships. City Council this was the first time in I want to say 20, 25 years that the Police Association and the Fire Association endorsed the same candidates for City Council.
Speaker 2:On the last episode of part one of the Blue Grip Podcast.
Speaker 1:When I first and we'll get on this eventually, I guess but when I first took over, one of the bigger things that I really really wanted to do was enhance the social media, just the social media presence, right, and then start using social media in our favor, because it's a powerful tool. You know, you know as well as me, it's a very, very, very powerful tool. But we got that going and I think I don't think you build that army quick. That's not. It's not easy to build that army. You have to build some trust. People have to know that you're going to fight for them and they slowly get on board. So, but that was pure luck and good old-fashioned police work. There was no flock cameras, there was no help, there was no assistance given from technology. The fact that we're still having to fight to have the assistance of technology in a situation like that, it's crazy.
Speaker 1:We made a big drug bust. Guy lived actually about 200 feet from the school and our guys did a ton of work, made a huge drug bust on a guy that's a multiple, multiple time offender Known for selling dope, and I don't remember the exact numbers now. I think the bond was like 250 000 that the da set um, or recommended, if you will, and guy got to the magistrate court and his bond got reduced to like 75 000. So our guys were pissed because they they put a lot of work into this, they put a lot of work into getting this dude off the streets and they truly felt and they were right that this is a multiple-time offender. He's got multiple convictions, weapons.
Speaker 1:His bond should be high enough that we can keep him locked up for a while, and to see him get out 24 hours later was kind of a slap in the face, and I think it was $25,000.
Speaker 2:I think it went from $250,000 to $25,000. It may have.
Speaker 1:It got reduced drastically. And they were like, hey man, what's going on with this? I'm like hell, I don't know. And I think I reached out to you and you sent me the website and we started digging and I was like whoa, hold on. So I reached out to started reaching out to people, got in touch with the county judge's minion, if you will. I don't even know what his title is, but spoke to him a couple of times. He tried to set up a meeting, but it wasn't with anybody that could make any change.
Speaker 1:So we went on the defensive, we started putting stuff out and the magistrate actually reached out to me after we started putting stuff out and he was like, hey man, can we sit down and have a meeting? I'm like, absolutely we can. So I went and met with him. Super nice guy Went and met with him. He kind of of in his defense he was like, hey, I've, I've went back and I've looked at a lot of stuff and I've messed some stuff up. Um, so you can ask, yeah, and he was like I do think you're looking at this the wrong way and you know you don't understand this part of it. He said but I have messed this part this, this and this up. Um, and I intend to fix it. So, um, I think when we originally started this, the numbers were like 39% PR bonds and it's down to about 33, 34.
Speaker 2:So to give people a perspective, austin, pr capital of the world, with Jose Garza down here Austin is set at 42%. At one time, galveston County which, if you look at it from the political aspect of things and I don't mean to be diving off into Republican versus Democrat, but when you look at that aspect of it, galveston's a pretty heavy Republican area which, if you look at the aspect that he was appointed by the county judge, who is a Republican, it was 46%. Galveston County was 46% at this point in time. So we were like holy crap, this has to change right. And so now, because you voiced your opinion and because you fired that warning shot trying to get your community safer, it's been lowered back to a reasonable percentage, which is a very common occurrence with the population of what galveston is and a lot.
Speaker 1:A lot of that goes back to the, the power of social media. You know, um, you put it out, you build your, build your army, as you said earlier. You know you build your army and the power of social media, kind of it. Just it wakes people up a little bit, but to the point on that.
Speaker 3:If I'm not wrong and please say if I am y'all attempted to communicate prior and there was no communication and so y'all were forced to fire a shot, so to speak, because nobody wanted to communicate and because y'all wielded influence and fired that shot. Then they decided to communicate, correct, yeah, so it wasn't like y'all blindly, recklessly, were firing shots in the dark. Y'all wanted to try and figure out a way to work through this communicate first. That didn't happen, so a shot was fired across the bow on social media, and then it was like oh, can we meet and we would like to visit with you. And I do appreciate that he fell on the sword, so to speak. Partially. I respect that, but he could have talked to you all the first time. You'd never had to fire a shot.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, and we were trying to get a meeting with the county judge and I still hadn't talked to that dude. He's a clown, but a lot of the stuff. You know, the flock stuff is the same thing and try not to just fire off just because there's something that causes it. I sent a few emails last week to the city attorney and he after like, who are you? You know you, okay, cool, and then no problem, yeah, yeah, we're gonna see, we'll do this differently. Um, and I've gotten with you on a lot of things and you've you've said, well, try this in this first, so at least we can, you can say you did, um, even though 50 of the time you know the outcome. Right, you know, but it's hey, we tried to do this the right way, yep, and y'all want to play hardball, so we'll play hardball.
