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PODCAST: On The Blue Line Podcast | MORNING ROLL CALL | God has not abandoned you! | Episode 080

Wayne Mulder

On The Blue Line Podcast | MORNING ROLL CALL | God has not abandoned you! | Episode 080

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Show Notes from This Episode

The On The Blue Line Podcast and Blog has the mission of Empowering Cops in their personal lives and educating the public on the realities of law enforcement. The morning roll call is a weekly monologue show with Wayne Mulder. The Interview Room podcast is an interview style format hosted by Wayne Mulder.

WATCH VIDEO OF THIS EPISODE ON YOUTUBE: OnTheBlueLine

In this episode:

Three Stories that Matter to You:

 

Two: A crazy thing to tell you:

 

One take away for the week:

 

I read your Rating and Reviews:

-       Be sure to leave us a Rating and Review on Apple Podcasts and I will read it in an upcoming episode. https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/on-the-blue-line-podcast/id1456545904

-       EMAIL me your feedback: Feedback@OnTheBlueLine.com

Articles Discussed:

LINKS:

-       Get the eBook, “How the law enforcement makes you cynical and what you can do about it” by Wayne Mulder.

After the episode: 

On The Blue Line was founded and is operated by active-duty law enforcement to fulfill the mission of providing guidance, resources and community for law enforcement officers, first responders, and military personal in their off-duty lives.

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TRANSCRIPTION OF EPISODE. Please note this is a new service we are offering and there will be spelling, grammar and accuracy issues. This transcription is offered as a convenience to our listeners, but at this time it is not guaranteed to be accurate.

00;00;02;06 - 00;00;23;20

Wayne Mulder

Welcome to the On the Blue Line podcast. I am your host, Wayne Mulder and this is Morning Roll call this is a monologue show comes out once a week where I sit down and just go over something with you, a few news stories and something actionable for the week ahead. Be sure to check out our other show, The Interview Room, where I sit down with a special guest each and every week and that one releases on Thursdays at five.

00;00;24;07 - 00;00;50;06

Wayne Mulder

If you are new to checking us out, please go to the website OnTheBlueLine.com, OnTheBlueLine.com On there you're going to find a lot more information. I want to shout out and thank those who've been helping support the podcast through the website. There's the Buy Me a Coffee link, kind of works like a Patreon page, and I appreciate those who've been supporting what we do through that and through some of the different donations and so forth.

00;00;50;06 - 00;01;12;16

Wayne Mulder

So we've got some other cool things are going to be coming out with. I'm going to talk more about that in the future episode. And remember, if you are new to the podcast because we do have several, quite a few actually new listeners. So if you are new and you haven't checked out that book, how the law enforcement career can make you cynical and what you can do about it that is available on the Amazon Kindle right now.

00;01;12;25 - 00;01;36;22

Wayne Mulder

And I think it's a dollar 99. So if it's something that interest you, it's just a short e-book and just have a few ideas for you. But it's definitely something to check out and you can find that by just going to the website on the blue line dot com. This is the 119th episode of the podcast. I find that very hard to believe and I want to thank you for listening each and every week because we won't be at the 119th episode if it wasn't for you.

00;01;37;05 - 00;01;58;14

Wayne Mulder

But last week I had Bob Woolverton on the show and definitely check out that episode. It's all about leadership. And I tell you, we really got into some great subjects and I really think it was a fantastic interview. This week I'll be coming out with an episode with Darren Hill. He's a friend of mine. He moved out to Colorado and he's currently running for sheriff in Douglas County County, Colorado.

00;01;58;14 - 00;02;17;19

Wayne Mulder

So check that out if you want to know a little bit more about who he is and what he's doing prior to when the episode releases on Thursday. Since we are thick into the election season, check out his website. It's Hill the number 4 Liberty dot com Hill4Liberty.com but it's the number four in the middle there.

00;02;17;19 - 00;02;48;25

Wayne Mulder

So that's all I have for announcements. So this week, an incredible act of bravery at a chicken place, defund the police isn't working out quite as well as some had hoped. Actual surveys confirm what the majority knows to be true about gun rights. And we come full circle. Circle with yes, another chicken. Morning roll call starts now. And all right, so if you're new to this format, I start out with three stories that you might have missed.