Speaker 2:Yeah, if you want to dance, we can dance. Yeah, just let me know the band.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so yeah, man, it's great, and you know we've been able to get a lot of stuff done that way.
Speaker 3:Yeah, because of the influence that you guys carry the engagement with all your members. Talk about how that helps also um having a relationship with administration and it's not just administration.
Speaker 1:We we've, um, we've really really tried to build relationships um city council. This was the first time in man I want to say 20, 25 years that the Police Association and the Fire Association endorsed the same candidates for City Council. That's strong because we've always been, you know, kind of separate. There hadn't always been a whole lot of unity there, and we've built some relationships there to fix that and we still got a ways to go. But we've built a lot of relationships there, um, and we've we've built built some relationships there. That is a fixed that and we still got a ways to go, but we've built a lot of relationships that have fixed that. Uh, relationships we built city manager with city management has helped um minus the city attorney and um the relationship with the administration's helped.
Speaker 1:Uh, we don't always see eye to eye on everything, but you know the, the administration, especially around the PD, they respect our outlook and we respect Harrison. And the only thing I ask as a, as a, as a, that we ask as a board is from the chief is just be fair, just be fair. You know. I use this analogy the other day on something. And if I get into my first fleet that I've ever been in and I cause $1,000 worth of damage and I'm at fault, and Clint does the same thing a week later, don't give me one day off and then turn around and give him three days off. You know, just be fair across the board, man. And that shouldn't be a lot to ask and it hasn't been.
Speaker 3:It hasn't been, and that shouldn't be a lot to ask, and it hasn't been.
Speaker 1:It hasn't been. Chiefs pretty much got an open door for us to work with them, and that makes things a lot easier.
Speaker 3:And I think it's y'all's not powers not the right word, just influence. I think y'all's influence and how you handle your business helps administration to see that it's better to work with these guys than fight. And I'm not saying that they don't have the ultimate say. But when you have a mutual relationship of respect and you respect each other's power or potential for power, I think that's a symbiotic relationship. That's good. It's always a red flag when somebody gets a new chief and they're like they don't want us having an association, they don't want us this, or like well, you better be very concerned if he's afraid of an association because there's bad things to come. And y'all's chief is always even your last chief, it was never. Association doesn't need to exist or y'all need to go away. It was. Y'all always seem to find a way to communicate, but I think it's from a position of influence. They understand y'all have it as well and it's better for me to work with them than bow up and fight every day.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and it's, it's that, yeah, and you're 100% right. I mean we had Chief Hill. He came from Dallas. He was amazing. In the same way, I mean he was huge in starting to build that relationship. And then Chief Bally, who we have now, was the assistant chief at the time, also a former GMPA assistant vice president. I think he was the vice president, so he understands the union side of things as well.
Speaker 2:And respects it yeah.
Speaker 1:And I think the biggest thing that you have to realize is and he realizes, and I realize is we're not going to look at things through the same lens. That doesn't make his outlook wrong, it doesn't make my outlook wrong. We're not going to look at things from the same lens. It's just it's not how that works, um, but I can understand and respect his outlook on it. Sometimes he can understand and respect my outlook on it, and that's what matters.
Speaker 3:That's why things work in a time when law enforcement leadership strong, good leadership is rare. Y'all been pretty fortunate because, like even when chief hell was first of all, say there's no perfect chief. There is no perfect chief anywhere. There's always going to be things that they're good at or or the troops don't like. But y'all had several good chiefs that are kind of cops, cops and even the high profile incident y'all had under hail. Um, it's easy for a chief to just go lay down and be a political pawn and, you know, just start reprimanding or firing a bunch of people to save his own neck. And y'all been fortunate.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you know, when Hale got there, man, everybody was trying to make this place Dallas. He's going to try to. He didn't at all. He bought it. He bought a beach house out west. I mean, he made himself Galveston and I'm confident to say that he'd still be there today if it wasn't for a little bit of city management that wasn't exactly supportive of a lot of things.
Speaker 1:But I mean that incident that's went up in front of the community and just took blow after blow after blow and just had a community meeting and let everybody come out and just pretty much bashed GPD for about an hour and a half, two hours, and he just took it.
Speaker 3:And then still pretty much stood his ground.
Speaker 1:Still pretty much stood his ground, but he let everybody have their voice and he let everybody have their voice to his face and that was when he first said have their voice to his face. And and that was when he first said he was going to do it. You know, I was like, and that's it's not, it's not supporting your troops, you know, but it hushed the crowd a little bit. Um it, it really, it really quieted the noise. Um, and it was a, it was a smart play by him?
Speaker 3:yeah, it was, and I got to have an offline conversation with him one time about it and there was never any other choice in his mind. There's a lot of chiefs that are just well, I'll go fire a couple of these officers or I'll give a couple of them 30 days off and then that'll make everybody happy and then I look good and I get to keep my job and, um, that never throwing, throwing some bodies under the bus to benefit him was never no, considered no, not at all.
Speaker 2:Um, and and I I heard I don't know how true it is that you know city management wanted him to do that and he was like, absolutely not and just so we're clear, we're talking about the horse incident yeah, yeah okay, uh, for those that don't know, several, several years ago there was a horse incident that galveston PD came under extreme scrutiny for, where they made an arrest and then essentially had the person tied up to a horse walking him to the jail because of the, I guess, the geographic location and there were certain other aspects of it.
Speaker 3:But the photograph A tether to his handcuffs. He was handcuffed walking.
Speaker 2:Yeah, the perception to the to the uh court of public opinion.
Speaker 3:Uh, it sparked some outrage and got some very, very, very much national attention, which is funny because if you really think about it, it kind of reminds me of the border patrol horse incident reference that you say they see a large animal and people.
Speaker 3:Social media makes a lot of very ignorant ass assumptions. The Border Patrol incident you have long reins on these horses and they use those reins to navigate the horse at times or speed them up or to sidestep them. There's a lot of it, but because of the long reins they must have been whipping those people with it. And in y'all's incident the guy's handcuffed. He's on the ground. You're on a horse, you're escorting him. You don't want him to run off.
Speaker 3:You can't like hey, we'll jump on behind me and put your arms around my waist and I'll ride you to jail. Um, they're not harming the guy, there's not? They're not harming the guy and it's a trained tactic. Yeah, whatever the appearance that you dream up in your head, the guy's walking on his own power, handcuffed. All you have is some sort of lead so that he can't run away from you. What other option do you want? Shoot him and drape him, like the Old West, over your saddle horn and ride him into the town marsh.
Speaker 2:What was the city's recommendation? I'm sure they did not give any I I don't know for sure.
Speaker 1:Um, I wasn't on the board then, but I I heard they they wanted to they wanted to get rid of both of the office.
Speaker 3:Oh yeah, sure for a trained technique that completely didn't harm correct, correct you?
Speaker 1:know if that's the middle of mardi gras and and there's, you know, thousands and thousands of people in the middle of the street, how else would you do it? Yeah, you can't get a car down there. You can't get a car down the street. I mean, y'all been there. You can't get a car down the street.
Speaker 2:Is that the second largest Mardi Gras besides New Orleans, I believe. So Charleston's got a massive great time. The officers have a good well. Y'all have a good time working it. I mean, I was here to witness it and there's a lot of history there. But yeah, there's a massive Mardi Gras going on, thousands of people flocked down to this island and there's just no way for y'all to manipulate getting down there.
Speaker 3:So horses horseback really is one of years.
Speaker 2:I know two, I don't know. I know two for sure, I don't know if it's three, so next year will be the third.
Speaker 3:I like going because I like seeing old school respected cops, and by that I mean how many will people be down there on Friday or Saturday night If you're 60,000, 70,000 people?