00;02;48;25 - 00;03;09;15

Wayne Mulder

I just pick different stories that kind of stick out to me on a weekly basis. And I just go over them real quick with you and then we'll get into a thought for the week and we will be out of here to get started on the week ahead. So this one occurred near Fort Walton Beach, Florida. The this is coming to us from Blaze Media and it says An incredible act of care.

00;03;09;15 - 00;03;29;26

Wayne Mulder

Chick-Fil-A, a worker it rushes to rescue a woman and a baby from an armed carjacker. Kind of a crazy story. I'm sure there's probably a little bit more to it. There's probably some sort of mental health component, who knows? But essentially on September 14th, this lady was getting out of her vehicle with a baby. And you heard that right?

00;03;29;26 - 00;03;56;26

Wayne Mulder

She was getting out of the vehicle and she had a baby in her arms. And the man armed with a stick confronted her, allegedly demanded her keys, and then he wrenched the keys away from her and climbed inside her vehicle. That is when Chick-Fil-A employee Michael Gordon, he hears what's going on. He hears the urgent call for help and he runs over and tackles the suspect despite getting punched to the face and he's able to subdue him along with some bystanders.

00;03;57;04 - 00;04;16;05

Wayne Mulder

It's a crazy video to watch. You're going to hear the screaming and you hear one lady yelling repeatedly. She had the baby in her hand. She had a baby in her hands, which, of course, they saw and they jumped into action. So the Okaloosa County Sheriff's Office tweeted a major shout out to this young man for his courage, which I thought was pretty cool.

00;04;16;05 - 00;04;35;14

Wayne Mulder

But one of the things that really stood out to me, you know, we hear these great stories of people doing the right thing, right? They jump into action. Maybe they go after a perpetrator, maybe they tackle or maybe they pull a gun on them. All sorts of things to stop bad guys from doing bad things. And so often, sadly, what we hear next is, Oh, but that's against our policy.

00;04;35;14 - 00;04;58;14

Wayne Mulder

Oh, they never should have went after that shoplifter. They never should have stopped that robbery or whatever it is, because it's against some company policy which, you know, whatever your thoughts are on that. However, that's not the case in this case. So Matthew Sexton, operator of the Chick-Fil-A, he told CNN, I don't know about the telling CNN part, but you got to get the news out somehow.

00;04;58;23 - 00;05;23;17

Wayne Mulder

He was grateful for his amazing team member, Michael Gordon, who so selfishly jumped in to intervene and help. Our guest, Sexton noted further that he couldn't be prouder of this incredible act of care. The article goes on to talk about Chick-Fil-A, which we all know has a great chicken sandwich and is a great company, doing great things and shout out to them and to Michael for jumping into action and helping this lady out.

00;05;23;17 - 00;05;49;05

Wayne Mulder

So that is the good news story. These other ones aren't really bad news stories. So just hang in there with me. So, all right, I take it back. This one kind of is a bad news story. So the defund the police aftermath created a ripple effect that endangers everyone. Law enforcements sources say right narratives matter. We come out with these arbitrary statements like defund the police, let's get rid of the police.

00;05;49;05 - 00;06;10;13

Wayne Mulder

And this craziness leads to all sorts of other issues. And that's kind of what this article was all about, right? So they start with kind of a thesis like statement. The movement to defund the police has created a dangerous ripple effect that is now being felt in departments large and small, making communities across the U.S. less safe, law enforcement veterans say.

00;06;10;23 - 00;06;32;14

Wayne Mulder

And then they kind of go through all the different ripple effects. And really it's accumulation. Part of why I want to bring this story to you is it's accumulation of facts and figures that I have brought to you in the preceding weeks. They just kind of brought all these different ideas together. So first they're talking about manpower issues and they go through three different agencies and three completely different parts of the country.

00;06;32;14 - 00;06;54;20

Wayne Mulder

Right. So the Philadelphia Police Department operating right now at 20% below its target in staffing. Portland, Oregon, which we know was a hotbed of a lot of issues, lost more than 230 sworn officers in Indiana. The nobles, the whole police department, again, all completely different. And this is an agency that typically has around 100 officers, is seeing fewer and fewer applications.