Speaker 3:I don't know, yeah, at least 70,000 people schnockered out of their mind and, comparatively speaking, y'all don't have riots, you don't have. I mean, there's some drunk fights, but for 70,000 drunk people it's a good time, yeah, I mean, and it's a controlled good time. And I'm just speaking Clint's opinion here. I think people respect the police in Galveston and they know that if you act wrong you're going to go to jail. Yeah, and you may not like it, and because anywhere else in our Texas, especially Austin, dallas, every night on 6th Street is a freaking train wreck, I think 70,000 drunks in Galveston generally get along, with a few exceptions, because they respect Galveston will put your butt in jail and you know we're not going to apologize for it. It's just what I observed and it's.
Speaker 1:It's 70, 80,000 drunks in a six or seven block radius you know what I mean. It's not like the whole island and don't be wrong, we have. We have plenty of issues, um, and we've had some large-scale fights and stuff like that, but they get dealt with pretty quick. Um, we had a biker rally, it's another one, there's thousands and thousands of people.
Speaker 1:There's a shooting there last year during a biker rally, which was not related to the rally. It was some of our local gang-banging thugs and I think that guy was in handcuffs within about 10 seconds, which is pretty damn good police work. You know considering there's 70,000 people, 80,000, 100,000 people down there and they got this guy in handcuffs in about 10 seconds.
Speaker 3:That's pretty freaking impressive. Same with the Jeep rally. What do you call the Jeep rally?
Speaker 2:That's over at the ballpark, but you all send people to help out and assist.
Speaker 1:No, the county works all the time On our side. I mean and I'd be remiss if I didn't I mean, it's not just Galveston down there working Mardi Gras, it's the county, it's. I mean.
Speaker 2:Yeah, totally, you got Passage, Dena, hpd. There's probably 30 agencies that come in and help out. It's almost like a huge family reunion.
Speaker 1:Yeah, a lot of those guys, a lot of our guys that went to work other places, enjoy coming back. It's almost like a reunion.
Speaker 3:They come back.
Speaker 1:They make some money. They get to go fool around with some people they used to work with and see again, and it's pretty amazing.
Speaker 2:Well, what we enjoyed about it is where we cook at. It's a big parking garage but it's right next to the pits and so the drunks will come in after being arrested and they're feisty for the most part, but you know, at the end of the night what I loved about it is there's this guy and he is cussing everybody there and he's just going off. About two hours later he quiets down and one of the Galveston officers walks over, makes a plate. I said you hungry? He said no, I'm not. That's all he said. He walked back over there, cracked the door open and said here, you want something to eat, and that guy's face was just dropped down. So I mean, they care right, but it was pretty neat witnessing the control that you guys had for that large of a crowd.
Speaker 1:It's a good event. It's ran well. It's a good event, it's ran well. The city does a good job of running it yeah, they do, and our administration does a pretty good job of running it as well, and, like I said, the help from outside agencies is second to none. I mean it's amazing how many people will come down and help out with that.
Speaker 2:Well, we've talked about some different aspects and different challenges you've had since being the president, but here recently, within the last six months, you guys haven't changed. But you guys are going somewhat of a different route by including yourselves under the Texas FOP umbrella. Let's talk about the benefits of that and what sparked your interest to do that and why you feel it's important for Galveston to stay within Texas FOP, why you feel it's important for Galveston to stay within Texas FOP.
Speaker 1:So Jordan Reyes, who's our secretary right now on the association, he's kind of the one that brought it up and he's kind of heading it up. I mean, he's like I said, we've got a good team.
Speaker 2:Also Motor Offs. You're throwing it out there too.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's nice to have a great team because, I mean, jordan knows Like, hey, man, go do what you do. You don't have to call me and ask me anything. Go take care of whatever you're going to take care of. He actually went out for the OIS last night and I didn't talk to him today. I have no doubt that it's handled right, but he brought it up and it's a force multiplier. You know, we talk about the horse incident, something like that. It's. It's. It's good to have, it's good to have a guy like joe gomaldi on your side, who'll get on, you know, fox news and scream real loud and be passionate, and you know, and get your voice out there as well, get your story out there as well. It's simply, it's a force multiplier and it's just, it's another piece of protection for these officers and it's another, it's another avenue for them to go through.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and I think that's important to see. I like seeing the unity come together. There's 377,000 people in FOP. That's a crazy number to wrap your mind around, 377,000 American cops in it and we're on the way to 400,000. We've got some more locals in Texas that are starting up right now and there's no other voice that's walking the halls in the capital, in the US capital, that carries the clout they do. Yeah, that carries the clout. When you're speaking for coming up to 400,000 people, you've got a voice.
Speaker 3:And a perfect example of that, the National FOP Board meeting was last week in Charlotte. We did the nomination process for, or the endorsement process for, national presidential candidates. When National FOP contacted Trump's campaign to tell him that he was going to have the endorsement of National FOP, they called and said hey, we're going to have. Our national board meeting is in a couple of days in Charlotte. We're going to give our endorsement. The Trump campaign called back and said well, when we told him, he said clear my calendar because I'm going. I'm going to be there. So it was his personal point that those people had to wipe his calendar, change his calendar so that he could go walk in and he came in, talked for probably an hour and 15 minutes, most of it off the cuff, talking about he's going to protect cops, he's going to protect Texas cops stuck working the border. Name any other organization, national organization that Trump will veer off course to come speak and hang out.
Speaker 3:I know when Trump was in last time Fred Frazier, our legislative director there were several people that would literally I would get a photo of them sitting in the conference table with Trump, because he wanted to hear from a cop's mouth what cops are facing, and I think it's important that we have those relationships.
Speaker 2:How difficult was it for you guys to not transition but to get that log started? Uh, how is it going thus far, and and what benefits? Obviously, we just talked about one, the force multiplier, but what benefits have you seen just already it?
Speaker 1:it wasn't hard at all to get started. Um, we, we kind of got the process going on a zoom call with joe and a couple other people. And we kind of got the process going, got on a Zoom call with Joe and a couple other people and they came down, gave us a presentation and I want to say the most difficult part of it was on our side getting all the paperwork filled out by our guys getting cops to do.
Speaker 1:Paperwork is not always easy, even if it's just hey, put your name and date of birth right here and email it back, but that was probably the most difficult part. Once we had it filled out, we sent it in, we paid for everything and this guy came and swore us in, probably about a month later.
Speaker 2:And you guys aren't getting legal from National FLP. You're getting legal from TMPA, but you're just a Texas lodge. Correct, explain that process, because some people get that twisted and some people are like, well, I don't want to give up TNPA as legal because I want to be a Texas FOP, so explain how that process works.
Speaker 1:So, that process was. It's pretty easy for us. It just gives us a little bit more strength. It gives us a little bit more, like I said, a force multiplier.
Speaker 3:We can still go through the FOP legal, if we need to right, if you chose to get the plan, if you chose to get the plan.
Speaker 1:But, man, I think what we pay is so minimal every month, just to have that extra endorsement, just to have that extra clout, if you will to have that extra strength next to you.
Speaker 2:It's so minimal I will say. Kevin Lawrence continues to say this multiple times through different podcasts and every time he speaks to somebody about FOP. If you stop and look at TV shows that are played on mainstream TV media, when they speak of FOP, that's the common person they talk about Chicago PD. Let me get my FOP rep. It's a household name. I don't mean to sound like a, like a teleprompter but that's true, it's a hundred percent true.
Speaker 2:And so to have that, that iconic FOP emblem next to yours, it's know that it's, it's affiliated that alone, in my opinion, brings a lot of clout. Not saying I love TNPA, I've got a passion for TNPA. But I give a great example. Mitch Landry himself said he went to DC and this was right after he became, I believe, the deputy exec director, being used to walking into state Texas legislator's office and saying, hey, I'm with TNPA. And then, oh, okay, like it's instant recognition, he thought the same thing would happen in DC. So when he walked into one of these offices he was like, hey, I'm, I'm Mitch Landry from TMPA. And they were like, uh, who was that? You know? Uh, on ones that weren't from Texas, yeah, I didn't know who the hell TMPA was. If you're a U S Congress woman or or or Congress man from Virginia, uh, you walk in and say, hey, we're with FOP, it's instant recognizable, right. So that aspect is what I've seen from my perspective of hearing Kevin talk and you talk about different aspects.