00;06;55;13 - 00;07;13;07

Wayne Mulder

So they go on to say and this word is important because it's going to feed into what we talk about later. Law enforcement veterans who spoke to Fox News Digital said short staffing has led to burnout among officers and morale is at an all time low. They go on to say that the number one problem some of these people are having is staffing.

00;07;13;16 - 00;07;31;20

Wayne Mulder

But then they talk about, well, we spoke about a few weeks ago, which is you can expect longer response times in some cities, a stolen car or house break in can take days for an officer to get there. And in some cases, departments have just completely quit taking reports altogether. Yeah, we're done. Yeah, we don't we don't have the manpower to get to you.

00;07;32;00 - 00;07;58;11

Wayne Mulder

We've got to prioritize. If there isn't a dead body or there's going to be, we will talk to you later or never. So then they go on to say that they talk about how the calls the national average was to try to get two calls within 5 minutes, and that today they don't know of anyone meeting that national standard they talked about.

00;07;58;11 - 00;08;16;28

Wayne Mulder

One of the issues that I keep talking about with Chicago, which is this issue that and this is affecting officers across the nation, is that when you run into the sea, this is that ripple effect, right? You throw the stone into the water and it ripples out. It just keeps going and going and going. Well, that's the problem with dangerous narratives like defund the police.

00;08;16;28 - 00;08;40;28

Wayne Mulder

Are these attacks upon law enforcement that come out like this. Right? Because when this happens, then we have this entire backlash of other issues that occur because of that initial foolishness. And one of it is by having fewer officers and inability to get to calls and so forth that they don't have enough time for training in some of these departments, which, of course, leads to other issues.

00;08;40;28 - 00;09;06;17

Wayne Mulder

Correct. And then they don't have time to recharge, which we also know, especially if you're listening to this podcast, the importance of that resetting and recharging for everybody, especially those in law enforcement. So he actually makes that statement in here that there's a ripple effect right now and it's really dangerous, is his statement, quote unquote. And then he goes on to say that there's a morale issue which certain departments we all know this to be true.

00;09;06;17 - 00;09;27;27

Wayne Mulder

Right. They feel the profession has been demonized and they're concerned about being indicted criminally for doing the right thing. On a later point, Halstead noted some officers have been indicted on crimes when they handled a call for service in exactly the same manner that they were trained. So that runs into concerns where officers are like, I don't know if I really want to get involved in this.

00;09;28;11 - 00;09;50;05

Wayne Mulder

And he states some specifics of high risk, high crime suppression units that aren't as aggressive as they used to be. And one of the primary drivers and this becomes one of the primary drivers of a massive increase in violent crime, he said that he added that many community leaders are implementing radical measures that are at odds with what the citizens actually want.

00;09;50;05 - 00;10;06;02

Wayne Mulder

And in turn, when they do this, they make it less safe for everybody. He summarizes says, I think you're going to start to see the public step, step up and say, and we are already seeing this in some jurisdictions. Right. But he believes that they're going to step up and say, look, we're not going to take this anymore.

00;10;06;02 - 00;10;23;14

Wayne Mulder

We're not we're going we're not going to live in a crime ridden community. We are going to support the police. We want the police funded and we are going to be there for police to support them because we need them. So I hope the latter to be true. I find these articles, I see something like this almost every week.

00;10;23;14 - 00;10;42;26

Wayne Mulder

I don't bring you all of them because I would bore you. But it is interesting to see all the different perspectives from across the nation, from different police departments, and you guys are feeling it and it really doesn't matter where you work in some way, you are going to be feeling it either now or you certainly will be in the future.

00;10;42;26 - 00;11;05;26

Wayne Mulder

But I'm betting you probably are now. All right. The third story that I want to bring to you is for most of the listeners, this isn't news. This is something you probably already knew. But the largest ever survey of American gun owners finds that defensive use of firearms is common. Well, really? Well, I never would have thought that one to be true.