Speaker 3:Well, the relationship aspect of it's crazy. I was at an event Saturday night. There was a bunch of retired NYPD there and they're like hey, man, when you go to New York, call me so I can call the FOP lodge up there.
Speaker 2:They said it that clear. That wasn't that clear. I had to get a translator.
Speaker 3:They're like we'll put you up, we'll get you on a boat, nypd boat, we'll get you in a helicopter, we'll do whatever you got to do. And there's story after story after story of you know so-and-so broke down in Vermont called the FOP lodge, vermont FOP center wrecker put them up in a hotel, you know, took care of them. That's huge man. That's how it should be. That's not how it is everywhere. Yeah.
Speaker 1:But that's how it should be. I heard a story from Skinny was telling me a story about something like that, where a guy's dad died of cancer. It happened quick and he had to fly to don't remember where it was pennsylvania or something like that and um two or three phone calls and it's like, hey, put you up here like we pay for everything, we we'll take care of you, it's it's. It's it's like taking a small family with tmpa and just quadrupling it, you know just, it just explodes and it it gives you so much more outreach.
Speaker 2:You go from $33,000 to $400,000 overnight over just a fee that's associated with the cost of running that large of an organization. It's worth it Well.
Speaker 3:I think you bring up a good point. Understanding the delineation FOP to be a part of FOP is minimal. I mean it's like a couple of bucks a month, I think, if that, while maintaining your TMPA legal, our legal plan, everybody in the country tries to figure out how to model it and it's imitated, never duplicated.
Speaker 3:You just can't beat our model the way it's set, and so I never recommend to anybody of one joining one and dropping the other. It's just not in their personal best interest. But I think when you combine those two force multiplier, I think is a perfect analogy.
Speaker 2:Well, so what's next for Galveston? How long do you think you're going to be the president? How long do you plan on being on the board? I guess as long as they probably let you. But where do you envision Galveston being in the next 10 years, man?
Speaker 1:we're really trying to just grow things and do the things we do. We're trying to do them bigger and better and we're trying to come up with new ideas. We just recently came up with a. We have two sergeants that recently had cancer and we just came up with an idea to man. It happened so fast. It was amazing that I'll get back to that.
Speaker 1:But we had an idea to come up with a separate account with a medical officer medical emergency account, um outside of our normal funds, um, and our idea was to run some type of month or, I'm sorry, yearly benefit to raise money for that that fund Um. And our idea was to run some type of month or, I'm sorry, yearly benefit to raise money for that that fund Um. So if an officer has some type of medical emergency, uh, they can, you know, we can, we can cut them a $5,000 check, we can. We can help them out with some type of medical deductible or something uh kind of get them, get them rolling through the first part of that Um and we did, and we had a benefit for those two sergeants that had had cancer and um, looked like a good time.
Speaker 2:I saw it on social media and look like a good time.
Speaker 1:Man. Our goal was 10, 10 grand and we raised about 34, 35 grand. Um, and it's. It's just the man, the strength in the unity of Galveston when they need to come together, it's freaking amazing, man. We had a hurricane. You look at the hurricane that we had versus the hurricane that New Orleans had. In New Orleans it's a bigger scale, right, but Galveston came back so quick. They came back so quick and we had everybody from the mayor, the city manager, pretty much every council person in Galveston donating money to that fund for those two guys and we had a huge benefit.
Speaker 2:Did the attorney no?
Speaker 1:We had a huge benefit, had a huge benefit in fundraisers and silent auctions and stuff and we actually had two box seats for the Astros games. That went for about I think it was about 800 bucks during the silent auction and we had somebody else say hey, who donated those tickets? And we told them and they're like tell her, she'll donate two more, I'll give another $800. Wow, and she was like done, just tell me two more.
Speaker 1:I'll give another $800. Wow, and she was like done, just tell me which game they want to go to Done. And he wrote an $800 check. So it's. I mean, galveston is so tight knit. It really is the people who are my mom's in her 60s. She's lived off of the island for a year now. It took that long day for her to get over, get off the island, man, and to get her to leave, to get her to go over that causeway was a battle. But, um, man, galveston's titan hit. It really, really really is like the community is. They come together very, very well. Yeah, um, it's amazing, amazing to see that's cool, that's cool.
Speaker 2:Well, man, I don't have anything else. You have anything else.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah. What's been your best day at GPD and your worst day.
Speaker 1:As far as the union president, just anything. What's Anthony's best day at gpd and anthony's worst day? Man, I think, um, I think my best day at gpd was the day I finally got sworn in, um, and I say that this is. I feel like that's the simple answer, right, um, you had a lot of life.
Speaker 2:I mean, there's a lot of family.
Speaker 1:That I did, but I got sworn in and my uncle my uncle, who retired from gpd, pinned my badge on me. Oh, that's cool, um and I. I wanted um my grandpa to be there, but he was in. He was in a home at the time, um, he wasn't doing well at all, um but him. Once I got got sworn in, I went and saw him and I was still wearing my uniform.
Speaker 1:And he had a traumatic brain injury, so he wasn't really talking or anything like that, and just to see his face, that was probably my best day you know what I mean.
Speaker 3:That was pretty cool.
Speaker 1:Because he didn't really understand what was going on. But when he saw that uniform that he wore for 25 years and then my uncle wore um, you just see him light up and that's probably my, that was my best day.
Speaker 3:I feel like that's the simple answer no, it's cool, but then it's, it's, it's bigger than just getting sworn in um man, my worst day was it was um, I think it's.
Speaker 1:It's fairly easy to say it was probably the day Chris Sanderson died. Chris Sanderson was one of our officers His brother is still a sergeant at GPD and I've known Chris. So my grandpa and Chris's grandpa worked together, so me and Chris used to get on the bus. Me, Chris and Bobby used to get on the bus and go to the Ball Highway football games and my grandpa was a motor officer so he'd escort the bus and we'd sit on the bus with Chris and Bobby's grandpa, Oscar Eaklin, and we'd go stay on the sidelines and watch the football games. I've known Chris my entire life. So the day Chris died that was rough and we knew it was coming. We knew that he had cancer and he was a fighting mofo man. That dude would go do chemo all day and come to work all night. Wow, Golly.
Speaker 1:It was fucking amazing to see, and his badge number is 435. That's why we really really wanted our lodge number to be 435.
Speaker 1:You'll see 435 quite a few places down in Galveston man in GPD. So that was probably the worst day. Just because it was the worst day, because I it was almost the worst day because I wasn't off, like he passed away and I had to go to work that night. It was tough, man. It was tough, it tried to. I think people don't realize.
Speaker 1:I mean, you know, if you work in an office and you lose somebody and you gotta go to work, it's like all right, I gotta go sit here and type on this computer, you lose somebody or something like that happens and you gotta go work as a cop, you still gotta make sure your life's not gonna. You know you're not gonna lose your life, you're not gonna do something that's gonna cost you your life or cost somebody else their own life. You know it's business still has to go on and you still got to have your head on a swivel and that's hard on a night like that. But that was probably my worst day. I will say I'd never in a million years thought I'd be as passionate about the association, the union stuff, as I am and I'm extremely, extremely happy that I got into it.
Speaker 1:It's an honor really to represent. It is man, it's, it's, it's. It's a full-time job on top of having a full-time job that you don't get paid extra for. But if you have a passion, it's money. I don't care about the money, because I have such a passion for it. I enjoy it. I enjoy helping guys.
Speaker 2:Well, I hope you studied for your rapid-fire questions. Okay, what is your favorite line from a cop movie or your favorite cop movie? What's your favorite drink of choice? I'm sorry. What's your favorite drink of choice? I'm sorry. What's your favorite cop car? And then your favorite drink of choice? So, what's your favorite line from a cop movie or a cop movie, your favorite cop car or your favorite drink of choice?
Speaker 1:My favorite cop car is a Crown Vic.
Speaker 2:My man.
Speaker 1:Anybody who comes in here and says anything different is either 21 years old or just absolutely ignorant. I don't know how you have a favorite cop car. That's not a Crown Vic. Do you have a favorite cop car? That's not a Crown Vic.