00;11;06;20 - 00;11;25;05

Wayne Mulder

So this is the largest and most comprehensive survey of American gun owners ever conducted, and it suggests that firearms and self-defense, they say that the use of firearms in self-defense about 1.7 million times a year. And then it goes on to a lot of different statistics, and I'm not going to read all of these to you. This will all be linked up.

00;11;25;05 - 00;11;54;07

Wayne Mulder

Go to the show notes, go to on the blue line dot com. Find the show notes for this episode and you can dig into some of these specifics because they're quite interesting. But essentially it goes on to a few things here. First of all, it confirms that these air 15 style rifles, given the quantity of them out there in the amount of use that they are in common, use per like what the Supreme Court said would be the test for arms covered by the Second Amendment.

00;11;54;25 - 00;12;27;00

Wayne Mulder

They're clearly in common use by the numbers and for legitimate legal purposes. Right. So this survey was among 54,000 adults, 16,708 of them were gun owners. It went on overall adult gun ownership. This is all in the U.S., of course, 32%, which is consistent with some other polls that are out there. And it varies across racial and ethnic groups, but there's not a huge or as large of a disparity as you might think.

00;12;27;13 - 00;12;57;20

Wayne Mulder

25% were gun owners among African-Americans, 28% among Hispanics, 19% among Asians, 34% among whites. Men accounted for about 58% of gun owners. So I found those interesting and not as big of a variance as you might think, depending on when you split it up. According to different groups, gun ownership rates ranged from about 16% in states like Massachusetts and Hawaii to up to 50% in Idaho and West Virginia, which seems a little low.

00;12;58;00 - 00;13;15;18

Wayne Mulder

And again, these are people that are self-reporting on a survey. So the numbers will be a little bit flawed. And I would argue they probably are going to be flawed, too. More gun owners being out there than you're seeing on the survey, since gun owners, by their very nature, are to be skeptical about being as part of the survey.

00;13;15;18 - 00;13;45;21

Wayne Mulder

But 34% of respondents reported that they owned a AR 15 style rifle. 48% said that they had magazines that would hold more than ten rounds. And again, the point being, the survey suggests that up to 44 million AR 15 style rifles and up to 542 million magazines with capacities exceeding ten rounds are already in circulation, the vast majority of which don't aren't involved in any crimes which is always an important thing to point out.

00;13;45;21 - 00;14;14;04

Wayne Mulder

And that's one thing about this article. It's worth reading because it's actually written from a very neutral perspective. They do say that two thirds of the respondents who reported owning a AR 15 style rifle said they use them for recreational target shooting while half mentioned hunting and a third mentioned competitive shooting. 62% said they used them for home defense and 35% cited defense outside the home.

00;14;14;04 - 00;14;45;14

Wayne Mulder

And yet that isn't what you hear in the news at all. In fact, most people think these are only used in crimes and in incidents like that. So 31% of the gun owners said they had used a firearm to defend themselves. That's just in general a firearm, often a handgun in those situations. And what was interesting is now, again, this is self-reporting, but there are 4/5, 4/5 of the cases respondents reported that brandishing or mentioning firearm was enough to eliminate a threat.

00;14;45;24 - 00;15;11;12

Wayne Mulder

So one of the arguments this whole thing tries to make is that the results suggest that competing studies may grossly underestimate the defensive value of guns, how just simply having that gun sometimes is enough to quell the situation. And it's very interesting to see the actual numbers codifying and confirming what we so many of us already to be already know, to be intuitively true.

00;15;11;12 - 00;15;36;21

Wayne Mulder

So definitely check that out in the show notes. The final portion here is, of course, the crazy story of the week, and this one really isn't of the week. This one is from several years ago. So if you've already heard this one, I apologize. However, I just heard it. I just heard it last week on a show that I follow pad unleashed, which is available on The Blaze and listening to the show.

00;15;36;21 - 00;16;06;10

Wayne Mulder

They told this and I was like, Oh, I have got to tell this story. If there's anyone else out there like me who hadn't heard it. So the headline is out of Australia, so I'm going to change the headline a little bit to American English. So you have some idea what they're talking about. Mechanic things cause of car trouble was a chicken under the hood, so the mechanic was stunned to discover the cause of a customer's vehicle overheating was because there was a live chicken under the hood.