Speaker 3:I do. What is that? It is Before your Time. Okay, it's the Caprice from 1995.
Speaker 1:Okay, with a Corvette engine in it, that's cool. I was 11. I don't really remember that one. That's why I said because you're not old enough to know. So I guess I'll give you the benefit of the doubt.
Speaker 2:I'll never do it again. We're giving on that one. What's your favorite live from a cop movie or cop movie man.
Speaker 1:I don't know, my favorite cop movie is End of Watch. Yes, heck, yes, I don't know a specific line from it, that's fine. This is another one. I like Training Day. Training Day is another one. It's something you want to be, but glad you're not. Yeah, training Day is another one. End of Watches. There's not a cop movie, that's realistic, right, but it's pretty up there. It's a pretty good movie. Training Day is another favorite of mine. I don't know a line man, I don't have a set line.
Speaker 3:Both my boys don't have an interest In law enforcement. They're interested in it but don't have an interest In being in it, which I'm cool with. But a couple years ago, a year ago, I'm like I want y'all to see what being a cop Actually is like In the humor, in the family, in the dark humor, and so we sat down and watched training dan. Both of them were like it's kind of like that and like the banter in the squad car and the banter and lineup and the dark humor, you kind of. And then to your second one, probably two months ago, we got on a kick. We were like google, a actor and let's watch a movie. So we got on a kick. We were like Google, an actor and let's watch a movie. So we got on a Denzel kick. We were trying to watch every Denzel movie that existed. So I introduced my senior in high school to Training Days like dude, that's a good movie.
Speaker 2:What's your favorite drink of choice when you're relaxing?
Speaker 1:Man, when I'm relaxing I just have a beer. If I'm out with Curtis, it seems to turn into tequila.
Speaker 3:I don't recommend drinking with Curtis. I don't either. It's a long night.
Speaker 1:It's a long night and a very early morning sometimes too. No man, I just drink some Miller Lite. That's kind of my drink of choice, unless I'm with Curtis.
Speaker 3:Not too busy Turning into tequila.
Speaker 1:It's a fun one, yeah for sure, man?
Speaker 2:Well, you got anything else? I don't think so. Man, I cannot thank you enough, for I appreciate it. Our number one, our friendship. I enjoy every time we get to team up. It truly is an honor on my part and thank you for coming.
Speaker 1:Yeah, man, I appreciate it. Man, I appreciate it. You guys are amazing.
Speaker 3:And it's members and leaders, local leaders like you that make TMPA and FOP successful. Field reps and staff at TMPA can only do so much, but having leaders local leaders that are passionate, handle their business, never satisfied with status quo, always looking to be better, Dude, that's what makes this whole big thing successful. Honestly, I agree.
Speaker 2:I appreciate it Absolutely. Well, that's about wraps it up. You guys reach out to us, we want to hear your feedback at bluegridtmpaorg, and that's about it for this episode.
Speaker 3:That's it, holler. If we can ever help, please stay safe out there. It's budget season. I know everybody's trying to figure out what that's going to look like for them. If there's something we can do to help, please reach out. Take care of each other.
Speaker 2:Yeah, speaking of budgets, right now is the time, if you guys want a management survey, be thinking about kind of where that looks like. It's towards the end of the year, and so we want to start collecting that data, to push it out, to start kind of doing those things it's not salary survey.
Speaker 2:Sorry, it's not going to be, uh, it's not gonna be overnight, but we can start that process and get that information to you so the next year, uh, we can have some of that, that data. So if you want to participate in it, please, uh, like your salary schedules, send them to us. We would love to have them. That way, we can collect that data across the state.
Speaker 3:I do have one last thing Reach out to your local legislator, your local US legislator, and ask them to sign the Social Security Fairness Act. Cops don't get Social Security by and large. Get Social Security by and large, and there's legislation that's on the floor, that has a lot of authors, that has never passed, but it looks like it's heading towards possibly being successful. So please reach out to your local US congressman, congresswoman, senator, and ask them to please consider passing Social Security fairness for cops.
Speaker 2:You guys take care, stay safe and, as always, may God bless Texas. We're out, thank you. Thank you Bye.