00;16;07;01 - 00;16;23;27

Wayne Mulder

The driver had brought in their 2000 something Ford Expedition. They thought it was leaking area. It was leaking coolant. It's prone to overheating. They had said, and this happened in Florida. So. Well, of course that happened in Florida. I mean, where else would you find a chicken under the hood? I mean, maybe a few other states, maybe Georgia.

00;16;23;28 - 00;16;53;07

Wayne Mulder

I could see Georgia chickens under the hood, but Florida makes a lot of sense to me. So they popped the hood up and they looked in there and they were like, Huh? He reached into the engine to find the belt had been knocked out by a live chicken who had flown the coop and settled inside the Ford. So the good news is, is that the chicken was still alive and they were able to put the belt back on their top off the coolant in the vehicle appeared to, quote, operate as designed.

00;16;53;21 - 00;17;30;16

Wayne Mulder

The funniest part will pop up on the screen here for you is what they actually put on the bill. So customers states the concern was that the customer states are coolant leak please advise cause belt knocked off due to chicken under hood and the correction verified customer concern found belt not found a belt knocked loose by a live chicken under hood remove chicken reinstall belt top off coolant road test vehicle operating as designed return the chicken to the customer.

00;17;30;16 - 00;17;49;05

Wayne Mulder

So this is the final section are one important takeaway. This is where I just want to bring you one thing that I was thinking about this week or something that I came across that will hopefully help you. So this week I watched a powerful message that was on police one in the video that was shared across Facebook. I'm going to have it in the show notes so you can check it out as well.

00;17;49;05 - 00;18;12;17

Wayne Mulder

I really think you ought to watch this video if you haven't seen it yet. Chicago Police Officer Carlos Janez, I think is how it's pronounced. JR provides a candid message about suicide. You know, I've talked in recent weeks about the number of suicides in Chicago over the last couple of years and the number of hours that officers have been forced to work on days off and holidays and how that's affected their mental health.

00;18;13;15 - 00;18;33;09

Wayne Mulder

Officer Janez is blind in his right eye after being shot four times in a traffic stop. And in the video he talks about going through counseling as he dealt with suicidal thoughts following this horrific shooting. He then talks about something that he had heard during a group class that he was attending, and that really resonated with me this week.

00;18;33;26 - 00;18;56;28

Wayne Mulder

He talks about the two leads to suicide. First, that God has abandoned you. And the second lie is that your family is better off without you. These are both lies. But the first one is what really resonated with me this week. I believe that it has the power to reach beyond more than just the law enforcement community. You know, God has not abandoned you or me or us.

00;18;57;17 - 00;19;24;21

Wayne Mulder

Speaking to my listeners who say that you believe in God. I find it interesting the distinction between what we say we believe and how quickly that faith dissipates in the face of uncertainty. You know, this last week I was listening to a different commentator. I believe it may have been the Steve Day show, and he was commenting how different we all would act and live right now in these times if we really believed just a portion of what we say we believe about God.

00;19;25;13 - 00;19;50;24

Wayne Mulder

You know, uncertainty is ruling everything right now, no matter how many parties are thrown to tell you how great things are. You know, the struggles that you and your family are facing. You know, the financial hardships that you face every time you go to a grocery store or pay the electric bill or pay rent. And depending on where you are in the country and where you're working at, if you're in law enforcement, maybe you're facing a public that doesn't like you simply because of your vocation.

00;19;51;11 - 00;20;16;22

Wayne Mulder

Maybe you're facing increased demands and stressors from an agency that doesn't understand or doesn't even seem to care about you, you, the individual at all. Maybe you are someone that feels as though your administration doesn't have your best interest, and you're in a position where you feel trapped and just unable to leave. Maybe it isn't any of these issues at all, and maybe you're facing some other challenge or event that leaves you wondering what the future, what your future is going to hold.

00;20;17;16 - 00;20;37;25

Wayne Mulder

You know, whatever your situation, I want to leave you with this reminder that God has not abandoned you. God still cares. He still listens. And He hasn't abandoned you. When I teach on the subject of spiritual wellness, I talk about signs of burnout. And I get these from the source vantage point recovery. But the signs of burnout are spiritual disconnection.

00;20;38;01 - 00;20;58;10

Wayne Mulder

You know, that's that feeling of God has abandoned me, right? You're disconnected from this. This is true. No matter what faith you adhere to. Another sign of spiritual strain. That's that feeling that God is so far from me. Right? He's just. He's not here like God exists. He's just not anywhere. Like, I'm not even so sure he's in this country, let alone on this planet.

00;20;58;20 - 00;21;16;19

Wayne Mulder

Right. And then the last one is spiritual doubt. That is that I can't believe in God if this terrible thing could happen. Right. We've all known people like that. Maybe we've been there ourselves where someone said, you know, can God exist? And these horrible things happen to this victim or to this young child or whatever the situation may be.

00;21;16;19 - 00;21;35;15

Wayne Mulder

Right. And you're not alone in these thoughts and these feelings for all of us, no matter your belief system. We all have had these types of feelings at one time or another, especially if you work in law enforcement. No matter how strong your faith is, you find yourself questioning if God is still in control or why. Why would he allow such terrible things to happen?

00;21;36;07 - 00;21;55;14

Wayne Mulder

You know, these feelings can be a sign of burnout, right? There's that word again. We just talked about this earlier. They can be a sign of burnout, which is defined as a state of deactivation. It's where after prolonged stress, we retreat from our self, we retreat from our higher power. Burnout is very common with law enforcement officers, as you know.

00;21;56;00 - 00;22;13;28

Wayne Mulder

The good news is that it does not have to stay there. This is where hope comes in. This is where resilience. What is resilience that you're capacity to recover quickly and to spring back. That's where resilience comes in. So this week, I want to give you hope. I want to assure you that you are not alone in these thoughts and feelings.

00;22;14;11 - 00;22;32;27

Wayne Mulder

However, when we are faced with these doubts and uncertainties, we all have to go back. We have to remember our foundational beliefs and the times that we knew God was there for us. I can assure you, as one who's face the same concerns, the same doubts, that you are loved, you are cared for, and God has not abandoned you or me.

00;22;33;14 - 00;22;42;09

Wayne Mulder

I don't know who needed to hear this this week, but I felt strongly that I was supposed to say it. So I have. That does it for this week's one important thing. Everyone, have a wonderful week.

00;22;46;28 - 00;23;09;19

Wayne Mulder

All right. And for the last section of the podcast, let me remind you, if you haven't. Please be sharing these episodes. Please leave us a rating and review. There I have two completely different style formats of podcast out there. This is the monologue show, which is Morning Roll Call and the interview show. The Interview Room. I say that to say, please leave me feedback in one form or another.

00;23;09;24 - 00;23;26;03

Wayne Mulder

You can also drop an email to feedback at on the blue line gqom. I would love to hear your thoughts. Honestly, this one morning roll call takes a lot more time to edit and put together in some ways. So I would love to hear your thoughts on Are You Enjoying It? Is there some different content you'd like to see?

00;23;26;03 - 00;23;48;18

Wayne Mulder

Different format? Just let me know. I would love the feedback and you will see the changes based on your thoughts. See the power that you have around here. All right. Let's get to this week's review coming to us from Ben Kilroy. This was on our YouTube channel, the on the Blue Line YouTube channel. Please make sure that you are subscribing to that as we're trying to get that built out.

00;23;48;27 - 00;24;11;12

Wayne Mulder

And Ben says, Miss you, brother. Love you in this mode. Thank you, sir. Ben, of course, was a guest on a past the interview room podcast. Great guy. Be sure you're following what he's doing and thank you for the shout out. Then it missed you as well. And definitely I am enjoying this new format to the morning roll call.

00;24;11;12 - 00;24;28;08

Wayne Mulder

So I hope that you, the listeners are as well. Please be sure to leave us a rating and review. Typically on Apple Podcasts or on YouTube are the two that I pull from right away. But if I do see it somewhere else, I will grab it. But definitely both on Apple Podcasts and YouTube and I will read it in a future episode.

00;24;28;27 - 00;24;37;28

Wayne Mulder

So that does it for this week's Morning Roll Call. I'll see you Thursday in the interview room. But in the meantime, I'm going to see you out there on the blue line.